"Sensei, do I really have to?" Raphael whines.

Destiny waits in the dojo, her head turned away from the entrance in a faked motion of disinterest. Her ears, however, are aimed towards the outside. Her tail remains still, not even shifting to curl around her legs or flick in annoyance, and her perked ears droop in synchronization as a sigh escapes her lips.

Of all the days to start training with Raphael, it has to be when she feels the most overly emotional. She just loves being a girl.

Note the heavy sarcasm, she thinks to herself with an irritable snort.

"Raphael, you need to stop acting this immature. You have a skill set she could use," Splinter says with all the calm that he usually possesses.

"You're also being insensitive. Have you even tried to get along with her?" Leonardo asks.

"Besides, bro, you seemed to like her fine when you were playing video games," Michelangelo starts. There's a brief pause where Destiny can't quite make out a verbal reaction, but then Michelangelo's laugh comes again. "Dude, you're being silly! Be like Elsa and let it go!"

"Do you want to get punched?"

Destiny rolls her eyes and rests her head on her hand. She exhales hard enough to make her lips motorboat, her fingertips dancing across her kneecap and flicking at the loose strings along the seams of her jeans.

Donatello's voice chimes in, "Raph, just act like it's normal training! This is...the next level for us, being teachers. It's an experiment!"

"It'd be hard enough to teach her without the sprained foot," Raphael snaps. "Sensei, this is just stupid. Can't Donnie or Leo take her for more sessions?"

"Hey...why not me?" Michelangelo whines.

"Because your training sucks."

"Raphael, enough with this pessimism," Splinter says. "You need to try before you claim that you will fail."

Destiny's hands clench into tight fists, her toes curling against the base of her sneakers as she takes a slow breath in. Outside, there's hushed whispers for a few beats she hears footsteps approaching. She looks up as Raphael enters the dojo, his face set in a stony glare but his eyes glistening with a sheen of shame.

The rational part of Destiny's brain tells her not to talk much and just let him train her. To her, the only way she can imagine avoiding any harsh words is to be silent, obedient, and simply giving him no fuel to ignite his fire. That, of course, doesn't please her in the slightest. Quiet obedience isn't her way, not at all.

"Alright wolfie, let's get to work," he grumbles, walking over to a nearby rack of equipment. Destiny doesn't say a word, causing his expression to loosen. That brief slack disappears as he glances over at her with a hard green glare. "So you're just not gonna talk this whole time?" When she refuses to make a peep, he rolls his eyes. "Suit yourself."

He picks up a few shuriken from the shelf, flicking it to himself with little effort on his part. Destiny nearly strains with the effort of silence, her entire body more rigid than an ice sculpture in a freezer.

"You look like you're about to pop," Raphael says.

"You don't have to train me," she blurts not a moment after.

"Huh?"

"You don't want to waste your time with me. I get it," she continues, her forehead creased and her arms crossed tightly over her chest. "I won't be some burden that you have to deal with."

Raphael stares at her, then rolls his eyes. A short chortle escapes him, making Destiny's rage spike and curl inside her gut like a demented worm.

"Okay, and I thought I could be overdramatic," the red-masked turtle says, the remnants of amusement still ringing in his voice.

"I'm not being overdramatic," the wolf huffs. "I heard what you said outside. I'm a difficulty for you. I'll just do personal training if you don't want to deal with me."

"You're twisting my words."

"No, I'm saying what you wanted to say."

Raphael's eyes roll again as he exhales. "Oh boy, females. I almost forgot about how emotional you guys can be. April has been absolutely unbearable sometimes."

"Hey—"

"I'm teasing." When she doesn't change her expression or offer any words, he shakes his head and sighs. "Are you feeling okay, wolfie? Usually, you aren't so..." He imitates a biting motion. "I dunno, grr."

Destiny pouts, hugging her legs to her torso as she groans. "I'm just in a bad mood. I'm not up for dealing with you and your 'I'm too good for this' schtick." She clenches her jaw as she sniffs, wiggling her shoulders. "Plus I'm in pain, so you know, it's just an overall wonderful day."

"You're in pain?" he asks.

"Yeah."

He walks closer to her, making her instantly become at least ten percent more on edge. He kneels down next to her, looking her over.

"Where?"

Her cheeks heat up, her arms tightening around her legs so that they're closer to her chin. She bobs her head from side to side slowly, pressing her mouth against the denim.

"Doesn't matter..." she mutters.

"Did you hurt yourself again? Is it your foot?" He purses his lips, an annoyed snort leaving his pretty much invisible nostrils. "Donnie told you to take it easy with that! You're not gonna heal if you keep screwing it—"

"It's not my foot, Raph!" Destiny snaps. "I'm just...sore," she nearly whispers. Her lower torso tightens in an annoying voice of agreement.

The turtle eyes her for a few moments more before getting back to his feet. "Well, I know a few stretching routines that can help out with that."

"The last thing I want to do is move."

"I thought you said that you'd train yourself if I wouldn't."

"And by training, I was going to meditate." Raphael gives her an incredulous look, making Destiny shrug. "And...by meditating, I mean napping."

His green eyes widen for a split second, but then narrow as he shakes his head. "Nope, exercise helps with pain. Get up," he insists, crossing his arms over his chipped plastron. "No being lazy on my watch, wolf girl."

"But—"

"No more arguing, Des. Trust me here, endorphins are like natural painkillers." He claps his hands together, making her begrudgingly stand to her feet. "Great. Let's get started with some stretching, then we can do some shuriken throwing and stuff. Sound good?"

She sighs, but nods. "Sure, why not?"

He takes a step in another direction, but stops and points back at her. "Also, you'll want to change into those training clothes that April got you," he adds. Another break. "Oh, and tie your hair up. It'll get in the way."

She lets out another long breath as a reply.

-----------

Half an hour later, Destiny is nearly drenched in sweat and she wants to collapse into her bed and sleep, but Raphael won't let that happen. She throws a shuriken at the practice target, but the little metal star just bounces off the surface and clatters to the floor.

The teenagers stare at the fallen weapon with mixed parts disdain and hopelessness. The streak of black in Destiny's bangs escape and drift over to hang in front of her nose.

"Darn it," Destiny mutters, tucking the hair back behind her human ear. "I bet these are defective," she claims, chucking the one in her hand towards Raphael.

Raphael catches the weapon and glances down at it. He aims and flings it, embedding the projectile in the target while nailing a bullseye. He smirks and glances sideways at Destiny, noting that she looks as if steam is about to explode from her ears.

"Nah, the shuriken are fine," he says with a nonchalance that makes the wolf girl want to pound him.

"Okay, so what's wrong with me?" she huffs.

The turtle pauses, lifting a hand to his chin as his bright eyes flicker between the girl and the failed attempts littering her floor. "You might not have the body strength for it. To be a ninja, you've got to be able to stab and throw with a lot of force or else you'll never be able to take down anybody," he says. He whips out another shuriken and sends it flying, where the star once again embeds itself deep in the target. "Sorry, Destiny, but that's the truth."

"I'm plenty strong," she retorts.

"No, your wolf form is strong," he corrects. "You've relied on that for every fight, right? The wolf side of you is used to fighting, but that's made your human body lack in a lot of physical strength."

Destiny thinks bitterly of all the years she spent trying to perfect climbing brick walls without fire escapes and leaping over the distances between buildings. To be honest, she thought that would make her strong enough. Apparently not.

"So we should be building more of my muscle?" she asks.

"Exactly!" Raphael says. He points at her and then at the ground. "Push ups, now!"

With a groan, she drops onto all fours.

An hour or more passes, Destiny doesn't know how long. She does somersaults, kicks, push ups, sit ups, lunges, and every other exercise that Raphael can dream up. Raphael does everything right by her side, yet while her entire body is sweating and her clothing is clinging to her body, the red-masked turtle looks as though he hasn't done a single thing. She envies him.

"There! That's it for now!" Raphael commands.

Destiny finishes her umpteenth burpee before collapsing to the dojo floor. Her entire face feels like it's on fire, her limbs feel heavy, and her mouth is coated in a generous amount of saliva while simultaneously feeling absolutely parched. But, on the bright side, her cramps have disappeared.

"Oh god," she whines.

"It'll get easier the more you do it," Raphael says as he nudges the girl with his large green foot. "It's about building endurance. You need to do this stuff regularly."

She pushes a few strands of hair off her shimmering face, tucking them back as she forces herself to her knees. She pinches the material of her blue athletic shirt and begins flapping it to get some air to her sticky skin. Raphael tosses her a water bottle, another replacement for the many that she's already finished. She guzzles it down gratefully, not bothering to try and mask the slurping and gasping sounds.

There's a long silence as she lowers the bottle and drags her forearm over her lips. Her gaze flickers to the red-masked turtle every now and then, watching as he does a few stretches and rolls his shoulders. How he still has the energy to move astounds her.

All too quickly, her less than positive mood from before returns. "Can I ask you something?"

He arches an eye-ridge. "It's a free country."

"Do you always act like this when people come to the lair? Rude? Snappy?"

His jaw clenches as his eyes narrow. "We don't really have visitors and when we do, it never ends well. When you live like we do, we learn not to trust too easily."

"So you think I'm dangerous?" she asks, unable to stop the stab of hurt from entering her heart. She crosses her arms over her chest, her tail flicking. "You think I'm gonna turn around and attack you? Is that what you're afraid of?"

He doesn't reply, instead deciding to walk a little ways a way and begin retrieving fallen shuriken and busying himself with rearranging them on the shelves. Destiny waits for a response, but it doesn't take long for her to conclude that he won't give her one.

"Oh, I get it, I brought up how you might feel. You must not like feelings," she snaps, her voice colder than before.

"I'm a guy, Destiny. What do you expect?" he returns with the same tone, turning around. "I'm not going to start spilling my heart to you just because you asked."

"Oh darn, I was hoping you would," she says monotonously, getting to her feet and putting one hand on her hip.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he returns. "Now, are you done here? Do I have to train you some more or can you leave?"

She stares at him for a moment, face hardening and skin tingling. Part of her, the more dominant side, wants to lash out and tell him to stop acting like a child, wants to release all the overactive emotions trying to take hold. The other side is trying to see out of his eyes and understand where he's coming from.

She finds herself thinking of her session with Master Splinter and, specifically, what he told her about the way Raphael works. He just doesn't want to seem attached to anyone, yet...he's still protecting his family.

"Well, I'll just get out of your sight then," she mumbles, wiping her palms against her thighs. "You obviously like being alone."

She turns away, reaching a hand up to her ponytail and tearing the hairband from it—again, a handy little item that April provided—and shaking her loose curls free. She poises for a step as she loops the band around her wrist, but Raphael speaks first.

"What makes you say that?"

She pivots, her teeth snagging on her bottom lip as she shrugs. "Just...I dunno, sometimes it seems like you don't want anyone's help."

"That doesn't mean I like being alone."

"So you admit it?"

He frowns a little. The barest trace of a triumphant smile flickers across her lips.

"No," he insists. "Just go. You're creeping me out with your—"

"Correct assumptions?"

"Shut. Up. Destiny," he growls.

Destiny imagines that she would feel scared right now on a normal basis. At best, she'd be questioning why she's trying to provoke him. She imagines that her common sense would be better on a regular day too.

"It's a free country," she says, echoing his previous words and making his nostrils flare.

He snorts. "I didn't peg you for the annoying type."

"I'm not annoying...most of the time. I think..." She shrugs. "Maybe you and I bring out different sides of each other," she suggests.

"You and I are nothing alike," he scoffs.

Destiny leans onto one leg, squinting her eyes as she stares at him. True, there's a lot on the outside that isn't similar but, as much as it's weird to admit, Destiny thinks that they're more alike in personality than they know. She's not sure whether that's a good or a bad thing.

"I've got a temper. I don't like being cooped up. I'm excited to become a kunoichi because I can kick butt," she lists, poking her fingers as she goes. "Oh, and we've both got green eyes. That's cool, right?"

He tilts his head a little, looking at her irises. "Yeah, we do."

The words leave her mouth before she can stop them. "It's like you were just missing a piece."

She smacks her mouth shut as her posture straightens, her eyes going wide. Raphael gives her a funny look, his hardened persona softening just slightly with the expression change. Destiny gulps, suddenly feeling awkward that she brought up something that's an unspoken truth amongst them. She spins on her good heel and starts towards the dojo exit.

Before she can get far, a firm hand grasps her wrist and pulls her back. Her face goes warm and she grits her teeth as a soundless cuss escapes her. She flicks her hair over her face, shielding her from whatever glare the turtle may be sending her way.

He turns her around, forcing her to meet his eyes. His eyes flick all over her face, as if searching for something on the slightly sweaty surface. His lips twitch upwards.

"Maybe you're right," he says. "The others have got brown or blue eyes. We need some more green eyes around here, Des."

She returns the little smile. "We should talk more, Raph. You're not the big jerk I thought you were."

"Wow, thanks."

"You're welcome." He doesn't offer anything further, leaving a window for her to add in, "Oh, and...thanks for dealing with my moodiness. You're a pretty good teacher."

He nearly jumps in place, his eyes locking on her for a split second before they retreat to the floor. He clears his throat and shifts in place, reaching over and nudging her shoulder with his fist.

"Good job with training. Keep it up," he says, brushing past her.

She turns and watches him as he leaves the dojo, a small smile curling across her face.

He isn't so bad after all.