#punchie writes

Selena groaned as she awoke, feeling a painful throb on the side of her neck. It felt like someone had taken a pen and jabbed it into the crook of her neck. When Selena reached to touch it, she jerked her hand back with a hiss at the sharpest sting of pain she had ever felt. 

“Oh, yeah, you don’t want to touch that.”

Selena went still, and slowly looked up from where she lay on the bed, seeing a smiling young man standing over her, his eyes glowing a molten sheen.  

“What?” she managed out. 

“The bite,” he revealed to her. “You wanted to be bit.” 

She gasped as it all came back to her. The thundering pop of music, the flash of lights, the thick crowd of bodies that danced and bounced, and the glow of the moon, haunting and beautiful, watching booming, colorful chaos of the party. 

And there, she met him. 

She saw the glow of his eyes amongst the darkness, the flash of fangs when he smiled and laughed. The flash of ivory had her on her feet, drawing near him, weaving through the crowd. His molten eyes flickered to her and she found she was unable to tear her eyes away. The rest of night was a blur, but she could faintly recall the light playful press of pointed tips upon her hand, the brush of another body, and the smooth honeyed words that would whisper close to her ear that would send a rush through her. 

“I can change you,” he had promised. 

“Do it,” she breathed. 

She had gotten pulled into darkness, and the rest of oblivion. 

Her neck ached, a reminder of what she received. 

Excitement rushed through her, the reality hitting her. 

She did it. 

She got bit.

She got bit!

Selena scrambled up from the bed, startling her gifter to draw away, his hands hovering close as she started to sway. 

“Woah there,” he warned, “that’s pretty fresh. You’re going to want at least a day—”

Selena was already fumbling her way to the bathroom. She had to confirm it with her eyes. See that she truly did get it, that she would— 

Nothing. 

Selena stumbled to a stop, coming to grab the sink to hold herself steady, and she stared into the mirror with a gape. 

There, she saw nothing. 

There was no one before the mirror. 

“Wha, why, why is…” Selena started to babble, half wondering if she was still dreaming. Was this all a dream? Was this— 

“Yeah,” the smooth honeyed voice sighed behind her, making her go stiff. 

She hadn’t even heard him come up behind her. 

He continued, “That’s one of the downsides to being a vampire. I miss my reflection. Never get to see it again.”

“Vampire?” she repeated in a small voice, almost a squeak. 

“Yeah, you’re on your way to becoming a vampire.” 

“Vampire?” she repeated again. 

“Yes, vampire. You wanted to be one,” he said, coming to lightly touch her shoulder, gliding the tips of his nail along her skin. “You asked that I dig my teeth into you, that I change you.” He stopped near the bite, barely touching the tender skin. “Don’t tell me you have regrets.”

He leapt back in surprise when she dropped to the ground and started to sob. He blinked his yellow eyes, uncertain on how to respond to this. She really had been so excited, he didn’t think she would regret it. And she looked excited this morning to receive his bite, so why was she so upset?

Reaching up to rub the back of his neck, he crouched down near her, tentatively asking, “What’s wrong?” 

“I wanted to be a werewolf!” she cried out, startling him. “Not a vampire! A werewolf!” 

As she sagged and sobbed, the vampire found all he could do was gape at her, stunned. “You wanted to be a dog?!” he proclaimed. 

“No!” she snapped, giving him a shove. “A wolf! A majestic wolf! I was going to run through the woods! I was going to howl at the moon!”

“Vampires are superior though,” he insisted. “We’re mysterious, seductive, alluring…”

“I wanted to be fluffy!” she bemoaned. 

“And I’m from an evolved branch that can go into daylight! We can literally shine like stars.”

“My fluuuuuuff. I was going to give the best huuuugs!” 

“Hey now, with this, you’ll be able to fly as a bat—”

“That does nothing for me! I’m scared of heights!” she snapped, having an angry sniff. “And I, and I was going to be able to talk to dogs. Dogs! And, and Halloween costume competitions, no one could beat a real life werewolf! I was going to shove my victory in Kaley’s face!” 

Ao3

A lot of things started out the same. 

Marinette awoke dreading the new school year. Risked her life to help an old man, saving him from getting hit by a car. And when she sat upon her seat, the residential queen wasp dove right in to scare her out. And much like the original, it caught the attention of the new girl. 

But it was not the same new girl.

She wore a dark gray attire with polka dots all over, and a vermillion jacket set over it. Her hair was far longer and brown. And her olive green eyes had a calculating gleam as she watched the scene unfold. Something of a delighted smile slid over her lips as she watched and listened, considering the scene before her. 

Her muse was interrupted as the blonde loudly declared, pointing directly at her, “You can go sit with the new girl!” 

Ah, she noted to herself, seems she was to get involved either way. 

With a small, coy smile, she said, “Maybe she should.” 

Ao3

Marinette was a girl with a purpose. 

The great mistake had been fixed, and a better hero was secured. 

But Marinette wasn’t so satisfied to leave things at that. With her was Ivan’s crumbled up song, left behind by Bella Stella on the roof. It was something Marinette didn’t think too much about initially and there was no way for LIla to know the significance of this, only Marinette did. So to realize that it was on the roof with her, it hit her what she was to do with it. 

Back on the streets, Marinette started to search for Mylene, heading back towards the Eiffel Tower and went down to the crowd attending to anyone in need. Mylene sat a little away from the crowd, curled up and shivering a little, sniffing loudly.

“Mylene?” 

The girl jumped and gasped, turning big eyes to Marinette before releasing a shaky breath, turning back to hide in her curl once more. 

Marinette tentatively sat down near her, conscious to not spook her. “It’s ok,” Marinette said, “it’s over with.” 

“It’s going to happen again,” Mylene cried, curling up tighter. “Two days in a row. And I, I’m so scared of tomorrow. What if, what if…” Mylene broke down into a sob, with Marinette wincing beside her. 

“It may not happen tomorrow,” Marinette offered. 

“How would you know?!” 

“Maybe all it’ll take is a change,” Marinette answered, presenting Ivan’s crumbled up paper. Sniffing, Mylene peeked up to eye it, blinking at the sight. 

Ao3

It was so nice that the universe always provides. Lila stood on the rooftops, admiring an exclusive view. Enjoying a moment of being Paris' new hero. It was just what Lila deserved. And to a near window, she admired herself. 

Her long thick hair was in a ponytail, with two long ribbons acting as antennas on top. Her jumpsuit was black and vermilion, with black covering her legs up to her thighs, sparsed black dots over the vermilion section, and a black upper part, with white ovals over her color and a white star in the middle between them. Vermilion gloves stemming from her elbows, continuing the sporadic and few black dots over the warm color. Her mask was a simple vermilion, but had a black star in the center. Her olive green eyes made out to be darker, not clashing too much with the orange-red mask. 

She looked stylish and cute in Lila’s own opinion. 

But who should she be?

What name should she do? 

Ladybug was too on the nose. 

Coccinella was a mouthful, and would hint to her Italian origins. Lila’s not so certain she wants to give that away. Harlequin also came to mind, but that also hinted at her Italian origins. She was here in France so she should stick to a French name. But what… 

Humming coyly, she zeroed in on the stars on her, she thought of how she was a beauty and here to be Paris’ new star.

“Bella Stella,” she murmured. Humming, she murmured, “Or maybe Bella Stellata?” She shook her head. No, Bella Stella rolled off the tongue better. For hero names, they mattered. They said who they were, what they were about, and the aesthetic. The suit came with stars, best to play off it. And the beauty that she was. 

Ao3

“So, what’s so special about Adrien?” Tikki wondered, dodging the clothes Lila was throwing around, trying to find the outfit that was just right for her outing. It was her first weekend this school year, and with much snooping, Lila had found Adrien’s Saturday shoot. One she was going to attend. As Tikki was open to how they’d spend their day, she had no issues with this, though she didn’t get Lila’s interest in Adrien. 

Lila turned and gave Tikki a look. To herself, she wondered, “Why do I keep coming across people who don’t know Adrien Agreste?”

Ignoring that, Tikki zipped up close, asking, “What do you like about him?” 

“He’s my soulmate,” Lila declared, setting a hand on her chest. 

Tikki frowned, tilting her head to the side. “How do you know?” 

“We both got green eyes.” 

Tikki snorted and laughed. “Having similar eye color doesn’t mean you’re soulmates!” 

Raph

April was excited and oh so nervous.

Today, the kind and funny giant rat called her over to their hidden home in the sewers. Her. April O'Neil, the first human to be welcomed into the home of the oddest and coolest family she ever had a chance to meet.

She could NOT mess this up.

This was her chance to be welcomed in the human-turtle home and really be their friends. And that would be the COOLEST THING EVER.

How many kids could even say they were friends with human-turtles? Not many, that's for sure.

And Kendra said she was a weirdness magnet.

There was nothing cooler than talking turtles!

So with a confident march and a straight back, she marched up to the smiling rat, saluting him. "April O'Neil reporting for duty, sir!"

Only to falter when the rat shushed. "I welcome you, Miss April, but you'll need to keep your voice down."

"They sleeping?" April asked, surprised.

"Yes!" the rat confirmed. "It's one of the colder days of winter and they get very sleepy for a few days."

"Oooooh," April uttered. She knew about this, they taught it in science class. Turtles bru... brumate? "Why am I here then?"

"When they wake up, they'll be hungry! So I need to go get food, but I don't want to leave them unsupervised. No good it they get too cold. I was hoping you may monitor them, see if they shiver, then bring them more blankets."

"I can do that!" April promised.

"Excellent! But, really, just see if they're shivering. Red, Blue, and Orange would grab you and not let you go if you touch them!"

April didn't want that, especially if they were going to sleep for a few days straight.

Then she frowned. "And uh, Donnie?"

"You must not go near Purple," the rat forewarned, "he won't trap cuddle you, he'd bite you!"

April gasped.

She definitely didn't want that.

"So just see if they shiver, and if they are, throw blanket on them."

"Ok."

“I'll be back in an hour. Here's the uh, VHS player, if you get bored. Bathroom over there. Uh, here are some of the boys’ toys. Um, any questions before I go?”

“Um,” April pondered a moment before immediately asking, “what do I do if I do get caught by one of the boys?”

“Wait until I’m back. I’ll see if I can free you.”

April had no more questions. The rat set her up with a Lou Jitsu film and she sat amongst pillows and blankets and had a timer set to go check on the boys.

The first chime went off, she paused the film, and hurried to each room to peek in.

She didn't see any shivering.

April went back to her designated spot, reset that timer, and resumed her movie.

.

At this time, something April didn’t know was that turtles had a great sense of smell. As soon as she had peeked into the room to check on them, even in their sleepy state, they got a small whiff of her, her new scent familiar enough that they knew she was there and felt no alarm to her small pop in.

It sparked off a sense of warmth through them, happy that their new friend was near and they settled even more comfortably in their beds.

Except for one who locked on that scent.

One who wasn’t quite used to it, not that the source was unwelcomed. What was welcoming was the clear fact that the source was a naturally warm body, one that generated heat. Heat that may be warmer than the blankets piled around him, unable to trap the small amount of heat his own body produced.

Logically, what was best was to go to the greater heat source, one that wasn’t going to just shove him back into the blankets, grumbling that he may bite.

With a blanket wrapped around him, he arose and stumbled out of his room, following his nose to the source.

The girl, April, turned to him as he came to her, looming over her and squinting at her.

She stared up at him with wide eyes.

“Donnie?” she asked.

Like some odd prompt, he flopped right on her, sending her to the ground as he lay on her, and started to soak in as much warmth as he could from her much warmer frame.

April for her part didn’t panic when the turtle child flopped on her, though she was nervous that he may bite her as Splinter warned. But after a minute of laying still, she slowly got up and Donnie just shuffled and semi laid in her lap, as curled up as possible.

April stared down at him a little starry eyed, feeling like she just got honored with something very rare and special. A happy warmth rushing through her, she pulled the blankets close around them, beaming away as Donnie pressed against her and allowed her to cover him.

For a turtle that seemed the most distant with her out of the four, she was happy to know he liked her enough to cuddle.

Though when Splinter came back carrying a lot of food, he had a start to find the mutated soft shell turtle came out on his own to cuddle up to April. Of his sons, Purple disliked being touched the most, yet here he practically in the child’s lap, not minding her arm set on his soft shell. He actually looked quite content. One of the reasons Splinter got nipped was a lack of being comfortable cuddling with him.

Setting the food down on a near table, Splinter came to stand over them, April tilting her head back to peer up at him, watching him rub his chin.

“I might have you come by more often during winter. Until the boys can handle the cold better, you can at least help Donnie keep warm.”

April gaped up at him. “I would love to.”

“Excellent! Now, do you know the number to your parents? You might as well spend the night. Or few. I don’t think Donnie’s going to let you go. Unless the cold eases up...” As Splinter mumbled to himself, he wandered away, leaving April alone with the turtle.

I've actually done a fic for it, as I had a funny thought for the power.

Donnie

.

It all started when Raph noticed that Splinter would disappear for a little bit after April would leave. It was something that was always curious Raph why their father would follow their friend when she went home.

Groggily, he asked once when Splinter when returned.

"April is a child," Splinter answered. "It's not safe for her to travel home alone, so I see her to safety until she gets to her mother back in the park."

"She in danger?" Raph asked, the alarm he felt for his friend jarring the sleepiness away momentarily.

"Uh," Splinter uttered, coming up to grasp his chin and he considered how to answer. "Some people may take children for bad reasons. Best to avoid that if we can."

Raph nodded in agreement, a fear going through him.

Of what Raph knew of April's mother, she wasn't a fighter like Pops. Or them. So, who was going to protect them all the way home?

Raph's thoughts were interrupted as Splinter patted his head. "It's going to be an extra cold night to night, Red, I suggest heading to your pile while you can. See you in a few days," Splinter bid, heading to his couch to watch this show.

Raph stood for a moment, watching and waiting for Splinter to be fully gone, then he hurried down the sewer path towards the Surface. He had to hurry if he wanted to catch up to April and her mom, for who was going to see them home safe?

Coming up to the Surface, he immediately faltered when the cold air hit him, wincing and shivering. He was at a point he could handle the cold a bit, but it still made him so sleepy and slow...

His fear for his friend and determination to keep her safe motivated him though, he pulled himself out, shuddered at the touch of snow, and took a deep breath. In the cold air, he could catch that whiff of Spril's scent and ran after it.

Thankfully, April was close, and she had told him and his brothers that her mom knew about them, so he didn't hesitate to rush over towards them, shouting, "April! I'm here!"

The mother and daughter jumped and whipped around, both gasping for different reasons.

"Raph!" April cried out in distress, rushing to the turtle who was a head taller than her. "You're not supposed to be out here!"

"You are friends with turtles," her mother murmured behind her.

April reached up to touch Raph and it was then that the creeping cold fully hit him. He leaned heavily into April's touch, shivering. "P-pops said you could be in danger g-going home. Had t-to be there t-to make sure n-nothing happens..."

He shivered again and April was quick to hug him, finding his thick arms coming around her, holding her a little too tightly but it was bearable. She turned her big eyes to her mom, looking for an answer and offering a slight plead for help.

Carol O'Neil took a moment to process the odd turtle child clinging to her daughter, processing that her daughter's turtle friends were in truth real, and this was who she's been sneaking away to play with. Seeing his shivering form, she came over, slipped off her coat, and draped it over Raph.

Big eyes looked up at her in alarm and she quickly reassured, "I can take the cold better than you, Sweetie. Come on, we're close by, let's uh, get you inside."

Raph was very touched and started to tear up. "You're so nice!" he cried out.

She ushered Raph towards her home, the big turtle tot taking to carrying April and hugging her like a plush to his chest as he was led towards the O'Neils.

.

There was a heater set up in April's room, as many blankets and pillows as they could spare brought in, Carol was cooking up some fish if Raph was hungry and contacting his father so he would know where he is.

Raph for his part was comfy and cozy, and drifting between the states of consciousness and sleep. But he couldn't quite settle. This was April's room and it smelled like her all around, but it lacked the familiarity of home. He didn't smell his dad or his brothers. He couldn't entirely get comfy.

"You ok, Raph?"

Apparently it was clear to April too.

She didn't wait for his answer before getting off her bed, pulling her blanket with her, and coming to plop down next to him.

"You nervous?" she asked.

"No," he mumbled.

"It's your first sleepover, it's ok to be nervous," April said.

"This place doesn't smell like home," Raph admitted to her. "They don't smell like my brothers or Pops at all."

"Do you not like my smell?" April wondered.

"I like your smell!" Raph reassured. "I... I just wish I could also smell my brothers." He sagged in the blankets, yawning, but not drifting off like his body wants.

Humming beside him, April hopped up and rushed towards her closest, starting the big turtle tot. She returned with toys, toys Raph recognized, toys that had been gifts from them to her.

"I didn't get a chance to play with these too much," April revealed, setting the variety of toys down in front of him, "so hopefully they still smell like them."

Eyes watering a little, Raph pulled the teddy bear, cat, and rabbit plushies close, taking a deep breath. This smelled like them. It wasn't as strong, but it was enough. Smiling, he hugged them close and nuzzled them. "Thanks, April."

Hugging Raph's toy, a puppy, close to her, she plopped back down beside him and snuggled up, set to sleep close in case he needed her. Though she found he was already out and sleeping away, hugging the toys tightly.

"Night," she whispered, pulling her blanket around her and relaxing.

They slept soundly through the night, not even waking when Splinter arrived in the early morning to pick up Raph and hurry them back to the sewers.