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Perseverance	By : EvaBrick Category: Comics > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Views: 9920 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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“Would anyone like my last pork chop?” Charlie asked, pushing her plate away. “I just can’t eat another bite.” Raphael grabbed it before Michelangelo could get it and put it on Leonardo’s plate.

“He’s too polite to grab anything off anyone’s plate, even if he’s hungry,” Raphael said. Leo punched his brother hard in the arm, but he looked quite touched that Raph had been looking out for him.

The turtles all stole little glances at Charlie while they ate. She looked tiny, sitting between Donatello and Leonardo on one side of the food-heaped picnic table, but they all noticed that her appetite was way up from the last time they’d had her to the lair for supper. Her cheeks looked rosier too.
Leonardo hoped that Master Splinter was doing better in the fresh air, too. He caught Don’s eye over Charlie’s head and knew the purple turtle was thinking the same thing. Waiting for their father to die was hellish and it had put all of the brothers under a lot of strain. This trip had been good for them all - Charlie too - but Leo felt so frustrated and angry that a part of him wished that he could just run off into the trees in the night and keep running until... he didn’t know what. He wanted to cry, he wanted to break something, he wanted someone to hug him and tell him that everything would be all right and that he was safe and loved, but he knew he couldn’t have anything he wanted right now, maybe not ever. He looked at Charlie as he took a bite out of his pork chop. She was a fucking miracle for them.

“So your friend, Lisa,” he said, trying not to look as interested or as shy as he felt, “do you think she’d be able to handle meeting us?”

“Yeah,” Mikey said, “Think she’d date a Japanese guy?” The others howled with laughter. Leo rolled his eyes and threw an oven mitt at his little brother. Mike saw it coming out of the corner of his eye and grabbed it easily without turning his head. “If you’re gonna throw stuff at me, dude, throw the pork chop,” he said.

Leo snorted and took another bite. “You’ve had four already!”

“Anyway,” Raphael said, scraping the last of the potato salad onto his plate, “we were talking about it and if you think she can handle meeting us, we thought that maybe you could try introducing her to Donnie first and if that goes okay, then maybe she could meet the rest of us.”

“And we promise not to act like idiots,” Mikey said, seriously. “We won’t try hitting on her or anything, we’ll just give her time to get to know us like you did with Don.”

“And if nothing else ever happens,” Leo said, feeling he had to be the voice of reason, “then that’s fine too. It’ll be nice to have another friend.”

Charlie gave Leo’s hand a squeeze under the table to reassure him a little. He looked at her, surprised, but squeezed gently back for a moment before letting go. “I think Lisa probably can handle meeting you. I mean, she’ll be shocked at first, but if we do it slowly, she should be okay. Maybe if I had her walk home with me from the store after work, it’d give me a chance to carefully explain why she hasn’t met my boyfriend yet.”

Don grinned in spite of himself. He loved it when she called him that.

“Oh, can it, Romeo,” Raphael muttered.

“I can’t help it that I...m happy,” Don said, recovering. He’d nearly said that he couldn’t help it that he loved her.

Charlie sat up slightly. What had Don been about to say? She caught Raphael’s eye by accident. He looked shifty.

“Shit!” he thought, “she knows.”

“So,” Leo said, swooping in to change the subject, “you’d have Don waiting there when you got home?”

“Uh, yeah, but I’d get him to hide in the bedroom and maybe stick an arm out first.”

“April passed out when she saw us,” Mike said, shaking his head. “You did okay though.”

“That’s cause I’d already been thoroughly freaked out by the Foot. I was probably as shocked as I could get. Besides, Mikey, I wasn’t getting a danger vibe off you.” Charlie wrapped her arms around her waist, hugging herself gently. She didn’t like thinking about that night. “I did off them. I knew as soon as I saw them that they were going to try to hurt me. I just knew...” she trailed off and looked at Michelangelo. He looked serious again and he was biting the inside of his cheek like he did when he got nervous. Donatello put his arm around her and pulled her in close. He was so grateful to Mike for saving her, but he knew what his brother was thinking. They were all thinking it.

“Charlie, I dunno if yer interested or not, but I was thinking that maybe after we got back, you and I could hang out a bit and I could show ya some stuff,” Raph said, through a mouthful of potato salad. “Our nerves have been pretty twangy lately with the Foot acting up and... and Master Splinter...” His voice caught.

“So we’re probably being a little over-protective of you,” Don finished. “I don’t think any of us feels that you’re in any danger from the Foot, but we don’t want you to be afraid to live your life.”

“So if ya wanna learn a few self defense moves, I’d have fun teaching ya,” Raphael said, his voice clear again. “And we could do some more meditation too, since yer kinda high-strung.”

“What? I’m not high-strung!” Charlie said, aghast.

“Yeah, ya are,” Raph said, “But so am I. Takes one ta know one.”

Charlie laughed. “Yeah, maybe I am a little.”

“I think you’re wonderful,” Donatello said, nuzzling his nose against her temple to smell her hair. Charlie leaned into him and rested her head under his chin.

“Some people are trying to eat,” Mikey said, looking slightly disgusted.

Leonardo stood and picked up a couple of plates. “I hate to be a jerk guys, but we haven’t done any training in two days, so I want an hour of work out of everyone after the dishes are clean.”

“Aw fuck,” Mikey grumbled. “An hour? I’m gonna puke up my pork chops!”

“Then ya shouldn’t have eaten so much, dingus,” Raph said, standing and grabbing an empty tray. “Whadda ya wanna do Leo? Run through the Katas?”

“Yeah, sure, if you want,” Leonardo said, as they walked into the house.

“I’ll never fucking get over that,” Michelangelo said to Charlie and Donatello as the three gathered up the rest of the dishes. “They swore at each other for an hour while they made supper, but when Leo acts like our leader, the first one to back him up is Raph.”

“You should have seen them when we were teenagers, honey,” Donatello said. Charlie blushed a little - he’d never called her a pet name in front of anyone before. She liked it. “They’d use any excuse to fight, but now... I dunno... they seem able to get their act together when it really counts.”

“Makes our lives fucking easier, not getting stuck in the middle all the time,” Mike said.

The kitchen was a bit crowded with the five of them washing dishes. Raphael had filled the two sinks with soapy water and he and Leo washed while Mike and Don dried and passed them to Charlie to put away in the cupboards. Once in a while there’d be a dull klunk sound as someone’s shell bumped into something, but as different as they looked, they were so absolutely human. Charlie made sure to let her fingers brush over Don’s every time he passed her something, and soon he was standing closer and closer to her until it was impossible for either of them to move without brushing against each other. It was driving Donatello nuts and Charlie knew it. When his back was turned and his brothers weren’t looking, she reached a finger down and stroked his tail under his shell. He stifled a yelp and jumped, but no one noticed; they were too busy with the usual kitchen scuffle.

“Would ya quit fucking splashin’ me, man?” Raph snapped at Leo.

“Shut the fuck up, Raph, no one’s splashing you.”

“Then what the fuck is this wet stuff on my chest?”

“I think the only person to splash wet stuff on your chest, bro, is you,” Mike said, buckling with laughter.

KLANG! A pot sailed across the small kitchen and nailed Mike in the shell. He just laughed harder. Raphael dove over the table in a rage, knocked his little brother to the ground and grabbed him in a headlock. Mike was still laughing too hard to fight back. “Gee,” he snorted, “I hope Leo didn’t splash any wet stuff on your chest!”

“Mikey!” Leo snapped, letting a coffee mug fall back into the water. “We have a lady here, in case you don’t remember!” KLANG! The pot sailed back and hit Leo in the chest. He didn’t try to avoid it and didn’t flinch when it hit him.

“Does this explain that broken lamp at home?” Don whispered, wrapping his arms around Charlie, as he ushered her out of the kitchen onto the back porch. KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG KLANG! SMASH! Came out of the kitchen.

“Hang on a sec,” Don said, running back into the house. A moment later the light on the electric post snapped on, bathing the dark yard in light. Don reappeared. “C’mon, baby,” he said, taking Charlie by the hand, leading her out onto the grass. He smiled as she followed him in her flowing dress and bare feet.

“It’s nice out here, Donnie,” she said. “Look at the stars.”

“I am,” he said, gazing into her eyes. She blushed and gave his plastron a gentle slap. “Charlie, Don said, pulling her gently against his chest. He nuzzled her nose and pressed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Wanna dance with me?”

“Dance?” she said, giggling “But there’s no music.” Don smiled and reached down to his belt and fiddled with a button on his shell cell, picking up different radio stations until he found a one playing a slow song. She smiled and put her left hand on his muscular shoulder as he gently lifted her right hand up in his left.

Charlie felt small and sort-of breakable next to him as he slid a big three-fingered hand down her waist t rest high on her hip. He made her feel... not girly... she searched for the right way to say it... feminine. He made her feel like a lady and she loved it.

“I’m really glad you brought me here with your family, baby,” she said as they started to move. “I’ve had a wonderful time and part of me wishes that we didn’t have to go back.”

“We can come back again anytime,” he said, his ninja skills making him a graceful dancer. In the distance, something else smashed in the kitchen.

Charlie smiled up at him. One of the ends of his mask was draped over his shoulder like a rich ribbon and even though she knew he could crush her ribs with his strength if he wanted to, his eyes were so soft and gentle as they moved over her face. He was so achingly handsome that he stole her breath away and she half-wondered if their moonlit dance was just a sweet dream.

Donatello always looked like he was thinking about something, working things out in his head. Heck, he just looked smart. Those eyes took everything in, analyzing, cataloguing, quantifying, and qualifying. No detail was too small for him to over-look or brush off, and Charlie loved that about him. He always knew where she was and what was going on and could use that information to figure out what she needed from him.

“Where’d you learn how to dance so well?” she whispered.

“Just from watching people from the shadows,” he looked sad for a moment and his shoulders slumped a little. He wished he could take her places where they wouldn’t have to hide from everyone, like at the concert. “I wish I could take you out more,” he said, apologetically.

“It’s okay, Donnie,” she smiled, making his heart catch. “We’ll just have to keep our eyes peeled for more stuff like that orchestra, where we can sneak in and sneak out without being noticed.”

Donatello looked down at her and wondered if she knew he loved her and that he’d do anything for her... anything. “I don’t want to hide all the time,” he said. “I want everyone to know.”

“Know what, handsome?” she asked, as he twirled her softly around on the cool grass. He smiled broadly at her, marveling at how her hair shone like her eyes.

“I want everyone to know how you make me feel. And I want them to know how I feel about you.” Donatello pulled her in a little closer. This was it. Everything felt right. They hadn’t executed their plan yet, but he didn’t care. He wondered if maybe you just couldn’t plan some things. Love, for instance.

Charlie felt a slight giddy head rush like she had when she’d had her first kiss as a teenager and her heart beat a little faster, wondering if he was going to say what she wanted to hear.

“How do you feel about me, Donnie?” she asked quietly, hoping her voice didn’t sound as squeaky as she thought she heard.

“Don’t you know?” he whispered back, smiling and slowing them down to a standstill, but not letting her go. “Charlotte, I love you.” He felt Charlie lean heavily into him as her knees went weak for a quick moment and she held on to him as her eyes welled up. It crossed his mind that there was a time in their relationship where he would have worried that she was horrified or repulsed, but he knew her well enough now to know that she would never think anything like that about him.

He felt confident and happy as he dipped his head down to kiss her lips. “I’ve been trying to tell you since that night in the park, but... I dunno... it never seemed to come out right. I wanted it to be perfect, because I wanted you to feel special.” He took her small, five-fingered hand in his big, three-fingered one and pressed a kiss to the palm before he pressed it against his chest over his heart.

Charlie’s throat tightened and a couple of tears leaked down her cheeks. He gently wiped them away with his thumb before taking her other hand in his. He kissed it like the other and pressed it against his chest with her other one.

“Oh Donnie, I love you too,” she whispered. Then she smiled and a little laugh escaped her. Don laughed too, threw his arms around her waist, and lifting her high up, twirled her around and around in his arms on the lawn before setting her back down and kissing her so thoroughly she could feel his love washing over every inch of her body.

Don felt excited and breathless. He wanted to sweep her up in his arms again and carry her off to somewhere beautiful and romantic and make love to her under the stars. He wanted to slip that pretty dress off her and watch her creamy body arch under his touch in the blue-white light of the moon. The thought of it turned him on like crazy as she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his passion full force. He wanted her... he wanted to consummate their newly declared love so much that he was already hardening in his shell... fast.

Then she pulled her mouth away from his. He looked at her, confused. He’d kissed her lips red and swollen, her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes sparkled. She was so beautiful and she loved him. Nothing else mattered to him but being with her.

“You have to practice, sweetheart,” she said kindly, in response to his confusion. “Your brothers are waiting by the back door.”

Donatello bit back the swear words that were fighting their way out of his mouth. “But, I want to be with you!” he groaned.

“I’ll wait for you,” she smiled. “We have all night to be together.”

Her double-meaning wasn’t wasted on him. He grinned and kissed her again quickly, then took off toward the house, cart-wheeling and back-flipping like he had the night she said she’d be his girlfriend. He had never felt so good in his life; she loved him!
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Perseverance