"He's still not talking to you?"
Mikey casually lifted one shoulder and then bit into another piece of pizza. He and Woody sat on the ledge of the pizzeria's rooftop, and Mikey was just happy to be eating his favorite snack with Woody's leg pressed up against his own.
Woody glanced over at Mikey while he ate his own slice. He didn't like the sad look in Mikey's big blue eyes, nor did he like Mikey being punished for something related to the two of them.
"I shouldn't have met you up there."
"They were gonna meet you sooner or later," Mikey said with another shoulder lift. He'd been hoping it would've gone a little better, though. He swallowed his bite of pizza and glanced over at Woody. Woody had the friendliest brown eyes and the curliest blonde hair and Mikey had no idea how anyone could not love him on the spot. And he'd had fun with Woody up at the farmhouse, despite Leo's anger. Plus, he'd kind of thought that Leo would've gotten over it by the time they returned home.
"What about the others?"
"They're not ignoring me, but -," Mikey paused and thought back to that morning in the kitchen. Donnie, Raph, and Casey, who'd apparently spent the night, had thanked him for breakfast. And they would answer him if he asked a question. But his brothers didn't make eye contact with him. "They're following Leo's lead I guess. That's what we're trained to do after all."
Woody leaned over and kissed Mikey, doing his best to get rid of the pitiful smile Mikey was attempting. Mikey quickly rubbed his fingertips against his own legs to get rid of the pizza crumbs before reaching up to wrap his arms around Woody in order to pull him closer. Mikey's fast response wasn't unusual, but it still tugged at Woody's heart, since it was so apparent how desperate his typically happy-go-lucky turtle was for affection.
He rested his forehead against Mikey's forehead and smiled at him. "It's going to be okay, Mikey. Sooner or later he'll see that you're safe with me. I'll never do anything to hurt you."
Mikey nuzzled his face back against Woody's face and breathed in his scent. "Yeah," he agreed softly. His big brother would have to come around sooner or later, because Mike knew Woody was someone he was never going to give up.
"Want to hear a joke?"
A grin spread across Mikey's face before he could stop it.
"No."
"Probably a good choice, because jokes about German sausage are the wurst." Woody grinned as he watched Mikey manage to laugh and groan at the same time. "Hey, how about this one, what does a clock do when it's hungry?"
Mikey grabbed Woody by the shoulders and swiftly pulled him towards him as he pushed himself backwards to land on his shell. Woody settled easily on his plastron, letting his knees fall between Mikey's legs on the rooftop, before meeting Mikey's lips for another kiss. Mikey let his fingers run through Woody's curls and let his own head fall back as he felt Woody's fingers move towards the slit on his plastron.
Woody grinned as he felt Mikey drop down for him. His mouth left kisses along the side of Mikey's face until he reached Mike's ear slit and finally got to whisper, "The clock goes back for seconds."
Mikey did his best to make his groan sound exasperated. "Your puns are the worst," he muttered as his hands traveled to the button on Woody's jeans. "But your hands are the best," he added with a grin to soothe Woody's pout.
Woody grinned again and leaned down for another kiss, determined to send his turtle home happy.
April looped her fingers through Casey's as they walked down the sewer tunnel and smiled as he squeezed them in return.
"So, did you get a good night sleep last night?" she asked.
"Sure did, Red."
"You guys do anything other than sleep?"
He glanced over at her and her raised eyebrow and thought back to what Donnie had said the night before about figuring things out between the three of them.
"You were okay with me comin back here to sleep with Donnie, right?" he asked.
April opened her mouth to answer, but then paused. "You know, -,"
"There you guys are," Donnie said, grinning when he finally spotted them around a turn. Both humans beamed back at him and since it had been longer since he'd last kissed April, he bent forward to kiss her in greeting first. Her scent alone could easily make him dizzy, let alone the feeling that came with knowing April was actually kissing him back.
When he pulled away and turned to Casey, he was greeted with a mock pout at being chosen second. Donnie only grinned at the hockey player and murmured "Ladies first," with a head tilt towards April. He decided to make it up to Casey, though, and not only pulled the hockey player into a kiss, but pushed his tongue forward to meet Casey's tongue.
April watched with interest as the two males shared a kiss that was admittedly more aggressive than the ones either of them shared with her. She wondered if they noticed the difference. She knew her cheeks had already pinkened after Donnie's kiss, but she was getting warmer and warmer as she watched the two of them now.
Donnie didn't pull away from Casey until he'd earned a small groan from the human. Casey slowly opened his eyes and was met with a self-satisfied grin from the tall turtle. He wanted to glower back at him, since that game wasn't something that Donnie pulled on April, but he couldn't get the look correct given the warmth that was running down his spine.
"We, uh, brought food," Casey said, his voice a little rougher than it had been a moment ago. He lifted the bag of take-out he was carrying in demonstration. "But didja want to go out?"
"No, I just wanted to greet you in the privacy of the tunnels, before you reached the lair." He turned and April looped her free arm through his as they walked back towards the lair.
"Is the secrecy bothering you?" April asked.
"I think its kinda fun," Casey said. "Like we're secret ninjas."
"You do realize that we're already secret ninjas, right?" Donnie asked with a grin over April's head to Casey.
"And don't you think we have enough secrets to hide already?" April asked, waving her hand around the sewer tunnel.
"Don't bust on my imagination!"
"Anyway," Donnie said, "for now, I'm fine with giving Leo a little more time before the secrets are all let out."
"Time for what?" Casey asked.
"Leo keeps going on and on about how sensei needs time to adjust to the changes, but I'm fairly certain it's Leo who needs time to adjust. When we were at the farmhouse, Raph was the first to notice that Leo was upset."
"And I think now we know why Raph was the first to notice," April interjected with a smile.
"Yes, well, Mikey and I eventually noticed as well."
"Upset about what?" Casey asked.
"Well, even though our end goal was to stop the Shredder, the rest of us should've realized sooner how actually killing him would've affected Leo. He needed that time at the farmhouse not to celebrate, but to recover."
"Poor Leo," April said, nodding. "I didn't even notice."
Casey nodded as well. He'd wondered what Leo's problem had been and Donnie's explanation made perfect sense, not that he would've expected any less from the smart turtle.
"Then we throw all these other personal changes at him, including his own change in relationship with Raphael, and I think he just needs a little more time to adjust."
Their arms dropped to their own sides as they reached the lair, although they didn't see anyone as they walked to Donnie's lab. April smiled when she saw that Donnie had managed to add a new round table to the space, covered it with a table cloth, and stuck three chairs around it.
"And this doesn't draw attention?" she teased.
"Not with three chairs it doesn't," Donnie said back with a grin.
She smiled at him, thankful for his easy grins in her direction, free of his previous nerves and stuttering. She leaned up and kissed him quickly in thanks. He looked slightly surprised by the action, which she kind of loved as well, before he directed her over to the table.
They sat and ate. And talked. And laughed. And Donnie looked back and forth between the two of them and thought about how lucky he was. At one point he heard the tell-tale noises of a popular video game and assumed Mikey had made it home.
And when there was a lull in the conversation, his thoughts returned to his previous night with Casey.
"Do you think we need to have some guidelines?" he asked suddenly.
Casey frowned in confusion but April immediately smiled as she realized where Donnie was going.
"That sounds kind of formal, D," she said.
"Well, as much as I've been enjoying this so far, I just don't want anyone's feelings hurt," he said.
"Were you okay with last night, Red?" Casey asked, jumping in.
"Well," April said. She chewed on her lip for a moment as she thought. "I mean, I was up studying all night. You wanted someone to sleep with. It was kind of nice that Donnie was able to fulfill that need for you. You were taken care of, right?"
Casey nodded with a small smile in Donnie's direction.
Donnie straightened in his seat. "You know, Casey said something similar when he first approached me. We've placed ourselves in a unique situation where we're lucky to have two people to lean on."
"Doesn't answer how ya feel about me and Don cuddling it up without ya, though, Red," Casey said.
Donnie rolled his eyes at the hockey player, although he secretly admired Casey's bluntness.
"Well, there's no rush, right?" April asked, not put off by Casey's direct question.
"Of course not," Donnie said, although he tried not to smile as he caught Casey sigh dramatically next to him. "And nothing happened that you haven't already seen."
"Well, I'm still kind of sorry I missed it," April said, "cause I've liked what I've seen so far."
"Really?" Casey asked, wagging his eyebrows over at her.
Donnie was suddenly too distracted to notice, though, as he caught the way April's eyes had hooded as they roamed over the two males. He suddenly had an urge to start touching, and leaned forward in his seat to move his hands towards both of them.
He was stopped by a loud alarm coming from his computer.
A/N: Great big thank you to everyone reading and especially to those of you leaving comments! I have the next chapter written and will be doing my best to finish editing it so it can be posted in the morning.