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Chapter 21

Mikey crouched with Leo around the corner from the bathroom and waited. With all that had happened recently, the young prankster hadn't felt even the smallest spark of desire to pull a joke as colossal as the one that was about to go down - until today, of course. Long overdue hours of planning and scheming boiled down to this final moment, and both brothers waited anxiously for the fruits of their (though mostly Mikey's) labour. The door creaked open, there was a shift of plastic-on-wood, and then the slosh of an upended bucket on an unsuspecting head.

"MIKEY!"

Ah, the sweet sound of success.

"Run now?" Leo asked him with wide eyes.

"Yes, Leo. Run now," Mikey answered, grinning.

"Runnin' won't help ya, Mikey." The rumbling threat came from Raphael who dripped onto the floor, the bucket in his hand. His amber eyes glowed as he looked down on the crouching, mischievous pair.

"Bye-bye, Mikey!" Leo took off in a full-out sprint which was impressive for the three-year-old, neatly ducking around Raph and heading for the living room.

"Wow. What a traitor." Mikey smiled up at his brother. "Now, Raphie, I know what this looks like but in all honesty…"

"In all honesty, I'm gonna give ya the mother of all beat downs," Raph interrupted.

"No, no, no! Not the face! Not my pretty face!" Mikey dodged his brother's fist and ran.

A whistling sound was his only warning as the thrown bucket collided with the backs of his legs, and he tumbled to the ground. He had just enough time to flip onto his shell before Raph was on top of him in an instant.

"Ya like getting others wet, huh?" Raph teased, his eyes glinting. "How 'bout I return the favour?" He hacked up a wad of saliva and let it dangle slowly toward Mikey's face.

Mikey immediately squirmed, protesting, "Aw, dude, no! Come on, Raph! It was just a prank! Can't you take a joke?"

"Shoulda done it when I couldn't catch ya," Raph replied, barely moving his jaw to speak. That dribble of drool was inches away from his skin.

"Raphael! Michelangelo!"

Saved by the rat! Mikey thought triumphantly as his brother scrambled off him, his drool being sucked back up into his mouth with a slurp.

Master Splinter regarded the two of them with sharp, onyx eyes while Leo poked his head around their father with a sheepish smile.

"Tattle-tale," Mikey snubbed at him.

Leo surprised them by sticking his tongue out at him.

"My sons," said Splinter, getting their attention, "perhaps it would be wise for you to go outside and get some fresh air?"

"Now, Sensei?" Raph gaped. "It's barely dusk."

Mikey's skin quivered with the thought of being outside (it had been a week and a half since their mission, and patrols had been suspended while Raph healed) as Sensei inclined his head. "I'm well aware of what time it is, Raphael. But you and Michelangelo are both restless. Besides, April has groceries for us. You may go pick them up but you will return home by no later than midnight."

Leo immediately tugged at Splinter's hand. "Go-go, Daddy? Me, too? Go-go?"

Mikey met his dad's gaze with wide and fearful eyes. They could not take Leo topside. He would not take Leo topside. There was too much trouble, too much which could happen to the tiny turtle tot.

"Perhaps another time, Leonardo," Splinter said, not taking his eyes from Mikey.

It wasn't until Raph sighed beside him that Mikey was even aware that his brother had been just as worried. "Hai, Sensei," he said, and Mikey was a beat behind him.

"Behave yourselves!" Splinter called after them as they jogged from the lair.

"When don't we?" Mikey asked cheekily, pivoting around to wave.

Raph smacked him on the shoulder and then the door clanged behind them. "C'mon, shell-fer-brains. I promised ya a footrace."

"Prepare to lose, Raphie-boy!" Mikey yelled and burst into a sprint.

He didn't know why his brothers challenged him to races because he always won. Well, Leo was the only one to beat him, but he did outpace Don and Raph every time and now was no exception. He made sure to not get too far ahead, though; the Foot sometimes crept into the sewers to ambush them.

"C'mon, Raphie!" he teased as he ascended the ladder that would take him to the surface. "You've gotten slower in your old age!"

The man cover slid off and he hoisted himself out, quickly scrambling over to a dumpster to lean casually against because theatrics, dude!

Raph panted up the ladder less than a minute later. "How…are ya…so…dang…fast?"

Mikey beamed at him, pushing off the dumpster and giving his brother a hand up. "You have your secrets, I have mine," he quipped. "Hurry up and catch your breath. April's isn't far."

"I know where we are, knucklehead," Raph groused.

A sudden noise at the mouth of their alley sent them scurrying into the deepening shadows, up the fire escape and over the roofs like the trained ninja they were.

The setting sun threw red and purple fire across the low cloud, the eastern sky turning inky. Mikey inhaled a deep gulp of wind that smelled of car exhaust and brine. The freshness filled his limbs and brain, and he pulled a triple flip as they jumped a narrow street. He didn't voice his usual exuberant shouts and calls because he was too busy keeping pace with his brother and refilling his soul with New York. Oh, man, how he had missed just running beneath the open sky with the wind blowing his mask tails behind him and his brother beside him. He suddenly wished (he always wished) that the brother could be brothers. He wanted nothing more than to follow Leo (swift, deadly and prone to melting into shadows) who would be in the lead, and Raph (strong and fierce) would be beside him and Don (quiet and calculating) would be behind him because he was slower if he had his duffel with him. Blue, red, orange and purple mask tails would fly, and he would smell the brine mixed with sweat, and then Raph would trip him, and Leo would say something about how they were ninja and should be practicing stealth as well as stamina and, and, and…

"Mikey?"

Mikey slammed to a halt when he realized he'd left his brother behind one roof over. He'd completely blown past April's apartment. He turned and jogged back, neatly landing the minor jump between April's and the neighbour's. "Sorry, Raph," he muttered, his eyes downcast.

"Don't worry about it."

The two brothers turned for the window along the side where they'd be hidden from passersby when they suddenly froze as shouting erupted.

Mikey's heart leaped into his mouth because holy shell, the Foot got in! Or the Purple Dragons or something or someone! And April's in trouble! He darted forward, Raph right on his heels, and they were about to swing down and crash through the slightly open window (April always left her window open, even in winter), when they recognized the voices.

Mikey paused on the roof's edge and stared at his brother. "April and Casey are fighting?" he gasped.

"It sounds like a serious one, too," mumbled Raph. "Come on. Let's go. We'll come back tomorrow."

"But…Raph…the food. We don't have much left. Leo…"

Raph looked up at him, conflict in his gold eyes which were always eerie in the growing darkness as dusk fell to night.

Then: "It's been a week, Casey! Just pick up the damn phone and call him!"

"I ain't callin' that reptile!"

The orange-banded turtle distinctly felt his brother stiffen beside him, and his heart swelled with sympathy. Neither April nor Casey had ever called them reptiles before, not with that tone of voice anyway.

"You can't cut ties with him like this!" April began but Casey overrode her.

"Who's cuttin' ties?" he demanded. "He's the one who started it! Givin' me orders like he's some Leo-clone. He thinks he's so high-'n'-mighty now!"

"Is that seriously what you think!?" she shrieked. "That he's somehow superior to you now that Leo's a toddler? For heaven's sake, someone had to step up!"

"But why'd it have ta be him? Why does Raph even want ta lead? It's the biggest joke I've ever seen!"

Mikey had no idea that his legs were beginning to complain about crouching in one place for so long. His hands gripped the eaves so hard, he feared he'd draw blood. Raphael was just as quiet, his eyes unfocused as he listened.

When April spoke, her voice was deadly quiet and they had to strain to hear. "Do you even know what being the leader means for them?" she hissed. "Do you think it means being better than the others or more skilled or coming up with plans? Because if you do, then you're as stupid as I thought you were when we first met."

"Now, listen here, April –" Casey started.

"NO!" April shouted, making the turtles on the roof jump. "Being the leader means getting them home, Casey Jones! Night after night, they go out. They patrol. They help people. And they get hurt. They get stabbed and shot at, kidnapped and experimented on! Do you have any idea what that does to four sixteen-year-old boys!? Do you have any idea what that did to Leo because their lives were in his hands? He's the eldest, Casey! He has three little brothers to look out for! And you think leadership for them is a joke? Raph is stepping up in the only way he knows how to keep his brothers safe! AND YOU GO AROUND THROWING THEIR THREE-YEAR-OLD BROTHER TEN FEET IN THE AIR?!"

"Now don't you go pinnin' this all on me, April O'Neil!" Casey shot back. "Don's second oldest but I don't see him takin' the reins!"

A low growl slid out of Mikey's teeth. How dare Casey say that about Donnie?

April was thinking the same thing: "How dare you say that!? Donatello is in his lab day and night, working on reversing that stupid tech!"

"And what about you? You're in the lab with him, too, bein' all buddy-buddy. Tell me, April, is it really the gun you two are workin' on?"

"He did not just…!" Mikey spat, not even realizing his hand gripped his nunchaku until a hand over his made him freeze. Raph just shook his head at him. His eyes blazed with fire and temper but the lines in his face aged him thirty years.

SLAP!

CRASH!

"He. Is. Sixteen! He. Is. My. Friend! He. Is. Family!" April's words were punctuated with various crashes of varying loudness. "And if you think that, then you can get out! Get out, Casey Jones! We're done! And I don't want to see you anywhere near my little brothers, do you hear me!? Get out!"

The two brothers were sure that Casey tried to say something, apologize or something, but his words were drowned out by the continued crashes and shrieks. Then something heavy lumbered down the stairs and raced out the door; a motorcycle roared away.

The phone rang.

"What?" they heard their friend snap. Then again more contained: "What? Oh, no. I'm fine…No, please, don't call the police. I'm sorry to have disturbed you…Yes, everything is fine. I'm fine…Yes, thank you very much…All right. Goodnight."

They didn't hear the click of the phone, but Raph tugged his elbow. "Come on," he whispered. "We'll come back tomorrow."

But Mikey ignored him. Swinging down from the roof, he alighted on the fire escape's rail and peered in through the window. April, their wonderful friend, knelt on the living room floor. The cordless phone lay by her knee, shattered plates, glass and leftovers from a late dinner were scattered all around her, and her face was in her hands as she cried.

"Mikey!" he heard his brother urge from his spot on the roof.

However, the young, orange-masked turtle didn't hear him because a different voice, soft and wise, drifted through his mind: You take care of everyone and everything around you simply because you can and want to, and that is a rare gift in this world. Tears stung his eyes. Damned if he made Sensei a liar.

He tapped once to announce his presence before sliding the window up and stepping inside the apartment. She didn't hear him, and so he stepped closer, grabbing a blanket off the arm of the couch. When he drew level with her, he draped it around her shoulders and knelt beside her. She started only a fraction, her head snapping up in alarm, but when she saw it was him, she relaxed, buried her face in his shoulder and wept. Her sobs were quiet which made them all the more heart-wrenching. She didn't wail, she just wept into his shoulder and clung to him like he was her last tie to life. He held her carefully but firmly and said absolutely nothing, just rocking her gently.

Mikey didn't hear or see his brother enter but he knew when Raph came into the room. He paused for only a moment and Mikey felt his eyes on him. Then there was a creak as the closet was opened, and scritching and the tinkle of glass along the floor told him his brother was sweeping up the mess.

That brought April around some, and she sniffed and lifted her head. "Oh, Raph, no. Let me…" She made to stand but Mikey tightened his grip.

"He's got it," he said. "Let him do it."

April rubbed the heel of her hand over her cheeks, sniffing as she sat up. "How…how much did you hear?"

"Nothin' important," Mikey replied, his tone torn between humour and sadness. "That is, we heard a good deal about a ring, a dark lord, and somethin' about the end of the world…" He trailed off as her chuckle dissolved into a hiccup. "Are you okay?" he added, more serious and gentle.

She wiped her face on the blanket and nodded. "I'm sorry."

"You've nothing to be sorry for," the young turtle reassured her.

Mikey still had an arm around her shoulders as she looked around at the mess that was her apartment – though it looked a bit better, thanks to Raph. He watched her turn her gaze back to him. Her eyes were red-rimmed and brightest green with the tears still in them but when she spoke, her voice didn't tremble.

"Would it be all right if I stayed with you guys for a while? I…don't want to stay here."

The brothers traded glances, Raph nodded, and Mikey smiled at her. "Sure. You pack and I'll get the groceries."

The smile she gave him was tremulous. "So that's why you guys came over. I should have known." Shaking her head, she stood and walked away to her room, the blanket still around her shoulders.

"I'm gonna stab him next time I see him," Raph growled as soon as her door closed.

The younger turtle immediately tried to soothe his brother's temper: "Don't, Raph. He's your friend."

Raphael's eyes glowed under the fluorescents. "My friend wouldn't accuse my brother of anythin' like that. My friend wouldn't shout at his girlfriend who also happens ta be my friend. That human is not my friend. And I'm gonna stab him."

Mikey sighed and got up off the floor. There would be no reasoning with him, he knew. Best to just get the supplies and get going.

To say the least, everyone was surprised when, two minutes shy of midnight, the three of them arrived home, arms laden with groceries and, in April's case, a backpack and an overnight bag. April didn't say much past a murmured "Hi, everyone" before scuttling off to Leo's room (which Raph and Mikey had insisted she take instead of living on the couch) and closing the door firmly.

"She's had a rough night," Mikey told Don when his elder brother tried to follow her. "Leave her be for now."

Concern winding through his brother's liquid brown eyes, he nevertheless obeyed and returned to helping Splinter and Raph put the perishables in the refrigerator.

Mikey sighed and began to unload canned goods into the cupboards, knowing full-well that his brother's heartfelt concern would turn to rage when he and Raph told him and Splinter what had happened.

-:-

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