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Ever since Casey had known what a lesbian was, she’d known she was one. Guys just didn’t cut it. Girls were fucking fabulous. They were all so gorgeous and beautiful, guys just couldn’t compete. Plain and simple. Lesbian all the way. It was practically carved into her bones.
Then Raph just had to come along and make things complicated.
This shouldn’t have happened in the first place, if she was being completely honest. The snapper had been her enemy for years. Shouldn’t the residual hatred be overcoming her or something?
But her heart fluttered when the guy laughed. Whenever he laughed, his beak quirked up in dimples and he snorted like an idiot. It was stupid. Stupid stupid stupid the way it made her chest burn. And that stupid way when they were sparring and it got a bit too heated. One of them on top of the other and panting heavily. Nosebleed dripping down her face. She hated the way it made her go red. IT WAS SO FUCKING STUPID!!
She was supposed to like girls for god’s sake! What was happening here? Maybe it was just an aesthetic attraction. Yeah. That made sense. She just liked the hypothetical. That had to be it. She wasn’t bi or pan or any of that. She was still a lesbian. This was fine.
Her phone flashed in her hand. Casey rolled up into a sitting position and unlocked it before clicking on the notification. A message from the very turtle himself. A selfie of him sticking out his tongue, the skull pattern of her usual vigilante face paint plastered all over his face. It was messy and poorly done, and the paint was already rubbing off on the edges of his red mask, but god did it make her heart clench something furious. Then he sent another message, saying he was ready for patrol that day.
Casey blushed furiously and tossed her phone against her pillow with a roar of anger. She’d completely forgotten about their stupid patrol! She rushed around her room, throwing on all of her gear and hastily applying her face paint in the mirror.
She yelped when some of the black stuff got in her eyes. She held her face under the faucet, washing it out with a hiss. Stupid fucking Raph with his dumb smile and face paint making her all flustered and forgetting stuff. Raph wasn’t gonna be the guy to turn her bisexual or anything. Casey was a lesbian, goddammit. Lesbian all the way.
She frowned into the mirror at her ruined face paint. She hurriedly wiped off her face paint with a damp rag and started over again. White base and black skull markings. Perfect.
She huffed and pulled out her phone. A quick ‘omw’ text and she was out the window. Casey yanked down her mask and clambered up the fire escape. She was a kick-ass lesbian. Fucking amazing. Nothing was wrong. Everything was fine.
--
Everything was not fine.
Raph was so stupidly cute. After they beat up a couple of gangsters, the snapper’s tail started thumping behind him like crazy. He absolutely beamed. It was like he was some sorta big, spiky puppy dog. Raph ran and swept Casey up in a big hug, spinning her around with a happy trill. She laughed along with him, wrapping her arms around the guy as far as she could without dislocating something.
The snapper hefted her up, so she was staring down at him through her painted hockey mask. The way Raph looked up at her made her entire being burn. His eyes were all big and sparkling, a beaming smile plastered on his face. Casey tried her best to remember how to breathe. This guy was gonna be the death of her, wasn’t he?
Then Raph’s eyes went wide. He hastily put her back down, dusting her off with his big old hands. The snapper chuckled nervously, bunching up his hands at his sides. Casey cleared her throat. “Um… wanna go get some pizza?”
The snapper smiled. “Heck yeah! Where you wanna go? There’s Lou Mike Tony Brothers, Run of the Mill, that one Dominoes if you want some dessert-”
“Anything you want is fine, man!” She snapped, cutting him off, “Just pick one and I’ll go get a thingy!”
Raph flinched a bit, his entire face going red. “Uh… Lou Mike Tony’s is good. You okay with meat lover’s?”
She elbowed him in the side, smiling under her mask. “Raph, you know there’s nothing better than a good meat lover’s.” She felt like she should make a dirty joke about that, but it only brought the whole Lesbian or not thing back to her head. Maybe next time. She tugged the snapper forward. “C’mon, man! Let’s go already!!”
Casey didn’t seem to notice the dark blush on the snapper’s face as she tugged him along.
--
Casey laughed as Raph spaghetti-d a long string of melted cheese into his mouth.
“What?” The snapper asked through a mouth of stringy cheese, “Ifs a perfetly shophisticated way t eat pista.”
She snorted and doubled over, clutching her gut. Raph finally conceded and just shoved the entire thing into his mouth. He smiled and shoved her lightly. “What? You never seen a guy string pizza before?”
That only made her laugh louder. She fell on her back and pushed the stringy hair out of her eyes. Casey nudged him with her leg. “You’re such an idiot.”
Raph huffed and laid down beside her. There was a weird moment of silence. She hated silence. It left her alone with her mind. Her mind was an asshole. It kept pointing out how close they were and how she could feel the warmth radiating off of him. Stupid brain being stupid and making things stupid. Why couldn’t she just be normal about this? She was a lesbian, for fuck’s sake.
“Hey, Case, could I tell you something?”
She leaned over to look at him. Raph didn’t seem to notice, just staring straight up with a sort of concerned expression on his face. “You know you can tell me anything, man.”
Raph just tensed. “You can’t tell anybody about this, alright? I haven’t told anyone else and I’m honestly having a hard time even getting it out to you.”
Now that was a tad concerning. Did he kill someone? Or have a weird disease? “You’re not dying, are you?”
Raph sputtered, turning onto his side and staring at her with wide eyes. “No? No! No, it’s not that! It’s not a death thing. Well, kind of. But not really?”
Casey squinted and sat straight up, crossing her legs and looking him in the eye. “As long as it ain’t life-threatening, you can count on me. Snitches get stitches. Swear to god.”
The snapper pursed his beak, laying back down and folding his hands on his chest. She watched him curiously as he prepared herself for whatever it was he was about to confess.
“I- I uh-” He took in a sharp breath, wringing his hands, “-I think I’m a girl.”
Casey’s eyes went wide. Raph wasn’t done. “I just- I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and the whole ‘guy’ thing doesn’t really fit me. Does that make sense? It probably doesn’t make sense. I just- I like girly stuff. I like dresses and makeup and bows. I know that isn’t a whole gender determination thing, but, like, Iunno. The idea of being a girl makes me happy. I wanna be a pretty girl. I mean, I guess it doesn’t work with all Raph’s muscles and stuff, but I’ll take what I can get.”
Casey sucked in a breath for what seemed like the first time in forever. “Oh thank god I’m still a lesbian.”
Raph bolted upright with wide eyes. “What.”
The human surged forward, grabbing the snapper by the sides of her face and tugging her down. “You listen to me. You are a pretty girl. The prettiest girl. The muscles only make you prettier, okay? If you wanna be a girl, you’re a girl. Plain and simple.”
The snapper flushed bright red. She looked a mix of surprised and confused. “Uh. Thanks. That means a lot. What did you say about lesbians, though?”
Casey released her face, waving a hand in dismissal. “It’s nothing. Anyway, know that your family would definitely accept you as you are. They love you so much. They would love you no matter what. Remember that time you got possessed by that freaky Kraang thing? They loved you through that. I’m sure they’d love you through being a girl as well.”
“Yeah, but-”
“No no no, listen to me. They would love you no matter what. I mean, you can come out in your own time, or course. I’m not trying to force you to do anything. Just know that they would still love you so so much. And if any of them don’t, I’ll bash their fucking skulls in. You deserve the fucking world. You’re awesome and sweet and kind and anybody who thinks otherwise is a fucking-”
“Casey,” Raph firmly interrupted, grabbing her by the face. The turtle’s face was a deep red, her eyes wide. “Casey. Do you like me?”
She blushed and shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “Of course. You’re my friend.”
“You know what Raph meant you little jackass,” Raph squinted with a hiss.
“Audible gasp! Did dearest Raphael just curse? That’s another quarter in the cursing jar, young lady.”
The turtle growled in frustration and rushed their lips together. Casey’s face burned. She slowly closed her eyes and leaned into it, wrapping her arms around her neck and pulling her in. Raph made this weird purring noise and pressed up on her back, tugging her tight to her plastron. She bit at her beak, just begging to be closer to her. Raph made a flustered noise and let go of her, pushing her away.
They panted in shuddered almost-sync, blushing brilliant red. Raph made little flapping motions with her hands, her tail steadily thumping against the ground behind her. Casey slowly brought a hand over her lips, her hot breath making her palms even sweatier than usual. Shit. Shit shit shit fuck. Casey quickly dragged her hands over her pants, trying to get out the sweatiness.
Raph laughed nervously. “Sorry about that. Uh. Raph likes you too.”
Casey let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “Uh. Don’t worry about it. That was nice. That was really… really nice.”
There was a moment of silence. Just them breathing and Raph’s tail bumping against the ground. The snapper gave a high-pitched whine and flopped down on her side. Casey yelped and started forward. Raph staved her off by just holding out her hand. She sat back down on her knees and watched patiently as the mutant squeaked.
She hesitantly reached out to her, hand hovering just above the snapper’s skin. When Raph didn’t make any motion to stop her, she touched down and rubbed between her spines. She slowly trailed up to the girl’s head, scratching under her jaw like a little cat. She knew from experience that she liked the kitty scritches. Raph mrrred and curled up around her hand.
“I’m, uh, sorry,” Casey stuttered awkwardly, “For making your coming out much more exciting than it needed to be. If it helps, I don’t think anyone else will make out with you after learning you’re a girl.”
The turtle snorted and shook with laughter around her. “God, I hope not. That’d be real awkward.”
She huffed in amusement and continued to scratch under her jaw. Raph pushed up against her hand, churring. Her heart swelled in her chest. It was too cute.
“So, what did you say about lesbians, anyway?”
Casey sputtered, her face burning up. She laughed awkwardly. “It’s nothing, really! I just- I’ve liked you for a while and it gave me a bit of a sexuality crisis.”
Raph shook beneath her with barely contained laughter. She smacked her on the head. “HEY! Don’t be a jerk! You were the one giving me panic attacks! Then it just turns out that you’ve been a girl all along and my egg-dar is off the fucking shits!!”
That only succeeded in making her laugh harder. Casey shoved her in defiance. “SHUT UP!! UGH! You’re such an asshole!”
“You still like Raph, though.”
“NOT THE POINT, DOUCHENOZZLE!!”