Don't Make Me Fall For You | Raphael x Reader

28 - the truth

"I still don't get why you're moving out," Raph said.

Almost immediately, the structure the two of you were building together started to topple over. 

"Mother of—" Raph roared, and the two of you scrambled to stop the whole thing from falling apart. For a harrowing few moments, you thought you wouldn't get it in time, but then Raph pulled off some impressive feat involving one foot, both arms, and his head, and somehow, the thing steadied. 

"Phew." You let out a sigh of relief and carefully started reinforcing pieces where they needed reinforcement, trying to relieve Raph of his burdens as quickly as possible so he didn't have to keep holding it up. You twisted and untwisted, readjusted pieces, placing them at different angles. Eventually, you'd steadied enough of it that Raph's foot no longer had to stay in place to hold it up. Then you started in on the pieces supported by his arm. Chompy watched from nearby, occasionally let out a chirp of approval. 

I feel like Chompy should have a nice place to play in, you'd said off-handedly one night. I passed a pet store coming back from work—some of those mice are set up with really nice playscapes. We should get something like that for Chompy.

Okay, Raph agreed. You've gotten Raph a magazine full of products from the pet store, and the two of you had pored over that, plus taken to Internet browsing for more items. Every playscape you looked at, Raph managed to find some flaw with it. It didn't have a pool, or it had too many wheels, or it didn't have enough wheels, or it should have had a swing, or a water park, or it should be prettier, or it should be more space-themed. Finally, after he'd turned down the millionth one, you'd thrown a pillow at him and retorted, Well, if you think you could do better, why don't you just make one yourself? 

As soon as you'd seen his eyes light up at the challenge, you'd known it was a mistake. 

The two of you had decided to take on the project together—Because what are friends for? you'd said—so now you were just suffering in unison. At first the two of you had neglected to do the proper research. Then you'd argued over labor division. You'd sort of gotten your act more together now—you'd done some research, made some blueprints together, planned out the aesthetics—but the two of you still had a long way to go.  

"You know," you said as you carefully leaned a newly-reinforced support pillar away from Raph's arm. "Maybe it would be easier just to buy a playscape from the pet store."

"No," Raph said firmly. 

"It'd be a lot less work, and we'd have to do a lot less assembling, and scrambling to find working pieces, and trial-and-error—"

"No," Raph said again. "Chompy's a special turtle. They don't have anything for space turtles."

"I'm sure they'll have something that he can fit in," you said.

"Well, just because they'll have something doesn't mean it's the best thing," Raph replied stubbornly. "Chompy deserves the best, and I'm the only one who can pull it off." 

"You sure are humble," you said.

"You love it." Tentatively, Raph removed his arm from supporting the structure. It held.  

You hummed noncommittedly and moved on to steadying the pieces by his other arm. 

"Hey," Raph said. His voice was unusually quiet. You turned to look at him. Without moving his head, he was looking at you, bright green eyes intense. "Don't think I didn't notice—you didn't answer my question from before."

"What question?" you asked.

"Why are you moving out?"

You hesitated, and then shrugged. "Oh, you know. Change of scenery, and all that."