Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Donatello woke up Raphael again. His nightmares were horrible and the 11 year old never really wanted to talk about them.

"Raph, do you miss them?" Donnie asked his brother as he moved to sit on his bed, the older one sitting on it as well to have more space.

Raphael looked at his brother face, only lit by a red NYWA bedside table lamp splinter gifted him for his 10th birthday, with a confused expression "Who should I miss?"

The soft shell looked at his brother back with a compassionate smile so Raph didn't feel as bad "Just- forget it. It just feels like there's someone missing all the time! And I'm not about Sandro!" Raph looked away at the mention of their older brother's name "Even with him around it still felt like someone was missing!! And then there's this nightmares about losing someone, I just don't know who they are, their face is to blurry"

"Maybe you just need a distraction..." Raph looked back at his brother's face whit his iconic smile "How about we sneak out tomorrow and go to that garbage dump to look for materials for your tech! You don't need to touch any texture you find weird though, I'm not a savage" Raph snickered at how quickly his brothers face light up, even if it was hard to see because of the light's reflection to the glasses he had taped to the sides of his face.

Donnie quickly got up from the bed, hugging Raph and telling him he was the best of brothers before running back to his bedroom to go to sleep for the next day while he laughed happily. Raphael watching him go with a smile that slowly disappeared as a growing worry started to grow in his chest. He hoped for those nightmares to stop, but they just have gone worse the each day that passed since Sandro disappeared.

"Dad! Dad! Dad! DAD!" shouted the ten year old at his father.

Draxum didn't like to be called Father, Dad or any thing like that, but even if he tried (and he tried), he just couldn't make Michelangelo stop using those parental figure associated names. It's not like he didn't consider himself that kid's father, he did, he just didn't like to be called such.

"What is it now Michelangelo?" Draxum stated coldly. He's personality and his sons were complete opposites. The father was a cold, unemphatic man of science that tends to isolate himself thanks to a lack of interest in socializing, preferring to be with as little people as possible while his son was a really social and positive artist that just wants people to get along happily.

"I want to show you my drawing!" The turtle exclaimed as the goat yokai turned to look at the drawing. It was incredibly drawn, which didn't surprise him as he had spent most of his childhood drawing. Practice makes perfect. It was a drawing of a Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim crossover where the two protagonist looked with hatred at each other.

It wasn't perfect, but nothing is. Draxum learned that from him.

"I love it Michael, as always it's incredible" His tone was a bit less cold, more tired than anything else.

"Keep it"

"What?"

"Keep it! It's for you! A gift!!" The kid cheerfully said.

"But why? What is your reason?" Draxum didn't understand why he wanted him to keep it, it wasn't like it was his birthday or it was Christmas (Holidays that they only celebrated because Mikey kept insisting over the years to do).

"I don't have a reason, I don't really need one! I just wanted to give you a gift!!"

Mikey left the drawing in a table near by he knew Draxum wouldn't have a problem if he approached and left the drawing there before he started leaving the room.

"Hey kid" Mikey stoped and listened to Draxum "would you like to come to the surface with me tomorrow? I have someone I need to talk to and maybe you'll like to go with the humans, don't know why you would but-" Draxum was cut short by a surprise hug from Mikey as a way to thank him before he resumed his path of going to bed.

Chapter Text

Out the portal that opened in front of Big Mama's office stepped Draxum, Mikey and the 2 'bodyguards' they had, Huginn and Muninn.

"As you're coming with me this time around" Started Draxum as he opened one of his portals "there's a few rules you ought to follow"

Draxum called for his two servants "1. I'm not your father, if someone asks you, you work for me"

Huginn and Munnin came to him with some bags, Mikey didn't really know what they had inside them "2. Don't tell anyone who you truly are. Maybe I work with Big Mama, but that doesn't mean they can be trusted"

Draxum turned to look at Mikey, both of the creatures already placed on his shoulders as they usually did "And 3. Don't move from where I leave you."

Draxum knocked on the door, waiting to be left into the room. Soon he was left alone in front of the door.

'Remember the rules Mikey, this could count as training' he told himself.

Mikey was adventurous and couldn't stay put for a lot of time, so going outside was really appreciated, but this is not what Mikey had planned. He wanted to go outside, to explore the human world that fascinated him so much, but in retrospect, he wished for so much from Draxum he should be happy with all he got, right? But he still needed more, he wasn't satisfied, but he didn't want to disappoint Draxum...

"ARGGGGGG! GROWING UP IS HARD" He yelled in a whisper as to not disturb the Baron and his business associate.

He stared at the walls, they had a fun wallpaper that looked awfully close to what someone might mistake for a spider which Mikey found dated and inexpressive; at the ceiling, which was covered in bright lights that covered all the hallway and gave it a almost unnoticeable reddish-purple tone; at the floor, a pretty unsaturated pink soft carpet covered it all and Mikey quite enjoyed it's touch; and at the doors, big white wood doors that tied the look together. He spotted a window at the end of the hallway, a small window that he could see from if he got close enough.

Don't move from where I leave you .

He was tempted to go look through it, but after a minute or so of debating with himself, he chose not to.

"That window is not gonna kill you, ya' know?" The 10 year old was startled by a voice that came from behind him. He turned around to see a kid that looked human staring at him with what looked to be a genuine expression. He was half a head taller than Mikey, skin covered in markings that the turtle recognized as vitiligo (like one of his favourite actors) and had long brown hair put up in a ponytail. The kid reminded him of both Lou Jitsu and Jupiter Jim, but maybe that was just because they were blasian. "you can look through it"

He shouldn't speak with strangers, he really shouldn't, but they just looked so nice!!

Another kid fell from the ceiling, probably from a vent or something like that, and landed just beside the first kid. The second one was taller and buffier, maybe one or two years older than the brunet. They also looked more asian than the other kid, but even so, Mikey could say that they most likely were siblings. The taller kid had their whole head shaved and didn't show the same markings as the other kid.

"What were you doing with Draxum?" The second kid asked.

If someone asks you, you work for me

"I work for him... But who are you anyways? And what are you doing here?" The shorter of the three quickly changed the conversation topic as he didn't really know how he would answer any other questions about his relationship with the Baron.

"Oh! My name is David, you can call me Davi! And she's my sister Veronika!" The first kid answered. It sounded so natural, but Mikey couldn't help it feel like they were lying to him.

"You can just call me Nika" She extended her hand for a handshake between the two of them "And our mother works here"

"But we don't work so we just hang out around here" Davi was quick to continue his sister's words. Sure, having kids work a real job was illegal, he thought, but he was sure that Big Mama could get away with anything.

"But you are humans... How come you work for Big Mama?"

"Oh we're yokai! We're just using our human disguises!" Nika commented calmly, mildly annoyance in her tone after that question.

Mikey couldn't stop. He looked at the window like it was an invaluable item, which didn't go unnoticed by the siblings who asked why didn't he go to look through the window.

"Because Draxum would kill me if he ever found out!" He exclaimed.

"But he doesn't need to know..." Davi smirked at Nika who just looked away with a tired look on her face "From the looks of it, he and Big Mama are gonna be talking business for a long time, and honestly there's just a forgotten alley back there" Both of the adult yokai's screams were heard from the other side of the door "Do you know what graffiti is, umm... What's your name again?"

Don't tell anyone who you truly are.

Michelangelo thought of the man he had been named after, Michelangelo Buonarroti, who's full name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Simoni sounded like a legit name... Maybe he could tell them he was named "Simon, my name is Simon" He finally said with a smile.

Donnie didn’t know how to express his feelings. And now he couldn’t tell you how he was feeling exactly.

He was doing the thing he did when he had any strong emotion where he had the need to bite something- that’s why he was chewing gum, healthier than biting his hand Eren Yeager style- but he wasn’t anxious or stress, or at least he thinks so, but he didn’t think he was excited, they were just going to a junkyard! Not going to watch a new Jupiter Jim movie!

But even if he had trouble expressing his emotions normally, now that there was a whole in his family there was no one asking him how he was feeling. It wasn’t like Sandro tied together the family, but it’s like a piece of a puzzle was missing, you could tell the image, but it wasn’t quite right or finished.

Splinter distanced himself more than he already was, Donnie always thought he also had trouble expressing his emotions and that’s why he didn’t share them with his kids, or he maybe just wasn’t ready.

Raph… He was trying to fill that big brother role that now was vacant while needing someone there for him now more than ever. Donnie tried helping Raph so he knew he had a shoulder to rely on, but it had just ended up in Raph yelling at him, he didn’t know what he did wrong and it wasn’t like Raph was helping him discover what that was.

Life’s frustrating and unfair.

17:00 pm. Exactly 18 minutes after the sun started setting. Raph said they’ll be going at 17:15 pm, just to be sure they had less chances of being seen.

Tired of waiting and working on his tech, Donnie got out of his chair and out of his lab, taking direction towards the kitchen.

It was as quiet in there as it was in the rest of the lair.

Donnie opened some cabinets, closing them after seeing food. Then moved to the fridge, opening and looking around at the food.

He wasn’t hungry. It wasn’t like there was a lot of food in it either: ketchup, some leftover pizza still in the box, bread, two half eaten cupcakes (a strawberry cupcake and a chocolate cupcake), water, apple juice and leftover mcdonalds nuggets.

He picked up that strange habit from Sandro. Getting up, going to the kitchen and looking around the cabinets and fridge even if he wasn’t hungry.

Some ketchup, 4 slices of bread and apple juice… Yep, that was his afternoon snack. He took a glass and filled it to the brim with ketchup, eating it with a small spoon. Munching bread loafs was always comforting, he liked bread. The apple Juice was left for last, it didn’t taste like apples but he didn’t really care, it still had that apple-like taste even if it was unnoticeable.

“Donnie, it’s time to go” Raph’s head appeared through the kitchen door.

“Oh, right, give me a moment and I’ll be with you” Raph’s head soon disappeared from the doorway and a notification popped up in his tech-gaunlet’s screen (he definitely needs to find a better name for it). One of his search bots, one of his most recent inventions, had found some signals that were similar to both turtles and humans. It had sent a photo of the signals it caught.

Donnie opened one of them and what he had found wasn’t what he was expecting. His search bot had identified three things that were apparently turtles, but not quite. He opened another one, this one a thermography, and was surprised to see that one of things that his search bot had identified as turtles actually looked like a human turtle, the other ones looked… well… human, but they didn’t have the temperature that other humans had, in fact it was around 10ºc below what an average human. “That’s weird” He mumbled “Maybe I’ll send one that has an actual camera to check…”

Mikey could ask a billion questions right now like ‘Isn’t vandalism illegal?’ ‘What if Big Mama or Draxum found them?’ ‘Why did they want to go paint graffiti with him?’ ‘Why did Davi ask him if he knew what graffiti was? Of course he knew what it was!’ but he wouldn’t ask any of them. Nika looked at him with a weird look, like she didn’t trust him, and that didn’t make him feel like she was going to answer them and Davi was just too into whatever he was painting… It was like a Picasso painting, abstract and you could understand parts of it, the difference is that Picasso paintings are priceless and Davi’s painting was worthless.

“Woooow, Simon, that's amazing!!” Davi said as he stepped back and looked at the graffiti Mikey was painting. Nika stepped back as well and her jaw dropped.

“For a dude with a basic name you do have no basic ability in painting” That little comment made Mikey really happy. Draxum didn’t give him a lot of validation, or time to be honest, always working on his experiments or whatever he did in his lab all day and Higgin and Munnin telling him that what he did was cool and it looked really well didn’t feel the same and this didn’t fill the whole that the lack of validation from Draxum left and even if it did they weren’t with him enough that they would normally gave it to him, they worked for Draxum after all. Nika and Davi complementing his work didn’t feel that void either, but it was different, they weren’t doing it to make him feel better but out of actual admiration, because they liked it.

“Thank you! It’s not perfect, but it is the first time I use spray” Mikey happily exclaimed just before the sound of some pallet they had placed in the entrance of the alley way just in case anybody would see them.

Ow, that hurt.

“Raph! Get up! Quick!” Donnie exclaimed at his brother who had been thrown on top of his arm, specifically the one with his tech-gauntlet which now was broken. His arm hurt, obviously, but he was just worried that they had to get out of there immediately .

They had been found by the dude that owned the garbage dump and now they had to run away.

Raph got up and picked up the bag he was carrying again. Donnie tried to get up as fast as he could, but his arm didn’t really help his cause. His brother offered him a hand to get up and started running again.

A warning shot to the sky could be heard from not so far away “What do you think you are doing here monsters”

Monsters .

Donnie noticed how Raph stopped and looked at the man. “Raph! Come on! We gotta get out of here!” he urged his brother while he yanked him by his arm.

They resumed running while the dude kept shouting at them. Donatello wasn’t paying attention to him, but he knew Raph was paying attention or maybe thinking about what he had said. It felt like Raph was in his own world, not really thinking about what he should be thinking and just… kind of gone.

Another shot was heard, this one definitely wasn’t a warning one, but when Donnie wanted to try and dodge he felt it hit his left arm, which if it already hurt, now it hurt more. Him shouting in pain seemed to get Raph to think clearly again just as he was hitted in his right arm by another bullet.

They ran as fast as they could, the dude wasn’t as lucky now, not landing any hits and they could escape into a nearby sewer as soon as they left the property. Now all that mattered was checking that they were alright, and finding a way to explain to Splinter that they were shot, and it would be especially hard after Sandro going missing was so recent.

Davi shoved Mikey to the side just as the robot swung at him with his arm, which now was a blade, making a huge wound that will definitely leave a scar. When Mikey looked up again he could see that the robot had been stabbed with a weapon he identified as a kyoketsu shoge. A long reign ninja weapon which blade’s was kind of L shaped and had its handle tied to a metal ring, this time by a metal chain.

“Hey kid, we should go now, just in case more of this… thing appears” Nika said as she put away her weapon and Davi helped him get up.

They climb up the side of the hotel again just in time to act like nothing had happened, like Davi and Nika had never been there and Mikey didn’t move from the exact spot Draxum had left him.

“Time to go” The scientist drily stated as he opened a portal back to the lab and got straight back to working.

Mikey just stayed there painting as he answered Draxum questions about if he had followed what he had said. The turtle obviously didn’t tell him he disobeyed one of his rules.

Just as the clock struck midnight, Draxum turned towards his kid “Well, as you’ve done so well and today is your birthday… Why don’t you came forward so I can give you your gift”

Chapter Text

Splinter looked… angry? He didn’t really look angry. It was the same face he had on every time he brought Sandro back when he escaped. Maybe it was worry, or worry and anger at the same time? It didn’t matter what emotion Splinter was portraying, Raph felt bad about it.

“Stop moving so much. You’ll just get hurt and it’ll take longer” Splinter calmly said, which didn’t look good with his now worried expression, Raph was sure of this one “Sometimes you’re worse than Purple, and we both know that he doesn’t take pain well”

In Splinter’s room there was silence, only sound being the sewer waters running and an occasional rat or two running outside the lair. Raph sat on the bed while Splinter treated his wound. The older brother out of the two was the lucky one, all his damage was superficial, the bullet barely making it into the fat tissue of his arm.

Donnie on the other hand had really serious damage, between having Raph fall onto his forearm with enough force it broke part of his tech-gauntlet and getting shot on the same forearm he was going to be amputated.

Raph couldn’t feel more guilty. It had been his idea to go to the garbage dump after all. And it wasn’t like he didn’t want to apologise, he wanted to tell them he was sorry for all of this, but the words didn’t sound right or it was like his vocal cords didn’t work. For the first time, ‘I’m sorry’ was hard to say but it wasn’t because he wasn’t sorry, he was! It was just, like, hard.

“Stop thinking so hard. You’re starting to act like your brothers” There was a slight smile on Splinter's face for one moment, but it didn’t last long.

“But dad!-”

“I know you’re sorry, but don’t think about it” That felt out of character. He was the type of guy that just soaked in his grief and that led him to be a kind of negligent father even if he cared for his kids. Because he was. “The important thing is that you are safe”

Raph could say so many things. ‘But we were hurt’ ‘But we could’ve died’ ‘But Donnie’s really hurt’. It didn’t matter, he knew Splinter wouldn’t even let him open his mouth. So he just shut up.

“Great job April, you’re going around NYC at night. Alone. Again” The 14 year old face palmed “It’s not like you could have taken the path that coincided with Vanesa’s house. Noooo. You had to accompany Meredith home. Why did you even think you had a chance with her! You obviously did not!!”

April was walking home alone again, this time after ruining a friendship because she fell head over heels for one of her friends. Again. Middle school hadn’t been the best for her and her last year of middle school wasn’t going much better.

Honestly, she just wanted to find a friend group that actually lasted more than a month.

Or just a friend. Singular not plural. Well, there was Dale, but they never really talked much outside of school. Maybe he could become her friend for the long run? Even Dale had more friends that April at the moment.

Just as she passed the grand nexus hotel, something she was never really happy to do, it just reminded her of how good they live in the richer parts of New York City (not that hanging out with Meredith didn’t do the same job), something caught her attention. It was something that looked incredibly futuristic and was… purple? A nice colour, but April still preferred yellow or green.

They say curiosity killed the cat as a way to say that curiosity is bad. Well April wasn’t that cat and so she didn’t give a flying F if curiosity was bad, that didn’t stop her from going to take a look and figure out what that metallic thing was. As she moved closely a robotic form started to appear, slightly shining under her phone’s light.

It was a robot! And a really cool one, though it seemed broken, like someone stabbed them in the face.

They looked like they would have been a nice friend to have, and they weren’t that broken… And April was amazing in robotics for her age… Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to take it back home and repair it. And it wasn’t like her mom wouldn’t be able to help her as she was the one that taught her, that is if she was home.

And so our girl  carried a, at least, 5 kilo robot on her back to her house.

Raph slowly entered the room, careful not to bother his recently amputated brother.

“Hey, big guy, is everything alright? I brought you some water, you should hydrate” Donnie, already working on something just some hours after waking up after his operation, didn’t look at him when he placed the glass of water and just hummed as a way to say thanks to his brother. “Are you sure you’re ok working so soon after waking up… I don’t think it’s healthy”

“Dad says it’ll be fine. I’m just on some painkillers, that’s all”

They stood there for some seconds in silence, Donnie typing away on his computer and Raph doubting if he should go outside the room or stay there. Lately, Raph had been hopping from uncomfortable silence to uncomfortable silence.

This extra room, Donnie’s lab, screamed its owner's name in every nook and cranny. How clean and polished everything was reflected Donnie’s perfectionist nature and how dimly lit everything was, most of its lights being from purple screens, demonstrated how little Donnie opened up, and his favourite colour as well.

Raph felt out of place in the lab, he was way more comfortable in his training room where he has always claimed that one day it will be a garage where he will have his car or motorbike. He still claimed that even if he stopped believing it when he was 10.

After 3 minutes or so Raph decided to leave, Donnie noticed this and turned his chair around “Wait! Please, stay. I- I may need your help” Raph looked at him with a small smile “It’s hard doing some things with only a hand and a stump. I’m still getting used to it”

And so Raph sat on the floor, next to Donnie’s chair, listening to him working. He remembers his two brothers like this all the time, especially after 

Sandro got hurt or Raph went down to the future garage just because he needed to hit some stuff, which happened a lot considering Raph’s anger issues and his ways to keep people away from them and how often Sandro sneaked out. Over the years Raph deciphered it was Donnie’s way of expressing that he was worried for someone and needed company. The purple turtle also had the benefit of being the youngest out of the three, which meant that he had privileges that the other two didn’t have, like his brothers doing almost anything for him just to see him happy. And, well, that made him happy.

Suddenly, he felt a hand petting him on the head. He looked up and saw Donnie’s face, he looked like a kid that was about to cry about losing his toy, because that was what he was, but instead of sadness it looked more like relife Raph! I found O.B.B.Y.! We need to go get them back!!”

“O.B.B.Y.?”

“Yeah! The robot I created to look for Sandro! They’re in someone’s home, we need to go for them”

“But it’s just a robot, isn’t it? You can just build another one, right?”

Donnie now seemed on the verge of tears and raph understood that he had made a mistake asking that. Of course O.B.B.Y. was important to Donnie! Why couldn’t he have imagined it!

“NO! Sandro helped me build it before he disappeared! We built it in case we lost something one day and had to go and find it in the daylight or we needed help finding it!”

Raph felt bad, worse than he already felt and the only way of making Donnie (and himself) feel better was by helping him get O.B.B.Y. back, even if it was dangerous and they will get in trouble with Splinter.

April was sitting on her living room’s floor fixing the robot to her abilities, which weren't the best ones, but she could always ask her mom for help when she got back, if she wasn’t too tired of course

“So, here we are again. Just me and this robot. Alone. What has your life turned into April?”

Talking to herself was something she did often, it was like talking to a pet to feel less alone, but she didn’t have any pets. April understood why they didn’t: Her father, Joshua was allergic to almost everything that had fur and was in a pet store and neither of the family members were much home. And if April did manage to get a job, that'll mean that she would spend less time at home, and that wasn’t the best way to keep a normal pet alive.

Now that she thought about it, having a magic pet that didn’t need so much care or that she could take to different places would be a perfect pet for her family. But having a magical pet is impossible, she should start by having friends and not dreaming about magical nonexistent pets.

Loneliness is sad.

Though that feeling of loneliness didn’t last much long as she heard a weird noise outside. She froze as it sounded like someone had climbed up the fire escape,which wouldn’t worry her if it wasn’t because she saw two human-like figures, one taller and bigger than the other, watching her through the window.

They opened the window in a surprisingly calm manner for someone who is breaking into somebody else’s home.

“Give us the robot back!” said the bigger one out of the two men…? Maybe? They didn’t really look human, they looked more… reptilian, like turtles. He reminded her of knuckles, especially because of his spikes and his red bandana and other red accents. The other one stood behind the bigger one, almost as if the bigger one was a shield they forced onto him, like he wanted to look but the bigger one didn’t let him “Give back what’s ours!”

The smaller one’s head peeked out from behind the other one “What are you doing to O.B.B.Y.?” They looked like 12 year olds, talked like 12 year olds and speaked like 12 year olds. They were basically 12 year olds mutant turtles that broke into her home. Extrangely, it made her feel safer.

“Well I’m repairing it! It’s not my fault it was left broken in an alleyway!”

“It was?” Both of the turtles had the same reaction, only difference in their tones, one kind of hurt, the other came out kind of questioning.

“Yeah! And it looked like someone had stabbed it in the face, but it also was like someone had fried some circuits and shit like that, so I decided I would try and fix it”

The smaller turtle came forward and took a look over April’s shoulder at what she was working on “Huh? You’re right, and you’re not doing a bad job trying to fix my tech…” The turtle turned around and positioned himself behind the robot, O.B.B.Y. they had called them “I’m Donatello, he is Raphael, and you’re doing a really good job on my robot”

“Thank you, I guess” April didn’t really know how to respond, they had broken into her home “I’m April, nice to meet ya’”

“Me and my brother are sorry we broke into your home, but Donnie really wanted his robot back” Donnie’s brother apologised, though it just made his brother look like a privileged and spoiled child. It was obvious to April that they weren’t used to meeting new people, but they seemed nice!

It wasn’t like April was thinking about maybe befriending the two brothers. Not at all. Just a crazy woman would do it. Who was she going to lie, she saw those teens that could probably eat her face and thought that they would be the best of friends.

“So… April… I have a proposition for you” Donatello turned to look directly at her, as if he had been speaking with Raph while she was thinking “As you can observe, I’m lacking an arm” He also suddenly sounded way more formal than he did before “and as lost my arm recently, I need help adjusting. As you are good with technology, I’m asking you for help with my tech in exchange of our friendship”

That sounded like a really bad deal, but it was obvious that neither of the teens in the room had many friendships outside of their family and they could all benefit from having friends to be honest.

April accepted that deal and send the two turtles away as it was 7:30 pm and her mother was going to get home any minute as she just finished working and finding two anthropomorphic turtle men talking to her daughter in her living room while said daughter was trying to fix a robot she found on the streets after losing a whole friend group again.

Chapter Text

Last time Draxum had taken him out of the lab to accompany him to a meeting with Big Mama was 4 years ago or so. Now he was 13, almost 14, and had more abilities (and acne) than he did last time. He honestly hasn’t seen Big Mama since, and it’s not like he saw her much.

And now he was going to go see for the first time the “Gran Battle Nexus Concert” that’s always hosted on the battle nexus arena to mark the end of the season and is always followed by the Battle Nexus Gala, important to both business partners and associates of Big Mama and there for the Battle Nexus for business practices and deals, or at least that’s what Mikey thought.

He’s never been to either the gala or the concert, and it’s not like he had been begging Draxum to go, especially to the concert. It was what everyone in the hidden city talked about for week and Mikey had wanted to go every year, because he knew Draxum had an invitation to the concert as he also had one to the Gala (even if he always missed the concert) as he is powerful in the city and an important business partner to Big Mama, even if they didn’t quite like each other, but every year Draxum told him that he was too young. He had begged since it started, around 8 years ago, when he was 6, and all it took for him to go was an invitation to his name… He was the son of Baron Draxum after all.

Mikey and Draxum followed some workers to their seats. Mikey’s excitement was obvious and Draxum’s boredom was too.

“Michelangelo” Called Draxum to his son as they got to their place. The turtle looked at his father and as the man turned his body so he could step forward the teen was able to see all of the arena from a balcony and a woman staring at him, previously looking down from the balcony “meet Big Mama”

The woman approached him with an inviting smile and took his extended hand with both her hands, not exactly shaking it, but the intention clear.

She turned and looked at Draxum “What a delightful kid you have, Barry” Then, she turned and looked at Mikey “You remind me of my kids. I’m sure you’ll get along jolly well!”

Mikey sat down where he was told by Big Mama moments before she showed her yokai form. He was lucky he wasn’t arachnophobic.

Her and Draxum talked business until the stadium’s lights went off, making every one focus on the stage on the exact opposite side of the arena, leaving a perfect linear view from where Mikey was seated.

The curtains opened. A shadow appeared and started singing “dream on” by Aerosmith. He wasn’t surprised that the songs were from the topside and not the hidden city, after all the concert is also done for the humans the week after as a way to increase the popularity of the hotel for the humans. Big Mama is a business woman after all.

As the shadow was illuminated, a verse in, another shadow appeared singing instead of the first figure. Mikey looked at one of the screens and was able to see that the teen was the Red King , one of the most renowned battle nexus champions to date because, well, he’s fifteen. He could easily tell that the other shadow, that even with all the people clapping the first one’s reveal had enough voice power to be heard, was Electric , another extremely renowned battle nexus champion for her age. Mikey had heard of them, obviously . How can you not know of them! They were modern-day Lou Jitsu! Just younger. People even rumoured that they were Lou Jitsu’s secret love childs! Just imagine how good they fight for people to rumour that! Not that Mikey had seen them fight in person, Draxum had almost everything related to the battle nexus prohibited. Muninn says it’s because he used to have a crush on Lou Jitsu and then got dumped, but Mikey wasn’t stupid, that were obvious lies. Huginn and Munnin weren’t the best at lying, especially with Mikey.

When the second figure was discovered to be, as Mikey expeculated, Electric. Then again, it was their concert, along with three other people, Monther, Pace and Kevin. They were like a full on band, but to his knowledge this concert was the only time the ‘band’ played or acted or something like that together.

They finished the song and King stepped forward to speak. “What’s up hidden city people!” He shouted with enthusiasm even if he had the microphone. Luckily for him, most of the audience beamed up and shouted back. King didn’t lose his enthusiasm, but he did tone it down a few notches “You’re as wonderful as always. And let’s be honest, you already know us”

“If not it just means you’ve been living under a rock” Electric cut her brother.

“But some introductions are never bad. And so I want you to give an applause to the wonderful Monther, Pace and Kevin!!” A bat yokai, a lynx yokai and a capybara yokai get up on stage, coming out from backstage as King called their names and the audience gave a big applause to them “You can give a clap and a half to my sister Electric” some people laughed. If all the humour was going

“As nice as always, Red” mentions the Bat yokai, Monther, as she stepped to lean on Electric's head easily, which the smaller one didn’t like and almost immediately pushed Monther away.

“Anyways! We’re here to sing, not to bicker or bad puns,” Pace shot a look directly at King which revealed that it was (obviously) directed at him “we’re here to give a concert ”

“I want to sing the next song” Kevin, the capybara, said, almost pushing red off the stage into the backstage.

The others left the stage and was able to perform- that was a fucking theatre kid if Mikey has ever seen one- beautifully “ the bidding ” by Tally Hall. The concert continued flawlessly, some outfit changes here, some bad jokes there… And Mikey didn’t really notice when the 15 minute break in between the 2 hours and a half of the concert started, it was like time hadn’t even passed.

“Michelangelo!” His father called him “Come with us” Draxum never really liked Mikey being alone (even if he was the one that left him alone a lot of the time), but it felt like it was closer to ‘you’ll benefit from this most than me’ than ‘you’re my kid and don’t want you to be alone’.

He followed the goat-man and the spider-woman to a room that led to the backroom where 4 sweaty teenagers and their almost adult sweaty friend were talking and relaxing for sometime, eating something and drinking water.

Big mama presented them, even if they already knew each other and asked Monther, who Mikey now knew was called Amae, to have a chat with her and Draxum, soon leaving the room.

“So… I thought you were Simon…” King mentioned with a bit of well intended smugness in his tone. That gave away their first lie, The red king and Electric already knew Mikey, though Mikey knew them as Davi and Nika, when they were actually Leonardo and Jennika, Big Mama’s kids.

“You weren’t truthful either” Mikey bit back but lacked the smugness that Leo had in his tone. He was a little annoyed at them lying to him all those years ago, but he did too, and maybe they were also forced or influenced to lie about who they truly were. That didn’t mean they had to be lifelong enemies, he truly didn’t think that, he still wants to be friends with them. There’s people that don’t deserve second chances, that have just gone too far to be forgiven in the eyes of some, but something told Mikey that they weren’t like this, they deserve another chance, they were just kids when they met for the first time after all “Let’s start again. Hi! My name’s Mikey!”

Jennika sighed “I’m Jennika, nice to meet ya’”

“And I’m Leonardo” Leo dropped the maybe facade he had on, a kinder and less smug look taking over his face.

Just when Mikey left Amae came back. She told them that whatever she had talked about with the two business people wasn't anything to worry about, just that Draxum needed help from Big Mama and she just asked for her help. Leo knew that it was all lies, he knew his mother all too well, he knew that she just wouldn’t seek anything Amae could provide right now, he knew when one of his only 4 friends (one of them being his sister) was lying to him. It all seemed too fishy, but he didn’t question it, they had around 5 minutes left to get ready and they needed to prioritise.

No one would be surprised that the songs were proposed by Leo and Fer, the local theatre kids, and the other 3 just judged them but rolled with it. And honestly it wasn’t their fault, they just had good taste, even if Calixto always says that that’s debatable… And now it was time for Fer’s favourite, what he always called ‘his time to shine’, “Noel’s lament” from the musical ride the cyclone . A solo act that had Jennika and Amae as background dancers, which left Leo time to get ready for his next act where he sings “When he sees me” from the musical waitress .

Being backstage was like a breath of fresh air. He waited there before or after the people looked at him, commented on him and decided whether to go with or against him. It was like that whenever Leo did something, everyone and their mother would be talking about him for a week straight, which felt great for someone like Leo that gets his confidence from other people’s attention, someone who thrived off of validation to be more precise, but it also added an enormous pressure on the teen as he couldn’t do anything wrong. Life is a performance at its core and you have to act a way or another to be liked, and in the end, that’s not even enough.

The stage right now is set up to recreate a restaurant or a cafeteria, two round tables with one or two chairs at each side and the centre left blank so as to not disturb their movement. 

Calixto stands at his side, ready to act as they’ve rehearsed for two months.

People clap at Fer, Amae and Jenny who quickly leave the stage as the lights focus on Leo and Cal entering the stage. They walk into the stage having a small chat about Leo giving someone that asked him out a chance and Leo’s response is to start singing.

At first Cal follows him as he wanders around the stage but halfway through the third verse just takes a chair and sits down while he listens to Leo sing. Then the chorus comes on, and Leo isn’t talking to Cal anymore, he looks forward, straight into the audience, taking in their faces. He spots Big mama, Draxum and Mikey all together on that well known balcony where his mother was always making sure everything went according to plan. He turns his head to look one way, the opposite one from where Cal was seated. He saw people singing along, happy people, people on the break of tears, but he didn’t know them, they weren’t a priority at that moment. The priority was the concert, not their faces.

It was always that way. They were important, but because of them, but because of their money.

Leo was the one that chose this song for himself. He’s still amazed at how easily the others were convinced of having the second part mostly have musical songs. Fer and him did not expect to convince them as easily.

He doesn’t even notice when the song ends until Cal starts dialogue again, this time dialogue to transition into “sincerely, me” from Dear Evan Hansen . Cal pulls out a computer apparently out of nowhere and passes it to Leo as he sings Jared’s part while Cal sings Connor’s and Fer who just appeared in the middle of stage sings Evan’s part. He mostly sat down and got pushed out of the chair in that act, except for a small dance performance in the end.

Cal, Fer and Leo leave the stage when they finish the song as Amae got on stage to sing “Dead mom” from beetlejuice .

Backstage they change, but he can’t help but feel his sister's suspicious look at the balcony. He will have to talk to her when they finish the show.

‘Great, now we’re babysitting Mikey’ Thought Leo. Don’t take him wrong, he likes…? more like tolerates the guy… he just… didn’t… trust him?… Yeah, that has to be it! Not like he feels weirded out about the fact that he is the only other turtle yokai he has ever met apparat from his sister and the fact that he knows 100% thanks to Jenny that they had at least three other brothers and his almost constant nightmares about losing his brother , keyword brother as he only had Jennika.

But that can’t be! Mikey is a different species of turtle! He was a box turtle!

Then again Jennika was a diamondback and he was a red-eared slider… and in the nightmares he loses either a snapping turtle or a false-map turtle… but in those dreams where he loses brothers he saw himself as an outside spectator most of the time, watching a soft shell turtle suffer without being able to do anything, the same turtle that watches him in his most painful nightmares… Maybe that softshell was some kind of ancestor manifesting themselves in his dreams and telling him their backstory! Who was he gonna lie, he didn’t even believe that.

Jenny, as the favourite out of the two (it was something impossible to deny at this point), was able to get away to Amae’s flat instead of at a gala she didn’t want to be in, making sure a 13 year old didn’t do anything stupid and killed himself.

“Leo” The kid calls out to him in a soft spoken manner, probably trying to grab his attention without disturbing him “could we go to another place?” A arm shifts to rub against his arm in a calming way “there’s a lot of people in here and- well- it’s kind of stressing me out”

“Yeah, it’s stressing me out too to be honest…” Leo looks around. Both their parents are too busy talking business with other people to notice their absence, and if anything happens Leo has his phone with him and they can call them if they need anything… Plus, the sociable kid looks about to start crying if he stays a minute more in that room… there’s something making him uncomfortable Leo guesses “come on! Follow me” the older turtle grabs the smaller one by the unoccupied arm and gently drags him out of the room.

They walk down a hallway to get as far away from the music as possible.

“I’m sorry” Mikey starts when the only noises that could be heard were the usual sounds you encounter in a hotel “I don't know what happened there- I’m usually really social! You’d think I would be thrilled about being with so many people!”

Leo placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping his brain from making him feel worse “Don’t worry man, it’s ok. I too sometimes get uncomfortable when I’m other people even though I’m really social and extroverted, it sometimes happens”

“But you’ve got an excuse! You’re a public figure!”

“And you usually only talk to Draxum and those gargoyles, right?”

“Yeah, Huggin, Muninn and Dad”

Leo smiled at him, surprising even the own Leo, as you would think it was one of his smirks because he proved to be right, but instead he showed a genuine smile, one that showed that he didn’t want the kid to suffer for problems that didn’t exist. He may not trust the kid completely, but that didn’t mean that he wanted him to suffer! He was a year younger than him and he either knew how to lie and trick people or he just wanted friends.

Leo and Mikey continued to walk until they got into Leo’s room, one of the few places where they could be and have some privacy, as there were no cameras there. Retrospectively thinking, this wasn’t the best idea as he didn’t really trust Mikey ‘Why do I never use the three brain cells that I have?’.

“I like your room! It’s nicer than mine!” Yeah, it was nice. More than nice actually, one of the suites in the hotel. The room was separated in two parts, the first one was a launch with a coffee table, a couch and two loveseats all in a lowered-down platform; and the second part the actual bedroom. “Can I look around? I promise that I won’t sniff around!!” That sounded like genuine excitement, something Leo didn’t expect either.

What was up with Leo today that he didn’t expect anything genuine coming from anyone?

“Yeah, sure”

Mikey happily bounced in his spot and went to look around the room pointing out everything he liked to Leo. He pointed out the plushies and pillows he had in the launch-like part, the graffiti wall behind his bed, how his wardrobe was painted, the posters he had of his favourite band, artist and musicals, a rug he had and the desk where Leo worked if he needed to.

Mikey noticed three notebooks piled on onto the other, all with the same text written on the top in memory of Mamma Lupa followed by Never forget in pretty cursive and big letters in the middle and a number according to the notebook.

“Those are basically quotes from Mamma Lupa… They’re useful to this day to be honest” Leo’s expression went from a mildly happy one to one a bit sadder. Noticing Mikey’s ‘I don’t understand what you’re saying’ face, he explained that Mamma Lupa was the one who took care of Amae, Calixto and Fernando since they were abandoned.

“She had an Italian restaurant, L’amore della lupa , she even had Sr. Hueso as a disciple when he ran away from the hidden city!… you don’t know who Sr. Hueso is, do you?” Mikey shaked his head as if to say no “It doesn’t matter then… She was a good friend of Big Mama’s. She died around five years ago, it took us a long time to get over it to be honest.” Why couldn’t he stop oversharing? “I think I would be way more selfish and arrogant about everything than I am, even if Jennika says that I still am…” That made Mikey laugh, maybe there was some truth in his sister’s words…

“She sounds really nice”

“She was, it was like what a good grandma is in cartoons”

Mikey smiled slightly and kept reading some of the quotes in the notebook. They were all things Mamma Lupa said to help them or nuggets of knowledge she sometimes threw away.

They spent the rest of the afternoon playing smash bros ultimate until the gala had ended.

As Leo went to wish good night to Jennika, she told him her plan.

“I just don’t trust anything that Draxum might be doing in his lab, you know? He seems fishy…” Jennika says with a grin.

“It’s not like mom’s business isn’t fishy and scam-y either” Leo argues against his sister. Jenny was right, but her plans were worse than his, and his were really bad.

“Yeah, that’s true, but I don’t know, I want to know what he’s really doing in his lab all day. My plan is we sneak into his lab tomorrow afternoon”

Leo looked at his sister with a questioning expression, but he gave up in trying to doubt her, they didn’t have anything else to do, so why not try it out? What’s the worst that can happen?

Chapter Text

“I don’t think this is a good idea Jenny…” Leo wasn’t one to act heroic or have the best moral compass, but this didn’t feel right, like his gut was telling him this idea was the worst idea that his sister has had, and her ideas and plans weren’t the best or most safe… It wasn’t like Leo’s ideas were the best either… They had bad good ideas because they worked in the end. He just felt like today’s plan was a good bad plan. Actually he didn’t know why he tagged along. Or why he let his sister get his way. Or why, out of all people, his sister decided that the crazy goat scientist was the man they were gonna stock that day.

Well, he knew the answer to the last question. It still didn’t make it a better idea.

“What? You’re now getting cold feet?” His sister whispers back with bite.

“No!” Leo wasn’t a pussy! He didn’t even like pussy! The only thing he had to do with pussies was the one he had and didn’t want! He wasn’t backing down, especially now that Jennika had mentioned it, just like when you tell a dude (that’s stupid enough) with fragile masculinity that he does something or he is gay. “But Mama will kill us if she finds out!” That did get a reaction out of Jenny.

Maybe Big Mama was their mother. Maybe they loved each other mutually. That didn’t mean they weren’t afraid of her. She was… rather scary. Just imagine a woman who is almost above the law of the whole hidden city and has a huge part in the human New York city be the woman who is 1. In charge of maintaining you alive by giving you food and shelter and 2. Can kick you out of your home.

Jenny became confident again “Don’t worry, she won’t!” And maybe Leo would have given a cheesy joke as an answer if he had had time as Draxum’s two shoulder pats came out with the trash and that marked stage 1 of the plan: getting into the lab. They had moved the trash cans far away from where they usually sat, which could go one of two ways: either they left it on the floor or they moved a bit further to throw the trash correctly. Luckily the gargoyles weren’t lazy and they moved towards the trash cans.

Taking the opportunity of the only two permanent guards being out, they quickly and stealthy entered. He had had others, but they were ones that he had paid Big Mama for. In fact, Calixto had found by investigating that he had 2 guards hired right now but they were on the surface for some reason.

And they didn't have any other stages of the plan. Not getting caught and/or dying could be counted as a stage, right? Probably not.

The lab was beautiful in a weird way as some of it looked to actually be alive. In the middle of it there was a huge tube that shined green. None of the 2 siblings could tell you what was inside of it that made it look green as both of them had astigmatism, but they could tell you it was something that moved. Leo always thought it was ironic that they had astigmatism and spent most of their time in front of brightly lit lights. Maybe that was why they had astigmatism. He’ll do a google search when he gets home.

The rest of the lab was just as beautiful. Organic material mixed with Draxum’s experiment stuff he didn’t know the name of. Only thing that bugged Leo was that it didn’t feel right. Something about the lab felt… familiar? uncomfortable? Leo didn’t know what that lab made him feel, but it sure wasn’t something that made him feel better about being there.

There was no Draxum around, which was weird to be honest. Mikey must have also found it weird as he entered the lab searching for him.

“Dad! Where are you? Dad!” Mikey shouted at the air.

Both of the siblings looked at each other as a way to tell each other to keep quiet. And just as they turned around, one of the boxes they were hidden behind moved with the loudest noise it could possibly make.

Something made a noise. Mikey was sure of it. Curiously he looked towards where the sound came from. His father’s approval could wait.

The noise came from a fallen box from the brief floor the lab has in the second story of the room. And he was surprised to see the two turtles standing there, just looking at him.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” Mikey whispered-shout at them. He was impressed but in a bad way. “IF MY FATHER FINDS YOU, HE’S GONNA KILL YOU!”

Leo’s ‘Hiiiiiii Mikeyyy’ didn’t help his stress levels. In fact, it sent them to the stratosphere.

He didn’t know these two kids that much, he had only seen them twice in his life, but he didn’t need to see them a third time, especially now. Leo was too much in general, even if he was nice. He couldn’t say the same for Jenny, she seemed cold and aggressive so… Yeah, they had to leave right now.

“Who are you talking to, Mikey?” Dad entered the room. Great. Amazing. Incredible. Fantastic. There’s gonna be a murder. And Mikey didn’t want to witness it. “Why were you calling me?”

The two siblings tried to hide but weren’t fast enough and Draxum saw them which started the goat man’s blood to boil. He instantly attacked.

The two turtles managed to escape the purple root, one to each side. Draxum shouted at Mikey to attack the intruders with him like he was a dog. And as always, he couldn’t not obey. Even if he didn’t want to attack, he had to. It was like he was a puppet.

He hated it. Draxum knew he hated it. Yet he still used it. Used him as a weapon.

He knew his father didn’t usually turn him into a puppet, he was a good father even if he wasn’t the best father. It just felt wrong. Especially adding the fact that he kind of blacked out. He couldn’t remember what he did, how he did it, where he did it or when he did it. But he did remember why. Because of an order, the order to attack, defend or anything like that that’s convenient for the situation.

It felt like a violation of everything he stood for, even if his morals weren’t what the human would call good. Things that happen when your father is a maybe crazy scientist that lived the war were the Yokai were sent into the hidden city as punishment, shield away forever, and grew to resent- no, hate- the humans for it. He had heard a kid some years ago say that it was just like undertale (whatever that is).

It felt like falling asleep and not dreaming anything, maybe. And waking up was the worst of it all: He didn’t know where he was or what he did.

And that’s what happened. He snapped out of that and found himself on top of a bleeding and beat up Leo, his kurasai-fundo on the air, ready to hit Leo with the handle in the face. There was a voice in his head shouting at him, telling him that he was crazy for attacking his friend. Could he even call Leo his friend? He was nice to him but he didn’t really have anything to base off when it came to friendship.

But he still had hurt someone that had done nothing! Except for breaking into his home BUT STILL! He had hurt him.

Mikey just froze. He couldn’t believe it. He was ashamed of himself. And Leonardo took advantage of the situation, pushing Mikey back which sent his kusari-fundo backwards and it shattered the oozequito jar.

The oozequitos wouldn’t have escaped if it wasn’t for Jennika stumbling backwards and ‘accidentally’ shattered the glass furthered with her kyoketsu-shoge which just made it break. How was that glass so easily breakable?

Draxum called the two dudes that he had hired from Big Mama to chase the two siblings who were escaping.

“WHY DID YOU STOP?!” Draxum yelled at Mikey “YOU WERE MADE AS A WEAPON AND NOT EVEN THAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT!”

The portal opened. The dudes came in. Mikey ran away.

He didn’t think. He just ran. Ran away from his failure, like he always did. His father did have anger management problems, anybody could see it even if you didn’t like psychology like Mikey did. He really liked psychology. Like really really like psychology. Like really really really like- You get the idea.

It honestly was surprising the fact that no one had tried to kill him or something like that. Mikey didn’t really know what humans did when they saw outside people, but he did hear Capitan Piel call Americans a lot of things, none of them nice. He actually wonders how Capitan Piel knew so much about humans to criticise them in the way he did. He also wonders why Draxum let him socialise with Capitan Piel out of everyone but he was nice, like his badass uncle who is also a pirate and gives you weird things for your birthday that your father does not approve of but at least it sparkles!

Mikey felt gravity pull him down without him noticing. And that’s what happens when you run while crying.

And ow. Something- or somebody- had fallen on top of Donnie. And that made Donnie fall on Raph. And luckily April and the dog-thingy those dudes were after were far enough to also not get crushed. Some years ago, Donnie would have been worried about his prosthetic failing and/or falling off the stump that was left of his arm, but he knew he had perfected it so much over the years that it most likely wouldn’t.

The person quickly got off Donnie and helped him get off Raph.

“I’m so so sorry for falling on you” They apologised again and again. Maybe Donnie wasn’t the most emotionally intelligent out of everyone, but when this person’s voice continually breaks, they’re sniffing constantly, their eyes are red and puffy it’s kind of obvious that they’re crying (or have been). It also helped that tears were coming down his cheeks.

The other two- three?- also noticed this.

“Are you okay, buddy?” Raph walked towards the kid who shook his head yes. He did look ok physically, but maybe they just didn’t want strangers to know things about their personal life, which honestly, yeah. Donnie wouldn’t want strangers to know things about his personal life either, even if he had some problems with oversharing online… He still kept a lot of things private. “I’m Raphael, what’s your name?”

“My name’s Mikey” He didn’t cry as much anymore, or at least his voice didn’t break as much. He looked… well… like a turtle. Something in him reminded him of Sandro, maybe because Sandro had yellow marks all over his body and Mikey did too, only difference being that Sandro was a false map turtle so they were more like lines and Mikey looked like a box turtle as his markings were more… circular? He also looked around 13 years old which helped as Sandro was around that age when he died. ‘No, he wasn’t dead, he just went missing’ Donnie kept telling himself, even if evidence told him otherwise, he was hopeful that his brother was still out there. It was weird with him being him, normally basing everything on data and statistics and not hope .

April presented herself, Mayhem and Donnie to the kid without him noticing, too immersed in his internal dialogue to pay attention to his surroundings. He honestly didn’t really know why he did that, talking to himself as if he were having a debate with someone else.

He wanted to help the kid, even if he didn’t know how. He looked lost and when Raph asked him where he came from in an attempt to bring the kid back to his legal guardians he just responded ‘I don’t want to go back. Please don’t bring me back’.

Maybe taking Mikey into the lair wasn’t the best idea, but it wasn’t the first time they’d done it. Even if April wasn’t a stranger first time she went into the lair, Raph and Sandro had a habit of bringing wild animals into their home, April joining them a few years ago (her taking Mayhem to the lair right now as a example), and it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve endangered themselves or Donnie or Splinter, luckily nothing too bad.

The older siblings tried to start conversations with him but he just quietly walked besides Donnie, behind the snapping turtle and the human. It was awkward to say the least, it was like Mikey wanted to talk but something was stopping him from it.

“Do you have any hobbies?” Donnie asked Mikey with a great effort. O.B.B.Y. once mentioned that asking about hobbies is a good way of starting a conversation with a stranger. He and April implemented an AI as an experiment and it ended up working, so Donnie used to ask them about social situations because ironically a robot of his creating had less trouble socialising and picking up social cues than he did.

The kid looked up at him, even if he wasn’t that tall. Maybe he was, but having Raph and April walk together in front of them made their height difference look tiny. “I like to draw and paint!” His excitement was shadowed over by his tears and sniffs, but it honestly didn’t change how his enthusiasm for the arts lit up the sewers.

Mikey went on to rant all he knew about art, what he liked doing, what he didn’t… Donnie smiled a little, maybe not even a smile, but his mouth did twist upwards in what looked like the smallest smile ever. It was like when He would rant on and on about his interest to his family, O.B.B.Y. or Georg the cat, a stray cat that sometimes went into the lair demanding food that Donnie got attached to and named after his favourite scientist, Georg Simon Ohm.

They finally got to the lair, Splinter on his couch as per usual. Raph wrote a note for his father telling him that April and another friend were staying over. Maybe friend wasn’t the right word, but they weren’t about to tell their father that they brought a stranger over and invited them home just because he was crying. Maybe if they told him he was a kid…

‘No Donnie, this is not the time to find ways of tricking Papá into doing what you want’

It couldn’t be more obvious that Donnie was the youngest of Splinter’s kids.

They showed Mikey where the bathroom was in case he needed to use it at midnight as well as Raph and Donnie’s rooms. April was okay with sleeping in the med bay as always. It wasn’t a med bay, just a room full of nothing where medical procedures were easily done. Besides, most of the medical stuff was in Splinter’s room. Mikey stayed in an empty room they had- The brother’s old hangout spot, they stopped using it when Donnie was around ten years old.

Donnie just hopes he doesn’t get any of his usual nightmares as he goes to sleep.

Chapter Text

Donnie stanned in a void. The same black void of always. He knew this was one of his nightmares. Or his or from his other guy.

He hated these nightmares. Either he was suffering and that dude had to watch him or the dude was in pain and he had to watch.

What did he do to deserve this?

This time he was watching the kid. They moved from place to place, spaces Donnie had never been to, but knew too well thanks to these dreams.

They started out in a hotel reception. It was gold and velvet. There was a big staircase.

“Leonardo” The kid turned from looking at Donnie to looking at the staircase. Donnie did the same, even if it was like he wasn’t there, as if he was an imaginary friend. There was a spider woman standing and looking down on Leo.

Big Mama .

Donnie knew her from This kid’s dreams. He seemed to be afraid of her, but also not. Donnie didn’t understand it. He seemed so terrified sometimes and others he seemed confronted by her.

“Yes Mama?” Leo said with fear, a fear that the woman ignored. Donnie had asked himself if her name was actually Big Mama or he was this kid’s mother.

The spider lady started walking down the stairs “Oh honey! You did incredibly well today! Big Mama is proud of you!” It sounded kind of forced and Donnie thought he heard Leo say something along the lines of not again please , but it was hard to tell. The spider lady then transformed into a woman that reminded him of a classy and rich british woman in the 1980’s. Leo also looked more like he did when he was a kid. “You just could be better… like your sister…”

Donnie felt bad for Leo. It wasn’t the first time that this exact moment had happened either, or similar moments. Leo being compared with his sister. It happened awfully often. There was a change of scenery again. Leo this time looked like a 15 year old. He was on a stage with four other mutants. He was in front of the stage, looking directly at Leo.

Leo looked frozen up.

One of the mutants came up to him and whispered something.

Leo responded, whispering as well.

The mutant got angry and pushed Leo to the ground.

Leo barely reacted, he was frozen up for real.

The other mutants all got around him. Donatello thought the poor kid wanted to escape.

He heard some insults directed to Leo. Then more. Then the whole stadium. Leo looked at Donnie crying, then back at the five mutants around him.

All the noise. The ambience. Donnie was getting stressed out.

It was too much. He hated these nightmares. He couldn’t do anything. And that dude, Donnie, didn’t do anything. Nothing good. Nothing bad. He just watched. And when that turtle wasn’t watching him, he was watching the softshell.

Disappointment. That was his biggest fear. He had disappointed Big Mama today, when he and Jenny escaped. And now his nightmare was showing him exactly what would happen if people realise he isn’t enough.

“SHUT UP!” someone yelled. Leo turned to see Donnie shout again who was covering his ears with his hands and closing his eyes “JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

Leo was perplexed. He thought he was just a figment of his imagination who couldn’t do anything.

“You- you hear it too?” Leo didn’t know how to respond. His face gave away that he was baffled, dumbfounded, out of words. Donnie looked surprised too. Everyone’s words were turned down until they couldn’t hear them anymore. Donnie stopped covering his ears with his hands. It was a lot of noise all at once, Leo was used to it by now.

“Yeah… I kind of didn’t expect you to listen- I thought I was just screaming in my mind” The people in the stadium started to disappear. “How did you deal with all that noise?”

“I kind of got used to it” Leo cleared the tears from his eyes with his thumb. The stadium started disappearing, but not the stage “I work in the entertainment industry, and not in the quiet type of entertainment”

“So you’re not a figment of my imagination?”

“Nop. You’re not a figment of my imagination either, right?”

“I’m 100% percent a real turtle” Donnie looked away, kind of checking if there was anything that could interrupt them around, and back at Leo “I’m Donatello. You can call me Donnie”

Leo sat on the stage’s edge and extended his hand to Donnie “I’m Leo, and I’m sorry that I never stopped any of your nightmares”

“You should’ve done that sooner” Leo chuckled after the other turtle’s words.

“You should’ve too!” The stage disappeared and Leo fell to the floor, which made Donnie be the one chuckling this time.

“Maybe. But promise me to stop the next nightmare that I have and I’ll do the same for you” Donnie offered his hand to Leo which gratefully accepted and got up from the floor.

“I promise” Leo extended his pinky as if he was 5 “Pinky promise?”

Donnie scoffed (like he actually said scoff ), but still took the pinky with his “Pinky promise”

Mikey woke up sweating. He wasn’t home. He had escaped. He didn’t think he could go back home. He had disappointed Draxum for sure.

He thanked the people who let him stay with them, but it felt weird. Like he knew them from somewhere. But he didn’t. He was sure he didn’t. He knew the only turtles he could know were his dead brothers but- well the name said it- they were dead . And long dead.

Suddenly Mikey had the need to cry, maybe it was affecting him too much. Mikey just felt tired and he hadn’t run that much, or at least he didn’t think so. Maybe emotionally tired, but the only thing that could have made him emotionally tired was infodumping about art for an hour straight to April, Raph and Donnie. Splinter was there too, he was just asleep on the couch. Raph reassured him that he just sleeps a lot. Mikey would also like to sleep a lot.

He kind of stumbled all his way to the bathroom. Maybe he had woken up as if he had a nightmare, but he was really tired. And it was all dark and Mikey didn’t live there so… Ironically, the bathroom wasn’t too hard to find, it literally had ‘bathroom’ written in glow-in-the-dark paint. Kind of made him wonder if it was there because he was staying over or if they just had it since they moved in. Which speaking of, who moves into the sewers? Didn’t they have better places if they wanted to live topside instead of the hidden city? Like Big Mama had a freaking hotel to her name!

Big Mama could also turn into a human bUT SEGUE-

The bathroom didn’t smell like sewers. He guesses that none of the parts of the ‘house’ he has been in smelled like the sewers but he didn’t know why he was expecting the bathroom to smell bad.

He looked at himself in the mirror. He looked tired, face wet from tears and runny nose that almost got to his mouth if it wasn’t for him sniffing it up. He hated how he looked. He didn’t want to look at the face of a traitor. He didn’t have anything to cry about. He looked pathetic.

He locked the door and skidded down it. The floor was cold. If he was wearing armour it wouldn’t be, but neither him or his father were expecting intruders. It’s ironic that in less than a day he went from having friends to having enemies. He didn’t understand why people wanted friends if they changed dramatically like this. He didn’t understand why he had wanted friends. They just betray you after you open up. He had been so happy about having a friend and yet here he is, crying in a bathroom inside the sewers because he fell on top of a dude.

His father’s voice played over and over in his head: pathetic, stupid kid, I should have never created you, you’re nothing but a disappointment.

Why? Why did it have to be him? Why couldn’t he have been left wherever Draxum found him? He didn’t even know where he was! He was just an egg for fuck’s sake! He hatched the day before being mutated!

He knew he had siblings but because Draxum told him, if not he wouldn’t have known.

He knew he shared DNA with action movie star Lou Jitsu because Draxum told him.

He knew Lou Jitsu had tried to save his brothers but left him behind because Draxum told him.

He knew they had died in a fire because Draxum told him.

He knew Lou Jitsu chose his name because Draxum told him.

He knew that moments before his death Lou Jitsu screamed his name with hate because Draxum told him.

He knew Draxum wouldn’t lie to him. He was his father. But yet, another voice inside his head told him that maybe he did lie to him. Maybe he had been living a lie. There was so much Draxum didn’t want Mikey to use, maybe it was for a reason Mikey didn’t know about.

After talking with Leonardo he realised that he didn’t really have a childhood. He almost never got outside of his home, he barely played any game, he trained and painted. Leo told him his childhood was similar, but that it wasn’t a good one. If it wasn’t a good one why did both of them have it?

He deserved a better childhood, didn’t he? He deserved to be a kid. Draxum was a bad father, was he? He deserved a better life.

He had been running half of his life away from the police and the other half hiding. But that was normal when your father was a criminal. Like for Leo and Jennika helping with their mother’s business as the most important person in organised crime in the hidden city or their three friends helping in Mama Lupa’s restaurant.

He wanted to know what it felt to be a normal something. A normal yokai, a normal human or a normal turtle. Hejust wanted to experience what people saw as normal, which his life sure wasn’t. But why now. Why did he start wanting that now? Why not three years ago or when he was 5? Why not when Draxum started experimenting on him to make him better?

To make him better .

Why didn’t he connect the dots earlier? He had never been good enough for him. He will never be good enough for him. He just wanted his father to be proud of him, and he couldn’t complete a single task! It wasn’t that hard! He just wasn’t enough.

He wanted to be enough. To be more than enough. But he couldn’t. Not after he failed. Not after he escaped. Not after he disobeyed him.

Then Mikey felt pain, physical pain to be exact. His hands were bloody and his arms almost completely scratched out. How long had he been scratching his arms for them to start bleeding? That wasn’t important right now.

Mikey stood up to wash his hands and arms. The mirror stood in front of him, impossible to not look at his reflection. He didn’t see himself: he saw failure instead of Draxum’s best creation.

His hands were blood clean but his arms still dripped that red liquid. He had to stop it.

He looked around for gauzes, bandages, adhesive tape or even band-aids. He couldn’t find any.

“Where are you sleeping then, April?” Mikey asked the teen when they showed them to the room he’ll be staying in.

“I usually sleep in the med bay… I dunno, it’s the room I’m the most comfortable in!” She responded with a big smile, the dog thingy on her arms happily barking after her.

He remembered. Now he just had to find the medbay and try to not cover all the house with blood. Which he didn’t exactly succeed at… maybe he should’ve done something with the toilet paper, but this one was too dry and fragile. Human things he guesses.

He had to be quick and quiet as a mouse. He had to be stealthy. He couldn’t wake April up. He actually didn’t care if he failed to close his open wound, but he couldn’t wake her up. One thing was failing himself or his father but disturbing someone that didn’t do anything wrong was a way different thing. He might be a mutant but that didn’t make him a monster!

He opened the door to the medbay once he found it, around 10 minutes or so after he got out of the bathroom Mikey guessed. It was a room like the one he was in, just more white and empty. It had a few cabinets and cupboards. April was laid down looking at the opposite wall from where the door was. Mikey thought it looked… sterile… as much as a room in the sewers can be.

Mikey carefully entered the room and with the little illumination there was had a bit of trouble finding the cabinet that hold anything he could use to stop the bleeding (which had honestly decreased greatly since he got out of the bathroom, but that didn’t mean that Mikey should treat it, just that it wasn’t dripping all over the floor).

‘Agh shit’ The cabinet was too high for Mikey to have easy access ‘How did the rat man get up here if he was so small?’. The only option he found was climbing up onto a table nearby and clinging onto the cabinet until he managed to get anything out of it. The table didn’t really look stable though… Welp, sometimes you have to take risks.

He got on the table. It creaked. He looked back to see if April was asleep. She still was, thankfully. He was being silent, the table wasn’t. Why was it when you tried to be sneaky and silent the world was the most noisy?

He stood up on the table. It creaked again. Maybe even cracked. Mikey didn’t feel really confident in the table’s stability. He checked in April again. She continued calmly sleeping but the dog thing was missing. That also didn’t bring a lot of confidence to Mikey.

Then he went to move to the corner of the table. It creaked once again. April was still asleep and Mayhem wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Mikey moved his feet to the counter under the cabinet with the bandages. And just before his mutant feet even touched the air around the counter, Mayhem appeared, scaring the shit of Mikey who fell off the table while the table’s leg coincidentally broke and made the other three things on the table (some papers, pens and a lamp) fall down.

“MISS MARGARET! STOP THROWING YOUR POTS AT THE DOOR!” April shouted in surprise as she woke up. She looked down at the floor for some seconds, staring directly at Mikey who felt like she was staring into his soul if it hadn’t left his body after falling off the table. In retrospect, that was a bad idea. “Oh hi there Mikey… What are you doing on the floor?”

“I just couldn’t sleep and was looking for something to help” Lies. Mostly.

April then realised Mikey’s injuries and kind of panicked. “What happened to you?! Are you okay?!”

“Yeah I just fell… Off the table… Because I couldn’t reach the cabinet…” Pathetic .

“Sit on the table, I’ll patch you up” April demanded.

“No, it’s okay, I can d-”

“Nonsense! Sit down” She sounded a bit like Big Mama from the little he has known both of the women.

And so he sat down while April took care of his wounds. Being taken care of felt… nice. Like somebody actually cared for him. Not that Draxum didn’t care for Mikey, it just felt that way sometimes so it was nice. He decided to enjoy the moment and ended up falling asleep.

Maybe running away from home wasn’t that bad of an idea.

Chapter Text

“So, what you’re telling us is that the yokai from your dreams is actually real and he saved you from a nightmare…” Fer looked at his friend over the bar with a questioning and surprised face. “What are you smoking dude?”

“I don’t smoke, Fer!” Leo exclaimed to his friend “He told me he was real!”

“And you believed in a dream? Leo, that's the stupidest thing you’ve said since… well… Probably yesterday.”

“In Leo’s defence, that was Jenny’s idea. But his previous stupidest idea was trying to drink coffee with his nose”

“You’re not helping, Cal” Leo said through gritted teeth to Cal, who was sitting down on a stool, back resting on the bar while he drank Big Mama’s own soda: Mama’s. Really creative marketing (sarcastic). Cal always drank the blue flavour that was advertised as sea soda.

“I wasn’t trying to help”

“That’s not the point!” Fer interrupted his two friends “You’re telling us you believe that your actual nightmares are becoming real 30 minutes before we open”

“Maybe it’s a good idea to stop smoking before you go to bed” Cal added.

“I’m not smoking anything! You’ve got to believe me!” Leo repeated.

“Leo you can’t use the fact that I accidentally cursed you when we were five as an excuse all your life!” Fer commented while throwing his hands up into the air, almost throwing a cup he was almost finished with cleaning again. He cleaned a lot, it calmed the lynx.

It was true that Fer cursed him with his ability as a yokai. Fer’s ability made him able to know people’s secrets. How? Leo had no fucking idea and he didn’t really want to know, he just knew it had to do with dreams or something like that. Fer didn’t use it much, he didn’t like it. That was why Leo didn’t want to know about it. He doesn’t remember how he cursed him, but he knows that makes him know about his fears when he had nightmares. It was shit. He didn’t have to tell his friend his insecurities but Fer knew things he didn’t want him to know. He knew his secrets. And that was something they couldn’t change.

“But what if I’m right? What if he’s really real and not a figment of my imagination?” Leo got up from where he was seated, slamming his hands on the bar and raising his voice which caused Cal and Fer to cringe for a moment.

“If you are right,” Fer started as Cal pushed Leo down for him to sit down “you are acting kind of immature for us to believe you. You’ve yelled at us, for goodness sake!” Fer took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing “Look Leo, today Cal and I have to work, Amae’s nowhere to be seen-”

“She’s probably preparing a class for her gym classes” Cal cut Fer. Their sister worked as a gym coach and a lifeguard in the pool when she wasn’t coaching people.

“-and Jenny is fighting in the battle nexus today. Which, may I remind you, means that you’ve also got work as today’s matches commentator.” Leo had forgotten about that last part “We have things to do, so maybe don’t come here to tell us your weird conspiracy theories!”

“Please Fer you’ve got to believe me! Isn’t there anything you can do to believe what I’m saying? Like a spell or something like that?” Leo begged.

Fer thought it for a moment “Perhaps there is… But don’t get your hopes up, it might not work, specially if he’s not real, which he isn’t”

“Thank you very much! I will repay you somehow!”

“Yeah, yeah. Now go cheer your sister and let us work”

Leo happily ran away from the bar/cafeteria/restaurant Big Mama had going on (in his defence, no one really knew which one of the three it was supposed to be) and got as fast as he could to the commentator booth to start his workday. He loved this job, not because he gets a good seat while watching the matches, he already had that thanks to being one of the undefeated champions and Big Mama’s son, but because he had passion for it. Describing what was happening for those who might have problems seeing what was going on or for people who directly couldn’t watch it and could only listen to what was happening.

He had always liked the job, even if he started when he was 11 years old or so. When he started, he commented with Jenny. It was like their bonding time as brother and sister. When one fought, the other narrated, and when none of them fought, they commented together! Big Mama made sure they didn’t fight in the battle nexus against each other. From those few years they worked together they created the characters they played whenever one was the red king or the other was electric. They weren’t themselves, or at least Leo didn’t see themselves when they were in public situations, they were characters they played, caricatures of themselves.

He really missed those years. Jennika started to join him in commentary less and less until she was completely absent, preferring to train than to have a hobby. That hurt Leo a bit, yeah they still hang out, but now it was because of business rather than because of their friendship and relationship as siblings. At first he thought it maybe was because she broke up with her ex at the time, but it didn’t feel right for her to stop forever, maybe for some months but not for almost 3 years! Jenny wasn’t like that, or at least Leo thought so. He understood wanting to be better, but it had made something that was theirs as siblings only his.

People change, that’s true, but he wishes he had someone just to spend time with like he did with Jenny, not a sister that leaves him alone just to let him see how much better she has become without him.

Mikey was a nice person. Kind of shy and reserved, but that’s normal for someone you found randomly in the sewers crying. Raph still wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to bring him home. Like the guy was nice, but he was a complete stranger. In his defence, he’s not the best at taking rushed decisions.

April wasn’t much better but she was a bit better, just extremely impulsive. Like one time she dyed her hair in a McDonald’s public bathroom at 3 am after she convinced the both of them to break into said McDonald’s because she wanted to try the icecream machine because she wasn’t buying the fact that it was broken.

And Donnie… Better not to trust on decisions, because he might take a decision at the moment, but then he would spend a day overthinking about it. It’s not like Raph wasn’t overthinking that rightnow, because he was, and it seemed to go in the family because he gets the feeling that his father also tends to overthink stuff and that’s one of two reasons why he spends all his time watching tv and not taking care of his kids. Not like Raph was overthinking that too. No, not at all. Definitely not. No, nah ah, he wasn’t overthinking right now-

Raph was, in fact, overthinking again.

Mikey also looked like someone that would overthink a lot. But he couldn't be family, he was another species of turtle. Donnie had mentioned so many times that they couldn’t possibly be biological family that Raph believed him. Even before mutating as Donnie had asked multiple times how their mutation worked. And it wasn’t like Splinter hadn’t mentioned that the brothers originally were turtles and he was a human that found them the day they were all mutated. Donnie always mentioned it when someone pointed out similarities between the brothers or the brothers and their father. He also mentioned very very often that he would love to conduct a DNA test to find their biological family to bring them in as pets which… was creepy to say the least… especially taking into account that they had had a turtle pet they found in the sewers and he had called that creepy, but it wasn’t creepy to adopt your biological family as pets?

They had called him in for breakfast and he had a lot of bandages, red eyes as if he hadn’t slept anything and an overall tiredness, which was normal for someone who just woke up (except for the bandages, but he did seem a bit hurt when they found him) but he had been up with April for sometime, April had told them that. He didn’t really eat much either, telling them that their food was weird and not trying out most of the things prepared. That reminded him of Donnie, but he guessed that it was probably just because Donnie was like that and Mikey was in a different environment.

“What’s this?” Mikey asked, pointing at a glass of juice “It looks… spoiled…”

Raph lightly chuckled at his question “How can it look spoiled? It’s orange juice!”

“It can look spoiled because apple juice is better” Donnie stated in a whisper too loud that made everyone hear him and April hit him with her elbow to make him shut up. Donnie had strong opinions about apples or oranges to put it lightly. They had had several powerpoint presentations (some of them lasting more than an hour) about it. He had gone the extra mile several times to ensure that they only bought a specific apple juice made of specific apples as it was the best one and tried multiple times to convince them to not buy oranges, which was a little narcissistic but it was understandable to a point. Maybe he didn’t like orange juice because of its fibre but their father loved orange juice for breakfast.

Speaking of his father, where was he? April made pancakes and that always woke him up and brought him to the kitchen.

A surprised gasp from Mikey took him out of his train of thought and brought him back to the conversation.

“That’s orange juice?! I’ve never seen orange juice that looks like that and isn’t bad!” Exclaimed the box turtle surprised, which was incredibility obvious thanks to his voice.

“Then what does orange juice look like to you?” Asked April with genuine curiosity.

“Well it isn’t as liquid and it’s red. Haven’t you ever seen it?” As he explained himself, the turtle made exaggerated movements with his hands and arms as if to become more believable.

“No and it sound disgusting” Donnie stated drinking a bit of his apple juice from his glass, this time intentionally loud enough that the other could listen to him “But it’s orange juice after all”

“Yours look like a goat’s vomit that has eaten too much wheat” Mikey mentioned, which made Donnie choke on his drink while April full on laughed like a witch and caused Raph and Mikey to lightly chuckle at the situation. It wasn’t like they weren’t worried that Donnie was going to die, it was just something siblings did, and Mikey and April acted as their Big sister and youngest brother without actually being it.

Only problem was that all the loud noise must have woken Splinter up as they started hearing him approach the room. And they hadn’t told him that they had brought in a stranger. Or that that stranger was also a mutant turtle. Or that they had found him in the sewers. Or anything related to Mikey really. Well they hadn’t technically found him crying in the sewers, more like he had fallen onto Donnie while crying and that they were in the sewers, but no one was counting his mistakes, or at least he hoped so.

Splinter’s loud footsteps resonated all over the sewers signalling his quick approach to the kitchen. His room was still rather faraway from the kitchen, but something still bugged Raph.

It was like he was going too fast for it to take him so much time, he should’ve gotten to the kitchen in a minute or two at max . And that minute or two had already passed, his footsteps still sounding faraway. It was worrying to say the least.

First not going to the kitchen for pancakes and now this? There was something definitely wrong. The looks April and Donnie shot the snapping turtle confirmed they had noticed too.

“Donnie, check the security cameras of the lair” Raph stated looking at his brother who quickly did just as his big brother commanded. Mikey’s expression revealed that he was getting worried too while April peaked at the screen on the softshell’s prosthesis.

“It’s just us Raph” Donnie said plainly looking up at Raph. Even if his voice sounded unconcerned, he knew his brother well enough to identify that he was worried for their father “There’s no one else in the lair”

Crack .

It sounded like the ground broke and something came out of it.

Mikey…

Mikey seemed afraid of the noise. He recognized it, of course, but it felt like he wanted to run away. And he did run away, but from the kitchen. April ran after him and when Raph was going to run after them too. But just as he got up, Splinter appeared on the door, panting and gasping as he hadn’t run in ages (which he hadn’t if, Raph was honest).

“Purple: Lock the lair. Red: Hide your friends. It’s dangerous”

Chapter Text

Oh no.

Mikey had a dad.

And he was crying because of his dad.

That was-

Umm-

Daddy issues…

It wasn’t enough with just Raph’s and Donnie’s issues apparently.

Why does she seem to attract weirdness and daddy issues?

Maybe not full on daddy issues with Mikey. But the turtle was crying because he thought his father was going to hurt him for being a failure which umm… was concerning… to say the least.

He repeated over and over again “I don’t want to go”, “please don’t take me” and “No”. It was like a vicious cycle. Mikey didn’t seem to notice people approaching him either, but it was only him and April in the room. He didn’t mind being with April she guessed.

The bathroom was like it always was even if it didn’t feel like it today and Mikey was sitting down in a corner inside the empty bathtub, the bathtub’s curtain shut. The curtain was something familiar to her after years of this house in the sewers being her second home. She once asked Splinter what it meant and he told her it represented his family. The Hamato clan, he had called them. She had googled them when she got home but she found nothing. Like they disappeared or were lost or buried or something like that. Splinter didn’t really talk about them.

He said he was a failure in their eyes. Like Mikey was talking about his father. They had some similarities now that April thinks about it. They didn’t talk much about their past but that didn’t change April’s view.

She opened the curtain, surprising Mikey who jumped and turned to look at her. “It’s okay Mike, it’s just me”

Mikey relaxed and turned around to look at the bath’s faucet. He wasn’t repeating the same three phrases over and over again, but rather breathing in a calming way. At least she knew he wasn’t having a panic attack or an anxiety attack or something like that.

He was okay. Mikey was okay. That was good.

“Do you mind me being here with you?” April asked. Mikey thought about it for a moment. He looked at April. He looked back at the faucet. He nodded. April smiled at him “Do you mind if I sit here with you” Mikey sniffed his snot. He shook his head. April got into the bathtub.

“Are you okay?” April asked Donnie who was sitting in a corner of his lab.

He shook his head in a non convincing way. He was lying. Donnie never was good at lying. It was obvious just from his mask being wet from obvious tears and him sniffing his snot away more than once. His glasses were on the table too. He had been working on something.

“Donnie, I know you are lying.” She sounded like her mother and the 15 year old hated that. “It’s okay, don’t worry” April sat down on the other side of the wall Donnie was seated against.

Donnie looked at her. She lightly smiled at him. He smiled back.

“Can I sit next to you?” Donnie pulled up his mask slightly leaving him eyebrow-less. He wiped his eyes with his fists like Raph told him he did as a kid. Donnie nodded. April smiled and moved closer to Donnie who laid his head on her shoulder as he cried his eyes out.

Mikey reminded him of Donnie too. Maybe because Mikey reminded him of Splinter and Donnie was really similar to his father.

Raph was crazy. Insane. Mad. Deranged. Demented. Bonkers. Out of his mind. Stupid. Foolish. Ridiculous. Nonsensical. Moronic. Loony. Dumb. Any other synonym of stupid he could think of.

His brother is a dumb dumb after all. But deciding against his father’s wishes to fight against a fuCKING RAM FURRY THAT COULD KILL HIM JUST WITH A LOOK! He loves Raph very much, but that turtle is a dumbass.

And now he sounded like April’s mom.

But if their father tells them ‘ hide, it is dangerous ’ it doesn’t mean FIGHT AND PROBABLY KILL YOUR SELF WHILE FIGHTING!

Donnie took some deep breaths. It wasn’t the time of yelling in his mind. It was the time of finding wherever Mikey and April ran too. He had to get them saved and then he would go for Raph. Even if he had a 70% chance of dying while fighting but it wasn’t his fault he was the only one with functional brains in his family.

He had to be quick finding them though. He had to go help Raph and dad. And so he decided to take it as if it were Where’s Waldo? : find him before he finds you.

Every room he entered and they weren’t in his stress levels increased. Because he was stressed out to begin with and the ram furry trying to kill his father for ‘robbing his son’ and not being able to help his family didn’t help. Which to be honest, robbing his son ? Mikey ran away the moment he understood that his father was after him. Like he broke into their home! He attacked them! And from context clues and shit like that it looked like Mikey had ranaway .

He stopped in front of the bathroom. Someone was crying. Probably Michelangelo. He debated either to knock or to barge in. One was the one that helped it look like he cared and the other one was the one that made it obvious that they needed to hide, and right now. He would’ve liked more time to debate but he had to be fast in his decision making which wasn’t exactly his strength. He needed blueprints and calculus and probability and maths and science, not a lack of time and a dire need for rapid decision making.

He decided to knock. That way, if they die, he will be remembered as someone polite and not a crazy scientist. Not that a lot of people knew about his existence anyways.

He didn’t get an answer. He didn’t know if to knock again or to open the door. He opened the door. Mikey and April were sitting inside the bathtub, its curtain opened. Mikey looked at the faucet as he silently cried. April turned to look at him. She smiled lightly. Donnie didn’t smile back.

“You have to hide” He stated dryly, trying to sound as normal as possible. Which he didn’t succeed because how can you sound normal when a man with a sign with ‘ You’re gonna die :D ’ written on it.

Mikey looked at him. April got up. “What?” She asked in disbelief.

“You have to hide” Donnie repeated “Dad told us to hide. He says it’s not safe.” He stuttered a bit “He’s fighting someone.” It was a sign of how he feared for their lives. Donnie didn’t handle death well. It was a sensitive topic for him.

April got up “What do you mean it’s not safe? Where’s Raph?” She asked worriedly.

Fighting with a furry “With Papá” Donnie’s voice revealed he was worried.

“Ah- Hell nah! It’s dangerous and that man is out there throwing punches?!” She was upset.

Well, he’s trying to be hospitalised. “He said dad needed help…”

April looked at Mikey, then Donnie, and then she barged through the door with her bat, which where the fuck did she get from?

“Where are you going?” don’t tell me she’s going to go fight .

“I’m going to go fight with your brother!” She kept running towards the fight, even if she didn’t know where they were. It wasn’t that hard to guess it was outside the lair in the sewers. Because it was outside the lair. In the sewers. April was smart but it didn’t take rocket science to guess where they were fighting.

Donnie glanced at Mikey for a millisecond (he counted). Then he looked back at April and called out to her, for her to not go to fight and to go hide with Mikey. But she either ignored him or couldn’t hear him. And he was on emotional help duty. Which he was horrible at.

He had always been the helped, not the helper. He wasn’t good at emotions and they knew it. Even if he was good at listening. He. Wasn’t. Good. At. Helping. He could give you analytics, he could give you maths, he could give you mechanical things. He just couldn’t give you good advice for emotional things.

He could help you hack something, stalking someone online, with your homework. He just wasn’t good at emotions. His or others.

He did know something. He did know to do something for Mikey.

If someone who’s been crying tells you they don’t want to go ‘home’ or they ask you to not leave them alone. You do not leave them alone.

He hadn’t spent much time with Donatello. He wasn’t the most social out of all of them. He did have strong emotions about orange or apple juice.

But he didn’t leave him alone, even if it was obvious he wanted to leave. It was the bare minimum, but he wasn’t expecting Donnie to prepare him a cake and sing him to cheer up. He just wanted him to not leave.

Mikey normally didn’t want to be accompanied when he cried, but April had already seen him. And his father was out there. Looking for him… He didn’t want to go home. He didn’t want to go back. Not yet.

He needed time. He couldn’t go yet. He couldn’t be more of a failure. Because that's what he was. A failure. A disappointment.

Something good he got from this experience was the fact that he thinks he has made friends. Raph, April and Donnie would probably not attack him and his father, making him look bad and making him fail like the disappointment he was.

He couldn’t stop insulting himself and sulking on his own misfortune, could he?

Donnie was still on the door, looking outside from the small space there was between the door and the doorframe. Mikey tried not to cry too loud. They were in complete silence. Waiting to see what’s going to happen. It was kind of uncomfortable to be honest. They hadn’t spoken much before and it was like hiding under a bed with a stranger out of need.

Donnie looked at him then out again. Then he looked at him back, slowly closing the door. He sat on top of the toilet seat. Mikey turned to look at Donnie.

“What… do you know that” He looked at the door again “um… furry… from?”

That made Mikey laugh. He didn’t know what a furry was but it wasn’t the first time Donnie had spoken about said furries. “What is that?” He said in a kind of whisper. Father taught him to whisper when searched for.

Donnie looked at him in disbelief. “What do you mean you don’t know what a furry is?”

“I don’t know what they are!” Mikey chuckled again. Donnie’s disbelief was slightly entertaining.

Mikey thought Donnie was going to throw something at him. Which he luckily didn’t. “Do you even have the internet?!”

Mikey shot at him a questioning look “What is the internet?”

“What do you mean what is the internet!?” Donnie’s disbelief grew by the second as Mikey confusedly chuckle. “Follow me, young Terrapene Carolina, on a journey to discover the internet!” He was actually more surprised that Donnie knew the scientific name of a box turtle than Donnie trying to show him whatever this internet thing was.

From context clues Michelangelo was able to guess that they were probably mutants. Donnie, Raph and most likely their father, who he hadn’t meet but sounded like a good person, but knowing the parental figures he had met, he hopes he didn’t force their kids to do free labour for his multiple companies or experimented on his kids who probably ran away and then he claimed they were stolen. Because knowing his father he was probably claiming he had been stolen…

At least his father was a good person. He thinks… he had heard some Yokais mention once that experimenting on their kids wasn’t ethical but he had helped his father create some bugs that mutate people so…

SPEAKING OF MUTANTING PEOPLE: Donnie and Raph didn’t seem recently mutated… And he knew that prior and subsequent to his mutation there had been other mutation attempts but they didn’t really work… There had been a lot of people goo… He was the only one successful… and there had been other turtles mutated but they had died…

No. Don't think Mikey. Just follow Donnie to find out what the internet was. It was probably something from the humans. Draxum hadn’t really allowed him to use or try or see things from or made by humans. He didn’t like humans. Mikey had only met one and she was nice. He couldn’t really judge a whole race off of that but who knows!

He followed Donnie out from the bathroom as they sneaked around his home. He could hear people fight. He didn’t like what he was hearing. But they told him he had to hide and he obeyed.

Donnie finally took him to a kind of garage. He guesses that’s what it was supposed to be. Or maybe a kind of mechanical place. Or purple lab…? It was really purple. Like extremely purple. Just seen this lay out made him feel like Donnie somehow made his veins purple…

“Don’t worry. This is one of the most secure places in the lair” Donnie smiled and he and Mikey smiled back.

Donatello proceeded to infodump about the internet and Michelangelo listened for like 20 minutes and still didn’t understand a lot. Mikey was also pretty sure Donnie did that to not think about the fight outside. Neither of them wanted to hear that. They also didn’t want to see Draxum burst the door to go for Mikey but it still happened. Mikey was honestly afraid.

Chapter Text

Draxum was pissed off. And he had reasons to be angry too. They took away his son!! Mikey may have run away but that didn’t mean that they had taken away his son!

One thing was a kid running away after comiting a mistake. Who hasn’t run away after failure? Another different thing was kidnapping that kid! Who would do that?

This rat man was coming out of the place it said Mikey was in. And when he saw him the man started running. Running . That definitely meant that he stole his kid! Why else would he run away from him? He was intimidating, that was the whole point of his armour, but he wasn’t that intimidating!!

He was a nice intimidating Baron.

He had followed the rat man. The yokai got inside some place in the sewers which was just disgusting. Why would you go and live in the excrement filled waters from the humans topside? He was normally disgusted at humans and this was just too much for him. But anything for his son. His creation. His Mikey.

He had gotten into the ratman’s cave.

It wasn’t really a cave. It was more of a bunker. But the rat man had an advantage and he had made good use of it. Kind of. An attempt at best. Because he did know how to fight, he just wasn’t in a good shape to say the least. He was, in fact, in very bad shape. Very very bad shape. Still that man fought actually well. It caught Draxum off-guard.

Still Draxum was able to keep himself unscratched. Mostly at least.

There was something- more so someone- fighting with the rat man. They had potential but weren't trained at all. It was clear at first sight. They used some sais but were horrible with them. Like they weren't really used to using them. But that’s not what caught Draxum’s attention even if he was using their inability against them. The fact that they and the rat man were fighting over being there or not being there wasn’t what caught his attention either. It was the fact that they were a turtle.

He knew for a fact that the only other turtles in the hidden city were his son and those two kids Big Mama used to gain money. He knew it. There could’ve been way more reasons as to why that turtle was born but it just stuck with Draxum. Could it be? Could they also be part of his mutation experiment? He had the suspicion that Big Mama’s turtles were a part of his original mutation plan, but if this turtle was part of it, who knows what happened to the rest. Maybe they were all alive. He would have to train them like he did with Mikey though.

He was amazed with his creations before they were robbed from him. He had been amazed when Mikey grew up. He was amazed with the idea of his creations being alive. This time plural.

Another option was that they were recently mutated, but he thought it to be less likely. They were accustomed to their body (both the turtle and the rat man in fact) which wasn’t what you would expect of someone recently mutated. They seemed to know what they were able to do and what they weren’t able to do. They felt comfortable in their own body and from the experiments he had conducted and the test he made to make sure the oozequitos would mutate people he had observed a ton of different results and a lot of different reactions to those results. Feeling comfortable or easily getting used to the mutated body wasn’t one of them.

Maybe he shouldn’t have been so amazed with the idea of all of his creations to pay the necessary attention to his surroundings. He was hitted by something in the head. Something made out of probably wood. 1 against 3. He created some vines and threw her against the wall. Why hadn’t he thrown the other two yokai/mutants with his vines against walls sooner? It was actually just two yokai/mutants. The one he had thrown against the wall was a human. And it sounded like it was a bad hit, leaving them with a probably broken bone or two. Or maybe a fracture. It would’ve probably hurt. Or been lethal if they hit their head hard enough.

One human less won’t hurt anyone after all. In fact, it would benefit them, especially him. He did want to make all of the human race disappear for a reason.

But now he knew what to focus on. Not his theories about mutants he hadn’t cared about in years and about fighting the possible mutants and the human that kidnapped his son.

Two targets in front. One centred, the other to the left. One target behind. He had like 20 seconds at minimum and 1 minute until they may attack.

The turtle went in for a punch, which he quickly dodged and made the turtle tumble towards the wall. He yelled something to the human. He ignored them. He decided to focus on the rat man. He turned towards him and used some vines to throw him against the turtle, who was preparing to punch him again (didn’t he understand that punching wasn’t going to get him anywhere?) which made them both fall to the floor and now he could move on to where Mikey was. He was going for his kid and no one could stop him.

Maybe he should’ve brought reinforcements to deal with the child robbers. He didn’t want to deal with them anymore.

But he had to because they kept trying to attack him again and again and he continuously threw them against the same (now destroyed) wall. Which was a pity, their house had a je ne sais quoi that made it rather charming to look at. Obviously it was hideously human-like decorated. If they were yokai, there would be little renaissance of the hidden city. It led Draxum to assume they probably had to run away. If they were mutants it made sense their home was more akin to how a human would decorate their home. He was just finding things to prove his theory.

There was also the human, but he doubts the human would be so idiotic to live in the sewers. But they’re a human so he wouldn’t put it past them.

Mikey made him realise a lot of things, like tying up people with his vines wasn’t something really ethical, but these three kidnappers were really getting on his nerves and so he just had to use his last trick up his sleeve. He threw some seeds on the floor and summoned some vines to take care of them. If Mikey saw that he would kill him, but it was for a greater purpose. It was for him.

He called out for his son and he couldn’t hear any response. Normally, Mikey would respond immediately. He did so too. It was a good way of communicating things when one was working a lot everyday. Mikey learned that he couldn’t always bother him when he is working and Draxum learned to respect his son's privacy. Even if he didn’t like it and it infuriated him. He had to respect when his son told him he didn’t want to be bothered or he didn’t want to be with him.

But he had to find his son! Who knows what those people may have done to him! He felt guilty for thinking he would just run around a bit the hidden city and then just go back home. He should’ve gone to him and apologised to him and told him he didn’t mean to yell at him.

But he didn’t. And now his kid had been kidnapped.

He had to find him. To tell him he did nothing wrong. Tell him he was sorry and he was the one that had fucked up. Take him back home. Destroy the little pest that were called human and everything would be back to normal.

Big Mama once told him ways to raise his kid (even if he religiously told him that Mikey wasn’t his kid, it was a weak point to admit that infront of her). He never would follow her advice seeing as her kids were raised as publicity for her brand. As famous yokais since she found them. It had always seemed fishy how they were turtles and now he had a theory of why.

He called out for Mikey again. He didn’t get an answer and that didn’t help his worry to disappear. That actually worsened it. He not only feared what they may have done to his son but what his son may have done to himself. Mikey had a problem with accidentally hurting himself when stressed or worried or when he had a breakdown. He always helped him, but without him he doesn’t know if he was able to get out of it.

He had even left his rubber band bracelet! That thing was one of his most precious objects. It made sense that he didn’t wear it while he was fighting. It was made out of rubber bands after all. But Mikey really loved that rubber band bracelet and all the bracelets that came before that one as his hand grew and he created more.

Draxum kept each one of them out of just love towards his kid. They were important to Michelangelo, they were important to him. He remembered the day Mikey started doing those bracelets. One day, Mikey found a box full of orange little rubber bands in the hidden city market. He immediately bought it and started creating orange bracelets. Draxum ended up helping him, his fingers were smaller which made it easier for Mikey to not break a rubber band of loose part of his fingers. He remembers how he cried the first time one of the bracelets broke.

He was there for him when he needed him the most. He couldn’t let that escape him. He couldn’t let that be taken away from him.

He paused for a moment, though he heard something coming from a room that secreted a purple light where the door met with the wall. Which was weird on its own, there only seemed to have three or four rooms with actual doors.

He approached the door and quietly in case he heard anything that could indicate that Mikey was there. He didn’t hear his kid, but he did hear some talk a lot and really fast. They sounded excited.

Then someone else asked something he didn’t pay attention to. He just paid attention to the fact that it was his son.

He decided to be a civilised pink sheep and open a door. This action proved futile as the door didn’t open. Or move a single bit for that fact. Not even the handle moved.

He now settled on kicking the door down. It didn’t work either, but he did hear whoever was speaking stopped.

His rather short patience was being tested minute by minute and he didn’t have much more left. He summoned some of his vines from the floor and sended them forwards, destroying the wall in the process. That scared his son and the other turtle, both of who ran to the other side of the room.

Honestly, another turtle? He saw his son every day but he was seeing too many turtles for a week. Between all of this and whatever Big Mama’s kid decided to do to prejudicate him was too much. Too many teen turtles for a week.

Except for Mikey. He didn’t get tired of seeing his son. In fact, he was euphoric to see his son!

“Mikey!” He exclaimed.

Mikey’s enthusiasm sadly didn't match his. He looked scared, something that Draxum didn’t seem to notice.

“Don’t come any closer!” The turtle shouted at him in something that would seem heroic if it wasn’t for his scared tone. He did look able to take him down, but only in spirit. He didn’t appear to be strong. Quite the opposite actually. He didn’t seem really athletic or strong like the big turtle or the human.

He honestly didn’t care what would happen if he came or didn’t come closer. That kid could die and he could care less. He just cared that Mikey was clinging to him as if his life depended on it.

He stepped closer to them which made them step away even further. The unknown turtle additionally tried to put on a better stand to appear ready to fight. He could fix that with a bit of training.

“Mikey, it’s okay” He told his son “Come back home with me”

Mikey clinged even more to the turtle.

“Can’t you see he doesn’t want to go with you?” The turtle told him.

“Shut it! You stole him from me!” He accused the (probable) teenager. He looked to be a bit older than Mike, but he could be wrong, he was still studying how Mikey's growth could compare to human’s or yokai’s and he didn’t even know if this anthropomorphic turtle was a yokai or not.

Mikey stared at him with a perplexed gaze and loosened his grip on the other turtle. Draxum saw it as his chance. “Dad-” he just almost whispered “They didn’t-”

Draxum summoned some vines of the ground before any of them could talk. Sadly, the vines that he created took both Mikey and the other turtle. He only was planning on taking his son back, but there’s a reason they say ‘an eye for an eye, a leg for a leg’...

It was fair. You take my son, I take one of the turtles. Hurt them for hurting you.

He opened a portal to take them back to their home. The turtle shouted as if his life depended on it while his own son looked down with sadness, something he didn’t understand why was happening. He should be happy to go back home.

He first sended both of the turtles through the portal and shouted for Munnin and Huginn to sedate the unknown turtle or something like that. He didn’t want to deal with them.

When he was about to step through the portal he felt like this was a bad idea. Taking that turtle was a bad idea. But he couldn’t care less. He had his son and his revenge. He just wanted to go back home.

And he did just that.

He went back home. He didn’t really care what would happen to the rat man, the human and the other turtle. He had his son back.

That was all that mattered.

Chapter Text

Donnie woke up disoriented.

It was a weird place to say the least. It looked out of place to him. It had a broken glass tube in the middle of the room with some lights on it and vine hugging and surrounding it, the last ones falling into the broken glass. There also was a kind of cell made of similar vines attached to it at ground level. He was in a similar one, just in front of the tube and not attached to it.

Donnie liked the aesthetic, even though he thought it needed more purple. You can always use more purple. He was pretty sure he had gotten to the point where his veins were purple. And if they weren’t he wanted them to be. He’ll find a way. Some day. Just you wait.

He also was having a bit of a problem seeing what was going on. Between his short-sightedness, his astigmatism, not wearing his glasses or lenses and the bad illumination it was hell to see anything. No, not hell. It was torture . If no one performed surgery on him he would do it himself. He wasn’t capable yet, but he was determined and if he learned anything from undertale is that determination is key! And not to trust the internet to keep anything family friendly…

He did see to black spots move around the air, even if he didn’t identify what they were. It looked like they were carrying things around. Small objects mostly. It just made it harder to get a good look at. They didn’t acknowledge his existence, and if they Donnie didn’t see it.

And speaking of not seeing people. He didn’t see his family or Mikey anywhere. He could only hope they were okay. The last thing he remembered was being thrown through a hole in his lab, hitting hard against the floor to where his body still stinged to a certain level (his prosthetic was luckily intact. Making another one inside a cell with only one arm would be almost impossible) and then falling unconscious. He knew he didn’t hit the ground that hard to fall unconscious, so he was probably drugged to make him fall unconscious.

He’ll investigate that when he gets home. And if he gets home. He was hopeful his family would find him eventually. They always ended up finding Sandro when he escaped! Until his most likely death at least… But they had Mayhem now! And April! And maybe Mikey. Dad also seemed to know the goat man… That could help them… Maybe… He hoped so… And there were also the chips he had implanted in Raph’s shell, Splinter’s tail and April’s scalp while they slept some years ago. He also had one in his shell. But he was the one that had the tracking device in his prosthetic…

Maybe they could use O.B.B.Y.… He ended up editing it to help them find Sandro… The name of O.B.B.Y. was an acronym for Other Brother something something. Sandro chose the name’s meaning and didn’t really tell him. Probably it was something like Other Brother Butter Yeast or something that didn’t make sense. But that’s not the point.

He heard someone or something approaching. He turned his head to see where the noise was coming from but didn’t see anything yet. Fuck you, bad sight!

As the noise came closer he could start identifying it better. There were two things approaching. Most likely talking. It was more arguing. Let him start that phrase again: There were two probably living beings, he wasn’t going to cross out the possibility of whatever it was being a non-living being, capable of some sort of communication rapidly approaching. The sound was approaching and as it increased he couldn’t help but to keep going closer to the wall of the plausible cell. Donnie still wondered if it could be counted as a cell or a prison. It was more of a weird barricade that surely didn’t follow the rules of science. Donnie hadn’t tried to cut it or anything, but something told him he wouldn’t be able to.

The fight, argument or conversation became more understandable for Donnie. He couldn’t understand all of the things they were talking about but he did get some parts.

… I don’t… hurt them… friends… have done… bad… just… there… need… attack…

A pause. A more adult (and less high-pitched) voice then proceeded to respond.

I… those monsters… even… experiments… working… mama… kidnapped…

He needed more than some words to understand what the conversation was about to be honest, but it was obvious they were talking about someone or something. He could piece out someone had been kidnapped or possibly kidnapped and judging by the time between mama and kidnapped it wasn’t that possible woman that was kidnapped. The first voice’s understandable words made more sense together than the second voice’s words but that didn’t mean it made more sense. In fact it made less sense to Donnie. It was something not hurting them but then it jumped to talking about friendship like they were part of an anime or my little pony and then something done that had bad connotations and he couldn’t piece the rest together but there had been an attack of some sorts.

What were they talking about? The words weren’t wording, as Raph would say.

Donnie was taken out of his thoughts when something fell to the ground and broke. It sounded like it was made of glass. The voices had come closer. They were in his view, he just was as blind as a bat. It had gotten to a point where it was really worrying. He should really wear contact lenses. Or his glasses more often, even if the sellotape he had to have attached for him to wear his glasses was hell to go through.

But he could hear clearly. And hear he did. More listen than hear . Listening is when you tried, hearing was an ability or when you didn’t try. The exact words or expressions were really important in science related topics. And Donnie loved science related topics. Except geology. Rocks weren’t that interesting. Just in Steven Universe. They made rocks interesting, even if they weren’t exactly rocks and they were gemstones which are technically crystals but they were still boring.

“Dad! Can’t you just listen just once!” Said someone that looked and sounded like Mikey, so he was probably Mikey. Sherlock Holmes level of thinking, surely.

“But I am listening! And I just don’t buy it!” The other voice that sounded like that furry man that had broken into his home. Mikey also called him dad so there was that. He was the furry man that had broken into his home, wasn’t him?

“You are not ! How could they kidnap me?!”

“How could you just fall into the sewers?! HOW DID YOU EVEN CAME OUT OF THE CITY?!”

Donnie didn’t like the argument. Too loud for his taste. And he wasn’t even in it. Both of them kept getting louder and louder progressively. It was disgusting. And it sounded like they had been going on like this for hours. He decided that he should probably stop listening to their discussion. He was curious about whatever they were talking about, he was a bit of a gossip (more than a bit when he had April to gossip with), but their discussion was too loud.

He pressed some buttons on the side of his goggles, turning a sound cancelling mode he added some years ago after he discovered how to make one out of frustration of failing at trying to repair a small vacuum cleaner robot named dusty (by Raph, not him). That helped Donnie be able to just zone out. He could still hear the ghost of their fight. Even if his tech was his tech , it was helpful and not magic afterall. What he could do now was ignore them and wait.

Not much time later Donnie’s interest picked once more when he heard another glass thing breaking. Turning off the sound cancelling mode made the turtle able to pay attention to their conversation again, even if this time he was missing more information than before.

“...about that! Will you believe me if I break even more things or will you send Huggin and Munnin to solve all your problems too?” Mikey yelled. He still was angry. Donnie didn’t like it. Donnie didn’t know what or who Huggin and Munnin were. He guessed they were a who and not a what as there were some flying things flying towards the furry and Mikey loosely pointed at them.

The dark and small weird flying demon thing sat on the pink goat’s shoulders and proceeded to whisper something to his ear. The goat man nodded before taking a breath and finishing the silence that had formed around their discussion with a cutting tone.

“I have a meeting with Big Mama I have to attend” Donnie didn’t know who Big Mama was either, but he got the feeling she was important. Mikey dad turned around and walked towards a door with a fast pace “We’ll continue when I get back”

Then he left without saying goodbye.

Mikey stood there for some seconds looking at the door as if it had something interesting on it. Donnie could swear it had been like a minute before he started to hear sobs coming from the box turtle who still hadn’t moved, even if that changed when he (most likely) went to dry his tears with his hands.

Donnie wanted to say something, he really did, he just didn’t know what to say, he just wasn’t the best when it came to emotions. Not his, not other’s. Not fake, not real. Not good, not bad. He was shit at all of them every way you look at it.

What would he say anyways? Are you okay? He obviously was not! There was no point in asking something obvious! It was like asking what colour is the sky when you have it in front of you and are not blind, colorblind or have the thing that you use to see (most likely eyes, but this way other options are accounted for) covered. Maybe that wasn’t the best example as the sky is not actually blue and can be other colours depending on the wave from the light of the sun that’s able to scatter more widely but who cares. Donnie did but that’s because he’s Donatello Hamato and Donatello Hamato always wanted the most exact way of getting his information, especially if it was science related.

Maybe that was the reason that people ask other people if they are okay, even if it gives people the possibility to lie. Because human feelings were one of the most complicated things the softshell has seen babies be capable of and in some cases some adults as well. Maybe there was something that seemed obvious to someone but wasn’t as they thought.

He now saw the reasoning behind that stupid ass question. Everything was easier once you compared it to the sun! He should start doing that more often. It worked with cakes, pies and basically baking for that girl in that musical that was an adaptation of that one 2000’s movie called waitress, why wouldn’t it work for him but with the sun?

Unluckily for him to test his hypothesis, Mikey had run toward the exact opposite side of the room and started to audibly cry even more than he was crying in a sort of foetal position. Donnie still wanted to say something, especially now that he knew how to start the conversation. And even if it sounded cringe, Mikey hadn’t noticed him. More so he hadn’t noticed he was awake, or if he had he was ignoring him. Donnie was sure the second one was worse.

But he decided to just let him cry.

He could wait.

He felt like he had been waiting half his life.

He could wait a bit more.

Donnie ended up sitting up and drawing schematics for something he may build. Probably.

Mikey looked up after like maybe 10 or 20 minutes of crying, but didn’t say anything for like 5 minutes. They just made eye contact. Which was the worst thing that Donnie could have ever imagined. One thing was emotions, a whole other thing was prolonged eye contact.

“Did you…” Mikey started before breaking eye contact for a bit and looking at the door for a few seconds “You heard that, didn’t you?”

Donnie thought about lying for a moment. He wasn’t the best at lying so maybe it wasn’t the best idea to lie. He shook his head yes to answer him.

Mikey looked at the floor like he was ashamed “Oh… I’m sorry about it… Draxum and I normally don’t fight”

“Draxum? Is he the goat man?” If he was that meant he now had a name to identify Mikey’s father.

“Yeah, we usually get along pretty well” He looked back at Donnie “He can just be a bit extra sometimes and that just drove me crazy today”

“I can understand you, my father sometimes is like that”

Mikey looked at Donnie with a weird face, as if he didn’t really quite get it “He is? But he seemed so nice!”

“Your father didn’t” Donnie shot back a bit hurt after feeling like the other turtle decided not to believe him.

“Yeah, I already said I’m sorry! But at least I admit it!”

“Because everything I say it’s true” That made Mikey laugh. His laugh had a child-like wonder Donnie hadn’t seen in a long time. Mikey was just a kid after all. Like he, Raph and April were. And Mikey was an emotional mess. Too much of an emotional mess for his age. Donnie honestly felt sorry for him.

“I really don’t think it is because of it, Donnie. I honestly think it’s because I can take accountability for my actions!” Now donnie was the one that felt like he shouldn’t believe Mikey. He was a bit confused after that comment to be honest.

“Why? They’re not your actions. They are your father’s actions. Why should you take accountability?” Mikey stood up. Donnie was sure he hadn’t liked that comment.

“Because” Mikey’s tone was monotone, kind of angry honestly. Donnie didn’t like the direction he probably was getting at. He wasn’t even looking at him! He was looking at that damned door again! What did he find so interesting in that door that Donnie couldn’t see?! “If I don’t, no one will. And I’m strong to take it on all by myself”

Mikey walked towards the door ignoring Donnie again. And just before leaving through it he looked back at Donnie.

“Thank you for being my friend”

And he just left.

Leaving Donnie alone again, in his cell.

He would have to get used to it, wouldn’t he?

Chapter Text

“You can’t keep doing this to yourself Jen”

Leo looked at his sister like he had done so many times before.

Jen, on the other hand, looked away from him. Preferring to look around the room she had seen so many times in her life. Her own room.

They both sat in the bed. Looking at each other. One hated these moments, the others just disliked them.

“Jenny, you know that. Why do you keep hurting yourself like that?” Leo kept on disinfecting his sister’s multiple injuries. Jennika’s face scrunched up with each one, even if it had become a sort-of routine.

The older turtle scoffed a half laugh “Like you’re one to talk”

“I’m being serious” Leo was kind of failing. This was a serious topic in his eyes. It should be a serious topic in her eyes too, but it wasn’t.

Jen turned to look at her brother “I’m being serious to”

Now it was time for Leo to let out a half laugh “I don’t think you are! Look at yourself!” Jennika had a fractured leg and just some minutes before Leo had had to pop back into place her arm. She also was covered with smaller injuries like multiple cuts and forming bruises from head to toe. “You look like shit!”

She felt like shit too. She hadn’t meant for her brother to watch that fight, but he ended up watching anyway. It had been a rough fight to say the least. It had earned her an award, sure, and that award had made her feel proud of herself, not like she wasn’t proud of herself before, but it had come with a price to pay.

It was a fair price to pay.

Leo didn’t see it that way.

“You could’ve died Jenny!” He was wrapping some of her cuts in gauze. Jen would’ve sworn she saw tears in his eyes.

“I at least didn’t try to kill myself!”

An insult.

It came out like an insult.

She could see Leo’s face change.

It was an insult.

Regret creeped up Jen’s spine. She had just insulted her younger brother in a vulnerable moment.

“I was nine, Jen. You’re 15” Leo now sounded serious, not the good kind of serious.

“And you’re 13, yet you haven’t changed”

She shouldn’t have said that either.

She was the worst sister ever.

Leo looked down, focusing on his feet rather than his sister.

The silence was killing her. She was fully treated. Leo could go.

Leo stayed.

Leo always stayed.

It wasn’t a good idea when Leo stayed.

Leo didn’t know everything that was happening, what they were getting involved into.

Leo wouldn’t know.

Leo couldn’t know

Leo-

Jennika was pulled back to reality as she flew up into the air. People chanted her name, even if it was a name that wasn’t completely hers, it was her name. They were chanting at her, to defeat or be defeated, every fight was like that. She had gotten used to that noise.

What she hadn’t got used to was seeing his brother watching her fight.

Leo was looking at her, sitting next to Big Mama. His brother was there, watching her.

She couldn’t fail any of them. Not her mother, not her brother. But while Big Mama had her normal gaze, studying her- her flaws and strengths- preparing a mental list on everything she did wrong or right to improve, Leo looked at her with what she could only explain as numbness.

She was almost an adult and he wasn’t a kid anymore. But she missed those times. She still didn’t need to remember them, especially not that one and preferably not in the middle of a battle.

That day had been rough to say the least. But today was also going to be hard if she didn’t kill this multiple headed scorpion soon enough. Because that’s how the battle nexus worked. Kill or to be killed. You either die or make others die. And the only reason this scorpion was kicking her ass into Venus and back was because of the venom.

Oh how she hated venomous enemies. They were the worst. She could feel her whole body progressively getting numb, like Leo’s face. Except in this case it wasn’t because of how all that violence was how they’ve lived since they were kids and because of her body slowly shutting down on her.

She had also tried to shock him, but the yokai’s shell had protected them. Having electrical powers was good and nice except when she couldn’t use them. And she didn’t use them right away in battles, it’s not only surviving, it's putting on a show, it’s making people like you and entertaining them. If you’re not entertaining you’ll get booted off. One way or another. Big Mama will find a way. And in her case she wouldn’t die (probably, she was her daughter), but punishment was worse. Because it was Big Mama she was talking about. She might be her mother and a good mother, but she was her boss. And she was a good boss, she was just rough, that’s all.

The scorpion, to her advantage, didn’t look to be very sharp to begin with. It could’ve taken advantage of her being thrown in the air and it didn’t.

As she fell to the ground she retracted into her shell. It hurt and she wasn’t used to doing it, but it was an easy way to take hits that would probably kill her like dropping from around twenty metres from the sky. Big Mama had told them it hurt because they weren’t meant to fully retract into their shells, but could because of their add-ons .

The scorpion hit the flying shell, throwing it against the wall. That gave Jen Some distance to work with. She popped out of the shell and got on her feet as soon as she could. The scorpion was twice her height, making it around 3 metres wide without the pincers and around 14 and 15 metres with them. It was huge. The pincers especially. It wasn’t so huge it wouldn’t fit in the battle nexus’ arena, but enough to make movement harder than it normally would, especially without the pincers.

Jennika moved towards her right, running as fast as she could, looking around for her weapon, her kyoketsu-shoge, when she noticed a small gap in the middle of their side, between its legs. Scorpions have an exoskeleton that acts not only as a protector of their internal organs, so if she could make that gap bigger, she could zap him and win the fight before the venom killed her. Gods, she was already getting nauseous, she hoped she didn’t have to puke, because it would be a disadvantage and would leave her vulnerable for a minute.

She ran around for some time, dodging and attacking the best she could until she saw the shine of her kyoketsu-shoge’s blade and as soon as she got it she immediately ran for her objective.

She tried to get onto the scorpion’s back by attaching herself to its pincers, but fell thanks to the nausea and extra sweating the venom was causing her. The commentator even said so. The effects of a scorpion’s venom causes sweating, nausea, vomiting, hyper-salivation and restlessness and in rare cases irregular heartbeat, heart failure, unconsciousness and death. The commentator also added that it’s hard to die from a normal scorpion's venom, but it was a yokai, so Jen was sure that it was way more possible than they made it sound.

She dove underneath the scorpion and came out on the other side, jumping up as soon as she could. Attaching herself to the upper part of one of its legs was easier than she thought it would be and using the curved blade of her kyoketsu she managed to steady herself to puke.

A kyoketsu-shoge is made up of a handle that is attached to a rope and a circle at the end while the other side of the handle has a blade  that has a curved blade coming out of it. And so, if she curved the kyotestu upwards she could make a space big enough to zap the scorpion, but there was the possible danger of getting stuck on a dying thing and that thing possibly falling on her. The other option was using her weapon like a knife and opening the scorpion like a can of baked beans. That also could go wrong easily.

Planning wasn’t her strongest suit. Especially while the effects of the venom made her feel like she would puke. Again.

Jenny decided to just stab the scorpion. The pained scorpion flinched which caused their abdomen to touch the floor. She used that movement to her advantage and got on top of it. The commentator explained her moves, what she was doing and what she might do, not like she really paid attention to whoever was commentating further than if it was her brother (like yesterday and most Saturday mornings) or someone else, but it was pissing her off today. She didn’t like today’s commentator, but they did seem to know a lot about scorpions and their anatomy. Or they just had notes about the yokai.

Either way, she didn’t listen, even if she should. She should pay attention to the fight. In this case, the fight was the thing that could kill her, not her surroundings. Some snippets of their commentary did make it to her consciousness, but it wasn’t like she paid attention to it. Except for the part that a scorpion’s heart was closer to the tail than to the head.

Luckily for Jenny and unluckily for the yokai, she loves stabbing things. And playing stab-a-mole until she found the heart wasn’t in her to-do list, but dying wasn’t either. So stab-a-scorpion it was.

And she didn’t find the heart, even if the blade should be long enough (the curved blade made it harder just to stabby-stab her victim), but she did make a lot of cuts and a hole. And in less than 10 minutes she got back to her original plan. She was actually more worried about the fact that she hadn’t fallen from the scorpion. The scorpion was, in fact, extremely stupid. They could’ve actually killed her! But they didn’t!

Opening the scorpion like a can of beans was easy even if it was extremely unpleasant and disgusting. And touching the throbbing muscles even if she needed to zap them. Zapping things was fun. How the electricity ran through her nervous system until it all came out. Ever since she saved her brother that one time, it felt like there was a bigger connection to something. What? She had no idea. But she did know something, the moment the scorpion stopped moving, it was her call to cut off a head and win another fight, moving up in this season’s ranking, giving her another title, another digit to her body count, one less inhabitant in the hidden city.

And as she held the scorpion head, standing on top of the dead body, looking at her family for approval, was when she saw, or rather didn’t see her mother. Big Mama wasn’t on the balcony as she normally was. But it wasn’t exactly something new. Big Mama was a busy woman. No that didn’t affect her, it was the worry expression Leo was wearing. Something had happened, and Leo knew it, because he had been there when that happened. Worry settled deep in her stomach, not exactly the best feeling to accompany nausea or her weird headache that made the world spin and that gave her a clue of what would happen next. She finally fainted.

She woke up in her bed, her brother sitting next to her in a chair. He smiled at her and dropped her hand. There was that same worried expression in his face she had last seen on his face, even if it was from a distance.

“Don’t worry, there’s no venom in your system anymore” He told her. She nodded and sat up on her bed. She wasn’t even under her covers, but rather on top of it. She guessed it was because she wasn’t out for a lot of time.

“How did I do?” Leo looked up at her and smiled, it made Jen smile too.

“Incredibly disgustingly good!” Jen rolled her eyes at his failed joke “Hey! Don’t give me that look! It was disgusting! You puked like… twice! That’s too much puke for a day!”

Jenny laughed at Leo’s faux disgust which caused her to be hit with one of her big plushies she could use as a pillow. “Oh come on! I only puke once!”

Leo laughed whole heartily at her “Too much puke for one day!”

They both laugh for some time, which reminded her of when they were younger. She missed those times “What did mom think of it?” She missed not having to worry about making her mother proud.

Leo’s face fell into a more serious expression. Something wasn't okay “She… She didn’t see much of the fight” he rubbed his arm up and down, occasionally scratching the same scarred spot in his arm “Draxum appeared around the time you were thrown against the wall. He and mom had a meeting and he was kinda angry” That had never been a good sign. Draxum was short tempered and Big Mama was hard to change the opinion of. When any of them was angry or even slightly pissed, meetings didn’t go to plan. That’s why whatever they were business partners for could’ve ended in one year instead of around seven years. Maybe.

That… that wasn’t good. Normally, Leo would have just mentioned it and moved on like it hadn’t happened. Something was in his mind. It wasn’t just that something wasn’t okay, it was that something was wrong . Maybe even worse, but surely she was exaggerating, right?

Jenny put her hand on Leo’s hand “There’s something else, isn’t there?” She asked.

Leo looked at the door and back at her “Well, um, not really” he smile, the one everyone hated so much.

“And that’s a fucking lie bestie” His smirk fell “I know you, Leonardo” she would’ve added a surname if they had one, but they didn’t “I know that you’re worrying about something”

“Well how can I not!” He yelled “You go out there almost every day and die almost every day! How can I not get worried!”

That bothered her “You have no right to talk”

“Yes I do! Something bad could happen to you!” He stood up. She did as well.

“Oh now you’re worrying!” For her, he had never really cared except when she was hurt. That was it.

“You saw how you ended up!”

“I at least haven’t been banned for three years from fighting!”

Leo shut up for what felt for hours “Mom banned you for sometime”

That angered her “WHY?!”

Leo whispered “I don’t know, she said she has plans for you ”

She stopped.

She has plans for you .

Not us, you .

That didn’t feel right.

Chapter Text

Leonardo, Fernando and Calixto were sitting down in Leo's room. The three of them were sitting in the small living room-like part that the hotel room had. Even if the small living room didn’t look as small in the giant room.

The small living room had three couches. The three of them were sitting on the biggest which could fit the group of five friends, Big Mama as a human and half a person. The couch to their left full of medical materials that Leo had used some hours prior. The couch to their right had only two katanas and some vintage merchandising they liked to collect. The two side couches could’ve easily fit the three of them together, but Caso cerrado was what caught most of the friends’ attention. Cal’s eyes moved over the subtitles like his life depended on it, completely enthralled with whichever human’s words, accusations and just statements. Fer was actually looking at the human’s faces as he didn’t need subtitles to understand spanish. Leo was the odd one out, looking nowhere specific, lost in thought.

Leo was one to overthink, sure, but not one to show it publicly or on boy's night. Leo loved boy’s night and enjoyed their  stupid activities like watching and clowning on various over the top human shows. It was okay to have bad days where you aren’t as happy but today was different from the others. And being Leo it wasn’t like it went unnoticed. His cherry jokester persona only followed when his friends were around, and even that was weird. He wouldn’t be lying if he said that that was how he was irl, because he was like that, he just had exaggerated his personality for popularity.

Someone was calling for his name. Cal turned to look at him. Leo turned to look at him as well. Both of them looking at Fer as he was in the middle of both of them. Fer looked at Leo as well. “Leo…” Cal started “is everything all right? I asked you if you liked the episode and didn’t respond… Do you want to watch another show?”

Leo blinked “Yeah yeah,no this one is… okay, um, sorry I was just… um lost in thought” He scrambled to say, making him look like he was lying. Which he kind of was. The best way to lie is telling half truths.

Fer gave him an unimpressed face “Somehow I don’t believe it”

Leo scoffed and layed sideways on the couch. He was tired, today had been a long day, but it was time to pretend everything was okay, they all knew he wasn’t okay since he was a kid. He was Big Mama’s kid for once and he had been competing in the battle nexus since he was eight. And on top of that he had decided to take care of his sister. She also took care of him as well but she hadn’t been the best at self preservation. “You never believe me!”

“Yes I do! Just not now!” Fer defended himself, the tv sound playing in the background.

Leo rolled his eyes, his cheeky smile ever present “Yeah, sure”

“ Yeah, sure ? What do you mean yeah sure ?!”

“I mean ” Leo sat up again “ Yeah, sure! You definitely always believe me ”

“Oh come on man! I believe you when you say things that actually make sense!” Fer sounded annoyed. Leo didn’t like that.

“So me being lost in thought doesn’t make sense then” Leo matched Fer’s possible annoyance “That’s what you're saying, isn’t it?”

Fer sat up and walked around the room while he speaked, he did that often enough it wasn’t the first time he had done it today “No! Of course not! I just meant that- Like- You know- It’s just-” Fer stopped and shouted something that didn’t really make sense but definitely sounded like words. He turned to Cal “Please help me”

“Leo, bestie, it makes sense that you think” Cal simply stated which got him some weird noises from Fer “You think. And you are good at it”

Even if Cal’s weird statements were strangely comforting, Fer wasn’t happy and they started to argue. Leo was thinking a lot today to be honest. More than usual even. A lot was on his mind today. Between his sister, whatever was going on with her and Big Mama and his weird dream-nightmare guy situation he honestly just couldn’t be head empty, no thoughts for more than a second and he missed it. Not thinking felt nice. Thinking too much didn’t feel nice. It was tiring for him. And his day-to-day life already tired him enough. Like waking up at 5 am and going to sleep around 12pm wasn't good for him in any way, but it wasn’t like he had been doing all his life so he should be accustomed to it. Jenny was, so why couldn’t he?

Maybe comparing himself with his sister like everyone else did wasn’t exactly the best thing to do either. But how couldn’t he? He wasn’t popular because of how he fought, he was popular for his persona. Yeah, he was a battle nexus champion. And yeah, he was a good fighter. But he wasn’t as good as he should be. He was a faceman, not a good fighter. Like Aquaman in the Justice League or Hawkeye in the avengers. Yeah, he was important. And Yeah, he did important things. But he was there just as decoration, not really being as relevant.

And there was the dream thing. It felt like he was in front of a table with objects with a window in the middle. Close enough to be able to take them but far enough that the window made it impossible to take anything on the table, for better or for worse. Because that was the other thing. He didn’t know much about this… person… if they even were real. Maybe Fer was right and that was a bad idea. But something in his gut told him it was not. That they were real. That they were out there. He just didn’t know if it was a good thing that they were real and somewhere (hopefully) on this earth and/or galaxy. Still he wanted to find them for some reason.

He was sure that if the battle nexus didn’t kill him, his stupidity would end him. Either that or he goes back to a dark place and he didn’t even want to think about it. So he now will think about Jupiter Jim, Lou Jitsu, Magicians and Ducks. If he didn’t have family or friends those would be his favourite things ever. Right now they’re tied up with his friends and two family members and closely followed by musicals, both human and yokai. He preferred performing human musical’s songs as most people in the hidden city didn’t have that possibility. Going to watch a musical in the hidden city was way cheaper than going topside. And it’s not like most people had cloaking broaches or just could disguise themselves like Big Mama, Jenny and he could. He enjoyed watching both types of musicals either way. And he would be lying if he said it wasn’t most likely because of that musical about the life of Lou Jitsu Big Mama was invited to as the last partener the movie action star was known to have had. Her hotel was the most well-known hotel in both the hidden city and NYC afterall. They even interviewed her and asked if Jenny and him were Lou’s kids, but she did say the truth and admitted they didn’t have anything to do with the action star. Still, a man can dream. Just imagine being the kid of your favourite actor and one of the most famous battle nexus champions. Both Jenny and him knew they were adopted- even if it wasn’t public information everyone had- and they were 50% sure they were blasian if their human form was anything to go by. And like, they knew they weren’t born with their human form and that Big Mama had done something for them to be able to change into a human form without a cloaking broach. Big Mama hated cloaking brooches for some reason so it surprised no one that one of the biggest public figure both in the hidden city- especially in the hidden city- and New York City would have kids that don’t need to use cloaking brooches even if it wasn’t exactly public that Leo and Jenny were Big Mama actual kids. Big Mama said that having a family was both a good and bad thing, but in their case, it wasn’t very beneficial in any sense. She wasn’t going to kill them or anything but it was clear to both siblings that she could live without them easily and it wouldn’t hurt her as it would them.

Someone was calling his name repeatedly as he had fainted and he snapped back to reality. This time it was Fer instead of Cal “See, that’s the unusual thing, Leo!” Fer started as if he never had been fighting with Cal “It’s like you aren’t even here!”

Leo looked down at the floor. He knew they weren’t 100% in the wrong, but it wasn’t like he was going to admit it . Admitting a weakness? Even with his friends? Not today satan. Especially being him . He lied almost daily just to make himself look better in almost every sense. It didn’t make him seem human, for lack of better words, and he was more than happy about it. He was the face man out of the two siblings. He didn’t mind being a symbol. It was what he was the best at. Maybe he did mind. He could say he was used to it for sure. Maybe that was all that it was. That he was used to it.

“I know” he finally commented after a ton of time of silence, maybe 5 or 7 minutes. “There’s no need for you to remind me” He could feel his friend's gaze burning into his skull and whatever was playing on the tv muted and long forgotten once again, even if he didn’t think he had really been paying attention to it to begin with “It’s just… There’s a lot of things in my mind lately…” He looked at his friends once again, paying close to their facial expressions. Worry . They were worried “I’m sorry”

“Leo, there’s nothing to be sorry about” Cal said “We’re not your mother”

Leo laughed lightly even if he didn’t really find it funny. He more so laughed at the relife than at the comment. Cal wasn’t really fond of Big Mama. He constantly said that he would’ve already been gone if it wasn’t for the fact that he wasn’t going to leave his friends alone (and because he had a good salary). He mentioned multiple times that Leo and Jenny were severely affected and hurt emotionally by their mother that it was easy to see that they were emotionally scared, even if he pointed out that at least they had a mother that loved them, even if he thought it was a front. “I guess you’re right”

Leo smiled a bit and Fer mirrored the small gesture while he moved over to his desk to look for something. “Maybe you should go to sleep. We can continue our boys' night another day. Where did you leave your sleeping gummy things?”

“We could try that dream person thing” Leo mentioned in a last minute attempt. He knew Fer didn’t like that idea but hope was his greatest weapon. And his Katanas, but he’s not going to threaten Fer with his Katanas.

“Leonardo, we've already talked about this! I don’t think it’s a good idea!”

“Your birth was not a good idea!” Cal insulted his brother. Then, he picked Leo's face by the cheeks with both hands, making him look like a fish more than a turtle “He’s sad! Do it for the baby!”

Leo pushed Cal off “I’m pretty much sure I’m older than you”

“We’re all adopted. We’ll never know” Cal said while walking towards the wall that was farthest from both Leo and Fer.

“Why do you always side with him?” Fer asked him with desperation as he threw a pillow at his brother's head, which luckily hit its target.

“Because he’s rich” He responded jokingly “And you are my brother. And that means that I hate you”

Fer sighed “You’re the worst” He then turned at Leo and threw the small plastic box that contained the sleeping gummies. “And if whatever you want me to do with your dreams goes south, you’ll be paying dinner at Run of the Mill for a month for all of us, Jenny and Amae both included”

Leo beamed and jumped to hug his friend with multiple ‘thank you’s as Cal exited the room. Leo didn’t know what had made him change his mind, Fer was rather stubborn. Maybe it was out of pity, even if he hoped it wasn’t. Maybe Cal had done something while he wasn’t looking. There were a lot of maybes at play.

Leo really hoped his instinct was right, even if it was right most of the time. He didn’t want to pay for 5 pizzas daily for a whole ass month. That was a lot of money he didn’t want to waste, even if it wouldn’t really go anywhere else.

Chapter Text

Someone knocked on the door.

April was on her fifth coffee and she just had had the temptation to go outside and buy an energy drink from that store that was close to her home that sold everything at like half the original price. She had been around 24 hours without sleep and feared the heart attack that she saw most likely if she drank anything else to keep her awake. But she wouldn’t sleep until they found Donnie (or she was forced to because it was a saturday and there was school on monday. Fuck school, her friend was more important, not like she was going to miss anything important or interesting).

She was close to cracking where he was, she was sure of it! The big ass computer Donnie had builded on a bigass room they just happened to have had marked that the last place he had been was inside a wall between a comic store and a dumpster. After that the computer went crazy trying to locate him. It still marked him as having a location and the arm had battery, it had been fully charged on operational prior to this, it just was being stopped from communication with the computer for some reason, like a barrier was around his friend’s tech. Raph had gone to check it out but there had been no turtle or arm or anything that could be owned by Donnie.

Just a dumpster and a comic store.

So she investigated even further. That’s where the last four cups of coffee came from.

Someone knocked on the door of the lab again.

When Raph got back from the comic store Splinter mentioned something about a hidden city and how it had to do with someone named something like Draxum, Durum, Jackum or something like that. And Raph remembered Splinter or Mikey calling that to the furry that attacked them. And that was good! They had a lead! It wasn’t the best lead but it was a lead! It surely was better than nothing…

Thanks to Raph distracting Splinter for enough time to rummage around his do not touch cabinet she found an unusual flyer there. They all knew that Splinter had a ton of weird and exclusive Lou Jitsu memorabilia, but still, this flyer was really weird. It was crumpled up to begin with and hidden in a drawer underneath a ton of more precious memorabilia like original movie posters and photoshoots that looked like they were featured in magazines. Then the flyer talked about a battle nexus and showed a bloody Lou Jitsu posing over what looked to be a mountain of corpses. April wasn’t sure what he was staying on top of as some big title letters were covering them up.

But that wasn’t what caught her attention, no, it was an extra text that was written in shiny purple pen (definitely what caught her attention) that she was sure Donnie wouldn’t love, would leave this mortal plane of existence and come back a new turtle. She was sure he would find a way to make his blood turn that purple pen’s ink.

The pamflet had been in front of her for various hours. She had scanned every part of the flyer so meticulously that she knew it by memory. She knew where the pieces of sellotape were, where it had been folded over and where it had been crumpled up. But what was more important from the pamflet was the text that was on it. And she wasn’t talking about the obvious ad it had for a fight Lou Jitsu had had or the nice colour the extra text was written in. No, it was the signature that accompanied the message written in the text. The text read “meet me at the great sushi flood if you want to discuss your freedom. Toodles Huggypoo ;) - Yours truly, B.M.” That was a better lead!

There was no ‘The great sushi flood’ in New York city. If there were, Donnie’s database would have it in it. But just from the constant exposure she had gotten to Lou Jitsu’s face since he had befriended the turtle brothers, she knew that the Lou Jitsu shown in the image was the Lou Jitsu that disappeared in New York city after a date with his then girlfriend. And would you guess who his girlfriend was at the time? Beatrice MacMana, the renown business woman, who just happens to be nicknamed Big Mama and has a prestigious chain of luxury hotels named ‘The nexus hotel’. In April’s curious brain the connection was made almost immediately.

She had the pieces of the puzzle, she just didn’t know how to connect them. If she was being honest, the last 7 hours of investigating had made her feel like a conspiracy theorist in the making and she really didn’t like it, but she guessed that she would have to go down similar rabbit holes to be a journalist, specially because she also wanted to investigate the things she would journal about for the whole world to see.

Whoever was at the door knocked a third time and managed to annoy April enough to take her headphones out and open the door. She expected to see Raph asking her again if she found anything or if he could do something to help her instead of just waiting for her to find something out (in his defence, she did lock herself in a room and told the other two people in the house to not enter under any circumstances).

Instead, she found Splinter looking up at her with a worried frown. That was unusual. In circumstances like this he usually locked himself in his room and didn’t come out in a week, or Raph had told her. Not like she was there, Raph had told him it had been years since something like that happened. She wasn’t going to force anything else out of any of them, even if she felt like that wasn’t the end of the story. Something was investigating and another thing was diving into people’s private lives.

“Is everything okay, Splints?” She knew he wasn't okay. His face was face, his eyes red and puffy and he had a running noise causing him to sniff from time to time. And don’t get her started on how bad he smelled. The scent of cheese and sadness wasn’t the best odour to emanate from your body, especially when you don’t come out from your room in hours. She was 100% Raph got his insert-emotion-here stink from Splinter. Their sadness stink was the same. And it did reek of sadness to open the door. And sewer water.

“Do your parents know you’re here?” He asked. He was nervous, maybe stressed. For some reason he kept looking behind him. Maybe the whole ass hole from that goat that broke into the lair was making him paranoid. Maybe. Just maybe. Crazy thoughts.

She smiled at him “Yeah! Don’t worry! I told them that you invited me to stay over for the weekend and they were okay with it” She thought Splinter would relax. He didn’t relax, not at all. He seemed even more tense than before.

He looked around this time, trying to peak over April’s shoulders, wanting to know what she had been doing. It felt like he was looking for something. Not like looking for something fiscal, but looking for something like a clue. It felt fishy to April, like something wasn’t right, like the rat had ulterior motives. “You seem tired April, you should sleep”

April tilted her head to the side and smiled again, this time it was a smaller smile, one that could’ve been easily missed. The kind of smile you would give someone you’re worried about. “I’m okay Splints, really, you don’t need to worry” She looked tired, and she knew it, but she was so close. She was so fucking close. She couldn’t give up now! She had to find Donnie! She just needed to find a connection between the info on the pamphlet, the alternative weird hidden internet network, the dumpster and the comic book store. And she had half of them figured out.

Donnie wouldn’t give up. And she wouldn’t give up.

Maybe she just needed some field exploration. She could take Raph with her! Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some older sibling time and go out and touch some grass in the meantime. She would greatly benefit from that.

Raph didn’t understand what was going on. Why did they go back to the alleyway? And why did he feel like Dad was following them. Like it was that weird feeling of someone following you, but he felt it was her father. And in any other circumstances he would’ve mind, and a lot, but maybe he was just tired.

Like the last 4 days had been tiring in general. First making up his mind about talking about… that … with April which was hard enough on its own! Then finding Mayhem and the chaos that brought them. And whatever Mikey brought with him to take Donnie away was just the straw that broke the camel’s back! It was too much emotionally and physically for Raph to function normally.

Laying on the couch and rotting on one’s own sadness didn’t sound so bad. Raph understood Splinter now.

And Raph still wanted to talk to April about that , but number one: Donnie was still missing, time and place Raph, time and place. And number two: the feeling of being followed by his father was what was stopping him.

Oh for the spirit’s sake! She couldn’t treat herself like she wanted others to treat her! How was she so naïve to think others would respect her? Come on! She was an almost 2 metres tall mutant that lived in the sewers! People weren’t going to respect her for who she was, much less respect her pronouns. Sometimes, she wanted to make those I’m gonna jump out the window jokes, but she wasn’t April or Donnie, so she wouldn’t joke about those things.

“April, bestie” April stopped and turned to look at her, just to listen to her speak “Why are we going to that alleyway again?”

“Oh! You know! Go out, touch some grass, maybe look for some comics for when Donnie comes back!” Raph noticed her friend’s eyes flying around discreetly as she could be, like she was looking for something. If he’s- she’s right, they both feel Splinter spying on them.

She was still going to pretend she didn’t know why they were going back to the alleyway. April was too stubborn for her own good. “That’s a horrible idea” Raph said as she slightly arched her back, leaned all her weight on one of her legs, crossed her arms and gave her the best ‘you’re talking bullshit’ face she could make. “April have you seen me? Not like I can go outside and just- I don’t know- Touch grass?”

April looked around again. “Just follow me! It’ll be good for your skin! When was the last time you were outside in the light?”

The human dragged her arm to get her moving again. She was going to be moved even if she didn’t want to. Okay. She could maybe handle it. “April, you know that I have scales, right?” the girl nodded “And you know that I could just stop and you wouldn’t be able to make walk” The girl nodded again. Raph stopped dead in her tracks “Then why do you force me to move?”

“Oh come on Raph! We’re almost there!” April complained as she tried to move Raph.

“Then actually tell me why we’re going there! But tell me the truth” even if whoever was spying on them, probably her father, was spying on them “I’m tired and I want to know where we are going and why, April”

April signed at her so she could whisper something to her ear “I think I found a way to get to Donnie”

“YOU FOUND DONNIE?!” She shouted back. April shushed her and she whispered “You found Donnie?!”

“I think I did, I have to check something about it, but…”

“But my dad’s following us” Raph said with a sigh as they moved forward.

Why didn’t dad want them to find Donnie? He loved them, didn’t he? Then why didn’t he try this time. He said he tried when they were mutated. He said he tried when that riot took her two sisters. She knew he tried every time he could when Sandro ran away, until the day they found he would never come back. Then why give up now? Why give up with Donnie? Why if Donnie had been with him all their life? Did he really give up on him? And out of all the times he could’ve given up on Donnie, why now? Was he going to give up on her too? Give up on April?

But before she knew it they were out of the sewers, the trash can in front of her. April said something, but Raph was stuck on that train of thought, on the fact that her father had given up on the only thing he had left in his life. She felt devastated and tricked, because she had been fooled. And even now that her father was in front of her, she didn’t know how to react.

“What are you kids doing?” He shouted “Red can’t be out in the daylight! I thought you were more responsible”

April turned to look at him, he did too “Splints, honey” her knuckles cracked “ We are looking for your son as you don’t seem to want to find him” She smiled ominously.

“Yes I do! It’s just hard”

“Doesn’t seem so hard if I can be doing it!”

“Not finding him! Going to where he is”

“Uh, yeah! No shit sherlock! You try finding someone who's inside a wall”

“Well- Maybe you haven’t looked hard enough!”

“Excuse me?”

They continued fighting like kids and Raph honestly couldn't care less, so he- she didn’t pay much attention. But something stuck out to Raph. Going to where he is . It sounded like he, weirdly, knew where her brother was. Like he had always known and hadn’t told them.

And just thinking about it, he knew the goat man. So he knew where he took her brother and her maybe friend. He knew and he hadn’t told them “You haven’t told us”

Two pairs of eyes turned towards Raph. She didn’t like the attention. Maybe she was still a bit zoned out because she wasn’t sure if her dad had said something but it felt like he did, so she repeated herself. “You know where he is and you haven’t told us”

Her father nodded.

He knew.

He knew!

But he.

He.

Had.

Given.

Up.