It was almost dawn when they finally made it home, and Leo had to admit he was impressed with the way she was able to keep up with them. Leo had tried to quickly outdistance her, but that idea was quickly shot to shit when Mikey helped her along in those situations on the few times she actually needed help. He was about to snap at his little brother to stop it, but that froze on his lips when he saw how much helping her seemed to cheer him up. "The trick to this ledge is to make sure you have enough momentum to make it and then you..." Leo just shook his head as he lept off, followed right behind with Mikey and Lotus.

He didn't know why, but something about her made him nervous. She just followed them quietly, rarely talking, as they had walked along the tunnels. Not a word escaped her lips as Donnie opened the secret door to their home. Silent, she walked inside without even looking back. And Leo just stared at her, what was wrong with this girl?

"Don't you have a family to go back too?" Leo grumbled as he stepped in behind her.

"I do not." She replied as she looked around, her eyes taking everything in. "Shredder has seen to that."

That stung him and he quickly looked away, not wanting her to see the sudden pain in his eyes. Seems like they weren't the only ones who had been orphaned by him...

"This is where you reside?"

"Yup!" Mikey told her chippery. "Home sweet home!" He casually tossed his 'chucks to on the hooks by the entrance tunnel that usually held their weapons. "Come on, I'll show you the kitchen!"

Leo's jaw dropped as he watched a large smile plaster itself on Mikey's face. Lotus just nodded and followed him to their kitchen area. Leo watched them both in shock as they made their way to the space that served as their food preparation center. She looked over everything with a critical eye. "This set up is barely adequate." She looked at Donnie then. "Surely you could have done better than this? I would expect more from the disciple who was most feared for his technical expertise."

Donnie's face flushed a bit as he looked like a little kid being caught at something he shouldn't be doing. "Yeah...I kinda have been slacking the last few years." He mumbled as he dug his toe into the floor, trying to dig himself a hole to China to hide in probably. "I'll get started on some upgrades now..." He went to his room to grab the tools Leo had so painstakingly gathered for him, only to go largely unused. Again Leo just looked on in shock at the seemingly instant transformation. He just hung his katanas on their hooks, shaking his head.

Raph just glared at her, obviously not trusting her, before he just stomped off to his room. Shortly after the sound of the door slamming rang out into the lair.

She just calmly watched him go and didn't even flinch when he growled at her when Raph passed her. And once the door slammed she looked at Leo with a raised brow. "That temper is also well known." Was all she said before Mikey began demanding her attention as he pulled out a few battered pots and pans, obviously with the intent to start on breakfast.

Leo just sighed and sat on one of the old, run down recliners that came with the dwelling. He tiredly leaned back into it before resting his head into his hand, rubbing his brow. What on earth was he going to do with this woman? She obviously couldn't stay with them, it was too risky. He knew nothing of her, he shouldn't trust her to come into the security of their home...so why did he allow it?

Before he could answer his own thought the recliner finally gave out on him and he ended up in the middle of recliner pieces on the floor, much to Mikey's amusement as he cracked up laughing. He didn't know what shocked him more, the fact that he was sitting bewildered on the floor or that Mikey was laughing...

"This entire setup is barely adequate." Lotus sighed as she watched him get back up. "Surely you can come up with better furnishings than this?"

"Not like we can just go out and pick some up." Leo growled back at her as he moved to another chair, shaking this one to make sure it would hold him before he sat down in it.

"Hey Lotus! Watch what happens when I do this!" Mikey excitedly told her before he turned one of the burners on...and a column of flame shot up from it. "Cool huh?"

"Seems like it is very hot to me." She shook her head again. "How you have managed to survive this long baffles me..."

"Sorry our accommodations don't meet your expectations." Leo rolled his eyes at her. "We just do the best we can."

"It is not that the accommodations are below my expectations, it is the fact that you seem to have given up on trying to better your situation." She calmly replied as she took a extinguisher to Mikey's little fire sculpture. One that actually seemed to work. For some reason she seemed shocked by that. "A home isn't truly a home if you do not make the effort to make it one, and it is definitely not one if everything you encounter inside that dwelling has the potential to cause harm." As if to prove her point, the oven let out a large belch of smoke. She just rolled her eyes as she waved the smoke out of her face.

"Aw man! The biscuits I was trying to make are ruined now..." Mikey's face fell back into that hopeless despair that had been following him the last five years now. "Everything I touch gets ruined..." He sighed as he turned away from the kitchen, clearly intending to give up on the whole idea.

Lotus just reached out a hand to stop him, placing it on his arm. "I shall help you." She told him simply as Donnie came back with his tool box. "Just as soon as Donatello makes it safe to do so." She raised a brow. "I do not wish to add myself to the menu by accident."

For some reason that made Mikey crack up and even Donnie smiled. "Let's see if we can keep that from happening." Donnie told her as he began to take the stove apart.

Leo just sat in that chair, that still held him up, crossed his arms...and glared at her. She knew it too, and completely ignored that hostile look as she and Mikey worked around Donnie and managed to fix a decent breakfast. Leo did have to admit that the smells coming from that kitchen, once the smoke had cleared out, was making his stomach rumble.

He just watched as Lotus puttered around in the kitchen with his brothers, even as pissed as he was by the fact that she had pretty much bullied her way here, he was still awed at the changes that were taking place in front of him. Mikey was talking easily to her, like he had known her all of his life. And despite her formal tone, she easily managed to keep a smile on his face. Even Donnie was humming quietly to himself as he worked and soon he had the stove and oven running to the point Lotus wouldn't have to worry about burning her pretty hair off. Her pretty, long black hair... Now where had that thought come from?

"Breakfast!" Mikey hollered soon after, his grin wide as he looked over the meal he was able to throw together.

Lotus looked around, her expression unapproving. "Do you not have a place to sit and eat a decent meal?"

"Yeah." Mikey told her as he waved a hand out towards the living room. "Find a spot, sit down and eat."

"Unacceptable." She muttered and Leo rolled his eyes.

"And what would you suggest?" He asked her. "We just eat standing up?"

She didn't answer him, but searched for something as her eyes roamed the space. Then she apparently found what she was looking for and walked over to a table sitting in the corner that served as Donnie's junk holder. Without even batting an eye, she dumped all of his crap to the floor and pushed the table closer to the kitchen, then began scrounging up various chairs and drug them over to the table as well. Then she washed it all down, wrinkling her delicate nose in disgust at the only, filthy, rag she could find. Then she set the table. "This is how a family should eat their meals together." She finally said as Mikey began to bring the food over to it.

Again Leo just blinked his eyes in shock, wasn't really expecting that either. But he did follow her hand as she pointed to one of the chairs. "Sit." What the hell was he? A damn dog? Did she think she could just come in here and boss him around in his own home? Who did she think she was? "Now, before the food grows cold." She glared at him. Ok...he sat.

Mikey had disappeared down the hallway to knock on Raph's door. "What!" Leo heard snap through the door even from here.

Mikey just sighed as he carefully opened the door and poked his head in. "I made breakfast..." He tentatively said. "I made you some fresh biscuits...you used to like my biscuits when we were kids..."

Silence was his answer for his efforts and Mikey sadly turned away from the room, closing the door back behind him. He stopped and turned back in shock when the door opened again behind him. "You...you made...biscuits?" Raph asked quietly from the doorway. "You haven't cooked...in a long time... Did you put that honey glaze on them?" He then asked hopefully. Mikey grinned and nodded and Raph came out of his room.

Again Leo had to pick his jaw up off of the floor. Raph usually didn't come out more than once a day...if even that... Now he walking back down the hall with Mikey, his eyes glued to that pile of biscuits on the table, still steaming a little after being removed from the oven. He turned his stare at this strange young woman, and noticed that she watched them with a small, knowing, smile as she sat down at the table.

It was a bit awkward, them all sitting down together when they were so used to just grabbing their food and heading off to the different parts of the lair, but it felt...nice...being gathered around for this simple meal laid out in front of them. Leo ate quietly, just watching as his brothers interacted with each other at the table.

"I missed these..." Raph quietly admitted, then shoved a whole biscuit in his mouth. "Jusht ash gwood ash Ah wemumber." He told them through his mouthful.

"Dude...we seriously need to work on your table manners." Mikey rolled his eyes, then gave his brother a smile as he put another one on his plate.

"This from the one who used to catapult his scrambled eggs across the table with his spoon." Donnie told him dryly.

"You mean like this?" Mikey then catapulted his scrambled eggs across the table, and they hit Donnie's glasses with a splat.

Donnie of course promptly retaliated by smearing butter onto his little brother's face.

Leo facepalmed as Raph moved in to save the biscuits from the ensuing food fight. It was when he got a faceful of jelly that he finally stopped the whole messy mess. "Enough already!" He snapped, wiping the gooey gunk off. "It's hard enough to get food, I really don't want to go back out again to restock because you two feel like learning ninfoodsu."

Lotus was just looking at them all amused as she chewed her food with dignity, then laughed a gentle laugh. "It seems the deadly disciples are not as grim as all the stories make them out to be."

"Maybe it's because we had no reason to laugh." Leo quietly told her. "Humor wasn't allowed."

She just nodded and they finished their meal without any more flying food bits. Then they just sat at the table, quietly talking. It was when Mikey let out a huge yawn that made Leo get up from the table. "Go to bed Mikey." He told his little brother, taking in the weary face as he gathered up the dirty dishes. "It's been a long night for you."

He just nodded and got up before wearily trudging down the hallway. "I think I'll go down for a bit too." Donnie said, hiding his own yawn. "Not used to those excursions anymore."

"Yeah, well, you better get back into shape." Raph told him as he stood up himself. "Seems like we might need both of ya in top form pretty soon."

"Oh...like you haven't been slacking." Donnie quipped back.

"Pfft...I never slack." Raph told him, then gathered up the rest of the biscuits and disappeared in his bedroom with them, with Donnie chuckling as he retreated to his.

Leo had a soft smile on his face as he began to clean the dishes. That had been an unusual meal for them, a welcome change but unusual all the same. He finished with the first plate and looked over in shock when Lotus took it out of his hand and proceeded to rinse it for him before placing it to dry in the dishrack. "Why the startlement?" She asked him. "If I am to live here, it is only fair that I carry my share of the duties."

"I think you've done enough." He told her. "I owe you a thanks. I haven't...had a meal like that in longer than I can conveniently remember."

"None are needed. I owe you far more than one simple meal."

"That was more than just a simple meal." He told her quietly. "I don't think you fully understand..."

"I understand what I see." She replied simply. "And I see four brothers who are struggling to figure out how to live. Four separate souls when this should be a single family unit."

He sighed as he raised another now clean plate up out of the soapy water, and had it also taken from his hand. "I'm not so sure we even know how to live like that anymore."

"Then it would be my pleasure to teach you. Leonardo, even one as inexperienced as I can see the troubles they are having. Though I am glad to see the rumors of you leaving him are indeed true, I must admit it pains me to see the pain in all of you." Then she looked up directly at him. "Especially you. You carry your burden along with theirs."

"My burden doesn't need to concern you." He told her, a bit more sharply than he had intended and there was an awkward silence between them as they finished the dishes. Not even he could fully let go of his old ways and he regretted his sharp tongue now towards her. She didn't really do anything to deserve that. "Maybe you should rethink this." He told her as he washed the last pan. "You are right, we all carry our own scars. I just don't want to see you get hurt while we try to figure out how to live with them."

"No." Came the firm reply. "I will stay."

For reasons he couldn't explain, that made him feel better as he dried his hands. "Come with me." He told her then. "I'll show you where you can rest."

"I do not need it." He rolled his eyes, how did he know she was going to say that?

"Yes, you do." He glared at her. "Don't try me Lotus. You are under my care now and I have ways of making you sleep if you really want to go there."

"I am sure you do." She sighed her own sigh then. "Very well, Master."

He stopped, shocked, in the act of leading her to his room and turned back to her. "Why did you call me that?"

She just shrugged. "Because it is now true. I will follow you, and I assume you will wish to continue my training to make sure I stay in top form. Thus, you are now my Master."

Leo just groaned as he led her to his room, he really didn't feel like dealing with this right now...