The lair door opened noiselessly as Leonardo crept just as silent to his room. Before his abrupt exit approximately ten hours prior he had participated in yet another trying differ between himself and immediate younger brother. Well, more like a competition to see who's lungs and, or vocal cords could last the longest under stress. He could never truly remember what all had exactly been said, when you've argued with Raph once, each brawl is too similar to tell apart from the others.

Either way, it had ended with himself having a greater need to blow off the extra steam. Raphael seemed to ignite it using his own flaring, and often out of control temper. Leonardo was surprised at first when Master Splinter had suggested he be the one to head up top. But trusting his sensei, he left without a word.

Closing his door silently, he noticed the clock by his bedside. Figuring he had at least a solid hour for meditation before he had other things he needed to do. Sitting in lotus as he was trained to since his Father first taught him to center himself.

Calming his breathing he reflected on how unbalanced his brothers had been recently, causing him to grimace at their behavior. They acted as if something crawled down their shell and died. Donnie hadn't come out of his lab for anything, not even coffee. He'll have to come out sooner or later for more though. He'd talk with him then.

Let's not forget Mikey, his youngest brother's behavior had seemed to shock him the most. It was almost as if his personal source of energy, and sunshine ran dry, depressing the usually boisterous turtle. Instead of pranking Raph, bugging Donnie, or telling him whatever was wrong to get it off his chest, and make him feel better. He just let whatever negative thoughts that triggered this sullen mood continuously drag him down further.

But what was more difficult than watching his baby brother's, bright eyes go dim, was dealing with Raphael's almost constant anger. He was out nearly every night except recently. He had been on his own self delusional 'war path' so long he had scared all lowlife into hiding, and they hadn't heard anything from the Foot, and only individual or small groups of purple dragons that he supposed had gotten impatient with their orders to lay low.

He himself felt off balanced more oft than naught. His focus would vanish when he needed it most, and would have to work twice as hard on his battle strategies during their once nightly, now monthly, patrols. He meditated more than anything now, but it still didn't seem to help, nor explain the feeling that he was missing something.

He used to internally boast in his success over his brothers about the ease with which he could enter the spiritual plane. Now, his thoughts took longer to chase down and get rid of, using up too much time and spiritual energy needed to help keep the peace in his clan. He was afraid he was starting to fight a losing war.

Straining to find something that could help him, his mind wandered involuntarily back to the bright eyed, beauty he had encountered earlier that morning. As he envisioned her as he last saw, an unexplained peace calmed his nerves. And when he remembered how her hair billowed in the wind, gently removing it from her face, his heart fluttered, and he felt tendrils of excitement curl in his abdomen.

His heart thundered as he realized his astral projection was in a meadow filled with flowers. He turned at the sound of a sweet and alluring voice, and wandered forward in search of the sirens call. The closer he came to the warm, flowing voice, oddly, the more at ease he felt.

"Bows and flows of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, and feathered canyons everywhere. I've looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the sun, they rain and snow on everyone. So many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow. It's clouds illusions I recall. I really don't know clouds, at all."

He searched further on, until he reached a lake shore and there he found her, sitting in the sand. She wore a yellow sundress, long gorgeous brown locks cascading down her back, nearly touching the sand. He hid in the closest tree to her, not wanting to scare nor disgust this lovely hime.*

"Tears and fears and feeling proud, to say I love you right out loud, dreams and schemes and circus crowds. I've looked at life that way.

But now old friends are acting strange, they shake their heads, they say "I've changed" But some things lost and some thing gained, in living everyday."

He enjoyed the lilting melody as it soothed his soul, and warmed him thoroughly.

"I've looked at life from both sides now, from win and lose and still somehow. I'ts life's illusions I recall, I really don't know life at aBEEEEEEP

"Huh..." Leo startled at the obnoxious noise blaring from his alarm clock. As he hit the off button he marveled at the peace he felt when thinking of the woman from earlier. Granted his thoughts of her took a turn he wasn't expecting.

He scoffed lightly at his internal and somewhat unwanted musings. Somewhere inside himself however, he could hear a voice calling him a liar, but shook the feeling and labeled the female and thoughts as distracting while he headed to the dojo for some much needed practice.


Donatello hung up after he finished, politely as he could, explaining to the elderly man that, "Yes, Your computer is supposed to do that." and "No, smacking it won't unjam anything nor help in receiving a 'signal'." He stretched his legs out and mentally groaned. This time of morning always tried his patience the most. It seemed all the old, old people enjoyed waking at the crack of dawn.

He put his headset down with a sigh and rubbed at his eyes, causing his glasses to momentarily rest against his forehead. Sigh. He needed more coffee, but he didn't want to leave neither his lab nor chair. There wasn't anything to fix, invent, or create, his job gave him headaches at times, and he and his brothers hadn't been to the surface lately, so no injuries needed tending to.

If he was downright honest, he'd say he was feeling utterly useless. But he wasn't, and was happily drowning in de-nile whilst contemplating whether or not restocking his coffee reserves was worth enduring the hurricane called Raph, and or his only little brothers gloomy aura.

Quickly deciding he needed his coffee Donnie took quiet, hesitant steps out of his lab and towards the kitchen, noting the slight grunts from Leo in the dojo and Raph's obnoxious snores broadcasting his presence in his natural habitat of wrestling posters and weights. Not hearing anything from the living room area, Donnie counted himself lucky, as it meant Michelangelo was in his room.

Arriving at his destination he searched each cupboard and nearly whined when he realized he was completely out. Taking out his phone he quickly called April, unfortunately she wasn't available. Looks like he'll need to head up top himself, but not before doing some research.

Hastening back to his sanctum he quickly put in a search for coffee shops that sold large quantities of coffee at reasonable prices, is near by, and open at this hour. Looking through his findings he dismissed two immediately for their affiliations and dirty money, three for their location and another two that just didn't have good coffee, he used to drink it because it was cheap and caffeine, but after they met April she had given him a taste of the good stuff, and he didn't dare go back. That left him with two, Starbucks or a new local coffee house named Lil' Hawks. Starbucks was a tad too expensive so he clicked on the link for Lil' Hawks Coffee & Treats.

Browsing through the information given on the shop piqued his curiosity. Dressing in record time and he was off to see if it was as good as the reviews said. He knew it was nearing daylight, but due to the early hour he hoped there weren't too many people out, besides, they're always too busy to pay them any attention anyway.

Briskly traversing the numerous tunnels carved into the underbelly of the big apple, Donnie made the bulk of his trip underground. Popping up a few blocks from the shop he was glad when he realized he beat the morning throng of bustling humans running behind schedule. Peering through the front window of the homey little shop he saw only a few people inhabiting the place currently, and walked in.

As he opened the door a small bell chimed overhead alerting the worker that someone new had arrived.

"Welcome to Lil' Hawks. How may I help you?" The worker was a shaggy haired, college student. He seemed polite despite his baggy clothes and scraggly beard.

Approaching the counter he made sure to keep his head down and hands hidden.

"Yes; Do you sell your coffee in large amounts?" Nodding the young man replied.

"Yes, indeed we do. wo.."

"NAG DONNIT!"

Donatello raised an eye-ridge at the interesting words chosen by the now irate female in the back.

"Pardon, my boss is still trying to get the old phone in the back to work. She's been messing with it for a while now."

"Why doesn't she just replace it?" The workers shoulders slumped.

"Can't afford it. And I don't mean the new phone. When my boss purchased the place she only fixed everything up, it was to expensive to buy everything new. So when she looked into fixing the phone, she ended up finding out that anybody in town able to fix it wasn't within the budget to do so, and replacing the phone would mean tearing out all the phone wires and reattaching new ones, and she'd be paying for a new number as well."

"Not in the budget for that either?" The young man shook his head.

"She's got a book for dummy's on electrical wiring right now, mostly just trying to see if she understands how it works."

Donnie grinned in amusement as he continued to hear colorful yet non-vulgar curses erupt from the back room. He decided to take pity on the poor woman and offer assistance.

"I'm pretty handy with electrical wiring and programming. Would she mind if I take a look at it?" The employee quickly shook his head.

"No, go right ahead. I'm sure she'd love some help. Wait here."

As he headed towards the back Donnie was unsure if what he had done was a good idea.


N'vea nearly let out another string of expletives as the plastic covering over the old rotary phone slammed back down on her fingers. She let out a frustrated breath, she was never going to figure this out! Not because she had trouble understanding, but because she didn't have the time nor patience to remember essentially useless knowledge for her life. Leave the details to the passionate geeks, that was fine with her, she just didn't like it.

"Miss Torin the man who just came says he's good with this stuff if you need help." N'vea sighed in relief as she quickly followed her only employee out front.

Standing there was a tall man wearing a dark hoodie, jeans and boots. The mans hood covered his whole face as if he didn't want to be seen, his posture indicating the same. N'vea looked him over.

He's hiding something, but that's probably just himself. His clothes and uncomfortable stance means he doesn't come out often, but when he does he doesn't like it. He's also not comfortable in those clothes. Whatever he's hiding from is no skin off my nose, might as well let him help.


Donnie held his breath as the woman he had heard earlier came around the corner. She had on a yellow top and long denim skirt. Her eyes were a gorgeous blue green color, like the tropical crystal blue and jade green waters warred over which would be the dominate presence of her irises. Beautiful creamy pink tinged cheeks, small but pouty mouth, and petite nose with a small sprinkle of freckles.

Donnie barely registered it when she waved her hand in front of his face.

"Huh..Oh! My apologies. You were saying?"Thankful that the curvaceous female before could not see his face, Donnie followed her as she gestured for him to do so. Walking behind the counter and into the kitchen area Donnie's nose caught a whiff of something explicitly sweet cooking. He must have made a noise at the smell because the hime gave him a small smile over her shoulder. At that his heart stuttered. He'd have to take a look at that when he got home.

"Here it is. Think you can still help?" She pointed to the propped open wall hung rotary phone. Good lord he hadn't seen one of those in eons! Nodding to the hime he turned his back to her as to block her view of his hands as he began to work.

Not five minutes later and he was done.

"You know, I really appreciate the help. The names N'vea, by the way." She held out her hand for him to shake. Thinking on his feet he covered his hand with the handkerchief he used to wipe his hands on. Grasping her hand firmly he told her his name while trying not to churr at her scent. She smelled..heavenly.

"Nice to meet your acquaintance, Donatello." The way she said his name, like it was meant to be. With an Italian pronunciation.

"You as well, Miss N'vea." He quickly remembered to pocket his hand after she released it.

"How much do you charge?"

"Huh..Oh! N-nothing. Free of charge." Dang it! He stuttered.

"Well, how about some free coffee and homemade doughnuts then?"

"I-I don't know.."

"Please. It's the least I can do since you've fixed my dinosaur of a phone."

He doesn't know how, but he ended up getting four different types of coffee, three homemade doughnuts, and a croissant. In return he had given her his personal phone number, in case she needed help with the phone or any other electronics again. He had laughed when she referred their situation as a symbiotic relationship. He walked home feeling as if a weight had been lifted from his chest.