𝐭𝐦𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬

𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐡 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

Requested by @Storylover12345677

Title: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Raph loved teasing me. Not like he did to Mikey or any of his brothers; this wasn't playful teasing. Raphael hated me. Despised me- loathed me even. Why? Well, I wondered that myself all the time. I was nice when I first met, not particularly too nice or bothered by them; so, why did he target me out of everyone he knew? I asked his brothers and even Casey, and they all had the same answer; they didn't know.

So, out of respect for Raph, I didn't push it. I stayed away from him; only speaking to when when I needed to, and he did the same. I spent most of my time with Donnie and Leo; Mikey being a little too eccentric for me, though I loved a good movie with him every once in a while.

Today, I'd walked into the lair expecting to spend some time with Leo. After finding out that he was having a Space Heroes marathon for the yearly anniversary for when he'd watched his first episode, though, I'd left him alone. I had been making my way to Donnie's lab when I'd noticed Raphael walking towards me, coming from the dojo. Unconsciously, I tried moving out of the way, but since he was walking very fast and had his head buried in- a book? He was reading?

Before I could figure out what was going on, I slammed into Raphael's shell, who instinctively reached out to grab me and the book. Though, after figuring out that it was me that he had grabbed, he quickly dropped me and grabbed the book, sending a threatening glare over his shoulder as he stomped into his room and closed the door.

Humming with confusion, I stood up and continued to the lab, pausing as I saw something on the floor. Bending down, I picked up a slip of paper. It only had a doodle of a little turtle on it and a mini sai. Raph's sai and...Spike? Then, there was a heart- a little one- that I hadn't noticed before. It was colored in lightly, almost invisible. What did all that mean? Was this his bookmark? Probably. Deciding to give it back later when he seemed to be in a better mood, I slipped into my hoodie pocket and meandered off towards Donnie's lab, wondering what he was doing today.

"Hey, Don," I said as I slowly opened the lab door to avoid scaring him. He pulled himself out from under the Shellraiser and smiled at me, waving me to go over to him. Carefully I did so, trying to avoid touching anything that would make him upset. I didn't particularly like angry Donnie; it was worst than angry Raph. He'd actually had as big a temper as his older brother, but had better luck hiding it from their father.

"Hey, (y/n). How's it going?" he asked as he wiped his forehead with a rag and pulled up his goggles, giving me his famous gap-toothed grin.

"It's good. I was just wondering if you knew what this was," I held the mark up to my face and Donnie paled a little.

"Where did you get that?" he asked, standing up quickly. He strode up to me and snapped it out of my grasp, holding it tightly in his own. I felt off by the way he was acting. He seemed scared, and yet a little confused. What was going on? And, on top of all that, I was still wondering why Raph had been reading a book.

"Uh, Raph and I bumped into each other outside. We fell and he dropped a book. I guess this came from it-" He cut me off with a vicious shake of his head as he thrust the mark back into my hand, closing it around it gently to avoid crinkling it. "Donnie, what's going on? Why are you acting so weird?"

"Just take it back to him and come back. I'll explain to you then." Nodding, I turned and strode away, glancing back over my shoulder one last time at the turtle. He was standing in the middle of his lab with glasses on his forehead, grease and sweat covering him. He was hunched over slightly, one hand under his chin and the other on his hip as he stared after me with his reddish-brown eyes.