Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! I've posted this new chapter, so read it with Glee!
And please review~!'

Leo and Mikey leapt from roof top to roof top, making their way back to the sewers. Leo was in front while Mikey lagged behind showing off with several flips and spins in the air, a pizza bow pressed to his chest.

"Oh my dear pizza, will you marry me?" Mikey cooed to cardboard box

"Quit messing around, Mikey, we gotta get home." Leo snapped.

"You're right! This is no place for marriage!" Mikey laughed and then jumped far ahead of his brother

Leo sighed and rolled his eyes. Why did he always have to be the only one who was the slightest bit mature. When they got to the closest man hole, Leo bent down and lifted the cover, allowing Mikey and his fiancé to slip down into the sewers. Before he could do the same, he heard a voice calling him quietly. He looked all around but could not find the source of the voice.

"Over here!" Demanded a loud whisper.

He finally found the person who was calling him, but he wished he hadn't. Not far away, Karai was standing pressed up against a wall in an ally. She motioned for him to come over but he hesitated. Their "chit chats" normally didn't end well.

"Yo, Leo! You comin' or what?" Mikey called up the man hole bringing Leo back to reality.

Without taking his eyes off Karai, he answered: "Uh… yeah. Just go on ahead. Tell Splinter I'll be home a little late."

Mikey was confused but simply shrugged. That just meant more Pizza for him. "Alright, dude, but there might not be any pizza left when you get back."

"I think I'll take my chances." Leo whispered.

He placed the cover back over the manhole and stood up facing Karai. She motioned again and Leo began walking in her direction.

'What are you doing?!' His brain warned. 'Have you forgotten who she is?!'

Leo sighed. No, he knew very well who she was and what the outcome of him talking to her was most likely going to be. Yet he kept walking towards Karai, and a possible death. He didn't know why, even Karai didn't know why. He just kept walking.

Leo kept his glare locked as Karai as he stepped even closer, Karai however just smiled. When she felt Leo was close enough, she walker further into the shadows of the ally and nodded her head letting Leo know she wanted him to follow. He just kept walking. When they couldn't go back any further, they turned to face each other. Even though it was to dark for them to read each other's face to pin point their emotions, somehow they each had a pretty good idea to what the other was think. It was quiet for awhile before Karai spoke breaking the almost pleasant silence that hung heavy in the ally.

"Haven't seen you in awhile." Even in the darkness of the ally, Leo could sense the smirk on her face. "The city's been boring with you turtles."

Leo narrowed his eyes attempting to appear serious despite the small blush on his face. "We've been busy."

"Whatcha been busy with?"

Leo looked away in the direction in which they came, trying to lessen the intensity of Karai's stare.

"Nothing that concerns you."

"Aw, come! Secrets don't make friends!" (But friends make secrets!)

"Why are we even having this conversation?!" Leo suddenly snapped. "I'm not even supposed to be near you, let alone talk to you."

Karai kept her smirk and raised an eye brow. "Who told you that? You "daddy" Splinter?"

Leo glared at her. "As a matter of fact, yes, not that it's any of your business."

"You never answered my question." Karai folded her arms across her chest. "Where've you been?"

"Why do you want to know so badly?" Leo asked.

"Can't I be concerned for my friend?"

"I'm not your friend." Leo snapped.

"Ouch…" Karai said sarcastically. "That hurt."

"I don't have time for you." Leo said beginning to leave.

Karai watched him begin to leave. It was strange; normally he was putty in her hands. She was well aware of the crush Leo had on her and often used it to her advantage. Plus, she thought it was kinda cute. She began to brain storm. Time was ticking as Leo got farther and farther away, off to catch up with the one with the orange mask. Then it hit her.

"It's the scrawny one, isn't it?"

Leo stopped mid step, eyes wide. Karai grinned.

"I'm guessing I'm right judging your reaction." Karai said smugly. "What's his deal?"

"How could you…"

"Well you were with the dumb one, Raph's to hotheaded to be able to willingly stay underground, so that left the srawny one." Karai chuckled. "It's elementary my dear turtle."

Leo rolled his eyes and spoke without turning to face Karai. "He's sick, alright? Now leave me alone."

"Aw, poor baby." Karai's voice was riddled with false sympathy, causing Leo's anger to boil. "in that case I can understand him not being active, but what about the rest of you? What's holding you back?"

"Our family sticks together, not that you know anything about family."

Karai's eye's narrowed. Normally if anyone said anything like that to her, but she wanted to see how much farther she could push Leo before she started a fight. An angry fight is an entertaining fight.

"You're a real sap, y'know that?" Karai said stepping closer to Leo. "You let a small problem stop you."

"It's not a "small problem." Leo replied bluntly.

Karai shrugged. "Whatever you say."

"Why do you even care?"

"I don't." Karai said with a voice that made it almost impossible to tell her emotion. "Shredder does. Bradford tattled on you about not being active latey."

Leo sighed. Of course, Dogpound was bound to notice sooner or later that his favorite chew toys weren't around.

"I'll be sure to tell them you're still alive. I think he'll be happy to know that he still has the opportunity to do it himself."

Leo snapped. He whirled around ready to fight but froze when he saw Karai was nowhere to be found (Ha! You get NO FIGHT SEQUENCE!...yet) He stood still for a second but soon his anger began to build until he had to let it out. He grabbed both katanas from the straps and slammed them on the concrete with all his force, causing the blades to break in half. He slowly sunk to his knees and put his hands to his face, this time allowing tears to fall. He blew it. He talked to the one person he's not suppose to talk to, allowed her to find weakness in him and his family to her advantage, and let her get away rather than taking her down when he had the chance.

Everything bad that could possibly happen to him was happening to him all at once with no breaks in the slightest. Why did this illness have to enter their lives in the first place, and infect Donnie of all people. The one turtle who probably could have solved the problem before it even began. He sniffed and whipped his face.

'I've failed…' Was all he could think. 'I've put my family in even more risk than they already were.'

For the longest time he just sat there, as if wait for more bad things to happen. Staring at the concrete and watching his tears form puddles as they fell, he tried to figure out where everything went wrong. Their lives were just fine before, yeah they weren't perfect, but they were fine. Then karma for things they'd never done came back to claim them as its victims. He just didn't understand.

Whipping away the last of his tears on his face, he shakily stood. He turned to the man whole and began walking. He lifted the lid, jumped down and began walking home. Walking away from what had just happened, walking away from his mistakes, and heading to the only place he could find the slightest bit of happiness. He just kept walking.

~/\~

The trip home was a long one, not that Leo was going very fast to begin with, but he was grateful for the friendly environment as he entered the lair. All was quiet. No loud video games, no arguments, no power tools, just silence. Normally he would go mad from so much silence but he was happy for some peace, but at the same time he felt so much silence was too good to be true, at least without a catch. Curious, he began searching for his brothers, mostly Donnie to make sure he was still breathing.

As he searched he began to think of unpleasant answers for the empty feeling of the lair. We're they kid napped? Did the Shredder already get to them? Did scientist come and nab them while he was gone. His fears however were put to rest when he came to Donnie's room.

On his bed was not only Donnie, but also Raph and Mikey huddled together sleeping soundly. Raph laid next to Donnie with a grip on his younger brother, not that Donnie seemed to mind, and Mikey was curled up at the foot of the bed nearly covering his entire pillow with drool. Leo smiled. He remembered doing much like this when one of them was sick when they were younger. He tip-toed closer to the bed and searched for a way for him to sneak in. Sure enough there was a spot just big enough for him to squeeze in, almost as if they had planned on his arrival.

He laid down as quietly as he could andwas finally able to relax. For awhile he listened to the harmonies of Raph's soft breathing, Mikey's snores, and Donnie's rough and raspy breaths. For anyone else this would be annoying, but to him it was sweet music, just being able to know that his brothers were still alive and breathing acted much like a lullaby as he slipped into a long anticipated rest.

Tee da! I'm such a genius! Lol anyway, I tried to capture Karai's personality as much as I could with her not being in too many episodes, and even then she's just a few one-liners and a smirk so I found it kinda difficult. Oh well, I tried my best. It find it funny how I'm constantly telling the story from Leo's perspective and yet he's me, least favorite turtle. I don't hate him or anything, he's just always been kind of…boring. I mean think about it , You got Raph the hothead, Donnie the brainiac, Mikey's the party animal, and Leo is…the leader…that's it he's just… the leader. Now to the show's credit with a character that's always been just known as "the leader" doesn't describe a distinct personality for the character or allow for that many jokes, and in that sense it works fine, I just don't care for it. Good god I'm rambling now… Well since today is my birthday I'd figure I'd wait till today to spread the joy to you! I tried to send you guys cake too but it just got the screen messy… please review!