A/N: Something a little lighter than the previous one XD Based a while after the events of TMNT 2: Out of the shadows (which was awesome btw, not perfect, but awesome).

Hope you like it!

Intruder Alert

Walking across the lair, a cold slice of pizza in his hand, Leonardo smiled as he cast his gaze across their home, blue eyes warm and softened with fondness.

Each of his brothers were accounted for, all of them having congregated into the living room doing as they pleased whilst their father was away for the afternoon, Gwen Stefani's 'Hollaback Girl' blasting from the old radio they'd salvaged from their last run to the junkyard.

Michelangelo, of course, was whooping loudly as he hovered overhead on his rocket-board, shouting out a loud 'Cowabunga!' as he zipped through the air. On the floor, his laptop resting on his crossed legs, Donatello slid the occasional exasperated glance up at their baby brother as he typed away, no doubt making notes for his latest project (though Leo wondered how on earth his genius brother could concentrate with the music and Mikey's incessant hollering as he sang along, and why he hadn't migrated back to his lab yet). Raphael was sat on the couch, his brows furrowed and mouth thinned in concentration as he knitted what looked like a new poncho for April.

Coming to a stop just at the edge of the sunken pit, Leo's smile broadened. It wasn't rare that the brothers gathered together like this, doing their own thing whilst still keeping each other company. But after the whole ordeal with the Technodrome, and the rift that'd formed between them because of the purple ooze…seeing them together like this was almost as if that rift had never existed.

Things were starting go back to normal in the lair – with the addition of a new and crazy member to the family – and the young leader couldn't be happier, or more proud.

Whilst Donnie had somehow managed to tune Mikey out for the past half hour, Raph unfortunately hadn't, and now a snarl was beginning to grow across his face as he snapped his head up to glare at Mikey. "Hey, you mind keepin' your voice down, Mary Poppins?" he barked.

Mikey fell silent for a moment, still hovering on his board, and he looked down to stare at Raph. He blinked once, and as he suddenly grinned, Leo let out a long-suffering sigh. "Mikey," he muttered futilely, "Mikey, no."

"Please Mikey, don't," Donnie said, looking as exasperated as Leo felt, only seconds before Mikey belted, in quite possibly the worst British accent ever conceived or heard by the ears of turtle-kind–

"OH, A SPOONFULL OF SUGAAAR HELPS THE MEDICINE GO DOOOOWN! THE MEDICINE GO DOOOOOWN -!"

"MIKEY I SWEAR TO GOD –" Raph bellowed as he leapt tom his feet, shaking his fist at his youngest brother in warning, but his angered threats fell on deaf ears as Mikey continued to screech at the top of his lungs. Growling like a feral dog, Raph dropped his fist and turned to Donnie. "Hey, Brainiac, think you can do somethin' about this?" he asked, pointing up at their flying musical brother.

Pushing his glasses up his nose a fraction with the tip of his middle finger, Donnie levelled Raph with a flat look through the thick lenses. "No need for name-calling, but yes, I can do something," he said, setting his laptop on the floor before reaching into his pants pocket, drawing out what looked like a slingshot. He tossed it at Raph, who caught it with ease, and the red clad turtle grinned when he realized what it was.

Taking a seat beside Donnie, their knees bumping together, Leo idly munched on his pizza slice and watched neutrally as Raph rummaged through his own pocket, drawing out a dime – how, when and from where he'd found that dime, Leo had no clue – positioning it, drew the sling backwards, aimed, and fired.

The dime hit Mikey squarely in the face, and the orange clad turtle cried out as he toppled unsteadily on his board before he fell to the ground with a loud thud and a pained 'oof!', his rocket-board not far behind.

For the first time, there was silence. Leo craned his neck to look over at where Mikey had landed. "You okay, Mikey?" he asked around half a mouthful of pizza, somehow not nearly as worried as he should've been. Their shells were made out of tough stuff, after all.

Soon enough, a green thumb shot up from the floor. "I'm good, bro!" Mikey replied, climbing back to his feet with a shake of his head to ward off the dizziness from his crash landing, a la Raphael.

Grinning wider as he tossed the slingshot back to Donnie, who caught the contraption without looking up from his computer screen, Raph dusted his hands off with smug satisfaction. "You, Donatello, are a mad genius," he said.

"Can you say that a little louder? And maybe let me record it, too?" Donnie smirked, tucking the slingshot away and resuming his typing, smiling wider when he heard Raph bark out a laugh. Leo only shook his head with a chuckle of his own at the antics of his siblings, watching as Mikey praised Raph for his good shot, the older turtle responding by giving Mikey a playful shove.

Then a sudden shiver ran down Leo's spine. Frowning, he slowly turned to look over his shoulder, his gaze fixed on the entrance of the lair. His eyes narrowed.

Something was there.

Something – or someone – had found their lair.

Abandoning what remained of his slice, Leo slowly rose to his feet, blue eyes trained on the lair's entrance as he moved closer, his steps silent against the cold concrete. A tin can rolled out from the shadows, accidentally kicked out by whoever was trying to hide as the blue clad turtle drew closer, his hands reaching back for his Katanas. Leo's mouth twisted into a deep scowl.

Not this time. You're not getting anywhere near my family again.

With a shout, Leo leapt in front of the lair's entrance, Katanas unsheathed, their honed tips pointed dangerously at the intruder who'd dared to enter his home…

…then his face dropped, eyes widening to saucers in shock.

Slowly, Leo lowered his swords to his side, not once tearing his eyes away from the intruder. "…uh, guys?" he called over his shoulder. "Guys? We have, uh…we have an unexpected guest."

At that, all heads turned in Leo's direction, bodies tensed and eyes wide as all activity drew to a grinding halt. After sharing a look, the other three turtles hurried over to their leader's side.

"What is it, fearless?" Raph probed, hands already bracing the hilts of his Sais. "Is it Foot?"

"More aliens?" Donnie asked, one hand reaching up for his staff.

"Some poor sucker who thinks he can take us down on our turf?" Mikey snickered, not as worried as his two older brothers were as he sauntered over, rising on his tip-toes to peek over Leo's shoulder.

As his brothers gathered around him, Leo swallowed and slowly shook his head. "Uh, no," he said. "It's a…a…"

Before he could finish his sentence, Mikey gasped loudly, eyes widened to dinner plates.

"IT'S A KITTY!"

True to Mikey's excited high-pitched cry, a small orange cat was sitting before the four brothers, green eyes staring fearlessly up at the massive hulking mutants that could easily crush the little creature in the palm of their hands.

A soft mew escaped the tiny feline, its head tilting to the side as if it were trying to figure out what exactly it was up against. In turn, three of the turtles returned its befuddled stare, as if trying to comprehend what was currently happening.

"A cat?" Raph muttered, turning to glance at Leo, a brow raised. "The hell is a cat doing all the way down here in the sewers?"

"A better question would be how it managed to bypass the security systems I put in place," Donnie said, almost to himself, pulling up his tablet and tapping at it a few times to bring up a map of the sewer tunnels closest to the lair. "I mean, I designed these traps here specifically to trigger an alarm on my tablet whenever something even the size of a mouse where to trip the wires or initiate –"

"Who cares, dude?! There's a freakin' kitten in our home, brah!" Mikey crowed, pushing past Leo and Donnie – earning an indignant squawk of protest from the four-eyed turtle – before dropping to his knees and gently scooping the kitten up; the little thing could easily fit on the palm of his one hand.

His baby blue eyes filled to the brim with wonder and adoration, he gazed down at the fluffy feline, grinning brighter than the sun itself. "Aw look at youuu! Aren't you just the cutest thing I've ever seen in my whole entire life?!" he cooed, nuzzling the top of the kitten's head with the bridge of his nose, and when the kitten licked his cheek and mewed happily, he gasped again. "Did'ja see that?! Did'ja see it?! She gave me a little kiss! She loves me!" he cried, practically bouncing on his toes with uncontrollable glee as he giggled.

Raph folded his large arms across his broad chest, casting Mikey a flat look. "Yeah, right, okay," he drawled. "Probably wants to eat you more than anything."

Pouting, Mikey stuck his tongue out at Raph. "You're just jealous because she already loves me more than you," he teased. Then, before Raph could retort, Mikey whirled on his heel to face Leo. "Leo, can we keep her?!"

"Absolutely not," Leo said immediately with a shake of his head, planting his hands on his hips. Beside him, Raph and Donnie nodded their heads in agreement.

Like a flower deprived of sunlight, Mikey visibly wilted, his smile fading into a sad frown. "Aw, why not? I mean, c'mon Leo, she's only a kitten. She's so little and helpless! She won't make it if we leave her out there on her own, no food, no clean water, no warm hugs, no one to tell her that she's loved –"

"Mikey," Leo cut in, placing a hand on his little brother's shoulder. He waited until Mikey's pleading blue eyes met his own serene pair before continuing. "I get it; you just wanna give this kitten a home, and that's good. But this home isn't the right one for her."

"Oh yeah?" Mikey argued, brows furrowed and lips thinned with indignation as held the confused kitten protectively against his chest. "Well then, gimme one good reason why she can't stay here with us."

"I'll give you three good reasons," Leo said, releasing Mikey's shoulder and taking a step back. "One: we don't have the means to take care of a pet properly. She'll need bedding, food, a litter box, and probably a crud-load of other things that we don't have and can't get by ourselves."

"Which brings up Reason Number Two," Donnie piped up, raising a finger. "She's a cat, and cats need lots of exercise, lots of room to run around, and fresh air; the sewers are no place for a domestic cat."

"But –"

"And before you say 'we survived down here for seventeen years and we're totally fine', we're mutants, Mikey. We can survive things most humans and regular animals can't," Raph interjected. "Also, we've gotten plenty of exercise, y'know, bein' ninjas and all."

Leo nodded at both of them before turning back to Mikey. "And Reason Number Three, possibly the most important reason of all…"

Mikey leaned in expectantly, but jumped in surprise all the same when all three of his older brothers said at once –

"Splinter is a RAT."

Mikey blinked hard. "Oh. Yeah. Cats eat rats. Forgot about that," he muttered, his sad frown returning, and it took everything in Leo's power not to crumble at the sight of it as he sighed. Mikey's heart was in the right place; all he wanted was to give the poor thing a proper home. But even so –

"But we can, like, I dunno, train her to not eat Splinter, or something?" Mikey suddenly piped up, making Donnie jump in surprise. "Same thing you do with any pet, like dogs or rabbits or whatever, right? And besides, who's to say she'll even wanna eat Splinter? He's too big for her to take down – which she can't, considering he's a ninja master and stuff, and he'd probably take her down but I don't really wanna think about that because that's all kinds of messed up– and we can always ask April or Casey to bring down supplies, or Vern since he's still stupid rich from the whole 'Falcon' thing which he's seriously gotta drop now dude I mean really it's –"

"Mikey," Leo sighed, further silencing him before he could go off on a wild rant. "You have some good points. Some. But the bottom line is we just can't keep her down here, Mikey. And that's final. Sorry."

Biting down on his bottom lip, Mikey's despondent gaze drifted back down to the kitten tucked close to his chest. The little ball of fur looked up at him in return, mewing softly, before licking affectionately at one of his fingers. The orange clad turtle smiled down at her, but the smile didn't reach his eyes. And if that didn't plunge a stake through Leo's heart, he didn't know what would.

"…alright," Mikey said after a long sullen silence. "Okay. I get it."

Leo nodded with a light sigh, glad that the debate could finally be put to rest. "Good. Sorry, little bother, but –"

"I didn't wanna have to do this," Mikey continued, and the three older turtles felt their hearts drop into the pit of their guts, "but you leave me no choice, Leonardo."

Then, without further warning, Mikey looked up at his brothers and stared.

"Oh god, no!" Donnie wailed.

"Michelangelo," Leo sighed long-sufferingly.

"Aw c'mon, Mikey, not this again," Raph groaned. "Not the Face, anything but the Face!"

Despite his brother's pleas for mercy, Michelangelo didn't relent. His eyes wider than saucers, as innocent and imploring as the tiny feline he held, the youngest turtle continued to stare at them unblinkingly, though inside he was cackling like a turtle possessed. No one could withstand The Face. No one.

"That's it. I'm dead, he got me, I'm weak. You're on your own, sorry guys." Donnie said, clapping his hands once before turning away, shaking his head. Leo rolled his eyes. Nine times out of ten, Donnie was always the first to go.

Predictably enough, though all could see he'd put up a valiant fight, Raph was next. "Dammit, Mikey," he cursed, letting his head fall in defeat.

With two down for the count, all of Mikey's focus was diverted to Leo, who stared right back at Mikey, his arms still folded tightly over his chest. However, his mouth twisted, fingers curling into fists the longer they stared each other down.

"C'mon, Leo, you can do it," Donnie said, patting Leo's shell encouragingly. "You can't give in!"

"You got this bro. No surrender!" Raph echoed, grasping Leo's left shoulder and giving it a little shake.

However, in spite of their support, Leo was already crumbling, even more so when Mikey sniffed, his lower lip jutting out in a childish manner. Plus now the freaking kitten had caught onto Mikey's game and was staring at Leo too, those big innocent green eyes staring into his very soul and melting his heart –

"…fine," Leo finally bit out, much to the shock of Raph and Donnie as they gaped at him, mouths hung open like waiting fly traps. Their fearless leader had been felled by The Face? Impossible!

Mikey, on the other hand, immediately punched the sky with delight at his success, whooping over the sounds of Raph and Donnie's groans of protest. "YES!" he cheered, "nothing can withstand The Face –!"

"BUT," Leo announced loud enough to recapture Mikey's attention and silence them all, "we're only keeping her until April and Casey come over later tonight. Hopefully they'll get here before Splinter does, and that they'll know what do with our little…'intruder'."

Mikey's smile fell, but only slightly. "…okay. I guess that's fair," he shrugged.

"I'm pretty sure April's not allowed to have pets in her apartment," Donnie said, tapping a finger against his chin. "But I guess, if anything, they can at least take her to a pet shelter. Or maybe Vern could take her?"

"Nah, the guy's allergic," Raph said. "To be honest, though, I wouldn't trust that guy to take care of a goldfish."

At that, Donnie snickered behind his hand, and Raph bumped him with his shoulder with a slight smile before turning to walk back to the couch. Donnie was soon to follow after casting a final glance at Mikey and the cat, leaving the youngest turtle standing with the eldest. Mikey watched them go before looking up at Leo. When Leo met his gaze, he smiled. "Thanks, bro."

Despite himself, Leo smiled back, draping an arm around Mikey's shoulders. "Remember, we're only keeping her until April and Casey figure out what to do with her," he said. "And FWI, I didn't say 'yes' just because of The Face."

Mikey grinned as Leo released him, and the two followed their brothers back into the pit. Behind him, Leo could hear his youngest brother cooing to the kitten again, and for the second time, he found himself smiling with a shake of his head.

His brother's happiness was infectious it seemed, because only fifteen minutes later, Donnie had shut his laptop to join Mikey, playing with the kitten as she mewed and pawed at his gigantic hands. Hell, not even Raph could resist when the little creature padded up to him and climbed onto his shoulder as he knitted, burrowing her fuzzy face into the crook of his neck. He snapped at Mikey and Donnie when they cooed and 'awwww'd' at him, but that didn't stop a ghost of a smile from crossing his lips as he slid a glance at the orange fur ball.

And as the kitten finally wandered over to him, playing with the blue ribbons hanging from the hilt of his sword, Leo smiled. Though they knew they shouldn't have, the boys had quickly grown fond of their little intruder. Somehow, in short amount of time she'd been in their home, she'd managed to make their lives just that little bit brighter and happier. It almost made them forget that her stay was only temporary…

…and about what Splinter's reaction would be to the feline when he arrived sooner than expected.

Leo had anticipated all hell to break loose when their father entered the lair and froze as he stared at the cat. He'd expected her to hiss and pounce for their master, claws and teeth bared and ready to kill.

But Mikey had the camera ready, capturing the exact moment (and his brother's hilarious reactions) in which the kitten leapt onto Splinter's lap and started purring.

Well, it appeared that their intruder was here to stay after all.

A/N: Guess what the cat's name is gonna be XD

This was just a bit of fun I had, and i hope you enjoyed it too :) More are on the way.