Author's Note: Ahh, I can't believe it's taken me so long to update this! It's not a serious story or anything, but I love writing about these kids. I think about them all the time.

Anyway, thanks for reading! To answer a question from Juanita27 – Rockwell is the face of the research company he and Donnie work for (as Rockwell is now human once more). Donnie just works with him privately behind the scenes, and communicates with others via electronic devices when necessary. So he's still in hiding, but thanks to Rockwell, he has a real job. (:


One time, Daniella had joined the cheerleading squad.

It involved everything she loved – being the center of attention, short skirts, and dance. Unfortunately, it also involved working closely with eighteen other girls her age.

That hadn't worked out so well.

And so, after The Mishap (which started as a scathing remark and ended with an all-out cheerleader-filled brawl), Dani had resolved to stick strictly to dancing, which was something she could without having to cooperate with others. So while her twin brother and cousins had all their hobbies, she had her dance – ballet some days, hip hop on others. In fact, one of the few things she and her cousin Mira had in common was their love of music, which made end-of-shift cleanup times at the restaurant all the easier.

"Oh, turn it up!" shouted Mira from the other side of the dining room, and Dani grinned as she leaned over to her speaker, the speedy lyrics of "Bang Bang" filling the air, and whenever the song called for singing, Dani belted out the tunes, while Mira kept perfect pace with every rap portion.

And then, of course, cleaning up afterhours involved a lot of percussion.

"Bang, bang into the room! I know you want to – bang bang!" Dani sang, bouncing around the dining room, pocket change from her earnings jingling in her apron. She and Mira slid by each other expertly, table cleaner bottles in hand, the dining room only half-lit after hours.

"Wait a minute, let me take you there!" they sang loudly, until Mira jumped straight off the ground until one of the tables and grooved side to side.

"It's Myx Moscato, it's frizz in a bottle, It's Nicki full throttle, it's oh, oh, Swimming in the grotto, we winning in the lotto," Mira mimicked perfectly, the effort of many, many hours which probably could have been put to more productive use, but weren't.

Off to the side, Aunt Mel entered, eyed the would-be concert hall/dining room, shook her head and left with a laugh.


At home in the townhouse she shared with her brother and parents, Dani lay on her back, one pedicured foot aimed toward the ceiling as she inspected it, her phone at her side, silent. Damon entered without knocking, and she didn't look away from the critical inspection of her red polish.

"Still hasn't called, huh?" he plopped down on the bed next to her.

Daniella remained stone-faced. "I'm not waiting on him to call. Screw Richie."

"No thank you," Damon said politely, reclining next to her and tilting his head. "Your feet look nice."

"My polish is chipped."

"I can't tell."

Dani turned her head in Damon's direction, and he offered her a smile, which in turn made her relax a little. She dropped her foot and sighed, her stoic expression crumpling a bit. "Why hasn't he called?"

"Either he's busy or he's an idiot."

Daniella made a face and turned to her stomach next to her brother. "Maybe I should just go out with Michael again. That'd make him pay attention." Damon moved a hand behind his head and raised both brows.

He said slowly, "Making guys jealous isn't always the way to go, Dani."

"Well, nothing else works!" she said heatedly, sitting up. "God, everyone is just so stupid! And I have so many cute outfits, and they're just wasted on morons all the time. This is New York City, it has millions of people. And I can't find a guy to go on a date with who isn't boring, lame or a horndog." She reached in her closet and began tossing out clothes, which she had in great abundance and variety. She paused in her perusal and glanced over her shoulder.

"Mira says I attract guys like that because I dress like a tramp."

"Mira shouldn't have said that," Damon said sensibly, sitting up. "And you don't dress like a tramp. You two just have different ideas about what's comfortable and what's not." Dani eyed one of her dresses with disdain, her pretty features twisted.

Different, yeah.

The thing was, there days – moments, even, that changed form from one moment to the next – where Dani felt so confident, so certain of herself, that no one could convince her she was even a shade less than perfect. She was pretty, she knew fashion, she could paint a bitchin' face. She knew how to put together outfits, how to maneuver parties. She could say five words to a guy – and only have three of them be even semi-nice – and get a date, just like that.

But it also felt like a lot of pressure, and sometimes the effort to look nice was exhausting, but god forbid she show up to school looking like Mira, who didn't seem to own a single piece of clothing that wasn't emblazoned with a sports team, or whose hair had rarely seen a brush, much less the conditioner it so badly needed, because it was seriously off the charts frizzy.

And yet Mira had tons of friends, and always seemed so comfortable in her own skin. She didn't put a lot of effort into her appearance, but no one seemed to hold it against her. She didn't dress in baggy clothes because she was self-conscious, she did that because she liked it. And it suited her personality.

For just one day, Dani wished she could get away with that.

Sure, Mira didn't get lots of dates like Dani did, but she never really tried, either. And maybe Dani, with her high-tuned women's intuition was the only one who noticed, but Roman looked at Mira really, really hard sometimes, for way longer than was acceptable by cousin standards (even if they were all adopted cousins, with no DNA shared between them).

Dani didn't care enough to mention it to anyone, and she wouldn't have messed with Roman like that anyway, because despite ample evidence to the contrary, she had a heart. But still, it was just proof that even though Mira did absolutely nothing to attract guys, she had the ability just by her natural charms and graces, something Dani felt she herself was sincerely lacking.

Oh, well. Dani picked out a new outfit to wear on her next date. At least she had her dancing.


Dani liked her parents, but what she liked even more was giving them a hard time. Especially her dad, who had this crazy habit of obsessing over everything, from Dani's too-short shorts to the makeup she'd been expertly applying since fifth grade, even if she had to wait until she got to school to do it, because her parents insisted she was too young.

Once, she'd gotten caught smoking at school – she'd only done it once, honest, and it was mostly to shotgun it with Adam Jakobson, who was the hottest guy in eighth grade at the time. And her dad – the dear scientist/chemist/engineer/inventor/medical doctor/local genius Donatello – had spent the next three months grilling her on the ill effects of smoking, complete with pop quizzes and overly detailed illustrations using real lungs. Gross.

Her mom was a bit more laissez-faire about most things, leaving a great deal of the worrying and top-tier level freakouts to their dad, but she could light into them every one in a while, and it was weird, because one second she'd be the sweet, freckle-faced April, and then two seconds later, it was a literal hellmouth surrounding them and her mother was Satan incarnate.


"Dani and Damy!"

The twins snapped to attention as Raphael approached, and Dani tried to look interested, she really did, but she was cramping something fierce, and her Uncle Raph was a hardass. She'd been in the middle of whispering something to her brother when he'd called on them.

"Since you two are so damn chatty today, you can team up against the other three," said the bulky turtle, pointing to Roman, Mira and Luka, all of whom stood with their weapons ready. The twins glanced at each other, silently agreeing between them that this would not be fun.

Scowling – and earning a dirty look from her uncle – Dani reached to the straps high on her thighs, where she kept her tessen folded and hidden. All of the kids kept their weapons on them at all times, one more quirk in their peculiar-but-not-so-strange lives. Her dad, Donnie, had modified all the weapons for optimal concealment. Dani's black tessen, passed down from her mother, hid easily enough beneath her clothes, and Damon kept his in a similar strap that sat around his waist, below the hem of his pants, like a belt.

In unison, they pulled out their weapons and crouched, and when Uncle Raph called out the signal, the five teens launched at each other.

Dani swung low and went for Mira first, swatting away the katana with a loud clang and twirling deftly, knowing she had more poise and better balance than her shorter cousin, who relied much more on speed and hand skills than anything. A jab, a hit, and one particularly painful knock to the shoulder sent Dani to the dojo floor, but she rolled back up and spun into a full kick, which managed to catch Mira just long enough for Dani to turn and catch the tail of Luka's staff as it swung down on her. She fended him off for a minute, but Damon was battling Roman just behind them, nunchucks to his cousin's chigiriki, and she knew it was only a matter of time before Roman beat him.

Sure enough, Damon went down with a yelp just as Luka and Mira both rounded on Dani again, and within seconds, Luka had cut down low enough to knock her off balance and Roman sent her to the floor with much less power than he could've.

Dani toppled over and landed right on top of Damon with a groan.

"Ahaha," Mira snickered as the others relaxed, but her amusement was cut short by Dani jumping up and launching at her, which ended in an all-out grappling that continued even as the others simply watched with vague interest.

"You are such a brat!"

"Stupid tart!"

"Not my fault if your hormones are making you even crazier than usual!"

"You suck!"

Raphael looked to the others and spoke over the shouting match between the pair of girls still rolling around on the floor. "Anyone else ready for dinner?"

"Yes!" the boys chimed in unison, before turning and leaving the dojo.


Dani stared at her phone again. It was a weekend evening, and normally, she'd be out with some of the people she hung out with at school, or on a date. But not this weekend. She studied the screen with teary eyes, hot and burning tears that made her itchy and angry. "Stupid boys," she hissed at the phone, tossing it down roughly and stomping downstairs, even as her sniffles evolved into full-blown tears. "I hate them, I hate them!"

She began to cry in earnest, and she stopped in the living room, whimpering and feeling very sorry for herself, because she tried being nice sometimes, but it never seemed to suit her, and always ended with boys dating her for a few weeks and then dumping her. A sound outside drew her attention, and she spotted her parents, sitting peacefully on the carefully fencing in back patio to their townhouse. They often sat out there together, with the cushioned bench and the patio swing, drinking tea and enjoying the moonlight.

"Dani?" Damon's voice sounded behind her, and he frowned at her tears. When he followed her gaze to their parents, he touched her arm and then pulled away to pick his guitar up from where it lay against the wall.

Moments later, they stepped out onto the patio with their parents, who looked up in surprise. "Mind if we join you?" asked Damon, and Donnie and April both smiled as their teens joined them. Damon sat on a seat next to his mom, guitar in his lap as Dani crossed the patio in a teary hurry and dropped down directly into Donatello's lap, where he immediately drew her close and pet her head as she whimpered.

"My special Dani," he crooned softly, smiling and secretly enjoying her childishness sometimes, even though he'd never want her to be sad. Sometimes it took this kind of misery for her to curl up with him like she used to when she was little, angry, red little face pressed against his plastron, because someone at school had stolen her Lisa Frank pencil or something like that. "You are so strong and smart, just like your mother," he told her, stroking her hair and holding her close.

Damon strummed on the guitar, and looked across the small patio space to his sister. "Black bird singin' in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly," he sang in a soft, pleasant voice, fingers dancing over the guitar strings, "You were only waiting for this moment to be free."

Sobs falling quiet, Dani relaxed in her father's lap, her eyes falling closed as she listened to her brother sing.

"Black bird fly, black bird fly, into the light of a dark, black night… cause all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise."


Author's Note: Both songs mentioned are, of course, not mine and belong to the Nicki Minaj and Co. and The Beatles, respectively.