Author's Note:  Now this isn't so long of a wait, is it?  LOL.  :-) And Splinter, whenever you get around to reading this… I demand you to review!  LMAO.  Don't you think you've given me enough of the silent treatment for not getting the next part out soon enough?  Heh heh.

But anyway… have no idea when I'll get the next part out, hopefully soon, with the Thanksgiving holiday coming.  Hope you enjoy this, and I love feedback if you haven't yet figured that out!  So review, please!  I will love you forever.  *grin*

*Chapter Five*

Shannon:

I was going to have to tell him the truth.  I'd just explain it all, tell it like it was, and hope that he understood.  Because the fact of the matter was, I was dating his brother and that put an immediate halt to any relationship I might have with him.  Right?  I shuddered.  It had to be done, but it was not a conversation I was going to enjoy. 

When the knock on the window came, I was ready.  But somehow, the words didn't come out quite right. 

"Who's that?" he asked.

"Who?" I questioned, confused.  He nodded toward my orange tabby cat, watching him from underneath the coffee table.  "Oh, that's Mufasa."

Mike chuckled.  "Cute name.  Offa the Lion King?"

"Yeah."

He knelt down and scratched his finger on the carpet.  "C'mere kitty."

"He won't come to you," I sighed.  "He's real skittish around people he doesn't know."

"Mmm," Mike acknowledged.  "So's mine.  But I think that's mostly because I'm the only one who's nice to him."  He laughed as he straightened again.  "Nobody else is all that happy to see him when he comes and licks their face at five o'clock in the morning."

I couldn't help but laugh.  "Mufu doesn't do that," I mumbled.  "He's too moody.  He only obeys when he feels like it, and the rest of the time he just keeps his distance."  I watched the cat for a moment as it eyed us like prey.  "He's not mean, really.  But he's not friendly, either."

"Yeah," he mumbled.  "My cat's been trippin' these past few days because I bought him catnip and he can't seem to keep his nose out of it."

I laughed.  "Must be fun."

"Yeah."

He looked up and our eyes met.  For a moment, I remembered all the things I had to tell him.  But I choked.  He was so easy to talk to, and I was bored and lonely.  Raphael was the only real interaction I had outside of a job I hated, and I hadn't even seen him in three days.  It couldn't hurt to just talk.  There was nothing wrong with that.  Even if Raph showed up, we weren't doing anything wrong.

"You want something to drink?" I offered.

"No, I'm okay," he assured me.  He sighed.  "I would've come over yesterday, but I was in too much trouble."

I cringed.  "You got in trouble?"

He shrugged.  "Well, sensei made me make up the practice I missed."  He sat down on the couch and motioned to Mufasa again.  "It wasn't that bad, really.  My brother was pissed though."

"That you were out all night?" I guessed.

"Heh.  Yeah, well, that too," he grinned.  "But more because Splinter didn't ground me for a year, like he would've done to him."

I sat down on the chair nearby.  "Splinter is your sensei?"

"Uh huh," he mumbled. 

Mufasa crept out from under the coffee table, his eyes trained on Mike.  I stared at him in shock.  That cat didn't even come to me and he was going to come to someone he'd never seen before? 

"He's a lot like a father," Mike continued.  "He raised us, you know?"

"Who's us?" I questioned.  "How many brothers do you have?"

"Three."  Mufu touched his nose to the tip of Mike's finger.  "We're all the same age, I guess.  It really kinda depends on how you measure age."  He looked up at me.  "We all mutated at the same time, and that was eighteen years ago.  Before that we were regular turtles, and none of us remember that."

I stared at him.  It took me weeks to pry that out of Raphael, and here he'd offered it within five minutes.  I didn't even have to ask.  "But anyhow," he continued, distracted by the cat who had by now jumped onto the sofa beside him.  "If my psycho brother had caught me leaving last night, there woulda been hell to pay."

"Why?" I asked.  "Is he, like, the leader or something?"

He chuckled under his breath.  "Sometimes I wonder."  He ran his hand over Mufasa's back.  The cat arched into him.  "No, he's just pissed off at me right now.  And he's not someone you want to piss off."

"Why's he mad?"

He shrugged.  "Because of the way I didn't get in more trouble."

"Well, he shouldn't be mad at you for that," I laughed.  "What did he expect you to do, beg and plead for more punishment?"

Mikey smiled, but took a moment to answer.  "I don't blame him, really.  All his life he's gotten into trouble just because of who he is.  It just aggravates him that I barely get in any trouble for doing something really bad, just because of my Michaelangelo charm."

I laughed.  "So you charm your way out of trouble, is that it?"

He grinned evilly.  "I can charm my way out of most anything."

I leaned back against the chair.  "You oughtta teach him."

"Nah, he's not the type," he mumbled.  "Wouldn't work for him.  You gotta play sweet and innocent, and sensei knows him too well to fall for it."

I considered that for a moment.  "So does that mean that your sensei doesn't know you, or are you actually as sweet and innocent as you act to get out of trouble?"

"I don't know," he laughed.  "Maybe a little of both.  I've got quite a record, but most of it was not my fault."

I pulled my legs up under me and leaned forward.  "What kind of record?" I questioned.

"Well, most of it happened when I was young," he offered.  "It was real easy to manipulate me and trick me, and I was just stupid like that.  Too trusting.  I always fell for it.  My brother got me into so much trouble, it wasn't even funny."

"This the same psycho one who's mad at you for not getting more punishment?"

"Yeah."  He laughed.  "He always got the short end of the stick.  I guess I really can't feel too sorry for him, though, because we never would've done that stuff if it weren't for him."

"What kinda stuff?"

He shrugged.  "Well, this one time he thought it would be fun to replace the sugar with baking soda."

I laughed out loud.  "Oh, god, you're kidding me."

"Well, needless to say, Splinter found out about that one.  I actually did it, but it was his idea, so he ended up getting in more trouble than I did."  He considered that for a moment.  "He always got it worse.  I could sweet talk my way out of everything 'cause no one expected me.  Whenever something bad happened, everyone always looked to him.  They still do."

"You guys must've been a handful to raise."

"Oh yeah.  I give Splinter a lot of credit.  I would've driven me crazy."  He laughed quietly.  "I remember one time around Christmas when my brother and I snuck out of the lair so we could go look at the lights."  He chuckled again.  "Boy did we ever get in trouble for that."

"Same brother?" I asked.

"Yeah.  We get on each other's nerves a lot, but he's always been my best friend.  We did everything together when we were younger."

"What's his name?"

"Psycho's one of his favorites," he grinned.  "Idiot, Jerk, Asshole, Hothead, um, let's see…"  He was counting on his fingers as he was trying to remember them all.  I hid my smile behind my hand.  "…impulsive, violent, angry…I know there's more words for him, just can't think of 'em all," he finished, grinning.  "But he's also brilliant and he's my brother, so I hafta love him."

"Yeah," I chuckled.  "Brilliant enough to think up all those pranks when you were younger, huh?"

He shrugged, smiling.  "He's not all bad.  I do love him, even if he is a jackass.  Anyway, his real name is Raphael."

I stared at him, caught slightly off guard.  Raphael?  That was how his brother saw him?  "Our sensei named us all after Renaissance artists," Mike continued.  "Don't ask me why, I don't even know."  Mufasa jumped down off the couch, tired of waiting for more attention.  "I guess I did once, but I forgot."

Mike leaned back and put his arms behind his head.  "And then there's Donatello, who we don't see much of because he's always in his lab trying to figure out how the universe works.  And Leonardo.  He's our leader, and… let's just say that he and Raph don't get along very well."  He reconsidered that.  "I guess that's the understatement of the year.  Let me fix it.  They don't get along.  Period."

I frowned.  "Why is that?"

Michaelangelo shrugged.  "There's a lot they don't agree on.  I mean, I don't want to take sides or anything, and I don't wanna give you a biased view since you haven't even met them.  They just have different ways of doing things."

He shrugged.  "I think Raph has always resented the fact that Leo is our leader when, as he puts it, no one ever gives him a chance for anything."  He sighed again and continued.  "And I can't say who's right or wrong, but Raph does have a point.  I mean, if he wanted to, he could be just as good as Leo; I know he could.  He just doesn't try because he feels like it doesn't matter, which pisses Leo off and the circle goes on forever.  They fight.  A lot.  Hell, they almost killed each other before."

I was shocked.  "They almost what?" I cried.  I'd fought with my brother more times than I could count, but I would never dream of attempting to kill him for anything.

"Yeah," he admitted.  "It was pretty scary.  I dunno who started it, but amazingly enough, it was Leo who tried to kill Raph."

"How…?"  My voice trailed off, and I had to confess to myself that I was relieved that it hadn't been the other way around.

He shook his head.  "No one really knew how.  I never even found out what they were arguing about.  It was quite a sight, though.  I mean, Leo's our leader—he's expected to keep his cool and he's the calm and collected one.  But Raph said something, and he just totally lost it.  Never seen him get like that before and I hope I never have to see it again."

Michaelangelo:

We talked for hours, mostly about my life, rarely about hers.  She had a brother and a family that she said didn't care about her.  Other than that, I knew almost nothing.  I had to know something about her before I brought her down to the lair.  Splinter wanted to meet her, and he thought we'd been going out for months. 

 "So… where are you from?" I asked, turning the tables on her.

She looked at me and was silent for a moment.  She shrugged and responded, "Doesn't much matter.  Not like I'm gonna go back there anyway."

I watched her for a moment.  A runaway?  I didn't have a chance to ask.  "My parents and I didn't really get along.  We had different opinions on a lot of things.  And my brother could have helped me, but he didn't.  So here I am, alone.  I don't think anyone cares."  She shrugged.  "Hell, I don't care anymore.  I've made my own life for myself, and I like it."

"Wow," I mumbled.  "So you, like, don't have any family?"

She shook her head.  "No, not really.  I mean, my brother's got this thing where he's tryin' to patch things up, but it's just... I don't know.  It feels so fake, you know?  Like maybe he wants something from me or... there's some kind of hidden motive."

"You don't trust him?"

"I don't trust anyone."

I smiled slyly.  "You trust me?"

She studied me for a moment.  "Sort of," she answered after a long silence.

I laughed.  "S'okay," I assured her.  "I know it's not easy to trust people when you've been burned.  'Specially some freak in a turtle costume who shows up in your room in the middle of the night, huh?"

The attempt at lightening the atmosphere didn't work as well as I'd hoped it would.  I felt sorry for her.  I couldn't imagine trying to live alone, with no family.  She was a lot stronger than she looked. 

She sighed and glanced up at me.  "I feel kind of guilty, you know?" she mumbled, her voice low and serious.  "Like I should give him another chance.  But I just...  I hate talking to him, I hate listening to him lecture me and feeling like I'm a little kid again because nobody can accept the fact that I've grown up and I have a mind of my own now."

I watched her silently, concerned.  "They really treat you like that?"

She laughed under her breath.  "I lost my job once and I made the mistake of asking them if I could borrow a hundred dollars to pay my bills.  And you know what their solution was?"  Her voice was cold and cynical.  These parents were definitely not people I wanted to meet.  "They wanted me to move back in with them because I obviously couldn't support myself."

She fell silent.  "So what'd you do?" I asked.

"I told them I'd rather prostitute myself to get the money than move back in with them."

Good god, I hoped she was being sarcastic.

She sighed.  "I ended up taking out this loan from a cash agency, place, whatever the hell it was.  Took me forever to pay it back."

"But you did it," I reminded her.

"Yeah, I did it."

I smiled.  She sounded like she was in serious need of some encouragement.  "So see?  You're stronger than you think you are."

She laughed half-heartedly.  "Thanks, Mike."  I studied her for a moment and saw tears in her eyes.  "I really appreciate that."

"I, uh, don't have a whole lot of money or anything but if there's anything I can do, I..."

The telephone cut me off.  Shannon jumped in surprise, then muttered a curse under her breath.  She brushed her eyes roughly and glared at the phone like it was an enemy.  "What?" I inquired.  "Who would it be?"

"My brother," she growled as it rang again.  "He calls me every fucking night to make sure I'm home when the street lights go on."

She stood up.  "You don't have to answer it," I told her.  She turned to me, a confused look on her face.  It was as if she hadn't ever considered that before.  "Hey, it's your phone, right?" I shrugged.  "You don't have to pick it up if you don't want to.  Let the answering machine get it."

She shook her head.  "I don't have an answering machine," she informed me.

"Then let it ring."

She crossed her arms over her chest.  "He'll let it ring for the next five minutes.  And he'll keep calling back.  Believe me, I know."

I grinned evilly.  "Why don't you let me answer it?" I suggested.  I could think of a few things to say to him, to get him really freaked out.  "I could be your new husband.  We just got back from Las Vegas." 

She laughed.  "You really want to cause me problems, don't you?"

I stood up.  "Or how 'bout this?"

I walked over to the phone, found the jack on the wall, and pulled the plug.  The noise vanished, and I dropped the cable on the kitchen counter.  I turned back and saw her smiling.  "Now you don't have to listen to it ring."

She stared at me, and for a moment, we didn't speak.  I waited to see her reaction.  She didn't move, didn't look away, didn't give me any indication that I was making her uneasy.  I stepped toward her and she didn't flinch. 

Before I really realized what I was doing, my lips met hers.  Her arms circled my neck and she pressed hard to me.  I felt heat rush through my body and I moaned quietly.  God, I loved the way she made me feel.

She pulled away slowly and her eyes met mine, mere centimeters away.  "Can you stay?" she whispered.

A/N:  See?  I'm not that evil… that wasn't that bad, was it?  *grin*  And don't forget to review!  Heh heh.