It was dark in the lair, the only light coming from the eerie glow of the television that Michelangelo was camped in front of. He sat with his shell against the couch, legs crossed indian-style, and a bowl of popcorn sitting between them. His eyes were fixated on the monster movie he'd spent most of the afternoon begging his brothers to watch with him. For a giant mutated turtle it was hard to outwardly admit he was a bit afraid to watch it alone. And that fear had escalated with every ticking moment of the film, every increase in danger for the damsel in obvious distress, making poor choices at every turn.

Mikey shoved a handful of popcorn into his mouth and pulled his slippered feet closer to him, nearly wishing he was the type of turtle who could actually pull himself into his own shell.

"Doh, don't go in there, don't go in there. You don't wanna see what's in there, babe. I don't wanna see what's in there!" Mikey closed his eyes as the woman on the screen tentatively opened a laboratory door clearly marked 'Do NOT Enter.'

She shrieked, and though Mikey couldn't see what was happening, he shrieked too. It was in that moment there was a clatter behind him and his attention was drawn to the fact that he wasn't the only one in the room. "Wh-who's there?!"

He stood quickly, knocking over the popcorn as he peaked over the couch, scanning the room. His unmasked face peered into the darkness.

"Donnie?" When there was no immediate answer he tried again, "Leo? Raph?"

Still nothing.

He knew Leonardo wasn't the type for games and racked his brain trying to remember if he'd recently pranked Raphael and this was some sort of retaliation. To the best of his memory he hadn't done anything recently that would warrant Raph feeling the need to scare the green off of him. He'd barely seen Raph at all lately if he really thought about it. Leonardo either for that matter. Was everyone avoiding him and that was why he stuck watching his monster movie alone?

"Raph?!" He called again into the darkness, but was still met with no response. "Guys, this isn't funny, knock it off!"

The woman on the television screamed again causing Mikey to jump before reaching for the remote and muting the movie.

"Raph, Don! Come on guys! You're freakin' me out…" He kneeled up onto the couch, gripping the back of it, straining to see into the rest of the room, cursing himself for not being able to get his wits about him enough to employ his ninja skills when he was sure he was being threatened by monsters.

The lair had fallen silent again and it was a moment before he began to relax, maybe his mind had been playing tricks on him. After all, he was pretty sure that Raphael had gone out for the night, and Leonardo was probably doing something uninteresting that involved his katanas, an infinite amount of candles, and meditation all wrapped up into one neat little package he'd later label as "training." And Donnie was hunkered down in his own lab working on some project or other.

Some project that's come alive and is trying to kill me… Mikey thought.

A hand suddenly gripped his shoulder, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Boo!"

"Whaaaa-oh!" Mikey yelped as his momentum tipped himself and couch over into a heap. He peaked between the teepee of couch and cushions, finding his attacker standing in front of him with his arms folded across his chest, stifling his laughter.

"Gee Mike, you a ninja turtle or a fraidy cat?" Casey asked before extending his hand to Michelangelo and pulling him from the heap of couch cushions.

Mikey took the help gratefully, shimmying out from under the toppled sofa. "You scared the crap outta me dude!"

Casey snorted as he eyed Mikey's bunny slippers, "Was the general idea." He helped Mikey right the sofa and rearrange the cushions before helping himself to a seat, "Where's ya knuckle-headed brother at?"

Mikey shook his head as he knelt to pick up the popcorn from the floor, scooping it back into the bowl before sitting down next to Casey on the sofa and indulging in a handful of the salty snack.

"Dude, that's gross, that was on the floor, bro!"

Mikey shrugged, "Ten second rule?" Casey shook his head as Michelangelo shoved in another handful of popcorn, crunching loudly, "No? Twenty second rule?"

"Ya live in a sewer, that's like munching on all of New York's feces, bro."

Mikey shrugged, eating popcorn off the floor wasn't the most disgusting thing he'd ever done. It might not have been the worst thing he'd done that day even.

"So where's Raph? He ain't been 'round much lately."

Michelangelo unmuted his movie just as the credits began to roll, "Aw shell! Now I'll never know what was behind that door!"

Casey pushed himself from the couch, frustrated. "Apparently ya' ears was back there, cause I'm askin' ya a question and you ain't listenin'!"

Mikey frowned, he'd heard Casey both times and was doing his best to skate around answering. He had to admit that he was bad at not blabbing, particularly when he'd been instructed to keep his beak shut, and he knew telling Casey that Raphael was intentionally avoiding him would just tick the human off. "He's been busy, picked up the whole Nightwatcher gig again."

"Aw come on, man, don't do that." Casey started, calling Mikey's bluff, "You know I know Raph ain't put that Nightwatcher suit on since that whole thing with him and Leo years ago. Give it ta me straight, Mike. He avoidin' me? I do something ta piss him off? He's been real moody 'round me ever sin-"

"It's the whole April thing dude. Says you were a jerk and that's why everything tanked." Mikey clamped his hands over his mouth to shut himself up before accidentally saying anything else.

Casey took a visibly deep breath, recoiling slightly from the remark. He and April had broken up for what he was sure was the last and final time, and it still stung, but he'd never talked to Raphael about it. As ape-like as he was often accused of being, Casey was smart enough to not intentionally put Raphael in the middle of his relationship problems. He never wanted Raphael to feel like he had to choose sides or like his friendship with one of them would be strained for hearing the other out. No, Casey was very good at leaving Raph in the dark when it came to his relationship with April.

"I never even told him what happened dude, so how's he just gonna assume it was all me?"

Michelangelo rolled his eyes, "Dude, I'm not sayin' that it was all you, I'm just sayin' if history is any indication… Ya know? He's probably on the right track, yeah? Not that hard to figure out."

"Oh no, Mikey, he ain't on the right track at all wit' that one. I ain't the reason April broke it off. It's the one time I'idn't do nothin' wrong. I was mindin' my P's and Q's. Gettin my shit togetha, had stopped drinkin', wasn't runnin' 'round playin' vigilante all night. Dude, you know I had a legit job even! So I'ont wanna hear that it was me. It wasn't me!"

"Okay... So let me get this straight," Michelangelo stood from his seat and placed a hand reassuringly on Casey's shoulder, "If it wasn't you, and it wasn't April... then it had to be... You!" Mikey gave Casey's shoulder a squeeze as he grinned up at his human friend.

Casey shook him off, "I'm for real Mikey, it wasn't me. And if I could tell ya what happened, why she gave the ring back, I would. But I ain't gonna be the one that sticks you guys in the middle of it. I ain't gonna be the one who busts you guys' bubble 'bout wholesome Miss O'Neil."

Michelangelo's mouth gaped open and his eyes widened for a second. "Dude." He ran a hand over his scalp before he continued, "You can not say something like that and then not tell me what the shell happened. Cause yeah, bubble busted right there in that statement."

Casey shook his head, turning to leave. "I ain't gonna do it Mike. When Raph comes in, tell him I'm offended he took her side and ran wit' it without even tryin'a hear what I gotta say 'bout it all, cause she's bullshittin' him if she said it was me dude."

"Oh no, no, no, no." Mikey quickly placed himself between Casey and the lair's exit, arms stretched across the doorway. "You came down here, interrupted my movie, scared me half to death, made me spill my popcorn, told me I eat feces, you owe me. You owe some good juicy gossip. So tell me," he paused as a cheeky grin spread across his face, "She was too much for ya in the sack, huh? Old man like you couldn't keep up?"

Casey rolled his eyes as he pushed past Michelangelo and stalked into the sewer tunnels, trying his best to escape the conversation he'd inadvertently started. "Let it go, will ya?"

"April's a nympho? Cant get enough? Or!" He called after Casey, "She's got a weird fetish? Whips? Chains? Both?"

"Let. It. Go."

"Threesome? Foursome? Moresome? It's always the red-headed ones that are kin-"

Casey whirled around, glaring at Michelangelo, "I said enough, Mike! It wasn't anything... weird."

"What then dude? Cause the way you said it made it sound like it was something... weird." He repeated Casey's earlier statement "'Wholesome Miss O'Neil,'" while raising his hands to supply his own air quotes.

Casey sighed, shaking his head and keeping his eyes locked on the ground. "She said there was someone else. Had some crazy feelin's or somethin', couldnt marry me till she figured it out. But I told her I wasn't waitin' 'round while she ran off with some other guy to figure that shit out. So she gave the ring back and that was it."

Michelangelo briefly considered accusing Casey of being a lying piece of crud, but the look on his face was enough to tell him that Casey was telling the truth. "You mean, April cheated on you? Dude I-"

"She 'idn't cheat on me, Mike. Least she says she didn't. She said she ain't never done nothin' with the guy, but wants to, ya know? Said he 'ont even know how she feels. But I can't sit around, Mike. What'm I s'posed to do? Wait? Wait for her to run off an' tell some other guy she wants to screw 'im? Then what? The dude's like, 'cool, yeah, let's screw'? And they bang the shit outta each other till she's bored wit' it and's ready to marry me when it's all outta her system? I couldn't do it, Mike. I couldn't sit around while she went down that road. And if she came back to me after, I'd never be able ta, ya know, knowin' someone else had been in there if ya know what I'm sayin. I mean I know she's been with other guys, but that was before me, ya know?"

Michelangelo shook his head, bewildered. For as long as Casey and April had been together, he'd never had the slightest inkling that there could have been anyone else. As far as he knew, she didn't even have any other guy friends besides him and his brothers. None of it was making sense. None of it added up, and he could help but ask the first thing that came to mind, "Are you sure dude? I mean, maybe she just said that stuff to push you away? Maybe you did something to piss her off?"

"I'm sure Mike." Casey's shoulders sagged as he rested himself against a leaking pipe, ignoring the water dripping down onto his grungy t-shirt. It was dirty anyway. "First I thought that too, but I saw it in her eyes. There's someone else, an' I got the impression that I totally pale in comparison. Like he's gotta be some hopeless romantic-like, poetry writing, book reading, dick head with deep, brown soulful eyes and golden locks or some shit. An' they'll sit around sippin' wine and bein' sophisticated and havin' tea parties, laughin 'bout how she coulda ever been wit'a guy like me for so long."

Without warning Michelangelo gave Casey an awkward hug. "I know it doesn't really help, but you looked like you need it." Mikey said before pulling away and checking his friend over, half expecting to literally see Casey's heart breaking as it fell from his chest. "If you need to talk, you know I'm here for you. I mean Raph might not wanna hear it, and I don't know what all April told him, but if you need a shoulder dude, you got one."

Casey smiled, "Thanks, bro. But I'd really be better if we just left it alone and this stayed between us, yeah?"

"Sure."

"Good," Casey righted himself, brushing some of the water off of his shoulder before starting on his way down the tunnel again, "An' tell your brother that I know it's hard for him, but he really should stop bein' a dick."

"It'd be my absolute pleasure dude!" Mikey called after him before Casey rounded a corner and disappeared.