Disclaimer: Don't own TMNT if you didn't already guess.

Leonardo

I don't know how, but after Ms. Adams came back, Mr. Saki and I continued to talk for another half-hour. We kept asking each other questions and he asked me about my interest in ninjutsu, what my teachers thought of me, and how hard I would be willing to work as his student.

"As much as I would be honored to continue talking with you dear boy, I'm afraid I must be off in order to get things ready for your arrival including talking with your social worker," Mr. Saki explained.

"Yes. Leonardo's social worker, Kevin Eastman will look at your paperwork and give you a call sometime later today or this evening to discuss some details regarding state check-ups and visits. You'll still be considered a foster parent until a court hearing can be set up for the full adoption by an appointed judge in the state of New York. Since this isn't a full adoption just yet and we've already completed a home inspection, you'll be free to take Leo tomorrow afternoon. Then whenever you're ready, you can come back to take the rest of the boys," she explained to me and Mr. Saki.

"Excellent," he said with a thin smile.

"Just be warned that the rest of the boys can be adopted at any time and we are required to do what's best for each child; even if that means placing them each in separate homes," Ms. Adams warned glaring at me and Mr. Saki.

"I understand. Until tomorrow Leonardo-san," Mr. Saki said bowing one more time to me and I bowed at him as well. As soon as he left, I let out the biggest grin I could muster and gave Ms. Adams a hug.

"This is finally it! I can't believe it!" I cheered.

"Now Leonardo, you also have to tell some other people what's going to happen. Raphael still hasn't come back yet and I'd rather him not break anything again," she said.

"Right," I said. "I'll….I'll take them upstairs when I tell them. I know Raph's not going to take this well though. He's already mad at me."

Break*Break*Break

I knew Raph would come back, but I didn't know when exactly. Turns out he didn't come back until around four. After I knew he would be as cooled off as he would be for the rest of the night, I called a family meeting upstairs and had to almost literately drag everyone up there.

"Can this be quick Leo? I have to get back to my robot I'm building," Donnie said.

"Yeah, and I wanna finish reading issue 49 of the Justice Force," Mikey said.

"Well…I have to tell you guys something," I said and could already feel the butterflies in my stomach.

'Come on Leo, you never get nervous. Just tell them straight,' I thought to myself.

"Well?" Raph said bitterly while leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

"Look….a man came by today and he wants to adopt all of us, but he can't adopt all of us right away," I said.

"Huh? He wants to adopt us, but he doesn't?" Mikey said with raised eyebrows. I took a deep breath with my eyes shut before opening them to face my brothers again.

"His name is Oroku Saki. He's a really nice man and wants to adopt all four of us, but we all know how hard it is to take in four boys all at once. So he proposed that he'd adopt me first, and then later come back for you guys once he has some formalities taken care of. I…..I said yes and he's picking me up tomorrow afternoon," I said and immediacy saw fire in Raph's eyes.

"YOU WHAT?!" Raph lashed out so loud that I noticed Donnie flinch and take a few steps away from him.

"Calm down and let me explain," I said holding my hands up but he just shoved them away after getting up right in my face.

"Explain what?! Why you accepted an adoption without even talkin' to us first; let alone someone who's only adopting you!? I knew you completely lost it!" Raph continued to scream.

"See?! This is why I can't tell you anything! You never listen to anything I tell you! He's adopting all four of us, but he needs time to make adjustments. Why else do you think it's so hard for someone to love all four of us?" I snapped.

"The problem ain't with anyone adopting all of us together! The problem is you!" he yelled getting right up in my face but I just stood there standing tall with a scowl on my face. "You are so smug with your perfect straight As, perfect ninja technique, and your need to make sure everyone knows just how perfect you really are! This has gone too far, Leo! You've been filling their heads with dreams that ain't ever gonna come true and are just taking it all for yourself!" Raph shouted pointing at Donnie and Mikey who I wasn't paying any attention to.

"CAN'T YOU THINK OF ANYONE BUT YOURSELF FOR ONCE?! You told me you were done waiting around and now we finally have a chance to be a true family, but you just want to throw it all away like always!" I screamed feeling my face get hot as I clenched my fists and teeth together tight.

"A true family!? What's up with that?! We're not good enough for you?!" he said now taking two fingers and slamming them into my chest but I didn't move.

"I'm not having that conversation with you again Raph!" I said through my clenched teeth.

"You know what?! FINE! Go on! Leave! I'll take care of Mikey and Donnie the way a real brother should and not just flat out abandon them," Raph said.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" I heard Donnie shout. Raph and I looked over to see Donnie covering his ears looking at the ground shaking. At the same time, thick, sloppy tears rolled down Mikey's cheeks like a bullet.

"Y-you don't love us anymore Leo?" Mikey whimpered and my heart sunk.

"What?! No, No!" I tried to console but Mikey was already running back inside sobbing.

"Now look what you did Fearless," Raph said but I ignored him staring at where my baby brother had just disappeared.

Michelangelo

I ran to my room and slammed the door before sobbing into my pillow. Leo promised. He promised me that we would have a family someday, but I didn't know that meant we'd have to be separated for a while. What if the man didn't come back for us? What if Leo didn't come back until he was eighteen and he would forget all about us? What if Raph really did mean it when he said he would run away? All these questions were buzzing through my head that a soft knock on the door made me jump.

"Mikey? It's me," I heard Leo say as the door slowly opened.

"Go away," I whined. Leo ignored me and I heard him close the door and come sit on the bottom bunk with me.

"Mikey, please listen to me. This isn't going to be forever. It's just going to be for a little while, that's all. Think of it as me testing out this new family for you. I need to make sure this is the perfect family for us. If it is, then I'll work extra hard to help Mr. Saki speed up the process. You won't even miss me. And if I don't think this is the right family for us, then I'll come back and we can try again I promise," Leo said.

"B-but why can't we all go with you?" I asked looking up at him while drying my eyes.

"Because that's a big brother rule, Mikey. Big brothers have to test possibly dangerous situations before letting their little brothers join them. Since you, Raph, and Donnie are my little brothers, then I have to go first," Leo told me.

"But you always say no one gets left behind," I reminded him. By now most of my tears had stopped rolling down my face.

"That's when we're doing a mission together. This time, I'm going in first and then I'll send for backup like the Justice Force does sometimes. Remember when The Silver Sentry was trying to stop Dr. Malignus but he had to go into his lair first alone? He was trying to make sure that Dr. Malignus didn't have anything that would hurt his friends," Leo said and I smiled. That was my fifth favorite Justice Force comic book and the fact that Leo remembered that made me all giggly. Leo smiled back at me and we both gave each other a bear hug. "And Mikey, I love you so much. This doesn't mean that I'll stop loving you. I'll write and come to visit you as soon as I can. I promise," he said and I just nodded squeezing tighter as a few stray tears finished rolling down my face.

Later that night:

Donnie and I and the three other kids Ms. Adams took care of were the only ones who talked at dinner and right before we had to go to bed. Raph and Leo were playing the longest quiet game in existence, and I'm sure they broke some kind of world record. Raph and Leo are always competing against each other but it didn't bother me or the other kids. When they were done, I wanted to ask Leo about who was adopting him, but he and Raph were still playing when it was time for bed. Leo slept on the top bunk while I had to sleep on the bottom. I don't know how long I was asleep for, but I suddenly felt someone shaking me.

"Mikey? Mikey, wake up," someone said. I slowly opened my eyes and saw Leo standing over me. "Come on Mikey, we're gonna go for a late night swim," Leo whispered.

"Cool!" I shouted and Leo put his hand over my mouth.

"Shhhhh! This is ninja training. Ninjas are stealthy; which means quiet!" He whispered and somewhat yelled at me. I whispered a quick 'sorry' but I don't know how Leo understood that when he still had his hand over my mouth.

"Get your suit on quietly while I go get up Donnie and Raph," Leo said. I nodded and quickly, but not exactly quietly pulled out my yellow swim trunks and a grey shirt with a shark on it and put them on from my drawer. After re-tucking in my bear back under the covers and put some pillows under so it looked like I was still in bed, I pulled out a small bag that had some of the swim toys I had like dive sticks, my goggles, and those softballs. When I was all ready to go, I tip-toed across from my room and walked into Donnie and Raph's room right across from mine and Leos'. Donnie was putting on his swim shirt on while Raph was fully dressed refusing to look at Leo who was carefully trying to open the window without making any noise.

"First time we've done this in a while," Donnie whispered.

"This is gonna be fun," I commented with a big smile on my face.

"Where's your towel, you knucklehead?" Raph asked. My face dropped. Whenever we snuck out for a late night swim during summer, each of us was in charge of bringing a towel for themselves and any toys we wanted to bring.

"I got it," Donnie said rolling his eyes and went over and softly threw one of the spare towels at me.

"Thanks, D," I said.

"Let's go," Leo said and each of us climbed up to the roof using the fire escape. In the city, there were two main ways to get to where you want to go; the boring way on the ground, or the fun way. Leo took a running start before he jumped off the roof and landed on the other building's roof that was right next door. Donnie went next and then Raph and I followed. We all ran together across the rooftops of New York doing flips, crazy jumps, sliding down rope lines and steep roofs, and jumping on whatever we could. All of us were pretty athletic and our ninjutsu training really comes in handy; well if you can really call looking at pictures in a book or online training.

"COWABUNGA…ow!" I was shouting just before I was about to jump when Raph smacked my head as we both jumped across. This caused me to have to do a flip to avoid losing my momentum and getting hurt. "Raph!" I whined.

"I told you before blockhead. No more 'cowabunga,'" he said.

"Okay," I said and took a running start again before jumping off the building shouting "BOOYAKASHA!"

"Booyah-what? That's not even a real word Mikey," Donnie said as he slid down one of the steeper roofs just for fun.

"Yeah, it is D," I insisted.

"Ugh! Come here you!" Raph shouted and started chasing me. I started laughing as I kept running and jumping away from Raph and I could have sworn I saw Raph smile and laugh too but he'd never admit it. I missed when we all did stuff like this together, instead of listening to Raph and Leo argue all the time. We jumped across the sky for a good ten minutes before we reached our destination; The Valley Woods Hotel Community Pool. It was located on the penthouse of this three or four-star hotel that we sneak into all the time; don't tell anyone though okay? No one comes to the pool this late and the hotel people are too into the guests downstairs to notice four kids swimming, and even if they did we'd just pretend that we were guests here. We sat our towels down and I tossed my dive sticks into the pool while putting on my goggles. Donnie meanwhile took off his glasses and setting them on one of the tables before going over to the steps and dived in. I was about to jump in but I saw Leo trying to talk to Raph but he wasn't talking to him. He just glared at him with his back partly turned. That's when I got an idea, grabbed my water cannon toy and carefully filled it up with water waiting for the right moment to strike.

"You can ignore me all you want Raph and I'm sorry for everything, but please just give Mr. Saki a chance. I'll be back to being your pain-in-the-butt big brother before you know it, and then we can finally get our wish. I know you think you're all tough and muscle but I know you want this too," Leo said to him. Raph still didn't face Leo and then I sprayed them both with the cold water.

"MIKEY!" they yelled at me and then started running after me. My eyes went wide but for some reason, I couldn't move out of the way.

"Nononononono," I shouted before they tackled me into the deep end. I forgot to hold my nose so I shot up out of the water hacking and gasping for air. Then Raph pulled me up and gave me a noogie.

"Ow! Stop it!" I begged and then Donnie swam over and started tickling me.

"AH! Leo, help!" I said struggling to still escape Raph and Donnie. I was laughing so hard that it almost hurt me.

"Sure, I'll help you, Mikey," he said and used my own water cannon to spray me.

"How do you like it now knucklehead!?" Raph asked pushing me away. Together we all splashed each other and swam around together. A few minutes later while the others were still playing, I was lying on my back looking up at the sky. With it being the city and all, you really couldn't see too many starts outside but I managed to find a faint one. That was the star; the same one that a momma and papa were wishing on right now for sons of their very own. They didn't know it yet, but they would soon have four very special sons to love and to teach them right from wrong. I gave a short smile before Donnie called me for a diving stick competition.

I'm pretty happy with how this chapter turned out. I hope everyone has enjoyed because from here on out it'll start to get interesting now that Leo is leaving.

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LaurenHardy13