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Rooftop	By : justalilwriter Category: Comics > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 6390 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I make no claim towards ownership of the characters, plot lines, or other related TMNT properties contained within this story. I can only claim to own my own original characters and as such this story is not being written for profit.

Chapter List
- 4
- 5
- 6
Notes from the author: So sorry for the ridiculous delay with getting this chapter completed. I had to re-write half of it thanks to some lovely computer issues. (Where’s Donnie when you need him?) Hopefully the next chapter will be done much faster and be a bit less bland.

Chapter 5: Friday Night Fights

They were cute together.
In fact, Erin and Jamie alike would have even gone as far as to say that the pair presently curled up on the living room couch was cute to the point of nearly being obnoxious. Neither woman could claim to be a stranger to the giddy feelings that came with being part of a newly established couple, both easily able to recall the way it felt when a romance was just starting out. A new significant other tended to bring out a certain level of chipperness in a person, where every new kiss and newly discovered similar interest felt amazing. It was an emotional high that had always felt incredible and while being in a long, committed relationship was wonderful in its own right, nothing could really compare to discovering affection for and with a new partner. The nearly saccharine displays expressed in the continual kisses and endearments being passed back and forth between Annette and her new girlfriend may have caused Erin to exchange a few bemused eyerolls with Jamie, particularly whenever Meg began to coo for the umpteenth time over how good their friend looked with the purple streaks she’d just added to her hair, but neither begrudged Annette for her joy. In a way, it was genuinely refreshing to see the development of a new relationship for their friend, particularly after she’d spent the past six months in frustration while bouncing from one failed date to another. If Annette was happy then the sugary sweet displays of affection being witnessed were certainly bearable.
For a little while anyway.
“Jesus, Annette, did you lose your house keys in her mouth?”
Jamie’s playful comment was rewarded with a middle finger from both Annette and Meg, the light pecks the couple had been exchanging becoming purposefully loud just to spite the redhead for her teasing. Erin snorted at the three of them, walking away from the fridge she’d been rummaging through to set a new can of soda on the coffee table for one of her guests. Meg pulled away from her new girlfriend to utter her thanks, pulling the tab with a loud hiss before she enjoyed a few swigs of the caffeinated beverage.
“Sorry. All this making out gets a girl feeling thirsty,” she remarked with her eyes specifically focused in Jamie’s direction.
“I figured Annette’s saliva would have taken care of that.”
Annette tossed one of the small throw pillows on the couch at her sarcastic friend and Jamie held up her hands a few seconds too late to block the softness from hitting her in the chest, forcing out a mock sob in response to the blow. As often as Erin and Jamie tended to tease one another, it seemed to happen a great deal more between Jamie and Annette, most likely due to the fact that the two had known one another a bit longer. Meg didn’t seem to be put off by the almost constant ribbing the two kept participating in, seeming to be laid back enough to take it in stride and see it for what it was; fun between old buddies.
“Don’t be jelly, James,” Annette said with a grin that bordered on being downright smug.
“It’s too late. I’m so jelly. Spread me across some bread. I’m that jelly.”
“Oh my god, you two,” Erin began with a laugh, flopping down in her favorite arm chair with her legs stretched way out in front of her. “Are you going to be doing this all night? Just think of poor Meg having to put up with you lunatics for the next few hours.”
“I know. This is why you should be going out with us tonight, Erin. I need someone sane to talk to while these two are messing with each other.”
Meg gave Erin a look that seemed pleading and it was almost unsettling how effective the woman’s puppy dog eyes could apparently be, making the brunette nearly feel guilty to have to turn the other woman down. On a Friday night Erin would have usually been happy to go out for dinner and a few drinks with her small yet very close group of friends, especially now that Annette having a girlfriend had added a new addition to their tight knit little posse. If Adam had been available to hang out that night then it would have been all the more difficult to resist Meg’s beseeching expression given that it had been a sort of rare as of late that their whole group could actually get together to catch up and goof off. Tempting as the offer was, Erin knew that she could only turn it down when she had already made prior plans, already feeling admittedly anxious for the other group of guests she’d be having over that night to show up.
She hadn’t spoken to any of the turtles since they’d brought her to meet Master Splinter on Monday and as new as her relationship with all of them was, she actually felt quite eager to spend more time with the four brothers. After she’d been given Splinter’s approval, the turtles had seemed glad to accept her as a new fixture in their lives, and for a few hours after her assessment by their sensei she’d gotten to explore their home while learning a little about everyone who lived there. Michelangelo, who she had gladly begun to call Mikey with an already growing affection, had warmed up to her fairly fast and when he’d insisted on joining Raphael in showing her around their ‘lair’, she’d come to find that their near constant habit of messing with each other reminded her of how Jamie and Annette could act. Raphael’s tendency to seem a little standoffish appeared less prevalent when he was either dragging Mikey in to a headlock or casually labeling Donatello a nerd when she’d gotten to see the workshop. Donnie, though less exuberant than Mikey when it came to showing her around, was very welcome company to be with and even though he’d confounded her with explanations of how he’d made certain aspects of the lair function, his cleverness and approachable presence made her enjoy talking to him very much. Leonardo hadn’t been present for much of the latter half of her visit, having disappeared for some time in to his father’s room and she had assumed that the two were discussing her. For a while, his absence had made her worry that perhaps he didn’t wholly approve of her, that he would remain as tense in her presence as Raphael still seemed to be at times. Her fears on the matter had only been laid to rest when Leonardo had offered to lead her home and though much of the walk back had been silent, Leo had reaffirmed the faith he’d expressed in her by removing the blindfold halfway through the journey. That sign of growing trust and his comment when they reached the alley beside her apartment building, informing her that she was welcome to visit the lair whenever she liked, reassured her immensely.
It had been Michelangelo’s suggestion that they visit her apartment for a Friday movie night, an idea which his other brothers had agreed to be a good one. It seemed only fair to let all of them become better acquainted with her home since she’d been invited in to theirs’ and though she didn’t have nearly as much hanging out space in her little one bedroom abode as they had in their place under the city streets, she had a feeling that it would be fun to have them over. Going out for drinks with old friends was a great time, but sometimes staying in with new friends could be just as exciting. Particularly when those new friends happened to be large turtles skilled in ninjutsu. Either way, the night Erin had ahead of her was sure to be interesting.
“She’ll spare some time for us when she doesn’t have a hot date planned.”
Erin gave Jamie a look that practically demanded silence, the lack of amusement on her face as clear as day. The comment from her ginger friend had caused Meg’s pout to morph in to a visibly more curious expression and Erin was already prepared to begin deflecting all the inquiries that would no doubt be coming her way.
“Hot date? I didn’t know you were ditching us for that. Annette told me that you’re the eternal single gal.”
“Annette likes to exaggerate,” Erin muttered, glaring at the other brunette in the room, who glanced around as if her attention had been drawn by some sudden, unseen distraction. “And so does Jamie. I don’t have a hot date and being sans boyfriend for a few years doesn’t mean I’ve been eternally single.”
“If it’s not a hot date then why won’t you tell me exactly who you’ve got coming over tonight, hmmm?”
“I did tell you, James. They’re a few new people from work.”
The one downside to having very close friends who were often very invested in seeing her happy was that the whole group of them could be incredibly nosy when it was really unnecessary. Erin wasn’t a person who lied often, so she was pretty sure her skills at masking the truth probably weren’t the best in the world, and that made keeping things from her friends, particularly Jamie, a very difficult feat. She couldn’t very well state that she had four turtles coming over to keep her company and using the ‘new people from work’ excuse was the best lie she’d been able to come up with. As much as she hated to hide things from the people she was closest to, she couldn’t betray the turtles’ trust when she was still earning it in some ways, and with her human buddies being as inquisitive as can be, she had a feeling she’d have to ask the boys for ideas on cover stories she could use on Jamie and the rest. Apparently, having two very different groups of friends was not going to be easy to manage.
“And they’re all guys?”
“Yes, they’re all guys.”
“And you’re not sweet on at least one of them?”
“No. I’m not.”
Jamie, Annette, and Meg all stared at her and the three looks of utter scrutiny made Erin want to hide in her bedroom just to avoid further pointless questioning.
“I don’t know any of them well enough to have any mushy-gushy feelings. Seriously. It’s just a few friends from work coming over for a completely unromantic movie night.”
Annette and Meg seemed content to leave well enough alone, one nodding in understanding while the other shrugged. It was Jamie who didn’t seem wholly convinced, the look on her face showing that she didn’t feel as if Erin was telling the truth in some way. Erin was sure that she’d have to deal with some sort of interrogation later, though with a bit of time to think on things and discuss the predicament with the guys, she knew she’d be better equipped to deal with the questioning her best friend would unleash in the near future. Thankfully, despite the threat of further inquiries her expression promised, Jamie remained silent on the matter.
“You’re boring, you know that, Erin?”
“Bite me.”
Annette snapped her teeth together in a quite literal response to the comment, smirking broadly at Erin before she stood, stretching a little after having been seated for such a prolonged period of time. Taking her girlfriend’s cue, Meg moved to her feet as well, slipping them back in to her heels as the pair gathered up their respective belongings, including the unfinished can of soda that had been offered a few minutes ago. Getting a table at a New York restaurant on a Friday night typically tended to be an exercise in patience, as well as a hell of a long wait, and it had been decided at the start of the girls’ visit that Annette and Meg would leave early to reserve a table before the rest of their group arrived.
“Sure you don’t want to give the mystery guys a rain check?” Meg asked at the front door, taking her jacket when Erin handed it to her.
“I’m sure. I promise we’ll all meet up next Friday if everyone is free again.”
“All right. I’m holding you to it.”
Meg’s arms moved around Erin’s back, giving her a quick hug that didn’t lack for warmth and though it was a little awkward to an extent since the other woman was a new fixture in her life, Erin still welcomed it. As the two embraced, she looked over Meg’s shoulder at Annette to see the clear happiness her friend felt in seeing that her new girl got along so well with her old buddies. It obviously meant a lot to her that she and Jamie liked Meg, which was if anything a very strong indication just how much Annette cared for the girl. Erin couldn’t help smiling over such a realization, pulling back from the hug she’d been drawn in to so she could hold the door open for them, bidding the pair to have a good night. When the couple was out of sight, she turned to look at Jamie who had just begun to put her own jacket back on, reaching next for the purple scarf she’d previously had wrapped around her neck.
“I like her. I think they make a good couple.”
“Yeah. Annette found herself a good one this time. I honestly think they’ll be together for a while.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Once she had her scarf properly secured and her purse in hand, Jamie made her way to the open door, checking her coat pockets to make sure she had all of her belongings. She had to do a bit of running around before dinner, having to head to her mother’s apartment to meet up with Theo, who should have dropped their daughter off by that point in time. It wasn’t always easy to find a babysitter for Madison so that Jamie could drag her boyfriend out for a long overdue date, so the two were always happy to capitalize on every opportunity they could for a night together. Especially with all the bickering they’d been doing as of late, though none of those things appeared to be on Jamie’s mind just then, her blue eyes settling on Erin, expression more mischievous than serious.
“Now we’ve just gotta get you nice and hooked up. You’re going to give me details about this little hang out thing tomorrow, right? If you feel any sort of click with one of these guys…”
“Yes, James. I promise. Should a miracle happen and my prolonged celibacy comes to an end tonight, I’ll tell you all about it.”
“Atta girl. Night!”
“Have fun!”
Jamie gave a wave as she stepped out in to the hall, the sight of her lost when Erin closed her door, locking it since she figured her next set of guests would be more likely to come in through the window. A quick glance around the living room told her that she probably ought to do a bit of tidying up before the turtles arrived, heading to the couch to readjust the haphazardly strewn pillows even though they’d probably just end up all over the place again in a few hours.
“Oh! Dishes!”
Erin turned right around and headed for her modestly sized kitchen, remembering that there were a fair few pizzas to be ordered and a good number of dishes she’d have to clean if they were all going to have anything to eat off of, scowling at the pile of plates and cups she’d let accumulate over the past few days.
“Oh yeah. Tonight is definitely gonna be a night for romance,” she muttered to herself, reaching for the sponge and the bottle of dish soap resting on the side of the sink.
She fell in to silence, scrubbing away while she waited for her new friends.
~ ~

“I thought you said you could pick locks!”
“I can! Just give me a fucking minute!”
“You’ve had five!”
“Stop trying to rush me!”
The two teenagers bickered back and forth, their hushed voices far from being the whispered tones they obviously intended to be using, their figures mostly concealed by the dim light of the back alley. The shaky hands of the youth attempting to jimmy open the locked door before him hinted at his unease and the constant grousing from his companion made the two a less than inconspicuous sight, even in the darkness of the evening. Every so often one or both let their eyes wander back and forth, clearly seeking any indication that someone had caught sight of them, peeking further down the alley and towards the street when the direction they ought to have been looking was up.
“Couple of amateurs.”
“They really don’t make Purple Dragons like they used to.”
“Like what, Mikey? Slightly less incompetent than Tweedledee and Tweedledum down there?”
“Pretty much.”
Raphael could tell by the tone of Mikey and Donnie’s voices that neither found the would-be criminals below to be any sort of threat, their hushed statements as relaxed as their postures. Unlike the teenagers who presently had their attention, the turtles knew how to remain properly concealed under the cover of night and just quiet enough to communicate with one another without being detected. It may have helped that their vantage point was higher as well, but Raph was happy to chalk up the fact that they hadn’t been discovered to years of perfected skill.
“They must be initiates. I don’t see tattoos on either of them, but the purple bandanas on their arms are a dead giveaway.”
“So…does that mean Donnie’s a Purple Dragon too then?”
Mikey simply grinned at Leo even when his older brother cast him an unamused glance, the orange-clad turtle wincing when Raph thwacked the back of his cranium, his indignant shout of pain silenced by Donnie’s hand covering his mouth.
“What?” he began, rubbing the back of his head when Donnie’s hand moved away. “I thought it was funny.”
“What isn’t funny is how many initiates we’ve seen lately. There have been a lot of teenage recruits attempting break-ins without any official Purple Dragons overseeing things.”
Leonardo was always quick to notice when a local gang had changed the pattern of their goings on and his expression showed that he had been considering the notion for some time, his eyes locked on the pair below with an almost unwavering scrutiny. The others might have told him he was being too serious several years ago, when they’d been younger and a little less aware of how often Leo’s hunches could be right. They’d learned long ago to have a bit more faith in their leader’s deductions.
“You think they’re plannin’ somethin’?” Raphael asked, moving to stand a little closer to his brother, following Leo’s line of sight.
“I don’t know yet. Either the Dragons have gotten lazy with the way they do initiations or there’s something we’re missing. They haven’t been what they used to be for a long time, so it makes sense for them to have gotten sloppy. Still…I can’t help feeling that there’s something else that might be going on.”
“There’s only one way to find out, right?”
Raphael tugged a sai from his belt, grinning in anticipation as he waited for the go ahead he knew was coming. Leo gave a nod, reaching for the swords at his back and followed his three brothers down to the ground below, their footfalls making scarcely a sound as they dropped from one lower point to the next until they’d reached the alley.
“Dammit! Just move! I’m gonna break the damn lock!”
“Are you an idiot?! You’ll set off the alarm!”
“Actually, whether you pick the lock or break it, you’ll likely set the alarm off anyway.”
The pair halted their bickering, turning their heads towards the voice behind them, jaws agape and eyes growing wider by the second at the sight of the turtle who had spoken. Donatello leaned against the support of his bo staff almost casually, regarding the teenagers with a small smile, finding more hilarity in their bafflement than anything, especially when one of the two youths visibly mouthed “what the fuck” without so much as blinking. The olive green turtle swept his staff upwards with a simple turn of his hand, knocking the Swiss Army knife clutched in the would be lockpicker’s hand right out of his grasp, catching the tool without so much as even glancing away from the young men.
“Swiss Army knives aren’t very good for picking locks either. I’d advise against using them in the future. Or trying to break in to places again altogether for that matter.”
As expected, the two couldn’t really take listening to a giant turtle speak words of wisdom for very long without finally losing their cool, both initiates screaming loud enough to make Donnie grimace, watching them start to run further in to the alley. Neither boy made it very far, the fellow with the lock pick only managing about four or five steps forward before a sai flew out of the dark, pinning the shoulder of his long sleeved shirt to the nearby wall, a second embedding on his opposite side to keep him in place. His companion raced along a bit further, clumsy enough in his panic that he nearly tripped over an old trashcan lid, the brief loss of forward momentum useful to Michaelangelo, who simply slipped out from behind a dumpster to grasp one of the teenager’s flailing arms. He turned, easily flipping the boy over his back and face first in to an open, empty trash bin without any visible strain. The waste container teetered from side to side and inevitably fell over, the youth within groaning almost pitifully while Mikey dusted off his hands, as if for a job well done.
“Man, this must be what taking candy from a baby feels like.”
“If one of ‘em starts cryin’ then it won’t be too far off,” Raphael said in response, tugging his sai from the wall, gripping the front of the seemingly younger teenager’s shirt in order to shove him towards Leo’s waiting hands.
“Sounds like this dude is.”
Mikey leaned over, swearing he heard muffled whimpering resonating from within the metallic insides of the trash can, shrugging his shoulders as he grabbed the ankles of the boy stuck inside to pull him out. He had apparently misjudged the sound, finding the teenager unconscious and stinking of trash when he was freed from his temporary confines, quite possibly having passed out from either the shock of seeing over-sized turtles or perhaps due to taking a knock on the head. Regardless of what the case might be, he didn’t seem to be hurt and his present state of being meant that the other boy would be their best bet for interrogation. Leo appeared to have already considered that notion, towering over the young man who had given up on trying to run. The boy sank down to his knees once he’d backed against the nearest wall, staring up at the stern looking turtle and the very intimidating swords he happened to be wearing.
“What are you? Are you going to kill me? Please, don’t! I won’t try to break in to another shop again!”
“Calm down. We aren’t going to kill you. We don’t even want to hurt you. All we want are answers.”
Leonardo knelt down, reaching out to take hold of the bandana secured around the teen’s arm, tugging the purple material away to let it dangle before the wide, brown eyes of the clumsy criminal. The boy glanced from the cloth to the turtle clutching it, watching the other three terrapin creatures come to stand behind their leader, further solidifying the reality that he had no chances of getting away. Not without answering whatever inquiries they had to present him with.
“I’m assuming by this that you’re an initiate for the Purple Dragons.”
“Y-yeah. Me and Reggie both are. This was supposed to be our way to get in.”
“And what did they want you to do?” Raphael asked, evidently unimpressed by the workings of the street gang the boy was attempting to join. “Break in to some place, steal somethin’, and then you get your shitty lookin’ tattoo?”
“Well…yeah. They said if we wanna be Dragons, we have to prove it. They said the best way to prove we’ve got the guts and the skill to become members was to break in to some place without getting caught by the cops and bring back something that’d be worth a little cash.”
“Hate to break it to you, kid, but guts and skill are two things you ain’t really swimmin’ in.”
Mikey seemed to be in complete agreement, nodding his head at Raph’s assessment with a faint snicker, and Leo held his hand up towards both of them, urging the pair to remain silent for the time being.
“You aren’t the first pair of inexperienced criminals they’ve been trying to recruit over the past few months. Do you have any idea why the Dragons are trying to get so many new members or anything about their plans?”
“No. They didn’t tell us anything and I haven’t really heard about anything big. I just figured that they were looking for fresh blood, ya know? A lot of their people are probably getting older, so they need young guys like me and Reggie.”
Most of the present members of the gang had to be in their mid to late twenties at best, so the idea that the boy considered that particular age bracket to be ‘older’ made it all too clear just how young and wet behind the ears the kid really was. That fact, accompanied by the plain realization that he really didn’t know much of anything about what he was getting in to or what the Purple Dragons may have been working on, made Leo release a resigned sigh, moving to stand once again. He glanced at his brothers, his silence and his expression enough to tell them that they were no better off for information than they had been before, which meant that they had no reason to detain the teenager any longer. Leo balled up the bandana he was holding and tossed it upwards, quickly drawing one of his swords from its sheath on his back. The boy seated before him drew his knees up towards his chest, shaking when the blade first came out, and he didn’t lower the hands he’d pressed over his eyes until he realized that he hadn’t been hurt. The purple bandana sat at his feet, sliced in to two pieces, and though the turtle standing over him made no move to attack, the fact that his sword was still out kept the misguided youth in a state of visible fear.
“Take your friend and go home to your parents. The Purple Dragons aren’t worth wasting your life, so give up on joining them. If you don’t, we will make sure you’re turned in to the police next time we run in to you.”
The kid nodded, but made no move to get up, and Raphael, ever lacking in patience, moved forward to hoist the teen up on to his feet before shoving him in the direction of his fallen friend. That seemed to light a fire under the boy’s ass, sending him racing to heft up Reggie’s unconscious form as well as he could. The turtles were out of sight by the time he turned to start dragging his companion towards the street, vanishing from his view as if they’d been figments of his imagination the entire time. He didn’t seem keen to dwell on things, leaving the alley and his plans of breaking in to the building behind. The turtles had swiftly resumed their place on the rooftop, watching the initiate high tail it out of the scene of what would have been his first crime, stepping away from the ledge once they had nothing else to look down at.
“Well…I guess that wasn’t a total loss. I mean, we still know a whole lot of nothing, but at least we got a couple of kids back on the right track, right?”
It was a futile attempt to make the situation seem a little brighter and not one that seemed to fully work, not even to Mikey, whose tone had sounded a bit half-hearted. He’d aimed the comment at Leo in specific, able to see that his oldest brother in particular was less than pleased by the lack of information they’d managed to stir up, casting a glance at Donatello as if to silently say that he’d tried. Donnie merely shrugged, settling a hand on Leo’s shoulder.
“We’ll figure it out. If there really is anything behind these initiations, we’ll find out what it is somehow. The Purple Dragons have never been quite as well organized as the Foot, so it probably won’t take us much longer to get to the bottom of things. Especially not if I keep checking police reports for anything suspicious.”
That did seem to help, at least a little bit. Leo’s expression made it all too clear that he didn’t feel overly reassured, that he was still a bit on edge due to the unsatisfied hunch he’d been dealing with, but the knowledge that he did have his brothers all backing him up made him feel less tense. Donnie had made a few good points and while having him keep track of the goings on of the local authorities wouldn’t alleviate the uncertainty that had been plaguing him, Leo knew that the extra bit of surveillance would at least help him put his mind at rest enough to allow him to sleep at night.
“It’s been quiet, so why don’t we call it a night, Leo? Those kids didn’t give us anythin’ to work with and I dunno about you, but if we ain’t gonna be bustin’ any heads then we may as well spend the next couple of hours enjoyin’ ourselves.”
“I’m with Raph. We’ve got pizza, movies, and a new lady friend waiting for us, bro. May as well give the patrol a rest.”
Leonardo could see how eager Michelangelo seemed by the prospect of food and a bit of relaxation even though they’d hardly had a strenuous time of things that night. While his gut instinct was telling him to stay out a little while longer, just to be on the safe side, it had been a quiet evening just as Raphael had suggested. It didn’t seem likely that they’d have any real luck unveiling the possible plots of the local street gang any time soon and his own stomach was beginning to growl at the thought of dinner.
“All right. Erin’s probably waiting on us anyway. Let’s head back to the lair and grab a few movies to bring along.”
“Sweet!”
The hot, cheesy pizza in his near future had Mikey bounding off to the next rooftop over in no time at all, Donnie following suit at a more leisurely pace, and Leo made his way to follow at first until he noticed Raph heading towards a different ledge, facing a direction other than the one his brothers had started off in.
“Raph?”
“I’m gonna head on ahead, make sure she knows we didn’t forget about tonight. I’ll tell ‘er that you guys are on your way.”
“It’s not like we’re going to take that long swinging by the lair, Raph.”
He heard his brother releasing an exasperated breath, knowing fully well that the questioning was testing the fairly minimal amount of tolerance Raphael possessed for having his actions questioned, but Leo wasn’t inclined to just let his sibling head off on his own quite so easily.
“Look, Leo, I’m goin’ on ahead. If you’re worried that history is gonna repeat itself and I’m gonna end up runnin’ in to some other chick hangin’ out on a roof then stop. I ain’t about to let that happen twice in one month.”
Raphael looked over his shoulder, meeting his brother’s gaze across the short distance residing between them, as if daring him to keep questioning. If Leo wanted to start an arguement, which he very much didn’t in that moment, then Raph was all too ready to give him one if push came to shove.
“All right. Go ahead. But be careful,” Leo urged, stressing the last few words with the utmost seriousness.
Raph didn’t respond to the cautionary words with anything more than a simple nod, bounding off the roof until Leo was the only turtle who remained there. The leader of the four could only hope that his brother would actually listen and that another unexpected meeting would not come to pass.
After all, who knew if the next stranger that entered their lives would actually be friendly?
~ ~
“Be careful. Bite me, Leo.”
The words were spoken more to the wind than to his brother and the tersely grumbled comment did nothing to quell the nagging hint of agitation that Leonardo’s warning had caused. It was just like the other turtle to worry, to pester with comments that made him sound more and more like a father trying to offer his wisdom. There was a reason, after all, that Raphael liked to call his brother ‘Splinter Junior’, because even though it was often called for, Leo seemed more and more like their sensei with every passing year. He needed to sound that way, to be that way, even if it was sort of annoying a lot of the time. It was his place as the leader to always be prepared for the worst, to be well meaning with his requests for sense and carefulness. It irritated the hell out of Raph to have Leo almost constantly warning him to watch himself or to keep his temper in check regardless of how necessary it could be. The four of them always looked out for one another and Leo looked out for all of them even more so, keeping up his ‘Splinter Junior’ persona, because they needed it to get by, always had. It was obnoxious most days, but Raph, though he refused to say as much openly, considered it to be something akin to a necessary evil. Their sensei wouldn’t be around forever. He wouldn’t always be there to guide them through troubling times and while Leo would never replace Master Splinter, they’d need that familiar level-headed pillar in their lives whenever he was gone someday. It wasn’t something any of the turtles liked to think of often, but it was still a ‘what if’ scenario that helped remind them just how important Leo’s leadership was, no matter how much it made him seem to be a stick in the mud.
Knowing the importance of Leo’s warnings didn’t make the frustration any less pronounced and it damn sure didn’t stop Raph from silently cussing his brother the whole way to Erin’s apartment. He figured that he probably ought to have told Leo to stuff his ‘be careful’ nonsense up where the sun didn’t shine, because he knew he needed to be careful. He’d been beating the words in to his own head ever since he’d had that very first run in with the human he was on his way to see. The fact that Erin had proven to be no threat, while welcome of course, didn’t negate the fact that he’d brought someone new in to their lives without meaning to. Just because the woman was a friend rather than a foe didn’t make it any less infuriating that he’d been thoughtless enough, focused enough on his own anger over something as trivial as a tiff with Leo, to be seen when his senses ought to have been keen enough for him to have avoided such a thing. Erin seemed like an all right kinda gal, seemed to genuinely want to be a friend to himself and his brothers, but the downside to the friendship she offered was the reminder that maybe, just maybe, he didn’t have as much control over his temper as he thought.
“And here I’d thought I’d gotten better at keepin’ this shit in check.”
Raphael was aware that he probably wasn’t focusing on his surroundings nearly as closely as he needed to as he leapt across the gap between two buildings in his silent trek, caught up once again in thoughts of how Leo irritated him and how his anger so often got him in to trouble. It was hard not to think about such things, hard not to focus on them while they were so very prevalent in his mind, but he aspired to cast his internal musings to the wayside for the time being and just pay attention to the present. He let himself stare out ahead at the sea of rooftops before him, plotting out his path to the destination, focusing on the cool rush of the wind as he pressed onward and the roughness of stone ledges beneath his feet. He listened out for voices or footsteps, anything to tip him off to the fact that he wasn’t alone as soon as he was atop a different structure, trying to seek out scents like perfume or cigarette smoke which could linger in the presence of humans even while muddled by the night air. There was something almost meditative about just running and zoning in on his surroundings, as if New York was consuming his consciousness for a time, and the distraction was welcome, quieting the inner chaos that wanted to pester him further until he felt nearly relaxed by the time by the time his feet touched down on the fire escape outside of Erin’s window.
Her bedroom curtain was pulled open, a light coming in from the hall illuminating her room just faintly to let him see that she wasn’t in there. He didn’t bother knocking when she was nowhere to be seen, a quick tug showing him that the window had been left unlocked, easing himself in through the opening before shutting it behind him. He moved forward, heading with a casual gait to the open doorway that would lead out of her bedroom, and it was the sound of a scream coming from the other room that had his pace quickening in an instant. The noise had been one of complete terror, causing Raph to instinctively reach for his sai, brandishing the weapons as he rushed in to the living room, seeing Erin and no one else, casting his gaze around right away for signs of the trouble he’d expected to find her in.
“Raph?”
Erin glanced his way as soon as she noticed his arrival, the wide, fearful look in her hazel eyes mingling with a visible relief and she headed towards him immediately.
“I’m so glad you’re here!” she slipped behind him, her hands gripping on to his shell in a clear sign that she was seeking protection. “Kill it! Please, just kill the damn thing!”
“What the hell are you talkin’ about?”
Now more confounded than on edge, Raphael gave the whole of the living room, which he had to admit didn’t look too shabby when it wasn’t covered in laundry, another once over to try and find what it was that had gotten her so spooked. He couldn’t say he was opposed to knocking a few skulls when it was called for, but he had to know what he was supposed to be ‘killing’ first. Erin didn’t wait to tell him, her voice taking on a faintly high-pitched and slightly squeaky quality that made her sound more girlish and meek than he would’ve expected from her.
“There’s a spider!”
Try though he might to resist it, the revelation of what had the brunette out of sorts had Raphael’s body growing tense straight away, his head whipping back and forth to try and see where the hell the little eight-legged nightmare was hiding.
“Of course it’d be a fuckin’ spider.”
Raph frowned, tightening his grip on his three pronged weapons as he rallied his calm in an effort to mask his discomfiture before Erin could possibly notice it. He hated bugs with a passion regardless of what kind of insect he might’ve been dealing with and spiders were right near the top of his creepy, crawly shit list. He couldn’t say he blamed the woman for being so freaked out over seeing one, but he’d be damned if he let it slip just how much bugs tended to get his skin crawling too. It would be better to try and utilize a casual indifference while dealing with the issue.
“All this fuss over a spider? Are ya serious? And let go of the shell, wouldja?”
Erin did as he asked, her grip dropping away, but his almost nonchalant remarks had her visage morphing from fearful to irked in no time, lips pursing in displeasure.
“Yes, I’m freaking serious! Do I sound like I’m screeching just for shits and giggles?”
“Sounds to me like you’re blowing things out of proportion. A spider ain’t worth havin’ a heart attack over! Geez, you’d think it was a monster or somethin’.”
“Well pardonnez moi, oh fearless lord of masculinity, but I sort of live here and it’s unsettling as crap knowing that there’s a gross arachnid spawn of the devil in my apartment when it’s that damn big!”
The woman pointed a finger up and past him towards one of the far corners of the room, directing Raphael to turn and glimpse upward until he could see just what she was talking about.
“Damn.”
She hadn’t been exaggerating.
“That’s a big fuckin’ spider.”
“Told you so.”
Raphael stared up at the motionless and very large, spindly creature presently sitting near the ceiling, seeming to almost calmly take up its place in the corner as if it was perfectly content to just reside there without any distress towards the two individuals staring at it with differing levels of discomfort, revulsion, and fear. Erin and her green house guest alike found themselves wishing for an extra-large canister of bug spray, not that either of them was inclined to get close enough to douse the bug in deadly fumes, a fact of which Erin wasn’t wholly privy to just yet.
“So…uhm…could you go kill it, please?”
“No.”
She looked at him incredulously, as if surprised that he could be mean enough despite her very apparent fear to turn her down. She’d asked so nicely too. At the very least she’d made sure to say ‘please’, hadn’t she?
“Raph, I’m serious. I am scared out of my wits. Could you please go over there and kill that thing.”
“I ain’t goin’ over there!”
Raphael regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth, the outburst making him want to smack his own forehead, because he knew, he absolutely knew, that his reaction to her urging had been much more telling than he would have liked. He hoped that maybe she wouldn’t glean anything from the comment, her expression one of confusion at first, but it was clear that the gears in her head had started turning, bafflement shifting in to a very annoying look of grinning curiosity.
“Are you scared or something, Big Red?”
“Fuck no!”
The urge to slap a hand against his brow returned anew when he realized how quickly he’d uttered the denial, growling in near frustration and deciding that he needed to fall back on a diversion tactic right away before the conversation became even more agitating than it already was.
“And I told you it’s annoyin’ when you call me that.”
“But not as annoying as being called out for being just as big an arachnophobe as I am?”
Apparently derailing the spider subject hadn’t worked. It seemed as if Erin was irritatingly perceptive when she wanted to be and that made Raphael’s annoyance stay soundly put.
“I ain’t arachnophobic! I just hate bugs and there’s a difference between bein’ scared of somethin’ and hatin’ it!”
“Okay! I got it! You’re not scared!”
Erin waved her hands at the rising volume of his voice, trying to calm him down by relenting to his claims even though, deep down, she likely didn’t wholly believe him. Whether she did or not was honestly irrelevant so long as she didn’t keep pestering him about it, the flaring of his temper beginning to calm to a more modest case of frustration that showed quite clearly in the way he stared at her. He stayed quiet and waited, just waited, for her to say anything further on the matter, trying to figure out if she was trying to make him think that she was done when she was truthfully waiting to just drop another annoying comment his way. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t Mikey he was dealing with and for that, at least, he supposed he was thankful.
“If you’re not scared could you at least maybe help me try to kill it? Or should I wait for one of your brothers? They’re still coming too, aren’t they?”
“Yeah, they’re comin’. They went back to the lair to pick up some movies, so they’ll be here soon.”
Raph knew there was an easy way to resolve the situation, one that wouldn’t involve waiting for his brothers to show up and thus result in him having to deal with Michelangelo’s obnoxious teasing. He tossed one of his sai lightly, gripping it from the tip rather than the handle; turning as he flung the weapon like one might hurl a throwing knife at a target. A loud thud sounded as the pointed tip in the middle embedded in to the wall, making its mark almost flawlessly, sticking the spider’s body in place even as its legs curled inwards. He looked away from the dead arachnid and towards the woman, who was too busy staring at his fairly impressive shot to notice right away, partly cringing at the way the dead spider looked in its pinned position.
“You’re welcome.”
He gave her a grin, in quite a smug manner, his prideful expression only slightly faltering in the wake of her response to his attack on the creature.
“You just put a hole in my wall.”
Her tone of voice was not as much accusing or angry as it was shocked.
“I just put a hole in the spider.”
“Yeah. Very true. Nice shot, by the way.”
“Damn right it was.”
“One thing, though. How are we gonna get your sai down?”
It was a very good question, one that was notable enough to distract him from the pleasing fact that she’d at least learned to address his weapons by their proper name even if she was still using that damn ‘Big Red’ nickname Raphael had a distinct feeling would probably become a mainstay.
“Step ladder?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Should be able to knock it down with a broom handle then.”
Erin didn’t have a broom per say given that the floors in her apartment were either wooden or laminate, guessing that a few nudges with the end of her Swifer mop would probably suffice, looking at the spider corpse and the weapon which had caused its demise in temporary, disturbed silence right alongside Raphael.
“So…” she began after a short silence had fallen between them. “…you didn’t mean me, did you?”
“I’m not gonna do it. S’all you, lady.”
“Raph, you’re my hero for killing that evil s.o.b., but I’m not touching that spider cadaver with a ten foot poll, let alone the end of my Swifer mop.”
“I ain’t cleanin’ it up! It’s your apartment!”
“It’s your weapon!”
She wasn’t being fair and Raph could tell she was aware of that fact, because she seemed to be restraining her ire to an extent. As brief a time as it had been since their sort of friendship had been in existence, he’d noted that she was capable of losing her temper towards him, had done so very briefly the night that they’d met. He half wished he had some of the control over his anger that she had over hers, especially in that moment since he’d been thinking about as much earlier. Wanting that control didn’t make it any easier to obtain, though. The woman was very quickly ticking him off, heated words practically burning on his tongue, and he knew he’d probably have launched in to one of his usual frustrated tirades, one that he’d likely regret later, if luck hadn’t been on both their sides. Their little debate came to a halt when a knock sounded on her door, signaling Raphael’s immediate cue to go hide where whomever was on the other side of the entryway would not be able to spot him, missing Erin’s baffled look when she turned to glance at him only to find him gone.
“Raph?”
He didn’t answer, leaving the woman to wonder if he’d left altogether, which she supposed she wouldn’t have blamed him for given the way their conversation had been going. Another knock resounded and she called out to let the person on the other side of the door know she was coming, willing to bet that it was probably the pizza delivery guy, grabbing her purse off of the end table near the entry way to root around for the cash she knew she had in her wallet. Sure enough, her hunch was proven correct when she came face to face with a teenage boy in a disheveled uniform, his greeting somewhat half-hearted in what seemed to be a fair indication that he’d either had a busy night, had been stiffed on tips thus far, or had dealt with both since the start of his shift. Erin took a bit of pity on him, handing over a couple of bills and telling him to keep the change as she took the warm boxes of pizza, grinning when the tip he’d received made his good bye sound a great deal more enthusiastic than his greeting had been. Erin nudged the door shut and headed towards the counter, taking in the faintly concealed scent of melted cheese and warm crust, the smaller box of breadsticks atop the stack drawing her immediate attention. She swore she could practically taste the parmesan and garlic.
Steam wafted up as she lifted the lid on the topmost box of pizza, the cheese looking perfectly melted beneath a layer of different kinds of meat and other toppings, hoping that none of the turtles would be opposed to one of the pizzas being a ‘meat lovers’ sort of deal. The only topping she’d be told to avoid had been anchovies, which she’d had no problem with at all, withholding the urge to grab a slice, so she could try and see if Raphael really had left. Erin began to tug her hair back with the band she’d had settled around her wrist, dropping her hands when she turned and saw Raphael standing right next to her, jumping just slightly.
“You’d think you’d be used to the ninja thing by now.”
“I don’t think I ever will be.”
He’d probably sneak up on her a million times in the future and still be able to make her jump when he was so damn good at being quiet despite his impressive size. Erin finished putting her hair up, meeting Raphael’s eyes, and seeking any signs that he was still pissed off. He didn’t say anything to her, didn’t make any further comments for a short while, because he wanted to gauge what her temperament was after their interruption, wondering if their short-lived argument would resume, and finding himself unwilling to be the one to renew it. He left it up to Erin to decide where things would go from there, ready to let the tension return, even though she was less inclined to revisit what had been starting.
“So…pizza?” she asked almost tentatively, testing the waters to see if they were still and calm or boiling hot again.
Raphael grabbed one of the stools she had next to the kitchen counter and tugged it towards him, settling down upon it before giving a nod of his head.
“What’ve you got to drink?”
“Hmmm. Soda, iced tea, I think a few beers…”
She moved to the fridge to take a look inside while Raphael helped himself to a slice, plates and napkins be damned. For the time being the subject of the spider and the sai stuck through it seemed better left alone. What there was to drink seemed like a much more appealing conversation topic when neither wanted to argue again, not when their new and tentative friendship actually felt like it might matter.
End of Chapter 5

A/N: I couldn’t resist bringing up Raph’s anti-bug trait. So much potential for laughs, or arguments, where that little character detail is concerned. All things considered, I’d say these two eventual love birds are getting along pretty well. Well-ish anyway.
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