The tight pressure in Leo's lower plastron had him actually happy to be sitting on the sidelines of practice. Especially since the feeling wasn't going anywhere with Raphael performing katas in front of him. He meant to watch the entire team and take mental notes. But after being attacked by Raphael before practice, his eyes refused to leave the emerald turtle. Raphael's eyes moved to meet his every once in a while as well and Leo would shiver every single time one of those heated expressions was sent his way.

With Karai included in their morning training, they were still an even number and were soon paired up to spar against each other. Raphael went up against Karai first and Leo watched as Raph's brute strength quickly gave him an advantage, despite Karai's speed and skill, she was soon down on the mat and yielding to the larger turtle.

Karai growled and pushed Raph's smug face away from her own. She quickly stood again and then eyed him, thinking hard before opening her mouth.

"Show me how you do that," she finally said, deciding to push her pride down in order to learn something useful.

Raphael looked surprised, but quickly pushed his shoulders back, pleased to have something to offer the former Foot soldier. "Okay," he said. "Come at me again."

Leo was so caught up in watching that he'd barely noticed that Mikey had edged closer to his side until he spoke.

"I don't know if sensei told you, but I'm bringing Woody over today. Later this afternoon."

Leo turned to look at him. He recognized that tone of voice.

"I'm not cleaning your room for you."

"Not for me, bro! With me!"

"No."

"Please, Leo? I can't let Woody see it the way it is!"

"So just clean it yourself."

"You know I can't do that," Mikey said in his most pitiful voice. He widened his eyes, doing his best to make them as large and sad as possible. He watched Leo glance at him again, sigh, and then turn his attention back to the mats.

Leo did know that Mikey couldn't clean his room by himself. Mikey's attention never stayed on task when it came to cleaning, especially in his own room where literally every single thing was a distracting plaything.

"Or maybe I could tell Woody that your room is my room?" Mikey asked.

Leo groaned as his plans to spend time with Raphael after practice vanished. "No way am I pretending your landfill of a room is my room," he said in resignation.

"Thanks, bro!" Mikey said, throwing himself onto Leo in a hug.

Woody's eyes were wide as he was shown around the lair. Mikey kept talking, even though Woody stayed pretty quiet. He rambled on to cover his growing worry over Woody's silence as they moved from space to space. Waved his hands at the pinball machine and the tire swing as if Woody couldn't figure out on his own what they did with those things.

His brothers had been in Donnie's lab, doing their best to stay out of the way while he gave Woody the tour. They'd been friendly with Woody, which he appreciated, because Woody had genuinely smiled and said hello when he saw them.

But now he paused outside the dojo and turned to the abnormally quiet Woody.

"Hey, Woods," he said, pulling one of Woody's hands into his own. "We don't have to do this now. Now that you've seen the lair, if you want to go home and think about -,"

"Think about what?" Woody asked, eyes suddenly zeroed in on Mikey.

"Well, I mean, I know I told you it was in the sewer, but seeing that it's really in the sewer -,"

Woody pulled Mikey into a tight hug and then murmured, "Its true, this place is not what I was expecting." He pulled back and grinned at the freckled turtle. "I mean, this place is warm. You know? Like, not just concrete walls. This place is lived in. It's a real home. Although you still haven't shown me your room, yet," he added with a suspicious eyebrow raise, "but this place is great. Your home is great, Michelangelo."

Mikey beamed back at Woody, more relieved than he was expecting to be to find that Woody was comfortable here in his home. He felt Woody squeeze his fingers, though as he glanced towards the dojo door.

"Wait, are you just nervous about meeting sensei? Why?"

"Well, you call him sensei."

"Only because he's a ninja master."

"Yeah, that's not really helping my nerves, Mikester," Woody said with a pointed look at his turtle. "Plus, it's your dad."

"That shouldn't make you nervous," Mikey said, his grin growing. "Just think about it like this, I didn't get this awesome all by myself!"

"He certainly did not," Master Splinter said, sliding the dojo door open so he could finally lay eyes on the young man he could hear speaking with Michelangelo.

"Sensei!" Mikey said, all cheer as he landed a hand on Woody's shoulder. "This is Woody. And Woody, this is my father. You can call him Master Splinter."

"Konnichiwa, Master Splinter," Woody said, doing his best to keep his voice steady when he saw how very tall Mikey's mutant rat father was. "Hajimemashite."

Leo's blue eyes swung around to meet Raph's and Donnie's eyes behind him from where they stood hidden in the lab doorway. Raph rolled his eyes but Donnie's face matched his own impressed expression.

"He didn't pull the Japanese out for us," Raph muttered.

"You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for spying," Karai whispered, coming up behind the three of them, although none of them appeared startled to see her. Damn ninja brothers took all the fun out of sneaking up on people. In fact, the only acknowledgement she got was when Donnie murmured that she could, "Hear better from this side" and shifted slightly to allow her room to squeeze in and listen with them.

"Dude, you know Japanese!" Mikey exclaimed, letting his hand fall from Woody's shoulder to his fingers in order to squeeze his hand tightly in his excitement.

"Um, no," Woody said, although he felt brave enough to smile since he was pretty sure Mikey's father had just smiled. "Just those words. And I'm sorry if I'm butchering the pronunciation."

"No, you did just fine," Master Splinter said. "It is nice to meet you as well. Why don't you two come in and sit? It seems we have a year's worth of stories to catch up on."

"I don't think you want all the stories, sensei," Mikey teased and Master Splinter stifled a grin when he saw Woody elbow him.

"Wait, how do you do that?" Leo asked, leaning over to so he could watch Woody's fingers shift over the controller buttons.

Mikey laughed from behind them. He was seated on their couch while Leo and Woody were on the floor, both eager to be closer to the television to properly compete against each other.

"Don't waste your time, Leo. Pretty sure you need ten fingers to pull it off," Mike said. He rolled to his side and propped his legs on the back of the couch.

Leo's eyes narrowed and Woody almost laughed as he watched Mikey's big brother consider the challenge.

"Okay, look," Woody said. He paused their game and showed Leo the sequence needed to jump a wall, which would allow him to advance by skipping almost the entire track in this level.

"Beat that, Jones," Raph said as he wiped out Casey's high score. Again. Casey landed a punch on his shoulder and pushed Raph aside to reclaim his fame over the pinball machine. Raphael only smirked at him before turning to seek out Leo again. The big pushover had spent most of the day following Mikey around his room with trash bags. Throwing out orders like a drill sergeant over what Mikey could keep and what must absolutely go in the trash. Raphael had steered clear of that literal mess. Although, he was happy to see Leo and Mike back to normal. And he smiled now as he watched Leo's concentrated expression as he raced against Woody.

Leo growled as his fingers wouldn't cooperate and perform Woody's over the wall cheat. And given that Woody was now unfairly ahead of him on the track, he resorted to his own secret move, which involved elbowing Woody in his side.

"Hey!" Woody said, pushing his own elbow back towards Leo as he spun off the track. "I tried to show you the jump!"

Mikey smiled as he watched them. Woody had visibly relaxed only a few minutes into their conversation with Master Splinter. And sensei hadn't kept them for long. Mikey was pretty sure that Woody's friendly and open nature had won his father over fairly quickly. Plus, sensei had said that he hoped Woody would visit them often before he shooed them out of the dojo, which Mikey took as flat out approval of his favorite human.

Leo dropped his controller as Woody sped over the finish line, winning by a landslide. Mikey took the opportunity and squeezed in between the two of them, letting his legs rub against Woody's legs as he snatched up Leo's controller to play the next round.

"Good round, Leo," Woody said.

Leo issued a quiet thanks, although he noticed and appreciated that instead of being sarcastic, Woody was being sincere. He clearly had good sportsmanship. He also clearly didn't grow up with brothers.

Leo rose from the ground and moved into the kitchen. He pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and took a long drink as his eyes found and then roamed slowly over Raphael. Raph's bright green eyes were lit up, clearly enjoying an apparent win against Casey if Casey's kicking their pinball machine was any indicator. Raphael grinned at Casey's behavior, and Leo smiled just at the sight.

He was still smiling when Master Splinter joined him in the kitchen a moment later.

"I'm happy to see you so well recovered," Master Splinter said.

"Thank you, sensei."

There was a loud cheer from the pit that had both of them turning their heads to glance at Mikey and Woody.

"Who would've thought Mikey would end up the sneakiest ninja of us all?" Leo murmured to his father.

"I will perhaps never recover from that level of surprise," Master Splinter said with a wry smile as he watched his youngest beam at the curly haired human who sat beside him. "However, seeing them interact today has certainly waylaid my fears for your brother concerning this new human. He certainly passed the first test."

"What was the first test?" Leonardo asked.

"He did not immediately turn into a Kraang upon entering our home."

Leonardo chuckled and turned away from the pit and back towards Master Splinter, who smiled as well. And not for the first time, Leo was hit with a feeling of gratefulness that Master Splinter was their father.

"From what I can see," Master Splinter continued, "Woodrow appears to be a sincere, fun-loving young man who clearly loves your brother and who can also keep our identities to himself, considering how long this has been going on."

Leo nodded in agreement as they were joined in the kitchen then by Mikey and Woody, and Mikey explained that he and Woody were going to make dinner for everyone. Instead of leaving, Leo decided to stay in the kitchen. He'd told Mikey he wanted to get to know Woody better and he was going to do his best to fulfill that promise.

Master Splinter excused himself, eager to get out of their way. But he called out to Leonardo over his shoulder as he left. "Maybe just sit at the island. No need to help them.

A/N: I had some more planned for this chapter in regards to my favorite turtles, but my eyes are going blurry. More tomorrow!

Konnichiwa - Hello

Hajimemashite – Nice to meet you