"It's ten." Raphael says quietly. We don't talk about what happened only five minutes ago, and I'm grateful.
I've never felt so vulnerable in a long time, and the fast pace of my tears forming scares me. It's still too soon. It will always be too soon. By now our coffee is finished, and all that's left is silence.
"Okay." I reply. As I'm on my way out, he speaks.
"Why do you do that?" he asks inquisitively, curiously. I don't turn around, in fact, I climb out of the fire escape.
"Do what?" I respond, hearing him behind me, evident by his large steps.
"Speak so softly. You sound vulnerable, you know?" he sounds annoyed and I roll my eyes as I start climbing up to the roof. Raphael follows me.
"I have always spoken softly. My dad and I." I tell him, "Vern and my mom are loud." were loud. I'm distracted thinking about this, so one of my feet slips, and I fall back, but Raphael steadies me by my shoulders.
"Watch it, gemstone, it's a hundred foot drop." he teases as I steady myself. I spare him a rude glare and then I'm on the roof.
The air is crisp, and I feel satisfied that I'm here. As I climb up, Raphael joins me. There are already three figures here, all of their backs facing me.
"So you think she'll like me?" says one with an orange bandana on his face. He seems twitchy and nervous, and I smile.
"I don't know, why don't you ask her?" Raphael says with a frown, pushing me forward slightly, so that I stumble towards the others.
They turn, and I'm instantly scooped up by the orange clad one.
"Dudette! Feels so good to finally meet you!" he sounds relieved, earning a laugh from me, but a scowl from Raphael as he crosses his arms.
"Put her down, numbnuts, you're not exactly making a good first impression." Raphael's usually cynical voice speaks. The orange clad turtle places me down, but spares Raph an odd glance.
"Calm down, Raphael, she's already met you. Not much of a bar to beat, you know?"
I cover my mouth with my hand to hold back my laughter. Raphael rolls his eyes and stands next to his brothers.
"Hilarious, Mikey. Jules, this is Fearless," he shrugs his hand in the direction of a blue clad turtle, "Genius," purple clad, "And shell for brains." orange clad.
The blue clad one doesn't look impressed, evident by the glare he gives Raphael, who responds with a 'hmm' and a smirk, his muscular arms still across his chest.
"Very funny, Raph." he says. I know this voice too. I've heard it on more than one occasion, particularly the night of the shooting, when he was barking orders to the others.
"Mikey, get the other guy." a new voice speaks.
"On it!" responds another.
"Donnie, gather all the civilians to safety." the voice commands another one.
"Rodger that, Leo." comes a new voice. All of these voices are familiar. They were all in my apartment the night our power went out, just as the power was out now.
"Raph-"
"I'm gonna take down this asshole." the dark voice responds.
"You're Leo." I speak, surprising everyone, especially Raphael. I snap my fingers as I make this discovery. I've pinpointed him because of his voice. "From the night of the shooting." I face the orange clad turtle. "And you're Mikey," he nods, a smile on his lips. I face Genius. "And Donnie?" he nods as well. I smile a small smile. "You all saved me." my eyes flick to Raphael's and he looks away moodily. "Thanks."
Mikey smiled, and Leo nodded.
"It was a pleasure, ma'am." Leo stepped forward slightly. "It's what we do."
I nod as I moisten my lips, taking in their appearances. Even though I am used to Raphael's physique, his brothers looked pretty different. They each have their own unique appearances.
"So, what exactly are you?" I ask, wrapping my arms around myself as the wind tugs at my hair.
"Well," speaks Donnie, "we're mutants."
"Teenagers." Raphael adds, finally looking at me. We have a two second stare down before Leo talks.
"Turtles."
"Oh, oh!" Mikey pipes up. I face him. "And ninjas."
I take the information and process it. "So you're... mutant teenaged turtle ninjas?"
They react as if I've offended them, scoffing and giving each other looks.
"No. It just sounds awful when you say it like that." Donnie says, adjusting the glasses covering his chocolate colored eyes.
"Call us the teenaged mutant ninja turtles." Mikey says. He wiggles his eyebrows. "And just because we're teenagers," he walks towards me and slings his arm around my shoulders. He faces me, "doesn't mean we don't have adult conversations."
Raphael roughly pulls Mikey off of me and he stumbles to the side.
"Mikey." he growls, causing Mikey to look at him.
"What, Raph? I told April the same thing."
"Hey, guys?" I speak when I think of something. Each of them face me and I feel as if I'm in the hot seat. I shuffle one of my van covered feet and look down. "Does Vern know about you four?"
"Boy does he-" Mikey starts, but he is cut off by earning an elbow to the ribs. I look up and notice that nobody is meeting my eyes except Raphael.
"Well?" I press, annoyed. If Vern knows about them, I am going to be pissed.
Leo stepped forward again. "He wanted to tell you."
I register what he is trying to say, and my mouth opens as I escape a scoff.
"You've got to be kidding me." I say, more to myself as I step back.
"We just, we couldn't let him just yet." Leo continues. I shake my head.
"He's been lying to me this entire time?" my voice is being raised, causing Raphael to look at me intently. He knows that I don't raise my voice. "I'm going to kill him." I say and turn to go down back to our apartment, but a hand grabs my arm. I don't even have to turn to know that it's Raphael.
"Jules, it wasn't his fault." Raph says. I face him, and I feel my breathing increase.
"You don't understand, Raphael. Secrets are exactly what drove me and him apart. We're all we have left, and he's still keeping things from me." I say. The other turtles stand by awkwardly, as Raphael and I have a stare down. My hair is blowing wildly in the wind by now.
"You can't exactly blame him, Jules." the turtle continues. "It's not his fault." he says again.
"I'm his sister." I speak softly. "I asked him about you the first night I got here, and he lied to me. He lied. He made me believe that he was acting crazy because of my parents death, when, clearly, he doesn't care about it at all."
