I do not own the TMNT, compared to that everything's a happy ending…

Chapter Eleven; Bigger Steps

"No don't! It's too dangerous!" She ran over and seized his arm, tears coursing down her cheeks as she tried to convince him to stay. "Please don't go!"

"But I must!" He replied, placing one hand over hers. After giving her fingers a reassuring squeeze he pried them off of his arm "It's my duty."

"No! You don't have to!" He smiled bravely and saluted, quickly running to the helipad. "No! Wait! I have to tell you! I-" but it was too late. The helicopter lifted into the air and flew towards the scene of the battle miles away. The woman sobbed, not noticing the tall, dark figure behind her even as he pulled out a gun and took aim…

Knocking interrupted Mikey's focus on the comic. Didn't everyone know that he needed absolute focus when working through these old detective action comics?

He looked up and saw Kit standing in the door. Mikey didn't know why she stood right outside the door like that; he barged into everyone else's room so they had more than the right to barge into his room. "Hey! What's up?" Kit hadn't been at dinner earlier and though Master Splinter had assured everyone that Kit was all right, Mikey had been just a little worried that she'd just sat in her room feeling bad. Fortunately he could see that she had taken a nap instead; bed head on a mutant cat was impossible to miss or forget.

"Hey Mikey, um, can I talk to you?" Why didn't people just barge in? It was almost enough to make Mikey consider knocking more often, almost.

"Sure! Anytime! Come on over!" He quickly shoved a pile of comics down off his bed, they were more shoujo manga so he didn't mind if they got busted up.

Kit looked down as she picked her way through his room. That was another thing that confused Mikey, when anyone did come in they always looked down, it wasn't like the floor was absolutely covered in…never mind, maybe that one did make sense.

Eventually she made it over to his loft bed and climbed up. The bed was the cleanest surface in the room and the entire reason for that was anything left in the bed at night got kicked out while he slept. Because it was relatively clean it was just about the only place to sit and talk in there. She sat comfortably on the foot of the bed with one leg hanging out into open space. "So!" Mikey tried to put on a straight face. He failed, "Whatcha' wanna' talk about? War? Politics? Religion? How the Giants got cheated out of the Super bowl?" That got a short laugh out of her. It was good to see Kit laugh again, even if it was just a short chuckle.

Kit shook her head from side to side until her smile could fade a little. "Actually Mikey, I wanted to talk to you about last week, when I uh, threw the star at you…" She coughed uncomfortably.

Michelangelo frowned, "Yeah, about that, I'm really sorry. I was kind of being a dunder-head and I shouldn't have said that."

Surprise colored Kit's face, "I throw a bladed weapon at you without warning and you apologize? I don't think that's how it's supposed to work Mikey."

Mikey shrugged. "I don't mind the throwing star thing, I mean, Raph's thrown a few at me. A lot really."

"Usually with him if you didn't duck he'd still miss."

"True, but does that mean you'll forgive me for being stupid?" Mikey smiled hopefully.

Kit smiled back at him, Mikey could hold a grudge about as well as Casey could hold a tune in a bucket, not at all. "Only if you forgive me for trying to put a steel implant in your head."

"Deal!" Mikey grinned and pulled Kit into a big turtle hug. Kit smiled and hugged him back. This turtle was truly unique in more ways than one.

Just then Klunk decided she didn't want to be left out and pounced on Kit's back, claws and all. "OW!" Kit pulled back and tried to grab at the ginger cat. Klunk avoided Kit's reach and jumped into Mikey's arms. "Crazy cat…" Kit grumbled, trying to pull her jacket back straight. Mikey's eyes lit up and his mouth opened, "Don't say it, Mikey!" The mutant cat held up a warning finger, but it started to shake. Mikey's grin grew wider and after a minute they both started laughing.

As the laughter slowly died down Kit felt lighter, and better, than she had all week.

A good cry followed by a short nap can do wonders, it does for me!

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