A/N: Hi friends! I meant to write this and post it on Valentine's Day, but there was like no time in between my classes. I really liked this idea and wanted to expand a little on the universe in 'how mikey spent his halloween'. Yes, this is a sequel! But you don't have to read the first one for this one to make sense.

Mikey's still in eighth grade (13), Donnie's in tenth (16), Raph's in twelfth (17), and Leo's in college (19). I hope you enjoy!

The night was young when Mikey's dream decided to turn itself into a nightmare. It crept up onto him like an insect, and suddenly Mikey wasn't dreaming about how Klunk - Renet's pet yokai - had opened an ice cream store and had his own food truck anymore. Memories from years ago suddenly clouded over the crazy dream, things lost and things forgotten prodding at him.

When Mikey woke up, his cheeks were wet.

That was weird.

Orange sunlight peeked through the pale white curtains of their bedroom window, indicating that the morning had arrived. Mikey stared listlessly at the pattern the sunlight had left on his wall. Realization burgeoned within him that the nightmare had blanketed him with a feeling of melancholy. It was nowhere as comfortable as his real blankets. Mikey had proudly gathered three, creating a cozy pocket of warmth he usually slept like a rock under.

Now he just stared at the wall, his blankets doing nothing to protect him from the after effects of the dream.

Which he couldn't even remember.

That was also… pretty weird.

Mikey's alarm rang just then, indicating the 6 AM mark. He sat up and reached over to switch it off. It was rare that he woke up before his alarm. Mikey yawned and smacked his lips. A smile bloomed on his face when he realized what day it was.

Not only was it a Friday, but it was Valentine's Day! That meant chocolate!

"Hey, good morning, Mikey, are you up yet?" Leo's voice called from the hallway. "We're having breakfast soon!"

Leo's going to freak if he thinks I'm sad, Mikey thought in alarm.

Hastily, Mikey wiped his eyes dry with the end of his sleeve, just in case. His oldest brother was extremely perceptive, and Mikey didn't want to worry him for no reason. Besides, whatever the nightmare had been about, he'd already forgotten it. Everything was cool beans.

"Yes!" Mikey called back. "Coming!"

Mikey dove into his usual morning routine. He brushed his teeth in the shower, while washing his curly blond hair with strawberry shampoo, and dried off by shaking his head like he was in one of those rock bands Raph liked so much. He threw on his favorite orange hoodie with patches on each elbow because he'd fallen so many times and put a hole through it. He put on a pair of Raph's red socks (for a bit of Valentine's Day flair) and darted out, sliding right into the kitchen where Leo was dutifully flipping a hash brown patty. Raph and Donnie were sitting at the table.

"Good morning!" Mikey said, poking his nose into the fridge. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

"Happy Valentine's to you, too," Leo said, dropping a kiss on the top of Mikey's head. "Mm. Strawberry."

"I'm looking for chocolate," Mikey announced to his family. Then he looked suspiciously at Leo. "You did get chocolate, right?"

"Actually, I did the shopping last weekend, and no, I did not," Donnie said with his phone in one hand and a forkful of hash brown in the other. He had the grace to look up to meet Mikey's betrayed expression.

"Treachery!" Mikey yelled, pointing at him. "It's Valentine's Day, you fiend. I need to snack on some that goodness."

Donnie put his phone down to point back at Mikey with equal vigor. "You didn't write it in the shopping list!"

"I forgot! What's your excuse?"

"Uh, I'm not a mind reader?"

Raph, sitting at the other corner of the table, grinned. "I got chocolate," he said, waggling his eyebrows.

"Really?" Mikey asked with a grin.

"You?" Donnie said with a disbelieving stare.

"For Mona," Raph said with a dreamy sigh. "And flowers."

"Treachery," Mikey said with a shake of his head, making Donnie and Leo laugh.

Mikey wasn't actually mad, though. If anyone deserved chocolate and flowers, it was the girl who worked shifts at the bike repair shop down the street. Raph had met her a few months ago, around the holidays. For someone who had toned muscles from winning boxing tournaments, Mona had an extremely warm personality, with a sweet smile to match. Not to mention, she had an awesome sense of style. She'd won Mikey over the moment he'd seen that she decorated her motorcycle with stickers.

"Hey, you gotta treat your girl right," Raph said with a shrug. "I'm taking her out on a date. She thinks I don't care, so she's not expecting anything."

"How Mona puts up with you, I have no idea," Donnie muttered.

"When you work up the guts to ask April out, you'll get an idea of what this is like, little brother," Raph said with a grin.

Donnie's face was inflamed. "April's just a friend."

A chorus of argument erupted from all four brothers. Mikey just laughed, watching as Donnie and Raph went at it. April O'Neil was in Donnie's grade, and his best friend. With all of them talking or laughing over each other, Mikey felt leagues better than he did when he'd first woken up.

"Her mom was my teacher in middle school," Donnie said. "Not to mention Mikey's teacher, currently!"

"Exactly! Her mom already knows you!" Raph said.

"Gee, Raph! Thanks for making it weird."

"All I'm saying is that it's Valentine's Day, and girls love it when guys do stuff for them on Valentine's Day."

Leo slid a heart-shaped hash brown onto Mikey's plate, next to his eggs, and Mikey grinned in delight as the oldest finally sat down to join them.

"He's got a point, Don," Leo said with a knowing, wide grin.

"Don't you start," Donnie retaliated, turning on him. "What about you and Karai?"

Leo made a indifferent face. "What about Karai?"

"Yeah, he's pretty much gotten over her," Raph said. "Now he's all goo-goo eyes for Usagi."

Mikey raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Enough out of you, little brother," Leo said warningly at Mikey. "Unless you want our love surgeon dissecting your love life."

Mikey grinned, unperturbed by this warning.

They all dug into breakfast, and conversation flowed from there. This was one of the better ways to start a day, in Mikey's opinion. Some days they were all just too busy. Mikey smiled, and downed his orange juice. He'd have to make a point to tell Leo that he enjoyed family breakfast. Maybe Leo would, like, turn it into Hamato family law.

"So, Mikey," Leo said. "Excited for the after school dance today?"

"I hope you're not just wearing that," Raph said, eying Mikey's hoodie.

"Hey!" Mikey said, looking offended. He hesitated, unsure of how to tell his brothers that he wasn't actually going. The only reason they knew was because Leo kept a keen eye on his school activities calendar they'd sent to each students' home at the beginning of the school year.

"You can wear whatever you're comfortable in," Leo said. "But if you want to change into like a dress shirt and pants or something -"

"Which is highly suggested if you're going to appeal to the ladies," Raph added.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Then just give us a call, okay?"

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind," Mikey said.

From inside his hoodie pocket, Mikey's phone buzzed. He pulled it out to see that Renet had sent him a video of Klunk in what looked like Renet's backyard.

The cat yokai stood with his swishy tails to the camera, his four paws apart with intent and his wings opened in full glory, feathers ruffling in the breeze. Klunk lowered his head to inspect something in the grass.

"Hello Klunky!" he could hear Renet's voice in the background as she zoomed in on the yokai. "What are you up to over there?"

What happened next was terrifying. Klunk swiveled his head completely around, his eyes glowing and a dead mouse in his jaw.

Renet screamed. "NOOO-" before the video ended abruptly.

Mikey stared, jaw dropping.

The following text that she'd sent read, This just happened and now I'm traumatized.

Mikey let out a nervous giggle, but he had completely lost what remained of his appetite thanks to that. 90% of the time, Klunk was an adorable mess of feathers and fluff and kitten paws.

But this. This was part of the 10%.

When he looked up, his brothers were looking at him.

"Just a video of Klunk," Mikey said with a shrug.

"Ah. That reminds me," Donnie said, getting Mikey's attention. Swallowing his bite, he gave Mikey a pointed look. "Can you see any yokai right now?"

Yokai.

Even though it had been months since Mikey had learned that he could see yokai, a.k.a. strange spirits floating around in the world, the concept was still so weird to get used to. The fact that they were so rare to see didn't exactly help. If Mikey didn't already see Klunk on an everyday basis, he might have started to wonder if he'd imagined the whole thing up.

The way Renet had explained it, there seemed to be a special barrier of protection around their city that blocked most yokai from entering. Save for Klunk, Mikey hadn't seen any new yokai since Halloween. Mikey wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

With a quick glance around the apartment, Mikey shook his head. "Nope," he said, popping the 'p'. "

Donnie nodded. "Just checking. It just blows my mind still."

"You're not the only one," Leo said worriedly. "Are you sure you're safe around that… thing, Mikey?"

Mikey gave Leo an injured look. "Klunk's not a thing. He's my friend."

"A creepy, owlish, cat yokai friend," Donnie pointed out. At Mikey's glare, he added, "You drew a pretty scary picture, to be fair."

Mikey's brothers couldn't see yokai, as far as they all knew. They couldn't see them through video or photographs, either. Up until last Halloween, the four of them hadn't known that the yokai from their father's stories were real.

"I'm perfectly safe. Klunk's harmless," Mikey said firmly. He decided to not tell Leo about the creepy thing Klunk had done with his neck and also to that poor mouse.

"Then it's settled," Raph said, sticking up for Mikey because he was awesome like that.

"I just don't want a repeat of last year," Leo mumbled.

Last year, Mikey had met a bird yokai. Long story short, it had turned out totally fine. Yes, maybe his brothers had thought he'd been decapitated for a few minutes, but other than a little bit of trauma it was totally fine.

Mikey watched Leo, wishing he could make his brother stop worrying so much. He nudged Leo's foot under the table. Leo looked up at him, the weight of the burden he carried as oldest brother and head of the family in those blue eyes of his.

Mikey wanted to erase some of that burden.

"There won't be," Mikey said. "I promise."

Chris Bradford used to be a bully. Mikey remembered in sixth grade, everyone used to be sort of afraid of him. Then he got some friends - Xever and Fong - who had changed him for the better. Now they all just did… well, Mikey wasn't ever completely sure what the three of them were up to.

In Ms. O'Neil's homeroom, which was always thematically coherent with whatever special day they were celebrating, pink and red hearts were strung up on the window, casting the classroom in a pink and red glow as students chattered on. Girls giggled in the back, gossiping about which boys had asked who to the Valentine's Dance after school. Some people were playing Yu-gi-oh in the other back corner.

Bradford, Xever, and Fong were busy taping a band of foil around their heads, an array of weird equipment in a box in front of them. Mikey lifted his pencil from his math homework - which he was way better at than he was last year - and just stared at them, perplexed.

"Hold still, it's not straight," Xever was saying as he adjusted the band around Bradford's head.

"You're not straight," Bradford shot back, laughing and high-fiving Fong.

"Okay, cool it," Ms. O'Neil said from her desk, not lifting her head from the stack of papers she was grading.

"It's all good, Ms. O," Xever said. "Bradford's rudimentary jokes aren't hurtful because I'm bi and he knows that."

"Yeah, love comes in different shapes and forms and I'm all about respecting that kind of stuff," Bradford added. "Xever's a real bro for putting up with me."

Ms. O'Neil still didn't look up, too busy grading. "Okay, boys. Make sure you clean up the foil after you're done playing aliens."

"We're not playing aliens," Fong grumbled.

"What… are you guys doing?" Mikey asked, looking at them with wary curiosity.

Fong looked at him. "Hey, Mikey. We're making ghost sensors with this foil to use later today."

"Ghost sensors?" Mikey asked dubiously.

"Yeah. For ghost hunting," Bradford said with a grin.

Mikey opened his mouth to ask a question, then closed it because he wasn't sure what sort of question would be appropriate in this situation.

"Why, you ask?" Xever asked for him.

"I didn't ask," Mikey said quickly.

"Well, I'll tell you," Xever answered. "Private conference of the Triumvirate, plus one!"

"W-what?" Mikey stared at Bradford, Xever, and Fong scooted their desks around his, connecting them. "What are we doing?"

"This is how we initiate our private meetings. For our - and now your - ears only. We can't reveal this information just willy-nilly," Xever said, the 'duh' hanging in his tone. "Too many ears hearing this could result in -" Xever lowered his voice to a whisper. "-mass hysteria."

"Okay, what's this information?" Mikey asked, a growing smile on his face.

"Death," Bradford said, voice somber. "Probably. Xever's neighbor, a couple days ago. Sixth grader."

That did its work quick in wiping the smile from Mikey's face.

"Wait, seriously?" Mikey stammered. "What?"

"It's not confirmed, just highly likely," Xever said. "My neighbor's name is - was Baxter. Baxter Stockman. Sort of a nerd, his parents are both accountants. Collected Pokemon cards. Was allergic to shellfish."

"Heh. Allergic to shellfish, what a nerd," Bradford chuckled.

Fong made a what-the-heck face at him. "He's possibly dead, have some respect, man."

Mikey didn't understand. Were they joking? He could never tell when they were joking.

"Anyway, he said to me the other day that he was going into the woods behind the school to look for Lady Love," Xever said. "Had a crush, you see."

"Lady Love? Like… that old ghost story the school has?" Mikey asked, recognizing the name.

The guys nodded.

"He was a big believer in ghosts and stuff. I think he wanted us all to dress up as the Ghostbusters last Halloween, but you know, we rebelled against that idea. I regret that now, since he's… you know, possibly dead," Xever said with a shake of his head.

Baxter Stockman… the name sounded familiar, like Mikey had read it before. He remembered reading that name on a Quiz Bowl trophy in one of the display cases in the school. Donnie had trophy with his name on it, too.

"Okay, so he went into the woods," Mikey said. "What happened then?"

Xever shrugged. "He's not been back since Wednesday, so nobody knows. That's why we're assuming the worst."

Mikey's eyes widened. That's… heavily concerning. "Hasn't his family called the police?"

"Well, that's the weird part. His parents? Don't seem to really know what I'm talking about when I go over to ask if Baxter can hang out," Xever said with a frown. "They don't seem to remember him. It's so weird. And I asked his grandma, who works at the UPS Store, and she doesn't remember him either. Trust me when I say that's weird. Baxter's grandma loves Baxter. Like… she has 'proud grandmother of Baxter' in her profile on SeniorsOnly."

"Why do you know that?" Fong asked carefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry Fong, what else am I supposed to do at a UPS Store when I need package delivered, not make conversation with his grandma? Would you rather I ignore the nice lady?"

"No. Just... poor Baxter," Fong said with a sigh.

Mikey set his pencil down and leaned back in his seat. So this is definitely taking the cake of being the weirdest thing today, he thought.

"Poor, sweet, innocent Baxter," Xever added, and pointed to the box of equipment. "That's why we jacked all this stuff from the Ghost Hunting Club."

"And by 'jacked', we mean asked nicely," Bradford said. "We're going to try to find this Lady Love, with science."

"The GHC offered to do it for us, but this is personal," Xever said.

"Plus, their average service time? It's weeks. Just plain unprofesh," Bradford said. "Avenging a comrade doesn't wait around."

"We're going right after school," Xever said. "So we're prepping ourselves." He pointed to the foil headbands they'd made.

Fong nodded. "Well, right after the school dance."

"Right, we're going right after the Valentine's Dance," Xever agreed. "Bradford wants to ask that one girl from English class."

"She's nice. And smart. And pretty," Bradford said with a dreamy little sigh.

Mikey was feeling a little sick. Not from the topic of the dance - he hadn't exactly planned on going - but because of what the guys had just said. Someone had disappeared, and their family didn't remember them?

Something was off.

"A total package," Xever was saying. "As Baxter's grandma would know."

"Her name is Renet, stop objectifying her, dude," Bradford said with a laugh.

Mikey looked up at Bradford in surprise. He'd been talking about Renet?

Mikey and Renet shared the last class of the day together. That meant two things: one, they got to work through their physics homework together, and two, they got to sit next to each other! Renet was sort of awesome. They'd met last year, and she - along with Casey Jones, a high-schooler - were the only other people that Mikey knew who could see yokai.

"Mikey, hi!" Renet said, sliding into her seat next to him eagerly, her long pigtails bouncing with her jovial mood. "Aren't you so excited?"

"Excited? I mean, yeah, relatively," Mikey said, staring at a kid in front of them who had already dozed off in his seat. Class hadn't even started yet.

"No, I mean, like, for the school dance," Renet said, her eyes sparkling. "I know the Winter Ball is more of a big deal, but I took a peek in the gymnasium and I think they're setting up a chocolate fountain, so I'm kind of jazzed."

Mikey looked at her. He was going to be missing out on a chocolate fountain? "No way!"

"Way," Renet said with a serious nod. "Also, I'm going to grab as many Twizzlers as I can for Klunk. I have a working theory that Twizzlers make him less gassy at night."

"Renet," Mikey said, pulling his sleeves up over his fingers. "I'm not going to the Valentine's Dance."

"Oh. Oh, sorry. Wait, why not?" Renet asked, and Mikey winced.

"Um, it's… I have something else I need to do after school," Mikey said, and realized that what he was saying was actually true. "Bradford, Xever, and Fong told me something that I think involves a yokai."

It was a hypothesis, at least. Donnie would be proud, if this whole thing wasn't so disturbing.

Renet looked at him now, her mouth dropped open in shock. "Seriously?"

The bell rung, and class began. Mikey smiled at Renet, and shrugged apologetically, even though it was clear Renet wanted more of an explanation.

He couldn't blame her. Their city was pretty much barren of yokai. Renet slid her notebook a few inches over to him on the table in a discreet way that wouldn't catch the teacher's notice. Mikey looked down to see three question marks at the top, in Renet's curly handwriting.

?

Biting back a giddy smile (it was sort of bad to be giddy about a missing person, right?), Mikey wrote back.

B, X and F told me that a kid named Baxter disappeared 2 days ago in the woods behind the school, and now his family doesn't remember him anymore.

Renet's eyes widened after reading it. She pointed to the word 'woods' and made a confused gesture.

Mikey wrote, Apparently Baxter wanted to go see Lady Love.

Renet looked at him blankly. Taking her pencil, she wrote, Who the heck is Lady Love?

Oh, Renet didn't know, Mikey realized. He wondered if he could summarize the ghost story in writing.

It's a ghost story that they have about our school. They say there's a ghost of this girl who used to go here that roams the woods. If she's in a good mood, she can give you a glimpse of your soulmate. It's sort of creepy, but a lot of kids like to head up there to look for her.

Renet finished reading his words. Like Bloody Mary, kind of?

Mikey began to nod, then thought about it. IDK. Does Bloody Mary give you a glimpse of your soulmate?

Yeah, in a version that I read once, Renet wrote. Why else would people call her name? To die?

Mikey bit back a laugh. Yes?

Renet made a funny horrified face at him that made him snort.

What makes you think that Lady Love has anything to do with Baxter's family not remembering him? Renet wrote. Then she added, Assuming Lady Love is real.

Mikey made a grim face.

Well, it's sort of too much to be a coincidence, isn't it? Considering that of all the people that forgot Baxter, they were the ones that loved him the most.

His words seemed to have an effect on Renet. Renet scribbled, Then count me in on your hunt for Lady Love!

Mikey looked at her in surprise. But you'll miss the dance? And the chocolate fountain?

Renet shrugged, and wrote, There'll be more dances. But how many times can a person say they've seen a ghost?

A/N: Thank you so much for reading! I'd be elated to hear from you and what you thought!