Mikey meets the boy from the pizza shop by an accident concocted by fate. First off, he had to change pizza shops because of some kind of pizza mutant.

"That's all you got for me?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"You suck at telling stories, Slash."

And worst still Pete wasn't there so all Mikey had was Slash's "Pizza mutant trashed your old store. Gonna have to find a new one. Sorry about it."

Second, the Chinese place had been robbed one too many times. The owner packed their bags and moved of greener pastures and no one would re-lease the shop because of the crime rate.

Thirdly, cooking was hard, tiring and expensive when living in the sewers seemed to turn the food rotten twice as fast. And Mikey refused to live off canned goods, not on his shell.

So he needed to find a new go to take out place for his one night a week 'screw this and everything else, I'm not cooking' tantrum.

And it took him a month. No one in his area seemed to be willing to dump a pizza on a dumpster and take the money left for them, but he eventually convinced what sounded like a young guy over the phone that he just had really bad teeth that smelt and he couldn't afford to fix it.

"Ok, I'm off to get pizza!"

"You finally found a place?" Slash smirked, watching the boys in their play pen from a fair distance, still too scared to touch or be scared of.

"Yeah, made a sob story. Guy on the phone was a sap."

It was all fine for a month or so. He'd make his order and pick it up with no problems. And the pizza was alright, not as good as the place he used to go to. But Mikey found himself nit-picking for the sake of nit-picking like an old man and he wasn't going to admit it so he pressed on. But some gang had other ideas.

With the Mutanimals focusing on the Kraang and the Foot out of the picture, gang crime started getting out of hand around the city. And Mikey was admittedly pretty apathetic about it. Occasionally Casey would drag him by the shell topside for a work out, but Mikey had no idea what the go was with turf and what affiliation new tattoos represented anymore.

"Let them beat the crud out of each other."

"If only, but they're going after people for protection money. That makes them our problem."

But back to the point, some new young group decided to mess with Mikey's new pizza store. It was a quiet night, just the owner and his son were in the shop when the punks decided to storm in. He watched from the rooftop across the road and weighed up the pros and cons between waiting for the cops or just barging in himself.

Against his better judgement, he went with the latter before he could stop himself. Quickly the three guys were sprawled on the shop floor, whimpering with sore jaws.

"You know, I really don't like guys like you messing with my access to pizza," Mikey huffed. "But I'm going easy on you this time, so let your buddies know this place is off limits, ok?"

They were gone as quickly as they had hit the floor, hollering obscene threats. Mikey rolled his shoulders back.

"Holy crap!" Mikey turned to finally face the owner of the voice, and back stared a bright eyed college student with his jaw on the floor.

"What do you want?" The father begged. "Money? Take the till!"

"No, no money!" Mikey tilted his head with a lopsided grin. "Just a pizza, that I'll pay for!"

"You're the teeth guy!" The son pointed wildly. "I recognise your voice!"

"Yeah, that's me," Mikey rubbed the back of his head bashfully. "Seriously though, I've got mouths to feed. How's my order looking?"

"I was just about to leave with it when those guys came in!" The son grabbed a box from the back counter, and whirled his way around the front to hand it to Mikey. "It's on the house tonight, as a thank you!"

"You really don't have to." Mikey pulled some money from his belt. "Seriously, with the trouble I put you through with leaving the pizza please take the money."

They were good people, Mikey thought. The father looked as untrusting as Mikey would expect but harmless, and the son was… charming, put it that way.

"No, the boy is right." Mikey jumped at the father's loud voice. The man rounded the corner of the counter and stuck his hand out for Mikey to shake. "We would have lost a lot more money than this pizza is worth if you hadn't shown up. My name is Hector. And this is my son, Woodrow."

"Ahh, ok thanks." Mikey tucked his money back in his belt, shook the man's hand and nodded at Woodrow. "Hey, you guys seem alright, all things considered. And I really can't afford to lose another take out store. I'll have someone come around tomorrow and hook you up with a way to contact some who can help if those kinds of guys give you any trouble."

"I appreciate that. I can certainly say you're more effective than any cop was." Hector crossed his arms and looked Mikey up and down. "Are your… friends gonna look like you?"

"Dad, you're being rude," Woodrow grumbled.

"No, unfortunately I'm the cutest of my friends by a long mile. And hey, do us a favour and don't tell the FBI or whatever about this." Mikey gestured to his face. "We wouldn't get along."

Woodrow barked out a laugh, earning two very different looks from his father and Mikey. "Sorry, that was funny."

"Sure, dude." Mikey grinned crookedly. "Look, I gotta go. But I'll send someone to do a run by tonight to make sure everything's ok."

"Yeah, great! Thank you again!" Mikey heard Woody call out as he bounded up the side of the building.

-:-

"Not the best pizza I've ever had," Slash grumbled.

"Either eat and go or help me, dude!" Mikey growled, wrangling a screaming Donnie into his high chair. "Give Leo and Raph their food before they go off."

Slash shuffled awkwardly into the kitchen. He picked up a slice and wiggled it in front of Raph, who was strapped into his chair, jutting his lip out. "Here."

"You're kidding, aren't you?"

"What?"

"You gotta cu-ow!" Donnie swung his hand and struck Mikey in the face. "You gotta cut it up for him! The slice is as big as he is."

Mikey was so close. So close to losing his shell. He could see Slash was tryi- "Not with a fighting knife! Where has that even been? Take one of the knives from the drawer."

Trying. Slash was trying. By now both of them normally would have gotten Rivet to do it instead. But they were pressing on. It wasn't uncommon now for Mikey to come home from a roof run or to wake up to a clean lair, dishes done and kitchen restocked with food. Admittedly Slash did his best work when no one was there to watch, or else he got embarrassed.

"Stop it!" Mikey yelled, only making Donnie's screaming and kicking worse. "Kid, I was having a good night. Why do you have to ruin it?"

"That's a little dark don't you think?" Slash mumbled, blowing on the cut-up slices of pizza before handing a plate each to Leo and Raph. "Never thought you'd get a temper."

"Never thought I'd have kids either!" Mikey snapped, finally gotten Donnie strapped into his seat. Slash was ready with a third plate of pizza. "Sorry, it's the end of the day. I had to deal with some gang losers messing with the pizza shop. You'll have to swing by on your way home to make sure they're ok."

"Sure, easy enough."

"Daddy?"

"Yeah, Raphie?" Mikey turned. Raphie was looking at him expectantly, unfazed by his brothers still raging tantrum.

"Wada!"

"What?" Slash grunted.

"He wants water, can you grab it? His bottle should be in the dish washer." Mikey picked up a piece of pizza and offered it to Donnie, who had taken to beating his hands against the tray for his chair. "Hey kiddo, sorry for yelling. Truce?"

The pizza ended up against the wall with a defiant slap.

"Whatever," Mikey dropped the plate in front of Donnie. He sat himself on a stool at the island bench and started on his own slice of pizza. "Figure it out yourself."

"Does it matter which bottle?" Slash asked, holding three different water bottles in his hands.

"Absolutely. Raphie's is the princess one. He won't drink out of anything else."

"This thing?" Slash put down the other two and inspected the garishly bright bottle. "You let him-"

"Oh, you really don't want to start that argument." Mikey, having had his masked tugged off in the high chair struggle, shot Slash a look that could kill. The circles under his eyes had gotten darker as of late. "Make sure you get the right lid, or he won't drink it. And if one more kid cries I'm going to bed and it's your problem."

"Right." Slash fumbled a bit filling the bottle up and trying to screw the cap on. He handed the bottle to Raphie, who took it happy with cheese and sauce covered hands. "So, no fancy toppings for the pizza tonight?"

"They won't eat it if it has anything other than cheese and tomato sauce." Mikey mumbled and started on his second slice. He smiled tiredly at Slash. "Weird considering, they can't get enough of steamed vegetables. But something about it being cut up on a pizza makes it weird for them."

"Must be driving you mad."

"What doesn't? Normally I just cover mine in hot sauce and any leftovers but I've got none."

They sat in comfortable quiet after that. The boys were happy enough. Donnie had calmed down and was picking at his pizza, still whining every now and then. But Mikey ignored it, and something about the distant look in Mikey's eyes as he stared at the wall didn't sit right with Slash. The kid was meant to be getting better. Slash had seen it, seen him in action. He was laughing like he used to. Fighting like nothing had happened, as if it had always been April, Casey and Leatherhead at his side and never his brothers. But this… Mikey wasn't reacting to noise, Slash could see he was trying to block it out. Since when could Mikey do that?

"Stop panicking."

"What?"

Mikey had moved those tired eyes from the wall to Slash. His expression was stern, but earnest. "I'm ok. It's just a bad day. Me staring at the wall is the closest I can manage to meditation. Stop panicking."

"Fine." Slash fidgeted for a few moments, feeling incredibly uncomfortable at being read so easily. "I should get going. Check up on the pizza store."

"Yeah, that'd be great." Mikey smiled a little and Slash felt sick in his gut.

"I'll see you later."

"See ya!" Mikey yelled after Slash, who had bolted.

-:-

"Mike?"

"Yeah, Case?"

"Why the hell do you have twenty bottles of hot sauce?"


HOLY COW GUYS so tmntuniversalfanficcomp on tumblr let me know a few days ago that my little old fan fic is nominated for Cutest Chibi! I'm so happy, thank you to whoever nominated us! So head over to tumblr and read some of the other fics nominated and check out voting dates. I'm very excited guys.
Now I know I promised a big chapter last time, but in celebration (and writers block because uuuuggggghhhhhhhh) I decided to just take a couple of things I had lying about. :) Hope you all like it!