Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Because Mikey’s about to send you back in time to the day that the key was stolen.”

Casey’s disbelief was clear in his incredulous expression. Really, Leo wasn’t sure why he was so surprised. The world was under siege from body-snatching aliens that had shown up through a mystic portal after being imprisoned for a thousand years in an alternate dimension, and he had a hard time wrapping his head around time travel? 

“Wait,” Casey said, as bewilderment turned to contemplation turned to horrified understanding. “He’s gonna send me? What about you?”

“It’s not about me,” he said. He knew that, now. Maybe if he’d believed it earlier… well. Not the time or place for reminiscing. “The people who stole that key opened the door for the Krang. You have to find it before that happens. Understand? Find the key, stop the--”

“Sensei, I’m not leaving you here!”

When did he get so obstinate? He’d always been pretty content to follow Leo’s direction, much as he was as self-sufficient as the rest of them. More than that, he was a soldier, and he knew how to follow orders. Leo couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so adamant in his backtalk. To the point of interrupting Leo, of all things. “This isn’t up for debate. If you don’t do this, we lose. That’s it. We don’t have time to--”

He was gonna say they didn’t have time to argue, but as it turned out they barely had time to even finish a sentence. A harsh red glare and a roaring drone signaled the end of the line. And then, because they couldn’t catch a break, apparently, they were surrounded on all sides. Maybe they could’ve fought off one or two to stall a little longer, but not this many.

This was it.

“Mikey,” he called, breaking a cardinal rule and looking away from the enemy towards his struggling brother. He knew mystic portals took a lot of work, but they didn’t have any time to lose.

Literally.

(He might’ve made a quip about it, once upon a time. But clever jokes had no place in a fight for survival.)

Casey called out, a half-finished warning in his voice, and Leo could do nothing but watch in silence as his little brother fell apart at the seams. They were the last ones left. Raph, Donnie. Dad. (He'd lost sight of April when they'd first gotten ambushed, so no telling whether she was among the living or the dead.) Countless other friends and allies. But this was their shot. Casey was their shot. They had to take it while they still had a chance. Whatever that meant for them.

Mikey looked back and gave him a reassuring smile. A cheeky wink. And then--

Well.

Leo should have cried. He sort of wanted to. It probably would’ve been cathartic, to take a moment to just lose his composure for Mikey’s sake. He hadn’t had the chance for Donnie, and by the time he’d given up on Raph there had been too much else going on. But he couldn’t. There wasn’t enough time. 

There was never enough time.

Besides. Mikey wouldn’t have wanted him to. If he knew anything about his brother, who had died with a smile on his face for the sake of a possible better future he wouldn’t get to see, it’s that he would’ve wanted Leo to keep smiling too. Which was why when he reached over and set a hand on Casey’s shoulder, the first thing that came to mind was a dumb joke. 

“Casey,” he said without pulling his eyes away from the approaching Krang, “do me a favor--”

Once again, he lost his chance to finish the sentence. His words left him in a wheeze as his legs were swept out from under him, an arm was hooked around his, and he felt himself go weightless for a few split seconds. The Krang and their broken world disappeared in a flash of orange. And, seconds later, so did Casey-- dragged away and lost to the sea of energy. There was a sharp stab of pain in his side as his protege slipped away.

With no other options, Leo closed his eyes and waited for it all to stop.

Chapter Text

Leo opened his eyes and he saw the moon. 

This would not have been altogether too strange-- he was outside at night with an unobstructed view of the sky-- if it weren't for the fact that the last time he'd seen anything but a crackling red haze when he looked up was over twenty years ago. 

So, needless to say, it was pretty disconcerting. 

Just as unsettling were the towering skyscrapers boxing him in, the low rumble of passing cars, and the distant chatter of a city that never slept. Again, all far from novel sensations, given he'd spent the first sixteen-ish years of his life wholly accustomed to them. It was just the fact that they'd all become totally obsolete concepts over the course of the last two decades that really had him quietly breaking down in some back alley in--

Where was he, anyway? They should’ve still been in roughly the same location, since time travel only accounted for time and not space, but New York was practically unrecognizable in his day. Midtown, maybe? East Side? He was bracketed in by tall, shiny skyscrapers. Flat roofs. The sort he and his brothers had always favored, high enough to keep them out of sight and close enough that they were easy to jump between.

Oh, God.

His brothers.

Because that’s where he was. That’s what he was doing. That’s why he was here. He wasn’t supposed to be, really, he’d been trying to get Casey back. Strong, capable, brilliant Casey. They sent him back to fix things. Because Raph was dead, and Donnie was dead, and Mikey had given everything to send him back, and Leo--

Leo should have joined them. He was supposed to. He wasn’t supposed to be here--

Focus. Breathe. Compartmentalize. Now was not the time to be losing himself. This place wasn’t unfamiliar, just outdated, and he would be fine so long as he stayed focused. Also, maybe got some medical help, because oh yeah, he was still definitely bleeding out. And his side hurt like a bitch. 

That’s why he’d tried to send Casey. Leo, he was old news. Barely holding on. He wasn’t a hero anymore, if he'd ever been one, just a poor excuse for a leader that couldn’t help the people he was supposed to be taking care of. One of a set that should not have been separated. He couldn’t stop the Krang. He couldn’t save his brothers. But Casey was young, and clever, and had been trained by the best of them. If anyone could fix it all and stop the world from falling apart for a second time, he could.

Which was the only reason-- the only reason-- he’d give Mikey the go-ahead. Had him open the gateway. It had taken everything, and Leo had to watch helplessly but they were all doomed anyway and a leader had to make the hard decisions.

Except Leo was still here. And he had ordered Mikey to kill himself.

And he was bleeding out, but that was so much less important than the fact that he had given an order and Mikey had followed it because Leo was the leader. And when he gave orders, his soldiers followed them. 

Mikey had been smiling. There was a grin on his face and he’d torn himself apart at Leo’s behest in an attempt to fix their mistakes. He’d agreed because he knew as well as Leo that they’d both be dead sooner or later anyway, and maybe they’d see each other again after that. He was big on the mystic stuff, including the possibility of an afterlife. He’d believed in Leo. He’d trusted him. 

Might have just been the blood loss talking, but Leo felt like he was going to be sick.

He needed help. He might not have meant for this to happen, but he was here anyway. Dying right now would help no one. Much as he might’ve wanted to. 

He pushed himself up to his feet, making note of the fact that somewhere in the process he’d lost his arm. Probably when he and Casey had gotten separated in the portal. At least that wasn’t also bleeding, even if the severing of the connections to his nerves was definitely going to sting for a while. 

Shit. Casey.

Right. He needed to get himself on track. Make a plan. He was the plan guy, that’s what he did. 

So, problems, in order of how quickly they needed to be dealt with. One, the fact that Leo was heavily injured. He probably wasn’t going to die from blood loss, but passing out was still very much on the table, and if there was anywhere he didn’t want to find himself prone it was in one of the busiest parts of the city. Even if he was safely hidden away in a grimy alley, he’d only be able to hide there for so long before some poor soul came wandering through and was scared out of their skin. 

In the post-apocalypse, the whole separation between humans/mutants/Yokai hadn’t really been that much of a concern. But this was the past, when they were still in hiding and pretending that the city didn’t know they existed (even if they almost certainly did), and therefore Leo could definitely not just go wandering through the streets willy nilly.

Back to the issues at hand, though. Two, Casey was lost in a world that was wholly unfamiliar to him. Leo at least had years of growing up in a pre-Krang world to navigate from. Even if it would be a bit of a learning curve to readjust, he vaguely understood cultural norms and all of that. Casey wasn’t even born until after they were already in the thick of it. He was resilient and good at thinking on his feet, sure, but even that wouldn’t make up for a total lack of experience. 

Three, the Key. The Krang. The whole reason they’d come back. If his timing was right, the whole heist thing would be happening tonight, and he was barely in good enough shape to walk around, much less get into a fight with the Foot and their allies.

If Leo were a better leader, a better man, the whole “stopping the alien apocalypse” thing would probably be at the top of his list, before the safety of his protege and definitely before his own well-being. But he knew quite well that you couldn’t help anyone if you were dead, and he knew Casey and his brothers (oh, God, his brothers) would need his help. They’d need all the help they could get.

Yeah, maybe Leo was selfish. Maybe he should’ve just patched himself up and forgotten anything else in favor of finding the key before it could be used to open the portal again. 

But he was also very tired. And practically a dead man walking. 

And he missed his family. 

He needed to find them pronto. Hospitals were pretty obviously off-limits, and while he always had medical supplies on him, if he didn’t have to suffice with whatever he’d last managed to scrounge together it would probably be for the best. Donnie nearly had a conniption every time he came home having patched himself together with some scavenged garbage. (Leo might have been the family doctor at one point, but they’d all picked up the slack once the world fell apart.) The lair was always fully stocked in the event one of them got into a scrape.

Hopefully he still remembered how to actually get there from here. Navigating through the sewers while injured wasn’t really smart, practically an open invitation for an infection, but he was in no shape to go via rooftop right now. So, after a careful glance around to make sure the alley was just as abandoned as before, he pried the nearby manhole cover up and slipped into the darkness. 

The sewers were surprisingly straightforward once you got used to them. Much like the city streets themselves, it was all laid out in an approximation of a grid, excluding the occasional outlier of some maintenance hub or obsolete tunnels that weren’t part of the main system. And yeah, there were the workers you had to take care to avoid, and the smell could get kind of overpowering, but there were worse places to be.

Getting reacquainted with navigating New York’s underground was a bit like riding a bike, he supposed. Muscle memory. They’d been underground for a while after the Krang had first invaded, at least until they’d found the lair and the resistance had to pack up and move, but Leo had also spent the first sixteen years of his life learning how to find his way. 

Even if it was slow going. Still bleeding out, just in case you were wondering.

Not to mention that the closer he got to his old home, the more he started to wonder if dropping in unannounced like this was really a good idea. He trusted his family with his life, of course, but there was always the chance they might not take too kindly to his appearance. Donnie and Raph in particular were prone to wariness. Mikey, not so much, and the less said about Leo’s own past self the better. 

Actually, now that he thought about it, Donnie would probably be all over him. Living proof that time travel existed. It might have been through mystic means, but he’d still have a field day. 

There wasn’t much of a choice regardless. His vision was starting to get spotty, a sure sign that he needed medical help, like, yesterday. Though, it might be better if he just slipped in quietly and got what he needed, fixed himself up, and made his way out before any of his family saw him. Just to avoid the potential complications. 

(He didn’t want to ruin their lives all over again.)

Too late to turn back now, anyway, given he was standing right in front of it. 

He’d ended up at one of the emergency entrances, specifically. The abandoned subway station that was their new lair had fewer ways in and out than their old one, but Leo knew each and everyone one of them by heart. They’d never known when they might have needed to evacuate once it had been converted into the overall headquarters for the resistance. And even if they stopped spending time there after Donnie had gotten his hover-crafts functional, he might as well have had a map of the place etched on the inside of his shell.

They weren’t really designed to open from the outside, but the edge of his sword was thin enough to slip through the edge of the door and a careful flick opened the latch. It probably wouldn’t set off any alarms. Leo’s biometric signature was still the same as it had been, after all.

Probably.

How to get to the bathroom where they stored all their medical supplies, though? The easiest way would be going through the atrium, but the family would probably be there right now, and his whole goal was to avoid them. He missed them like no tomorrow, but it wasn’t worth it. Aside from the possible dangers of meeting the past version of himself-- and the voice in his head that was bringing up that theory sounded remarkably like Donnie-- they’d almost certainly try to help if they saw him, and he halfway hoped he could keep them from getting wrapped up in all of this. Even if they really did need all the assistance they could get. 

They were so young right now. All of them. They deserved to be kids for a little bit longer. If they still could, after Shredder and everything that had come with him. 

It seemed so… small, in hindsight. At the time it had felt like the end of the world.

Now Leo knew what that really looked like. 

If he skirted the outside of the lair, he could probably avoid the main room where everyone would likely be hanging out. Or getting into a fight. He wasn't entirely sure what time it was, and despite how many times he'd replayed the night in his mind and wondered what he could've done differently, he still couldn't really remember the exact timeline. Was Raph futilely trying to get his past self to take responsibility for once in his life? Or had they already progressed to trying to beat the hell out of each other? 

If he'd actually listened to his older brother instead of deflecting with a joke like he always did, would things have been different? Was it worth wondering about impossibilities? 

Normally he'd have said no, but this whole situation sort of was an impossibility. He had the chance to change things. That was the whole point of this. 

Where was he going again? The bathroom? From here… he needed to take a left, right?

He couldn't quite remember. He just had to hope he didn't--

He froze.

The carbon copy of his little brother standing several feet away froze too. 

"Hey, guys," he said, "is anyone else seeing double right now?"

"What?? Raph, did you hit him?” Donnie asked from where he was clinging to their brother's shoulders, trying to hold him back.

“No, I didn’t hit him!”

“He didn’t even hit me. Mikey wasn’t anywhere close to getting whacked.”

Shit.

"Dudes," Mikey exclaimed, smacking Raph’s arm and gesturing in Leo’s direction. "Stop arguing for a second and look ."

All eyes turned to him. Damn it. This had been exactly what he didn't want to happen.

Their potential fight forgotten, Raph fell into step beside Leo’s past self (who was staring at him with his swords raised and a look somewhere between suspicion and fear on his face), sai up and mystic energy crackling along his arms. Donnie dropped from his restraining hold on Raph’s shoulders and into a fighting pose along with the rest of his brothers. In mere moments they’d gone from unruly arguing to the image of a perfect team, all in-sync and battle ready.

Which lasted for all of five seconds, until Mikey-- looking him over with a critical eye-- laid eyes on his injured side and gasped, tense stance loosening as he took a half step forward. "He's hurt!"

Raph clapped a hand on his shoulder "Hold it, Mikey, we don't even know who he is!"

"Isn't it obvious?” The expression on Mikey’s face was curious. Open. Kind. He brushed Raph away with ease and stepped closer, sweeping an arm over Leo as if presenting him to a panel of judges. “Look at him! He's Leo!"

"Uh, hi," his past self said, "I'm Leo??"

"I'm the cooler Leo," Leo said, recognizing he was probably a little delirious but also not really coherent enough to do anything about it. "Also, I really need some help."

His family was safe. They'd take care of him. He'd be fine.

At that affirmation, all the stress and adrenaline that had been keeping him on his feet took its leave, and he just barely registered his brothers running forward before the floor rushed up to meet him.

Chapter Text

For the second time that night, Leo woke up and he wasn’t sure where he was. It was comfortable and warm, wherever it was, more comfortable than anything he’d experienced in a very long time. There was no room for comfort in the apocalypse-- when they got a chance to sleep, they took it, no matter what their surroundings might’ve been like at the time. Most memorably, Leo had once taken a nap on a crumbling section of a bridge. He’d woken up when the pavement and steel had nearly given out underneath him, and only because Mikey had started shouting. He might’ve just slept right through it otherwise. 

But he was comfortable now. A soft bed beneath him, at least two blankets, multiple pillows piled high around him. Only a dull sting in his side as opposed to the sharp pain he’d been powering through since he’d gotten the injury. His shoulder gave a mild throb every few moments and nothing else.

Recap. Casey had managed to get him through the portal they opened (and for shame, Jones, using Leo’s own move against him-- that had been one of the first things he’d taught the kid; how to overpower a larger opponent, to use their own weight against them), and he’d ended up in the past. New York, before everything had gone wrong. He’d made his way back home, and he’d found--

…His family.

This all must be their doing. Even if they weren’t entirely sure who he was or what he was doing there, they’d still patched him up and made him comfy.

He opened his eyes a tiny bit. A multitude of colors surrounded him, and he recognized one of the blankets tucked up under his chin as belonging to Mikey. Raph had knitted it for him years ago after the youngest had gotten a cold in the middle of winter, and even with all of them donating their own bedding he still hadn’t felt warm enough. They’d wound up all piled together in Raph’s room while he worked. 

The reminder of a better time made him tear up against his will, and he squeezed his eyes shut again.

“I know you’re awake,” a voice said, and Leo sat bolt upright, already reaching for a sword he didn’t have with an arm he also didn't have. A moment later he recognized Raph leaning against the wall with arms crossed a few paces away and relaxed again. This was his family. He was safe here. “You gave Mikey quite the scare.” 

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ll try to pass out a little more gracefully next time.” 

Raph huffed, shaking his head. Leo could tell he was fighting a smile despite his stony appearance. “You sure sound like Leo. I’d appreciate a little more of an explanation, though. Like who are you, and why do you look exactly like my little brother? How’d you get in without anyone noticing? And what exactly are you doing here?” 

All good questions. They weren’t trusting him blindly, despite his familiarity. (Raph was always better at that part. It was in his nature to keep his family’s safety in mind; Leo had to learn the hard way.) And while Leo might’ve tried to lie his way out in another place and time, if he could trust no one else in this or any other world, he could trust his family. His brothers. Raph had more than earned his honesty. 

Even if this wasn’t technically his Raph.

“I look like your brother because I am your brother,” he said, hoping the no-nonsense tone of voice would make Raph a little more inclined to believe him despite the implausible explanations. “I’m from the future. I didn’t set off the alarms because the security system Donnie installed here is based on our genetic signatures. And I’m here because I’m trying to stop the world from ending.” 

Technically, he was here because his student was a clever little dunce with a heart too big for the world he’d been born in, but Leo figured telling Raph that he’d been fully prepared to die wouldn’t go over super well. 

Raph stared at him in silence for several moments. Then he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, letting out a deep, slightly wheezy exhale.

“You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right?” 

“Can you think of anything that makes more sense?”

“...Y’know, I wish I could. But aside from mystic-power-induced hallucination or Donnie screwing up a cloning project without telling us , I’ve got nothing.” Raph pulled a chair over, dropping down and bracing his arms on the back of it. Leo nudged some of the blankets and pillows aside so he could meet Raph on slightly more equal ground. Cuddled up amongst what appeared to be all the bedding Mikey could scrounge together didn’t really suggest he ought to be taken seriously. “You’re really from the future?”

“By about twenty, twenty four years, yeah.”

“Huh.” He looked Leo up and down, brows knitting into a concerned expression. “Seems like a rough future. What happened to you?”

What didn’t happen?

Leo’s own expression turned grim, and he looked away. He had to tell them, right? They might’ve been young, but it would help no one to sugarcoat the truth. They’d already experienced so many terrible things. Nearly watched each other die more than once. Telling them about the future would be helpful-- it would give them insight that Leo and his brothers had lacked. Between that and Leo (and Casey, assuming he would do as told) putting in as much effort as they could to keep the Krang away, the forewarning might just be enough. 

But Raph… 

Raph had always felt like it was up to him to protect the rest of them. If Leo told him about the future, he’d take it on his shoulders to protect all of them. Stop the Krang himself. 

And he’d get himself killed again. 

“...The future isn’t good,” he said. Then backtracked. “Actually, that’s kind of an understatement-- the future is a nightmare. Imagine the worst thing you can think of, and then triple it. And then add aliens with the ability to possess people and machines and turn them into zombie hybrids. Then make it an army of them who are hell-bent on taking over the world and slaughtering or enslaving everyone on it.”

Raph’s expression had gone from concerned to utterly aghast. Or maybe horrified was a better descriptor.

He gave Leo another once-over, gaze lingering on the spot where an arm should have been and wasn’t for a few moments longer. His brow knit into something pensive, recollection flashing across his eyes. Then they widened and he looked up suddenly.

“When you fell,” he said, very quietly, “I grabbed your sword. I didn’t realize at the time, but...”

He knew what was coming.

“Leo, where are your brothers?”

It was only a matter of time, really. They had to find out sooner or later. At least this was better than them learning as a group-- he could trust Raph to be calm about the whole thing.

Leo still couldn’t meet his eyes, though.

Which was really an answer in and of itself, because Raph looked away with a soft; “Ah.” 

Silence followed. Whether it was because Raph couldn’t think of anything to say or because he could see the way Leo’s shoulders were shaking and decided he could use a moment or two, Leo couldn’t be sure, but he was grateful regardless. 

“...Did they… I mean, who-- Which one of us--”

“You,” Leo said, cutting off the question he knew he’d be hearing once the reality had come to light. (He would’ve asked it too, if their places were switched.) He continued to stare at the blankets in his lap, fists knotted in the woven yarn to ground himself. He didn’t look at Raph. “You died first.”

More silence. Which was understandable-- the news of your own death was a pretty heavy thing to hear. 

“What happened?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Leo immediately responded, almost before Raph had finished speaking. He didn’t even try to hide the desperation in his tone. “I can’t. Please don’t ask me to.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Raph said gently, reaching forward and setting a hand on the back of his neck. Leo shuddered under the achingly familiar touch. It might have been taken as a negative reaction if he hadn’t subconsciously leaned into it at the same time. God, but he’d missed his family. And even if this Raph was years younger than the one he’d last seen, his presence was still a balm over the prickling anxiety making itself at home in Leo’s chest. “It’s alright. You don’t have to talk about it. I won’t ask again.” 

“...Thank you.”

There was a knock on the door a moment later, and they both jumped at the sound. Leo felt the briefest spark of mystic energy against his shell before he settled again, and his own arm jerked to once again reach for his weapon. (Where had that ended up, anyway?)

“Hey,” Donnie said, poking his head into the room. “Are you still-- oh, he’s awake. Did he explain everything?”

“He did. We can give you guys the full run-down once he’s had a chance to get a little more rest, but I promise he’s safe. We don’t have to worry about him,” Raph responded, patting Leo twice more before turning in his chair to face their brother. “So what’s up? Mikey finally get Leo-- uh, our Leo to chill out a little?”

“Well, sort of. He made some tea and got Leo mostly calmed down.” Donnie pressed his hands together, grimacing. “And then April dragged in some weirdly dressed stranger who she claimed had assaulted her on her way home and he started freaking out again.”

Leo looked up sharply. Weirdly dressed…? “Did he have a mask? Black hair? Brown cloak?” Assault wasn’t really Casey’s style, but he also didn’t have much experience with casual interaction, so it was entirely possible he’d just been a little too enthusiastic in his greeting. (Leo carefully set aside the part of him that wondered whether April had survived the surprise attack that led to their presence here in the first place. It didn’t matter now.)

Donnie raised a critical brow at Leo’s description. “Are you two acquainted?”

“His name is Casey,” Leo said, the relief more than evident in his voice. “He’s my student. Our student. I trust him with my life.” 

“Good enough for Raph,” Raph said with a shrug. “Where’d you guys put him?”

Despite Raph’s pronouncement of his innocence, Donnie still seemed a little suspicious, and he continued staring at Leo with narrowed eyes for several moments before answering the question. “We weren’t really sure what to do with him, so we tied him up in my lab. Listen, Raph, can I talk to you for a minute? Outside? Where this guy who looks like a faulty clone of our brother can’t hear?”

“He is our brother, Don.”

“Right,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes. “Forgive me if I’m a tad bit skeptical. You see, this is completely bizarre and unprecedented and I have no reason to trust that he is who he says he is.”

“I’ll handle this, Raph,” Leo said, holding out his hand in a pacifying gesture before turning to face Donnie. His older (...younger??) brother’s defense of his character probably wouldn’t be enough. Even before they’d needed to be constantly on guard, Donnie had been a little more wary of strangers than Raph. (Usually. Leo had held the Purple Dragons incident over his head for years .) “I’m from the future.”

“Nice try. Time travel isn’t possible.” Donnie crossed his arms, looking away with an arrogant sniff. “If it was, future Donnie would’ve come back and told me the lottery numbers, like we agreed. ”

Raph shot up out of his chair and marched over to Donnie, and Leo heard him whisper harshly as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

“...Oh,” Donnie said after several moments. When Leo opened his eyes again, Donnie’s haughty look had faded into something far more somber, and he was staring at the floor with tightly crossed arms. “...Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Leo said, gathering the context without needing to hear what had been said. While Donnie could be insensitive, he almost certainly wouldn’t have been making smart comments if he’d known how bad things were. If he’d known that “future Donnie” wasn’t around anymore to tell him anything. “You didn’t know.”

How could he? None of them had been able to guess what would happen. None of them could’ve known. Leo of twenty-plus years ago wouldn’t have assumed his brothers were all dead in the future. He couldn’t blame Donnie for his cavalier attitude. (Maybe he would’ve if he wasn’t so overcome with relief at seeing them all alive again. Or maybe not. His tendency for holding grudges didn’t tend to apply to his brothers. At least not when it came to the serious stuff.) 

“So, are you--”

“Um, guys??” A distant call from the other room, easily recognizable as Mikey’s apprehensive tone. “He’s waking up!”

Raph put a hand on his head. “Oh, boy.”

“Let me talk to him,” Leo said, moving to stand and ignoring the twinge in his side at the motion. “We got separated when we came through the portal. He’s probably worried.” 

Not to mention that the longer they waited, the more time the Foot Clan would have to prepare. And Leo didn’t even know how long he’d actually been asleep. It obviously wasn’t more than an hour or two, if the world wasn’t already in the process of being invaded, but any amount of time wasted was too much.

“Woah, hold the phone,” Donnie said, immediately moving forward to put a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “You stay right there, pal. I’m not about to let you go wandering around regardless, but assuming you are telling the truth about being our brother from the future, I’m especially not going to allow you to ruin all my hard work in making sure you didn’t lose your guts through your plastron. I am not patching you together again and I really doubt our Leo will want anything to do with you.”

“The feeling is decidedly mutual,” Leo said darkly, ignoring his brothers’ confused looks at the vitriol in his tone. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold off from punching his past self if he said something stupid. Which was just about every word that came out of his mouth. “I’ll be careful. I just need to make sure Casey’s okay.” 

Donnie’s hold on him eased, and he took a few steps back. Gave Leo a pointed look. Then sighed.

“Raph, help him. Make sure he takes it easy on his way out. I’m going to go make sure the hotheads aren’t harassing our guest.” His expression turned pinched. “Or make sure they’re not being harassed. Also, we really need to find a way to distinguish you two.” 

“I don’t plan on this being a--” Donnie clearly wasn’t listening as he left the room, so Leo just cut himself off with a sigh. “Nevermind. Raph?”

Raph seemed all too happy to sidle over and wrap a securing arm around Leo’s midsection. “I got’cha, big guy.” 

The way to the lab was slow-going. Raph had taken Donnie’s order to heart, and that mixed with a dose of his own inherent concern meant he treated Leo as though he were made of glass. Leo might’ve been annoyed, but like with Donnie’s earlier callous words, he was having a hard time being anything but glad to see his brothers. Trust watching your family die to make you see them in a rose-tinted light.

The lab was in… not as much chaos as expected, when Leo and Raph arrived. April had begun trying to interrogate Casey with what was clearly limited success, based on the way she was brandishing her bat and he was scowling petulantly. Mikey was mid-phone call, probably with the pizza place-- he’d always been sure to order food when they had guests, even if the actual roster of guests they had was usually limited to April and maybe a handful of other people-- while Donnie was critically examining something over on one of the work stations. Leo’s own past counterpart was standing off to the side with his arms crossed and a brooding look on his face.

“--have that photo? How’d you know my name? And why the heck were you following me, creep?”

“I told you, I have the photo because my master gave it to me. I know your name because you’re my Commanding Officer, and I was only trying to find you because I needed you to tell me how to find them,” Casey explained, clearly exasperated, jerking his head in the general direction of Leo’s brothers and younger self. “I’m here on a mission! Humanity depends on it! I have to find that key, or else the world is doomed!”

April looked wildly unconvinced, hands on her hips and one eyebrow raised. “You realize that all sounds like a bunch of nonsense, right? If the clothes weren’t enough, you had to talk like a crazy person, too. And what’s this about me being your commanding officer?? I’m not an officer of anything, and I’ve never seen you before in my life.”

“Well, I guess you aren’t the Commander yet-- but you will be! Because like I said, I’m from the future. I came to find you because you’re the only ones who can help me! My sensei and I were gonna do it, but we got separated.” His put-upon expression morphed into something pained. “I need to go and find him. I don’t know how far away he ended up, but it’s my fault he’s here, and I’m never gonna forgive myself if it turns out he’s--”

“Raph, what the heck, dude?” Leo’s past self griped, interrupting Casey’s rambling as he laid eyes on the pair of them. “You brought that guy out here? Without talking to us about it first? Does anyone else think that the idea of another me is a little weird??”

Casey sat bolt upright, expression brightening in an instant and eyes going a little misty. (April, for her part, just seemed completely baffled at Leo’s appearance.) “Sensei! You’re okay!!”

“Good to see you too, Casey,” Leo said. If he weren’t miffed about Casey using his own trust against him to get him into the portal, he might’ve hugged him. (He’d still hug him later. He just needed to finish chewing him out first.) “We’re gonna have words about that stunt you pulled, by the way.”

His student deflated ever-so-slightly, but even the promise of a reprimand clearly wasn’t enough to dull the relief of seeing each other safe and sound. To a relative extent. Leo was still down an arm, after all.

“Cool it, Leo,” Raph said, putting a hand out towards his past self then gesturing to him. “Everyone, this is--”

“I’m you,” Leo interrupted for the sake of concision, “from the future. And we’re here to save the world.” 

“Oh, not you too,” his past self groaned, rolling his eyes. “What is it with us attracting lunatics? I mean, seriously, aliens? The end of the world? Time travel? Like, what is this, some B-list sci-fi movie?” He tried for a laugh. Then he looked around, seeing Leo’s own severe expression, and the way Donnie wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes, staring down at the construction on the table before him (Leo’s arm, now that he had a chance to actually look at it). Raph’s supportive hold around Leo which tightened ever so slightly. Casey’s morose look. The way no one else was laughing alongside him. Even April, who clearly hadn’t believed the time travel story any more than anyone else, was looking a little unsettled.

He went quiet.

“...What, really?”

“He’s telling the truth, Leo,” Raph said quietly. He hadn’t removed his arm from around Leo, and though Leo could definitely stand on his own, he also wasn’t saying anything about it. (It had been so , so long.) “It’s… The things he told me, it’s the sort of stuff you wouldn’t lie about. So I believe him.”

“Likewise,” Donnie added, looking a little queasy as he stepped away from the prosthetic arm. “It may sound unlikely, but it’s entirely plausible, considering all of the factors.”

They didn’t have time for this. If Leo’s memory served him right, they’d already lost the key thanks to his own foolish showboating, and with every second they spent chit-chatting the possibility of the Krang’s imminent return grew more significant. In Leo’s time, they hadn’t realized the importance of the key-- all they’d known was that there was something brewing in the Foot Clan. It hadn’t seemed worth it to try and get back the mysterious whatever-they-stole, and so after Splinter had broken up the argument between him and Raph, they’d just forgotten the whole incident. Which then meant they had been wholly unprepared for the onslaught they came face-to-face with mere hours later.

“I know you like to treat everything like it’s a joke,” Leo all but spat at his past self, ignoring the way he lurched back as though he’d been struck, “but if you value your family or the world as you know it, you’ll take this seriously.” 

“Woah, hey--”

“I’m as much of a supporter of Leo getting his act together as the next guy, but that’s a little much--”

“I’ll say whatever I need to get it through his thick skull that this is important,” Leo said, sending glares at both Raph and Donnie and effectively silencing their protests. (It was probably pretty weird for them, seeing him act so serious when they were only acquainted with this devil-may-care version of him.) He looked back to his counterpart, who was looking a little peaky. “This isn’t about you. None of this is about you. The sooner you learn that, the better chance you’ll have at making sure your family gets out of this alive. You want people to think you deserve your place as leader? Then start acting like it.”

Dead silence followed his tirade.

Maybe he should have tried a little harder to keep his cool. The fate of the world may have been dependent on what happened in the next few hours, but they were still just kids. Teenagers. Who, despite having saved the world at least once before, were inexperienced and prone to making mistakes.

What Leo wouldn’t give to have his brothers with him right now. 

“Alright, everyone needs to take a bit of a chill pill,” Mikey, who had either finished his order or taken notice of the tense atmosphere and decided to forego the refreshments for the time being, stepped up between them. “Why don’t we all take a seat and talk this out?”

“We don’t have time. The Foot already have the key, and if they open the portal, that’s it. We can settle our differences later.” 

Leo straightened up, stepping away from Raph. His sword had been propped up against the wall-- thankfully untouched, presumably where Raph had left it after he’d collapsed-- and no one tried to stop him as he picked it up, heading for the still-restrained Casey. One quick swipe and the ropes dropped to the ground. Casey immediately jumped to his feet, taking his usual place at Leo’s side, and Leo slid his sword into place at his hip. It was chipped, but it would do for now-- there was no time for him to go rifling through the armory here. Nor time for him to re-wrap the cloth around the handle, and he’d die before he’d go into a fight without those.

“Help me with my arm,” Leo said, and with a firm nod Casey headed for the table. He was solidly in mission mode now, which meant zero arguing and a purposeful determination to his stride. “We leave in five.”

“Uh, guys? Can we hold on for a minute?” Leo’s past self (maybe Donnie had a point-- they did need a way to distinguish themselves) sounded incredulous, and Leo had to shove down the urge to whack him upside the head, “are we just gonna do what this guy says? Thought I was supposed to be the leader here. How do we know he’s not just dragging us into some mess that’s not our problem?”

“Leo.” There was a warning in Raph’s voice. “This isn’t--”

“What, the time? It’s not like there’s gonna be a better one! Besides,” he said, looking at Leo with a scowl, “if we mess it up, you can just hop back in time again and fix it.”

Leo blinked, and his knuckles were stinging. 

“Woah!”

“Holy--”

“Sensei!!” 

“Alright! That’s enough!” Raph stood like an impermeable wall between Leo and where his past self had hit the ground after Leo had decked him in the face. Over Raph’s shoulder-- and they were almost the same height, which left Leo feeling off-kilter in a bizarre way, because he’d never not had to look up at his older brother-- he could see Donnie and Mikey rushing to help. “I know you’ve been through a lot, but that does not give you an excuse to start beating up on my brothers. We’re willing to help, so long as you shelve whatever problem it is you’ve got with our Leo. Cool it. You hear me?” 

Right. Because Raph was here, and he wouldn’t let anyone get away with hurting his brothers. Even themselves. And as much as they were technically Leo’s brothers, he was also as good as a stranger here. 

“...Got it.”

“Good.” With a firm nod, Raph turned to face his brothers. Donnie and Mikey had helped the other Leo to his feet, and were now standing in a loose group, Mikey fussing with an ice pack he seemed to have pulled from nowhere. There was a scuff on past-Leo’s face that would probably turn into a bruise by the next day.

Leo wished he could feel bad about it. He couldn’t deny it felt kind of good to punch his past self in the face, though. Maybe it’d help him realize he needed to get his head in the game.

“You heard him, boys. And April. Make sure you’ve got all your gear, ‘cause this is sounding like it's gonna be a rough one.” Raph jerked his head forward. “Five minutes. Mikey, help him get a bandage on that bruise, and then I want a portal to the island open and ready.”

No one argued. Mikey shuffled past-Leo off in the general direction of the bathroom, giving Leo himself a strained look as they passed. April made her way to Raph’s side, and Leo caught enough of their whispering to gather that they were debating telling Splinter where they were going. (Leo’s untimely arrival had interrupted the fight between his past self and Raph before their father needed to get involved, so he was wholly unaware of everything that had transpired.) 

Casey stepped forward, Leo’s arm held tightly in his hands. Leo took a seat on the top of the desk he was standing near so Casey could reach his shoulder a little better. He could have reattached the arm himself, and had done so a multitude of times, but it was easier if he got a third party involved.

“Where’d this thing come from, anyway?”

“Oh,” Casey said, and he paused for just a second before hefting the arm into place against Leo’s side. “I mean... Either I hit the emergency switch on accident or the force of the portal was just that strong, ‘cause I had it with me when I woke up here. I wasn’t sure-- I mean, you weren’t-- I didn’t know--”

“Hey, take it easy,” Leo soothed, reaching over to pat his shoulder. “You did just fine. I’m glad you held onto it. Makes our lives a lot easier.” 

Casey gave him a placid smile, then looked back to the work he was doing. He started on the connections in silence, but it was clear there was something bothering him. Leo had known him for way too long to not notice that. So the next time Casey glanced up from his arm and at Leo himself, he gestured forward in a clear invitation to speak.

“Sensei,” he said quietly, “why did you hit him?”

Leo scowled. While it was true that “because he was being a stubborn little prick” was a big part of the reason, it wasn’t the whole truth. And Casey had long-since earned Leo’s trust. 

“...I got mad,” he admitted. 

More than that.

“I lost my cool. He was…” No, that wasn’t right. It wasn’t really the fault of his past self. He didn’t know what it had taken for Leo to get back to this point the first time around. He couldn’t have known, because Leo hadn’t explained it. None of them knew anything-- They only knew what Leo told them, and he’d been pretty cagey so far. “I heard him suggest we could just hop back in time again if we messed something up, and I remembered how it took Mikey everything just to send us back here, for the possibility that we might not even manage to change anything. And I…”

“And you lost your cool,” Casey repeated, all grim understanding. He’d been there-- he knew as well as Leo did just what their trip back in time had cost. And he understood perfectly well what had set Leo off. (For not the first time, Leo thanked his lucky stars that Cassandra had entrusted the kid’s training to him and his brothers.) “It’s okay, Sensei. I think they’ll understand. They seem…”

He had his mask up, so Leo could see the conflicting emotions playing out across his face. Distaste, uncertainty, wistfulness… Leo could sympathize.

“...They seem nice,” Casey finished, rather lamely. 

“Give them a chance, Casey,” he said, bracing himself as Casey shoved his arm into place. There was the telltale click of a successful link, and after a few tests where he flexed the fingers to make sure they were all responding correctly, he reached forward and set a gentle hand on Casey’s shoulder. “Once this is all over, I think you should get to know them. You’ve never really gotten the chance to hang out with kids your own age, and neither have they. Spending time with them will be good for both of you.”

“Even this version of you?”

Leo grinned. “Especially this version of me. That guy needs someone who’s not gonna take his crap. I know you idolize me, but try not to feed his ego, okay? Believe it or not, your Sensei used to be kind of a pig-headed idiot.” 

Casey hopped up on the table next to him, bumping an elbow against his uninjured side. “Believing that is the easiest thing I’ll do all day.” 

There hadn’t been much to laugh about in the midst of the Krang takeover. So for a guy like Leo, who had spent so long shielding himself from the horrors of the world with increasingly untimely jokes, it had been something of a personal mission to be able to find a reason to smile wherever he could. (That was the only reason he’d managed to have anything besides tears in his eyes after Mikey had… after Mikey.)

After a moment or two of silence, Leo’s smile faded. “Listen, Casey--”

What had been the start of a reprimand was interrupted by the loud return of past-Leo and Mikey, both with their weapons firmly situated in easy reach and the former with a clean bandage on his cheek. Apparently whatever had transpired in the other room had been enough to boost past-Leo’s spirits back to his usual unconcerned attitude. He went silent for a split second as his gaze swept over Leo himself, but the chatter returned as soon as he glanced in Raph’s direction.

“One portal to the creepy bad guy island, coming right up,” he said, sweeping his swords forward dramatically.

“Put us on the roof,” Leo interjected. “We need to get a look at what we’re dealing with before we rush in.”

“Are you sure you’re really Leo?” Donnie glanced sideways at him. “I don’t know if that phrase or anything like it has ever come out of his mouth in his entire life.”

“Hey--”

“I’m Leo after one too many screw-ups,” he said, and only some bitterness found its way into his tone. He’d told Raph he’d keep his problems with his past self on the down-low. (And at least he was trying). “For all of your sakes, I hope you find a different way to hammer some diligence into his head.”

The portal opened with a crackle of energy, and the group began making their ways through. First went Raph, followed by past-Leo (Leon, maybe? Donnie liked that nickname) and the rest of his brothers-plus-April. After a meaningful look in Leo’s direction, Casey headed in, and Leo himself was the last one though. He’d just barely gotten through the gateway in space when it winked out of existence.

He shot a narrow glare towards his past self. Leon (yeah, it stuck) just looked at him coolly. 

Prick.

“Keep quiet,” Leo muttered, crouching down and peering into the crowd below them. The Foot Soldiers were amassed around the central platform, with the portal frame clearly visible at the top of it. The Lieutenant stood before it, key in hand. “The important thing is getting that key. I assume you’re generally opposed to dismemberment?”

“Excuse me??”

April’s dubious, whispered exclamation went soundly ignored. Leon gave him a nauseated look. “Uh, yeah, it’s not exactly a hobby of mine.”

“In that case, we’ll have to take him by surprise.” If Leo were in his past self’s shoes, he’d have just cut the man’s hand off and been done with it. He was a soldier of efficiency. Whatever got the job done in the quickest and least fatal way possible. But this family… they had the luxury of principles.

In a stunning moment of clarity, any resentment Leo might have felt towards that fact vanished. Of course they had the luxury of principles. That was exactly the sort of thing Leo was here to guarantee. That the world would be able to sustain itself as it was, that it wouldn’t fall to ruin. That the people who lived on it wouldn’t be forced to fight for their very lives, wouldn’t have to live every moment in fear, would have the opportunity to get themselves as many luxuries as they wanted. 

It wasn’t about him.

“Try to drop us directly on top of their leader,” Leo said, pointing with his sword in the general direction of the platform. “The important thing is keeping the key away from the portal. Don’t worry about stopping the entirety of the Foot Clan-- so long as they don’t bring the Krang here, there’ll always be another chance. Don’t do anything stupid, don’t bite off more than you can chew, and don’t try to be a hero.” 

That got him surprised looks from at least two of their party members. Raph was more perplexed, while Leon…

Leon looked sort of vulnerable, in a way that made Leo himself feel distinctly uncomfortable.

“If you’re in too deep, if you get into trouble, call for help. If you get hurt, tag out. That being said,” he continued, and Casey-- recognizing the encroaching conclusion of his speech-- slid his mask into its proper place, “do whatever you need to make sure they don’t open that portal. Whatever it takes.”

And the group of kids before him, looking more serious than he’d seen them since his arrival, all gave him a determined nod.

“Get ready,” he said, bracing himself as the flickering outline of a portal appeared in a circle around them.

“Go!”

Chapter Text

Things fell into chaos the moment they dropped through the portal.

Leo kept track of their group even as he launched himself at the startled Lieutenant. Raph, encased in a glowing, monumental rendition of himself, barreled through the crowd of Foot Soldiers charging towards them like the world’s most inglorious wrecking ball. Donnie dropped an air-strike in the form of April O’Niel, where she was followed by the repetitive thwack of a baseball bat against clothed muscle. Mikey wound up standing sentinel in front of the dias meant for the key. 

Leon was playing leap-frog around the battlefield, slicing open portals under the feet of whoever happened to get too close and dropping them either at the other end of the room with a sword flung in that direction. Whenever he happened to notice the Lieutenant getting a little too close to the dias for comfort, he’d duck back into the fray to portal him to the other side of the platform.

He’d always been tricky. Somehow, Leo had forgotten that that particular trait wasn’t a product of the apocalypse.

Casey was engaged in what he did best-- covering Leo’s bases. While Leo was a whirlwind even with his slightly damaged sword, he couldn’t be everywhere at once, and that was where his student came in. Jones kept at the Lieutenant whenever Leo faltered, using every trick in the book to make sure he didn’t have a single moment to take advantage of. He fought fiercer than any of them, including Leo himself. 

“Hey! Could use a hand here!” April shouted from amidst the throng of Foot Soldiers. Almost immediately, the glowing form of Raph launched himself across the room to cover her crouched form. He swept an arm out, knocking aside several of their attackers like bowling pins. 

The Lieutenant bared his teeth as he was once more forced backwards by the edge of Leo’s sword, his glowing gaze flickering around as he struggled to find an opening. As if sensing his desperation increasing, Casey backed up to join Mikey and Donnie, jumping up and landing directly on top of the dias. He braced the blade of his weapon directly in the key’s slot. 

“This ceremony has been centuries in the making,” the Lieutenant hissed. “I will not allow it to be disrupted by a bunch of--”

Leo darted forward, interrupting the beginnings of a monologue by slamming his metal fist against the Lieutenant’s sternum. He wheezed as all the air left him with the force of it, and the key dropped from his loosened fingers. Seconds later, a glowing sword spun through the air between them. Leo lurched backwards as Leon flickered into existence, swiped up the key from where it had landed on the ground, and disappeared again.

A quip surfaced in Leo’s mind before he could stop it. Rule number one; never stop to give an evil speech if your enemy still has a teleporting sword at their disposal. He’d long-since trained himself out of his smart comments-- at least, for the most part-- but perhaps this one was simply born of the familiarity that came with fighting side by side with his family once again.

Silence followed the sudden turn in the battle’s tide for all of a moment before Leo got over himself and spun into a solid roundhouse kick that sent the Lieutenant slamming into the portal frame with a sickening crack . That seemed to spur the rest of them into action, the soldiers rushing forward and his teammates moving to meet them, and Leo raised his voice to be heard above the ensuing din.

“Retreat!” he called. “We’ve got the key, get out however you can!”

In an instant, Donnie scooped up Mikey in one arm and April in the other, launching himself and his passengers upwards with a pulse of his shell’s thrusters. Raph leapt up as far as he could, dropping his mystic field at the last second and letting the momentum carry him through a hole in the roof. Casey shot a grapple at a broken bit of the building’s frame, and Leo grabbed his offered hand. The mechanism retracted, flinging them out through a broken window, where they landed in equally uncoordinated tumbles on the pavement outside.

“How are we supposed to get back to the lair?” Casey hissed as they ran side-by-side towards the coast. “And where did past-you go, anyway??” 

“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter,” Leo said. They could probably swim for it if need-be, although it was a long way to the nearest shore, and he wasn’t positive his arm would stay waterproof that long. “What matters is that he’s got the key far away from that portal. We can figure out everything else later.”

Speak of the devil, because almost as soon as he’d finished speaking, a portal flickered into existence beside them, and Leon appeared with a heaving breath.

“So, that went better than expected,” he said, falling into step beside the pair as they ran. Leo took stock of his status mostly on instinct-- he looked winded, but otherwise unharmed. “Side note, do I lose my portals some time in the future, or are you just so determined to never have any fun that you’ve decided to--”

“Leon,” he snapped, “the key?”

“Oh, so it’s Leon, now? Sure, why not, just steal my bros’ nickname for me along with my job.” He rolled his eyes. “The key’s fine. I dropped it off with Pops. Which, by the way, you owe him some serious explanations. Usually we’re pretty good about telling our dad where we’re going, and when we do sneak out, it usually isn’t to bad guy conventions where the literal fate of the world is at stake.”

“So, you believe me now?”

Leon scowled, but given it was literally Leo’s own face staring back at him, he could see the pout for what it was. “Yeah, yeah. I guess that was pretty convincing. Even if I saw absolutely zero aliens or portals-- besides mine, of course-- that seemed pretty serious. Dunno if I’ve seen that many Foot guys in one place since they brought back ol’ Shreddy, so you know it’s gotta be something big. Side note, and totally normal topic change, what exactly was that whole thing back there in your totally inspiring pre-battle speech about not being a hero? Isn’t being a hero totally your thing? Big, fancy leader type? You two literally went through all the effort of coming back here just to save the world. I dunno about you, but that sounds pretty heroic if you ask me.”

“It’s not,” Leo said, his voice a grim deadpan. “We’re here because we’re the only ones left, Leonardo. Where we come from, everything is gone. Our family, our friends, our world. There’s nothing. Our options were to die there, having failed to save anyone, or come here, where we might at least be able to give all of you a chance.”

Leon went quiet at that, a feat Leo hadn't known he was capable of. Casey, at Leo's side, bit his lip and looked away.

"Being a hero gets you killed," Leo said quietly. "And I'm still here. I’m not a hero."

“...I mean--”

“Sensei, I’m sorry.”

It was a pretty obvious attempt on Casey’s part to quell an argument before it arose, but alright. Leo would bite.

He glanced over at his protege, whose shoulders were hunched and whose head was bowed low. Now that they’d gotten a moment of respite with the passing of danger, Casey’s steadfast focus had faded somewhat, and there was a note of obvious guilt in the way he held himself. Leo had a pretty good feeling he knew what the apology was for. Much to his chagrin, because while he wasn’t happy with Casey for dragging him in here against his orders, he’d sort of thought the kid had learned to be confident in himself and his decisions by now.

Maybe he hadn’t. At least, not to the extent Leo was. Which might have been for the best, actually-- Casey needed to be confident, because insecurity could get you killed if it made you falter when it mattered most, but perhaps he was better off without the reckless irrationality that Leo had never really managed to completely eradicate.

“Apologizing before I get a chance to berate you doesn’t make me any less upset with you, y’know.”

“I know.”

“Woah, what? Berate him?” Leon looked between the two, confusion writ on his face. “I thought that went pretty well. We got the key, no one died, win-win situation. What the heck would you have to get on Casey’s back about?”

“The mission went fine. My grief with him is about what happened before that.” They were well enough away from the Foot base by now that Leo figured they could afford to take a break, so he ducked around a wall and turned to Casey with his arms crossed. “Casey Jones, I ordered you to go. I told you it wasn’t up for debate. You disobeyed me, and the only reason it didn’t cost us everything is because we got lucky. That cannot happen again, you hear me? You cannot ignore what I tell you to do without warning. Especially not when we’re in the middle of a fight. If you have a problem with my orders, you can bring it up after we’re out of the line of fire. Capiche?”

“I know, Sensei. I’m sorry.” Casey bowed his head apologetically. “I wasn’t thinking about the potential consequences. I got scared, and I let my emotions control my decision-making. It won’t happen again.”

Leo could’ve called bullshit. He probably should have, the same way he should have called bullshit every other time Casey had ignored his directions in the past then promised he wouldn’t do it again. If he thought the disobedience was due to stubbornness or a sense of rebellion, he probably would have. But he knew quite well that the only reason Casey had ever ignored a direct order was because he thought with his heart, not his head. He was a good kid. But he wasn’t built to be a soldier.

The result of that disobedience had never been quite so impactful before, though.

“Make sure it doesn’t.”

“Um, for those of us who didn’t get the memo that included the context on whatever you guys are talking about,” Leon piped up, hands on his hips and looking between the two of them like they’d started speaking another language, “would you mind filling us in?” 

Casey opened his mouth to speak. Then paused, closing it again and looking to Leo for guidance.

He’d told himself it was for the best that Raph didn’t know he hadn’t been planning on making it out of the fight that had sent Casey here. It would only serve to make Raph concerned about him, and in the end it didn’t really matter, since he was here now and that wasn’t changing. But Leon… it might help him realize the severity of the situation if he knew the truth of the circumstances behind their arrival.

“I wasn’t supposed to get sent back here,” Leo said. “The plan was for Casey to go on his own. I was already injured, and we were under siege-- someone needed to make sure the Krang ignored the gateway long enough for him to make it through. I told Casey to leave me behind, and he decided he didn’t feel like listening to me.”

Leon stared at him in disbelief. “You’re mad because he decided to not let you get killed?”

“I’m not mad-- I'm disappointed. And I'm disappointed because he disobeyed my direct instruction,” Leo clarified. “You can’t let your emotions get the better of you. There’s no room for that in war.” 

“Yeah, but you were going to die.”

“And I was at peace with that.” 

“You--”

“Let me ask you something, Leonardo,” Leo interrupted, stepping forward and jabbing at Leon’s chest. A quiet voice in the back of his mind that sounded something like Mikey warned him that he was being a little too harsh, but it was easily quieted with the reminder that this was him and as far as he was concerned, he wouldn’t have made near as many fuck-ups if someone had properly chewed him out at this age. (Someone other than Raph, who had been just a little too easy to ignore.) “If you found yourself standing at the end of the world, your friends and family and your brothers all dead because of a mistake you made, and you could give someone else a chance to fix it at the cost of your own life, would you?”

Leon blinked, glancing down at the metal finger scraping his plastron then back up at Leo’s face. He opened his mouth as though he were going to give a snarky retort. Then paused, brow ridges knitting into something uncertain.

“...Our brothers are dead?”

“Every. Single. One of them,” Leo hissed, pulling his sword from its sheath and jabbing Leon with the base of the pommel to emphasize each word. “And it is all our fault. Raph died defending me from my own reckless stupidity. Donnie was killed because I pushed him into using an invention before it was ready. And Mikey--”

“Sensei,” Casey said placatingly, but Leo barreled right through him.

“Mikey gave everything he had just to open the gateway to bring us here. And the only reason he did that was because I asked him to.” He grabbed the strap crossing over Leon’s chest and dragged him forward with his free hand, baring his teeth in his face. “Being the leader is not a privilege. It’s not a reward for a job well done. It doesn't make you a hero. The only thing being in charge means is that every single casualty that happens under your watch is your fault. Whether you were directly involved or not.” 

“Master Leonardo!” A hand clapped over his wrist, and Casey placed the other with far more care on Leon’s shoulder. “I think he gets it.”

Leo glanced over at him, still sneering. He didn’t falter.

“Please, Sensei. Back off.”

Without looking away from Casey, Leo let go, and his counterpart stumbled back several steps and landed heavily on the pavement. Casey held his stare for several moments before turning to help. 

Leo really needed to stop letting his temper get the better of him. 

But damn it all, Leon needed to learn. He needed to realize just what was at stake, and how important his actions would end up being. Leo had only really internalized that after he’d already failed everyone. If they were going to make sure the world stayed safe, now and in the future, Leon would need to do the same. And since the whole point of their intrusion was to prevent all that tragedy, Leo would just have to step up to the plate. 

"We should get back to the lair," Leo said once Casey had helped Leon to his feet, his sword once more safely tucked away. His counterpart had a guarded look on his face, but Leo resolutely ignored it. He'd be glad for the harsh words eventually. "Did you manage to find everyone else?"

Several moments of silence, and Leo was starting to think he'd earned himself the cold shoulder with his little tirade until Leon rolled his shoulders to get Casey to back off and looked away. "Raph's swimming across. Donnie's carrying Mikey and April. We're all meeting up on the mainland. I didn't portal them across 'cause I'm running out of juice for the night and I want to be able to get us home."

Right to the point, and not a single smart comment to be heard. Maybe he had made an impact. (It didn't matter that Casey was looking between them in clear concern, wringing his hands nervously. That could be dealt with later.)

"Good. Do you have the energy to bring the three of us across, or do we need to find another way?"

The tension in the air could be cut by a knife. Or, perhaps, a katana.

"No promises you don't get lost in the middle of it somewhere," Leon muttered, though there wasn't much heart in it. A quick swipe of one sword left a humming tear in space, and Leon gestured forward invitingly. 

He'd made his threat, but Leo had a feeling it was all bark. If only because he wouldn't do that to Casey. 

The portal put him out on an empty stretch of pavement, and Leon and Casey followed a few too many moments later. The former was wholly closed off while Casey looked even more guilty than before, and Leo made a mental note to ask exactly what had transpired in the short amount of time they'd been left alone.

“Whoof, that one took a lot out of me," Leon said, stretching his arms up over his head. His tone and gesture were both casual enough to not betray the severity of their conversation mere minutes earlier. "We might be walking home, guys.”

"Hey!" Mikey called, waving cheerfully from where he and his companions were resting against a low wall at the edge of the lot. Donnie had taken his shell off and was tweaking one of the boosters with a screwdriver. "You guys okay?"

"No injuries," Leo said. "You?"

"None to speak of. I mean-- April got a bruise, but that was 'cause she was too busy taunting one of the Foot Soldiers to notice the stairs behind her."

April shot a glare at him. "Mikey! We agreed to keep that on the down low."

"What? You want to lie to him?" He indicated Leo's whole self. "The guy looks like he eats liars for breakfast."

"He's not that intimidating."

"I'd appreciate it if you were honest about your injuries and how you got them," Leo said. "Not because I don't like lying, but so you can actually get any help you might need. Saving face isn't worth letting something go untreated. That's how it gets worse, and it's better to deal with the problem before it gets unmanageable instead of waiting until after."

April hunched her shoulders, crossing her arms and looking away. "It's not that serious. I just bumped my shoulder. I know bruises, and this one's not that bad."

"Have Leon take a look at it when we get home anyway."

Donnie glanced away from his shell and over at Leo with a raised brow. "He's letting you call him Leon?"

"He's tolerating it," Leon interjected, arms crossed and with a dramatic roll of his eyes. "It's annoying, but we gotta keep ourselves separate somehow. And I didn't want to humiliate him by calling him Leo Two."

"Wouldn't you be Leo Two? Considering I'm the eldest between us?"

"Sorry, buddy. My time period, my rules."

Leo suppressed an annoyed scoff. He couldn't really get mad-- especially about a hypothetical-- but even Leon's completely innocent snark was enough to rankle him. "Don't worry, I don't plan on making this a long term thing."

Donnie frowned. "What does that mean?"

"You're not staying?" Mikey's hurt tone was almost enough to make him reconsider. Almost. But a glance across the water at the barely-visible bad-guy-base just solidified his resolve. 

"I have to make sure the Foot don't get the key, no matter what. My best bet is to take it as far away from their base of operations as possible." They mainly operated out of New York, but he had to assume they had other sects here and there. It was an old Clan, after all. “The longer it stays in one place, the bigger chance there is that they’ll come after it, and that cannot be allowed to happen." 

"And there's some reason you can't destroy it, I assume," Donnie mused, "otherwise you would've done that already."

"As far as we're aware, it's indestructible. We never had much of a chance to get close enough to try, but from all our research, the signature doesn’t match anything on this planet. Our theory was that the warriors who sealed the Krang away in the first place used their own materials to do it.” A distant noise prickled at the edge of Leo’s senses, and he took note of the rhythmic churning of water. Raph inbound. “Since we can’t destroy it, and locking it up somewhere will only be effective for so long, our only real option is the world’s biggest game of keep-away.” 

“But why does it have to be you?”

“Mikey--”

“Raph inbound!” Came the distant shout (alongside a loud splash), mimicking his earlier thought, and a mystic hologram dropped down heavily on the pavement a little ways away. The projection faded, and Raph landed in a veritable superhero pose, one knee bent and his hands braced on the ground. He jumped up and dusted his hands off, giving the group a once-over. "Everyone alright?"

"We're doing just fine, big brother," Leon said. "Have a nice swim?"

"Could’a been better, if it weren’t the Hudson.” He shook himself to rid his scales of the water clinging to them, and the rest of them immediately voiced complaints at being drenched. “Are you good to bring us home?"

"I should have one left in me." He hefted his swords, slicing one through the air. There was visible effort behind the motion as he tore a hole in space, and its edges were far more jagged than usual. "Just don't dawdle, 'kay? Dunno how long this thing's gonna last and I'd hate to portal-chop you."

"Oh, let it go, Leon, it's not gonna stick," Donnie said as he headed through, followed by Leon's complaining and Mikey's encouragement. April was next, followed by Raph, but as Leo made to follow after the rest of them, Casey grabbed the edge of his scarf to keep him in place. It was such an odd motion, completely uncharacteristic, and the novelty of it alone had Leo halting in place.

“Sensei--”

“You think I was being too harsh earlier,” Leo surmised.

Casey’s expression stayed firmly serious. “I do, Sensei. I don’t know… exactly what’s going on, but I don’t think you should be so rough with younger-you. I know this is the world you grew up in, but it’s been a while, and you’re kind of just as much of a stranger as me right now. There’s a lot going on. We’re both out of our depth.”

He sighed. Leave it to Casey to school his own teacher. “You’re right, Case. You know I’m only being so harsh because I remember what it was like being him. Thinking we were untouchable. Like the consequences either didn’t matter or didn’t exist in the first place. I got a lot of people hurt, and if I can guarantee that won’t happen again, I have to. I can’t just sit by and let him make all the same stupid decisions I did.”

“You can also do that without being cruel, I know you can. You taught me just fine. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you insult someone this much in my entire life.” His stern expression faltered, and he hunched his shoulders a bit. It wasn’t that Casey talking back was so rare-- he did so regularly and without shame. But normally it wasn’t about things like… this. So there was bound to be a bit of awkwardness in there. "Raphael told you to cool it. That's not cooling it, Sensei. Go easy on him."

Leo sighed. It always rankled him to admit his student was right, though at the same time, it gave him immeasurable pride to know Casey had surpassed him in many ways. That was what every teacher wanted for their pupils.

He’d just never expected one of those ways to be emotional maturity.

“I’ll do my best,” Leo said. 

He could promise nothing more than that.

Chapter Text

The atmosphere of the lair was convivial when Leo stepped through the portal with Casey at his side. Donnie was engaged in conversation with April, where Leo could see an outline of the portal frame from the Foot Clan base displayed on one of his holographic screens. Leon had the key balanced on the point of one sword, to Mikey’s delight, while Raph hovered nearby ready to catch it if it fell. And-- Leo noticed with a feeling like a skipping record in his chest-- Splinter sat in his chair, alternating between watching the show being projected on the screen and giving idle and mostly unhelpful commentary on Leon’s form. 

He glanced over when Leo and Casey appeared and, to his credit, only seemed mildly perplexed by the duplicate son. No doubt one of them had told him already, though whether it had been Leon when he’d dropped off the key or someone else in the span of time Leo and Casey had been dawdling remained to be seen.

“So,” he said, and the chatter in the room fell silent as all eyes turned to them, “you’re the one Orange was telling me about. My son from the future.”

Leo walked over, crouching down at the side of Splinter’s chair so as to make conversation a little easier. There was another pang in his chest, this time on the heels of the nostalgia that came with kneeling to be at eye-level with his father. 

He hadn’t lasted long, in Leo’s time. Not owing to any lack of skill-- on the contrary, he’d been invaluable-- but because he had and always would be willing to do anything for his sons. And in a world like theirs, that “anything” more often than not turned out to be fatal. To all of their collective grief, their father had scarcely hesitated when the time came to throw himself into the line of fire for their sake. 

“Hey Pops,” Leo said, voice cracking. “Been a while.”

“From what I was told, I don’t doubt it has been.” The show paused with a click of the remote-- which Leo had to be glad for, because his emotional breakdown really didn’t need background ambience of whatever trashy reality TV had been playing-- before Splinter turned to face him, reaching up to cup a hand against his jaw. “You look exhausted, Blue.”

Brash. Tactless. Oh, hell, Leo missed him. “Is it that obvious?”

“More tired than me, and that’s saying something.” Quiet speech and footsteps from the other side of the room, and Leo glanced over just in time to see Casey following after the rest of the crew as they headed out. His student gave him a reassuring smile before he closed the door behind him, leaving Leo and his father alone. “Why don’t you sit down? I think you’re more than in need of a break.” 

Leo could have argued-- probably would have, if this were anyone else. He hadn’t earned a break, they had no time for breaks in this world, he’d only get a break when he was dead. But this was Splinter, and despite how old Leo might’ve been, some part of him still wanted to believe his dad always knew best. 

So Leo unhooked his blade’s sheath from his belt and set both it and the weapon aside, taking up a meditative pose beside Splinter’s chair. He didn’t miss the way his dad’s gaze lingered over the bandanas tied around the handle. 

“Now,” he said, reaching over and setting a gentle hand on Leo’s shoulder, “tell me everything.” 

Unlike the somewhat sensitized explanation of his experiences he’d given to Raph when he’d asked, he spared no details in describing the events of the now impossible future to his father. He started from the beginning, and continued until his voice was hoarse and wavering. It broke around when he reached the point of the story where he’d watched Donnie get ripped apart, and he had to take several minutes and down a cup of tea Splinter provided before he could go on.

While it was true that something could still go wrong and the Krang could still find a way back to their dimension, the course of time had already been changed. The future-- Leo’s future-- was nonexistent, erased from possibility, if only by virtue of his presence. Part of the reason they’d been so easily devastated in his time was thanks to their being caught unprepared. None of them had known the Krang were something to worry about; even his father had thought them simply creatures of legend. 

But now, even if the Krang did make their way here, they would be ready. Leo was their warning sign. They would not be caught off guard.

“We’d lost,” he said, his words now more half-constructed thoughts than full phrases, “we had nothing. We couldn’t beat them. I knew what it would take, Mikey knew what it would take, but-- I thought-- I had to believe we could do better. It was my fault, all my fault-- I could see where it all went wrong and it was me.”

“My son,” Splinter said softly, and if hearing that didn’t just tear Leo’s heart to shreds, “you cannot place the blame on your shoulders alone.”

“The fact that I’m the leader alone would be enough for me to shoulder the blame, but it was my mistake that led to the Foot Clan getting ahold of the key. I let them get away. I got cocky, and I wanted the attention, and I messed up.” He lowered his head to bent knees, and Splinter gently rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. The gentle scrape of claws over scales was comforting in a way he’d never thought he’d feel again. “It was my fault.” 

There was a heavy sigh, and his father moved his hand to the top edge of his shell. “Did I ever tell you why I made you the leader, in your future?”

“No. At first I thought I’d shown you I’d earned it, but it didn’t take me long to decide it was probably a punishment of some kind. Meant to teach me to be more mature.” He lowered his head a bit further, for not the first time wishing he had Mikey’s ability to fully retract into his shell. “...I hated it for a while. Hated you for making me responsible for everyone.”

“Part of it was to teach you responsibility. You were always clever, but sometimes you failed to take matters seriously when needed, instead letting that task fall to your brothers. Often it was to your own detriment. Another part of it was just that I thought your oldest brother could use some rest.” Splinter placed a hand on his cheek, and he looked up to meet his sympathetic gaze. “I made you the leader to teach you confidence, Leonardo. In yourself, and your team. To teach you trust. I saw your exaggerated ego for the insecurity it was, and hoped the task of leading would offer you a chance to truly recognize your own potential, and to let yourself be open with those around you. A true leader cannot stand on his own, and he is not solely liable for the well-being of those he leads. He understands when to fall back and rely on others.”

“But Raph--”

“I know I’m old, but my eyes are not that far gone that I have mistaken you for your brother. You do not need to be him. I have never wanted you to be him, to lead like he did. No matter who of you is in charge, he will always be the oldest, and he will always think himself responsible for you and your brothers.” He glanced over to where Leo had set his weapon aside. “And I expect that remained true until the end.”

Leo’s next inhale was shuddering, and he once more lowered his head to rest against the arm of the chair. Splinter patted the top of his head.

“You should tell me all that,” he said. “Tell Raph, too, 'cause he wondered why you bumped him down for years, but tell this me. Younger me. The me who it’s not too late for.”

“It’s never too late, Blue.”

“I wasn’t even meant to be here, Pops. I planned on sending Casey here then joining my brothers. But this me?” He shook his head. “He’s reckless. He’s irresponsible. He’s lackadaisical. He’s everything I used to be, all the things that led to the end of the world. And I'm old news. Telling me all this isn’t gonna help.”

Splinter hummed. “I’d hoped you’d learn it on your own, in time.”

“Maybe he will, now that he won’t have the Krang to make it harder for him.” He sneered. “Or maybe he’ll just keep being a self-righteous asshole who can’t take something seriously to save his own--”

“Blue!” his father snapped, and Leo fell silent. “Remember, he is the same person you once were, and he is still young and ignorant. He has much to learn.”

“That’s the problem .”

Splinter sighed, shaking his head, but whatever admonishment he’d been about to say was cut off by the scraping metal of the door opening. Leo was glad for the interruption. He didn’t want to hear any more defense of his past self-- not when everything that had gone wrong in his life was thanks to the idiotic decisions he’d made. 

“Are you two still having your super important-and-serious adult talk?” Mikey stuck his arm in the room, waving about a white cardboard box. Which already had Leo sitting up straight-- he wasn’t entirely sure when the last time he had a proper meal was, let alone a slice of pizza. They’d been sort of pressed for options after the end of the world. “We got food! Casey’s never had pizza before, which honestly almost made me start crying when I heard it. I got like five different kinds, we’re gonna have him rank his faves.”

Leo glanced over at his dad, who simply nodded his head towards the door. “Join your family. We can talk more later.”

No one looked their way as Leo followed after Mikey, each caught up in a boisterous conversation that Leo only caught bits and pieces of. Donnie gestured wildly with the slice of plain cheese he was holding, and Mikey easily dodged it to settle in at his side, pineapple-and-buffalo chicken in hand. Casey was staring at the food like he’d discovered all the secrets of the universe, eyes wide and sparkling. 

“This is so much better than rats,” he mumbled around his mouthful of pepperoni, and everyone nodded in agreement.

“Be glad Splinter wasn’t here to hear you say that,” Leo said, not missing the way Casey perked up at his entrance. He ruffled Casey’s hair as he snagged a slice of Donnie’s plain, settling in between his student and Raph. “He’d probably take it personally.”

“I’ll make sure to watch the rat talk around him,” Casey said with a grin, then turned back to Mikey. “Anyway, Master Michaelangelo--”

“Dude, I told you to call me Mikey! We’re friends here.”

“Right, sorry--”

“I dunno, I’d probably like Master Leonardo,” Leon mused. 

“This isn’t about you.” Donnie’s tone had been joking, but Leon’s smile fell at the words, and he looked down at his food sullenly. Donnie himself seemed mostly oblivious, but their youngest brother evidently noticed the drop in mood by the way he frowned, looking at Leon as though merely staring hard enough would grant him insight into his psyche. 

“...Mikey,” Casey said, cutting through the awkward silence, “you were telling me about all the different kinds of pizza you’ve tried, right? What was your favorite?”

Mikey frowned at Leon for a moment longer, then settled into an easygoing grin as he leaned on Casey’s shoulder. “I can’t just pick one, y’know? It’d be like picking a favorite brother, which I will neither confirm nor deny is something I do. If I did have to pick one, though, I gotta go with the promotional honey-barbeque-hamburger they had going at this one place on the corner of Ninth and Nineteenth for like a month. Never saw the movie it was for, but I miss that pizza like nobody’s business.”

“Wait, you have a favorite brother?”

“So, I have to ask,” Donnie interrupted the beginning of what would no doubt be a lengthy argument by leaning across the loose circle they’d formed to tap Leo’s arm. “What’s the deal with this? I clearly built it, but… well, it’s designed more for Raph’s specs than yours. Was there a mix-up or something?”

“It’s…” Leo grimaced, setting down his half-finished slice. “A long story.”

“Well, we have time.”

Leo could have argued that, but he supposed Donnie wasn’t entirely wrong. The Foot Clan didn’t know where the lair was, and it would take them a while to figure out they should start searching underground, so it wasn’t like Leo needed to leave immediately. He’d want to make sure he was fully prepared before setting off for the ends of the Earth, and getting a once-over of his prosthesis was included in that. Even if this Donnie wasn’t yet (and hopefully never would be an exact match to) the Donnie who had built it, he’d always been pretty consistent in his style.

“...When Raph died, Donnie wanted to try and put his mind into a robot.”

Dead silence, until April piped up with an; “Excuse me, what?”

Yeah, Leo had said that too, when Donnie had brought up the idea. He’d suggested it after four straight days of no sleep, so Leo had sort of assumed he was just spouting nonsense, until he’d wandered into Donnie’s makeshift lab a few days later to see a half-constructed mechanical replica of their recently deceased brother sitting on the floor. What had followed was a pretty terrible conversation where the both of them said some not-so-nice things about each other. Like how Leo was too quick to give up on his family, and how Donnie’s lack of empathy had reached new lows. They’d both apologized after the fact, though it still left the atmosphere of the lair tense for several weeks following. He hadn’t ordered Donnie to stop the project, but he’d also never really contributed to it.

“He tried for a long time. A really long time. Years. It never worked. He eventually gave up, and he was planning on scrapping the thing,” because they both had to admit, having a dead-looking copy of their brother lying around was really unsettling for everyone who saw it, “and then I lost my arm. We were already pressed for materials. So we figured we’d… make use of what we already had.” 

It had involved a little more sobbing on both of their parts, but they didn’t need to know that.  

“I see,” Donnie said, tone unreadable. The look on his face was somewhere between contemplation and conniving. A classic “planning something” expression, identical even on this version of his brother so much younger than the one he’d known. “Are you exceptionally attached to it?”

“I guess. I mean-- it’s pretty attached to me at the very least.” 

“Har har,” he rolled his eyes. “If you want to keep it, I won’t begrudge you, but I could certainly do much better with the materials I have here.”

“I’m sure you could,” Leo said with an air of finality. It wasn’t that he doubted Donnie-- on the contrary, he was absolutely certain that he was correct. His own Donnie had been working with whatever they could pull from the ruined city, and while there was plenty of scrap to go around, he didn’t have the time to be choosy about what he grabbed. A lot of his later constructions were patched together from many different sources of scrap. He’d bemoaned his lack of high grade titanium more than once.

The real reason for Leo’s hesitance was nothing more than illogical, emotional attachment. The arm and the bandana were the only things he had left of Donnie. They’d lost the lair for good not long after he’d died, and when Leo had decided to finally make the trek through the ruined tunnels, the lab had long-since been scraped clean of any keepsakes Leo could’ve hoped to find.

Donnie hummed, clearly not wanting to let the subject go, but was kind enough not to press. Perhaps he could see the shadow that had settled over Leo’s expression.

"Man, you're really kind of a downer, huh?"

"Leon!" Raph snapped. "Don’t start."

“I’m just saying!” Leon tossed his crust into the empty box nearest to him, where April promptly snagged it. “We won the fight today. The key is safe, the world is safe, it’s done. Normally our post-successful-mission meals are a little more upbeat than this.”

“You’re well aware of why I’m such a downer,” Leo said, glaring at Leon as though daring him to argue. He was scowling petulantly, but Leo could see the pained understanding hidden under the childish standoffishness. At the same time, Raph grimaced and looked away while Donnie hunched his shoulders with a distinctly uncomfortable look. 

To no one’s surprise, that miniature confrontation had absolutely not helped to bolster the mood of the gathering, so it was well within reason when Mikey loudly cleared his throat and leaned forward a bit to grab Leo’s attention. “Can I show you what I’ve been working on lately? I know you’ve probably seen all of it before, but I figure it’s been long enough that I can tell you about all my plans for this place and it’ll be like you’re hearing them for the first time.”

“That sounds great, Mikey,” Leo said quietly, breaking the unspoken staring contest he’d been having with Leon to look over at his little brother. “I bet it’s been quite a challenge getting this lair up to the same level as the old one.”

“You have no idea. Especially ‘cause I’ve only just finished cleaning up all the old stuff that was already here. I’m as much of an avid supporter of personal expression as the next freelance street artist, but some of the stuff folks slapped on the walls here is barely art!” Mikey led him away from the group towards his section of the abandoned subway station they’d made a home out of after the fight with Shredder had destroyed their old one, and Leo pretended not to hear the whispers that immediately started up as soon as he was out of sight. “I’m getting there, though! Soon it’ll be even better than the old lair. And everyone else is helping, when they feel like it.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Oh, absolutely! Everyone’s got their own styles, y’know? Makes it feel more like home, even if Donnie keeps putting up blueprints everywhere.” 

Mikey continued on, pointing out all the paint-splatter additions he or their family had made to the otherwise bland walls of the station. Leo was definitely listening, but he was also missing a lot of the finer details, content to just listen to Mikey’s bright cadence and watch his enthusiastic gestures. While he’d never really lost his optimistic outlook, even the boundless energy he’d always seemed to have had been dulled by time and tragedy. 

“Hey, maybe you and Casey can add something, too!”

That made Leo hesitate. “I’m… I don’t really think we have the--”

“The materials? No problem, you can borrow some of mine! I’ve got all sorts of colors, plus some really fun ones that have special effects.” He kept his back to Leo as he barreled on without pause. “Donnie’s a real whiz with chemistry, y’know, he managed to make me some paint that changes color, and some that glows. I’m sure you already know how great he is, though. He could probably make you a custom color if you want it.”

“Mikey--”

“It’ll be fun! We could all collaborate on something, too. There’s this big open wall up near one of the topside entrances I can’t figure out what to do with. I feel like it should be something special, since it’s kind of like a first impression if we ever start having guests down here. A family mural would be perfect!”

Leo kept quiet as Mikey went on about all his ideas. For as much as Mikey was the most emotionally intelligent of them, he’d never really been subtle (Dr. Delicate Touch was about as understated as a brick to the face), and Leo could see his barely-concealed attempts at lengthening Leo’s stay for what they were.

"Hey, jerk. He’s trying to make you stick around." The echo of his own thoughts drew Leo's attention away from Mikey's chatter, and he glanced over to see Leon had joined them at some point, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Kudos for managing to sneak up on Leo like that. And equal kudos for keeping his voice quiet so as not to alert their youngest sibling to their quarreling. "Mikey likes you. They all do. They think you're cool. They don't want you running off to the far corners of the world just yet."

"I'm not going to change my mind, I hope you know."

"Well, personally, I could care less what you do. As far as I'm concerned you could skewer yourself on your own sword and I wouldn't lose sleep over it, and if I didn’t know Don would start going off about paradoxes, I’d hazard a guess that the feeling’s mutual. But them?" He nodded towards his brothers. "They care about you. They hear the way you talk about yourself and your future, and they know what happened to your brothers, and they want to make sure you're gonna be okay." 

Leo felt the pained look flicker over his face without his permission before he schooled it into something solemn. The idea of them going out of their way to keep him from leaving because they were worried… It was so reminiscent of his brothers that it made his chest hurt. 

"I can't," he said. "I have to leave. I can't stay here."

He didn't deserve it.

“You better not be expecting me to try and stop you.”

“I’d never.”

“Good. ‘Cause if you ask me, the sooner you leave the better.” Leon looked away, frowning heavily. The severity of his expression took Leo by surprise-- until he thought back to what he’d been like at that age in the metaphorical shoes of his younger self, and briefly wondered if he’d managed to forget (or willfully ignore) that he’d always had the capability to take something seriously, and that it had been his decision not to. “But when you eventually do leave, go easy on my brothers, okay? Don’t just disappear in the middle of the night. Mikey and Raph will hunt you down, and me and Donnie will have to go with them, and I really don’t feel like dedicating my time to that.” 

“I don’t doubt it,” Leo said, and looked back to Mikey just in time to see him fall head over shell as he gestured a little too excitedly and wound up overbalancing. He easily laughed off the ungraceful tumble. “I wouldn’t do that to them.”

“Oh yeah?” A narrow glare. “Prove it.”

Then he walked away, leaving Leo to stand there and stare after him as he went to help Mikey up to his feet. The two ended up engaged in a discussion of future possibilities for the lair that Leo was happy to stay out of, keeping behind them as they returned to join the group. 

This wasn’t his place. 

They were welcomed back easily enough, Leon and Mikey slotting back into place as though they’d never left. Leo stuck to the outskirts and simply observed, earning a brief concerned glance from Casey before he too was dragged back into the conversation. The topic had shifted dramatically in the time they’d been gone, and Casey looked as excited to be included as he was confused at all the modern references he lacked context for.

It was well into the night and encroaching on the early hours of morning by the time Splinter stuck his head into the room and demanded they all go to bed because their ceaseless revelry was keeping him awake. There was no bite behind his words, but none of them were keen to fight him on it. Leo himself was damn near dead on his feet. It wasn’t even a full twenty four hours ago that he was running for his life from the Krang, and there had been basically non-stop action since then. His side gave a pained twinge every few minutes. It would be fine with rest, and he had no reason to put it off any longer.

They were safe, safer than they’d been in a very long time. The key was secure. They could take a minute.

“We don’t have an extra room set up, but we’ll get you guys settled on the sofas,” Raph said, shoving bundles of clothes into both his and Casey’s arms and nudging them along towards the living room. “Managed to find some PJs. Casey, you’re about Leon’s size. Your’s are gonna be a little weird, Leo-- the only one tall enough to match you is me, but I’m a lot bulkier. Even with all that extra muscle you’ve put on.”

“This’ll be fine.” He didn’t say he hadn’t had the luxury of pajamas in years. He didn’t say he’d slept in far more uncomfortable positions. (He wasn’t keen on listening to any advice his younger self would give him, but he did have a point when he said Leo might have been a bit of a downer. And it wouldn’t hurt to consider their point of view when speaking so casually about how terrible Leo’s life had been for the past twenty-odd years.) “Thanks, Raph.”

“Hey, no problem. You’re family.” He flicked off the lights, leaving only the dim glow from the next room to illuminate their surroundings. “I’ll try and be quiet if you’re still asleep when I wake up, and I’ll make sure everyone else is too. We’ll get you guys something a little more permanent tomorrow.”

He opened his mouth to remind Raph that they didn’t plan on sticking around for very long, then closed it again before putting a voice to the words, Leon’s sentiments echoing in his mind. 

“Have a good night, guys.”

“You too, Raph,” Casey said with a wave. Once Raph had left, closing the door behind him, he turned to Leo. “Are you okay, Sensei?”

“I’m fine, Case. Don’t worry about me.” He ruffled Casey’s hair, grinning at his student’s futile attempts to bat his hand away. "I just need some sleep. It’s been a rough couple of days. Weeks. Decades. I’ll be alright.”

“...If you say you. I’m here if you need to talk, though.”

“I think that’s supposed to be my line.” And it had been, numerous times. Leo had been Casey’s foundation for a long time, even before he was the only one there. Whenever Casey had gotten hurt doing something foolish, when he needed to talk but felt like he couldn’t tell his mom-- Cassandra, God rest her soul, was not the easiest person to confide in at the best of times-- or after, when even Mikey’s aptitude with emotional support wasn’t able to help. Casey had come to Leo. And Leo had, as he always would, dropped everything to help him. “Are you doing alright?”

“I’m okay,” Casey said, and he sounded honest enough. He took a breath like he meant to go on, then stopped and looked away with a frown. “...I’m fine.”

“Casey.”

“It’s nothing, Sensei. I promise.”

Doubtful, but Leo would let it slide. He knew better than to push when Casey clearly didn’t want to talk about it. He’d try later.

“...Alright. I’ll leave you to get changed,” he said, “I want to do a quick circuit of the lair. I’ll be back in a minute or two. Leave your weapons aside for the night, okay? You won’t need them here. It’s safe.”

Casey frowned. “Sensei, you told me that there was no such thing as safe-- only safer.”

“Yeah, well, that doesn’t really apply to where and when we are now. I didn’t exactly see us ending up here when I gave you that advice.” He bumped a fist against Casey’s shoulder. Carefully, given it was the metal one, but his student still rubbed his arm with a pout. “Relax, Case. We’re safe. Donnie made the security for this place, if that’s any comfort.”

“...Yeah, okay. Don’t stay up too much longer, Sensei.”

“Take your own advice, bud.”

He left Casey to change into the proffered pajamas, making a quick round of the outskirts of the lair. It wasn’t that he thought Donnie’s security system was lacking-- quite the opposite, actually, he had the utmost faith in his brother-- but at this point it was just part of his routine. Paranoia would keep him awake if he didn’t make sure the place was secure. That included checking on all the people in it, so Leo put every bit of his training to use as he silently made his way through the lair.

Mikey-- dead to the world, curled up in the pillows and blankets he’d reclaimed from where they’d set Leo up when he’d first arrived and promptly passed out. April and Donnie-- the former snoozing in a hammock set up in the corner, the latter asleep at his desk and leaning on the keyboard, rows of nonsense letters on the screen in front of him. (Leo slipped in, quiet as a breeze, and carefully moved him to the side to prevent an essay’s worth of gibberish he’d need to delete in the morning. He set a blanket over his shoulders, then departed as silently as he’d arrived.) 

Raph, snoring like a semi-truck, splayed out on his front with his blanket bunched up beneath him. An army of stuffed animals piled up on the other side of the bed stood sentinel, and the reminder of how young they all were had him idling in the doorway for far longer than necessary.

Leo’s own past self, curled up on his side. He was quiet and still, too much so for Leo to actually believe he was asleep, because he’d never slept that peacefully. He was always restless, shifting and trying in vain to get comfortable, eventually falling asleep in the most awkward positions one could imagine. His snoring was only a little bit quieter than Raph’s. Which meant he was definitely awake, and knew Leo was there, and knew Leo knew he was awake. 

He didn’t move. He didn’t say anything.

Leo didn’t say anything either. He stood silently for scarcely a moment or two before he turned and walked away.

When he got back to their temporary bedroom, Casey was laying on the couch with his back to the room, and Leo took a moment to change into his own too-large pajamas before settling down on his own sofa-slash-bed.

In the silence of the lair, even the ever-present din above them quieted by the late hour, Leo could hear Casey’s restlessness clear as day. He himself lay awake for an indeterminate amount of time before the constant shuffling from the other side of the room got to be too much and he spoke up without looking over.

“You ready to tell me what’s bothering you?”

There was nothing but silence for a few seconds, and Leo wondered if Casey had either decided against sharing or just fallen asleep, but then his quiet voice piped up from the other side of the room.

"It's nice here, Sensei," he said softly. Worriedly. Like he was afraid of what Leo would say, or what he'd think of him for speaking his mind. (When had that happened? Was it a result of his most recent chastisement? Or had it been going on for so long that Leo hadn't even noticed? How long had his protege feared his judgment? How long had Leo been blind to it?) 

Leo sat up with a sigh and turned to face his student. He was lying flat on his back as though intending to sleep, but his eyes were wide and focused on the ceiling.

"It's peaceful. It's… I like it. I like not having to be on guard all the time. I like not having to fight all the time. I like being comfortable. I didn't know I would, but I do." His expression was wide and open. Vulnerable. He didn't know he’d like peace because he never had the chance. Because Leo had taken his sixteen apocalypse-free years for granted, and forgotten that Casey had zero. "And I like-- I mean, it's not that I didn't like your brothers as they were-- they were incredible. I admire them so much. But--"

"But it's nice being around people your own age," Leo finished. "It's okay, Case. I get it. You don't have to be nervous about telling me how you feel, y'know."

"I'm worried about disappointing you," Casey admitted, barely audible. 

He'd really fucked this one up, huh?

Leo stood, making his way across the room, and Casey shifted up to give him space to sit. Once he did so, Casey tucked himself up against Leo’s left side, and he wrapped his arm around his student’s shoulders.

"You could never disappoint me, Casey Jones," he said softly, and Casey shoved his face into the soft fabric of Leo’s loaned pajamas. He’d gotten less clingy over the years, mostly due to their constant need to be on guard and be on the move, but he’d always been a tactile kid. Particularly when he was younger, when there was still hope for the resistance, when Leo’s brothers were still around and Casey’s mom was still around and no one could deny those wide and watering eyes when he toddled up and begged to be carried. Leo couldn’t count on both hands (even if he’d had the same number of fingers as a human) the amount of strategy meetings he’d led with a babbling child on his hip. 

Between the topic of several earlier conversations and how sheepish Casey was acting, it wasn’t hard for Leo to piece together what he was trying to say without saying it. 

"You want to stay, don't you?"

In lieu of a spoken response, Casey just hid his face against Leo’s shoulder and nodded. Leo sighed-- in hindsight, it wasn’t really that much of a surprise. 

"It's okay, Case. If you want to stick around, that's up to you. I'm not gonna make you come with me." Casey shifted in his seat, pulling his legs up so he could plaster himself to Leo’s side in a way he was almost a little too big for anymore. Leo gladly pulled him close regardless. "You're your own person with your own life. I'm always happy for your company, but you're free now. We did what we came here for. We got the key. Whatever you do next is up to you."

"But you don't even like these guys."

Leo frowned. Had he really gotten so bad at communicating over the years? Or had he always been terrible at it, and it was just made worse by the end of the world? Either way, there were some severe misconceptions that needed clarifying.

"I like them fine. They're my brothers."

"You don't like this version of you."

…Ok, yeah.

"It's… not that I don't like him," Leo said, faltering as he tried to verbalize feelings he wasn’t even sure about in his own mind, "he's just… he reminds me of all my worst traits. He's everything I've had to learn not to be. All my mistakes can be traced back to my younger self, and now I have to meet him face to face. It's all personal-- don't let my grief influence your opinions, okay? Make your own judgment on him. Try and think of the two of us as separate people. He’d be an awful Master, but he might make a pretty good friend."

A quiet sound from the other side of the door, barely audible but something Leo was intimately familiar with. Scales against tile floor. Not light enough to be Mikey’s agile steps, but far from Raph’s heavy gait. And given that Donnie was not the eavesdropping sort…

Casey didn’t bring it up, so Leo said nothing. It wasn’t important. Certainly not worth making a stink over. This was Leon’s lair, he could go where he wanted. 

“I’ll keep that in mind, Sensei.” Casey tilted his head up, staring out into the living room without really seeing it, eyes half-lidded and drowsy. “Sorry I kept you up when you’re hurt and need to sleep. You can go to bed. I’ll be okay.”

Leo glanced down at him. “Do you want me to leave?”

“...No.”

“Then I’m pretty okay right where I am.” He hugged Casey close, and Casey relaxed against his plastron with a sigh. “Get some rest, Jones.” 

He was asleep within minutes, and it didn’t take Leo long to follow after him.

Which all in all, meant he was firmly dead to the world when the door slid open several hours later and ninja-training-soft footsteps were followed by a blanket being laid over the two of them with as much care as oversized hands could manage. 

Chapter Text

It came as no surprise to Leo that when he did eventually wake up, it was with a start and reaching for the nearest weapon. Said weapon happened to be Casey’s, which-- despite Leo’s reassurances that the lair was as safe as could be-- had been set up leaning against the table nearby. Leo got all the way to grabbing it and hefting it up, ready to swing, before the events of the last day-and-change caught up with him and he let the spinning blades retract.

Right. Safe. 

There was a nonsensical mumbling from the couch, and a glance in that direction revealed Casey himself curled up on his side, a thick blanket partially wrapped around him, the majority of the fabric clutched tight to his chest. Leo would’ve teased him for being a blanket hog, except he couldn’t remember actually acquiring a blanket in the first place. Given that there were only a handful of people in the lair itself, there were only so many options as to who could’ve left it there, and Leo could rule out half of them without needing to guess at anything.

He made a mental note to thank Raph later, then set Casey’s weapon off to the side where he wouldn’t trip over it once he eventually got up. There was no reason he couldn’t sleep in today. It would probably be good for him, actually. The concept of a “late morning” was more than elusive in their day and age. 

The smell of coffee led Leo through the lair and towards the kitchen, where he was met with a wide-awake Raph and a significantly-less-awake Donnie. The former was fussing with the (broken looking) toaster while the latter was seated at the island counter, face down with his head buried in his arms. Donnie gave no indication he was aware of anything, while Raph glanced up and gave Leo a nod of greeting.

“Morning,” he said softly. “Sleep alright?”

“We slept fine. Those are some comfy couches,” Leo replied, voice still sort of rough from sleep. He took a seat across from Donnie and reached over, waiting with his hand in the air until Donnie gave a sluggish nod and accepted his brief pat on the shoulder. “Thanks for the blanket, by the way.”

“Ah, no problem. You two looked pretty cozy, but it gets cold down here in the mornings.” The coffee machine finished up with a quiet ding (along with Donnie’s recorded voice announcing that “your coffee is ready! Please make sure to give some to Donatello, or this machine will self-destruct.”) and Raph immediately poured some into a mug that was placed within arm’s reach of Donnie. “Want some?”

“Nah, I’m good. It makes me jittery.” He’d tried drinking it for a while, back when he’d needed to stay awake for nights on end and tea wasn’t strong enough, but had firmly sworn off it after a few too many cups had given him heart palpitations bad enough he’d needed to lie down for an hour. “Don’t give Casey any, he doesn’t need the caffeine.”

Raph huffed a quiet laugh. “Man. Still a little weird, hearing you talk like that.”

“Talk like what?”

“Talk like dad.” Raph poured himself a mug, dumping a disproportionate amount of sugar into the sizable mug before taking a sip. “I see the way you talk to him, the way he looks at you. The way you two interact. You really care about him, huh?”

“Of course I do,” Leo said immediately, no small amount of defensiveness in his tone. Raph gave him a surprised look, and even Donnie glanced up from his mug to give Leo a bleary yet critical look. “...Sorry. Didn’t mean to snap. We all… raising him was sort of a group effort. Takes a village and all. After Cass died-- and talk about going out swinging-- everyone pitched in to make sure he’d be alright. I was the one who really stepped up, though, and it was kind of a point of argument for a little while.”

Leo wasn’t fit to raise a kid. Leo was too busy to raise a kid. Leo didn’t know what he was doing. Leo might’ve meant well, but that wasn’t enough. Leo should let someone else handle it.

All that and more. Hearing it from their friends in the Resistance had stung, but hearing it from his brothers? That hurt. It had almost become a full on shouting match until Casey-- not that far out of the “toddler” stage of things-- had started crying, and Leo had dropped everything to go make sure he was alright. Donnie’s snarling glare had softened, and his words had been almost a perfect echo of Raph’s, and that was that. 

“I’m not his dad, though. Kid didn’t even have one to begin with,” he said, a softly amused smile settling on his face at the memory. “Cass just sort of showed up one day with a baby in tow. Said she’d named him after herself, and that meant he was her’s. None of us were brave enough to question her.”

“Sounds like Cassandra,” Donnie said in mumbled agreement.

“Not that we would’ve argued anyway, considering we were better for it.” Leo leaned back in his seat. “But… yeah. He’s a good kid. Sharp as a tack, and one of the bravest people I’ve ever known. Saved my life on more than one occasion. Dunno where I’d be without him.”

Dead, probably, came the thought unbidden in something that sounded like Donnie’s signature not-sarcasm. And he wasn’t wrong-- no telling how much more reckless Leo would’ve been without the need to make sure he made it home or risk leaving Casey down another parent figure, and that wasn’t even counting how many times the kid had been directly responsible for preventing Leo’s untimely demise. 

“I’m glad he was there,” Raph said. “Glad we’re getting a chance to meet him, too.”

Leo paused. 

“...I didn’t, did I?”

“Did he--”

“Nah, he didn’t say anything, and neither did you.” Raph came to sit beside Leo, and he was once more caught off guard by the fact that they were at eye level. (Seventeen. Raph was seventeen.) “He talks to me differently, y’know? He talks to Donnie and Mikey like he knows them, like he respects them. Familiar. Sorta the same way he is with Leo-- my Leo-- but it’s a bit different, probably ‘cause you’re here. When he talks to me, though… well. I’m no Mikey when it comes to feelings, but I can tell he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He’s got no basis like he does with the others.” 

“It was about a month before Cass brought him home,” Leo reluctantly admitted. He really needed to find someone to talk about all this with who wasn’t his teenaged brothers. Maybe the Hidden City had a therapy program he could look into? “Casey kinda gave us something to keep fighting for when we… didn’t feel like we had much.”

Saving Earth and its people was a noble goal. But benevolence was sort of low on their priority list when they were busy being wracked with insurmountable grief over the loss of their older brother. Something like becoming responsible for a child who hadn’t asked for all this-- something personal-- pushed them into action where the greater good failed. He gave them the motivation to strive for a future better than their present. 

They’d failed. Evidently. But he’d still given them a reason to try.

"How old is he?"

"About your age. A little younger. His birthday is in a few weeks." He sat up a little straighter, the reminder of time passing kicking him back into business mode. "We had a talk last night-- I didn't ask, but I assume you guys would be alright with him staying here? He doesn't really have anywhere else to go. For obvious reasons."

"Of course! We'd let him stay even if he did have another place." Raph frowned. "Does this mean you aren't leaving?"

Leo sighed. He sounded so hopeful, it hurt a little to deny him. Unfortunately, it was that hope exactly which upheld Leo’s vehemence in his need to leave. They had hope. They had so much time ahead of them. If it meant Leo could let them enjoy it to the fullest without the threat of a potential alien invasion hanging over their heads, there wasn’t much he wouldn’t do. "I am, Raph. I have to. But Casey said he wanted to stick around, and I'm not gonna force him to come with me if he doesn't want to. He deserves a break."

"What about you?" Donnie, who was properly awake now that he'd finished his first coffee and was nursing a refill, looked at him with narrow eyes. "You've been at this longer than him, right? When was the last time you got a day off?"

"It's not about me," Leo said, dutifully. 

Raph flinched with enough force to knock his mug off the counter. It shattered the second it hit the floor.

Leo jumped to his feet on instinct, hastening to fend off a threat that wasn't there. Some combination of the noise and Leo's own alarm in turn startled Donnie, who scrambled backwards off his seat. Lightning-fast reaction time as he swiped at his screen and summoned one of his shells with a crash from the other room was the only thing that stopped him from landing on his back and earning himself one hell of a bruise. As it was he still ended up banging his head into the tile, which led to a great deal of cursing on his end. And a similar amount of apologies from Raph.

"Sensei!" In barreled Casey, mask down and blanket wrapped around his shoulders, weapon raised with its blades whirring away. Leo had no doubt the whole lair had been awoken by the cacophony, and that his student just happened to be first on his feet. "What's going on? Are we being attacked? Is anyone hurt?"

"Easy, bud," Leo said, struggling not to laugh as he carefully avoided the hockey-stick-of-death, as Donnie had so lovingly called it when he'd presented it, and lifted Casey's mask up. Fierce determination faded to a confused daze. Between his expression, the blanket he was wearing as a cape, and his bright blue pajamas, any semblance of intimidation he might’ve had when he was in full gear was entirely lost.  "Everything's fine. We're safe here. No one's hurt, unless you count Raph's mug as a casualty."

Casey stared at him for a moment, no doubt still having some processing issues after such a rude awakening. Once the lack of a threat registered, he cut the power to his weapon and lowered it with a heavy exhale.

"Sorry for freaking out," he said, glancing over at Raph and Donnie, who were both observing with equal amounts of alarm. "Um, good morning."

"...Morning," Donnie said, hauling himself up from the floor without taking his eyes off Casey. It was a small comfort that he looked more cautiously worried than like he was assessing a threat.  “Man, he was right, you really don’t need any coffee.”

"Donnie. Leave it," Raph said dryly, then turned to Casey with a far softer expression. "Morning, Case. You sleep alright?"

"Yeah, I slept fine. You have nice couches."

Days ago, he wouldn't have given much thought to Casey's vigilance. His immediate assumption that they were in danger. They all had to be on alert at all times, because they were always in danger. Leo was the same. But now, face to face with this peaceful world that he'd kind of forgotten about, his student's constant wariness stuck out like a sore thumb. He shouldn't have to be on his guard all the time. He should've been able to relax. He should've gotten the chance to be a kid.

What would his life have been like if the world hadn't ended?

It was likely they'd never know, and that fact settled like a stone in Leo's chest as he returned to his place at the counter.

Mikey and Leon entered the kitchen at the same time, the former with the information that April had made her way home citing worried parents, and each settled in their own seats once they realized there was, in fact, no actual threat they needed to deal with. 

“It’s too early for this kind of racket,” Leon lamented, glancing down at the remnants of Raph’s mug that he was actively in the process of trying to sweep up. “What happened there?”

“Nothing,” Raph said quickly. Too quickly. 

“Anyone else catching a whiff of Raph’s lying stink? Or is it just me?” 

“Leo--" He cut himself off and shut his mouth with a click, the furrow in his brow more pronounced than ever as he glanced between both iterations of his brother. After several moments he just shook his head. "...We'll talk about it later."

“You’re being weird,” Leon said. “Weirder than usual. What did you do? Did you say something to him?”

The last half of his statement (accusation, rather) was spoken with a glare in Leo’s direction, and his counterpart stood with the abrupt scrape of metal on tile in an attempt to loom over him. It wasn’t all that threatening, considering even sitting down Leo still had an inch or two on him, but he was definitely trying. 

“He didn’t say anything, Leo. Leon. Don’t pin this on him. Just--” Raph exhaled through his teeth. “It’s fine. Alright? It’s good. I’m taking care of it.”

“Are you? Really? Thought it was my job to take care of things.”

“Oh yeah? You want to sit down and talk about feelings? ‘Cause that’s what this involves.” Raph finished disposing of the glass shards he’d picked up with his bare hands, then turned to face Leo, shoulders squared and gaze narrowed. When he spoke his voice was quiet and serious. “Are we really gonna do this again?” 

Tension crackled like static in the space between them. Donnie had backed up as the conversation had escalated, hunched over his screen and looking like he was trying to retreat into his shell despite a physical inability to do so. Mikey had gravitated towards Casey, looking like he was seconds away from latching onto his student’s arm for comfort. Casey himself was evidently baffled by the atmosphere that had grown from the… argument?

Yeah, argument.

Leon and Raph continued to stare each other down, a silent discussion they weren’t privy to, for a solid half a minute. Leon caved first-- he averted his eyes, let his shoulders drop, and bared his teeth.

“Fine,” he said. “Whatever. I’m gonna go… do something. Dunno what. I’ll come up with it while I’m walking away.” 

The uneasiness of the conversation lingered even after the door slammed shut behind him.

“Mikey,” Raph said without looking over at him, and their brother snapped to attention, “why don’t you take Casey topside? Show him around, give him an NYC welcome. Maybe bring him by the Hidden City if you want. Make a day out of it. And take Donnie with you.”

“Yeah, okay,” Mikey said, likely both glad to get out of the stifling room and also not daring to argue with the no-nonsense tone Raph had taken on, and finally did grab hold of Casey’s arm. Both to tug him along and likely to soothe himself. “You’ll like this place. Especially the Hidden City. It’s pretty cool. It got kinda wrecked when we fought this Shredder guy a couple years ago, but the Yokai have done a great job fixing it up.”

“Wait--” Casey glanced back with a frown. “Sensei?”

Leo jerked his head towards the door. The lingering stress in the air notwithstanding, it would be good for Casey to get out of the lair, see what the world was like before it had all fallen apart. “Go with them. We’ve got some stuff to take care of here.”

The trio departed, and Raph sat down heavily on the nearest stool. Leo took the seat next to him. 

He stayed silent, waiting for Raph to speak. While he was far from the most emotionally adverse of their family, he also wasn’t great at talking about things that were bothering him as opposed to other people. The best approach for getting him to talk was usually just waiting in silence; eventually he’d get the confidence to speak whatever was on his mind. Pushing him was the fastest way to make him shut down.

True to form, after long enough of them sitting in the quiet kitchen, Raph spoke in a quiet voice; “...How many times did you hear that from me?”

“What?”

“What you said back there, when Donnie suggested you take a break. You said it wasn’t about you.” He had his hands clasped, and his eyes were unfocused as he stared forward without actually seeing anything. It wasn’t an expression normally seen on him-- he was pretty good about being attentive to his surroundings. Especially when it came to Leo and his brothers. “How often did I tell you that?” 

“Oh.” Right. That ever-important lesson that Leo had taken far too long to internalize. “Not really sure. Way more than you should’ve had to. Enough times that it finally sunk in.” 

"Oh, Leo. That's not what I meant." Raph wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "I don't know what future me was thinking, but I promise you I never want you to think less of yourself. Or to make you believe you didn't deserve to take a break. I just wanted you to consider other people and what they need instead of always thinking about yourself all the time. I've seen you do it, too, which just made it worse when you were slacking off, since I knew it wasn't 'cause you didn't care."

“Of course I cared,” Leo said. He didn’t lean into the side-hug, even if he might have really wanted to. If he let his emotions get the better of him now, he’d end up mincing his words for Raph’s sake, and then they’d be right back where they started. Both unhappy with things. (He knew this wasn’t his Raph. He did. Really. Even if this Raph wasn’t that far off from the age his had been when Leo had last seen him, when he’d had tears in his eyes and nothing but acceptance on his face, blood dripping from the crack in his plastron--) “But you were right. I was selfish and foolhardy, and it got people hurt. I needed the reminder that it wasn’t about me.” 

“Leo,” Raph said, pulling his arm back to instead set a hand on Leo’s shoulder and turn him so they faced each other. His eyes were kind of watery. “Please. Listen to me. It’s okay to think about you sometimes. You can’t help anyone if you don’t help yourself first.”

Telling him that Leo very much could (and had done so on multiple occasions) probably wouldn’t go over very well, so instead he stayed silent, staring Raph down with an expression he really hoped was unreadable and not betraying his inner turmoil as he suspected. All these years, and he’d still never really gotten the hang of a poker face.

Judging by the way Raph’s misery only increased, that remained true.

“I think you need--”

“You should go join Casey and the others,” Leo said.

“Leo--”

“Make sure they stay out of trouble.”

“Would you just--”

“You know they’ll just encourage him if Casey gets into some kind of chaos. They need someone to rein them in.”

Raph’s hands on his shoulders tightened, and his right one creaked under the pressure. There was a twitch of muscle, and for half a second Leo thought Raph might throw him bodily across the room. He’d be well within his rights. (Not to mention it would probably be easier to deal with a physical fight than confront his deep-seated emotional issues.) Fully expecting it, Leo braced to catch himself.

Nothing happened. Raph only held on tight for a moment longer, then exhaled harshly, letting go and stepping back with a shake of his head.

“You are so stubborn.” 

“Never outgrew that, it seems.”

Another exhale, this time accompanied by bared teeth. “Fine. You wanna just stay here on your own and sulk? Be my guest. But for your sake, stop bad-mouthing my little brother. I don’t care if you’re technically him. You haven’t earned it.” 

Leo didn’t flinch. He’d seen scarier things. “I think I’ve earned it more than anyone else, actually.”

Raph’s furious expression dropped into something far more exasperated. Anger washed away and replaced with sheer exhaustion. “You’re a real jerk, y’know that?” 

Leo refused to let himself balk under the burden of Raph’s disappointment. “So I’ve been told.” 

Had he been Donnie or Leo’s own counterpart, it was doubtful he’d have let Leo get the last word. But this was Raph, and even in his most heated moments he was never the sort to draw out a serious argument longer than necessary. So at Leo’s smart-ass reply he just shook his head, turned on a dime, and walked out the door. Leo waited until it had slammed shut and his footsteps retreated to let himself slump forward, elbows on his knees and head bowed.

He felt bad. No dodging that or skirting around the truth-- making Raph upset was the last thing he wanted to do. Not that he enjoyed upsetting any of his brothers, but Raph…

The sting of losing him was still sharp even so many years later. 

It was necessary, though. If any of them got too attached to Leo, he could very well see them trying everything to stop him from taking the key and leaving. They’d pull out all the stops-- emotional manipulation, sabotage, Mikey’s puppy-dog eyes, having Raph sit on him to keep him from going anywhere, etcetera-- and Leo wasn’t sure he’d be able to deny them. Not when the idea of being without them again left him feeling like he’d been pinned under the full weight of a skyscraper, breathless and panicking. 

If being standoffish and cold to his brothers was what needed to happen to guarantee he could do his job and act without hesitating when the time came, then Leo would do it. Even if it would’ve been kinder to just tear his shell off. 

“Wow.” A voice from roughly the direction of the ceiling interrupted his brooding, and Leo was on his feet with his blade drawn before the familiar tone registered and his alarm immediately dropped into annoyance. “And here I didn’t think you could get any more rude. You know he was just trying to help, right?”

“And how many times have you let that stop you from snubbing him?” He sheathed his sword and glanced up, and after a few seconds, was able to pick out the shadow crouched in the pipes overhead. He’d have been more unsettled by the fact his past self had managed to sneak up on him if he wasn’t certain a tank could’ve approached from behind and he wouldn’t have noticed it, lost in his musing as he was. Had he always had such a penchant for listening in on private conversations? “Also, what happened to coming up with something to do?”

“I did. That something just happened to be eavesdropping on your conversation.” Leon dropped to the floor, landing without a sound, and stood up straight to lean on the counter. “You really don’t have a high opinion of us, huh?”

“You mean you and your brothers? Or us?”

“More the second one.” 

“No, I don’t. Not when our mistakes--”

“Got people hurt, ruined lives, ended the world. Yeah, so I’ve heard.” Leon rolled his eyes. “I just don’t see why you’re making that my problem. That was all stuff you did in your future. I haven’t gotten anyone hurt.” 

“No? You can’t think of a single time you screwed something up and someone got hurt because of it?” Words bubbled up unbidden from some ugly part of his mind, and bitterness crackling through his chest like flames over a forest put a voice to them. “Not that time you lost your brothers on the other side of a portal, or all the other incidents where you couldn’t get your abilities to work properly and it made a fight drag on way longer than it should’ve? Or yesterday, when you practically handed the Foot Clan the key on a silver platter and we had to go get it back? You don’t remember--”

He knew it was going too far in the moments before he spoke, and were he any more upset, it was likely resentment would’ve dulled his impulse control. As it stood, though, he had just enough clarity to cut himself off and clamp his mouth shut with enough force to send a jolt through his skull. Leo definitely was no fan of his younger self, but he knew there were some lines that were not meant to be crossed. No matter how upset he got.

Bringing up Karai was one of them.

“...Don’t remember what?”

“Nothing.”

The trace amounts of mocking humor in Leon’s expression shifted to suspicion, and moments later-- because they weren’t stupid, no matter how often they acted like it for the sake of minimizing expectations or making their siblings laugh-- that aforementioned suspicion turned to wide-eyed shock.

“Were you going to--”

“Don’t. Please. I know. I won’t-- I wouldn’t.” It hadn’t been Leo’s fault alone, anyway. They had all felt responsible for her. To even think about bringing her into their petty argument was wholly unfair for everyone involved. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave you be, and we don’t have to talk again.”

“No, no, wait, just--” Leon heaved a sound somewhere between a sigh and a groan. He set his head in his hands for a moment, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like he was calling Leo a “traumatized old man,” and looked up with a distinctly jaded expression. “You need to get out more, man. I know you’re used to everything being terrible, but it’s not terrible here, and you gotta get used to that. Stop being in battle mode all the time. Get out of your shell. Relax. I’m choosing to believe you don’t mean half the stuff you say, and that it’s just a product of being in a really bad place for a while, but I can only give you the benefit of the doubt for so long.”

Leo looked at him, this time almost certain his expression really was unreadable, mostly because he wasn’t entirely sure of what he was feeling. He wanted to feel patronized, he really did, but it just wasn’t coming to him. Instead there was something bordering on the fringes of… pride, almost. The same sort of feeling he got whenever Casey took a particular amount of initiative. 

“I’m surprised you’re giving me any benefit.”

“Yeah, me too.” Leon crossed his arms, looking away with a pout. There was still a scuff on his cheek from when Leo had punched him the night prior. (It… didn't make him feel good. Actually, it made him feel like he was about to be sick.) "I dunno. I guess you’re growing on me. Knowing you’re really a big softie kind of helps. Even if you are a total jerk who needs to take a chill pill before he angsts himself into an early grave."

So he had been right about the identity of their mysterious listener. Still, with Leon’s unexpected olive branch he figured he could be gracious enough to not call him out for his eavesdropping. “Something tells me the alien invaders might get me before the angst does.”

“Oh, buddy, we have got to work on your timing. And they think my one-liners are out of pocket.” 

“They’re pretty bad,” Leo admitted. “And you know it. Which I know because I knew it.” 

“Don’t start with that kind of thing, it’s only gonna make us both confused." Leon sighed again, shaking his head. "You need to get used to not being at war anymore, man. Get a hobby. Also, only sort of related, tell your kid you're proud of him sometimes. He basically worships the ground you walk on, and you barely give him a compliment from all I've seen. He did great in the fight back at the Foot base and you just immediately jumped to getting mad at him for something else entirely."

"I am proud of Casey. He knows that."

"Does he? 'Cause while you never hesitate to ramble about all his good qualities to us, I dunno if he's ever actually heard any of it. And in case you've forgotten what it was like to grow up with dad, knowing your parent is proud of you and hearing them say it to your face are two very different things."

"I'm not his--"

"Semantics really aren't important here, dude. Whether or not he's actually your kid doesn't matter when you basically act like a dad all the time anyway."

Ridiculous. He'd told Casey he was proud of him before, right?

…Hadn't he?

"And hey-- I meant it when I said you needed to get out more. You’ll just hole yourself up down here if I don’t do something about it, so this is me kicking you out. Go chill with my-- our brothers,” Leon said, brushing past him and glancing back with a grim look that almost wanted to be a smile, if it weren’t being weighed down with uncertainty. “Maybe it’ll get that stick out of your carapace.” 

“Alien apocalypse shaped stick!” Leo called after him, and cracked a smile when the only response he received was the half-baked version of a middle finger they’d concocted in their youth, lacking the appropriate amount of fingers to actually produce such a gesture. 

Much as Leo hated to admit it, he had a point. About everything. It was possible Leo had been a little lacking in terms of the praise he gave (or didn't give) Casey, and maybe he could stand to be clear about it a little more. Not to mention Leo had only really been in some kind of fight and in the lair since getting back to the “modern day.” And while it hadn’t exactly been long, he had no doubt in his mind that the trend of making a hermit out of himself would only continue if he was left to his own devices. 

It’d be nice to see his city in one piece again, anyway.

Chapter Text

Mikey brightened up like he was trying to make himself into the personification of the sun when Leo landed on the rooftop the group was perched on, immediately abandoning whatever he was explaining to Casey in favor of latching onto Leo’s side. To his mild confusion-- this sort of parasite-like behavior was usually reserved for Raph. Likely, as Leo was quickly realizing, since Raph was the only one of them big enough to easily support Mikey’s weight. A requirement which Leo could now fulfill. 

He’d only realized after leaving the lair and making his way up the nearest fire escape that he didn’t actually know where he was going, and thanked his lucky stars (plus Donnie) that Casey’s tracker still worked. The softly beeping radar led him across a series of apartments and along the edge of a skyscraper or two, until he’d spotted the colorful shapes at the edge of a building overlooking Central Park. 

“Hi, Sensei!” Casey called as Leo headed over to join them, only mildly slowed by the weight of an entire turtle clinging to him. His student looked far more at ease than he had been when they’d left. “Mast-- uh, Mikey was telling me about how much stuff there is in the park. He was gonna bring me by the lake once the sun set. Is that okay?" 

"I still can’t believe there weren’t any lakes in the future! Those Krang really messed up the whole planet. You gotta let us go," Mikey loudly cut in, directly next to Leo's head. He winced, and Raph gestured him over.

"I don’t know what you two are asking me for. We're not on the battlefield, and I'm not in charge here-- you can do whatever you want as far as I'm concerned. Here's this," Leo added, dropping Mikey into Raph's waiting arms. "Raph's the guy to go to if you want permission for something."

“Aw, man, I mean-- I’m not really in charge anymore,” Raph said, clearly sheepish, "but I did already say it's fine, so long as you guys don't get caught." 

"I still think we don't need to be quite so wary," Donnie interjected. "Not that I'm eager to interact with strangers, but I can’t really say the citizens of this fair city would actually care that much. They see weirder things than our merry band on their daily commutes. And I feel it’s pertinent to add that people almost certainly know about mutants at this point, since while we’ve sort of tried to be kind of quiet about our existence over the years, there’s an entire other mutant population out there who I doubt care near as much. Something tells me the citizens of New York are hard to surprise anymore." 

"Well I think they'd find us cool," Mikey said, clambering up to perch on the top of Raph's shell. "We could be like local celebrities. Get pictures with tourists. I could be famous!"

"Nothing about this place stays local for long," Raph again, with a grave tone that suggested something far more serious than their conversation at present. Then again, maybe it was more serious-- Leo had no idea how the world at large would react to mutants at this point in time. They’d stopped trying so hard to hide after the Krang had invaded, and for obvious reasons, their appearance wasn’t really much of a concern for anyone. "Just ‘cause New York is chill with nonsense doesn’t mean the rest of the world will be. And I don't know about you, but I'm not too keen to get called a freak on national TV anytime soon."

"True," Donnie agreed with a pensive nod. "I've said so before, but I only want to be seen by the internet masses when it's under my own power. For instance, my fantastically entertaining and informative YouTube channel."

"What's a YouTube?" All eyes turned to Casey, who immediately looked alarmed at the reaction. "What?"

"Oh, you poor poor man," Donnie shook his head, one hand on his chest while the other mimed wiping away a tear. "For shame, Leonardo! Aren’t you supposed to be his educator? Didn't you teach him about all the wonders of the interconnected network?"

"I was a little busy teaching him to not die."

"Unimportant!" A mechanical arm extended from Donnie's shell, whipping out his phone, and another arm clamped around a bewildered Casey's shoulder and hauled him over. "Sit down, Casey Jones, for I am going to enlighten you with the absolute pinnacle of modern entertainment. Videos of cats making fools of themselves!"

Letting Donnie's chatter turn to background noise, Leo sat down at Raph's side, and Mikey immediately leaned over to splay himself across Leo’s lap, effectively trapping him there. Leo halfway expected him to start purring at any moment.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Leo said quietly, and Raph glanced over at him with a raised brow. "You were trying to help, and I was just being a contrary jerk." 

"Ah, it's okay. Not like I ain't used to it from… well, you.” He hunched his shoulders, glancing away. “And it wasn't really my place, anyway. I don't know what your Raph was thinking. Don't know why he might'a said what he did. Not really fair of me to act like I do just 'cause I… technically am him, I guess. Or who he used to be."

"You're not that dissimilar, actually," Leo said, and Mikey turned over, wrapping his arms around Leo's waist and smushing his face against his plastron. Leo idly pat his head. "...He wasn't much older than you."

"Yeah?" Raph looked back over at him, expression pensive. "How old are you, Leo?"

"Forty,” Leo said, and damn if the realization didn’t just knock the wind out of him. He’d kept track mostly on a whim-- and sort of out of grief, some deep-set need to know exactly how much older he’d had the chance to get than his brothers at any given time-- but it had never really set in what that meant until he’d come face to face with this younger iteration of his family. Leo was forty. Raph was seventeen. He was just a kid. They all were. “...I’m forty.” 

"And Casey's… sixteen, almost seventeen. And you said it was a month before he showed up." Raph's face fell. He was no math whiz, but this didn't require much skill in that area. Eight years wasn’t that much time. "...Aw, man. Really?"

Leo grimaced, staring out at the city laid out before them. He could still see a destroyed copy laid over it in his mind. "...Yeah."

"...That's rough," Raph said, setting a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"Thanks. I'm alright." Mikey tightened his hug, making a cooing noise as he did, and Raph scooted over to drape himself over Leo, heedless of the spikes protruding from his mechanical arm. While cleverly disguised as an attempt at comfort, Leo could see their shenanigans for what they were. "Guys, seriously--"

"Hey Donnie!" Mikey called, scooting forward to lean around Leo’s midsection and grab the attention of both their brother and Leo’s mystified pupil. "Stop plugging your channel and get over here, we need you to help us provide our dear older brother with some of your signature pretending-not-to-care emotional comfort." 

Donnie paused in his rant, glancing up from where he'd been gesturing animatedly at the cellphone held in a mechanical claw. Casey looked somewhere between enlightenment and the exact opposite of that; complete bewilderment. He was staring at the phone like it had been speaking another language to him. Not that he was unfamiliar with the tech-- his Donnie had been all to provide Casey with all the fancy gadgets he could possibly want-- but they hadn’t exactly been trading social media links around in the midst of the apocalypse. (Well… not by the time Casey arrived, at least. The less said about early-invasion meme culture the better.) "Sigh. None of you appreciate art. But I suppose if it's for the sake of annoying Leo…"

A pair of mechanical arms clamped around Leo (and Raph, by extension) and he felt the air leave his lungs with a wheeze as he was crushed between pure titanium and a solid mass of snapping turtle. 

"Sensei! I'll save you!"

"Casey, no--"

Leo's view of the city was abruptly replaced with one of the sky overhead as Casey tackled the group with all his not-inconsequential strength, sending them tumbling to the ground with various sounds of alarm. Mikey wound up at the bottom of the pile, shouting and smacking what of Raph's shell he could reach. Donnie had just barely managed to evade getting crushed, but his mechanical arms were trapped, and he was flailing as he tried to get them free. Leo himself was tangled up in the midst of it all, Casey laying on top of him and laughing up a storm.

"I hope you're proud of yourself," Leo said, glancing down at his protege with a grin.

Casey’s smile was equally bright. "You bet."

Leon's earlier berating echoed in his mind, and he started to voice that he was proud of Casey, too, but the words were interrupted by Donnie's victorious shout as he finally extracted his arms from the turtle-pile. 

“Too close!” Mikey yelped as Raph’s arm slammed into the ground mere inches away from his head. He pulled himself into his shell to avoid getting smacked, and the momentum sent him rolling away. He nearly fell off the edge of the building before one arm popped out to grab on to the edge of it. Raph immediately abandoned the roughhousing to practically launch himself across the roof and haul Mikey back up to safety. 

Leo sat up, an arm around Casey keeping him from falling too far, and watched his brothers’ antics with a smile.

Stars, but he’d missed them.

“You guys aren’t hurt, are you?” Now that they were winding down somewhat, Casey’s expression had shifted to one of mild sheepishness. He probably hadn’t meant to get so caught up in it all-- he liked to act at least somewhat serious most of the time. 

Or maybe he’d just had to be serious for so long that he wasn’t really sure how else to be. 

“Nah, we’re fine. Don’t worry about it. I’ve been hit way harder by Donnie’s malfunctioning tech before.” With Mikey once more on stable ground, Raph leaned back on his hands with a heavy exhale, ignoring the incredulous noise Donnie made at the malfunction comment. He was grinning broadly along with the rest of them, his face free of worry lines. “I can tell you’re gonna fit right in here.”

“Ooh, we should get you some new clothes!” Mikey draped himself over Casey’s shoulders. “Without the hypnotism thing, I think we’d have a lot of fun doing a makeover montage.”

“What??”

“Don’t worry about it,” Donnie said. “He has a point, though. Apocalypse chic is not exactly in fashion here. And if you’re looking to get acquainted with the present day, adjusting yourself to fit the visual standards is a crucial step.”

“I’m sure April will be happy to help, since as established, we can’t exactly go traipsing through the city in broad daylight.” There was a warning in Raph’s tone, but it eased as he glanced over to Casey. “But if you want to kickstart that getting acquainted thing and you’re up for some exercise, the city looks great from the rooftops. And New Yorkers never look up.”

“That’s a good idea,” Leo said as he nudged Casey’s side. “This guy’s a real whiz with a grappling hook. Picked it up with no problem when we first gave him the thing, if you don’t count all the faceplants and that time he tried to grapple off of Donnie’s hover-shell.”

“That happened once!” Casey protested. 

“You would have tried it again if Don didn’t threaten to tie you to the ceiling of the base by your ankles.”

Casey’s mouth snapped shut. Leo had heard his defenses a million times before-- and much as the results had been near-disastrous, the idea was sound. Traveling by turtle was a good theory. Just really, really bad in practice.

“Try pleading the fifth,” Mikey piped up. “It means you’re staying quiet to avoid getting in trouble.”

“The fifth of what??”

“Okay, we’re getting way off topic here.” Donnie clapped his hands to draw the collective attention to himself. “Rooftop tour of New York, right? Try not to break anything. While you’re all doing that, Leonardo, you’re sticking with me.”

Leo raised a brow at Donnie’s matter-of-fact tone. “Oh yeah?”

“Yes,” he said, and off to the side Leo could see their brothers taking their leave, Casey hesitating and glancing back in lieu of joining them, “because I’ve been wanting to get my hands on that arm since I saw it, and depending on how long it’s been since I-- since your version of me died, you’ve gone who even knows how long without proper maintenance.” 

“I know how to take care of my own arm, Donnie.”

“Which is why I said proper maintenance. I’m sure you have no trouble keeping it in working condition, considering you’re still wearing it and it doesn’t appear to be operating at any kind of minimized capacity, but there’s a difference between working condition and peak condition. I may not have built it, but I really can’t imagine my style changing very much even a decade in the future. I’ll be able to figure it out. And if you are going to be traipsing off to the far corners of the world, you’re going to want to make sure you aren’t going for it with subpar tools at your disposal.”

Pretty hard to argue with that. Even with Leo’s lingering determination to be as contrary as possible when it came to his twin. It had been mostly snuffed out by the need for cooperation in the face of a greater enemy-- his and Donnie’s arguments had become few and far between in his later years, and they were never about something that wasn’t genuinely important-- but being back here was dredging up old habits. 

“Also,” he said with a lowered voice, “I really want to figure out how the time travel thing works in the context of changing the future and avoiding paradoxes, and I need someone who was there to bounce ideas off of but I don’t want Casey to have to think about it any more than he already is.” 

Okay, yeah, Leo could get behind that sentiment. 

“Fair enough.” He glanced over at his student, loitering near the edge of the roof. “Casey, you gonna be alright with them?”

“I’ll be fine, Sensei. I’ll give you a call if we need help, alright?”

“Stay safe.”

“Always do.” He raised his arm towards the nearest skyscraper, closed one eye and stuck his tongue out as he lined up his shot, and with a snap of titanium wire he leapt off the roof and followed after their wayward siblings. 

They watched him go, Donnie nodding as he swung precisely to land on the next available roof. “He is pretty good.”

“He’s good at a lot of things. Just not great at acknowledging it.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound familiar at all,” Donnie said, the sarcasm in his voice prominent enough to indicate he was actually trying to be snarky and it wasn’t just his usual dry tone. “In case it wasn’t clear, I’m referencing you, Leonardo.”

“Yeah, I got that.” The idle thought cropped up that out of all of them, Donnie had been the least changed by the end of the world. This version of his brother was nearly identical in personality to the one Leo remembered. “So where are we doing this, since I know I’m definitely not getting out of it? Are we heading down to your lab or just staying here?”

Donnie hummed. “I can work anywhere. Which would you prefer?”

How… oddly considerate. 

"You don't have a preference?"

"Of course I do. But I'm asking about what you want." 

And completely uncharacteristic. Donnie was meticulous about his inventions-- he always preferred having a secure and sterile environment to work in if he had the option, particularly when it came to machinery like this. Delicate and critical. He would be far happier with the full breadth of his lab at his disposal, with all of its tools and work surfaces and customizable lighting. Leo's opinion really shouldn't have mattered much. 

Except he'd been present for the conversation that morning, if questionably aware of things before the caffeine had hit him. And it was him who had asked after Leo's well-being. 

So that's what it was.

"The lab is fine," Leo said. 

"Alrighty. We'll stay right here then," Donnie replied, mechanical arms once more extending from his shell, one with a toolbox clamped between its pincers. Another brushed off a patch of roof and gestured forward. "Lay down and get comfortable."

"What? Donnie, I just said we could go down to the lab. I know you like working there better."

"Yes, but that's not what I was asking, is it? I asked what you wanted. And so accounting for your tendency towards self-flagellation that’s evidently become exacerbated to a significant degree within the past twenty-ish years of your life, I can only assume you actually prefer the other option and just answered with whatever you think would make me happiest." He gave Leo a skeptical look. "Am I wrong?"

"Nothing gets past you, does it, Donton?"

"I try not to let it, Nardo. Now lie down, I don't want to end up flinging some part of your arm down onto Fifth Ave-- if it ends up there we'll never get it back."

Leo laid down. Flat as he could with his carapace, staring up at the bright blue and completely un-Krang-ified sky. 

It wasn't so much that he didn't want to go back down to the lair. It was comfortable, familiar, and probably the safest place on Earth with all of Donnie's security. The main motivation behind his desire to stay aboveground was less owing to not wanting to be in the lair and more wanting to keep the clear sky in view. Whatever the Krang had done to permanently fuck up their atmosphere had led to a permanent haze, and changed the classic blue to a different but equally foreboding shade of orange or red depending on the time of day. The complete lack of choking smog or Technodrome hanging over their heads was probably the starkest reminder of the changed times, and it helped settle the rolling tension in Leo's chest every time he looked up.

"I'm not going to make any changes-- just touch up what's already here and make sure nothing is about to fall apart," Donnie said from above him and a little to the right. "If you need me to stop, just say the word. Don't try to be a tough guy."

"I won't. Promise."

"Doubtful, but I'll believe you for the time being."

"You really don't have a lot of faith in me, huh?"

"Not owing to any failures on your part, I assure you." A slight twinge along Leo's arm and the faint whirring of a drill bit accompanied his words. "Leonardo has never been good at being honest about his well being, and I don't think it's much of a reach to say you've only gotten worse about it. I don't think you'd try and keep quiet about something hurting in the interest of any sort of toxic masculinity, but because you think it's not important or isn’t worth mentioning? Absolutely."

"...Can't argue with that."

"Of course you can't. Hold still, I'm opening it up." 

Leo continued staring up at the sky until his eyes began to water, at which point he simply closed them and listened to the sound of Donnie working. He preferred not to look at his arm when work was being done on it-- felt a little too much like being on an autopsy table, seeing it ripped open with all of the internal mechanisms exposed-- but the scrape of metal and the quiet, concentrated muttering from his brother were familiar enough to be more than comforting. 

His eyes were still watering. Only because the sun was so bright, of course.

The methodical noise stopped for just a moment, then resumed without a word from Donnie. Leo's gratitude for quietly ignoring his emotional display went equally unvoiced. 

"...So how did you get back here?” Donnie said as an opener, not pausing his work as he spoke. “Your outburst back when Leon suggested the idea of just coming back again if things were ruined again implies it wasn't exactly… something to be repeated."

“It wasn’t,” he said, then paused. “How much do you know?”

“Only what I’ve overheard and what we previously discussed. Raph was rather nonspecific. All I know is that in your future, at the point that you left, there isn’t exactly a future Donnie around. Or a future anyone, for that matter. Was the loss of your brothers related to the incident which brought you and Casey here?” 

“Yes and no,” Leo said. “...Just Mikey.”

“And Raph and I?”

“You were--” Donnie closed the casing on Leo’s forearm, moving up to his bicep, and Leo winced as something in his elbow twinged with the jostling. “--Mostly my fault.”

“I find that difficult to believe.” 

“I think that makes it worse, actually.”

“Don’t be contrary,” he scolded, and the tweak of a wire eased the pinch in his arm. “Even if you were involved, I highly doubt you were really responsible in the way I think you believe. It was war, wasn’t it? People die. That’s how it goes.” 

“I don’t want to talk about this,” Leo said, tone chilly. A bad idea to be sure-- Donnie would no doubt file the topic away under “things to be discussed later,” as he’d always done with things Leo clearly wanted to avoid-- but he’d done enough venting to his brothers for one day. They didn’t need any more of his grief laid on their relatively young shoulders. 

It said something about what state he must have been in that Donnie didn’t argue. Simply raised his hands in surrender, then went back to his work.

Donnie stayed quiet for all of a few minutes. Then-- because he'd always worked best with some kind of background noise, be it idle chatter or an artfully crafted playlist-- he piped up again; “...Do you really think it’ll work? Changing the future? All laws of the time-space continuum suggest that the course of time is set in stone. The grandfather paradox, physical determinism-- the science suggests that all of this will be futile.”

“Except the future already has been changed," Leo said. He hadn't dared entertain the idea himself until he'd had reassurance that they were actually capable of making an impact in the course of things. "In my time, the gateway was opened last night. We didn't realize anything was wrong until hours later, and once we did, the Krang were already laying siege to Metro Tower and bringing their ship through. By this time today, New York was at war. But we aren’t. We got the key. The Krang are still in their dimension. Things are different. I think your science might be a little faulty, Donnie.”

“Of course you’d find the chance to insult me while you’re explaining all this. If I weren't busy thinking about the logistics of it, I might even be a little annoyed.” The way that he tugged a little too hard on some wires and sent a stinging numbness up Leo's arm (much like the feeling gained from smacking one’s funny bone) implied he might already be a “little annoyed,” and what he really meant was that he’d be more annoyed if he weren’t distracted by their conversation. “I suppose it’s possible we’re in a… a bifurcated time branch, as opposed to simply jumping back in the same one. An alternate universe of sorts. Did your Donnie ever discuss his theories on time travel?”

“Not really. It didn’t seem feasible, as far as he was concerned, so he didn’t waste time on it. The only thing I can remember is that he’d been really insistent that time is linear.”

“Well, he’s right. Time is linear! Which is exactly why the future is not set in stone!!” The tone which indicated Donnie’s excitement over a development in his work was seeping into his voice. He let go of the wires he was adjusting to wave his hands as he continued. “Because you can’t go back in time, end of story. It simply isn’t possible. Time isn’t flexible like that. But it is continuous, and it's asynchronous! When you went back in time, you weren’t necessarily going back to your past. Simply a past, which then became your present. If you’d never arrived, it’s possible my time would have continued to become a perfect match with yours. But with your influence, the timeline split, and so our current timeline’s future isn’t guaranteed. Because it doesn’t have a future yet!”

Leo was… mostly following. 

Okay, about halfway following. It wasn’t that the concept was overly complex-- in fact, Donnie was being generous and using relatively simplistic terminology in his explanations-- but it was never something Leo had really thought about in the context of real life and not sci-fi, and certainly not something he’d entertained up until very recently. He hadn’t taken the time to set aside much brain-power for finding substance in Donnie’s rambling.

Which did not, in any sense, mean he wasn’t hanging on to every word.

He’d said it before, but it bore repeating; he had missed his brothers so much. Even the traits he’d once found annoying -- Raph’s overbearing care, Mikey’s unflinching cheer, Donnie’s long-winded lectures-- were tinted rosy with the weight of how much he’d grieved for them. How much he’d yearned to see them again. 

It was hard to be irritated by a rant about a subject he didn’t really understand being forced upon him when he hadn’t heard Donnie’s voice outside of recordings in years. 

"Of course, that leads to the question; just how many alternate timelines are there? Does every decision create a new one to account for every option? Or only the choices which have a significant effect on the way the future will progress? What decides whether a choice is significant?" And so on, and so forth. "Are they all connected? Is there a way to travel between them without disrupting them and creating a new one, or is the split inherent owing to the change in course made by your very appearance? Oh, the possibilities are endless."

"I'll leave the experimenting to you," Leo said. "I think I've had my fill of jumping through time."

“...Right. Well, thank you for answering my questions.” The jostling of his arm’s inner workings stopped, and Donnie closed the casing to Leo’s arm where it locked with a click. “We’re done here, by the way. There’s a few things I can’t fix without proper tools-- it’s not waterproof, and the wrist still locks if you move it too quickly-- but it’s functional, and it should stay functional long enough for me to convince you to let me make you a new one.”

Leo laughed quietly. “Good luck with that. I like this one."

"It's inefficient and inaccurately sized for your measurements!"

"It's sentimental."

"Oh, you're hopeless."

"We may just have to agree to disagree on this one, pal.” He tilted his head to bump it against Donnie’s leg. “And hey, I told you we should’ve gone to the lab. Don’t complain about proper tools when I offered you a perfectly good option.” 

“I suppose I can admit you might’ve had your reasons aside from just self-sacrifice. You’re still a dum-dum, though.” He plastered his hand against Leo’s face and shoved it to the side. To which, in a stunning display of maturity befitting of a guy his age, Leo turned his head and licked Donnie’s palm. His brother immediately yelped, whipping his hand back and shaking it to rid himself of the feeling. “Ew!! Seriously? You haven’t grown out of that?? Oh, you’re so gross. Worst twin ever.” 

Leo burst out laughing, bright and loud and hard enough to hurt his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a reason to laugh like that. 

Leave it to his twin to give him one.

Well.

Not really his.

A thought mirrored by Donnie, if his searching expression across Leo’s face (and the worry lines on it made prominent by his joy) was any indication. 

"...I guess we aren't really twins anymore," Donnie said quietly, "Are we?"

“Dunno if we ever technically were.” With both hands now free, Leo raised them to indicate the markings on his face. “We don’t look much alike. We’re two entirely different kinds of turtles. Pretty sure Pops just called us that ‘cause we were roughly the same size.”

“We aren’t even that, though. ”

“Which is my point.” Leo sat up, flexing his hand a bit to get used to the ease with which the joints moved. Once he was sure he actually had control over his strength, he reached over to lay his arm heavily across Donnie’s shoulders, very carefully leaving his hold loose enough to allow Donnie to pull away if he wanted. His brother did no such thing. "We never let the lack of similarities stop us from claiming the title before. Don’t see why that has to change now."

Donnie glanced up at him, bemused. “I think my brother will have complaints.”

“I can be his twin too.” He grinned cheekily. “We look similar enough, right?”

Donnie huffed in annoyance, but Leo could see him fighting a smile. "You certainly have his sense of humor.”

“I haven’t changed that much, Donnie.”

“Haven’t you?” Donnie crossed his arms and looked away, though at the same time leaned a bit closer against Leo’s side. “We can both agree that I’m the last person here who will try to talk to you about your emotions. But if you ever want to discuss the circumstances of the future without needing to worry about unwelcome gestures of comfort… My lab is always open.”

Leo turned to face him fully. He had his shoulders hunched and his head lowered, and was glancing at Leo out of the corner of his eyes instead of really looking at him. His expression kept switching between aloof and expectant. It was something wholly unfamiliar for Leo to see on his brother-- until he realized he had seen it before. But never when it was Leo he was talking to. Only when it was someone like their dad, someone older, and Donnie was trying to get validation without asking for it. 

It was wholly disarming, to see it directed at him. Even with their varying ages, all four of them had always been on equal standing. Sure, Raph had responsibilities in his role of eldest and Mikey took as much advantage of his position as youngest as he could, but there had never really been that degree of separation between them.

Except now Leo was the oldest by a difference of over two decades. He was one of those authority figures Donnie was prone to seeking positive reinforcement from. 

And Leo… wasn't really sure how to feel about that.

He wasn't even sure Donnie was really aware that he was doing it, actually. It was mostly instinct on his brother's part to look for affirmation, particularly in regards to his work. Calling attention to it would do nothing but make embarrassed, and lead to him closing himself off. Which was not ideal.

No problem. Leo was plenty capable of having tact when it suited him.

"Thanks, Donnie. I'll keep that in mind," he said, intentional in his nonchalance. "And hey, I appreciate the help with the arm. You did good work-- feels way better than it did before."

Donnie virtually lit up at the praise, an expression of uncertainty flickering over his face before it was replaced by one of pride. “It was in pretty decent condition. Though there were clearly modifications made-- you mentioned it was originally designed for a robot, correct? Well, it shows. It’s never going to be perfectly efficient, measurement accuracy notwithstanding.”

“You can build a new one, but I’m not going to accept it. And unless you want to knock me out and change it over while I’m unconscious…”

“No, I wouldn’t do that,” Donnie said, briefly surprising Leo until he continued explaining; “Not because it’s unethical, but because prosthetics require feedback from the patient when being installed, otherwise something might go wrong.” 

“Ah. Naturally.” That sounded more like his brother.

After a few moments of visible hesitation, with Donnie reaching up to rub at the back of his neck (Leo moved his arm onto Donnie's battle shell to allow him the space) and glancing away awkwardly, he spoke again; “...I really wouldn’t, though. That kind of modification isn’t something I’d do against your will. I can’t say I understand your attachment, but I’ll respect it.”

Leo stared at Donnie for a few moments, long enough that his brother began to fidget under his gaze. "You wanna know something about future you, Donnie?"

"I should say no for the sake of preserving the sanctity of the space-time continuum, but also please tell me I have been physically holding myself back from asking about it since we got home last night." 

"Alright. Listen up, ‘cause this is pretty important. It’ll save the whole family a lot of grief if you get it into your head now instead of waiting until your late twenties like my brother did." Leo hooked his arm around Donnie's neck and pulled him down, lowering his voice conspiratorially. "He was never as bad at emotions as he liked to believe."

Donnie's expression scrunched up. "Hey, that's not--"

"Also, he was the most brilliant inventor in the world, who single handedly devised every piece of technology that kept the resistance armed and fighting. Without him, we would’ve fallen apart in a few months as opposed to holding out for over two decades. His machines were our greatest weapons in the war against the Krang. He saved countless people." Leo leaned back a bit, giving the wide-eyed Donnie a soft smile. "He was the smartest person I ever knew."

"Oh," Donnie said, very quietly. "...Okay. Thank you for telling me."

"Anytime, Don. I mean it." He squeezed Donnie in a bone-crushing hug for a moment longer, then let go and stood with an affectionate fist-bump against his shoulder. "Hey. You feeling up to joining Casey and our brothers?"

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

Leo grinned. "Great. Race you there."

"What?? Hey--!"

Scarf flailing wildly in the wind, Leo jumped into the next roof over with a hearty cackle, landing cleanly and taking off at a run. The scuff of gravel behind him signified Donnie finally catching up with the situation and following after him. Fortunately, Leo had the advantage of longer legs on his side.

"Oh, that is so unsportsmanlike!! Get back here-- Leonardo!!"

Heedless of whoever might see them, Leo let himself revel in the thrill of running for the sake of nothing but his own enjoyment for the first time since he was young.

Chapter Text

Regardless of his insistence on the necessity of it, Leo couldn’t actually leave right away. He was still technically recovering from an injury, and none of the family were about to let him wander off into unknown territory when he wasn’t in peak condition. And, as he would reluctantly admit Leon might’ve had a point about, it would be good for him to get out more. Which was what brought him here, standing in a creepy alleyway well into the night while April fiddled with the back door of her newest workplace instead of sitting in the lair “moping.”

"Are you sure this is allowed?"

"Here's a helpful tip, Case-- Assume the answer to that question is usually no, and assume that I also don't really care." April finished unlocking the door, shoving it open and gesturing for their little entourage to head inside. "I've gotten fired from half the stores in the city. Breaking a few rules here and there isn't gonna make my resume look any worse, and I'm only here until next semester starts anyway. Besides, this is way more important."

"I still don't really know what we're doing," Casey said, peering around the darkened department store. "Mikey was pretty vague about it. And I… only understand about half the things he says most of the time.”

"We're getting you geared up for the present day," Leo clarified, gesturing for the other two brothers who had seen fit to join them down from their respective perches on the nearby rooftops. Mikey had been the motivating factor behind it all, while Raph had taken one look at April and Mikey's mischievous grins and invited himself along. Probably for the best-- as much as Mikey usually had no problem listening to Leo’s instruction, April still seemed kind of aloof. Leo couldn't promise she'd actually adhere to any rules he tried to enforce. "You sort of stand out like a sore thumb here. Not that folks will look twice at someone dressed strange in this city, but you may have a hard time getting a job or something if you decide you want to try that."

Catching Casey up with the present day was proving to be something of a lengthy process. Not that his education was lacking-- Leo's Donnie had made sure of that-- but he was far from an expert in the societal conventions of the day. Laws and standards and bureaucracy and all those things that were sort of thrown out the window in the face of an alien invasion.

It was a little bizarre for Leo to be worrying about Casey getting his GED as opposed to worrying about whether they'd live to see another day.

He might not have been planning to make his stay with the family a permanent one, but Casey had expressed an interest in doing so, which meant Leo would do everything in his power to make it happen. He deserved to live the rest of his life as normally as possible-- accounting for all the inherent weirdness that came from being involved with the Hamatos, of course. Which meant working with April and Splinter and Donnie to get him a fake identity (something that was proving more troublesome than expected) and working with Mikey to catch him up with present-day social conventions and working with Raph and Leon to get him adjusted to peacetime. Whatever the task might’ve been, Leo was there for all of it, keeping Casey steady and providing any information they needed.

(“You don’t know your blood type??” Leo had asked, incredulous.

“You do know it???” Casey had replied, equally bewildered.)

The fake identity thing was giving them problems, mostly in the form of their own complete lack of legal representation. Proving one’s existence was a lot harder when they had no basis of any kind to work off of. April would’ve gladly let him become an O’Neil, if her parents wouldn’t have suddenly wondered why there was an extra name attached to their family where there hadn’t been before. So with the stress all that was causing, Mikey and April had both decided they could use a bit of a break.

Hence the shopping trip. 

"We'll get you hooked up too," Mikey said as he passed Leo by on their way into the store. "Since I guess Leo likes pants in the future. And you deserve a scarf that's not falling apart at the seams."

"I like this scarf," Leo said, perhaps a little too defensively. It had been with him longer than… most other material possessions he still had. A lucky find after the Krang had fucked with the planet’s climate a little too much and they were all really cold for a good few weeks until it got resolved. 

"You can keep that one too! We'll get Raph to fix it up. But you should at least get some different color options, now that you have the option.” Mikey gestured broadly to the breadth of the store before them. The pinnacle of modern capitalism. And while Leo was personally averse to the subject, he had to admit seeing the display of sheer indulgence and luxury was sort of nice after… everything. “What do you think of patterns? Wait, don’t answer that, I’ll find you something. You and Casey just sit tight-- me and April have you covered.”

“What about Raph?” Raph piped up without looking away from the jacket he was scrutinizing. “I can help too.”

“If you want to pick some stuff out you can, I just figured this wasn’t really your jam. You got pretty into it a couple years ago but we were also sort of being hypnotized so I wasn’t sure if that was just a fluke or not.”

“Nah, I mean-- I like fresh outfits as much as the next guy. It’s usually just too hard for me to find stuff that fits with my shell. I can’t modify things to go over it like you guys can.” He shrugged as though trying to brush off his disappointment. “So I like being able to pick stuff out for other people. I don't get to do it too often, 'cause April doesn’t trust Raph to dress her.”

“You tried to put me in double denim, Raph. It’s just not my style!”

“Any- way,” Mikey interjected, “we’ll work together. All you guys gotta do is sit there and let us work our makeover montage magic.” 

"What??"

"Just go with it, Casey!" Mikey sat them both down on a bench outside the fitting room, then swept through the racks and began grabbing anything that happened to catch his eye. Leo was seeing a lot more color than he was sure either of them would really like. "This is how we roll in the past!"

“Do they always talk like this?” Casey whispered, leaning close to Leo as Mikey (and April and Raph, with a little less fervor) continued their pillaging of the racks. “And what are they talking about when they keep referencing a makeover montage? ”

“They’re getting us clothes,” Leo murmured back. “There was an incident a couple years before where Hypno used some magic song thing to put us in a trance of sorts in order to steal some books without us interfering. He trapped us in this collective hallucination where we were trying on a bunch of different outfits. We had a lot of fun until we realized we were being hypnotized”

“Hypno?? Like, Warren and Hypno? Why would he do that?”

Leo grimaced. Right. Several of the “villains” who had harassed Leo and his brothers over the years were people Casey only knew as allies and fellow members of the Resistance. He’d lose his mind if Leo told him Big Mama had tried to kill them multiple times-- she’d spoiled Casey rotten the few times she’d seen him whenever she’d come by the Resistance base. (And tried to kidnap him, but she never got past the front door, so that didn’t really matter as much.) Who could’ve guessed that all it would take was a badder bad guy to make years of scuffles seem like water under the bridge?

“Before the Krang attacked, we didn’t get along too well. Both Hypno and Warren more or less hated our guts. So did a lot of other people.” He made a mental note to sit Casey down and clarify which people in this time period were not friendly. “The invasion sort of trivialized a lot of disagreements.”

Whatever Casey was about to respond with was cut off by the wad of fabric that smacked him in the face. He sputtered, tugging the offending items away and glaring at them.

“They’re t-shirts,” Mikey called from some aisle in the distance. “We’ll find you something with a little more razzmatazz eventually, but for now I figure we should start with the basics. Get you some stuff that wasn’t scrounged up and has actually been washed within the last decade. Do you like cargo pants? Of course you do, your whole thing is utility, with all the armor and belts and stuff. I’m getting you cargo pants.”

April piped up from another end of the room; “Mikey, if you put that boy in camo, I’m kicking you out of this squad.”

“Excuse you! I disagree with camo on a personal level,” Mikey said with an offended scoff. “Unless it’s neon, but they don’t have that here. Anyway, he’s more of a solid color guy. Dark or light green?”

“Um--”

“Nevermind, take both.” More fabric was launched at them from the middle of the store, and this time Leo reached up to catch the clothes before they could smack Casey in the face. “Raph, are you near the jackets?”

“Way ahead of you, big man. Heads up!”

And so it continued, with the trio tossing whatever they found in the midst of their searching that they thought Casey-- or Leo, once Mikey took the initiative of getting him involved in the whole process by shoving about eight different colors of scarves into his arms-- would be comfortable in. Which Leo had to appreciate; their willingness to prioritize function over form. For as much as they were goofing off and having fun, they were here for a reason, and took Casey’s personality and preferences into account as they made their selections.

Once they’d amassed a veritable mountain of clothes, the three returned to where they’d left Leo and Casey sitting and began sorting through their spoils. April shoved a stack of clothes into Casey’s arms, shepherding him off towards the fitting room with an eager; “Try all that on!”

It was nice seeing them so excited, in any case.

The outfit April had loaded into Casey’s arms was sensible. Comfortable and easy to move in without sacrificing style. He’d kept his sturdy boots, but traded out the layers of armor for soft denim and flannel. Even with his mask still in place on his head, he looked far more like your average teenager. And Leo had to admit, it was a little disconcerting, much as it was nice to see him in such a casual context. 

"Looking good, Case," he said, to which April and his brothers nodded an affirmation. "Nice, uh… drip?"

"Leo, if you ever say that again, I will smack you stupid," Mikey said without looking at him, instead going over to adjust the way Casey's flannel was sitting. "He's not wrong, though! This kinda thing suits you. I knew grunge would be a good choice. You've got that natural unkemptness going on, it really helps with the intentionally greasy look the clothes are supposed to give you."

Casey made a face, and Leo had to stifle a laugh. He'd get used to Mikey's strange compliments eventually.

Since he was planning on sticking around.

Leo didn't blame him. On the contrary-- that was exactly where he'd want his student to be, if it were up to him. Safe, comfortable, secure with people who cared about him. Not needing to wonder where his next meal was coming from or worry about whether the place he'd chosen to sleep was too exposed. Being able to actually live his own life however he wanted. That was all any teacher could want for their student, right? 

(He ignored the part of his mind that sounded like Mikey's smug cheer telling him that was what most parents wanted for their kids, too.)

"Okay, okay, next one!"

The outfits were mostly all in a similar style range. Functional comfort; dark solids and faded plaid, torn denim and bulky fleece. T-shirts for bands he hadn’t had a chance to listen to yet. Jeans with rips that were intentional as opposed to a result of one too many scuffles or scraped knees. Each one got excited cheers and compliments from the trio, and with each change Casey seemed to grow a little more bold in his displays. From a meek shuffle to striking a confident pose.

After they’d gone through several different outfits, the last one having a brightly colored windbreaker to go along with it that left Casey cringing, Raph and April moved to help him pick out the next one while Mikey stepped up to Leo. 

“Don’t think I forgot about you, Lee,” Mikey said, holding up two handfuls of hangers. “Since you’ve taken such a liking to pants, why not go all in? I grabbed some things I think should be able to fit over your shell, and Raph can modify anything that doesn’t. I’m mostly basing it off my Leon’s style-- since I doubt you had much of a chance to develop it with the whole apocalypse thing and all.”

“You’re not entirely wrong,” he said, picking up one of the proffered articles. A varsity jacket in blue. Leo’s face reflexively scrunched up. “Though I do think my selections are a little less frat boy-esque these days.”

“Less jock, got it. How do you feel about cardigans?”

“I have no moral objections to them?”

“Great. Not that I’m calling you old, but I think you might enjoy, like, grandpa style. Very comfortable!” He dropped a sweater into Leo’s hands, along with one of the many scarves set aside earlier, then shoved him into the fitting room with a completely unsurprising amount of strength. 

Casey, having just been herded into the room a moment prior, looked up at him with a mildly dazed expression. The tee he’d been given had extra holes along the sides in some sort of purposeful, stylistic destruction, and his arm had gotten caught in one of them.

Leo immediately burst out laughing. 

“This is kind of a lot, isn’t it?” He carefully tugged the fabric aside and fitted Casey’s arm through the proper sleeve. Once that was all sorted, he moved his hands to his student’s shoulders and gave them a supportive squeeze. “It’s okay if you need a break. They’re pretty jazzed about all this, but they won’t be pushy if you’re not feeling it.”

“I’m okay,” Casey assured him, bumping his head against Leo’s hand. He tugged the edge of the tank top down a bit, looking over the skull pattern on the front. “It’s just-- Isn’t this all a bit… frivolous?“

Leo gave him a sad smile. “Not by their standards. They don’t really know what it’s like to be hurting for supplies. Not in the same way we do, at least.”

There had been a period of time in Leo and his brothers’ lives when it had been something of a challenge to find food and supplies, that much was true, but it hadn’t lasted long in the wake of meeting April and Donnie figuring out how to hack ATMs and all of them getting more confident in their abilities to go up to the surface without getting caught. April, as far as they knew, had lived pretty comfortably her entire life. None of them quite understood what it was like having to settle for the worst option in terms of things like food or shelter, strictly because it was also often the only option.

“It’s kind of overwhelming.”

“Such is the luxury of choice,” Leo said, clapping a hand on Casey’s shoulder. “Welcome to the past. You’ll get used to it.”

Casey left first, his reveal getting some more appreciative cheers, and Leo followed a moment or two after. A fresh pair of jeans, a long sweater, and a scarf pulled low-- absolutely nothing he would’ve chosen for himself, but clearly well-liked by the rest of their squad. April gave a “Whoop!” at his exit, and he got double thumbs up from Mikey.

“Not bad, Leo,” Raph said, nodding as he looked over the outfit. “I think you look better in this kinda thing than the dystopia’s hottest you were wearing before. No offense, of course.”

“None taken. Trust me, I wasn’t exactly dressing to impress before.” 

Casey was staring at him like he’d never seen him before in his life. To an extent, he hadn’t-- even by the time Casey was around, Leo had pretty much settled into his grit-laiden lifestyle. He wore the clothes he did out of necessity, not a desire to show off his style. A harsh environment and harsher enemies gave him minimal opportunities for personal preference. He wore the pants because they were armorweave fabric, and he couldn’t risk losing his legs once Donnie wasn’t around to whip up a replacement anymore. The scarf was a holdover from that planet-wide freeze he’d mentioned. His belt was tactical, nothing loose or extraneous that might allow his foes any sort of advantage.

It was kind of nice. Trying on an outfit just for the hell of it. Even if the sweater was sending a strange shivery feeling crawling up his arm. Not one he was entirely happy with. 

“Maybe not this,” he said, shrugging it off and setting it down on the bench. “What else do you have?”

Mikey held up a denim vest. Leo was wholly ready to see how well it fit over his carapace when something made him pause. A sound, perhaps. On the very edge of his senses.

And then there was the clatter of breaking glass nearby that had everyone, not just Leo, on high alert. Mystic energy sparked up Raph's arms, and Mikey and April fell into place at either side of him. Leo had both fists up, and Casey pulled a knife from some hidden pocket somewhere. Neither of them had brought their primary weapons along-- this was supposed to be a peaceful evening-- but Leo had ingrained it into Casey's head a long time ago that you should always have a backup in the event things went south.

“Stay quiet,” Raph hissed. “I don’t hear too many people. May be best if we just lie low ‘til they leave.”

April grabbed a broom from where it sat against the wall, hefting it over her shoulder and scowling. “Oh no, I am not about to let someone who isn’t you guys get away with breaking into my workplace. Raph, help me out here.”

“Or we can just run in and beat the crap out of them,” Raph said with a roll of his eyes. “That works too, I guess.” 

April took the lead, directing them towards the source of the sound. There was a shadowy figure crouched in a pile of broken glass. April went to swing her makeshift weapon at the intruder, but froze as she realized just who had barged in through the store’s window. Leo froze too, for a wholly different reason.

"...Cassandra?” Well. Hoh-lee shit. “What the heck are you doing here?"

"O'Neil!! I should be asking you the same question!" Cassandra Jones brandished her hockey stick, pointing it threateningly at their little crew. She had her mask down, and was clad in her modified Foot Recruit uniform that she’d insisted on wearing into battle until she nearly lost a leg and finally accepted some armor to go along with it. "This area is under my protection! I will not allow criminals to roam its streets. So why are you in this store after hours?! This is completely illegal!!"

"Isn't vigilantism illegal too?" April quickly backtracked at the death glare the smart comment earned her. "I mean-- it's okay, Cassandra. I work here."

"Oh. Well, I suppose you’re allowed." Cass’s neon glower turned from April to the rest of them, where it first passed over his brothers, then landed on Leo and narrowed suspiciously. “Of course you two are with her, but what the hell is going on with this guy? When did the blue one get so big?"

"It's been two years, Cass, you still don't know our names??"

"Leave it, Mikey,” Raph hissed, already visibly exhausted after about half a minute of conversation.

"I'm a… relative. From out of town," Leo said vaguely. 

"Not convincing in the slightest! However, I also don't care.” She tilted her head, jerking her chin forward. “What about you, hiding behind Mr. Out-of-Town there?"

And crap, Leo really should have been paying more attention. He'd gotten so caught up in the drama of Cass's entrance and the utter shock of seeing her again (alive, unharmed, as intense as she’d always been) that he'd completely forgotten that Casey was standing right there. And however much Leo had to be having trouble handling all this, it had to be so much worse for him. The last time the kid had seen his mom, she’d been shoving him into Leo’s arms and running off to her own certain death just to gain them an advantage they’d lost again with the month.

His protege must have ducked behind him to use him as cover when it had become clear that Cass was their mystery intruder. He was all but pressed against Leo’s carapace-- Stock still, utterly silent, hands clenched into fists around the shirt he was still holding.

"Hello?? I asked you a question!"

"I'm, um--" Casey swallowed thickly. Leo subtly shifted to hide him a little better. He’d wanted Casey to meet the younger version of his mom at some point, if only because it was inevitable it would happen eventually if he was going to be staying here, but he’d sort of hoped they’d have the chance to purposefully initiate a meeting before it happened by accident. "Uh."

"This is--”

Leo cleared his throat loudly. Mikey glanced at him, took note of the way he subtly raised his hand to wave it across his throat in a clear “don’t say shit” gesture. Then he looked over at Casey, back to Cass, and his eyes went wide. He was a smart kid, especially when it came to people, and even if they hadn’t stated it outright Leo wouldn’t put it past him to have figured out the connection between the two Jones’s. It was a pretty obvious one, if you thought about it for more than a minute or so.

“Oh. Um, this is… CJ. Our friend," Mikey said, looking between them nervously. "...Also from out of town."

Cass's expression was narrow, pinched, and wholly suspicious. Understandably so, as all of them were doing a spectacularly bad job at lying. In their defense, though, Cass was a really hard person to lie to.

“Whatever! I don’t really care what you’re doing here, but I don’t trust any of you here alone. I will stay and assist in making sure the rules remain unbroken!"

"You mean the laws?"

"Absolutely not! The legal system is inadequate and inhumane. My squad and I are a far superior alternative!" She whipped her phone out of one pocket, swiping at it and raising it to her ear. “Brownie Brigade!! Continue your patrol! I will be delayed for the rest of the night. Do not contact me!! Over and out!”

April grinned nervously. "That’s… uh, nice, Cass, but you don't have to--"

"Thanks, Cassandra. We appreciate it," Raph interrupted, a warning in his tone. He glanced at Leo out of the corner of his eye. Leo got the unspoken message, nodding in return and carefully waving Casey backwards, urging him back into the dressing room as he stepped back to cover his escape. As April engaged Cass in a lengthy conversation, thoroughly distracting her, Leo ducked through the door and closed it behind him. 

He zeroed in on Casey immediately where he’d ended up crouched in the corner of the room, mask pulled down over his face and eyes wide behind the tempered glass. He’d haphazardly reequipped his armor over the latest outfit in the half a minute he’d been gone, and the mask’s voice modulation just made his heaving breaths that much clearer. 

“Hey,” Leo said softly, kneeling down in front of Casey. His student didn’t even glance up at him; just continued to stare into space. “Kid, can you hear me? Just give me a nod or something.”

After several nerve-wracking moments, Casey’s head jerked upwards.

“Alright, good.” He carefully dislodged one of Casey’s hands from its death-grip on his cloak, threading their fingers together. Casey was shaking like a leaf in a thunderstorm, and even the tight hold on Leo’s hand didn’t help ease his hyperventilating. “It’s okay. Take a deep breath for me, alright? Slowly. You’re safe. It’s okay. I’m here, Casey. Everything’s gonna be alright.”

Painfully slowly, Casey managed to do as told, taking a careful breath in and letting it out in a rush. A few more of these and his ironclad grip loosened, his shoulders stopped rattling quite so badly, and his eyes slipped shut behind the lenses of his mask. Leo rubbed his free hand across Casey’s shoulders, and the repetitive reassurance further helped him steady his breathing. After what was probably a full minute of winding down, Casey let go of Leo’s hand to push his mask up and promptly face-planted against his scarf.

“It’s her, Sensei,” he said, muffled by several layers of fabric. “She looks so young. Sensei--"

"I know, kid.” It was strange seeing Cass so young again, much less seeing her younger than Leo was, but for Casey… Well, he could kind of imagine what it was like, actually. Seeing Splinter alive and well had certainly weighed heavy on him. “Hey. We don’t have to make any decisions right now, alright? You just focus on breathing.”

Casey nodded into his scarf, and he continued rubbing Casey’s back. After a minute or two Mikey slipped into the room, Raph on his heels. The latter glanced back warily before closing the door.

“So,” Raph said, somewhat hesitantly. “We gonna talk about whatever that was, or…?”

“It’s... complicated,” Leo said. “It’s not really my place. Up to you, Casey.”

“That’s my mom,” Casey said, voice cracking on the last word. 

“Oy.” Raph put one hand on his head, the other coming to rest on his hip, and exhaled heavily. “Okay. Alright. That explains… sheesh. You doin’ okay, kid?”

Casey didn’t respond, so Leo looked up with an awkward smile. “Ask again in a few minutes.”

“I had a feeling there was something going on with you two. You have the same name, and you look similar enough, but I kind of thought it was just a coincidence, y’know? Casey and Jones aren’t exactly the rarest names in the world. And lots of people look similar without being related. But man, your mom,” MIkey said, shaking his head sympathetically. “That’s gotta have you feeling all kinds of shook up.”

“I can’t go back out there,” Casey mumbled. “I can do it. I can’t let her see me.”

“Easy, Case. Breathe.” Leo glanced up at Raph with a heavy frown. “There’s no way out of here without passing by those two, is there?”

“Nope. You can’t get outta the room without them noticing, but even if you could, the whole store is pretty open plan. Even in the dark.” Raph rubbed his chin in thought. “We could try to distract ‘em, I guess, but something tells me Cass’d see right through us.”

“I don’t understand,” Mikey said. “You want to keep her from finding out about our boy Casey, right? Just tell her to leave. Or have me and April lead her outside or something.”

"You know Cass. If we try to get her to buzz off, she's gonna notice and she’ll know something's going on, if she doesn’t already.” Raph looked to Casey, wearing a concerned frown of his own that deepened when he saw how shaken Casey seemed. “Hey, just take it easy, okay? It’s gonna be fine, big guy. We'll get through with picking out your clothes and then we'll hit the road, no more making a show out of it. You can wait here ‘til we’re done.”

“I don’t…” Casey shuddered. “I don’t know.”

"It's okay if you aren't ready for this, Case. We can wait it out and try again another time. Never is also an option. If you want to meet her again now, though, I’m here to help,” Leo said gently, moving one hand to squeeze Casey’s reassuringly. “This is your family-- we can approach this however you’d prefer.”

"I… I want to." He looked a bit like he was about to be sick, but there was a determined glint to his eyes. “If I try and avoid her, she’s just gonna get more adamant about wanting to meet me. You know how she is. It’s best if I just Jones up and do it.” 

“You sure?”

Casey looked up at him, face set in a firm line. “I’m sure.”

“What the hell is taking them so long??” That was Cass’s muffled voice, raised to be audible even through the door, and Casey flinched in Leo’s hold.

“...Alright. How do you want to do this?”

Which was how they ended up with Mikey, Raph, and April running interference while Leo and Casey tried to prepare a plan of attack. Not that they were actually planning to attack, but they were approaching it like your typical strategy meeting. Just with far less maps and holograms and little baubles made to represent different players on the field. 

“I can’t just tell her, can I? Like-- hey! I’m your son from the future!” Casey waved his hands with a manic grin, then clapped them over his face and groaned. “There’s no way she’ll take that well.”

“She’s been exposed to a lot of nonsense in her life,” Leo said thoughtfully. “She was raised with the Foot. She’s known about the mystic side of things from a pretty young age. I somehow doubt this is what’ll stretch the limits of her disbelief.” 

“I’m not worried she won’t believe me. I guess…” He sighed, slumping forward, and Leo set a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “I don’t want to put this kind of pressure on her. She’s barely older than me-- definitely in no position to be a mom. I’m worried she’ll think I want her to take some kind of responsibility, or that I’m expecting something from her.” 

“You think she would?”

“I think she’s got a strong sense of duty, and it might make her jump to conclusions.” He crossed his arms, tilting his head to the side to rest it on Leo’s hand. “Maybe this is a bad idea.”

“Don’t start second-guessing yourself just because you’re stressed. You’re a smart kid-- that doesn’t stop being true when you get anxious.” Leo crouched down and took both of Casey’s hands, drawing his attention forward. “Humor me for a second, yeah? What’s the absolute worst possible scenario?”

Casey grimaced. “She… freaks out and tries to kill me? Or she doesn’t believe me? Or she starts cursing me out and calls me a disappointment?”

“Okay, and what’s the best?”

“She… doesn’t do that. She accepts me.”

“And what do you think is most likely to happen?”

“I think… I think she’ll probably just take it in stride. Like she usually does.” Like Leo knew she’d done with Casey, arriving back at the base after what was supposed to be a routine solo patrol with a baby in tow. “Sensei…”

He trailed off, conflicted distress written all over his expression. Leo stayed quiet. It would be best if he found his words in his own time.

“I… kind of don’t want her to. She isn't really my mom, is she? She’s a teenager. Like me. She doesn’t know about all the stuff I’ve gone through. She wasn’t there. And… my mom wasn’t there for very long. I don’t blame her. But…” He looked up to Leo, eyes wide. Vulnerable. Painfully, irrevocably young. “I don’t want her to try to be a mom. I had a mom, and she died, and I don’t want her back. I should want that, right?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this is kind of an unprecedented situation. Whatever you want from this, whatever you’re feeling right now, it’s all okay. This is a really complicated thing, and there’s no basis for how things should go in the event of meeting your dead parent through time travel. Trust me-- I speak from experience.”

Casey’s expression fell. “Splinter. I didn’t even think about that.”

“You aren’t alone in this, Casey,” he said quietly. His father had died long before Casey was born, but Leo had made sure his father’s legacy lived on. Lou Jitsu’s escapades were a frequent topic of Casey’s bedtime stories, and then a frequent topic of his regular stories once Casey hit that age where he decided bedtime stories were for little kids. (Who knew teenage rebellion would be the thing to stick around after the end of the world? You’d think the complete lack of a centralized authority to stick it to would kind of dissuade that.) “I get it, bud. I really do.”

With the grip he still had on Casey’s hands, he pulled his student into another hug, this one a bit looser than those prior. Casey set his head on Leo’s shoulder and sighed.

“Sensei,” he said after several moments, a smile chasing away his dour temperament, “Y’know how we were talking about worst, best, and most likely scenarios earlier? I thought of something else that’s pretty likely to happen.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“She’s gonna decide only one of us can have the name and try to fight me for it.”

Leo burst out laughing, enough to make him wheeze with the force of it. It was definitely loud enough for those in the store outside to hear them, but he couldn’t be bothered to care. They already knew Leo and Casey were here, anyway.

“You have a good point,” Leo said, a hand on his chest futilely attempting to ease his breathing. He hadn’t had many reasons to laugh that hard in recent years-- he’d kind of forgotten how to do it without hurting himself. Or maybe it was just age making his chest ache so bad. (Or love for his student.) “Are you prepared for that?” 

It was a subtle way of asking whether Casey was ready to leave the room and face whatever stood beyond it, and to his implied question Casey leaned back and gave a determined nod.

“I’m ready,” he said. “Let’s do this.”

April, Mikey, and Raph had all done an adamant job at distracting Cass during their little tête-à-tête, the latter having engaged her in what appeared to be an intense arm-wrestling competition. To absolutely no one’s surprise, Cass was holding her own, despite the solid mass of scaly muscle that was her opponent. It probably helped that his spines prevented him from being able to really brace his elbow on the bench, but there wasn’t a doubt in Leo’s mind that she would’ve been able to absolutely mop the floor with Raph if they got into a real fight. She’d done so easily in the past, and two years of training on Raph’s part likely weren’t enough to bridge that gap.

Cass looked up at their approach, casting a suspicious glare first at Leo, then at Casey-- still standing halfway behind him, but with a determined set to his shoulders. He glanced up at Leo, and at Leo’s reassuring nod, stepped forward and cleared his throat.

“Um,” he said. “...Hi.”

“...Hello.”

“I’m, um-- Okay, this is gonna sound kind of weird, but I’m asking you to just trust me for a second. And I know-- um, I know you have no reason to, and I know you don’t tend to trust easily, but I promise I’m… trustworthy.” He blanched. “And-- And I know I’m probably not doing a very good job of making that seem true. And… lying about my name off the bat probably didn’t help either. So, um, I’m going to tell you. Now.”

Cass stared at him for a moment longer, then-- in a movement almost too fast for Leo to track-- jumped to her feet and brandished her weapon at Casey. He shrieked, throwing his arms up to cover his face, and in the same breath his yelped speech all merged together into a hasty; “My-name-is-Casey-Jones!!” 

“Hah! I knew it!” She swept her hockey stick backwards, nearly beaning Mikey in the head and forcing him to do some kind of fancy backflip to avoid it. April and Raph were staring at her, clearly alarmed but also not about to intervene. “Stop cowering!! Stand up and face me!”

“Yes ma’am!” Casey snapped to attention, likely more on instinct than anything, based on the confused frown that followed. “I mean, uh-- You… knew?” 

“Of course I knew we were related. You look exactly like my cousin! Even down to his greasy hair!!” She slammed the blade of her stick against the ground to emphasize her words. Then, with a far more dull expression, she pointed at the top of Casey’s head. “Also, you’re wearing my mask. But you clearly didn’t want to talk about it, which meant it was none of my business. Now, however, you have initiated this conversation, and I demand a reasonable explanation for all of this!! Where did you come from? Why do you look like my cousin? And why do you have those ridiculous markings painted on your mask?! They’re distracting and against regulation!”

Leo had to bite his tongue to keep from interrupting with his opinion on her calling his markings ridiculous. Man, his past self was a terrible influence on him.

Casey glanced at Leo. Leo, in turn, gave him a thumbs up. 

Might as well.

“My name is Casey Jones. I’m from the future. I’m-- I mean, I’m your son? From… the future. Like I said. I look like your cousin cause I’m… Adopted, I guess? It’s-- it never really mattered that much. Um, you named me after you, and that meant I was yours.” He reached up to take the mask off his head. “The markings are a… sign of respect. And I don’t play hockey with this, so I don’t know if the rules are all that--”

“You don’t play hockey??” Either Leo needed to pay better attention, or Cass was just that quick on her feet, because once again she managed to move without him noticing. This time darting forward and grabbing Casey’s shoulders. “This is unacceptable! I refuse to believe any relative of mine does not partake in the most honorable of sports!!”

Casey, for his part, seemed wholly disoriented by the entire thing. “Uh, we were a little busy? With an… alien invasion.”

Like a switch had been flipped, Cass froze, her manic expression immediately dropping into one of far more severity. She very carefully let go of Casey’s shoulders and took a step back. “These aliens. Were they…?”

They didn’t need to name them.

Casey nodded. 

“...I see.” Cass crossed her arms, looking first at Casey then over at Leo with a grim frown. “I’m assuming you’re from this future as well, then.”

“You’d be correct,” Leo said. The other members of their family seemed to have taken their leave from the conversation, and when Leo glanced off to the side he could see April quietly going through some racks. “We traveled back to this time period to stop the invasion. And… we succeeded.”

“I understand.” With a heavy sigh, Cass crossed her arms and looked away. “There were many aspects of the Foot Clan and its history that I was not permitted to be privy to. I knew the basics, as we all did, but my position meant I was kept in the dark. For the duration of my time with them, our main goal was always the revival of M-- of the Shredder. Despite that, however, I was not unaware that there was something deeper taking place among the highest of authorities. I always ignored it. It did not seem relevant at the time. But, the Lieutenant and his Brute… I heard them speak of such things, when they thought I was not listening. Of their true masters, locked away in some unreachable prison.”

“The Krang,” Leo whispered, as though speaking too loudly of them might give them some kind of foothold in their world. He’d stopped believing in boogeymen decades ago, but he would be the first to admit he’d had his share of nightmares about their otherworldly enemies.

“If you have gone through all this effort to prevent their arrival,” Cass said, low and grave, “I must imagine it was far worse than I could ever have anticipated.”

“It was the end of the world,” Casey replied, his tone equally somber. “Literally.” 

“And you’ve prevented it?”

“We have. We stopped it. We got the key that would open the portal, and we’ll keep it safe.” Casey was resolute in his will, eyes bright and teeth bared. “The Krang will not get their hands on this world too.” 

“A strong conviction,” she said with a firm nod, then stepped forward and set a hand on Casey’s shoulder. “Whether you are related to me by blood or not, you are a worthy successor to the name of Casey Jones. You have fought valiantly to protect this world. You have traveled to reaches few others dare tread! You have defied the laws of time and space in order to stand against our would-be oppressors! I can think of few things more honorable than that.”

Casey looked somewhat awestruck, though the moment was somewhat ruined by Cass proceeding to smack his forehead with the side of her hand. 

“While I can forgive the lack of hockey due to apocalyptic circumstances, we are no longer in an apocalypse, which means you will be partaking in this glorious sporting event! I will have no arguments! Unless you want to forfeit your name and accept defeat!!”

“Never!” Casey retorted, standing tall. He did wilt somewhat as he continued sheepishly; “Except, uh, I can’t really play anywhere. Officially, at least. I’m… sort of not legally a person?”

“Ah, I see… The United States judicial system. Truly a formidable opponent.” Cass put a contemplative hand on her chin, closing her eyes and nodding. “This is a difficult battle… One you will not win alone. O’Niel!! Get over here!!”

“I’m literally fifteen feet away, Cass! You don’t have to shout.” April tossed the stack of clothes she was holding onto the bench with the rest of their collection. “What’s up?”

“You will assist me! Together, we are going to defeat the government!”

“Are you asking me to help you with a revolution? ‘Cause I’m not saying no, but I am saying I’d kind of like to graduate before we get rid of the authorities. Someone’s gotta be around to give me my diploma, y’know.”

“Negative!! I mean, maybe at some point we can do that! But no, this enemy is one we must vanquish through… bureaucracy.” She pointed at Casey, and she was standing close enough that she basically just jabbed him in the chest. “This man needs to experience all that this time has to offer! To do that, he needs to be a person in the eyes of the government, so he can attend a school with a good team! And in order to do that, he needs someone to vouch for the fact that he exists. Luckily for all of you, I am a legal adult with the ability to act as a reference and acquire identification paperwork as I see fit!!”

Casey blinked. “Are you saying--”

“I will not allow such potential to be squandered by the intricacies of this abhorrent government!” She grabbed Casey’s shoulders and shook him a bit. “Do you hear me?? I will not allow it! I will grant you the assistance you need to become a legal citizen of this country, under the condition that as soon as you have the opportunity, you will join the hockey league of whatever school you decide to attend! And you will partake in regular training sessions with me!! We have many years of slack to pick up.”

Leave it to Cass to appear out of the blue with the exact solutions to their problems.

(Deus ex machina? No. Deus ex Cassandra.) 

Casey seemed sort of disoriented with it all, and Leo couldn’t blame him. While Cass had never quite lost her intensity-- it was an integral part of who she was, after all-- the apocalypse had mellowed her. She still fought with every ounce of ferocity she could muster in the war against the Krang, but at the end of the day she was as tired as the rest of them. Particularly by the time Casey showed up.

This fiery, unrelenting version of his mom was one that he'd never had the chance to meet.

"Sounds good to me. Just give me a buzz whenever you need me to work out any logistics," April said. "Nice seeing you, Cass. You should come by more often!"

"We shall see. Protecting this city is quite the time-consuming task…" She trailed off broodingly, only to continue a moment later with: "Also, I have work, so our schedules would need to line up. I’m busy on weekends and I take morning shifts."

"Well, you've got my number. Talk to me more, girl! Use it for more than just sending me pics of you beating people up!"

From several feet away where they'd been trying not to eavesdrop and evidently failing, quietly incredulous, Raph piped up: "She sends you pictures of her beating people up?"

"We don't need to explain our friendship to you."

Raph hunched his shoulders sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and glancing away. An odd enough reaction that Leo filed it away for later. "That's not-- I mean-- ah, forget about it. We should start heading out, guys. It's getting pretty late and I don't want to push our luck with being here. Next person who catches us might not be so friendly." 

"You got it, boss man. Hey April, Leo! Help me with all this."

It wasn't a very cleverly disguised attempt to give the two Casey's a minute alone, but it didn't need to be. Leo was all too happy to give his student a supportive pat on the shoulder then turn to help the rest of the squad pack up the-- frankly unnecessary amount of clothing they selected, seriously. Maybe Casey had a point when he called it frivolous. (Or maybe Leo's own standards really had been so significantly changed over the course of the last two decades.)

As they finished packing everything up in the reusable bags Mikey had brought along, Leo glanced over to check on the Jones duo.

Cass had pulled Casey into a bone-crushing hug, hefting him a solid few inches off the ground, and Casey's own expression was hidden against her shoulder. Leo made sure not to stare outright, instead watching in his periphery as Cass set him down, clapped a hand on his shoulder, and spoke something too quiet to hear. Casey nodded to whatever it was, wiping his face as he clearly failed at not tearing up. (He'd always been a bit of a crybaby. Cass had never judged him for it.)

With a professional-looking salute to April and a rude gesture towards the turtles, Cass turned on dime and did a rather impressive flip out of the broken window. Raph idly leaned over to watch her go.

"Oh, man, I forgot about the window.” April kicked a stray piece of broken glass. “Hey, do you think Donnie can get this fixed up by the time we open tomorrow?"

"...I think you may just want to call this one. Maybe you can get away with feigning ignorance. Hey, Casey," Leo digressed, carefully stepping over the debris and setting a careful hand on his student's back. "You doing okay, bud?"

It took Casey several moments to respond, staring after Cass with an unreadable but undeniably sad expression. A moment or two later he wiped his eyes with the edge of his sleeve and looked up to Leo with a weepy smile. "I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me. Really. I know sometimes I say I am when I'm not, but I'm okay. This is just-- it’s just kind of a lot.”

“Understandable. Take all the time you need.” He sort of wanted to ask what Cass had said to him to get him all teary, but in the end he knew it was none of his business. Casey would tell him if he wanted. Or he wouldn’t, and that was okay too. “We’re ready to head back to the lair when you are.”

“I’m good,” Casey said, steeling his grin into something defiant. “Let’s go home.”

Chapter Text

Leo woke up with his heart racing, his breath heaving, and his arm hurting. The arm he didn’t have anymore. 

Great.

In the past (or the future), he’d always just powered through the pain whenever it cropped up, but here and now he let himself have a grace period of laying there on the couch and shoving his face into his loaned pillow with a groan. 

Phantom pain had been a pretty frequent visitor in the year or two following the incident that took his arm. The violent way in which he’d lost it hadn’t helped in the slightest, leaving him with vague sensations of teeth sinking into his flesh and the searing burn from the beasts’ mouths that followed. It had faded with time, getting to the point where he couldn’t remember when he’d last been subject to this aching from a wound he couldn’t fix. 

He could only imagine this was some lingering effect from having his arm removed so violently upon his arrival. Or perhaps the stress of their recent battle was still weighing on him. Or all the build up stress from two decades of war, or the stress from having to deal with facing his late family again, or…

…It was probably just stress. General stress. He had a lot of that going on.

He knew they had painkillers in the lair, including the ones Draxum had made them not long after his proper induction into the family that actually worked well with their altered biology, but even the mere idea of having to get up and trudge through the lair while only half-remembering where anything was left him feeling drained. So he didn’t move.

The pain failed to abate as he lay there in the dark. He resigned himself to asking the next person who passed by for help, and hoped to every power in the universe that it wasn’t his past self who was up and about.

Thankfully, the universe decided to cut him some slack for the first time in literally two decades, and it was Mikey’s light steps which crossed by the doorway. He glanced into the room absent-mindedly, but stopped when he caught sight of Leo, no doubt noticing his anguished state.

“Dude,” Mikey said, all gentle concern, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s…” He gestured vaguely with his shoulder. “Hurts.”

“Ooh, yikes. Anything I can do to help?”

No hesitation, no questions. Leo made a note to go out of his way to do something nice for Mikey in the near future. Maybe wait to leave long enough to work on that mural he’d mentioned. That would probably make him pretty happy. “Would you mind grabbing me some painkillers? And maybe a drink?” 

“You got it, boss man. Be back in a minute.”

Mikey vanished as quietly as he’d arrived, and Leo let his thoughts drift for the several minutes it took his brother to return. He was just starting to wonder if Mikey had gotten side-tracked when the footsteps returned, this time accompanied by the crisp scent of the green tea Leo always favored. Screw going out of his way to do something nice-- Leo needed to sit his ass down and come up with some serious repayment. He owed Mikey big time.

“Green tea is supposed to help with pain, right? I don’t really know how phantom pain works, but it should at least help your mind feel better.” He sat down at the edge of the couch, and Leo gradually pushed himself up to meet him.

Down went the pill capsules, followed a moment later by a healthy sip of the tea. It was still scalding hot, but steeped perfectly-- Mikey may not have been much of a tea drinker, but half his family was, so he’d learned how to make a pretty good cup over the years. Leo felt the still-racing beat of his heart begin to ease. 

“Thanks, Mikey,” he said quietly. “I owe you.”

“Nah, it’s all good. You needed help.” He patted Leo’s knee. “I’m sure there’s something you did for me over the years that I never paid you back for, so we’ll just call it even.”

“Oh, countless. I’m afraid future you wasn’t exactly the greatest at IOUs.”

Mikey tilted his head, eyes wide and curious. “What was he good at?”

Leo blinked. Kind of a sudden question-- Mikey hadn’t really displayed much of an interest in the future before. Then again, it was entirely possible he’d just been able to gather Leo’s own reluctance to talk about it and reacted accordingly. He was a clever kid like that. Particularly when it came to people’s feelings.

“...I’ll tell you,” Leo said, “but not here. Give me a minute to get up and get ready. Let the painkillers work their magic. I’ll meet you in the living room?”

Mikey hummed, then his thoughtful expression broadened into a sunny grin. “Nah, I’ve got a better idea. Y’know the big room down through the maintenance tunnel? The one with the locked gate in front of it?”

Leo did, in fact, know which room he was talking about. “Your art room? Mikey, are you--”

“I’m sure. You’ve earned it.” He raised his hand for a fist bump, one which Leo gladly returned once he set the mug down to free up his hand. “I’ll be chilling there. Just come find me whenever you’re good to talk.” 

When they’d first moved into the new lair, they'd all still been in something of a fragile state. Part of the way Mikey dealt with that was through his art. As he'd told Leo years after the fact, about the time they lost the lair, he'd figured the rest of the family wouldn't exactly want to see his venting through paint splattered all over the living room walls. And, likewise, he didn't want the rest of the family seeing it. So after finding the maintenance tunnel behind a sealed door and the large room beyond it, he'd officially barred anyone else from entering unless giving clear permission.

Leo had been given blanket permission, at one point. And then he lost it. About the time their dad died.

He had to wonder what it meant that Mikey had picked his sanctuary as a place for them to meet. Was it supposed to be a sign of trust? Or did he figure Leo would need somewhere calm and secluded as much as Mikey did?

Either way, he was grateful for it. 

Between the tea, the painkillers, and the fact that the panic he’d woken with was slowly fading, the aching in Leo’s arm dulled within minutes. He took the time to attach his prosthesis slowly, careful not to move too fast and risk aggravating anything. Luckily, though, the pain seemed to have taken its leave.

After detouring for a moment to put his empty mug in the sink, Leo headed for Mikey’s art room. The gate was easy enough to jump. When he arrived, it was to the scene of his little brother sitting smack dab in the middle of the room, staring up at the paint covering the walls.

They hadn’t yet been living in the lair long enough for Mikey to cover every square inch of wall, unlike Leo’s version of him. He’d had to resort to painting over old pieces in Leo’s timeline, and by the time they lost the lair the place was busy enough to be headache-inducing the few times Leo got a chance to see it. 

This Mikey wasn’t quite there yet, but he’d made significant progress in bringing some life to the abandoned station. Color was slowly crawling up the slate-gray walls like ivy, almost an artificial garden where their circumstances limited their ability to grow real flowers. There were several crates of supplies-- rollers and trays and cans of paint, both normal and of the spray variety-- stacked near the exit.

“Pretty impressive setup you’ve got here,” Leo said, and Mikey looked up without a hint of alarm. Only a smile on his face.

“Yeah, I’ve had a lot of inspiration to work with.” A not-so-subtle way of saying they’d gone through some shit. Because Leo knew what the whole point of the room had been, and Mikey knew he knew that, and Leo knew Mikey knew-- and so on, and so forth. “You should try it.”

“What, painting?”

“Maybe. Or something like it. The future was rough, man. That’s obvious enough just from looking at you, even if you hadn’t talked about it a bunch. I think it’d be good for you to have some kind of outlet. Painting, journaling, I know Leo doesn’t really have the patience for my kind of art but there’s options. Somewhere to put all the thoughts going on inside your head, y’know? Get ‘em out so they don’t just sit up there and keep making you sad.” 

“I’m not sad.”

“Right, and I’m a tortoise,” Mikey snarked. “Maybe you aren’t sad in the traditional sense, but you’re definitely sad. Sad old man.”

Leo frowned, sitting down at Mikey’s side. “I’m only forty --”

“So, basically halfway to collapsing into dust. I’m serious, though. Right now all that time is just rolling around in your brain and getting worse with every go-around. Like a big angsty snowball. And the only way it’s ever gonna melt is if you let some of the cold out. Besides, you said you’d tell me about the future.” Mikey poked his chest. “Twenty four years is a lot of time, and I wanna know all about it! How much changed, what we were all like. One stop shop for rambling right here.”

Leo grimaced. Right. He’d almost forgotten. “I mean… Alright, but it’s important you remember that the future wasn’t very nice.”

“I mean, obviously,” he said, gesturing at Leo’s whole self. He may have been wearing soft pajamas as opposed to his worn battle gear, but the scars and the prosthetic arm were permanent fixtures. “But there had to be some good stuff. Right?”

His silence spoke volumes. Mikey, however, wasn’t taking it, and crossed his arms with a pursed frown.

“You’re way too well-adjusted for me to believe it was two decades of non-stop tragedy. So come on-- tell me one fun thing that happened in the future,” Mikey said, immediately continuing with; “And not something that’s relatively good, like you had a particularly rewarding day fighting the big baddies. Actually good.”

“Well,” Leo said, scanning over twenty years worth of memories to try and find a positive in them. It was… unfortunately difficult. While it was true that it hadn’t exactly been “non-stop tragedy,” their best days tended to be pretty neutral by Mikey’s standards. Days where nothing particularly awful happened, days with zero casualties and a surplus of necessities. But that definitely fell under “relatively good,” and he couldn’t let Mikey down like that. “...There was the time you and Raph played catch with a skyscraper.”

Mikey’s borderline pout turned to a look of awe as he gaped at Leo. “We what? Are you serious??”

“Oh yeah. You guys were training, trying to bulk up your mystic powers. Raph was throwing boulders and rubble and stuff, and you were whacking ‘em out of the sky with your chains. He was getting really into it, and so were you, and at one point he just grabbed the nearest big thing and hurled it at you without a thought. Turns out that thing was the base of a very tall building, and he didn’t realize until it was already in motion, aimed right for you. Me and Don couldn’t react quick enough. But then you tossed those chains of yours, lassoed the thing, and threw it right back at Raph. Could not believe my eyes. Raph caught it, and then you guys just kept throwing it back and forth. Lasted for a good few minutes until you threw it a little too hard and sent it flying into the bay.”

Leaning back with his hands braced on his legs, Mikey gave a long, low whistle. “Wow. I mean, I threw a ship one time back when we were fighting Ol’ Shreddy that first time around, but that was when I still had my mystic weapon.”

“Oh, buddy, your powers are way stronger than your kusari-fundō ever was. Thought you would’a figured that out by now.”

“Yeah, I dunno. I mean-- I’m as strong as the rest of you, I know that. But I can’t really…” He flexed his hands a bit, expression going pinched. “I can make my chains, but other than that I can’t really do as much as the rest of you. Right?”

“On the contrary, Miguel. You were invaluable then-- just like you were one of our best fighters in the future.” Mikey scooted forward, and Leo skipped the middleman to just reach over and haul Mikey into his lap, where he gladly settled down to listen. “In my time, Master Michelangelo was the most powerful Mystic Warrior the world had ever seen. He could take out whole armies of Krang beasts in seconds, just with the power of his mind. He could run along the fabric of space like a racetrack and play jump-rope with the threads of time. All the mystic energy you can imagine was his to control. Yeah, he used it to make his chains most of the time, but he wasn’t limited to that in the slightest. His imagination was boundless. ”

Mikey stared up at him with wide, sparkling eyes, and whatever twinge of guilt Leo felt at setting such high expectations for his little brother were dashed in the face of such utter joy at hearing of his future self. Joy which lasted for all of a few seconds before it flickered slightly.

“And I--” His smile didn’t quite fall, but it was painfully close. “He… died?”

For as much as Mikey was the youngest of them-- fifteen, he was fifteen, just a child, they were all children -- he was not stupid. He was not naive, nor was his optimism born of innocence. He knew just as well as any of them the horrors the world could bring, and he didn’t deserve to be kept in the dark. Not when it was his own fate on the line. 

“He did,” Leo said softly. “He used all the mystic energy he could muster, and he opened a gateway to send Casey and I back in time, all for the sake of saving the world. But before that, he used those powers to help people everywhere he went. He saved lives. He kicked some serious butt. And you know what?”

“What?”

Leo tapped the center of Mikey’s face, about where a nose would be if they were human. “He’s you, buddy. The end of the world didn’t give him some extra power-up he wouldn’t have otherwise had-- it just kinda… speed-ran the process a little. So everything he could do, all those fantastical things I just told you about? You can do them too. You’re a wonder to behold, Michelangelo. You’re gonna do great things. I know it.”

Mikey’s wide eyes went watery, and he lurched up to hug Leo with enough force to briefly leave him breathless. Leo returned it with all the strength he could muster-- his brother was built tough. He could take it.

“Just do me a favor,” Leo said, and Mikey hummed in acknowledgment. He opened his mouth, wholly prepared to make Mikey promise not to die, then paused. Looked down at his brother, hugging him tight and sniffling into his plastron. Tried to imagine putting that heavy of a request on Mikey’s thin shoulders.

And he couldn’t do it.

“Do me a favor,” he said again, “and don’t push yourself too hard.”

“...Okay?”

“My Mikey didn’t have much of an option when it came to getting stronger, and he suffered for it,” he said. Circumstances demanded they all push themselves beyond their limits. Leo had given an order. And Mikey was, like all of them, a soldier. So he followed it. Leo had said we need a time gateway and Mikey had accepted, even knowing the cost. “But you’ve got all the time in the world to learn all this stuff without hurting yourself in the process, and you’ve got your brothers behind you-- if the time ever comes, make sure you remember you have them to fall back on. Okay?”

“Anata wa hitori janai,” Mikey said, the only Japanese any of them had been fluent in for a long time. 

“Precisely. You aren’t alone, Mike. And you never will be. I promise.” And Leo would do whatever he needed to guarantee it. He would not bury any of his brothers a second time. 

“Okay,” Mikey said softly. “I’ll remember.”

“Thanks.”

Looking up from his chest with a pleading expression, MIkey said; “...Can you tell me some more good things about the future?”

The puppy-dog eyes were wholly unnecessary. Like Leo could ever really deny his little brother. “Want to hear about the time Donnie tried building himself a mecha suit?”

“More than anything.”

“So, picture this,” Leo began, bolstering his voice to that of a storyteller as he’d done so many times when recounting their lighthearted youth to Casey; “it’s three in the morning, we somehow wound up in Queens, and Donnie is piloting a giant pair of legs through Rego Park--”

And Leo went on, spinning tales of a growing Resistance full of hope for the future. All the stories he told took place within the first eight years of the (belatedly recognized as being one-sided) war, before Raph had died and before Leo lost his powers and before they had started to realize that every day was a losing battle whether they won the fight or not. Back when they were still growing older together, before Leo’s failures had become quite so costly and before the rifts between them had grown so deep. 

Only a small handful of stories took place further along, and every single one of them included Casey to some extent. Anecdotes about his childhood-- when he got a little too over-enthusiastic with the sword he’d been provided and nearly took Donnie’s remaining eye out, when Cass had decided he was old enough to learn swears and he spent the next three weeks referring to everyone around him with the most absurd combination of insults imaginable-- or some of the most standout moments as he’d gotten older-- the first time he’d managed to take Leo down in one of their sparring sessions, or when he’d stepped forward with Mikey by his shoulder to present his inherited mask, careful lines painted over the eyes to mimic Leo’s own markings.

He teared up a bit at the last one, and Mikey reached up to pat his face dry. 

“I’m really glad you had him,” Mikey said. “It sounds like some of your best moments were with Casey.”

“They were.” Without a doubt. Casey was the only reason Leo had been able to find the energy to smile some days. Or even the motivation to get out of bed and keep fighting. “He’s a good kid.”

“Then why are you leaving him?”

Leo’s brain stuttered like a broken disc at the sudden bluntness of Mikey’s tone, a far cry from his earlier cheer, and he glanced down at his brother. His arms were tightly crossed, and his expression twisted into a scowl. “What?”

“You heard me. If you care about Casey so much, if you love him like you say you do, why are you abandoning him?” He continued without giving Leo a chance to interject, and Leo knew better than to try and stop a Dr. Delicate Touch tirade. “Yeah, he’s got us, but this time period is still a big ol’ mystery to him. He’s flying blind. He’s got nothing-- no friends, no family of his own and no we don’t count just yet, no point of reference. Not a single thing here is familiar to him. Except you. And now, you’re not even planning on staying to help him adjust to how different things are. High school is tough enough for kids who didn ' t grow up in an apocalypse. You’re really just gonna run off for the rest of time? Wander around until, what, you die? Find a way to destroy that key? You had twenty years and you never figured it out.”

If it were anyone else, a single other person giving him this rant, he’d have a much sharper retaliation to dispense. 

But this was Mikey.

So instead Leo just sighed, shoulders slumping as he bowed his head low. “What do you want me to do, Mikey?”

The answer was immediate; “Stay here. The safest place for that key is gonna be where as many people can watch it and make sure it stays out of the hands of the Foot as possible, and that place is right here. With all of us. Eight trained warriors who are all super determined to make sure that thing doesn’t go anywhere, including a super-genius and our dad, who has so many relics and stuff shoved away in curio cabinets that it wouldn’t surprise me if he had a magical box that can never be reopened or something. We can ask Barry for help-- he knows about all sorts of weird mystic stuff. Or have Cassandra protect it, she’s perfect for that job. She hates the Foot more than any of us.”

“I could probably give her a run for her money.”

“You’re missing the point.” Mikey said, smacking both hands against Leo’s plastron. “My point is, you’ve got backup here. Friends. Allies. All of that. You are not alone, remember? You literally just told me that, and now here you are, planning on going it alone anyway. That’s not how we Hamato’s roll.”

He could have told Mikey that he wasn’t much of a Hamato anymore. He’d lost the connection to their ancestral clan ages ago, and he didn’t even have the rest of his brothers to back up his claim to family ties. 

It would have been so easy.

But he didn’t. He kept his mouth shut. 

Regardless of (or maybe owing to) his silence, Mikey could clearly see that his words were doing nothing to sway Leo’s opinion, so he just sighed and let his scowl ease. “Alright. I can tell you aren’t gonna change your mind. I won’t bring it up again. Leo can be really stubborn when he gets an idea in his head.”

“I want to stay, Mike. I really do,” he said, and realized as the words left that it was true. He didn’t want to leave his family again. 

That was the kicker, though. Again.

Because he already had abandoned his family. Back in a doomed timeline. His family had died to try and save the world and he’d left it behind. He’d left them behind. Even if it hadn’t really been his decision-- and that was really what he was mad at Casey for, not so much disobeying him but taking the chance to see his family again away from him, not that he would ever say a word of that to the kid-- he’d still let it happen. He could’ve stayed behind if he’d really wanted.

But it didn’t matter what he wanted, did it? He’d lost the privilege of getting what he wanted years ago. 

“But it’s not about me,” he continued, sending a mental apology in Raph’s general direction as he said it. “Leaving is the best option for everyone. I need to make sure the key stays out of the hands of anyone who would misuse it. And you guys don’t need…”

Mikey looked up sharply. “Don’t need what?”

“...Don’t need another me hanging around.” It might have hurt to admit it before. The idea that his family didn’t need him. But in this world, in this time, he knew it was nothing but the truth. He may have only just reached some kind of civil understanding with his counterpart, but Leo knew well and good that he was the outsider here. The interloper. “You’ve got your Leo. Ever heard the phrase too many cooks? I'd just muck things up."

"Okay, first of all, dude-- we totally do need you around. You're the expert in all the stuff we haven't had to fight yet, and while we're pretty good at what we do, there's a whole lot we just aren't ready to deal with. You've got some major skills, and I dunno about my brothers but I definitely wanna get some lessons from the greatest ninja of all time."

"Did you hear Casey call me that?"

"And second of all, even if we didn't need you around, we want you here." Mikey bonked his head against Leo's. "I want you here, at least. It's nice having you here. You make me feel safer. Besides, us younger brothers gotta stick together!”

Probably not the time to say he outlived all of his brothers. Instead he just settled on; "Aren't I older than all of you?"

“Doesn’t matter. Being a younger brother is a state of mind." 

He wasn’t wrong. 

Nor was he wrong about Leo’s knowledge of events that had yet to pass. The Krang may have been a non-issue, given they had the key and he’d pretty much taken the Foot Lieutenant out of the picture judging by the tell-tale sound of a cracked spine that had resulted when he’d kicked the guy into the portal frame, but it was entirely possible that other issues might crop up where Leo’s expertise could be useful. (And, in the slim-but-terribly-real that the Foot Clan did get ahold of the key again, somehow, and there was enough of the clan left who still sought after their goal, they’d need Leo and all he recalled to make sure they could stop the invasion before it got off the ground.)

“You’re a pretty clever kid.”

“I know,” he said, all casual confidence. “One of us has to be the smart brother.”

Leo shook his head, his expression all amused fondness. “Never change, Mikey.”

“You can count on that.” He pointed both thumbs at himself with a cheesy grin. “One-hundred-percent authentic Ha-ma-to Michelangelo, baby. Right here, for all time.”

There was the distant clatter of someone climbing over the gate, and Leo pushed Mikey off his lap to get to his feet and take up a defensive position. He hadn’t grabbed his sword, foolishly, but a heavy metal fist made for a decent enough weapon when necessary. 

Mikey seemed perfectly at ease, though, and tugged Leo to sit back down before clambering into his lap to keep him floor-bound. “It’s all good. Take a chill pill, my dude.”

Approaching footsteps revealed Leon trudging through the tunnel entrance, and judging by the way he immediately froze upon spotting Leo on the floor they were equally surprised to see each other. 

“Leon! Took you long enough, we’ve been here for like half an hour! I was starting to think you weren’t gonna show. Did you know I once threw a building?” Mikey threw his hands up, over-balancing, and would’ve fallen flat on his carapace if Leo hadn’t flung his arm out to catch him. He would’ve asked about the implication that Mikey had invited Leon to join them if Mikey didn’t just barrel right through and continue talking. “Come sit with us! I’m getting super secret insider knowledge about our future selves.”

Leon looked… momentarily uncomfortable, before it schooled itself back into casual indifference. “Uh, I think I’m good,” he said, hesitantly, and Leo couldn’t blame him. He’d no doubt heard enough stories of the future from Leo, and none of them had been very good. “I actually wasn’t planning on hanging out, y’know, so I should probably just--”

“Aw, please?” Mikey put on a pretty spectacular pair of pleading eyes, and Leo could see his counterpart’s firm stance wavering.

“It’s alright, Mike.” He looked to Leon with passive understanding, and Leon’s own returning expression was one of confused fascination. Leo supposed he had been kind of inconsistent with his attitude towards his past self. Maybe something about their conversation in the kitchen that morning after he’d arrived had stuck with Leo a little more firmly than he’d thought. (Or maybe he still felt bad for decking the kid.) “He doesn’t have to if he doesn’t want to.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Mikey said with a sigh. “Sorry, Leon.”

“It’s fine. And I’m not really keen on stories from the future,” Leon said, stiltedly, “but do you mind if I chat with big me for a minute? Just the two of us?”

Mikey looked between the two, a solemn frown on his face. His eyes were searching, and Leo could tell just by his sudden change in demeanor that he definitely knew something was up between the two Leo’s. Which, yeah, given that a good few of their confrontations had been public, wasn’t exactly hard to figure out, but it wouldn’t surprise him if Mikey had halfway sussed out the exact circumstances behind their clashing. His emotional awareness and ability to judge people with the bare minimum amount of information were unparalleled.

“...Alright. Just a minute, though.” Before getting up from his perch, Mikey slung an arm around Leo’s neck and tugged him down. Leo went willingly, a little bemused, and Mikey leaned close to whisper to him; “Be nice to my brother. Or I’ll make you wish you’d stayed in the future.” 

Good ol’ Dr. Delicate Touch.

“I will,” he said, just as lowly. For this conversation, at the very least. He’d guarantee nothing when it came to future conversations. “Promise.”

“...You better.”

Mikey got up, and with an affectionate fist-bump to Leon’s arm, left the room. Leon took his place at Leo’s side, dropping to sit with a huff and setting his swords off to the side. 

He looked tired.

“Thanks for entertaining him,” Leon said quietly. “He’s still hoping you’ll stick around, y’know.”

“I know.” Leo leaned forward, weight resting on his knees. He did know. Even if their little brother hadn’t gone on that whole tirade earlier, it was obvious enough in the way Mikey seemed determined to draw him into lengthy conversations, to make him feel welcome. Make him feel at home. There was nothing he could do but acknowledge the truth. Platitudes would be unwelcome from everyone involved, and it wasn’t Leon who needed his comfort. 

Silence followed his acceptance. Companionable, not awkward like Leo would’ve expected. When he wasn’t making smarmy remarks, he supposed his past self wasn’t entirely intolerable to be around.

“You could.” 

Leo looked over. “What?”

“Stay here.”

“Leon--”

“No, dude, I’m serious. Stop being so stubborn for like five minutes.” Leon didn’t look at him, fiddling with the handle of one of his swords. “You could do it. There’s no one stopping you. Actually, it’s more likely the folks here will try to stop you from leaving. The Foot don’t know where we live, and after what happened to the old lair Donnie’s gone above and beyond in making sure this place is as secure as possible. You’re not gonna find a safer place. If you go out there on your own and end up getting into trouble, we won’t be able to help you.”

“It’s my job to--”

“And there’s that stubborn thing I just mentioned. Alright, fine-- maybe this will make you listen.” Leon finally turned to glance his way, but only to give him the most dull look imaginable. “How can we trust you to keep the key safe when you already lost it once before?”

Leo was struck silent by the sheer audacity of it all. “Excuse me?”

“I know you’re old and your hearing is going, but you heard me. You lost the key before, right? Same way I did? Yeah, you got it back, but only because we were there to help you. You're getting on in years. You've been hurt enough that it still leaves an impact-- don't think I don't see the way your eye gets all squinty sometimes. On top of everything else you seem to have some weird aversion to using your portals. Which, like, whatever, but it leaves you worse off in a fight. Obligation or not, you gotta face the facts: you aren’t enough for this.” 

Brutal. Leo was almost positive he was gaping like a dead fish. Not that he was somehow unaware of his own capacity for harsh truths-- quite the opposite, given the amount he’d delivered to Leon himself-- nor had he been expecting kindness from his younger self, but…

Maybe it wasn’t the shock factor that had him speechless. 

After all, what could he really say to that, aside from-- “...You’re right.”

“Of course, you’re still-- excuse me?”

“I know your hearing is fine. Which means you definitely heard me.” Leo, the pinnacle of maturity, scowled and avoided eye contact. He didn’t want to see that look of incredulity turning to prideful delight he knew his younger self would be wearing right now. (Nor did he want to acknowledge how similar their speech mannerisms still were.) “You’re right. I’m not enough. You think I don’t know that? You think I’m not entirely aware of my own failings? I’m a has-been, Leon. I’m history that never even happened. But you all have your whole futures ahead of you, and you can do whatever you want with them. I’m taking that key and I’m leaving so I can make sure it stays that way. This is my war. I’m not going to let you throw your lives away for the sake of a fight that wasn’t supposed to be yours to win to begin with.”

Leon stared at him in silence for several moments. Then gave a low whistle. “You have got a pretty hefty martyr complex sitting on that shell of yours, don’t you?”

“Less of a complex, more a desire to take responsibility for my own actions. I messed up, Leon. I need to fix it.”

“I really don’t know if going it alone is the way to do that. Especially not in the state you’re in. Your problems have problems, pal,” Leon said, and the words were all snark but his tone was surprisingly gentle. “But your family might just be able to help you solve them.”

Leo found himself with a smile on his face despite his attempts to stay stern. He stared up at the walls around them, colorful and bright and practically a visual representation of the idealistic hope this world still had. Then looked over at his younger self, wide-eyed and wondering despite the cool mask he tried so hard to keep in place. 

His adamance was somewhat bewildering, if Leo were to be honest. He knew they’d always gotten a kick out of messing with people, but this went above and beyond. The vehemence with which he was trying to get Leo to stick around was just plain strange. Leon had made his feelings on Leo’s presence very clear-- he didn’t like one bit of it. Leo didn’t blame him, not when he’d been nothing but awful to his counterpart since his arrival. And they certainly weren’t lacking in the ability to hang on to a grudge. (Even years after the fact, Leo had continued to hold the fact that Draxum literally dropped him off a building against the man.) 

Which was what made it so strange that he was campaigning so hard for Leo to stick around. He should’ve wanted him gone as soon as possible, based on the majority of their previous interactions. Was his care for his brothers and their well-being really enough for him to disregard all of Leo’s terrible behavior towards him? Was he that prone to self-sacrifice?

Or was there something more? Something Leo couldn’t quite read, hidden behind that hopeful expression he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen on his own face? 

It resonated in a very odd way. (And yet, it was so very familiar.)

His dedication must have been for his brothers’ sake. If only because Leo wasn’t really sure what else it could be.

And for their sake…

Well. Leo wasn’t sure he knew how to live in peacetime anymore.

But maybe he could try.

“Alright, Leon,” he said with a sigh. “You win. I won’t leave right away. I’ll stick around for a little while longer, help you guys where I can. Try and find a way to permanently keep the key safe. I promise I’ll at least be here long enough to make sure Casey’s all settled. And… I’ll think about it. Staying. For good. And I mean it, too-- I’m not just saying that to get you to drop the subject, okay? Swear it.”

Leon might have bragged about knowing he would come around, lording his own ego, but things between them were still a little too fragile for that. Instead he just gave a firm nod. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

The conversation lulled into quiet again, until something occurred to Leo and he turned to face his counterpart.

“Leon,” he said, breaking the silence, “I thought you said I shouldn’t expect you to try and stop me?” 

“Well, you know us,” Leon said, chin resting on the handle of his sword and the slightest hint of a smile creeping onto his face as he glanced sideways at Leo. “We just love subverting expectations.” 

An excellent last word to have, if you asked Leo and whatever penchant for dramatics he still clung to all these years later. Something Leon was wholly aware of, based on the way he finished speaking and promptly got to his feet to turn on a dime and leave with a half-hearted salute. 

It had definitely been longer than a minute, but Mikey hadn’t interrupted their conversation. He also didn’t return as Leon left.

Probably for the best, anyway. Mikey’s enthusiasm wasn’t something he was sure had had the energy for at this point. The whole conversation with his past self had kind of taken a lot out of him.

On that topic, he should probably stop referring to the kid as his “past self” or “counterpart” if he was planning on sticking around. They were different enough that it wasn’t quite an apt comparison, particularly with the changes made to the timeline. And he had to admit, it was probably contributing to his negative mindset. It was a lot easier to be rude to himself than to a kid who just happened to look like him, and have the same name as him, and--

…And he figured he owed Leon, anyway. For how much of a jerk he’d been.

Letting the kid have his own identity without Leo casting a shadow over him was a start.

Chapter Text

Leo was… getting used to it. Being in the present. No longer being at war.

Well, maybe to say he was “getting used to it” was a little too kind. He was adjusting, certainly, but he wasn’t anywhere near “getting used to it” just yet. Not when he still woke up with his heart thundering and lungs heaving most mornings, not when he still needed to do a circuit around the lair before bed despite all his certainty of how safe it was. Not when every other strange noise still sent him to his feet with his hackles raised. Not when he was still expecting a fight on any given day.

He wasn’t built for this world. 

All that restlessness needed to go somewhere, and with him being benched from any patrols for the time being (apparently Donnie was worried about his “tendencies towards lethality” or something), he usually wound up getting his energy out via training. 

The new lair’s gym was just barely out of the “work in progress” stage. It wasn’t like training hadn’t been a priority at all-- actually, after Shredder, they’d gotten a lot more serious about it. At Raph’s behest, of course, certainly not Leo’s-- but they hadn’t really had anything comparable to it in the old lair. They didn’t really know where to start. It took them way too long to figure out what they needed to actually make a “gym” and where to get it all. 

There was a punching bag, at least, which gave Leo the perfect place to blow off some steam.

It went well enough for a little bit. Whenever he started feeling a little too on edge he’d retreat to the gym and take his nerves out on the exercise equipment. Until he misjudged his own strength one afternoon and sent the bag flying off its chain with one particularly forceful punch from his metal arm, where it burst and spilled sand everywhere as it slammed against the opposite wall.

"Shit."

There was a low whistle from the doorway, and Leo looked up with a start. Leon stood there with his hip cocked, one hand resting on it, and Raph behind him wearing a look of mild alarm. "What'd that punching bag do to you?"

"Said my hair looked bad," Leo answered without hesitation. Raph rolled his eyes and Leon muffled a snort into one hand. "Sorry about that. Guess I'm still getting used to how… delicate everything is compared to the Krang. I'll get you a new one." 

It was probably for the best that he stayed benched, honestly. Much as their usual roster of villains were prone to causing trouble, they weren’t all completely terrible people. They didn’t deserve to be on the wrong end of Leo’s sword. Hell, he was pretty sure he might’ve actually hurt the Foot Lieutenant pretty bad back when they recovered the key. The sound he’d made when he hit the portal frame was not a pretty one.

"Don't worry about it,” Raph said easily, heading past him to grab a broom and dustpan from the corner. “Not the first time we've gone through one of those." 

“Here, I’ll take care of it.” Leo gestured for Raph to hand over the cleaning supplies. Raph hesitated, which Leo was not about to let slide. “Raph. I made the mess, I’ve gotta clean it up. Give me that broom this instant, young man.”

Leon burst out laughing from his spot by the door. 

“Oh, don’t start with that,” Raph muttered good-naturedly, handing over the broom and allowing Leo to get to work on sweeping up the spilled sand. Leon got up and dipped into a portal for a moment, returning with a garbage bag in hand. He held it open while Leo shoveled sand into it. “Can’t believe I gotta deal with some version of Leo being older than me.”

“Just be glad it took this long,” Leo said.

“Yeah, at least you only have to deal with one of us being older. Imagine if it was both,” Leon added. He leaned down to examine the ruined bag. “Dude, did you snap the chain? We’ve gotta get you used to fighting at a reasonable strength again.”

“Yeah, I know.” With the detritus cleaned up, Leo tied off the bag and set it near the door. He’d get to it later. “I’ll figure something out.”

“It’d probably help if you fought something that’d give you feedback on how much strength you’re using, right?” Leon jerked a thumb towards their brother. “Why not spar with Raph?"

“Absolutely not,” Leo said immediately. Not that it was a particularly bad idea, but the idea of even risking hurting his brother left a foul taste in his mouth. “You realize the problem I’m having is that I use too much force, right? Fighting someone who’s gonna feel it if I go too far is the opposite of what I should do.”

"Nah, he's got a point. It'd be easier for you to remember you've gotta moderate your strength if you're fighting a real person as opposed to exercise equipment. The punching bag’s not gonna tell you if you’re hitting too hard.” Raph shoved a rack of weights off to the side of the room, clearing a space on the mat, and dusted his hands off. Checked the wrappings around his hands. “I’m pretty tough. Out of anyone here, I can take the hardest hits. If it’s gonna be someone it’s gotta be me.” 

Leo grimaced. He didn’t like the idea of it-- hurting his brothers was the absolute last thing he wanted to do. It was true that Raph was pretty sturdy, definitely capable of withstanding some pretty heavy blows, but Leo really did not want to test the limits of that strength.

Not with Raph.

At the same time, though, they had a point. He’d never learn to properly moderate his strength with non-sentient equipment. Unless they wanted to drag Donnie away from whatever else he was working on to create responsive technology that could alert Leo when he was being too forceful, but that just seemed unnecessary when there was a perfectly good Raph there who could easily provide the same function.

“You sure?” 

“Yeah, I’m sure. I trust you not to get too rough.” Which only served to make Leo flinch with an involuntary glance in Leon’s direction. His younger-- Leon and him had gotten things mostly sorted between them, but that didn’t mean the initial confrontation had never happened. And judging by the unreadable-yet-tense look on Leon’s face as he sat down on a bench at the edge of the mat, he knew exactly what was running through Leo’s head.

Raph had been there. Raph had jumped in to stop him when he’d gone too far. And still now Raph trusted him to be careful.

He didn’t deserve them.

“Alright then,” Leo said, threading his fingers together and stretching his arms out. He didn’t really need to “warm up” the mechanical one in the traditional sense, although technically it needed to be kept at an optimal temperature in order for all the joints to move smoothly. It started to stick if it got too cold. “Let’s do this.”

“Standard rules,” Raph said, holding up both fingers; “No weapons, nothin’ below the belt.” 

“I’d like to make an addendum. No mystic powers,” Leo said, silently hoping his brother didn’t ask why. It wasn’t that strange of a request-- the spar was just supposed to get Leo adjusted to fighting at normal strength again. It was meant to be an even playing field. All the same, he just really didn’t want to answer any uncomfortable questions he knew his brothers would no doubt come up with if he had to admit he’d lost his powers.

Raph did give him a curious look, but shrugged and finished up his stretching. "Alright. First one to get the other on the floor wins. Leon, you’re reffing. Five seconds to knock-out sound good?"

"Five seconds," Leo agreed, shaking out his joints and settling into a ready position. "Good luck."

The answering grin was more of a snarl than anything, all feral bared teeth and glinting fangs as Raph squared his shoulders and raised his fists. "Ain’t me who's gonna need luck between the two of us, old man ."

Leo barked out a laugh. “Don’t get cocky, youngster.”

“Who’s cocky? Nah, I just know my brother’s never been the best at hand-to-hand. And somehow I doubt goin’ up against a bunch of robot aliens has really helped you improve that.” Yowch. Leo might’ve taken that to heart, if he didn’t know this wasn’t a serious fight and also if Raph wasn’t entirely correct in his assumption.  

He was a planner, not a brawler. 

That didn’t mean he couldn’t hold his own, though. And even if Raph still had a lot of bulk comparatively (and in general), Leo had only gotten craftier as he’d gotten older. Particularly when he’d needed to adjust to fighting without his powers. Underhanded tactics may not have been the most honorable, but honor didn’t matter as much when your life was on the line. If cheap tricks were the only way to land any kind of blow, you took whatever opportunities arose. 

Cheap tricks had never worked great on Raph, though. For as much as he was big and tough, he wasn’t just senseless muscle. He could be as light and quick on his feet as the rest of them. Using his own weight against him had pretty much stopped working back when they were still teenagers, still learning how to actually fight instead of just haphazardly throwing themselves into situations. Leo was taller than him now, but he wasn’t and had never been all that physically strong. Well-- maybe on a general scale, but not relative to Raph, at least. His advantages would be his speed, his ability to come up with a strategy on the fly, and whatever expectations Raph had about his skills based on Leon’s own fighting style.

So when Raph launched himself forward, hands outstretched to grab Leo and pin him down, he immediately ducked back to avoid the grip. Bracing himself on one arm, he kicked out to go for Raph’s ankles, but Raph just jumped to avoid the attack and landed crouching to leap forwards and tackle him.

Leo shoved himself up, flipping over Raph and sending his brother sprawling onto the mat. He recovered in seconds, though, barely enough time for Leo to get to his feet and raise his arms to deflect the incoming attack. They traded blows; Raph braced his arms in an X-shape to block the punch Leo aimed towards his plastron, biting back a sound as his fist made contact. “Ease up,” he said, and when Leo hit him again with a little less force behind it he gave an affirmative nod. “Better.”

Raph returned his strikes, though he was clearly holding back, and as Leo figured out exactly how much strength to put behind his attacks they were pretty much on level ground. The metal arm clearly caught Raph off guard for a moment-- he slammed his fist against the open palm and drew his hand back with an alarmed yelp, shaking his aching fingers out-- and Leo could visibly see the gears turning as he had to rethink his approach.

He leaned to the side to dodge a strike, and at the same time Leo pivoted to aim a roundhouse kick towards his head. The grab at his ankle went wide, and Leo took advantage of the opening to ram his shoulder into Raph’s plastron. 

That difference in bulk between them came back to bite him as Raph scarcely budged, instead bracing against the blow and pressing down against his carapace to try and push Leo off his feet. He managed to swing to the side to get out of the hold, and caught Raph’s arm to force him down before he could stand up straight again. 

“One, two--”

The count had just barely reached three when Raph reached back to grab Leo’s arm and flip him over. Leo continued into a roll, jumping up to launch himself at Raph and hopefully catch him off guard. His brother was quick to get his bearings back, though, and the momentum Leo had built worked against him. There was no time for him to react as Raph caught Leo by the arm and hauled him up and over his head. 

The velocity at which Leo hit the floor knocked the wind out of him, and he lay there staring at the ceiling dazedly (long enough for Leon to call time and for Raph to let out a gleeful whoop) until his wits returned and his face split into a broad grin. 

“Oh, man, sorry about that. Didn’t mean to hit you so hard. Guess I got a little too into it.” Raph reached down to offer him a hand up. “You okay?”

“Don’t apologize for that!” Leo took his hand, letting Raph haul him to his feet and promptly slinging an arm around his shoulders and rubbing his knuckles over the top of his head. “That was awesome! You kicked my butt!”

Raph chuckled, shoving his arm away and failing at keeping a scowl in place of his flustered smile. “Aw, man, I mean-- I dunno if it was really all that. We were just trying to get you used to fighting normally again, right? The whole point is that you were kinda not really putting in a hundred percent effort. I got lucky, I think.”

“Don’t undersell yourself or your skills, and don’t attribute to luck what can be explained by prowess. I might’ve been easing back on how hard I was hitting, but I was still giving it my all. I’ve got two decades of experience over you and you still wiped the floor with me. You did good, Raph.” The lingering fervor of a battle where his life wasn’t on the line kept a smile on his face as he turned to where Leon was lounging on the bench. “What about you, Leon? Up for a little blue-against-blue skirmish?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Leon grinned, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms behind his head. “Wouldn’t wanna humiliate you for a second time today.” 

Even the smart comment didn’t rankle him that much with the adrenaline still running through his system, and he just laughed. “Suit yourself.”

It was probably for the best. Honestly, Leo couldn’t have told you who would win if they ended up in a proper fight. Leon had the advantage of youth, far more versatile in his movements and with his mystic powers on his side. Leo, on the other hand, was a seasoned warrior who had seen countless battles. He was a strategist, able to devise and execute a plan in mere seconds. Although that could end up working against him-- he was used to directing teams of people, leading soldiers. It had been a while since he’d been in a one-on-one confrontation. Was plain experience enough to make up for the rift created by age and injury?

That wasn’t really a question Leo needed answered.

“If you want to train a little bit, though, I wouldn’t be opposed.” Leon got to his feet, stretching his arms over his head to loosen up. “Casey can go on for hours about how good of a fighter you are. I saw some of it with Raph just now, but I’m kind of curious what you might have for me. Weaknesses, some moves I should be trying out, you know. All that stuff you might’ve learned perfecting our style.”

“Well, I can tell you about one weakness here and now;” he put a heavy hand on Leon’s shoulder, looking at him severely. “For the love of all that is holy, stop telegraphing so much. It took me way too long to figure that out. Keep your movements quick and precise-- don’t waste time on big sweeping arcs with your swords. It’s basically a big red warning sign and gives whoever you’re fighting time to dodge or retaliate.

“When you jump in a portal, you tend to look at where you’re going to end up. Smarter enemies will notice that. Keep your eyes on them, or look somewhere else for misdirection. So long as you’re thinking about where you want the portal to spit you out you’ll end up there, you don’t actually need to be looking at it. Also, you can bounce your sword off of surfaces to get better angles, and to make it harder for others to keep track of you. I’m pretty sure with enough effort you’ll be able to teleport and open portals without even using your swords, but I never got the chance to figure it out.”

Leon was nodding along attentively as he spoke, though his brow furrowed and his expression turned confused at the last part. “You never--”

He continued before Leon could finish his question. “That goes for you too, Raph. You don't need your sai. Your weapons act like a focus, they give you a vessel to channel your energy through, but you won’t need them if you’re able to train yourself as the vessel. Donnie’s pretty much already doing that half the time, and it didn’t take long for my Mikey to figure it out. It’s not without risk-- if you’re too loose with your control the excess energy can hurt you but if you keep it locked down too tight you won’t be able to utilize it to its fullest extent. Find the sweet spot.”

Mikey’s control over his mystic powers had been damn near perfect. Opening a time gateway just happened to be a little too strenuous for anyone to handle on their own. (And Leo couldn’t help but wonder; if Raph and Donnie had still been around, would they have been enough reinforcement?)

“Back to you, though, Raph. Try getting a little more experimental with your projections. Don’t forget that you can still make duplicates of yourself, and you can also duplicate individual limbs. Test the limits on the size of your projection-- you can always go bigger . But pay attention and don’t push yourself,” he said as he pointed at his brother sharply. “Your energy is not a limitless well; it’s a muscle, and needs training like any other part of you. If your body is telling you it’s too much, stop and listen.”

“Got it,” Raph said, his grim tone indicating he was taking Leo’s warning seriously. Good. Leo’s Raph had nearly landed himself in a coma after pushing himself a little too far, and that was with years of training behind him. “Can I do stuff other than myself? Like-- I know I can do duplicates and make myself big, but how creative can I get with the stuff I project?”

Leo hummed, rubbing his chin contemplatively. “I don’t think so, but I’m really not sure. I once saw Raph summon like eight extra arms at once, but I don’t think he ever managed to get outside the box like that.”

Like Leo, part of it was that he’d never had the chance. For most fights, experimentation wasn’t really on their minds. They stuck to what they knew because it was working, towards the start at the very least. Raph’s projections were plenty useful as they were. He’d never really seen a need to get outside his comfort zone.

“There’s no harm in trying, I guess. Like I said, though, don’t push yourself. Your body will tell you if you can’t do something. Don’t ignore it.”

“I know, I know. You said that.”

“And I’m repeating it to make sure you listen,” he retorted. “You know as well as I do that you can be prone to acting kind of stupid when it’s your brothers on the line, Raph. I’m telling you now, you cannot force your energy to work however you want it to. You have to work with it.”

Raph stared at him for barely a moment with an unreadable expression. Then nodded. “I’m hearing you. I promise. I’ll be careful.”

“In the meantime, I could use your help,” Leon interrupted, and it was a clear enough attempt at deflection. It was also wholly unexpected, and Leo looked over at him in surprise-- they were civil enough, sure, but outright asking for his assistance and advice went a little beyond that. Had he really gotten over his bitterness towards Leo so quickly? Or was he just really good at putting on a front for Raph’s sake? “I’m not entirely sure how to do that ricochet thing you talked about without just sticking my sword in whatever I hit. These things are sharp, y’know?” 

“Right,” Leo said, somewhat stiltedly until he got over his surprise, “yeah, okay. That gave me some trouble at first. You want to try and bounce it off at the handle instead of the blade. Where it lands depends on the angle and speed you throw it at, and with enough practice you’ll be able to figure it out in your head.”

Leon’s face scrunched up. “Ew, it’s like geometry.”

“Yeah, but it’s geometry that involves flinging your sword around. That kind of makes up for it. Plus I’m pretty sure there’s some mystic nonsense going on with them, ‘cause they move how you want them to a lot more than they logically should. Pissed Donnie off to no end.” He gestured towards Leon’s swords, and Leon drew them and held them forward. “Before you can really figure that out though, you need to find a balance with how hard you throw. Too little force and it won’t have the momentum it needs to deflect properly-- it’ll just hit the wall and land on the floor. Too much, though, and it’ll get stuck in whatever it hits. For now you just want to make sure you can actually make it ricochet like it should. Don’t worry too much about angles.”

Eyes narrowed in concentration, Leon raised one sword and flung it at the padded wall. Instead of bouncing off, it hit the wall blade-first and sank a few inches into the mat.

Leo snorted. “Okay, that’s a good example of too much force.”

“Yeah, I got that.” Leon disappeared in a flicker of sparks, reappearing by the wall with a grip on the handle. He pulled it free and walked back over to where Leo was standing, hefting both swords up again. “But not too gentle, right?”

“Find that balance. And make sure you visualize how you want it to move-- I mentioned that mystic stuff, right? Your influence is more important than you think. You do need to work with your energy as opposed to bullying it into working right, but remember that it’s still yours. It’s more inclined to listen to you than not.” 

“You talk about it like it’s actually-- actually, nevermind. Probably for the best if I don’t finish my question.” The next attempt bounced off the wall and landed about a foot away, and Leon once more grabbed it to try again. That time it bounced off correctly, slinging off to the side and burying itself in the floor, and Leon brightened. “Hey, that looked right! That’s what’s supposed to happen, yeah?”

“Pretty much. Do that a few more times consistently and you can start screwing around with angles. The surface you’re bouncing it off of matters too-- a flat surface is a lot harder to get a good ricochet off of than a surface that’s already at an angle. Likewise with sheer surfaces versus rough ones. Part of the aim is to get positioning you wouldn’t otherwise be able to throw your sword to, but it’s also to make it harder for enemies to keep track of you, which means there’s always going to be an element of unpredictability to it.” Leo gave him a grin. “We’re pretty good with that, though.” 

“Coming up with stuff on the fly is our modus operandi,” Leon agreed. He stuck his tongue out a bit as he flung his sword at the wall again-- this time it bounced off to the side and skidded off to the wall on the left. They were leaving holes all over the walls, but that was a negligible concern. They’d fix it later. This was important.

A few more throws, each one hitting a little better. He still got it stuck or fumbled the throw a few times, but there was visible improvement. (Raph, who’d been doing his own thing with the weights, stopped to watch.)

With every successful ricochet he sent Leo another broad grin where he was standing off to the side and watching, arms crossed. He was so excited about such a simple achievement-- it reminded Leo just how young he was. Sixteen. Less than half Leo’s age. Definitely not the sort of guy who looked like he could be responsible for bringing about the alien apocalypse.

…It was hard for Leo to imagine himself ever looking that naive.

At the next throw, Leo managed to dive off to the side and catch his sword before it hit the next wall, which actually made laugh giddily. 

“Oh, man, this is kinda fun actually--”

And then he got cocky.

He closed one eye and stuck his tongue out like an absolute goof, throwing his sword and bouncing it off the wall, taking his eyes off it as it spun through the air. This time when it hit the wall, it bounced right back towards him, the momentum keeping it spinning. Directly towards a completely unaware Leon.

“Leo--!!”

Before Raph even finished his panicked shout, Leo was in motion on sheer instinct alone. He grabbed Leon’s arm and pulled him close against his side, covering him and ducking down as his metal arm shot up to deflect the rogue sword. It spun wildly before landing with a clatter several paces away.

Leo held still for a moment or two as he tried to convince his pounding heart that the danger had actually passed, and once its frantic beat began to ease, he exhaled and released the firm grip he had on Leon. The kid stumbled a few steps backwards, staring at him with wide eyes. “Watch it,” he said, and while it was meant to be a harsh snap he really just sounded tired. “Pay attention to what you’re doing. Don’t get overconfident.”

“Right,” Leon said, voice shaking as he clutched the sword he was still holding tight to his chest. “...Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me. Just stay focused.” Leo stepped back to lean against the wall. The atmosphere in the gym wasn’t… tense, per say, but it was very odd. Leon kept staring at him strangely. “Try experimenting with some angles. Get used to teleporting without knowing where your sword is.” 

“Yeah, okay.” He hesitated for a moment longer, then went over to get his discarded sword.

Contradicting his own statement, he was only halfway paying attention as Leon picked up his training again. He watched enough to correct him if he did something wrong and suggest other ideas he could try, but between the points where he interjected he was mostly zoning out.

Leo watched the sparks run up Leon’s sword, down his arms, and flicker off his shell. He disappeared in a flash of light and immediately materialized at the other end of the room. A second later, another sword swept past Leo and ricocheted off the floor, where it went on to bury itself in the ceiling. Again Leon appeared in a flicker of energy, dropping to tackle a training dummy to the ground.  

His memories of what it felt like-- the electric chill of feeling your very molecules disintegrate and reform themselves somewhere else-- were hazy at best. It’d been years since he’d lost them, and the incident as a whole was buried under the memories of what else had happened at the same time.

Raph. Crouched over him, breath heaving. A hole through his chest and horrified resignation on his face. Cruel laughter like knives down his back echoing around them, sinking into his head and rattling around in his skull.

Leo still clutching his broken, useless katana. Frozen. Trapped. Pinned by the dead weight above him, held aloft only by the sharpened spear-like point of a tentacle still stuck through his carapace and sticking out of his plastron, a single line of blood dripping down and pooling in the dip of Leo’s chest, warm and sticky and--

His breath caught, and he clapped a hand over his mouth. Closed his eyes. Willed his mind to stop forcing his own unfortunately clear recollection onto him.

Nothing changed when he opened his eyes again. Leon and Raph were still training. Now, though, watching Raph disperse and re-summon his projected hands suddenly left nausea in its wake, and Leo turned to face the wall, flesh arm braced above his head.

“Dude?” Leon; quiet, subdued, pausing in his attempts to line up the angle of his sword and looking over at him in concern. “You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Leo said tightly, unconvincingly. He heard the crackle of Raph’s mystic energy die down, and while the reasonable side of him knew Raph had probably just stopped because he’d noticed Leo’s unease, the far louder emotional part sent another barrage of memories across the forefront of his mind. He shook his head as though he could physically clear the images of his dying brother from their residence on the backs of his eyelids. “You guys can keep going. I need to take care of something.”

Dual worried looks followed him out the door.

Chapter Text

Who would’ve guessed that all it’d take to make Leo feel like a kid again was standing in front of his father’s bedroom door and hesitating with his hand raised to knock?

He had no reason to be worried. He hadn’t done anything to get in trouble, and even if he had, he was a grown adult. It wasn't like he could get grounded anymore. Splinter had said they’d talk later-- and it was later. He wasn’t going to change his mind and turn Leo away now. The anxiety creeping down his shell was wholly unfounded.

Maybe it was still just a little too strange, seeing his father again after twenty years of life without him.

Steeling himself with the same brittle determination he always called upon whenever he faced an impossible enemy, Leo grit his teeth and knocked on the door.

At the slightly muffled “Enter!” Leo pushed the door open, hesitating in the doorway as opposed to barging right in. Either his dad had somehow been expecting something like this or had gotten better at cleaning and Leo had just never noticed, because his bedroom was rather tidy, all things considered. Yeah, there was clutter, but that was mostly inherent with living the sort of life he did. One that invited belongings. (He’d long since given up on the “let go of the material” aspect of the Ninja thing.)

"Splinter? Are you busy?"

"If it were anyone else, I would say yes. However, I have a feeling you would not be seeking me out unless it were important. My television shows can wait." Splinter clicked the power button on the remote to turn off his television, then gestured him over. As Leo sat down on the bed beside him, he clasped his hands over his lap. “What’s on your mind, Blue?”

“I have a… question, I guess. A request.” Leo fidgeted with one of the grooves of his hand. The mechanical version of a scar, a sloppy weld he’d never smoothed out. “...It’s kind of a long story.”

“Well, we are far from being pressed for time.” Splinter waved a hand in an indication for him to speak. “Say whatever you need.”

“...It’s more that I don’t really know where to start.” He grimaced. “Pops-- I mean, Splinter--”

"Oh, just call me your father. I can see you making yourself stressed about it. I seem to acquire new children every time I blink for a moment-- what's one more?” He chuckled to himself. “Besides, you have more of a right to it than that hot-headed teenager who seems adamant in adopting herself. You are my son, if an older version of him.”

“...Dad,” he said, kind of awkwardly, but continued on rather than lingering and making it even more strange. “I told you how Raph died, right? In my time?”

Splinter’s expression turned grave. That kind of opener was a pretty good indicator that this wasn’t going to be a friendly chat. “You did. You were markedly vague about the exact circumstances, but I'm aware of his passing."

"And… you know how in this time, my brothers and I have a connection to our clan that allows us to harness the energy of our ancestors. Physically, through our weapons.”

"Where are you going with this?"

Leo took a breath. He knew his father had done a pretty good job of ignoring his ancestral connections for the majority of his life, but at the same time the spirit of the Hamatos meant more to him than anyone else. It was unlikely Splinter would get mad, considering Leo wasn't technically at fault for the disconnect from his family, but there was no telling how he would react.

"I don't," Leo said. "Have that. I lost it."

Splinter blinked, expression all alarmed confusion. "You… what?"

"I can't create my portals anymore. I can't connect with our clan. I lost them during the fight that killed Raph." He curled his hands into fists around the fabric of his pants, and with a quiet sound Splinter slid off the bed to stand in front of Leo, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder. "The Krang did something, and I lost access to my powers. I lost the ability to contact the spirits of our family. And I'd like to request your aid in getting them back."

"There's no need to be so formal. Of course I will help." He patted Leo's shoulder a couple times, then gestured to the door. "Make sure that is locked-- Your brothers can often fail to understand the meaning of privacy, and I can't imagine you'd enjoy being interrupted in this."

As Leo headed over to lock the door, Splinter pulled a yoga mat from some dusty corner, rolling it out on the floor and patting it down flat.

"Have a seat," Splinter said, going over to an incense burner on one shelf and lighting it before he knelt down on one side of the mat. His expression was grim. "I will say, I do not know much of the Krang beyond the stories I've heard. You say your mystic abilities simply vanished?"

Leo took on a familiar meditative pose across from him, legs crossed and hands resting on his knees. "I know the Krang were responsible for it, I just don’t exactly know how it works. It was like… a roar, I guess. A scream. It didn’t hurt physically, but I could almost see the energy it gave off. And after it was done, neither Raph or me could access our powers."

"I see," Splinter said with a frown. "And you could not speak with our ancestors, either."

"No."

Leo had never been the best at that, out of his brothers. He was far from the worst-- Donnie took that title-- but he'd always been a little too grounded to be able to wholly immerse himself in the spiritual mindset required to contact their clan beyond the physical realm. He could manage it with enough effort. Until he lost his powers, and after one desperate attempt to reach Raph wherever he was, he quickly realized that he could no longer connect with them at all. Where he normally felt thrumming energy when he reached for it, there was nothing. Silence. Emptiness. Dead air.

Something in him was broken. And Leo didn’t know if it could ever be fixed.

“I assume you have already tried meditating on the subject,” Splinter mused, “however, it may not go amiss to try again. The change in setting and the change in company could lead to better results.”

“I’m not so sure.”

“Will it do you harm to try?”

Leo grimaced. “I guess not.”

“Then we will try.” Splinter set his hands flat on his knees, taking a deep breath. Leo did the same, closing his eyes and settling into the passive awareness that came with turning his mind inwards. 

Meditating had been one of his absolutely least favorite parts of “training” when he was younger. It hadn’t been their priority for a while, since Lou Jitsu’s high-stakes action movies rarely spent time on mindfulness, but Splinter had always sort of encouraged them to be aware of themselves and their surroundings. To take a moment to rest and reflect. For Leo, whose inability to sit still for extended periods of time was rivaled only by Mikey and his boundless energy, it was kind of nightmarish.

When he got older, he’d learned to appreciate it far more. In a time of war when everything seemed to move at a breakneck pace all the time, getting a moment to just sit and breathe was a benediction. Eventually it graduated to an escape-- whenever the burden of leading through an apocalypse got to be a little too much, enough that even he with all his determination couldn’t just power through, he could retreat to some dark corner with the excuse of meditation. Particularly once Mikey got more in tune with his own spiritual side of things, he’d start actively intervening if someone tried to bother Leo during those periods. Without those breathers, however brief they might’ve been, Leo was certain that he would’ve fallen apart long ago.

“Focus your mind,” Splinter said, his voice scratchy and warm like an old wool blanket in the bitter cold that was Leo’s connection to his ancestral energy. Reaching for his power was like second nature even all these years after losing it. “Our family’s power comes from our connection to generations past. No matter what you have gone through, they still remain.”

Despite their overall strange genesis, they were Hamato, through and through. With or without their father’s DNA. The clan’s ancestors were their ancestors, along with whatever abilities they could grant. That hadn’t somehow changed. Whatever the Krang had done, it couldn’t have just erased them. It was far more likely they’d just… blocked them somehow. Cut him off. Removed them, if the void he felt whenever he tried to call on his powers was any indication. Theoretically, he should be able to get them back.

Except it was Leo’s bond with his brothers that had inspired them all to actually unlock their powers in the first place. The brothers he didn’t have anymore.  

His brothers were dead, his father was dead. He’d gotten his abilities through his connection to his family and now his family was gone--

That hollow pit in his chest yawned wide, sickly cold (damp and sticky, like familiar alien sinew, writhing and grabbing and hurting--) crawling up through his lungs as the ringing in his ears grew louder. He realized as his chest began to hurt that he’d stopped breathing at some point and forced himself to inhale, losing his concentration as he did. The chilly feeling disappeared, where it was quickly replaced by rumbling fury. “This isn’t working.”

"Easy, my son. Your connection with our ancestors has been severed, but that is not to say it can never be restored. You must be patient." He leaned forward, gently taking Leo's hand in his own. It was supposed to be comforting and Leo knew it, but all it did was make the hollow pit in his stomach yawn wider. "It will take time to heal, as all wounds do."

"It's been sixteen years, dad,” he said, weary. “If it was just about waiting I think they would've come back by now."

"I am sorry there is not more I can do to help. I’m afraid my attempts to distance myself from my ancestors in my youth has left me somewhat ignorant on these matters. You should speak to your brothers about it," Splinter said, uncertainty in his tone. "Their connection to our clan is far stronger than my own. I have no personal experience with the powers you possessed. If anyone can help you heal your ties to our clan, it is them.”

"Unfortunately for the both of us, my brothers are dead." He regretted the words as soon as he said them, and Splinter’s crestfallen expression didn’t help in the slightest. “...I’m sorry. That was cruel. These versions of them… They are my brothers, but they aren’t the same. My brothers and I went through a lot together, and without that history, there’s always going to be a disconnect between us. Besides-- they’re young. Experienced as they are, they’re still ignorant to a lot of things. And this kind of horror story isn’t one I think they need to hear right now.” 

“I understand. I do not mean to devalue the family you lost,” Splinter said, and whatever coals of resentment had been stoked by his failure faded instantly. “However, I’m not sure you’re giving them enough credit.”

“And I think you’re giving them too much.” Leo bowed his head, clasping his hands together. “It’s not so much about whether I think they can handle it as much as it’s never going to be a problem they need to endure. They’ll never have to know what it’s like to go through this. Better to keep it a secret than hang that kind of unnecessary weight over their heads, make them worry about something that can’t ever come to pass.”

Splinter grimaced, rubbing his chin contemplatively. “When you put it like that, I suppose you have a point. I still believe they deserve to know-- the Krang and their strange abilities may not be an issue any longer, but there are other powers out there which can pose a threat in a similar manner. I cannot quite recall ever encountering such, but I would expect that some Yokai or another have devised a way to disarm the mystic. It would be better for them to know that’s a concern than be left completely in the dark. I have… learned my lesson when it comes to keeping secrets from my sons.” 

An equally valid point. Leo still couldn’t bring himself to do it, though-- for Donnie and Mikey, learning that losing their mystic powers was something that could happen was terrifying. Small change in the face of Raph’s concurrent death, but a fear they’d held onto for years going forward. 

“Maybe they don’t need to know the full extent of what it feels like to lose them,” Leo mused, mirroring Splinter’s contemplative pose, “but it wouldn’t hurt to give them a little extra training to improve their skills in combat without the use of their powers. I know they fought without them for years, but my brothers and I got pretty reliant on our abilities. I had to basically learn how to fight all over again after losing mine.” 

“A sensible course of action.” Splinter smiled. “I can see where that student of yours gets his wisdom from.”

“He’s a smart kid alright.” They were decidedly done with the attempts at meditation, so Leo let himself relax out of his pin-straight meditative pose. Likewise, his father stretched his legs out a bit, his body clearly not agreeing with having them folded underneath him for an extended period of time. Leo, horrifyingly, could relate. He woke up with some joint or another aching more days than not. “Have you talked to him much?”

“Of course I have.” Splinter leaned over to poke Leo’s chest good-naturedly, a sly grin on his face. “We had a nice conversation while you were training with your brothers. I wanted to get to know my grandson in the future a little better.”

“Dad--”

“Oh, don’t you even try to deny it. It’s obvious to anyone who looks at the two of you together, but even if it weren’t, a father knows these things.” His grin faded into something a little more wistful. Nostalgic. “That child looks up to you a great deal. Admires you. He wants to make you proud. I can see it in his eyes when he speaks about you-- it’s the same way you and your brothers used to look at me.”

“He does make me proud,” Leo said softly. “Every single day.”

“To echo your words from when we first spoke; make sure you tell him that.” His father sighed heavily, shoulders slumping. “Do not make the same mistakes I did in raising all of you, Leonardo. Be open about how much you care. I let my past hurts cloud my perspective, and you all suffered for it.”

Leo set a hand on his shoulder.

When they were young, Leo and his brothers would have done anything to get their father’s attention. His acknowledgement, his validation. His praise. As they got older, the task of actually parenting them had fallen on Raph’s shoulders, particularly into their early teens. (Leo had accidentally called Raph “dad” once. Only once, because the horrified look on Raph’s face had guaranteed he’d never do it again.) Splinter was distant at the best of times, and as isolated from the world as they’d been in their childhood, they felt the absence of his recognition. 

But never the absence of his love.

In the years following Shredder and the invasion, they’d gotten Splinter’s history in bits and pieces. Some from the man himself, some from those who knew him-- Draxum and Big Mama, in his later years. Numerous people who had horror stories of working with famed egotist Lou Jitsu. Distant relatives they ended up meeting after the invasion meant Yokai and mutants and that whole situation were exposed to the world in the wake of a much greater scare, some of whom still remembered Hamato Yoshi. Raph, in the year following Splinter’s death, who had sat down and told Leo everything he’d seen back when they’d traveled into their father’s mind.

It was hard for Leo to conceptualize in his youth. The sheer scope of his father’s history, the entire life he’d lived before he’d been saddled with them. Everything he’d gone through. All the tragedy and trauma-- it would’ve made a monster out of a lesser man. Leo and his brothers could’ve ended up under far worse care. Distance was better than disdain, if you asked him.

Knowing what he knew now, being as old as he was now, Leo had a hard time hating his father for anything. While he was certain time had dulled the wounds, they’d never been that deep to begin with.

Above it all, their father loved them. That was something they’d never had reason to doubt.

“You did good, Pops,” he said quietly, as soft as he could while still being heard. “I know it was tough, doing it all on your own. But you raised some really good kids, y’know that?”

Splinter looked up at him with wide eyes. Then, after several moments, his expression scrunched up in a broad smile, tears welling up despite his evident joy. He sniffled and scrubbed at his face. “Thank you, Leonardo,” he said, voice wobbly. “Coming from you, that means more than you know.” 

Leo had spent more time looking down at his dad than up. The mutation had taken his height pretty quickly, and Leo shot up like a weed once he hit his teens. He could scarcely remember a time when he hadn’t been at minimum a head taller than their father, hadn’t needed to look down to meet his eyes or get on his knees to hug him properly. Yet being pulled into a hug, his father's arms around his shell, one hand tucking Leo's head against his shoulder, was still enough to make him feel very small even all these years later.

“Love you,” Leo murmured into scraggly fur.

“I love you as well, Leonardo. So very much.” Splinter tightened his hold, pointed claws gently scratching at the seam of Leo’s carapace, the same sort of soothing gesture he’d offered when they were young. “And I am incredibly proud of you. You’ve done so much for your family, and I will never be able to express how grateful I am that I get to see the man you’ve become. I truly never thought I would get this chance.”

Leo’s breath shuddered at his words. Even without the looming war having decreased their expected lifespans drastically, it was likely Splinter wouldn’t have made it until Leo was in his forties regardless. He was already on the older side when they were teens, and living a sedentary lifestyle in the dingy sewers of New York City had done his health no favors. And that wasn’t even considering what unknown effects the mutagen might’ve had on his general well-being. He probably knew well and good that there was a slim chance he’d make it until Leo and his brothers were anywhere even close to his age.

This was a place neither of them had ever thought they’d be in. Dad getting to see Leo fully grown. Leo getting to see his father alive again.

He might not have been happy with Casey for his initial disobedience, but now that he was here he really couldn’t say he wasn’t glad for it. 

“Can we… talk some more? Later?” He’d given his father the rundown, but twenty four years were not easily condensed into a single conversation. He still had so much more to say, so many more things weighing on him that he didn’t need to burden his brothers with. Part of him didn’t want to burden Splinter either, but a much louder part of him whacked the first part with a newspaper and reminded him that it was practically his job to listen to Leo’s problems. And that he was a fully grown adult who was capable of knowing his limits on being a listening ear.

“Of course,” Splinter replied, voice still soft, only serving to confirm his musing. “You are always welcome here. Even if there is nothing you need.”

“Even if you’re busy?”

“I’m never too busy for any of my sons.” 

Still his son. Even though he was two decades older than he should’ve been, even though he was as good as a stranger in this timeline. He could’ve just as easily been an outcast, but instead Splinter did what he always did-- accepted them without question. Helped them without hesitation.

Loved them without condition. 

“Missed you, dad.”

His father set a hand on his cheek. “Welcome home, son.” 

Chapter Text

It said something about everything they’d experienced that Leo didn’t even balk at walking into the lair’s atrium and looking upwards to see Casey hanging from the ceiling by his grapples like some kind of discount Spiderman.

“This is a pretty bizarre training exercise,” he said.

“Not training! At least not in the traditional sense.” And there was Mikey, hanging next to him from a pair of glowing chains around his ankles, his nunchaku tucked into his belt. “I mean, I guess it’s sort of training. I’m training. Casey’s mostly just hanging out, pun maybe a little intended. I’m trying to figure out that floating thing you said I could do in the future, but I’m also giving the Case-ster here a lesson in the fine practice of street art. The new lair’s pretty lacking and I figure if he’s gonna be sticking around he’s gonna need some sort of a hobby.” 

Leo took a seat on one of the benches, ignoring the way his knees creaked at having to stoop so low. (Being in near constant stress for two and a half decades had not made him age any slower.) “Are you encouraging my student to break the law?”

“Is it technically illegal if we live here?” Casey asked as he hooked his ankle around the wire and leveraged himself upright. The movement drew Leo’s attention to a line of spray paint cans set along one of the many pipes crossing over the ceiling, featuring a broad variety of color options. Casey set the blue can he was holding down in favor of grabbing a purple one, then ducked behind the sheet that was haphazardly hung up in front of his section of the wall. “I mean, they can’t tell us what to do in our own home, right?”

His student’s ignorance about the finer workings of the modern day were as comical as they were sad. “Just because we live here doesn’t mean we own it. We aren’t exactly citizens-- it’s not like we can get a deed to the place or something, even if they were in the habit of handing out deeds for abandoned subway stations. Technically, we’re trespassing on city property.”

“Yeah, but they never come down here. We need this place more than they do,” Mikey interjected. “Besides, as far as I’m concerned it’s not illegal unless you get caught!” 

The absolute pinnacle of morals, that one. 

Casey dipped out from behind the sheet to trade out his paint again, and Leo took the chance to address him. “Am I allowed to see what you’re working on?”

He had his mask on-- presumably for its air filtration properties to make sure he wasn’t inhaling any of the spray paint-- and Leo could just barely see the way his face scrunched up in thought behind its tinted lenses.  “...No, not yet. I’m almost done, though.”

Some bizarre flicker of pride had him biting his tongue to keep from commending Casey on being able to say no to him with such ease. Which was… a wholly ridiculous thing to feel proud about. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before. (Maybe Leo was just getting sappy in his old age.) "How long have you guys been down here?”

“Oh, several hours,” Mikey responded, freeing one ankle from the chains holding him aloft and sticking his leg out dramatically. “It started out as just me giving Casey some pointers on his color choices and stuff, but then we got to talking about the future, and he reminded me that you told me I could fly. Or something close to it, at least. And I don’t wanna get ahead of myself, but I’m pretty sure I’ve just about got it figured out.” 

He pulled his other leg free of the chains. It was like a bit from a cartoon-- he stayed where he was in the air for just a moment, the tails of his mask drifting in an invisible breeze, then glanced down and promptly dropped like a sack of rocks. He yelped and lashed out a hand to catch one of the dangling chains, scrambling to haul himself up and cling to the pipes crossing over the ceiling. 

“Maybe not.”

Leo laughed, leaning back in his seat, pretending like there hadn't been a lurch of panic in his chest at the sight of Mikey nearly falling and cracking his skull on the tile floor. Nevermind that he could've probably just pulled into his shell and been totally fine. “Don’t get too torn up about not managing right away. It took my Mikey years to figure it out.”

“I’m almost getting it. That’s what sucks so bad.” Mikey eased himself to the ground, the chains dissipating as he walked over to sit down on the floor and lean against Leo’s legs. “I know how to do it, I just can’t actually do it. Y’know? I tell myself I’ve just gotta remember that my powers don’t care what physics says. I breathe, I focus, and I think about floating. And I almost manage it, until I look down and see the floor all the way down there, and I forget that gravity ain’t got nothing on a mystic warrior.”

“You’ll get there,” Leo said, patting the top of his head affectionately. “Just give it time, yeah?”

“Yeah, I guess. I’ll keep trying. Just gotta practice more, right? Same way it was with all our mystic powers.” After a moment he sat upright, turning to face Leo; “Oh, but don’t worry, I’m not pushing myself too hard! I remembered what you said. I’m taking my time, and if I need help I’ll call my brothers.”

The image of Leo’s little brother standing alone as he fought to tear a hole through time and space flickered across his mind. He brushed it aside in the wake of this Mikey’s sunny grin. “There’s a good kid.”

They settled into companionable silence as the conversation lulled. Mikey took to fidgeting with the cuffs of Leo's pants, tugging at loose threads until Leo batted his hand away. They may have made that excursion a while back to get both him and Casey new clothes, but he still found himself defaulting to the same old ones he'd worn for years before reaching for a new set. Call it clinging to a modicum of comfort in an unfamiliar time, if you wanted. Or perhaps he was just getting to the age where he hated changing things about his routine. 

Mikey settled into a doze against his legs, and Leo wasn't far behind. The atrium was quiet, peaceful with the rest of the family either hidden away unobtrusively or out and about somewhere in the city. (Not that Leo had any objections to their presence-- on the contrary, he often found himself more nerve-wracked if he wasn't sure where they'd ended up.) The ambience of the lair's usual softly thrumming machinery combined with the muted clattering of metal and Casey's quiet muttering as he worked created a soothing white noise that put Leo into a peaceful lull.

He was roused by the sound of boots hitting the floor, blearily glancing around to clear the sleepy haze from his head. It hadn’t been a proper nap, but he definitely hadn’t been wholly coherent. Neither had Mikey, based on the way he jolted up at the sound, slipping from his spot against Leo’s knee and nearly banging his head on the floor.

“Sorry!” Casey hurried over to help him to his feet. “Didn’t mean to startle you!”

“All good, Space Case! Don’t worry about it.” Mikey took the offered hand, dusting off his plastron and crossing his arms as he nodded towards the sheet. “Done working?”

“I think so.” After pulling his mask up, Casey wrung his hands together, clearly nervous. “I mean, I guess? You probably want to take a look at it. I might’ve messed something up, I got kinda ambitious towards the end.”

“It’s not like you’re getting graded on it! If you want me to give it a look-see then I will, but if you think it’s done, it can be done.” Mikey gestured broadly at him. “You’re the artist. Whatever you say goes, my friend.”

Casey bit his lip, glancing back at the wall for a moment. Then his expression shifted into one of determination. “No. It’s done.” Leo couldn’t deny the flicker of pride at his confidence. His newness to the art wasn’t stopping him from being assured in his skills and decisions. A terribly mundane thing to be proud of and he knew it, particularly when compared against everything else Casey had done over the course of their shared time in the apocalypse, but nevertheless something that delighted him.

Mikey gripped his nunchaku in one hand, whipping up a chain and hooking it around the top of the sheet. With a muted noise of effort, he pulled the fabric to the floor. 

The splatters of paint on the wall cast a simplistic rendition of the New York City skyline-- the destroyed one they’d known in their voided future-- in cool tones. In place of the Technodrome that had loomed over them for decades, though, Casey had painted the sun. Fiery shades of orange and red, outlined in a sky of purple and blue, and the realization of exactly which colors Casey had used nearly brought tears to Leo’s eyes.

“Casey,” he said softly. “This is incredible.”

And it really was. Leo was no artistic genius, but even from his perspective, the piece Casey had painted was beautiful. 

His student stepped up next to him, face turning flushed as he reached up to tug at his hair with paint-stained hands. “I wanted to remember them. I… thought it was important.”

It was a memorial.

“Of course.” Leo wrapped an arm around Casey’s shoulders, pulling him close. He gladly tucked himself up against Leo’s side. Now that Leo was actually seeing him up close, the dried tear tracks on his cheeks were noticeable. “It’s amazing, kiddo. Mikey would be proud.”

They both knew he didn’t mean the Mikey who had eased himself away from Leo to allow them a moment. Casey’s eyes welled up faintly-- hardly enough to really be called tears, but decidedly misty-- and he sniffled for a moment or two. He’d been close with Mikey, probably the closest behind Leo. As the youngest of them, his little brother had a bit of a unique perspective into Casey’s mindset as a kid. He remembered the best of any of them what it was like to be a child in a world that wanted you dead. And that wasn’t even mentioning his natural charm.

“I miss him, Sensei,” Casey said, barely audible.

“I miss him too.” 

When the half-baked and desperate idea to send Casey back in time had first popped into his head, he’d intended for his student to do it alone. He was injured, practically falling apart. He didn’t deserve the second chance he wanted his student to have. Not after he’d been responsible for the circumstances behind his chaotic upbringing in the first place.

It was only thanks to his student, his Casey, with all the stubbornness of his mother and all the determination of the mutants who’d trained him, that he was even here.

He hadn’t meant to come with. But right now, he was damn glad he did. It hadn’t even crossed his mind in the other timeline, but now that he had a moment to sort out his thoughts and ruminate on things, he couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like for Casey to end up here alone. In an unfamiliar world, surrounded by people who wouldn’t recognize him, carrying the grief of losing two of his teachers in the span of minutes as he went. He hadn’t even had the forethought to tell Casey to find his past self or his brothers. Just handed him a shitty drawing and tried to send him off to save the world on his own. He was just a kid.

Sending Casey back in time was one last attempt to save the world, that much was true, but it hadn’t really been his priority at the time. His main motivation was a last ditch effort based in the hopes that maybe there was still the possibility for his student to lead something of a normal life. Make friends, find a hobby, do something he enjoyed. (He clearly had a knack for the arts-- the talent on display in Casey’s mural made Leo wonder what other things he might’ve had a natural aptitude for that he’d just never managed to figure out because it wasn’t useful in an apocalypse situation. The reminder of his stolen childhood stung.)

He’d never be a completely clean slate, no matter how much Leo wished it were so. But he still had a lot of years ahead of him-- and if Leo could give him the opportunity to live the rest of them out peacefully and happily, he’d give anything. And he knew Mikey would’ve, too.

That was probably part of why he’d gone along with Leo’s cockamamy plan despite knowing the consequences.

“He’s still hanging around somewhere in ghost-ville. Probably judging us,” Leo said quietly, trying for a smile. He may not have been able to contact the spirits of their ancestors anymore, but there wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that Mikey and the rest of his brothers were still hanging out in the afterlife. They were too persistent to just up and vanish like that. “I know it.”

Casey glanced up at him. “How can you be so sure?”

He couldn’t, really. Not with his connection to their ancestors gone. Besides, he’d lost that ability the same day Raph had died, so Casey hadn’t ever seen it in action. He didn't even know contacting their ancestors was something they could do.

But he didn't need mystic powers to know his brothers were still keeping an eye on them.

“C’mon, Case. Do you really think any of those guys would be willing to actually leave me in peace?” He bumped his elbow against Casey’s arm. “Nah, they’ve gotta bother me for at least the rest of my life, if not long after I join them.”

There was the barest flicker of a smile on his student’s face, but it quickly faded and he turned to plaster himself against Leo’s side like he was magnetically attached. “Please don’t joke about that,” he said, muffled into Leo’s plastron, “I don’t want to think about you dying.”

Leo’s smile turned into a frown, and his whole demeanor softened. Back in their dying future, death was seen as something of an inevitability. Anyone could die whenever, and you couldn’t let that stop you when it happened. Casey knew that. Which left Leo wondering whether his openness about his fears regarding Leo’s own mortality was a result of him unlearning all those survival strategies that had been so necessary in their time, or if he would’ve been so heartbroken had Leo died in their future. 

He really hoped Casey would’ve been able to move on. 

…It was probably for the best that they’d never get an answer to that question.

“I’m not going anywhere, bud, okay?” Casey looked up at him mournfully. “Considering everything, I’m in pretty good health. I won’t leave you behind.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.” He rubbed a comforting hand across Casey’s back. “I told you Leon convinced me to stick around for a bit longer, right? Technically we were talking about me sticking around the lair, but that includes me being alive to do it. I said I would, and I don’t go back on my word. You’ve got me for a long while, Casey.”

Casey sniffled and shoved his face against Leo’s midsection again. Leo held him close.

“Group hug!”

A second pair of arms latched onto Leo’s middle, one wrapped around Casey and the other Leo’s carapace. Leo huffed as Mikey squeezed with all his not-insignificant strength, and Casey wheezed as he struggled to adjust and make his breathing a little easier.

“Your art looks good too, Mikey,” he said, patting his little brother’s head. He hadn’t been focusing as much as Casey, halfway distracted by his attempts to stick it to gravity, but the dynamic splashes of color brought some much needed energy to the otherwise still-bland atrium of the lair. “You do good work.”

“Why don’t you give it a try?”

“I’m not much of an artist,” Leo said, grinning sheepishly. Mikey immediately started pouting. “Don’t let that stop you from having fun, though.”

“Come on, Leo!” Mikey scrambled back to look up at Leo and give him a pretty admirable pair of puppy-dog eyes. “Please? Just humor me! It doesn’t have to be good, I just want you to have fun with us!”

Casey glanced at Mikey for a second, then turned his own pleading gaze on Leo. “Please, Sensei?”

Those cheaters.

“Okay!” Leo said loudly, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Alright, fine, I’ll give it a try. Just quit it with the teary looks, will you? The both of you, I swear-- absolute children.” 

“Yes!” Mikey raised his hand for a high five, and Casey stared at it for a few baffled seconds before grinning and returning the gesture. After shaking his hands giddily a few times, Mikey turned and ran off back towards his supplies, snatching up a few cans before leaping up to his spot by the wall. There was far more force behind the gesture than normal, and his little brother didn’t seem to notice that he stayed hovering in front of the piece he was working on despite not having actually reattached himself to the ceiling.

Leo stifled a laugh into his hand. Best not to distract him. He’d realize he figured it out eventually.

In the meantime, he pointed an accusatory finger at a still smiling Casey. “You two are not allowed to team up on me like that, got it? I understand the puppy eyes from Mikey, but I’d expect more maturity from you.” 

Casey wilted a bit. Still smiling, but he was noticeably less energetic. “Yes, Sensei. Sorry.”

Leo flinched in turn. He was starting to forget he’d been such a hardass over the past couple years, and that as much as he and Casey had been able to joke together, his student still took his chastisements completely seriously. “Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to apologize. I was teasing, alright?” He shook Casey’s shoulder encouragingly. “You’re a kid, Case. Be as immature as you’d like.” 

“Right. Um, sorry.”

“What’d I just say about apologizing? It’s fine.” 

He couldn’t help but feel a little responsible for how messed up this kid was. Sure, the apocalypse had kind of demanded all of them grow up a little faster than they otherwise would’ve, but had it really been so hard for Leo to give Casey a chance to be a child? Casey thought he was the so-called greatest ninja the world has ever seen, and for what? Killing a few Krang? If you asked Leo, he’d done very little to earn that. 

But this was neither the time nor place for his emotional baggage. “C’mon. Let’s go join Mikey before he looks down and remembers gravity exists.” 

There was a sudden yelp and the clattering of chains. Casey winced. “I think we might be a bit late on that one, Sensei.”

“Of course we are.”

Never enough time.

“Did you guys see that??” And there was Mikey’s excited chatter. “I totally had it for a second!”

“We saw,” Leo called, holding his arm out without a thought to boost Casey up towards the ceiling. Once he’d grabbed a few more cans of paint, his student used the offered limb to propel himself upwards, slinging his grapples around the pipes overhead and pulling himself up to hang in front of a clean spot on the wall. He hooked the wires onto a loop of his belt to keep himself aloft while his hands remained free. 

It was practically effortless, and Leo's thoughts circled back around to his musing on what other skills Casey might've had a knack for that he'd just never had the chance to try out. Leisure certainly hadn't been their priority when fighting a war. They had hobbies, sure-- those were a necessity to keep them all from losing their minds-- but their options were a tad limited. Both by resources and time. Anything that involved going outside was a no-go, and material heavy projects were usually limited for the sake of rationing. They couldn't be loud or bright with anything they did. The Krang had eyes and ears everywhere, and one wrong move would spell destruction for them all.

Casey had scribbled on the walls of the cave they made camp in when he was a kid, spurred on by a marker Mikey managed to produce from somewhere. When they had to abandon that base (after one of their squad members got taken by the Krang, which meant everything was compromised), Leo had nearly stopped to take a picture of the slightly-faded doodles. Then April had shouted at him to get a move on and he'd left both the art and his sentimental thoughts behind.

These were more than scribbles, though. And they wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. (Not with all the security Donnie put on the lair, at least. He remembered well enough how the whole Shredder absolutely annihilating their home thing had made them a little paranoid in the following months.)

“Come on, Sensei, you said you’d try!” A slight whistle in the air. Perfectly honed instincts had his hand shooting up to catch the can of paint that had been lobbed at his head before it could make contact. Casey looked wholly unrepentant. “I can see you getting lost in your thoughts.”

Leo smiled. No need to think about all the horrors they’d had to face. Not here. Not now. “Was it that obvious?” 

“You have a very broody face,” Casey affirmed. “It’s making your wrinkles worse.”

“I don’t have wrinkles.”

“You kinda do, dude,” Mikey said, his two cents completely unwelcome. “Like, worse than Raph’s chasm.”

“Oh yeah? I’ll have you know that in my timeline, you look even older than me,” Leo said. “Seriously elderly for a guy just barely out of his thirties. Wrinkles, balding, the whole nine yards.”

“I guarantee looking old didn’t stop me from also looking like a snack,” Mikey retorted, to which Casey burst out laughing and Leo managed a grin-- it was easier to make jokes out of it than have to think about how Mikey’s constant over-expenditure of his mystic energy made him look decades older than he should have. With any luck, such a thing would never come to pass in this timeline. 

“I make no comment,” Leo said, earning an offended gasp from Mikey and further laughter from his student. 

He’d missed this.

And he would miss this.

It wasn’t like he could really stay forever, after all.

Chapter Text

Breathe.

Focus.

Inhale, exhale.

Turn your thoughts inwards.

Ignore the sickly frost crawling up your throat.

Breathe.

Center your mind.

Ignore the cold.

Ignore it.

Ignore it--

Leo inhaled in a gasp that morphed into a hacking cough, sounding for all intents and purposes like he was resurfacing from nearly drowning. One hand shot up from its interlocked position in his lap to clutch at his plastron. He had to stop himself from scratching at the surface in some vain attempt to clear the thickness from his chest. It wasn’t real.

As his panic eased, he spat a curse. (A quiet curse, because while there weren’t that many people riding the ferry at three in the morning, there were enough that he didn’t want to draw too much attention to himself on his perch at the edge of Whitehall Terminal’s roof.) It wasn’t as though he was expecting his connection to their ancestors to suddenly be fixed where nearly two decades of trying had failed. He was more irked at his complete lack of progress. It was the same every time-- without fail, he’d manage to keep his focus on the place where his powers should’ve been for all of a few minutes before that sickening cold returned.

Screw his Ninpo, he’d take being able to meditate on their absence for an extended period of time without feeling like he was freezing from the inside out. 

Once the chill had entirely departed and all that remained was the muggy warmth of an off-shore breeze, Leo took a deep breath and closed his eyes to try again. He’d call it futile, doing the same thing over and over with no variation in results, except there wasn’t much he could do differently. Meditation wasn’t like combat-- there weren’t really any “alternate strategies” he could try when one wasn’t working. Sitting in a different position? Breathing at a different pace? Nothing would make that much of an impact.

This time, he didn’t wait for the chill to get bad enough that it started to physically impact his breathing. As soon as he felt that icy line trailing its way up his lungs, he exhaled heavily and opened his eyes to ground himself. 

“Man. That looked painful.”

He didn’t immediately reach for his sword at the sudden presence behind him, though he did give April a rather dull look when he turned to face her. “You need to be more careful sneaking up on people like that,” he scolded. “I could’ve seriously hurt you. You’re lucky I’m in a focused mindset right now.”

“ You’re lucky I don’t have class tomorrow. I mean really, dude, three in the morning? You couldn’t have picked a better time to need help? Or a more accessible spot to brood? I was out of the range of your sword anyway.” She sat down at the edge of the roof beside him. “Splints told me it might be good for you to talk to someone who wasn’t your brothers. And judging by the crease in your forehead just now when you were failing to meditate, I’m guessing he might’ve been right. So what’s going on with you, big guy?”

Leo sighed, clasping his hands in his lap. “Splinter didn’t tell you anything else?”

“Nah, just that you could do with some company. I mean-- he also gave me a weirdly cryptic look and told me I might be exactly what you needed, but I tend to take his nonsense with a grain of salt.”

“That’s probably for the best. He can be pretty wise, don’t get me wrong, but usually when he’s being vague you can just ignore it until it becomes relevant,” Leo said. Then thought about it for a moment, stared at April for a moment more, and his eyes went wide. “Although he might’ve had a point with that one, actually.”

“What, really?”

“April, if I want to confide in you about something, can I trust you not to tell anyone else?”

“Of course you can. I’m no snitch.”

He’d missed her, too. Not that he hadn’t had a chance to interact with her in the future-- the exact opposite, actually; she’d been one of his top Commanders, and one of his closest friends. He’d spent more time with her than at least two of his brothers-- but he’d missed this version of her. The end of the world had changed all of them, but it had been extra hard on her. At least Leo and his brothers weren’t losing that much when the whole world’s way of life suddenly shifted. April lost everything.

Her mom hadn’t made it through the initial invasion.

She hadn’t been much for jokes in the future. He’d missed her humor. 

“I don’t have access to my Ninpo anymore,” Leo said. “And I can’t connect with our ancestors.” 

“Oh,” April said, suddenly subdued. “Oh. Oh, man. That’s rough. What happened?”

“I lost them in a fight. I’m not getting any further into it,” he said gravely. April had a tendency to push boundaries, usually in everyone’s best interest, but Leo’s tone left no room for disagreement. “Pops tried helping me get them back, but there wasn’t much he could really do. I’ve been trying on my own with… minimal results. As you probably could’ve guessed.”

“I’d been sorta wondering about that,” she said, still keeping her voice quiet. “I mean-- I noticed you only had the one sword, and you didn’t use your portals at all when we were fighting, but… I guess I didn’t really think about it too hard.”

“I appreciate your inattentiveness. It’s… not something I like thinking about.”

“Well, you’re welcome. Even if the whole point was that I literally did nothing.” She frowned. “Still don’t know what Splinter meant when he said I could help, though.”

“I’m pretty sure I know. I think he believes you can give me closure, as opposed to helping me get them back.” He stretched his legs out over the edge of the roof, hands settling at his sides. No more meditating tonight. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“What was it like?”

“Okay, so we’re playing this game,” April muttered, rolling her eyes at him. “What was what like, Leo?”

“When we fought Shredder,” Leo clarified. Perhaps the vague start was unnecessary, but he’d always had a penchant for dramatics. Age and a need for pragmatism hadn’t dulled that entirely. “With Karai. What was it like, having her there?”

“Ah. Yeah, okay, I see what Splints was getting at.” April’s expression scrunched up as she thought. “I mean, it was weird. Definitely weird. It wasn’t exactly like having a whole other person in my head, I think. I mean-- it’s a little fuzzy. We were kind of stressed at the time, I wasn’t paying too much attention. I couldn’t really hear her speak when she was just in there, only when she popped out to say something. Other than that she was more of a… feeling. Like-- I knew she was there, even if I couldn’t really hear her. She was kind of like intuition, almost? She seemed to react to everything a few seconds before I could, and she could tug some strings to make me do stuff. Not in a creepy way! More like a suggestion that I had no problem following.” 

Leo nodded idly. He and April had talked about it… maybe once, in all their years. Probably not long after Leo lost his powers, actually. But Leo had been barely aware of his surroundings at the time, and April had forgotten what it was like having Karai around after eight years and an alien invasion taking up most of her attention, so she hadn’t had much to say on the matter.

“And what was it like to lose her?”

“Even weirder. It was… empty. Cold. Reaching for something you thought was there only to find it gone. You?”

“Yeah,” Leo said, voice hoarse, hands clenched into fists in the fabric of his pants. April reached over to wind a gentle hand around his wrist, and he turned his hand to thread their fingers together. “Yeah. That sounds about right.” 

“I only had her with me for a little while. You had your abilities for years.” She squeezed his hand, the gesture helping to ground his racing mind. “But I get it. I know how you feel.”

Leo exhaled shakily.

She understood. And she hadn’t needed to get hurt to be able to empathize. Mikey and Donnie had never lost their powers, thank every deity Leo had ever heard of and thensome, and Raph had died mere moments after losing his, so they hadn’t exactly had a chance to commiserate. He’d longed for someone who knew what it felt like, but at the same time hoped and prayed that none of his loved ones ever had to experience it the way he did.

April didn’t have to. She knew what it was like and she hadn’t gone through the same horrible experience he did. 

The realization had him choking back tears, and April was kind enough to not say anything as he clutched her hand like a lifeline, clasping the other around his mouth to muffle himself. She gently rubbed her thumb along the side of his hand. 

“I get it, big guy. I really do. You aren’t alone, y’know? And I know hearing that right when we were talking about losing your Hamato energy might not be what you need, but it’s true.” She tilted to the side, letting her head fall against Leo’s arm. “Mystic powers or no mystic powers, your family is here for you.” 

He could have told her that his family was dead. He could have told her he’d been all but directly responsible for the deaths of every one of his siblings. He could have told her that while he definitely appreciated her attempts to comfort him, that didn’t erase the fact that he’d practically abandoned his family in a dead timeline, and that he wasn’t sure he deserved the chance he’d gotten. He wasn’t sure he’d ever feel like he belonged here. He wasn’t sure he could keep waking up every morning to face kid versions of his brothers. 

He didn’t say a word. 

She was just a kid. She didn’t need that on her shoulders. Not when she was just trying to help.

“Thanks, April,” he said softly. “It means a lot.”

“I’ve got you, big guy.” She squeezed his hand once more, then pulled back to bump a fist against his shoulder. All the way.”

“Well, the sentiment is definitely mutual. You ever need help with anything, I’m your man. Turtle. Mutant? Whatever. I’m here for you. And I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that that goes for the rest of the guys, too.” 

“You don’t, trust me. Raph and Donnie have made that clear enough over the years.”

“Of course they have.” The two of them were a lot more alike than they seemed. Never hesitating to go above and beyond for the people they cared about. “Actually, not to change topics, but I just realized-- how’d you get on top of the terminal, anyway?”

“C’mon, man, you know New Yorkers never look up. Especially considering it’s the middle of the night and they’re all just trying to commute home.” She reached up to flick the side of his head. He didn’t bother waving her away. “Speaking of which, you owe me a walk back to my dorm. Considering I came all the way out here on my night off to help your angsty ass.” 

“As if you aren’t perfectly capable of handling yourself,” Leo said, rolling his eyes and poking her side in return. “But sure. If you’re so worried, I’ll escort you home.” 

“Maybe I just want to hang out with you a little bit more. You are pretty cool-- and I’m only gonna admit that this once, don’t let it get to your head.” He stood, offering her a hand, and she took it and pulled herself to her feet gracefully. “I’m not worried, anyway, I’m just… a little apprehensive. The Foot Clan’s been quiet lately-- real quiet, way more than they ever have been in the past, and that’s counting that bit of time right after we defeated Shredder. Even Cassandra hasn’t heard anything, and she’s got ears just about everywhere.”

“That is odd,” Leo agreed. Cassandra had always been their go-to person on the goings-on of the city’s criminal underbelly-- one of the “good guys” as she might have been, that didn’t erase all the connections she’d built during her time in the Foot. “They don’t tend to be very subtle.”

“Exactly. So no, I’m not worried, but I would feel a little bit more secure with a trained soldier at my back.”

“Consider me at your disposal, then,” Leo said. April could take care of herself. He had absolutely zero doubts about that. But if she was asking for his help, she was a lot more nervous than she would ever let on. Taking the time to make sure she got home safely was no trouble at all. “You’ll have to point me in the right direction. I don’t think I’ve ever been to your dorm.” 

“You’ve never--” Clarity flickered over her expression. “Right. Yeah, no problem. It’s like an hour walking, twenty if we hop a train. Which… I don’t think your scarf is enough to cover the fact that you’re literally bright green. And also not wearing shoes-- seriously gross, dude, do you know how many seagulls have probably pooped up here?”

“Don’t give me that, you never criticized the boys for not wearing shoes once, and we lived in the sewers. ” He gave her a dull look. “We’re turtles, April. We don’t really need to worry about cleanliness the same way humans do.” 

“That sounds a lot like an excuse to not shower every day if you ask me. You’re an adult, you should know better.”

“You didn’t win this argument over two decades of having it, and you’re not gonna win it in one night. Just let it go, April.” He didn’t need to get into the details of a lack of shoes being both for traction/dexterity purposes and because finding shoes that fit over their odd heels was a challenge unto itself. She probably didn’t actually care that much, anyway. “Train might be a no-go, but I don’t mind a walk if you don’t?”

“Yeah, sure, not the first time I’ll be getting home at four in the morning. Sunita should still be awake to let me in through the window so we can even be real sneaky about it.” She pointed him in the direction of her dorm, and after making sure his sword was secure, they set off across the rooftops. “Don’t ask me about Googly sleep schedules, she won’t tell me either.”  

Traveling by roof wasn’t the safest or most discreet mode of transportation, but it beat trying to navigate the sewers with an outdated memory and no Donnie to pull up a map by a mile. The sewers might’ve been generally cleaner than most people assumed at first glance, but they were still an absolute labyrinth if one didn’t know where they were going, and you couldn’t navigate via landmarks when it was all the same repeating gloomy tunnels. Leo far preferred the rooftops, even if it meant they had to keep an eye out on the pedestrians below as well as be sure to land carefully or risk broken ankles.

At least April was completely correct when she commented on New Yorkers' lack of looking upwards. Particularly at three in the morning, when the majority of people still out and about were only such because they had to be. Tired people noticed even less .

“So, I’ve got a question.”

“...Alright.” Something told him to brace himself. April could have the worst timing. 

“I know you guys were a little busy fighting off alien invaders and everything, but did you ever get any kind of downtime?”

Leo’s expression screwed up. He took a moment to offer April a hand in crossing a particularly broad gap between apartment buildings, then paused with his hands on his hips. “Not really. I mean-- we’d get short breaks in between fights, time enough to recuperate and plan our next move. For the most part the Krang were focused on their terraforming efforts, they weren’t likely to go out of their way to attack us. But we had a tendency of getting in their way as much as possible. Even when we tried to keep morale up with karaoke nights and stuff we were on guard just about twenty-four seven.”

“That sucks,” she said, sympathetically. “Okay, another question. What did I do? Future Boy called me Commander when I first found him, and I’ve gathered I was someone important, but what exactly does that mean?” 

“As the name would imply,” Leo began, carefully making his way across an empty clothesline spanning the gap between the next building they had to traverse, “you were one of the people in charge. You devised strategies, you led attacks. When you gave orders, people listened. Tales were told among travelers of Commander April O’Neil, fearless leader of the Resistance. The Krang quaked in fear whenever they heard word of your approach.” 

“Sounds badass,” April said, clearly assuming he was exaggerating a bit. 

“You were.”

“More badass than you, Mad Max?”

Leo grinned. Maybe he was being a little bit hyperbolic, but only a little bit. She was quite well-known around the former New York area. “Without a doubt.” 

April laughed, and Leo’s grin widened. The more he talked about his time in the apocalypse, the less it hurt. He wasn’t sure it would ever really stop hurting, but as he spent more time among his family the sting began to ease. 

He wasn’t sure he liked it. Wasn’t sure he deserved it.

But… he was getting it anyway. So what did that mean for him?

The smile dropped from Leo’s face as there was the soft clatter of metal nearby, and he held up a hand to stop April in her tracks.

“What?”

He hushed her, raising a finger to his lips, and carefully drew his sword from its spot at his hip. He held perfectly still for a few moments, and there was absolute silence (or relative silence, at least, considering New York was literally known for never being quiet) for long enough that he was inclined to dismiss it as a figment of his imagination. “...Alright, I think we’re--”

And then something slammed into his side.

“Leo!”

He reacted in an instant, catching himself with one arm and pushing to meet his attacker head-on. Ninja garb, a bright orange symbol on their face. 

The Foot Clan. 

Without hesitation he snarled, darting forward to ram his shoulder into his attacker’s gut. They wheezed, tripping backwards and disappearing over the edge of the building. He didn’t bother checking to see if they caught themself. A second assailant emerged from the shadows to strike at him, and he caught their attempted kick with the flat edge of his sword. They flipped backwards, drawing a sword of their own from a sheathe on their back, but their skill paled in comparison to Leo’s own. It wasn’t much of a fight.

They ducked back as the first attacker hauled themself up over the edge of the building, and Leo kept track out of the corner of their eye as they went after April. April, who had armed herself with a crowbar (likely picked up from the roof they were on) and was having absolutely zero trouble defending herself. Which left Leo free to focus on his own fight.

The Foot Soldier’s eyes flicked over him, hesitating for a moment on the bag at his hip. 

Then almost as soon as they’d come, the Foot Soldiers retreated. Darting across the rooftop and disappearing into the shadows of the alley below.

“Well, that was bizarre,” April muttered, dusting herself off. “Glad I decided to bring you along.”

“You and me both.” Leo returned his sword to its sheath once he was sure the danger had passed. Decidedly a bizarre fight-- they didn’t usually pick fights for no reason, nor did they just abandon their battles like that. Sure, they were known to retreat, but only once they completed whatever task they’d been assigned to do. Like, for instance, picking up a mystic key from a couple of criminals they sent to fetch it. “You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. They weren’t really attacking. Kinda just trying to grab me. All good here.” April finished checking herself over. “That was weird, right? It’s not just me?”

“Definitely weird. Foot Soldiers don’t usually act like that. Even the ones that aren’t made of paper.” Humans were always more unpredictable than summoned constructs, but they still acted in accordance with their Clan’s ideals. Ideals which usually involved excessive levels of violence. That felt more like they were just testing the waters as opposed to their usual frontal assault. Which was… not at all within their usual operations. 

“I guess I’m glad it was just the grunts and neither of the big important dudes showed up,” April muttered. Then glanced over at Leo. “...What happened to those guys in the future?”

Leo nearly snarled with the reminder of their existence. With how much time had passed since the initial incident, he’d kind of forgotten how pissed he was at them for literally ending the world. (With Leo’s involuntary assistance.) “They served their masters until they died. And then beyond that.”

“Eugh,” April said, shivering as she rubbed her arms. Probably more owing to his ominous statement, but there was enough of a chill this late at night (or early in the morning depending on who you asked) that her thin jacket likely wasn’t doing much to keep her warm. “Man, every word I hear about the Krang from you or CJ just makes me more glad we never had to deal with those guys. They brought the Foot dudes back from the dead? To keep doing their dirty work?”

“In a sense. The Krang had the ability to sort of… possess stuff. Machines, mostly, but they did it to people too. The things they took control of could keep fighting long after their natural physical limits would’ve had them down for the count.” Leo pulled his scarf off and set it around April’s shoulders, wrapping it over itself a few times like a shawl. No need for him to go into detail about how many allies they’d lost to such a treatment. “That’s enough of that, though. Let’s pick up the pace a little bit. Maybe take a detour on the way in case they decide to follow us.”

“Uh, sure. Right.”

As they headed off again across the rooftops, April stuck closer to his side than she had before their little delay. It was confusing for all but a moment until he remembered that as much as she had a tendency to talk a big talk and was also fully capable of defending herself, she was just barely an adult. And getting attacked on your walk home was a nightmare scenario that was horrifyingly real for so many people just like her. 

Which was why instead of calling her out on it, he just set an arm around her shoulders and kept his mouth shut. 

She’d been the oldest sibling long enough. He could take a turn. 

The rest of their walk went peacefully, the biggest threat being a brief scare with a flock of pigeons that had them laughing at their own startled reactions. April pointed out her dorm building, and-- after circling the block once just to make sure they’d fully lost any potential tails-- Leo hefted her up with one arm and scaled his way down the side of it with practiced ease.

April tapped on the window with her shoe, and the curtains opened to reveal a slightly sardonic looking Sunita. Her smirk turned to a look of confusion and then shock as she pointed at Leo while looking at April, one hand on her cheek and her mouth agape. 

“Did you tell her I was walking you home?”

“I told her Leo was walking me home.”

“Ah, so you were purposefully vague about it for the sake of screwing with her. Got it.” Leo jerked his head towards the window, gesturing the best he could with one hand supporting April and the other keeping him attached to the side of the building. Sunita rolled her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and pulled the window up. “Hey, Sunita. Mind helping her in? Can’t really spot her with my hands busy.”

“I’m inclined to let her fall just for not telling me about all this!!” Despite her words, Sunita didn’t hesitate to grab April’s arm and haul her inside. “Seriously, what?! Did your crime dad do some weird alchemy again? April, you owe me some answers!!”

“You’ll have ‘em! Give me a second.” Brushing Sunita out of the way, April stepped up to the window and leaned out to give Leo a near shell-crushing hug. The angle was a little awkward, but he was happy to adjust his grip on the windowsill and return the gesture with his free arm. Man, it’d be super anticlimactic if he fell right now. “Thanks. For walking me home.”

“Hey, anytime,” he said quietly. “Seriously. I don’t actually have a cellphone, but you can ring any of the guys to get ahold of me and I’ll be there muy rapido. ”

“I’ll keep that in mind. And hey-- that applies to you too, big guy. Talk to me. You’ve got a lot of trauma sitting heavy on that shell of yours, and I know I’m not exactly a professional, but I’m happy to listen and give you a healthy dose of sympathetic reality check whenever you need it. I’m still your sister.”

He was starting to sound like a broken record in his own mind, but man had he missed her. 

“Thanks, April. Get some rest.”

“You too. And no more late night brooding! Or at least give me a schedule so I can take a nap first, damn.” She leaned away, pulling his scarf off and wringing it up to whack him in the face with it. He reached up to grab it before it could make contact and tugged it out of her hands. “Try not to fall and break your shell on the way home.”

“I make no promises.” 

“Die, then.” 

He laughed, and she grinned as she stepped back to close the window. As she tugged the curtains closed, Leo saw Sunita step up and start hounding her. Likely with questions about Leo’s existence.

Ah, well. It was April’s problem, now.

The walk back to the lair went much quicker, both with Leo not needing to watch out for April as well as the lack of any more surprise attacks. He might not have made any progress with regaining access to his mystic powers, but he was definitely feeling far lighter than he had before the night’s events.

Although their altercation with the Foot Clan still sat heavy in the back of his mind. It was so strikingly out of character for them to be so… cowardly. Jumping them out of nowhere then immediately running away. 

They’d always been pretty predictable. It was unnerving, not being able to guess at their next move. The only thing that kept his nerves at bay was the knowledge that the key was as safe as it could be, carefully tucked away among Splinter’s other mystic artifacts. He might not have been able to predict what they were gonna do next, but he could at least guarantee that ending the world was completely off their radar.

…Probably.

Chapter Text

Between proving himself with how well he could handle confrontation with the scuffle he’d gotten into escorting April home and their sparring sessions showing his progress in moderating his strength, Leo was gradually allowed to join their nightly patrols of the city. He still didn’t accompany them on every mission-- for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to; that was the brothers’ time to hang out without any adults around, Leo was usually too tired to go jumping around rooftops in the middle of the night, and frankly his presence was just unnecessary the majority of the time-- but the boys seemed happy to have him along for the ride.

Or, at the very least, they seemed tolerant. Mostly in Leon's case.

They'd been getting along just fine as of late. Sparring and training gave them a common interest, and the more Leo got settled and let himself relax the more Leon seemed to be willing to give him the time of day. And beyond that-- actively seek out his company. Usually with a buffer of Casey or one of their brothers, but if Leo was the only one in the room Leon wouldn't immediately turn and leave. (Granted they would usually just sit in silence, since one on one conversations more often than not devolved into a snarky argument if they went on for too long, but it was still progress. Leo would also admit he was maybe being a bit meaner than he needed to be.)

He'd been hesitant when Leo had asked to join them on their latest mission. The rest of their brothers had been encouraging though, and after enough cajoling (because Leon was still technically the leader, and it was technically up to him in the end), Leon eventually agreed. 

"I still think it's a bad idea to bring the guy trained for war into a peaceful city, but alright. You haven't accidentally attacked anyone as of late. So I'll give you a chance."

It was a little patronizing, but what could you do?

He expected the night to be quiet, but that itself should’ve been an indicator that they’d end up having trouble of some kind. The lack of an alien invasion meant their usual roster of villains were still as active as ever, and saving the world hadn’t granted them any kind of downtime.

And apparently, almost being partly responsible for ending it had also not given Hypno and Warren any reason to take a break. 

The sight of them creeping through the darkened streets had Leo’s hackles raised before he even really got the full idea of what they were up to. Despite their part in the apocalypse being done in ignorance of the Foot Clan’s true intentions, if they’d never stolen the key on their behalf it never would’ve been a danger in the first place.

Despite the fact that they’d been valuable allies in the war, these versions of them were still clearly perfectly happy to cause trouble around the city. 

“Not really sure what they’re up to, but it can’t be good,” Raph said, narrowing his eyes at the duo making their way down the sidewalk, ducking out of sight whenever a pedestrian passed by. 

They weren't doing a spectacular job of staying out of sight, but-- as Leo had discovered after the invasion and as hadn't been made clear to this timeline yet-- most of New York already knew about their more monstrous population. Sure, it was still best for everyone if they kept out of sight as much as possible, but when the presence of the mystic became clear in the wake of the Krang, a surprising number of people had been completely un- surprised. At the time it had been a shock to hear, but in hindsight it made sense. Leo and his brother's failure to actually be stealthy aside, many of the mutants born from Draxum's bullshit hadn't actually stopped living their lives after they'd been mutated. They were something of a known secret.

It was still a little funny to watch Hypno pretending like he knew how to be sneaky as he crept along the edges of an alleyway. Even if the recent refresher of their willingness to break the law was more than a little irritating. He knew they had the capacity to be good people. They just chose not to. 

Or maybe they just never had any motivation to do so, without the wholesale invasion of the planet making it hard for anyone to sit idly by.

“Alright, fellas,” Raph said quietly. “Move in.”

As the duo crossed through an alley, Leo dropped from the fire escape he’d been crouched on, followed closely by the rest of the group. Hypno and Warren yelped simultaneously at their sudden appearances, Warren attaching himself to Hypno’s head from where he’d been perched on his shoulder.

“Stop right there, criminals,” Raph said, hefting his sai and pointing one at Hypno. Leon, too, raised both swords to keep them from turning tail and running. “Tell us what you’re up to, and you might just walk out of here with all your limbs still attached.”

“That is a significantly more severe threat if made in reference to me,” Hypno said weakly, carefully raising his hands up. Warren did the same, though the effect was kind of lost, considering his arms barely reached that high. “We aren’t up to anything! Except, perhaps, having a nice evening, however I get the feeling that’s not what you’re referring to. There is absolutely zero crime on the docket.”

“Uhuh, and pigs fly,” Leon said. “They don’t, by the way, I haven’t seen Meatsweats do that once. You seriously expect us to believe you?”

“I understand you have very little reason to, however my companion speaks nothing but the truth,” Warren interjected, eyeing their various weapons nervously. “We have no plans to do anything criminal, now or on any other day.” 

“You’re really not planning anything?” Donnie asked, expression still full of narrow suspicion as he hefted his Bo. “And why in the world should we believe you?”

“We’re not! Honest as can be. We realized the error of our ways with that whole Foot Clan death portal mess, and are simply trying to… turn a new leaf, as one might say.” As Hypno spoke, his hands inched closer together behind his head. Leon gripped his sword a bit tighter-- his whole shtick was trickery. Pulling distractions out of his sleeve the moment you let your guard down. (The joke was on him; Leo's guard was never down.) “Criminals we might be-- er, have been, we never wanted to end the world. We do live here too, you know.” 

“Yes, destroying life as we know it is a little beyond our scope. That would make it very hard for us to do things like go out to dinner,” Warren added, tone dry. “Speaking of which, we’re quite close to missing our reservation, so if you don’t mind…?”

“...Um?” Leon let his sword fall slightly, glancing first at Raph and the rest of them, then back at the mutant duo. “Guys?”

“I mean… We can’t really prove they’re doing anything wrong,” Raph muttered, mostly to himself. He rubbed a contemplative hand on his chin. Then he shrugged. “Sounds fine to Raph. So long as you guys really promise not to start anything or do any kind of law-breaking--”

“Oh, yes, cross our hearts and hope to die and all that,” Hypno said quickly, crossing one hand over his chest. “You’ll have no trouble from us.” 

Leon stared at them through narrowed eyes for several more tense seconds. Everyone seemed a scale’s breadth away from drawing their weapons. Then he sighed, sheathed his swords, and gestured out towards the street. “Go on, then. Get outta here, before I decide I think you’re lying through your teeth and do something about it.”

With a wobbly grin, Hypno mimed a salute, and the two immediately turned to make their way down the alley towards the sidewalk. Leo's racing heartbeat began to ease.

And then.

There was a sound. Loud, abrupt, dangerous. Like a gun going off, ricocheting off the buildings around them and echoing in Leo's head. Even after he dropped into a crouch with his arms over his head to shield himself. The aftermath left his ears ringing. Or perhaps that was just a result of his suddenly heaving breaths and pounding heart.

An attack? It had to be. They were under attack. The alarm hadn't sounded-- has they figured out how to avoid it? That was bad. But Leo heard them. He could fight back.

It had been an explosion, right? Or something? It was loud. It was dangerous. There were bad guys to fight.

Leo knew what to do.

He drew his sword.

“Leo, no!” 

The wind left his lungs as something heavy slammed into his back. He went down snarling, writhing as he fought to free himself from whatever was pinning him down. His sword was wrenched from his hand, his wrists trapped against the ground-- his attacker was strong enough to hold even the metal arm down without much difficulty. It had to be the Krang. Had to be. Nothing else could’ve brought him down so effectively. Nothing else was strong enough to keep him there. They were under attack.

“Just--”

No sword, no problem. He had teeth. There were spikes on his arm that dug into his skin whenever he moved his shoulder up too high but which also served as a decent enough weapon if he needed it. He couldn’t quite get a good enough angle to actually use them, but that didn’t stop him from trying hard enough that he heard the metal strain.

“Damnit, Leo,” spat a hoarse voice, familiar and yet not, “calm down!!”

He knew that voice. He remembered that voice. But it didn’t make sense.

Raph was dead, wasn’t he?

“Listen to me! They’re fine! Were you even listening?” Raph snarled, and it was mostly confusion that had Leo ceasing his furious attempts to escape from whatever was holding him down. “Take it easy, alright? There’s no fight, they were just trying to leave. Calm down. What the heck’s going on with you??”

What was he talking about? Of course there was a fight. There was always a fight, the Krang never let them rest. Was this some kind of trick? What was going on? Where was he?

"What's wrong with him?" Mikey whispered.

"I'm not sure. He just freaked out," Donnie replied.

"I told you guys this was a bad idea," Leo said.

…No he didn't.

What?

"Shut up, Leon, you agreed to this." 

"I said it was a bad idea while I was agreeing to it! I didn't think he was ready, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, and now look where it got us. Feral turtle."

"He's not feral."

"Raph, he bit you."

"He didn't break the skin!"

"That's your metric?" A groan. Footsteps. And Leo's own face entered his vision from above. "Hey, big me. You back with us? You gonna flip your shit again if Raph lets you go?"

Leo squinted at the hazy image of himself. "What?"

"Raph, did you bonk his head on the sidewalk or something?"

"No! I was as gentle as I could be, considering how hard he was fighting me." 

"Okay, this is officially out of our scope." Quiet beeping. "I'm calling Casey."

…Casey?

Casey.

"No!" Leo snapped, and both saw his own younger self as well as felt Raph flinch at the harshness of his tone.

Casey was here. His younger self was here. And here was the past.

Here was New York, twenty four years prior. Here was an apocalypse-free world. Here was his family, and here was safe.

"Don't call Casey," he rasped. "This isn't his problem. I mean it. Don't you dare.”

"Are you--"

"Move, Raph," Leon interrupted, voice suddenly firm. "Now."

Raph moved. The pressure on his lungs eased, and Leo was able to take several deep breaths. With each inhale his heart rate slowed a little more. After a few more the ringing in his ears started to die down, and his vision steadily cleared. He drew his arms close to curl them around his head.

"Nope, keep your face clear.” Leon waved his arms away, sitting down cross-legged in front of him. He stayed a few paces back, far enough away that Leo felt like he could still breathe without being stifled but close enough that he couldn’t be ignored. “You need to take some deep breaths, and you can’t do that if you’re hiding in your arms. Sit up. Look at me, and focus. Do you know where you are? Or what year it is?” 

“I think,” Leo muttered, pushing himself up into a sitting position and shuffling backwards to lean on the wall behind him. The scraping of bricks against his shell helped to ground him further. “The past. Present.”

“There you go. Keep breathing while you’re at it.” While there was still an amount of alarm visible in his expression, his voice was even and calm as he spoke. “Whatever you think you’re seeing or hearing, whatever you think is going on, it’s not real. The city can be dangerous, but we’re not in danger right now . You heard a noise, right? It was a car backfiring. Some idiot hasn’t gotten his engine’s air filter replaced. But we’re all fine. We’re all good here. Just take a look around and focus on what you can see.” 

A dingy alley. Dirty and dark, as most alleys were, but wholly intact. No Krang growths creeping down the fire escapes, no gaping cracks in the foundation as a result of endless assaults on the city. There were a couple pigeons poking around some garbage at the other end of it. 

Their brothers, standing around him and Leon in a loose semicircle. Donnie still had his phone clutched tight in his hand, but in adherence to Leo’s snarled order he hadn’t called Casey. 

Good.

He took a few breaths as he’d been told to, and while the air was far from fresh, it was still relatively clean and decidedly untainted by terraforming efforts. With each careful inhale it came in easier, and after several more moments of breathing slowly and scraping his nails against the asphalt beneath him he was able to get himself back to a reasonable state.

“You back with us?”

He glanced over. Leon was still seated in front of him, watching him warily.

“Yeah,” he said, voice low and hoarse after his meltdown. “I’m fine.”

Several moments passed in dead silence.

“...Sorry.”

It took a few more for anyone to respond, but eventually Donnie spoke up, his tone carefully even; “It’s fine. It happens. Let’s just get home.” 

Before something happens again went unsaid.

While their way out into the city had been jovial, the trek back to the lair was quiet, subdued. They stuck to shadowy corners, no one really having the energy for rooftop parkour, and once they reached the nearest accessible tunnel they took to the city’s underbelly. 

As soon as they crossed the threshold into the lair, Leo split off from the group and bee-lined for his room. They probably wanted to talk about what happened, and Leo didn’t blame them, but he just wasn’t equipped to have that heavy of a conversation at the moment. He wanted nothing more than to crash in his bed for the night.

He hoped that being as tired as he was would mean a full night’s rest. Unfortunately, as with most things, it didn’t go the way he wanted. So he woke up a few hours later heaving as though he’d run a marathon, haphazard amalgamations of memories and nightmares swirling in his head like a tempest, blanket clutched tight in both hands. He did his level best to just close his eyes and go back to sleep, but it was to no avail. Not with his heart racing as it was. There wasn’t a chance in hell he’d be getting back to sleep before he made sure everyone was safe.

Carefully, as quiet as he could to avoid waking anyone, Leo slipped out of his room and began making a circuit of the lair.

The majority of the family was sound asleep. Even Donnie had abandoned his night owl tendencies and gone to bed on time, probably just as exhausted from the day’s events. The only deviation from the trend came in the form of Mikey’s empty bed, though the reasoning for that became clear as he approached Leon’s room and picked up two distinct voices.

He could have kept walking. Probably should have kept walking.

Instead he lightened his footsteps, put his weight on his heels first and shuffled forward silently to creep up to the near imperceptible crack in Leon’s door in time to catch the tail end of Mikey’s speech.

“...Freak out like that before. How’d you know how to help him with that?” Clearly talking about him. Mikey was doing his best to keep his voice down, and if Leo weren’t trying so hard to eavesdrop he might not have heard him at all. 

“Well… Alright. Part of it was Raph.”

“Raph?”

“Yeah. You know how Raph gets all weird if he’s left alone for too long?”

There was a moment’s silence where Leo could imagine Mikey wincing empathetically. “Oh, yeah. Like that time in the sewers?”

“Exactly. After the last time it happened… I wanted to make sure that if it became an issue again, I’d actually be able to help. I figured it was probably a result of some kind of trauma, so I did some reading. Looked into some disorders and stuff. Not much of a medic if I can only help with physical wounds, right? It was mostly Raph, but after future me gave us some insight into just how bad his timeline was, I figured a refresher might not go amiss. I’d have been able to help more if I realized what was going sooner.” The last part was barely a mutter from Leon, and Leo had to strain his hearing to pick up his next words. “I kinda thought he was just being a violent jerk at first.”

“Leo--”

“I know, I know. Assumptions, ass out of you and me, etcetera. You don’t have to remind me.”

“No, I get it.” Quiet shuffling of blankets. If Leo had to guess, Mikey had reached out for some physical comfort, and Leon was obliging. “He’s kind of scary sometimes, isn’t he?”

Leo froze.

…Mikey thought he was scary?

Inside the room, Leon made a noncommittal sound, though Leo barely heard it. “Less scary, more a bit of a jerk, but yeah. He’s… I dunno. It’s hard to figure out what’s going on in that guy’s head, y’know? Hard to believe he’s actually me. I didn’t know I was capable of half the stuff he says he’s done. You should’ve seen the way he went after the Foot Lieutenant back when he first got here-- he looked about ready to kill the bastard. I think he actually might’ve.” 

“For real?”

“I’m just saying, the sound that guy made when he hit the portal frame wasn’t pretty.” Leo clasped a hand over his snout in the hopes that it would help muffle the rapid uptick in the pace of his breathing. “On one hand I kind of get it. The guy’s been through hell. But on the other…”

“...You still don’t like it,” Mikey finished.

“I don’t want to become someone who kills people, Mike.”

“You won’t. That’s not gonna happen. We stopped the aliens, remember? You aren’t gonna have to go through what that guy did.”

“But what if it happens anyway?” Leon’s voice was scarcely above a whisper at this point. It was a wonder Leo could actually still hear a word he was saying. (Or perhaps a curse, considering the contents of his speech were making Leo feel like he was about to be sick.) “What if that’s just who I am?”

“It’s not! I know you, Leo, you aren’t like that.”

“But I am. Future me just proves it. That’s the problem.”

He didn’t need to hear this. Shouldn’t have eavesdropped in the first place. That was what happened when you listened in on private conversations-- you got yourself hurt. Really, it was Leo’s own fault. If he didn’t want to risk hearing something that might make him feel bad, he should’ve minded his own business. 

Maybe it was a good thing he’d listened, though. His own feelings weren’t as important as what he was inadvertently doing to his brothers without even realizing it. Leo would rather rip his own arm off again than scare his family. How long had Mikey been feeling like that? How long had he been keeping it to himself? Had he not told Leo in some attempt to spare his feelings? Or had he kept quiet because he was afraid of how Leo might react?

It was good he knew. Now he could actually do something about it. 

Leon and Mikey were still talking quietly behind the closed doors, but Leo didn’t need to listen in anymore. 

He’d heard all he needed to.

Chapter Text

The lair was quiet when Leo woke up.

This was not that strange of an occurrence, except for the fact that it was approaching two PM, and by this point almost everyone was usually awake. And since they still tried to refrain from waltzing around outside in broad daylight despite the collective understanding that it probably wasn’t as big of an issue as they thought, they should have all been in the lair making a racket. Like usual.

Was something wrong? Had there been an attack and Leo had missed it? Why were things different?

He had to give himself credit for not immediately taking up his sword and marching into the lair ready to tear apart the first enemy he laid eyes on. Instead he sat back down on his bed (having leapt to his feet the second he realized something might be off), clasped his hands in his lap, and took several deep breaths.

Everything was fine. It would be more obvious if there was something wrong. The lair’s security system was impeccable, and Leo was a light sleeper. He would’ve woken up if the alarms went off. Or, in the impossible event that they failed to do so, Casey would’ve come and woken him at the first sign of trouble.

(Unless Casey couldn’t. Unless he’d been surprised too. Unless they were all--)

No, no, no jumping to conclusions. The worst case scenario was rarely the most likely one. There was no way in hell he would’ve slept peacefully if anything happened to Casey. He’d never slept peacefully when the kid was in trouble. Not once in all his years.

Another deep breath. They were fine.  

Slowly, he stood. He picked his sword up, but he kept it pointed down at the ground, his grip loose as opposed to holding it raised and ready. He wasn’t okay with leaving it behind entirely, but he could make sure there was no risk of him accidentally stabbing someone if he got startled and freaked out. 

Again.

(Freaked out again, rather. He hadn’t accidentally stabbed anyone. Yet.)

(It was the yet that was the problem, though.)

The hall was empty. The kitchen was empty. The living room, too, appeared to be empty at first glance, but after a moment of waiting Leo heard the quiet tapping of laptop keys. Then, another moment later, he spotted Donnie’s mismatched goggles peeking over the back of the couch he was sitting on.

His pace was calm. Casual. Not the furious clatter of an attempt to solve a problem, just his usual stroll. Everything was fine.

Leo set his sword against the wall near the door, then walked over and sat down on the opposite couch. Donnie barely glanced up from his screen to give him an absent nod of greeting.

“Where is everyone?”

“Hm? Oh. Uhhh…” Donnie paused, frowning in contemplation. “Leon and Raph are out picking up some lunch. Dad’s in his room. Casey went to take a nap a couple hours ago. I don’t know where Mikey is, I saw him getting a snack a little while ago though. Want me to text him and find out?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I was just curious,” he replied, deceptively casual so as not to alert Donnie to the way his racing heart began to ease. 

They were all okay. His worry had been for nothing. His paranoia was for nothing. There was only so far he could push the idea of the man who slept next to a knife being a fool every night but one before it got to the point that it was more of a danger to the people around him than potentially helpful. 

It was unfortunate, then, that Leo was the man with the knife. In the most literal sense possible, considering his sword was always within arm’s reach.

What if someone tried to wake him and he forgot where he was? What if he hurt them? What if, like he’d thought of earlier, trouble happened and Casey ran to wake him, only to be met with sharpened steel in his chest? 

The very idea made Leo need to take several deep breaths or risk losing himself in hypotheticals. He clenched both fists in the fabric of his pants, heedless of the fact that he risked tearing them if he kept doing that. The prosthetic aside, he was probably strong enough to do it with his flesh hand, too. Particularly since he’d taken to sleeping in the clothes he’d worn throughout the past several years of the apocalypse, and they’d been more than put through the wringer. 

How could he keep going like this, knowing he ran the risk of destroying everything he touched?

Donnie seemed to take note of his uneasy state based on the way he cleared his throat, and when Leo looked up at the sound his brother was giving him a quizzical look.

“Everything okay? You seem a little stressed.”

“Yeah, no, I’m fine. Just…” He shrugged half-heartedly. There was no good way to phrase it, particularly not with someone who didn’t have firsthand experience with the feeling. Casey would probably get it. That was, if Leo would ever be willing to put the burden of his issues on his student’s shoulders. Which he wouldn’t-- not anymore than he already unintentionally had. “...Waking up today was rough.”

He’d gotten better with keeping himself grounded, but he still wasn’t good at it. He still flinched whenever anyone moved too fast. Loud noises still made him reach for the nearest weapon.

On the flipside, though, what if he did start getting better? How far would it go? Would he eventually move on, be able to live out the rest of his days as if it never happened? Would he forget what it was like to be at war at all? Would he forget what his family had gone through?

…Would he forget his family?

His next inhale caught in his throat, and he very carefully stopped himself from making a sound.

Being back here was changing him. Making him more like the person he used to be before . 

Carefree, lackadaisical. And yet, it wasn’t doing enough. He was still reacting badly. He just lacked the discipline to stop himself. Sure, he’d avoided lashing out at anyone to the extent that he hurt them so far, but recent events would indicate the risk wasn’t negligible. There was no way to guarantee he’d ever really stop feeling like he was in the midst of a war. 

He exhaled slowly. 

Donnie didn’t seem to notice his brief internal struggle, instead just rolling his eyes and looking back to his device. “You know, the adjustment process would probably be easier if you weren’t lugging around that--”

“Donnie, I am literally begging you to stop bringing it up,” he said, tone dull. He wasn’t actually mad-- a little annoyed, perhaps, if only because he’d told Donnie no several times by now, but not mad. He knew Donnie only kept trying because he cared, and because his primary way of showing affection was making things for people. (And he did have a point that clinging to the reminder was likely not helping his adjustment to their new timeline, not that Leo would ever openly admit that part.) “I’m keeping the arm.”

Donnie's expression soured, and his typing became a little more forceful as he practically glared at his laptop in silence.

…Which was not at all the expected reaction. He would’ve anticipated snark, perhaps some of his signature not-sarcasm-even-though-it-sounded-like it. The sort of banter they’d been keeping up lately. Not this… bitterness.

“Alright. My turn to ask if everything’s okay.”

“It’s fine,” Donnie snapped. Then paused, pulling air through his teeth with a hiss. “...That just makes it sound less fine, doesn’t it?”

“Pretty much.” Leo turned to face him directly. “What’s up?” 

“It’s…” Donnie closed his laptop, setting it aside to put his full attention towards the conversation, and gestured vaguely at nothing. “Some stuff. With me, mostly. Emotional conflict. You know I don’t like talking about this.”

“I do, but I also know how important it is to not bottle that stuff up.” Emotions were pretty much the opposite of Donnie’s forte, so when he willingly participated in a conversation about them Leo knew it had to be something important. He patted the couch next to him in an invitation. “C’mon. Talk to me.”

Donnie hesitated, but stood and walked over regardless. Leo moved his arm up to give Donnie space to sit down at his side. He held it over his brother’s shoulders for a moment or two, and when Donnie shook his head, instead let it rest on the back of the couch. 

“I wish there was more I could do for you,” Donnie admitted, fidgeting with his gloves. “I’m not much for the… traditional sibling order dynamics. Not as much as the rest of the family, at least. The two of us never have been. Raph has always taken his position as eldest very seriously, and Mikey will use being the youngest to get out of trouble all the time. Being in the middle… I don’t know. You know. It’s just not as important, right? But I’m still the older sibling, technically. Your older brother. Not counting the actual gap in age between us, because I look at you and despite all the differences I still see my Leo. It’s difficult, seeing you like this and knowing there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

He’d address the rest of Donnie’s impromptu speech at some point, probably, but before that he really had to ask; “Seeing me like what?”

“...Sad.”

Leo stared at him for a moment, an incredulous look on his face, then shook his head. “Donnie, I’m not sad.”

A skeptical look. “Are you sure?”

“Right now? Yes. Positive.” He was self-aware enough to be able to judge that. He might be a little unsteady, but he wasn’t sad. “Sometimes I am, but less often than I was before. In no small part thanks to you and the rest of the family.”

“I suppose I mean it more in a general sense.” Donnie pressed his fingertips together and frowned. “You seem very… tired. Distant. Closed off, I don’t-- I can’t find the words for it. But even now you seem to make an effort to keep yourself separate from the rest of the world. The family. And not in the way I do, where I lock myself in my lab when I need time alone, but where you don’t seem to… partake in life very much. You engage my brothers and I when we interact with you. You humor them when they seek you out for something. I know you exercise, but you really only seem to do that as an outlet as opposed to an activity you enjoy. You rarely initiate anything on your own and you don’t often leave the lair unless someone else drags you along or you need a break from being around everyone. Particularly after your… less than positive reaction last time.”

For as much as Donnie struggled with empathy and expressing his feelings, he was still as perceptive as the rest of them. Just a little less likely to call Leo out on it unless he had a damn good reason.

…Apparently this counted. 

“I’m not sure I’m ready to try traipsing around the surface again after last time. But that aside, I guess it’s still hard to believe this is actually happening sometimes. Twenty-odd years, and now I’m right back where I started.” Much as it might’ve been convenient, he couldn’t just snap his fingers and forget the life he’d lived. The course of time might have been altered by their interference, but his family was unchanged to the point that the deja vu was enough to leave Leo feeling terribly off-kilter. 

Some days he felt sick, seeing all these people who had died so many years ago. Seeing his brothers young and healthy and then looking down to be met with his own mismatched, aging hands.

“I’m adjusting,” he said after far too many seconds of silence. “It just feels a bit like a dream some days.”

Donnie hummed, staring at him for a few seconds more, long enough for Leo to start feeling a little bit scrutinized.

When he did speak up again, it was with a mischievous smile creeping onto his face; “We’ll just have to make it feel a little more real, then, won’t we?” Donnie raised his gauntlet, tapping a few buttons and leaning close to speak into it. “Donatello speaking, I’m issuing an emergency order. Everyone needs to come to the living room and sit on big Leo for a couple hours.”

“What? Donnie, no--”

“Donnie, yes,” Mikey cut in from the speakers. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in his voice, yet Leo’s awareness of his and Leon’s prior conversation still had him stifling a wince. “Any particular reason why or are we just being annoying? 

“Family bonding or whatever. He’s having angst problems.”

“He’s always having angst problems,” and there was Leon on the comms in all his peanut-gallery glory. “But I’m also always down to bother him, so this works out great. Me and Raph’ll finish picking up our order and meet you guys down there. Should we pick up April? Or grab any other snacks on the way?”

This was clearly happening whether he agreed or not, so instead of wasting breath on dismissals he just sighed and resigned himself to damage control, raising his prosthetic to speak into the comm unit embedded in the wrist. “Go ahead and get April, assuming she’s not in class. We’re out of orange soda so you probably want to get some of that. Also I’m going to lay down the ground rule that only two people are allowed to sit on me at a time, and one of those people cannot be Raph. I’m an old man and have old man joints.” 

They were gonna make fun of him about his age anyway, he might as well turn it back around on them.

“Can one of you grab Casey on your way down here? Donnie said he was taking a nap.”

“Aw, man, I hate to wake him,” Mikey replied. He was only a few rooms away, and it was a little silly to be talking to him over their comm units like this. They continued regardless. “He’s still catching up on a lotta sleepless years.”

Frankly, Leo felt about the same, but he also knew it had been a decent while since Casey had gone to lay down. The longer he slept, the greater the risk he ran of having a nightmare, which would just put a big old damper on what was shaping up to be a pretty decent afternoon. “He can catch up later, it’s been two hours. If he doesn’t wake up now he won’t be able to sleep tonight.” 

“Wow, that’s weird, did Dad just get on the line? ‘Cause I swear I’ve heard him say that exact thing--”

“Oh, stick it in your shell, Leon.”

Leon just cackled, the sound cutting off with a blip of static as he disconnected from his comms. 

“I don’t think Dad has his comms on, actually. He tends to leave it off unless he’s actually joining us in the field. Which I suppose I can’t really blame him for, considering how often we use what’s supposed to be an emergency radio for things that are definitely not emergencies, even if it is inconvenient not being able to reach him easily. Can’t remember the last time we actually opened the group chat, and you think he'd learn that by now,” Donnie trailed off with a mutter, then shook his head to get back on track. “Anyway, Mikey, can you grab him too?”

“He’s already done so, Purple,” Splinter spoke up, Mikey’s muffled voice in the background. “Give him a little credit. Also, I heard that entire tangent.”

“And I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” Donnie retorted. 

Their family arrived in groups-- Mikey, with Splinter and a yawning Casey at his heels. Donnie moved to clear the table. Raph and Leo, each with several boxes of pizza in hand, and April between them carrying a couple two-liters of soda under each arm. The food was deposited on the coffee table, the drinks went in the fridge, and Mikey and Leon promptly made themselves at home on Leo’s midsection and legs respectively. Leo froze for a split second as Mikey casually plopped down on his stomach, but managed to kick himself back into gear before anyone could realize something was up.

“I assume we’re planning on doing something?” Leon asked as he leaned against the back of the couch, adjusting a bit to make his perch on top of Leo more comfortable. “‘Cause I can absolutely make entertainment out of bothering big me exclusively, but it might get a little boring for everyone else.”

“I was going to suggest television,” Donnie said, shoving the food aside to set the projector down on a clear spot on the table. “We haven’t really sat down for a movie night in a little while. Also, Casey is completely ignorant to the majority of modern culture aside from the few things we’ve already shown him, and we seriously need to fix that.”

“Ooh, you make a good point,” Leon said. “I keep making pop culture references that he doesn’t get.”

“I don’t see how that’s my fault!”

“I never said it was your fault, it just sucks that you’re so uninformed!”

“Well,” Donnie began, cutting off the beginning of what was no doubt a very childish argument.  His tone of voice indicated he was planning something, and Leo was immediately wary. “If we want to keep it topically relevant--”

“We are not watching Back to the Future,” Leo said, entirely deadpan, to which Donnie petulantly scowled. “Don’t even think about it.”

“I was gonna suggest Men in Black.”

“That’s worse, Donnie. You get how that’s worse, right?” He clapped his hands together decisively. “Alright! I’m laying down this rule before this thing goes any further; No movies about time travel, and no movies about alien invasions. Maybe later on we’ll discuss it, but I’m benching those tropes for now.” 

“Coward.”

“Sometimes cowardice is the best strategy,” Leo retorted, to which Donnie just rolled his eyes.

April put in her own two cents with Legally Blonde, then Mikey interjected with a Spiderman movie, and the conversation quickly devolved into a cacophony of movie titles. Splinter’s suggestion of The Godfather was met with clear disdain, while Raph’s idea of The Iron Giant had Leo reminding him of the rule he’d just established.

“It’s not really an invasion,” Raph complained. “And besides, he’s a nice alien robot.”

“Still hitting a little too close to home. Sorry, bud.”

“Dudes. Dudes, you guys are completely missing the greatest possible opportunity we’ve ever been given in our entire lives, ” Leon said, raising his voice to be heard above the din, and pausing dramatically for effect once all eyes were on him. “Casey hasn’t seen Star Wars.”

Stunned silence. 

“Oh my Archimedes,” Donnie said, sounding awed. “Leon, I will literally never say this to you again so make the most of it now; you are a genius.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Leon said, bowing dramatically. “I have my moments.”

“Timeline order or release order? ‘Cause Raph’s gonna have to leave the room if we’re watching Revenge of the Sith,” Raph added, tapping his hands together nervously. “I can’t watch the end without getting all teary-eyed.” 

“We’ll stick with the original trilogy for now. Those ones are the best, anyway.”

Mikey’s following inhale and ensuing tangent was cut off before it even began with April’s hand over his mouth. “Nope. We are not having this argument now, I’ve been having a nice day so far. Someone just play the movie before Mikey starts trying to convince me why I should like the sequel series again.”

“We’re gonna have to have a serious talk about your taste in movies, Michael,” Donnie said as he slipped the disk into the projector and returned to his place on the sofa, where his lap immediately became a leg rest for April. “Later, though.”

The extravagant brass of the movie’s opening cut through whatever idle conversation still lingered in the room. With some very precise maneuvering (and a stark refusal from both Mikey and Leon to actually move from their spots on top of Leo) snacks were passed around. Casey ended up trapped on the other sofa with Raph at his legs and April leaning against one side. 

The first movie went without a hitch, and Leo found himself watching the family more than the film. Mikey still reacted with the appropriate amount of gasps at dramatic points and shock at the surprising ones, despite having seen the movie countless times, likewise with Raph and his reactions. With his screen just barely angled to allow Leo to see it, he could spot Donnie pulling up years-old blueprints for lightsabers that he’d never done anything with. About halfway through Leo’s legs started to ache from being in the same position for too long, and he carefully nudged Leon and Mikey off so he could sit up properly. Leon just took the empty spot on the sofa he left while Mikey moved to instead perch on the arm of it. 

Casey, meanwhile, was fully invested in the movie. He’d seemed sort of skeptical at first, wincing whenever the laser-fire got a little too loud, but before long he was watching it unblinking, joining Raph and Mikey in their verbal reactions to the events on screen. At a particularly treacherous scene he grabbed onto April’s arm, and she just reached over and patted his head without looking his way.

“Oh, ew, your hair is so greasy.”

“We’ve been trying to get him to shower since they got here.”

“I showered two days ago!”

“That’s two days too many, dude!”

“All of you shut up!!”

And so on. 

When the first movie ended, they took a brief pause to clean up and grab refreshments before starting the next one. Leon made way too much popcorn, and once they were all settled back in their places and the movie was well on its way, he started making a game of seeing how many pieces he could toss onto Donnie’s battle shell without him noticing. Leo kept his mouth shut, watching in bemused silence. (The record ended up being about twenty pieces before Donnie noticed and flung them all back in what was only vaguely Leon’s direction. Most of them ended up somewhere in the void between the couch cushions.)

The second in the trilogy seemed to catch Casey’s attention even further, to the point that he was physically leaning forward in his seat. When the dramatic reveal came, he gasped and clapped both hands over his mouth, eyes wide with wonder.

“No way. The bad guy is his dad??”

“Oh, I’ve forgotten how fun it is to watch this series with someone who’s never seen it.”

“We get it, Donnie, you saw it before us, now shush.”

It was only a few minutes into the final movie when Casey went to take a sip of his drink, only to glance down and frown at the cup.

“Shoot, I finished my drink,” Casey muttered. He glanced towards the kitchen door, then down at his own pinned position. Before April or Raph could offer to move, though, he’d already put together a proper strategy for extracting himself without either of them needing to vacate their positions. The flip over the back of the couch was definitely unnecessary, though. “Pause the movie real quick?”

“Yeah, yeah, fine. Show-off,” Leon said, waving the remote in the vague direction of the projector. He glanced at Leo for a moment, a sly smirk on his face, then looked back to Casey. When he spoke again, he’d given his voice a slightly lower undertone and added some purposeful raspiness. Leo couldn’t fathom why until he heard the next words that came out of his mouth; “Don’t get any soda with caffeine, you won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“Yes, Sensei,” Casey said dully, clearly an automatic response by the way he failed to notice the disparity until he was halfway to the kitchen. He paused, glancing first at Leon, then over at Leo. Then frowning at the floor for a good few seconds as he processed what had just happened before turning back to Leon with a scowl. “Hey, man. That was poor sportsmanship.”

Leon burst out laughing, as did everyone else in the room. “For that matter, brush your teeth! Stop filling up on junk food, you’re not gonna have room for dinner tonight! Don’t sit so close to the screen, it’ll give you a headache!”

“Leave me alone!!” Casey bemoaned. “You guys sound similar! You’re literally the same person! This is so unfair.” 

He was still muttering to himself as he left the room, and the rest of the family wasted no time in giggling at his expense. Part of him felt urged to defend his student, but the other was just ecstatic to see that he’d truly settled in among the rest of them. He had been mildly worried for a little while that Casey would always seem like an outsider, would never really find his place, but he really should’ve known that his concerns would be unfounded. He slotted right in like there had been a space made for him. 

It was nice seeing him here. Comfortable. At home. Brighter than he’d ever been in the midst of the apocalypse. His family had been torn apart by circumstances out of his control. Now he was getting a second chance, an even bigger family, one that would be able to really make him feel at home. People who weren’t half-distracted by their own grief and obligations. 

This place would be good for him. Having friends and family his own age would be good for him.

He’d get a chance to grow without constant danger around every corner. He’d get a chance to be a normal teenager.

Without the dead weight that was Leo hanging over him. 

He’d be fine. The family would be fine. They were talking and joking amongst each other, they were in good spirits, they were happy. They would be happy. They’d have peace, and that was all that really mattered.

Even if Leo was gonna miss this.

The room fell silent. Everyone was staring at him.

“What?”

“What do you mean,” Donnie said warily, “you’re gonna miss this?”

Ah. Caught up in the convivial atmosphere as he was, he must’ve voiced his musings out loud. Which was… rather unfortunate. Considering.

“...Well.”

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Leon said.

“Blue! Language!” Splinter’s harsh tone didn’t match the sad frown on his face as he turned to look at Leo. “I must say, however, I am equally confused. I had thought you changed your mind in regards to your departure?”

“I did,” Leo said, hesitantly. “I mean, I had. More or less. But that was before.”

“I’m confused,” April said. “Nothing’s happened with the Foot Clan in a while. Why do you still need to leave?”

“It’s not about them.”

“Then what is it about, huh?” Leon sounded pissed. Beyond pissed.

Why couldn’t he realize this was for the best?

“It’s about all of you .” Before anyone could interject with their protests, he raised a hand, pinching the bridge of his snout. He really hoped he could’ve delayed this until he was a little more sure about it, but such was life. Never going the way he wished it would. “You don’t need me. I promised I’d stick around for a little while longer. At least until Casey was settled. Now he’s got a valid ID, he’s starting his classes in a few months, and there’s not much more I can do for him.”

“What about the stuff we talked about?” It was clear that Mikey really, really wanted to be angry. There was just enough fury in his voice to indicate that. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really able to get through how absolutely crushed he sounded. “Just because he’s got his paperwork and stuff doesn’t mean he’s perfectly chill with being in the past. He still needs you.”

“He doesn’t.” He hadn’t needed Leo for a while. He was a tough kid; strong, adaptable. At this point all Leo did was serve as a reminder of an apocalypse he didn’t need to be hanging onto anymore. “He’s got all of you.”

“But--”

“Don’t underestimate him, Mikey. He’s a tough kid. I’m worried that my sticking around is just serving as a reminder of all the horrible things he went through.” He gave Mikey a sad smile. Might as well just bring it all into the open, if they were having this conversation now. He just wished he’d had a little more time to prepare. “I can be a little scary sometimes, can’t I? I don’t want that to hurt his chances at living a normal life.”

Mikey flinched back like he’d been struck. Leon immediately wrapped an arm around his shoulders and glared at Leo in open-mouthed betrayal.

“I don’t follow,” Raph piped up. He could definitely tell there was something going on based on everyone’s reactions to that last statement, even if he was missing the context. “Who the heck told you they thought you were scary? You might lose your cool sometimes, but so does Raph, and none of our brothers are scared of me.”

“That’s a bit of a different situation.”

“Not that much. Besides that, what if we gotta fight the Foot again? You’re the best guy we’ve got right now.”

"You’re doing just fine with your training. If the Foot do attack again, you’re plenty prepared to deal with them. I won’t be able to give you any kind of advantage like I could about the Krang. I don’t know what’s gonna happen from here on out.” What could Leo really do that the others couldn’t, anyway? He was clever, but so was Donnie. He was strong, but so was Raph. Leon was just the sprier version of him who still had his portals at his disposal. Likewise with Mikey and his abilities. 

“You’re serious about this,” Leon said, soft and disbelieving “Aren’t you?”

“Leon, I would’ve thought you’d be the most encouraging about my decision.” He didn’t miss the way Leon’s eyes briefly went wide before narrowing at him again. It was an expression he couldn’t hope to decipher right now. “It's got to be tiring by now, having some old copy of yourself waltzing around. Particularly one you don’t really get along with. You probably want your name back, don’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” Leon snapped. “I can’t believe you. Did a single word I said to you get through to you? Did you even listen?”

“I did, and that’s why I’m leaving the key with all of you. I trust you to keep it safe better than I ever could. This isn’t about that, and it’s not about me. This is about the rest of you.” The rest of them, who were all looking at Leo with expressions somewhere in the spectrum between anger and sadness. Some leaning more towards the furious side (like Leon and Donnie) or the sad side (like Splinter and Mikey), with some perfectly in the middle (like Raph, whose expression was wholly unreadable. He probably understood. He’d always been good at having to do the hard thing.) 

Leo would admit he was lying a little bit with his inclination to leave not being about him. It was about him, to some extent. Him and the turmoil being here put him through. Facing these versions of his brothers day after day, twisted reflections of the ones he’d known. Being reminded of the life that had been stolen from them thanks to his fuck-up. 

It was mostly about them, though, and the trouble he caused for them with his presence. His reactions. His burdens that became theirs by virtue of proximity. 

He’d never actually promised he would stay forever. Just that he wouldn’t leave right away, and that he would think about staying. And he had kept both of them-- he’d stayed, he made sure Casey was actually getting settled in the present day, he helped train his brothers both with their mystic powers and without. He’d given them the run-down on every possible threat they could face from the Krang. He thought about staying, and after careful consideration, decided that it was the best option for everyone if he left. 

“My being here is doing nothing but making things more complicated for all of you,” Leo said, and it wasn’t about him, really, but at the same time he had to stop himself from justifying his actions with the excuse that sometimes seeing their faces broke his heart. That he was terrified he was going to hurt one of them. “It’s for the best that I leave.”

“Sensei?”

…Crap .

Leo glanced over. Casey stood in the doorway, the grip he had on his cup strong enough to leave him white-knuckled. He was still wearing his pajamas from his earlier nap, and that combined with his crestfallen expression made him look so young.  

“You said you weren’t going anywhere,” Casey said. “You said you were sticking around.”

Leo got to his feet, putting his hands out in a pacifying gesture. “Casey--”

The cup hit the floor. His student’s expression was all betrayed hurt, grit teeth and tears gathering in the corners of his eyes. Behind them, the rest of the family stayed perfectly silent. 

As Leo approached, Casey stomped forward to meet him, slamming a fist against his chest. It didn’t hurt, and Leo almost wished it had, if only to make it easier for him to believe Casey was actually angry at him and not just terribly, terribly sad. 

“You promised you wouldn’t leave me behind!!”

“Listen to me--”

Whatever inadequate justification he’d been about to give was cut off as the lights went out, the projector turned dark, and the ever-present ambient hum of machinery died.

And Leo’s heart plummeted.

Chapter Text

He thought they had more time.

Which, really, should have been the first indication that he needed to stay on his guard. Of course they didn’t have more time. They never had enough time. A doomed future had taught him that along with everything else. He should have expected that the minute he let his defenses down would be the minute there would be retribution to pay.

“Donnie,” Leon said, their argument evidently put on hold, “what’s going on?” 

“I don’t know . Nothing’s responding.” Donnie was tapping furiously at his screen, but judging by his strained expression, it was proving ineffective. “An outage, maybe? We’re hooked up to the city’s grid, and the outage last year proved it was far from infallible. But it… shouldn’t be affecting my gauntlet like this.”

“My phone’s bugging too,” Mikey added from where he’d latched onto Raph’s arm when the lair went dark. “Donnie?”

“I don’t know! Give me a second!”

"It's alright, Donatello, just take a deep breath."

Leo turned away from Casey, grabbing his sword from where it had spent the day sitting idle against the wall as he headed for the doorway to the living room. Tension crawled down his shell like ice and left him feeling cold and breathless. The chatter of his family faded into the background as he stood there, all his senses focused on the impenetrable darkness. With the lights had gone the rest of the lair’s machinery as well, and it was hauntingly quiet without its usual humming ambience. Distantly, he could hear the drip of water from some leaking pipe. His family’s muffled voices. The barely audible rush of wind through the tunnels. His own heartbeat echoing in his ears.

Footsteps.

“Sensei?”

Whisper quiet. 

“What’s wrong?”

There and gone. 

Leo took off at a run. 

He paid no heed to the surprised calls from the family as he bolted through the shadowy halls, thanking every aspect of his mutation that his low-light vision was relatively good. It enabled him to see each little detail of the shadowy figure slipping out of Splinter’s room, a sickeningly familiar item clutched in their hands. When they glanced back at him, the orange symbol over their mask damn near burned his eyes.

The Foot Clan.

The Key. 

He didn’t know how they’d found the Lair. He didn’t care. All that mattered was that they were here now. And trying to end the world again--

“Hey! Drop it!”

The shout from behind him snapped him out of his stupor, and he leapt towards the invader with his sword raised and teeth bared. They nimbly dodged, turning and starting off in the direction of the nearest sewer exit, only to find themselves face to face with a smug looking Leon. He was leaning on one sword, the other held out to the side as the sparks from the portal it had just created died down.

“Man, you guys have gotten bold, huh?” He gave them a smarmy grin. “Breaking and entering. That’s a crime, y’know.”

The Foot Soldier said nothing, only ducked back and gave a sharp whistle.

As though summoned into existence by the signal, several pairs of eyes blinked open above them, and the moment the rest of the family barged into the hall they were beset upon by far, far too many soldiers. 

They weren’t that hard to fight, overall. Mostly untrained, sloppy form, Leo didn’t even have to use lethal force. He could just smack the butt of his sword over their heads and they crumpled like wet cardboard. Likewise, the rest of the family managed to keep their targets at bay with ease. 

The issue was just their sheer numbers. For every grunt Leo dropped, another melted out of the shadows to take their place. Every moment was a challenge to keep his eyes on the one soldier who had the key in hand. Leon was engaged with them, and each time Leo glanced over the kid seemed to be doing a pretty good job at keeping them occupied. He never let them get far, in full defensive mode with both of his swords.

One soldier nearly kicked Leo in the face. He retaliated by slamming his shoulder into their gut, and they dropped like a stone. 

“Leon! Get the key back,” he shouted, the echo of the tunnel carrying his voice even with the cacophony of the fight. They needed to end it quickly, before they got overwhelmed and their attention slipped for too long. Leo had already lost eyes on the key with the throng of soldiers crowding him. 

“Oh no, where do you think you’re going?” 

Drama. One-liners. Confidence. He wasn’t taking this seriously. 

The horde parted long enough for Leo to catch sight of Leon. And the key.

And the soldier holding it, backing up into a corner, chased by twin swords.

A flicker of light over their shoulder. Leo glanced up, and up, and through the piping and tiles of the ceiling he could just barely see a thin line of dim yellow. The all-too familiar light of a streetlamp. A ventilation grate, if he had to guess. But more importantly, an escape route. 

Leo could see it. The exact path that they were trying to take. But Leon, caught up in his assault, didn’t.

“Leon! They’re going to--”

“I got this!” Leon swept forwards, both swords raised and crackling with energy.

The Foot Soldier jumped up. Caught the edge of one pipe with their free hand, hauled themselves up, and slammed their heel into the back of Leo’s head. He cursed and stumbled forward, slamming into the wall.

“For our Lieutenant,” Leo heard the Soldier hiss at the edge of his hearing, and the next second they’d disappeared into the piping over their heads.

Like a switch was flipped, every remaining enemy disengaged. Some simply vanished into the shadows, gone as though they’d never been there at all. Others disappeared in a cloud of sparkling smoke, taking their fallen comrades with them. The haze left behind sent most of the family into a coughing fit. As the smoke cleared, the lights in the lair flickered back on, casting the empty hall into sharp clarity.

Leo just stood there, staring at nothing.

Or, rather, staring at the scowling image of his younger self. Rubbing the back of his head and glancing up at where the soldier had disappeared, taking the key along with them.

No.

(“How did they know where the key was? How did they even find us??”)

Like a mantra in his mind, the word repeated until it turned to white noise, ringing in his ears. There was speech surrounding him, but it was distant and muffled. He barely felt the hand shaking his shoulder. It all could have been happening to someone else, for all he was actually aware of it.

(“We can figure that out later, we need to get it back now! Everyone, go get your gear. April, please, help Casey.”)

More speech he couldn’t decipher. More hands he didn’t feel. More sensations he wasn’t privy to.

(“Leo? Leo! Guys, something’s wrong!”)

And then--

His own voice. Lighter, not roughened by time and age and war.

“I’ll figure out what’s up with him! Go get your stuff!” 

Retreating footsteps. A presence in front of him.

“Let’s go, big guy, get a move-on!”

They’d lost it. The Foot Clan had the key. They were going to open the portal.

Leo had failed . Again.

“C’mon, we need to catch up with everyone.”

Except he hadn’t, had he? He’d managed to get the key the first time, with the help of his brothers. They’d kept it hidden, kept it safe. Leo had been adamant in his need to get it as far from New York as possible, and the only reason he hadn’t and the Foot had been able to steal it back was because--

Was because of--

“Hello? Earth to Leo?”

Himself.

As always, it was him. It was all him. Him and his childish, self-centered, shortsighted stupidity.

“Hey, are you good?” Scales on tile. Scraping of metal against scutes. (He was putting his blades away, like the battle was done. Like this was a victory.) “Look, it’s gonna be fine. The team’s getting geared up, and we already know right where they’re going. We can get it back like we did before. It’s not the end of the world.”

Oh, but it was. Couldn’t he see that? 

“...Dude?”

“You don’t even realize how badly you’ve fucked up, do you?” Metal knuckles creaked with the force of his grip, and the point of his sword glinted in the low light of the deadened lair. “I told you. I warned you. I gave you the hindsight I never had, I made it clear how big a threat this was, and I gave you all the means to stop it. And you still ruined everything.” 

“Hey, man, don’t put this all on me--”

“Except it is on you! It’s always on you! You’re the leader, aren’t you? You’re the one in charge. Which means this is your responsibility.” Leo whirled around, blade raised, and his younger self barely managed to draw his own in time to block the strike aimed for his chest. His eyes were wide, his expression all horrified panic, like he hadn’t seen this coming. Like the idea of Leo trying to get back at him for his screw-up was so unbelievable. “This is all your fault!”

His younger self was all defense, two katanas against Leo’s one barely enough to keep himself unscathed with the ferocity of the attacks bearing down on him. Leo had a clear advantage-- years more of experience aside, he knew all of his past self’s tricks and gimmicks, each feint and dodge and retaliating strike were a mimicry of his own. But Leo himself had adapted his style, perfected it. He knew his enemy’s moves, but his enemy was blind to his.

“Stop it!” His past self managed to catch his blade against the guards of his own, and shoved him back with enough force to gain himself some breathing room. “What the hell is wrong with you??”

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? The only reason the key was here to be stolen was because you refused to stand up to your brothers and make them let me go without a fight, like the leader you’re supposed to be. And we could’ve gotten it back before they managed to escape with it, if you didn’t need to be the star of the show, like always. If you didn’t insist on making everything about you--”

“Oh, I’m making everything about me? You’re pretty full of yourself for someone who’s constantly ragging on me for it. I’d think someone who got so mad at people making it about them would be less insistent that he was single-handedly responsible for the literal end of the world. And I don’t see why you keep getting mad at me about your screw-ups!” His past self managed to catch him off guard with a movement too quick to track-- and there was the benefit of youth-- tripping him up and striking again and again to force him backwards, towards the corner. “I wasn’t even there!”

He wasn’t?

…He wasn’t.

Because this wasn’t Leo.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

“Because--” Leo ducked under the next swing of twin swords, half-tripping forward to get out of his prone position. When he next tried to bring his blade down he swung through empty air, the spot where his younger self had been standing now vacant save for a crackle of blue energy that immediately dissipated into nothing. Pain laced down his carapace as it was struck, and a hiss of pain escaped before he could quiet it. “Because everything is your fault!”

“I haven’t done anything to you!”

Their blades clashed again as Leo whirled around to catch his strike and shoved him backwards. The motion put them right back where they’d started.

"You're plenty nice to my brothers. It's just me that seems to piss you off no matter what I do." His voice was angry, swords still held at the ready like he intended to rush Leo again, but the tears in his eyes betrayed how much Leo's bitter treatment was weighing on him. He’d never done well with criticism from others, particularly authority figures, but he’d always been critical of  himself. It shouldn’t have been any different in this situation, right? "I thought we were getting along! I thought we were friends!"

Wasn’t that what this was? Just Leo being hard on himself, like usual. 

"What is your problem with me?"

No.

No, it wasn’t. Was it? This was wrong. Leo was wrong.

He fucked up. 

"My problem isn't with you," Leo realized, eyes widening as the frenzied haze over his thoughts cleared. Understanding cut through his fury like steel through silk. Sudden clarity, enough to knock the wind out of him and leave him gasping for air. "It's with me."

Because it was different. Because as much as Leon was a younger version of him, he was also an entirely separate person, and Leo fell into that category of “authority figures.” Because Leo might have been his future self, but he was also an accomplished swordsman and a respected leader and a prolific teacher, and the distance between them was so prominent that no one would mistake them for the same person if they didn’t have any prior context.

Leo was old enough to be Leon’s father. Of course they were two distinct people. 

"I'm making it about me." Leo stumbled to the floor, leaning back against the wall and letting the tension in his shoulders drop like a stone. His sword hit the floor with a clang. (It almost felt like retribution, watching the cloth tails flutter to the ground. Donnie and Raph would be so disappointed in him and the way he’d been treating his younger self. He was a teacher, for crying out loud, and this wasn’t teaching.) "Like I always did. Do. This isn't fair. This isn't right . God, I'm so sorry."

"Um, okay. This is kind of a sudden heel turn, so you'll have to excuse me if I'm not wholly convinced." Leon sheathed his own swords, correctly surmising that their fight was over and done with. "Am I really supposed to believe that the only reason you were a total prick to me is out of some, like, really convoluted form of self-hatred?" 

"In the simplest possible terms, I think so." Leo rested his arms on his knees and sighed, bowing his head low. After some awkward shuffling Leon sat down across from him. He took that as a sign that Leon was willing to listen, and so began to speak; "I've made a lot of mistakes in my time, Leonardo. I’ve gotten a lot of people hurt thanks to my ego, my immaturity, my recklessness--”

“Really ragging on all my best traits here.”

“--And a lot of those mistakes I made when I was your age. I made us lose the key to the Foot Clan, which meant they could open the portal. I did end the world. I got people killed with my stupid decisions. I got Dad killed.” Leon reached over to pick up his sword, examining the frayed cloth tied around the handle with a grim expression. “Yeah, them too. I got older, and hindsight made it easy to pin all my past fuck-ups on my younger self. I forgot what it was like to be in that position, forgot what had led me to make the decisions I did, and just blamed myself for my failures. So when I ended up here, and when I saw you…”

“...I was literally a walking representation of all those fuck-ups, brought to life and dropping wisecracks.” He let out a long breath, setting Leo’s sword aside and mirroring his position, legs drawn up and arms braced on his knees. “No wonder you were so pissed off.”

“That still doesn’t excuse it. You didn’t deserve that. Especially not from me.” Leo looked up with a pained smile that was more of a wince than anything. “We’ve always had self-confidence issues, haven’t we? It’s one thing to insult yourself when it’s just in your head, whole other thing to hear that criticism out loud. And even if I’m not you, I look a lot like you.”

“The cooler version of me, right?” Leon shook his head. “I mean, c’mon, man. Do you know how much I wanted to think you were awesome? Badass robot arm, looking like some action hero right out of a comic book. I was so excited for about five minutes when you explained who you were. I thought; hey, maybe this guy who’s just me with lots of experience can teach me some stuff about being a leader, ‘cause I still don’t really know what I’m doing. Even when you were being a jerk I still really wanted to impress you. But you just kept getting mad at me.”

“I was. And I don’t expect you to forgive me, but regardless, I’m sorry. For everything I said and did. I’m sorry I was so harsh. And I'm sorry I hit you, back when I first got here-- it wasn’t right of me. And don’t you say a word about how you were being kind of annoying and it was in any way justified, because it wasn’t. I was the adult in the situation. I should’ve known better. Been better. And I know I'm barely scraping the surface of how much I've gotta make up for it, so let me start now.” He leaned forward, setting a hand on Leon’s shoulder. The gesture got him a startled look, though Leon didn’t draw back from it. “Here’s some advice. Leader-to-leader. It’s okay to make mistakes sometimes. It might not feel like it, but no one expects you to be perfect, and you’ll never learn anything if you don’t fuck up once in a while. You’re not a bad person-- you’re young. And you’re doing your best, considering people keep putting the weight of the world on your shoulders.” 

Leon’s eyes were wide, looking for all intents and purposes like Leo had just laid him out under a microscope. Open and exposed. 

“It’s tough having everyone expect stuff from you, isn’t it? Everyone wants you to be someone different, and you’re not even totally sure who you are on your own yet. You can’t please everyone so instead you don’t even try.” Leo tugged him forward, up onto his lap and into a hug, choosing not to notice the way Leon’s comparatively unblemished hands shook as he plastered them against Leo’s carapace. “It’s really hard being a kid. I’m sorry I forgot.”

Leon shuddered, mashing his face into Leo’s scarf. “I’d hoped you’d get it, y’know? You’re me. But then you kept getting mad, and--”

“And I just confirmed every horrible thing you were already saying about yourself,” Leo finished. "Only I acted like I knew better, and you thought I knew better, so if I was still saying those things, then they must have been true."

"Right on the money," Leon said weakly. "You're pretty good at figuring me out. Almost like we're the same guy or something."

Leo managed a smile, though it was decidedly lacking in any actual humor. Jokes may have been his coping mechanism of choice, but none of this was funny. "I do get it. I haven’t been acting like it, but I do. I know what it’s like for everyone to always expect you to have all the answers all the time. And I know what it’s like to feel like you need to prove yourself. But I promise, Leon, you don’t. You’re enough just the way you are.”

“Man, you’ve gotten sappy in your old age,” Leon said, resting his head on Leo’s plastron. He didn’t look up at him as he continued speaking; “Why do you want to leave so badly? You clearly like it here. Is this another instance of you refusing to let yourself have nice things?”

“Not exactly.” Leo sighed. He supposed he owed the kid honesty, if not a million other things after the stunt he’d pulled. “The truth is that it’s about me, Leon. I’m scared I can’t leave wartime behind, and that one of you is going to get hurt because of it. Sometimes it hurts seeing all of you look so young and being reminded of everything I’ve lost. I’m not built for peace, and I don’t want the rest of you to suffer because of it.”

“Issues upon issues upon issues,” Leon murmured. He finally glanced up to meet Leo’s eyes. “Do we get any better at talking to our brothers?”

“I think you and I both know the answer to that.” This afternoon was indication enough.

“Figures.” Leon bumped his head against Leo’s chin, then leaned back to actually look up at him face-to-face. “Hey, big me, you know it wasn’t all your fault, right? End of the world, brothers dying, all that. I know you had a hand in it, and yeah it probably wouldn’t have happened the same way if you’d done some things differently, but it’s not all on you. You can’t blame yourself for how things turned out.”

“Leon…”

“No, seriously. Get that thick head of yours out of your ass and listen to me.” He reached up and clapped his hands on either side of Leo’s face, forcing him to maintain eye contact. “It is not your fault that the Krang wanted to end the world. It’s not your fault that the Foot Clan were so intent on giving them the means to do it. It’s not your fault that Raph is a big self-sacrificing idiot. It’s not your fault that Donnie can’t say no when it comes to his work. And it’s not your fault that Mikey will do anything for his family. Okay? Leader or not, you know as well as I do that any one of them could’ve done stuff differently no matter how much you ordered them around. Their choices are their own.”

Leo frowned. “Doesn’t that make it worse? That they could have disobeyed me and saved themselves and didn’t?”

“What?? No, you just completely ignored the first part of what I said.” He took a breath, bowing his head for a second before looking up with a determined glare. “I need you to let me explain myself, and not talk until I’m done, got that? ‘Cause motivational speeches are really not my thing-- yet, I guess, and I’d appreciate some tips on that after we’re done here-- so I really need you to not interrupt me. And to actually listen to what I say, and not jump to conclusions. ‘Kay?”

“Sir yes sir.”

“Oh, shut up.” Leon kept his hands on Leo’s face as he began to speak. “It’s not about you, okay? And when I say that, I don’t mean it like stop being an egotistical jerk, I mean that you can’t hold yourself responsible for the things other people do. It’s practically a requirement for our family to be stubborn-- stop thinking like it was your influence and your influence alone that made our brothers do anything. Raph wouldn’t hesitate to throw himself into harm’s way for any one of us. Donnie and Mikey could have and would have told you no if they thought you were being an idiot about your plans. They certainly don’t have any problem with it now, and something tells me they didn’t get any quieter about ragging on our poor decision making skills when there were actual lives on the line.

“If they followed your orders, it’s ‘cause they thought for themselves and decided you were worth following. And that’s on them. Not you. You didn’t make them do anything-- the only thing you did was try as hard as you were able in a game you couldn’t win. Like, seriously, between what you and Casey have said, it sounds like those odds were pretty insurmountable. Is it really that hard to believe that folks might’ve died and the world still might’ve ended if you weren’t there at all? The Foot still would’ve gotten ahold of the key eventually, ‘cause you still wouldn’t have known about how important it was, so you probably would’ve just given it back to the museum. And then they’d have just stolen it again but been sneakier about it. Raph would still have that tendency towards martyrdom he’s literally always had, and Donnie would still lose all common sense when it comes to his machines. Like he always has. ”

“But Mikey--”

“Trusted you to make things right,” Leon interrupted. His fierce expression had softened considerably. “Y’know how you had pretty much given up? How you were basically ready to die, knowing that the world was pretty much doomed anyway, and banking on the fact that at least you might be able to give someone else a chance to fix things? Did you ever stop to think that maybe Mikey was also feeling something along those lines?”

Leo’s thought processes stuttered to a halt.

“Judging by your face right now, I’m gonna guess that’s a no.” Evidently trusting that Leo would continue paying attention, Leon let go of him and settled back into a slouch against his chest. “Our brother tends to be a little more on the optimistic side of things, but that doesn’t mean he’s totally naive. I’d bet real money he was just as accepting of the whole thing as you were.”

“I ordered him to kill himself.”

“You asked him to help you save the world, and he agreed. Even though he definitely knew the risks. This is what I mean-- you gotta stop thinking like the only reason anyone did anything was ‘cause you told them to. They're grown turtles who are responsible for their own choices."

He wanted to refute it. He really did. If only Leon's logic wasn't so infallible.

"Y'know," Leo said, "I think you’re better at motivational speeches than you believe. You could give Dr. Delicate Touch a run for his money."

"Eesh, no thank you. I hate being the bearer of seriously bad news.” Leon flicked his arm, where it made a quiet ping. “The only reason I'm managing to be this blunt right now is 'cause I've always been harder on myself than anyone else. I don't know how Mikey does it."

As if summoned by the mention of his name (and alter ego), distant but approaching footsteps signaled the return of their younger brother, audible only thanks to the lair’s echoing halls and unfamiliar lack of ambience. No doubt on his way to see what was taking the two of them so long, given how much Leo had stressed their lack of time to spare.

“Let’s not tell the family about, uh, this whole situation,” Leon said. “Not now, at least.”

“We should probably tell them at some point, right?”

“Should we?” Leo glanced down at him, to which Leon shrugged noncommittally. “I mean, we kinda worked everything out, right? Got our problems sorted. I know healthy communication is important and all of that, but I really don’t think telling them that we ended up trying to kill each other would do anything but make them worried about the both of us.”

“I wouldn’t have killed you,” Leo said immediately. 

“Wouldn’t you? Not trying to start something,” he quickly added, “but I gotta say, it kind of felt like you were.”

“Of course I wouldn’t. I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t in my right mind and might not have wholly been in control of what I was doing, but I wouldn’t go that far. Damn it, Leon, you’re a kid. I’m not a monster.” Leo really hoped he sounded more sure than he felt. The apocalypse had somewhat skewed his moral compass, no denying that. But he had to believe there were still some depths he wouldn’t sink to. He had to trust that if he’d been given the chance, he would’ve been able to stay his sword before landing a fatal blow. “Besides, I’ve spent the last two and a half decades fighting baddies a lot tougher than you, bud. If I--”

“If you say if I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead, I swear I will punch you.” 

“I won’t say it, then. You know it’s true.” 

“Guys? Are you still here? Or did you portal away?” Mikey called from the other room. “If you left us here and went off on your own, I’m gonna be seriously disappointed.”

“We should get a move-on,” Leo said, nudging Leon slightly. He still hadn’t moved from his spot tucked up against Leo’s front, which was… somewhat unexpected. “Gotta go save the world. Up and at ‘em.” 

“Right,” Leon said, and then didn’t move for a few seconds. “Just… hang on.”

“What?”

Leon moved forward, setting his head in the crook of Leo’s shoulder and folding his arms around him as far as he could reach. When Leo failed to react, he squeezed a bit tighter and mumbled something inaudible, which urged him into gear as he practically blanketed Leon in reciprocation. 

“Are you okay?”

“I’m scared,” Leon said, unhesitant.

“That’s okay. This is scary.”

“I’m scared , man.” He clung to Leo with a fervor, shaking slightly with how much force he was exerting. “What if we mess it up? What if the world ends? What if my brothers die? This is so much bigger than anything we’ve ever had to face before. I don’t know if I can do this.”

Leo had really fucked up. There weren’t enough apologies in the world to make up for it. 

Actions spoke louder than words, anyway.

“Hey, easy. Take some deep breaths, alright?” Leon neglected to do so, and Leo reached up to take one of Leon’s hands as gently as he was able and pressed it against his plastron. He slowed his breathing to something easy to follow, and after a few moments, Leon responded. “There you go. Deep breath, and listen to me; It’s gonna be okay. It’s not all on you, Leon-- you’ve got people here to help. Your family is strong, and we’re all going to watch each other’s backs. You’re not alone. The only thing you have to do right now is trust us. Everything else comes later, alright?”

After another couple of deep breaths, Leon nodded against his shoulder. Leo shifted back enough to rest his forehead against Leon’s.

“We’re here,” he said softly. “I’m here.” 

Leon looked up, eyes searching, then sighed heavily and pressed into the contact. “You’re here.”

“And I’m not going anywhere. None of us are.” He held their position for a moment longer, breathing deep, then leaned back and gently bumped the side of his fist against Leon’s chest. “Ready to go save the world?”

“Yeah,” Leon said, pulling a determined grin onto his face as he mimicked the gesture. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter Text

Mikey was all too glad to see them and usher them along to where the rest of the family was waiting, his disappointment nonexistent particularly when Leon tugged him aside to give a whispered explanation blaming their delay on his own anxiety as opposed to…

…Leo’s mistake. 

He’d never be able to apologize enough. Not in a million years.

His paltry attempts at doing so would have to be set aside anyway-- the Foot had the key. That took priority over everything. Their scuffle had already put them on enough of a delay. He could say sorry some more after the upcoming fight.

Perhaps he was getting ahead of himself, though. Assuming that there would be an after. Assuming that they could actually beat the Krang, and assuming that Leo would make it out of this alive. Not that he was actively planning his own death, of course. But there wasn't much he wouldn't do to guarantee this world never saw the end of itself. If that included putting his own life on the line… Well, he’d always done his best to follow in Raph’s footsteps as a leader. He'd lived long enough. 

He was a man out of time. Out of place. After the Krang, they wouldn’t need him around anymore.

Mikey would throw a fit if he was able to hear Leo’s internal dialogue. All that wasted effort trying to get the idea of Leo’s own disposability out of his head. He couldn’t, though-- emotionally aware as Mikey might have been, he wasn’t a mind reader, and Leo was a master at bottling things up. So Leo’s traitorously self-deprecating thoughts remained his and his alone. 

The family was waiting in the atrium for them, all clad in their gear, a far cry from how relaxed the atmosphere had been a mere hour ago. Raph glanced up as they entered, his brooding expression turning concerned as he glanced at Leo.

“Hey,” he said, “you doin’ alright?”

“I’ll be fine.” A quick glance in Leon’s direction earned him the slightest of nods. Leon wouldn’t say a word about what had gone down. Neither would Leo. Their fight and everything that came after would stay between them and them alone. Dragging it out further by getting their family involved would do no one any favors. Particularly not with the task looming before them. “We can talk about it more later. Right now, we’ve got an apocalypse to prevent. Leon?”

“On it.” He pulled his swords from their place on his shell, holding them at the ready. “Where to?”

“Might as well put us out in the heart of their base,” Leo said, expression grim. “Something tells me they aren’t going to waste time on ceremony again.”

For our Lieutenant, the soldier had hissed before they escaped. Leo hadn’t really been intending to kill the Foot Lieutenant with his retaliation in their first fight, but he also hadn’t exactly been worried about how hard he’d punched him. He hadn’t cared whether the Lieutenant lived or died. The guy was trying to end the world-- as far as Leo was concerned, he could rot.

Would the Foot have been so intent on getting the key back and summoning the Krang if he’d lived? Was the motivation of revenge a stronger driving force than their commitment to ancient ideals?

It didn’t really matter, in the end. Maybe they wouldn’t have acted if Leo hadn’t motivated them. Or maybe they would have, and any amount of time spent thinking about what-ifs was time wasted. Given the imminent end of the world (a reminder of which came in the form of a distant tremor that rocked the world under Leo’s feet, something he was certain would be accompanied by a glowing beam of light striking the heavens had he been on the surface to see it), that sort of contemplation was far from being his first priority.

Leon sliced a doorway into existence, and the family hurried through.

The portal spat them out smack dab in the middle of the Foot Clan’s base. And as the light in his eyes cleared and Leo looked up (and up a little further), he was pretty sure he stopped breathing for a minute.

His surroundings went quiet, though whether it was because everyone else was also struck dumb by the sight before them or because Leo’s pulse was thundering too loudly in his ears for him to hear anything beyond it remained unclear. The edges of his vision went fuzzy, tinted pink, and narrowed in on the nightmare scenario backlit by the portal on the dias above them.

They’re here.

On sheer instinct alone, because he certainly wasn’t in full control of his faculties at the moment, Leo drew his sword and stepped up to Casey’s side. Leon moved to stand opposite his student, and Leo could just barely see his hands shaking where he gripped his katanas like a lifeline.

“Is that--”

“The Krang,” Leo whispered. 

One, two, and a third clad in armor stood at the front of the room. The Foot Clan was gone-- either dismissed or more likely forgotten about and decimated in the wake of the portal opening. Which left them free to focus on the bigger problems.

The tallest Krang, its singular armored eye glowing with otherworldly light, turned to face them. 

Hell broke loose. 

Leo threw himself forward to meet the scariest of the Krang, Casey and Leon at either side. They aimed blow after blow at the monster, but each strike either went wide or skimmed off its armor in a shower of sparks. Its eye flickered as it swung out with one clawed hand to strike at Leo. He just barely managed to lurch back and avoid it, immediately jumping up to brace himself on its limb and leap up to strike at its face. It ducked back to avoid the blade, then rammed its head forward and slammed it against Leo’s chest. 

He landed heavily a couple feet away, the wind knocked out of him, and hesitated just a moment before gritting his teeth and pushing himself to his feet. Adrenaline kept any sort of pain from lingering where he’d been hit. 

Before rejoining the fight, he took a split second to take note of where everyone else had ended up. Mikey and Splinter had engaged in a scuffle with the smallest of the Krang, attempting to keep it pinned near the dias with constant lashing chains and pinpoint accurate strikes. Donnie, Raph, and April were likewise caught up in a fight with the last unarmored Krang. It laughed maniacally as it lashed at the three of them where they fought to keep it from slipping past. Even with Raph’s extra set of glowing arms and Donnie’s holographic projectiles (not to mention April’s flaming baseball bat) , they were struggling. 

Attack, miss. Dodge. Dodge again. Leap back through the portal that appeared behind him, go at the Krang’s knees. Land a hit that doesn’t even leave a mark. Attack, dodge. Hold his arm steady to give Casey something to grapple off of. Dodge. Slam the heel of his sword into the Krang’s eye to take out the laser. Dodge quickly before it could recover. Dodge again. Just barely avoid a set of claws that would’ve stabbed clean through his leg. Attack and dodge and attack and dodge and--

Falling into the rhythm of battle was familiar enough, especially when it came to this particular enemy. Except unlike most of his fights in the last decade or so, he had his family fighting beside him. Something that was both a blessing and a curse. He wouldn’t have been able to keep three Krang at bay on his own, but at the same time he found himself more distracted than he’d ever been trying to keep an eye on everyone at the same time.

Mikey whipping out a set of chains to knock a sharpened tentacle away from their dad. Casey leaping into a portal Leon created and appearing over the Krang’s head to swing at its eye. A sickening crack echoing across the room as Raph whipped around to catch a strike meant for April’s back against the top edge of his shell when it went straight through his projection. 

Raph got hit in the side and was sent sprawling across the floor. Mikey managed to lash his chains around the smallest Krang and kept it pinned as their father landed kick after kick in its face. Leon skidded underneath the armored Krang, flinging one sword up as he did then teleporting as it fell to land on its back and go for its neck while Casey kept it distracted. Donnie summoned a spiked hammer at the end of his bo and slammed it against the last Krang’s side.

Raph pushed himself to his feet, running back over to rejoin the fight as April held her bat up to keep a bullish attack at bay. Mikey grit his teeth as his pinned Krang struggled, and their father’s kicks were starting to slow. There were three long divots across the front of Casey’s armor where he’d been caught. Leon dug one sword into the armored Krang’s back to keep from slipping.

The armored Krang swung out an arm, striking a piece of crumbling wall and sending it crashing down. Casey barely managed to dodge, and even then he wound up half-pinned. Leon immediately ran to help him.

Donnie screamed as a tentacle wrapped around his battle shell and ripped it clean off his back.

It was too much.

“Sensei, look out!”

Barely audible through the din of battle, two voices shouted his name as he was suddenly swatted away towards the other end of the building. He skidded on the floor and tumbled head over shell for a moment or two, and once he finally came to a stop it took several seconds for the ringing to clear from his head. His vision steadily returned, and he pushed himself to his feet with a not insignificant amount of effort. There was no help to be found-- no doubt his family wanted to come help, but they were all decidedly occupied with their own fights. Seven of them weren't nearly enough for three Krang. The whole world hadn’t been enough to stop an army. 

Mikey and Splinter (and April, having joined them at what was no doubt Raph’s urging) had become the focus of the largest one after Leo had been cast aside, leaving Leon free to run over and help Casey, although that left Leo with the attention of the smallest. The Krang started on its approach, and Leo took a moment to observe the field.

Raph with his cracked shell, crouched over Donnie’s exposed back, arms shaking with the strain of holding himself steady against the onslaught of attacks. April, side by side with Mikey and their father as they all fought tooth and nail to keep each other safe. Casey struggling (with Leon’s aid) against the rubble he was pinned under.

Even if they managed to fight off its underlings, they couldn't kill the primary Krang, the one doing its level best to wipe his siblings and his dad off the face of the planet. It was just too strong in that armor.

But they didn't need to, did they? They just needed to keep it trapped. Get it on the other side of the portal and close it before it could escape and start wreaking havoc again.

Except.

“It’s not staying in there unless we keep it there,” Leo muttered to himself as he staggered to his feet, ignoring the pounding ache in his head. There was no way in hell it would just lie down and let itself be trapped in the prison dimension again, not after it had finally gotten free. It would fight with everything it had to stay in their world and tear their way of life apart. Along with everyone who stood in its way.

His family. His team. His responsibility.

No matter what dad had said.

He raised his sword to counter the incoming attack from the smallest Krang as it leapt forward to strike him, then feinted to the side, immediately darting forward as it aimed for where he wasn’t going and slashing clean through its eyes. It screeched, lashing out at him blindly, and he jumped up to brace himself on one of its limbs so the next time it swung upwards, he could use the momentum to fling himself up and over back towards the rest of the fight. As soon as he landed steady he took off running towards Casey and Leon. With his added strength, it only took one more quick shove against the broken wall to get Casey clear. He grabbed his protege’s arm and, after making sure he had no significant injuries that needed immediate attention, hauled him to his feet.

“Go for the key,” he said to Casey. “Stay out of the fight. Don’t get dragged into it. Make sure that as soon as I give the word, you’re able to grab that key and close that portal. Do whatever it takes. And I need you to promise me you won’t hesitate, no matter what. Got it?”

He saw Casey’s eyes dart between the key, the portal, and himself. “Right,” he said, nodding firmly. “I promise. You can count on me, Sensei.”

“I know I can. Go.”

In an instant, Casey was gone, grappling himself upwards and disappearing into the shadows of the derelict roof to find a good vantage point. The plan Leo was hastily concocting did require him to be able to grab the key as soon as possible, but he also just needed to keep Casey out of the thick of things. His student was strong, and plenty capable, but he was also injured. Leo needed him to survive this. Whatever else happened, Casey needed to live. 

Leon watched him go, then turned to Leo. “Alright, what’s going on? I know that tone of voice anywhere, 'cause I’ve had it pointed out to me multiple times. You’re planning something that the rest of the fam isn’t gonna like, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am. That’s what we do, isn’t it?” He gave Leon a dry grin. “Go help dad and them. I’ll cover Raph so he can get Donnie out of here. We can’t kill the big guy. We could have all the firepower in the world and it wouldn’t be enough. Which means we need to close that portal, and we need to make sure it’s in there when we do. Otherwise it’ll stop at nothing to get the key back and kick off the invasion again.”

“Right,” Leon said warily, “and what’s stopping him from just leaving the portal before we can close it?”

Leo said nothing.

Which, really, was enough of an answer in and of itself.

“No.”

“Leon--”

“No way. Absolutely not.”

“Leon, if it gets out--”

“What happened to not being a hero, huh?!" He stepped forward, jabbing his finger against Leo’s chest. “You’re asking us to abandon you in some nightmarish prison dimension for literally the rest of time. Alone, except for a monster that’s gonna want nothing more than to kill you for ruining his plans. No, no, you can’t do that--”

“This is the only thing we can do.” He grabbed Leon’s shoulders, leaning down to look him in the eyes. “I’m living on borrowed time, buddy. I wasn’t meant to be here in the first place-- I was supposed to die in my future, along with the world that I failed to save. It has to be me.”

“Casey--”

“Will have people there for him,” Leo finished. “He’ll have you. He’ll have the family he never got. And you guys can teach him about all the great modern day things he’s missed out on. You've shown him pizza, but teach him about stuff like burgers or sandwiches. The kid's never had a burger before, can you believe that? Make sure he gets something good. Not that drive through trash. Show him some more television. He’ll like romance movies. He won’t admit it, says it gives the Jones name a bad rap, but he’s a big softie.”

“This isn’t fair,” Leon said, and it came out like more of a gasping sob. “You shouldn’t have to do this. Not after everything you’ve already done. It’s not fair for you.”

“Life isn’t fair. I learned that a long time ago.”

Leon jerked his head off to the side, gritting his teeth, and Leo could see him holding back tears. 

“Your brothers need you,” he said, as gentle as he could. “And I miss mine.” 

With a shuddering breath, Leon dropped his head into his hands. Leo squeezed his arm tightly for a moment, then stepped back, giving him space to muffle his sobs in his hands. He could practically hear Raph chastising him in the back of his mind. The kid’s crying after you dropped the biggest bombshell plan of your career, and you’re just leaving him there to deal with it by himself? Have a heart, Leo.  

He’d have a heart later. After they made sure the world was safe.

For now, it was mission time, and so Leo continued; “Casey’s gonna try to talk me out of it. He’s gonna hesitate. I know him. I need you to be there and make sure he does what he needs to do. Don’t agree with him, no matter how much you want to. If he thinks he’s got people on his side, he won’t let up. He’s a determined kid. Especially when it comes to the folks he cares about. But he’ll know what needs to be done, so just make sure you tell him--”

“Would you shut up?” Leon said, voice wobbling. “If you care about him so much, stay here. Stick around for him. He needs you.”

“If he still needs me, I’ve done a pretty bad job of teaching him.”

“He doesn’t need you for that .” Leon wiped his face, then stepped forward and grabbed Leo’s arm. His tears had been replaced by gritted teeth and narrowed eyes, though they were still slightly damp. “You’re his family. He needs you the same way I need my brothers, or my dad. You can’t just abandon him like this!”

“I don’t have a choice." He put his free hand on Leon's shoulder. "Leon. It’s not about me.”

“Yes it is! This is all about you!” Leon’s grip on his arm tightened, nails digging in hard enough to no doubt leave divots behind. “It’s your life that’s at stake here.”

"I've lived long enough--"

"What kind of-- No, no, this is just like earlier, when you decided you needed to leave for our sake without actually talking to any of us about it." Leon looked like he wanted to bite him. Or start crying again. Or maybe both. "You are so selfish, y'know that?"

He opened his mouth to retaliate, but a yelp from Mikey and a following curse from April reminded him that they were still in the midst of a pretty serious battle. “It doesn’t matter! Go help them!”

“Promise me you’ll at least try to get out.”

“Leon--”

“Promise me--!!”

“Go help your family! That’s an order!”

Leon bared his teeth, and it was clear he wanted to keep arguing, but he swept his sword out to the side and disappeared in a flash of blue. Leo waited just long enough to see him reappear behind the primary Krang bearing down on their family, striking both swords down the metal of its back and making it shriek in surprised pain. The attack gave the targeted trio of their siblings and father enough time to get their bearings, and Leo knew that together the four of them would be able to hold it off long enough for him to put the rest of his plan into motion.

Which left his remaining brothers. Raph had managed to get his Krang away from Donnie’s prone form-- now secure under a stable section of wall-- but was clearly struggling after all the earlier fighting. Leo wasted no time in darting over to them, striking the Krang from behind in a motion not unlike that of his counterpart. (Which made sense. Time had made a better combatant of him, but it hadn’t entirely rewritten his fighting style.)

“Get out of here!” Leo said, fighting the Krang back and stomping on its limbs whenever it tried to grab for him. It was still laughing maniacally, even as he did everything in his power to rip it apart. “Take everyone else and go.”

“What? No!” Raph looked at him incredulously. He’d taken the second provided by Leo’s attack to catch his breath, and was still wheezing slightly even as he protested the direction. “I’m not leaving you here! We stick together, that’s how we roll.”

“Raph, you and Don are both hurt. He’s unconscious and your shell is busted, and don’t think I can’t see the way you’re shaking. Mikey and April are both on their last legs, and I don’t want to know what dad’ll do if one of them gets in too much trouble.” He took a second to look up at Raph with a firm smile that looked a little more like a grimace. “I know, you want to help. You try to protect everyone, it’s what you do, and the idea of having to leave anyone behind hurts. I get it. But the best thing you can do right now is get everyone somewhere safe so we can focus on finishing the battle without having to worry about you. We have a plan.”

With bared teeth, Raph summoned an extra pair of projected arms to grapple the Krang and force it down to the ground. Though he was snarling, his eyes were welling up with tears. “...I hate when you guys do this.” 

“I know, buddy.” He slammed the point of his sword down between the Krang’s eyes as hard as he could, twisting it to pierce through dense flesh, and the limbs grabbing at his ankles gradually fell limp. Probably dead-- but best not to risk it. He pressed further until he felt the scrape of stone beneath his weapon. If not dead, definitely disabled. Krang were hard to kill, but they weren’t invincible. Not without their armor. “Stay on the island if it’ll make you feel better, but get away from the fight. We’ve got this. We’ll be fine. Trust me.”

Raph hesitated for a moment, and Leo wondered if his insight into his brothers’ personalities might be failing him, but he only took a moment to step forward and pull Leo into a shell-crushing hug. “Get my brother back alive,” he muttered, and Leo heard the plea for what it was. The family needed Leon. If that was at the expense of Leo, so be it. (He wasn’t upset. He couldn’t be. Not when he’d have asked the very same if he were in Raph’s place. Whatever it took, right?) “Do what you have to do. Just bring him back.”

“I will. I promise.” He let Raph hold him close for several seconds too long, burying the sob threatening to crawl its way out of his throat, then stepped back and set a hand on his shoulder. “Keep them safe.”

“Count on it,” Raph said. 

Steadying himself, it took visual effort for him to call up his full-bodied mystic projection, but the added size gave him the power to charge into the armored Krang and knock it down. Even the strength granted by its armor wasn’t enough to keep it on its feet, and it landed in a heap of metal and flesh. Raph recovered first, scooping up Mikey, April, and Splinter in two giant hands and darting back over to where he’d tucked Donnie away.

From across the battlefield, he gave Leo one last meaningful look, then grabbed his final sibling and took off through the nearest gap in the wall.

When it noticed his departure, the Krang made to stand and give chase, but it barely got a chance to get to its feet before Leo was there. He hacked and slashed with all the force he could muster in an attempt to back it up the stairs and towards the portal. Without Leo needing to say a word, Leon took up position at his other side, pinning the Krang and forcing it along the carefully chosen path. 

“Get it off its feet,” Leo called once they were within range of the dias, and in an instant a portal appeared beneath it as it stumbled backwards. It wasn’t enough to drag it down, just enough to trip it up, and as soon as it was unbalanced Leo ran forward and threw himself at it. They fell into the portal and-- with the sudden lack of gravity to slow them down-- the momentum kept them going until the Krang’s back hit some fragmented piece of rubble. 

It crouched down and snarled, but the threat was lost on Leo, who had spent the last two decades dealing with bigger and scarier versions of this guy. 

He should have just told Casey to close the portal then. He really should have. That would’ve been the best way to ensure the Krang wouldn’t get free again. Leo stayed there, in the prison dimension, and the world plus his family stayed safe.

But it wouldn’t hurt to leave it open just a little longer, right? Just long enough for him to try to keep the Krang there without Leo needing to hold it down?

(He wasn’t getting his hopes up, and he prayed Leon wasn’t doing so either.)

When the Krang leapt forward to take a swipe at Leo, he darted off to the side, dragging his sword along the base of a crumbling structure as he went. Each time massive claws swung toward him he repeated the process. He couldn’t be sure it would all work out perfectly-- those sorts of precise calculations had always been Donnie’s forte-- but the plan was piecing itself together in his mind like a self-completing puzzle.

He couldn’t kill the Krang. No if’s, buts, or “probably’s” about it. Unlike the others that had come through, this one had that impenetrable armor keeping him from actually landing a solid hit, and Leo’s sword was far from being in peak condition. Not to mention the aliens’ natural strength far outweighed anything on Earth. There was a reason they’d been so badly decimated by them in the past. (Future. Whatever.) He just wasn’t strong enough. None of them were.

But he didn’t need to kill it.

The only thing he needed to do was keep it there. 

And it had shown him exactly how to do that when it made the mistake of attacking his student.

It was still trying to make it back to the gateway, and that single-minded focus made Leo’s job of keeping it occupied far easier. So long as he stayed between the two, he could guarantee where the Krang would be going next. 

Which meant he could half-focus on dodging, and expend the rest of his energy towards bringing down the crumbling walls around them.

“You can’t dodge forever,” the Krang hissed, catching itself as it overshot past Leo’s feint to the side. It stumbled over its own feet, crashing into the side of a cliff, sending fissures up the side of it and basically doing Leo’s job for him. It hadn’t seemed to notice its slip-up as it rounded on him again, claws outstretched and tail lashing. “Strength always prevails.” 

“Yeah, it’s a real shame, isn’t it?”

It hesitated for all of a split second. Which was plenty of time for Leo to duck to the side, flip his sword around, and jam it blade-first into a crack in the stone. The blade snapped off, a shard of metal leaving a sizable gash along the back of Leo’s (thankfully metal) hand that sparked when he pulled his arm away. The grip was useless now, but he tucked it away regardless. He’d find something else to do with his brothers’ masks. 

Or he’d get stuck here, and it wouldn’t matter.

His sword had been strong enough to strike clean through the crevice, and with a crack like a gun going off and an ominous rumble it collapsed to the ground, pinning the surprised Krang as it failed to dodge. 

Leo just barely managed to avoid getting clipped, ducking around an outcropping of metal and waiting for the cacophony to settle.

Peering around the corner, he felt his heart sink into his stomach.

It had mostly worked. The Krang was almost entirely pinned, both legs and one arm trapped beneath crumbled rock. That would’ve been the end of it, but the rubble had fallen in just the right (or wrong) way to leave it with one arm free. An arm which it was using to steadily shove away the debris keeping it pinned. Even without doing the mental math Leo knew he wouldn’t have enough time to run back to the portal before it got free. Maybe if he still had his Ninpō, but...

Fine.

Fine.

This was what he’d planned. This was what he’d been prepared for. 

Sending a quick mental apology to his brothers, Leo ran forward and locked his digits around the Krang’s remaining wrist, the metal creaking with the force of the grip as he slammed it against the ground. In turn the Krang furiously tried to wrench its arm free, hissing and spitting curses in a language he couldn’t understand, but his grip was unfaltering.

It wouldn’t last forever. Eventually it’d manage to shove Leo away, and then free itself. They had to close the portal now. 

With bared teeth, he shouted into his comm-unit; “Casey, close it!”

“Are you clear?” A beat passed. “Sensei!! Are you clear?! Answer me!”

“Remember what you promised me,” Leo said, and he could hear the choked gasp on the other end of the radio. The sound made him feel like crying, because that was Casey who he cared about more than anything in the world, and he sounded like Leo had just ripped his heart out. But he shoved the urge to break down as far back as he could. They didn’t have the time. They never had the time. “Don’t hesitate. No matter what.”

“Sensei--”

“Whatever it takes, Casey.”

“I can’t,” Casey sobbed, the radio crackling with the sound of it. “I can't. You said you’d stay, you promised me--"

"Casey--"

"Don’t make me do this, dad, please --”

“Casey,” Leon interrupted, “it’s gonna be okay.”

Leo’s prosthetic wasn’t really calibrated to register pain. It was hooked into his nervous system, a design choice meant to guarantee he had complete control over its movements and make sure it wasn’t damaged without him realizing, but the connection wasn’t precise enough that he felt everything that happened to it as if it were made of flesh and blood. He’d notice when it was damaged, but he wouldn’t feel it as though he’d been injured.

Which meant when the blade of a sword sunk into his mechanical shoulder, it took him a second to actually decipher what the odd feeling was.

No--

A crackle of mystic energy, and a weight on his back.

“Trust me,” Leon said, his voice echoing from Leo’s comm-unit, a grin on his face as he winked at Leo’s stunned look, “I got this.”

“Leon--”

“Nope, no arguing. I’m here now, and I’ll take care of it. You just make sure you get free of Big Ugly by the time we go.”

The Krang, evidently realizing something was up, snarled and dug its claws further into Leo’s arm, hanging on tight instead of trying to shove him away. It still didn’t hurt like it would’ve if it had been his own arm, but the pressure was enough to send a prickling up the circuits. 

It wasn’t going to let go. If they tried to teleport with Leon’s swords now, they’d just bring it right back with them.

“Leon, swap arms. There’s an emergency release switch under the front shoulder spine.”

“What?”

“It’s not gonna let go.” 

Leo had always had a tendency to act a lot less clever than he was. Sure, he might not have had Donnie’s book smarts, but he could think on his feet like nobody’s business. He worked better under pressure than any of his brothers. And yeah, it helped that it meant folks tended to underestimate him, but for the most part it was just easier. Need to always be “the guy with a plan” got tiring real quick. It was a lot simpler if he just acted like an idiot, letting people believe he was as dumb as a box of rocks. Get rid of any potential expectations for him.

And Leon was the exact same guy.

So he could see the moment Leo’s words and the implications behind them registered in the way Leon’s fierce grin faded slightly. “...You sure?”

“It’s either this or you leave me here, and I’ve got a feeling that option isn’t really on your table. I’ll need my legs.” He locked his finger joints into place with a quick jerk of his wrist-- a malfunction that Leo had to thank his lucky stars he’d never asked Donnie to fix-- and grit his teeth as he braced himself. Both for the pain he was about to endure and what he was about to lose. “I’ve had worse.”

“What?” The Krang tried to move its arm, but the limb stayed pinned under the weight of solid, electrically locked titanium. (Let it never be said that Donnie skimped on materials in his constructions, even in the midst of a post-apocalypse.) “What are you doing??”

“You’re the boss.” Leon lifted his wrist to speak into his comm-unit. “Casey, we’re coming out. It’s gonna be tight, though, so make sure you’re ready on that key as soon as we give you the signal.”

“Got it, Sensei.”

“I’m not-- Oh, whatever.” 

Leon hurled one sword back towards the portal, and it curved in a graceful arc before disappearing somewhere Earth-side. As soon as it was out of sight, he pulled his remaining sword free of Leo’s arm, and-- with just a split second’s delay in which Leo could clearly see him bracing himself-- spun it around and stabbed clean through Leo’s opposite bicep. (It was intense, but it had hurt more to lose the right one in the first place, and the adrenaline rushing through him was keeping the pain at bay for the time being.) In the same motion, he reached forward with his free hand and flicked the switch to immediately detach the mechanical arm.

Seeya later, Raph.

The moment Leo felt the connections break and his right side become about fifteen pounds lighter, he pushed all his strength into his legs to fling them away from where the Krang was still pinned. 

Like static crawling up his shell, the air around them fizzled with electricity as Leon’s sword lit up in tandem with his markings. Glowing symbols appeared at the hilt, and Leo felt when they continued down to the part of the blade buried in his flesh, accompanied by the freezing bite of mystic energy which raced through his nerves. Lightning crackled along the metal, flickering over them, and Leo’s fingertips went numb. So similar and yet so different to the feeling of Leo using his own mystic energy, from what he could remember of it.

“Casey,” Leo said, shouting into Leon’s comm-unit. “Close it!” 

The world around them vanished in a wash of neon blue, and in an instant it was replaced with reddish sky and crumbling walls as they tumbled head-over-heels across the cracked floor. An ungraceful landing if he’d ever had one. The motion of it dragged Leon’s sword from his arm, and he couldn’t stop the hiss of pain as it was pulled free.

Barely a second later, the thrum of the active portal vanished, and relief crashed over Leo like a wave. The force of it made him dizzy-- or maybe that was the blood loss and sudden lack of adrenaline catching up with him-- so he closed his eyes to stop the world from spinning.

"Hey, c'mon, stay with me." Hands patting his face. Insistent, but gentle. "If you made it all this way just to bleed out because you asked me to stab you, I'm gonna be really ticked off. And so is everyone else, I promise you that. I don't wanna have to be the one to tell Raph you kicked it. He'll give me that disappointed look. You know the one."

Leo scrunched his face up in an attempt to mimic the signature expression their brother always pulled after one of them had done something stupid. He wasn't sure how close he actually got, but Leon laughed. 

"Yeah, you know it. Spitting image, I tell you." It was quiet, and Leon seemed at ease, which meant they were probably safe, right? He could rest. "No, wait, don't fall asleep yet. I gotta make sure you're not concussed. Just-- look, here comes your kid. Casey! Good to see you. I need you to keep him awake."

"Sensei!"

Casey.

Leo attempted to push himself upright, but barely got an inch off the ground before his arm gave out and he fell back onto his carapace with a pained sound. 

"No, no, don’t try to get up.” There was a muffled clatter from a few feet away, and Leo felt another warm presence arrive at his unoccupied side. “Can you open your eyes, big guy? Just for a minute."

If he must. Leo did as told, squinting for a moment to make sure the world was sitting still again before opening them the rest of the way. Casey and Leon were both hovering over him, the latter carefully checking over his head while the former just sat there and looked despondent. His shoulders were faintly shaking under his cloak, and his eyes were wide and misty.

"I'm fine," he said hoarsely, reaching over towards Casey. There was absolutely zero hesitation as his student lurched forward and grabbed his hand, all but clinging to it with a completely unsurprising amount of strength. "Hey, Case. Don't look so upset. I'm okay, I promise."

"Don't promise anything yet, I haven't given you the all-clear.” Leon stuck one hand in his face. “How many fingers am I holding up? If you say more than three, we'll know something is really wrong."

"It's three." 

"Well, your vision is fine, but try not to fall asleep ‘til I can get a better look at you in some decent lighting. I need to make sure you didn’t wind up with a concussion after being thrown around so much. In the meantime, I'm gonna wrap up your arm, alright? Hold still." Leon returned to his caretaking, and Leo looked back over to Casey.

Casey, whose eyes were watering and whose lip was wobbling and who, despite his dark circles and stubble, looked so very young in that moment that Leo couldn't help but remember a time when he barely came up to Leo's knee. He'd been kind of a crybaby then, too. "Seriously, kid, it's okay. I've come back from worse. I'm gonna be just fine, so stop looking like you're about to start crying, alright? It's breaking my heart, here."

Casey managed a watery laugh, but it sounded flat, and didn't last more than a second or two before it morphed into a whimper.

"Oh, kid." He glanced towards Leon. "Doc, am I cleared for hugs?"

"Hold on." With careful concentration, Leon finished off the knot holding the bandage in place. Once he was satisfied with its stability, he leaned back and nodded. "So long as you take it easy, you'll be fine. Now please, hug the guy before he collapses into a depressed puddle."

As soon as he was given the go-ahead, Casey practically threw himself onto Leo, who caught him to the best of his ability considering he was down an arm and the remaining one was barely maneuverable. It was less of a "hug" and more Casey huddled up against Leo's chest, sobbing into his scarf. Leo wrapped his arm around Casey and gently rubbed his back, ignoring the twinge in his bicep, then leaned down to push Casey’s mask out of the way and bump their foreheads together. 

“It’s alright,” he said softly. “I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere.”

"I was scared, Sensei," Casey said through heaves. "I was so scared."

"I know. I know, Case, it's okay. You did so good. Hey," he said, leaning back a little to make sure Casey was looking at him, "you know I'm proud of you, right?"

Fresh tears welled up in his eyes, and Leo once more cursed himself for his own failings on his student's part. He hadn’t forgotten Leon’s chastisement, and now seemed as good a time as any to act on it. 

"I am so proud of you, Casey Jones. You've grown into an incredible person. You're smart, you're brave, you're kind, and every day you make me proud to be your teacher." Casey buried his face in Leo's shoulder, and Leo held him close. Still knelt off to the side, he could see Leon giving the two of them a tired smile. “I’m lucky to have you. The world is lucky to have you. You’re amazing, kiddo.”

Leo held tight to Casey for several moments until his side gave a little too strong of a twinge for him to ignore. He hissed in pain, and Casey immediately lurched back, likely out of fear that he’d been a little too enthusiastic and briefly forgotten the state Leo was in. He could have said more, and he definitely wanted to make up for lost time and pepper Casey with every single compliment he’d thought but never voiced, but if he was perfectly honest he was just too damn tired. Raincheck. 

He still definitely had the energy to tease him, though. And while he’d sort of been pretty engaged in what he was doing, and as much as he really didn’t want to remember Casey’s pleading tone if he didn’t have to, he was pretty sure his (admittedly worsening) hearing wasn’t lying to him earlier. And it couldn’t hurt to try and lighten the tone a bit. “Hey, did I hear you call me dad at one point?”

Casey immediately clapped his hands over his face. When he spoke, it was muffled through his gloves. “No idea what you’re talking about. I don’t remember what I said. You were hearing things.”

“If any of that were true, you wouldn’t be getting so defensive about it.” He reached forward to lightly tug at Casey’s wrists. With his hands out of the way, the bright red fluster on his face was clear as day. “You don’t have to be embarrassed, bud. I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t happened before now.”

“Oh, it has. Just usually not when I was talking to you, and I made everyone who heard me say it swear not to tell.”

“And they listened? Man, you’ve got some influence, kiddo.”

"While all this familial banter is very touching, I think it's about time we blow this popsicle stand," Leon interrupted. "The whole portal thing definitely brought some eyes down on this place. Big fancy government folks will be here to deal with all this soon enough, and I dunno about you guys, but I don't really feel like getting dissected today."

"It's not very fun, I can tell you that."

Leon stared at him. 

"Don't worry, it wasn't fatal," Casey added, immediately going along with Leo’s bullshit without even needing to be nudged. Leo was so proud of him it made his chest hurt. "Just Donnie messing around. You know how he is."

They managed to keep their expressions serious for all of a few moments before Casey broke and burst out laughing. Leon threw his arms up in exasperation.

"Come on, man, don't do that! You can't mess with me like that, it's so not fair." There was a grin on his face despite his words. He moved like he was going to shove Leo's shoulder, but aborted the gesture at the last second, instead lightly smacking his face and turning an accusatory finger on Casey. "You know I'm just gonna believe it, your poker face could win you millions. And Casey-- you little traitor-- don't encourage him! I thought we were cool, man!"

Their banter was interrupted by the simultaneous beeping of Leon and Caey’s comm-units. It was then that Leo abruptly remembered they’d sort of just averted the apocalypse, and their family was no doubt a little concerned.

"We saw the portal close," Raph said, and even through the static overlay of the device the worry in his voice was evident. "Is everyone okay? Are you guys hurt? What happened?"

"We're all fine, Raph," Leon replied. "We saved the world and we were awesome, not that there was any worry. Leo Two is gonna need some more first aid, and I could use an ice pack or two, but no one's flirting with death. Think you guys can come pick us up? I’ve sorta hit my limit on portals for the day.”

(“We gotta work on your endurance,” Leo muttered, and Leon mimed smacking him in the face.) 

“No problem. Manhattan bound Raph express train, coming at you.” 

Leo gestured Casey over, then leaned forward to speak into his comm-unit. “Hey Raph, let Donnie know I lost his communicator. And my arm. It’ll probably make his day, he’s been wanting to build me a new one since I got here.” 

A relieved laugh. “You got it, big guy. See you in a few.”

Chapter Text

Leo wasn’t entirely sure how long it took Raph to get there, because as soon as he was entirely reassured that they were safe and he could rest, he pretty much immediately started slipping in and out of a doze. He caught some of the quiet chatter between Leon and Casey, and lurched into startled awareness when he was hefted up into a sturdy pair of arms, but a hush and a soft reassurance from Raph had him relaxing back into that liminal space between waking and sleep.

He was pretty sure he never fell entirely unconscious. His injuries weren’t actually as bad as they looked, and he’d dealt with far worse, but for a while his perception was really skewed. 

He saw Leon and Donnie on either side, the latter on his left with a measuring tape in hand. He blinked and he saw Raph sitting beside him, mid-nap with his head hanging over the back of the chair and snoring loud enough it could be mistaken for the rev of an engine. Another blink and Casey was there, arms braced on the side of the bed and talking quietly, either to himself or Leo’s unconscious form. Mikey appeared over his shoulder with a mug of something steaming in hand. Leo idly hoped it was hot chocolate-- Casey had never gotten the chance to try it before, and he was severely missing out. 

The cast of individuals seemed to rotate every time he faded into wakefulness again, and Leo had to wonder if he was severely misjudging the amount of time passing between each cycle or if they were just really busy for them to be swapping places so often.

He had to assume it was the latter just based on the fact that no one seemed all too concerned whenever he did wake up. If he was really more out of it than he’d assumed, he figured Casey wouldn’t be looking so calm as he flipped through a magazine sporting a motorcycle on the front while Donnie leaned over his shoulder and happily went on a tirade about whichever mechanical part the kid happened to point out. He’d changed out of his battle gear at some point, and the lounge clothes were a good look for him. (The lack of armored bulk or mask casting a shadow over his face made him look so much younger.)

“You should get one,” Leo said, and both of them looked up in mild surprise. “It’d suit you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Sensei,” Casey said with a grin. He seemed quite at ease where he was, like he belonged in this world with all its creature comforts. Where he didn’t have to worry for his survival at every minute of the day. “You get some more rest. Donnie’s almost finished with--”

Donnie loudly shushed him, slapping a hand over his mouth. Casey shot him a look and rolled his eyes, but dutifully shut up. 

“Go back to sleep. You heard nothing,” Donnie said.

He could have put the pieces together if he were a little more awake-- and was already halfway to doing so regardless-- but he’d give them the opportunity to surprise him. Donnie had always liked being able to show off the things he made, particularly when he’d made them for people. Leo could humor him.

So Leo obliged, slipping back into unconsciousness for an uncertain amount of time.

It couldn't have been very long, though, because when he next woke up with a markedly clearer head, Casey was still there with the same magazine face down on his chest. Unlike last time, he was fast asleep, hands clasped over his stomach and snoring lightly. Leo took a few seconds to just look him over-- slim shoulders despite the strength Leo knew he had, the worry lines on his face softened in sleep-- then glanced to the side to meet Raph’s easygoing smile.

“Hey there, big guy,” Raph said. “Feeling alright?”

“As good as I can be, considering. Better than I expected.” He shifted his arm to push himself up into a sitting position, and it barely twinged. “I wasn’t out that long, was I?”

“Nah. Only been about a day, day and a half. You slept the whole way home, then you were on and off. Don gave you some painkillers to make sure you stayed asleep through the worst of it. We got some water in you once or twice.” He tilted his head to the side to indicate Casey’s sleeping form. “He barely left your side.”

Leo reached over to carefully brush some of Casey’s hair away from where it had wound up in his mouth. He used to chew on it when he was younger, a habit none of them were really sure where he picked up considering the only person in his life who actually had hair long enough for that sort of thing was April. (He’d grown out of it by the time Mikey started getting hair.) They eventually decided it had to have just been that childish desire to stick things in his mouth. The ends of Leo’s mask had been subject to destruction via toddler teeth on more than one occasion. “Can’t say I’m surprised. He’s up there with you in terms of loyalty to his family.”

With a quirked brow-ridge, Raph gave him a bit of a sardonic look. “You ever think you might be selling yourself a little short? The kid never really met your time’s version of Raph. So I don’t think it’s me he gets it from.”

“I guess I might be.” He leaned back in his seat. “That was always your thing, though.”

“I’m just saying. It’s not my markings he’s got painted on that mask of his.”

“You don’t have markings.”

“I’ve still got a point.”

His halfway-to-smug smile faded, and he glanced off to the side.

“Listen,” Raph said, all serious gloom and no small amount of shame coating his words, “I’m sorry for… what I said. I asked you to make sure Leo-- my Leo-- got back alive, and the way I put it… I just need you to know, I’d never ask you to do something like that for us. Not if I was thinking it through. You’re not-- you aren’t the spare or anything like that. You aren’t any less valuable to us than Leon, and you’re not expendable, and--”

“It’s alright, Raph. I get it,” he said, cutting off the reassurances with a hand on his brother’s forearm. A long time ago he might have been angry about it, but not anymore. Not after everything. “Trust me. If I were in your shoes, if it were one of my brothers on the line and you were the stranger, I’d have said the same. It’s our job to make sure they stay safe.” 

Raph seemed to deflate a bit, his expression shifting into something like sad acceptance. “You really grew up, huh?”

“A little too fast, I think.” He moved his hand down to squeeze Raph’s for a moment before leaning back to get comfortable again. “You guys try to stay young for a little while longer, alright?”

A hoarse laugh. “We’ll do our best.”

They hadn’t exactly been trying to keep quiet, so between that and his own trained vigilance it was no wonder Casey began to stir. He yawned wide, stared at Leo for a moment, then visibly brightened when it became clear that he was awake and coherent. “Sensei! Welcome back. How’re you feeling?”

“Never better, Case. You?”

“Oh, I’m fine. They patched me up as soon as you were stable, and I wasn’t even that hurt. I mean…” He trailed off, glancing over at Raph hesitantly. Getting the silent message, Raph patted his shoulder, gave Leo a thumbs up, then turned and left the room. Casey looked back to him with a significantly less lively expression. He rolled the magazine between his hands, picking at the corners of the pages. “...You were hurt pretty bad, Sensei.”

“I was,” Leo agreed. No beating around that bush. “I’ve had worse.”

"I'm starting to realize that's not a good basis for comparison. They're teaching me a lot here,” Casey said, pointing at him with the rolled up magazine, a mocking pout on his face, “like how you should never decide on the severity of an injury based on whether you’ve had worse.”

“Are you quoting Donnie?”

“I might be.” Casey paused for only a second before his frown faded into a sheepish grin. “To be fair, he’s usually right.”

“Don’t tell him that, it’ll make him even more insufferable.” The laugh that followed was mostly without humor. Donnie was usually right unfortunately, and this was no exception. Leo's perception of the severity of injuries had never been great when it came to himself specifically, and strenuous circumstances had not given him any more skill in that area. "I mean it, though. I got hurt, but I've been hurt worse, and I always recovered from that, right? I'll be fine, Case."

His student still didn't look too happy, but the worry lines around his eyes softened a bit. "I wish you'd take better care of yourself."

"Anything for you, kiddo."

"Please don't," Casey said. "Knowing you, anything probably means sacrificing yourself somehow."

Leo pouted. "Do you really think so little of me?"

"You haven't exactly given me a whole lot of confidence in your self-preservation!"

Point.

"I'll give you that," Leo acquiesced. "Don't take pointers from me on that front, by the way. You've got a long life ahead of you, and I can actually promise that now that we're here. Don't go throwing it away. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear, Sensei."

His shoulder was starting to pinch, so he shifted a bit to ease the pressure. Hopefully that the arm Donnie was definitely making for him was done sooner rather than later-- he felt horribly off-balance with nothing on his right side. 

Casey glanced up at him, then looked away.

Then, without a word, he tossed his magazine aside and shuffled over to the bed. Leo made room, mostly on instinct rather than as a conscious decision, and the empty spot was immediately filled with one lanky teenager far too tall for the space he was trying to occupy. That didn't stop Casey from curling up and making himself as small as possible, plastered against Leo's side, nor did it stop Leo from happily setting what remained of his arm around Casey's shoulders. 

And yeah, it was no trouble to admit that having someone there helped him feel far more at ease with his lack of symmetry.

Casey really did seem so much smaller in plainclothes. Far too skinny-- none of them had been eating well, and the layers of clothing and armor had helped hide it well enough, but now that he was wearing only a t-shirt and some pajama pants that no doubt belonged to Leon judging by the color, his pointy elbows and jutting ribs were all too evident. His hair was pulled back-- which was likely April's work, being the only one of them to actually know how hair really functioned-- and like with his clothes it served to highlight how hollow his features were.

Probably sensing he was being stared at, Casey glanced over with a curious look. "Sensei?"

"I'm really proud of you," Leo said. That wasn’t exactly what he’d been planning on saying, but it stood nonetheless. 

"What? Sensei, I haven't done anything."

"Even if that were true, I haven't told you nearly enough times in the past, so I'm making up for it now." He reached over, hardly acknowledging Casey's sharp inhale as he cupped a hand around the back of his neck and pulled him into a hug. When he continued, his voice was muffled by Casey's hair where he'd tilted his head to press it against his student's. "You're brilliant and innovative. You're tough, but still so compassionate considering everything you've had to face. I couldn't ask for a more reliable protege. Or a more loyal kid."

Casey sniffled, reaching up to return the hug. His nails dug into Leo's shell with enough force to cause pain if he were human, and Leo was glad for not the first time he'd been created as he was. 

Leo moved his hand down to Casey's back in order to pull him as close as he could. Some amount of lingering anxiety that had made itself a permanent home in Leo’s heart over years of war and the trauma it brought eased at having that secure hold on him, hearing his steady heartbeat and even breathing. He was alive. They both were. And they were safe. "You've seen things no kid should have to see and come out swinging. You've been so strong, and so brave, and I'm more proud than I could ever say. You're incredible, Casey Jones. Don’t you forget it."

With his face tucked against Leo's shoulder and his grip holding steady, Casey sobbed his heart out. Leo continued to offer quiet reassurances-- mostly nonsensical, but they seemed to be helping regardless.

A soft knock echoed on the door, and Leo quietly commended himself on his lack of an alarmed reaction. "Yeah?"

"Hey," Leon said, muffled through the door but still using a soft tone regardless, "Raph said you guys were having a bit of a feels-fest in here. You need a few more minutes, or can I check big me's injuries real quick?"

In lieu of answering, Leo looked down to his student. "Casey?"

"I'm fine," Casey said, voice rough with post-cry scratchiness. He sniffled, pulling back enough to wipe his damp face with the bottom of his shirt.  "You should let him in. We don't want your injuries to get any worse."

"If you're sure." He let Casey go, quietly noting how his student seemed to shift back in his direction for a split second before he got to his feet. Something told him there might be some lingering separation anxiety they'd have to deal with at some point. "Why don't you go get a drink? Maybe some lunch while you’re at it. I'm guessing it's been a minute since you've eaten. Let little me in when you head out."

Casey did as instructed-- but only after ducking forward to grab Leo in another brief hug before darting away again. Leo watched him go.

"How's he doing?" Leo asked as Leon stepped up to the side of his bed. "Really doing, because I know that kid, and right now he wouldn't say a word of it to me if anything was wrong."

"He could be better, but I think that applies to all of us right now. Had a pretty big scare when we first got you back, especially when you conked out for the night, but as far as I've seen he's coping alright. Maybe keep an eye on him, though." He pulled a large duffle bag over from where it had been tucked under a shelf, pulling a roll of bandages and some antiseptic from one of the inside pockets. "I'm just gonna change the bandages, make sure the stitches and adhesive are holding up okay. You're lucky you slept through that process."

Leo held still as Leon began unwrapping the bandages on his injured arm. There was a slight sting, but it was easy enough to ignore. Both in its familiarity and when compared about all the worse hurts he'd felt over the years. "I've gotten used to them, honestly."

Leon grimaced. "Man, really? That sucks something fierce, considering how much I hate getting them."

"Actually, it was only partially the war thing." Leon was right in that they hadn't liked being subject to needles for most of their lives. And yeah, he'd needed to get used to them pretty  quickly once he started getting hurt on such a regular basis, but even before then when they'd still been doing well for themselves in the fight against the Krang he'd grown less wary of them. "Most of it was just getting older."

"I guess that's good to know. Anything else I have to look forward to?"

“Our knees ache if it’s gonna rain.”

“What? No way,” Leon said, tossing the old bandages aside. Then, a moment later; “Seriously?”

“Happens when you get older. The arm is worse, but you probably won’t have to deal with that.” Ideally. Then again, anything could happen. Apocalypse or not they still led pretty dangerous lives. Big Mama may have been tentatively on their side after the Shredder debacle, but all the other butts they’d kicked over the years were still a problem, and who knew what villains might come to light in the future without the Krang having such a monopoly on the “being evil” thing? Whatever happened next, they were going into it totally blind. 

Leo didn’t really serve a purpose, anymore. He was a messenger, a warning, an omen. He’d foretold the disaster, and it had come and gone. He didn’t really have a reason to be here anymore.

And yet, he wanted to stay. And he knew his family would want him to stay, too.

Pressure on his injured arm snapped him out of his internal musing, and he hissed involuntarily. Leon jerked back as though he’d been burned.

Then, with far more care, his hand settled on Leo’s arm, just above the injury.

“...I didn’t need to do this,” he said quietly. “I could’ve teleported us without hurting you.”

“I asked you to.”

“And I should’ve said no.” He huffed, grabbing the roll of bandages and wrapping it with a furious amount of care. He wasn’t hasty, and not near aggressive enough to cause Leo any more harm, but there was far more force behind his motions than was really necessary. “If I’d just thought it through a little more--”

“We didn’t have time for that. You’re good at thinking on the fly, but you were already stressed.” Down an arm and the other currently being bandaged, Leo leaned over to bump his head against Leon’s knee in a show of support. “We couldn’t afford any margin of error. It had to work. I needed my legs to get us free so we didn’t risk bringing the Krang along for the ride, and you know as well as I do that trying to teleport other people alongside us can get kind of funky sometimes. I don’t blame you, bud.”

Leon looked at him for a few silent moments, then shook his head. “I gotta say, the turnaround from how you were acting when you first got here to now is pretty dramatic. Hard to believe I just heard you say the words I don’t blame you when talking to me.”

The reminder of his callous behavior stung, even though Leo knew it was fully deserved. “I’m sorry for how I treated you, Leon.”

“Ah, it’s fine. I mean-- it isn’t, but considering all the crap you’ve had to deal with, I kind of get it. As much as I can, anyway. So don’t get too stressed. I’ll hold it over your head and make you do chores for me or something once you’re feeling better.” Of course he would. That was how they coped, after all. Making a big joke out of it. “While we’re sort of still on the topic; what happened to your powers, anyway?”

“The Krang,” Leo answered. He’d refrained from mentioning that fun little ability of theirs before, and for good reason, but maybe Splinter did have something of a point when he’d suggested Leo talk about this with his brothers. It definitely wasn’t a potential issue anymore, given the Foot Clan was all but finished and they would absolutely never be letting the key out of their sight again, and if there was anyone who could help him repair that connection to his family it was the guys who still had it. “Their leader had the ability to… he closed off my connection to the mystic side of things. I don’t know what he did. One minute I could make portals, and the next…”

“And you never got them back?”

“I never figured out how. Splinter and I tried briefly, but… Nada .”

Silence followed, until Leon broke it with another question. “Didn’t Mikey still have his?”

“Mikey wasn’t there.” He bit his tongue as Leon pressed against the healing gash on his arm with a little too much force when affixing the end of the bandages, to which he got a muttered apology. “I got reckless. I got stupid. I got mad, and I tried going after the Krang on my own. Raph caught wind of it, and he came after me. The Krang did something, and we both lost our powers. I didn’t run when I should have. The Krang was right there. And Raph… he did what he always does. He put his brothers first. Threw himself between us, but without his projection--”

He cut himself off with a strained exhale. Leon hurried to finish with the bandage, then sat down at Leo’s side and tucked himself close. He could ignore the slight burn in his arm for the sake of wrapping it around Leon’s shoulders. 

“...I never got my powers back,” he whispered. “I don’t think I wanted to. I think I’d decided it was a punishment-- lose your brother, lose your powers. We got them because we were Hamato, right? Anata wa hitori janai. If I wanted to rush into things on my own so badly, if I wanted to make myself be alone, I could deal with the consequences.”

“That wasn’t--”

“My fault? I hear you, and I appreciate it. And maybe later I’ll be more receptive. But… please. Not now, Leonardo,” he said. “Not now.”

“Okay. Not now,” Leon agreed, then turned to poke him in the chest. “But rest assured, big guy, we’ll be talking about it later. Maybe try and tackle the problem with a little of our own mystic powers. And I will get the whole family involved on this one. That is a threat.” 

“I’m very frightened,” he replied, unable to keep the bemusement from his voice or expression.

“You should be! Raph's gonna start crying on you, and you know it!”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t already.”

“He got most of it out with me,” Leon admitted, and his own expression shifted to one of shame. “Raph was really worried. He was scared . He’s always scared for us. And I didn’t even realize how bad it was until now, ‘cause he’s just that good at hiding it.”

“Must have been pretty upsetting for you, seeing him freak out like that.”

“Yeah, but it’s not about--” Leon froze. Leo’s arm around him tightened on instinct. “...Oh.”

Quiet.

“...It’s not about you,” Leo finished with a sigh. Damn him. He’d messed up, and now this kid had to deal with the consequences. He had to wonder if he’d ever stop making mistakes when it came to his family. Ideally, the lack of an apocalypse would’ve given him a greater opportunity to actually think his actions through a bit more, but apparently that remained to be proven. “I shouldn’t have been so harsh.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have. But you know you fucked up, and you’re gonna do better in the future. I’ll get over it.” 

"Still. I’ve got a lot to make up for. And I can start with this; you did good, Leo," he said, rubbing a comforting rhythm along the top edge of Leon's shell. "I know you were awful concerned with me telling Casey, but I think it's important I tell you too-- I'm proud of you, little me. I'm really proud. This is a lot-- with the Krang, and the time travel, and everything we just shoved onto your plate-- and I sure haven't been making it any easier on you. But you've been handling it like a champion."

Leon looked up at him with wide, watery eyes. He gave an exaggerated sniff, looking away and rubbing his face as though trying to clear it. Mostly a futile effort. 

"Aw, c'mon," he said, voice cracking, "you can't just say stuff like that. And bringing the champion thing into it? I can't do this, man, you know all my weak spots. This is the worst. You gotta go because I'm not gonna be able to take this kind of emotional manipulation."

…Actually.

“Hey,” he said, and Leon squinted at him through bleary eyes. No doubt taking note of the tone he was using-- their “planning something” voice was plenty familiar by now. “About that.”

“...No way.”

“You guys--”

“No way!!”

“--Wouldn’t happen to have a--”

“Guys!” Leon jumped to his feet, darting over to fling the door open and stick his head out the door to shout into the lair, “Guys, I did it, you all owe me ten bucks!”

“--An extra room that no one’s using, or maybe a pull-out sofa--”

“What?? No way, you’re making that up,” came Mikey’s shouted response from another room. There was a clatter, some inaudible complaining from Donnie, an even louder crash, and Mikey skidded into the room like a bat out of hell. He all but shoved Leon out of the doorway to barrel headfirst into Leo’s chest, where Leo had sat up on the side of the bed and was ready and waiting to catch him and haul him up onto his lap. “You’re really staying? Like, for realsies this time? Leon convinced you?”

“I mean, he wasn’t the whole reason--”

“Nope, I heard it first, he told me, still counts!” Leon marched out of the room, shouting as he went. “Where’s my money, Raph?!”

"They didn't actually make a bet, did they?" Leo asked, his voice a mock whisper, not even really trying to be quiet.

"Oh yeah, they totally did. Back when you and Leon first started getting along. Actually getting along. Leon bet that he'd be able to get you to   chill out first, since he was you and so he obviously knew you best. I think they kind of forgot about it until now, though."

As Leon marched through the lair still shouting, Mikey’s glee faded just a bit, and he set his head on Leo’s shoulder. Leo adjusted his hold to let Mikey get a little more comfortable, to which Mikey responded by clinging to him like a barnacle. And he’d always been touchy, but the degree to which he seemed determined to hang on to Leo for dear life throughout his stay was starting to get a little concerning. “You alright, Miguel?”

"I'm okay," he said quietly. "I’m not scared of you. I don't want you to leave." 

"Oh, buddy, I know that now. And I’m not leaving," Leo said, surprising himself with his vehemence. His decision to stick around had been more on a whim than anything, the logical conclusion to an internal conflict he'd been doing his best to ignore-- the Foot Clan was no longer a problem, the Krang were dead or gone. They had the key, and no one had any reason to try and take it anymore. To leave now… it would be pointless, and it would do nothing but hurt his family.

And damn it all, hadn’t Leo done enough? Hadn’t he earned a break? Didn’t he deserve to think about himself for once?

“I won’t,” he repeated, just as firm. “I’m not leaving. I really, really mean it this time. I’m staying here for as long as you’ll have me.”

“How about forever?” Mikey nodded against Leo’s shoulder as he spoke. “Yeah, forever’s probably best. Just to be on the safe side of things, y’know? We can go with that for now and work out the details later.” 

Leo laughed quietly, tilting his head to rest it against his brother’s.

“Forever sounds pretty good to me.”

Chapter Text

“Open.”

A whisper of machinery.

“Close.”

Again, barely audible, the hum of electricity and the scrape of metal on metal.

“Bend,” and repeat, “straight. Out. In. Up. Down. Twist. Other way. Do something weird.”

At the last instruction, Leo grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm up over his head. The metal creaked but held fast, and there was no twinge in the wires where it pulled a little too far. No spikes on the shoulder that dug into his skin if he moved it wrong. 

A mechanical match for his remaining arm, scaled to size and designed to actually be a prosthetic instead of a repurposed robot part. 

“Alright,” Donnie said, stepping back with an assured nod. He flipped his goggles up and began the arduous process of putting away all the various tools he’d used in the assembly and attachment of the arm. “Seems to be working fine, but please try not to do anything too strenuous for the time being. Any pain or discomfort? Are you noticing a delay in response time? I can adjust the connections if you need. Are you sure you don’t want me to hook it up with contact-accurate sensors?” 

“Donnie, it’s fine,” Leo eased, reaching over to set his newly functional hand on Donnie’s shoulder. It still lacked the ability to feel pain, and it wasn’t entirely specific with the feedback he got from touching things, but he sort of preferred it that way. A one-to-one sense of touch would just be unsettling. “It feels good. No delays here. And I think I’m alright without the sensors for now-- I’ll let you know if that changes.” 

“I’m trusting you to actually do so if it becomes pertinent.” He closed the toolbox, then hesitated for several moments without putting it away. “...If you don’t mind. Can I ask how you lost it in the first place?”

“...Ah.” Right. They hadn’t really discussed that, had they? Everyone had been pretty respectful about it-- honestly, he would’ve expected Donnie to ask about it far sooner. His insatiable curiosity rarely took a backseat in favor of things like “respect” or “politeness.” Tact was the last thing on his mind when he had a question he wanted answered. And normally Leo would’ve answered with a joke of some kind, but Donnie had literally just finished attaching a brand new arm custom-made for him, so perhaps he’d earned a little honesty. “...I’ll tell you. Come over here, though.”

Donnie raised a skeptical brow, but shoved his toolbox aside and came to stand next to Leo. “The lab is soundproof, you know. No one out there will hear.” While he’d barred anyone from entering, Casey had made himself right at home in the hall outside, the same as he’d done back when Leo had first lost the limb and spent eight hours in surgery.

“I have to be cautious. This is important. Donnie, I need you to promise me you won’t share this with anyone-- especially Casey.” When Donnie nodded, his expression dour enough that Leo could trust he understood the severity of the situation, Leo continued in a low voice; “In the year or two after Cass died, Casey became a little more of a troublemaker. Listened to us a little less. Got prone to wandering off when no one was looking.”

Donnie sat down on the bench beside him, offering up a hand. Leo gladly clasped it between his own. 

“April and I had been arguing about… something. I don’t remember what. There was a span of time when we were arguing a lot. It’s kind of a blur now, ‘cause halfway through the conversation, I glanced off to the side and Casey was gone.”

Leo wasn’t sure he’d ever felt that sort of fear in his life before, and he didn’t think he’d really felt it since. One minute Casey was there, sulking in the corner as he’d been doing for the past two years, and the next he just vanished . No word, no sign of him anywhere in the base, not a trace of where he might’ve ended up. It had only been thanks to the trackers Donnie insisted every member of the Resistance wear at all times that they’d been able to follow him, and it was thanks to Mikey’s quick thinking that Leo even remembered they’d existed. If it hadn’t been for them… Leo didn’t even want to imagine what might’ve happened if he’d shown up any later than he did. Or if he hadn’t shown up at all.

“He got himself into trouble,” Leo continued. “Got caught by some Krang mutts. I didn’t have my powers, and one of those bastards was right there, and… I'm sure you can connect the dots. You're a smart guy. An arm was a small thing to lose if it meant keeping him safe.” 

Donnie inhaled through his teeth, wincing in sympathy. “I can understand why you don’t want him hearing about that. He doesn’t remember?”

“Nope. Kid passed out right when it happened-- didn’t seem to recall a thing about the incident when he woke up. We all decided it was for the best, and just… never told him. It affected him pretty badly, even if it was all subconscious. Snapped him right out of that defiant phase he was in.” He let go of Donnie’s hand, positive he’d been clutching it a little too tightly to be comfortable. “He’ll blame himself if he learns what happened. I don’t want to put that kind of guilt on his shoulders.”

“He won’t hear a word of it from me,” Donnie said firmly, patting his forearm. “I promise.”

“Thanks, Don.”

“Now then. You’re all set-- try not to mess with it for a little while so we can make sure you aren’t rejecting it. Let it integrate. Be careful with it, too, don’t do anything too extreme. Seriously. If it starts to hurt or feel uncomfortable, come see me. Or if it feels different at all, because that might be a lead-up to it feeling worse. Or if there’s anything you want me to change. Or if you think the joints need tuning. Or--”

“I got it, Donnie,” he said, dusting his knuckles over the top of his head until Donnie batted him away with a pout. “You’ve been working on this thing nonstop since I lost the other one, bud. Take a break. Get some rest.”

“Technically I’ve been working on it since you got here, I just expedited the process a little when the need for a new one became pertinent.”

“Donnie, you built a fully functional customized prosthetic with inbuilt stealth weaponry from scratch in what basically amounts to a month. ” Leo got to his feet, taking a moment to adjust to the difference in weight on his right side-- far less significant than his prior one, but still clearly heavier than when he was without an arm on that side entirely-- before setting both hands on Donnie’s shoulders. “Take a nap. Seriously. You’ve more than earned it.”

“I’m not--” What was certainly about to be a bold claim about how he wasn’t tired was pointedly interrupted by a wide yawn. “...Touche.” 

“Uh-huh. Goodnight, Donnie.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Smart-ass.”

Leaving Donnie to make his way to bed in his own time, Leo headed out of the lab. Casey was still seated in the hall where he’d been when Leo had gone into the session several hours prior, but he’d been joined by Mikey at some point, who was in the middle of pointing something out on his phone.

“...And I put a Turtle Power tag up on that overpass-- it took them weeks to get it down. Best part of our mad ninja skills is being able to reach those perfect canvases that the establishment keeps out of the reach of the people.” Casey’s gaze flicked to the side as Leo stepped into the hall, and he looked away from Mikey to give him a sunny grin. Mikey, too, looked up, and brightened when he laid eyes on Leo. “Hey, you’re done! Great, come on, we’ve got work to do. You too, Casey.”

He grabbed Leo’s wrist-- not the metal one-- and began dragging him along through the lair with far more strength than his diminutive frame would suggest, Casey trailing along behind. Not that Leo personally thought he was weak. Completely unsurprisingly, it turned out that seeing someone launch a forty story building halfway across the harbor would give you a pretty good idea of their general physical prowess.

Their destination wound up being Mikey’s own room, a colorful cacophony of lights and half-finished art projects. He shoved several of the aforementioned projects aside as they entered, then shoved Leo down to sit in the middle of the floor. Casey took a seat at his left.

“Not that I’m not happy to be the subject of whatever artistic vision you have planned,” Leo said as Mikey bustled around the room, grabbing paints and brushes and cans from where they were stashed away and dropping them into a steadily growing pile next to Leo while Casey stared, mystified, “But can I at least know what I’m getting myself into?”

“Oh, right! I’m customizing your arm.”

Leo blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me! Donnie’s got a great eye for tech, but not so much for decoration. You’re lucky he didn’t make the thing purple.” Mikey plopped down to sit at his right, sorting the haphazard collection of art supplies into something a bit more organized. “I've got some ideas, but I'm leaving the actual designs up to you.”

“I mean… I don’t know if it really needs anything?” It was basic slate-gray titanium, flexible and smooth. A far cry from his previous one. (But that was probably a good thing.) “I kind of like it like this.”

Mikey groaned, picking up a paintbrush and waving the bristles in Leo’s direction accusingly. “But that’s so boring! You need to learn how to have a little more fun, and baby, we’re starting with this. You’ve got so many options! All these colors-- and look at how many stickers I have!!”

“That’s an impressive collection,” Leo admitted, staring at the large plastic bin of multicolored paper that Mikey was gesturing towards. “I really don’t want anything fancy, though.”

"...How about we just make it match?" Casey interjected, picking up a piece of stencil paper and a pencil and hastily sketching out the crescent curve of Leo's stripes. After trimming out the shape, he held the paper up to Leo’s arm. "That's a good balance, don't you think? It doesn't get much more personalized than that. And besides, art doesn’t necessarily need to be fun to be meaningful or important to someone."

Mikey still didn’t look convinced.

“I’ll let you pick out some stickers for my hockey blade?”

“Deal! Hand me that primer.”

It probably would’ve been easier if they just took the arm off, painted it, then reattached it, but Donnie had been pretty adamant about not messing with it and allowing it time to find a suitable equilibrium. Or to figure out if his body would reject the nerve connectivity. It wasn’t that bad-- Leo could sit still when he needed to, and the lack of contact sensors meant he didn’t have to deal with the strange sensation of cold paint on his arm. 

“Do you want the whole thing green, or are you sticking with the metal look? It’s not gonna be totally realistic either way, ‘cause Donnie made this thing and he doesn’t really do subtle, but we can make it more or less of a match for your other one however you’d like.” Mikey gestured with the can of primer. “I don’t wanna put this on unless you plan on something going over it."

A denial sat on the tip of Leo’s tongue, but the realization that there was no real reason to turn down the full coat of paint made him pause. They weren’t on a time limit. They weren’t wanting for materials. Mikey and Casey were perfectly happy to put in the work. 

There were no pros and cons to consider. Only what Leo wanted.

“Let’s make it green all the way down,” Leo said, flexing his fingers as he got used to the difference in control. Probably best if he avoided picking up glass objects for a little while-- the grip strength was a lot more sensitive than on the old one. “Leave the polished parts, though. And-- I’ve got a request.”

“We here at Casey-Angelo Artists are happy to provide.” 

It was a pretty simple design, overall. A pale olive green went on over the primer, not quite Leo’s own skin tone but complimenting it nicely. While they waited for the base coat to dry, Mikey stepped out to grab the projector and put on some Jupiter Jim movie or another in the background. Leo was a little ashamed to say he’d long since lost his ability to identify each movie just by watching it for a few seconds. Casey seemed absolutely enthralled, though.

After the base coat came another layer of green, then another movie and a half, then time for the actual patterns. Casey held the stencil still against his shoulder to paint his stripes, while Mikey sat with Leo’s hand in his lap and ever-so-carefully drew three lines around his wrist; red, purple, and orange, in descending order.

Casey paused before doing his second bicep stripe long enough to shift around to Leo’s opposite side and hug him around the middle until Mikey had finished up his tributes and settled in to let the paint dry.

“It feels kinder,” Casey said quietly. “It’s not… made for war.”

His previous one definitely fell under that banner. If its sheer bulk wasn’t indication enough, the built in communicator, sharpened shoulder spikes, and reinforced knuckles definitely were. It wasn’t built to be comfortable, and it definitely wasn’t built for casual living. Trying to do normal things was kind of a nightmare with fifty pounds of robotics at his side at all times. This one was slimmer, moved far smoother, and he scarcely noticed the difference in weight between it and the real one. 

“I think I might not have been made for war either,” Leo mused, voice soft. “I don’t think any of us were.” 

A thought occurred to him then, and he sat up a little straighter. “Casey, my belt and pack are on the dresser in my room, can you do me a favor and go grab those? There’s something I need to do.”

“Sure thing.”

“Can you grab me a soda while you’re up?” Mikey glanced up from where he was mixing together a topcoat. “There’s root beer on the bottom shelf. It’s hidden behind the eggs.”

Casey gave a salute that was a little too crisp for such a mundane request, a remnant of the world he was raised in, then turned and left the room. In the meantime, Leo looked over to Mikey. “Why did you hide the root beer?”

“‘Cause last time I left it unsupervised, Leon dared Raph to chug four cans at once and he ended up spewing it all over the projector. While I’m as much of a fan of making Raph consume things he shouldn’t as the next guy, it got the whole thing sticky and we were finding ants everywhere for like a week. ” Mikey shivered. “Mice are whatever. Spiders, fine. But ants are so gross. And there were like a million of ‘em!” 

“That is pretty gross,” Leo agreed. “Although they’re not bad if you roast them right.”

Mikey nodded along idly, then his brain caught up with the conversation and he sent Leo a horrified look. “You ate ants??”

“We also ate rats. And squirrels. And whatever else we could find.”

“... Man , the future was harsh,” Mikey said, queasy looking. 

Casey returned a minute later, drinks and Leo’s belt in hand, and passed the former over to Mikey while setting the latter down in Leo’s lap. Upon testing that the paint on his hand was completely dry and not about to leave green spots everywhere, Leo opened one of the side packs and began rifling through it.

After a moment of searching, he pulled out the handle of his sword. Along with the two worn strips of fabric tied to it.

Out of the corner of his eye, Casey winced at the sight.

He'd never gotten to meet Raph, and Donnie had died about five years ago for him which-- while not being a long time in the absolute sense-- was a little more significant when he was just barely seventeen. There had always been a bit of a divide between them, leaving the two more like nebulous figures of story than people Casey really knew . Being back here, though, and not only meeting the brother who he'd never had a chance to before but interacting with the both of them on a personal level had to make the reminder of their prior deaths all the more painful.

If his feelings were anything like Leo's, at least.

“Hey, Mikey,” he said, carefully unwrapping what remained of his older brothers from their places around his broken weapon. “You’ve braided hair before, right?”

“Um, once or twice,” he said, sounding a little unsure of himself. Leo couldn’t see his face, but it was easy enough to assume he was also staring at the masks. “And it was April’s, her texture means it works a little differently. But I know the basics.”

“Great. I have a favor to ask.” 

Which was how he wound up sitting carefully still, Mikey at his back, his little brother winding the red and purple fabric through the long tails of Leo’s own mask. His movements were hesitant, but he persevered. Carefully undid his work whenever he messed something up and started anew. Casey sat in front of Leo, fidgeting with his metal hand.

He could see the question in his student’s expression, and voiced a response before he had a chance to ask it; “I’m keeping them with me,” Leo murmured. “But I think it’s about time I let them rest. Stop dragging them into battle all the time.” 

Casey gave a small smile. “I think that’s a good idea, Sensei.”

A minute or two later Mikey finished his work, smoothing out the cloth braid against Leo’s carapace. 

“All done,” he said quietly. “Want a mirror?”

“Nah. I’m sure it looks great.” 

Quiet followed. Damn, when Leon called him out way back when about having a tendency of killing the mood, he wasn’t kidding. What had been a pretty jovial hangout at the start of it had turned somber. Leo could fix that.

“Well, I think we’re all set here. Should probably make sure it holds up well, though. Even when I’m putting it through the wringer. How about it, Case?” Leo stood, flexing his prosthetic, noting the way the metal barely creaked even as he put all his strength into the motion. “Up for a quick rumble to see how well this thing handles?”

“Sensei, no,” Casey said, sounding infinitely tired. “You’re still injured.”

“I’m fine.”

“You got off of bed-rest a week ago.”

“I wasn’t hurt that bad. Besides, we heal fast.”

“Not that fast!” His student huffed, getting to his feet and poking his chest. “You need to be more careful, Sensei! You aren’t as young as you used to be. You can’t just go around throwing yourself into fights willy-nilly anymore.”

“I’m not. I’m asking you if you want to join me in a friendly, holds-absolutely-barred spar. The sort we’ve done a million times before. I know you can keep a lid on your strength.” He ruffled Casey’s hair, and grinned when his frown wavered slightly. “It’s my job to worry about you, kiddo, not the other way around. I understand what you’re getting at, and I’ll admit I might not always be the best at taking it easy when I’m injured, but trust me to know my own limits. I want to make sure my arm’s not gonna give out on me before we end up in a fight where it matters.”

Casey still looked skeptical, but he could also definitely tell that Leo wasn’t going to back down, so he rolled his eyes and put a hand on his head with a sigh. “Fine. One round of sparring. No weapons, and the second it starts to be too much, you tell me!” It was almost comedic, hearing him chastise Leo like he was the teacher and not the other way around. 

“Deal.” Leo glanced over at Mikey, who had wisely stayed out of the disagreement. “Coming with?”

“...I probably should,” Mikey said with a sigh. “I can make sure you guys don’t go too far.”

The little group made their way across the lair to the gym. Leo kept an eye out for Donnie as they went, not in the mood for an argument, and there was no sign of his errant brother. Which was good-- hopefully that meant he was actually doing as told and getting some rest. The gym, likewise, was void of company, and Mikey took a seat on a stack of mats as Leo and Casey both started warming up with a set of stretches.

“What do we think, three strikes?”

“One strike.”

Leo raised a brow ridge. “Casey, it’ll be over in seconds.”

“That’s the point.” 

“No. Three strikes.” He flexed his prosthetic, double-checking that the metal was holding up as well as it had before. The addition of the paint hadn’t affected the smoothness of the joints, and it still moved as easily as it had before. Whisper quiet, perfectly fluid. Donnie had really outdone himself. “Mikey, you up to ref?”

“No way,” his brother said, waving his hands in front of him. “I’m not being any more complicit in this than I already am. If Donnie walks in he’s gonna be pissed you ignored him, and I don’t want to deal with him getting mad at me too.”

“It’ll be fine. I talked to him before I joined you guys, he’s taking a nap. He won’t notice.”

“You’re counting on Donnie staying asleep for an extended period of time??”

Mikey’s alarmed exclamation went unacknowledged as Leo and Casey both settled into their ready positions. They stayed there for a moment or two, each calculating their plan of attack, and in the end it was Leo who made the first move.

By virtue of Leo being his primary teacher for most of his life, their fighting styles were similar in a lot of ways, though the other influences in Casey’s life and his difference in choice of weapon meant there was enough variety that sparring with Casey wasn’t quite as evenly matched as fighting Leon. Casey was never all that adept at hand-to-hand-- there was really no point in learning, when your enemy had all the advantages the Krang did-- but he could hold his own. Cassandra (plus April, along with Leo and his brothers) had made sure that Casey was at least somewhat trained in pretty much every form of combat they could think of. Even if he only had a handle on the basics.

He caught Leo’s open-handed strike on the back of his arm, flinging it away and aiming to jab at his midsection (consciously or not, the same spot where he’d been injured back when they first arrived, because that instruction to always go for your opponent’s weak spots was still holding up strong). Likewise, Leo deflected that strike in turn. Leo wasn’t entirely willing to go all-out against his student, but Casey was definitely going easy on him, which meant one of them needed to pick up the pace or this would just be a very long back-and-forth where nothing happened.

The next time Casey deflected one of his strikes, he immediately ducked down to swing a leg out at his ankles before he had time to register a second attack. He hit the ground with a thud and a muffled oof.

“One-zero me,” Leo said. 

“Cheap shot,” Casey replied, bracing himself on one arm so he could roll over and push himself up to his feet. “Should’ve said nothing below the belt.”

“But you didn’t!” 

Leo barked a laugh as Casey scowled, and once more dodged the sweeping strike his student aimed at him. Of all the lessons he’d been taught, the one about internalizing your feelings and not letting them control your actions in a fight was one he’d never quite gotten the hand of. Sort of. Actually, he was really good at it in certain situations. It was more than a little tragic how good he was at pushing down things like grief and fear for the sake of winning a battle. When it came to his anger, though-- especially that born of mockery-- he was laughably easy to rile up. A trait he’d gotten from his mother, no doubt.

“It’s like you aren’t even trying,” Leo jeered, lightly stepping back and promptly dropping to the floor, bracing his weight on his fancy new arm to avoid a jab meant for the center of his plastron. “C’mon, shortstack, I taught you better than this. You need to predict where your enemy is going to be.” 

“It’d be a little easier if you actually moved in a way that made sense--!”

Because he was used to fighting Krang, who were easy to predict, and used to fighting Leo’s brothers. Who-- in this day and age-- still mostly fought like their father. And for as much as Splinter was certainly a skilled combatant (the former Battle Nexus Champion, as he’d liked to lord over Leo’s head whenever he got a little too big for his britches), years of movie fighting had fundamentally altered the way he moved. 

Leo, on the other hand, had two decades and a little more to stop fighting like their dad. He’d also spent a lot of that time learning to think and change up his style on the fly to suit a new situation. Like a fight with his student, where he was trying to win without anybody getting hurt.

“Do you need me to slow it down? I mean I can, if it’s too hard for you to keep up with some senior who just got out of surgery a few hours ago.”

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t be fighting! Would you just quit it and let me win so we can get this over with?!” Casey bared his teeth, lunging forward to tackle Leo around the middle. Definitely pissed off. Leo had just enough time to give him a smug smile before easily sidestepping and turning on his heel to smack the meat of his hand down on Casey’s back as he tumbled past. This time Casey managed to catch himself on his hands and knees before he hit the floor, but it still sounded like it hurt. Mat burn was no joke.

“That’s two-zero me, and wow, you’ve gotten rusty.” He poked Casey’s side with his foot. “What’ve you been doing while I’ve been recovering? Clearly not keeping up with your training, if this display is any indication. C’mon, bud, you’re better than this.” 

Casey pushed himself to his feet, huffing as he swept his now-damp hair out of his face and readied himself for another attack. Leo dug in his heels and braced himself.

Before either of them could make another move, the door slammed open hard enough to make it rattle in its frame as well as send a dumbbell rolling across the floor. Leo and Casey froze. Mikey yelped and ducked behind a stack of exercise mats.

“What are you doing??”  

Whoops. 

Donnie’s incredulous shout made Leo wince, both because of the volume and because he knew he’d been caught. He turned to face his fuming brother. “You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

“You’re supposed to be smart!!” Donnie threw his arms out exasperatedly, and while his face was all rage Leo could hear the mild panic in his tone. “I literally told you not to mess with it! I was very clear! I said, don’t do anything too strenuous--”

“I’m not messing with it. I’m using it as intended--”

“This counts as strenuous, Leonardo!” 

“I trust your work. And besides, it barely hurts anymore.”

“Barely should not be your benchmark! The baseline for pain is zero!! I thought of all people you, our self-appointed medic, would know that!” Donnie was absolutely seething, to a degree that seemed out of character. Even for his usual anger when someone misused his technology. He seemed seconds away from grabbing his Bo, heedless of the fact that fighting was what had him so mad at Leo in the first place. “And while I appreciate the confidence, trust doesn’t mean anything when I don’t know if it’s going to work right!!”

Leo blinked. Casey and Mikey had both gone quiet at Donnie’s initial appearance, and the silence in the room was thick. You could cut the tension with a knife.

“Donnie,” Leo said softly, “what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know if your arm is going to work right,” Donnie said, hands curled into fists at his sides and his expression strained with the effort of keeping it in check. “I’ve never done anything like this before. I don’t work with living things. The closest I’ve ever had to get is my battle shell, but that’s still different. It’s external. I don’t know if a crash course on the human nervous system is enough. Or a turtle’s nervous system. I’ve never had to think about it before-- Leon is the medic, not me, and none of us have ever been injured enough for me to have a need to learn about it. None of us have ever lost a limb. This is so much worse than anything we’ve had to deal with, and I don’t know what I’m doing."

“Breathe, Donnie.”  

He did, inhaling shakily and coughing on the exhale. After a moment or two his breathing evened out, and he looked to Leo with gritted teeth and narrow eyes. His twitchy rambling had become cold fury in seconds. “I’m not an expert, and even if I was, this blatant disregard for your safety is irresponsible and unsafe. It’s a poor example for a teacher to set. I told you before I did this that I was inexperienced. Maybe Future Donnie knew more, maybe he'd studied our biology for years, and maybe you trusted him to operate on you like this, but I'm not him.”

“I don’t trust you because of anything you might’ve done in the future,” Leo said. “I trust you because you’re you. You’re a genius. I’ve seen you pick up new skills overnight, and it’s not like you’re going into this totally blind. Robotics are your speciality, and prosthetics are just a slightly more complicated version of that.”

“They really aren’t, actually. The biological component alone separates the two fields but that doesn’t account for the replicated nervous system that modern robotics haven’t actually--” Donnie cut himself off before he could really begin his tirade, brows furrowing as he realized the intent behind Leo sending him on it in the first place. “...Point made. Regardless, though, I’m not an expert in this field, and I would appreciate you taking my warnings seriously. For someone who believes I’m the smartest person they’ve ever known-- your words-- you don’t seem to enjoy actually listening when I tell you things.”

Well, he had Leo there. 

“For as much as I trust you to know your stuff, I need you to trust me to know my limits,” he said, at the same time raising both hands in surrender. “But I’ll give you this one-- I’m sorry, it was irresponsible of me to throw myself into a fight despite you telling me not to. Won’t do it again. 

“I think you’re full of shit, but I’ll drop the subject. If you sit down and let me look it over to make sure you didn’t strain any of the connections in your ill-advised skirmish.”

“Not sure if I’d even call it a skirmish,” Leo muttered as he dropped into a cross-legged position, holding out his arm as Donnie flipped his goggles down and leaned in to peer at the internals of it. “More like a one-sided beatdown.”

“Please stop using provocation tactics on me, sensei,” Casey said wearily as he sat down against the stack of mats Mikey was still hidden behind. Likely from the mini-fridge nearby, Mikey had procured a bottle of water, and leaned around the mats to push it into Casey’s reddened hands. “I know they’re a favorite of yours, but it just isn't necessary. You can win against me without making me upset. Insult to injury, at this point.”

“Didn’t I teach you to always do whatever it takes to win a fight?”

“Yeah, when we were fighting aliens who were trying to kill us. Wholly different stakes.” He hissed as he rolled the cool bottle between his no doubt stinging palms. “Sorry, Donnie. I tried to tell him it was a bad idea, but--”

“But he’s Leo, and he’s stubborn. And, more importantly, he’s your Leo and that means you’re still inclined to do whatever he says. I get it. And I’m not... Well, no, I am mad, but not at you. Trust me, I’m well aware at how much trouble this dum-dum,” Donnie said as he flicked the side of Leo’s head with one robotic claw, “can get into on his own.”

“You’re not wrong,” Casey mused, scratching at the stubble on his chin. “I’ve had to bail him out of a sketchy situation more than once.”

“Hey, hey, woah, who said you two were allowed to gang up on me?” 

“That’s not something we need permission for,” Donnie replied, tone dry. He closed the plating of Leo’s arm with a click and dropped it in his lap. “Your arm is fine. It held up great, because I’m a genius. But if I ever catch you ignoring my instructions like this again--”

“I got it,” Leo interrupted the impending threat with his hands raised in surrender. “Trust me. Not gonna do it again.”

“I’m taking your word for it, but I want it on record that I think you’re full of shit.”

“He’s always full of shit!” Mikey called from where he was still crouched in hiding, having evidently decided that the tension in the room was no longer at a level where his smart-ass comments would be unwelcome.

They were lucky Leo loved them so much. Otherwise he’d never let them get away with all this rampant bullying. 

“Of course he is. He’s Leo, isn’t he?” Donnie flicked his goggles up, rolling his eyes, though his grin betrayed his lack of annoyance. He was never good at staying mad for long. Not like Leo and his unparalleled ability to hold grudges. (Leo had to be glad Leon had all but washed his hands of the prosthetic situation-- he could’ve offered some insight, but with Leo covering the medical aspect and Donnie handling the mechanical, it wasn’t really needed.) “Come on, dum-dum. You’re gonna buy us lunch as payment for this stunt.” 

“I don’t have any money.”

“Yeah, where the heck would he get money?” Mikey added, emerging from his hiding spot so he could instead find a perch on Leo’s shoulders. It had to be easier to sit there now that his arm didn’t have spikes protruding from it. “It’s not like this bum has got a job.”

“Right, I’m sure I’m exactly what every employer wants. Traumatized, amputee, middle-aged mutant.” He sighed heavily, adding some exasperation for the drama of it all, and grabbed both Donnie and Casey around the waist to haul them up under each arm. Donnie shouted something incomprehensible, flailing a bit in Leo’s grasp. Casey, meanwhile, simply went limp and resigned himself to become luggage. Clinging to his forehead to avoid being disrupted during the whole debacle, Mikey burst out laughing at their struggles. “Come on, you freeloaders. Let’s go see if I can’t coerce Hueso into giving us a meal on the house.” 

“I thought you told me Hueso didn’t like you, Sensei.”

“Nah, he loves me, he’s just easily annoyed by stupid teenagers. Something which I no longer am.”

“No, now you’re a stupid adult instead,” Donnie said, giving up on his attempts to get free and following Casey’s lead in letting his limbs go slack. “Also, if he doesn’t like stupid teenagers, why are we bringing these two along?”

“Hey!”

“Donald, I’m gonna whoop your--”

Leo hadn’t really expected to become a jungle gym for his brothers when he’d gotten up that morning, but he couldn’t say he was altogether opposed to it. Especially not since Casey was laughing his ass off at Mikey and Donnie’s antics. (Also since in his struggle to avoid Mikey trying to bite him, Donnie had apparently completely forgotten that Leo was supposed to be going easy with the arm.)

“Did you just lick me?! Oh, you’re so gross--”

“You started it!”

Little idiots. 

They were lucky he loved them.

Chapter Text

Leo woke up in the dead of night with the feeling of something horribly wrong sitting like a physical weight on his chest.

He’d learned over the course of two decades of war that it was always best to trust your gut when you felt something was off. Even if your senses betrayed nothing of note. Especially in that case. So instead of ignoring the feeling and going back to bed, he got to his feet and started on a round of the lair.

Raph, sound asleep, with Mikey curled up at his side in the place of his usual plethora of stuffed animals. Donnie was actually in bed at a relatively reasonable time in a bizarre turn of events-- however the reason for that became clear when something in the darkness shifted and Leon’s arm appeared from the opposite side of him, slung over Donnie’s chest. The fact that none of them were alone brought Leo comfort, but did nothing to ease that nerve-wracking feeling that had settled on his shoulders.

Splinter, snoring like a lawnmower, showing precisely where Leo and Raph had gotten their snores from. April undoubtedly safe in her own bed across town.

Which just left--

Casey’s empty room.

Ah. No wonder. 

The train car which had been cleared out and designated as Casey’s was mostly undecorated, but each day it gained more personality as the kid received more gifts, picked up more decor for himself, and just generally got more used to having a permanent residence. It was also totally vacant, the bed empty with a tangle of blankets on the floor to the side of it. A quick brush of his hand over the pillow revealed it to still be warm-- he hadn’t been gone long. It was possible he’d just gotten up for a drink or something, but the warning bells ringing in Leo’s head suggested it might be something else. 

He’d gotten pretty good at noticing the kid’s moods over the years. When it came to Casey, he had something of a sixth sense for when there was something wrong.

And right now that sense was definitely… sensing.

It was doubtful Casey would’ve gone far, still being relatively unfamiliar with navigating the city, but there was every chance he might have left the lair. A life of growing up living in caves and underground bases left one somewhat eager to see the sky when they had the option. Not that Leo had exactly grown up in a cave, but he could say from experience that the sewers were not dissimilar. 

His tired brain finally got up to speed, and he promptly remembered the tracker in Casey’s mask. Said mask was conveniently missing from his dresser, and when Leo pinged the radar, it led him through a sewer grate into a nearby alley and up the fire escape of one of the buildings enclosing it. 

Silhouetted by the city’s nighttime skyline, Casey sat on the edge of the roof. Leo might have been worried if he knew that throwing himself off of it was the last thing on his student’s mind. 

“Nice night,” Leo said quietly, and Casey glanced over at him without a hint of alarm. He’d put on his cloak and mask over his pajamas, and it was a strange dichotomy. Modern comfort mixed with future security. He looked… out of place, when put against the clean mundanity of the city. “Couldn’t sleep?”

“Not… really. I was doing fine at first, but--” He cut himself off with a heavy sigh, looking back out at the city forlornly. “I dunno. The lair was too quiet, I guess. I couldn’t fall back asleep.”

“I’ve been there.” Leo sat down next to him, and Casey immediately made himself comfortable against his side. Leo gladly wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. “We can get you a white noise machine or something if you’d like. I know the silence can be a little unsettling sometimes, especially when you’re used to always having people around.” 

Leo, personally, reveled in it.

While the city was never truly silent, it did get far quieter late at night, and that combined with the cool breeze blowing in off the water made for a markedly peaceful atmosphere. Leo had never realized how much he valued peace until he’d lost it. He supposed that’s how it was with most of the things he’d always taken for granted; a peaceful world, feeling safe, having his family to fall back on. Even before they’d started dying, there had been something of a disconnect between Leo and his brothers-- he hadn’t seen Mikey in weeks when he showed up to prevent their untimely demise. He and Donnie went months without speaking about anything but war matters when the invasion first began. And the less said about what had happened to his relationship with Raph the better. 

He never truly appreciated what it meant to always have the security blanket that was his brothers, never realized how lucky he was to have people he could always call on in an emergency and expect to show up without fail until they were gone.

“Sensei,” Casey said, interrupting his rather depressing musing, “can I ask you something?”

“Anything. Always.”

“What are you supposed to do if…” He trailed off, wringing his hands together. “...In the past. Present. When we are now. What do people do when they’re feeling restless?”

“Well, what sort of restless?”

“I mean… Back home-- Um, in the future, whenever I felt restless I’d get up and go on a patrol. Maybe make a supply run, if we were in the right area. Do some training. Maybe ask someone for a spar. But we don’t need to patrol here, and going on a supply run is just called shopping, and there’s not really anything to train for. No one’s awake at odd hours that I can ask to spar with. And I’m just wondering what people here do.”

“Well, it depends on the person, I guess. There aren’t regular patrol cycles here, but you can take a trip around the city if you’d like. The gym in the lair is always open if you want to train. Some fast food places are open all night, so you could run by there and grab something to eat.” He carefully adjusted the edge of Casey’s cloak where it had gotten twisted by his shifting around. “Or you could try something new; whenever he woke up feeling jittery, Mikey would go skating, or find somewhere new to put up some paint. Donnie works on his latest project. Raph knits. Have you looked into getting a hobby of some kind?”

“I’ve tried a few. I like painting, but that’s kind of hard to focus on when I’m feeling antsy. I guess I could try something else, but…”

Leo glanced down. Casey had his shoulders hunched, arms clasped tight to his chest. His expression was carefully neutral, mouth pressed into a thin line, but it wasn’t hard to pick out the tempest of emotions just beneath his metaphorically vacant mask.

“Talk to me, Casey,” Leo said gently. 

“I don’t think I can stay here,” the words tumbled out in a rush, like Casey needed to hurry in speaking before he lost them. “I can’t do it. I’m not built to be in one place for this long. Things are so calm and peaceful and it’s terrifying. I don’t know what to do if I’m not fighting. I can’t stop being on edge and I’m worried I’m gonna hurt someone-- I almost attacked Mikey the other day ‘cause he snuck up on me without me noticing. I have to do something. I have to go somewhere. We spent so long running, and now I finally have the chance to stay in one place for good, and I can’t.”

He sounded on the verge of tears. Without a moment’s hesitation, Leo turned to pull him into a proper hug, and Casey buried his face in Leo’s borrowed shirt. 

“And seeing everyone-- I have you, but I see Master Michelangelo and Donatello and they look so young and-- I can’t do it. I can’t. I can’t live here and have to see them everyday after everything.” He looked up, eyes damp and damn near hyperventilating. “I need to leave, Sensei.”

“It’s alright. I understand,” Leo assured him softly, rubbing a comforting hand over his back. He could feel Casey shaking in his hold as his student clung to him like the child he tried so hard to pretend he wasn’t. “You’re okay, kiddo. Deep breaths. Slow down, don’t hurt yourself. We’ll figure this out, alright? There’s no reason to rush. We’ve got all the time we need, and I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Casey nodded, taking a breath as instructed and relaxing slightly under the weight of Leo’s arms. Several more breaths later and he stopped shaking, letting his head fall against Leo’s chest with a dull sound.

“I like it here, Sensei. I really do. The past is great. I can eat whatever, I can just go outside whenever, all the problems are so small. Everyone is so welcoming, and it’s nice that I don’t have to be on guard all the time.” Leo felt him tugging at the back of his shirt as his hands clenched into fists. ”But… I am on guard all the time. I can’t stop it.”

“And that’s understandable. You grew up in wartime, buddy, that sort of mindset doesn’t just go away overnight.” It hadn’t even fully left Leo, and he had sixteen years of not being at war to reference. (The thought made him realize that he’d spent a longer time fighting the Krang than he hadn’t, and he carefully set that idea to be addressed at a later time. When his student didn’t need his support.) “We can try to work on that, if you want to give it a shot. But we don’t have to if you’ve got your mind made up.” 

“I… think I do. I need to leave.” He shook his head, burying his fingers in his hair and tugging at it. “Oh, man, everyone’s going to be so disappointed. Me and Mikey were gonna do a mural. Mom-- I mean, Cass-- she wanted me to play hockey with her. And I know it makes me a hypocrite, ‘cause I got so upset with you for trying to do the same thing and now I just expect you to let me go without question but--”

“Woah, hey, hey. Pump the brakes, bud. Those two situations are wildly different.” He carefully took hold of Casey’s hand to stop him from continuing to pull his hair out as he spoke. “I was trying to leave because I was being an idiot. I told myself I was doing it for everyone else’s sake while also ignoring them telling me they didn’t need me to. Didn’t want me to. I was somehow managing to be self-centered while calling it a kindness. You’re leaving for you. I can promise you that if you explain how you’re feeling, they’ll be understanding about it. Or if you don’t want to explain-- you can tell them that too and they’ll still understand. That’s what family does.” 

Casey looked up at him with watery eyes, clearly trying to keep himself from crying. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. They’re gonna be sad, but I know without a doubt that they won’t be upset with you, and they’ll respect whatever you wanna do.” He clapped a hand on Casey’s back, gently nudging him. “Now c’mon. It’s late, it’s cold, and we’re both tired. We can talk about this more in the morning, after we’ve both gotten a little more sleep.”

“That’s a good idea,” Casey said. Before Leo could stand, Casey grabbed the hem of his shirt. “Don’t… tell anyone. What we talked about. Please? I want to explain to the family myself.”

“Of course. I won’t say a word without your permission. Swear it.” He took hold of Casey’s hand and got to his feet, tugging his student along with him. “You gonna be okay to make it back down the ladder, or do you want me to carry you?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m not that out of it.”

He did nearly slip once on a particularly damp rung as they made their way back down into the lair, but Leo was kind enough not to call him out on it. They both put their collective training to good use and kept their footsteps silent as they headed back towards Casey’s room. No need to wake anyone else.

Leo couldn’t help but speak up, though; “You gonna be okay getting  back to bed? Want me to steal Mikey’s speaker for music or background noise? He’s in Raph’s room, he’s not using it.”

“No, it’s fine,” Casey said, the yawn that interrupted him only corroborating his words. He latched onto Leo’s shirt as they headed through the lair, a gesture reminiscent of something he’d done frequently as a much younger child. Clinging to whatever piece of clothing he could reach and trailing after whoever was available. “I think I’m tired enough that I won’t have much trouble falling asleep again.”

Leo led him back to bed, carefully divesting him of his cloak and mask, then allowed him to get settled before folding the blanket up to his chin. Casey laughed quietly at him.

“I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t need you to tuck me in.”

“You’ll always be a kid to me. Just let me have this.” Once Casey was adequately cozied up, Leo took to one knee and carefully brushed his hair out of his face. “You sure you don’t want me to stick around? I can sleep here if you think you’ll need me.”

“I’m okay. You should get some rest. If you stay here you’re just gonna sit up all night keeping an eye on me.” He yawned again, tilting his head to the side to bump it against Leo’s shoulder. He was right, of course, Leo would do exactly that, but it was a little irritating that Casey knew him well enough to call him out on it. (It wasn’t irritating in the slightest, actually. He was so soft for this kid.) “G’night, Sensei.”

“Night, kiddo,” Leo whispered, kissing his forehead then standing to leave. “Sleep well.”

Casey mumbled something that might’ve been a “you too” if it weren’t muffled in his blankets and barely audible. Careful not to make too much noise and startle the poor kid, Leo pulled the door closed behind him. Then, letting his shoulders fall and heaving a heavy sigh, he turned and headed towards the kitchen.

He would go to bed like promised. He just needed to recuperate from that whole conversation a little bit. Seeing Casey in pain was never easy on him, particularly not the sort of emotional pain that Leo couldn’t fix with some bandages and antiseptic. 

The room turned out to be less abandoned than he would’ve expected at such a late hour, and Leo paused only briefly in the doorway before he continued on through to grab a cup from the cabinet. Raph looked up from his place at the counter, clearly startled, but his mild panic faded as he registered who it was.

“Hey,” Raph said, voice gravelly with exhaustion.

“Hey,” Leo replied, keeping his voice low so as not to wake the rest of their sleeping family members. He filled his glass from the sink, then went over to lean against the counter next to Raph, where Raph promptly bumped his head against Leo’s arm in a greeting. (His real one, luckily, or he’d risk giving himself a nasty bruise.) “Seems like insomnia's making rounds tonight. You okay?”

“I’m alright. Just… thinkin’ about stuff, I suppose.” He grimaced, opening and closing his mouth a couple times in obvious hesitation before he continued speaking; “Can I-- I mean… I know I said I wouldn’t ask again, but I just want to--”

“I’m not going to tell you how you died, Raph,” Leo interrupted him, his voice barely above a whisper, and by the way Raph’s expression turned guilty he could tell his hunch on the impending question had been correct. His brother was never the type for subtlety. Quite the opposite, in fact. His intentions were always crystal clear. “You want to know, and I get it. I really do. You’re hoping if you know how it happens, you might be able to stop it. But Raph; I can promise that if I tell you, it will change nothing.”

Telling him that he’d died protecting Leo wouldn’t stop him from throwing himself into harm’s way for their sake. All it would do is create an internal conflict that would end up tearing him in two. 

“The Krang are gone. It’s not a concern.” He set a hand on Raph’s shoulder. “Try not to think about it too hard, alright?”

Raph exhaled heavily. “...Alright. Kinda hard not to think about it, but I’ll do my best.”

“I know. And I’m sorry I put that kind of weight on your shoulders.” Hindsight made it easy to see that telling his brothers they were dead hadn’t been a fantastic idea. At least, not the way he’d gone about it. It was for the best that he told them in lieu of them finding out when he or Casey failed to keep quiet about it, but he could’ve gone about it a different way. Maybe he could’ve been a little gentler. “You’re here now. Focus on that.”

Another heavy exhale in the form of a sigh, and Leo wrapped his arm around Raph’s shoulders as much as he was able. Even with him having a few inches on his brother, the breadth of his wingspan meant Leo still couldn’t really pull him into a one-armed hug like he could with everyone else. 

Raph leaned into the embrace, and Leo gave him a tired smile. “We always end up having the big conversations here, huh?”

“Makes sense. Neutral territory and all,” Raph said with a shrug, gentle enough that Leo was certain he wasn’t trying to dislodge his arm. “How about you? What’re you doin’ up?”

“Ah… Helping Casey. He was having a little trouble getting to sleep.” He grimaced. Casey had asked him to keep it to himself for the time being, and he would oblige. “He’s still having some difficulties adjusting to the present day, I think. We’re working on it.”

“Got it. Is there anything we can do to help?”

“I don’t think so. This is something he needs to handle on his own.” Raph’s expression fell at his words, and he looked away. A severe enough reaction that Leo couldn’t help but call him out on it. “What’s wrong?”

“I know my issues aren’t really important in this scenario,” Raph said, crossing his arms over his plastron and hiking his shoulders up, “but I… I guess I feel kinda useless, y’know? Like I’m not doing enough. Like I can’t do enough. I wasn’t strong enough to fight off the Krang, I had to run off and leave it all to you guys, and you got hurt ‘cause of it. I couldn’t do anything to help you get better, not like Leon or Donnie or Mikey could. Now Casey’s having trouble, and again there’s nothin’ I can do.”

“Raph, do you really think you weren’t strong enough in that fight? Without you, Donnie would’ve gotten crushed. Everyone else would’ve been stuck in the line of fire, and we might not have been able to focus on trapping the Krang long enough to actually do it while having to worry about them.”

“I ran away.”  

“You made a tactical retreat. Raph, there’s a lot of ways to win a fight,” he said, lowering his head to actually look his brother in the eyes. “And sometimes that involves not fighting. For as much as you won’t hesitate to throw yourself at your enemies, you’ve always been focused on keeping people safe. And you did just that. You protected your family. You did good , bud. Because of you, we walked away from that fight with zero casualties. Yeah, some of us got hurt, but you made sure everyone was still alive to get better.”  

Raph’s face scrunched up as he clearly tried to keep from crying. Pulling away from the side-hug, Leo instead turned to face Raph head on and set both hands on his shoulders. He gently nudged Raph’s chin with his thumb to make him look up and meet his eyes.

“You’ve done so well at making sure everyone else is safe and protected. Time to take a step back and let someone else protect you.” 

“I know,” Raph said hoarsely. “I know, and I’m trying, but it’s so hard.”

“I get it. After how long you’ve had to be strong for everyone else, it’s tough to let yourself be weak. But it’s okay, Raph. Everything’s okay.” He pulled Raph into a proper hug, and their heights aligned perfectly for Raph to be able to bury his face in Leo’s shoulder. It didn’t take long for a damp spot to form on his shirt. “Everyone’s safe. You did it. Now let the adults take it from here, okay?” 

“Okay.” It was barely a whisper, more of an exhale with a hint of speech. 

“And hey, don’t worry about Casey, alright? I’m helping him. He asked me not to tell anyone about what he’s dealing with and I’m gonna respect that, but I promise he’ll be just fine.” 

“I’ll take your word for it,” Raph said, turning to tuck his forehead into the crook of Leo’s neck. His shell was a little too broad for Leo to reach all the way around him, but he had no trouble settling his arms around Raph’s shoulders. “Tell me if I can help, though. Please.” 

“I will. Promise. Ask Casey, too, there might be something he needs a hand with that I can’t provide. It might be easier for him to talk about some things with someone he doesn’t have any kind of preexisting basis with, and with someone his own age.” Leo smiled, setting his chin on top of Raph’s head. “As I’m sure you’re well aware, sometimes kids don’t like talking about things with their parents.”

He felt rather than saw Raph’s answering grin. “Finally admitting it outright, huh?”

“Can’t really think of any good reason to pretend like it’s not true, at this point. Everyone already knows it.” Leo shook his head fondly. “I love that kid so much.”

“I can tell. You guys weren’t exactly trying to hide it,” Raph said, chortling as he did. He seemed in higher spirits, and Leo supposed he could sacrifice whatever remained of his dignity for the sake of making his brother feel better. “Never thought I’d see the day. Y’know, out of all of us, I always thought Leo would be the last to think about starting a family of his own. I mean-- it was never really something that crossed my mind at all, considering… this whole situation, but just as a hypothetical, y’know?”

“Yeah, trust me, I didn’t see this one coming either. It just kind of… happened, I suppose. One thing led to another, and suddenly I’ve got this snot-nosed little brat tailing me at all hours of the day.” Insulting as the words might’ve been, they were spoken without a hint of vitriol. “Can’t say how thankful I am that I got him, though. I wouldn’t be here without him.”

“I’m pretty glad for it too, then.” Raph leaned back to clap a hand on his shoulder and shake it a bit. “I’m happy you’re here, big guy. I know things were a little rocky at the start, but you’ve done a lot for us. We couldn’t’ve done all this without you.”

“Ah, I’m sure you would’ve managed.”

“Alright, lemme clear it up. Without you, this whole thing would’ve been a lot harder. Yeah, we probably would’ve gotten it taken care of eventually, but no telling who might’ve gotten hurt in the process. I’m still not happy that you punched my brother, but I gotta admit that I’m not sure I could’ve trusted him to actually get the key back from those guys before they opened the portal.” He shook his head. “I don’t have to tell you this, do I? He’s got a lot of potential, but it’s stuck under a whole lot of showboating. And the worst part is, I know he’s only doing it ‘cause he’s insecure, and he’s trying to make up for how sudden the whole thing was. You clearly got over it, but I don’t want him to have to go through an apocalypse before he figures out how to be a good leader.”

“You’re not wrong,” Leo said, slightly dazed, mostly because he hadn’t realized Raph had always had such a good handle on how he functioned at such a young age. As per usual, it seemed he’d underestimated him. “He does have a lot of potential, and I’m not saying that to be egotistical. Honestly, I could see him turning out as a better leader than me. Circumstances forced me to figure it out early, but he’s got time to learn naturally. He can afford to make mistakes. He’ll be a great leader one day.” 

He also wasn’t wrong about it potentially being a lot harder if Leo hadn’t been there. Sure, they still had to fight the Krang in the end, but they’d never even made it off the island. Aside from the light the portal had made, the rest of New York would remain wholly unaware that the world had gotten very close to falling under siege. And yeah, the family had gotten hurt, but they were all surface injuries. Nothing that would leave lasting damage.

And nothing that would leave scars on the mind, either. At least, none so severe that it would haunt them for the rest of their lives. Yeah, they’d probably be a little jumpier for the foreseeable future, but they’d recover. 

Leon would be able to grow as a person without needing to be traumatized to do it. 

Leo was completely unsurprised to realize that if it meant he could give this family peace for the rest of their lives, he’d do it all again.

“And y’know what?” He rubbed his knuckles over the top of Raph’s head, then grinned and pulled him back into a hug. “I’m pretty happy I’m here too.”