Are You Sure I'm Not A Villain?

14

They passed under the glowing street lamps, finally stopping at an apartment complex. Casey looked up to where Kai guessed his apartment was. He looked up at Casey, now realizing just how much taller he was compared to him. Kai was barely reaching his shoulder. 

"How tall are you?" Kai asked.

"Five 'leven," Casey answered.

"Wow. You're tall."

"An' you're a little shortie," Casey joked, patting Kai's head.

Kai swatted Casey's hands away with a sour expression. "I am not. I am a perfectly normal average height for someone my age."

"Whatever you have to tell yourself to sleep at night," Casey retorted. 

They fell into comfortable silence and stared at each other under the buzzing light. Kai cleared his throat awkwardly.

"I should get going," he said. "I'll see you tomorrow." Kai started walking away from Casey.

"So you're coming?" Casey asked, referring to sneaking into the ice rink the next night.

Kai turned around and smiled from his ten foot position away from Casey. "Of course. Wouldn't miss it!"

Casey smiled, revealing his lack of front teeth. Kai wondered how they got to be that way and whether his affiliation to hockey had anything to do with it.

Kai waved and put his hands into his hoodie pocket as he walked off into the foggy night, away from the apartment and Casey and towards a place he did not want to go. Kai trudged through the darkness, occasionally seeing a homeless man digging through the un-emptied trash cans. He passed an alley and heard a piece of heavy metal being moved. It sounded like a man-hole cover. He knew exactly what was moving the large circle of metal.

He fingered a kunai blade that was stuck in its sheath on his belt. It was hidden from anyone's view, so that Kai would not draw unnecessary attention while still being able to defend himself. But the turtles did not recognize him. Why would they, he usually wore a silver mask that hid most of his face, so how would they recognize him? They lept up to the rooftops and ran towards the direction that Kai had come from, towards Casey's apartment, flipping over air vents and drying lines.

Kai knew that Casey was in league with the turtles, but that still didn't make his heart set into stone when he saw his sworn enemies heading towards one of his friends. Kai followed their movement until they were out of sight. He glared at the roofline and walked away to his home.

***

Casey, on the other hand, was just opening the door to his apartment. He opened the heavy metal door and hung his keys on the hook next to a light switch. The kitchen light was on, illuminating the three small bar stools. There was a plate covered in a napkin in Casey's usual spot.

Casey's face fell when he realized that this was family dinner night. Saturday was one of the only days when his father was home early enough to do anything with Casey and his little sister. He had promised to be here. He grabbed the plate, peering under the napkin. He set the plate in the microwave and, as his food was heating up, went to the fridge and grabbed a soda. He looked at the microwave timer and saw that it was at two seconds, he quickly ran over to the machine and opened the door before it started beeping and waking up the entire household.

He took the soda and plate of food to his room, shrugging his backpack off his shoulders and onto the floor. Casey's room wasn't all that big, containing a desk, his bed, and a large desk where he made all of his gear for fighting crime with the turtles. He sat down in the rolling desk chair and got to work on perfecting his taser. It had been damaged in a fight with Shredder's mutants.

A knocking on his window interrupted his concentration. He looked up to see his favorite turtle in red looking at him through the glass. He got up from his seat and walked over to the window and opened it. Raph climbed through and took in his bedroom.

"Nice place," the turtle said.

"You have to be quiet," Casey said. "My dad and little sis are asleep."

"Raph!" Mikey shouted from the fire escape. "What's taking so long?"

"SHHHHHHH!" Raph said.

"So this wasn't a friendly visit?" Casey asked.

Leonardo and Donatello appeared with Mikey on the fire escape. "It's always a friendly visit, but this time we need help with patrol."

"Sure," the human boy said. "Let me grab my stuff."

He pulled on his gear and turned around to face his mutant friends. Donnie rolled his eyes and led everyone out the window. Casey sparred a glance behind him at the bedroom door, feeling guilty about leaving after not being there for dinner like her promised. He steeled himself, remembering why he did this dangerous job every night. He was trying to keep his family safe, have a safer city for his little sister to grow up in.

They climbed up to the roof of the apartment complex, looking out over the city. The wind whipped at the brothers' mask ties, making them snap. Casey pulled down his mask and skated after them over the rooftops and eventually stopped at a corner store almost halfway across the city.

The five stopped to catch their breath. There didn't seem to be any crime that night, which was uncommon. The five vigilantes sat on a grouping of air conditioners that were on the roof, talking about nothing and watching the streets below.

"So..." Leo started. "Who was he?"

"Who was who?" Casey asked.

"The boy," Leo said like it was obvious. "He walked you to your apartment and—"

"You guys stood together for an unnecessary amount of time for just saying goodbye," Donnie interrupted.

"There was a lot of smiling," Raph said, crossing his arms.

"And the head pats," Mikey added, nodding his head up and down quickly.

"So, who was he?" Leo asked. "Don't worry, we won't judge. It's good to have human friends."

Casey was dumbstruck. "Have you guys been spying on me?"

The four mutant turtles looked everywhere but him. "No..?"

"He's ma friend from school," Casey said, rolling his eyes at his friends' antics. "We ju' went to get Murakami's after the game."

"Oh," Donnie said thoughtfully. He knew exactly what was going on between the two human boys, but wouldn't say anything to his brothers or April for Casey's sake. Because friends don't out friends.

"How was the game?" Mikey asked.

"Totally metal!" Casey said. He then described the game, exaggerating some parts (mainly the ones that included him) and talking about how great he and his team was.

***

It was early in the morning by the time Casey got home from patrol with the turtles. His plate of food was right where he left it. He slumped through the window and peeled off his gear. He went to the bathroom and took the remainder of his clothes off before hopping into the steaming hot water that was spewing from the shower faucet. He relished the feeling of the hot water as it rained down on the top of his head and down his bare back.

He was in and out under ten minutes, trying not to sing because of how early in the morning it was. He dried off and wrapped the towel around his waist. He grabbed his clothes off the tiled bathroom floor and headed back into his bedroom, tossing the sweaty clothes into a basket in the back corner of the closet. He opened a drawer in his nightstand and pulled out an old band t-shirt and some plaid pajama pants that were way too big for him.

He flopped into his bed and let really weird dreams overtake him in a soundless slumber.