Authors Note: Hey guys hope you like this chapter. Thank you for all the nice comments. They make me so happy to read. Please keep them coming as they really make my day.

Soon three weeks had passed and Mikey was no longer grounded. He and his brothers were continuing to do well with their training.

Mikey was worried that he wouldn't be ready to compete, but he kept that to himself.

He, and Leatherhead had become good friends, and the first Saturday after he was done being grounded the two went to get pizza and a movie. Mikey had to remind himself it wasn't a date, but he was still happy and a little nervous. It's not like he hadn't been alone with Leatherhead before. They meet twice a week for tutoring, and on those days Leatherhead would walk him home.

Still Mikey was tearing through his closet looking for something nice to wear. After looking through his clothing options three times he finally picked a pair of jeans that fit him really well and an orange t-shirt. He grabbed his wallet and headed out the door to meet Leatherhead at the pizza place they'd chosen.

When Mikey got there he saw Leatherhead waiting and felt his heartbeat quicken. He ran up to the older teen and smiled

"Hey," Mikey said trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice.

Leatherhead smiled. "Hey," he said back his eyes shining with amusement.

They walked in to the restaurant and sat down. "What do you like on your pizza," Leatherhead asked?

Mikey smiled. "I'll try anything once. I've heard the mushroom pizza is really good here."

Leatherhead smiled. "Mushroom it is." They ordered their drinks and pizza before starting to talk about the latest issue of their favorite comic. The conversation flowed easily and their food came quickly.

They were mostly silent as they ate, but it was comfortable. When they were done they split the bill and headed to the movies. They paid for their tickets and were glad to find that the theater was relatively empty.

They found good seats and talked quietly while they waited for the previews. The movie was a little cliché, but the action was good so they didn't mind.

Throughout the movie Mikey wished he could have held Leatherheads hand. He wanted to be more to Leatherhead than just a friend, but the sophomore had showed no indication that he wanted to be anything but friends. It was frustrating and made Mikey at times unsure of how to act around Leatherhead.

He remembered Donnie being kind of the same way around April at first. Sometimes he treated her like the rest of the brothers, but there would be times where he would stutter and act shy. It had been fun at first, but they were all glad when they finally got together.

After the movie Leatherhead walked Mikey home.

"I had a really good time tonight Mikey," Leatherhead said. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn't.

Mikey nodded. "Yeah it was awesome." They both stood there for a minute before Mikey let out a nervous laugh. "Guess I better get inside."

Leatherhead nodded and slowly turned to walk away. Mikey entered the apartment building and leaned against the wall.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" He sighed and headed upstairs. His brothers were watching TV and Raph turned around with a big smile on his face.

"How was the date," he asked teasingly.

Mikey growled. "It wasn't a date," Mikey said angrily and stormed off to his room. Raph blinked in confusion, and cried out when he was hit. He turned to glare at Leo, but the oldest brother pointed to Donnie. This surprised him and even more surprising was the look of disappointment on his brother's face.

"Leave him alone Raph. Trust me teasing him is not going to make him ask Leatherhead out any faster," Donnie assured.

Raph groaned. "It's so obvious though. Both of the idiots like one another. The way they look at each other is like some kind of horrible romantic comedy. I don't know how much longer I can watch them be all awkward."

"Raph's right Donnie, I know we need to give them time, but it's still kind of frustrating," Leo said agreeing with both his brothers.

Donnie sighed. "If they don't get together by the time of the exhibition we'll do something, but for now let nature take its course."

"Nature seems to have a sick sense of humor to me," Raph grumbled.

Upstairs Mikey was replaying the night in his head over and over. He felt kind of bad for snapping at Raph, but he felt stuck. He didn't want to ruin things with Leatherhead, but he kept thinking of all the times he could have done something to show Leatherhead he was interested. Nothing big, just something that could have been taken as a sign that he wanted more, but also ignored if need be.

He sighed, and grabbed his iPod deciding he needed to escape for a little bit. He picked a playlist grabbed his sketchbook and did his best to stop thinking of all the things he didn't do.

At training the next day Mikey and Donnie had just finished a match where Donnie had won. Mikey felt those feelings that he wasn't good enough to compete resurface.

As they were getting ready to leave Master Splinter called out. "Michelangelo I would like to speak to you for a minute."

Mikey groaned, and Raph gave a sarcastically cheerful good luck fallowed by some sniggering.

"Yes Sensei," Mikey asked worried?

"Michelangelo something is brothering you. Will you please tell me what it is?"

Mikey sighed. "I don't know if I'm ready to compete."

"Michelangelo do you think I would allow you to compete if I didn't think you were ready?"

Mikey thought about it for a second and shook his head. "No sensei, but I don't feel ready. Donnie, and the others seem to get better, and I just seem to be stuck."

Splinter smiled. "My son you are progressing, though admittedly not as fast as your brothers. I do not say this to be mean, but because I need you to understand. You have so much potential Michelangelo. When you put your mind to something, and focus you are amazing. If you want to progress you need to start taking training more seriously."

Mikey frowned at the idea, and Splinter asked "why does that brother you?"

Mikey sighed. "I don't want to be Leo sensei I want to be me. Leo's the one who is all focused on training. Leo's the one who's the most mature. I just want to be me."

Splinter nodded in understanding, "Michelangelo you will always be you. Part of growing up is maturing. It does not mean you will not still be able to have fun. It simply means that you know when it's time to be fun and when it's time to be serious. I would hate to see you try to change yourself to be someone you are not. I am simply asking that you devote more time to being serious with your training. You can still be fun and the prankster, but not when you are fighting….at least not when you are being serious."

"I admit that at times your brothers forget to relax and you help them do that. Do not think that by becoming more focused you need to become stoic. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Mikey was quiet as he thought over his father's words. "You're saying that I need to stop thinking of training as play time as see it like I would school," he winkled his nose at the thought.

Splinter laughed. "Michelangelo you love art, correct?"

Mikey nodded.

"And you love when you get to be creative with writing, right?"

Mikey again nodded.

"Those are things you focus on and must be serious with, but you still have fun don't you," Master Splinter asked?

Mikey's eyes lit up as he got what his sensei was saying. "You're saying that being focused and serious doesn't mean things can't be fun."

Splinter nodded. "Michelangelo I want you to do something for me. I want you to start being more focused on learning. I'm not asking that you put more time into training simply that when we do train you take it serious. I think you will find that you will still enjoy training. I also think you've gotten too complacent with fighting your brothers which is partially my fault. When you fight in the exhibition do so as if it is a real tournament. Do you think you can do that?

Mikey smiled. "Yes sensei."

"Good now you can leave and thank you for talking to me."

Mikey smiled. "Thank you sensei." Mikey left the dojo feeling better and determined to get serious about training.

On Monday the rumors had finally started to die down. It was probably due to the fact that the star quarterback was caught cheating on his cheerleader girlfriend at a party. Mikey, and his brothers weren't hated, but they were pretty low on totem pole that was the high school social scene. The drama between two of the most popular kids in school was much better to gossip about than a freshman who was gay.

At lunch everyone was enjoying themselves when Donnie remembered something. "Oh I got the tickets for the exhibition match."

He handed one out to April, another to Casey, and the last one to Leatherhead.

The tall teen looked surprised. "You want me to be there?"

Raph laughed. "Of course we do. You're our friend and it'll be fun."

Leatherhead looked down at the ticket. "I don't know anything about martial arts."

"Don't worry April will fill you in. Besides you don't have to know all the moves to enjoy it," Leo explained.

April nodded. "Yeah Casey doesn't even know most of the moves."

Casey frowned. "It's too much to remember the difference between a roundhouse kick and a side kick."

Raph snorted. "If Mikey can learn the difference so can you."

"Hey," Mikey said with an indigent tone. "If I remember correctly I learned how to do a proper roundhouse kick before you did."

Donnie and Leo nodded. "He's got you there Raph," Leo pointed out.

Raph rolled his eyes. "Basic stuff. I can still beat your ass anytime any place."

Mikey smirked. "Yeah, but I always get back at you don't I Raph. Like the time you, and I fought over the last chocolate chip cookie? You beat me in the fight, but I got back at you with the glitter bomb."

Raph half groaned half growled. "I think a few of my magazines still have glitter on them."

The table laughed, and more stories were traded of times Mikey had got the better of them.

After school Mikey and Leatherhead worked on math and like always Leatherhead walked Mikey home. The walks home were nice right until they got to Mikey's door. There was always the sense that something needed to be said or done, but neither would make a move or say a thing. It was always awkward and while it hadn't affected their friendship the pressing feeling that something more should be happening got more and more intense.

Over the next two weeks training got more intense. Mikey had started really focusing like Master Splinter had asked, and he was finding that he still was having fun. He was making a lot of progress and with progress came the ability to learn new moves.

Mikey had always used nunchucks, but it wasn't until recently did he realize just how versatile they could be. Master Splinter said he was progressing so much that he might be able to learn a new weapon. Mikey had wanted to learn how to use the kusarigama. He had wanted to learn how to use it as his first weapon, but Master Splinter made it clear they were for only advanced students.

Mikey had asked again, and Master Splinter had surprisingly said yes though Mikey still had a ways to go before he could start using it. Mikey was so excited to learn some new moves, but he decided against adding them to his kata routine.

It was already amazing and besides he was still perfecting what he learned. Mikey knew that adding a move he'd yet to get just right could make the rest of his routine look sloppy. His brothers were happy with the progress he was making, and Leo seemed glad that he was finally taking his training serious.

While Mikey and Leo hadn't fought often when they did it was mostly due to Leo thinking Mikey needed to focus more. It was one of the reasons Mikey saw Leo as a second sensei. Raph would sometimes get on his case as well, but he didn't nag like Leo had a tendency to do.

Mikey loved his two oldest brothers, but he didn't eat, sleep and breathe ninjutsu like they did. He was more like Donnie when it came to training. He liked it and wanted to get better at it, but it didn't rule his life. He had other interest he wanted to pursue.

As Mikey got older Leo seemed to see that ninjutsu wasn't going to become his life and had let up on some of the nagging. He still did it, but that was a part of who Leo was. He was the one who woke them up for early training, he was the one who when left in change would make them practice till they dropped and, he was the one who wouldn't stop practicing a move until he got it just right.

Leo's life was ninjutsu and he had a passion for it that sometimes made him a little blind to other people's interest. Master Splinter said it was at times a good thing, but he also needed to relax. Out of all the brothers Leo's kata routine always needed the most work. Not because he didn't know enough moves to make a good routine, but because it was often stiff. It didn't flow and that was just as important as what moves were used. Leo had once asked Mikey how he made such smooth transitions between moves, and Mikey had to tell him that he didn't know.

He did his best to help Leo with pointers, and he was surprisingly a good teacher. When it came to making a routine Mikey was the one you talked to.

It made Mikey happy to be better at his brothers than something. They might call him an idiot when he said the wrong thing or roll their eyes at his lame jokes, but they were always amazed at his kata routines.

Once training was done the brothers headed home. It was a Wednesday meaning that they had three more days until the exhibition. They were all excited and though they'd never admit it aloud a little nervous.

Having an audience was both thrilling and nerve wracking. Mikey had once asked Master Splinter if the nerve wracking part ever went away. He said no, but you learned to deal with it and over the years of be in exhibitions Mikey had. They all had, and the brothers all knew not to mess with each other the day before a show. Leo meditated, Raph either played video games or used the punching bag in the living room, Donnie worked on a project or found something to fix, and Mikey listened to music and read comic books or drew.

April and Casey had learned not to talk about it at lunch, and they must have filled Leatherhead in because when Friday came around he didn't say anything about it though Mikey was positive he wanted to. Leatherhead had the brothers explain how things would go and every day he had a new question. Friday he didn't even ask how training was going which was something he always wanted to know.

Mikey and the rest of the brothers got through the rest of the day okay. Dinner was nice though quiet and they all headed to bed early knowing they needed a good night's sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.