Leatherhead splashed some water from the sink that his friend, Donatello had installed in his lair, on his face and wished that he had a mirror of some sort so that he may take in his appearance.

He felt that there was just something off about him. He felt tired. More so than usual. Perhaps because of the dreams he had started having since the middle of June or July- Funny that he couldn't recall when the dreams had started.

Just that they had started around the time he had been thinking of how lonely he was. After all, despite his sometimes uneven temperment, he was a male. And a damn good one too.

His height and bulk would be an asset to any female he chose as a mate. And with his intellect and protective personality to drive him, his mate would remain safe and sound and under his care until they both died of old age. Ah, but there lay part of the problem.

He could never mate while on Earth.

Humans were far too fragile and delicate to handle his passions without perishing during coupling. Not only that but here he was simply considered a mindless monster. Something to be hunted then destroyed.

And he hated that fact.

Hated knowing that whenever he tried to reach out to someone they would run from him screaming in terror. Hated knowing that he would never go home or have children. He splashed a little more water on his face while attempting to squelch the feelings of disappointment and anger churrning in his gut.

He had been cheated out of everything... It saddened him really, though he hid it quite well.

Reaching out he turned off the tap and then straightened his spine and closed his eyes for a moment and tried to focus on the projects he had to get done today.

He opened his eyes and was about to get started when his nose picked up a strange scent coming from his skin. The scent was distinct, and smelled of Chai spice with a touch of honey to it. It smelled like the sweetest of delicacies. It smelled like, like...her.

The addmission was both startling and a little bit frightening to him since he couldn't recall who exactly she was. Nor how her scent came to be on his skin. But it was there. Mixed with the smell of sweat, musk and sex. All of which mixed with his own scent causing him to go into a panic.

Oh dear god- How had another scent gotten on him? And why did he smell sex?

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She lay in her bed staring off into space, the alarm clock next to her bed blaring Paula Abdul's, Cold Hearted Snake.

The lyrics piercing through the semi thick fog of her mind as she tried to recall how she had met her special night time visitor. It had been between the months of June and July, hadn't it? Back when she had been staying at the beach house and caught a glimpse of something between seven- nine feet if you included the long tail- splashing around in the waters just off the dock where she had been standing.

She recalled seeing the figure moving back and forth through the waters, slicing through the small waves like a knife and pulling out her cell to take a picture. Her mind awhirl with questions and excitment. After all for all she knew the thing was a new speices of salt water fish. Never before descovered. But the second her cell's flash had gone off the creature's head jerked violently in her direction and angled it's body to ram the dock.

Her jade green eyes met and held with narrowed, angry looking golden yellow eyes and realized too late that she had caught the creatures attention. It's body rammed the rotting wood of the dock and with a startled shriek she suddenly found herself airborn mere moments before she hit the water and sank to avoid some of the planks of heavy wood raining down on her.

She didn't recall much after that. Only little snippets of memory.

Things like having her life flash before her eyes and cussing out one of her teachers when she had been in the third grade.

Then the fear hit her. She was alone in the water with something that was obviously intelligent enough to not want it's picture taken. But that didn't mean it intelligent enough to know that she couldn't swim.

She could recall her vision fading in and out a few times. She could recall seeing the creature circling over her head lazily. Could recall the shape and outline of it's body. The long legs and arms, the claw tipped hands, the long snout attached to it's head. The emerald colored scales that ran along it's snout and back, and the paler almost mint colored ones running down his lower jaw, neck and stomach.

Then she recalled seeing those yellow gold eyes of it's up close as her body came to rest on the bottom. She could make out it's snout much closer now along with all the razor sharp teeth. It stared at her for what seemed like a moment or two, daring her to do something.

So she had, as stupid as it was- she had reached out and very gently ran her fingertips along it's- No wait, that was wrong. It was a he. Not an it, thing, or creature- a he- and as she ran her fingers along his snout she hadn't been able to suppress her smile of awe.

Even in the dark, murky depths, he was beautiful.

She saw his eyes widen in suprise then a second later everything went black. A few moments after that she came to coughing up water while someone carried her out of the water and wheezed, "D-Did you s-see him?" To the person carrying her. Not realizing at that moment that it was the creature.

She heard a soft almost growling voice ask in a disgruntled tone, "See who?" And for a second felt her heart stop beating in her chest as she felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow.

"No one. Never mind." She said as she lay her head against the shoulder of the one who carried her and closed her eyes. Suddenly feeling very tired. When next she opened her eyes she was laying on the porch swing of her beach house with an overly large white- lab coat?- draped over her.

Pushing her wet hair back from her face and rubbed her eyes before she noticed the large four toed foot prints on the wood leading up to the swing then back down again and thought, Holy shit!

She suddenly felt lucky to be alive.

Ever since that night however, she had been visited by the creature every night. First he had wanted to retrieve his coat and check on her to make sure that her close brush with the grim reaper had left no adverse affects on her. The second time he had visited her was when she had fallen asleep on the beach after a few hours of star gazing.

She remembered a large hand gently shaking her for a moment or so, then as the night went on and the temperature dropped- she had awoken covered once again by the overly large lab coat with a small fire several feet away and the creature had been sitting there on the other side of the flames. Just staring at her with those unblinking eerie golden yellow eyes of his.

"You're still here-" She said almost weakly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around as if she were puzzled about where she was and how she had gotten there.

"I couldn't just leave you in such a defensless state-" He replied absently, watching her expression for any traces of fear. After all who in their right mind wouldn't be afriad to be near a two ton seven foot (nine feet if you count the tail) alien crocodile. "Especially when you were being so difficult to wake."

She made a humming sound and muttered an apology, completely dismissing the fact that he was a talking crocodile. Probably giving him the impression that she had no common sense at all. But honestly she was impressed that he could speak. She merely thought it rude to point that fact out, that's all. Pushing herself upright, she looked down at the coat as it slipped from around her shoulders to pool around her waist and said, "I took you're jacket again..."

"You looked like you needed it. You were shivering rather violently."

"Oh, sorry-" She said as she carefully folded his lab coat and held it out to him. Nudging a well defined bicep with the hand holding his coat. Slowly, and cautiously, he reached out and took the coat from her and glanced back at her and noted that she was cold again.

Making a low growling sound in the back of his throat he grasped her wrist his hand as she started to pull it back, and dragged her over to where he was and then lifted her up and placed her in his lap and curled his tail around her waist and slipped his coat on and pulled the corners forward until she was covered by the fabric too. "Um..." She started to say in a nervous tone before he shushed her by pointing to the sky and saying in a slightly demanding tone.

"Quiet. I want you to watch the stars with me."

After that she had fallen into an awkward sort of silence, broken only by her companion when he pointed out a cluster of stars and told her it's name. It had occurred to her then that he may be seeking her out of loneliness or companionship.

And she hadn't had the heart to send him away.