"𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓪𝓵𝓼 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓶, 𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓻𝓲𝓯𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓽𝓻𝓾𝓽𝓱 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻."

"Leonardo?" You whispered as you rounded the corner into the alley next to Antonio's Pizza. You just finished your classes and April and Casey headed straight to the Lair. You on the other hand ran home to grab your vigilante gear and took the shortest route to Antonio's.

"(Y/N), you're here!... I mean, uh, you made it. Great, let's get going." He said as he spoke unseen from the shadows.

You couldn't really see him at all despite it being mid-day. He was nothing but a collection of oddly shaped shadows and a pair of white eyes in the shadows of the alley way. It was relatively impressive.

"Wow, April wasn't kidding when she said you guys literally live in the shadows." You commented.

"Yeah, we've been taught by Master Splinter to stick to the shadows, for obvious reasons." Leonardo replied, flicking a manhole cover open effortlessly.

"Oh." Was all you could mutter as you slowly followed him down the manhole.

Finally entering the sewer system, you walked behind Leonardo as he led you through the several tunnel ways.

"You know these pathways pretty well." You muttered absentmindedly. "I can barely navigate New York, I don't think I can even begin to try and find my way around here."

Leonardo looked behind his shoulder, flashing you a smile. "It's fine, I can always just walk you to the Lair whenever you need." He said, to which you replied with nothing more than a partly bashful grin.

It was strange, Leonardo only had a few very specific and short encounters with you, but you seemed to be drawn by him. Maybe it was because of the air of mystery that he had around him the first few months you met him. Or maybe it was the worried 'big brother' type he presented himself as. Whatever the case was, you were glad you two became official friends. Having a big brother type of person was nice... or at least you thought it was a 'big brother' vibe.

"(Y/N), we're here." Leonardo spoke up as he jumped over the old ticket gate with ease. You followed as well, sliding over it a little less gracefully.

"(Y/N)! You made it!" Casey waved hello from the couch and April popped her head out of Donatello's lab when she heard you'd arrived.

"(Y/N)-" April's call to you stopped mid-way as she saw you walk in with Leonardo. She gave you a teasing grin, but said nothing more.

It took you a moment to see why she was grinning that way, but eventually your cheeks flared with a slight blush. "April." You grumbled her name and gave an embarrassed pout.

"Well look at that, skater girl actually showed up again." Raphael leaned against the punching bag he was beating around. "Rawr!"

You gave him a deadpanned expression and opened your mouth to make a snappy comment back at him, but his sudden roar at you caused you to jump. He laughed at your scared reaction and you slowly found yourself frowning as the embarrassment turned into mild annoyance.

"Raph!" Leonardo scolded. "Seriously?"

"What? She looked like fun to mess with! Why are you getting so worked up?" Raphael asked smugly. Leonardo stopped in his tracks, words catching in his throat.

So you decided to say them yourself. "Raphael, you sound a little salty, do you need some pepper to flavor your personality a little better too?"

A loud, dramatic gasp came from behind you. "Ohhhh snap!" Michelangelo called with a large smile on his face and a snap to accompany it as well.

Raphael growled at the comment and you could see the anger starting to build in his eyes. "What, you think you're so hot!?-" You stopped him by pointing at him with finger guns.

"No, I think you are." It was such a smooth reply that you didn't even realize what you'd said. You bit your lip and felt yourself sweat buckets. Oh god, a nerd like you shouldn't be in this type of situation.

Raphael stopped in his tracks, along with everyone else in the room...

W-was it too much?

Raphael took a step back, and without another word he stormed off into his room, leaving all the remaining eyes on your nervous figure. The awkwardness settled in so deeply, you began to stare at the floor and shift back and forth on your feet.

"(Y-Y/N)? D-did you just flirt with Raph?" April barely stuttered it out, but as soon as she did, Casey burst out laughing, Michelangelo squealed in delight, Donatello's mouth was wide open, and Leonardo was still wide-eyed in shock.

"I-... I didn't mean to..?" You muttered bashfully.

"HOLY SHIT!" Casey continued to die laughing on the floor. "You seriously just did that! What do you mean you 'didn't mean to'!?"

"I... I - I read romance novel's too! Yes, they're the sappy ones! I couldn't help it! The opportunity presented itself to me, how could I not take it!?" Your voice rose steadily as the embarrassment creeped onto your face.

"So you only replied like that because 'the opportunity presented itself'?" Leonardo's voice cut through Casey's laughter. For some reason the seriousness of his tone sobered you immediately.

"No." You replied automatically. "It's mainly because I didn't know what to say to calm him down. I didn't want to start a quarrel or anything." Your voice was slowly lowering to something above a mutter.

Leonardo's expression softened when he heard your explanation. "Well hopefully he won't take it offensively." He muttered.

"(Y/N)?" Splinter's voice cut through the rest of the commotion and everyone realized that it was time to talk business. "Michelangelo, tell Raphael to report to the dojo once he's collected himself. It's time for a thorough explanation."

.

.

.

When Raphael arrived at the dojo to hear the explanation, there was a bit of an awkward atmosphere between the two of you, and Leonardo seemed like he was upset and radiating uncomfortable vibes. Nonetheless, Splinter and Donatello got straight to the point.

"(Y/N), you said you've seen other mutants before. Who did you meet?" Donatello asked, causing most of the people present to lean towards you in anticipation.

You tapped your chin, unsure of where to begin, but the words came to you eventually. "Well, I've been doing an internship in an offsite laboratory around town. I was suddenly transferred to a new building because of... work privacy problems, and I met other mutants there. There were quite a few actually."

"A laboratory?..." Donatello trialed off. "How does the building look like? How many mutants did you meet?"

"Well the buildings actually fairly beautiful. It looks kind of like a chapel on the outside and the top has a glass roof. Usually there's blue light shining from it, and it looks kind of creepy and cool." You explained, a smile beginning to crawl onto your face as you spoke fondly of your new worksite.

"And the mutants?" Donatello asked desperately.

You could tell that everyone was looking more and more worried and Leonardo seemed to become more and more stiff. What really worried you was the growing expression of rage on Raphael's face.

"Umm... There's a few... Four so far if you count my lab superior." You muttered.

"Wait wait wait, what do you even work with again?" April asked, creeping closer. She was biting her lip, with a sad expression, as if you had already betrayed her.

You hesitated to answer and shifted your body weight back and forth on your legs as you sat on them. "Mutagen." You replied under your breath.

"Oh snap." Michelangelo and Casey muttered under their breaths, eyes wide.

"YOU WORK FOR SHREDDER! I KNEW IT!" Raphael immediately shot up from his seat and lunged towards you. Leonardo sprung up into action and held his brother back with almost all his strength, even Donatello made an effort to do so. "I KNEW YOU COULDN'T BE TRUSTED!"

You stumbled back, falling onto your bum. "S-Shredder?" You asked in disbelief. "I don't work for a criminal! I-" And then you felt all the doubt that had piled up into your mind fall onto you in that single moment. You did work for a criminal, didn't you?

"Raph, calm down! She didn't know!" Leonardo shouted at him as he struggled to hold him back with Donatello.

"ENOUGH!" Splinter ordered, causing all three brothers to stop in their tracks. "(Y/N), speak child."

"I..." You could feel your lips tremble. Oh god, you worked for the person they were trying to fight this entire time didn't you? "... He's the Shredder?.. Do you know?" You asked looking up to the three brothers standing.

Raphael, Donatello, and Leonardo could all see the pitiful look in your eyes as you desperately searched for the truth.

Donatello took a steady seat down, Leonardo and Raphael following in suit. "Tell us more." Leonardo spoke.

"My boss... His name is Oroku Saki - "

"Oh yeah he's definitely the Shredder. He leads the Foot Clan and Leo has a huge crush on Karai, his 'daughter', but she's actually our (adoptive) sister!" Michelangelo didn't even let you finish what you were saying before he gushed out that information.

It was too much to process at once. Oroku Saki was a criminal overlord. His teenage daughter was actually a trained assassin. Leonardo had a huge crush on her. The Shredder used your intelligence and naivety against you.

Before you knew it, you were in a pile on the floor, covering your face as silent tears spilled from your eyes. It happened again.

"They used me for my mind, again."