Closed;

[alphatar]

Characters: Donatello (i_speak_softly), Korra (alphatar), Raphael (meanandgreen)
Date: A week-ish after the explosions.
Location: WA-3B
Situation: Initial meeting.
Warnings/Rating: N/A

Once Korra had full use of her leg again, she left Mako’s suite late in the evening. There were people she needed to check up on and Korra had no idea if they even tried to contact her since she was temporarily staying somewhere else. First place to check was in the Water Sector and Korra made it there on foot easily enough, her leg didn’t bother her too much.

Night was perfect, the turtles were practically nocturnal and it gave her cover to get there without drawing any unwanted attention. A few hops across the canal on the ice that form under her boots and Korra was just outside the window to Mike’s suite.

As usual, the curtains are drawn. "That’s a good sign at least."

Taking a quick look around to make sure there wasn’t anyone around, Korra glanced up at one of the windows on the higher floors; the one belonging to the room that she had stayed in back in January.

Opening the window, she climbed inside and then the sudden sound of an alarm filling up the room made her instantly alert, or as alert as one can be when saying "Aahh!" snapping into an offensive stance while looking quickly about for something. Anything at all since this was not how her visits usually went.

Comments

[meanandgreen]

Back at home, Raph's pretty used to the place being rigged to the hilt with security alarms. It's been a while since he's had to deal with them, but that doesn't mean the knee-jerk reaction isn't there. Donnie's alarms going off always means something very bad is about to happen, and it always means he's about to be in for one heck of a fight.

He'd been in his room, polishing his sai when the call to arms starts blaring. Makes him almost impale his hand with the thing it startles him so much. The next second he's barreling out the door, bellowing Don's name at the top of his lungs.

First he tries the living room, because if this's another false alarm, he swears to god he'll strangle Donnie where he stands. But Don isn't there, and there's voices coming from the other bedroom.

You can hear him coming a mile away, thundering like a mad bull toward the door with his sai still in hand. He stops dead behind his brother, huffing air and wild-eyed, ready for a fight.

Don's unarmed. There's a dark shape by the window, and he can read his brother's posture as intruder.

Growling like a rabid dog, he charges forward without thinking, attempting to pin the intruder against the wall and aim his sai to their throat. Only then he might start asking questions.

[alphatar]

Knocking on the front door.

Her impatience was thoroughly stoked, which had been growing the instant the alarm went off. Whichever turtle this was, they knew that the suite was rigged and that using the window was the only safe route. Or at least, it used to be.

That and knocking would have ended up in an identical situation.

That’s when the booming footsteps reach the door and she knew just who it was, mainly by the growling and the headlong rush. The only difference was the glint on his sai. Weapons, something they never used against each other.

Instead of the usual sparring stance, Korra took a quick step forward with and dove feet first to hook her legs around his; a small grunt escaping her as her hands hit the floor to keep herself mobile just in case.

"Hey! No sai." As if it was some kind of demeaning insult.

[i_speak_softly]

Raph goes directly for the "stab first and ask questions later" approach, the stranger is all too familiar with how to counter this, and Don wastes no more time going for his bo.

He hits the light next, since right now he seems to be the one most impeded by the darkness, and looks over the scene before deciding whether to jump into the fight.

[meanandgreen]

She goes for his legs and he falls to his knees, two seconds away from pinning her to the floor like a bug. Then the lights flash on. His pupils constrict, and he realizes not a second too soon, that he has his sai just inches from Korra's neck.

"You..." He pants, recognition washing over his face as he rocks back on his heels to let her free, putting his sai away. "Korra. I didn't know it was you!"

When she's free from the pin and he climbs to his feet again, he offers her a hand up. It's about as close to an apology as she's gonna get.

"You all right?"

[alphatar]

After that tense moment of not knowing if that sai was going to continue downward, Korra took a breath and took his hand to get up to her feet.

"Yeah, I’m okay. That almost got messy." Raphael’s lack of apology wasn’t anything new, but she still gave him a questioning look after glancing at the sai.

"What’s with the alarm?" Now that the lights were on she could see who else was there, though she didn’t recognize him at all. "And who are you?"

Anyone who thought the turtles all looked the same had clearly never sent any decent amount of time with them.

[i_speak_softly]

This must be someone worthwhile, if Raph decides he doesn't want to impale them. A moment after having that thought, Don realizes he recognizes this person: it's the young woman Aya spoke to through her ring.

He holsters his bo, reaches into a pouch of his belt, and hastily thumbs the controls that silence the alarms.

"I'm Donatello," he says. "Mike's cousin. Installer of alarms." He shoots a glance at Raph. "We know her?"

[meanandgreen]

When she's back on her feet and he's sure she's okay, Raph can't seem to look her in the eye anymore. Sure, they might beat the crud out of each other on a regular basis, but that wasn't a sparring match. That wasn't even the fighting ring. That was a side of him Korra's never seen before. Too close to that part of him that's sent his family crawling broken to her too many times before. That was full-on kill mode, and it could've been bad. Really bad. And almost seriously injuring someone else he cares about makes him a little sick to his stomach. At least this time it was just a case of mistaken identity.

Folding his arms over his chest, he snorts gruffly: "Yeah, she's good. That's Korra."

Don's probably heard about her more than any one else in Keeliai. In Raph's life, there aren't many good things happening outside his training and his family. Korra's one of those things.

[alphatar]

Kill first and then questions later, not something Korra really expected out of Raphael. But Korra wasn’t about to bring that up just now, and she held out her hand to Donatello.

"I’ve only got hear bits and pieces about you, sorry I didn’t put it together sooner." Most of them came from little Leo when he was still on Tu Vishan. "But, alarms?" That’s new to her, but then again so is Don.

[i_speak_softly]

Don is putting things together too, realizing that various bits of data he's accumulated are all connected to the same person. A person who, by Raph's taciturn standards, he has heard quite a lot about.

He takes Korra's hand, and notices that her grip is strong and sure. This is definitely a girl who can take care of herself.

"I like to know when people are climbing in my windows," he says, but his tone is much friendlier than before. Insight happens, and he adds, "Mike left this one un-trapped for you, didn't he."

[meanandgreen]

Still evading Korra's glances, Raph only shifts awkwardly from foot to foot during the introduction. In his eyes, his lethal reaction to the alarm is as vital to their survival as the alarm itself, and there's nothing that could convince him otherwise. But he will never like when mistakes are made. He will never like striking a family member when they startle him from sleep, and he will never be okay with little slips like this.

Master Splinter has trained them all to protect their family from outsiders at all costs. And over time, Raph's become a type of Pavlov's dog when it comes to Don's alarms. Alarms mean threat, and it flicks on a switch that sends that dog going for the throat; to do anything to protect his pack.

Korra has seen him hurt. She's seen him angry. She's seen him fight. But she has never seen him threatened. Not until now.

Raphael is a living, breathing example of just how dangerous their upbringing has made them. And though he can't apologize for what he is, at a time like this, it still doesn't make those close calls any less disturbing.

[alphatar]

More at ease now that she wasn’t being threatened, Korra gave a smile and nodded. "Yeah, this one’s usually kept free. I’d rather not be a pin cushion for Mike’s ninja stars if I can help it, so I avoid the front door." Last thing she needed was to have to heal herself along with the others.

Korra was distracted by Raphael, she didn’t see him be this off before. She’d bug him about it the next she chance she got. "I wanted to see how you guys were doing after the explosions. Anyone get sick?"

[i_speak_softly]

Don will have a word with Mike about that. And update his own system to not send them all into a panic next time Korra lets herself in.

"I missed most of the excitement," Don says, and leaves it to Raph to explain as much or as little as he wants.

[meanandgreen]

"Yeah, all of us had it pretty bad," he says with a shrug, his steel-enforced guard finally showing signs of cracks as he spares a fond smile and a note of sarcasm. "We were out for about a week before Donnie-boy here came to save the day."

Then, his brow knots with concern, finally daring to look Korra in the face again. After hanging out and sparring together almost every day for weeks, he hadn't realized until now how much time had passed since they'd last seen each other, and how much crap had happened between now and then. "How'd you hold up?"

[alphatar]

Korra was about to interrupt Raph, but that rare smile stopped her. He avoided a stern reminder that she could have helped. But she instead gave Don an impressed nod. The spores weren't easy for her to handle, so she was interested on how he got that fixed.

But the question balked her.

"Uh, I made it?" Not the best answer, and she gave her best convincing smile; which probably was anything but. Korra immediately went to focus back on Donatello. "So cousin or brother?" Now it was her turn to avoid looking Raph in the eye.

[i_speak_softly]

"Brother to this one," Don says, giving Raph an affectionate shove. "Cousin to Mike. How'd you fall in with the family?"

He is, as always, immensely curious and everything - and everyone - in his brothers' lives.

[meanandgreen]

Raph just looks at Korra like she's stupid. Because yeah, he can see she made it, since she's, y'know, standing right there in front of him. But at least it's harmless. He's not gonna pry. Not now, anyway. If Korra wants to keep her business private, fine. She's a big girl. She can do what she wants.

The smile's fallen off his face by the time Don nudges him, only managing to jostle him a little. But Raph doesn't care. Not about the shoving, not about Korra's sloppy evasion, and definitely not about almost putting a sai through her neck by accident. Nope, everything's just peachy.

[alphatar]

Lying isn’t something Korra’s fond of, the opposite actually, and her evasive truth telling wasn’t exactly a perfected art. She deserves that look and she knows it, which is why she averts her eyes over to Don.

He seems just as amiable, if not more so than the other turtles, (Raph being the natural exception) and scratches the back of her head. "Well, I actually met Mike through the network. He was trading floating fruit jam for some bread, so I met up with him to do the trade. I thought he was some kind of turtle spirit at first because, well, that’s the only thing that made sense back then."

Recounting this was definitely helping he unease wear away. "Not long after that I met Leo. Not your brother, but one of your cousins that was here. He’s the one who really drew me in with the rest of the family."

[i_speak_softly]

"Turtle spirit," Don repeats, and looks at Raph to see if this means something to him. "You seem to have an affinity for turtle mutants, anyway. Come downstairs?"

As delightful as it is to have a girl in his bedroom, it's also kind of awkward.

[meanandgreen]

All Raph has to offer is a shrug. Yeah, he's heard that story before. And considering how often they get mistaken for kappa, it's not all that surprising, either.

But yeah, Don's got a point. Maybe they should move somewhere a little less cramped. Not to mention getting out of that room makes it easier to ignore what just happened a few minutes ago.

So he's heading for the open door before Korra can even agree, nodding his head toward the hall from the threshold. "Yeah, Don's hardly been here a month and he's already got enough crud in there to make me claustrophobic."

[alphatar]

Korra nodded and headed to follow Donatello. "Or turtles in general. I'm living on one, friends with some and practically a parent to one."

But she did take in how the room was set up now, and she saw Raphael's point. There was a lot more there, and mostly technology of sorts from the look of it. Something Korra knew very little about. But that did remind her that Donatello might be interested in seeing the commission piece she got from Tony Stark.

"And your room's spotless?" Korra said it with a wry smile, she couldn't help herself as they went down the stairs.

[i_speak_softly]

That's informative, Raph. And the comments about his room aren't really necessary either.

"A -- do you mean the hatchlings?" Don has been introduced to Mike's hatchling, carefully referred to as "Little Raph", but isn't sure what to make of the whole thing. What does one do with a giant, intelligent, juvenile turtle? (Is this how Splinter has felt for the past eighteen years?)

[meanandgreen]

"It's not full of junk!" He yells from halfway down the hall. Though that's exactly what his room is full of. If anything, he's got more actual junk than anyone. It's just nowhere near as packed full as Don's, and it's full of stuff he can actually identify instead of a mess of metal and wires.

For now, you guys can do whatever. At the mention of the hatchlings, he's even happier to get out of there, considering he's still less than pleased about his little namesake. He's just gonna go move his weapon cleaning stuff to the living room and maybe meet everyone down there.

[alphatar]

Korra breaks out a smile and it can be heard in her voice when she yells back "Prove it!"

Looking back to Don, Korra nods. "Yeah. I found Eshai's egg back at Sinbrilee with the other two and we've been taking care of her since then. Have they been in your dreams yet?" Hatchling talk is right up Korra's alley, big animals are one of her things. But she hasn't had a chance to learn the names of the other baby turtles yet.

"They do that sometimes even if you're not taking care of them."

[i_speak_softly]

Hey, Don can identify everything in his room. Except the things he brought home specifically because he can't identify them, and he's working on those.

"Not more than usual," he replies, as he gestures Korra out of the room and turns to follow her. "I'm still a little out of the loop when it comes to local affairs."

[alphatar]

"There's a lot going on, it's hard to keep up. The network being down didn't make things easier. My encryption doesn't work." The stairs are familiar enough that Korra knows where to step to avoid any creaking. "So you know everything about why we're here, what we're fighting and not saying the name, right?" Because that last one really messed everyone up.