IAmTheDragonEmpress: Merry christmas to you too! (a little late by now :P) Yay for Mikey hugs. And about the clothes, i'm pretty sure it was Donnie since he was the one treating her. :)

Laurenthalas: Use your imagination. O,O Or i could just say that it was most likely Donnie. x) And btw, this is the chapter we talked about if you still remember. xD

Chumic: Thank you! I'm very happy to hear you like it. :D

They had left her out of it again.

Ever since they had found out about the disappearance of the bug creature, the turtles had done regular patrols around the sewers, setting up extra surveillance here and there. So far it had all been fruitless, only managing to cause tensions to rise between the brothers.

That was easy for Alina to notice, since one of them always stayed behind with her just in case, giving her a good opportunity to scan their emotional states. Leo and Raph were simply impossible, talking to them not doing anything and them hardly talking to each other at all. There was no way to tell what was chafing between them.

Their friction was also affecting their two younger brothers. Donatello had become more reclusive, spending all his time working. It wasn't like he was unfriendly or anything when spoken to, he just didn't look for company.

Michelangelo, on the other hand, was on his way to becoming what one would call a problem child. Constant patrols, none of his brothers giving him the attention he wanted and no going up to the surface was making Mikey a very restless turtle.

That day it was his turn to stay in the lair and to Alina's surprise, she hadn't heard anything from him all day. And when she finally did, it was far from anything she expected.

They were beginning to run low on their food supplies and making dinner was already taking some creativity from Alina. She was making omelets from the last eggs, scrounging up anything she thought she could add to them. Someone would soon have to go topside.

"Aaallliiieee!"

The sudden shout startled Alina. She peeked out of the kitchen to see what was the matter with the orange-masked turtle. "Mikey?! Is everything okay?"

She couldn't see him anywhere, but soon she heard an answer.

"Did you know about all the things Raphie-boy keeps hidden in his room?"

"Oh Mikey, nononono", Alina shook her head, raising her voice to be heard as she returned to the kitchen. "You stay out of there, you know Raph's going to pummel you for snooping around in his room."

Alina went to flip the eggs on the pan when Michelangelo appeared into the kitchen. "What do you think he'll do when he finds his beer stash gone?"

Alina's eyes darted to the nunchaku-wielding turtle, who was leaning his shoulder casually against the wall, his hand around a beer bottle and a smug grin on his slightly flushed face.

"Are… are you drunk?!" She nearly dropped her spatula, placing it on the counter in shock.

"I don't know", Mikey answered with a cheery tone. "Does it make you feel incredibly good? If so, then yes, I am totally drunk."

The bizarreness of the situation was too much. Alina simply didn't know what to do. Not even if she should've been angry at Mikey, or Raphael, or just generally amused. "How many did you have?"

"Who cares? Didn't you hear me", Michelangelo skipped to Alina, throwing his arm over her shoulder, his breath giving her a fairly good guess of how much he had had. "I feel great! In fact, why isn't there any music, there should be music, don't you think? Let me fix that."

He left Alina standing in her stunned state and went for the cd-player. Soon there were rather provocative tunes filling the air. "Yeah! This is much better!"

Alina was still petrified as Michelangelo started to dance.

"No way…" she muttered under her breath, then her eyes widened as the dancing turtle put the bottle down and approached her with open arms. "No! Way!"

There was little Alina could do when Mikey's hands reached around her thighs and lifted her up against his plastron, her legs instinctively pressing against his sides. Every protest she had was effectively wiped away when they started spinning around the room and she was forced to wrap her arms around Mikey's neck to stay in balance.

Despite Michelangelo clearly having fun, the spinning was soon getting to his intoxicated head and eventually they hit a wall, coming to a stop. Alina's back was against the wall, while the orange-masked turtle had one arm next to her head to steady him and the other embarrassingly obviously on her posterior, supporting her.

He lowered his head to rest against her shoulder, laughing. "Okay I admit. That didn't make me feel so great."

Alina was about to point out that sleeping it off would be a great idea when Mikey suddenly nuzzled her neck, inhaling deeply. "Mmm… did you know you smell nice."

"Uhh… that's great", Alina tried to lean away as Mikey's beak traced the side of her neck up to her ear. "And you smell like beer. You should try a good, cold shower for starters."

"Now where's the fun in that?" Michelangelo snorted and pulled his head up, with a look as serious as someone drunk could manage. Then his face lightened up again. "You need to have some fun from time to time. Loosen up and laugh a little."

"Sure, I'll do that, but why don't you first…"

Michelangelo stopped listening to her, moving them away from the wall and towards the dinner table. He used one hand to turn the chair at the end of the table to face the other way and placed her down to sit on it. "Now wait just there."

Alina sighed, but did as asked, planning to get Mikey to lie down and get some sleep somehow. It seemed, though, that sleep was the last thing on the ninja's mind. Quickly he made his way back to the cd-player, chose another song to his liking and turned up the volume.

Then he started dancing again, differently this time. Alina's mouth was gaping as Michelangelo moved his hips fluently to the music while slowly taking off his wristbands.

The whole thing was looking unmistakably like a striptease show.

It continued for a while, Michelangelo teasingly removing the rest of his gear, all the while dancing, shaking, stretching, posing, just about doing anything he could think of. He even threw his belt at Alina, who caught it dumbfounded. The last thing to go was his mask.

Untying the not behind his head, Michelangelo stepped closer until he was hovering over Alina, feet on both sides of the chair and leaning into the table behind her.

"I'd offer you a lap dance next, but I messed up", Mikey looked almost disappointed. "Where would you put the tips?"

The concentrated look on the drunken turtle's face as he was apparently trying hard to solve the problem, was what finally made Alina break down. She burst out in an uncontrollable laughing fit.

"See?" Michelangelo forgot his dilemma right away and joined her laughter. "You are still able to laugh."

Alina didn't answer, she simply couldn't stop laughing. How could someone act so promiscuously and yet so innocently? She leaned her forehead against Mikey's plastron, wiping away tears that were forming from too much laughter.

Michelangelo placed his hand on the back of her neck and gave a small kiss on her head. "Well, whaddya know, you taste good too."

"M-Mikey, please…" Alina did the best she could at the impossible task of trying to speak and muffle her laughter at the same time. "Please, be serious just for a while, before I fall off the chair."

Suddenly both of them flinched as the music on the background came to an abrupt stop and a strict voice snapped at them.

"Would someone care to explain what the hell is going on in here?!"

Alina's laughter died there, but Mikey seemed unaffected by the interruption. He straightened up and turned to greet his brother with a smile. "Leo! Bro! How's it going? Came across anything exciting?"

Alina dropped the belt in her hands and sprung to her feet, noticing just then that she had forgotten all about the eggs. "Oh, crap!" She dashed to the stove, trying to save anything that might still be edible.

Scraping the eggs off the pan, she was glad she didn't have to look at Leo. She had to get her thoughts composed first.

"I'm still waiting for an answer", the oldest turtle demanded mercilessly.

"Chill out, ever heard of fun? That's what's going on here. Some innocent, beer-fueled fun."

Alina had never wanted to facepalm as badly as then.

"What!?" came Leonardo's voice, followed by the sound of Mikey moving next to the counter and picking up the bottle he had left there.

"Well, I happened to find this…"

A crash and the sound of glass breaking drew Alina's eyes away from the pan and back to the brothers. "W-wha… Leo!?"

The noise had come from the bottle that had been smashed against the wall along with Mikey's hand. Alina stared shocked at Leonardo who was still holding his youngest brother's wrist, ignoring the fact that they both now had bleeding cuts.

"You are drunk!?"

Michelangelo looked equally shocked, the surprise sobering him up considerably. "S-sorry, Leo. I…"

That was as far as he got, before snapping his mouth shut. Even in his state, he suddenly realized that the last thing he wanted, was to blurt out Raph's secret and set the two hard-headed brothers against each other. There had already been enough of that.

Alina could've as well been reading his thoughts, that fast she came to Mikey's aid. "If you want to be angry at someone, you might as well be angry at me. That was my beer Mikey happened to find."

There was a tense silence as Leonardo turned his angry glare at her for a few seconds before releasing Mikey.

"Michelangelo. My room. Five minutes", the blue-masked turtle announced forebodingly and stormed out of the kitchen.

Alina grabbed a paper towel and hurried to Mikey's side, looking out for the glass shards on the floor. Taking the injured hand she cleaned and examined it, relieved to see that the cuts were small and would stop bleeding quickly.

"That was… weird", Mikey stated unsure. "You shouldn't have taken the fault, he's really angry this time."

"We both know the alternative would've been disastrous. Don't worry, things have just been a bit tense since the mystery monster. I bet it's the tension getting to him", Alina comforted both with his words and her soothing skills. "Besides, you know I can take care of myself just fine. Just stick to the story."

Mikey hesitated, so Alina started pushing him. "Go on now. You need to go get a few band-aids before you venture into the dragon's den."

Michelangelo gave a half-hearted smile at that. "What do you think are the chances Raph won't find out about this and blow our cover?"

Alina returned the smile and watched Mikey walk out of the kitchen. He barely got through the doorway when he stopped and turned to look back. "Scratch that last one."

As soon as Mikey got out of sight, leaving Alina to ponder what he had meant, a certain red-masked turtle appeared around the corner, stepping into the kitchen.

"Oh… Raph", Alina hoped the surprises would already seize for one day. "So how much trouble am I going to get from you?"

Raphael stood with arms crossed as usual, eyeing the glass and the gear scattered on the floor. "None."

That was not what Alina had expected and the confusion was evident on her face. "Why?"

"Why should you?" Raphael raised an eye ridge quizzically. "From what I heard, ya haven't done anythin'. Unlike Mikey."

"Please, don't tell Leo."

"What? That the booze was really mine? I don't mind pissin' our fearless leader off, but I think this time Mikey deserves to be left to whatever punishment he's gonna get."

"He's just…" Alina searched for the right word before giving up. "I don't know. It's not just him. Everyone's been… off lately. Ironically, you less than the others."

"Huh", Raphael almost did a convincing job, feigning hurt. "So yer sayin' I'm just off all the time."

"A little", Alina let a teasing smile spread on her face and gave a small jab to his arm before kneeling down to collect the biggest shards off the floor. "But I like you the way you are."

Raphael sighed, secretly pleased by her words and got down next to her. "You go free those eggs from their misery, your skin is too soft for these."

Alina let Raphael take the shards from her and complied. "Thanks."

Strangely she realized what she had said to be more true than she had thought. Raphael hadn't been affected as much as the others. Or maybe it was just that everyone had gotten so used to him flying off the handle now and then that it wasn't that noticeable anymore.

In any case, she was glad for it.