Disclaimer: TMNT belongs to some person who doesn't happen to be me. I don't even own Erica, on account of she's a real person. However, I do own Lona, and I'm proud of that.

SHOUTOUTS!!

Linchi: Yeah, I guess Foot do tend to travel in many numbers…oh well. These must be the outcasts. And as for Ruby's obsession with writing, I actually do have a friend who sits next to me who writes novels in the middle of class.

Dory's Human Replica: Lol, yeah, I guess 'tree' works better. However, Mikey and Lona in a tree would equal a lot of bruises.

Pacphys: I have a feeling you're right about Raph. He sure doesn't like it when people call him a lizard! Come to think of it…it IS always Leo. Sometimes Splinter. How weird is that?

Chibiroseangel: Whoa…okay, you win the prize for longest review! I don't think I've ever gotten one that long! As for the title of this story…I've often heard the phrase: "Two ships passing in the dead of night" and I just thought it was a neat metaphor for Mikey and Lona. Trust me, it took a long time to think of it. My E-mail addy ison my profile. All you have to do is click on 'Lioness-Goddess' and it'll be there. Send me an E-mail and I'll answer all the rest of your questions.

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"Lona, get behind me," Mikey growled, still staring in the direction of the Foot. He turned for a second, and realized she wasn't there. Frantically scanning the roof, he noticed she had retreated to the middle, as far away from the edge as possible. She was muttering something to herself, but Mikey was too far away to hear.

"Okay…" Mikey said, spinning his 'chucks. "I'll teach you to interrupt my date!" He leapt at one of the ninja, knocking him out. "Now Raph, that's another story," Mikey said, knocking out a few more. "You can interrupt his dates anytime you want." He crouched and swept his leg underneath the ring of ninja that had formed around him. In no more than ten minutes, all the Foot were either knocked out or had retreated. Mikey slipped his nunchucks in his belt and made his way over to Lona.

"Hey…you okay?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, fine, perfect, I was just attacked by fifty ninjas at a thousand feet in the air, I'm just fine!"

Mikey rolled his eyes. "Come on, Ms. Drama Queen, I was here. Foot have no chance against turtles. Besides. It's not a thousand feet in the air. At least….I don't think."

Finally calming down, Lona took a deep breath. "Alright." She said. "Can we go back to the lair now?"

Mikey nodded and took her hand. "Long way or short way?"

Lona sighed and swallowed nervously. "Short way," she said, bracing herself for what was coming.

Mikey grinned. "That's my girl," he said, and lifted her up in his arms to jump over the rooftops once again.

Sloshing through the sewers, Mikey spotted the metal door of his home before Lona. "I get the TV!" Mikey said, racing towards the door.

Lona looked up sharply. "Oh no you don't!" She ran ahead of him, only to have Mikey block her again. She ducked under his legs and made for the door. They both ended up in the door at the same time, trying to get in at the same time. Finally Lona ducked, which made Mikey fall on the ground. Lona vaulted over Mikey's shell and ran for the couch.

"Hey! No fair!" Mikey yelled. He scrambled up and made for the couch, only to see Lona leaning against the couch.

"It's taken," she said simply, pointing. Master Splinter was sitting on the couch, watching something or other.

Mikey groaned. He had come to find out that television didn't really mean that much to Lona, she just liked to beat him to the couch.

Lona slung her bag over her shoulder. She gave Mikey a quick kiss, then made her way to Don's room for homework help.

Mikey watched her go, then made his way to the kitchen, where he found Raph and Leo already there. "Hey guys," he said.

Leo looked up first. "Hey Mike." He greeted. "Have a good time topside?"

Mikey thought back to the roof. "Umm…yes and no?"

Raph looked up, confused. "What do you mean, yes and no?"

Mike pulled up a chair. This would take a few minutes.

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Meanwhile, Lona knocked softly on Don's door. Donatello had been helping her with homework everyday, so now he knew what that knock meant, and there would be no more attacks with bo staffs!

"You can come in, Lona," Don's voice came from the other side. Lona stepped in, only to see Don staring intently at his computer. "Just give me a minute," he said absently.

Lona flopped on his bed and pulled out her biology book. Both she and Donnie called this homework help, but it really wasn't. They would start off with her homework, then would always go off on some other tangent. Today was no different.

"Okay," Don said, pulling up his desk chair. "Let's see what you've got."

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"-And that's why it's yes and no." Mikey finished his story. "I mean…it's never good having a date interrupted by a bunch of ninjas who would want to kill you."

"Only in this family is that sentence normal," Raph muttered to himself.

Mike looked his way. "What?"

"Erm…nothing, so…you and Lona are going out now?"

Mikey nodded. "Yeah…at least, I think so. Pretty sure."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Pretty sure? Jeez Mike…wait, the Foot attacked you? Are you and Lona okay? How many were there?"

"Slow down, Leo," Raph said, putting a hand on his brother's plastron. "Mike looks okay to me. Lona looked okay when she came in here. They're fine."

Leo still had a worried look on his face, but said nothing else.

Mikey pushed his chair back and stood up. "Well…I guess I'll go see if Lona's done yet. Maybe she wants to do something…"

He left, leaving his two older brothers utterly confused.

Mikey headed to Don's room, humming to himself. A couple months ago before he had met Lona, he had felt empty. Now that feeling was gone.

He paused at Donnie's slightly open door, and inclined his head for the perfect eavesdropping position.

-"So, that's why when you don't poke holes in a potato, it blows the door off the microwave."

"That's interesting…." Lona looked up at Donatello. "Thanks for taking the time for telling me all this."

Don shrugged. "It's not a problem. It's nice having someone around who even sort of knows what I'm talking about."

Lona smiled. Suddenly Don's slightly open door was pushed open, to reveal Mikey. "Hey Mikey…" she started.

"Dude!" he said, coming in all the way. "The potato will blow the door off?? Cool!" With that he ran out of the bedroom.

Lona and Donnie looked at each other. Mikey's voice floated in from the kitchen. "Hey Leo, do we have any potatoes?"

Don's eyes widened. "Mikey, no!" he shot up from his bed and disappeared into the kitchen as well.

Lona cracked up. Still laughing, she gathered her books and joined the rest of the turtles in the kitchen.

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Half an hour later, Lona, Master Splinter, and the four turtles sat down to dinner. Mikey was making Lona laugh so hard she almost choked on a bean.

"So, Lona," Raph said slyly, leaning forward on the table. "I hear you and Mikey are an item now."

For some reason Lona was reminded of a Barbie and Ken set she had seen in a toy store once. "I'm a….what?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "He means you're going out."

Lona choked for real. "Wha…what?" She looked to Mikey, who was now seemingly extremely interested in the table. Lona was silent for a moment, reflecting back to that afternoon on the rooftop.

"Yeah, I guess we are," she said finally.

Mikey looked up, surprised. Lona threw a piece of corn at him. "Don't look so surprised, Mikey. It's not that big a deal."

Splinter cleared his throat. "Well, um…now that we know where you and Michelangelo are, I think we need to establish some ground rules."

Lona and Mikey looked at each other, and immediately burst out laughing once again, earning head shakes or eye rolls from the remaining turtles.

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RING!!!

RING!!!

"Would someone please get that!?" Donnie yelled from his lab.

Leo, who was closest to the phone, picked it up. "Hello? Yes, she's here…. I don't know..…. would you like to speak to her? Hang on."

Leo held out the phone to Lona, a confused look on his face. "It's a Miss Knoll?"

Lona rushed up to take the phone from him.

"Hello? Oh, hi Miss Knoll….tonight? Yes, I can do that. Okay. Good. See you later. Bye." Lona hung the phone up, then turned to Leo, who looked completely nonplussed.

"That lady has a little girl I baby-sit for a lot," she explained. "I hope you don't mind I gave her the number down here."

"It's fine," Mikey interrupted, before Leo had even opened his mouth.

Lona smiled. "I'm going to go baby-sit tonight at seven. Wanna come, Mikey?"

Mikey was thoughtful. "I dunno…"

Suddenly Raph came up behind Mikey. "Mikey out of the lair for a few hours? Mikey, I think you should go."

Mikey shrugged. "Okay." Leo and Raph watched as Lona and Mikey left the lair together.

"Yes!" Raph said, pumping his fist in the air. "A few hours without Mikey…this is heaven."

Leo could do nothing but agree.

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Making their way towards the apartment where Miss Knoll and her daughter lived, Mikey and Lona trudged through the sewers. Looking up, Mikey recognized the manhole as the one on 5th and 3rd. "This is our stop," he said, and pushed open the manhole cover.

Lona climbed out, and led the way to the small apartment building.

"Lona," Mikey said, as she made her way to the front door. "Maybe this was a bad idea. I don't want to scare her…"

Lona laughed. "Mikey, she's three years old. She hasn't seen enough of the world to even know to be afraid of you. Now come on!"

She took hold of his hand and pulled him towards the door. She knocked once, and waited. Soon a small voice called out. "Who…who is it?"

"Erica, it's me, Lona," Lona called gently. "Can I come in please?"

The door opened to reveal a small little girl with brown hair pulled into pigtails, and wearing a pink dress. She gave a little cry and leapt into Lona's arms.

"Hi Lona!" she said happily.

"Oof…hello yourself!" Lona said. Setting the little girl back on the ground, Lona stepped back. "Erica," she said, "I brought my friend to come and see you."

Erica caught sight of Mikey. She stared, and Mikey braced himself for a scream. It never came. Erica smiled at him and pulled at his hand, determined to impress him, as all little kids are.

"I, I have the Barbie movie," she said proudly to him.

Mike looked to Lona, totally lost as to what to do. "Um…cool," he said.

Erica turned to Lona. "Can we watch it? Please?"

Lona smiled. "Okay, Erica. Just make sure you go to bed without a fuss when it's over, okay?"

Erica nodded, and ran to get the pink video cover.

Mikey leaned over to Lona. "Barbie?" he asked. Lona shrugged. "She's three years old. She likes Barbie. It's not that bad. She usually doesn't even watch it anyway."

Erica returned, and thrust the box into Lona's hands. Lona pushed the tape into the VCR, and hit play. Lona sat down on the couch, Mikey next to her.

As the movie progressed, Erica's attention span dwindled. She crawled from Lona's lap onto Mikey's and stared up at him. Suddenly she grabbed his mask right between his eyes and pulled, making his head jerk down in the process. "Take this off?" she requested.

Mikey reached back to the knot behind his head. He would take it off as long as she would stop jerking on it!

He undid the knot and slipped the mask over his head. He handed the orange material to Erica.

Erica took it in her hands and played with it, tying it in knots, and trying to put it on herself.

Finally Erica grew tired, and fell asleep. Lona left Mikey with the TV while she went to put Erica to bed.

Returning from her baby-sitting duties, Lona sat back down in her seat next to Mikey and picked his mask up from the floor where Erica had discarded it.

"Y'know," she said, plucking out the new knots Erica had so graciously put there, "You look kind of nice without your bandanna."

Mikey turned to look at her. "Really?"

Lona grinned. "Really." She reached her arms around his head, tying it back on for him.

Mikey smiled and picked up the remote for a few hours of channel surfing.

When one show ended, Mikey said, "Well, that was weird, huh, Lona?" Lona didn't answer.

Mikey glanced to where she was sitting, and smiled. Lona had fallen asleep on him.

Mikey was about to wake her when he heard a car pull up, and then a few minutes later, the jangle of keys. Erica's mother was home.

A/N: Whew. This took a couple days to write. Next chapter is gonna be my special Christmas chapter. And it'll be extra super-duper long. So brace yourselves. But until then, I hope you enjoyed this one.