A/N I'm back! Too many ideas in my head, had to get them out… So I've been brewing some ideas for a sequel since like halfway through Acceptance, and suddenly I was hit with an idea for another story. And since I'm crazy busy PLUS trying to work on my original fiction novel, I figured I'd find a way to combine my new idea with my idea for a sequel. So hang on tight, I'm going to be flinging you all over the place but I'll do my best to keep it clear and easy to read! I plan to pack this full of friendship, life lessons, fluff, lemons, adventure, suspense if I'm capable of that, humor if I can handle it, and all kinds of goodies. All while trying to stick with the universe I've created in Acceptance while melding it with pieces of the current TMNT 2k12verse. Whew. Am I in over my head? I guess if I have aspirations of being published someday, I should push some boundaries, right?

So be warned, this fic is rated M for a reason. I do have fun writing in that department. But if you're easily offended, move on along, I'd hate to offend anyone. And this story could certainly risk doing that. I'll give you fair warning before each chapter though. But for now, let's check in on how Autumn and Raph are doing :). Enjoy! And please review (but be nice ^_^).

Chapter 1

Autumn woke up slowly, her first bleary thought being the realization that she wasn't in April's room, which she had grown to accept as her own room. Her second realization was how different she felt – having gotten so used to her lizard form, being human again threw her off, especially waking up for the first time as a human. Her skin felt silky smooth against the sheets, rather than rough scales catching on the fibers. Her back felt so flat it almost gave her a concave sensation, the lack of tail creating a void that was almost alien to her. Her scalp tingled as she shifted her head, feeling hyper aware of the hair all over it that had been nonexistent for over a year. How strange it was to feel so foreign in her own skin, yet it was such a welcome feeling too. Finally.

She smiled as her eyelids fluttered, not wanting to open them just yet, and she reveled in the sensation of her lashes against her cheeks. She rolled onto her side and almost fell forward, startled, realizing the bed was sinking in drastically by a very heavy weight next to her.

Raphael… she thought, her smile growing. I spent the night with Raphael… The memory of their night together filled her mind and swelled her heart – they had held each other desperately, never wanting to let go, kissing and kissing until they were utterly delirious and breathless and drunk on each other, passing out in each other's arms in the comfort of Raph's bed.

She opened her eyes and tried to focus through the dim light of the nightlight on the wall. Her eyes first fell on his sleeping face, his eyes closed softly, his face totally relaxed, and looking oddly foreign to her – she never saw him without his mask on, and she had to admit, she liked what she saw. His mouth was hanging open as he breathed deeply through his throat, his head resting on one arm that was stretched up above him. His other arm hung loosely at his side.

She lifted his loose arm carefully and wrapped it around her as she nestled in closer, pressing herself up against his plastron and sighing happily, and she felt him stir slightly against her.

He let out a small moan and nuzzled his face into her hair, which sent electricity through her body causing her to shudder against the sensation. "Mmm," he hummed. "Good morning…"

"Morning," Autumn sighed in response, and she leaned herself back slightly enough so that their eyes met, and for a few moments all they did was soak each other in, gazing into each other's eyes, almost in disbelief that this moment was real, that everything that transpired the day before was real, that their feelings for each other were real, and even more amazingly – mutual.

"How ya feelin'?" Raph asked, studying her face, his hand coming up to rub the side of her arm.

She smiled in return. "Amazing," she replied without hesitation, her voice coming as a sigh. She then thought about her newly human form and chuckled a bit. "A little confused and foreign, I'll be honest…" She smiled at him once more, then added, "But amazing."

"You look amazing…" he muttered to her, not caring in the slightest if he sounded corny for saying it.

Autumn grinned. "You're not so bad yourself," she replied, bringing the back of her knuckles up to brush against his temple, then drawing her thumb across his brow. "I kinda like this naked look."

Raph chuckled and drew the fabric of her shirt into his fingers. "Wish I could say the same about you," he said mischievously, a glint in his eye.

"Oooh, let's not get carried away now," Autumn muttered in reply, though she so badly wanted to grant him his wish. It was definitely too soon to cross that bridge though. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, taking him by surprise for a moment before he relaxed and returned the kiss, his lips hungry and his breath hot. They pulled away, almost breathless at the short, sweet contact, and gazed into each other's eyes again.

"I still can't believe this is real…" Raph admitted in a whisper. He was trying so hard to just roll with it, like he had since the first time she seduced him into sparring with her when she was still in lizard form. He knew he needed to trust her, that she really meant everything she said the night before, that she really did want to be with him. Though he was still afraid it was too good to be true, at the same time he wanted it enough that he had to just trust her.

Autumn smiled at him, her hand still at his face, her thumb brushing absently across his cheek. "I'm sorry I didn't talk to you sooner…" she said, her smile fading.

Raph shook his head. "I should have said something too." He pulled her in closer to him, holding her against his plastron as he stroked her back. "Let's just try harder to talk to each other, okay?"

Autumn sighed into his solid chest, closing her eyes. "Definitely," she responded quietly.

Reluctantly, they both finally drew themselves out of bed to join the rest of the clan. It was almost like a walk of shame when they arrived in the kitchen, the other three turtles eyeing them suspiciously, especially Autumn and her mussed up hair.

"What are you lookin' at?" Autumn barked at the group, causing them to quickly avert their eyes. Raph's face turned red against his will, which brought up an internal laugh that Autumn had to fight to stifle.

Mikey was the only one who didn't seem put off by Autumn's defense. "You guys have fun last night?" he prodded, grinning, as he served up plates of scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Yep," Autumn replied confidently, smiling and seeming unfazed. Raph's face only glowed redder.

"Maybe a subject change..." Leo suggested, his face slightly contorted.

Raph rolled his eyes, then glowered at them. "Oh my god, you guys, nothing happened last night, get over yourselves."

This time Autumn couldn't help but giggle. Leo cleared his throat and stuck to his original idea. "So, Autumn," he said, facing her. "Have you thought about heading home yet?"

The grin quickly left Autumn's face, and Raph averted his eyes. It was a thought he wanted to avoid thinking about, still unsure if her reunion with her family would mean him losing her. Autumn took a plate from Mikey and began absently picking at her eggs. "I guess a little..." she replied, not making eye contact.

"What's wrong?" Donnie asked, noticing her lack of enthusiasm at something that just the day before was something she was overly excited about.

Autumn simply shrugged. "I dunno." She then looked around the room. "Where's April?" She suddenly realized she wanted female support.

"She had to fill in for a coworker at the coffee shop today," Donnie replied.

"Hey, if you don't want to talk about all this right now, you don't have to," Leo said gently as he took a bite of his scrambled eggs. Raph eyed her nervously, still not sure what to expect of her feelings. At the same time he attempted to suppress irritation at his older brother for taking his job of being the considerate, supportive one for Autumn. Even though consideration and support weren't exactly his strong points...

Autumn shook her head. "No, it's okay, I should." She sighed, then began, "I can't just walk right back into their lives, ya know? I've been missing for over a year, they'll want an explanation." She looked at the group expectantly, then finally motioned her hands in reference to them and the lair. "I can't exactly tell them the truth..."

Leo quickly replied, "No, we'll have to help you come up with a story."

Autumn looked at Raph with a hint of sadness in her eyes. Suddenly the reality of not getting to introduce her boyfriend (was he her boyfriend?) to her family dawned on her. Another realization hit her shortly thereafter. She wanted them to know. She didn't want to make up a story, a lie, about where she'd been all this year. Something very life changing happened to her, something that will stay with her in the shadows of her mind for the rest of her life. Reuniting with her family was something she desperately wanted, and craved, but reuniting with lies was not making her look forward to the experience, or filling her heart with the happiness she knew she should be feeling over such a reunion. "Right," was all she said in response to Leo.

Raph remained silent. He watched the inner turmoil that clouded into Autumn's eyes and wished that not only could he read what was on her mind, but that he could ease it. Without thinking he reached over and gave the back of her arm a comforting squeeze, and she instantly looked up to meet his eyes. An electricity surged between them, her overwhelming sense of gratitude for his care and compassion flooded into her, and he swore he could tangibly feel it. He swallowed hard.

"Damn, never thought we'd see your shell crack, Raph," Donnie couldn't help but say, grinning slyly.

Raph broke eye contact, thus breaking the electrical circuit created between himself and Autumn, and glared at his brother in purple. "Least I got a shell," he retorted.

"Hey now!" Donnie replied, still grinning but throwing his hands up in surrender. "After all the hell of mockery you've put me through because of April these past few months, it's my turn." He pressed his thumb to his chest.

Autumn snorted to herself, grinning as she took a bite of bacon. Mikey broke the quarrel that was beginning to form between the two brothers. "So, dude, is she your girlfriend now?" he asked.

Autumn and Raph both went rigid. They looked at each other, both searching each other's faces for signs of what the answer was to Mikey's question. They hadn't really discussed it. She did say she wanted to be with him, that leaving him was the last thing she wanted to do, and he knew he wanted to keep her in his life, but what did that mean? Did a title come with that? These were incredibly foreign concepts to him.

"Um..." he started, but Autumn noted the panic that was beginning to rise in him, and jumped to his rescue.

"We haven't really talked about that..." Autumn interjected. She looked at him again, and his panic seemed to subside as he looked down at his plate.

"Dude, you guys slept with each other and you don't know if she's your girlfriend?" Mikey responded, looking at Raph with a slight bit of disgust.

Raph brought the palms of his hands to his forehead in frustration. "Ugh!" he groaned. "It was sleep!" He pinched his fingers together and drew a line in the air between them, emphasizing the simplicity and conciseness of the term "sleep". "We just slept! Eyes closed, on a mattress, clothing intact! Get your fuckin' head out of the gutter! And out of our business!"

This time Mikey pressed his hands up in the air in surrender. "Okay okay, man, geez! No hankey-pankey, I get it!"

"Oh my god." Raph just groaned and shook his head.

Autumn chuckled, but she was curious - did he consider her his girlfriend? She figured she'd address it then and there - after all, the group should probably know what was going on too. "So, I am curious myself, Raph," she said, meeting his eyes as he looked at her, suddenly terrified. "Am I your girlfriend?"

"Do we have to discuss this now?" he asked, the panic returning in his eyes. "Here?" He gestured to the room around him, but mostly to the presence of his brothers.

She shrugged. "They're gonna find out anyway," she replied, "so might as well."

"Well I'm not sure I want to discuss it here," he responded defensively.

"Why not?" she pressed, leaning on the counter.

Raph's palms went back up to his forehead as he suddenly felt very stressed out and claustrophobic. Just go with the flow, he reminded himself. Breathe.

He dropped his arms at his sides as he took a deep breath. "Because I don't know what to think yet," he answered, looking her square in the eyes.

She suddenly felt bad for putting him on the spot, and she returned his gaze with pity. The other three silently spectated as they slowly ate their breakfast. "Well, what do you want?" she asked him softly.

He could feel everyone's eyes on him, and felt a lump growing in his throat. He took a deep breath, feeling like he was about to plunge off a cliff. "I want to think I have a shot at something here." He shrugged his hands out to his sides and dropped them again helplessly. "I know you said you want to be with me, and I want that too, but I still can't help but worry that this is only going to lead to pain and heartbreak for me down the road when you get sick of your secret relationship with your freaky mutant boyfriend and decide you want to go back to a normal human life." The rest of the room faded away as he poured his heart out, and only she existed in front of him, her face fallen with sadness for him, but her eyes sparkling with something more. He shook his head. "I don't know if I could recover from that."

Silence filled the room almost oppressively as the two stared at each other. Mikey, in true Mikey form, was the first to break it. "Dude, DWP," he breathed in awe. "You tamed the beast..."

Raph was rudely awakened from his trance and suddenly felt his cheeks burning at the realization that he displayed complete and total vulnerability to the last three people in the entire world that he'd ever want to see such a display from him. He immediately felt a fight rising in him, but, to his surprise, he stifled it, immediately turning on his heel and leaving the room. Not long after, they heard the slamming of his fists on the punching bag echoing through the halls from the dojo.

Autumn looked down at her barely touched breakfast. "I shouldn't have pressured him like that," she stated to no one in particular.

"No," Leo disagreed, his voice soft. "It was kind of nice to see that Raph actually has the capacity for feelings like that..."

"And the willingness to share them," Donnie added. "That was huge..."

"Please be his girlfriend," Mikey begged. "I like this new Raph!"

"No kidding," Leo agreed. He then met Autumn's eyes with a look of authority. "So long as he's not distracted and his new soft spot doesn't interfere with his hard fight."

Autumn chuckled, suddenly feeling a sense of warmth at the approval of Raph's brothers. "I doubt you have anything to worry about." She placed her fork on the table, having forgotten she was even still holding it, and said with a smile, "I better go talk to my boyfriend." The other three met her with smiles as she turned and left in the direction of the dojo.

She approached him from behind as he wailed on the bag. "I'm sorry I put you on the spot," she said without a moment's hesitation, her voice trying to rise over the loud slamming of his fists. He ignored her as he continued pummeling. "You're right, that was a conversation we should have had in private." He continued to ignore her. She was beginning to get aggravated. "Will you please say something?" she asked, trying to keep her voice even. Still no response. She felt the neurons in her brain attempt to fire and control a tail that was no longer there, which resulted in a strange ghost-like sensation on her backside. That would definitely take some getting used to. Without thinking any further, she swung her leg out and around and it connected hard with the back of his knee.

He faltered but recovered quickly, then whirled on her with a glaring expression. She could see fire in his eyes and she braced herself, meeting his gaze with the same fire and bringing her fists up into a guard stance. He rolled his eyes, which only ended up pissing her off. She realized she didn't look near as threatening as she did when she was a lizard, so perhaps he needed a reminder of who he was dealing with. She swung her fist forward, expecting him to block it, and as soon as he did her foot was already connecting with his shin. "Fuck, bitch!" he cried out in pain, but he stood his ground. She kinda liked him talking to her that way.

"Don't like that?" she hissed, and he scowled at her and launched. She automatically dropped and rolled backward onto the mat, grasping his hands as they thrusted toward her and brought her legs up to connect her feet with his plastron, and with all the strength she could muster, she grunted as she forced her legs up and back, feeling his body fly over her and landing with a thud on the floor behind her. For a moment they just lied there in shock, breathing heavily. Finally, she got up and walked over to him, feeling a bit of deja vu as she looked down at him on the floor. He didn't fly as far as the first time this happened, but she still managed to flip him off of her nonetheless. "I may not be a lizard with a scaly exterior anymore," she said, her voice low and even and her eyes locked on his. "But I'm the same person on the inside, and I still want you just as much now as I did then."

She extended her hand to help him up, but as soon as he took it he pulled her down to the floor with him, a look of shock coming across her face as she landed on his plastron. He immediately plunged his fingers into her hair and forced her face against his, his lips finding hers and melting her as soon as they made the connection. He sat up with her on him, their lips not separating, causing her to fall into his lap, and he desperately held her against him as their mouths opened and their tongues entwined. She sighed deeply and brought her hands up to the back of his neck, one hand traveling down to the sensitive skin against his carapace and the other tracing up the back of his skull. Being with him like this left no doubt in her mind that this was where she wanted to be, where she was meant to stay. She pulled away from him breathlessly, her violet brown eyes meeting his green. "Will you be my boyfriend?" she asked with complete seriousness.

His eyebrows rose under his mask. "Are you sure about this?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper.

She smiled, bringing her palms to either side of his face. "Yes," she replied confidently. "I'm sure."

He sighed, still not truly believing, and brought his hands up to touch her hands as they pressed against his face. He searched her eyes once more. "So what does this mean?"

She shrugged, bringing her hands down and taking his with them. "It means we're together." She thought for a moment, then said, "We trust each other, we rely on each other, we're there for each other, we support each other, we defend each other..." She looked into his eyes for more clues as to what answers he was wanting. "We'll probably fight with each other, but that's normal, and okay."

He nodded thoughtfully, taking it all in, processing all that he was in for, and realizing that he felt totally ready for it. "That all?" he asked with a bit of a smirk, attempting to tease her about her long list.

She shrugged again, and in all seriousness (though she hid a feeling of silliness inside), replied, "I dunno. You can touch my boobs if you want?"

Raph nearly choked, falling backward slightly. "I...um... We're not quite ready to go that far yet, are we?" he stammered.

Autumn laughed, thoroughly enjoying his reaction. She felt as though she wanted to throw him off guard more often just to see him get all nervous - she found it adorable and endearing. She then replied casually, "Technically we've had a pretty physical relationship for a month already." She smiled at him, then continued, "I don't see why we couldn't progress."

He cleared his throat. It's not like he didn't want to progress into that kind of relationship with her. Quite the contrary - he wanted nothing more than to explore every inch of her, preferably without clothing involved. He wanted to taste her, smell her, savor every bit of her... He felt the strain in his lower plastron just thinking about it. And that was the problem - he wasn't sure he could control himself. He was surprised he controlled himself as well as he did for the past month, especially when things got rather hot and heavy between them. He didn't want to cross any lines or overstep any boundaries - he couldn't stand the thought of doing anything to break her trust. He sighed and looked down at her long, perfectly sculpted legs that were folded neatly in his lap, trying not to let his eyes wander to that mysterious V where her legs met. "I don't want to do anything wrong..." he said quietly.

She gave his hands a squeeze. "What would you do wrong?" she asked softly. "We're two consenting adults, what could go wrong?"

He looked up to meet her eyes. "If we start something, I'm afraid I won't have enough control to slow down or stop myself..." he admitted.

Autumn smiled. Without warning, she grabbed his hand and brought it toward her, pressing his palm firmly against her breast. He let out a strangled cry that caught in his throat, but immediately sank into the softness of her, his hand relaxing against her perfect mound. She leaned forward, smiling, and pressed her lips against his once more as she let go of his hand and let him be in charge. She felt so perfect, her soft lips against his and her even softer breast in his hand. Without thinking, he brought his other hand up to find her other breast and gave them both a squeeze, causing her to moan into his mouth. She felt herself growing wet at the sensation, and her musky, aroused scent wafted up from between them. It was almost too much, his tail strained desperately inside of him and just before it sprang forward from beneath his shell, their passion was rudely interrupted.

"What the fuck, dude!" came Leo's voice, angry and demanding. "Not in the dojo!"

They broke apart so fast they were suddenly standing five feet apart from each other and not sure how they got there.

"Gross.." Mikey muttered, and all Raph and Autumn could do was laugh.