A/N: Helloooo, duckies. So this is more of a nuetral chapter. Down time before something else exciting happens. So, if it seems a little boring, I'm sorry! But, more development on the new hybrids :D Stay with me, it gets interesting again soon, I promise! Read and review please!

NOTICE: THIS STORY HAS OC CHARACTERS. IF YOU'D LIKE TO SEE WHAT ANY OF THEM LOOK LIKE, PLEASE CHECK THE LINKS ON MY PROFILE FOR YOUR VISUAL AID.

"Mhmm, I'll be your mate. And you'll be mine. I don't want whatever else the world gives me, because it isn't you,"

"Jeez you're a sap," He teased.

"Shut-up, Domehead and kiss me," She spat with a tiny hint of fox fury.

"Happy to," He said, and leaned down and lifted her chin by pressing with his fingers and kissed her. Softer than all of the other kisses tonight. One thing was for sure, Shiho wasn't going to let anyone get between her and what she wanted the most; Leo. She'd go down fighting before anyone or anything tried to take her happiness, hell, her family away.

Not now.

Not ever.

Although, one hybrid in particular had other plans…

Leo was the first one to wake up that late morning. Or was it afternoon? He couldn't be sure, he and Shiho had been up until at least 6am and buried deep in one of those deep, personal conversations. It wasn't until she had fallen asleep that Leo realized how exhausted he had made himself. Their reunion after her time at April's to recover had been everything he had wanted and more. As he sat up in bed and rubbed the heavy sleep out of his naked eyes he glanced down at the fox to his left lost in her serenity and dreams.

Shiho said she'd be his mate. The fact wrapped around his heart like a hot flame and almost suffocated it with more joy than he knew was possible. From now on, she was his. He almost felt bad for his brothers; they didn't seem to have quite the same luck as he did. Poor Donnie would always be fawning over April but would do so at a safe distance. Mikey was probably too obnoxious to keep a girlfriend if one for him ever existed and drive her to the brink of insanity with his loud mouth and video games. Not to mention his daily boasting about being the Battle Nexus Champion. And Raph? Well, Raph was an easy one to figure. If the opportunity ever arose and someone did show up, he'd shut that girl out behind his mile high walls and she wouldn't stand a chance.

"Hm…guess I got the lucky break," Leo mumbled to himself and crawled out of bed as slowly as he could to not stir the mattress or rouse Shiho. Judging by the rather laborious love-making she participated in, Leo guessed she was going to be out for while longer. Or he hoped she would. He looked all around the room for his pads and belts after he'd thrown them off last night, they were scattered. The last piece of his "wardrobe" to be put back in place was that blue headband. He tied the complicated knot and adjusted it over his eyes before glancing back down at his vixen as she turned over.

"Oh Leonardooo!" A yell downstairs nearly startled him out of his shell and he ran out of his room to see who it had been.

'Michelangelo! Would you keep it down? Shiho's still asleep, you punk," Leo whispered sharply. His brothers had come home earlier than he had anticipated. Looks like paradise was long gone for now. Splinter waved a paw at his oldest son and retreated into his personal space to meditate. Leo jumped down to the floor and slapped hands with Donatello.

"Have a fun night?" He asked, waggling his brows suggestively at his older brother. Leo rolled his eyes and glanced sideways at the genius.

"You have no idea. Just keep the noise down, she's exhausted,"

"Yeahhh, atta boy," Raph clamped a hand down on Leo's shoulder and gave it a squeeze and a shake. Raphael knew exactly how Leo's night went, but felt driven to ask anyway. He was nosy! "How'd everything go?"

"Well, I'm not going to give you play-by-play details, Raph. That's personal, but she did agree to be mates," Raph and Donnie exchanged worried glances and gulped, they felt guilty for knowing about Micah before Leo did. "What? It isn't good news?"

"No it is! Congrats, Leo. Really, she loves the hell outta ya," Behind the red mask, Raph's eyes met Leo's. He really was happy for his brother, who wouldn't be? Being a mutant turtle didn't really make you desirable with the ladies. The fact that Leo had actually found one and she wanted him just as much was a miracle. But that lingering tug of that other hybrid weighed heavily on his conscience. The look from Donatello told him that they'd tell him, just not right now.

"Thanks," Upstairs, they heard the crash of Shiho falling out of bed. No doubt, from the stiff muscles in her thighs. Leo winced when he heard her nails scrape against the stone wall in frustration. Out she came and wobbled to the steel banister and glanced down at her turtles. Leo admired his work.

"You did that?" Raph said, indicating upstairs with a nod of his head. Leo shrugged his shoulders and chuckled as she grumbled, looking quite bedraggled. She had the text-book definition of sex hair. "Well, well, well; look at what we got here! Have a great night—WOAH! Your legs!"

"What? Oh…shell burn," Shiho said as she managed to get down the steps. Shiho said it so matter-of-factly like it was just so obvious why the burns and bruises were there. It seemed she didn't give a damn that her thighs looked like hell. The bruising had deepened overnight to a sore blue and purple that ached whenever she took a step. Leo blushed as she collapsed on the couch in her oversized t-shirt. The dark bites decorated her neck and collarbone, he didn't remember leaving that many and felt a pang of guilt for bruising her up so bad.

"Jesus, Leo. What did you do? Beat her?" Raph said, Donnie cracked up laughing and scuttled away to his workshop before Leo could smack them both. He settled for the back of Raphael's head. "OW!"

"Shut up. I've got my battle scars too," His brother hadn't even noticed the deep, swollen welts on his biceps or the punctures in his neck from those little canines of hers.

"We got ourselves a couple of freaks. OW! Shiho! Jeez," The fox had reached up and taken a swipe at Raph's thigh with a grunt. Mikey was next to join the party and just laughed at them both. Shiho almost felt hung over without the nausea. She made it a personal note to never leave Leo like that ever again, it was a health hazard. A sexy hazard, but a hazard nonetheless.

"Shiho, when you're feeling better, Donnie wants to talk to ya alone," By the groan she made, Raph guessed that she thought the genius wanted to run more tests. "He's just gotta ask you something. It's important."

Leo felt a little suspicious of his brother's behavior and was left to wonder what Donatello could have to say. Why just Shiho? They were mates now, Leo couldn't help but feel a little annoyed that they wanted to exclude him. Raph picked up on the irritated energy that Leo was radiating and waved his hand submissively.

"Don't worry, bro," Oh yeah, that really put rest to his raging suspicions. Settled his mind right on a bed of needles is what it did.

Splinter was quick to getting the boys back into their conditioning with the exception of Donatello. The other three sparred with each other and their sensei making sure to give Leonardo extra grief just to mess with him. While they all beat each other into green pulps, Donnie took Shiho by the hand into his room with his computer. Leo wasn't able to smother the twinge of jealousy that pricked at the back of his mind watching his mate being led away out of his sight. But when Splinter's staff smacked him in the backs of his thighs, he was forced back into concentration.

"This better be good, Donnie. You know how Leo gets," Shiho said, settling into a sit on Donnie's bed with her legs crossed Indian style. In her arms, she snuggled with one of his pillows as he sat beside her and opened up his laptop to the files they'd found the night before. Instantly, Shiho gulped and looked away.

"I snagged information from Marcus' database that night we came to save you. For the last few days and nights, there's been this creature following you that had Leo so wigged out he asked me to go and see what I could find. Do you want to tell me who Micah is?" Donnie's voice was calm, but inside he was bubbling with apprehension.

"So he did make it out. Micah he's…he's another hybrid who was born a few months after me. Marcus had this grand plan of making his own species, blah blah mad scientist stuff," Donnie looked at her, she knew that he knew more and was just waiting for her to come out with it. She hated how smart he was sometimes.

"And?" Heavily and dramatically, Shiho sighed and started.

"After I turned 16, Marcus tried to bond us so we'd mate. I wanted nothing to do with it and kept fighting with Micah. Marcus would often have to separate us because I apparently would get violent. The last attempt to make us bond was a few nights before the lab went up in flames, that was the last straw for Marcus I guess,"

Donnie rubbed his chin and curled his lips in thought.

"Why would Micah be following you then?" Shiho chuckled at that.

"Haha, well, Micah was more or less brainwashed into thinking he loves me. I guess it's taken him this long to find me, the fire was what…8 or 9 months ago. Now that he sees me with Leo, I imagine he's going to try and fight him and try again to mate with me. But, I'm Leo's mate now. I doubt he'd be very successful," Donnie felt instant ease knowing Shiho really wanted nothing to do with this Micah character and was dedicated to Leo. One mystery down, three to go. Donnie closed the window for Micah's file and opened up the last three. The girls.

"Okay, explain these then," First file up was Fiona. Shiho smiled in a way Donnie hadn't seen her yet, like she was being reunited with an old friend. She looked almost relieved to see the picture of her fellow hybrid. Fiona, just barely 21 years old with olive toned skin. Her round face was framed in loose red curls that obscured big, round hazel orbs. Like Shiho, tall orange ears reached above her head.

"Hm, Fiona. We called her Fifi. She's the second youngest. Like I said earlier, Marcus was trying to make a pack, like wolves, only with fox hybrids. I'd be surprised if she made it out of the fire, she's so soft spoken and timid. But she's a genius like you, it's amazing," The masked turtle chuckled and closed the window and opened the next.

"Ah, Saundra. Sandy, she's…she's a wild one. The only one of us who isn't a fox, but a gecko hybrid. Western banded gecko if I remember right. She's so hostile that it's terrifying. Out of all of us, she's also the only one who resembles her animal hybrid," Confused, Donnie opened her profile picture and boggled at the image. The hybrid was anthromorphic in her stature, like he and his brothers, only with pale, yellowed skin that was decorated in large brown spots. But she had the form of a female like Shiho, curvy and gorgeous. Her face looked like a gecko but her eyes were large and a deep honey brown, she even had a mop of dirty blonde hair. Long, like Shiho's and layered.

"She's…interesting,"

"Don't let her appearance fool you, Don. She's probably got a temper worse than Raphael's. The days that Marcus would pit us against each other, she'd use that thick tail of hers to her advantage and fought dirty. She beat the tar out of me once when Marcus infected me with a virus. We never really saw eye-to-eye," That file closed and Donnie sat back on his hands.

"You're all sounding more and more like us the more you go on. Only, you guys were made and we just happened," A dark brow arched and she shrugged, her grip on his pillow loosening.

"I guess you could say we are. We're the closest thing to a family that we'll ever have so I suppose you could say we're similar," Downstairs, she could hear the loud banter of the boys training. Echoing "Hi-YAHS!" reverberated on the walls of Donnie's room, making those ears open in curiosity. She wondered how Leo was fairing. The genius caught her rubbing the ugly bruises on her legs.

"Here, I've got some wild yam rub for those bruises. It helps with the ache," Donnie reached under his bed and pulled out a purple container. Shiho took it, interested, it smelled delicious. Inside was a thick white cream that looked like it had been used quite often. "I use it all the time when I get bruises. Just rub some between your hands and put it where you need it and the ache slowly goes away and the bruising doesn't last as long,"

Ears twitched and she did as he instructed, rubbing a small glob between her palms to warm it and applied it to those angry marks. It hurt to touch the bruises but after working the cream in, it started to work.

"Hey, not bad. Man, I could have used this stuff growing up. Mind if I keep this?" Donnie chuckled, he knew what she really meant. When your boyfriend was a mutant ninja with no control over his own strength, sex was a painful workout. He just nodded and waved the image out of his head. Closing the container and curling back up with Donnie's pillow, Shiho anxiously wiggled her tail. "So, anything else?"

"Yeah. The little one," Donnie sensed a sore chord had been struck when Shiho fell silent. This piqued his already overflowing curiosity to find out more. He nudged her leg with his knee to snap her out of whatever trance she'd fallen into.

"Huh?"

"What about the small hybrid?"

"Oh, Aanika," Clearing her throat, he could see this was difficult. "Nika is the youngest; she just turned 4 a few months ago. She doesn't talk but when Marcus would let us mingle, she clung to my leg and would scream whenever she was taken back to her cell. She's a sweet little thing, too. The mother who had given her up was an addict of heroin I think and sold her embryo to get her next fix,"

Already, Donnie had a bad taste in his mouth. The sad truth about humanity was people just flat out sucked. None of these hybrids were considered when their parents sold them as embryos, unable to voice their protest. By the solemn tone in the fox's voice, Donnie figured that Shiho had done what any other animal does to an abandoned infant and took her in as her own.

When he viewed Aanika's photo, a sudden pang of guilt turned his blood cold. She looked like any average 4 year old with large, beautiful blue eyes and messy brunette hair. Well, as average as any kid could get with tall fox ears like her hybrid counterparts.

"I can really only hope that my sisters did make it out. I mean, if Micah did, then maybe they did, too. Especially Nika," Donnie could see through that mask of strength that Shiho always seemed to put on. She was broken and cracked under the surface every day with the notion that the only family she probably ever knew was either dead or alive.

"Maybe they're all with Micah. But, you have to tell Leo about him before he shows up and it explodes. Leo is the leader; he's the one with all the answers it seems. But I can't really say for sure what he'd do now if his mate was threatened. That's something new,"

A sympathetic hand rested against Donatello's shoulder and he was greeted with a gentle smile. He couldn't explain the ease he felt when she looked at him like that, it certainly explained the effect she had on Leo.

"I know. It's not my intention to hurt your brother, Don. Because I do love him. I'll talk to him,"

"I'm counting on you, Shiho. To not destroy him from the inside out. Leo falls the hardest out of all of us," He said. He sighed heavily when she snaked her arms around his neck and gave him a squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. Her ear turned towards the doorway as footsteps approached.

"Shiho? What's going on in here?"

"Leo, darling. Nothing. Come on, rooftop. I gotta talk to you about something," Shiho jumped from the bed to the doorway and ran her fingers along his jaw. Watching her walk away was always something that made him bite into his lip for control. With a glance to his brother, Leo shrugged.

"Looks like I'm going topside. Keep an eye on things until I come back, Don. Make sure Mikey and Raph don't get into another fight," He said and Donnie couldn't stop the obnoxious laugh.

"HAH! Like anyone could ever stop those. But alright, go. We'll be waiting for you," Leo bumped fists with Donnie and took off after Shiho who was already making her way into the tunnels. Damn she moved fast. He couldn't help but feel slightly uneasy and nervous. Maybe she was having second thoughts about being mates and backing out…No, she wouldn't have agreed and then change her mind.

Shiho was a lot of things, but cruel wasn't one of them.

"Alright, Shiho. What's going on?" After a run through the sewers and up to the street followed by a race to their favorite rooftop, Leo stood near the edge to keep an eye on the buildings. He was still deeply bothered by the appearance of Micah, even more so that he knew nothing about him. Yet.

"Leo, it's about that hybrid you've seen following me," Faster than she could blink, Leo was in her face with his hands gripping her shoulders. The look in his eyes screamed desperation.

"How do you know you're being followed? Donnie tell you?"

"His name is Micah,"

"His? This hybrid is a male?" Already, that burn of jealousy was making his palms sweat and his brows furrow. Her hands clutched his biceps, something she always seemed to do when she was nervous. Leo honestly felt moisture prickling his eyes and panic fill his veins. "Shiho, talk to me,"

"Marcus wanted us to be a mated pair," She said. Leo's hands dropped and his face was going through a range of emotions that she couldn't keep up with. In his chest, his heart raced and his ears started to ring.

"You…already have a mate?"

"What? No! No, Leo listen. You're my mate. I never let Micah come near me, I'd fight with him whenever he tried. Leo, look at me, please," Both of her hands rested on the sides of his face and directed his gaze on her. She scrambled around in her brain to try and find the words to make him understand.

"I thought you were mine, Shiho. Now there's some other hybrid—who's just like you—out there trying to mate with you?" Shiho caught that. Who's just like you. What he really meant was You can have kids with this guy. It was with a sore heart that Shiho leaned him down and brought their foreheads together. Leo sank into her and closed his eyes, he wasn't about to look like a sissy and cry.

"Leo. I already told you last night that I want you. Micah disgusts me in more ways than I can count, because he's in allegiance with Marcus. I'm telling you this so you'll be ready, because I have no doubt that he's going to find me and try to take me back to Marcus to either have me taken apart or to bond," Leo clenched his hands into fists at the thought of the scientist madman. He growled quietly.

"You promise that there is nothing for me to worry about with this other hybrid, that you are still mine," Shiho nodded feverishly, thankful he was starting to understand. Leo crushed her against his plastron with his arms tightly around her waist.

"You're my mate, Leo. Don't let him take me from you,"

"Don't worry about that. But he's following you, am I going to have to fight him?" Shiho's fingers tangled in the tails of his billowing bandana. His grip tightened and lifted her against him.

"Maybe, and if he does choose to fight, I get the first swing," The ninja laughed against the skin on her neck, relief washed over him and crashed like a wave on the shore. The suspicions of that creature were at last put to rest. He'd fight for his vixen if it came down to it.

"But, Leo. There's still more. Not about Micah," Confused, the constricting hold he had on her tiny form released and they sat on the roof edge. Shiho told him then about the rest of the hybrid pack. Told him everything that she'd told Donatello because Leo couldn't be kept in the dark about her 'sisters' forever.

Leonardo was angry at first, but eventually it became clear why she'd kept them a secret for so long. She didn't bother saying anything because she didn't know if they were alive after the building had exploded and come down, that the possible outcome had been too painful for her to accept. But now, with the appearance of Micah, that smothered glimmer of hope that her laboratory family had survived was ignited once again. But what then?

If Shiho reunites with the other hybrids, where does that put him and his brothers? Would she leave and try to start a life of her own? Leo couldn't put to rest the conflicted thoughts that raced through his busy mind. Shiho wouldn't agree to be mates if she had plans of leaving. But that was before she knew any of them had made it out of course. This change in her life might make their bond obsolete if it meant reconnecting with the people who were like her in every way.

"Leo, are you worried?" Leo glanced up from the hard stare he'd had on the slow moving traffic on the street below. He'd been silent for a while and she fell into a pit of concern.

"Worried about what? Ow! Babe!" Shiho flicked him on the side of his head with a scowl.

"About what; about this. You're thinking that if my sisters are alive that I'm going to leave you, aren't you?" When he didn't answer, she forced him to look at her with a grip on his chin. The way he would often do to her. "Answer me, Leonardo,"

"Maybe! Nnng, I don't know. So many things keep changing faster than I can keep up with. I want you to stay with me forever, but not at the cost of your own happiness," He said. His thundering thoughts silenced when her arms slithered around his bicep and she nuzzled into the muscle.

"Don't be stupid. Just knowing if they made it would satisfy me. But no one, not even my sisters, can make me half as happy as you do. So I'm not going anywhere. I love you, Leo. Haven't you figured that out yet?" Annoyed with himself, Leo sighed. The weight of the situation lifted off his chest.

"Sorry. I know, I'm an idiot," She chuckled. "I love you, too, Fuzzball,"

A/N: See? Nuetral! I'm working on my next chapter right now. Rest easy loves, turtle power is about to be demonstrated! I like playing into those protective instincts Leo always demonstrates with the ones he loves the most. I kind of enjoy making him out to be this jealous, overprotective boyfriend. What do you think? Eh?