"What are ya worryin about now?" Raph asked, dodging a kick.
He eyed Leo's leg after that kick. Leo had torn open all the stitches on their Sadie rescue mission and Raph had spent the entire time Mikey was re-stitching him stomping around and complaining loudly about Leo's stubbornness, all while Leo had sat smirking at him.
The stitches had come out a few days ago and although Leo said it didn't bother him, the scar looked red and irritated to Raphael.
"Woody's birthday celebration. Mikey planned the whole thing himself. And all he'll tell me is that it's someplace outside the sewers," Leo answered, sliding down to avoid a punch.
Raph had dragged him into the dojo twenty minutes ago to give him something to do other than force Raph to watch him pace the living room.
"That's not all Mike told us. He also said to be ready to go by midnight," Raph teased as he hooked his feet behind his distracted mate's ankles and knocked him to the mats, following him down to land on top of him. He grinned as he dragged both of Leo's wrists above his head before smirking at the look of defiance in the blue eyes of the turtle pinned beneath him.
Leo shifted himself slightly beneath Raph so that when he lifted his hip at just the right angle, his lower plastron dragged against Raph's.
Raph sucked in a breath and narrowed his eyes at Leo. "I'm supposed to have the advantage here you jerk."
"I'm pretty sure you always have the advantage over me, Raphie," Leo whispered as he lifted his hip at just the right angle again.
A churr escaped Raph's throat and he smiled as Leo nuzzled into his neck.
"Keep that up and we're not going out tonight for Woody's birthday," Raph said.
Leo laughed, "You're the one who has me pinned!"
Raph was about to answer when the dojo doors swung open.
"Mikey sent me to get you," Casey said, looking slightly uncomfortable as he eyed Raph sprawled across Leo. "We're leaving." He turned and headed back into the main room.
Raph lifted himself from Leo and pulled his mate to his feet. Leo didn't seem to notice Casey's strange behavior. But Raph did. Since the night he'd tried to confront Casey, Raph had spent all his free time trying to keep Leo off his damn leg so he wouldn't tear his stitches again. Add in the fact that Leo was a ninja master who could move about the lair silently and Raph had had his work cut out for him. He'd found Leo in random places all over the lair and hauled him back to bed more than once to rest. Well, mostly to rest. He'd used other ideas to get Leo to stay in bed as well.
With all of his Leo-sitting, he hadn't decided what to do about Casey. He was going to have to confront him again, but he really didn't want to. And Casey had stepped up that night and helped them – helped Leo – when they'd really needed it. It was like seeing his old friend again. And Casey had come over with April once to check on Leo and Mike, as well as to hear about Sadie's ordeal. Although Casey hadn't made eye contact with Raph while he was there and he didn't stay long. Raph was secretly hoping that the Casey who showed up at the party tonight was his old friend and not the new creepy guy.
Leo took in the scene in the main room when he and Raph joined the rest of the group. Woody was sitting on the couch with Sadie squeezed in between him and Donnie. Sadie looked calm, at least calmer than she had been over the past couple weeks. She'd mostly lived in the lair and if she left to go to campus, Donnie gladly escorted her there and back. It had been quite a scandal at her school to have had one of the professors arrested and charged in the kidnapping of a student, in alliance with known gang members. But Sadie was proving to be pretty strong-willed and cooperating fully with the DA's office in preparation for their trial.
Mike stood in front of the three seated on the couch, grinning while he waved his hands around in the air as he told a story. His arm still had a bandage wrapped around it, but it didn't appear to slow him down. Casey and April stood off to the side. Leo noted that they were both standing rather stiffly and compared to what he was used to seeing, they seemed to have a few extra inches of space between them.
"We're going somewhere fun and we're not going to do any complaining about the location," Mikey was saying and Raph smirked as he watched Mike send Leo a pointed glare. "It's safe and D has already disabled the security cameras."
Now it was Leo's turn to send Donatello a pointed glare. Donnie merely shrugged at him. "We're not going to do any harm."
"So Donnie gets to know where we're going but you won't tell me?" Leo said, actually letting go of Raph's hand to cross his arms over his chest. Raph had to smirk again at the full-on leader stance.
"I needed Donnie to disable the security cameras," Mikey repeated slowly as if talking to a child.
Leo glared at Mikey, a look that even Raph had found intimidating from time to time, not that he'd ever admit it. Mikey seemed unimpressed and instead yelled "Let's move!" as he pulled Woody off the couch.
They piled into the van with Donnie driving while Casey and April rode behind on Casey's bike. Leo frowned as they parked outside of what looked like a large warehouse.
Woody grabbed Mike's hand as they snuck into a side entrance. Mikey had even refused to tell him where they were going. And while he had seen first-hand now what it was that Mike and his brothers did on patrol, he wasn't used to sneaking into dark, creepy buildings in the middle of the night.
Although, it was hard to be too creeped out when he looked at Mike's grinning face. Where ever they were, Mike was excited - thrilled to have planned something special for Woody and to have his entire family out celebrating what Mike referred to as "one of his top 5 favorite moments in history." Woody had to laugh at that too, because he'd heard Mikey refer to way more than five historical events as his top five favorites.
They were suddenly all blinded by bright overhead lights as Mikey flipped the switch. Woody gasped as he realized where they were. It was a trampoline park – the entire floor was completely covered with trampoline material. Woody grabbed Mike's hand again, let out a whoop and jumped onto the nearest trampoline. Mikey laughed and followed along.
Raph glanced at Leo as Donnie, Sadie, Casey and April also took off onto the trampolines after Woody and Mike. He watched Leo's blue eyes scan the inside of the building. There weren't any windows and only one other door other than the one they just used. He waited patiently until Leo glanced his way and let out a small smile.
"Looks ok to you?" Raph asked.
Leo nodded, his shoulders visibly relaxed. Raph pulled him forward and laughed again as he watched Leo take a tentative step onto the trampoline floor. He knew he shouldn't laugh, none of them had ever even seen a trampoline before. But the look of concentration on Leo's face was too good. He took an easy step out as well while watching the others easily jump and laugh over the bouncy flooring.
Leo watched the others as well before shifting his weight down and back up. A bright grin lit his face as he let go of Raph's hand, jumped forward and immediately flew into a front flip before landing on the next trampoline square and spinning around to grin at Raph. He bounced forward and landed in front of Raphael.
"You would get the hang of this in the first ten seconds," Raph said, landing his hands on top of Leo's shoulders as they both bounced from Leo's landing.
Leo leaned in close. "The give on this floor is pretty amazing," he said. "It's giving me some ideas."
"You say the word and I will personally walk into a store and buy you a trampoline," Raph said, tightening his grip on Leo's shoulders as he watched the blue eyes darken with lust. Leo leaned forward and kissed him, immediately twisting his tongue around Raph's. Raph broke the kiss when he felt a churr rise in his throat. "But until then, do you think you can behave yerself through this family birthday party?" he growled at Leo.
Leo laughed and pulled himself out of Raph's grasp in order to turn and jump away.
Woody jumped over to Mike who was sitting uncharacteristically still in the middle of one of the trampolines. He jumped forward and knocked Mike backwards onto his shell so he could sit on top of him.
"You're not having any fun in one of the top five best places on earth," Woody said, teasing him.
Mikey smiled an easy smile up at his blonde human. "So you like this place?"
"It's the best, Mikester. Just like you." Woody watched Mikey's smile falter and began to feel nervous. "Want to tell me what you're thinking?"
Mikey licked his lips and Woody watched him rub his fingers over the bandage on his other arm, something that Woody had noticed him doing quite often lately even though Mikey had told him the arm wasn't bothering him.
"I just, um, I want to make you happy," Mike said, struggling to get the words out.
"I've told you how happy you make me you silly turtle," Woody said.
Mikey nodded. That was true. But Mikey remembered the guilt he'd felt after waking up from the bullet wound when he saw how worried Woody had been. And then, less than 24 hours later, they were off on a rescue mission to save Woody's own sister. Talk about a rough initiation into patrol life.
"I'd just – I'd understand if this was too much," Mikey said. "If what's included in my package deal was too much to handle. If you wanted out,"
"I like your package," Woody said, raising a blond eyebrow at Michelangelo.
Mikey snorted. "I'm actually being serious for once!"
"I don't want out, Michelangelo," Woody said, suddenly serious. "I've actually been a little worried that you might want me to leave," he admitted. "That you'd think this was too dangerous for me to stick around."
"You probably should leave," Mikey said, running his thumbs across Woody's thighs, "but I'll never ask you to go. I'm too selfish for that. I want to keep you."
Woody leaned down so his face was right above Mike's. "Good. Be selfish. Because I don't want to go anywhere either." He watched a genuine smile cross Mikey's features and leaned down to kiss him.
Leo was sitting at one of the concession tables when April sat down next to him and sighed. They may have seen less of her lately as her college classes took more of her attention, but he still recognized the redhead's request to talk. He turned his attention away from the game of tag Mikey and only Mikey seemed to be involved in and asked if there was something she wanted to discuss.
"Has Raph mentioned anything to you about Casey?" she asked.
Leo shook his head. Her question had him searching the two out and he found them playing basketball with Donnie and Sadie. The trampoline floor made it look impossibly hard to judge how far to jump to make a basket and he almost laughed when Sadie purposely jumped and landed within inches of Casey's feet, knocking him off balance so that the shot he was trying to make flew in the opposite direction. He could almost hear the joke Donnie made about physics from his seat across the room.
Raph caught Leo's eye and jerked his head in the direction of the net with a big grin on his face. Leo smiled and then shifted his head slightly in April's direction. Raph glanced at April and nodded slightly.
"Is something going on with Casey, April?" Leo asked.
"He wouldn't tell me if there was," April muttered.
Leo's eyes left the basketball game and narrowed in on April.
She could feel Leo looking at her but didn't meet his eyes. "I bet Donnie calls Sadie all the time," she said, wistfully.
Leo eyed her. "They do seem pretty happy together," he said, warily.
April huffed out a laugh. "I'm not going to cause them trouble, Leo. I made my choice with Casey and at the time it seemed like the only choice I could make. I mean, my life has never been normal, right? Kraang DNA, mutant friends, my father turned into a bat. I needed some normal and Casey looked pretty normal." She paused. "I know I shouldn't be complaining to you about wanting a normal life."
Leo offered his own small laugh. "Our life is normal to us, April. But you didn't grow up with us. I can see how it wouldn't be normal to you."
She smiled gratefully at him. "So I chose normal. But now the only time I see Casey is when I show up unannounced at his hockey practice. Or when we show up at these events you guys plan. He doesn't call me back. He never comes over. I don't even know why I still think of him as my boyfriend."
Leo considered this. He and his brothers weren't really privy to their human friends' day to day lives on the surface so it was easy to assume that Casey and April were doing well together as a couple out of their sights.
"Have you talked to him about any of this?" he asked. "Casey has always been crazy about you, April."
April shook her head. "He's not really talking to me. Besides, I have a feeling his attention has shifted to someone else." She lifted her head and looked towards the basketball game.
Leo frowned, confused by the thought of Casey being interested in someone else. He watched as the game fell apart in a free for all after Donnie dragged Sadie down in a tickling mess. Casey, meanwhile, charged Raph and knocked Leo's mate down on his shell before jumping up on Raph's plastron. Casey managed to use his legs to pin Raph's arms down at his sides.
Leo's frown grew as he watched Raph freeze with a surprised expression. This wasn't normal wrestling between the two, otherwise Raph wouldn't still be pinned under his lightweight human friend. Casey leaned down towards Raph's face and Leo heard a small growl escape his own throat as he watched. Even from the distance, he was still able to read Casey's lips: Come over after this.
Raph snapped out of his frozen, shocked state. He quickly freed his hands and flipped Casey off. He spun around and glared at his friend before jumping to his feet and heading in Leo's direction.
"What's going on, April?" Leo asked in a tight voice as he watched Raph's hunched shoulders as he approached them.
"I don't know, Leo," she said honestly. Standing, she said, "If Casey even asks, tell him I went home."
Raphael sunk down in a chair next to Leo and asked if Leo had seen Mikey before Leo could ask him anything. The distraction worked because Leo began searching the room and didn't see their little brother anywhere. He stood up and was about to begin a full on search when the bright ceiling lights went out and were replaced by flashing neon strobe lights instead. He heard Mikey's cheer right before he suddenly appeared in the concession area with a cake which he placed on the table in front of Leo and Raph. Sadie and Donnie appeared next with Woody between them. They began singing 'Happy Birthday' as Mikey lit the candles he'd placed on the cake.
Despite himself, Leo looked around for Casey and didn't see him anywhere. He hoped that Casey had seen April leave and had gone after her.
When they were finished with the cake and everyone bounced back out on the trampolines, Leo thought about asking Raph about Casey when it was clear that Raph wasn't going to bring it up. But the thought was lost when Raph pushed him into a dark corner, too far back for the strobe lights to reach, and began twisting his tongue around Leo's again.