*Donnie P.O.V.*

"C'mon!" Leo shouts motioning with his hand for me to follow him.

I do so completely willingly. Following him into the shadows of the ally as a couple humans above us open their windows and look out to see what the ruckus was.

No doubt they thought that there were some rowdy teenagers out here causing problems in their nice part of town. And they wanted to make sure and give them a proper what for.

Hmmm, actually they are right on the money. There are some teenagers out here causing trouble.

Well I mean, there were.

I can't see Mikey or Raph anymore. They had both made it to the top of the apartment building and were now out of sight. And since I didn't see either one of them jump to the other apartment building right across from us. The two of them are probably running the opposite direction from Aprils.

Stupid Mikey, stupid Raph. What about that Gun Mania? I thought they wanted to play it!

Apparently revenge is more important than getting a video game that their caring and incredibly intelligent brother had acquired months before it's official release by using some, ummm, possibly illegal means.

No but it's cool, revenge is more important, I get it.

Hmph.

Leo and I crouch down and stay as still as possible until the last of the humans retreat back into their windows.

"We have to catch up to them," Leo says the moment the last window was shut.

"You're not wrong Leo. But how are we going to catch up? They are probably a mile away by now at least," I explain.

"Well we aren't going to catch them by standing around, let's go," Leo replies simply hopping silently onto a nearby garbage can and latching onto the lowest curtain drawn window.

"Wait," I silently shout, "Why don't I just call them?"

"Like Raph will answer a phone right now. Stop stalling Donnie and let's mov-"

Leo stops talking as something above us jumps off the roof and onto the sidewall of our ally. Whoever it is moves so fast in the shadows that neither of us can properly make out its form. The thing is hoping from one building to the next right above my head instead of just climbing down.

Leo maneuvers his body, planting his feet against the wall of the building. Getting ready to launch himself at the thing. I give a startled jump as whatever it is lands heavily in front of me before taking a simple battle stance.

I hear a snicker, and see a flash of red as the thing steps out of the shadows.

Oh my god.

Raph steps out of the shadows with a satisfied smirk on his face. Leo and I both immediately relax are stances and make our way towards him. Leo jumping off the wall to get there faster.

"How did you do that?" I ask before Leo can start on his incredibly annoying, yet completely justified, lecture. "I couldn't tell it was you at all. And I have studied how all of you move. You jumped down like you were someone else. It was impressive."

Raph's smirk turns into a complete smile, "I've been practicing."

"Rapheal where is Mikey?" asks Leo taking advantage of my comment to calm himself enough to not tell Raph off.

I think he appreciates it.

"Aww I just chased him enough to keep him running. The little pain will be running all night if he knows what's good for him," Raph tells us with a gleam of triumph in his eyes.

He's overestimating Mikey's attention span. He probably already stopped running, just out of boredom.

But I do have to admit that considering what happened Raph didn't respond that badly, he calmed down relatively fast for him.

"We can't just leave him alone. An-and Donne and I almost got caught because of you," Leo says showing his annoyance through his tone.

I gulp and see Raph's eyes narrow.

Oh goodness.

"Because of me!? Why don't you try because of Mikey!" Raph spat back.

See this is why arguments can be so hard. Especially between Leo and Raph. Both of them have a point. But it's hard because Leo just usually has more of a point. And that's got to be hard on Raph, people always telling him that Leo is just that little bit more right every time. Lately I've been trying not to do that as often. Everyone else does it enough.

"Ok listen just a second," I say taking a step between the two. "Look no offense Raph but you smell, why don't you just head back to the lair so that you can have a shower. And Leo can pick up the game. I'll go find Mikey."

Raph huffs, which for him is the equivalent of taking a calming breath, then says "Don't have to tell me twice."

Leo nods taking a step away from Raph now that the situation had simmered down. "Ok Don, but why don't we switch? I can go find Mikey, you don't have to. And April is your close friend. If you want to see her that's fine with me."

Raph stops mid step towards the sewer after Leo says this, obviously curious about my answer.

I feel an initial twinge of annoyance at my brother's insistence to be so interested in anything to do with Apirl and me. But I realized a while ago that it was partially my fault. It's not like I hid my affections from my brothers. I felt no need to. My brothers are my world, for obvious reasons. And you don't hid things from your world for long.

Well, not successfully.

I advertised my crush for April for so long in front of them that it's no wonder that they are concerned. And slightly irritated.

Trust me. I have no illusions that they are both.

Do I want to see April?

Well hell yes I do! I still love hanging out with her. And I still am hanging out with her! Thank you very much my judgmental bros.

Except it's usually because I'm helping her study, or because she's in the lair and wants to hang out with me.

If I show up alone at her house right now, then she is going to think that I'm still interested or something. That I may want to ruin what Casey and her have, or worse, that I want to try and ruin our friendship by flirting with her alone.

Well I don't want to do any of that. Really I don't! I've been trying hard not to do anything that would be considered flirting or acting unnatural like I used to do.

I mean, I'm trying. It's a work in process.

Long story short I just don't think I should see her like this. Not yet.

After an unnaturally long pause I finally answer Leo, "Naw Leo its fine, I spend way more time with her than you do. And you're her friend to. I'll go get Mikey, he's less likely to flee from me than either of you two."

Win him over with logic Donnie. At least pretend that you are tricking him with logic.

Leo and Raph give me shared looks of unconvinced faces. But quickly enough Raph simply resumes his march towards the sewers, and Leo answers, "Ok Donnie, just be careful. And your right, it has been awhile since I've spent some time with April."

I smile.

"Just make sure not to let her kiss ya Leo, she's all over enough men,"Raph says right before he jumps into the sewer.

What the? Wait a second. Did he just make fun of April? Why would he make fun of April!? Me I understand, I'm the crazy one, but no one makes fun of April!

"Hey!" I yell taking a step towards the manhole, but Leo stops me with a calm but firm hand over my plastron.

I turn towards him, I can feel the anger boiling in my gut. "Did you hear him?" I ask, "He just made fun of April. How dare he! She did nothing wrong she-"

"Donnie," Leo says interrupting me, "There's no need to tell me, and Raph isn't here now. Just go find Mikey and I'll meet you back home. We'll talk about this later."

Fine I'll leave. But we will talk about this later.