Plot
After about three days since the brothers found Lillie, they allowed her to stay in the lair with them but noticed that she was more distant and resistant (somewhat) on trusting others again after her being affected by the manipulation from the Purple Dragons, so while Raph, Donnie and Leo are on patrol for the night, Mikey is left to babysit Lillie when he finds out that the girl has a creative hobby.

It was getting late as the sun was setting over New York City, the guys were getting ready for patrol that night as Leo gave a small stretch and he grinned a little while they walked to the tank garage.

"Alright boys, you know the drill. Tonight's route is the same as always." Raph said, making Leo look over at the older brother as Donnie gave a silent nod before typing away at his tech gauntlet.

"And this time, at least send a message for any signs of suspicious activity." Donnie remarked.

"Hey, last time wasn't my fault." Leo fibbed, he was then shoved a bit by Donnie as Mikey held back a laugh but before he could follow his brothers, Raph stopped the younger brother by putting a hand in front of him. "Uh.. Raph, what's going on?" Mikey asked.

"Look Mikey, I know you're excited about patrol but uh.. well." Raph tried to explain it as best he could without hurting Mikey's feelings and Donnie soon stepped forward and next to Raph. "To put it bluntly: You won't be coming along for patrol tonight." Donnie said.

"Aw man! Why?" Mikey asked, but he had a hunch about what the answer could very well be before he turned to Donnie who seemed visibly unsettled about the new guest in the lair.

"We need you to stay here and watch over that.. thing." Donnie said, making Leo gasp in a dramatic manner.

"She's not a THING Donnie, the kid has a name. Just because she was apart of the Dragons doesn't mean she's bad." Leo said, crossing his arms over his chest and Donnie rolled his eyes in response but Mikey gave a nod in understanding.

"If anything happens, contact us." Raph said, sounding worried for Mikey since he was admittedly nervous of leaving Mikey all alone.

"I will, don't worry!" Mikey said, after their conversation, the trio left using the turtle tank and Mikey sighed softly before he decided to search around for the kiddo, he did have to admit that he had never in all his life had he seen a kid this messed up before.

"Where is Lillie anyway?" Mikey asked to himself and started to search for the kiddo as he was wondering if she was hiding to avoid him before he started to hear something near the bedrooms.

He bolted there as fast as he could, he looked around and soon heard that it came from his room as he remained quiet as not to be found while he approached.

Mikey peeked into his room and he saw Lillie who had found his art supplies scattered about his room but the kid grabbed some colorful looking paper as Lillie carefully cut each one into strips of paper, she then began to fold the paper and tuck it in certain spots needed as Mikey watched with interest to see what the kid was making.

Lillie gave a soft hum as she was so focused on her little craft that she didn't notice Mikey spying on her, soon she made a cute paper star out of the orange strip of paper and she looked down at it in her hands for a moment, the child was in a deep state of thought as Lillie sighed a little.

"Why does everyone seem to be scared of me..? Am I a burden?" Lillie said, she was talking to herself and Mikey heard this as his eyes widened in a bit of shock. He couldn't believe that Lillie had these thoughts about herself as he immediately went Dr. Feelings mode to figure out what was causing the kid to think like this.

"Is that what you really think of yourself as?" Mikey asked, he walked into the room which made Lillie jump a bit in surprise and she pulled her hood of her poncho up.

Mikey noticed her defensive state and he knew that she was attempting to hide what she said, he walked to Lillie and got in front of her as he got on his knees and softly moved the hood down so the kid's face was visible.

"Lillie, it's okay.. you can talk to me. I get it, it must be terrifying for you to trust again. After everything that you've been through, I can only imagine how painful it must have been for you to go through so much and you're just a kid.. but no child should ever and I mean EVER go through what happened to you." Mikey said.

A gentle 'drip' sound was heard as Mikey saw droplets land on the ground, he immediately saw that Lillie was letting her tears fall but no cries came out of her mouth. "Do you want a hug?" Mikey asked softly, he held his arms open and Lillie went to Mikey as she hugged him.

As soon as she did then the cries came spilling out as Mikey hugged the kid back softly, rubbing small circles on Lillie's back to soothe her.

"Shh.. shh. It's okay, you're going to be alright Lillie. Everything is okay.." Mikey said, he kept comforting her and Lillie gave a small hiccup from her crying but she felt a lot better thanks to Mikey, she knew that he was right about her trust problems.

Mikey eventually pulled away from the hug for a moment as he wiped the tears away from Lillie's face. "We won't ever hurt you Lillie, we're not going to trick you like the dragons did. This is where you belong, this is your home now." Mikey said, Lillie was shocked but she understood as she almost cried again but she calmed herself down and she didn't want to seem like a crybaby.

Mikey smiled a little and Lillie looked at the orange masked turtle before she felt a small smile form as Mikey was glad that the kid felt safe again before he looked at the paper star in her hands.

"Now, can you tell me what you were making? It looks pretty cool..!" Mikey chimed, he was curious since he had never seen paper stars before as he wondered if it was a form of origami and Lillie looked at the paper star in her hand before she gave it to Mikey to let him examine it closer.

"They're um... they're called lucky paper stars, my mama told me if someone makes a thousand paper stars, your greatest wish can be granted." Lillie explained, she looked at Mikey who seemed rather intrigued by the tale of the paper stars.

"Oh mi gosh! That sounds amazing! Maybe we can try making some and you can make your wish!" Mikey said, Lillie looked at him with surprise but she gave a small nod and she was glad to at least know someone who had a shared interest/hobby like hers.

Lillie then started to teach Mikey how to make the lucky paper stars and Mikey focused to the best of his ability as he carefully folded and tucked his paper which was a nice shade of blue, his tongue stuck out in concentration and he soon smiled when he saw the final results.

"That's two!" Mikey said, Lillie giggled a bit but nodded as Mikey got an idea and he checked his crafting supplies before he found a spindle of clear cord used for making bracelets as he took the scissors Lillie used and cut some of the cord as he then started to tie one knot on one end of the string, carefully stringing the lucky stars on the cord as Lillie watched with a small smile.

The two kept making paper stars together as they used all sorts of colorful paper, when the trio returned home, Raph noticed little scraps of paper lying around the floor. "Looks like Angelo was crafting again." Donnie said.

"Yeah, but did he have to make a mess?" Leo asked, he picked up some of the scraps as Raph went to check on Mikey as Leo and Donnie followed behind the snapper.

When they got to Mikey's room, they saw the whole room was decorated with lucky paper star garlands hung about, there was also a little fort in Mikey's room as Lillie had fallen asleep in it as well as Mikey, both of them had some paper scraps on them.

"Looks like they were both hard at work while we were gone.." Leo said.

"Seems like Mikey got her to trust others again." Raph said, he knew that Mikey had a lot more of an easier time connecting with others emotions so he had a feeling that they made some progress on helping the kid out.

He was just glad that the younger brother was able to get the little one to feel more reassured and safe once again.