A fascinating ability that all outcasts seem to share is their innate tendency to find each other, no matter the odds or the circumstances.

Raph was a self-exile, a reluctant villain in his own game whose existence had effectively been treated as an unpleasant yet necessary facet of life for decades. Though the others certainly didn't wish for him gone, as his absence would inevitably cause them to lose their homes when Fix-It Felix, Jr. was unplugged, they certainly made no effort to conceal their dislike for him.

Leaving him out of parties, forcing him to sleep in the rubble of his home every night for thirty years. Was it really any wonder he'd left to find a medal? More than them, he needed to prove to himself that he was more than just the bad guy who wrecks the building.

And if Leo couldn't understand that, then he could wait in the penthouse for Raph to get back. It wasn't like Raph needed friends, anyway.

At least, that was what he'd thought. Then he'd crash landed into Sugar Rush, in what had to have been the most terrifying experience of his life, and proceeded to have the medal he'd nearly died in Hero's Duty for stolen by a little blue-eyed twerp that climbed candy cane trees like a squirrel, teleported from branch to branch like a ninja, while his meaty three-fingered hands fumbled with the slender boughs, and didn't buy his clumsy lies for a second.

Double-striped!

Raph shook his head at the memory, fighting off a smile, lest the kid spot it and gleefully point it out again. By his side, the kid – Mikey – had raced his new vehicle through the entrance to Diet Cola Mountain with a blinding grin on his round and youthful face. Since their daring escape from King Candy at the Design-A-Car mini game, it was all he seemed capable of doing.

And Raph was thrilled for the squirt. But if he didn't get his medal back, he didn't have a home, so when Mikey sheepishly admitted, while still seated in a car now stuck to a soda rock by the sparkly frosting on its dash, that he'd never raced before, well, Raph may have lost his cool.

"What do you mean you've never raced before?!" This was it. He was going to have to go back to his game with his tail between his legs, eat his words in front of Xever, and go back to sleeping under a brick blanket in the dump while Leo received yet another medal and the others partied in the penthouse.

Too young to really manage a proper glare, Mikey nonetheless looked fierce when he insisted, "I can race! I know I can!" His palms gripped the steering wheel, turning it back and forth as though he could will the knowledge and skill to flow into him through the contact. "I can feel it in my shell."

Then he vaulted out with a single hand, graceful even as his form glitched, and rushed excitedly into the mountain. "Unbelievable," Raph muttered under his breath before calling out as he jogged to catch up, "Wait up! Save the racing for the track, would ya?"

When he made it to where the kids was, Mikey took the opportunity to proudly show off a bed he'd clearly made himself. He hopped onto a pastry, gauging Raph's reaction as he explained that whenever he got cold - which was admittedly rare, considering he lived in a veritable volcano, what with the Mento stalactites hanging from the mountain's ceiling and the lake of Diet Cola that reacted with a gusher of fizzing soda whenever one was dislodged - he'd curl up in the wrappers like a burrito. It was difficult to keep up a happy face for the kid when the sirens going off in Raph's head were screaming that a child as kind, clever, and funny as Mikey shouldn't have been forced to live alone in a mountain in the first place.

What was wrong with this game? What was wrong with its characters?

He looked down to see Mikey starting to lose his confidence as the silence stretched too long. "Look, if you don't mind me asking, why don't you leave this place?" He gestured around him to the volatile liquid that could dissolve the little turtle in an instant if something were to set the mountain off. The thought of it alone made his stomach turn cold and his blood run hot.

Immediately, whatever laughter was left drained from Mikey's clear blue eyes. He lowered his head with a soft sigh. "You really don't know anything, do you?"

Raph got down on one knee. "You're right, I don't. I'm just a lughead, remember?" As he'd hoped, the little joke coaxed a crooked smile out of the boy. "So why don't you explain it to me?"

Briefly, and in no uncertain terms, Mikey informed him that glitches couldn't leave their games. Their unstable code couldn't exist outside of it.

Several ideas passed through Raph's head in rapid-fire. Could he stay with Mikey? It didn't make much sense when he barely knew the little guy, but Raph felt oddly protective of him, and leaving him to sleep in candy wrappers inside a volcano just didn't meld with his instincts, which were all telling him that this was so obviously wrong that it was a miracle no one else had intervened already.

Except, no, he had to return to his own game before it was unplugged. The kids in the arcade would get bored quick if he wasn't around to wreck the building.

So… maybe he could take Mikey with him? Actually, strike that. He'd literally just explained why that wasn't an option.

Swallowing down a groan, Raph managed to ask, "What happens to you after you win the race, anyway? Does any of this," and he gestured towards the gloomy surroundings again, "change?"

His eyes shining with hope, Mikey enthused, "If I win, then they'll have to acknowledge me. They'll realize that glitches can be awesome racers, too, and they'll have to finally see how cool I am!"

It was easy to see that he believed it with his every pixel, and maybe Raph was starting to believe it, too, because he held out a giant hand for a shake. "If you can get me my medal, I'll teach you how to drive." With his strength, making race tracks in the mountain would be easy enough. In fact, he could pound one out right now. The thought brought a grin to his face, even if Mikey did look a tad skeptical.

"Do you even know how to drive?"

Raph shrugged. "I flew a space ship, didn't I?"

"You crashed a space ship," Mikey was quick to correct.

With an impatient jab to his plastron that made the smaller turtle frown, Raph grumbled, "Do you want my help or not?"

And Mikey latched onto one of his thick fingers, beaming as he enthusiastically pumped it. It wasn't much for the beginning of a partnership, just a couple of outcasts setting out to do the impossible, to prove to the Nicelanders and the citizens of Sugar Rush and to themselves that they were worth more than nothing.

In any case, though, one thing was certain – with this crazy kid on his side, Raph was a shoo-in to get his medal.

A/N: This story has been on the backburner for so long I honestly thought I'd never write it. Although the end result is shorter than I imagined, since most of the scenes would pretty much play out loyally to the movie and the changes I wanted to make didn't make sense plotwise, I can say without a doubt that this was the scene I most wanted to write. Because Raph chilling with Mikey in Diet Cola mountain was just too sweet to pass up.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!