#the thing that gets me too is that contrary to popular belief raph DID have fun and a childhood pre shredder

[turtleblogatlast]

One of the absolute best things about the bros is that they just. Play. They play around like the teens they are, playing ball, or video games, or anything else. They just play and have fun together, genuinely enjoying each other’s company. I dunno, I just appreciate how easy it is for them to mess around and be kids.

[my-name-is-bunnyfoxy]

Rise Donnie HEADCANNONS

Massive fashionista. He actually loves and enjoys fashion the most.

He collect a bunch of fashion magazines and reads them on a daily.

He'll actively judge anyone's fashion taste (especially Leo's) and gossip about it 24/7.

When Jhanna (My AU) decided to be with him and join his planet, he immediately took her shopping and helped her pick some nice outfits.

His favorite games or GTA5, Minecraft, FNAF, Call Of Duty and League of Legends.

Hates Genshim Impact. Eventually warms up to it but doesn't favor the game much.

He had the fattest crush on Springtrap and once dreamed that he proposed to him at a candle light dinner and they got married. Also ended up adopting 3 kids-

Loves sci-fi movies. Him and Leo will ramble about it 24/7.

Him and April gossip about everything.

Allows Raph to hang out in the lab whenever he wants to and let's him know about his newest, latest or future projects.

During the events of s4 (my AU) and onward, Donnie started to genuinely open up to his brothers and loved ones. He was way too nervous and horrified he might lose his loved ones due to the situations they were in. So he decided to open up more. That led to him realizing sometimes it's okay to open up your feelings and to not try and cover them up or ignore them.

When mutants, yokaid and humans start to live peacefully together, Donnie (plus his other bros) went to a psychologist. Because he always felt like maybe there was something wrong with his behaviour when he looked back at them. That's when he finally found out he was autistic. He actually felt relieved when he finally got a proper diagnosis. While him being autistic doesn't excuse some of his behaviour or some of the things he has done, he is happy he finally got an explanation of sorts as to why he behaved in a certain way.

Donnie did feel as if him being autistic made him the black sheep of the family or seemed like he didn't belong with his loved ones. Contrary to his expectations, he was accepted and still loved. (Disclaimer I am NOT a proffesional when it comes to mental disorder or just disorderd and illnesses in general. If I get something wrong please correct me and educate me on things like autism and etc!!!)

Contrary to popular belief, he almost NEVER swears. He does at times but hardly ever does. He only drops an f bomb if he is SUPER pissed. He is 4th when it comes to swearing.

Has a massive storage of Uranium hidden in his room.

Was allowed by Draxum to mess around with some of his old experiments and chemicals.

Will judge whatever bad taste you have in certain media.

Apart of several reddits where they cringe at various things.

If he had a TikTok, most of it would be roasting or making fun of influencers for their crap and drama.

He began making more weapons for his brothers and him after the Kraang invasion. He was way too paranoid to possinly lose them so he wanted to prepare them just in case.

Acts like a top but is a bottom.

In reality is a malewife. Thank Jhanna for that.

[melancholysway]

TMNT Imagines: S/O being mugged/stalked (2012)

Since this user PMed me about this request, I'm just going to put the message here :)

@miss-andromeda

Thank you so much! Could I actually request one more? 2012 headcanons again because it's my favorite era of the boys 😅 Anyway, we know that the turtles can be real protective when it comes to their family being in danger, including April and Casey. But when their S/O is in some type of danger (for example, they get mugged one night or they're being stalked), how would they respond? I do apologize for the back-to-back requests, but your writing is so good I can't help but ask for another request! (Okay, that sounded a lot better in my head 😅) But my point is, it would mean the world to me ❤️

Okay! I'm finally finished! So sorry for the wait! For some reason along with college, I wasn’t sure how exactly to write for this one! Like I said I write TOO much, so I have so many ideas that I can only squeeze in so much Yk? Anyways. Hope you enjoy!

Leonardo

- Now, 2012 Leo is usually level-headed, he thinks about everything before he does it. He’s a strategizer.

-But, if he sees you in danger, he doesn’t have to think of anything other than getting you out safe. He can deal with whoever is mugging you later.

-You’re his priority.

-Leonardo, much like Raphael, is protective over you. It’s in his nature as a leader to look after the ones he loves.

-You just so happened to be that person for him. He loved you, there was no denying that he did

-He trains you, to have some tricks up your sleeve if you were to ever get caught up by a Purple Dragon or some low-life mugger.

-Because he knows you can handle it. You can handle yourself.

-That’s why he fell in love with you in the first place. You were strong, especially during the times others would be weak.

-He spends his time with you, how to get into your fighting stance, how never to throw the first punch. Let them run out of stamina, and then go in for the finishing blow. It’s a bonding experience for the two of you, and it always ended in a beautiful kiss after every session.

-“If you ever get into trouble, Donnie made these, here,”

-He gives you a T-phone. It has a little shell as the case, and when you go through it, you see Leo is the only “special” contact. His name has hearts on it, and his contact photo is a selfie of you and him during one of your all-night Space Heroes marathons. It’s Leo holding up the camera and smiling while you sleep on his chest.

-You can’t help but smile. Leo is a very sweet boyfriend, that was the truth.

-Contrary to popular belief, and by popular I mean the fics about Leo mercilessly beating the shit out of anything that is a threat to his s/o because they mug them is…false.

-That’s more Raph’s style. Leonardo doesn’t handle things that way. -He thinks about you.

-Because that’s what matters here. His anger that someone hurt you doesn’t. He’d rather save you first and make sure to get you to safety before handling things his heart wants to.

-He thinks with his brain, not his heart. However, with you, it’s both.

-So when you press the emergency button on your T-phone to notify the guys, you’re hoping they can come and help in time before anything bad happens.

“Do you think it’s a butt dial?” Donnie asks, looking down at his Shell cell while the emergency alarm goes off. Usually, it goes off when April’s in danger, which is often. She’s the target of the Kraang or Shredder, not you. You- now see this as you want- had no value to either party.

This didn’t stop you from falling victim to any local gangs in your area.

Raphael and Michelangelo emerge from their rooms, yawning after a long day of training. They were visibly tired. Donnie was visibly tired as well since he’s been in his lab all day and night. Leonardo was somewhere in the middle, but the thought of you in any danger had woken him up.

“We should treat each one as an emergency, Donnie,” Leonardo says, a wave of nervousness going over him. This was the very first time you dialed them with the emergency button. After glancing at your location on the map, you weren’t in your apartment. In fact, you were a few blocks away, and the heart icon that represents you (which Donnie programmed to be a heart on Leo’s phone ever since you both started dating,) seemed to be between two buildings, and it appeared to mimic an alleyway.

So, yeah, fluke or not, he had to go see if you were okay.

Leonardo could visibly see the tiredness in his brothers’ eyes and decided to do this solo. He can handle it, he always could. He knew how, especially if it was a petty gang.

“You guys stay back, I’ll check it out,” Leo’s blue eyes stare at his brothers. Raph gives him a confused look, “Wait, you don’t think we can handle it?” He asks, now looking annoyed at his older brother.

“No no, it’s not that! It’s just…”

“Mwah mwah mwah!” Mikey teases, making kissy noises. Raphael and Donnie get the hint, and now Leonardo has a trio of kissing noises in his face, only for him to sigh.

“Guys stop! It’s…okay, it’s that. I want to be able to help Y/n out on my own. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I couldn’t do that? Right? Right? Say something, please,” Raph, Donnie, and Mikey exchange look, only for Raphael to do the talking.

“If you need us, just give us a call, bro. Go help Y/n,” That’s all Leonardo needs. He leaves quickly, while Mikey begins making kissy noises at his older brother, just for Raphael to smack him upside the head.

~

“Don’t make it any harder than this shit has to be, just fuckin hand over your bag!” You continue backing up into the alleyway, trying to buy yourself time, until your back hits the cement wall. You look up and realize you’ve hit a dead end. You think back to the defense lessons Splinter has given you, and right now, you wished you could move instead of being frozen in place. You were cornered like a mouse. The cat is holding a knife, hissing threatening words, and flashing its fangs into a sinister smile.

Your breathing becomes heavy, as you see the knife come closer to your neck, soon pressing up against it when you still won’t hand over your bag. There was valuable stuff in there. Your ID, a piece of Leo’s bandana that wrapped around your keys as a good luck cloth. Yeah, very valuable shit. You did not want to lose those.

“Don’t make me cut ya for it, love.” The man in a ski mask says, his beady eyes glaring down at you. The word “love” drips like venom from his covered mouth, and you can’t help but shiver in response.

You’re seriously wondering if the emergency alarm worked. It was late at night, almost midnight, what if the guys were sleeping? What if they were all busy or their t-phones died? These scenarios played in your head as to how you would respond to the situation you’re in but…they don’t end very well. You end up bruised and beaten for protecting your bag.

You don’t say anything, but your eyes say all the words your mouth doesn’t. You’re scared.

That is, until, a dagger that’s shot from God knows where perfectly grabs the knife from the loophole in the blade, taking it from the mugger’s hand as it flies and is stabbed into the brick wall off to the side. Nobody could do something with such precision except for one person. Err, turtle.

You don’t dare look around, because the man in front of you is also capable of using his hands to get what he wants. But. it seems that he’s confused, frantically looking around, yelling curses into the atmosphere. He doesn’t seem to look behind him, as can faintly see your savior emerge from the shadows, creeping up before grabbing the dirty mugger and bringing him into the darkness. You hear muffled protests and screams, only for them to go silent after you hear an angry voice whisper:

“Don’t catch me seeing you hurt them again.”

It’s quiet in the alley now, the only noises being the cars on the street nearby and their honking of them. You look into the darkness, trying to see your knight in the soft blue bandana.

“Leo,” You say softly. You can’t see anything, until Leonardo emerges from the shadows, looking at you with worry. Leonardo’s blue eyes scan your whole body, to see if there were any signs that he had hurt you. He looked panicked as if he had been dreading this scenario for the longest.

He has.

“Did he hurt you? Please tell me he didn’t.” Leo pleads, cupping your cheeks and checking to make sure you don’t have any marks. There is a small dribble of blood coming from where the knife was placed on your neck, and Leo notices, sighing to himself and kissing you on the lips. As you kiss back, you can’t help but cry. Leonardo feels your tears land on his cheeks, and he stops kissing you, looking into your eyes and wiping your tears. His big blue eyes were something that you could get lost in, and they could calm you down all the same. As he continued wiping your tears, your sobs passed, only into sporadic sniffles.

“Hey, love,” You feel better. That’s who you wanted to hear call you “love.” Leo was the only one who got the privilege of calling you that. You’re reassured by his soothing voice.

“I’m here,” He lifts your chin, making you look into his ocean eyes, “as long as I’m here, you won’t get hurt. Not on my watch.”

“L-Leo…I froze, I couldn’t…” “Y/n, you’re safe,” Leo reassures you before you can break down again in front of him, “We’ll work on defensive skills- together.” He takes your shaking hand into his own, and the shaking seems to die down. Slowly, but surely.

Leonardo was grateful he got there when he did, or you would’ve been hurt. Or worse, but he doesn’t wanna think about that happening. He knows he can’t be your bodyguard 24/7, and he knows things like this happen, rarely, but they do. The only thing he can do is train you. Train you like Splinter did April. For shit like this, for you to defend yourself, without freezing up. He hates that he never trained you for the actual beginning part of the fighting. How to not completely forget the training you’ve been through. How to calm your nerves. How to not expect the worst. He didn’t teach you that, Splinter wouldn’t forget to teach something like this, but Leo did.

“Come, I’ll take you home.” The leader says, putting his hand out for you to hold. You take it, as you would any other time he offered his hand. As you interlock your fingers with him, you can’t help but feel a sort of comfort. Like his presence is home for you.

Raphael

-Raph was never one to think as Leo does. He’s passionate, and therefore, he’s the type to think with his heart. If anyone hurt any of his family, they better be ready to feel the wrath of an angry green-eyed turtle.

-He was sure he would always be there to help you out. He wanted to be the one you called on. As usual, Raph is very reliable. That’s one of many amazing traits about him.

-Very cautious of you. He knows his strength, and the last thing he wants to do is hurt you.

-But, he WILL hurt those who hurt you.

-He’s fully devoted to you, so it’s only natural that he does this.

-“Need me to give little miss bitch an ass whooping?”

-Yeah, he was like that. And when you came around to meet Casey, ---Raphael made one thing very clear when he saw how the hockey player stared at you.

-“Back off, man. Y/n’s already taken.”

-“By who!? Casey Jones likes what he likes,”

-“Me.”

-“Oh. Well, I guess Casey Jones can let this slide.” Casey knew he would never dare cross his good friend Raph. Plus, Casey literally falls in love with anything that breathes that isn’t named or looks like Irma, so, there’s that.

now, you were almost sure someone had been following you home.

-You weren’t sure who exactly it was, but you had a feeling all the same.

-So when you told your boyfriend about it, he was on it.

-He freaked, though. Because, who’s the asshole who wanted to watch your every move??

-“When I find them I- they’re getting the ass-kicking of the century!”

-He wasn’t one to plan out anything, so he decided to watch you. Watch you walk home at night, and make sure nobody was following behind you.

-Because, well, he cared. He told you that when he had the courage to spill his feelings out.

-You cared about him, too.

-This went on for a while. He would watch over you from the rooftops while patrolling on his own, making sure you were okay during the day, and making his way to see you at night. He would escort you to the lair (what a gentleturtle,) and take you home after if you didn’t stay the night.

-Raph had not seen anyone following you, up until one evening, when he noticed someone in the weirdest of places.

“What the hell?” Raphael squints his electric green eyes into the distance, trying to figure out just who is watching from above the rooftops down at you. What was their reason? As he got closer, he noticed the familiar face.

Xever.

Now, just what the hell did this Salamander want with you? Why was he so infatuated with you? He looked to be studying you. How agile you were, how aware you were of the world around you.

Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t good. Because this quiet stalking would only turn into something worse. So, before Xever can do anything, Raph calls you.

“Baby, don’t freak, but I found out who’s watching you.” Your body turns cold, unsure of exactly who it could be. You start to look around frantically, wondering if someone is behind you. Feeling an overwhelming sense of anxiety wave over you, you walk faster.

“W-Who is it?” You ask after Raphael told you to walk as normal. There wasn’t anyone behind you, but the idea of someone hiding somewhere made you extremely nervous. As Raphael continued to watch over you and monitor Xever, he realized Xever had seen him.

“Fuck, he saw me. Okay, go straight home, okay? I’ll take care of Fish Face for ya.” That’s how he was, always. Always thinking of you.

“Are you sure? Raph, I-” “Of course I’m sure. I want you safe. I love you.”

“Be careful.”

“Do you know who you’re dating? I’m the most careful turtle I know.”

“Raph.”

“Okay okay, I’ll be careful,” With that, Raphael takes his sai from his belt, preparing his body and mind to take on Fish Face by himself.

Xever walks slowly, not with a need to run. He eventually makes it over to Raphael from a few rooftops away.

“Turtle.” He says as Raphael scrunches his nose from the sudden smell of the walking fish market. What he hated most about being around Xever was that he smelled like…well…fish.

“The talking Unagi Don, what the hell are you doing watching Y/n like that? Lonely much?” Raphael seers, throwing the first punch. Xever dodges and counters it, sweeping Raphael off his feet.

“Foolish mutant, I knew this human meant a lot to one of you, and now I know it’s you, I only want to take them to Shredder even more.” Raphael charges, causing the fish to back up onto the rooftop's edge, only to do a backflip and get back comfortably off the ledge.

“You’re not takin’ them anywhere. Not while I’m still around here to kick your ass like our regularly scheduled programming!”

With that, Raphael and Xever fight on the rooftop. It’s not unusual for Raphael to fight angrily, but right now, he was angry. Because, what exactly would Shredder do to you? Who was he to just pick someone he just happened to care about to use as a pawn? Shredder’s pointless vendetta was negatively affecting his family, and now his significant other. He didn’t want you to become another April. Someone that had to constantly look over their shoulder. You had a whole life to live, not that April didn’t, but, you were less involved with the turtle’s missions or issues than she was. It wasn’t right. And of course, he felt guilty.

He felt guilty, because, well, he got you into this mess when he revealed himself to you the first time you two had met. He should’ve thought it through, he let his personal attraction to you wind up to this point, where now you’re more than friends, yet at a cost.

It wasn’t right. And like Leo says, if you mess up something, it’s your job to fix it.

~

The fight was done. Xever had never experienced this type of Raph before. The “protecting their lover” Raph. Because, if we’re being honest, Raphael fighting for his significant other is a sight to see, yet an experience you wouldn’t want to be a part of. Unfortunately, Xever was.

And when it’s done, for the very first time, Xever feels defeated.

Because Raphael holds back a small part of himself when his brothers fight, but this time, no. There wasn’t Leo there to tell him to calm down, or Donnie to scold him for almost stabbing him on accident. No, right now, it was just Raph.

And as he goes running to your window, he wants to make sure you got there safe.

You hear the frantic knocking on your room window, and you open it, allowing the cold air to rush into your room. You stare at Raph, watching as the cuts and bruises littering his skin, with scratches on his plastron. He looks at you, smiling.

“You okay?” Another beautiful yet detrimental trait of Raph is that he thinks about you over himself. Right now, you were fine. But it didn’t matter. What mattered was Raph.

So you ignore his question and help him inside, sitting him on your bed and just kissing him as gently as you could. He’s a big boy, he can take some hits and scratches. But right now, you were there to doctor him up. He knows not to stop you once you’ve got that look of concern on your face; so instead of protesting, he lets you take care of him.

You clean the cuts and some small gashes, dressing his minor wounds. He doesn’t require any stitches and thank the Lord because that’s more Donnie’s thing.

You give him an ice pack (it’s a frozen pea bag) to put on his head while you retrieve some medicine for his headache when you stop as you see he’s staring at you.

“What?”

“Nothin,’ just like seeing you so…dominant.” He smirks, causing you to smile and roll your eyes in response.

“Hush,” You hand him two capsules of Tylenol, “and take these, you should feel fine, I hope.”

That last part seemed to get Raph. The last thing he wanted was for you to be concerned like that, he was going to be fine and he knew it.

“I’m gonna be more than fine thanks to you, PhD in reviving mutants,” he jokes, bringing you into his arms as he gives you a chaste kiss on the lips.

As long as you were safe, Raphael didn’t mind a few boo-boo’s.

Donatello

-The weakest out of all his brothers so

-Don’t expect him to come alone if you need saving

-Sure, if it’s a few foot ninjas, he can handle. But do NOT get mugged by the Purple Dragons, Donnie kind of can’t handle all of them at once. He’s better when he’s with the team. He fights more confidently.

-He gets overwhelmed if he’s outnumbered. This happens even when he’s fighting with his brothers. He starts to overthink everything and, well, it’s just a mess.

-As your boyfriend, Donnie is pretty protective over you, I mean, look at how he was with april in the show!

-He really wants you safe, because that’s how Donnie is.

-Calls you all the time, especially while walking home, he has to know you’re okay.

-He sees how much you care for him, when he comes back bruised from a mission, you’re there to take care of him.

-Donnie always aids his brothers, but he was so used to helping himself, that it felt foreign to him to have you dress his wounds.

-But anyway, he would freak if you were in danger.

-Like right now, Donnie walked you home after a long day of spending your Sunday with the turtles. They were your therapy, and down in the sewers, there were no worries; just family.

As you’re walking through the alley to climb the fire escape to your apartment window, You both stop as a person appears to peer in the alleyway from the entrance. You and Donnie can’t really see who they are but their figure, but the purple-banded turtle assumes it’s a homeless person. So, you both act normal, standing still for a bit in hopes that they’ll leave, as they probably can’t see either of you.

Oh, but they can. Well, you, at least.

After stumbling a bit in front of the alleyway, you can now see the unknown’s face. It’s a man, an older, greasy-looking guy who doesn’t know what deodorant is. He grins at the darkness engulfing the alleyway, “I see you~” The man’s voice snarls, causing you to scrunch your nose up in disgust. You weren’t sure how he could see you, but one thing’s for sure, there was gonna be a little situation in regard to getting him to leave you and Donnie alone.

You feel a protective arm wrap around you, and you sense Donnie behind you, putting on that protective face of his. Not like Leo’s, where he’s a mama bear looking out for his cubs, no, like a loving boyfriend, looking out for his significant other.

He wouldn’t let anything happen to you. He couldn’t, and this low-life wouldn’t be hard to deal with at all.

“I think you should leave,” You say, feeling a wave of confidence go over you since having Donnie by your side. Usually, you would try and ignore, but right now, you felt confident that he wouldn’t lay a finger on you.

“And I think you…should come with me…back home, sweetie~!” After every stop between his statement, he takes a step closer to you, and now, this is when Donatello intervenes. He’s not one to show himself unless absolutely necessary. And right now, it was absolutely necessary if it meant protecting you.

“Nope. You’re gonna walk away,” Donnie states flatly, hovering his free hand on his bo staff just in case this drunk tries something funny. He steps more toward the man, ultimately revealing himself to him. Honestly, he looks so drunk that he probably won’t remember this shit in the morning.

“Eugh! What the fuck are you!?” After jolting back from the sudden dramatic jumpscare, Donatello sighs. He’s used to that. Although, he always remembers that you didn’t react that way when you first saw him. It was more of a friendly first meet, considering you were being cornered by the local Purple Dragon gang and was saved.

“The one that’ll….put you in a hospital if you keep it up!” Donnie wasn’t the best at clapbacks when he’s in protective mode, maybe while under pressure but, that’s more Raph’s thing. But, he would save all the sarcastic remarks for later, right now, his priority was you.

It’s no surprise that the man laughed at this, and retorted with a comment about Donatello being a…

“I ain’t listenin’ to a fuckin…lizard thing,” Yeah. That. When did lizards get shells is beyond me, dear readers.

As the man steps closer, Donnie tells you to back up and steer away from him, to lessen his chances of a friendly fire.

“Love, let me be the hero for once,” Your boyfriend was so used to being helped by his brothers when it came to saving you or his other 2 human friends, that he never got the chance to be the only one praised. He would love to hear praise from you.

So, you get out the way quickly, to respect Donatello’s request. He smiles gently and kisses your forehead, and he approaches the man head on. He doesn’t want to hurt him per say, just rough him up that he gets the hint.

It all changes when the man takes Donnie’s approach the wrong way, and gets hostile. So, he runs (sloppily, might I add) into the alleyway fully, coming full force at Donnie. It’s nothing crazy, he tries to punch him but, Donnie’s much more smarter and sober than he is, so, it’s not nothing he can’t handle.

So when the drunk pulls out a knife, it’s all a little too cliche. The turtle in purple got shot at, stabbed at, shell, even spat at by a big spider…thing. So, this was nothing. He swore it was nothing.

Donatello ditches the bo staff utilization for a pressure point instead. Yes, it was risky, but, Donnie was sober, he was not. His vision is most likely impaired, and his cognitive ability isn’t so well.

Except sometimes, humans get unknown superhuman strength when drunk. Not in a good way, either. They do dumb things, regretful things.

You watch as Donatello meneuvers around the man, taking notice at how focused your boyfriend was, seeing his rare face covered in self-confidence, up until he got to putting his finger on the pressure point right under the man’s chin. Long story short, he got a little stab in at Donnie’s arm right before he was knocked out. It happened so quick, the ninja didn’t even realize what had happened until after the fact. His body was pumping with adrenaline that he almost didn’t notice. Not until you said something.

“Hey…Donnie! Your arm!” You run toward Donatello, who’s now feeling the pain in his arm as he’s coming down from the adrenaline high. His breath hitches as he notices the new fresh cut on his arm. He wasn’t stabbed, per say, just grazed. He couldn’t believe the man who could barely walk in a straight line managed to get a hit in on Donnie- a highly trained ninja.

He stops to look at the blood trickling down his bicep and onto the concrete, staining the ground with drops of crimson. “Gosh, ouch! Okay okay, ow!” The sudden winces from Donatello break your heart, he’s not usually one to outwardly show when he��s in pain.

“Okay, Donnie? I’m gonna take you back to the lair, okay?” You’re already dialing for Leonardo and pressing the button to let him know it’s an emergency.

You rub circles onto your boyfriend's shell as he struggles with the new massive headache and the world around him spinning slowly, “Leo? Donnie got hurt, can you get the fir-” “Already on it! Do you need any help getting him here? Are you in danger? Is Donnie breathing okay? Is-” Leo’s slew of panicked questions are cut off by you.

“Alrighty mama bear, Donnie’s conscious. I got him-” You take off your sweater, wrapping it around the turtle’s bicep, it seems to relieve him somehow, as the bleeding has slowed, staining your cotton lavender sweater to a deep plum.

“I just, let me be his hero for once.” You say. You can handle getting Donnie back to the Lair. It wasn’t hard. As long as you kept him conscious and moving, you would get back to the lair in no time.

“I…okay. Call me if anything happens, okay?”

“Leo, I got this,”

And you do, you so got this. You get Donatello down to the lair safe and sound, already grabbing an ice pack from the freezer once you set him down on his examination table. Since he doesn’t have the strength to dress his graze, you take charge,

“Just order me around on what to get and what to do, I got it.”

He’s so appreciative. He can’t help but smile at you. How beautiful your face looked when you were concentrated on patting down his graze with peroxide, knowing it’ll burn, so you do it as quickly as possible. How you give him a soft kiss on the forehead when you’re done (he loves forehead kisses by the way,) and tell HIM to rest. You’re the doctor now, and it’s your turn to take care of Donnie. He smiles weakly after it, and his purple-red eyes land on your lips, as you get the hint and dive down to kiss Donnie’s lips, giving him reassurance that you’re okay, and he will be, too.

Michelangelo

-Mikey is very outspoken. He calls it like he sees it. Maybe not in the best way, he’s direct without realizing it.

-So he’s the best person to confront a stalker

-Because he’s not the “rah-rah” kind like Raph is, more like the “go away you’re weird” kind of confrontation.

-If it’s someone he doesn’t know, like a human, he’s not sure how to confront them.

-Like, should I show myself, should i not?

-For the past few weeks, someone on campus had a…weird obsession with you. There was a party coming up in a nearby house known for frat parties, and when you turned down their offer to be your “date,” they were upset. REALLY upset.

-But, they can’t get mad at you! You had a boyfriend.

-When you went down to the lair and complained that Romeo (this was Leo’s nickname for your new stalker) requested to follow you and message you again on Instagram, Mikey could feel a little mad.

-Which never happened, he wasn’t the angry or jealous type

-But when it came to you, he felt the need to be protective over you, and this Romeo guy wasn’t about to get in the way of you both.

-So, he does something kind of dumb?

-He does some FBI searching on the same social media site he found -Bradford, and was able to find Romeo. And trust me, it took a long, -LONG periodically time.

-Luckily, Romeo literally shows ALL of his life, where he’s at, what he’s doing, who he’s with, etc

He's status on facebook is that he's friends with you, which leaves Mikey slightly pressed?

For good reason, you were NOT Romeo's friend.

-When you reject him another time, the stalking gets worse, he begins going to your job, and sitting there, leaving when your shift ends. It’s until today that he tried to follow you home.

-Michelangelo just so happened to catch your emergency call as he was skateboarding on the rooftop, and he was on the job.

-He can handle it, no way he couldn’t. Some desperate guy?? ROMEO?? Yeah, he got this.

“Okay, seriously, stop fricken following me!” You decide to confront Romeo, head on. Although the streets were bare, you were still outside, meaning he seriously couldn’t do you no harm. The blonde haired football player couldn’t do anything but stop in place from a few feet behind you. He stands, slightly upset that you figured it out.

“One date, Y/n! One! Just one! I swear I’ll leave you alone! Or give me your number! Something!” This begging, coming from an soon-to-be adult is frankly very cringeworthy, and you’re catching secondhand embarrassment from the desperation his words hold.

“R-” You catch yourself from saying his code name, Romeo. You’ve been so used to saying it that it’s almost natural. “Steven, no.” You give a simple no once again, yet he persists.

“What could possibly be the reason why, huh?” Steven isn’t giving up, and now he’s just begging to be rejected again with that question.

“I have a boyfriend, that’s why! And honestly, even if I didn’t, I would still say no to you man!” What was so hard to understand?

“That’s harsh Y/n.” Steven’s demeanor had changed, he looked somewhat crazy right now, as he laughed after his statement, “I was being nice, but since you wanna be a fucking bitch to me, I’m gonna be mean.” The blue-eyed Romeo starts to walk over to you, and you back up, both going down the street. You make a turn, but instead of turning the curb, you wind up going into a more secluded area. As you back up even more, you realize the mistake you had made, as you were now in an alleyway.

‘Great,’ you think, ‘How cliché of me.’

You pressed the emergency button on the T-Phone your friend Donnie had given you a while back. This would be the first time you used the emergency feature on it. After pressing it, the signal had been sent to all T-Phones, notifying the turtles. Honestly, you were hoping that it would be quick, but you knew you had to do some serious stalling for the time being.

As Steven circled you like a cat honing in on its prey, you continued to back up, looking all around you for something to use as a weapon. Now, you had some training from Splinter, but you’ve only started to train like he taught April for a few days. So, you had no weapon of your own. But, Splinter always says that a great fighter can use anything around them as a weapon in some way.

After quickly glancing around you, scanning everything in the terribly lit alley, you find a potential weapon- a pole to what looks like an old american flag near the dumpster. Unfortunately, you had to get past Stev- you know what, Leo’s code name is funnier- Romeo, in order to get to the pole. So, you begin to look for ways to get around him. You’re unsure of what his intentions are with you, but you know they aren’t good. Romeo wears a…perverted look in his eyes, and now you realize that you need that pole.

You do something unthinkable, and walk closer to him. It’s a brave act, but you have tricks, dear reader. Romeo is taken back by the sudden change in your aura, as if you’re inviting him to touch you, yet…

When he gets close, you instantly knee him where the sun-don’t-shine. So bad, that he falls to his knees, whining in pain.

“Ow! My…my…my coconuts!” His voice is high-pitch like a school-girl, and you almost felt guilty for doing it so hard.

Almost.

What makes this all so good, is that suddenly, Romeo is hit by what appears to be a balloon, yet as it pops, his hair becomes wet.

As you look around, you can see a two white slits that resemble eyes from atop the rooftop, as it’s dark, you can’t see who it is, but you have a good feeling who it might be.

Suddenly, a large puff of purple smoke appears behind Romeo, and after it fades away, you can see Michelagelo emerge, winking at you as he kicks Romeo back down as he tries to get up, feeling a presence behind him and looking back.

“Eyes straight, Romeo!”

“Romeo?”

“You questioning me?” Mikey challenges, throwing another water balloon on your stalker. It must be some cold water in those balloons, because Mikey has the poor dude shivering in addition to the cold temperatures tonight.

“Uh, no! No! Y/n, you know this freak?”

“The only freak here is you! Following Y/n around like…a stalker!” Mikey exclaims, now pinning Romeo down after his freak comment. Totally unnecessary by the way.

“You’re the freak! What are you!? Some kind of mutant?” Romeo should really learn to shut his mouth if he knows what’s good for him. After the second freak comment, Mikey twists his arms tighter, how Raph does when he wants Mikey to say “Uncle.”

“Yeah, a mutant, and theres 3 others that look just like me so, we better not catch you doing this to our Y/n again!” To finish off the threat, Mikey bonks him on the head with his nunchuck, causing Romeo to whine in pain, and finally agree to leaving you alone after Mikey wouldn’t let go, almost spraining his wrists.

~ “So, our Y/n, huh?” After getting to the window of your apartment, all is fine. You felt a weight being lifted off your shoulders tonight thanks to Mikey. And, thanks to Donatello for being such a genius and making those T-Phones.

“Well, you know,” Mikey rubs the back of his neck, laughing nervously, “You are our friend, but…you know!” He nudges you playfully, wathcing as you giggle and embrace him into a hug.

“Thanks, for getting rid of Romeo.”

“It’s kind of fitting right now, since, you know, we’re on a balcony and such, like a tower,”

“Mikey, that’s Tangled,”

“Oh, well, whatever! I’m just glad you’re safe, cutie,” Mikey always gets excited during loving moments like these, and after breaking the hug, you reach up to kiss him on the lips, it’s no surprise, he tastes like pizza. It’s always like that, but, you’ve come to enjoy it. If pizza lip balm was a thing, it would taste like your boyfriend.

//

Taglist:

@bee-1n-space

Masterlist

[wumpusandzandii]

Dissonance: Part One

Human!AU TMNT One Shot for Raph x Stacey

TW: content involving abuse and physical harm

Yawning, Stacey shuffled towards the kitchen in the lair, in search of the caffeine she required to start her day. Pulling her hands out of her hoodie pocket, she rubbed her eyes as she entered, the smell of coffee greeting her. The boys had naturally already been up and through the kitchen, years of their training routine getting them up and moving early. Not surprisingly, Donatello was still in the kitchen sitting at an end of the table, cradling his head in one hand over an open book and steaming mug. Their eyes met for a brief moment before nodding to acknowledge each other, neither of them suited for the early bird lifestyle.

After pouring herself a mug and adding liberal amounts of creamer, she made her way to the table, sitting down adjacent to him and peeking over at the book. “What’s your morning content today, hmm? Nuclear physics? How to hack into the international space station?”

Sipping his coffee black, Donnie shook his head before yawning himself. “Abductive Cognition: The Epistemological and Eco-Cognitive Dimensions of Hypothetical Reasoning.”

Blinking heavily, she tried to process and make sense of the title before giving up and taking a slug of coffee. “I think I’m just gonna stick to Terry Pratchett and motorcycle manuals, if that’s okay,” she finally said with a half smile. She idly wondered what it must be like for Donnie to be so intelligent, and surrounded by such… normal people. It had to be frustrating.

Looking up from the tome with a soft smile, he nodded. “Both are good choices, actually. The Discworld novels were particularly well written, with a unique sense of humor. You can never go wrong with manuals, either. Never hurts to know too much.”

“I dunno,” she chuckled over the rim of her mug. “The title of that one hurt my brain.”

“I’m not sure of how much I’m even retaining this early,” he acknowledged, pushing it away from himself. Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her more intently. “Speaking of motorcycles and hurt, how is that cut?”

Pulling up her sleeve, she let him examine the healing cut on her forearm. It hadn’t been serious; she had been helping Jax by getting an engine into a bike, and scraped it open on a metal bracket. She had cleaned it up and gone about her day, but within a few days it was obvious she hadn’t cleaned it well enough. Donnie had seen it and insisted it was infected, and helped her to save the trip to urgent care by taking care of it himself. “Hasn’t shown any signs of infection after the round of antibiotics you gave me, just healing shut.”

Still insisting on inspecting it fully himself, he held her arm and gently turned it before releasing it carefully. “Looks good. You took all of them, right?”

“Of course,” she scoffed, shaking her head in friendly disbelief. “You were very clear about the risks of stopping antibiotics early and how that’s encouraged antibiotic resistant strains of infections.”

“It's likely to cause an epidemic at some point,” he said, adding onto his previous statement. “It's not taken seriously enough.”

She nodded in agreement, and sat back in her chair. Shuffling her mug in a circle, her eyebrows furrowed together as a silence settled between them. “Can they have any side effects, though?” She asked finally, picking up her phone and looking at the calendar for the millionth time that morning.

“Of course, there are few medications that don't, but yours was a simple round of penicillin. It can cause gastric upset, headaches, yeast infections or thrush, most commonly.” Setting his mug down, he rested his elbows on the table, folding his hands together. “Do you think you've had any? Any headaches and gastric upset should've passed with completing the medication. The others can persist, but I'm afraid I don't have anything on hand for those.”

“No,” she answered quickly, turning bright red at the aspect of discussing yeast infections with a man that was effectively her brother-in-law. Her pulse thrummed in her ears, but she forced herself to continue logically. “No, nothing like that. Unless… can a yeast infection make you late?”

“Late?” Donnie looked confused, glancing at his bare wrist before looking at the wall clock. Looking back at her, she could tell he was no more enlightened as his head tilted to the side.

Sighing and accepting the second hot flush across her cheeks, she had to look down, away from his inquisitive eyes. Picking at a small flake of red polish on one of her thumbs, she swallowed hard. “Late cycle… period.”

There was a weighted pause, and she didn't have to look up as she heard understanding finally dawn on the lanky man. For someone so intelligent, the obvious escaped him from time to time, especially with women, but that was understandable. While they had been raised to utterly respect women, their father would accept no less, they had not had a female influence in their family. It was some shock to her to find out she was the first real stable female in their family circle, though Donnie had recently been seeing Lily, and it was especially so to her considering she hadn't had siblings growing up. It was a weird dynamic, but they were all figuring it out… albeit slowly. It did, however, lead to inevitably awkward moments, that moment topping the list.

“Uh, no,” he answered finally, clearing his throat a few times. “It wouldn't delay your cycle, as far as I'm aware? Hang on… I don't have my holo band or my phone, may I use yours?”

Keeping her face angled down a bit, she unlocked her phone screen and slid it to Donnie, who scooped it up deftly and began typing immediately. Watching his face intently out of her peripheral vision, she turned and faced him directly when his face went white as a sheet. “What? What is it?”

“It wasn’t rifampin though…” he muttered, scrolling through the screen as quickly as he read.

“Donnie, that doesn’t make sense, but you’re kinda freaking me out…” Stacey said, doing her best to remain calm. Donnie freaked out over things they didn’t even understand sometimes, it could be something little. It didn’t look little, but a girl had to hope.

“It’s too early for this.” Setting the phone down, he took off his glasses and covered his face with both hands before rubbing it brusquely. “When I checked your dosage, it didn’t list any drug interactions. That said, there is a widely debated scientific possibility that antibiotics can interfere with low dose birth control.”

“Wait, what?” The kitchen seemed to stop in time, every small noise amplified to excruciating volume as she let his words sink in. Surely she had heard him wrong. That was all. She had misunderstood. Trying to swallow a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away, she clenched her hands together in her lap. “Debated science? Interfere with birth control how?”

“How could I miss that?” Donatello’s head dropped to the table, on top of his folded arms. When no other answer issued forth from him, she prompted him by firmly saying his name. “It’s only been proven with rifampin, but it is possible that antibiotics make birth control… less effective. And I assume you take it?”

“I do!” she answered, her volume and pitch surprising her. Closing her eyes and making an attempt at taking a cleansing breath, she wiped her sweating palms against her pants. The kitchen that had just before seemed fixed in time, now spun around her. “So I could be late because… because I could… could be…”

“Pregnant,” he completed the sentence she seemed unable to utter. “I don’t know how I missed it, Stacey, I’m so sorry…”

“But you never miss anything,” she rasped hoarsely. Picking up her phone with shaking hands, she struggled to open up her calendar again. “It’s just a mistake, right? You read wrong… or-or I put the date in wrong…”

“Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact, fallible. Regrettably. It’s a slim chance, but it’s a chance, and I missed it. I missed it.” His voice was small and wavering, and she knew that he was telling the truth. She was never late, always the same day in the cycle, and time had gotten past her before she realized it was three days past.

“Please tell me you have a test in that big medicine stash of yours.” She knew the answer once he lifted his head from the table, forlorn. He didn’t have to say he didn’t, it was written plainly all over his face. Something in her barely controlled facade finally snapped, and she found herself standing bolt upright, chair clattering away behind her. “How can you not have one?!”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re all men here!” he answered, obviously frazzled by the way his voice raised. “It hadn’t exactly come up, I’m not even a doctor, let alone an OB/GYN!”

“Well, it’s come up now, hasn’t it?!” Panic was beginning to set in. How could she be pregnant? She couldn’t be. Maybe it was just something weird with her system that month. She needed a test to be sure, and the last thing in the world she wanted was Raph finding out before she knew for certain. One thing at a time. One thing at a time. “You don't tell him yet, you hear me?”

Her comment obviously didn't need clarification. “I'm not telling him anything! Do I look like a masochist to you?”

“Telling who, what?”

Stacey actually jumped from the startle, bracing herself with one hand on the table as she turned to look at Raph. Of course he'd show up right then, that was just her luck that morning. His scarred eyebrows were furrowed together, amber eyes moving back and forth between the two of them. “Jesus, babe. I swear to god, you're gonna give me a heart attack one of these days with that ninja shit.”

“Leo,” Donatello quickly answered, most likely a little too quickly.

It didn't take a lot of deduction for her to notice that Raph wasn't exactly buying into whatever weirdness was going on in the kitchen, so she moved towards him and kissed his cheek. “Telling Leo that we were thinking of going on a double date with Donnie and Lily to go see a movie, and it'll probably mess with patrols.”

Raph’s scowl only lessened slightly. “We are?”

“Maybe? We need to check show times, schedules. You know,” Donnie picked up on her thread, adding on but clearing his throat nervously. He was wilting like a string bean exposed to too much steam.

“Don't ya think you oughta be training with the rest of us instead of plannin’ your social schedule? Ol’ fearless sent me lookin’ for ya, and there'll be hell to pay right now if we don't get back.” Raph kept his eyes fixed a little too keenly on his younger brother for Stacey’s liking, but she leaned in for a brief hug and got a kiss atop her head, nonetheless.

“I gotta grab my stuff and head out to work,” she said, doing her best to make the exchange as normal as possible. Nothing to worry about yet, one thing at a time. Pressing onto her tiptoes, she gave Raph a quick kiss.

He kissed her back, but stopped her from moving away by putting his forefinger under her chin and directing her gaze up to meet his. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she answered, trying not to feel sick with how honest the lie sounded. Brushing her hand against the stubble along his jaw, she gave him a small smile and tried to come up with an excuse that was a little closer to the truth. Lying to him was quite possibly the worst thing she could think of doing, let alone starting her entire day with it. “I’m just running late.”

Donnie choked on coffee behind her, and it took every fiber of her being not to turn and glare at him. Raph was continued being suspicious, scowling over her shoulder at him. It was probably more effective than her glare would’ve been, anyway. With a slow blink, he redirected his attention back down to her, concern replacing the hard lines around his eyes. “You be safe, okay?”

“Always, babe.” With one more brief kiss, she moved around the bulk of his form to exit the kitchen, shooting Donnie a glare once she was behind him, anyway.

“You comin’ or do I have to drag you?” Raph threatened, and his shoulders widened with a dominating posture as he folded his arms.

“I’m coming,” she heard Donnie sigh in return, his chair skidding back. “I’m going to need more than coffee to make it through today.”

***

Stacey paced the short length of the small, dim bathroom at the bike shop. It was the longest three minutes of her life, and there wasn’t enough room to contain her building anxiety. She had stopped at the local drugstore on her way to work, buying a pregnancy test and forcing herself to at least wait until she was at work to take it, not simply using the public one at the store. Her stomach was climbing into her throat with each passing second, and she found herself nervously trying to pop joints that had already been popped, or were too tense to. Glancing at her phone, she checked her timer. Only 30 seconds left.

Resolve breaking, she turned to the counter around the sink and stared at the test. No. No no no. The time was barely up, and already she could see two pink lines. Grabbing the leaflet from the box, she triple checked to make sure that it meant pregnant, even though she damn well knew it was. Turning the flashlight on her phone, she examined it more carefully, scrutinizing the slightly fainter second line. The extra light only made the line more evident. “Fuck,” she cursed, turning her face towards the ceiling, only to cover it with both hands. “Fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

A light knock on the door startled her, and she tried to blink the blurry tears out of her eyes. “Y’all right in there, girl?” came Jax’s voice from the other side. She knew he meant well, he’d been looking after her well-being for a better part of a decade. To her,  in that moment, it was just one more lie she had to say to someone she cared about, and it was almost more than she could handle.

“Yeah,” she replied, her stomach twisting into a tighter knot. “Just uh… girl stuff. I’ll be out to inventory check the shipment in a few.”

“You take yer time,” he answered good naturedly, making her feel all that much worse for lying to him. “It ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

Hearing his boots thump against the hard floor as he walked off, she dropped the lid of the toilet down and plopped herself on top of it, burying her face in her hands. She tried to ignore the fact that she was allowing herself to panic because the other emotions drowning her mind were too complicated to process. Being “raised” by Eli and Heather had completely set her off the idea of having kids when she was much younger. It wasn’t exactly a warm, nurturing environment, and she didn’t have siblings or any cousins that she was actually aware of. It was possible they were out there, but her parents didn’t have a particularly good track record of keeping up good relations with others. All they cared about was themselves. She had the blessing of being raised predominantly by her maternal grandfather for the first nine years of her life, but he passed away and the only people left to take her were her parents. Heather would’ve been happy enough to pass her off to a foster home, her only real concerns stemming around where her pipe or next fix might be. Eli wouldn’t have it, for whatever reason. Controlling her and keeping her prisoner to his abuse was far more important.

Mothers left an acidic taste in her mouth. Mothers were absent. Mothers sat by and watched fathers yell and belittle, doing nothing to stop the mental abuse. Mothers went in the other room to high when fathers pulled off their belt and started lashing children, not even coming out to intervene when the belt turned to fists and the fists turned to boots. Mothers lit up their own cigarette when fathers burned the skin of their own, ignoring the cries of pain or too drugged up to care. Mothers didn’t go to the hospital when their daughter was beaten almost to death. Mothers weren’t in the courtroom when their daughter was emancipated at fifteen, they were never there with hugs or apologies. Mothers died in squalid apartments, leaving an angry and bitter man in their wake, without a word as to why. Why?

It took Stacey a long moment to realize the tears that wet her face and ran down her forearms. Pulling a long stretch of paper towel off the roll, she did her best to clean herself up, just like she had always done. Sniffing after blowing her nose, she blinked at the tile on the floor. She had no reference as to what a “good mother” was, not truly. The lack of that influence was something of a silent bond between Raph and herself. It rarely came up, and the conversation was always brief when it did. Mothers were a source of pain to them both.

The fear crippling her had nothing to do with her love for him. He understood her better than anyone ever had, and she him. She would follow him to the ends of the earth and back. But how could she expose him to that? How could she bring that horrible, negative influence into his life? How could she go from being the person she was in his life, his partner, his second half… to that? Wounding him all over, worse than any punk in an alley could? It wasn’t that she doubted him at all. Sure, he doubted himself, but he was one of the most solid people she had ever met, with one of the strongest moral compasses and fiercely loyal to a fault. The entire lot of Hamato men were practically too good to be true, from her perspective. That’s what troubled her, she couldn’t ruin that. How could she just utterly fail him and a child?

At the same time, there was a large portion of her that wanted to hope, that wanted to believe. Maybe she could be different, maybe she could have a “slice of the good life” that had always seemed out of her reach. For brief moments, she thought she could see them, a happy little family. But doubt inevitably creeped back in and ruined it. Knowing his loyalty, he’d support her in whatever she chose, but she honestly had no idea as to what he would really want. They both seemed to avoid the subject as much as they avoided the subject of mothers. In hindsight, it wasn’t the healthiest way for them to handle it, but it hadn’t been an issue up until that point.

In any case, she couldn’t stay locked in the bathroom all day, so she picked herself up, wiping at her face as she looked into the mirror. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t know who she was looking at, and it scared her. She felt like a scared little girl, hiding in the bathroom, hoping dad would pass out drunk so she could get some sleep. With a heavy sigh she felt to her core, she ran her fingers through her hair before pulling it up into a messy bun. She scrubbed her face with cool water and dried it as best she could with the paper towels.

Staring at the test still sitting on the counter, she picked it up and rolled it up into a paper towel, moving to toss it into the trash bin. Her hand stalled over it, something in her not letting her be that dismissive of something so possibly life changing. Tightening the wrap around it, she stuffed it down into the bottom of her purse instead. Squaring her shoulders, she whisked out of the bathroom, falling to her old habit of painting murder-death-kill on her face rather than outwardly show any weakness.

***

Pivoting his bare foot against the mat, Raphael angled his body away from his opponent. No weapons, no gear, just two men sparring. He was grateful that he thought to pull his hair back first and tie his age-worn bandana over the top. It was damp with sweat kept out of his eyes, Donatello kept him moving, and he was thoroughly enjoying the change of pace. They circled each other slowly, waiting on the other to make the first move to continuing the fight. Sparring with Donnie tested him, it forced him to slow down and think. His taller, leaner brother was beyond intelligent enough to recognize that in a match of pure strength, he was outmatched. With that knowledge, he tended to get clever, finding ways around it, and it was good for Raph to have the experience, even if most guys just charged in fists first, as he preferred.

“Mikey and Leo left for a run,” Donnie said calmly, continuing the slow circular pace. He too, was sweating, and Raph was happy to see it. They were putting each other out.

“Yeah, so?” He narrowed his eyes at his younger brother with a wry smirk, wondering what he was at, trying to distract him from. Donnie’s normal tells didn’t appear in his expression however, and he simply shrugged in response. Lifting an eyebrow, he looked on inquisitively.

“We could probably knock off,” Donnie answered, his use of slang showing fatigue, though it wasn’t directly obvious whether it was mental or physical, or maybe both. “They won’t be back for a while, we’ve been training for sufficient time that dad isn’t likely to question it.”

Raph’s second eyebrow lifted to meet the other in surprise, though they continued their slow circling of each other. There were enough years of training between the two of them to expect the other of taking advantage of a vulnerable moment to put their guard down quite that quickly. “Whatcha’ talkin’ about, Don? Quittin’?”

Finally Donnie did stop, standing up straight and rolling his shoulders. “Not quitting, just calling it good enough. I’m just not feeling it this morning.”

Following his lead, Raph stopped as well, his eyes fixed as he cracked his neck. “This got somethin’ to do with whatever that weirdness was in the kitchen?”

“No,” his voice sounded a little harried, and he audibly cleared his throat. “No, I just-”

Before he could finish his sentence, one of Donnie’s alarms went off at his computer table. Not an emergency alarm, but one that Raph hadn’t heard before. He looked at his brother for the briefest of moments before they both ran out of the training area and over to the cluster of screens. Most of them were still off or on a screen saver, but one off to the left was on, black and white surveillance video of a sidewalk scene running at current time. As Donnie slid into his chair and started typing, Raph scowled at the monitor as it switched to a different camera, people walking down a sidewalk.

“What is it? Why’s it important?” he asked, having the vague sense of being familiar with the background in the scene, but the angle was different and there wasn’t particularly good definition on the camera. “I don’t see anythin’ alarm worthy.”

“It’s my facial recognition program,” Donnie said quietly, running his hands through his hair, obviously agitated. “I have it set with multiple guidelines and parameters to search constantly through various wireless security cameras in specific zones, generally within a range of-”

“Donnie!” Raph snapped as the camera view changed again. “Get to the point!” He was visually focused on the feed, trying to determine what, or likely who, it was following from what he had started to over-explain.

Donnie sighed heavily and fidgeted in his chair. “I have cameras set up to look for certain people in certain areas. That’s… that’s one of Stacey’s alarms. It’s picked up Elijah Matthews within a 10 block radius of her work… and currently the triangulation shows him headed her way.”

The room seemed to stretch into a tunnel, and even though his brother was right next to him, he seemed far enough away that his voice started to fade. Grabbing the edge of the monitor and oblivious to any complaint Donnie may have had, he looked closer, willing his brother to be wrong, just for once in his damn life to be wrong… but he wasn’t. Knowing what he was looking for made it easier to find what the computer had, and the face of the man… person, he didn’t deserve to be called a man… appeared in the small crowd. His gait wasn’t smooth, though he couldn’t tell if it was from a physical issue or the bastard being drunk again. It wasn’t until cracks started from the corner of the monitor and split across the screen in obscuring splashes of color that he realized he was clenching every muscle in his upper body in silent fury.

Raph had told him to stay away or he would fucking destroy him.

Payday had come.