"Aoede, is everything okay here?" M.C. asked, Mikey starting to sniff the air.
"Uh, yeah, what's a safer place to have a conversation with someone who hates you than when surrounded by other people. Right?" I was starting to walk away and both Raph and Mikey grabbed my arms.
"You need to tell me the truth right now." Mikey growled while Raph chirred.
I felt my blood turn to ice and on instinct I looked to M.C. for an assist. He simply smiled and shrugged in the most unhelpful of ways imaginable. I sighed in annoyance as M.C. started to catch a whiff of the air around us. "Fine, you want the truth Mikey?" I challenged as I met his cold gaze.
"That's all I've ever wanted from you." He replied, yanking me out of Raph's grip when he tried to pull me back to him. "You need to go chill out bro! We are having a serious conversation here!"
Mikey then literally pushed Raph away from us. If looks could kill, then the young turtle would be a bloody mess on the dance floor. I then changed the game and grabbed his hand and M.C.'s as I sprinted through the crowd before shit could escalate.
"The truth is; I'm really a turtle. One of the first tests that I had gone through was removing my shell and plastron to see if reptiles to could survive if modified." I told them as I pulled us to the bar.
"Wait, what? You're really a turtle?! That actually explains a lot." I could hear M.C. say as I dropped their hands to pull on my jacket and beanie.
"Yeah, that's why they started separating us for a week every month near the end." I replied with an out of breath smile as I popped my collar. "Now where is your guys place? I've been done with Momma for the last five years and am ready to bail."
"This is it. We live here, both upstair and down." M.C. answered, holding his arms out and looking around at the party.
"Shit, well, where can we go to get away from hothead?" I clarified.
"Ah, come on, we'll go to my room." M.C.'s mischievous smile had me on edge. I looked to Mikey but he just pushed past me, the death grip on my wrist told me that wasn't the truth he wanted. I obviously followed them, pushing through the drunk animals around us as I kept an eye out for Raph.
'I had no idea that he would react like that. WHY IN THE HELL DID HE KISS ME?' I had to back burner those thoughts after I tripped over the back of my own heel. 'Gods what is wrong with me?! Did I have more to drink than I thought?'
I really must have because I didn't even think to catch myself and just fell onto Mikey. Said turtle boy looked at me in shock as he caught me under the arms. "Sorry." I murmured, righting myself with a wobble.
"Get on." Mikey replied, turning around and crouching to offer me his back. The gesture really warmed my heart. My thoughts then changed without warning to the guy before me. They were all the things that I had told myself that I couldn't think about because I would fall for him over.
"Piggy back!" I squealed as I literally jumped onto his back, the fact that my face was numb finally caught up to me. Mikey stumbled a little but then chuckled and took off in a sprint as I cheered, yeah the tequila had finally hit full force. I had to hold on tight as he took a flight of stairs at the same speed. "You're really getting a work out!" I called out.
"Haha, nah you aren't THAT heavy." Mikey teased as I slid off his back. I giggled lamely before I noticed that Mikey's face didn't match the tone of his voice. I grew more serious then, for about a second before I started out right laughing because I had noticed his shirt.
"Mikey, your shirt! It's too much for me to stay focused, you should take it off." I slurred, sauntering up to him and reaching for his shirt collar.
Mikey stopped me though by grabbing my wrists, his tight grip not letting me reach my destination. I looked into his eyes as my skin were burning under his, maintaining his gaze while I tried to free myself. Mikey held my wrists so still they didn't even budge. His expression was anything but positive, so I pulled even harder now in confusion. "Let me go if you don't want me touching you Mikey."
I don't know what snapped in him, and I don't remember either of us moving. Yet I suddenly found myself incapable of breathing properly with my arms spread out to the sides. Mikey's lips were the reason why I couldn't breathe and they were moving vigorously against mine. What I also couldn't figure out where how mine were moving with his without me telling them too.
"If you're done eatin' her face, I wanna show Aoede the place." M.C. said from out of the blue. I jumped violently breaking the kiss to stare at the annoyed turtle. Mikey finally let go off my wrists after an attempt to reclaim my mouth failed and he had gotten my cheek.
"Maybe just your room for the night M.C.? I don't think I'll be remembering much of tonight at this rate." I managed to get out without falling as the room spun.
"Ha! You're a lightweight!" M.C. teased.
"Do you want me to get more drunk?" I asked with slight annoyance.
"Nah, I want you to sober up a bit first and THEN get you more drunk." He returned as I stumbled my way to him. "Fine, imma need some pickles then...and crackers. Where's your water?" I asked as I made my way to what looked like a blurry kitchen area. It was decently clean for at least four guys living here.
"Yeah it's over here." M.C. told me, the sound of crinkling plastic following his words. "As for pickles and crackers, we'll need to get back down stairs for those."
I nodded as I spun around too fast for my equilibrium to keep up with. M.C. thankfully had been walking towards me so his arms kept my face from meeting his floors. I could feel him laughing at me as his chest bounced my head, his arms tightening into a hug. I felt so safe right then with M.C. holding me, just like the old times. Likewise I nuzzled my face into his open jacket and took deep, even breaths.
"Hey now, no fallin' asleep yet! I still need to see these dance moves Mikey keeps raving about." My best friend teased.
"Mikey...you told him about that!" I whined, not caring to move my head.
"You know I can't keep something so amazing a secret." Mikey returned, finally speaking since our moment. He walked past us to what I'm going to guess was the fridge and paused after opening it. He looked to M.C. in silence and I felt him move his arms a few times.
"What are you looking for Mikey?" I asked, not remember that I wasn't at my apartment.
"I'm sorry, have you been here before?" Mikey asked while M.C. snickered as quietly as he could.
"Oh shit!" I exclaimed before tearing out of M.C.'s arms and looking for the wall. "You need to be quiet. This place is bugged, I don't want Momma to kill you."
"Aoede, were at M.C. and his bro's place, we are all safe." Mikey told me, noticing the panic in my now frantic movements as I easily lifted up one end of the couch.
"Yeah, please don't wreck the place, this stuff was hard to steal." M.C. added as I just dropped the couch.
"Safe� I need to go pull money from my account before I stay with you guys." I was stuck in "freak out" mode and there was almost no stopping me.
"Why? Do you have a lot?" M.C. asked.
"Yeah, I've got close to seven hundred and fifty k in savings." I answered while I tried to find my work phone. "Shit! Where's my phone?" I asked myself.
"Um, it's going off in your ass?" M.C. asked, confusing me. I pulled my phone out to see that I was missing a call from Raph. I have missed a lot of calls from him, as well as messages, most of them asking where I was.
"Nah bro, that's the one I gave her. She's got one that Momma Bear can hack into. Hey Aoede, did you leave it at the phone check-in? That's why we suggested having one." Mikey asked me while explaining to M.C.
"Yes! Thank you. There's a specific thing on there that I need in order to make a full withdrawal." I told them while my moment of intense clarity faded back into a groggy haze.
I fell onto the couch, intentionally, with an "oomph" and moaned softly while the world spun behind my eyes. I felt someone sit on the couch near my head so I turned and laid my head on their lap, regardless of who it was. Until they chuckled and said; "Still cuddly I see."
It was M.C. who had said that and I relaxed even further. Until he shook my shoulder telling me to drink water. "She has never cuddled before, I don't think she ever even cuddled with Raph." Mikey breathed. I shook my head no to confirm his theory as I sat up and allowed M.C. to pour said liquid into my mouth.
"I just have that charm." M.C. bragged, he stopped pouring in order for me to swallow and allowed me to lean on his shoulder once the bottle was empty.
"Well, if she really did go through Hell with ya, then it can't be helped." Raph's voice cut through the air.
"What are you doing here bro?" Mikey asked, his words were filled to the brim with underlying warnings.
"There's only one other place to check when you weren't in the basement." Came Raph's surprisingly calm response. There's was silence after that and then a loud impacting sound shattered it. "What the hell Mikey?!" Raph shouted.
M.C. settled into the couch a little more and then wrapped an arm around my waist as there were sounds of impacts going on in front of us. I cracked my eyes open to see the brothers fighting each other, eyes white and no holds barred. I made a movement to stop them, but M.C. just squeezed me tighter. "You started this, now let 'em finish." M.C. murmured against my ear while the brother's yelled at each other.
"Why aren't you trying anything?" I asked since it was the first thought in my mind.
"I have a little more self-control than them, ya know? Plus your injuries remind me of then. If you didn't have 'em then I wouldn't have let anyone touch you." M.C. answered, no jokes to his tone. I merely nodded and laid my head back onto his shoulder as Mikey somehow managed to get Raph into a headlock!
"Give up Raph! I won't let you win this time!" Mikey screamed.
Raphael didn't though and was looking at me for help. It was breaking my heart and I didn't want to hurt him again so soon. "Mikey, stop. You win, I declare it." I interjected, the youngest Hamato looking to me as if he didn't recognize me.
M.C. sighed beside me but said nothing, simply rubbed my arm before letting me go. I immediately went to the pair in front of us. Mikey's face was swollen on the left side, the same as Raph who was starting to go limp in his arms. I looked back to Mikey, hands up in a non-threatening manner and gently touching his arms around Raph's neck. Mikey dropped him and Raph fell to the floor with a solid "thud!"
I knelt to check that the red-favouring turtle still had a pulse. I smiled once I found it and stood back up, my gaze going back to Mikey. His eye shields had retracted at one point as he looked between me and his brother. "What did I do?" He asked as he started at his busted knuckles.
"You fought Raph over who was better for Aoede." M.C. answered like he was reporting the weather.
"What? Is that why you guys were fighting? If that's how this is going to be then-"
"Shut up 13." M.C. cut me off before I could drunkenly say something else stupid. "You did this when you started talking to Raph, own up that you played both of them." He growled. I turned to him in shock, but the truth was slowly making its way through my muddled mind. I looked to him apologetically and then back to Mikey, tears springing in my eyes once more.
"He's right." I whispered, dropping my head in shame. "I didn't mean to make you fall for me, I needed a life line and you weren't giving up on me. I didn't mean for things to escalate with Raph like they did. I honestly thought that he would kill me once he found out and I would have let him."
"I wasn't giving up on you because I loved you long before we were talking. I thought that I finally had a chance with Raph outta the picture. I wish you would've just told me you wanted to try to fix your friendship? I would have told you how I felt right then!" Mikey unloaded and he had grabbed my chin so I knew he wasn't bullshitting me.
"I just want to know what you think of me." He added when I just stared into his eyes my awe-struck silence probably not helping his courage.
"I think...I think that you're my best friend Mikey. I don't ever want to lose you, but with my M.C. back with the memories of us, it just made things worse." I confessed.
"Hey! Don't bring me into this!" M.C. shouted from the couch.
"How does he make things worse?" Mikey asked at the same time.
"We promised each other to get married if we ever escaped." My words hung in silence over our heads.
"You remembered that?" M.C. asked in a whisper.
"Yes, but I do like Mikey more than a friend and I still have feelings for Raph. For now I think the safest thing to do would be to pick no one." I replied. "Especially since we are going to start working together. In the beginning it would only complicate things between everyone if I chose someone and it caused tension either within one group or between the two of you." I was no longer drunk, that much I could tell.
"That's fair and smart. I'm glad that Goodies packet I added to your water is working." M.C. said as he got up and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.
"But what about when things get settled?" Mikey asked, leaning down to wrap one of Raph's arms around his shoulders so he could deadlift him off the floor and then dump him on the couch.
"Let's cross that bridge when we get to it? Right now I want to focus on getting free from Momma and living long enough to get to then." I turned in M.C.'s arm to look at Mikey while answering and saw him throw a blanket over his older brother.
"You also wanted to pull your savings while you still could." Mikey reminded me.
"Yes, I'm going to buy the Moon theater." I declared. The guys just looked at me weird and then looked to each other for clarification. "Buster is holding the singing competition to try and make money to pay some of his debts. The man sleeps in one of the desk drawers." I added.
"Oh, okay, that's why he was so excited that we were willing to add a free demo making session with us to the prize. Raph and I thought it would be a great way to find new, raw and real talent from our own backyard. Then Leo gave us the go ahead." Mikey explained to me.
"I owe all of you guys big time. I love that place, it's been a sanctuary for me. I was even willing to join the competition because Mr. Moon thought I would draw a crowd." I sighed happily before choking on my vocal chords as M.C. spun me to him.
"Please sing for us tonight?! We might actually get some good sleep!" He begged.
"Yes, I will! You know I will always sing for you guys." I said as M.C. hugged me tightly as he cheered and I giggled.
