Woody melted against Mikey's plastron the second Mikey shut his bedroom door behind them and they were alone. Michelangelo's hands went around him and he found himself supporting Woody where they stood for a moment before Woody's legs seemed to find strength again.

"I'm so sorry, Woods," he whispered into Woody's curly hair. "I shoulda let you go home with Sam tonight but I needed to tell you how sorry I am that you got pulled into all -,"

Woody immediately began shaking his head. "Why would I go back with Sam?"

Mikey walked them across the room and sat Woody down on the edge of his bed, although he didn't join him. Instead he began pacing back and forth in front of him.

"Because you'd be safer with Sam."

Woody frowned. "Sam is like a big brother to me, but you honestly think I'd be safer with my nerdy roommate than with my ninja boyfriend?"

Mikey picked up an action figured and chucked it at the opposite wall before turning his big blue eyes at Woody. "Rahzar was after me and my brothers."

"Don't puppy-dog eyes me, Mikey. I'm fine."

"This time, dude," Mikey said. "I know I'm not the smart turtle in this family but I do know that Rahzar is not the only bad guy left out there who would want to come after me and my brothers."

Woody felt his chest tighten as real fear hit him, for the second time that night, as he watched Mikey work himself up. He didn't want Michelangelo to push him away. Not now. Not after everything they'd already been through to be together.

"So then how many times am I going to be used as bait?" Woody asked, desperate to change the subject. "Cause I'm gonna need to start carrying a granola bar around or something."

"You're hungry?" Mikey asked, instantly focused on a new direction.

Woody nodded.

Mikey nodded in return, already thinking about what comfort foods he could make Woody, which led to wanting to comfort Woody once again. So he forgot about the kitchen for a moment and finally sat himself down next to Woody. He reached a hand up and let his finger run through Woody's fun curls and was immediately reminded that he'd do anything to keep his favorite human safe.

"I was really scared tonight," Mikey whispered, letting his hand drop from Woody's hair so that he could loop his fingers with Woody's fingers. He focused his eyes on their intertwined hands. "And after all that searching, it turns out you were taken because of me. I can't handle you hurt, Woods, especially because of me. Maybe we should just - ,"

"I thought you said my home was where you were?" Woody quickly interjected, before Mikey could say something they'd both hate.

Mikey moved his eyes back to Woody's face and met Woody's worried brown eyes before nodding. "And I meant it," he said in a low voice, suddenly grateful to Woody for stopping his previous train of thought.

"Okay," Woody said, quickly nodding, eager to keep Mikey in this line of thinking. "Then I'll do whatever you want to stay safe. You can – you can escort me to work and back home even."

"That won't annoy you?"

"I could think of worse things," Woody said with a pointed look as he gave Mikey's fingers a hard squeeze.

"Do you think you could stay here? Like at night?" Mikey asked. "Just for a little while at least?"

"Of course," Woody said, letting go of Mikey's fingers so he could wrap his arms around the turtle's neck.

Mikey hugged him back and nuzzled his face into Woody's neck. "Are you still hungry?"

Woody shook his head. "I don't think I could eat right now," he said honestly.

"I'm sorry, Woods. I didn't mean to stress you out even more. I just want what's best for you."

"You are what's best for me, Mikester," Woody whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too," Mikey whispered back. He let go of Woody only so he could help him remove his sneakers and his jeans before tucking them both in under the blanket. He let his fingers wander through Woody's hair again as he kissed him and then pulled Woody into his side.

Michelangelo listened as Woody's breathing finally evened out and his body relaxed against him. He knew keeping Woody was selfish. But Woody clearly didn't want to go. And Mikey was too far gone now to give him up. And even if he had to spend the rest of his life protecting Woody, he knew it would be well worth it. He shifted so that the rim of his shell wouldn't poke Woody's side as he pulled the sleeping human in closer to his plastron.

"Mine," he whispered out to whoever in the universe was listening.

"I wouldn't have just gone home if you were missin."

Leo felt barely conscious as he heard Raphael speak. He'd been passed out on his shell and he turned his sleepy face to the turtle who was still situated between his legs, and who was currently resting his chin on the arms he had crossed over Leo's plastron.

"You did go to sleep last night, right?" Leo groggily asked.

He still had one arm wrapped around Raph's shoulders and he tightened it for a moment in an attempt to hug the other turtle even closer. His eyelids still felt heavy but he was happy to notice that his limbs still had the same boneless feeling that Raphael had instilled in him earlier. He watched as Raph's green eyes glowed at him through the darkness, and he sighed as he realized Raph was still waiting for a response to his earlier statement.

"Okay," Leo said, relenting to the conversation Raphael clearly wanted to have. "I know you would've kept looking for me. Or for any of us. But this is Mikey. I mean, you remember when he jumped in to save Leatherhead from the Kraang that first time? And that was before he even knew Leatherhead. He didn't see a large, aggressive alligator, he just saw someone in trouble. And then there was that time we got Leatherhead's distress signal and he just jumped right through the Kraang portal without even knowing where he'd end up. He had absolutely no plan. He thinks with his heart, which I know we all love about him, but I was worried about his reactions given that Woody is someone he clearly loves. I was afraid about what he'd jump right into this time. I didn't want to see him hurt."

Raphael watched Leo's blue eyes spark not only with empathy for their brother as he spoke, but also with a critical understanding of what he knew had to be done in this particular situation. Raph realized he didn't often think about Leo's leadership burdens, which definitely included knowing how each of his brothers would react in different situations. And he realized that everything Leo was telling him now must have crossed Leo's mind the moment he learned that Woody was missing. Raphael shifted his arms to Leo's sides and gave him a tight squeeze, thankful to see this side of Leo's thoughts. And he told himself he was going to ask Leo these kinds of questions more often going forward.

"Alright, Fearless," he said. "I'm sorry I didn't try harder to bring him home."

Leo shrugged as he smiled at Raphael. "He wasn't going to come home." He slid his free hand to the side of Raph's face and let his thumb brush across the other turtle's cheek. "I'd keep looking for you, too," he murmured.

Half of Raph's mouth twitched up into a grin and he shifted himself up Leo's plastron so he could reach his mouth to kiss him. Leo hummed happily through the kiss as he twisted his tongue around Raph's tongue and enjoyed being squeezed between Raph's strong arms. Raph moved his mouth down to Leo's neck and Leo turned his head, giving him a perfect view of the clock on his bedside table.

"Raphael!" he said, jerking his head away from the other. "I thought it was time to get up, you jerk. It's only three-thirty in the morning!"

"So?" Raph asked, doing his best to keep his smirk contained as he listened to Leo's tantrum.

"So? So we've only been asleep for an hour!" Leo groaned in frustration as he finally realized why his eyelids were hurting. He turned his head away from Raph's smirk and closed his eyes. "Go back to sleep."

Raphael chuckled and shifted himself so he could rest his arms on Leo's plastron as a pillow again. And despite his frustration, Leo let his fingers rub over Raph's biceps for a moment before he yawned and attempted a stretch so that he could truly settle back into sleep.

His neck and arms were extended when he suddenly flinched and then laughed when he felt Raph's mouth leach onto his neck again. "Hey, I was stretching!"

"Yeah," Raph husked out as he nudged his lower plastron against the turtle beneath him. "So am I."

Leo immediately churred at the visual and met Raph's mouth again for a kiss.

Sleep could wait.

"Whoa, whoa," April said, sticking her hand out with her palm up, "hand over the eyeliner."

Karai's hand froze in midair before she turned a frown towards the redhead who had suddenly invaded her room. She watched April's fingers wiggle in her direction and, against her better judgment, handed over the eyeliner.

"Where do you even find red eyeliner?" April said.

"It was provided to me," Karai said stiffly from where she sat cross-legged on the floor as she watched April stick the confiscated makeup in her back pocket.

April tilted her head. "Who showed you how to apply makeup?"

Karai lowered her other hand, which had been holding up her small mirror, and stared up at the young woman. She thought about making a sarcastic comment but snapped her mouth shut as soon as it opened, deciding not to alienate the one other female within her new family. Plus, she reminded herself, April O'Neil had grown up without a mother as well, and she probably wasn't intending to tease.

"Shredder had an older kunoichi come in and show me," she said slowly.

April paused as she pictured a younger Karai taking lessons from a woman who was only helping her as a favor to the Shredder. It was a sad visual. Similar to a solo April learning by watching makeup tutorials on YouTube sad.

"Well," April said with a small smile, "that's not a sentence that many people can say."

"You and I can say a lot of sentences that not many people can say," Karai said, satisfied with April's response. She picked up her lipstick and turned back to her mirror, but then found herself pausing and looking expectantly up at April.

"I like the lipstick," April said softly. She watched Karai apply it before speaking again. "So, where are you and Sam going tonight?"

Karai pushed herself up to stand. "He gave me an address to meet him. I think dinner and then I'm not sure."

"Do you, uh, have any clothes that aren't – black?"

Karai looked down at her outfit and then shook her head. "Well, except for those sweats you put me in the other day when I came home freezing from the Foot headquarters. I'm keeping those, by the way."

"I figured," April murmured. "Here." She took her backpack off her shoulder and handed it over to Karai. "Not to keep. To borrow. Until you can go buy some new clothes."

"So you bag two guys at once and think you're an expert, huh?" Karai asked as she took the backpack. She tuned away from the redhead to dump the clothing options on her bed, but not before April saw the small grateful smile on her face.

"You know you're probably going to have some turtles trailing you on the way home tonight. Just to make sure you're okay."

Karai groaned. "Keep Donnie busy at least, will you?"

"Oh, I've got Donnie. And Mikey will be busy with Woody. It's the other two you're going to have to worry about."

"Oh brothers," Karai murmured, still unable to keep the smile from her face.

Casey wandered the lair looking for his two favorites. They said they'd both be here, but so far, he hadn't found either of them. He was about to pull out his phone when he heard a grunting noise that he recognized as Donnie's based on the shiver that ran down his spine in reaction to it. He spun around to a nearby closed door, but stopped just outside it when he heard Donnie begin to speak in a strained voice.

"Its – its not going to fit, April."

"Just push harder."

"April," Donnie said in a groan that had Casey placing his hand on the door. "Seriously, this isn't going to go in there."

"Don't quit on me now, D."

Casey sucked in a breath as he heard Donnie groan again.

"I mean it Donnie," April said, beginning to sound breathless herself. "I need this. And we're not doing it by hand."

Casey shoved the door open and burst into the room, leading both Donnie and April to turn and look at him in surprise. He stared back at the two of them with his mouth open in shock.

"Jones get over here and help me shove this in," April said. "Donnie doesn't think our new bedding is going to fit in the washing machine."

Donnie grunted again as he tried to maneuver more of the ridiculously puffy king-sized comforter, that April had chosen, into the machine.

"Do you or do you not want to sleep in that new bed that has enough space for all three of us tonight?" April said in response to Donnie's complaining grunt.

The mental images running through his head from just listening to the other two from outside that door and the promise that all three of them would soon be in Donnie's new king-sized bed had Casey surging forward in order to help cram the bedding into the machine.

Donnie stood back and watched the hockey player. "You okay, Jones? You look a little flushed."

A/N: The End.

I hope you had fun reading this story because I certainly had fun writing it! I may even come back to this group for some more contact in the future, although I'll admit it won't happen before August thanks to my upcoming work/life schedule.

I'd like to say a special thank you to everyone who took the time to leave a review or a message, as they always brightened my day. Always.