TMNT - One Purpose 5

One Purpose

 

Summary: She didn't have the privilege of choice, bound by tradition and honor, she stepped into the unknown and fast city with only one goal in mind. But like a wise man once said "No plan has ever survived contact with the enemy. It is how you react to the unexpected that will determine if you will succeed".

 

 

“Where are Raph and Mai?” April asked concerned walking up to the exhausted teens entering the lair.

“Mai and Raph…” Leonardo began and sighed deeply “Got into an…argument, so Raph stayed behind to get his anger out of his system and Mai…well, I think we won’t be seeing her for a while”

His other two brothers went to sit on the couch and he followed them with April hot on his tail.

“An argument? About what?” She pressed, sounding rather shocked.

“Mai…” Donatello was the one who replied and stopped to choose his words accurately “…has a very different view on how to do things then us and that ticked off Raph…a lot”

April frowned “So where is she now?”

“Don’t know, she just went up and left us after the fight” Leonardo answered, hanging his head.

“My sons,” Master Splinter entered the room looking at all of them “You have returned, was your mission successful?”

The three teens looked up to their master before they started to explain what had happened.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!” Raphael growled, punching the wall of another building that stood closely next to the building he was standing on. He would have stayed in the park, but hearing the sirens of police cars nearing made him move his body elsewhere – so he ended up on a rooftop.

He didn’t have any idea how long he had been there, cursing, kicking and punching at things. How could he be this stupid? To blow up like that and aim the flames of his anger towards the girl he liked.

The sheer thought earned the wall another punch, this time leaving a crack in the brown and red bricks.

Besides, wasn’t it also partially her fault? For acting like a moron with a death wish? For being so stubborn,-!

“Hey”

Raphael was about to actually punch a hole into the wall when the familiar voice stopped him. Turning, he saw his brother jump onto the same rooftop.

Raphael furrowed his brow, glaring at his feet “I want to be alone, Leo”

“I know” Leonardo sighed and looked around the rooftop and at all the smashed objects, sighing internally, before looking back at his hotheaded brother. He was about to relay his message from Master Splinter to him when Raphael started to fume.

“She’s just so stubborn! It’s not our fault she wanted to do everything on her own!” He growled furiously, balling his fists.

“Personally,” Leonardo commented after thinking it over “I don’t get why you are so upset about this. I mean, we all hardly know her. So what’s the point?”

Raphael growled at that.

Leonardo did have a point, but then again he didn’t know about how much Raphael felt for Mai – neither did Raphael himself.

“Whatever, just go, I feel like staying up here for a while” Raphael said kicking at the wall.

Leonardo sighed, scratching the back of his head “I didn’t come here to talk, Raph, Master Splinter send me to come and get you”

Raphael raised his brows at that. He knew it was dangers to be on the surface alone, but Master Splinter usually let him blow off steam as long as he needed to. “Why?”

“Because he wants to ‘speak’ with you” Leonardo relayed dryly, his patience thinning out. It had been a long day, not to mention the day before that. He had just spend the majority of his time explaining to his father what had happened and was send back to retrieve his brother – which proved harder to find then he had originally thought.

After abusing the wall one last time, Raphael walked passed his elder sibling with a permanent looking scowl on his face “Fine”

And so, the two headed back to the lair, their home, where Raphael would find himself in another bind.

__________________________________________________________________________________

“You wanted to see me, Master Splinter?” Raphael questioned, entering the dojo where their father was meditating under the tree that swirled upward.

Master Splinter looked up to see the young turtle stand by the door with balled hands – he smiled and gingerly gestured for him to enter further “Ah, Raphael, yes, come sit with me, my son”

Complying, the grumpy teen sat across from his father, glaring at the ground. Splinter regarded Raphael for a moment before speaking.

“Raphael,” he began making the teen look up and simultaneously ending Raphael’s glaring for he was now making eye contact “I heard from your brothers you got into an argument with Mai?” He questioned.

Embarrassment brought Raphael’s eyes back to stare at the floor – he knew it was his fault that Mai didn’t want to stay with them, but he still felt that this was also partially her fault too, for being so stuck in her stupid pride.

“It’s just that she was so stubborn!” Raphael growled, scowling at the carpet as he fumed on “You should’ve seen it, sensei! If she had just let me help her out, if she would’ve worked together then we would have been done with that stupid mutant in a second,-!”

“Ah,” Splinter interrupted, stroking his thin beard as if in thought while in actuality he cut right through the fuss and caught the issue by the horns “So you wanted to protect her?”

Raphael needed to think about that for a second “Well, yeah, I mean,-”

“And did she need your protection?” Master Splinter questioned.

“Uhm…” Raphael’s eyes widened as his thoughts strangled him and his tongue tide itself around and around in panic when it slowly dawned upon him “I,-”

“Raphael,” Master Splinter interrupted him again before the young turtle would come up with any excuses befitting to his own truth “Mai is no normal human, she is a Samurai, just as strong as you and your brothers. As Ninja, we are trained to analyze a situation thoroughly before making decisions that may or may not make the situation worse,” Leaning down a bit to lay his hand on the teens shoulder, Splinter looked his son in the eye meaningfully “no matter how we feel about the person involved in the situation”

“THEY TOLD YOU?!” Raphael shouted, shooting up and balling his hands he growled angrily “I’m going to smack the green of off them!”

“Raphael,” Splinter said. Raphael quickly cooled down at the tone his father was giving him. Splinter stood as well, raising an eyebrow at his hotheaded son “Your brothers didn’t tell on you, only the blind,-” Splinter stopped in his tracks as Raphael gave him a look at the mention of ‘the blind’ “My mistake” He chuckled apologetically.

“I screwed up, I know that sensei, I’m sorry” Raphael said hanging his head in defeat.

“It is not me who you should be apologizing to, my son” Splinter remarked while walking past his son towards his room and gently sliding one door open – Raphael followed him with his eyes “If you really like this girl,” Splinter said while stepping inside “Then you should make amends” Then he shut the sliding door.

Raphael contemplated the advice giving to him by his father when suddenly very quickly the sliding door reopened, Splinter peering through “And don’t forget to respect her decisions or play hero when it isn’t needed”

“Hai, sensei” Raphael huffed embarrassed before Splinter shut the door again and he was stomping off to his room to think about how he would try and make ‘amends’ with Mai.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The streets were filling with people, people who had homes and jobs and families to attend to. The city began its usual morning hassle accompanied by loud and angry noises.

Most people were too busy with their own lives to pay attention to the new sidewalk attribution that lay barely hidden by the trash containers.

But most people didn’t have that much heart for helping others as Jim Hudson did. The middle aged man was walking to his private clinic, in his regular grey suit and blue tie, when he saw the new addition among the homeless.

She lay behind a trash container, clutching a hockey stick bag to her chest with her good arm and protectively lying the other broken one hidden behind it.

He simply couldn’t help himself.

“Miss?”

The girl didn’t say a word, so he presumed she was asleep. Crouching to gently shake her, he could now see her crooked looking arm.

“Miss? Missss?” He urged, shaking her shoulder.

The girl responded with a groan.

“Come now, you’ve gotta wake up” Jim smiled, giving her another shake “You won’t let an old man like me carry you, now will you?”

Mai woke up feeling like she might have been hit by a truck the other day, the man that was persistently addressing her as ‘Miss’ and shaking her, was stretching her delicate morning nerves.

“Am I in the way?” She questioned hoarsely, it happened often enough that she would fall asleep somewhere without realizing it was an entrance or an exit of some kind.

“No, no, no” Jim assured her and pulled back his hand from her shoulder as she began to sit up right “But a girl like you shouldn’t be living on the streets” Jim gave her a stern look and paused for a moment to let the girl get herself together “Your arm, it was broken recently, wasn’t it? Did you do try and correct it by yourself?”

The noise of their surroundings, including the man’s questions, with Mai’s groggy sleepy state was stretching out her nerves even more tightly.

“Come, I’ll take you to my clinic to fix that arm of yours and get you some breakfast” The man offered chuckling as Mai blushed at the sound of her growling stomach.

__________________________________________________________________________________

A few days had passed and Raphael, in the way he was, was already back to his normal physical state. He was silently moving through the sewers. He had successfully found along bloody trail and was now in the process of tracking down the creature who left it.

After musing it over in his room (and talking it over with Spike) while he rested, he came to the conclusion that, if he wanted to make amends with Mai, he would do so by retrieving her blade from the beast.

No one knew what he was doing and it was better that way too – he wanted to do this on his own since it was he who screwed up and so he had to fix it.

The sewer was especially silent, there were no rats or any other critters in the area to make any noise, signaling to Raphael that he was getting close.

Moving forward and hiding in the shadows, he was starting to get closer to his target. Or at least, that was what he thought.

Lurking in the shadow of another large pipe, the creature awoke when something fast passed it by. Recognizing what it was by smell, Toxic-Stinger growled lowly, its thick neck shaking with the vibration. The pain in the creature’s chest kept Toxic-Stinger in a constant state of fury, making it very easy to set off in a destructive frenzy.

Raphael heard it and turned to see the creature leap at him - all be it a bit clumsy, he could still simply crush the young ninja by its weight alone.

Barely dodging it, Raphael took out his Sai as the beast got back on his feet “And here I thought you would be rotting somewhere and make this easy for me” He grinned with that insane glint in his eyes that lust for battle.

With a roar from both the mutants, they engaged each other with claws and ancient weaponry.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Mai walked up the stone steps that led to the front door and opened it with her key with her good arm while the other was in a brand new cast. She still had to figure out, how in this situation, she wasn’t a hypocrite.

She blamed that old man for being so cunning, for being so undeniably good and kind that she didn’t dare refuse his offer.

Hell with that, he downright blackmailed her.

Discovering that she was blind, with no family, passport or a legal pass to stay in the country, he given her two options – either let him take care of her and give her a place to stay, or he would report her and she’d be kicked out of the country.

If Mai had been able to hide herself from sight like a ninja could, she would’ve laughed at him and run for it.

She did however, try and explain her reason why she was here and told him all about how her Duty and Honor would force her to kill a man.

It didn’t faze him a bit.

He simply brushed it off, saying he had no hand in what she planned to do outside  the house as long as she didn’t drag him into it.

Now here she was, living in the same house as if she was a granddaughter of a man she barely even knew. But Mai had come to realize that Jim was one of those very rare people who were, simply put, good.

Even if he did his good deeds somewhat forcefully.

Like how he made her help him out by doing chores or help around the clinic – it had only been a few days, but she found all of these schemes of his very distracting of her original goal; killing Oroku Saki.

She still wasn’t any closer than she was before, still walking the streets at night in the hopes of hearing the soft footfall of the Foot ninja roaming around so she could beat some information out of them. But no such luck.

Mai hung her head and sighed while pushing the door open but stopped herself from entering the house.

She heard something familiar landing on the roof coming and turned her blind gaze up to it. Not hesitating for a second, Mai jumped up the roof just as fast, greeting the turtle with a scowl on her face.

“I thought we said our goodbye’s?” Mai questioned curtly.

Raphael took a deep breath to calm himself – he didn’t expect her to react like that. Also, his body was still pretty sore from the fight he had a few days ago, not to mention the effort he put in tracking her down in those days since the fight and,-

No.

He was here to make amends, not to start another argument. Bowing very formally, he choose his words very carefully, surprising Mai “I came here to make amends for my actions and hope you will forgive me, I didn’t mean to offend you”

Inexperienced with someone apologizing to her, Mai’s cheeks flushed faint pink “Iya, Iya, please, you do not have to be so…so formal with me” She answered self-consciously – she felt awkward with being treated with so much respect, though it had been what she wanted from the being, receiving in this kind of manner was unknown to the girl.

Raphael glanced up and saw her light pink cheeks and then feeling his own face heat up. Standing upright, Raphael grabbed the knife he had retrieved from Toxic-Stinger “I know you would probably wanted to get it back yourself, but…well, I wanted to make it up to you somehow, so here” He held out his large hand clutching around the blade itself, careful not to cut himself.

Mai reached out, sensing where he had stretched out his hand and gently grasping the handle. Her hand tingled and send a warm chill of familiarity through arm to the rest of her body.

They stood like that for a moment before Mai pulled lightly on the knife, Raphael released his grip.

“Dõmo” Mai muttered rather shyly.

“No problem” Raphael replied, grinning slightly as he continued to stare at her unabashedly.

She didn’t know how to face the young turtle she thought to be a helpless boy. It amazed her he could pull off such an incredible feat.

“Hey, did you see a doctor or something?” Raphael suddenly interrupted her thoughts when his eyes focused on her brand new and professional looking cast with a rather accusing sounding question. It suddenly dawned on him that she was entering the building they were standing on “Do you live here?” He pointed down to the building, something she didn’t see but felt.

Mai slightly cringed “I can explain” she responded hastily  which only ticked him off more since it made her sound like she was guilty of something.

Crossing his arms, Raphael turned his skeptical gaze upon her “Fine then, explain how you are not being a hypocrite”

Feeling annoyed herself, Mai felt her own temper rise up again “Could you stop making your own conclusions for once and listen to what I have to say?” She reasoned through her teeth.

A vein popped angrily on Raph’s forehead and before she knew it he was back in her face growling “I could, but then again, why would I when you are the one who kept going on and on about how you didn’t need anybody’s help and yet, here you are, standing on top on some fancy looking apartment with your arm healing nicely due to you going to a hospital for hel,-”

“And here I thought you wanted to make amends” Mai muttered, more to herself than towards Raphael. She sounded sincerely disappointed, bringing Raph down from his flare of anger.

“I’m sorry” Raphael apologized quickly and took a step back from her “I didn’t mean to snap at you like that…I have…trouble with controlling my temper” He admitted ashamed.

Mai had trouble deciphering what to say to that, she too got angry, but it seemed it was linked with his.

The silence, that was filled with background noise of the fast city, continued on.

Raphael felt like he was going to explode again, but this time with frustration and insecurity rather than just anger, when finally, Mai spoke in those low quiet tones of hers “I understand, I will try to be considerate then”

Raphael exhaled a breath he had been holding “yeah..” he answered lamely before continuing in a tone much closer to his normal sassiness “And then I will try and not be so…judgmental all the time”

The two smiled, they were both such idiots.

“So tell me, how did you end up here?” Raphael asked, more curious now then he was before.

Mai suddenly realized she left the front door open “Oh, could I tell you about that later?” She asked sounding apologetically.

Raph held his tongue for a moment. Inhaling a calming breath, he answered normally “Yeah sure”

His heart made a little flipflop at the bright smile she was giving him “Dõmo” Mai thanked him with a slight bow “I will see you tomorrow again? Same time, same place?” She pointed to the roof to be sure he got what she meant.

“Uh…uhm…sure” Raphael stuttered.

“Okay, see you tomorrow then” Mai grinned and got down to the front door. She still needed to do some chores before Jim got home, but was glad to meet with Raphael again and talk things out.

Raphael had turned to stone for a couple of minutes, realizing he sort of had a date with Mai tomorrow, right? Could he call it a date?