(This chapter takes place soon after the turtles return to New York after the Kraang invasion. Here's your pet for dis chapter! You even get to name her!)
3rd Person POV/Your POV (It kinda switches between the two.)
You hid in a random apartment building, your pet German Shepard/Husky mix dog named (P/n) hiding with you, whimpering softly. The Kraang were searching for humans again. You had avoided being captured for months now. You no longer knew where your best friends had gone. It was almost as if they had vanished into thin air. The day the Kraang had attacked, reality had punched you hard in the gut. You weren't safe. You never had been. You'd thought the team of ninja turtles were sure to win, but you'd been wrong. They were just gone. You'd hoped for them to come back, but as the days passed you slowly lost hope. You didn't even know if they were alive. For all you knew, the Kraang or Shredder had killed them and they were nothing but more bodies to add to the pile. Your little sister had been a victim of the Kraang about a month in. You'd tried to protect her, but the Kraang deemed her useless being only 7 years old and killed her right in front of you. They almost mutated you, but Slash and his team had saved you.
Slash, previously known as Spike, was now leader of his own mutant team. He said he was relieved to see that you were alive and okay. Slash was Raph's pet turtle turned mutant, so he'd recognized you instantly. He'd said he was sorry for not being able to save your little sister, but you told him it wasn't his fault. You'd stayed with him and his team for a little while before going back to surviving on your own, along with your dog of course. You'd found (P/n) trapped in an abandoned pound.
Ever since you'd saved her, she'd been by your side through everything. She was highly trained and a great companion. While it was hard to feed her sometimes, you both pulled through. She'd even fought off a small patrol of Kraang droids along side you. You had stolen a weapon from the Foot so you had a nice katana at had to fight with. You'd learned a thing or two from the turtles with weapons, that was for sure.
Suddenly you heard someone trying to break down the door. The door burst open and you saw the Kraang. You screamed as they grabbed you and dragged you out of the building. (P/n) was put in a device that could shock her. It looked like a big scary leash and collar, but they didn't use it for walking dogs. You struggled and (P/n) was barking like crazy, trying to save you.
"Let me go you pink blobs!" You yelled.
"Kraang will not do the thing that you have ordered Kraang to do. Kraang, begin mutation." One said to another. You froze in fear. Suddenly the one with the mutagen was cut in half. The one with (P/n) now had five ninja stars in the back of it's head. You were knocked out by one of the Kraang before the fight was over. All you remembered seeing before you passed out were four blurry green figures standing over you.
You woke up hours later in what smelled like a pizza place.
"Is it really her? Last I checked she didn't have a pet, and where's her little sister? She'd never leave (S/n) alone when all this is going on." You heard someone say.
"It's her Raph! Look at her and tell me that doesn't look exactly like her!" Another voice said.
"I can't believe they survived. We have to find her sister as soon as she wakes up." A third voice you didn't recognize said. It sounded slightly familiar, but you couldn't place it. You groaned and shifted, your head throbbing in the back. You opened your eyes and spotted four pairs of eyes staring down at you. Before you could react (P/n) barked happily and jumped on top of you.
"Ack!" You said as her paws punched you in the gut on accident. "(P/n)! Get off!" You said. She hoped off and sat on the floor right next to the couch you were on. You chuckled at the dog. Her tail was wagging back and forth so fast that you thought it'd fly off at any second. "I'm okay girl." You said petting her head.
"(Y/n)? Is that really you?" You heard someone ask. You sat up, but quickly regretted it. Your head hurt when you did. You gasped and your hand shot to the back of your head.
"Hey, take it easy. You took a really hard hit back there." The turtle kneeling down next to you said. You were shocked.
"D....Donnie?" You said in disbelief. You spotted all four of your friends. April and Casey were there too along with Splinter. You began to cry tears of joy. "GUYS! YOU'RE ALIVE!" You yelled latching onto Donnie because he was the closest to you. Donnie smiled.
"Yeah, we pulled through." He said. After hugging him you hugged everyone else. When you got to Raph he didn't hug back which kinda hurt your feelings, but it was Raph so you didn't say anything about it. You were so happy to see them all again.
"(Y/n) where's your sister?" Leo asked. You felt your blood run cold. You looked down, not answering him. "Is she okay?" Leo asked.
"She's dead." You replied, your voice sounding devoid of all emotion. They all looked horrified. "They thought she would be useless. 'Too small for good use'. 'Best to just eliminate'." You said, quoting what they had said about her. Raph looked enraged.
"What?!" He said, blowing up in anger. He punched the wall. "Grrrr those pink blobs are smaller than her and they call her useless?! I'll throw them into a fire!" He yelled.
"It doesn't matter. Its not like that'll change anything." You said. He frowned, picking up on the hopeless tone in your voice. You sat down on the couch holding your knees close to your body. (P/n) hopped up next to you and nuzzled your hand. You pulled her close to you and she sat there accepting your hug. Mikey tried to lighten the mood.
"Well....who's you're new friend?" He asked trying to get you to cheer up.
"Her name is (P/n). I found her in an abandoned pound. We've been a team ever since then." You said, feeling a bit better. Mikey smiled.
"Can I pet her?" He asked. You nodded and let her go.
"Hang on, I have to make sure she doesn't bite you. She's a little protective." You lied. While she was protective, you had a plan.
"(P/n)!" You said and pointed at Mikey. She jumped onto him and he yelped as she tackled him, licking his face.
"Ahh! Stop it!" He shrieked. You laughed and the others did too. "(Y/n)! Call her off!" Mikey begged. You chuckled.
"(P/n)! Heal!" You ordered. She hurried back to your side, her tail wagging proudly as you pet her saying, "Good girl (P/n)!" Mikey looked angry, but he didn't hold a grudge for long since (P/n) rolled onto her back giving him puppy dog eyes. He instantly gave in and pet her. You smiled. You were finally back with your friends.
After Donnie had made sure your head was okay, the team disbanded and you went over to Raph. He looked annoyed as you came over to him.
"Yes?" He asked, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. When you all were together all the time you remembered that being his signature casual stance if he was standing. You flinched.
"I just wanted to talk. I really missed you guys." You said. He sighed.
"There's not much that I can tell ya." He said.
"Well.....I have no idea what happened so....could you tell me?" You asked.
"Ask Donnie to tell you or something. I'm not in the mood (Y/n)." He said and left. You felt his words cut your heart. When they had disappeared you had instantly thought that they would come to save you, but they didn't. They'd run away and stayed away for months. You wanted answers so you went to April. She wouldn't snap at you, you knew that much.
"Hey April?" You asked, going up to her.
"What's up (Y/n)?" She asked.
"What happened to you guys? You all just disappeared." You said. She sighed.
"We went to my old farm house that I grew up in when I was little."
"Why does Leo sound different?" You asked.
"He was defeated by Shredder in battle and sustained damage to nearly everywhere on his body. His leg had to heal for a long time. He was out for three months straight." She said. You were shocked.
"Oh my god....what about the others? Did anything happen to them?" You asked.
"No, we all made it out alright luckily." She said.
"And Splinter?" You asked. April frowned.
"He never left the city. We thought Shredder had killed him, but he survived somehow." April said.
"How did you guys all cope?" You asked.
"In the beginning Mikey helped with chores, Donnie tried to make a medicine for Leo, and me and Casey helped with other things."
"What about Raph?" You asked. She sighed.
"He barely slept. Always watching Leo, waiting for him to wake up. I think it was his last slice of hope out there." She said. You felt your heart breaking.
"What did you guys think of me and my sister?" You asked.
"Dead or mutated." April said. You frowned. They really had given up on you. You turned to leave.
"Thanks for telling me. Can you tell someone to play with (P/n)? I want to be alone for a bit." You said. She nodded with a kind sympathetic smile.
"Sure thing (Y/n). I'm so sorry about your sister." She said. You sighed.
"She died with honor. Her last words were 'You meanies won't win! I know you won't! We'll stop you!'. She always was braver than I ever have been." You said with a sad side smile. You left without another word and went up to the roof.
You sat there thinking about everything that had just happened. They'd given up on you and now they just randomly appeared and saved you? You sighed. You thought about the way Raph had acted. He hadn't said anything and what he had said sounded annoyed, more than usual. You knew you both had changed over the amount of time you'd last seen each other. You sat there staring at the starry night sky.
"You're gonna get yourself caught if ya keep sitting out here all night." You heard the familiar Brooklyn accent of the red masked turtle come from behind you. You turned and spotted him, once again, leaning against something with his arms crossed.
"It's happened before." You said, refusing to face him.
"Now you just sound depressed. C'mon, where's the little warrior wanna be I left behind?" He said, trying to joke as he came over and sat down next to you. He twirled a sai in his hand with a plain expression, looking kinda bored.
"'Left behind' being the key words in that sentence." You said, still not looking at him. You just stared at your feet with your arms wrapped around your knees and your chin resting on them. He flinched. He hadn't meant to leave you behind. In all the fighting and chaos he just had a lot on his mind and had forgotten about you and your sister probably needing help while he was with the others.
Raph hadn't come for you because he'd thought he could always be a hero to you. He thought you were protected. When he'd seen Leo taken down like that he'd lost hope of you surviving back in the city. Forcing himself to move on, he'd almost forgotten you. When they saw you about to be mutated, he'd been in complete shock, not believing what he was seeing was real. Leo had been the one to lead the charge. Raph had actually joined the fight last. He had been afraid of facing you.
He forced himself to stop thinking about that and tried to think of something to say.
"I'm sorry..." It was the only thing he could think of.
"Don't be. You can't control what happens. Besides, if anything I just thought we'd all die anyway." You said. His green eyes kept glancing over at you with concern. Raph couldn't believe he was hearing this from you of all people. You'd always been so brave and happy, now it was like you were a completely different person.
"(Y/n)...why would you think that?" He asked.
"Because....I couldn't even keep my sister alive. I was a coward. And at some points....I even lost my sanity. Being here with nobody to count on but myself taught me how easy it is to crumble. How no matter how much you pray for God to take the pain away, nobody comes to save you. It's kill or be killed out here now. I'm just surviving by the skin of my teeth. Everyday I just kept thinking...'Who's next? Will it be me?'." You said. Raph felt guilt. He'd told himself to forget and it'd done this to you. He'd run away leaving you here to rot emotionally and even letting your sister die to the Kraang. "But hey, I get it. Just look out for number 1 right?" You said. He got upset.
"What? What do you mean just look out for number 1?" He growled.
"That's what you guys did. You had to protect yourselves. I get it." You said.
"Ya think I didn't care about leavin'?" He growled. He got up waving you off. "Ah whatever! Forget it." He said, beginning to head back inside.
His words had surprised you. You hadn't thought he had cared to come back. You wanted to follow, but you were unsure of whether you should. Raph had always been the one to toss insults and be rude. He snapped at you and it seemed he was annoyed by you whenever you were around. You thought he hated you, even though deep down in your heart you could never stop caring about him. And yet, what he'd just said seemed to counter that. You weren't sure what to do.
"Raph!" You called, shooting up without thinking. Your head smacked into a pole that you had forgotten was there. You fell to your knees, pain shooting through your skull. "Owww......" You hissed as you raised your hand to your forehead. You felt something warm and sticky. Blood steadily flowed out of the new wound.
Raph tried to keep walking, but the way you'd called his name stopped him. It'd broke through his barriers and hit his heart hard. Eyes shut tight behind his mask, he wanted to force himself to keep going, but he couldn't. He thought of you screaming in emotional agony as your sister was murdered right in front of you and how you'd thought he'd come to save you, but he hadn't. He'd been feeling sorry for himself far away, trying to forget you existed. He thought of you starving and running for your life from droids. He imagined your bruised and bloody body from narrowly escaping death for the who know how many-ith time.
Raph couldn't help it. He turned and saw what had happened. His eyes widened as he saw the wound on your head. Without thinking, he hurried back to you and his hand quickly went up to check your head. His thumb finger touching it while the other two held back some stray hairs.
"You really are clumsy." His voice came out sounding more annoyed than he'd intended.
"S-sorry....I forgot it was there." You said. He sighed.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up." He said, his voice softer and kinder. You were surprised.
"W-wait what?" You asked. "You want to help?"
"Of course I-" He stopped himself, seeing the tears in your eyes. He realized how much more fragile you'd become. He sighed. "Yes, I want to." He said calmly. He took your arm with one hand behind your back and lead you back into the building. You stared at him as he lead you inside. He ignored it.
You sat down in the kitchen as Raph got what he needed to clean your wound. He came back with a wet rag, peroxide to keep it from getting infected, cotton balls, and a band aid. He set them on the floor and lightly dabbed the rag onto your forehead, cleaning up the blood. He set it down and wet a cotton ball with the peroxide. He dabbed it on and you flinched at it's harsh sting. He frowned. "Sorry." You shrugged.
"Felt worse so it's fine." You said. He looked at you for a split second before focusing on your head again. Soon he grabbed the band aid and moved your (h/l) (h/c) hair aside to put it on.
"There." He said. He got up and put everything away. You sat there in silence. Suddenly you felt dead tired. Your eyes lids drooped as you leaned against the wall and fell asleep. Raph saw you'd fallen asleep and he sighed. He walked over, picked you up and carried you to the room they used for everyone to sleep in.
Raph set you down where he slept. He covered you up and stared at your sleeping figure for a few minutes, unable to take his eyes off you. Suddenly (P/n) came in, sniffing the ground. She looked up and spotted the two of you. (P/n) trotted over with her tail in the air. She laid down on top of the blanket right next to her. "Hey, try not to wake her." Raph told the dog. She stared at him with her blue eyes. He sighed. "Guess you're just doing your job aren't ya?" He said to her. She let out a tiny whine and licked his hand. "Hey, don't do that." Raph said. She did it again. "Stop it." He said, getting slightly annoyed. She lifted her head back up and looked at him and then (Y/n) and then back to him again. He sighed. "Yeah, I get it. I should've been there for her." He said. Raph often talked to Spike, so talking to (Y/n)'s dog wasn't really weird to him. "It all just happened so fast and by the time I realized we'd left her behind, it was too late to turn back. I lost hope so fast I just....I gave up. No, I screwed up and pretty bad by the looks of it. Why didn't I try to find her?" He asked himself. (P/n) let out another short whine and looked down at (Y/n). She grabbed the blanket in her teeth and pulled it up farther so it covered her up more. Raph was impressed. "Smart one huh?" He asked with a small side smile. Her tail wagged a little. He let out a small chuckle. "Heh, at least you took better care of her than I did." He said, giving her a pet on the head. Raph stood up. "Keep her warm will ya?" He asked the dog as he turned and left while (P/n) did as he said and laid close to (Y/n) as she slept, who was completely unaware of the one sided conversation Raph and (P/n) had just had.
*3 weeks later*
Ice Cream Kitty and (P/n) were now best friends. Mikey and (P/n) got along great too. The brothers, April, Casey, and Splinter had now accepted you as part of the team. When Mikey had found out you'd trained and trained hard while they where away he instantly begged Leo to let you come with them on missions. Leo had denied him at first, but when Mikey pointed out that Casey and April had around the same skill set and Donnie had been there to back him up on that claim, he gave in and agreed you could come out on missions sometimes. The reason April didn't was, well.....the whole Kraang issue with her. (P/n) even got to come with sometimes. Leo and the others (other than Mikey) had been very against it saying that a dog would blow their cover, but you pointed out that you'd been here for months with a dog and she'd saved you multiple times before. Leo pointed out that saving was different than staying hidden. You countered with a story of when you secretly followed a Kraang patrol to find out some information with (P/n) and you hardly even heard her following you most of the time. After that they were out of reasons and agreed to let her come.
(P/n) was (as said before) highly trained and she was almost like a super dog. She could keep up, follow orders directly, detect enemies you couldn't, and even jump across the roof tops with you! The guys had been shocked when they saw her do that. She was also very clever and often found her own way down instead of you going through the struggle of carrying her down. If she couldn't follow you she'd hide and stand guard for you until you returned or whistled for her from a place you knew she could get to.
Raph and you however, barely talked to each other. You both avoided each other and, while you worked amazingly well together during battle, you often never said anything. You both were afraid of making it awkward and Raph was always afraid he'd say the wrong thing to you. Ever since you'd begun staying with them, he'd been cautious about what he did. While he still acted like his normal self, snapping at you and just being himself, there was always a sense of caution behind what he said. It was as if he could only say certain things before he broke something.
One day, Leo had taken Donnie, Mikey, and Casey out on a patrol saying he wanted to try a smaller group.
"Leo! Come on! You can't just leave me here! Why can't Casey or Mikey stay here instead?" Raph said angrily.
"Mikey stays behind all the time and Casey stays more often too. You can deal with missing out on one patrol Raph." Leo said. Raph wasn't happy. You just sat against the wall with (P/n). You followed Leo's orders. You trusted him. He'd become a strong leader and was great at it now. They left and Raph sat on the couch with an angry scowl and his arms crossed. Suddenly (P/n) barked and jumped out of your grip. Her claws slid on the tile as she hurried over to Raph.
"(P/n)!" You said as she tackled him.
"Ack! Get off!" Raph snapped.
"(P/N)! HEAL!" You ordered. She heard the anger in your voice and quickly got off and came back to you with her head down. She whimpered giving you puppy dog eyes as if trying to say sorry.
"Keep your mutt under control will you?!" Raph growled. You heard (P/n) whimper. You frowned at her.
"(P/n), bed." You ordered, more gently this time. She looked at Raph and then you, almost as if she could sense something serious was about to happen. "Now girl." You told her. With a small whine and a few uncertain glances back at you she made her way to where you slept. You looked at Raph. "Yell at me all you want. I don't care anymore, but leave my dog out of it. She's been through a lot too. She doesn't deserve to be yelled at. She was trying to help for God sake." You said. You turned and left, heading to where you slept to be with your dog. Raph stared after you, concerned and guilty. "I don't care anymore." Your words rang in his head. April smacked him on the head.
"Ow!" He growled. She glared at him.
"Talk to her!" April said.
"I don't have to do anything!" He said.
"Oh really? Go in there and see her! I dare you." April said, pointing to where (Y/n) had gone. April went into the kitchen to do something after that and Raph was left there alone since Splinter was in another room meditating. He thought about it and sighed. Raph got up and went to where she was, but before he got there he heard her.....crying. He was shocked. Raph peeked into the room and saw her with laying on her stomach with her head down, encased in her arms. (P/n) whimpered worriedly and put a paw on her shoulder. (Y/n) sniffed.
"I don't know anymore (P/n). Everything's changed I can't even talk to him. I never thought we'd end up hating each other." She told the dog. Raph felt as if a knife had just stabbed his heart. He quickly hurried away and went up to the roof. He paced back and forth, anger, guilt, and heart break tearing him apart on the inside. He punched a hole into the wall and then leaned up against it. He slid down the wall and sat there, guilt slowly crushing him. He felt horrible about himself and what he'd done. Raph broke down, crying.
"DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!" He shouted at himself. He sniffed wiping some of the tears off. "Why do I keep doing this to her?" He asked himself, still crying slightly. After a moment he heard someone say,
"Raph?" He turned in shock as (Y/n) was there. He quickly looked away, trying to hide that he'd been crying. You knelt down beside him and hugged him. He was shocked. He hugged you back, holding you tightly.
"I-I'm so sorry..."He said. You pulled back. He was surprised by this. "(Y/n)?" You put a finger on his lips.
"Shut up Raph." You said. Before he could react, your lips were against his. He instantly kissed back. It got kinda heated between you both, but when it broke you were both smiling like idiots. "I've waited too long for that." She said. He smiled.
"Me too."