Chasing Blue

Chapter 2

Ellie

Settled on the couch, as her leg bounced endlessly — she took a breath. Breathe. Just breathe.

Easier said than done, for obvious reasons — but her mind was racing a mile a minute.

Get out. Get out.

In an attempt to quiet her nerves, she wrung her right wrist with her left hand. The gesture felt strange given she was right-handed. The movement was awkward. Clumsy.

Everything in her was telling her to run, to-

A wave of pain washed over her. Crap. Bad idea. Wincing slightly, she dropped both hands to her lap.

"So, your name's Ellie?" Mikey asked.

She nodded. "Ellie... Ellie Anderson."

His warm smile quieted some of the noise in her brain.

"I'm Mikey. Michelangelo Hamato, actually... But I like to keep things simple."

Gesturing to the others, standing a few feet away — still watching her like a wild animal, he continued.

"These are my brothers. As you can probably tell, we're... Uh..."

"Freaks?" Raph growled.

Mikey smirked. "I prefer the term, 'freakily inclined'."

Ok, she couldn't help it.... A small giggle left her. It was official, she liked this one. He made her feel safe.

"Anyways, that's Raphael. He's got this tough guy act going. But when he was little, he had this little teddy bear named Sir Fluffington-"

"Hey!" Raphael's eyes flashed with something, which seemed to be the youngest brother's cue to change subjects.

"That's Donatello," he nodded towards the purple-banded terrapin covered in tech. He was lankier in build, but tallest by far — probably a good five inches taller than their leader. "He's like tech support, but for vigilantes."

He scoffed. "That-" He stopped, pondering for a moment before sighing. "Is actually sort of accurate. But I'm not just here to fix your phone screen, Mikey."

He tossed his brother a disheveled-looking phone. "How about one that got dropped in the toilet?"

Donnie grimaced as he pinched the corner of the device, holding it at arm's length. "Please tell me there wasn't anything in the toilet when you-"

Mikey smiled sheepishly. "Trust me, you don't want the answer to that one D..."

He groaned, dropping it into a bag on his waist as he headed down the hall, tossing his next words over his shoulder.

"I'll be in my lab fixing Mikey's little accident."

"You wouldn't say that if you'd seen the size of-"

The slam of a door abruptly ended the conversation, but Mikey was keeled over in laughter for a good few minutes before he was able to right himself.

Glancing towards the far wall, Leo still leaned against the wall – carefully monitoring their interaction. She tried to study him for a small moment, hoping to gain any sort of insight as to what he was thinking.

No dice.

"And you've already met Leonardo."

'Met' was being used very loosely. If the standard for 'meeting' was him taking down the creep that had a hold on her, then she and Raphael were probably already somewhere deep in the courting process.

"He's our fearless brooding leader."

"I don't brood," he stated bluntly, his tone even.

Mikey raised a brow, chuckling. "Oh, come on. If Splinter was dead, you'd just need a cowl and you'd be one 'Wayne' away from being Batman."