Not really sure how to feel about it.
Something in the way you move
Makes me feel like I can't live without you.
It takes me all the way.
I want you to stay

-Stay; Rihanna

When Master Splinter was killed, the world seemed to tip in a direction that was unimaginable. Their lives had somehow changed into something that was dark and demanding, tempting to suck them in and hide them away deep in the fears and nightmares Splinter had scared away.

Each of them took it a different way. Raphael, running around on the surface with Casey, defending the city with all his might. He needed to show to his brothers that he still could stand tall, he didn't need to lean on anyone to protect and serve. His only job was to protect his family; and he was willing to serve it.

Donatello stayed locked away in his lab. He created and destroyed multiple inventions that he no longer found fit for his own eyes to see. The cunning mind damning that of his own creations. He never spoke out, nor ever fought back but only kept hidden away in his mind. Away from his family.

Leonardo, Leonardo was lost. Lost in a forest of grief and pain and found nothing to suit. His brothers, all hiding away from what they called reality and found a sort of fantasy that couldn't be held to a normal standard. No, he sensed the fears and the terrorizing memories of each of his brothers and felt he couldn't bear them on his own. So he turned to someone. Karai.

Karai was there, she listened and helped and coped with all he had to say. And as soon as she came into his life, this intimate release that he was unable to give to anyone else, she soon stole his heart.

Night after night he snuck away to see her, to be with her in ways he never thought he would. He felt almost complete once more after his master's death. He knew the old rat was looking down on him and shunning him for falling so deeply for the enemy but hoped his father would see the need of comfort he was craving.

Comfort, was something that could have been easily asked for from his youngest brother Michelangelo. But not anymore. Since Splinter's death, his little brother clung to him like a leach, looking for an anchor of some sort to keep him down on solid ground when Leo himself was floating away. The more that Leo was gone, the more Michelangelo began to lose his mind. Donatello disappeared late at night, running off to the junk yard or seeing April. Raphael, spent his nights drunk and out on the streets. Michelangelo, was alone.

At this moment though, Leo waited patiently for his little brother. When he returned home he found that Mikey was not in the lair and he felt uneasy when he didn't answer his shell cell. He tried to call Raph and Don but only got the response that they were busy and none saw their little brother.

The reason he worried so much was because Michelangelo overheard a conversation Leo was having on the phone with Karai. It was a heart felt conversation with secrets he would never tell his family. Secrets that involved leaving with Karai to start a separate life together. He said how all he wanted was her heart. Michelangelo panicked and raced away from the lair. Leonardo raced to catch up to his distressed brother but was unlucky. So now, he waited for his return.

Leonardo didn't want to leave his family, but he was suffocated. Everything was piled and so much to the point he feared that he would break. With the absence of two of his brothers and the third losing his mind, it was hard to care for himself. Karai was his way out, to find some sort of peace in his own mind and to relax and keep calm without the worries of another. All but Karai.

The hold she had on him was tight. Her mischievous smirk and her sparkling eyes filled with tricks and glitter. But, her heart was pure in ways he could never explain. She was the reason he could smile now. He looked at her like a gift from the heavens, here on earth to grant him the tranquility he was forcefully taken away from because of the death of his father.

Splinter was his rock, the one he could turn to. Now that he was gone, Karai was who he went to. A sense of guilt hit him thinking of his brother. Michelangelo has been struggling the most out of all of them. He clung to each of them and was the heart that was missing in their empty world. But now, now he was the lost puppy on the rainy day.

The door to the lair opened, echoing loudly in the quiet space. Leo quickly sprinted to the main living area only to stop in his tracks. Michelangelo stood in the middle of the room, head down, holding a bag in hand.

His skin, his skin was painted with red. No cuts could be seen but the splashes of crimson across the sea green body, The brown, paper bag he held was dripping of something dark. Blood, the bag was seeping in blood. Leo felt his heart begin to race seeing his brother the way he was.

Slowly, Michelangelo's head rose. His eyes, wide with fear and shock. His jaw trembled. But, even through the insecurities of his sudden predicament, his stance was tall and firm.

"You said...you wanted to leave...to have her heart." His arm rose slowly, raising the bag up in front of his face and towards Leonardo.

He knew what was in that bag, his whole fantasy crushed under the hands of his most imaginative brother.

"Now that you have it...will you stay?" It was only fair, only sane that all of them should suffer. There was no escape, no peace. If Someone's spirit could be destroyed the ways that they were, how could continue on? Without the love, the care of another, there was nothing. All that remained was the cold, beatless heart of his love, and the traumatizing, disastrous pain of his family. And the reminder that he will forever stay.

A/N: 2 in the morning and um...well bored! Haha tell me what you think!