A/N I wanted to do a re-write of an old fanfic of mine with Michelangelo getting the girl. Originally I wrote it with him finding a girl who had already been mutated into a turtle but I'd like to try something different this time.

So a couple things: this story takes off from the 2003 TV show and leads into the 2007 movie. I prefer the designs from the CGi movie and I made them older so around 23/24. Also they're a bit taller around 5'8"/5'9". Casey and April are still married.

This story is going to contain mature content at some point. Think of it as a sort of journey as Mikey learns how sex works exactly and we learn how it works for him.

Again we're going to have a Dashboard Confessional song as the title. It just works so well here.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the TMNT

Rooftops and Invitations

Chapter 1

Mira paused and looked out at the city skyline from the top of her apartment building. She adjusted her tripod and looked through her camera again. The city lights over the bay at this time of night was just perfect. She heard some cheering and other voices further away and shook her head with a smile. A party probably; she rarely had invites to those anymore. She took a few quick shots and then hurried back in to her apartment so she could check them.

Later, on her laptop she noticed something strange in the corner of one of her photos, a black speck that looked like a person.

"Weird…" she said and enhanced it. It was definitely the outline of a person but something was weird about it. Long fabric tails streamed out from what seemed to be its 'head' and the body was very round like it had a backpack on. She checked the other photos and didn't see anything similar. "Alright, well at least some of these will work." She continued with her work and then sent the photos to her editor. Seeing it was nearing 11:00 she got dressed and headed down to street level to begin her night shift.

Michelangelo sighed; things had been pretty dull lately. There just wasn't a lot of action going on in the city or at home. Their patrol it was just the same old: drug busts, purse-snatchers, carjackings and the occasional gang fight. At home it was just training…or the odd time April and Casey came to visit.

After six years of marriage they had finally decided to try for a baby. That was great and all but Mikey longed for something new or someone new. Heck, he'd settle for trying the 'online dating' thing at this point.

Also, it seemed that everyone just seemed to be trying to get rid of him lately. Raphael would go out busting heads with Casey, Leonardo was always training or reading or doing something boring like that. Donatello never wanted Mikey in his lab or around something he was working on in fear that he'd break it.

He scratched his kitty Klunk around his ears. "Guess it's just you and me tonight."

The cat gave a happy meow and then suddenly jumped off of the couch and ran toward the kitchen.

"Right, I'm just a glorified can-opener for you." He sighed and got up to give the cat his nightly feeding.

After a while he got up and said to himself, "What the heck am I doing around here anyway? I'm an adult, I'm gonna go get a pizza." Grabbing his disguise and a backpack he took the elevator to the top and climbed the fire escape to the rooftops above.

He soon came across a place he'd never been to before. The name of the restaurant read: Mirella's Pizzeria and the red and blue neon was lit, indicating it was open. That looked like a good place.

Mira was equally bored working the night shift at her parent's wood-fired pizza place. Since it was Manhattan New York there was no shortage of customers at all hours of the night but sometimes there was a lull and the time just dragged on.

She'd rather be outside taking pictures. She was still thinking about that weird silhouette in that last one she took.

She was leaning on the counter on her elbows with her chin in her hands and her eyes closed when the bell jingled with the sound of the door opening. She jerked up and took a good look at the customer that just entered the establishment.

Now Mira had seen her fair share of 'interesting' characters and this one was no exception. He appeared heavy-set with a huge hoodie on that had most of his face in the shadows and large black sunglasses covered his eyes. Sunglasses at night? A large backpack was on his back but something looked strange about its placement. The back of him seemed too curved to look normal. She shook it off quickly and prepared to take his order.

"Hi, welcome to Mirella's Pizza, what can I get you?" she asked, falling into server-mode.

His voice did not match the rest of him, it was young and playful-sounding and almost surfer-esque? "Hey, Dudette, I'll have a number one with extra pepperoni."

"Uh, sure, that'll be $12.75 and it'll be about fifteen minutes." She said and broke the twenty-dollar bill he had into $11.25, which she handed back. His hand she saw was covered in a thick glove and did it have three fingers?! He took the money so quickly she barely had time to see it.

"Thanks babe, I'll be back." He said and slipped out the door before she could say another word. She thought she saw a flash of something orange from underneath his hoodie as he left.

She sat back down on the stool with a thud. "That was weird…" She quickly gave the order to the night-cook who set about preparing the pizza.

She was so intrigued by the man outside, she kind of wanted to chat him up a little bit.

The pizza was done a few minutes early and she thought she'd just bring it out to him. Summoning up her courage she picked up the box and walked through the front door to find him. He wasn't right outside the restaurant but she heard him talking in the next alley over.

"Hey Dude, yeah I just ordered a pizza…no you don't need to worry, I was in disguise." He laughed.

"Yeah the pizza girl looked kind of intrigued, she was a cutie too."

She crept around the wall to get a good look at this guy who just called her 'cute'. What she saw made her drop the pizza box with a gasp.

"Uh, Leo…I gotta go…" He flipped his phone shut and turned around slowly.

His pizza box was on the ground and the pizza girl he'd been talking about stood stock-still staring at him in shock. "Uh…thank you?" he squeaked.

She ran back into the restaurant without saying anything, without screaming even.

Mikey was kicking himself as he stalked over to pick up the pizza box. "Stupid, idiot…stupid! Leo's gonna kill me…"

Heart pounding, Mira ducked back behind the counter to process what she'd just seen. He was bald…and he really very…green with an orange band around his head. What the heck was that? A mask?

Logic dictated it was probably just a green frog mask…that's all. She really didn't need to have freaked out like that. It was odd…but a lot of people in Manhattan were.

Mikey was turning in circles in the alley at war with himself. Should he go back and apologize? No, don't be even dumber. Should he leave a note? He sighed, he should probably just go home but he didn't want to leave yet.

Instead, he jumped to the fire escape and climbed to the top of the building. There was a camera set up on a tripod. Someone here must be a photography enthusiast. They must be very trusting since anyone could just come up here and take it.

He sat on an abandoned chair and started to eat, he'd leave after.

Mira was back to being bored again and was glad when she could finally take a break. She took the elevator all the way to the top of the building again to see if there were any new shots she could take.

She was in for another surprise when she used her key to unlock the door leading to the roof.

"Not again…" she heard a familiar voice say.

She opened the door just in time to see the man from earlier but he was hastily trying to leave. Now was her chance. "You don't have to leave, it's alright."

He paused and turned. "I uh…are you sure? You seemed pretty freaked out earlier."

"Yeah…sorry about that, I should've been cool with the fact you like to wear a mask, nothing wrong with that." She gave him a sheepish smile.

A mask…she thought he was wearing a mask! "Oh no problem, yeah, I'm pretty shy, the 'mask' makes me feel more confident?" he lied.

"That's cool. I've seen weirder believe me." She said, moving a bit closer.

He chuckled and removed his hood. "If that was a competition, bet I could win."

"What's your name?" she asked, coming within a few feet of him.

"They call me Mikey, my full name is a lot longer…what's yours?" He gave her a smile.

She couldn't help but smile back. "They call me Mira, my full name is Mirella," She rolled the 'r' when she said it.

"Like the name of the restaurant!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's Italian, my grandmother's name, it's her secret recipes that make our pizza taste so good." she winked.

"It's nice, I guess you could call mine Italian too, it's Michelangelo."

She giggled. "That is a mouthful, I'll call you Mikey." She noticed the half-empty pizza still in the box. Her eyebrows were raised as she grinned. "Delicious right?"

"The best, babe. I haven't had pizza this good in a long time." He agreed.

She beamed back. "That's the famous recipe." she gave him another wink.

Mikey was incredulous as he laughed. Was this girl actually flirting with him? He took a moment to really look at her. She had long dark hair with a slight curl in the ends, warm brown eyes and a light splash of freckles across her face. Yes, very cute indeed, too bad he was literally not her type being a 5'8" talking turtle and all.

He flashed her another charming grin. "So…what's a pretty girl like you doing coming up to the rooftop on your break?" he winced slightly hoping she was cool with that comment about her looks.

To his relief she laughed. "That's my camera over there, I like to come up here and take pictures in my spare time. I'm the only one that comes up here…how did you get up here?"

He looked nervous for a second. "I…climbed?"

"Oh…the fire escape, right…wow, you must work out or something that ladder is really hard to reach." She sounded impressed

He suddenly posed like a body-builder flexing both of his arms. "Yep, I like to keep in shape…"

The sound of her laughter filled the air again. "Wow, I am impressed, can I feel?" she asked shyly.

His mind was blown but he lowered his arm to let her feel his bicep. "Sure, babe."

She couldn't believe she was doing this, she didn't know this guy, he could be homeless! Still, she felt strangely comfortable around him, like she'd known him all her life. She tentatively placed her hand around the muscles on his arm. "Wow…" she breathed. He was totally ripped she realized as she felt solid, well-formed muscle beneath her fingers. She changed her mind, definitely not homeless and he smelled clean.

A beat passed and she realized she needed to remove her hand. "Uh sorry, wow, you really are strong."

His voice was quiet when he said. "Thanks, do you work out?"

She flexed her own arms then. "Uh huh, check out the pipes on these. I take self-defence classes too, been doing them since I started working night shifts."

Mikey was at a loss for words for a moment. This girl could give April a run for her money. "That's majorly awesome babe."

She grinned. "Thanks!" She was about to say something else when her cell phone started beeping. "Oh, break's over…guess I gotta go. I um, I really enjoyed talking to you Mikey."

"Me too…it was really nice to meet you Mira." Everything in him was screaming to give her his number but he was too frozen to act.

She shuffled a bit, not wanting to leave just quite yet. "Do…you think you'll be back this way again?"

He perked up and smiled broadly. "Yeah of course babe, I could eat pizza literally any day of the week."

"Well, maybe I'll see you around again." She flashed him one last smile and turned to leave.

He gave her a quick three-fingered wave. "See you later."

After she was gone, Mikey was left to bask in his happy yet, conflicted feelings. That was practically an invitation to come see her again. He had to think things over but he was sure he had read the signs right. She liked him, at least a little bit and that was good enough for him.

Mira returned to the storefront feeling all kinds of things. The guy on the rooftop…besides wearing a green mask had been surprisingly…charming, funny and could actually keep a conversation going. Hold on though, he's probably not mentally stable…the cynical part of her argued. Also, something wasn't totally right…she could've sworn his hand only had three fingers when he waved to her.

There was definitely something weird going on and she couldn't help but be curious about it.

The rest of her night shift passed without incident and then it was time to sleep.

After a shower and a good meal, Mira was back up on the rooftop taking shots of the setting sun, it was a pretty decent sunset with the sky lit up in fiery shades of orange, peach and pink that faded into a nice lavender higher up.

She wondered if he really would stop by again.

"So what was that all about last night?" Leo had asked him when he'd gotten up for the day.

Thinking hard he tried to remember what he was referring to.

Leo sighed. "…When you suddenly said you had to go and hung up on me?"

"OH! Right, it was nothing Leo, I just…thought someone saw me for a second but they didn't." he tried to sound convincing and it seemed to work this time.

"Oh I see, you're sure they didn't?" Leo pressed.

Mikey gave him a nonchalant shrug. "Of course Leo, my man. I've still got game."

Leo rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever, see you at training." And he walked off.

Mikey sighed in relief. Even though this girl believed he was human didn't mean he wanted to have Leo breathing down his neck about it. He had made up his mind; he definitely wanted to see her again.

He left at the same time he had the previous night, and hoped he could catch her on her break again. This time he opted to bring his board along with him.

Mira was on high alert that night as she waited for him to come in. During a lull in sales she stepped outside to take a short break in the cool night air.

She heard a noise over in the alley nearby. Thinking it was him she turned the corner to check.

It was not him but a homeless person rummaging through the trash. "Oh! Sorry…" she said and began to back up.

The man began yelling unintelligible things at her and brandishing what looked like a walking stick.

Mira said "eep!" and quickly turned to run. Immediately she slammed into something hard.

"Whoa babe, you okay?" Mikey asked, catching her by her shoulders.

She blinked in surprise. "Mikey! I uh…thought I heard you in there." She said, glancing behind herself.

Mikey peered in to the alley. "Oh, that's just Old Man Dewey, he's harmless, he just doesn't like being surprised."

"Right…" Mira said with a nervous chuckle. "Uh, hey how about I get you your pizza?"

"Sounds great." He said and followed her into the restaurant.

Fifteen minutes later she took her break and met him on the rooftop again.

"Here." He said, pushing the pizza box closer to her. "Have some, or…are you totally sick of pizza since you do it for work every night?"

She laughed. "A bit but I won't turn down free pizza." She sat down beside him and took a slice. "So…what do you do?"

He tensed. "What, you mean for work?" he laughed nervously. "I uh…I train in martial arts and sometimes my brothers and me go out and stop crime around the city."

Her eyes widened. "Ooh, like a vigilante…that is so cool!" she exclaimed.

He smiled again, "Thanks, it's just routine for us." He said. "Sometimes I also work birthday parties for kids."

"That explains the mask." She said and reached over to touch his face.

He flinched away from her and she drew her hand back immediately. "Oh! I'm sorry…I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable or anything." She felt embarrassed and her face grew hot as she looked away.

Mikey was at war with himself. He felt horrible lying to this girl who was actually treating him like a person but at the same time he knew it was because she thought he was human.

He noticed she was about to leave. He grabbed her hand and laid it on his cheek.

"You didn't do anything wrong…it's not a mask. This is actually…what I look like…please don't scream." He added quickly.

She gasped when her fingers touched his smooth, slightly scaly cheek. "Oh…oh my…" it really was skin, it felt warm under her touch and as she looked closer she could see that the orange fabric he wore was actually a mask, like a ninja mask. His eyes under the mask were blue and twinkled merrily when he smiled. She was surprised that she didn't have any urge to run from him; instead she wanted to know more.

"I'm sorry for lying to you." He said as she removed her hand still in a small amount of shock.

Finding her voice she asked. "So…what are you?" she asked and stopped herself. "Sorry, that's probably rude…if you'd like to tell me you can."

Well this was new…Mikey was at a loss for words for a moment. "I uh…my brothers and I are mutant…turtles?"

A turtle…a mutant turtle?! Mira's eyes widened. "Is that why you're wearing all that heavy clothing?" she asked.

"Yeah…most of the time we're only wearing our gear, it's a lot easier to do ninja moves." He said.

She bit her lip for a moment. "C-can I see?"

He took a minute to process this…she wanted to see him without his clothes on…hell yes! "Uh, sure!" he began pulling the massive hoodie off revealing his bright yellow plastron and his shell. He paused at removing his pants thinking that would probably be too much for her.

"Oh my God…" she breathed and tentatively reached out a hand to touch his shell. She looked at him for confirmation and he nodded. "Can you feel this?" she asked, running her hands over the grooves and plates that made up his shell.

"Yeah…" he said quietly, her touch felt good. "I mean, it's part of my body so yeah."

She took a good look at his chest. It looked much like a man's all the muscles and dips were in the right places but it looked much tougher than regular skin. There were also these side scutes that connected his chest to his shell. "This is amazing, you're amazing!"

If he could blush he would have. "Thanks…you're now a part of a very exclusive club that knows who we really are. We don't normally…reveal ourselves to humans…it can be pretty dangerous for us."

Right, duh. "Oh of course, I won't tell anyone about you. I doubt anyone would believe me, next they'll be saying Gargoyles come to life at night or something."

He looked visibly relieved. "Thanks…if my older brother knew what I was doing he would probably kill me…and no, I'm not exaggerating."

She was about to ask how many brothers he had when her pesky timer went off. "Damn, can we finish this conversation tomorrow? I'm actually off, but I still live in this building. Rain check?"

"Here?" Mikey asked, flabbergasted that she wanted to see him again.

She nodded. "Here. Sunset." She waved at him once more and left.

"At sunset…" he echoed quietly. When she was gone he jumped into the air and shot his first up in an act of joy. "Cowabunga!"

Then he stopped and uttered. "Leo's really gonna kill me…then again…what he doesn't know won't hurt him."

End Chapter 1

A/N I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I'll be doing updates periodically!