Are You Sure I'm Not A Villain?

31

He looked up at Casey and quickly stood up. All past feelings of love and passion had slowly dissipated into the air, being replaced by the feeling of worry and concern. Casey sat up on the worn couch, noticing Kai's worried expression as he looked at his phone. Casey motioned to the office that was next to the living room that the two of them were currently in.

"You can take it in there," he said. "I won' listen."

Kai smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Cas."

A nickname? From Kai? Casey felt his face heat up a little bit more. Kai walked over to the office and closed the door a little way but left a crack open. Casey couldn't help but want to eavesdrop on the phone call. Kai seemed very worried, and Casey quite honestly was scared that his friend was in trouble.

"Yes, sir?" Kai's voice sounded from the closed office.

Who answered the phone with a 'yes sir'? Casey was now very intrigued. He quietly crawled over to the cracked door, leaning closer to the opening to hear the conversation better.

"Sir, I am staying at his house right now," Kai was saying. "No, sir. I don't have any information yet."

Kai went silent as the person on the other side of the phone began to speak loudly. Something about a disappointment. Casey wished that he could hear both sides of the conversation, but his conscience was already telling him that eavesdropping as much as he was already was bad.

"Sir, I—" Kai protested. Casey looked through the crack in the door to see Kai's stiff posture and fisted hands relax in defeat. "Yes, sir," he continued miserably. "I'll be there."

Kai pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the caller ID with a scowl. Casey thought that he looked really hot when he was angry. Kai let out a sigh of anger as he hung up and shut the phone down, shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans. Casey panicked and quietly scrambled back over to the couch in case Kai was going to come out of the room. Kai didn't come right out, but Casey could hear his pacing footsteps padding across the hardwood of the office floor. He went on his phone as he waited for his friend to come out.

Finally, Kai came out of the office with a fake plastered smile on his face. "Hey, Casey," he said cheerfully.

"Hey," Casey responded, setting his phone down next to him on the couch and sitting up from his previously slouched position. What happened to the nickname? "You were in there for a while. Who was tha'?"

"Nobody important," Kai responded quickly. He spoke with rushed words as he tried to explain himself. "Just my boss. I am so sorry to cut this short, but he just got a delivery and needs someone to pick it up and bring it to the... yeah. I need to go. Again, I am really sorry about this."

Casey felt his heart sink a little in his chest. He stood up from the couch and walked over to Kai. "No, it's fine. Ya need ta do wha' ya need ta do."

Kai smiled without teeth. "Thanks for understanding. I promise to make it up to you. Next time I see you, we are gonna talk about this," he motioned between the two boys' bodies. "thing that just went on. So."

Casey stared down at Kai, feeling an emotion he had never experienced before. His face heated up at the thought that maybe, just maybe, there was something between the two of them. He watched as Kai skirted around him and grabbed his bag with his wet shirt and backpack from the ground, slinging it over both of his shoulders. He stood tall (well, as tall as he could've, being as short as he was) and walked back over to Casey.

"I'll see you around?" he asked.

"Yeah, jus' one more thing," Casey said, leaning down a little to be level with Kai. He quickly grabbed Kai's face and kissed him before pulling away and flashing that gap-toothed smile that Kai had come to love so much. Kai's face was that of mixed confusion and admiration.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Why does there have ta be a reason?" Casey asked with a shrug.

"I guess not," Kai said. He looked down at his phone and cursed. "I really do have to go now. I'll see you around!"

And with that, Kai ran out of the living room and out through the apartment door. Casey rushed to the window and watched him run across the street below and into an alley on the other side. Maybe it was a shortcut to get to his job. Still, there was something a little off about Kai. Throughout all the months that Casey had known Kai, there was not a single time in which he had told him what exactly this job of his was.

Casey decided to shrug it off for the moment. He walked back over to the living room and started picking up the blanket that Kai had been using. Even though he was only laying on it for a little bit, the blanket smelt like him. Casey breathed in the smell with a slight smile as he folded it up to put it back in the closet.

***

Kai was running across the rooftops, rushing to the cathedral to be able to meet his father on time. Kai hated lying to Casey, but how was he supposed to tell him that Shredder required a group of henchmen to secure a new weapon for his army of robotic Foot soldiers?

Kai perched himself on one of the rooftop air conditioners, catching his breath. The shirt that Casey gave him gave him little to no protection against the crisp wind that chilled him to his bones. He shivered as he panted for breath, the tips of his fingers turning a light pink at the brisk cold. He shook out his arms and breathed warm air into his hands as he stood up again to get back to running to his house.

When he arrived at the gothic building, he let out a sigh of relief. He walked through the large doors at the front of the cathedral and down the stairs to the dungeons. He walked past the cells, dragging his fingers across the cold metal bars. He stopped at the one where he had finally captured the turtles in.

That was the first time that he had seen Casey become truly angry. Sure, Casey didn't know who Kai really was at the time. He still didn't. Kai wondered when he would or even could tell Casey the truth. How would Casey react to it?

A twinge of anger blossomed in his chest at the memories of the turtles' escape. Shredder was very angry that it had happened. And that anger was taken out on Kai that night. Kai continued to walk past the dungeons to his bedroom.

It was just as he had left it, an organized chaos that covered every surface of the room. He shut the door behind him and walked to the closet where his armor was kept. He peeled off Casey's shirt and folded it up, placing it on his desk. He changed into his usual black jeans and jacket, placing the armor on top. He rubbed some black eyeshadow over his eyes and put his metal mask on to conceal the lower half of his face.

On his way out of the room, he grabbed a gun and stuffed it into his waistband. He also grabbed his scythe and a few knives. He didn't know if the turtles were going to show up in the middle of the raid and ruin the plan, so it was better just to be safe.

Kai walked through the hallways again up to the "throne room". Tigerclaw and FishFace were already there waiting for him. Karai was standing in front of the two mutants, speaking with the Shredder.

"Now that the last member is here," Shredder said, his eyes boring into Kai's head. "You may go retrieve the weapon detail. If you fail me, there will be dire consequences."

The Shredder left the threat to hang in the air. The mutants knew that Shredder was not bluffing. They all bowed. "Yes, Master."