Disclaimer: I never have, never will, and never did own the TMNT. I do own Anna, and this plot, however.

A/N: (grins guiltily) Alright, you caught me! I'm finally doing a romance, though why I can't say. I was reading the reviews for The Angel Swear and a plot bunny attacked me. So, I suppose you can dance for joy. (annoying chant: "LN wrote a romance, LN wrote a romance!") By the way, Dragon Moon will get updated soon enough, but in the mean time…

1.

It was a breezy when she met him again for the first time in five years. She remembered when she'd first seen him with a smile. It had been winter then, and he was wrapped up so tightly you could not see his face. Of course, with his physical appearance, it wasn't much of a surprise. Green, short, a mutant turtle with an impeccable sense of annoying humor. She loved him for that. Every Christmas after the time he knocked out a bunch of thugs in her alley, he always left a present, having to do with her conspicuous love of Justice Force comics.

But getting back to the main event…

I rolled my wheelchair down Central Park's path, making for my favorite bench. Gusts of gentle wind ruffled my dark auburn hair. Leaves crunched under my wheels as I continued rolling to that bench, remembering five years ago. Oh, Mikey, I wish I could see you again…I arrived at my destination and adjusted my gray scarf before lifting myself out of my wheelchair and setting myself down on the sun-warmed wood of the bench. I sighed and closed my eyes, envisioning Mikey. I'd only ever seen his face, but that was good enough for me. He was so beautiful, in a way I can't describe to this day.

Giggling made me open my eyes again. Across from me in the leaf-littered green grass were two children playing tag. It looked so fun, I wished I could join them. But my disease made it so I couldn't even walk for fear of breaking a bone. I thought wryly of what Mike would say to that. He'd probably force milk down my throat with a tube, knowing him. I pride myself on being a rather good judge of character, and Mike just struck me as that type of person.

Having brittle bone disease really sucks when you want to be the active fifteen year-old that you should be. My dad used to think I was useless too. I grimaced at the memory and rubbed my neck where the knife scars still stuck out. He was crazy. Luckily I worked up the nerve to tell a kind policeman about it (Chief Sterns; you wouldn't believe what a nice guy he is if you look past that cranky exterior) and he had dad arrested. He threatened to kill me when they took him away. I sincerely hope they have him in a straitjacket.

Something to the far right caught my eye: a short stocky fellow wrapped up in a brown trench coat, a fedora, and an orange scarf shuffling down the pathway. Wait…orange? My heart started thumping harder than it had for a while. As he neared the bench, I lifted my hazel eyes to his chocolate brown ones. He halted in mid step and stared at me.

A voice I'd been longing to hear for five years emerged from behind his scarf. "Anna?" he whispered.

I scowled playfully. "Good grief, Mikey, where on Earth have you been?"

His eyes crinkled into slits, proof he was grinning like a fool. "Around," he answered, sitting beside me. I reached out and pulled him in for a gentle hug.

"I've missed you," I mumbled into his trench coat, inhaling the longed-for scent of potato chips and pizza.

He glanced behind me and grinned even wider. "Still got the Old Beater, have you?" he asked suggestively. I nodded with a chuckle and let him out of my hug. We looked at each other for a while, and I ended up blushing for no reason.

"Gosh, you're a babe, Anna!" Mikey sniggered, ruffling my hair.

"Oh, shut up, you old reptilian fart," I grumbled, flushing hotter and looking away. I do believe he had the statement right, to a certain degree. I had grown a bit, but I was still shorter than he was. Nuts.

"Embarrassed?"

"You wish."

He chuckled. "So, how've you been, Juliet?"

I gently punched him in the arm. "Just fine, thank you Romeo," I shot back.

"Pining for me long?" he asked with a wink.

"Ever since I hit puberty and actually got interested in the male gender." He started laughing. I had to keep a straight face to let him know I was serious.

His grin vanished into a serious look. "Anna, did you ever take care of your father like I told you to?"

I nodded, self-consciously rubbing my neck again. "Um, yeah…there was a news report on TV about it two years ago, the day I got him arrested."

Mikey inched closer to me without me noticing it. "I remember that," he growled, seething. "I wanted to kill him when they told of all the things he'd done to you."

I smiled wanly and laid my hand on his three-fingered one. "That's ancient history now, Mike. Just let it go." He breathed for a while before lightening up.

"Sorry," he muttered, then grinned. "By the way, I have to tell you what I did you Raph yesterday…" For the next ten minutes he told me of all his escapades. Raph seemed to be the main target, but I had to ask him midway who Raph was. He smacked himself in the head, berating himself for never telling me. So he did. Evidently Raph had been sleeping when Mike went into his room at the dead of night with a giant rubber cockroach in his hands. Using twine, he tied the roach to the ceiling directly above Raph's head and got the satisfaction of hearing his brother scream like a girl.

I laughed so hard I thought my ribs would break under the strain. "…And then, I used Leo's katana for a meat cleaver!" Mike crowed, wincing. "Boy, was he ever pissed at me! He cornered me in the dojo and proceeded to beat the crap out of me!"

When I'd finally recovered enough breath to speak, I just dissolved into giggles again. "They sound like fun to live with!" I gasped, nearly falling off the bench. Mike grabbed me at the waist and pulled me back up, saving me a sure fire broken arm. "Thanks, Mikey," I snickered.

The turtle grinned. "Hey, that's a great idea?"

"What?"

"You should come meet them! Oh, and Master Splinter, but don't tell him about telling you when I accidentally put hair remover in his bath instead of bubbles, okay?"

Still trying to get rid of the traces of mirth bubbling up inside me, I frowned. "But Mike, do you really think that's a good idea?" I asked, brushing a stray hair out of my eyes.

"Sure, they won't mind! Unless you do all the things I did, you'll be fine."

I giggled again. "I'll make note of that. So, where do you live?"

He looked around for a few seconds, then whispered, "The sewers."

I gasped. "Good night, doesn't it stink down there?"

He shrugged. "Eh, not if you've been living down there for twenty years." He stood, stretching his arms. "Ready?"

Reflexively, I shied from his hands. "We're not…jumping, are we?" That last time we'd traveled through NYC, I'd been in his arms and he was hopping across buildings.

"What? Don't want to?"

"Erm, I'm not sure I'd feel particularly comfortable knowing that every time you jump, my life is at risk."

He grinned. "Oh, come on, what do you take me for? An idiot with sticks for arms? Look, Anna, you're twig thin! And, no offense, but you're as short as you were when you were ten."

I made a face at him. "Thanks a lot, Mikey!" I had to squeal with utter surprise at what he did next, because out of the blue, he snatched me up from the bench and sprinted away, leaving my wheelchair in the distance. My breath was taken away at the quickness of it all. And I don't mean that hullabaloo romantic stuff where the girl claims the guy took her breath away when he swept her off her feet. I'm talking shock from how swift he was.

He was coming up on the buildings in no time at all, and leapt right onto the roof of the apartment as easily as if it were two feet tall. I screwed my eyes shut when he passed over the first gap, expecting to fly out of his strong arms when he landed. But he glided like a ghost. I dared to look around. The city lights were just now beginning to come on as dusk began to fall, throwing beautiful shades of pink, orange, and yellow onto the horizon. Below us on the streets honked traffic, the people just beginning to come home from work.

Mikey suddenly cut off my view by dropping into an alley. That scared me thoughtless. "Well, that was fun, wasn't it, Anna?" he asked with a grin that told me he'd enjoyed it far too much.

"I never want to do that again," I told him, feeling my face turn pale with the aftereffects of the rooftop-hopping journey.

"Which tells me you do." I resisted the urge to slap his arm. "Hang on, babe, I'm gonna put you down a minute, 'kay?" Babe! This is going a bit towards the love side, I thought with alarm as he set me on the cobbled ground of the alley. With a soft grunt, he pried off the manhole cover and set it aside. He picked me up again and before I could even think the words "Holy Heaven!" we were in the sewers.

I inhaled the odor of musty water and other things best left undescribed with a wrinkled nose. "Good God, Mike, this stench could kill a wild boar!"

"Countless gallons of stinky water a day keep the scientists and researchers away!" he replied cheerfully, putting me down on the slimy cement and climbing back up the ladder to pull the lid back into its indent. I screwed my face into a grimace and tried my best to deal with the warm, stagnant smell as I waited for Mike to come back down. There wasn't a sound. Panic began worming its way into my stomach, its cold tentacles chilling me.

"Mikey?" I whispered, looking up the ladder. The lid was still off and cold air was filtering inside. I shivered. Where are you? It seemed like an eternity before I heard anything. And what I heard didn't make me feel any better.

Several mutterings came down. "I'm not gonna ask you again, freak, where are your buddies at?"

"Don't ever end a sentence with a preposition," Mike shot back cheekily.

"Where are your buddies at, crap hole?" The man hissed angrily, and the hollow thud of a person's back hitting brick came to my ears. I had clamp my mouth shut to keep from screaming Mike's name.

"Like I'd tell you, loser," the turtle grunted. Somebody groaned on ground level and a form coming down the ladder blocked the dusk light. I readied myself to clock whoever it was in the groin. I was determined to make them feel hellish pain, even if I had to break my fist to do it. When I saw the green foot on the last ladder rung, I was relieved.

"Mikey," I whispered as he picked me up. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

He smiled grimly. "Sorry Anna."

"What happened up there?"

"Nothing good," he muttered. "We gotta get to the Lair fast! Hang on tight!" With that, he shot off into the darkness, with me in his arms.

Yes, you must hate me for such a sudden cliffie, huh? Well, that's too bad. Review please!

Ashite Imasu,
LN