When Sarina walks into the lab on this particular morning, she comes face to back with someone she doesn't recognize. A tall human boy wearing a lab coat sits in front of the computer, typing rapidly. She can only see his wavy shoulder-length brown hair.

Her hands glow. "Stand up, slowly, and you will not be hurt."

The typing stops and the boy raises his hands, doing as she says and turning around. She falters, her palms flickering when she sees his russet eyes. The boy smiles, nervous, and she sees a gap between his front teeth.

"Donatello?" she asks.

"Yes! I...I am so sorry, I didn't even think about what you would do if you saw me like this," he rambles, cheeks pink. He tugs the lab coat tighter to his lean frame and reaches up to adjust his glasses.

"Like...this? What is going on?" Sarina demands. She moves closer, leaning in to inspect his features. "And since when do you need glasses?"

"I don't, as a turtle, but my eyesight got a little blurry once I...ahem, transformed. Luckily, I had a pair from my childhood!"

"You wore glasses as a child?"

"One of my first lab experiments went wrong and I ended up nearsighted for a week or two while the effects wore off. I made myself glasses to help that." He shakes his hands about. "But! That's not the point! I did it, Sarina!"

"I'm guessing you're referring to..." She gestures at his body. "This."

"Yes!" He grins, reaching out to grasp her shoulders. She startles a little at the feeling of slender human hands and not the broad mutant ones that she is used to. "I have created a cloaking device for mutants, something that could change the way we live!"

"While I love your theatrics, please get to the point. I am dying to know what this device is," she pleads.

He steps back and pulls back the sleeve of his lab coat, revealing a peach-coloured patch on the inside of his forearm. It's about the size of a bandage.

"See this? I've been working on this for months, maybe a year already," he admits. "It's something I like to call, in simple terms, a human patch. It's like a patch that people use to help get over nicotine addictions, except the mutagen I've infused it with temporarily turns me into a human!"

He giggles with glee and rubs the patch with pointer finger, momentarily making it glow a soft orange. Sarina grasps his hand and drags him closer, eyes flashing once, then twice as she too touches the patch.

"Remarkable," she murmurs. "How did I not notice your creation sooner?"

"We both get very into our heads while we work, darling," he says, leaning forward to tap her forehead. "Also...I wanted to surprise everyone, and you aren't the best at keeping quiet."

"I cannot argue with you on that." Her gaze darts down as the lab coat slips open and she gasps, reaching out and yanking it closed before she can see too much. "Donatello, do you not have any clothes underneath this coat?"

His face turns red. "I mean...human male clothes aren't exactly in high demand around here."

"Fair. I will call Casey and ask him to bring some clothes, stat." She pulls out her t-phone, then pauses before looking up at her boyfriend again. "Should I ask him to bring clothes for your brothers, too? No doubt they will want to try this."

"Oh, good idea."

----------

Destiny pushes open the door to Leonardo's bedroom. "Leo?" she calls. "Do you have any of Splinter's incense sticks? He can't find—"

She stops dead when she sees a human boy with black hair sitting on the bed, staring at his hands with wide blue eyes. He also happens to be completely naked except for a belt and some protective pads on his elbows and knees.

His nudeness is the only thing that stops Destiny from subduing him immediately. Instead, she lets out a tiny scream that makes the boy look up. He starts to stand and Destiny covers her eyes, nearly stumbling back into the hallway, face completely red.

"Des!" a male voice, distinctly Leonardo's, says. "Check it out! Donnie made us these patches that can make us look human. Isn't that amazing?"

"Leo? Is...that really you?" she asks.

"Of course, it's me." He laughs. "I feel so different!"

She sniffs the air and, yes, the strange human boy smells exactly like Leonardo. Her nose doesn't lie to her. That doesn't change one simple fact. "You're...you're also naked," she says.

"Huh?"

She still refuses to uncover her eyes. "You don't have a shell anymore, so...all your..." She coughs. "Your little Leo is just kinda there."

There's a soft gasp, an apology, and then some rustling. Destiny waits, hands over her eyes, and only peeks when she feels someone tap her arm. She meets Leonardo's humanized face, flashing his still-perfect smile at her.

"I'm covered, you can stop hiding," he says.

She looks down to find that he tied his Space Heroes blanket around his waist and removed whatever ninja gear he still had on. She trails her eyes up, taking in the toned physique of his chest and broad shoulders. He reaches one hand up to ruffle his hair, making it even messier, and she feels herself get hot.

He winks. "Like what you see?"

"Uh...yes," she says.

He laughs. "You know, I'm not used to seeing you stunned silent. It's kind of cute."

She punches his chest lightly. "Oh, shush, I'm still recovering from seeing your junk."

His eyes sparkle and he backs up, turning towards his bedside table. "You wanna try it?" he asks. "Donnie gave me an extra."

He holds out a small square to her and she shuffles forward to take it. She stares at it, turning it over and over in her hands, then darts her gaze back to Leonardo.

"So it turns us human?" she repeats.

"Donnie says it uses mutagen and some cloaking tech or something..." he says, brow furrowing in thought.

She bites her lip in thought, then pulls the back off and presses the adhesive to her arm. Her body floods with warmth, tingling all over, and she shudders a little. When it subsides, she feels the loss of weight between her shoulders and lower back. Her senses seem dulled. She's used to hearing and smelling a lot at once, although she's gotten good at tuning it out unless she needs to focus. Suddenly, everything seems quiet and scent-free.

Leonardo crosses his arms over his chest, nodding a little. "It's different," he says. She frowns. Even his voice sounds muted. Is this what humans hear all the time? It makes her shudder

"I need a mirror," she says.

She hurries to the bathroom with Leonardo at her heels and, when she finally sees herself in the mirror, shock floods her expression. Her eyes are soft and unassuming, just a mellow green, and she has no wings, no wolf ears, and no tail. She still has all her scars, and when she bares her teeth, her sharp canines are dull.

She reaches up to touch her hair, still brown, and she still has the black streak in her bangs. She looks at her hands and focuses, but her claws don't come forward like they should.

"Destiny?"

She jumps a little at a sudden touch on her shoulder and looks up at Leonardo as he arches an eyebrow. She blinks a few times.

"Did you say something?" she asks.

His frown deepens and he moves closer to her, reaching out to brush her cheek. It's so strange to feel such thin fingers on her skin. It's almost enough to make her flinch away.

"Is your hearing okay?" he asks.

"Everything's...muted. Like you're talking through a filter or a wall."

His eyes widen a little. "Is it because your human ears are normally deaf?"

"What? But..." She pats her head, where her wolf ears should be, and all too soon, she yearns for them to come back. "My wolf ears aren't gone gone, right?" Her heart spikes with panic. "Once the patch wears off, I'll still have them and I'll go back to normal?"

"Let's go talk to Donnie."

----------

"It's probably a mild side effect," Donatello says after giving Destiny a hearing test, confirming that she's experiencing mild hearing loss. "Just like how my eyesight worsened once I put the patch on. Because the patch is momentarily erasing your mutated features, your body has to compensate for the loss of your working ears."

"Please tell me this isn't permanent," she demands. She's sure that if she wasn't wearing the patch, her claws would be digging into her legs.

"No, it should go back to normal as soon as the patch wears off, or you take it off." Donatello sits back in his chair, stopping to tug his lab coat closer to him. He looks up at Leonardo, then back at Destiny. "This is the first time the patches have worked, so I would like you to wear them until they run out so I can get an idea of what our time limit is. In the meantime, I can make some hearing aids for you, Destiny."

"Hearing aids," she repeats.

"Or, every time you wear the patch, you deal with your hearing loss."

She bristles a little, arms crossing over her chest. "No, I'll...do it. I'm just not used to needing help to hear."

"I know. I'm not used to needing glasses to see things that are far away." He smiles and pats her arm. "Just be happy it's not a permanent thing, alright?"

"Yeah, okay."

"Good." Donatello turns to Leonardo. "Leo, Casey is going to bring us some clothes when he has the time."

"Oh, that's great. I wasn't sure I wanted to keep living in a blanket," Leonardo says.

Destiny frowns a little. "Wouldn't Splinter have clothes? He wears those kimono things..."

Donatello and Leonardo blink, then look at each other.

Donatello groans and mumbles, "I'm an idiot."

----------

"Taylor!" Tía Carmela calls.

Taylor, sitting in her room, groans a little and sits up. "¿Qué es?" she shouts.

"Your boyfriend is here to see you! Get down here!"

Taylor has to take a moment, blinking. There's no way. She can't be talking about Raphael. If she was talking about Raphael, she'd be screaming bloody murder and smacking him with a chancla.

"Coming!"

She slams her book shut and leaps off her bed, racing down the stairs and nearly barrelling into her aunt at the bottom. She has a smirk on her face, a hand on her hip, and Taylor narrows her eyes. She doesn't trust that smile.

"Where have you been hiding him? Él está caliente," she says with a wink.

Taylor gapes. "Eh?"

She hurries past her aunt to the door and standing there on the front step is a stocky human boy with spiky auburn hair and bright green eyes. He's wearing, of all things, a kimono.

"Raphael?" she asks, not ready to believe it.

"Hey, Tay," he greets. "Just thought I'd stop by and say hi."

Taylor keeps gaping at him, then remembers her aunt and uncle and darts a glance over her shoulder. Carmela is doing a terrible job of hiding the fact that she's watching them while Héctor, seated at the kitchen table, just sips his coffee.

Taylor grabs Raphael's wrist, drags him up the stairs with some rambled words to her guardians, and practically throws Raphael into her bedroom before she slams the door.

"Hey, I know I'm hot, but you need to be more subtle about wanting to get me alone," Raphael says, that stupid cocky smirk still pasted on his face.

"What the actual fuck happened?" she demands. She processes what he said and moves forward to punch his chest a few times. "And that's filthy. Mierda..."

He shrugs. "Donnie made us these patches that turn us human. That's the short version."

"And what...are you wearing?"

"It was either this or showing up naked." He arches an eyebrow. "I can make that happen if you—"

"Ay-ay-ay! No! What, you don't feel shame?"

His smirk becomes more like a grin. "I've gone without wearing clothes my entire life. Not really ashamed of it, even now."

"You should be."

He stares her right in the eyes, reaches up, and pulls his kimono aside enough that she can see one of his well-sculpted pectorals. He arches his eyebrow as her face morphs into ten different shades of red.

"You sure about that, sweetheart?"

"Lo juro por Dios, you're impossible."

He makes his pec bounce and she collapses onto her bed, covering her face. She feels the bed shift as Raphael lies down next to her.

"Why do you do this to me?" she asks.

"You did it to me when we first met. I thought I'd do some payback." She feels his lips brush the side of her head. "It's fun seeing you flustered," he whispers against her skin.

She mutters a few curses in Spanish before rolling over and kissing him. Damn him and his stupid face.

----------

"Annalise," Mrs. Hughes says, peeking into her daughter's room.

Annalise slips her headphones off. "Yeah, mom?"

"Um...Michael, he's...he's still a turtle, right?"

"Yes...?"

"Then...uh..."

She shuffles aside, pointing, and an adorable boy with freckles and a head full of bouncy blond curls appears in the doorway. For some reason, he's wearing a kimono. Annalise stares, unsure of what's going on, and then the boy talks.

"Hey, Lisey! I'm human now!" he says.

"Mikey?!" Annalise gawks, already climbing off her bed and ditching her headphones. "What on earth?"

"Donnie made us these special patch things, so...I'm a human!"

Leanne, still lingering near them, just shakes her head. "He said he was Michelangelo when I answered the door...and the voice..."

"I'm shook," Annalise states.

Michelangelo just grins wider. "But I'm adorable, right?"

"I think you're adorable anyway." She smiles a little. "But yes, you're very cute."

"Wanna go on a date? Donnie's pretty sure I've got a few hours on this baby."

Annalise stifles a giggle. "Well, maybe we should go get you actual clothes."

His eyes seem to sparkle. "Ohhh, that's a good idea."

Annalise hurries to gather her purse. Leanne goes to her room, sits down, and yet again questions the reality she lives in. Michelangelo just stands proudly with his never-ending smile.

----------

Later that evening, when all the turtles, Master Splinter, Destiny, and Sarina are back home, Donatello calls a family meeting about the patches. They're all back in their normal mutant bodies.

"Alright," Donatello says. "So, some of your patches wore off sooner, but Michelangelo's lasted the longest at eight hours." Michelangelo aims a thumbs up at him and Donatello continues, "So, I'm calling eight hours as the maximum time you can wear these things. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Yup!"

"Indeed."

"Whatever."

"Uh-huh."

"Affirmative."

Donatello exhales. "Also, because of certain things I have noticed, like Destiny's hearing loss and my eyesight, and the fact that mutagen resources are limited, we can't use these often." A few faces fall at that. "It's healthier for us, not risking permanently mutating ourselves."

Destiny starts to grin. "So this means we can go shopping for ourselves instead of getting Casey and April to do everything!"

"And we could potentially get jobs," Sarina adds.

"Moderation..." Donatello reminds them.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Raphael huffs.

"Good thing Lisey and I bought us all clothes," Michelangelo says.

"This is certainly exciting," Splinter says. "It will be a change for all of us."

"Yeah, definitely," Leonardo agrees.