Mikey kept his promise. He thought he'd get into the lair early, so he could prepare everything he needed in the kitchen. A plan meant to minimise the potential mess, which didn't feel like a natural train of thought for Mikey.

He didn't expect Raphie to be already up, sitting in front of the TV watching back episodes of his show. Mikey quickly jumped the safety gate at the turnstiles, his landing catching Raphie's hearing. The boy shot up and sprinted to Mikey.

"You're here!" Raphie squealed as Mikey picked him up and sat the boy on his hip. "Are we gonna cook?"

"Yeah. But I've just got to get the kitchen ready first. I can only imagine how everyone left it last night."

Raphie nodded solemnly. "It's bad."

"Great." Mikey threw his head back and groaned in exasperation, earning a giggle from Raphie.

It was a good start to the day.

-:-

"Ok bud, we've gotta pour the flour first then be add in the other stuff."

"Ok, Dad."

Mikey crowded behind Raphie, who he had standing on a stool. He carefully guided Raphie through the recipe. Raphie listened carefully, treating every instruction like it was the word of God.

It was nice. Peaceful. An incredibly important bonding experience.

And Mikey loved the guy he really did, but he couldn't help the groan of frustration that slipped his lips when Pete barrelled in.

"I can hear the oven running! What are we making?"

"Cupcakes!"

"Cupcakes?" Pete mimicked Raphie's enthusiasm. He leaned over the counter and peered into the bowl. "Not normally what I go for, but a crumbs a crumb. What flavour?"

"Vanilla," Mikey said, trying to not grit his teeth. "What are you doing here, Pete?"

"I'm meeting April here." Pete tilted his head and leaned against the kitchen counter. "The pizza boy asked about you and she wants to tell you not to talk to him."

"Uhhh." Raphie started to squirm in Mikey's arms, clearly getting bored. "Hold on buddy. What are you talking about?"

"April knows you're here to hang out with Raphie. She's going to try and talk to you. You don't need that right now. I'm gonna drag her off somewhere."

"Where exactly? Should I be worried?"

Pete just shrugged. "Nah." Mikey nodded and turned his attention to helping Raphie stir the batter. "You should be careful though."

"Why?"

"You like this guy, right?" Mikey stalled his movements and stared wide eyed at Pete. "I just don't want to see you get your heart broken."

Pete shot up and flew suddenly out of the kitchen, leaving Mikey stunned and stuttering.

-:-

Mikey wasn't stupid. Naive maybe but not stupid. He knew that his stupid little crush on Woody was never going to end in a marriage with a white picket fence, 2.5 kids and a dog. That was never going to be his life. His life was the sewers with three kids and New York's most genetically unfortunate.

He knew that.

Which meant he couldn't get his heart broken.

And it was sweet that Pete was worried about Mikey's heart but the whole Woody situation didn't run that deep. Mikey liked hanging out with him. It made him feel younger, like the teenager he could have been if he weren't a mutant.

So, against his better judgement and the opinions of everyone around, he hung around Woody, still going topside for weekly pizzas.

"I need to do something outside of the sewers that isn't fighting, or food runs or any other mutant madness. Ok. He's just a dumb teenager who thinks I'm also just a dumb, green teenager. What do you want me to do? Oh, hey Woody, remember that time you lead me away for a month where I abused illegal substances and abandoned my responsibilities, including three toddlers who happen to be my kids? Oh, you didn't know about that last part? Yeah that'll go down well!"

He hadn't realised he was shouting. Dammit.

"Just make sure you use protection," Slash replied glibly. Mikey threw a chair at his head.

Just like old times.

-:-

Mikey knew he didn't have the best attention to detail. And his spatial awareness had dropped dramatically since he stopped regular patrols.

So, he knew when he saw a shadow flit in the corner of his vision, when he heard the quiet foot falls that his follower wasn't hiding from him.

But as quickly as Mikey realised she was there, she was gone.

After almost three years, Karai was back in New York.

-:-

"You can't hide in the sewers forever. She killed your father!"

"You don't know that, April."

"Oh please! It was either her or Shredder!"

"And I don't want to know! If all you want is a fight, leave me alone."

To her credit April did leave, but Mikey knew someone else would be down soon enough.

Which was fair because he had practically locked himself in the dojo for two days, training nonstop. He was wasting his latest curfew allowances. But he made a point of eating, playing with the boys and sleeping. Rockwell conceded he was working through this as productively as he could and let him be.

That being said, Mikey had only opened the door to April in the first place because he'd had the passing thought that since the boys could walk, it was time to start training them.

That really scared him. He didn't want to impose that kind of fear on them. And none of them had really shown enough interest in training for Mikey to consider letting them do it even as a hobby.

Karai was going to be his problem. Never his children's.

Another hour of katas and sword practice later, Slash walked in. Calm and concrete, the way he always was.

"Wanna know something weird?"

"What, kid?"

"You just know what I need. And you used to hate me. "

"Thanks, I guess?" Slash shrugged a little. He smiled but Mikey couldn't help but feel the guy looked nauseous.

"You gonna train with me?"

"Nah. We need to talk about Karai."

"She's back." Mikey couldn't come up with much else. That was kind of it and his brain was doing one hell of a job not feeling anything about that one specific fact.

"Rockwell says she came on business and just happened to find you. His mole hasn't been privy to much else."

"I'm gonna kill her."

"Geez, Mike."

"I don't mean I'm gonna hunt her down and kill her in her sleep, Slash. She stays out of my life it'll be fine. But we both know that won't happen."

"I can get Rockwell to set the squirrelnoids on a patrol of the sewers, and they can alert us of anything."

"Good. I don't know what she knows. I know Leo had that weird crush so who knows what he might have let slip."

"You think he was that dumb?"

"No. I just think she might have been that good."

-:-

Woody never got the whole story. Mikey brushed off any of his concern, simply saying April was being a grouch and he'd spent so much time underground post "road trip" in an attempt to appease her.

"She yell at you again?" Mikey asked quietly, trying his hardest not too twitch at every little sound. Sure, paranoia was justified but he really didn't need the added stress.

"Nah, she doesn't come in anymore. I see a lot more of Casey and Slash, though." Woody spoke through a mouthful of rice. Just rice because Mikey had blanked and instead of ordering rice and curry to share from the new Indian place, he'd gotten two serves of rice.

Just plain rice.

Today was not a good day.

Today was a bad day.

He shouldn't have left the dojo.

He needed to call Slash.

He needed to not be sitting on a goddamn roof out in the open where an army of ninjas might try to kill him.

This sucked. Socialising was meant to be good, a way for him to relax. Not be another thing he had to worry about.

Stupid Karai.

-:-

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am." Mikey smiled and hiked his duffle bag a little further up his shoulder. "I can't run the risk of not being there if the Foot try something. This really is the safest option."

He was moving back into the lair, officially.

"I will be checking in on you," Rockwell said.

"Good." Mikey smiled. "I'd really like that. Maybe you can come for dinner? Without everyone else being there?"

"That would be wonderful."

-:-

Karai had chased him out of the pack, leaving her ninja to handle April and Casey.

She had changed so much in three years. Her hair was longer, cleanly cut at the shoulder without the blonde undergrowth. She wore less make up and levelled with him in height.

"I really don't want to fight, Karai."

"You don't have a choice."

How could she hate him so much? They hadn't even laid eyes on each other for three years.

"Do we really have to?"

"You're supposed to be dead!"

Wait.

"Like you want me dead supposed to be dead or you seriously thought I was dead supposed to be dead? Because if it's the last one a couple of things are starting to make a lot of sense."

"Shut up!" She charged at him, sword drawn and in a rage. He swiftly dodged and kicked his foot out tripping her up. She landed with a heavy thud, her cheek catching on her own blade.

"Looks like all that training didn't do you much good." He chuckled as she stood up. "Is it nice in Japan? I've never been."

"And you never will. How are you alive? You hadn't survived the regression treatment."

Mikey held his hands in front of his face and wiggled his fingers. He slowly started looking up and down his arms. "Hate to tell you this Rai Rai but someone lied to you. I never left that cell."

"Do not call me that."

She ran and swung at him again. He dodged, swinging behind her and jabbing her just between her shoulder and back armour plates. She yelped and her arm dropped at her side, her sword clanging as it hit the ground.

"Geez Rai Rai, you're so angry. Angry people are so easy to fight. One track minds you lot have."

"I suppose that was Raphael's down fall."

Ok wait. He dropped his smile and stared at her. She smirked.

"Are you really so stupid? Did you forget? Your brothers didn't survive either!" He had to work really hard to keep the look of dawning realisation off of his face.

She didn't think the boys made it out alive. She thought they were dead.

Good.

"Hey at least I knew my family before they died."

Was he always this cruel? Maybe. But he didn't always have what he had now to protect.

It worked in his favour that Karai, and Shredder by extension, didn't know about the boys. That would mean they'd send less muscle into the sewers looking for him, which the squirrelnoids would take care of easily.

And if they didn't, he would.

"I've got nothing left to lose Rai Rai. You leave me in peace, and I'll leave you in peace."

"You know that can't happen." Karai snarled and started to clench the fist of her numb arm. He hadn't hit her hard enough.

"And why not? Don't say honour! I swear on my shell if you say honour-"

"How are you not broken!?"

"Good question." Mikey smiled as April and Casey stood next to him weapons drawn and ready. "If I had the answer I'd tell you."

He swiftly pulled a smoke bomb out of his belt and threw it at the ground. The three of them jumped off the building. Quickly dropping into the manhole below.

"Dude, did you put glitter in these new smoke bombs?"

"Yep!"

-:-

Why did vendettas have to run so deep and for so long?

"What do you want for lunch boys?"

"Peas!"

Thank shell the boys were easy to feed. Mikey would loath the day his boys finally had sugar or any fast food. Sure, they'd had pizza. But it was usually homemade with whatever was close to going off in the fridge. Mikey just hadn't been able to afford the treats he used to. One of the few good things about being closed off from the world is that the boys didn't know any better. They saw stuff on tv but the curiosity of just what was a candy was easily quelled by a banana or an apple.

"Geez I've changed."

Self-reflection was never his forte. For one thing, he was never taught how to do it. His brothers were always taught, through training, through research, through their emotions.

Mikey was realising maybe Splinter hadn't raised the four of them equally. He knew they were all equally loved, but Mikey had a working theory that Splinter didn't let himself be a father in the dojo. They weren't sons when they walked into that room, they were soldiers.

Mikey wasn't sure how to process that working theory emotionally though.

Because he found himself staring at is ceiling, unable to sleep, playing out scenarios in his head, building strategies, mentally cataloguing his weapons and poisons. Like a good soldier at war, Mikey was planning for every possible way he might have to kill Karai and Saki.

Which wasn't right. It wasn't what he was taught to do. Splinter knew that someday they might have had to kill to protect each other, to protect the family or 'the greater good'. So, he taught them how to work as a team to best divide the trauma (that's how Mikey saw it anyway, maybe it was just efficiency). Leonardo was always meant to be the coordinator, working closely with Donatello, who had the most knowledge on how the body worked and how to make it suffer. Raphael was the power, as always. Mikey was taught how to hang back, read a group and figure out the best way order to kill a group in.

And he used to think that was a lot to handle, just his role in whatever made up scenario Splinter thought would require those skills. But he was stuck with all of them now and he had never learned from Splinter how to handle those things on his own.

Maybe, Splinter never anticipated that Mikey would ever be the last one standing.