"Holy sh-!" And I swear to Jesus I jumped five feet into the air.

"Woah. Sorry." He chuckled. "Didn't mean to scare you."

"Well congrats, not many people can manage it," I grumbled.

He tilted his head at me, amused.

"You look exactly like you did three years ago," he mused.

I crossed my arms. "Thanks. I love knowing that I look like I'm thirteen."

He looked taken aback. "Isn't it supposed to be a compliment?"

I snorted. "Yeah, when you're like, forty."

"Oh, sorry." He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "You're the first person I've talked to, so cut my social skills some slack."

My eyes widened. "Wait. You've never talked to anyone before? Ever?"

He shook his head.

"No one!? Not even another," I gestured to him, searching for words, "...turtle?"

Another head shake. "As far as I know, I'm the only one."

Without a second thought, I swung my bag off my shoulder and snatched a notebook and pen from it. I sat down on the roof, flipping to a new page and clicking my pen, writing down everything I now knew about him. He crouched down in front of me, watching in confusion and a bit of suspicion.

"What are you doing?"

"How do you think I managed to find you after all these years, genius?" He shrugged and I sighed, tapping the notebook with the end of my pen. "Documentation. And a shit load of research."

His eyes seemed to light up with curiosity, and I grinned.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

He shook his head and settled down beside me.

"Alright -" I caught myself before diving straight into questions like 'what the hell are you?' and 'why the hell can you speak English?' instead, I decided to actually get to know him first. "So, what's your favourite colour?"

He raised his non-existent eyebrows and gestured to all the blue items that decorated him.

"Is this not a good enough indication for you?"

"Obviously not," I mumbled, as I wrote down blue. I frowned when I realized something.

"What's your name?"

"Leonardo, but I prefer just Leo."

I grinned. "Cool, I'm Raiya." I twirled my pen. "So what's your favourite song?"

He shrugged. "I haven't heard many modern songs, but I like I Gotta Feeling."

"Okay, what's your favourite food?"

"Mediterranean pizza."

"What's your favourite movie?"

"I've only seen a few, but probably Bourne."

"Really!? Which one?" I asked excitedly.

"There's more than one?" He asked, surprised.

"Yeah, there's four. Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum and Legacy. Which one did you see?"

He shrugged helplessly. "I have no idea."

I laughed. "That's okay. What's your favourite book?"

"I haven't read many, but I really liked Tarzan."

I looked up from my notebook in surprise. "There's a book?"

"Uhm, yeah. By Edgar Rice Burroughs," he said in confusion. Then I remembered that he'd never seen the movies about Tarzan.

"Oh, okay. I've just seen the movies, I didn't know there was a book."

His eyes lit up with excitement. "There's a movie?" I almost laughed at his amazement.

"Yeah, but I don't know how much it is like the book. So what's your favourite season?"

"Spring," he shivered, "winter is too cold."

I nodded without looking up from writing. 'Agreed. What's your favourite pastime?"

"Being above ground."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. "Are you usually not about ground?"

"Well I live in the sewers and I can't exactly go out during the day or else I'll be seen."

I wrinkled my nose. "How long ago did you lose your sense of smell?"

He chuckled. "You get used to it."

"I'd hope so. So how did you learn English?"

"Exactly how you did. I grew up hearing it from the people on the streets and I slowly got the hang of it."

"How long have you lived in New York?"

"As long as I can remember."

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen years in the sewers?" I murmured. "Alone?"

He nodded solemnly and I felt a pang of pity. I decided to ask a happier question.

"When's your birthday?"

Leo shrugged. "Uh, I'm not exactly sure," he admitted. I cringed, nice going Raiya. Leo continued, "a while ago I tried figuring it out and I narrowed it down to around April. I just guessed my age and counted the years since then, and I'm pretty sure I'm seventeen."

You are so stupid, I scolded myself silently.

"So...what are you then?"

He seemed to hesitate, then exhaled deeply.

"I don't know about that either. I just somehow became this. I don't remember when or where or why, I just remember living below the city."

"And training as a goddamn ninja." I laughed.

He grinned. "Pretty cool, huh?"

"Wait, you really are a ninja? I was just kidding about that."

Leo grabbed the twin swords from his shell and twirled them around as best he could while sitting down.

"What, you thought these were just for show?"

I peered in wonder at the blade, sharpened to a deadly edge.

"Why would you want to be a ninja?"

"Well, I'll be honest with you. I found a Ninjutsu book in the sewers one day and I was so bored that I read it and learned from it." He laughed sheepishly.

"Oh my god," I said in feigned horror, "you were so bored you resorted to reading a book? Man, people who read those for fun must be insane."

"I don't hate books," he argued.

I smiled. "Right. So...why do you save people?"

"I don't know. I guess I just hate bullies, and this city has too many of them."

I nodded, putting my notebook and pen off to the side and bringing my knees up to my chest.

"That makes sense. Somebody has to keep all those creepy jerks in check, and the police sure as hell don't." I glanced over at him and smiled. "Thank you. You do so much and you don't get any credit for it."

Leo shrugged. "It's not all that bad. I like helping people, even if most of them aren't crazy like you and track me down to say thank you."

My face heated uncontrollably.

Thank God it's dark out.

"Okay, I'm actually really embarrassed about that. I'm really sorry for being like the stalker of the century."

He laughed. "No worries, it's nice knowing that you still appreciate what I did for you so long ago."

"Yeah, well ending up like the girl in Taken wasn't exactly at the top of my bucket list."

He shot me a questioning look. And I swore to myself. Damn, I keep forgetting this guy's only seen like six movies that probably range from Old Yeller to The Last Samurai.

"It's a movie, where this girl gets taken by some sketchy guys and, yeah, just don't worry about it." I laughed and he nodded slowly.

"How often do you come up here?" I asked, breaking the short-lived silence.

"Every night. Sometimes during the day if I'm really bored."

"Is that why you saved me during the day but not anyone else?"

He nodded. "I figured it was worth the risk of being seen."

"So...does that make you nocturnal?"

"Weeeell, not really. I don't have to sleep much, and I don't get tired easily. But when I am tired, a two or three hour nap wakes me up. I guess it just seems nocturnal because I only come above ground at night."

"That would be nice during the school year." I laughed.

"What's school like?" He asked almost wistfully,

"Ugh. Don't even get me started. I could rant for days about that hellhole."

"It can't be that bad," he argued.

"Well yeah, it just makes it worse that everybody says 'oh high school was the best years of my life' and then it turns out to be hell because you have no friends and you have to take the dumb kid classes because you're stupid, and it's just really not fun." I shrugged. "The teachers don't give a shit because most of the students don't give a shit, so when kids like me try they don't acknowledge it and you get a shit mark for your hard work."

"Oh." Leo nodded. "That doesn't sound a lot like I thought it would be."

"Yeah. But looking back at it, elementary wasn't that bad...but I also had friends then."

He frowned. "How come you have no friends?"

I shrugged. "Beats me. But I don't really care, I have my sister and my uncle. Friends would just distract me from school." I seemed to register my words a few moments after I said them and I hastily recovered. "No, not you Leo. I don't mean you, I meant friends I would see and talk to during school. Anyways, it's summer, I don't have to go back for another month and a half."

He smiled and opened his mouth to say something but a scream followed by a desperate 'help!' rang out across the city, shattering the peaceful air around us.

The turtle jumped to his feet,

"Sorry Raiya, I have to go, I'll see you later!" He called as he ran off toward the cry of help.

I watched him disappear into the darkness before collecting my pen and notebook and heading back home.