High elf, ranger/rogue, honor mode attempt (to see how fast I can finish the game)
and she recently grew horns (despite not being a tiefling. I'll blame the bhaalist blood and infernal connections.)
she's gonna romance Halsin, because I somehow still feel guilty that he never got the happy ending he deserved with Frasier.
(Frasier was a previous honor mode attempt of mine where she romanced Halsin and was planning on joining him in Reithwin, but the party died on the final boss. Gut wrenching ik.)
I accidentally killed Gale bc i forgot this was a DUrge run and chewed his hand off while skipping past dialogue... so Shadowheart is the party wizard instead.
and Astarion has been respecced to the party cleric.
Synopsis: Raph saves you from ruffians one night in an alley after watching out for you for weeks without you knowing. Which leads you to getting to know the guys and becoming part of the family. But Raph keeps a distance and you don’t understand why.
Word Count: 1928
Warnings: Violence. Also, this is not my best writing. Definitely still readable though lol and I have no idea where this came from. It was supposed to be a one shot, but morphed into this. ENJOY
He had been following you for weeks. For your protection, he told himself. Especially since you always walked alone, your headphones covered your ears with music blaring so loud he could hear it on the top of a five-story building. Deep down though, he knew he was being a creep. And it disgusted him. But there was no way he was going to just make his way down off the rooftops and casually introduce himself.
No, he could only imagine your disgust. Your fear. He’d much rather continue fantasizing that you two would be the best of friends, at the very least. Rarely did he let his fantasies get beyond that of friendship, but when they did he made sure to let it out in an extra workout or two. Or stay out to catch a few more thugs than usual; the kind with trigger fingers. The kind Master Splinter hated for him and his brothers to go after. They weren’t completely bulletproof, after all. But what his father didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt him.
Or so he continued to tell himself.
A bell dinged, signifying the last customer was leaving the used book store you worked at, a bag filled with books hanging at their side. Raph could swear it was the only book store in the city that stayed open until midnight. He thought it was crazy book nerds would want to buy books late in the night. He thought they were the hermit, early riser types who preferred to go to bed early. That is, until he started “protecting” you.
You’ve proved him wrong on countless occasions. Not that you knew this. Nor would you ever know if he had any say about it. You’ve even convinced him to start reading without a single conversation. In secret, that is. He had a reputation to protect and didn’t want to hear any crap from his brothers, especially Leo. If Mikey found out, he could always beat it out of his memory. As for Donnie...he’d probably get excited and shove all his sciencey books at him. He shivered in disgust. Science wasn’t his forte, but he had discovered he enjoyed history. The thought brought a small smile to his face that grew when he noticed you were about to walk out the glass door.
“Night, Lori! I’ll see you in a couple of days,” you waved your co-worker goodbye before earnestly looking for your headphones in the red backpack you seemed to always have with you, attaching them to your phone, and setting them on your head. The red headphones were stark against your hair and seemed too big on your small head. Then again, everything about you was small compared to him.
He moved closer, following you on the ground through the alleys instead of hopping rooftop to rooftop. Your head bobbed to the music as you stepped to the beat. He found that to be cute and doubted you did that consciously. He chuckled at the scene, wishing desperately he could walk you home in front everyone, maybe hold your hand.
Raph growled, fisting his hands, frustrated he let his thoughts wander- again. It didn’t help that his least favorite part of the night was looming before him.
~~~~~~~~~~
You walked down the stairs into the subway station, smiling wide, excited about the new book you bought at the end of your shift. You planned on starting it in the morning and not stopping until it was finished. You had two days off, and you were going to enjoy it to the fullest. It helped that your roommate was gone for the week to visit family. Not that you didn’t absolutely adore her, but it would be nice to be completely alone for a couple of days. Her energy was literally off the wall and it could get exhausting, to say the least. Just thinking about your childhood best friend had you smiling even wider- something you didn’t realize was possible. You two had always been the complete opposite. She was always talking to strangers, dragging you to parties when you hadn’t gone anywhere but work for weeks, and inviting friends over for game nights. Whereas you preferred the quiet of your own bedroom, listening to music, and reading a good book. Without her, you would’ve never moved from your small-town home to New York. Somehow, your introverted self had fallen in love with the big city and you wouldn’t change it for the world.
Your music blasted in your ears, just the way you liked it when walking home at night. It kept thoughts of muggers, The Foot Clan, and perverts out of your mind as you found a seat on the almost empty train. You sighed, feeling safe in the moving vehicle. You could swear you were being followed the past few weeks, but nothing ever happened so you always shrugged it off when you got home, thinking you were being more paranoid than usual.
Not ten minutes later, you got off the train and trudged up the stairs on heavy legs, feeling exhausted. The day had been busier than usual at work and you were ready for pajamas and bed, but it would be another three blocks before you got to your apartment building. Taking in a deep, calming breath, you clung tightly to the shoulder straps of the backpack you wore and stepped onto the sidewalk. Once again, you felt as if someone was watching you. Once again, you ignored it, focusing on the music as you turned into a wider than usual alley that allowed the moonlight to shine through. Which is why it was the only one you were brave enough to walk through.
~~~~~~~~~~
Raph let out the breath he had been holding when you stepped out of the subway station in one piece. He never dared to follow you into the station for fear of you seeing him, but he hated having you out of his sight. Those ten minutes were the worst of his life as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop, his imagination going wild with the possibility of you getting hurt, or worse.
The alley you turned into, on the other hand, was his favorite part of the night because he almost always allowed himself to walk on the pavement in the shadows close behind you. Tonight was different, though. He could see shadows of several people ahead of you, so he stayed above, trying to figure out what band you were listening to.
“Hey!” Raph heard a gruff shout as you walked by a group of guys, snapping his focus on them, searching for any danger they could pose, but he saw nothing of note from where he was and you didn’t seem to have heard him. “You!” The same guy said, marching toward you.
Raph started climbing down with a quiet growl, adrenaline pulsed through his veins, prepared for something to happen.
You squealed, causing Raph’s heart to skip a beat as he saw the guy roughly yank you backward by the handle of your backpack.
“S-sorry,” you mumbled, taking your headphones off. “I- uh- I d-didn’t hear you.”
“What do’ya think you’re doin’ all alone out here?” The man spoke, his friends started standing behind him.
“J-just walking h-home, that’s all. I-”
“Hmm,” he nodded, still not letting go of your backpack. “Wanna drink, lil lady?”
This close Raph could hear your quick, anxious breaths. It made his blood boil.
“N-no, thanks,” you tried stepping away when he finally let go, but his friends had you surrounded at this point.
“Aw, come on sweetheart,” a tall, thin guy sneered, resting a hand on your shoulder. “We aren’t gonna hurt ya. Just wanna have a drink with ya, is all.”
“Uh-”
Raph had seen enough at this point. You were scared, and the idiots surrounding you obviously had no plans of letting you through without causing trouble. Instead of climbing stealthily the rest of the way down, he jumped, landing with a loud thud in the shadows. All heads snapped in his direction at the sound.
“Let her go,” Raph demanded, attempting to stay calm, but it was hard when some jerk had his hand on you.
“Who says?” The guy with the gruff voice asked, seemingly the only one with enough liquid courage to speak.
“Nobody special,” Raph replied with a shrug, unsheathing a sai with a pleasant hiss. He knew they could see his outline, so he wanted to look as nonchalant as possible. He knew he was an intimidating size and it was times like these that he appreciated it. Deep down, a part of him was relieved you were finally going to see him, but a much larger part of him knew that he was probably about to scare you more than the ten or so guys surrounding you ever could.
“If that’s so, then why dontcha move along and mind yer own bis’ness.”
“I thought I’d give ya guys a chance ta run before it got bloody is all,” Raph grinned, his teeth glinting in the tiny streak of moonlight that touched his face. He refused to look at you. He didn’t want to watch your reaction to his words, just like he didn’t want to see your reaction when you set eyes on him for the first time.
All the men chuckled, each lifting their shirts to show him what was tucked in the waist of their pants. A few pulled their pistols out.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Raph stepped forward out of the shadows. “But if a fight is what yer lookin’ for, then I won’t stop ya.”
The rest of the men rushed to get their guns out, eyes wide as they stepped back and pointed them at his shell covered torso. A few swayed with the action, but you were still in the middle of their little circle and that infuriated Raph even more.
“So?” Raph said low, voice gravelly. “What’s it gonna be, guys? Ya gonna let the-”
A shot rang out, hitting him squarely in the center of his shell-hardened chest. He barely felt it, but it got him moving forward, punching the first guy he could reach in the nose, knocking him out cold. The rest followed suit, shooting without a care as Raph shoved the men out of the way between you and him with a growl.
When he finally met your wide-eyed, frantic stare Raph shoved you none-too-gently down to the pavement as he hovered above you, allowing his shell to cover you both until they ran out of ammo. He hissed out sharply when he felt a couple of bullets graze his limbs, but those would heal. He couldn’t let you get hurt. He couldn’t live if you got hurt.
“Stay down,” he shouted into your ear before he stood up once silence reigned, both sais in hand and kicked the closest two guys hard in the chest, knocking them against the brick building. The others started for him, but he quickly spun before slicing deep cuts into their arms and legs, causing most to collapse to the ground. Only the guys who talked to you remained, standing frozen in place as they watched Raph, teeth bared, march to them over their groaning comrades. By the time they realized what happened, it was too late. Raph simultaneously straight punched them both in the nose, knocking their heads back so far the rest of their bodies followed with it, landing hard on the ground- out cold.
anyway i did some deltarune doodles complete with an oc/canon ship because my self-indulgence knows no bounds. i’ll post a more detailed explanation in a separate post but basically, leio is the one that goes to the dark world instead of kris and becomes susie’s lab partner, which leads to becoming ROMANTIC partners. annnnd yeah.
