Raphael, You Made Me Cry.... (Book 1)

What is He Up To....?

Unsure what to do now with my new device, I walked around the lair, messing with it. I even tried to mess with the buttons. Since I was good with phones and other small devices, it only took me till my room to figure it out.

As I sat on the bed, I had already put in a new number. Julie's. I had it memorized. Smiling, I dialed her up. Sadly, she didn't pick up and I groaned in anger, going back to my homescreen. At that time, a knock on my door came and I looked up as Raph walked in again.

"You ever gonna leave me alone for a few minutes..?" I sighed, looking at him hopelessly.

He paused then and blinked. "I can leave..."

"Just, what do you want?" I asked.

"Wondering if you were hungry or not," he answered calmly. I was about to answer when my stomach twisted and growled. I blinked and blushed, looking at him to see if he heard. Raph just smirked. "I take that as a yes?"

Sighing, I got up again, grabbing my sweater and putting it on. "Yeah..."

Raph nodded and led out. I followed, closing the door. My mind was wondering where he was taking me. He just kept walking and I just kept following.

He turned down the sewer tunnels and I followed, looking around curiously. The walls were sorta dirty and some grime in the water, which I avoided.

Finally, Raph stopped at a ladder with a manhole cover above it. He turned to me and said, "Ladies first."

"Ah ha ha," I laughed sarcastically, grabbing a rung and hauling myself up. I pushed the manhole cover away and I crawled out, standing up straight as Raph closed the cover. "Now what?"

"To Moracami's," Raph said stately, leading away again.

"Moracami's...?" I repeated. "That noodle shop...?"

"Yeah," Raph turned his head to smirk. "Ever been there?"

"Walked by it a few times, but never wanted to go in. Seemed weird..."

"It's not weird."

"I don't like blind people...!" I said harshly.

At that comment, Raph paused in his walk. The friend that's gone of mine was blind in one eye.... Yet she carried herself like she had both eyes..."

"Oh...." I said softly. "Sorry.... What happened...?"

"Her friend, the one that Donnie liked, turned evil for a time... She tried to bring her back, but lost her eye in process... She wasn't the same for a while, but after her friend came back, she was even better than before. Probably just to prove that loosing her eyesight didn't make her worse. She was always the best of us... Fighting, laughing, protecting..... and loving...." he said the last word hurtful, like missed the past.

"I'm sorry...." I said, after he was done. "I didn't know..."

"It's fine..." he smiled softly. "But you remind me a lot of her."

That shocked me. I even paused in my step and blinked, eyes wide, "I-I-I do...?!"

Noticing my shock and the look on my face he laughed softly and nodded, "Yeah."

I started walking again and came up to walk by him rather than follow. "What was her name...?"

He paused a second, looking in the distance as if the answer was there. "Natalie."

"Hmmm...." I said, looking down. I could tell it wasn't a question he wanted to answer and I knew it was a lie, but I didn't press the matter.

After a few minutes of silence, he turned down a road and stopped in front of the all too familiar noodle shop.