Raphael parked the shellraiser and then lugged out the brace Donnie had asked for. The junkyard run had taken longer than it should've because there had been humans unexpectedly roamin around the place and he'd had to repeatedly avoid them while he searched.

"I removed the bent one. Do you have time to help me weld this one in?" Donnie asked him after he had approved of Raphael's acquisition.

"Uh, yeah," Raph said, unable to quickly come up with a reason why he couldn't help. And Donnie would need someone to hold it in place while he was welding. "Just give me a minute."

He quickly left Don's lab and headed out to the main room in search of Leo. He really hadn't meant to be gone all day, especially since he knew that meant Leo had been left alone all day with just his own thoughts. Because knowing Leo, and he was pretty damn sure he knew Leo better than anyone, Leo had spent the day second guessing what had happened between them last night.

After all, when he'd dropped off Leo's favorite tea to him earlier, he hadn't failed to notice the worry lines around Leo's eyes instead of the normal calm face Leo should've been wearing during meditation. He'd wanted to bail on the junkyard run but knew he couldn't do that without questions from Donnie. So instead he'd decided to leave a note for Leo on his way out. He needed Leo to know that he was thinking about him. And he selfishly wanted Leo to be thinking about him in return.

Well, that and he wanted Leo to have a note from him instead of just a note from the Foot kunoichi.

He didn't see Leo in the pit, so he went straight to the dojo, which was also, disappointingly, empty.

"Have ya seen Leo?" he asked as he headed into the kitchen.

"Nope," Mikey answered. He quickly opened the stove and slid in his newest casserole creation. "But when you find him, tell him dinner's in an hour."

"Hey, did Dr. Donnie say you could be on yer feet cookin?"

Mikey grinned at him, his big round eyes the picture of innocence. "Dr. Donnie needs to eat too."

Raph shook his head at the little turtle, taking that to mean that Donnie had not only not given his permission, but that he also probably hadn't even noticed yet that Mike was out here.

"How are ya feelin?"

"Good as new," Mikey said.

Raph watched Mikey's movements as he turned to put some of the dirty dishes in the sink. Someone who wasn't extremely familiar with how Mikey moved might miss the slight limp as he did his best not to put weight on his injured ankle. But if Mikey wasn't going to milk the injury for attention, then Raph wasn't going to bring attention to it either.

Raph turned to head towards the bedrooms and heard Mikey yell out to remind him what time he was expected for dinner. He waved a hand in response and bypassed his own room in favor of Leo's room. But he stopped short at the open door as he realized Leo wasn't in his bedroom, either. Their bedrooms weren't large, but he found himself scanning over the inside of Leo's anyway, as if Leo were somehow sitting in a spot Raph just hadn't looked yet. He frowned when he noticed that his note to Leo was sitting in the exact spot where he'd left it, which meant he had no idea if Leo had even seen it.

The longer he stood there, the more uneasy he felt about Leo's absence from the lair.

Her letter hadn't set up a day or time to meet. But Leo knew where he could find her. He landed on the rooftop of the Byerly building and spotted her standing up on a ledge with her back to him. He began to walk to where she stood and watched as she finally turned to look him over.

"Either you travel light, or you've come to tell me your answer is no."

He stared back at her. She'd always appeared rather soft to him, despite her metal armor and harsh red eyeliner. He glanced down at his large, calloused hands and realized for the first time that if he were to touch her, he'd always be worried about crushing her. Which would definitely not be a concern with a certain muscled –

"Leo?" Karai asked, more than a hint of irritation in her voice.

His head snapped up to face her again. "I'm sorry, Karai," he said, acknowledging her assumption. "There's no way I could ever leave my family."

Karai nodded slowly as she absorbed his answer. At this point she hadn't actually been sure what to expect from him. After all, he hadn't shown up the first night, eager to take her up on her offer. And as the days passed, her hope had risen that maybe he would join her, because the sheer lack of an answer meant Leo was actually thinking about it.

But the days he'd made her wait also gave her time to think about what her response would be if his answer was no. She jumped down off the ledge of the building and slowly walked towards him.

Leo watched her approach. He watched her eyes soften and he watched her hips sway more dramatically than usual. He watched her sidle up next to him.

"Well, if you won't come to my side, what if I came to yours?" The question was asked in a breathy voice, unlike anything he'd heard from her before, as the fingers of one small hand reached out and landed lightly on his plastron.

Leo watched as her fingers began to move over his armored chest. If someone had asked him a few days ago if he'd welcome her hands on him, he would've said yes. But he realized now, as he gently captured her wandering hand, that her fingers didn't have nearly the same effect as Raphael's fingers had had.

He slowly shook his head at her and said, "I'm sorry, Karai."

He watched her eyes narrow in confusion as she snatched her hand away.

"Then what exactly is this dance we've been doing, Leo?" she asked, her tone accusatory as she took a step back.

"I - ," Leo faltered for a moment as he realized that by turning down her offer after all of their previous encounters, he certainly looked like he'd been leading her on, which had never been his intention.

"I can't believe this," she growled at him. "The boy scout of the turtles has been playing me."

"No, Karai," Leo said, lifting a hand in protest.

Karai refused to listen to him. She pulled the small sword she kept at her waist and missed him by a mile as she swung at him out of anger.

Leo flipped himself away from her sword and pulled one of his own to defend himself.

"I hope you've had fun with your game," she snarled. Her aim may be off but she was still lightning fast and she moved again to strike him.

"It's not like that," Leo said, catching her sword against his own. "There's no game. Listen to me, I -,"

But instead of listening, she threw blinding powder from her belt, which was enough of a distraction to allow her to knock him onto his plastron.

Leo coughed, his throat already irritated by the powder, and he squeezed his eyes shut in pain. Besides, he didn't need his vision to know that her sword was now at his neck.

"Karai, stop" he rasped out, "Didn't mean -," he stopped to cough again before continuing, "- to hurt you."

And he meant it. Certainly, seeing it from her side, he could justify her anger. But that didn't mean he was okay with her blade nicking the skin of his throat.

"Back off, princess."

Leo tensed when he heard Raph's voice. The last thing he needed was Raphael and Karai going after each other. He rolled to his feet as soon as Karai's sword left his neck, aided by the fact that the blade was now pinned in the prongs of Raph's sais.

"Stay away from him," Raphael growled, locking eyes with Karai a moment before he twisted his wrists and sent her sword flying across the rooftop.

Karai didn't watch where her sword went. Instead, she spared one more glance towards Leonardo before smirking at Raphael. "See ya around, Leo," she said before flipping herself away from Raphael's weapons as they swiped towards her. She sprinted to the rooftop edge and disappeared over the side of it.

Raphael turned to Leo, intending to ask him if he was okay, but stopped short when he saw that Leo was glaring at him.