When I Noticed (raphril)

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Donnie walked over to his friend, April, who was sitting on the couch watching a wrestling match. It seemed out of character; wrestling? No one in the lair liked wrestling. "What're you doing?" Donnie asked, sitting down next to her. He noticed her focus was drawn to the TV; again, odd. She's a good conversationalist.

"I'm trying to see why Raph likes this stuff so much," she responded after a beat. Why Raph likes wrestling? It had violence, screaming, fighting. All things the red bandana'd turtle loved more than anything. It was the perfect show. Donnie didn't see why April- a much more empathetic individual- would even consider liking wrestling. So he asked, "why?"

April paused. She looked away from the TV, a furrowed glare appearing on her face. "I don't know, I guess I was just curious." Donnie hummed. Odd. April wasn't the type of girl to indulge in that sort of thing. Raph of course was, he might've been ecstatic someone else (aside from Casey) cared about wrestling like he did. "Well...I'm gonna get something to drink." April sat up. "I got it," Donnie offered, smiling and getting up.

He walked to the kitchen, his t-phone in one hand. He opened a file and wrote down a title: Analysis; Friendship A+R. He might've just been overthinking it. April and Raph were good friends. Well, "good" friends was a bit much; they weren't close or anything like Raph and Casey. That puckhead drove the brainiac crazy, so he was glad his brother was fond of him. But April? He noted the wrestling conversation down on the file and got a soda, bringing it back to his friend before going back to his lab.

Later, when the five were eating dinner, Mikey was on his usual grind of making everybody laugh. He said something funny, to which Raph retorted with a playful jab. It was the usual Raph-Mikey dynamic and Donnie didn't think either took it personally. Mikey fired something back at the hothead, to which April laughed in the middle of a sip of water. Raph seemed surprised- odd- and glanced at her for a second before glaring at Mikey and threatening to slap him before Leo stepped in and kept the peace.

It was weird to Donnie. Raph liked to take things personally, sure, but not because of others. He did that to himself. Mikey wasn't trying to be mean or anything either. Donnie noted the interaction down in his file and moved on, trying to focus on the evening. He must've been overthinking it. April sometimes joined in with teasing either turtle; there was nothing special about it.

After dinner and cleaning everything up the five decided to watch a movie. They all collectively decided on a horror movie, much to Mikey's dismay, but Leo made everyone promise it wouldn't be too scary. Raph still chose Friday the 13nth. Donnie wasn't phased by horror; it was all fake. His brothers, however, all had varying reactions. Mikey was hiding behind whoever was closest, Leo was just avoiding most of the gore, and Raph was pretending not to be scared whatsoever.

April was sat in between Leo and Raph, who were both varying degrees of paranoid- as horror movies usually make someone. Donnie was on the floor, popcorn on his lap. He turned back to the four and noticed April shifting closer to Raph, who glanced at her nonchalantly before turning his attention back to the movie. Donnie didn't think April was that scared of horror movies; they'd all seen worse at this point. He pretended to "look away from the scary part" to watch them further.

Raph whispered something in April's ear- Donnie couldn't pick up what- and the kunoich nodded, whispering something back with a soft smile. Whatever they were talking about seemed to alleviate April's nervousness. Donnie noted it down in his file. Maybe he was only noticing this now because he was hyper focused on it; the two had always been friends. They'd gotten closer over time, sure, but even Mikey was "better" friends with April than Raph was. Donnie noted that after they finished talking, Raph excused himself to the bathroom and went into the kitchen instead, April following a few minutes later.