Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Leo didn’t want to wake up.

The smell of pancake batter wafted through the room, causing a sleeping dragon to start to stir.

Leo rolled onto her right side before blinking open her eyes, and letting out a soft chirp as she buried herself into the sheets of the bed she was on. The white blanket ruffled in her movement, and she buried the side of her head further into the fluffy pillow she had on her side and closed her eyes again.

She huffed a bit, she wanted to go back to sleep, but judging by the smell in the air, that would be a bit rude.

She rolled onto her back and looked around the room, smiling as she did so.

It’s been about a month since they’ve defeated the Krang.

And so much has changed in such a short time.

As the fact that she was currently sitting in a demon version of a full-sized bed, that was backed up against the wall of a room with brown wooded floors, light blue colored walls with white trim, two windows to the left of her where the morning sun was pouring in light, a bedside table to that side of her as well, and the door at the wall opposite of her, and to her right can confirm.

She had chosen to take up some odd jobs here and there, quick little things that were mainly some type of dangerous adventure that no one else was willing to do, and was paid well for in response to try and get someone to do it, and she started putting that into making her pocket dimension a bit more like home.

She had gotten her pocket dimension upgraded more than a bit, the outside now looked like a flat field with mountains in the back, and she had a home here now.

Leo got up and started walking over to the door, pausing for a moment and turning to the wardrobe that was next to the exit.

It was one of those tall, black ones with silver handles, it was apparently Damian’s old wardrobe when he was in middle school, he ended up moving rooms, and thus, changing out a lot of furniture.

He also mentioned having to fix something on it because– And Leo quotes– “Nick was a jerk, and choose to mess up the leg, and make it all wanky.”

Of course, Damian being Damian, he had used more… Colorful language, and if you ask Leo who the heck ‘Nick’ was he couldn’t tell you, but still, Leo appreciated the sentiment.

Leo bent down and opened the second to the bottom drawer, revealing a few neatly folded hoodies, shampoo and conditioner bottles, toothpaste, toothbrushes in a little bag, and some cologne and boxes of soap.

Damian kept a lot of his overnight stuff in the drawer because he kept forgetting to bring stuff over when he came to stay the night.

Which then just ended up having Damian spend more and more nights over…

And then Leo kept forgetting to set up the sleeping bags so they ended up sleeping in the same bed one night…

Then two nights.

Then three.

Then four–

Yeah, now that she was thinking about it, they have basically never gone back to the sleeping bags. It’s been two weeks. And that was back when this place was just two bedrooms, one for Ecplise and a tiny one for Leo, and a small room where the hoard was stored.

Leo chuckled, then she grabbed one of Damian’s hoodies, unraveling and holding it up revealing that it was mainly solid maroon color.

Leo held the hoodie close to himself, burying his face into the hoodie as he did so. After a bit, he then threw on the massive hoodie and struggled a bit to get it on due to how big it was.

Once he finally got it on, the hoodie went to about the top middle of his thighs and was a full hand longer than his arms.

Leo lifted the collar of the hoodie to his nose and snuggled into it. There was a mixture of a now familiar joy and a bit of embrassment from snuggling into the hoodie, but somehow Damian found the best hoodies. He also always smelled like timber or evergreen trees, occasionally there was also a campfire smell.

And if anyone asks, Leo will deny that he has stolen any of them.

Leo took in a deep breath before allowing the hoodie to fall from his hands.

He looked up, and a puzzled look crossed his face.

You see, beside the dresser, there was this rack.

It had a space for Leo’s weapons, as well as hangers for Leo’s masks.

But he quickly realized that his blue mask, the one that was deeper in color, was gone, there was only the longer-tailed mask that he used to make bows out of.

A sense of confusion grew inside of him. He knew he put his mask on the hanger last night, so where–

He yelped as he felt something grab him and pull him back, his shell hitting something warm that he was pressed up against.

He felt heat rise in his cheeks as he looked down and realized that there was a certain red tail coiled around him.

“Awe, you look so cute in my hoodie,” he heard Damian’s voice say, he realized that the demon’s head was right beside his ear when he said this, causing Leo the shiver a bit in shock and look over at the other.

Damian had a cheeky smile on his face, and Leo just huffed, “You scared me!” He accused, huffing a bit, but Damian only chuckled, “Stop acting adorable, and maybe that won’t happen,” he teased.

Leo just rolled his eyes in response, trying to keep the grin off of his face.

He knew Damian was only messing with him. If Leo actually had an issue with being startled by the other person, then Damian would’ve stopped it a long time ago.

Leo then felt two hands on the sides of his face, and something landed on his eyes in between them.

He looked at Damian, puzzled.

“Hold still,” Damian muttered to Leo, who then felt the fabric on his face tighten, but not too much, and that was when he realized what was going on.

“Are you putting my mask on me?” Leo asked he heard Damian snort, “Well, you ruined my other plans, so I guess this is the next best option.”

That just confused Leo even more, “What plans? How did you get my mask?” He asked, feeling as if the mask’s tails were being tied, he couldn’t keep the smile off his face anymore, so he leaned his back further into Damian’s chest.

Damian moved his chest back a bit, trying to tie the knot at the back of Leo’s mask, “Moon, I need you to stay still– But to answer your first question, at first, I was planning on just bringing breakfast to you,” he admitted, Leo looked up, Damian’s head was now above him, and Damian had a smirk on his face.

“I was also planning on helping you out with getting dressed, not that you need it to look adorable,” he stated, Leo blushed at his teasing tone. “Teddy…” Leo warned, narrowing his eyes, Damian snorted and rolled his eyes at him.

“You know, I can never take any of your threats seriously when you call me that,” he stated, finally, he finished with tying the mask.

He put his face back to next where Leo’s face was, and the turtle turned his head over to him.

Leo leaned in, and so did Damian, heat flared up in Leo’s chest as the two kissed, feeling all will to pretend as though he was upset at the man to melt away as he snuggled in further into Damian’s chest.

He relaxed as Damian wrapped his arms around him, he let down the guard that he always seemed to have up.

When they finally pulled away, Damian smiled at him.

“Happy birthday, baby blue.”

Leo let out a loud squeak at the nickname, his face burning red, Damian only chuckled and kissed him on the cheek.

“See? Adorable,” he stated, Leo buried his face into the crook of Damian’s neck, trying to hide how embarrassed the name made him.

Damian just continued to chuckle a bit as he looked down at the dragon in his arms. He felt his heart swell with pride.

He loved the fact that he was allowed to hold Leo. He loved the fact that he was allowed to make Leo flush red, and then continue to tease him.

He felt a form of pride knowing that Leo trusted him enough.

Leo finally looked at him, the blush on his face still a burning red, mixing with the familiar blue that Damian had come to associate with Leo’s blush.

He never really knew why it happened, Leo’s blush being blue, only that it had something to do with portals.

Leo looked at Damian’s smile, and returned it, looking over the other who he has now known for a year.

He was 16 now.

He and his brothers normally celebrate their birthday the night of, and the following early morning.

So, he was in the clear till about 5 p.m. when Mikey normally barges into his room and wants to get the day started early. It was like clockwork.

Leo chuckled at his youngest brother’s antics. Mikey had always been the life of the group.

He didn’t really know what to call this day. He was pretty sure he wasn’t born on the day, and the ‘mutation day’ name now no longer applied to him because, to put it simply, he wasn’t a mutant.

“You should head to the kitchen,” Damian abruptly said, shaking Leo out of his thoughts that were most likely about to spiral. Leo looked at him, their face growing puzzled, “What?” They asked, Damian just smiled in return, “Just go.”

Leo hesitantly stepped out of Damian’s hold, but the two still held hands, Leo was now facing Damian straight on.

Leo gave the other a wobbly, confused smile that the other snorted at before he turned to the door and started making his way to the kitchen.

The kitchen wasn’t far, but the place they were in was very small. Aenda had been the one to insist on making the upgrades to the world.

“Most of the upgrades you need are from dragon upgrades, and most of them know that in order to keep gaining money, you can’t scam a customer so that they will return, but there are some that are the reason dragons get a bad rep, and it’s little Nic-nics like you who are the perfect prey for them,” was what Aenda had said.

Leo was thankful that Aenda was looking out for them, but they hated the idea of using one of their friends for labor.

He walked down the few feet of the hall, which had wooden floors and a deep green wall with blue floral patterning, and grabbed the archway of the doorway into the kitchen, and went completely breathless.

The kitchen he had was a lot like Jamie’s, there was a small pathway cleared to get to a wooden ‘door’ that was rounded at the top and had a window in it, and the floors were made of stone that had a giant pebble-like appearance, the walls were wooden now, being the some color as the door, but a shade darker.

The cabinets were the same, but with a white countertop, the abnets were next to the door and trailed along the corner, until it reached about a foot away from where a small round table was with three chairs with it.

On the corner where the starting corner and the end counter would’ve come together to make a rectangle, there was another long counter that built toward the rest, with the same text and tops applied. It was cramped, but it was cozy. It was all simple in a way that Leo had always dreamed of.

On the lone counter, there was a glass vase with blue bellflowers inside.

The flowers were in the shape of a bell, as the name suggests, and they were this deep royal blue color that Leo loved.

Leo walked up to the vase, feeling heat engulfing his cheeks as he looked at the flowers.

Did Damian do this? For him?

Leo continued to just stare at the flowers when he heard a chuckle.

“Watcha think, Blue?” Damian asked, his eyes trailing up and down Leo, taking in as the smaller dragon stared at the flowers.

“They’re beautiful,” he heard Leo breathe out, gently touching the flowers, Damian didn’t mess with the slight wince on Leo’s face, he knew that Leo had a dislike for cuttings, but was probably too humble to say anything.

“Why don’t you open the card?” Damian pushed and watched as Leo’s little face grew confused, then he looked at the card and grabbed it.

When Leo opened the card, a bag fell out, causing Leo to have to quickly catch it before it hit the floor.

Damian watched as Leo analyzed the bag for a moment, face contorted in confusion.

Then it abruptly broke into this wide, giddy smile.

Leo looked over to Daman, his eyes sparkling, “You got me seeds?” He asked it was clear that he was trying to hold back some of his excitement.

Damian chuckled, he loved it when Leo got like this, absolutely buzzing with joy, unable to keep up his ‘calm and collected’ leader facade, and breaking away to the pure soul underneath.

He couldn’t help but smile at his Aoi, he loved his baby, and he loved seeing how happy Leo got when he saw flowers in bloom, Leo had always liked flowers, especially growing them, and Damian was more than willing to make that happen.

He continued to stare at Leo for a moment, looking over as the normally calm turtle was all smiles about some flowers.

He fully realized Leo could kick his ass in a second. His Aoi was a lot of things, weak was not one of them.

But he couldn’t help but feel the need to protect that smile.

“They wouldn’t let me get the seeds without buying the bouquet, so–” Damian gestured to the flowers, but his sentence was quickly cut off when something ran into him.

Leo wrapped his arms around Damian, snuggling into the other’s chest.

He felt arms slowly wrap around him, giving him a tight squeeze and they did so.

The two were like that for a moment, then Leo pulled away, and Damian crouched to his eye level, the two kept their hands on each other, though, with Damian’s hands on Leo’s biceps, and Leo’s on Damian’s forearms.

“Thank you, Day,” Leo said, his smile still wide, Damian chuckled and cupped the side of Leo’s face, “Of course… Baby.”

Leo’s face with bright red, and Damian couldn’t stop himself from laughing, Leo was always easily flustered, and Damian couldn’t tell whether he should love that about his Blue, or be concerned as to why it always shocked Leo when Damian complimented him.

Leo huffed at Damian’s laughter, he could feel his cheeks burn hotter out of embrassment.

But there was something else rising in his chest, and he grimaced as the feeling of guilt started taking over.

“You really shouldn’t have,” Leo muttered, he loved the flowers, but he would’ve been fine if Damian was just there , he didn’t need anything more. Heck, Damian had also helped him in paying Aenda, so he really shouldn’t have gotten Leo anything.

Damian snorted in response, “Oh really? Please– ” He leaned further down, putting his face right in front of Leo’s, his right hand went from Leo’s arms to the middle of his chest, then up, taking a gentle hold of his face by cupping his chin, forcing them to look him in the eyes.

“Enlighten me,” he stated, his voice low and daring, a dark shadow dancing across his face.

Leo felt his heart thumping in his chest, his face heating up as his mouth dried.

His mouth opened and closed, but no words were able to form.

“I– Uh– Cause– Umm,” he stammered, unable to form actual words, Damian only put his face closer to his.

“Because you–” Leo was cut off when Damian’s lips met his own. He leaned into the kiss, ignoring the fact that Damian most likely was just trying to get him to be quiet.

When Damian pulled away, Leo saw a smirk tracing his face.

“I wanted to get you something nice, so I got you something nice,” Damian stated, his tone unwavering, Leo hummed, feeling as Damian’s other hand cupped the right side of his face, he leaned into the hand.

“I’ll pay you back for the money you spent on the house,” Leo said absent-mindedly,  Damian shook his head, “Leo, I will continue to avoid taking it until you forget.”

Leo chuckled at that, with their head facing down a bit, they looked at Damian, “Clearly, you have no clue how stubborn I can be.”

“Oh, ho, ho, ho,” Damian chuckled, “Is that right?”

The tone was as though it was a dare, a challenge.

Leo narrowed his eyes, he was never one to back down from a challenge.

They continued to just stand there, staring at each other, when there was a loud chirp that softly echoed through the hall.

They looked down the hall, opposite of where the room was, then to each other.

“Ecplise,” they said at the same time.

Damian smiled at Leo, then stood to full height, letting go of the smaller one as he did so.

“I’ll get her, you just get your breakfast,” he asked, turning around and ending down the hall before Leo could say another word.

Leo just stood there for a moment, seed bag in hand, before he started smiling once more.

He turned around and walked over to where he could Damian had set the breakfast.

He didn’t even realize the bounce in his step.

A blue portal swirled to life in between where the counter table was, and where the actual kitchen part of the area was.

Damian was the first to step into his kitchen through the portal, his right arm in the shape of an L as Ecplise perched on it. She was looking back into the portal, chirping and chittering away as she swayed toward where the portal was, wanting to reach the person who was about to step through.

That was when Leo stepped through, his right hand intertwining with Damian’s left. He was currently wearing his blue hoodie and black sweatpants, he wanted to be in something comfortable for today.

His gaze was on Damian and Ecplise, he was smiling.

Leo looked over to see Jamie in the kitchen as well, a puzzled look went across his face.

“Hey, Jamie, do you need something?” Leo asked, causing the girl, who was once smiling at her phone, most likely texting April, to startle, and look over at them, startled.

But Jamie’s startled look quickly went into a smile when she saw the two.

“Happy birthday, Lee!” Jamie cheered, and Leo blushed slightly out of embrassment, he had completely forgotten that when he had told Damian when his birthday was, they all were there.

“Um, thanks, James,” Leo responded with a shy smile, he honestly just wanted the conversation to turn to something else.

Even though he has practically been the center of a massive plan to rule the world, he still hates being the center of attention. Seriously, though, what is up with that?

Jamie walked over to the two, a happy smile clear on her face, “Come on, we’ve gotta get to the others!” She stated, gesturing to the doorway of the kitchen, Leo’s smile grew more confused, his stomach pooling in dread.

Damian seemed to notice his change in attitude because the boy snorted and said, “You look like we’re about to execute you, it’s just a quick congrats,” he stated, Leo just let out a strained giggle at that.

They all walked out of the room and walked down the hall until they got to the living room.

As soon as they entered, all the conversation ceased.

Leo was really uncomfortable with this.

Leo shallowed past the lump in his throat, “Hey, everyone!” He offered, and everyone in the room waved back.

What he meant by everyone was there was Leaf and the girl he introduced them to, Mercy, on the couch, they were pressed shoulder to shoulder against each other and wore matching purple sweaters, with Leaf wearing jeans along with it, and Mercy wearing leggings.

Leo side-eyed them a bit, there was currently a betting pool on whether or not they were dating, or if they would even date.

Leo didn’t bet, but he swears this is going to be a situation where they act like a couple, move and everything, and just forget to make it official.

Then there was Deven on the other chair to the left of Leaf and Mercy, Klunk was currently sleeping on his lap. The blue demon smiled at Leo.

Then there were also Delilah and Timmothy, the younger of the two was currently lying on the floor in front of the TV, his sketchbook opened, and his headphones on. He didn’t seem to realize Leo was there until Delilah, who was standing behind Deven, came up next to him, and nudged him with her foot.

Timothy looked up at his older sister, then turned his face over to where Leo was and smiled at him, putting down his pencil and waving at Leo before immediately going back to the drawing he was working on.

Leo chuckled, Timothy never failed to remind him of Mikey.

“Hey, guys!” He greeted, smiling as he bounced on his feet a bit.

“Hi, Leo,” Mercy waved back at him, Leaf gave him a thumbs up, “Hey, shorty!” Leo gave the green angel a look.

“You’re an idiot– Hey there Leo– You’re an idiot,” Deven went from looking at Leaf to Leo, then back to Leaf, the angel snorted in response, and Leo shook his head fondly.

“Play nice you two– Happy birthday Leo,” Delilah smiled at Leo as she said this, going from making sure Leaf and Deven went about to brawl in the middle of the living, then to the dragon. She wasn’t sure what kind of black magic her brothers had to pull to get the sane Leo to become friends with them, but she wasn’t complaining.

Leo’s smile wobbled a bit, “Thank you, Delilah,” he responded, it felt… Weird to call it ‘birthday,’ he has only ever had a ‘Mutationday,’ he can’t really use that term now, though.

Suddenly, Leaf reached over the arm of the couch and brought two bags, he could find one that was mainly blue themed to Deven, who was currently stuck with a cat on his lap, and then the other, which was pure black with white paper sticking out, to Delilah.

Leaf then reached and grabbed one box, it was red striped, and then all of them looked at Leo.

Leo analyzed the room and immediately knew what was going on.

His cheeks flushed their light blue hue, and he averted his eyes to the ground.

“Did you guys seriously?” He asked, embarrassment creeping through him.

“Hell yeah, we did!” Leaf called out with a snort as he waved around the box he had, Delilah chuckled, “We knew you haven’t really had the best of time, with the whole cultist thing, and we all wanted to get you a little something,” she stated.

Leo wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear, but he smiled at his friends. “Thank you,” he said, he was grateful, really, he loved that they at least thought to get him gifts, but…

He was currently feeling increasingly guilty for receiving these things when it was his brother’s birthday too.

Domain nudged them, pulling them out of their spiral, “What are ya waiting for? Go sit on the couch or something and start opening gifts!” He stated.

Leo looked up at Damian and smiled, feeling their cheeks darken more.

With a nod, Leo walked to the couch and took a seat next to Mercy, who was currently smiling, and Leo couldn’t tell if it was a ‘You’re going to enjoy this’ smile or a, ‘You poor fool’ smile.

Why would Leo be a fool? Who knows. It most likely has something to do with Leaf.

They eyed Leaf suspiciously, noting how the angel seemed to be weirdly avoiding their gaze.

Delilah cleared her throat, pulling Leo’s attention to her.

“Well, I guess I’ll start,” she stated as she walked up to Leo, her strut as confident as ever.

“I didn’t really know what to get you,” she admitted as Leo took the bag from her, “Luckily, Timmothy came through with a suggestion.”

Leo tilted his head to the side as he started rummaging through the bag, a giddy feeling bubbling inside of him that he was determined to keep down in an attempt to appear greedy.

His hand eventually felt three things, two thick rectangles of the same size and density, and a smaller, plastic-feeling rectangle that seemed to be a bit denser.

He pulled out all three of the items at once, and couldn’t help the smile that was placed on his face.

The bigger rectangles were books: One was a black sketchbook with a ring spin and bumpy texture, and the other was a notebook, also ring spine, but it had a floral cover to it with abstract deep blue leaves, and pink, full-bloomed flowers.

The smaller rectangle was a packet of mechanical pencils, there were three of them, one red, one purple, and one orange.

“Again, I didn’t really know what to get, but you mentioned like– A week ago that you like drawing and writing, and Timmothy helped pick out a sketchbook and some pencils while I got the notebook,” Delilah stated, gesturing with her shoulders and licking her bottom lip a bit, a nerves habit of hers.

Leo smiled up at her, “Thank you,” he said.

He loved the way the notebook cover looked, and he was hoping to get a new sketchbook soon, so this came at a good time!

“I would like to go next,” Deven suddenly spoke up, gaining everyone’s attention. “But I have a cat on my lap, so, my dear sister, can you…” “Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Delilah walked over to Deven, her tone light and mockingly annoyed.

She grabbed the bag that Deven was holding up for her and walked back over to Leo, who set the bag Delilah gave him to the side and grabbed the bag that was currently in her hands.

Leo dug through the bag again and pulled out another book. It was hard to cover and spiral bound, with the cover mainly being green leaves, in the center there was a white box that had golden letters inside:

“Magic Garden Guide: An Introduction, and Care Guide, to Mana Plants.”

Leo beamed, he knew he had another book that seemed like this at home, but he was excited to get more information– Maybe he could start up a little garden one day.

“Woah, thanks, Dev!” Leo called out to the blue demon, who nodded in return, “I figured you might want to start looking at gardening, and I know mana plants can be tricky and dangerous– Figured I would just get ahead of it,” Deven stated.

Leo raised his ‘eyebrow’ at the comment of ‘dangerous,’ but he just put the book on top of the pile beside him, and set the bag to the side.

“Alright– Us next,” Leaf said, against himself to be able to give the box to Leo more easily.

Leo took the box, and side-eyed Leaf a bit, but kept his smile on.

Leaf returned his smile with one of his own, but it was sly and playful.

‘What did he do?’

Leo tore off the wrapping paper– He felt the giddiness rise in him, and he understood why humans liked Christmas so much– and looked down at the white box that was under the paper.

Her smile became confused as she slowly lifted the box's lid, making it so only she could see for a moment, just to make sure Leaf wasn’t trying to pull anything.

The box lid still wasn’t all the way off, so only she could see what was inside, but she was trying her hardest to figure out what on earth she was looking at.

Two long cloth objects– Socks? That had a grid-like pattern– OH–

Leo immediately shut the box the looked over at Leaf.

“Leaf!” Leo snapped, feeling as their face grew crimson.

Leaf snorted a bit at their reaction, and Leo huffed in return.

Jamie had a wince that Leo couldn’t see, “Leaf, what the hell did you get the poor thing?” She asked, wondering if Leaf really went and messed this up.

Mercy side-eyed Leaf, but before anyone could say something, Leaf held up his hand.

“Alright, alright, hold on,” he said as he reached back and grabbed another box, this one was blue balloons on it, “I got the actual present, just pulling your leg, Leo.”

Leo huffed and snatched the box, it was a lot shorter than the other one. He tore open the paper and his eyes widened.

It was a set of daggers– Their handles engraved with gold vines, there was one dagger with a steal knife, and the other had an obsidian knife.

Leo picked up the obsidian one and looked at it, a smile being placed on his face.

It was a cool little thing– And sharp. The handle was perfectly fitted to his hand.

“Woah, Leaf– Where’d you get this?” He asked, slicing the air a bit to see how well the dagger felt.

“Oh, we went to a blacksmith in Wingdell, specialized in turtle humanoid weapons,” he said with a smirk, Leo smiled back at him.

His and his brother’s weapons always felt a bit off. They were made for tiny five-fingered human hands, not giant three-fingered turtle hands, so when he first got his summonable weapon, he eventually realized how there was no longer a reason to hold on tighter than necessary to avoid the weapon slipping.

It was nice.

Leo smiled at Leaf, “Thanks, I meant to expand my collection,” he stated, and the angel smiled back at him, “Don’t thank me, Mercy had the idea, I just wrapped the boxes,” he stated, pointing his thumb toward the girl.

Mercy flushed pink from embarrassment, “Well– It isn’t that deep, I–” “Thank you, Mercy,” Leo cut off her stumble, causing the girl to look over at him in shock before stiffly nodding.

Mercy is apparently something called an Ascender, or an Ascended demon. She had a black thin tail, small horns, and then feathery black wings with a thin black halo above her.

“Alright, my turn!” Jamie cheered as she walked over, holding in her hands a gift box that was pink with white dots all over it that she got from who knows where.

Leo put the daggers to the side and took the box, opening it quickly as to get this still guilt-wrenching situation over with.

He loved his friends. And he wanted to be happy that they were doing this for him– But…

Under the wrapping was another white box, and Leo eyed Jamie.

“What?” She asked with a snort, “This isn’t some type of prank like Leaf’s if that’s what ya worried about– What even was the prank gift, anyway?”

Leo flushed a bit.

The clothing Leaf got as a prank– The gift was not inherently bad. Just clothes. But it was a play argument that Damian and Leaf had a few weeks ago about who would look better in what that was messing with him.

So, to put it simply: The gift was clothes, so not inherently bad, but Leo overthought stuff and was easily flustered.

It also was a bit… Uncomfortable. Like– He knew Leaf. He knew the angel meant know warm by the act. He knew Leaf most likely thought Leo would get flustered, he would get a laugh out of Leo’s reactions, and Leo would get to hit Leaf for his joke.

That was how stuff always went when it came to them. All of them. Leaf just liked to pull jokes. Not real ‘pranks’ per se. But he never crossed a clear line and always would help fix any mess he had made.

But at this moment, Leo was not in the mood for jokes. And he was especially not in the mood for those jokes.

He still chooses to ignore Jamie’s question.

He opened the box and looked inside, tilting his head a bit.

He set the lid aside and took out the top item– A baby blue sweater that was slightly gray, its bottom draw-stringed and the end of its sleeves elastic, he looked down at the second item and saw white shorts– They were cotton and frilled at the end.

Leo smiled, “Cute!” They chirped, happy to get more clothes that they could wear when they were out in the underworld.

Everything was done, everyone had gotten their presents in, and Leo had a smile on his face, but still had a seething discomfort.

Once everything settled, Delilah was the first to speak.

“Anyway, I say we go visit the Timber Wolves, Aenda is visiting the Elder, and I’m sure both of them want to see Leo,” she stated, which was followed by murmurs of agreement.

The next few minutes were followed by comfortable conversations as everyone caught up on what they had been doing for the past few days.

Jamie had been taking more and more volunteer hours at the animal shelter, Deven had been looking into ‘a few things’ with the mermaid kingdom, Leaf and Mercy had been reconnecting, and Damian was helping Leo through flight courses.

Delilah was short with her answers, choosing to have non-committal responses.

A bit after the conversations began, Leaf got up to use the bathroom.

A bit later, Leo heard footsteps coming down the hall toward the living room and excused himself.

As he was walking down the hallway, he ran into Leaf.

“Leaf,” Leo whispered as he saw the green angel walking down the hall, Leaf looked at him, confused, “Hey, can I talk to ya for a second?” Leo asked.

Leaf stopped and nodded, crossing his arms and looking at Leo head on, “Yeah, of course,” he answered, Leo smiled in relief.

“Okay– So– I know you like jokes and all but– Can you please reframe from making the too… What you were implying– In nature?” Leo asked, not really knowing how to phrase his request.

Leaf raised a brow, and Leo’s nerves immediately went haywire, “Like, I know you mean nothing bad by it– And it was a bit funny to smack you about it– But I was not comfortable, and it felt weird and–”

“Okay,” Leaf cut Leo’s speech off, causing the dragon’s face to grow shocked.

Leaf had a considerate look, before nodding, “Yeah, okay,” he repeated, “I can see how that could go out of bonds– Even though it’s just clothing– But yeah, I was more or less banking on you being in a better mood, but already being uncomfortable by a situation– And don’t try to deny it, Leo, you were uncomfortable– And then getting something that can be seen as ‘sexy’ in nature can be a bit too much.”

Leo breathed out a sigh of relief. That was basically what was going on in his head, and he was thankful Leaf was understanding.

“I’ll tune down the sex jokes– And I will admit I was being a bit of a dick on purpose, so that was a bit mean of me,” he stated, Leo snorted, “Language,” they playfully scolded.

Leaf chuckled along with them before speaking up again, “I will say this, though, Damian would like them.”

Leo’s face flushed pink as they shrank into their shell a bit, “You think so?” They asked, their voice squeaky.

Leaf smiled, “Leo, Damian will think anything you wear is the best damn thing on earth,” he stated.

Leo’s face twisted into a glare, “Language,” he reprimanded, Leaf scoffed, “Oh, come on!” He complained, Leo rolled their eyes.

“Let’s just go before I hit you with a mop,” the turtle said, gesturing back toward the living room, Leaf nodded in agreement and the two started walking.

After a bit of silence, Leaf spoke up once more.

“I’m sorry again for making you feel uncomfortable in any way– It was not my intention and I thought it would be fine, but I can understand if it crossed a line for you, I kinda figured afterward that it did because you looked more like you wanted to disappear then before,” he mentioned, guilt leaking into his voice.

Leo looked at Leaf and smiled, “It’s fine, Leaf, I know you didn’t mean any harm. I’m just happy you can listen to me and quite something when I say it’s too much,” they said, nudging Leaf’s arm.

Leaf snorted as they were about to step into the living room, “It’s called the ‘bare minimum,’ Leo, there’s no need to be thankful over something that’s given.”

As they walked in and took their seats, Leo saw Delilah smiling at the two of them, and something told Leo that she knew a conversation needed to happen.

Delilah turned around and said, “I’m going to get the portal ready– See if the werewolves need visitors, everyone get ready in the meantime.”

Leo smiled, the werewolves have had some… Troubles recently with other, smaller tribes, so their port has been monitored a lot, and now it's a bit difficult to get to them because of it, but the Timber Wolves make an exception for the demon family.

Mercy and Leaf went and talked in the corner, leaving Leo room to scoot over to make room for Damian to sit down next to him.

Ecplise jumped from Damian’s arm into Leo’s lap when he sat down, the little dragon chirped and spun around, gaining Leo’s attention.

Leo ‘awed’ at the dragon before petting her head. Ecplise was a bit bigger, about two inches grown, but she still was small enough to fit on Leo’s shoulder.

When Leo looked back at Damian, the other leaned over with his face in Leo’s.

Leo flushed at the closeness and felt his heart rate spike as Damian wrapped his arm along Leo’s left thigh and pulled Leo closer to him.

Leo’s throat felt dry as he shallowed his left hand busy playing with Ecplise, and his right reaching up and touching along the collar of Damian’s white T-shirt.

Heat rose in his stomach as he took Damian in, his mind rushing at a million thoughts per second as Damian’s face moved closer to his own.

Leo closed his eyes as he and Damian kissed for a brief moment before pulling away, it was an act that sent chills down Leo’s spine, and his heart sputtered.

He opened his eyes and stared into Damian’s hazel, their foreheads were touching as best as they could with their horns in the way, and the tips of their noises were also close. Leo’s face flushed

“You and Leaf talked?” Damian asked, his voice a whisper, Leo hummed in response, “Yes,” he said.

The other smiled, “I’m glad to see you actually talking when you have an issue with something, Saphire,” he stated, Leo felt the moonstone color rise in his cheeks, and he gave Damian a grateful smile.

“Really?” He asked, “Really.”

Damian then scoffed a bit, “What was the gift, anyway? The one you freaked out over.”

Leo went bright red, embarrassed, “I’ll tell you later,” he murmured.

Damian’s smile was confused, but he figured he would leave it for now.

But hey, he liked seeing his baby blush.

They were now in the Timber Wolves village.

Delilah was talking with some of the soldiers, Jamie was playing with the pups, Leaf was just watching, and Damian and Deven were talking with some of the other wolves they knew.

Meanwhile, Leo was walking up to the door of the Elder’s cabin that doubled as her dojo.

He climbed up the stairs and glimpsed around at their surroundings– A waterfall behind the dojo followed by a cliff that blocked off to a forest. It was beautiful, the underworld never ceased to amaze him.

He lifted his fist and knocked on the door, he was aware that the Elder had invited him to ‘come in whenever he would like,’ but it felt rude to just barge in without knocking,

Soon after he knocked, the door to the dojo slid open to reveal the Elder.

She was in her long deep purple robe, her long black and gray hair down, and there were two gold earring loops in her left ear.

She smiled at Leo, “Leo! Dearling, come in!” She greeted, making way for Leo to go to the room and gesturing to the dojo around her.

Leo smiled at her and walked inside, hearing the door click shut behind him, and feeling unwanted nerves spike up.

“Let me get you some tea,” the Elder stated as she easily surpassed his speed to walk past him, “It’s your– Birthday today, right?” She questioned, hesitating a bit on the word, Leo shrugged it off.

“Yeah, I’m going to celebrate with my brothers tonight. I got some gifts from the underworld I’m planning on giving them,” he explained. What they said, a long time ago, was that each brother would get one thing for one thing for each of the other three if they could.

But normally they all went above that for each other, but they hid the other gifts in the other brother’s room or general space.

It was like a hunt most of the time, and it has gotten them into a pretty weird situation.

“That’s good… That’s good,” The Elder said as she continued to get the tea ready, Leo took a seat in his normal spot and looked over to where she was.

“El– Mother,” the word felt weird in Leo’s mouth even though the Elder had insisted that it was okay– Even tradition– For people who have been accepted as alleys or ‘siblings’ of the pack to call the elder ‘Mother’ or ‘Father,’ it really depended on what the Elder of the pack wanted.

The Elder hummed in acknowledgment, and so Leo took a deep breath in and continued.

“I would like to talk to you about Ecplise,” he requested.

“Ah, that little rascal,” the woman chuckled, “What has she done now?”

Leo watched as the Elder poured the tea, “Well– It’s not about what she has done, but…” He fidgetted a bit, “I was wondering why she has those black markings.”

The Elder paused for a moment. And then continued to set down the kettle and picked up the tray.

Leo continued, “Like, I know she adapted my– Um, pattern when she imprinted on my, but my black spots–” They looked down at their arms and legs as the Elder brought over the tray and set it down in front of them, the Elder sat across from Leo.

“My spots– You said they were scars, mana burns? Right? Why did it transfer over to Ecplise? Is she hurt? Is it–”

Leo was cut off when the Elder laced a hand on his right forearm, gently holding it, “Your spots are scars, yes,” she confirmed.

“When this form first revealed itself, it was not by the correct means. That gem in the back of your neck, the manipulation gem, or hiding stone, fully hid this form from every part of you, not even your own body realized that the form you were in wasn’t correct.”

“So when that gem shattered, and your true form was revealed, your body wasn’t used to it, and it so it acted like your dragon form was new.”

She took in a breath, “Dragon scales are tough, and they heal fast, but when you first entered the form, for a split second, the scales attacked like that of a young child’s– Soft and fragile.”

“It was in a split second that the scale hardened and grew into something more appropriate for your age.”

“But in that split second, you were being burned and tormented by the mana around you, resulting in the mana scars that dot your body.”

“But because of the rapid growth– The mana your body has didn’t get to heal, and so the burns never went away.”

“When your scales started to grow, they did the best they could, and the best that they could was taking in the burns, and morphing them to your scales.”

She squeezed Leo’s arm, “These burns are permanent, and so, they are considered to be a part of your pattern– Your coat. So your daughter… Ecplise has spots on her, yes, and they do represent your own scars… But they are nothing more than a coating pattern on her. They represent you.”

Leo was lost in thought. “So… She’s not hurt?” They asked, the Elder shook her head, “No, they are birthmarks, and nothing more.”

Leo let out a relieved sigh, “I– I thought I had– In a way– Hurt her. I thought the dots would go away– But when they didn’t I realized they were like my scars… I felt terrible…”

“I know I didn’t cause her to gain those marks, but it just felt like I hurt her proxies. It still seems… Unfair, though, to have marks on her that are meant to be my scars.”

He hated the thought. He hated that in some way Ecplise might be hurt and that it won’t be her fault, but his. It was unfair to her.

The Elder nodded but didn’t speak. There was no judgment behind her eyes. No need to deny it. No need to say that it wasn’t Leo’s fault. No need to agree with what he said.

Just… Understanding. It was nice.

They sat in silence for a few more moments before the Elder spoke.

“I hurt someone once,” she started.

“It was during the time when I was in contact with someone powerful– Someone I thought I judged too harshly– Too quickly… Only to discover I was right about them in the worst way possible.”

“This person… When their true colors showed, they threatened me. Told me they would set fire to my village. Hunt down my kin– Even kill more of his own family if I did not do as he says.”

“So…  I did what I had to do. I took what he wanted me to… Dispose of, and I went into some woods in the human world.”

The Elder’s eyes were misty, and they seemed to be remembering something.

“And I– I– I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t do it.” She repeated to herself, her eyes dropping to the floor.

“I tried to bargain with the person. I tried to reason with them. Beg them. But their minds were set. They threatened that if I didn’t do it, he would do it himself.”

“That was when I got an idea. I chose to lie, I hid the thing from them, and I told him that I disposed of the thing.”

“I… I left it somewhere… And waited until it was… picked up by another,” the Elder explained, then her face grew more grim.

“But I betrayed someone in the process.”

“The person I cared for– The thing that I claimed to have killed was important to them. They loved it dearly, with all of their heart.”

‘They were crushed, scorned and betrayed, they lashed out. They were broken for a long time,” the Elder explained.

“I felt terrible for my part in this, but I never dared to say that the thing might be alive– I didn’t want to give the person false hope or risk the person who threatened me the chance to finish the job.”

“But what I didn’t account for, was the effect on the rest. The person I betrayed had two children– They were crushed when the thing went missing– One never gave up, and ran themselves ragged, fought with the rest, and the other became cold and distant.”

Her voice cracked, “I was aware that I would hurt one person– I didn’t even think that I would hurt three more.”

Leo tilted his head, trying to count who the third was, but another question was gnawing at him, “What happened to the object?”

The Elder squeezed his arm, “The person forgave me, and pinned the blame on the person who threatened me– The–”

“I thought I made the right choice. I thought I chose a good person, but–”

“I hurt them so much more than I could even imagine.”

Leo looked into the Elder’s eyes, and felt a pain in their chest, “You didn’t have any other choice… What you did… It was bad. Terrible. But you didn’t have a choice.”

The Elder nodded, “Yes… The point is that when you go through life– someone is bound to get hurt. You’re bound to fall out of love with someone. There are bound to be disagreements. But as long as you never go out of your way to cause harm to others, you need to accept that part as being alive.”

“What I did was unforgivable. And, should the day come, I am prepared to suffer the consequences for it. But the only thing you have done is give Ecplise a home and someone to call a parent. It’s not your fault she has those dots– And I’m sure you know that.”

“But I can assure you that your daughter will hold no true ill will toward you for it,” the Elder smiled, but she could tell that Leo was still in thought.

She sighed, “Hey, look at me,” she requested, Leo’s eyes flickered up to her, stopping at her jaw.

“You are doing so well. You are doing the best you can with the little you have. I am proud of you for how far you’ve come.”

Leo smiled, now it was his turn to get misty-eyed.

He was trying his best. Ecplise wasn’t hurt. And he loved her as his own.

He just hoped that was enough.

—

The Elder watched as Leo left, waving goodbye to the turtle with a smile as she did so.

But as soon as Leo left the dojo, she felt her smile fall, and her hand went limply to her side.

She took in a breath and sagged, her mind swirling.

She had given Leo a more… Family friendly version of what had happened.

She had given Leo a story where she was just forgiven.

Not the story where she was nearly killed.

Not the story where she only survived because when the person she betrayed asked her if she truly did it, she hesitated before agreeing.

Not the story where that one action tipped off the person that she was lying.

Her friend had always been so perspective. They could always see right through her.

So they left. They left her in the dojo.

And around five years later. They came back. And they talked.

She shouldn’t have been forgiven.

Not for what she did.

Not for the pain she caused.

She broke that family.

The man who threatened her was the one who pushed it off the edge. But she was the one who shattered it.

She felt awful.

She knew she had to tell Leo the truth.

She knew she had to tell Leo what the ‘object’ was.

But she couldn’t.

Because she knew she would lose him.

She knew Leo would be angry at her.

She knew she shouldn’t be forgiven.

And she would be so, so proud of him for choosing himself.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.

What she did was wrong.

What she did shouldn’t have been forgiven.

And when the day comes.

She will face the consequences without a fight.

Chapter Text

The feeling of wind whipping against Leo’s face was almost addicting in nature. With the blue hoodie and sweat pants he on not doing much against the cold. He felt almost weightless.

“There you go– Now you’re getting it!” Aenda encouraged as they came up into Leo’s peripheral vision.

Leo chuckled as he looked down at the ground below.

They were a few meters in the air. And they were flying.

His wings somehow felt both relieved to get some exercise in and were screaming at him due to never having been used before.

Damian was to his left, and Aenda was to his right, they had been kind enough to help him out for the past few weeks in learning how to fly, so now he could go for some short burst of time before having to land.

Which they did. They came flying back down toward the ground, Aenda and Damian bending their legs and landing on their feet with ease.

Meanwhile, Leo felt a pit in his stomach and turned upright and tried to land on his feet underestimating where he going to land, which ended up making him stumble forward a bit.

He yelped as he regained his balance, almost running into Delilah in the process.

He looked up shyly at the other, who currently had a timer out, and chuckled, embarrassed.

It wasn’t the worst landing he has done. That one had to go to the time he face-planted.

Delilah raised an eyebrow at him, “7 minutes in the air. Not bad,” she commented, Leo nodded despite the growing embarrassment in his gut.

He’s about a month along by now. Shouldn’t he be further along?

His expression must’ve shown something because Delilah added to her previous statement.

“Most people born into the underworld take at least a year to be able to fly long distances. You are right on track for someone just starting,” she stated as she tucked her timer away.

It was the truth, Leo was in the range he was supposed to be. Not overachieving, not falling behind. It was honestly shocking, most of the people who didn’t even know they had wings would’ve just been able to get off of the ground. She guessed that it had something to do with dragons, as normal dragons, have a natural ability to fly, she figured that humanoid ones kept some form of that as well.

Leo’s smile brightened a bit, he felt a bit better with that knowledge.

He knew flying wasn’t going to be easy, but jeez, his back was killing him.

“Yeah, not bad,” Leo turned around to see Aenda, the one who spoke, and Damian walking up to him.

“Still need to work on that landing, though,” the Dragonborn mentioned, Leo blushed out of embarrassment, “Hey, at least I don’t have grass in my both,” he retorted, rolling his eyes a bit.

Damian snorted, “I knocked a tooth out once doing that,” he commented, luckily, it was one of his last baby teeth, but still, it hurt .

Leo smiled back at him, scrunching up his nose a bit, “Oh no, that had to be painful,” he mentioned, Damian chuckled at his response, “That it was, but we’re good now.”

Delilah scoffed as she checked her phone, “You might be, I vividly remember that day,” she stated and then turned back to Leo and Damian.

“Anyway, I think we should back it up now,” she mentioned, Leo raised an ‘eyebrow,’ “Why? I was kind of hoping to give that another go?” He asked general confusion seeped into his voice.

Delilah smirked at him, “It’s 3 p.m.,” she responded.

Leo felt his heart jump out of his chest.

He had completely forgotten about getting home for his brother’s birthday.

“Now you remember,” the older one joked and shook her head fondly, “You and Damian go get ready to have your head out, I need to go plan out some lessons,” and with that, Delilah turned around and jumped into the air, flying away from them before they could get another word in.

Leo huffed, he knew Delilah just liked flying, she preferred the exercise over portals everywhere she went, but he couldn’t help but envy her a bit.

Suddenly, Leo felt a hand on his left shoulder.

He turned around and saw Aenda smiling at him, the dragon born had hidden their wings, something that they normally did because they got in the way.

Leo smiled back at them, he was about to say something about going when Aenda looked to Damian and caught Leo off.

“Hey, Damian, do you think you can make sure everything is ready for Leo to head out? You know… Get the child to say goodbye, and all that?” They asked.

Damian looked confused, but nodded, “Yeah, sure, um… I’ll leave you both to do… Whatever,” he answered, and then turned around and left.

Leo turned to Aenda, confused as to what the Dragonborn was doing.

“Aenda?” He asked, the other just seemed to stare at where Damian was off to, “What are you–”

“You know I’m proud of you, right?”

The question caught Leo off guard and sent his head reeling. Where did that come from? Was everything okay?

But… Still, he couldn’t help but be a little bit emotional at the admission. His throat squeezed as he spoke.

“Yeah… Yeah, I know that,” he responded, he couldn’t look Aenda in the eyes, and he couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed about… Something, or if he just didn’t want the other to see how emotional he was getting over this one little thing.

“And you know that I’m willing to help out with anything, in reason, that you need, right?” They asked, Leo slowly nodded, confused as to where Aenda was going with this.

Aenda sighed, “You’ve come far, kid, and you’re somewhat able to accept when you need something, and I’m proud of you for that.”

Leo smiled awkwardly at Aenda, he couldn’t help but feel like there was something else going on.

“Aenda… Is everything okay?” He asked, trying to figure out where this came from. Sure, Aenda has had one of these heart-to-heart moments with Leo before but this one felt… Different. Forced. Rushed. As though they needed to say something but couldn’t get it out.

Aenda only chuckled at their question, “I should be the one asking you that.”

… Oh.

“Is this about the…” “The birthday thing? More or less.”

Leo huffed, they should’ve figured that someone would want to have a full-on talk with them about that eventually.

“Listen, I’m fine,” Leo began, Aenda was about to say something, but Leo cut them off, “I’m just not used to receiving gifts, that’s all. My family never had much, and so we never had… Anything when it came to our birthday, heck, last year we had nothing at all, just algae cake.”

Leo chuckled at how Aenda scrunched up their nose.

“But overall, I’m fine, a little shocked, somewhat guilty, but I’m fine,” they insisted.

Aenda took a moment, “Okay, and I’ll trust you on that,” they stated, Leo took a breath of relief.

“But that wasn’t what I was talking about.”

Leo immediately straightened, confusing racking his brain, “What?” They questioned, not sure how to respond.

Aenda shook their head, “You’re sixteen now… This year would be the normal year for you to your second dragon phase.”

Leo cringed, his skin itched. He kinda had hoped Aenda would’ve forgotten about that.

“Listen, Nic-nic,” the other insisted, “I know as well as anyone that these talks are a bit… Weird. Especially for someone who never knew what they were for their whole life. But this phase… It’s…”

Aenda sighed. “It’s different. The hoarding phase could be annoying, and sure, it could be dangerous, but only if it got out of hand, this phase is just downright dangerous in every way possible.”

Leo felt his chest squeeze, he had no clue what the heck Aenda was going on about. The only thing they could do was chuckle nervously.

“Aenda, you’re scaring me, what is it?” He asked, Aenda finally looked back at him, their eyes softening.

Pity.

Leo shuddered at the emotion. He hated making people feel bad for him.

“When you turn into a dragon the first time or any time soon after, there is a chance that A. You grow to too big of a form than what your body can sustain, and/or B. You can lose yourself,” Aenda answered.

“It’s easy to get trapped inside of the dragon body, but there is also an easy way to get out you… You just need to be with someone, okay?” They insisted.

Leo took in the information, feeling her heart thud in her chest, she couldn’t help but be a bit nervous.

“So,” Aenda clapped their hands, “If you start experiencing physical changes like growing new spikes or horns– Or, I don’t know, there are bumps in your back somewhat under your wings, tell me because that is how we can know when the phase is about to hit, okay?”

Leo nodded and smiled at Aenda, “Will do,” they promised, their voice shaking a bit.

What was he about to get into?

Damian walked into the hall that the bedrooms were in, Ecplise was in his hands, he was holding her like a cup. The baby was chirping away as she attempted to get out of his hands in order to explore.

Damian cooed at the small thing before he looked back up. His eyes immediately fell on the person he was looking for.

Leo was leaning against his door, tapping his foot anxiously and chewing his lip.

Leo noticed Damian walking down the hall and smiled, he pushed off the wall and went to meet his boyfriend.

He blushed as he faced Damian straight on, with the taller leaning down and putting Ecplise out a bit in front of him so that Leo could pet the small dragon.

Leo’s smile was soft, and his cheeks were tinted pink. It had been a month, and Leo still couldn’t get over the fact that he and Damian were dating .

“Are you ready to face your brothers?” Damian asked, his voice soft and smooth, Leo chuckled, “I’m as ready as I can be– They can be a bit much when they get excited.”

Damian hummed in acknowledgment, “I can figure,” he stated, he then leaned in closer and placed a kiss on Leo’s forehead, causing the other’s blush to spread across his face.

Damian chuckled at Leo’s reaction before speaking again, “So… Are you going to tell me what the prank gift was?” He asked, his tone teasing. Leo let out a slight chuckle out of nervousness.

She was about to just tell Damian what it was, but then she had another idea.

A sly smile appeared across her face and she leaned in closer, “That’s for me to know, and for you to find out.”

Damian returned her smirk, “Oh? What is it, a gift for me?” He asked.

Leo chuckled, “Depends how you like fishnets.”

Leo backed away from Damian with a smile on her face, which brightened as she saw Damian’s face burn a brighter red.

That color shift was all the confirmation they needed.

They once again chuckled before sighing, “Anyway, I’m going to get head out,” they stated, their eyes landing back on Ecplise.

She bent down and scratched the small dragon’s head, causing her to lean back into his hand, letting out a purr and some chirps as she did so.

Leo ‘awed’ and nuzzled their nuzzle against the top of Ecplise’s head, “I’ll be back, Crackle,” they stated before backing up and looking the small thing in the eyes, “Be good.”

She chirpered in response, rubbing up against Damian’s hand in an attempt to gain more affection.

Leo let out a soft laugh before looking up, their laugh became sharper as they saw Damian’s face.

His face was now a burning red that didn’t match the rest of his body, and he was currently looking to the side in an attempt to calm down.

“You good?” Leo asked as he stood up on their tip toes for a moment in an attempt to get closer to Damian’s face, their teasing tone caused Damian to side-eye them.

“Y– Yes–” He cleared his throat and looked at Leo, “Yeah, I’m good, Lee,” he offered. Leo smiled brightly at him and nodded.

He then got back down to normal height and pulled out his moonstone, clicking through apps to get to the point where She could make a portal home.

She was just starting to turn around to pace down the hall, when she was grabbed.

She yelped in shock as Damian pulled her into his heck, leaning down and kissing her on the jawline before snuggling into the crook of her neck, blue fabric rubbing across Damian’s face.

“I love you, Moonstone,” Damian breathed out, Leo felt his face heat up at the hot air on his neck. “I– I love you too, Day,” He responded, tripping over his words a bit.

Damian’s other hand reached around and grabbed Leo’s moonstone out of his hand. The demon then moved his face up, making him able to see the moonstone’s screen.

It also meant that his lips were pressed to the top of Leo’s shoulder blade. And he was currently trying to find anything else to focus on.

He then realized something, and confusion built in him, “Where’s the child?” He asked, and Damian gestured over to their right.

“Put her down, she likes playing with my tail,” he answered.

Leo looked over to where he was gesturing to and smiled at the sight. Eclipse was currently in a play bow as Damian used the tip of his tail like a toy for the dragon.

She pounced on his tail, chirps, and squeaks echoed through the hallway and she caught it and then was tickled with the tip that she had attention. Leo felt laughter bubble up in him that he let loose.

He loved how happy Ecplise was, the little dragon having a glimmer of excitement in her eyes whenever Damian’s tail came back up for another round.

Leo’s tail was a bit too spikey for Ecplise to play with, but they were enjoying watching their daughter play with her father’s tail–

Leo felt their face burn with blush. They immediately realized that they just correlated Damian with ‘father.’

Like– It wasn’t wrong. Eclipse most likely saw Damian as a dad because they were always together. It just unleashed a fluttering feeling in Leo’s chest.

He was happy about Damian being her father.

She looked back at the Moonstone that Damian was setting up, and smiled in thought. She had her bad days, days when she couldn’t help but get the feeling of being pinned down, but right now? She was happy where her life was and where it was going.

But the happiness came with guilt. She hated that she had kept this a big secret from her brothers for so long. She hated that only Raph even had the idea that she liked men, and he didn’t even know that she was gender fluid.

Her thoughts were quickly stopped when Damian’s lips pressed further against her shoulder, landing a kiss that made her face burn red.

He continued to trail up her shoulder and neck with kisses before eventually, Leo was able to turn her head so that they could kiss.

When they pulled back Damian put his forehead to hers, “What’s on your mind, babe?” The nickname only made Leo blush harder. They’ve been dating for like– A month, why was she still so flustered?

Leo sighed, “I’m just thinking,” she admitted, Damian hummed, “About?”

“The guys– Like, I want them to be here, I want them to know about the underworld, I don’t want to hide, but…” Her voice trailed off, but Damian was able to pick up on what she was saying.

“You’re scared of their reaction?” He asked, Leo nodded with a huff, “Yeah… I keep telling myself that I’ll just tell them when I’m ready– But it’s been a year , Day, a whole year since I’ve met you!”

“Why am I still not ready?” Their voice were quiet and sad, their self-shame crept up in them.

Damian sighed empathically, “Because… I guess it might be because more and more stuff keeps being added to it. At first, it was just the cultist. Then it was me. Then it was Deven. Then it was the underworld and Deven, Jamie, and I being demons. Then it was the werewolves. Then it was the Dragon form. Then it was you having a whole nother biological family.”

He ‘tsked.’

“What I’m trying to say is that… You may have been ready if it was just me, or anything less… Out there. You may have been ready, but now there is so much more stuff that you have to be ‘ready’ to tell. And it all happened in such a short amount of time, you’re basically on a backlog of being readying for stuff– Like, you have to tell the guys you’re a dragon, and you’re nowhere near to telling them about your bio family.”

Leo sighed, although Damian could’ve explained it better, he still got the picture.

He was trying to get ready to tell the guys one thing, and then another thing he had to tell them about popped up.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be ready then,” they softly admitted.

Damian hummed, his lips softly vibrating against Leo’s neck, “Maybe. But I think you’ll know when you’re ready enough .”

Leo let out a small chuckle, feeling a small amount of moister building in their eyes.

When they’re ready enough .

She wondered how long that would take.

There was a soft creek that woke Leo up.

She knew she was in bed. She knew she had taken off the clothes, and turned to her turtle form. But that noise still made her jump a bit.

And then there was something scratchy, but soft that hit her face.

She immediately shot up, her eyes opening and looking around, she had immediately caught the thing that was thrown at her.

Her mind was reeling, blurred with tiredness, it tried to figure out what was going on.

Was she being attacked? Did someone find her? Was she not at home? Where were her brothers? Were they–

“HAPPY MUTATION DAY, BRO!”

Oh.

Her mind immediately calmed down at the cheerful voice, and she felt herself taking a deep breath.

Her eyes landed on her doorway, where Mikey stood, his face beaming with pride and joy, his hands on his hips.

She looked down at her hands and chuckled. It was a pillow. Mikey had thrown one of the pit’s pillows at her.

She rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah, I’m up,” she responded as she pulled the covers off of her and swung her legs over the bed, she looked at the time and scrunched her nose, trying to look annoyed and held back her laughter as she said, “It’s 5 p.m.”

Mikey scoffed at her tone, “Yeah! Practically the whole night has gone by because you all can’t get your lazy butts up!” He stated, his words sounded annoyed, but Leo knew there was no hostility.

Leo let the smile show on her face as she got up and walked over to her little brother, “Yeah, yeah,” she said dismissively, then she paused, an idea creeping into her mind.

She looked down at Mikey and smiled, “Are the others up?” No, the answer would be no. Mikey always woke her up first so that he could have someone to hide behind when he woke up Raph and Donnie.

Mikey shook his head, his face growing slightly confused, “Why?” He asked.

Leo smirked, “Wanna wake them up?”

The gleam in Mikey’s eyes was all she needed to know.

The main area of the lair was still. No noise or clear person in sight.

And then, party horns blared.

A muffled, “YOU ASSHATS!” Rang through the walls as chuckles engulfed the air, both Leo and Mikey ran from the hall the bedrooms were in, both having giddy smiles with no remorse written on their faces.

Raph was the next to come out, screaming incoherently as he had a comic book raised above his head, ready to smack the other two turtles.

Donnie was the last out of the hall, he stared tiredly at the scene, Leo running backward both teasing and trying to calm down Raph, with Mikey running and hiding behind Leo, only making the situation worse by making faces at the angry turtle.

He rubbed his eyes and wondered what the hell was wrong with this family.

They were now in the kitchen, with Mikey being the only one not there because he went out to get pizza.

Donnie was brewing his coffee, his arms crossed and his back to the table. Raph was sitting at the table reading the comic book now had a few more wrinkles in it. Leo had just entered and took a seat next to Raph.

Raph immediately put his comic down and looked at his older brother. “I can’t believe Mikey talked you into that,” he stated, his voice miffed, annoyed, but Leo could see a hint of a smile on his face.

Leo chuckled, he was about to respond when Mikey’s voice rang out, “Actually, it was Leo’s idea, I just went along with it,” he stated as he put the box of Pizza down at the end of the table so it could face all of them. Pizza’s here!” He stated, then sat down opposite Leo.

Raph looked baffled, “Huh, Mr. ‘Too responsible for games’ actually had fun,” he stated, Leo rolled his eyes as he grabbed a slice from the box. “What? I can loosen up for a bit,” he responded then took a bite.

His brother rolled his eyes, “Okay, but did you have to do it to me?” “Yes,” Leo responded to Raph’s question without hesitation, “Who else should I annoy other than the impulsive hot head, bound to react?” He responded, his tone was light and teasing.

Raph let out a quick snort and smacked Leo’s arm, “You bitch,” he muttered, “Language,” Leo scolded, clearly hearing his brother’s words.

Raph just rolled his eyes, Donnie sat down opposite Raph.

Leo looked like he was about to say something when the current behind Raph and Leo opened.

They all looked at who entered and saw Sensei.

Mikey’s face lit up, “Happy mutation day, Dad!” He greeted, but there was still an off feeling in his gut. But he chooses to ignore it. He hadn’t seen Splinter do anything bad in a long time, so maybe that day was an off day.

Splinter smiled and nodded and Mikey, “Good morning, Michelangelo,” he greeted then he went to the side opposite of the Pizza, between Donnie and Raph, to take his seat.

“Morning, Sensei,” Donnie smiled at him and went grab a pizza of his own., he had a few things he wanted to tell Sensei about, but he didn’t want to bug the man right now.

Splinter nodded back at him but didn’t respond, Donnie tried to keep the frown off his face.

“Morning,” Raph muttered a bit, trying to keep the disgust off his face as he reached over to the box and started to stuff his mouth with Pizza so that he wouldn’t have to talk to the rat.

Splinter nodded at Rapheal, then looked at the last turtle.

Leo could feel himself clamming up as soon as Splinter walked through the door. Any urge to interact with anyone going out the window. He felt Splinter’s eyes bore into him.

“Leonardo,” he tried to keep back a flinch at his father’s voice. He took in a deep breath before reaching over to take another Pizza from the box.

He swiveled in his seat, got up, and walked over to where Splinter was, giving him the slice he had gotten, “Good morning, Master Splinter,” he greeted, trying to keep the stutter out of his voice,  his eyes were aimed at the floor, and his head down in a sort of bow.

He saw Splinter nod slightly, “Go take a seat, my son,” he ordered said, his tone soft and caring. Leo couldn’t help the pride that welled up in him at the term ‘son.’

He always did this around his brothers.

Mikey watched as Leo took a seat, and smiled brightly.

See? Everything was fine. Leo got a slice of Pizza for Splinter! So they must’ve gotten on better terms! Leo even called their dad a professional name instead of just a quick ‘sensei’ so they’re interacting more! Those training sessions really must’ve helped! He’s happy to see Leo and their father back to normal.

He definitely did not see how Leo never looked their dad in the eyes. He definitely did not hear how Leo’s voice shook. Or how Leo immediately knew to bring Splinter food like a dog interacting with its master. He did not get a shiver down his spine when thinking about how much ‘Master Splinter’ reminded him of how Shredder’s goons referred to him. And he definitely did not see how broken down Leo was. And Splinter did not just wave him off. Nope. Nope. Nope. Didn’t happen.

Raph was trying his hardest to appear normal. If not for Leo’s sake, then for Mikey and Donnie’s. But a part of him wanted to rip Splinter to shreds.

Leo had been doing better.

Over the past month, his older brother seemed to be finally opening up to them again. He was happier. More willing to let loose. Sure, he never told them what was wrong, but he was at least talking to them.

Sure, he had his days where he would shut down, not talk to them at all, and just lock himself in his room.

And there were also those times. The times right after his training sessions with Splinter. Raph had always tried to catch him whenever those sessions ended, but Leo always shut himself away. He never let Raph see the damage, and wouldn’t talk to anyone the next morning, he just had more bandages on.

At the moment, when he was woken up by a party horn, Raph was annoyed, but at least it seemed like today would be a good day. Leo would be able to talk with them on their mutation day, and the day would be great.

And then Splinter came into the kitchen.

And Leo shut down.

Raph hated this.

He hated how much control over their lives Splinter had.

He hated that he had to worry about his brother so much because of their own damn father.

A part of Raph wanted to tell Leo to just get out of this hell hole.

The rest of him didn’t want to lose his brother.

There was silence around the table. It was tense and awkward. No one wanted to speak.

Mikey clapped his hands, “So, who’s going first?” He asked, his bright eyes going from one brother to the next. They all knew what he was talking about, and looked between themselves.

Raph was about to open his mouth to make some type of joke when Leo cut him off, “I’ll go first,” he stated, quickly getting up from his seat and then tossing his half-eaten slice of pizza into the trash as he left.

It was time to start hiding the gifts.

The rules were no going into Splinter’s room, no going outside the lair, nothing damaging to Donnie’s lab, and if you see a present someone else hide. No, you didn’t.

They each took turns. Going from you who ever started, to the youngest, then cycle back if you have to.

Mikey pouted, “Awe, man! I have to go last?” He complained as he spun in his seat, he was always the one that took the hunt the most seriously, “You  guys will just take all the good ones!” Be bemoaned.

Raph chuckled, Leo normally would be the one of the last few to go, for some reason, so it was a bit shocking to see the oldest jump on the opportunity so quickly. But no one questioned it, Raph thought that maybe the others were not as naive to Leo’s shut-off days as he hoped.

He saw Splinter’s noise twitch, “And he threw away good food,” he pointed out, “That was being wasteful,” his voice was a bit harsh, but it still held an over-the-top level of disappointment.

Raph wanted to punch something. Punch Splinter for talking. Punch himself because he used to fall for that tone.

Donnie hummed, “Maybe he’s just not hungry?” The purple turtle tried to suggest. Splinter shook his head, “Believe me, my son, I have tried to convince myself of that as well,” he sighed as he finished his sentence.

“I have realized that I have… Not been the best father to the three of you.” His words got all three of the turtles to perk up. And, as ashamed as he was to admit, that included Raph.

They all had their issues with Splinter. Raph knew for his side he always felt like he was trapped in Leo’s shadow, and that his emotions weren’t as important as his brothers’.

But something clawed at Raph. Something screamed at him that this was a trap.

“I have spent so much time trying to help Leonardo, I have failed you all in the process,” the Rat continued, “And so, I am… Sorry for that. I have spoiled your older brother beyond belief and made you all suffer the consequences for it. And I promise that I will make it up to you.”

Donnie felt something well up in his chest. Honestly? He felt validated. He felt like this was a step in his father seeing him. Actually seeing him . Not just the son with the bo staff. Not just the one that makes the invasions. But him .

He always felt as though he was overshadowed by whatever was wrong with the others. That he was in some way wrong to the point where his father wouldn’t give him the time of day.

That could change.

“It’s okay, Sensei,” Donnie said with a smile, “We all know that Leo needs a bit more… Help, and we don’t hold that against you.”

Raph wanted to throw up as he watched Splinter smile gently back at Donnie. “Thank you, Donatello,” the rat said.

“I just hope that what I’m about to tell you won’t change that.”

Raph felt dread creeping down his spine.

When Leo got back into the kitchen, the tension was so thick he could’ve cut it with a knife.

Raph had his arms crossed and was stomping his foot on the ground, Mikey looked guilty, Donnie was deep in thought, and Sensei looked like he was remaining firm about something or another.

Raph went after Leo, then Donnie, and finally Mikey.

Something that Leo found odd was that Mikey didn’t complain that he ‘Made him go last’ once. Mikey just sat there… Staring at the table. He looked like he just kicked a puppy.

No one spoke to him, not even Raph when Leo tried to ask what was going on. His twin just turned his head away from Leo and refused to answer.

That felt like a stab to the heart.

The tension was suffocating, his heart was pounding in worry.

He was briefly reminded of the mind trip. How he was sitting at the table with his brothers. None of them listening to him, and all about to unleash hell with words.

He felt his throat tighten up at the thought, it had gotten to the point where he couldn’t talk even if he wanted to.

He wanted this to end. For it to stop. He had chosen to go first to get away from Sensei’s burning glare. And now he was locked in the kitchen and was damn near suffocating because no one was talking to him. No one was giving him proof that things were actually happening, that he was there– No one to stop him from going back to the void being dragged down–

“Who’s ready for the hunt?”

The voice cut threw Leo’s Spiraling thoughts, and he immediately turned to the curtain to see Mikey walking into the kitchen after completing his turn. His smile was there, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

Leo smiled back at the youngest, but he could that concern was etched into his grin. “You’re finished?” He asked, and couldn’t ignore how Mikey’s smile faltered at his question.

“Yeeep!” Mikey elongated the word as he leaned back on his heels and ended it with a pop. He was stiff. Clearly trying to give off the impression that he was okay, but was failing miserably.

After Mikey’s confirmation, the air fell silent. Awkwardness hung in the air, and no one really wanted to speak up.

Leo felt like he was drowning in the tension, completely washed out and invisible to those around him.

And it was clearly affecting Mikey, who squirmed where he stood.

Leo had enough of this.

“Alright, is everything okay?” He started, his legs beginning to bounce as his nerves grew, and everyone looked at him. “You guys have been acting strange ever since I got back. What’s going on?”

Leo could see the wince on Mikey’s face as he looked away from Leo, Raph straightened his back but didn’t respond, and Donnie remained quiet as well.

Leo could feel his stomach doing backflips, he felt like he was going to puke.

“ Guys ,” he pushed, trying to ignore the scowl Splinter had on his face.

He heard Donnie take a deep breath, and he turned to the purple turtle.

Donnie clapped his hands together, “Leo… Um… A lot of things have been happening recently,” he stated, Leo made an expression of a raised eyebrow, “We’ve had about a month break from the Krang and Shredder, what’s wrong?” He felt panic rise in his gut. Did something happen when he was away? Did someone get attacked? Were they about to be attacked?

Donnie shook his head, “No– Not like that, um, a lot with you and your… Um… Progress in the solo training you are having with Splinter.”

Leo looked at Donnie, confusion clear on his face and a feeling of betrayal in his chest. Progress? Those ‘training sessions’ are what Donnie calls progress ?

Leo tried to stop his brain from thinking. To stop the anger and resentment from welling up. Donnie didn’t know. He didn’t know. How could he know?

But still, the betrayal lingered in him, he couldn’t make it go away.

Donnie took another breath, “And so, we thought–” “Ya’ll think,” Raph snapped, his voice seeping with venom. Donnie shot a glare at Raph.

“ We thought that you were doing… Well. Better than before, and we didn’t want to ruin your progress, and so we decided that” the younger turtle’s voice was becoming squeaky, he really didn’t want to be the one that broke the news.

“WeDecidedThatGivingYouGiftsMightRuinYourProgress, andSoNoneOfUsGotYouAny.”

Leo reeled back a bit and took the speed through words in carefully. Donnie looked like he was preparing for Leo to hit him.

They thought giving him gifts would rain the ‘progress’ he had made.

So he didn’t get any.

Huh.

Donnie took a glance up at Leo, trying to gauge where his brother’s headspace was.

He currently looked like he was processing the words Donnie had just said.

Mikey looked like Donnie just kicked a puppy, utterly betrayed.

And Raph’s face looked like a storm, his fists were balled and ready to hit something.

Donnie’s face turned to a grimace.

He lied.

He knew full well that he was lying.

All of them got Leo something for their mutation day.

But Splinter told them that receiving so many unearned gifts would set his progress back.

So Splinter went into each of the younger one’s hiding rooms where they stored the gifts. And took the gifts meant for Leo and instead put them in boxes for each of the other younger ones.

So, yes, they did get Leo gifts. They wanted to get Leo gifts.

But if Donnie had said that, then Leo may have not taken this seriously. He may have turned on Splinter who was just trying to help.

So, Donnie hoped that if it seemed like they were the ones who chose to do it, Leo would listen.

He watched as Leo’s blinked after a moment, and then nodded his head.

“Okay,” the eldest responded as he nodded, Donnie felt dumbstruck.

Raph was as confused as Donnie, “That’s it?” He asked, feeling as the hurricane of emotions returned to him.

Leo nodded once more with a considering look, “Yep,” he answered.

It stung.

It hurt to know that his own brothers can’t trust him enough to receive gifts, that his family believes he’s so greedy he’ll have some sort of relapse and ruin his progress just at some gifts.

It hurt to think that this might be a cover-up for them forgetting about him.

But he had gotten enough presents. He got what they would consider expensive presents due to them living in the sewers. He celebrated his birthday with his friends. His ‘Mother.’ And the person teaching him more about himself and helping him learn.

He celebrated with his boyfriend and daughter.

Sure, he was a bit hurt that he didn’t get anything for his ‘mutation day,’ but he should’ve expected it.

He wasn’t a mutant. It only made sense.

Mikey wanted to cry out of guilt and shame. He wanted desperately for this day to go well. That this would be the day like in movies where the ‘off the sides grumpy’ character finally felt comfortable enough to open up to the rest and be able to heal.

He wanted this day to go perfectly so that he could have his older brother back.

And then Dad does this ?

And Donnie–

He felt bitterness in his gut. He could see why Donnie would do this, making it so it seemed as though it was them that were worried about Leo enough to do something like this. But that didn’t make the youngest hate him any less at this moment.

What’s Leo going to think? How is he ever going to not hold a grudge against them?

How will they get him back?

Raph was irate. Fuming. Pissed to fucking hell.

What the absolute fuck . Why would Donnie do that? It was bad enough that Mr. ‘I’m going to blame my issues on a child’ over there had chosen to go behind all of their backs and take the gifts meant for Leo, but then Donnie chose to spin the blame on all of them. The fuck?

What made this worse is that from the looks of it Leo most likely fully believes Donnie. Raph had just gotten Leo to finally understand that he knew about what was happening with Splinter, Gap-tooth over there most likely threw all of the work Raph had been putting into making Leo trust him enough to tell him what was going on out the window.

Shit.

Donnie was honestly shocked by Leo’s reaction. He was expecting something big. A shouting match. Pointing fingers. A meltdown. Or even a brawl or something, not–

Not this .

When it was his turn to hide the presents, he went into his lab and got a small camera he was hiding in the strap of his staff holder.

He wanted to film Leo’s reaction, not to poke fun at his brother, but to help him.

To him, it was clear Leo was in denial about the way he was. And so Donnie hoped that he could get Leo on camera doing something that no regular person would do, like attack someone over persants, that he could point this behavior out to Leo so that his older brother could see that something was wrong, and could work to getting past it.

Maybe he could even analyze the behavior displayed in the video, he had long suspected that Leo may have some form of narcissistic disorder, so maybe he could look further in to see if that guess was correct.

But… No. He got nothing. Leo was just… Fine.

Fine with not celebrating what was basically their birthday. Fine with not getting anything from any of them. Donnie knew he would be crushed if he didn’t get anything on their mutation day, why was Leo so… Casual about it?

They all had the same mutation day because that was the day their lives together started– That was the day they became a family.

Why wasn’t Leo upset? He’s family. This was his day as much as theirs.

Why wasn’t he upset?

Leo then got up from his chair, trying to show a calm smile to stop the confused and nervous look on Donnie’s face.

But when he turned around to get up, he saw Mikey’s expression. Hurt. Confused. Ashamed.

He looked like he was on the verge of crying.

Leo’s face softened as guilt filled him.

“ Hey, ” he softly said as he opened his arms to offer Mikey a hug. “It’s okay, Mikster, I’m fine, alright?”

Mikey took him up on his offer and squeezed Leo tightly, the blue turtle returned the hug before looking back at the rest of his family. He grimaces slightly.

Donnie still looked confused. And Raph looked like he wanted to punch something.

He smiled, “Guys, I’m fine,” he tried to reassure his brothers, “If you guys think it’s for the best, then so be it, don’t beat yourselves up about it.”

Mikey pulled away from him, and Leo let him, hearing a small sniff when the younger turtle backed off.

He turned around and looked at his brothers, “I’m going to go watch some space heroes, you all enjoy!” He said before turning around and leaving the room.

No one really talked when Leo left. Splinter just sat there, sipping on a cup of tea and acting as though there was nothing was wrong.

Mikey and Raph were both staring at where Leo had left.

Donnie shifted slightly in his seat. Guilt crept up on him.

Something told him he had just fucked up.

Chapter Text

Leo was sitting on the floor of the pit, his legs crossed while he watched the Space Heroes episode that was on the screen with a smile.

Donnie sighed as he turned around and walked down the hall where the bedrooms were.

He felt terrible. He honestly thought that this would help Leo, but now he was seriously reconsidering his reasoning.

He stopped in front of his room, deciding that he would most likely just hang out in his room until tensions died down.

Raph and Mikey were still rodding glares at him.

So he opened the door to his bedroom and walked to the center of the small area.

His bed was to his left, he had black sheets on it with a pillow at the end. His floor was littered with small mechanical parts and plans.

As he continued to scan his room, noticing a few small wrapped boxes around his room, along with the corner of a box with a familiar deep purple with white dots peeking out from under his bed.

Donnie winced.

Leo always used the same wrapping every year for each of the brothers. Mikey's was orange with rainbows and Raph’s was red with drum sets.

As he continued to look at the box, the door slammed close behind him, causing the walls to shake.

He jumped at the sound and whipped around to see Raph on the left side of the door, he was the one who slammed it, he still had his hand on the entryway. And then there was Mikey on the other side of the door, who had his arms crossed and was leaning against the wall.

Raph had a dangerous shadow across his face. And Mikey just looked betrayed.

Donnie shifted uncomfortably, “Huh, hi?”

“WHAT THE FUCK DONNIE!?”

Donnie flinched as Raph shouted and stomped forward, his older brother pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“Why the HELL would you do that!?” His older brother shouted he felt his heart pick up. Panic started to slowly fill him.

“Do– What?” He asked, stammering a bit. Raph snarled at him. “You know what!” He snapped.

“It’s one thing if YOU wanted to go and fuck up your own relationship with Leo, why the hell did you have to bring us down with you?” Raph questioned as he continued to scream in Donnie’s face. The younger winced.

“Okay, okay, that’s a bit dramatic–” “Dramatic!? DRAMATIC!? ” The red turtle screamed over him. “Dude! Do you realize what you just told Leo?” He asked.

Donnie took in a few breaths, trying to regain his composure before responding to his irate brother.

“I told Leo that we care enough about him to not do something that might set back his progress,” He responded, a stricken glare on his face, he sounded as though he was scolding a child.

That only made Raph angrier.

“Huh, fuck no, you told him that we think he’s a greedy piece of shit, who doesn’t deserve to be a part of a family activity!” He bit back.

Donnie straightened a bit, shock and concern coursed over him, and winced at the thought.

Putting what his words said in that way made it sound… Bad. Really bad.

“So! I’ll ask again,” Raph started once more, putting his hands together, and his tone holding false politeness.

He then threw his arms back as he screamed, “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”

“OW! Ow! Okay, I get it!” Donnie shouted back as he held his ear, “I messed up, but it’s not my fault that Leo took it the wrong way!” He stated. He fully realized that he was being an ass. But a part of him didn’t want to admit how badly he screwed up.

He was supposed to be the smart one. How did his plan turn out this badly?

His words seemed to only anger Raph further. The red turtle’s hand twitched, and his eyes were hard with rage.

His brother then turned around, walked out of his room, and slammed the door behind him.

No other words were spoken.

A silent Raph was always a very pissed-off Raph.

Shit.

He heard a small wince and looked over to where Mikey was standing.

The youngest out of all of them looked between his door, him, the door, and then back to him.

Then, he only said one word.

“ Why? ”

Donnie immediately felt any restaurants he had to answer drop as he winced. He slumped and looked toward the ground.

“I didn’t realize what would happen, okay? I didn’t realize how Leo would take it. And I didn’t realize how badly it would look. I fucked up, I–”

“ Why? ” Mikey repeated the word once again, “I don’t want excuses, I just– Leo has been better, Don, he’s been interacting with us, having fun– Why did you do that?”

Donnie sighed and ran a hand down his face.

“Because I thought he wouldn’t argue with it,” he admitted, “I thought that if he thought the idea to not get him gifts came from us, he wouldn’t try to spin the blame on anyone. Or, if he did, I was recording so that hopefully I could make him see what kind of behavior he was displaying.”

He watched Mikey’s expression and knew he wasn’t satisfied.

“I trust Splinter’s judgment,” Don stated, “I trust that he wouldn’t do something if it was going to hurt Leo further, so I wanted to make it so the decision would get through to Leo, and that we could prevent any loss in progress.”

“I also wanted to try and get him on video doing something that could show him that he wasn’t okay, because I think he might be in denial about this whole thing, and the first thing that needs to happen is that Leo needs to realize something is wrong too try and put an end to it,” Donnie reasoned.

Mikey scrunched up his nose. He could see where Donnie was coming from. He was trying to make Leo see that he wasn’t okay. But something about the way that the whole situation was handled… It gnawed on Mikey.

“Oh… Okay,” Mikey answered as he looked Donnie up and down, “I’m not going to say I don’t see where you’re coming from Donnie, making Leo realize and admit that something is wrong and all, but…”

“If you keep pushing in this way… He may come to a completely different realization that might make it impossible to get him back,” the youngest stated.

And with that, Mikey also left the room.

Donnie fell back onto his bed with a sigh. He felt awful.

He had meant to help Leo. But now it just seemed like– No. It was that he had made the situation worse.

He needed to apologize. But how? And when?

Donnie groaned as he shifted to lay fully on his bed. He was never good with apologies. If it takes too long to be said, it’ll be too late. If you do it too quickly it comes off as insincere. So when do you do it?

By the end of the day, he’ll do it. It’ll be a bit after the whole hunt is over so that he has time to think it through. But not too late that Leo gets uncomfortable and, near the worst, bitter.

He rubbed his eyes.

He fucked up.

Leo sighed.

He was trying to focus on the TV in front of him. Some of the older episodes were making their rounds on the stations, so he’s been trying to get some more of the series in before his brothers take over the TV again.

Unfortunately, he still hasn’t been able to see the end of the final episode.

He huffed. He couldn’t focus. Everything around him was pulling on his attention. The glimpses of presents. The footsteps that sounded like they were right up against his ear. The feeling of eyes watching him. The lights blazed down, searing his skin.

He turned off the TV, trying to make the ringing in his ears stop for just one moment as he tried to regain his bearings.

He stood, causing the room to spin around him, and turned toward where the bedrooms were.

He started to make his way over to the hall. He knew he shouldn’t lock himself in his room all day, it was his brothers’ Mutation Day for goodness sake, but he couldn’t help but feel like that was the most reasonable thing to do.

He clearly could not hide the disdain he had for the situation.

He could not hide the hurt he felt.

He could not hide the betrayal that seeped into his skin, and stabbed against his heart.

He blinked away the tears that were in his eyes.

He knew he was being over dramatic. A hypocritic. But he couldn’t help it.

This day was special. It was always the one day that they all got to relax. One day they would put any petty arguments aside and just be a family.

And then… Last year happened.

They went up to the surface. Saw April getting kidnapped. Leo became the leader. Raph still hates him for it. They rescued April and got into a war with the Krang. The Shredder realized the Hamato clan was back.

And he met Damian.

Leo keeps going through that day over and over again in his mind, wondering what would happen if something else took place that day.

What if he hadn’t started being secretive? What if he told his brothers right then and there he met someone? What if he hadn’t pushed his brothers away when they just wanted to know what was going on?

He couldn’t help but sigh once more.

He did this to himself.

He pushed his brother’s away because he wanted to have Damian to himself. He wanted to be able to talk to Damian without fear that his words would get back around to his brothers. He wanted to have the other’s attention focused on him. He wanted to have someone he could go to who he knew wouldn’t ignore him– Who would always be there. Unbiased, and unknowing of the mess that Leo was.

And he pushed his brothers away to have it.

Then, he figured out about magic. Then he met Deven. Then he went to the underworld and met Jamie and Avery, then Damian and Deven’s parents. Then he met Sphinx. Then he became friends with Leaf. Then he figured out that he was a dragon. Then–

…

The lies. The false reassurance that he would tell them. The small thing he wanted to keep to himself.

It all got out of control.

How the heck was he going to take it back? How was he going to tell his brothers that he spent a year– a year lying to their faces? How was he going to admit that he could be that manipulative?

That he could care so little about their happiness?

…

But that wasn’t true.

He did care. He wanted his brothers to be happy.

And if they figured out about the cultist. The underworld. Mana. What would happen to them?

Would they be okay? Would they take advantage of the world where they are normal? Would they leave the burden they cared for behind, and flourish like they were always meant to?

Or would they get hurt? Would they start to spiral? Would they use their mana until it killed them? Would they fight something that they can’t win against?

…

As a leader, it was Leo’s duty to never lie to his followers about things that could be crucial to missions.

But as a big brother? It was Leo’s duty to make sure his brothers were safe.

Why do those two things have to conflict so often?

SLAM.

Leo flinched and spun around.

When he did so, his eyes landed on his younger twin.

Raph had one hand on Donnie’s door, which he just slammed, and the rest of his body was moved out, his breathing labored as he huffed in rage, his eyes narrowed in… Disgust? His whole body was shaking and he was looking at his right hand, his free hand, as though he wanted to punch something.

Raph’s breathing began to slow, and he watched as his twin ran his free hand down his face, clearly exhausted from whatever had taken place.

He was clearly trying his hardest to calm down, and Leo was extremely curious as to what he was calming down from.

Did he and Donnie get into a fight or something?

Now might be a good time to talk.

“Huh… Hi?”

He nearly face-palmed at his words. Give him a break, he didn’t really know what to do in this situation. He had no clue as to what was angering Raph and he has found that more often than not, knowing what is angering his hot-headed brother was the best way to not get punched.

The words seemed to take Raph by surprise, and the other jumped as he looked at Leo.

“Gah– Leo! Hey,” Raph blurted out, his face slowly turning into more angry shock than just shock. As though Leo had just interrupted something.

Leo looked his brother up and down, “Um… Can I… Help you?” He asked, narrowing his eyes a bit, “You seem… Off.”

Raph’s gaze flickered from Leo to the door of Donnie’s room, then back once again to Leo.

“Um, yeah, actually, there is something I would like to talk about–” Raph pushed off from the door and came up to Leo, taking a breath.

“It’s about the presents thing.”

… Oh.

That’s what Raph was worried about.

Guilt started to eat at Leo.

He didn’t want his brothers to feel bad about what had happened. He gets okay, he really does.

He pushed them away. He was being secretive.

He wasn’t acting like a part of the family, so why should he get to be a part of the family?

“Raph, it’s fine, I–” “No, Leo, it’s not fine– I–” Raph huffed in irritation.

“We didn’t just choose to not get you presents, okay?” Raph stated, gesturing around to the rooms, “Splinter… He said that the presents would ‘set back your progress’ and ‘leave off worse than before’ so he…”

Raph sighed, “He took the presents meant for you, put them in boxes that were assigned to one of us, and made it so we had no clue which was which.”

Leo’s eyes narrowed in confusion. So many questions popped into his head at once, and he was having a bit of difficulty narrowing down which ones to ask.

His brothers… Had wanted him to participate. They had wanted him there. But Splinter had– Hm. And Donnie–

He didn’t realize how grossly betrayed he felt until that moment. He just felt so… Lost and hurt. He couldn’t shake the image in his head of the memory– The nightmare that the Dragon King forced him to endure.

He couldn’t shake the image of his brothers cornering him at the table, and hurdling insult after insult after him, Splinter having to do nothing, just watching as the scene unfolded, and his own brothers took someone else's side over his own.

It wasn’t like that, though.

Mikey looked– He looked like someone had dropped a cat in front of him. Raph looked as though he was about to kill something.

His brothers weren’t against him– They thought it was wrong too. He wasn’t alone, but… Donnie sure made it feel that way.

Guilt knawed at Leo. He didn’t want to blame Donnie for this, he could see how there could be… Reasons for his behavior. But right now? Leo felt bitter.

Leo nodded, “Okay,” he responded. He could tell from Raph’s expression that it was an anti-climatic answer. But what else could he do? Was Raph expecting him to say something else? Be mad?

He wasn’t mad, just… Disappointed. And bitter. He was bitter.

Raph just continued to stare at him, confused.

“Okay?” He repeated back to himself. He wasn’t the best at figuring out emotions unless they were specifically thrown at him. So he had no clue what on earth ‘okay’ was supposed to mean in this context.

Leo nodded, “ Okay,” he answered back, putting more emphasis on the word, he started to eye his room.

“Um, thanks for the information, Raph, and I’ll… Speak to you later,” the voice was hesitant, as though he wasn’t even sure himself that they would talk ‘later.’

Something in Raph flickered, a need to know more.

It clearly wasn’t ‘okay.’ Leo was clearly hurting. So what was going on?

Why won’t Leo talk to him?

He huffed in annoyance, “How is this ‘okay?’” He asked, “And you better not try to end this conversation, because we both know that ‘later’ is never going to come.”

Leo shook his head and wince, he regretted ever being told what actually happened. “It’s fine, Raph, honestly, I just–”

“I need some time.”

Leo watched Raph’s reaction, how his twin clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly, how his eye twitched slightly and his breath became heavier.

Through gritted teeth, Raph spook, “ Fine .” The venom in his voice took Leo by surprise. Raph then turned around and waved behind him, “Have it your way.”

Leo stood there, shocked and confused.

Did he say something wrong?

Leo sighed when his door shut, feeling as though a pressure was lifted from his chest.

But it revealed nothing good, and the breath felt more like a gasp for air as he slowly started to sink into the dark parts of his mind.

It was Splinter’s doing. He knows this now.

Yet a part of him couldn’t get over the betrayal. A part of him couldn’t get over the hurt.

He didn’t understand it, normally, it would be easy to just forgive and forget the whole thing. To just… Accept that his brother took Splinter’s words for fact, and was just trying to help, and move on.

But recently, those little incidents were getting harder and harder to just get over.

And he hated it.

He wanted to be with his brothers.

He wanted to support them. 

To be there when they’re happy, and be there when they’re at their worst.

But he couldn’t right now because these stupid hurt feelings won’t go away.

He sighed and crawled into his bed, flopping on his shell as he stared at the ceiling.

He wondered how long he could stick around before things got boring. How long he could stay locked in his room before it was seen as weird?

Would they even care that he was in his room? Would they even come to check on him?

He heard what sounded like the click of a door, and figured someone had just exited Donnie’s room because the only one that would’ve gone in would be the one to slam the door on his way.

He continued to lie in his bed. Not really thinking. He felt like he was floating. Completely detached from his mind and body as he tried to just figure out where to go next.

Ding.

The sound broke Leo from his trance, and he looked over at the t-phone, puzzled.

The phone was currently on his bedside table, and he reached over grabbed the small item, and pressed the button on the side to see what the noise was about.

He chuckled a bit, a message was on his lock screen:

Teddy 💗 : How’s the M-day?

Leo rolled his eyes as he clicked on the message and swiped, unlocking his phone and getting immediately to Damian’s contact.

He pressed on the bar and thought about what to say.

Eventually, he sighed and chose to be honest.

User: Not too good. Splinter had apparently taken the presents meant for me and put them in boxes for my brothers

Leo clicked his tongue before continuing.

User: Behind their back, that is

He chose to not tell Damian about the incident with Donnie.

Teddy 💗 : … Are you kidding?

User: Unfortunately not.

Teddy 💗 : I’m sorry bby

Leo blushed at the nickname.

User: It’s not your fault.

Teddy 💗 : I’m still sorry. Today was meant to be good

User: It was! All of you were incredible, and even dealt with my whole ‘uncomfortable with receiving gifts’ look!

Teddy 💗 : Yeah, but idk I just wanted you to have a good time with your family.

Leo huffed a bit. Great. Now he was making Damian feel bad.

User: I am

Teddy 💗 : You didn’t add a period, you’re getting upset, and you are also locked in your room rn, right?

Leo didn’t respond to that. It took a minute before Damian texted again.

Teddy💗: Tell ya what? Let’s head to Murakami’s and get some food

Leo smiled, suddenly reminded of that one day. Their ‘first date,’ as Damian likes to call it,  was when they went over to Murakami’s after Leo fought with the Purple Dragons, Bradford, and Xever.

User: That sounds great! When are we heading out?

Teddy 💗 : I was thinking in like 5-10 min, is that good with you?

User: Sounds good to me.

User: Love you Teddy<3

Teddy 💗 : Love you too, baby

Leo smiled as he set his phone down.

Maybe tonight won’t be so bad after all.

Mikey stood in the middle of the pit, smiling at the four boxes of presents in front of him.

It seemed almost everyone had gotten their gifts, due to Donnie being on the sofa closest to the TV and analyzing the boxes he also had.

Finally, Raph came back to the pit with what seemed to be his final box. He tossed the present onto the pile on the floor and took a seat on the couch furthest away from Donnie.

Mikey felt his smile faltered a bit, it was clear Raph was still angry at Donnie. Not that it wasn’t warranted, but still… It hurt a bit.

They already were missing one of them, he didn’t want the rest of his brothers fighting–

“I’m heading out to Mr. Murakami’s! You guys want anything?”

Mikey whipped around to look at the one speaking.

Leo was almost bouncing through the lair, there was a sway in his step that just made him look so… Happy.

Mikey pouted. He knew that they normally waited until after lunch to open gifts, but he still wanted Leo to stick around the lair. He knew it was a bit selfish of him, but he wanted his entire family to at least be around for the activities.

Besides, he was a bit hesitant to let Leo out of his sight, let alone out of the lair.

“Awe, man! You’re not sticking around for the show marathon?” Mikey whined, Leo only chuckled in response, his eyes never leaving the phone in his hand.

“I’m just going out to get food, Mikey, I’ll be back in time to watch the shows and open presents, promise,” he waved Mikey off dismissively.

Mikey couldn’t help but notice Leo’s cheeks being tinted with blue. He knew that this was Leo’s blush, and none of them ever questioned it.

But why on earth does Leo blush blue?

That was when another question snapped into Mikey’s head.

Why is Leo blushing?

Something about the situation looked so… Familiar to Mikey. As though he’s seen it before, maybe with one of his other brothers? He didn’t know.

A part of him wanted to keep Leo there. Another part of him knew he if he tried to hold Leo here, Leo would only shut himself off more.

“Ah, never mind, we went gyoza! Pizza gyoza!” Mikey chirped, trying to keep down any indication that he suspected something, but it didn’t work as Leo side-eyed him.

“Okay… Anything else?” The older turtle asked, stopping stopping, and turning so he could fully face his brothers.

Donnie shook his head, and Mikey only waved.

“Nope! That should be it,” the youngest stated, he wanted to not jump on to Leo right then and there, he wanted to ask a whole world of questions that he just needed the answer to.

But he also didn’t want to scare Leo off.

Leo turned slightly, still eyeing Mikey, confused.

“Alright, well I’ll–” “I’m coming with you.”

Raph pushed himself up from the couch and started making his way over to his older brother, who Mikey noticed visibly and got slightly more annoyed.

“I don’t think I can handle being alone with these idiots for much longer,” Raph stated, gesturing to the other two brothers, Mikey scoffed at him, insulted.

“We haven’t even done anything!” The youngest whined, Raph looked over his shoulder and merely rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, you standing there is enough,” the older joked and faced back to the blue turtle. Leo snorted.

“And what? I’m not annoying?” He asked putting his phone in his pocket before crossing his arms and leaning to the side a bit. His eyes were narrowed and he had a smirk. Mikey immediately knew Leo would take anything Raph said as a challenge.

Raph shrugged, “Eh, I’m not annoyed by you yet, so you're the lesser of three evils.”

Mikey scoffed and rolled his eyes, not impressed by his brother’s words.

But his gaze immediately flickered back to Leo when he noticed the leader stiffen slightly.

Mikey squinted at him, and noticed how his demeanor looked less comfortable and more… Guilty? That was the only way he could describe it.

He felt his gaze soften a bit as he looked to the side. If he was being honest? He was thankful Raph had chosen to go with Leo. At least if he didn’t have an eye on his older brother, Raph would.

And if he knew anything it was that Raph won’t let Leo do anything dumb.

Leo nodded to the door, “Let’s go,” he ordered.

The two walked over to the entrance when suddenly, Leo stopped.

He glanced over at the others, specifically the present piles.

Almost as though he was… Counting?

Mikey cringed with guilt. There were four presents in each pile. None of them really went all out due to the year that have had leaving them all exhausted, so there were supposed to be only three.

But from each for each of them, there was one extra.

He was about to say something when Leo cut him off.

“There should be five total for each of you,” the blue turtle said with a wink before heading past the entrance.

Raph looked back at them, face clearly puzzled, and Mikey only shrugged.

Donnie watched as Raph followed Leo out of the lair, and felt sick.

He knew why Raph wanted out of the lair. And he knew it was because of him.

He could also guess why Leo said that.

And the guilt was slowly starting to consume.

Raph walked alongside Leo, heavy silence hung in the air.

They were currently close to where Murakami’s was, about three roofs away, but they were taking their time getting there.

Raph had honestly expected that Leo would do something to try and annoy him based on the conversation they had in the lair, but there was no sign of it.

Leo just seemed to be fidgeting with his hands, or typing something on his phone.

The ladder was what the blue turtle was currently up to. Typing away nervously on his phone, a mixture of relief and consuming nerves on his face.

Raph huffed but tried to keep it quiet. He had been trying to get a glimpse at what the hell Leo was looking at that could possibly be so important, but every time he tried, Leo seemed to catch him in the act and turned off his phone before shoving it into his pocket, causing the tension hovering between them to thicken.

He knew that he shouldn’t be trying to look at his brother's phone, and Leo was being weird! And when Leo gets weird, bad things happen! Sue him for being worried about his dumb older brother.

He finally chose to take a different approach this time. He slowed his pace to the point where Leo was in front of him.

He stepped over to the side to get right behind Leo and used his tiptoes to peer over his brother’s shoulder.

Right as he got a glimpse at the screen, Leo shut it off and whipped around, offense and annoyance written clear on his face.

“What are you doing Raph?” Leo snapped, and Raph held up his hands, “Me– Oh– I wasn’t doing anything,” he said threw gritted teeth.

He was trying hard not to snap at the moment. He had seen that Leo was in a text contact with someone, and the only thing Raph could catch was the name.

It was ‘Teddy’ with a pink heart next to it.

He felt bitterness grow in his chest. Today was their mutation day, their birthday, and Leo was locking himself in his room, trying to get out of the lair, all to talk to his little boyfriend?

Leo shot him a glare, “Yeah, right, ‘Not doing anything’ my shell, you knew what you were doing,” he stated, crossing his arms.

Raph’s eyes narrowed, and he felt the dam slowly start to crack.

“You know what? Yeah, I know what I was doing,” he snapped, stepping forward a bit to get closer to Leo’s face, “I was wondering why on earth my brother was too busy texting his little friends to talk to us on our birthday .”

Leo huffed, rolling his eyes, “Oh, so because I’m trying to talk to other people, I’m the bad guy?” He asked.

Raph snarled, “No, you’re being a fucking prick, that’s what’s happening.”

“Language,” Leo scolded. Raph felt his blood boil.

Leo was the one being a jerk, and that’s how he reacted to getting called out.

Oh. That nearly made Raph lose it.

Raph jabbed a finger into Leo’s plastron. “You get to talk to your little friends all the damn time, but the moment you have to spend just an ounce of time with us you act like you haven’t seen them in years.”

Leo rolled his eyes and shooed his hand away. He looked Raph in the eyes, “Look, I know that today hasn’t gone to plan, but I promise you, I just need some space, and–”

“Space? Space? Dude!” Raph gestured out, “We’ve given you space! A whole year of it! We’ve tried giving you time to come to us, we’ve tried talking to you, and we’ve tried to give you space!” He was shouting now.

Why was he shouting? His blood boiled and he felt like he was about to cry. He was just so frustrated, he was frustrated that Leo wasn’t listening to him, frustrated that his brother was still pushing him away, and frustrated that he felt as though he didn’t even know his own brother anymore.

“So why? Why the hell do you need more? Why the hell are you pushing us away? Why won’t you tell us anything?” He started to angrier.

Leo’s eyes narrowed, “Enough, Raph,” he ordered, but it was more of a plead than anything else.

Raph shook his head. “No, why on earth would you rather come home with bandages and cuts from god knows where than talk to your brothers?”

Leo’s glare was slowly turning to a snarl, “ Rapheal,” he warned, tension consumed the air around them.

Raph huffed.

“No, Leonardo, you don’t get to just shut a conversation down whenever you damn when please!” He shouted back getting closer up to the other.

His head swirled, he wasn’t thinking straight. “You never tell us shit, you shut yourself in your room when you’re hurt, you never tell us when you’re upset, and then you turn around and expect us to listen to you?” He scoffed.

Leo groaned, “I do tell you when I’m upset, you guys just never listen,” he stated, “Besides, what does it matter what I do in my free time? I’m your leader, and your older brother, my business is my own, why are you so upset about it?”

Raph snarled at Leo, “Oh, why am I upset? Are you serious?” A frustrated chuckle escaped Raph, “Maybe it’s– I don’t know– Because I have a leader who won’t tell me what’s going on? That I have an older brother who’s turning his back on the family?”

“Or maybe it’s because I have to live with a self-important drama queen, who won’t pull his good damn noise out of his phone to actually care whether he drowns in the ocean!”

…

His eyes went wide as he grimaced. Regretting his words instantly.

Leo’s eyes went wide as well, taken aback by his words.

Wow. Bringing up the whole ‘attention seeker’ thing and the Krang invasion in one sentence? Way to go Raph. Awesome way to stop Leo from pulling away.

Silence hung in the air, both of the brothers not knowing what to say.

He didn’t know how to explain the look on Leo’s face, nor the guilt that racked him.

Leo just looked like he was… Thinking. His face scrunched up, and his fingers twitched slightly.

Raph reached up slightly, “Leo, I–”

Thud.

The sound caught him off guard.

He spun around to see what had just happened, and his eyes landed on a water tower nearby.

Raph’s face morphed into confusion as he let out a ‘huh?’ as he saw a figure on the roof.

The figure was covered in shadow. And from the looks– And smells– Of it, there seemed to be smoke puffing out of the thing's mouth.

Raph could make out what seemed to be horns, a long tail that was thick at the base, then turned to a sharp point, and then fleshy wings that resembled bats, but without the point at the top.

Did it look so… Familiar?

He racked his mind, trying to figure out if this was some mutant they had met– Or plan the Shredder had, but nothing came up.

Finally, that day they had a talk with Splinter clicked.

Demon.

The word echoed through his mind as he reached for his sai, and pulled them both out, spinning them in his hand as his blood ran cold with fear.

The thing stood from its crouch position and leaped up, spinning into a ball mid-air before landing on the roof.

The figure rose into a stand, and much to Raph’s confusion, he was a human.

A normal human, has no horns, no tail, and no wings.

His white skin was tanned darker, and familiar black stripes ran his neck, face, and arms, easily seen by the white tee-shirt that looked like it was randomly thrown on, wrinkels on it made the shirt look old and messy.

He was wearing jeans that looked like they were too small, and his blonde air easily caught the moon’s light, and his hazel eyes almost looked as though they were glowing.

It didn’t take long for Raph to realize who this was.

And he felt his blood boil.

“Well, hello to you too,” the human greeted with a pearly white smile, not nearly as intimated as Raph would like him to be.

“Ah! Day!” Leo squeaked out, and Raph’s eyes flickered to watch his brother as he walked in between the two, but didn’t block them off from each other.

Raph couldn’t help his thoughts, questions as to why Leo seemed so nervous flooded and he was trying his hardest to not shout accusations at the human in front of him.

Leo continued to look at Damian, but pointed to Raph, “Ted– Day–” He fumbled over his words, his face burning a mixture of red and blue, “This is Raph,” he stated.

He turned to Raph and his smile faltered a bit, “Raph, Damian.”

Raph kept his eyes on the human, and slowly put away his Sai, “Huh, Hi?” He greeted in a questioning voice, raising a non-existent eyebrow as he did so.

He looked at Leo, “So where’d ya get him? Walmart?”

Leo put his head in his hand, “My gods, Raph,” he sighed.

“Ha-ha!” Damian’s loud, mocked laughter rang through the air, and Raph’s attention was drawn back to the man who was now crossing his arms.

“Ah, chihuahua has jokes, huh?” He asked, the smile on his face looking strained.

Raph’s eyes narrowed, “What did you just call me!?” He demanded as he stomped closer to each other.

Leo looked between Raph and Damian and felt terror engulfing his thoughts.

He held out an arm, stopping Raph from getting any closer to his boyfriend.

“Alright, play nicely you two,” he scolded with an awkward chuckle that turned into a grimace when he looked between the two most hot-headed people he knew.

They might be different breeds of hotheads, but they definitely were still both hotheads.

And the worst thing about was Leo had no clue if they were about to be friends with each other or fight.

Raph continued to glare at Damian, clenching his teeth as he did so.

He had no way to prove this. He had no way to back up his thinking.

But he knew this was who Leo had as ‘Teddy’ in his contact.

The mispeak at the beginning when Leo was introducing him only proved it.

“Welp!” Leo spoke up, clapping his hands together, gaining the attention of both Raph and Damian, “I think we should get heading to Murakami’s, don’t want to keep the others waiting,” he stated.

Raph looked between Damian and Leo, and then he groaned.

“ Ugh, fine. I guess the dork can come,” he stated, rolling his eyes as he did so.

Before he turned around, he caught Leo and Damian looking at each other, Leo wearing a sympathetic smile, with Damian having a smirk.

What was that all about?

The three were now on the roof that neighbored Murakami’s shop, with Leo up front and looking down at the noodle place with a bit of a smile on his face.

Raph is behind him, with Damian standing on the other side of Leo.

He was trying to not glare at the human, but that was a bit difficult to do.

His mind kept going to ‘ So this was the person that Leo was too busy texting to talk? ’

It just… Wasn’t fair. Damian didn’t seem that special. So what was going on that Leo would run to him whenever the blue turtle was upset and not– Oh, Raph didn’t know– One of his brothers.

Raph wasn’t jealous. He wasn’t. It’s just– Ugh, so frustrating!

“Are you guys ready to go in?” Leo asked, gaining Raph's attention as the other looked back at him, the smile on his face was so clearly strained that it was almost painful.

Damian looked like he was about to say something when Raph cut him off.

“Actually, Leo, man, you can go in,” he offered with a smile on his face.

Leo seemed taken aback, and a bit concerned, “Huh– What? Are you guys…?”

Raph shook his head, “We’ll stick out here, besides, I want to figure out who exactly that one is,” he jabbed a finger in Damian’s direction.

He saw the human roll his eyes as right before Leo turned to look at him.

Damian smiled. It was soft and caring.

Raph wanted to rip him apart. How can this be the guy taking his brother away?

“We’ll be fine ba– Blue, go inside and give Murakami my greetings,” he stated.

Leo nodded, then looked between the two.

“Okay– Um… Don’t kill each other while I’m gone,” he said with a smile, “Please.”

And with that, Leo turned and leaped off the roof.

Raph walked over to where Leo once was and watched as his brother entered the noodle shop.

Once Leo was out of sight, he looked at the pest.

He wore a smug smirk on his face as he turned his back to the half wall of the roof, and propered his foot up on it, leaning against it slightly.

“So, what’da wanna know?” He asked, his tone over-confident to the point where Raph knew he wasn’t taking this seriously.

Raph rolled his eyes, “How long have you known my brother?” He asked. He wanted to get straight to the point.

Damian let out a hum as he looked toward the sky, “A year now,” he admitted.

If Raph was drinking something, he would’ve spit it out.

He let out a fake, strained laugh, “ Ha-ha, very funny,” he stated, “Listen, I know a minute with Leo can sometimes seem like forever, but I need an actual time estimate.”

Damian chuckled, “Oh, if you only knew,” the words were spoken with no hastily they were fond and dreamy, but they made Rpah bristle.

“But it has officially been a year by now,” Damian continued, a pleasant smile taking place on his face, “Ironic, isn’t it? It was his birthday yet I got the best gift I could ask for.”

Raph felt his blood boil. A part of his registered how sickeningly sweet that was. Another part of him grew bitter.

He knew Leo was keeping something from them for a long time, but a year? A year ago on their Mutantion Day.

That just rubbed Raph the wrong way.

And then the whole ‘gift I could ask for’ just added fuel to the fire.

Because fuck him. Who was him to say that Leo was given to him– That he could just have his brother?

Leo was their brother– Mikey, Donnie, April– They all needed him. He needed him.

And he was not about to lose whatever relationship he has left with his own goddamn brother to some dude in a white t-shirt with wrinkles in it!

“ Leo is not someone to be given,” Raph spoke through gritted teeth, not thinking about what he was saying.

Damian looked at him with narrowed eyes, and the smile he had on his face fell. His mouth now twitched down in a form of disgust. He then spoke, his voice mocking.

“Well, it didn’t seem like ya’ll wanted him.”

Something in Raph snapped.

He grabbed out his Sai and charged at the human, screaming as he did so.

Damian faced Raph, the human’s arm swung out beside him, and his hand was outstretched.

In a flash of white, something blocked Raph’s sai.

The turtle looked down with a glare on his face and noticed that the empty spaces of his sai were being blocked by a black handle.

He looked along the handle and saw a sythe blad at the end above him.

He looked back at the human, a snarl still on his face even as confusion grew inside of him.

“Listen, punk,” Raph spat out, “I don’t know what you’re deal is with my brother, but if you hurt him–” Damian’s chuckle cut him off.

“ Oh, that’s rich coming from the one who brought up two of the main things he is upset about to win an argument,” he stated, his teething grinding together more as the sentence went on, he pushed his sythe back against Raph.

Raph growled, “ You need to back off,” he stated, Damian rolled his eyes, “Like you so helpfully did when the rat ruined yet another thing for your brother?”

Raph tried to push against the sythe, but it didn’t budge.

He looked the dude up and down. It was the first time he ever truly got a good look at the dude without focusing on hating his face.

He was a foot taller than him and built. He remembered all the times before when he threatened to kick his ass when he finds him, and Leo’s eye rolls and sympathetic looks when he did so.

It was clear Raph from Leo’s expressions alone that this dude would give him a run for his money.

That only made Raph panic more. If he would struggle with taking this dude down, was Leo really safe with him? What if something happened and Leo couldn’t get out of a situation because he was keeping him there?

He regretted ever letting the dude come along on something that was supposed to be just him and Leo–

Something clicked, and Raph’s eyes widened.

“ You! ” He almost shouted, “You were the one who invited Leo out to get Murakami’s weren’t you!?”

Damian rolled his eyes, “Slow. Just… Slow.”

Raph bore his teeth, “Who do you think you are, huh? Why do you get Leo alone?”

The other rolled his eyes, “I’m not purposefully getting him alone,” he stated, Raph shook his head. “Then why does it always seem like that!”

“Because Leo is just always alone,” Damian stated, “Even on days when he’s supposed to be with the people who love him.”

Raph was about to argue back when the words Damian spoke left him without any of his own.

Damian’s accusatory glare spoke volumes.

“We do love Leo,” Raph snapped, his words harsh and stern.

Also, was it getting hotter? Raph could feel sweat collecting on his palm. Drops formed on his neck.

Damian leaned in closer to his face, “Then why the hell are you telling me? ”

Raph didn’t have the answer, he just looked at the human, confused.

“Why are you telling me, when you should be telling him? ”

… Oh…

That’s where this was going.

Raph rolled his eyes, “Well… It’s not like he ever acts like he has time for–” Raph hissed in pain, his hand was pressed right u to the metal of his sai, which was turning red with heat.

He backed away, dropping his sai in the process. Before he knew it, the blunt end of Damian’s handle tapped him, which sent him down on his ass.

He looked up, Damian looming over him. His eyes glowed unnaturally in what Raph could only describe as anger.

“Then get your ass down there and make some time.”

Raph didn’t need to be told twice.

He grabbed his sai and threw himself over the ledge of the roof, landing effortlessly on the ground as he tried to get away from that thing.

He had his hand on Murakami’s door, and belief wondered what on earth Leo had gotten into with that dude.

He had no clue what kind of decision he was making, but he hoped it was the right one.

Chapter Text

Leo shut the door behind her and sighed, trying to regain her composer a bit.

She then looked up with a smile, “Hello, Murakami-san,” she greeted as she walked up to the food bar that wrapped around the man’s working station.

“Ah, Leonardo-san,” he turned around, a smile on his face. He pushed for a moment before speaking again, “Are you alone? Where are your brothers?”

Leo frowned, she was aware the man was blind, but the automatic need to put on a mask fell at the reminder.

She huffed, “I’m not– well. Raph and Damian are outside… Talking,” she admitted, a gloomy look taking place on her face.

She thought she was ready for those two to meet. But she was far from ready.

Murakami frowned, “You sound upset, what is wrong?” He asked.

Leo shook her head and placed her face in her hands, “Just… Can we get the normal? Five meals of pizza gyoza, the extra is for Damian.”

Murakami put down his knife that was used to cut vegetables down. “Leonardo-san?”

Leo winced. “Yeah… Um.”

“This is the first time Raph is ever meeting Damian,” he stated, Murakami raised a brow at that.

“Oh? Your brothers still don’t know your boyfriend?” He asked, Leo nodded, “Yeah, they– Hey… Wait.”

Leo eyed Murakami, feeling his cheeks darken a bit, flustered, she started to stammer, “I didn’t– How’d you– Did Damian–” Murakami chuckled a bit.

“Trust me, turtle-san, when you need to hone your other senses to survive, you learn how to pick up on cues a lot easier than most people,” he stated, a smile on his face.

Leo felt herself tense, “So– You don’t care that I’m gay?” She asked, her voice was a bit squeaky, but it was something she had to get an answer to.

Murakami shook his head, “My friend, I do not care who you love, as long as you’re happy, it’s not my business to tell you what you can and cannot do,” he stated.

Leo let out a breath of relief, it felt like a weight was lifted from her chest.

“Thank you, Murakami-san,” she said.

She sighed once more, “But, yeah… Raph and Damian just meet– Well, like, they saw each other once, but now they’ve truly just met. The others still have no clue about Damian.”

The older man nodded, “And how is that going?” He asked.

Leo shook her head, she placed her elbows on the counter and placed her head where her two hands were on either side of it. “I think Raph hates him,” she admitted.

She leaned herself back, her hands flopping onto the table, “And it’s not like ‘Raph is the angry hot-head’ short of hate,” she stated, “I think Raph genuinely despises him.”

Murakami hummed as he started on their meals, “And how do you feel about the situation?”

Leo grimaced. “I… I don’t know. I’m disappointed, honestly. Like– I knew Raph already had a bad taste in his mouth, due to the often sleepovers with Damian, but– I just…”

Leo sighed, he crossed her arms on the table and rested their chin on their arms.

“I was hoping for them to get along,” she admitted.

Suddenly, the door to the shop swung open.

Leo spun around, eyes wide as she tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

Her eyes landed on Raph. But he seemed… Off. Her brother was pale and looked frightened by something.

Raph continued to look at Leo, so many ideas on what to say coming to him, but none really landing enough to be spoken.

“Raph?” Leo asked, his voice dripping with concern, “Raph, is everything okay?”

Raph slowly nodded, “Yeah,” he said, out of breath, he took his hand off of the door, and placed it on his hip, trying to appear natural, “Yeah, everythings cool.”

Leo eyed him, clearly suspicious. “Oh… Kay…” He stated, slowly shifting a bit have his side face Raph, but Leo was still looking at him.

‘Where’s… Damian? Didn’t kill him, did you?” Leo raised an ‘eyebrow’ and Raph snorted a bit at the irony.

“No, no, he’s good, just got bored,” Raph confirmed as he walked up and took a seat next to Leo, his eyes now trained on Murakami to avoid the leader’s eyes.

He saw Leo look at him for a moment, scoff, and then turn around and look at the table, “And I’m not?” He asked, jokingly.

Raph rolled his eyes, “Don’t know enough about ya’ personal life to make that decision,” he admitted. He noticed how Leo’s posture stiffened at his words and felt briefly bad for what he said.

But it was true, Leo could be the most boring person on earth, reading books in his free time or training, or he could be one of the most damn interesting people– Secret friends, secret enemies, and basically a whole other life, all while keeping his cool around his brothers.

Raph couldn’t tell you.

Because he didn’t know .

There was an awkward, tense silence in the air after that, the only sound in the noodle shop was the chopping of dow.

Raph sighed, dropping his hands onto the counter. Time to deal with this.

“Listen, Leo, look I–” He took in a breath, and muttered something.

Leo looked at him, confused, “What was that?”

Raph huffed, “I’m sorry ,” he stated, feeling an awkward chill run down his back, “I don’t know why I said that, and I know it was messed up of me to bring up not only what Sp– He ,” he eyed Murakami, he didn’t want to say what exactly was happen around someone who wasn’t family.

“What he used to mainly hold over you, but a day that was clearly not the greatest for you,” Raph stated, “So I’m sorry.”

Leo seemed to take in what he was saying before the blue leader’s eyes landed on the counter. “Thank you,” he murmured loud enough for Raph to hear, but quiet enough to make it clear he was uncomfortable.

Leo squinted a bit in thought, “I’m also sorry for springing Damian on you… I didn’t realize you two would react like that to each other,” he admitted.

Raph looked at Leo, confused he asked, “Like what?” His voice was a bit insulted.

Leo gestured, “Well– you know… You guys didn’t seem to… Get along,” he stated, a grimace clear on his face.

Raph wanted to say something, he wanted to argue that there was a reason for that. That the dude was clearly a piece of shit, and that Leo should stop– No. Leo would stop seeing that prick. He’ll be damned if some skater boy takes his brother.

But… Looking at Leo now… It was so clear that his brother was nervous and upset. And even a bit disappointed.

Raph sighed, “Damian… Damian is fine. Don’t love him. Don’t hate him. He’s just… Strange.”

Raph wanted to say so much more, but seeing Leo’s face light up in relief at his words, a clear pressure lifted off of his brother’s shoulder, that stopped him.

He sighed, he really wanted to just get all of his thoughts about Damian out right here right now, but he really, really didn’t want to give Leo more reasons to push him away.

Because if something goes wrong, he wants to be there for his brother.

Even if his brother doesn’t believe it.

“We’re home!”

Donnie looked over from where he was sitting on the couch, feeling a bit of relief to see the two turtles who had gone out.

He got up awkwardly as Raph started making his way to him, a to-go box in his hand.

He handed Donnie the box without even looking at him, Donnie returned the favor by looking for Leo, who was currently handing a giddy Mikey his box.

“Thanks, Lee– We found the last gift you had for all of us– including Raph, thanks!” Mikey said, his voice chipper and chuckle with a light in his eyes.

Leo smiled back at him, “No problem, Mikey,” he stated.

Donnie felt his heart twist in several different directions.

Leo looked at all of them with a smile on his face, “I need to go make sure of something– I’ll be back!” And with that, Leo placed down his box and left toward the bedroom hallway.

Mikey then looked pointedly at Donnie, who nodded.

“Yeah, yeah I need to go too,” he agreed, he turned around set his box down on the seat he was originally sitting on, and then quickly rushed over to where Leo was walking.

Right when both of them turned around the corner, Donnie spoke up.

“Hey! Leo! Got a second?” He called out, the older one stiffened and turned to him.

“Do you need something, Donnie?” Leo responded, a forced smile on his face. Donnie couldn’t help the bitterness at that.

“Yeah, um, I…” He rubbed the back of his neck, took a deep breath, and just decided to go for it.

“I’m sorry for what I said back there, I was an absolute lie, we all got you something,” Donnie’s voice was quick, all in one breath.

Before Leo could even respond, Donnie continued, “Splinter was the one who took the gifts– He said thatitwasforyourowngood– And I didn’t want you to try to just pin the blame on him and I thought if you assumed that itcamefromus you wouldn’t question it.”

Donnie tried to catch up on breathing, his heart pounding as he started to feel sick.

“So, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–” Donnie huffed.

“I did lie to you. I fully meant to because I thought was for your own good, but…” He chewed on his lip a bit out of nervousness, “I… I don’t think that’s what happened.”

The minute it took Leo to answer felt like years of his life, he kept his eyes trained on the floor, unwilling to see the anger in Leo’s eyes that he knew he was there. He lied to him– Of course, Leo would be upset at him, and he would–

“I know.”

The answer took Donnie by surprise, he looked up at Leo, wide-eyed in shock.

What greeted him was a sad smile.

“Raph told me, I know.”

Donnie felt a bit in his gut. He felt slightly miffed at Raph for bringing it up before he could.

Leo took in a breath, “Thank you for apologizing– And… Explaining yourself.”

Donne grimaced, “You’re not… Mad, are you?” He asked.

Leo shook his head, “No, not mad.”

“Just… Disappoint.”

Donnie winced. That was worse.

Leo walked up to Donnie and put a hand on his shoulder, Donnie looked at Leo and tried to meet his eyes, but Leo seemed to be… Avoiding eye contact with him. Keeping his eyes, he trailed on what seemed to be Donnie’s jaw.

That only hurt worse. Why wasn’t Leo making eye contact with him? Did he really mess up that bad?

Now that he thought of it… He couldn’t remember the last time Leo made eye contact with any of them. Maybe quick glances, but never… Never held.

“I appreciate you coming to me, Don,” Leo stated, a smile on his face, “And I know you only meant to help, okay? Don’t beat yourself up about it.”

Donnie looked to the floor, “Okay,” he responded, dumbfounded by this whole situation.

He watched as Leo nodded, and then took his hand away from his shoulder and walked away.

Donnie turned around and looked back at where the pit was.

He had no clue how to process that.

Why wasn’t Leo angry at him? Why wasn’t Leo making eye contact with him?

Why had he never noticed?

Leo lay in bed, tossing and turning as he tried to get some sleep.

For all the bad, the day actually turned out pretty well for his brothers.

Mikey got two paintbrushes Donnie had gotten, a sketch Raph found, a cookbook and a new spatula since the old one broke, and a polishing kit.

Donnie got a notepad from Mikey, a toolbox from Raph, a microscope, a fuzzy blanket (He’s seen the search into blankets Donnie has done, he knows), and a set of ninja-throwing stars.

Raph got some hero figurines, a comic book, new drumsticks, and a new song sheet for drums. He left one present unopened, despite Sensei’s protest.

Leo huffed as he continued to turn in his sleep. Tears threatened to stream out of their eyes, bruises and welts starting to form on their arms and legs pained them to move.

She appreciated Raph’s sentiment, but did he have to disobey Splinter?

Her breath came out ragged and pained, and she immediately tightened her jaw. She knew better than to cause noise, it only made things worse gods-forbid you woke someone up and they came in.

So she sat there, not knowing what to do.

Until she heard a creek .

Leo looked to her door, heart pounding in her ears as the worst situations came to her mind.

But when she looked at the doorway, she saw a familiar, small figure there.

“Mikey…?” Leo whispered, blinking as the younger’s face slowly came clearly into view.

“Lee?” Mikey asked, shuffling from one foot to the next, “Can I… Stay here for tonight?”

Leo’s face softened, her younger brother’s face was so small .

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Leo chirped as she propped herself up and scooted toward the wall, lifting the covers for her younger brother to be next to her.

Mikey immediately took it, quickly getting into bed, and crushing into Lee with a hug that took her breath away.

Mikey buried his face in her plastron.

After a moment, Lee spoke up.

“Mikey…” She pushed, and then felt the younger squeeze her tight, she sighed.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked, Mikey sniffled and muttered something she couldn’t hear.

Leo placed her hands on the back of Mikey’s head, “What?” She asked softly.

“It was about you.”

The room seemed to be sucked out of movement as Leo froze, trying to figure out what to do with that information.

Her brother? Having a nightmare about her ?

She grimaced and shook her head, this is not about her, Mikey is upset right now.

“What did I do?” She asked, rubbing the back of Mikey’s shell in circles with her other hand.

“You weren’t here ,” he whimpered. “You were gone.”

Mikey spoke up once more, his voice was small and weak.

“Why do always try to leave?”

Lee felt her heart pain and could feel herself immediately go into damage control mode.

“I’m not– I would never try to leave, Mike–” “But you do ,” Mikey cut her off with a whine, pushing away from her a bit.

He looked up at her, “You always leave the lair. When you’re upset. When you’re happy. You leave ,” the voice began to mix with a sob, “And– And on the technodrome– You tried too–”

He cut himself off with a hitch to his breath, “Why are you trying to leave?”

It was as though Lee could feel something crumble around her– The world of safety she had set up from her brothers slowly fell due to the unstable structure of lies she had set up.

“No– Nononono– No.” She could feel herself panic as a form of helplessness developed in her. She placed her hand on the side of her brother’s face, his eyes filling with tears, “No, Mikey, no,” she repeated herself.

“I would– I will never leave, okay? I will never leave you or any of the others,” she wrapped her arms around her brother again, her heart pained as a sob was pulled out of the younger.

“You all are my family, Mikey,” she stated, “And I am so, so, so sorry I ever made you think I would even consider leaving you, Sunshine,”

Mikey whined as he buried himself back into her plastron. She held back a whine as her bruises and injuries made themselves known, an ugly remained of another time when she begged something to take her far away.

But she couldn’t. She couldn’t leave them.

Her heart and body were pained with two desires, to stay with her brothers, and to be safe.

And she knew which one she had to choose to survive.

And she knew which one she would always choose.

She will never leave her brothers– Her family .

Even if it kills her in the end.

Karai sat in the middle of Avery’s living room. April was lying on the couch, and the new girl, Mercy, was sitting on the loveseat, looking uncomfortable.

She had just gotten back from the introduction test at her new school, Marry Darkened Academy, and she was exhausted and just so upset that it had to fall on this day of all days.

April had been told by the boys that their mutation day was a very personal day for all of them, the day they all changed and were able to gain each other, they had asked if she was okay with just showing up with congrats the next night.

Of course, she agreed. Although she was a bit disappointed, she knew that the others had their reasons for wanting to keep that part of their lives between each other.

But Karai didn’t get that choice.

She was too busy jumping obstacles and naming ingredients in a potion in order to be there for the person she had started seeing as a sister’s birthday.

She huffed a bit, currently wearing her leather jacket and leggings, she looked around the room, her eyes tracing over the familiar wooden walls, and cracks.

She was about to do something when heavy, running footsteps caught her off guard.

Suddenly, Shini ran into the room, catching herself on the frame of the arch that led to the hallway, she bent a bit as she tried to catch her breath.

Karai immediately jumped to her feet, “Shini?” She called. Mercy perked up and looked at the girl, and April peered over the couch.

Shini was a mess. Her white, baggy pants were stained brown with mud, and her black t-shirt was tight to her skin from what seemed to be sweat coating her body.

Her hair, now down from its usual ponytail, clung to her face due to a mix of sweat and blood.

“Rai!” She called out, her voice panicked, Karai was already making her way over to her friend.

Eventually, she was in front of Shini, “Shini, what happened?” Karai asked, concerned for her friend as she continued to look over her.

Shini huffed, April and Mercy were now next to Karai, looking at each other, then back to the injured one in concern.

Shini started gesturing, “I– I was at the grocery store, picking up some ingredients,” she stammered over her words, “And– And I saw this… Group of people who were wearing like… They looked like robes. Like the one that woman– Uh– Um– Shara? Sofia? Spark–”

“Sphynx?” Karai offered, raising a brow, Shini snapped her fingers and pointed at her, “Yes! Her! They were wearing cloaks like hers, but… Black?” She stated, “And they were open cloaks, and they had actual clothes under their cloaks like they just threw on cloaks like some costume.”

“So, I got a bad feeling about them, so I followed them.”

“They ended up going to the back of the store where they met up with some red-cloaked cultist with their hood up.”

“I think it was some sort of back-alley deal– And get this– The black-cloaked guys turned into– Like– Werewolves! Their ears and tails popped out of nowhere!”

“They also looked like timber wolves,” Shini commented, as she continued, “As so, I tried to watch them, but I was seen and attacked,” she stated.

“But before that, I overheard the cultist giving these other people that they were going to give them some kind of map so that they can find what they’re looking for,” she huffed as she ended her statement, trying to catch her breath.

The other three girls looked at each other.

Karai looks to Shinigami, “Do you know what they're looking for?” She asked, Shini shook her head, “Why?” The answer was the same.

Mercy pipped up, “We should tell this to the others,” she stated, biting her lip nervously as she spoke, April shook her head. “We don’t even know what this is. And, besides, it's Leo’s birthday, we don’t want to bug them.”

Karai looked between all of them, before her eyes went back to Shini, “Shini. Do you know where they are meeting up?” She questioned.

Shini blinked at her before nodding, “Yes, it’s the words near the Timber wolf’s tribe– The Green Lune woods?” She responded, Karai nodded, “When?”

Shini thought for a moment, “It’s going to be at midday, when, and I quote, ‘That wretched pest won’t be out,’ that’s all I know,” she admitted.

Karai thought for a moment, “Okay… So we know it’s happening in the Green Lune woods, at mid-day, no clue the date.”

“Oh! It’s tomorrow.”

Karai snapped her fingers, “Thanks, okay,” she clapped her hands and continued to think.

“So, let’s wait until then, then we’ll go ahead, see what is up with those two, and then we’ll get the others involved if we have to. Plan?” She asked, looking around at the other three girls.

April nodded with a determined look on her face, Shini looked at her with a smile and she ignored the way her heart picked up when she saw it, and Mercy looked… Hesitant. She shifted from one foot to the next.

“Are we sure about this?” Mercy asked. She had never liked the whole ‘go out on a mission and get into fights’ sort of life. When they were younger, she would always have to hold Leaf back from picking fights with kids twice his size.

Karai turned to her, her eyes narrowed in a way that made Mercy shiver, “We’ll only be watching, no fighting, no plotting, and no intervening, just watching and gathering information.”

“We’ll be in and then out in a second, okay?” Karai stated she was trying to be as reassuring as she possibly could. She has only had to interact with an asshole who won’t stop throwing herself into fights. Sue her.

Mercy nodded, feeling uneasy, and through Karai’s… Comfort? Motivation? She didn’t know.

“Okay…” She agreed, keeping most of her opinions to herself.

She just hoped this would turn out okay.

The forest was still, and dark. Despite it being mid-day, it was a struggle to see as the thick foliage blocked out the sun.

Karai peered out from behind a tree trunk, she was far from the ground, standing on the branch of a thick spruce tree that looked like it could’ve been there for decades.

April was still on the ground, using the trees and shadows to her advantage as she looked around.

Mercy was in the air, using her raven wings to get a sky view of the place.

And Shini jumped down from the tree tops and landed on the floor, a crunch happened as leaves were crushed under her feet

She looked around for a moment, making sure she didn’t alter anyone she didn’t want to.

“Shini.”

Karai’s voice came through her moonstone, “Are you sure this is going to work?”

Shini smiled to herself, she was now in her normal black, tight outfit that had gold accents, “Yes, Karai, it’ll work,” she stated.

She had a utility built around her waist. She reached into her pocket and grabbed out a swirling green potion as stealthy as she could.

She couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed.

She opened the potion, rubbed the liquid on her hands, and then poured some on the ground.

She closed the bottle and put it away.

Then she placed her hands on the ground where the potion was.

She closed her eyes and started to concentrate.

She suddenly felt as though he was falling, but her body was staying still. As though her couscous slipped from her body, and she was now in free fall.

Then she was caught. Her mind latched onto the roots around her. The thin threads of life for the plants that were around.

She allowed herself to slip through the roots, the blades of grass, and the leaves above now were acting as her eye, she could see millions of things at the same time, but she only had one eye.

Every tiny bug. Every animal. Every wind that blew.

She could see it all.

Suddenly, there was a footstep on the grassy floor.

She zoned in on the area and then traveled up the trees to watch the person from above.

And there were three people. All in those black cloaks.

Bingo.

She zipped back, her mind snapping into her body once more.

She gasped at the suddenness, she wasn’t used to that by now.

“5 miles south,” she blurted out as quickly as she could, the green potion now slowly disappearing from the ground and her hands.

“Nice work, Shini.” Karai’s voice came through, and Shinigami felt pride well in her, her heart thumping loudly.

“Thanks, Karai,” she said with a smile as she rose from her crouched position.

A shadow passed overhead, and she looked up to see Mercy heading in the direction she gave.

She nodded. She was ready to see what the here was going on.

The two cloaked figures walked through the dark forest, the grass crunching beneath their feet as they went up to meet with two other figures, ones with red cloaks, and a black, flame-made dragon head on their back.

There were three of them, one was up at the front, and the other two followed.

The one at the front had brown hair poking out from under their hood, and two black horns on their forehead.

“Ah, my friends, it’s good to see you once more,” the familiar female voice purred, and a grin was seen on her lips.

One of the black figures had on a purple shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. They walked up to the other with a snare on their lips. “Let’s cut to the chase, Sphynx,” he ordered.

Sphynx only let out a shirl laugh. “Oh, come now, Zinc,” she said, “Don’t let the power get to your head, you haven’t even been accepted, yet.”

The dude huffed, “Right, now,” he started, holding out his hand expectantly.

“Where is what I map?” He asked, voice clearly agitated. Sphynx hummed before she produced a scroll of paper from her rob. “Here,” she offered, and then she placed the scroll in the man’s hand.

The dude took the scroll back a bit, then hesitated. “And this won’t have any… Unknown effects, right? Is it just a map?”

Sphynx laughed. “Oh, come now, I’m a woman of my word,” she let out a sigh, “Honest.”

Zinc huffed, “Haven’t you bragged about tricking that Pest you’re fighting? And the lord of Lava Port?”

Sphynx huffed, “I keep my words to the one true ruler, and he has stated that you are to be kept alive,” she growled. Zinc only huffed.

“No matter, this transaction is done,” the man stated.

Meanwhile, there were two figures up on a tree, one on either side, with another perched higher up on the tree next to them.

“This seems… Odd,” Shini Commented in a whisper, she was the closest to Mercy, with Karai being on the other side of the tree.

“Yeah,” Karai agreed.

She huffed, “April’s down below, we should make sure she’s doing okay,” she commented, “So we listen on what this map is for, and then we get out of here and tell the others, plan?”

“Sounds good to me,” Mercy whispered from above.

Suddenly, Shini felt herself dip, and her heart sank.

“Not so good.”

She screamed as she fell, the air whipping around her, burning into her skin.

She wasn’t able to get her powers started before she hit the ground, landing in some bushes that broke her fall enough that it wouldn’t do damage, but it still hurt .

She groaned as she rubbed her head and looked up, freezing when she made eye contact with the cloaked woman.

She chuckled awkwardly, “Heh… So, um… Wrong time to drop?” She asked with a smile.

Sphynx pointed at her, “Get her!”

Shini winced as the other two red cultists lunged forward, charging at her with their hands outstretched.

“Stay back!” The shout came from behind her as April jumped over her and slashed at the dudes with her Tessen, backing them up from SHini as the witch scrambled to stand.

Karai jumped down from the tree and pulled her sword out from its holster that was on her side when she hit the ground in a perched position.

She screamed as she charged at Sphynx, who simply waved her hand to her left, where Shini was, and chased some sort of force to collide with Karai, sending her to the ground.

She propped herself up with her elbows, just in time to see Sphynx approaching her.

Right then Shini was able to get up and jump over to where the two of them were, getting in between Karai and Sphynx as she chucked an orange potion from her belt, causing it to splash right on her face.

Sphynx screamed as she grabbed her face, walking back to try to get away from the potion thrower.

Her hood came off of her head, and allowing Shini to see her brown hair, and red vine-like veins in full.

Sphynx removed her hands from her face and looked at Shini head-on. The woman’s eyes were burning red, her pupils were just slits, and there were veins on her horns that plush a sickening blood-soaked red.

Shini shuddered at the pure hatred in the woman's eyes, and she could hear Karai mutter, “What the…?” In the background.

Shini only took a moment to be shocked before she started to run at the other woman.

She grabbed 3 potions out of her belt with each hand and started to chuck them one by one.

But this time, the other was able to dodge the potions, but she still was backing up, seemingly knowing better than to not get close to someone with liquid.

Suddenly, the other man jumped over Sphynx with a scream, and he slashed down his sword as he did so.

Shini was able to back up right in time, stepping to her right and turning to look at the man at the same time.

She was able to get a better look at him due to his hood falling. He was a brown-haired dude with wolf ears, he had light brown skin, and he wielded a sword that was his height.

The sword was mainly silver with a purple hold that attached the giant blade to the handle.

But when the boy looked at her, she could feel confusion creep into her.

He was clearly using his mana.

And his eyes had turned to the familiar, bright green of the Timberwolves. He suddenly zipped forward, causing her to help as she stumbled back to avoid getting cut.

He was moving quicker than her eyes could keep up, flashes of green were the only things that warned her he was coming.

She had thrown two other bottles at him, each missing. She now only had one left in her hand as she continued to back up.

She looked at the bottle and noticed that it was another green potion with a blue sparkle in it.

She got an idea.

She started to see a pattern in his movements, and so she counted.

Once she was sure that the boy seemed to be waiting at least 3 counts before zipping forward once more, she waited.

She backed up, and the boy came back into view.

1.

The boy looked at her as she stood still, clearly trying to catch his breath.

2.

The boy moved his feet so that he could lunge at her.

3!

She jumped back and got her throwing arm ready right as another flash of green happened.

In the flash, she threw the potion she had while aiming toward the ground, causing the thing to shatter in the grass.

When the flash stopped, she had fallen and was now on her back.

A sword point fell to her face and she gasped in shock.

But when she looked up, she saw that the man from before had been in case in side of giant, thick vines that protruded from the ground.

The vines wrapped around his leg, torso, and arms. Meaning that he couldn’t move.

Shini smirked at him, which only seemed to make him angrier.

Looking over the man, her eye caught on something in the belt he was wearing under his cloak.

She walked past the sword and up to him, eyeing the thing in his belt.

It was a paper scroll.

She reached for it as the dude screamed, “Hey! Hey! What are you doing!?” He sounded frustrated and panicked all at the same time.

Shinigami grabbed the scroll and looked at the piece of rolled-up paper. “Huh, this is strange,” she commented as the dude continued to scream, “That’s mine! I paid good money for that! How dare you!”

Shini raised a brow, as she looked at the man. That was odd. She figured that when dealing with the cultist you would deal in souls, not money.

Suddenly, there was a whoosh in the air behind her.

Shini whipped around and saw an arrow flying right toward her.

Her eyes widened as she froze at the sight.

Right when the arrow was inches from her face, a wave of purple and black lightning came down and pushed the arrow away splintering it in half.

When the wave cleared, she could see the other dude that was with the wolf from before.  He was wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans, and white shoes. He held a pure white bow in his hand, and it looked like he had a quiver strapped to his back.

The dude was looking somewhere above her, and she followed his gaze.

Above her, Mercy was flying. There was a sheepish grin on her face as she looked at Shini.

Suddenly, Mercy looked up and yelped as she dodged out of the way of another arrow that was shot at her.

Shini looked at the dude with the bow, and it was clear he was just trying to get Mercy out of the sky.

She then looked over toward Karai, who was currently fighting with Sphynx, who was dodging effortlessly out of the way of Karai’s attacks.

Shini then looked over to where April was, the girl was currently struggling to handle both of the other cultists.

One of them was holding onto her wrist, and the other was trying to grab her as she sliced wildly to try to get both of them off.

Shini decides to turn her attention to that situation.

She put the scroll in between her body and the utility belt, and an over to where her friend was, grabbing out another one of her potions.

She closed over and saw that this one was a light blue and smirked.

She was now running the cultist head-on. The dude was facing April, but Shini was still surprised that he didn’t see her coming.

She threw the position lower hand and was able to break the potion right past the cultist.

The potion turned the ground where the splash hit turned to ice.

The cultists and April looked over at the ice, confused.

Shini jumped up and in a flying kick, she knocked the cultist that was trying to grab April over, causing him to slide across the ice and away from the red-head.

April watched in shock as Shini continued to go after one of the two cultists she was fighting.

She didn’t waste any more time, though.

She swung around and aimed her energy at the one grabbing her wrist.

She swung her tessen at the man's wrist, causing him to yelp in pain when a slice made a bit of contact.

He let go of her and backed up a bit.

And then he let out a huff and started marching forward, causing April to back up to where Shini was.

Shini dodged the punches thrown at her, she was trying her hardest to gain some distance between her and the cultist.

That was when she felt something hit her back.

She and April looked at each other, confused.

And then they saw something coming at both of them.

The thing slammed into them, sending the two girls to the ground in a heap.

Shini groaned, her eyes squeezed tight from the pain as her hands gripped the ground under her.

She let her eyes flicker open as she propped herself up, April was not too far behind, putting her hand to her forehead.

Shini looked to see what in the underworld had hit them when her heart stopped.

Karai whimpered in pain, her body twitching with strain as she tried to get up.

April sat up while Karai used her hands to raise her body a bit.

They all looked up when someone stepped in front of them.

Sphynx was smirking down at them, a smug look on her face.

She was a bit further away, a good three feet, but Karai could see the smile all the same.

“Brave of you to try to face us,” Sphynx stated as she walked forward, “Brave.”

Her left hand swung out to the side. Black crawled from the tips of he fingers to her elbow. Her hand grew to the size of her torso, and her fingers became more like claws.

“But very stupid.”

A wicked grin erupted across her face.

“I’ve been waiting to try out this new form.”

Meanwhile, Mercy was still dodging the arrows that were being shot at her, panicking as they barely missed, and the archer down below seemed to be getting increasingly upset.

She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t prepare for this. She was specifically told that they wouldn’t be getting into a fight.

She launched herself up to avoid another arrow, and she scanned the ground below to look for her friends.

That was when she saw what was happening. That woman– Sphynx? Was approaching them. Her hand was now a black claw.

She panicked, and before she knew what she was doing, she dove over to the area right in between where the woman and her friends were.

The wind whipped against her face as her wings were tucked close to her body. Diving head-first was never something that was recommended.

But when she was a few feet from the ground, she quickly spread her wings, and flapped them harshly, causing not only her to be lunched up a bit.

But a shock wave of purple and black lightning was thrown the cultist’s way.

In a place of bright purple, Sphynx and the other two cultists were thrown back, the two hitting the trees behind them, while Sphynx was the only one able to find her footing enough to stick the landing and fight against the wind that was in the aftermath of the wave.

Her arms were crossed over her face to shield herself from the bolts, but when the wind died down, she was able to peek past them.

And there was no one there.

They had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Sphynx had her arms to her side, and her fist clenched. Her blood boiled with frustration.

Those wretched little–Ugh!

She stomped her foot slightly and whipped over to where Zinc had freed himself.

“You!” She billowed, causing the wolf to flinch.

He looked up at her, face pale.

“Do you still have the map?” Sphynx demanded, glaring daggers at the man who nervously shook his head.

“N- No, the witch, she– Agh! ”

The massive, black-clawed hand that had wrapped around the man pushed him back to the vines he had just freed himself from, knocking his head in the process.

Sphynx retracted her arm, which brought the man closer to her, her snarling face was close to his.

“ You ,” she growled, her heart thumping her chest as she started to squeeze the man, who whimpered in pain.

“Do you understand what this means!? ” She screamed, squeezing tighter and causing the other to hiss in pain.

“Y- Yes! Yes! I know!” He cried out, “Please- Please! I can make it up to you– I’ll– I’ll– I’ll get it back, I promise!”

Sphynx glared at the man and looked him up and down.

Then, an idea popped into her head.

She smirked and released the man from her grip. He fell to his knees at her feet as he tried to catch his breath.

“That’s right,” she purred, “You will.”

She used the sharp claw of her finger to force his face up to look at her.

She bent slightly to look him in the eyes.

“I will help you. I will give you the power and assets you need to make your little plan work,” she stated. Zinc gulped. “I refuse to be corrupted,” he bit out, Sphinx only pushed her claw further to his chin, causing him to yelp.

“No corruption,” she stated, her eyes unreadable.

“I will help you overthrow the alpha of your clan,” she stated, “As long as you promise to kill those girls, and bring me one thing in return once over completely your mission.”

Zinc had his hands around the claw that was against his chin, his ears flat to his head in fear. “What– What is it?” Sphynx smirked.

“Bring me the Elder’s head.”

Karai was to fall through the portal, screaming as she hit the wooden floor.

She groaned as she looked opened her eyes.

Just in time to see April and Shini falling through as well.

Karai panicked and tried to move out of the way, but the two girls still ended up falling on top of her.

The last to come out of the portal was Mercy, who used her wings to make it so she landed on the side of the pile.

The portal closed when Mercy’s feet hit the ground, and she looked at the pile of girls with a wince.

“Everyone alright?” She asked, receiving a groan in response.

April moved out of the pile, holding her pounding head as she lifted her onto the loveseat.

“Well that was something,” she stated as she closed her eyes to try to calm her hurting head.

Karai sat up, “And an absolute fail,” she spit out, bitterly, “We got our asses kicked, and we still have no clue what that map is about.”

The coldness from Karai buzzed in the room, and both Mercy and April redirected their eyes from Karai.

“We might not know what the map is,” Shini confirmed as she sat up.

She then lifted her head to reveal that she was holding a scroll of paper. “But at least we have it~” She stated.

Everyone stared at Shini, dumb-founded.

Karai lit up, and stammered to her feet, “You got it?” She asked she reached out both of her hands to help Shini up, and her face heated up when the other girl took her hand.

“Yep!” Shini responded as Karai pulled her to her feet.

The witch handed Karai the scroll as everyone else gathered closer to the two.

Karai opened the scroll of paper for everyone to see, and both she and April gasped in shock.

It was a map, alright.

A map of the underworld.

And oh boy , does Karai have a lot to learn.

In the middle of the paper, there was a land mass with the name ‘Demonic Landing.’

There were six other islands, and there were three islands that spiral below the Demonic Landing, and then three continuing the spiral above the Demonic Landing.

They all had Names, but Karai had no clue what any of them meant.

“What is this?” She asked, she saw Shini glance at her. “It’s a map of the seven islands.”

She then pointed the the ‘Demonic Landing.’ “This is the island we are currently on, it’s basically a meeting point for all of the leading creatures of the other island.

She then followed the islands going down, “The islands are stacked above each other in a spiral-like manner.”

“The first of the down islands is the ‘Mermadic summoning,’ it’s basically right below the Nox reign.”

“This it’s the Isle of the Serpents, and then the Cracks to the Abyss.”

The ‘Cracks to the Abyss’ was depicted as a giant pool of sludge with white cracks in it.

“But the upper three are what it seems we need to look at,” Shini mentioned, pointing to the three other islands, there was a blue dot on each of them, with a purple dot on the final one.

“These are the islands above us, with the beginning being right next to Wingdell.”

“From bottom to top it’s Realm of Humanoids, Giant’s Stone, and The Dragons Planet.”

April groaned, “I already have a headache… Anything else we need to know?”

Shini chuckled, “Do you want to get into the nine regions?”

“No!” “We’re good.”

Mercy snorted.

Shinigami shook her head. “Okay then, well–” She pointed to The Dragons Planet, “It seems like whatever they’re looking for is here.”

Karai narrowed her eyes and nodded, “Okay…”

She then looked at Shini and then April, “Also… Did you guys also notice something… Familiar about that dude– Zinc?”

Shini, April, and Mercy all grimaced.

Shini spoke up, “He looked like a Timber wolf.”

Karai nodded.

“Now, that’s just weird…” She muttered.

“Yeah, like– We’re friends with the Timberwolves, right? Heck, Leo and Elder seem pretty close… Why are they working with the cultist,” April piped up, worry embedded into her voice.

Mercy ‘tsk.’ “Something tells me this isn’t a ‘they’ situation,” she stated. The others looked at her, wanting her to continue.

She sighed, “The Timberwolves have been… Battle locked. They’re fighting something but no one can figure out what .”

She shifted uncomfortably. “People think it could be an ‘Overrule…’ Where someone has questioned the alpha’s power, and is now fighting to overthrow them.”

Karai looked back at the map, “And if someone is trying to overthrow the alpha and is also a part of the cult then that is bad news,” April muttered.

Karai nodded, “Then we need to speak to the Timberwolves,” she stated as she rolled back up the paper.

“If anyone is going to know about what the cultists are looking for, it’s going to be them,” she stated.

Nobody dared to interject, it was the logical next step.

April couldn’t help the dread pooling in her.

Shini felt nervous grow in her. She barely had any potions left.

And Mercy felt as though she was about to puke.

She knew where this was heading. And she didn’t like where it could end up. She hated the idea of fighting.

But… If her friends were in danger, what other choice did she have?

She couldn’t help but stare at the map, and wish another choice would appear.

Chapter Text

The moon shone brightly over New York, the city very buzzing in the supposed peacefulness of night.

Whoops and shouts rang through the air as Mikey skated through the rooftops on his board, adrenaline rushing through his veins as he felt the air whipping against his face.

He laughed and hollered as he grinned across a pointed glass window and got back up on the roofs above.

Donnie jumped down from the tops of the buildings, landing on a metal fence in front of windows, and quickly jumping from one to the other.

“We are awesome!” He cheered, a smile bright on his face.

Leo and Raph quickly joined in, both cheering as they jumped from the roof.

Raph had landed on an air conditioning unit that was near a window, Donnie was close by him.

The red turtle still felt some bitterness blooming in him, but the adrenaline and excitement overtook all of that.

“And then I took my sai, and shortened that Krang droid’s skull–” He stabbed the unit with his sai with a “Wham! So cool!”

Donnie chuckled at his brother, a smile bright on his face. He was honestly just thankful that Raph didn’t hate him.

“Sure Raph, but I used my uncanny scientific knowledge to bring down an interdimensional portal!” He bragged, “Equally as awesome!”

Lee watched her brothers with a smile on her face. Their birthday was yesterday, and April had time to come around to the lair. She looked a bit… Miffed when she did, but won’t way anything.

Even though it had been a month, whenever any of them brought up the invasion and the win they gained, all of her brothers gained huge smiles on their faces and talked about the day for hours on end as though it had just happened.

She found it sweet. They were all so excited and happy about winning against the invasion, and she didn’t want to ruin that for them.

That was why it was mainly her who brought it up, who got the conversation rolling.

She couldn’t help but feel a bit of confusion seep into her whenever the invasion got brought up.

She wasn’t happy. Not like her brothers. They had won, and she was more than relieved. But she wasn’t… Happy.

There was no buzz of victory. Nothing. It almost felt annoying. Big bad threatens the world. She has to go through a life-or-death situation with other people. She almost dies. They win anyway. Everyone is happy and things are forgotten.

And she was just… Tired.

But she would never say that out loud. She would never tell her brothers how annoying it is to be caught up in stuff that she was forced into. Or how tiring it was to keep on making plans and stay up worrying. Or how painful it felt to feel as though her family would rather her dead than lose.

She kept her mouth shut and smiled as she jumped to one of those hang-over roofs.

Mikey skated to just under the roof and came to a stop.

“And–’ The youngest’s arms with from crossed to him pointing at the others, “Let’s not forget–”

“Cottage cheese demon, if we didn’t stuff him in that microwave the earth would be drowned in living cheese!”

All of the others were staring at the youngest as he explained their story. Raph was at the front with Leo to his right, Donnie to his left, and Leo was farthest back.

His arms were crossed as he glared at the younger, “For the 22nd time, Mikey, there was no cottage cheese demon, ever!” He stated.

Mikey had his arms crossed as he was looking away from the rest, “Did you see him?” The younger asked, much to Raph’s confusion.

“No!” He stated.

“Then how do you know, huh?” Mikey’s tone was sassy and filled with playful mockery.

Lee looked between her two brothers and stopped herself from chuckling.

Honestly? Cottage cheese demon? Wanting to drown the world in living cheese? Not the most out-of-packet thing she has heard of.

“Oh, yeah, and that parasitic dragon god that died due to the moon,” Lee responded, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she chuckled.

Raph groaned and put his head in his hand, Donnie was trying not to laugh, and Mikey smiled and winked at Lee, clearly believing she was also in on the joke.

“Don’t encourage him, please,” Raph begged, sounding tired.

Lee chuckled. Mikey’s statement sounded so much more plausible now that she had just vocalized that.

Still… Mikey’s random thoughts, imaginary villains, and made-up scenarios… He was starting to talk about them more and more.

And Lee didn’t think it was because Mikey was more comfortable talking about them– It was more like he was having more of them.

It worried her more than anything.

But there was now a stillness in the air, a moment in which the energy had dipped, and no one was making any more moves to talk.

Lee didn’t like it. The quietness felt as though it was wrapping around her neck and squeezing just enough to be uncomfortable, and nothing else.

So, she fixed it.

“We. Are. Awesome!” She cheered, throwing her hands up.

Quickly, the mood shifted, and all of her brothers were now cheering and smiling, giving each other high threes and making jokes about that day.

She felt herself smiling. But she also felt… Disconnected in a way.

On the day they were celebrating– She had made a form of promise.

A promise to find the Shadow. And whoever that mana represented.

She could deny it all she wanted, but she knew that finding the Shadow would lead her to her biological family.

A part of her wanted to keep that promise. A part of her wanted desperately to get answers as to where she had come from.

Another part of her wanted to lock it all away and focus on the ones she had right here. Right in front of her.

She could tell that she was beginning to spiral. Thoughts of her brothers celebrating the day because she had promised to get rid of herself– And almost got rid of herself– Flooded into her head.

She was trying to not ruin something else.

Why was that so hard?

They continued across the rooftops, cheering and screaming at the top of their lungs.

“Month-long Krang/Shredder mega-defeat celebration rules!” Mikey shouted, his voice was pumped with joy as he did so.

Donne then leaned on the roof of the movie theater, the rest of his brothers were about to go ahead when he spoke.

“So are gonna stop by April’s?” He asked.

All of his brothers paused.

Donnie put his hand on his chin. He wanted to visit his friend, but he knew his brothers wanted to continue celebrating, so he ran the math–

“We are 1.3 blocks, and six–” He backpedaled, “No, no– Seven meters away from her apartment,” he stated, and then he looked back at his brothers with a smile on his face. It wasn’t too far, they could swing by and at least say hello to her. She has been distant with them recently, and he was really starting to worry.

Mikey was looking at him strangely, and Raph glanced over his shoulder. “Yeah, that’s… Not weird or anything, Donnie.”

Donnie looked at the two of them, confused.

He frowned. What was so wrong with wanting to visit his friend?

They were standing on the fire escape in front of April’s apartment window, with Donnie's closet to the opening glass, then it’s Mikey on one side, Raph on the other, and Leo opposite Donnie.

The purple turtle knocked on the window.

“Handsome-gram for April O’Neil!” Donnie said with a playful voice, and a confident smile placed on his face.

Raph groaned as his face palmed, “Ugh, did you really just say that?” He asked, but Donnie only kept his eyes forward, focusing on the glass in front of him.

Eventually, the window opened, and April was there in her usual yellow t-shirt and jeans.

“Guys!” She yelped, seemingly startled to see them. She let out a panicked noise as she looked back into her apartment, “Um, great to see you!” She said with a forced smile.

Donnie couldn’t help the mix between the buzzing excitement he felt at seeing the girl, and the confusion and hurt at her reaction.

They all stepped forward, expecting to be let in, but April held up he hands.

“Yeah, uh,” she stammered, “You mind staying on the fire escape?” She asked.

Donnie frowned at the response. Sure, he’ll stay out of her apartment, it was her choice, but… She was his friend, right? What was going on to make her act this way?

He could else tell that his feelings for her were mixing with the confusion.

Lee looked at her friend in concern, “Seems like you’ve been avoiding us lately, April,” she mentioned. April visiting each of them was the first time in a good few days that they had seen the redhead, and Lee had been getting more and more concerned.

“It’s not my fault,” April sighed as she leaned against her window, “Dad’s alien abduction nightmares are getting worse, he’s so freaked out, he won’t let me out at night,” she stated, the only real reason she was able to go out on that small mission with Karai, Shini, and Mercy was that it was in the middle of the day.

Still, the next morning from now was the day that they all agreed to go and confront the Timberwolves… And she was trying her hardest not to let her dad know anything about the underworld. He has enough on his plate.

“I’m sorry, April.”

April huffed as she looked over her shoulder. Her father must’ve overheard her conversation.

“It’s just–” He hesitated, “What if the krang are still out there? Waiting… Lurking…” Fear was clear on his face, “I’ll do anything to protect you,” he insisted.

April felt a form of frustration grow in her. She knew where her dad was coming from, but she couldn’t help the need to be independent.

“Dad,” she sighed, “I can take care of myself now, and– and–” She gestured over to the turtles, “I’ll be with the guys! I couldn’t be more safe!” She argued, trying her hardest to convince her father to let her go.

The older man seemed to be considering it and looked back over to where the turtles were.

Mikey pipped up, “Trust us, Mr. O’Neil,” He made gestures as he spoke, “Shredder–” He crussed his wrist, and then made tentacle-like movements with his finger, “And those little squishy brain-freaks, are long gone.”

He ended the statement off with a smile, so confident, and trying to be reassuring.

Lee fought back a frown. She couldn’t help but get a bad feeling about this.

Sphynx watched the video call with the Krang cut. They had just spoken to the creatures about… A shipment that they were delivering.

She was in the Shredder’s lair, with the man standing right next to her.

She turned to the armored man, and smiled, taking this as her opportunity.

“Do you really believe they can do this?” She asked, her voice innocent and sweet as her face held worry.

The Shredder looked at her, “I believe they know the consequences of failing,” he stated. Sphynx held back her laughter as she started to walk around the throne.

“I do not mean to undermine your authority,” She came to the other side of the throne and placed her hand on its side, she leaned over and her face was closed to the side of the man’s head, “Mi Maestro,” the scent of strawberries filled the room.

“But,” she continued pulled away and continued to walk around Shredder, “I am just saying that oftentimes those creatures do not have the greatest track record of delivering on promises,” she stated.

Shredder hummed to himself, “Then what do you expect us to do?” He asked, his voice was no longer commanding, but more wishy-washy, easily convinced.

Sphynx had her back to the Shredder, so he couldn’t see the wicked smile that had formed on her face.

When she turned around, the smile was gentle. Sweet.

“I say we make a new plan– One that would take a while to come to term, but one that would guarantee a win for all involved,” she stated, the Shredder looked to be in thought.

“The Krang are dangerous allies,” he stated, “But if we stick by them, they can do us well.”

“And I’m not saying you have to turn away from them,” she mentioned as she slowly walked closer to the Shredder, the strawberry scent increasing.

“I’m just saying that… We shouldn’t have to wait for a plan that may or may not work,” she hummed, “They will betray us.”

“So…” She sighed, “We don’t we make another plan that works along theirs… But you control what happens,” she practically purred.

“Why don’t you go after the key, and gain power beyond your wildest imagination, so that when you do rule the city,” she watched as the Shredder’s eyes became foggier, “You can have the power to be a god.”

The Shredder hummed in response, and Sphynx held back her chuckle, and instead up the sweetness, “Now, of course, this will take a long time to set up, and a lot of communication, and manpower.”

She pouted a bit, “I don’t think that your only two mutated men will be enough… Do you have anyone else in mind?”

The Shredder nodded, “There’s an assassin… Back in Japan, I would have to leave in order to get him,” he stated.

Sphynx smiled. Got him.

“Oh, that’s perfect,” she breathed, “You can go and get your assassin,” she leaned closer to his face, letting the scent of strawberries be at its highest.

“And I can control your spot while you are away,” she said with a smile.

“You’ll control my spot while I’m away,” the Shredder agreed.

Sphynx didn’t stop the manic smile that crept over her face. It didn’t matter anyway.

She had what she wanted. And there wasn’t anything her puppet would do about it.

!!!~~~!!!

Lee fell to her knees in a huff, trying her hardest to push through.

Recently, her brothers haven’t been showing up to try. Always making jokes about how they defeated the Krang, and that they don’t need to train for something they know how to take down.

The lack of effort put in by her brothers has been getting on Sensei’s nerves. And it’s only gotten worse.

And she could easily tell it in the way the private training she has has increased in time. She’s now forced into the dojo three times a day instead of just once.

“Get up!”

She cried and recoiled in pain as something hit her in the face. She clutched her nose and looked up, her breathing ragged and terrified as she did so.

Splinter was standing there, at the complete other end of the dojo, and there was a familiar-looking weapon in his hand.

A long, black whip that had its tip dripping with blood.

“I said…” She flinched at his voice.

“ GET UP! ”

“Right!”

She followed the orders of the current, jumping to her right as the whip came cracking down toward her.

She forced her vision to flash blue as she saw the whip coming toward her.

So she moved seconds away from where the line had landed.

She was using her future vision in an attempt to avoid the whip’s attacks.

And normally, it would work fine.

But Splinter had been insistent today.

Her vision was starting to blur, and she was starting to tire She could feel her mana being sucked out of her from the use of the power.

But she kept doing it, she kept seeing where the whip was coming, she kept dodging, and she kept ignoring the aching and strain in her legs, and the pleading of thoughts and begs for someone to stop this– For someone to come and take her away.

She hollowed in pain as she didn’t avoid the attack, the searing pain against her leg made itself known.

She fell to the floor and heaved, her mind spun and hurt from the overuse of her mana.

Suddenly, there was another slash, this one to her arm. She whimpered and held her injured shoulder, then turned her back on where the whip was coming from.

She tried to stand, to get as far as possible from the thing that was hurting her.

That was when she felt a kick her to shell that knocked her to the floor.

She huffed and tried to lift herself when there was pressure on her back that forced her down.

She looked up, and her confusion turned to terror.

Splinter was standing over her, his right foot pushing her down, forcing her to stay.

She squirmed and writhed, attempting to do anything to get away from him, the whip in his right hand seemed ready to attack at any moment.

“Your brothers are afraid,” Lee pushed at the statement, freezing her writhing as she looked up at him.

“They have told me that they think you’re planning on running away,” he stated, his eyes were dangerous and cold, and Lee gulped in fear as she let out a pained whine, trying her hardest to get out.

“And I think that’s just insulting,” he stated with a snarl, “I have done my best raising you, I have sacrificed my life for you, I took you in when I could’ve left you, and you want to leave, don’t you?”

Lee only shook her head, her tongue feeling too numb to form words.

“No matter,” he stated, raising the whip he had in his hand, “I’ll just have to remind you of something.”

“You owe me your life.”

He then turned and started to attack and whip her legs and feet.

She screamed and kicked in pain, trying her hardest to get out, to get help, to get anybody to hear her.

Tears sprang from her eyes, and rushed down her face, choking her up as they flooded into her mouth.

It took what felt like forever, but suddenly, one of the curtains of the dojo fell, making a loud noise in the process.

Splinter whipped around and turned to his nose, and Lee watched as he smacked away what looked like the Krang communication orb that had flown through the dojo, sending it right back outside.

Her wailing had ceased, and she was tired and blurry-eyed as she watched Splinter stare at the downed door.

The dojo had noise-canceling, this was to stop others from getting annoyed when someone was training.

But only when all of the curtains were up.

And one had just fallen, presumably due to her brother’s antics.

She was just out of the way of the whole that was made, so no one could see the heap of blood and tears she was.

But Splinter couldn’t continue the ‘training’ because her cries would be heard.

So, she watched as he stood there, his fur bristling as he chose what to do.

Her legs were in so much pain, it felt like they were going numb. She tried moving them but had to bite back a whimper as she did so, so she didn’t move them.

She glanced over her shoulder and winced at the trail of blood forming from her legs.

But Splinter heard the noise, and he whipped around.

Lee gasped in terror at the sight and desperately wished she had kept silent.

After glaring at her for a moment, Splinter spoke.

“Let this be a reminder that your family is here. You belong here . And you cannot run from here,” he stated, and she frantically nodded along.

“Y- Yes, Sensei– I– Just– Please–” She breathed out, trying to say anything to keep him from attacking again.

Splinter nodded and turned around.

“You are now allowed to leave,” he stated, then he paused his walking. “And you can now resume having training with your brothers.”

Lee felt relief flood her veins at the statement. Final. She would be back to the normal routine, and normal training.

She let her breath grow heavy. She was just so tired.

A part of her just wanted to lay there for a moment, and good to sleep. Her eyes felt heavy, and agony stabbed her legs to the point where she didn’t want to move them.

But when Master Splinter closed his bedroom door behind him, she knew she was expected to be out of the dojo by the time the rat man got back.

So, she picked herself up and bit her lip to keep from screaming in pain.

~~~

She moved to where she flipped herself over, and could now see the damage done to her legs, and she grimaced at the sight.

It was like her skin had been ripped and torn away, leaving blood that pulled down her leg. Most of the injuries were on the back of his legs.

None of the whips were deep. None showed muscle, only blood. And the main area of the tournament was her knees downward.

She winced when she figured out some of the injuries were on the bottom of her feet.

She took a deep breath, and extended her legs, making her able to see the entirety of the marks.

She reached out and closed her eyes, letting the current be over her as she did so.

She had been training with Avery to get some sort of healing abilities, and it has survived her well.

She thought about Damian, her friends, and her brothers. All the ups and downs, and all the joy and sorrow.

Healing mana comes from the love you have for the people around you. At least, that was what Avery had told her. From romantic to platonic, any form was fine, as long it was healthy. Happy.

She ignored the way the spell began to falter when thinking about her brothers.

She opened her eyes and smiled a bit, royal blue cracks were forming in her plastron, starting from her heart.

She may be nowhere near controlling the Emotional group of magic… But at least she could heal.

Or, at least, that was what she was telling herself.

Because the scars closing was slow. The skin came back together and stayed together. But there were clear scars that remained.

Thin, raised lines now traced her legs, some thicker than others, and most overlapping each other.

Her spell– A white glow admitting from the palms of her hands that she hovered over her legs, flickered on and off.

And even when it stopped, she let out an exhausted huff and slumped forward.

She barely had the energy to keep her eyes open.

But she had to.

She looked at her legs and grimaced. She had been able to heal the surface-level wounds, but due to how much mana she had used up just trying to avoid the whip, the pain was still very much present.

She didn’t even get some of the injuries on her feet.

She sighed, and reached into her utility belt, pulling out a roll of bandages that she now always carried around.

She wrapped up both of her feet and up her ankles, making them look like toe-less socks in an attempt to not get the wounds infected.

Now it was time to stand.

She gritted her teeth as she picked herself up, legs straining and crying out in pain as she did so.

She began to walk, but it was more of a stumble. She caught herself on the wall and continued to make her way to the stars.

She opened the door to the dojo and closed it behind her. She slowly made her way down the stairs, and immediately stumbled over to the wall when she got off of them.

She limbed as she used the wall to stabilize herself.

As she did so, she listened out for whatever chaos her brothers were in.

“- The krang communication orb?” She heard Donnie shout, followed by the clinking of something metal.

She smiled. She was guessing ninja dodgeball.

She walked up to where the start of the entrance, and leaned against the stone wall with a smile, her legs still killing her.

Raph was standing on one end of the pit, Mikey was on the other, on his knees, and holding his stomach, and Donnie looked like he just got out of the lab, he was the one currently holding the orb.

“This is a rare and fragile piece of alien tech!” Donnie stated, “You guys can’t just–”

“Eh, don’t get your shell-undies in a tangle, Donnie,” Raph cut him off, “The krang are toast!” He punched his fist into his hand.

Lee’s smile turned more sympathetic, “Raph,” she warned in a caring voice.

Raph practically hit the roof with how he jumped. He spun around and looked at Lee, bewildered, “Leo! Gha!” Lee tried to ignore the shoot of pain the name gave off. Or maybe it was just her against her position on the wall. Who knows.

“You scared, man! How long have you been standing there!” Raph asked, clearly shocked, Lee hummed to herself, “Not long, but I know enough.”

She chuckled a bit, “But still, don’t touch Donnie’s stuff, you wouldn’t want someone going into your room and using your comic books as a baseball bat, right?”

Raph scoffed and Mikey rolled his eyes.

“Oh, lighten up, guys,” he said with a chill voice and a smile as he put an arm around Donnie and leaned on the taller one, he then threw his hand up, “This is a party! Wow! Unh!” Mikey cheered.

“My sons.”

Lee felt her face grow pale, and her smile fell.

Splinter walked past her, completely ignoring her presence and directing all of his attention toward her brothers.

His sons.

Lee shook her head, she didn’t know what was worse. Whatever just happened in that dojo, or Sensei practically kicked her out of the ‘my sons’ category? Shoving her out of the family she has loved for so long.

“I know you are still joyously reveling in the defeat of our enemies,” he began, “But a great question remains.”

Mikey sat down on the couch, laying back without a care in the world, he smiled at Sensei, “What if cupcakes could talk?” He asked.

Splinter narrowed his eyes at the youngest, and Leo could see his ear twitch.

“Are our enemies truly defeated,” he said, looking away from the youngest.

“The Shredder is a crafty and patient foe who bides his time,” Splinter stated.

Lee felt herself grimace. She knew, very well, that that could be a possibility– And it terrified her.

She knew she was going to have to deal with the cultist. There was no way around it, even after the Dragon King’s defeat, and Sphynx getting her ego added to her by Leaf… There was no way those people were staying low for long.

And now she’s going to have to deal with the fact that the Shredder is around?

She wanted to say something to Sensei, ask him if he was really sure. Because she wanted him to be wrong about this.

But she knew better than to question Sensei, so she kept her mouth shut.

“So?” Raph laughed out, “If he shows up–” He spun his sai in his hands before stopping them, “We got it all taken care of.”

Lee cringed. Wrong move, Raph.

Her brothers got up from the pit and started to walk past Sensei, not even giving him a second glance as the three other turtles went over to where Lee was standing.

She pushed off the wall and met her brothers halfway. She was trying her hardest to appear normal despite the growing pain in her legs that made them wobble, she kept sparing quick glances at Splinter.

She could see his shoulders raising and falling. His tail was flicking, and his ears were alert.

She knew when her father was mad. She had to learn how to see the signs.

“Tormaru!”

Lee immediately straightened. She whipped to face her Sensei head-on while the others simply looked over their shoulder.

She was already slightly bowing, keeping her eyes down as sweat appeared on her forehead.

“You four have become lazy, and overconfident,” Splinter bit out, “You shirk your training, this party ends…”

He slammed his staff to the floor, and the rest of her brothers followed her lead, snapping to attention, and bowing slightly.

There was a flinch that she couldn’t hold back when the staff hit the floor, a crack sound echoed through her mind as a distant memory.

She couldn’t help that she was bowing a bit lower, the ground under her spun from the throbbing headache she had.

They all watched as Splinter walked away. Lee had no clue where he was going, but she didn’t want to find out.

They all straightened out.

“Well that was kinda harsh,” Mikey stated, his eyes wide. His voice was uneasy as he spoke.

Lee felt herself shrink a bit, “Maybe Master Splinter’s right,” she commented.

“Maybe we are getting too cocky,” she asked. She ignored the suspicious look Raph was giving her.

Before when she would defend Splinter’s actions, Raph would glare at her, eye-roll, laugh in her face, and/or scoff and call her a ‘teacher’s pet.’

Now it was just… That look. That knowing, digging, suspicious look that screamed he knew something had just happened, and he was wondering what had happened to her this time.

Raph side-eyed her before speaking, It’s not cockiness when y got the skills to kick massive–” He was got off by the Krang communication orb in Donnie’s hands coming to life. “ Whoa. ”

Everyone crowded around Donnie. Even April peered over Lee’s shoulder to get a good look at the orb.

“That thing’s working again?” She asked, concern in her voice. Donnie looked worried, “It’s been quiet for weeks,” he stated.

“It must have received an incoming signal…” He muttered. Lee could feel the air in the room get tenser by the moment.

“Which can mean only one thing,” Donnie stated, his voice getting deeper and there was a scowl on his face. Lee couldn’t tell if the deep voice was to look cool, or if he was genuinely mad.

“Cupcakes can talk!”

Lee looked over at her youngest brother with a soft gaze before returning her attention to the orb, she narrowed her eyes at it.

“The krang are back,” she stated.

Mikey looked at the orb, there was defeat already in his eyes, “I guess the party really is over.”

Lee grimaced.

She wished it wasn’t.

They were all now in Donnie’s lab. Leo, Donnie, and April were all standing around the orb while Mikey and Raph were looking at some postures Donnie had on the wall.

“The encryption’s tough to crack,” Donnie admitted, “But it seems like the krang are transporting some kind of cargo,” he stated. Lee stepped back, allowing Donnie to start typing on the computer.

Donnie’s hands flew across the keyboard, he tried not to show the shaking or the anger in his voice.

He typed on the buttons a little harsher than normal, but that was all he let up.

He was boiling inside.

The krang… Those little blobs of flesh and metal had come into his life, torment his friend, aka the girl he had a crush on, then almost took his older brother from him, and now they dare to come back?

Oh, no, no, no, no.

They will regret that decision.

Donnie has one too many flamethrowers he needs to test out.

A blue diagram appeared on his screen, and the image of a certain ship came up on it.

He gasped, “Using the stealth ship!” He stated as he looked over at where the rest of his family were.

He backed up his chair as Leo came around him, a determined look on his brother’s face, “We’ve gotta find out what that cargo is,” Leo stated, pointing his finger to give more to the statement.

Raph was now leaning on one of the Machines Don had, he looked over at the group. “So how do we track a ship that turns completely invisible?” He asks. He was mainly looking at Donnie for answers. He knew Leo was the leader, but he knew Don was the science guy.

But his question caused Mikey to turn around, “We cover it in honey so it attracts bees,” Mikey stated as he walked over to where Raph was, “Then, we follow the bees!”

Mikey put his hands on his hips with a confident smile. Meanwhile, even metalhead looked over in shock.

Raph put his hand on his face and shook his head. He really did not need this today.

He was already making himself sick whenever he thought back to how Leo looked when Raph had realized he had just come out of the dojo. It was clear the blue turtle was limping.

And the massive, body-jarring flinch that Leo had when the rat banged his staff against the ground was damn near Raph’s final nail to add to Splinter’s coffin.

“We track it with this,” Lee looked over at Donnie, who had now brought up a deceive that looked like a game-boy with antennas poking out of it.

“It’s aligned to the radar dishes we placed all throughout the city,” Donnie explained, he rotated the giant red knob on the device, “It’ll create a triangulating pulse–”

“English, Professor Brainioff,” Lee looked over to her red-banded brother, a mix between a smile and a frown resting on her face.

She could tell Donnie was already done with Raph.

Her purple brother spoke slowly, “It will detect the krang spaceship,” he stated, drawing a circle in the air with his finger.

Lee then watched as Donnie turned to April, “April, can you stake out a rooftop and feed us the ship’s coordinates?”

The redhead looked taken aback by this request as she was handed the radio, “Me?” She asked, baffled, “I don’t know anything about radar!” She argued. She was not the person who should be doing this by a long shout.

Lee could see the girl’s mind working at a thousand miles per hour. She knew April wanted to help them, but also knew that the girl was basically lost on what to do.

“What about your dad?” Lee blurted out. She immediately graced. Something just felt off .

“My dad?” April asked, her face turned sad and worried, “He barely lets me out of the house anymore, he’s never gonna go for this,” she stated. She did want to help the guys, but this was… Pushing it.

“Please, April!”

April looked at Donnie, “Your dad’s a scientist,” he stated, putting his hands together in a begging motion. “We really need his help!”

Lee was trying to keep herself from cringing a bit.

She looked over at April, who sighed, “I’ll–” She stammered, “I’ll see what I can do.”

April tossed one last worried glance over her shoulder as she walked away.

Lee felt something wrong in her gut. She didn’t like this. She hated that she blurted out the suggestion– She was just trying to throw ideas at April, and she didn’t realize that Don would take her first, random idea she has and run with it.

“The bigger question is–” Lee looked over at Raph, “How do we stop that ship?” Her brother asked, “We’ll need something fast to catch it.”

Lee looked over at Donnie, and could already see the smile blooming on the others' faces. She knew that he already had an idea– Something made, that would have then caught up to it.

But something didn’t feel right.

Something felt wrong– Not in a ‘it doesn’t belong here’ kind of wrong, but a ‘I’m going to regret existing’ wrong.

She closed her eyes and tried to focus her power for a moment.

She tried to let the current wash over her. She tried to repeat the action that she could perform, but made her exhausted as it had done so many times before.

But… She couldn’t.

It was as though something was… Blocking her? She couldn’t even feel the wind.

What was going on?

…

She waited for a second, but no voice answered her question.

She opened her eyes a huffed a bit.

Maybe she was just too tired for the current to allow her to force future vision?

She didn’t know, but she knew one thing for sure.

Something was going to happen.

And she regretted roping April’s father into it.

Chapter Text

They had just figured out that the Krang were back, and were transporting some supplies in a stealth ship.

This meant that they were going to have to get in the air, some way, somehow.

So all of the turtles had their turtle gliders on, along with their helmets, with Leo’s and Raph’s being football helmets that were blue and red respectively, Mikey had a pilot's helmet, and Donnie had a black bike cap.

So they were all ready to get up in the air…

The question was how on earth were they going to do it?

Well, Donnie had a solution to that.

So now they all stood in front of the lair’s entrance, and in front of them, there was an elongated car that had four seats one behind the other, and fines on the back side making it look like a rocket.

Donnie was in front of them, a proud smile on his face.

“I call it… He T-racket!” Donnie introduced as he gestured to the machine.

Lee raised a brow at it, but still smiled to preserve some of her brother’s happiness.

Her twin did not feel the same.

“You want us to fly in that?” Raph questioned, sounding completely stunned, “Where are we going, Jupiter?” He threw up his hands to emphasize his point.

“Jupiter!” Mikey yelped, concern clear as day in his voice, “But that place is infested with space yeast!”

… Space– What?-

Lee shook her head and went to face her whole team. She didn’t want to know what on earth Mikey had concocted in his brain to come up with ‘space yeast.’

“Time’s up, team, we’d better move,” Lee stated as she pointed back at the car.

Donnie gave the others a proud, bright smile with a thumbs-up.

The younger ones headed back to where the rocket was, while Lee got on call with April.

“April?” She asked, “You guys in position?” There was a mix between a frown and a forced smile on her face.

She still had a bad feeling about this.

April was on the edge of the roof of an apartment building, hesitant creeping through her body.

“Um, Roger. I think,” April stated back. She could tell something was… Off about Leo from the other voice over the phone.

The leader almost sounded unsure of himself.

She grimaced. Leo was the one who suggested that her dad come along, but she noticed that when Donnie was asking her to go through with it, Leo had a sour look on his face. Almost as though he regretted something.

She was already so nervous. There was a high chance her dad would ground her until she was in college for this stunt– And now Leo was acting unsure?

Leo’s voice can back over the phone, this time in a whisper, “You know, April. Your dad doesn’t have to stick around– He could just tell you what to look out for, and then leave– You don’t have to make him do this–” “No, Leo, it’s fine,” April cut the blue turtle off.

Anxiety crept through her. She wanted so desperately to help her friends– And to keep the Krang away… She couldn’t be second-guessing herself right now.

“... If you say so,” Leo responded.

April sighed. She took the t-phone away from her ear and muted it.

“It’s kind of late for a school project, don’t you think?” Her father asked, he was holding the make-shift raider that Don had made.

She felt herself grimace.

A ‘school project’ was what she told her father this was. How else was she meant to convince him to come along?

“It’s– Um…” She stammered, “Extra credit, Dad,” she stated.

She finally turned to face her father for the first time that night, and immediately felt a ping of guilt pop up in her for lying to her father.

“We’re– We’re– Tracking– Uh…” She couldn’t get the words out, she looked away. An idea finally came to her, “Pigeon migration! Yeah!” She chuckled awkwardly.

Suddenly, the top whiskers on the raider started to beep and swirl.

Her father looked at it in confusion before pointing the little raider at the sky when a giant shadow passed overhead.

That was when he caught a glimpse of– Something , something invisible, flying through the sky and distorting his view of the sky above it.

He felt panic rise in him as the raiders beeping winded down.

“What is going on here?” He asked, fear clear in his voice.

Suddenly, the ship had some sort of hic-up, and the stealth coat turned off and back on again, leaving the ship exposed for a moment.

“Is that– The Krang?” Her father asked from behind her.

She then heard what sounded like something falling to the ground.

She couldn’t bear to look back and see the look on her father's face.

Donnie was sitting up at the front of the rocket, pressing buttons as quickly as he could to get the position of the ship.

“Coordinates locked!” He shouted out, and then turned behind him to look at the rest of his brothers, “This is it!”

Leo was right behind him, followed by Raph, then Mikey at the back.

Lee smiled back at Donnie worry seeped into her as the gut feeling from before refused to go away.

Raph leaned past her, “If we explode, I swear, I’ll slap the green off you,” her twin threatened. Her smile grew sympathetic.

Her face then turned serious, “Launch!” She commanded.

And with Donnie pressing one button, the engine roared to life and the exhausts spat out flames.

They burst through the tunnels, screaming as their faces were beaten against the wind.

Lee could feel herself tense up, her body already crying in pain from the training before, now trying desperately to stop the feeling of the rushing wind.

She pulled her feet toward the underside of her seat, bitting down a yelp of pain as the injuries she had sustained themselves known.

That was also when she felt… Something else.

It was as though a part of the skin on her right thigh was cracking open.

She grimaced. That wasn’t a good sign.

They suddenly burst through the ground, just barely missing a lady as a sharp pull-up sent them into the sky.

Mikey whooped and hollered, having the time of his life back there.

Lee shook her head, “Next time– I’m driving!” She shouts, panickly looking back to make sure the lady is alright.

“I second that– Donnie, you’re banned!” Raph shouts as well, Donnie only chuckles awkwardly at the two. “I wasn’t that bad!” He stated.

“You almost hit the wall, and then a person!” Lee stated, there was no malicious in her voice, only vague concern.

The purple turtle rolled his eyes, “Whatever, Mom, ” he stated.

Suddenly, all of them were ejected from their seats and sent flying through the air.

But they were able to deploy their turtle gliders in time for them to start soaring through the air, on their way to get to the stealth ship.

Lee watched as her youngest brother flew ahead of her.

She suddenly felt the urge to switch how she was flying.

She positioned herself so that her feet were out in front.

Right on time for Mikey to shout, “Bookyakasha–” Then gets interrupted by him hitting something metal.

Lee landed the metal thing safely, but her wounds continued to hurt her.

“I think we found the ship,” she stated. Meanwhile, the rest of her brothers followed in Mikey’s footsteps, and their faces planted on the thing.

Raph looked up at her soft smile with a snarl, “How come you’re okay?” He asked, pained and insulted.

Lee snorted, “We’re looking for something metal and invisible– How do you think?”

Raph rolled his eyes and groaned.

Meanwhile, in her crouched position, Leo could feel another wound on her thigh crack open.

She grimaced. That really wasn’t good.

On the inside, the three krang blobs worked to keep the ship running, with one heading over to the side to check on the shipment.

That was when the turtles busted down the hatch that was on top of the ship.

All the krang turned around just in time to see all for turtles land inside of the ship.

They all were smirking, confidence radiating off of them.

Lee looked at the two krang blobs before her and felt some of her fears calm a bit.

What was she so worried about?

“It is the ones who call themselves the turtles,” one of the krangs mentioned, this caused a third blob to join the two, levitating above the others.

“Krang! We must alert Krang!” One stated.

Raph laughed at the sight, “Three little floating blobs of brains, that’s it?” He asked, Lee’s own smirk only grew. They could easily take these three down and be home by lunch.

“We could take these guys in our sleep,” she joined in with her twin, bathing in the relief that flowed through her now that she knew that there was nothing she had to worry about.

“We could take these guys in our sleep, and with our eyes closed! Wha!” Mikey chimed in and struck a pose, a giggle strung through his words. Lee side-eyed him, wondering if he saw the redundancy in his statement.

The playful grin on his face told her everything.

There was suddenly a deep, machinic growl that echoed through the ship, causing the turtle to stiffen.

They all immediately whipped around, forming a square, all in fighting stances, to see what on earth had made that noise behind them.

In the wall, there was a rectangular container that had smoke spilling out of it, a looming, shadowy figure clear in the doorway.

Shackles that were on the creature popped off, clinking to the ground as tensions grew in the air.

They all looked up to see what on earth was in there, and Lee felt her heart drop. Her blood running cold.

“Aw, sewer apples,” Mikey stated.

That basically summed up her emotions at the moment.

A giant, blue-furred ape stomped out of the containment, it was on two legs. There was what looked to be a krang control panel on its chest, and its head was just gone– Replaced by what looked like a station for a krang blob to sit–

Lee’s blood drained from her face. Uh-oh.

“Uh, where’s its head?” Raph asked, his voice sounding worried as he voiced Lee’s original thought that she, unfortunately, thought she knew the answer too.

The thing smacked Mikey and then Donnie out of the way.

Lee tried to gear up to fight but was only smacked to the side as well. Raph followed this attempt and received the same results.

The third krang blob flew over to the ape. “Biotroid, engage,” it stated as it flew up and landed, taking its place as the head of the ape.

The turtles were now back in front of the ape, staring up at it as the thing roared and flexed its muscles, two wires came out of its chest, they had the saws on the krangs’ guns at the end.

Lee cringed. This whole robot just gave off a whole kind of ‘wrong.’

“Okay, maybe we were a little cocky–” 

The thing roared and put both of its hands together, slamming down on the spot the turtles had to run from in order to avoid being crushed.

Lee whipped around, she used her swords to block the saws that were after her. But she extended her arm just a bit too far and allowed one of the saws to wrap around her and throw her into the wall.

She hit the wall with a grunt and then landed on her plastron.

She propped herself up with a groan and looked over to see Raph being thrown against the part of the wall adjacent to her, and having to use his sai to block the saws from gutting him.

Lee grimaced and then bit her lip as another shot of pain erupted from her leg.

She looked over to see three total wounds opening back up, the skin seemingly ripping effortlessly apart as though it was being cut.

Blood leaked from the cuts, and she found herself wishing she had remembered something Aenda warned her about healing mana.

Meanwhile, Mikey had used his nunchucks to hit the ape from behind, making the krang blob on top spin around to face him.

The thing punched him square in the nose and sent him flying back, his shell hitting into the opposite wall.

He looked up with a determined look that turned frightened when a saw was coming straight at him.

He ducked and rolled to the side, allowing the weapon to instead impale what seemed to be a control panel.

Because the wall next to the panel dropped down, and smoke hurried out of the storage.

Lee looked over to where the storage was, and her hurt dropped.

Dozens of mutagen bottles lined what looked to be some type of circle.

“The shipment!” She shouted as she turned back to her brothers, “It’s mutag– Unh!” She was hit by the giant robot.

This hit caused her to land right on the control orb– Thing– For the krang ship, and it was crushed under her.

Meanwhile, April looked from the rooftops below, watching as the now visible Krang ship flew wildly threw the sky.

She had her fists to her chest, “Come on, guys, bring it down!” She pleaded.

Back up in the ship, the giant ape had managed to grab hold of Raph’s leg and Leo’s arm and was whirling around, spinning the two turtles who were screaming as they tried to break free.

Donnie was on the ground, hesitating a bit as he tried to figure out how to help his brothers, but he ended up being smacked down by one of them.

Mikey tried to do the same, attack the giant robotic mammal with his nun-chucks, but he met the same faith.

They both got knocked into the same wall, with Mikey landing on his hands and knees, and Donnie having been able to sit up and hold his now aching head.

“This thing’s too tough!” Donnie stated.

Mikey gained a determined look on his face, “Oh, I got this!” He shouted.

He leaped up and kicked on the krang who were piloting the ship, sending in knocking against the walls like a ping-pong ball.

This ended up with the krang knocking into the control panel, and opening up the hatched in the floor.

Lee and Raph were thrown into the wall, with both landing on either side of where the mutagen was being stored, causing the wall to shake from the force they were thrown at.

Donnie turned to look at the connotation.

And right as he did so, he saw a mutagene container pop out of its holding.

Then another.

Then another.

Until it was clear that the entire roll was coming down with the hit.

And they all were heading toward the open hatchet.

Donnie gasped, panic seeped into him as he rushed over to where the hatchet was.

“No!” He shouted, trying to reach for anything– Any one of those cans–

But he couldn’t get there in time.

He watched as the mutagen canisters fell down the hole.

Every single one of them– All falling, most likely breaking and infesting the city below with countless mutants.

Lee looked up just in time to see the chaos unfolding.

A shout of, “NO!” Erupted from all of the turtles they realized what they had just done.

Although, Lee couldn’t help but scream for a different reason.

In her mind, images flashed in her head.

Images of the silhouette of an alien-like creature.

One of a bird-wizard of sorts.

Another of a giant mushroom.

Then one of a… Geko?

And finally, there was one last, more animated image.

One of a giant bat on its hind legs. Mutagene-fueled veins pulsed in its head, and there was a red beard to go along with it.

“I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!”

The familiar voice sent pain through her head.

There was also something that concerned her about that last one.

All of the other images had the same blue tint to them.

But that one? That one was clear as day. No tint in sight.

“I’m sorry.”

Lee looked up to where her brothers were by the hatchet.

“Some things must happen.”

All April could do was watch as dozens of mutagen canisters fell from the ship. Twinkling in the sky as though they were stars.

Panic and dread fueled her. She felt so helpless in that moment, watching as the mutagene fell around her.

She looked to the sky and felt herself pause in fear.

There was a canister heading right for her.

She was frozen. Fear forced her to the spot as she tried her hardest to brace for the thing– Anything. She was hoping that if she was ready, the process would be less painful...

“April!”

She heard the shout, and in the blink of an eye, she was being tackled by her father, who had his back to where the mutagen was coming from.

The mutagen crushed on his back, making it so it was only him who had gotten infected with ooze.

Her father immediately started to back away from her, panicked breaths and whimpers came from him as he continued to hang on to her wrist.

“Dad?” April yelped, her wrist becoming pained as her father’s grip increased.

That was when her father turned to her.

There was panic, pain, and fear in his eyes.

And all of that morphs into one thing:

Anger .

Her father’s stare bore into her, ingraining into her head as her usefully kind, and caring dad looked at her with such hatred and rage that it made her too scared to speak.

April grabbed her father’s wrist as his arm started to shake and bulge.

Suddenly, he let go. Causing her to fall to the floor as he staggered toward the edge of the roof.

April noticed this, and her heart dropped.

“Dad!” She shouted as she reached for him, but the fear and dread kept her there.

She watched as her dad fell off the rooftop.

She crawled over to the ledge, her heart throbbing in her chest.

“No, no, no!” She shouted, feeling as tears welled a bit in her eyes.

She just got him, she just got him back she just –

She had to cover her face from the group of bats that her father had disturbed.

A blood-curdling scream echoed through the air, breaking through her mind, and cracking at her world.

She heard and watched as bones cracked, and skinned wrapped away, revealing limbs that were not human.

The body was mangled and bent. Her father screamed in pain.

In the split second that all of this had happened, she had fallen back onto the roof.

She gasped and heaved for breath. Something bubbled in her stomach, and her mouth flooded with a foul taste.

She put her hand over her mouth in horror as she tried to process what had just happened– What she had just witnessed.

Suddenly, there was a loud whoosh from behind her,

She quickly turned around and watched as a giant mutant bat landed on a water tower, and roared. Hands on the end of its wings were just giant claws at this point. Its mind was seemingly completely lost to the ooze that had infected it.

April felt as though her world had zoomed in and slowed down. The only thing she could focus on was the creature in front of her.

Her father .

“Dad…” She asked, her breathing picking up as her eyes stung and her throat tightened, “Oh, no. no. No!”

She had just got him back. She just got her father back.

And now, he roared, his face twisted into some form of predatory hatred.

That was when she knew.

She had lost him for good.

Raph looked down at the city below. Pure dumb-founded ‘what-the-fuck’-ery coursed through his veins.

“All that mutagen?” He started, his voice echoing his anger. He looked up with a scowl on his face to his two younger brothers, who were looking at each other, horrified, “You two are the biggest screw-ups ever!” He stated.

Donnie turned to him, a panicked but still angrier glare on his face, he pointed at Raph. “Well, you could’ve grabbed one single canister!” He shouted back.

“Um, guys?”

They all looked over at the voice of their oldest brother, who was currently blocking the ape's saws with his swords.

“You wanna focus?” Leo asked. Raph snarled but followed his other two brothers into the battle to help Leo out.

Meanwhile, the Krang was currently trying to fix the orb.

“Krang, the console that is broken must be made unbroken!” One shouted as the other one just stabbed it with a screwdriver.

That was right when they crushed into a billboard.

Donnie jumped up and over the ape. He landed on its side and continued to quickly move in a circle while spinning his staff to confuse and slow down the robot.

With a battle shout, he hit the back of the ape.

That was when the metal covering of a butt fell off, revealing two cannons.

“Butt cannons?” He sputtered, “It has butt cannons!?”

He looked up at the head as it spoke, “Biotroid, engage!”

And with that, the cannons started to power up.

Lee yelped in shock. The noises from the ape made her physically cringe. You would think living with three other brothers you would get used to noses, but nope! Not her.

They all scattered out of the way, leaping to the side to avoid being shot.

Donnie continued to jump out of the way, going back as he flipped to avoid being hit by one of the lasers.

The thing was now up against the wall, shooting at the turtles as much as possible as they continued to move.

Finally, Raph had jumped up. He was able to get above the thing's head, and then inbetween the space between it and the wall.

He pulled out one of his sai, and then whipped around, ready to strike when the giant ape grabbed him by the arm and threw him to the floor behind it.

Raph didn’t even have time to get his bearings before he was crushed by a giant foot, his head was over the opened hatch.

He felt as though his ribs were bruising by the second, but his head felt weightless as he tried to not think of the hole that he was over.

He turned to the others.

“Little help?” He asked, his voice squeaked.

He hoped April was having a better time.

April didn’t think this night could get any worse.

Her breath was heavy as panic and adrenaline soared in her, her legs burned and ached as she ran from the roaring creature behind her.

“Stop!” She cried out, feeling helpless to do anything more, “It’s me, Dad! April!”

She wanted her father to stop . She wanted the hate-filled gaze in his eyes to go away. She wanted to run to someone, to tell them everything that was happening, and have them not be weird about it, and instead be genuinely protective.

But that person was currently chasing her and was a mindless monster that had no other thoughts than to eat, then to kill– Then to hurt her.

Her heart was heavy in her chest. She could’ve sworn it was slowing her down.

Or maybe it was exhaustion.

She ducked to the floor of the roof, catching herself on the half-wall at the edge of it as her father swooped down and tried to grab her.

The creature roared as it circled back toward her, its mouth opened to reveal horrendous fangs.

She ran away from the thing, ducking behind a doorway as she grabbed out her tessen.

“Please don’t ground me, but–” She quickly leaped around the object blocking her, and struck the creature that was after her in the face.

This caused it to squeal in pain, and fly away from her.

She landed in an attack position as she watched the creature land near an antenna.

The creature looked at her with something else in its eyes– Pain, and confusion.

Her eyes softened and she stood up normally. What was she doing? This thing– This creature was her father . What was she doing?

“Sorry Dad,” she whimpered. She didn’t understand what was going on. Why her? Why her father? After she just got him back, why, why, why –

What was the point in dropping a bunch of mutagen over New York?

What was the Krang planning?

The Krang ship whipped around wildly, mashing into billboards and buildings, and sending the turtles to the ground with each unstable turn.

Donnie backed up from the main fighting scene at hand and glanced over to the windshield of the ship.

Panic flooded him when he noticed they were about to drive straight into a building.

He turned to the youngest brother, “Mikey, drop those Krang!” He shouted, pointing over to the blobs that were currently hitting the orb with screwdrivers, and were blocking his way to be able to make so they don’t go up in flames.

Mikey was spinning his nun-chucks as he spoke, “Done and done!” He shouted as he put his weapon away, pulling out two throwing stars as he said in a sing-song voice, “Throwing star time~”

He flipped back and launched his stars at the two krangs, which then caused their little floating devices to go high-wire and spin them around aimlessly.

Donnie jumped through the air and knocked both of the krangs out of the way. He then landed on the control panel and raised his bo staff to stab at the control orb.

The blade at the end of his staff came out, and he stabbed through the orb, making it so his staff was now a joystick for the ship.

He pulled his staff to the side as alarms blared.

The ship swerved to the way that Donnie had pulled it, meaning the ship was now flying on its side.

Donnie dodged passed buildings and tried his hardest to avoid billboards as the ship flew.

“Left! Okay!” He called out, struggling to keep up with the needed movements.

The ship's rapid turning caused the others to start tumbling around, rolling in a massive pile as they tried to continue the fight.

Donnie fully realized that this wasn’t going to work. They needed a steady path.

“How about, we set a new course?” He asked, “Like the moon!”

He pulled back his staff and sent the ship flying up aimlessly, allowing him to move around from the controls.

They were now on the walls of the ship, using them as flooring to fight against the giant ape.

Mikey was the first to attack next, hitting the giant thing with his nun-chucks and dodging out of the way of punches.

The thing then tried to smash down on Mikey, but the younger turtle jumped out of the way before it could.

Raph then tackled the robot, stabbing the command device on its neck with his sai, forcing it to keep on the ground.

Mikey then came out once more and dizzied the creature. He then grabbed the brain and lifted it, revealing the technologies under the blob as it squealed.

Lee came rushing in, screaming as she jabbed her sword through the controls of the ape, causing it to malfunction as her brothers leaped away from it.

She looked under him and noticed just how far they were above the ground.

And there was also something else that she could see. Something that she prayed her eyes were wrong about.

“We gotta go!” She shouted to her brothers.

She ignored the feeling of another tear in her thigh.

They all jumped out of the ship, going into free fall as they got their hook and ropes ready.

They were able to wrap their hooks around signs and other items protruding from buildings, which allowed them to swing themselves up, and land safely on the rooftops.

Lee was perched on a water tower, and she and all of her brothers were looking down at the scene that was unfolding.

There was a giant bat-like mutant looming over April.

The thing seemed hurt, at first.

But then it roared at April, baring its teeth as a form of threat.

“Let’s move!” Raph shouted. And Lee couldn’t agree more.

They all got out their weapons and leaped forward.

They landed in front of April, all ready to fight the thing that was threatening their friend. Lee was at the front, with Raph right behind her, and Mikey and Donnie on either side of April.

Lee felt her body buzz with panic, the need to protect– To get this thing away from her friend had taken over. She had seen the scene from above– Onle a small, dotted version of it, but she was horrified at the thought of April having to take this being on alone.

She didn’t doubt April’s ability for a second– The redhead is anything but not persistent and stubborn.

But there was something off about this situation. And she could feel it.

They all leaped forward, charging after the being and screaming, prepared to put up a fight when–

“No! Don’t hurt him!”

The despite plead cut them all off guard, they looked over at April, confused at her request.

Lee squinted, trying to figure this out.

It only took a second for her to piece together the puzzle.

It only took a second for her to realize what had just happened.

It only took a second for the beast to whip past them, being right after April, sending them all to the ground in a heap.

Lee grunted as she hit the ground.

Pain jolted through her, stabbing at her very being.

But she couldn’t think about that, she had to get up– She had to fix this–

She had made a big mistake– They had all made a huge mistake– But she suggested for–

“April!”

Donnie’s cry broke Lee.

They all got up, but Lee didn’t even need to look to know that April was gone– Taken by the mutant.

She then noticed something glowing in the corner of her eye and grimaced.

She walked over to it as her brothers spoke.

“Argh! Can this night get any worse?” Raph had asked. And boy, did Lee have some news for him.

“Guys,” she said, gaining all of her brother's attention.

“I think that mutant was Mr. O’Neil,” she admitted as she stared at the broken mutagene canister at her feet.

She narrowed her eyes and tried not to look at her brothers. She couldn’t face them right now.

“How could you tell?” Mikey asked, Lee only continued to avoid eye contact. “You see many giant red-bearded middle-aged bats lately?” She asked.

Donnie turned to the rest of them, removing his hands from the sides of his head. “We gotta go after her!” He stated, voice fast and panicky.

“But what about all that mutagen?”

Lee turned to her twin, his voice hard and stern, but she could tell that he was nervous.

“We got canisters spread all over the city!” He stated.

Lee felt her dread growing.

“It’s gonna have to wait, Raph,” Lee stated as she and her brothers began to take off back to the sewer, back to the place Lee was dreading to go to, but the only place where they could re-coop.

“April’s dad comes first,” Lee felt so hypocritical as those words came out of her mouth.

She wished that she had mentality before April’s dad got mutated.

Now April is who-knows-where, and her father is once against taken from her.

Lee shook her head and sighed as she ran.

This was not going to end well.

Chapter Text

They were all on the couch, Lee had her chin resting on her hand, Raph was sitting close to her, and Mikey was actually on the bean bag.

She could feel her stomach twist and knot. She had many ‘what-ifs’ flooding her mind at the same time. She was thankful she was able to hide it.

And, of course, there was Donnie…

The purple turtle paced the room, his mind running, and his temper showing, “I can’t think, I can’t think!” He shouted, “I’m seriously stressing here!”

“Okay, think calm thoughts, think calm thoughts~” Mikey gained a thoughtful look on his face. He seemed to have gotten an idea.

“You think he’s a vampire?” The youngest started, “Ya think he’ll drink her blood and turn into the undead?” He asked, making a zombie gesture to emphasize his story.

Donnie leaned over to him, his eyes were smaller, and there was a vain pulsing in his head, “Are you TRYING to freak me out!?” Donnie screamed, his mind ran with that story Mikey had told and was now flooding his brain with so many scenarios–

Scenarios where he would have to watch his only friend die right in front of him– He would have to fight the woman he loved, and have the knowledge for the rest of his life that he caused this– He caused what happened to her– He–

Lee grimaced. She could see the spiraling look on Donnie’s face.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her. They were light and quiet. Her stomach flipped and her heart raced. But she knew what she had to do.

“Sensei,” she started. She looked over to where Master Splinter was walking, he hadn’t even bothered to stop or turn to look at her. He only flicked his ear.

“Say we’re, um,” Lee felt dread pull in her, she looked to the ground in front of her, trying to think of how to phrase this, “Trying to catch a stray pet– Like a cat,” She suggested, thinking back to Clunk.

“A cat ?” Splinter stopped and looked at her, a flurry of emotions written across his wide eyes and pinned-back ears. His brows were narrowed, and his tail flicked. Lee flinched at the wack of the tail against the floor and felt herself begin to panic.

“Or– Or– Maybe a–a parrot?” She stammered, trying to do anything to quell Master Splinter. She didn’t like getting him emotional– It normally ended badly.

He was now walking to her, a suspicious look on his face as his eyes narrowed. His hand gripped his staff hard.

“Um, what’s the best strategy?” She asked, her face meek.

Sensei huffed, “Food, of course,” he stated, there was a slight roll in his eyes that Lee chose to ignore, “Any animal can be lured by food.”

Splinter’s eyes bore into her. They were darkened and calculating. Narrowed in some way that told her that he was trying to figure out what was happening. “So, what is this truly about?” He asked. His voice was steady, for the most part, but Lee heard a slight, almost unnoticeable wobble that clued her in that he was getting fed up.

She didn’t like that. She only grew more nauseous at the thought of adding anything else to the punishment she knew she was going to be getting later–

He would find out. She knew Master Splinter always found out– He always would know, and there was no running from it. Hiding it now would only make things worse for herself later.

Her voice cracked a bit, “Trying to–”

A hand was suddenly slapped over her mouth, and she was pulled into someone’s arms.

“Um, nothing, sensei,” her twin spoke, Lee breathed through her nose, and let go of her guard. She hadn’t even realized that she had put it up, her hands were slightly raised, and her mind already planning to fight without even knowing what was happening.

“Erm… Just talking about… Parrots, like we usually do,” Raph said. He was already panicked– Worrying over the situation as it was– He didn’t need something to go wrong in this whole questioning.

He felt Leo nod at his words and took some relief.

He watched as Splinter walked away from them.

He saw the glare Splinter tossed at Leo as he walked away. Raph’s blood began to boil.

He let out a sigh, though, and backed away from Leo, resting his arms on top of the cushions of the couch as he tried to smile and look at the positive side of things.

“Food!” Leo spoke, his face had a smile plastered on it, “It’s so simple, it’s brilliant!”

He looked over at Donnie, “What do bats eat?” He asked.

Donnie looked at his hand and began to count, “Rodents and other small invertebrates,” he stated, “Oh yeah, and bugs!” He looked over at Leo, “The bigger the better!”

“So where are we gonna find a huge bug?” Everyone looked over at Mikey, who was the one who had spoken. “Dress up some sorry sucker in a giant fly costume?” He joked.

Raph and Leo were now standing closer to Donnie.

Donnie and Raph looked at each other, smirked, and then looked back at their youngest brother.

It didn’t take long before Mikey was in a makeshift fly costume, and Raph was putting the paper-made fly goggles on his brother.

Mikey looked at himself, clearly confused. “I kinda feel like bait,” he admitted.

Raph stood back with a smile on his face, “Oh, don’t think of yourself as bait, Mikey, this is your new superhero costume,” he stated, gesturing over to the youngest.

He glanced over at Leo, and noticed that the leader had a worried smile on his face as Raph spoke, “You could call yourself– Um…”

“Turflytle!” Mikey cheered, “Tur-fly-tle! Oh! Yeah! I love it! Too awesome!” He continued, following along with Raph’s story as he turned to the rest, “What are my powers?”

Raph smiled and shook his head. But Leo seemed to be caught a bit off-guard.

“Um, you can… Hang from a rope,” he suggested, stammering through his sentence as he did so.

Mikey looked at the arms he had on his sides, “This is– Sweet!” He giggled excitedly, a bright smile clear on his face.

Raph glanced over at Leo, analyzing the frown that the leader had developed on his face.

Raph rolled his eyes a bit. Watching as Leo walked in front of him and talked to the others about something or another, he didn’t really care, and couldn’t be bothered to listen.

He didn’t know when or why Leo stopped messing with Mikey– They used to all poke fun of the youngest together– All in good faith, none of them actually meant anything close to what they were saying, he was their little brother, after all.

But then suddenly, Leo just… Stopped. He stopped participating in pranks, jokes, or even competitions against the youngest. Heck, he stopped doing it to all of them.

It was so abrupt it would’ve given Raph shell lash back then if he wasn’t so angry at his brother for stopping the fun.

But… In hindsight, Raph could tell that that was when Leo started to avoid all of them… He acted like they were the plague or something.

It was infuriating to know just how little Raph actually knew about what was going on with Leo. He knew Splinter was a piece of shit. He knew Splinter was telling them lies about Leo to stop them from hanging out with the oldest. He knew that some way, somehow– It had caused Leo to avoid them.

But he didn’t know why . Why was Splinter doing all of this? Why was Leo, seemingly, the main target? Sure, they all had issues with Splinter, but none of them had been pulled aside for ‘private training’ for all of their lives.

So why was this happening? And why did it cause such a drift in their relationship with Leo in the first place? What was the reason?

Raph realized that Donnie was walking to his lab, and Mikey was practically skipping to the lair’s entrance. Leo must’ve finished talking. He heard none of what the leader had to say. Whoops.

He huffed, and was about to walk away– Most likely to follow Mikey or something, when he noticed something on the floor.

It was bright and obvious compared to the blue stone of the ground– A little dot of red that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Raph could feel his face grow puzzled.

Leo was beginning to walk over to the entrance as well, but Raph’s eyes continued to look at the floor.

And the more he looked, the more red dots he found. Some looked smeared as though they’d been stepped on, some were bigger than others, and some were piled in one spot.

They all seemed to lead over to places where they had been standing.

Actually– They were near the couch, the place Donnie was, and even near Raph.

All places Raph knew he was.

All places Raph was next to Leo.

Raph’s eyes immediately snapped to bore into the back of the blue turtle, who hadn’t gotten too far since he had last noticed that he was going.

Raph stared at him, trying to figure out what was going on with Leo when something else caught his eye.

He looked down at Leo’s legs and felt his heart drop, and his blood boil.

On Leo’s thighs and calves, there were injuries– Slash marks that seemed oddly re-opened bled slightly, and left blood trails that went down Leo’s legs, and would’ve hit the floor.

Raph immediately rushed up to Leo. He grabbed onto his brother’s shoulders as he pulled him back.

“Hey! What the–” He heard Leo stammer, but he hardly recognized this response as he looked from the wounds, then to the medbay.

He had half a mind to drag Leo into the medbay and force him to explain everything. Every scare, every bruise, every injury, and every time he snuck out.

But instead, he only tightened his grip on Leo’s shoulders.

“You’re bleeding,” he stated, his voice was a growl. Leo tried to pull away from Raph, but the older squirmed in an attempt to leave.

“Raph, we needed to get Kirby and April!” Leo snapped over his shoulder at him, and Raph rolled his eyes.

“Leo, you’re hurt , you need to bandage yourself up before we do anything more,” he stated. God, since when was he the responsible one? He was never really the type of dude to look at a bleeding cut and go ‘Eh, I’ll deal with it later.’

He had learned that it was best to not leave wounds open when you live in the damn sewer.

Moreover, he learned that lesson from the one that was currently being an asshole and wiggling in his hands, trying to get away from dealing with injuries when it was he who had taught Raph the lesson of ‘You don’t want wounds to get infected.’

Raph huffed and tugged on Leo, who yelped and struggled. “Come on, Leo,” he said, “Let’s bandage you up in the med-bay.”

Leo only seemed to panic more with his statement. “No! Raph!” He shouted, kicking his legs as he tried to get out of the hold he was in, “We need to get to Kirby! I’ll go to the medbay later!”

Raph squeezed Leo’s shoulders tighter, he had heard the word before, ‘later,’ and later just never seems to come.

“No, we’re going now, and you can’t run from it,” Raph snapped at his older brother.

“No! Nonono! Raph, I’m fine– Don’t– Let go!” Leo shouted, the words at the end breaking off into a desperate whine.

Raph paused. He hadn’t gotten far from the area where they started, but he still paused at Leo’s words.

Or, more accurately, his breathing.

Leo’s breaths came out in sharp, whiny whistles that were on the verge of being gasps. His hands were clawing at Raph, trying desperately to him off.

Raph wanted to continue to drag Leo to the medbay– But this… Wasn’t normal.

People don’t just freak out like this. Do they? He didn’t really know– He expected the screaming and the resistance– But the breathing, the kicking, and the clawing just… Didn’t feel right.

So, Raph let go of his older brother.

Leo lunged forward, and almost sent himself to the ground as he did so. Raph watched, concerned, as Leo seemed to grab at his plastron, seemingly unable to breathe.

He reached out to Leo, “Le–” “I’m fine !” Leo shouted although it was more of a squeak.

He then took off in a sprint. He ran past Donnie’s lab door, and straight over to where Mikey was.

It left Raph dumbfounded. What on earth had just happened? Why had Leo just acted like Raph was about to kill him or something?

He then looked to the floor and noticed more of those same red dots where Leo once was.

He huffed. His blood began to boil as he clenched and unclenched his fist repeatedly. He gritted his teeth as he stared at the dots.

So, Leo doesn’t want to tell him what’s going on?

Okay, fine! That’s cool.

He’ll just have to do his own research then.

April groaned, her head spun with pain as she rubbed her forehead.

“Where am I?” She out to herself.

She opened her eyes and saw… The sky? It was pitch black, stars dotted the darkness and danced around a brightly glowing moon.

She rubbed her neck with a wince as she moved away from the concrete she was propped up on. She crawled over to the ledge and looked down.

Her stomach dropped, and she felt nauseous. She was currently severely stories high on the ledge of an apartment building.

She felt her heart speed up as she backed away from the edge with a gasp, she stood and grabbed onto the corner of the wall.

Her breaths were loud and quick, “This is a dream, gotta be,” she stated as she looked at her situation, “How did I get here?”

Suddenly, a shadow whipped past her, causing her to press herself further to the wall out of fear.

Her father flew around, circling back from passing and coming straight after her, roaring while baring his teeth as he did so.

April’s heart sped up, and a scream was forced out of her lungs.

Her father landed on the ledge and put his two giant hands on his wings on the wall. The shake sent April back to sitting as she tried to make herself as small as possible.

She kept trying to push his face away from her– She didn’t what to think, her blood was cold and her mind was going into overdrive as it tried to work. Per fight or flight response kicked in, and she had nowhere to run.

It suddenly reared back and roared at her.

But right as he did that, it started making these gagging noises and punching its chest.

April covered her face, already fearing what was able to happen to her.

That was when something slimy was dropped into her lap.

She lifted her arms and looked at the stuff in her lap– puked-up rats, cups, pizza, and apples, all coated in a mixture of spit– And something .

She gagged, the slime crawled down her leg and made her clothing uncomfortable. Her stomach twisted and flipped.

She looked up at the giant bat, who seemingly smiled in response.

Her heart was still beating out of control. She had to get off the ledge. She had to get away from her father– She didn’t know what he was thinking, or if he could think. But she didn’t want to risk finding out this high up.

She’s lucky she likes drama class.

“Ugh, sick!” April complained, pulling all the disgust and frustration into her voice to make it sound more like a bratty whine.

She pushed the stuff off of her lap, cringing at the feeling of it on her hands. “You expect me to eat that?” She crossed her arms and huffed, forcing a glare at her father.

She gestured, “Now go! Go get me some real food!”

She pointed away in a shushing motion, “You go, Dad! Go!” She shouted. Anger seeped in through her voice as she tried to up the demanding tone.

The look on her father’s face, though– So hurt and confused– Almost made her break.

But he flew off, nonetheless. Leaving her alone.

She sighed, “Okay, bought myself some time,” she muttered, trying to catch her breath. She glanced over at where her dad had flown off to and felt guilt swirl over her.

“There's gotta be a way off this stupid ledge!” She complained as she got off and started to search.

What she couldn’t understand was why.

Why had the Krang done this? Why had they just dropped mutagen over the entire city? It just… Seemed like a waste! What was their plan here?

She hoped the guys were okay.

The turtles all flew through the air, with Mikey in his bug costume, hanging from a rope that Raph could let down, and pull up as the situation needed.

Lee looked at her brothers with a slight smile on her face. She didn’t like having to use Mikey as bait, but overall, the youngest seemed to have created his own form of entertainment out of it.

Turtflytle is on the patrol, buzz, buzz. His bug eyes spy every crime, buzz, buzz!” He spoke, a wide, giddy smile on his face.

Raph scoffed, “Will you stop saying ‘Buzz, buzz’ after every sentence?” The red turtle snapped. Lee shook her head. Of course, it would annoy Raph– What this point, what didn’t?

Mikey swung on the rope he was on, “I could do that, buzz, buzz. But I probably won’t, buzz, buzz,” he stated matter-of-factly. Raph then jolted Mikey around, shifting and turning more than necessary.

“Whoa, dude!” Mikey yelped, having to run on a billboard in order to avoid ramming into it as he continued to be swung about, “Be kind to insects, buzz, buzz!”

Lee chuckled at the situation, then looked over at her purple brother, “Donnie! Any sign of Kirby?” She asked guilt and worry seeping into her voice.

Donnie was currently looking through a telescope that he pulled down from his eye as he spoke, “Nothing yet.” He then looked over at Raph and Mikey, “Raph, shake Mikey around a bit more. He needs to mimic a fly’s flight pattern.”

Lee heard the sinister chuckle that Raph omitted, and looked over, concern growing.

“No problem,” her twin in red said, and then he jolted up.

His flying pattern now went around in loops, spinning about aimlessly as Mikey cheered and laughed, acting like he was on some sort of fair ride, and having the time of his life.

Lee tried to think positively about this situation. Mikey was enjoying himself. And Raph wasn’t hurting anyone. Donnie was looking out for Kirby. And she was there to make sure things didn’t go wrong.

So what was the problem?

The problem was that Lee’s mind was racing.

She was coming up with scenarios that she hated behind anything in the real world.

What if Raph went a bit too rough and Mikey ended up getting sick? What if they were spotted by humans? The cultist? What if the Krang came back and wanted revenge? What if they didn’t see Kirby coming?

What if the rope broke? What if they couldn’t catch Mikey in time, and he fell to his death? What if Raph accidentally ran Mikey straight into a billboard? Snapping the younger’s neck, and leaving him chocking and suffocating for air. What if something hit Raph, and both of her brothers were sent flying to the ground– In a tangled mess of rope they couldn’t escape from, a mess of rope that would pull and strangle, and snap, and break, and–

“Raph! Please be careful!” Lee snapped, a huff escaping her lips as her eyes burned a bit.

And Raph just waved her off , “Oh, shut it, drama queen!” Raph snapped right back, “Since when were you so involved with safety? I guess your own words applies to everyone but you, huh?”

Lee’s grip tightened on her handles, and her eyes narrowed. This was different, and he knew that. Did he really not care about his safety? What about Mikey’s? One wrong move, and they both could pay for it, they could both be lost, she could lose them– She could have to watch her brothers be taken– Ripped away as she stood hopeless to do anything as the cultist slight their necks, her own twin wishing she never existed and–

“KIRBY AT FOUR O’CLOCK!”

Lee’s head whipped over to where Donnie was, and watched as the giant mutant– April’s father came barreling toward them, his claws out stretched, and his fangs bore as he did so.

Lee could’ve sworn the world slowed down in the moment.

She wanted as the bat hit Donnie, sending him spiraling through the air.

But he kept going– He continued to fly– His eyes trained on something.

With a swirling stomach, Lee dared to look to where he was heading.

Her heart nearly gave out.

“He’s heading straight for Mikey!” She shouted. “Pull up, pull up!”

She shot Raph a panicked glare, which her twin only matched as he followed her orders and started to pull Mikey out of Kirby’s view.

Her younger brother’s scream eoched through the air, bouncing around in her head, and weakening her.

He sounded terrified .

Kirby lunged forward, and tried to bite Mikey, and the youngest was pulled away just in time to avoid being hurt.

Lee stared at her younger brother. The event playing in her head as her heart echoed in her ears.

That was a close call.

That was too close of a call.

Mikey almost– Kirby– April– Her brothers.

She herself grip the handles of her glider hard . Her body shook with the fear and anger that was brought onto her.

Donnie looked over to where Kirby was, then looked back to his brothers, “He’s coming around– A– Again…?” His voice grew into a terrified question.

He was staring at Leo’s face. There was a shadow covering over the leader’s eyes. A familiar, crazied look took over the normally calm blue look.

Donnie felt his own heart speed up.

Oh, boy. Leo is pissed.

Raph dives down and inbetween buildings, swinging Mikey around aimlessly as to try and keep Kirby on his tail.

When they were finally steady, Mikey pulled out one of his knun-chucks and started to spin them, warming up. As he did so, he spoke, “Time for Turflytle to take out his arch nemesis… Wing-nut!”

He grinned at the reference to his favorite comic as he batted the bat back, but Donnie didn’t take kindly to it, “You are not giving Mr. O’Neil a monster name!” The purple turtle snapped.

They all continued to fly through the air, the mutated form of their friend’s father following close behind them.

Lee was flying higher then the others, watching and waiting from above.

She unstrapped herself from her glider and let herself go into free fall.

She was able to tackle and land on the bat’s back. She was now on it, wrestling the mutant as it tried to bite her and throw her off.

“Mr. O’Neil! Kirby!” Lee shouted as she tried to get a stable hold, “We don’t wanna hurt you! We wanna help!”

Kirby dove down, and Lee had to hang on tight to avoid being flung off.

She thought she heard something in the distance.

She continued to wrestle with the beast at a height in the air that would’ve killed her if she fell. But she had to do this for April.

Eventually, Lee was able to grab hold of one of Kirby’s ears. She looked up at her brothers, a determined look taking over her face.

“Stick to the plan!” She called out, trying to get everyone back on track.

“There’s a plan?” Both Mikey and Raph asked at the same time. Lee felt tired.

“The warehouse!” She breathed, exhausted, “We trap him in the warehouse!”

The bat spun and looped around, screaming and growling as it tried to get Lee off.

It charged forward, most likely trying to use the wind to knock her off.

When she saw where it was going, she panicked.

The bat went right up to Donnie and hit him. It clawed at her younger brother, and sent him spiraling to the ground from so high in the air–

“Donnie!” Raph’s scream ripped through her skull, and her younger brother’s terrified yelps and screech echoed in her head.

There was suddenly, a loud, metal thud that sounded like maticherny being ripped apart. Broke and crunching anything it was close to– Bending and squeezing as blood–

She whined, and her eyes burned.

She didn’t know if her brother was okay.

Donnie stood, his head spinning, and his knees wobbly.

He had dislodged himself from the turtle gliders right in time to not slam into a wall, but he still took a good view hits along the way as he thudded against the roof.

He was trying his hardest to think past the pain, and spinning area when a voice called out to him.

“DONNIE!”

Donnie spun around, April’s terrified, despite shout breaking him free from the daze, “Up here! I’m over here!”

He turned around to see April on the ledge of an apartment building, waving for him to notice her. There was a look of pure relief and trust on her face. He could tell she was scared.

“April!” He shouted as he grabbed his hook and rope. He wanted to get her down from there as fast as he could. “Hold on!” He assured.

He threw the hook and attached it to the ledge.

He hoped it would be enough.

Lee was still wrestling with the giant bat.

It bit at her and tried to rip her throat out with its teeth, so she grabbed her sword and placed it in the beast’s mouth.

She was starting to lose it. Her eyes twitched and she shoved the sword a little too harshly into the mutant’s mouth, causing the corners of its mouth to bleed a bit.

Events flashed before her– Mikey almost getting bit, Donnie being clawed out of the air, and so many horrid situations that all involved this thing somehow hurting or killing her brothers in the worst way–

She couldn’t let that happen. She won’t let that happen.

Her hands tightened a bit on the back of the bat’s neck, but she tore her attention to the plan she had.

“We’re coming up on the warehouse!” She shouted. Her voice was aggressive and harsh.

Mikey and Raph both use their hook and rope to tie around the base of the bat’s wings and then free-fall in an attempt to get Kirby lower to the ground.

This caused them to collide with each other, hitting and bumping as pain erupted in both of them.

Lee tried to ignore how unsafe this plan was. She was going to do something she would regret if she didn’t.

But hearing her twin thumd and bump across the buildings, screaming and shouting out, “LEO!”- That’s her name that’s her name it shouldn’t hurt– in pain and fear made her heart ache.

She looked over and saw the building she was looking for.

“The warehouse!” She shouted, trying to reassure her brothers that this would end soon.

When Kirby flew above the glass top of the building, she grabbed his ear and sent them flying right into it.

They crashed through the pain of glass, shards of it flew everywhere and dotted her brothers’ bodies with cuts and scraps. There were drops of blood, she couldn’t tell from whom, but she felt sick.

They all knocked against the floor, pain throbbed in her head, but she got up on unsteady legs and snuck over to where a lever was.

She pulled down the lever and a cage fell on top of Kirby, trapping him inside the metal box.

They all walked up to the bat, roared, and clawed in its cage.

“Sorry, Kirby,” Lee stated, trying to make the apology sound as genuine as possible to the thing that hurt her brothers– “It’s only temporary.”

Suddenly, there were heavy breathing and footsteps. Followed by what sounded like the sound of metal being shut.

Lee whipped around, and relief flooded her.

April was okay, she was running over to where they were– And Donnie was there as well! He was, overall, unscathed.

She let out a breath she had been holding and felt some of her anger fizzle down.

Donnie went up to where Mikey was. The youngest smiled and started to talk, “Yo, we did it, Don!” He stated, making a monster gesture he continued, “We caught the Kirby bat!”

Donnie elbowed the youngest, “Mikey! He snapped.

Lee watched as April ran over to where the bat was.

“Dad!” The young girl shouted. And Lee winced in guilt.

April held onto the bars of the cage the mutated form of her father was trapped in. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her nose started to burn a bit, and she breathed heavily while holding back tears.

Her father looked back at her, scared.

“Dad…” She breathed out as she reached her hand out, and placed it on her father’s forehead. Her teeth gritted and her eyes stung.

She turned around and looked at the guys, now standing.”What are we gonna do with him?”

“I mean– Keep him caged forever?” She asked, looking down at her hands she balled them into a fist as her blood ran cold, and her head spun. Her breath came in and out with sharp breaths.

“Feed him a steady diet of mice and flies?”

Donnie put his hands together, “Actually, bats love moths and spiders too, so–”

April took in a breath. The reality of the situation settling with her. “Sorry,” Don apologized.

Donnie didn’t know what do to. The plan was to trap her father in a cage– They didn’t know what to do.

This was it. She lost him. She had officially– Lost him . The only parent she knew– The only one that didn’t blame for– She– The last thing she did to her father was lying, how–

“This is all my fault,” she whimpered as she gestured over to her father. “If I hadn’t lied to Dad, I–” “Listen.”

Mikey had walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t blame yourself, April,” the youngest offered, she looked at the turtle with kindness, she appreciated the sentiment, she really did, but–

“It was our fault.”

No, it was–

“We spilled the mutagen.”

… What .

“We’ll fix it.”

Fix– Oh. Fix it?

“What.” She echoed her thoughts as she turned away from the others, “You guys– You guys spilled the mutagen?” She asked, her voice growing increasingly wavey.

“Yeah, we accidentally unleashed all that mutagen all over the city, but, don’t worry, we’ll get it back.”

And he said that with such a calm smile.

April turned to them, her breath heavy as her chest raised and fell rapidly. “You– You–” Her eyes burned. Her emotions swirled.

She trusted them. She trusted them. They told her to bring him out, they told her that they would stop the krang and that her father would be fine–

A laugh was pulled out of her. A laugh at the statement. A laugh at the joke they took this as.

Donnie looked at him, there was a pitiful gleam in his eyes. “I swear by Darwin’s beard, we’ll cure him!” He offered. His voice wavered on the edge of tears. Raph stood behind him but didn’t look April in the eyes. Leo’s face was almost unreadable.

“YOU MUTATED MY FATHER!”

A roar erupted behind her. There was the screeching and bending of metal.

Her heart sank.

“What– No!” She shouted as she turned to see that her dad had broken out of the cage.

No no no, this can’t be happening–

He looped around, and dove toward all of them, forcing them to move out of the way.

April stopped to turn around and try to face her dad.

And that was when she sawhim coming straight after her.

A scream was forced out of her at the sight of the fangs.

Donnie ran up and jumped, smacking her father right him the face with his staff.

“Dad!” She screamed, trying to reach out ot him as he flew out of the warehouse and into new york city.

Her heart welled and broke. Her wind pipe start to close and her throat started to sting.

She turned to the others. Mikey and Raph averted their eyes. Donnie looked at her, his eyes were pleading.

Leo’s were pure guilt.

She stared at the turtle in blue. Her breathing labored as they both held eye contact.

After all, she has seen– After all, they have both gone through–

April kept her mouth shut. She was quiet about Daman, Jamie, the others, and the underworld in general– And this –

She was silent about Leo’s future sight.

Anger welled in her. She gritted her teeth and glared at Leo.

He should’ve known– He should’ve seen this coming. He should’ve seen her father being mutated– He–

He was the one who suggested it. Was he crazy? He at least knew something bad was going to happen, and he roped her father into it–

Leo seemed to catch on to her anger. He quickly shrunk in on himself with a wince. He stared at the floor and tried to avoid April.

Coward .

Donnie reached out to her, and she slapped him away. “Don’t!” She snapped. She glared at the turtle in purple.

It was like she didn’t know who they were anymore– All the times they’ve laughed– They’ve cried- they trained– They fought–

It all felt hollow now.

“Don’t touch me!” She shouted, “You keep away from me!”

“I never wanna see your faces, ever again!” Her statement clearly sent ripples through the turtles. But she couldn’t care less.

She turned and started to run. Tears and sobs poured out of her as she tried her hardest to not let them see her cry. Not letting them see how broken she felt–

She didn’t want them to know how much she was hurt. She didn’t want them to have that against her.

Lee watched as April ran. The feelings of hopelessness and guilt continued to bubble and swirl.

“April!” “Let her go, man. Give her some space.”

The conversation between her two brothers was placed at the back of her mind.

The image of April’s face flashed in front of her. So much anger– So much hatred.

She wants to call out to April– To her friend.

She wants to tell her that they’re sorry.

But she knew that no amount of words would be able to fix this.

And she had no clue what would.

Chapter Text

The hologram that showed the face of the Krang powered down. And Sphynx was left shaking in rage.

“These creatures are useless,” she hissed, anger bubbling in her. The Shredder looked over at her. His eyes held a foggy red haze that told her she had almost everything going to plan.

Everything minus the mutagene supply.

“It’s time to set up the plan,” she stated as she looked over at one of the rookie cultists and gave her order.

“Start operation hive nest.”

Splinter had his back turned to the turtles as he stroked his beard.

“This is all very grave news, very grave, indeed.”

Donnie and Raph were sitting on the couch, and Mikey and Lee were on the floor.

Donnie was looking down, his heart throbbing and his mind spinning as he went over the day.

“I can’t believe this is happening… Poor April,” his voice was a cracking mess. He felt his eyes sting.

There were so many different ways he could’ve stopped all of this. Why hadn’t he?

Now, the girl that made him stupid with a glance was gone. And he was too immature and reckless to do anything about it.

Splinter turned to them, “Do not dwell on the past,” he stated.

“You must find every last canister of mutagen.”

“You must search every street, every park and playground, every building and rooftop before we have even more mutants on our hands.”

Donnie took in the words, and felt his heart try to sputter as it worked through the break it felt.

He saw everyone else's reactions and felt a bit less alone. Mikey was clearly upset, Raph was angrier than normal, and Leo seemed to stiffen.

But no matter what, no matter how long it takes, no matter what he had to do.

He’ll make sure he gets April’s father back to normal.

He promises.

Lee was in a haze. She didn’t know what exactly to do.

Splinter had established their new mission: Collect all of the mutagen canisters thrown about the city.

But how in the heck were they going to do that? There’s bound to be at least a hundred of them, strung about god knows where.

She huffed. Her mind was fuzzy as she walked to her room. Her body felt light. She was trying her hardest to think, but her mind felt detached in some way.

That was until she was ripped back to reality by a force tugging on the tails of her mask.

She let out a sharp gasp as she tried not to fall back. Her heart rate skyrockets as she stumbles and struggles.

So many thoughts ran through her mind at once as she was dragged. But there was one fear echoing inside of her mind.

She started to fight harder, tried to tug her mask away from the hand holding it and she punched and clawed at the person's arm.

There was a grunt of pain before the person stopped and grabbed her by the wrist.

“ Don’t fight me on this, Leo.”

Her panic started to slow at the sound of the person’s voice.

“Raph?” She asked, shock and guilt flooding through her. She felt the force dragging her stop, allowing her to stand.

“No, it’s the Krang.” The voice was flat and humorless, but Lee chuckled slightly.

Whether the chuckle was just from the relief that she had more time to recover before the next training session or genuine insanity, she didn’t know.

She heard Raph huff before the force pulling her back returned.

Stumbling slightly, she was able to turn herself around and catch up to Raph’s walking pace, “I can walk on my own, you jerk!” Lee snapped as she tried to get right the hand on her tail mask.

She was finally able to shoo Raph off, but the red turtle returned her attention with a snarl.

“I know you can walk, but you tend to get confused about directions,” he stated as he placed a hand on Lee’s shoulder. She rolled her eyes, “How so?”

“Last time I checked, the medbay wasn’t in the hallway you were walking toward,” Raph retorted.

Lee felt a blush of embarrassment creep up her neck. She scoffed. “Whatever.”

As they got in front of the curtain that separated the medbay from the rest of the lair, they paused and Raph looked at her with a confused, funny face.

Lee huffed, “What?” She asked, keeping her eyes on the ground. She couldn’t bear to look at her brothers at that moment.

“Why in the hell do you blush blue?”

The question only made Lee’s face heat up more. Raph made a confused sound that told her that her blush was worse.

“Like– I know it’s never clicked in my head that you go blue– But now that I’ve noticed it, it’s bugging the hell out of me,” he stated, gesturing over to Lee, “So what’s up with that?”

Lee kept her eyes trained on the floor. She was not prepared for this question.

“I don’t know,” she admitted, “All I know is that I do, and that’s all I need to know– Can we just get this over with?”

Raph narrowed his eyes. But he did open the curtain with a huff.

As they walked through, he mentioned, “Maybe we should get Donnie to look into that– perform blood work or something or another, make sure you didn’t get into any mutagen or krang tech by accident.”

Lee felt alarms go off in her head at the thought of ‘blood work.’

She read somewhere that inside of a dragon’s body, their blood is hot enough to rival the sun.

She would rather not have a metal stick poked into her skin where it could easily melt, thank you very much!

She chuckled, “I think Donnie’s going to have enough on his plate,” she chirped up, her voice strained and awkward.

She looked around the medbay. It wasn’t the best area, but it was enough for them.

A cot with its head up against the wall to her right, and some medical equipment, like first-aid kits and bandages to her left.

Raph looked at her once again, his face was growing more concerned and angrier by the second.

He gestured over to the cot, and Lee sat on the edge of it with a huff.

“I think Donnie can make time to be sure you’re not going unstable,” Raph grumbled as he opened one of the red kits. Lee shrugged.

“Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine, “ she responded.

“Less of a point then to not look into it,” Raph stated.

Lee sighed, “I don’t think it would be necessary.”

“Making sure that you’re okay is necessary.”

“But I’m fine. Why is there a need to make sure of it?”

“Fine means you could be doing better.”

She was starting to get annoyed.

“We both know why that is,” she snapped.

Raph went quiet after that. He silently brought over a few cotton pads, rubbing alcohol, and bandages to where Lee was.

Lee went to reach for the bandages, her mouth opening for some sort of apology for snapping when Raph hit her hand away.

“I got it, I got it,” he muttered. He crouched down and put a hand on Lee’s calf, she felt his eyes bore into her as he studied the marks on her leg. She couldn’t help the guilt that bubbled in her.

She could take care of herself. Why was she wasting Raph’s time with this? She could see it in his face that wasn’t happy with the situation– He shouldn’t even be in this situation to begin with.

Raph studied the wounds on Leo’s leg, and he was trying to hold back the grimace.

Slashes marked up Leo’s calves. Deep, swollen ones as though the flesh itself was ripped away. And that was only for the ones that he could see.

There were… Other ones.

Ones that he could tell were there— But they were hidden under what seemed to be a time layer of skin. The only way he could truly tell was that the skin had a stain of blood where the injuries were.

It was so… Weird. It didn’t look like the wounds were healing, it looked like they were just being covered.

Curiosity got the better of him, and he ran his thumb over one of the wounds that was like this–

The skin broke apart. Peeling away from each other as though it was nothing more than glued together.

He felt regret in his heart as Leo hissed in pain.

“Sorry,” he muttered. He then began to slowly wrap up Leo’s leg, attempting to not open any more wounds in the process.

It was concerning. Like– Raph knew they had sped up healing or something, but this was not that. Their wounds healed normally, just faster.

Maybe he should get Donnie to take a look at Leo’s mutagene. He didn’t entirely trust the purple turtle around the leader as of right now– But there was clearly something wrong.

Raph got up after he finished bandaging the leg, he walked over to the other side and repeated the process.

The more wounds he had to wrap. The more of them that opened up. The more blood that seeped through the white of the bandages– The angrier he grew.

His hands were shaking as he tried desperately to calm himself down.

How did he just barely notice? Heck, how did none of the others notice? So many questions whirled in his head but he knew this wasn’t the time to blow up.

That didn’t stop his big mouth.

“What did that bastard do to you?” He whispered as he continued to fix Leo’s leg.

He heard Leo shuffle with a huff. “Language, Raph,” the leader scolded, “He’s still your father.”

“Is he yours?” Raph shot back at him, he didn’t even spare him a glance as he continued to wrap his leg.

“What?” Leo asked. Raph tied up the bandage and huffed. He got up and looked Leo dead in the eyes.

“Is he your father?” He pushed. Leo seemed to pale at this line of questioning.

“Raph, he raised us–” “He hurt you, Leo– And I think it’s safe he wasn’t much kinder to everyone else.”

Leo stiffened, his eyes narrowed, “What do you mean by that?” He asked. Raph could recognize when Leo was on the edge.

Normally, Raph loved pushing his older brother to the edge.

But this wasn’t an edge that he liked his brother being on. He was genuinely angry.

But this time? Raph wanted to push him to that point if it would drive it home to Leo that this wasn’t okay.

“The training he comes up with? The punishments?” Raph stated, “Listen, Leo, I’m going to ask you again, do you consider him your father?”

Leo’s hands balled into fists. He glanced away from Raph before speaking. “He raised us, Raph. And there were– Gods. There are times… When… I truly think he is… There for us. Times when he cares and… He’s a dad.”

“I think that– I hope that those times are who he is and that… He can… I don’t know,” he admitted.

The more Leo talked, the more frustration grew in Raph. There was no way that these… Times could be real. It had to be some type of trick, right?

“You’re lying,” Raph snapped, Leo flinched at the harshness in his voice, “No– No, I’m not,” Leo insisted.

Raph shook his head. He put his head down and used his hands to lean on the cot. “There’s no way that could happen, Lee… It had to be some sort of trick.”

Leo huffed, “No. Those times did happen, they did exist, it was just before–” He choked on his own words. Raph at his brother, his eyes narrowed.

Leo wasn’t looking at him. He wasn’t looking at anything else really. His eyes were glazed over. And he was… Staring.

“Before what?” Raph spat out. Leo didn’t answer him. His brother only stared.

“Before what , Leo!” He was almost shouting now. He watched as Leo started to shake his head. He muttered something unintelligible.

Raph could feel his blood start to boil. All of the hatred– The anger– The feeling of unfairness slowly crept through.

All of his life he had thought Leo was his… Perfect child that could do no wrong inside of their father’s eyes. All his life he had longed to be where Leo was. Standing tall and proud. Praised for his work. And getting everything he had ever wanted.

All of his life he was told that the way he did things was wrong. That he was somehow a danger– A monster for his anger. Like he was some sort of animal that needed to be controlled.

And now? All of those feelings were coming back.

Because as he stared at his older brother– The one he believed had it all. He started to slowly realize how wrong he was.

Leo looked broken at that moment. It seemed as though he wasn’t in the medbay anymore– he was somewhere else. And Raph couldn’t tell if that somewhere else was good or bad and it terrified him.

He had resented Leo all his life for being everything he wasn’t. And then when he watched Splinter that night– When he saw what happened to Leo behind closed doors, he ran.

He had abandoned Leo.

Hell. He has abandoned Leo. He shouted and screamed at his brother. He took out all of the pent-up anger he had on Leo.

He let all of this happen under his nose and didn’t even bother to make sure his brother was okay through the years.

He was angry– He was so, so angry.

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair what Leo went through. It wasn’t fair what he went through. It wasn’t fair that they were both suffering in their one way, but Raph only made Leo’s worse.

And yet– A sick resentment crept through him.

A resentment toward Leo still lingered. Hurt and pettiness are still mixed. He couldn’t ignore those feelings.

But a new form also grew– A resentment toward Leo’s secret friends. Towards the people that were the ones, Leo ran to when things got bad. They were the ones who were able to tell Leo that it would be okay– And Leo would listen.

He thought back to that boy– Damian.

He tried to pick out something– Anything to explain it.

What was so special about him? What made Leo want to go to him for help? What did he have that Raph didn’t that made it so Leo would choose the pest over his own brother for comfort?

He wanted to be there for Leo. What made Leo choose Damian?

Raph huffed. He knew there was no chance that Leo was going to talk to him. And he was going to do something that he regretted if he stayed.

“Fine then!” Raph snapped, “If you don’t wanna talk, fine!” He pushed off the cot stomped over to the medical drawers and slammed all the equipment inside. The loud bang made Leo flinch.

“I’m going to my room!” He yelled over his shoulder and then walked out of the room, his shoulders squared as though he was going to fight someone.

 As he walked away from the medbay. Dread filled him.

He wanted to talk to Leo about so many things– He wanted to ask about what they do with the mutagen situation. What will they do about April?

So many things echoed through his mind. He wanted to make sure Leo was okay after the whole thing. Because he knew that he wasn’t okay– They had just lost a friend. And it was completely their fault as well.

But knowing Leo, he most likely had others that he was going to run to.

That only pissed Raph off more.

You know what? Fuck Leo! That bastard clearly has enough people in his life! He’s clearly replacing them, so why should Raph care what he’s going through!

Right as he closed the door to his room. He felt the stinging in his eyes.

It’s okay– It’s fine! So what if Leo had everything he could want and a group he could go to that wasn’t them? So what if Leo was clearly distancing himself? So what if there was a chance that as soon as he got the chance, he would leave?

So what? Raph didn’t care. He never did! He doesn’t care!

Tears started to drip down his face as his body shook.

Raph’s breath hitched. He tried to rub his face dry of tears, but they just kept coming, no matter what he did.

He sat down on his bed. He was trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.

Why had he just done that? He just… Walked out.

Sure, he was a bit fired up at the moment. But he wouldn’t get any answers out of Leo if he continued to do that.

But he was clearly not going to get answers out of Leo anyway.

He huffed and laid on back on his bed as he pulled out his phone.

If Leo wasn’t going to give him the answers he was looking for, he was going to get them himself.

Lee’s head was running wild as she shut the door to her bedroom.

Once she was in the confines of her own space, she sat on the ground and started to let herself cry.

Guilt ate away at her, squeezing her heart, pounding on her chest, and ringing in her head– She tried to cover her ears so that she could shut out the sound– The scrapping, echoing sound that had affected her.

Tears flooded her eyes as she tried to keep silent.

She was sorry. She was so, so sorry.

This was all her fault.

She was the one who suggested April’s dad come along. She was the one who didn’t trust her gut. She was the one who was supposed to lead the time. She was the one who was supposed to make sure they didn’t skip out on their training and become rusty. She was the one who could get her stupid future sight working because she spent too much energy.

She could’ve stopped this– She could’ve stopped all of this. But she didn’t and now Kirby was mutated, and April was gone.

April was gone and she didn’t have anyone to go back to– She was alone now and there was no exact promise or way to get her father back.

And she was sorry . There was nothing she could do to fix this situation.

She just has to sit here and be useless because Donnie is the one who knows the most about mutagen– Now her younger brother is going to work himself into an early grave because she can’t be bothered to actually be good enough to–

Gods, Donnie, her poor brother must be beating himself up about this– It was no secret that he had a crush on the girl. He most likely blames himself and the only thing Lee is doing is sitting here and–

A ding echoed through the room.

Her breath was shaky, and her eyes were still blurred.

She took her moonstone out of her pocket and looked at the screen. She felt some relief.

Jamie had texted her.

She knew she was getting bad. She knew that she should probably go to someone.

Jamie always had a level head… Mostly.

She opened up the message and her face fell.

AnimalWizard: Have you heard from April?

The guilt came back in full force and she felt as though she was going to be sick.

Dear gods– What has she done?

Jamie mostly has no idea what happened if she’s still trying to talk to her– But what happens when she does find out?

Gods, she’s been so caught up in losing her friend, that she forgot that April was also Jamie and the other’s friend–

How selfish and pathetic is she? That she can’t think about anything but herself for one minute.

Another sob shook her body. Tears flooded down her face.

Jamie was going to hate her. Her stupid decision ended with their friend avoiding them– Jamie was going to be forced to take a punishment for something Lee did.

She doesn’t deserve to be crying. She doesn’t deserve to sit here and feel bad about herself when it was something she fully did.

She doesn’t deserve the friends she has. She only ruins their lives, anyway.

She turned off her moonstone completely, not bothering to read the countless messages she had.

She got up, put it on her bedside table, and threw off all of her gear before flopping into her bed.

She winced at a twitch of pain in her stomach. But she still chose to shut her eyes and at least try to get some sleep.

Screams echoed in her dreams as she did so.

—

It was now early in the next ‘morning’ for them.

And Lee felt like death.

When she woke up the next morning, she was immediately hit with nausea and stomach pains so bad she thought she was about to puke. Her eyes were puffy, and her throat felt dry.

And she knew– Despite her best efforts– That she looked like death even after she did her morning routine and got her belt and katana holsters on.

She had walked into the kitchen, and that was when she noticed that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

Raph looked a mixture of jittery and tired. His eyes quickly glanced from the table to the comic book he was reading, to Donnie, to Leo, then went back and repeated that cycle.

Donnie looked like he didn’t get a wink of sleep, heavy eye bags traced his face as he brewed more coffee for himself.

Mikey wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Lee assumed that he was out getting the pizza. Which would be a lifesaver as right now, her stomach was rioting in need of food.

But she narrowed her eyes and looked at both of her brothers.

She decided to set off on a mission.

She walked over to the opposite of the table that Raph was on, right next to where Donnie was brewing.

“Hey, Donnie,” Lee asked, causing the purple turtle to jump and turn to her, “Y– Yes– Yes, Leo?” He asked, finally able to get the words out.

“Did you get like– any sleep last night?” She asked, raising a non-existent eyebrow at the scientist.

Donnie let out a soft chuckle as he tapped his feet, “I was working– I’m close to being able to get that radar I have to detect mutagen canisters,” he stated, he had a proud, but awkward smile on his face, and he was as stiff as a board.

Lee frowned, “Donnie… You don’t have to work yourself to death, you need sleep,” she stated. Donnie… Donnie looked confused. As though he didn’t expect this response.

“But– The mutagen canisters– April’s dad–” “Are all very, very, very , important, but please, don’t work yourself stupid,” Lee cut her brother off and gestured to the seat next to her, “Have a seat, chat, eat, if you fall asleep at the table, I’m putting you on the couch.”

Donnie hesitated, “But, my work–” “Can wait. Have a break.”

The other still wasn’t really budging, so Lee straightened her poster and looked pointedly at Don, “Dee. That’s an order. Sit down.”

Her brother rolled her eyes, and Raph scoffed.

But still, it did the trick, Donnie sat down with his coffee and the three sat in comfortable silence.

The silence was broken when Mikey came back.

“Pizza’s here!” The youngest shouted as he carried the giant box with one hand.

He placed the box in the middle of the table and took a seat next to Lee.

Lee smiled at her little brother. This couldn’t have come soon enough.

The box opened and everyone grabbed a slice, Mikey turned to look at Donnie.

“It’s good to see you here, Dee!” The youngest chirped, and the purple turtle waved him off. “Yeah, Leo forced me to stay,” he stated in a monotone voice, Lee grimaced. She didn’t like forcing her brothers to do stuff– But just sitting down and eating? It seemed necessary.

But she saw a flicker of… Something in her youngest brother’s face. Raph’s eyes seemed to dart from her to the table. Shame crept through her.

Great. First, she failed her mission, her friends are going to hate her, and now she’s being a jerk to her brothers.

Awesome.

She huffed and took a bite of her pizza. She had to stop herself from gagging.

The pizza tasted like cardboard. It was stiff and somehow sticky. She shuddered as her teeth gritted as she tried to chew. Swallowing her food was like swallowing rocks.

Did they get this from a new place? She looked around at her brothers. They all seemed to be enjoying themselves. Was it a topping she didn’t like? No, there was only pepperoni on the pizza. This just brought her back to her first thought.

“Hey, Mikey? Where’d we get this from?” She turned to her brother and asked. Mikey looked at her, confusion in his eyes, “Um… Antonyo’s? Where we normally get it?”

Lee’s eyes narrowed in confusion, she looked back at her slice of food, deep in thought.

“Are you… Okay, Leo?” She heard the younger ask, she smiled at Mikey. “I’m fine,” she insisted.

She looked back to the pizza. Her stomach was still flipping out on her. Pains in her stomach begged to be acknowledged, but it wasn’t too bad. Not yet, at least.

She took in a breath and tried another bite–

And nope. It wasn’t a one-off time. It tasted like cardboard.

Not only that but it felt as though the pizza was doing nothing to quell her stomach.

Maybe she was eating too little of it?

She shook her head. As much as she didn’t want to waste food, maybe she could grab a snack later and see if it’s any better? She couldn’t bear to take another bite of this.

She looked over at Donnie. “Hey, Dee? When would that mutagen radar thing be done?” She asked.

Donnie shifted uncomfortably, “Well, it would’ve been done sooner if someone would let me work,” he stated, tossing a look over at Lee, “But it should be done by tomorrow,” he explained.

Lee nodded and narrowed her eyes. She ignored the sting of Donnie’s words.

“Alright, in the meantime–” She stood, “I’ll go map out some patrol routes of where the mutagen may be mostly to have spilled. Once we get that radar, we can try out those routes to give us a setup, and then start branching out, deal?”

Mutters of agreement followed her words, and she nodded.

She walked out of the kitchen and tossed the pizza in the trash.

As her stomach flipped and punched. She hoped that it would clear up soon.

The three others watched as the older left the room.

As soon as Leo was out of earshot, they all turned to each other and leaned in.

“Okay. What the hell is going on with Leo?” Raph asked. His hands fidgeted a bit. It was strange to see coming out of the red turtle.

“What isn’t going on with Leo?” Donnie retorted. Mikey heard the sarcasm in Donnie’s voice but saw the glint of worry in his eyes.

“He barely ate,” Mikey analyzed. Raph shot a glare at Donnie, “Maybe because someone can’t keep his big mouth shut for once?”

Donnie winced in guilt, “Or maybe he just has a lot going on with the whole mutagen thing and April not being around?” he suggested.

Mikey shook his head, “Maybe he’s coming down with something? He asked where I got the pizza, maybe his– Uh– Taste things are off?”

“Taste buds,” Donnie clarified, “And they could be– Leo has never been one to tell us when he’s sick. It also may mean he has a loss of appetite?”

Raph huffed, “Okay, but he was wincing as though he was in pain– I thought it was just hunger. Also, when Leo gets sick he passes out and we would have to drag him out of bed.”

Donnie waved his hand, “I say it’s stress,” he stated, “Or a cry for attention, who knows.”

Raph shot a glare at Donnie, and Mikey frowned, “Leo doesn’t do ‘cries for attention,’” Raph snapped, “Cry for help? That’s his entire personality in a nutshell. Attention? Asshole won’t even tell us what’s wrong for us to give him attention.”

Donnie huffed, “Look, Raph, I’ve done the research, and all of Leo’s symptoms seem to line up with Leo being either narcissistic or desperate cry for attention, okay?”

“The ‘symptoms’ you have are nothing but hear-say from Splinter,” Raph rebutted. Donnie looked offended, “So?” He sputtered.

“So?” Mikey started to bounce his leg, nervousness crept through him as Raph began to raise his voice.

“So you haven’t even bothered to ask Leo about this whole thing!” Raph stated, “Leo is bais!” “Splinter is bais!” “Sensei is fair and only wants what’s best for us!” “Splinter is a piece of–”

“Okay!” Mikey shouted over the other two. The older gazes snapped at him, and he gulped nervously.

“Okay… Let’s… Calm down and separate– We can ask Leo about it later, deal?” The youngest asked.

The other two looked away from each other and both muttered, “Deal,” at the same time.

Mikey let out a relieved sigh.

But something wormed beneath his skin.

He had a feeling this was going to end poorly.

Chapter Text

Lee groaned as she walked out of her room. She thought that this whole ordeal would’ve let up by now.

But she still felt like she should be dead. Her body felt limp and as though there was nothing to keep it going. Her stomach rebelled in hunger despite her attempts at giving it food.

She had been heading in and out of her room for a bit now. Fetching snacks from the kitchen that no one would notice go missing. And then being forced to make a dive for the trash can when her body decided it didn’t want the food she was giving it.

All tasted the same, anyway. Sticky but hard to bite through, and has cardboard in its flavoring, with sandpaper as its texture. It was not a pleasant feeling to go through.

But felt like she was going to topple over if she didn’t get something in her.

So, she was making her way back to the kitchen. Back to grab more snacks she knew were just going to go to waste because she couldn’t keep anything down.

She had to have caught something at this point– But from what? And what on earth was it?

Not only that, but her entire body ached as well, and part of it wasn’t even from hunger. It felt more like growing pains, but she didn’t think she would have a growth spurt anytime soon.

Maybe it was just her body’s punishment for her being greedy. Who knows.

She walked into the kitchen, and she knew she had a pained look on her face as she scanned the countertops for something to get–

“Leonardo?”

She froze at the voice. Nope. That was her punishment for being greedy.

With a shaky breath, she looked over at Splinter, who was currently sitting at the end of the table furthest from her.

“H– Gree– Um— Good morning, Sensei,” she finally landed on her words with a polite bow toward her master.

When she straightened her posture, she tried to analyze Splinter’s face, to see where exactly his head space was at, but she couldn’t see anything.

That only made her unease worse. She could deal with him being angry, disappointed, or miffed, but not him being unreadable.

Splinter hummed, “Take a seat, my son,” he requested. Lee knew better than to hesitate as she moved to the chair close to her and sat down, keeping her eyes on the table.

They sat in silence for a moment before Splinter once again spoke.

“Is something troubling you, Leonardo?” He asked. His voice was calm and put together. Carefully masked to the point that Lee couldn’t see through.

She knew what was going on. And she both hated it and felt relieved by it.

She shook her head, “No, Sensei,” she answered.

“Is that so?” He asked. And Lee wished she had said something else.

“Hm. Well, I would like to speak about your latest mission,” Splinter began. Lee felt herself panic.

“We’re working on ways to get all the mutagen– I’m plotting out the routes, and Donnie is making a radar– But I’m making sure he’s not overly worked– And– He’s also researching ways to get April’s dad back to normal, Raph and Mikey are both training, I swear, Sensei, please–”

Splinter held up his hand, and Lee’s mouth slammed shut. Her mind was spinning with worry and pain.

“I hear you, Leonardo,” he stated, “I am heavily disappointed in how the mission turned out– And I hope you have learned a lesson in attempting to dismay your brothers against me, leading to them not going to training and becoming more immature.”

Lee nodded. Guilt welled in her. She hadn’t meant to stop her brothers from going to training– She hadn’t even realized that she was doing it.

Splinter then took a breath, “Now, I will say that you’re doing good with training to fix the situation at hand.”

The words were a shock to the system. She looked up at Splinter with a smile as pride heated her before she took her eyes back down to Sensei’s chin.

“I would recommend making sure your brothers are actually doing what they say they are, you know them,” Sensei hummed. Lee nodded once more, “I’ll try, they tend to not listen to me.”

He sighed, “Yes, well, they are suspicious of your condition, and would rather keep away to make sure you have the space you need, maybe make that a bit easier on them? Spot trying to push conversation until you're back to normal?”

Lee’s eyes narrowed. Don’t talk to her brothers? But… How is she going to make sure they're alright?

She guesses that it does make sense if they think keeping away is for her good. She didn’t want to burden them further.

She was enjoying this moment. It was one of those rare times where Splinter– Her father didn’t look at her like she ruined everything. Where the hatred in his voice was gone, and he was back to the person she knew before when she was so young.

Sure, he did mess up– Half the time they went without food because he locked himself in his room. Not wanting to come out for anyone or anything. But she learned how to cook! Kind of… She could make ramen, anything else caught on fire. Mikey is now the cook!

Sometimes they didn’t have enough food or ingredients to cook with. Sometimes Sensei came back with a bag full of stuff that, quote, “Was for him to keep sane.” Instead of getting food like he said he was doing. But that led to Lee being the scavenger! And it helps with her training.

And, yeah, something Lee did have to clean up the empty bottles left about the lair on one rough night. She did have to make sure Raph’s wound got patched up when he got cut on one.

And, yes, she had to be the one who made sure her brothers got to bed on time in order to make sure that they didn’t have to see the mess their father became, and she had to make sure they took care of themselves while simultaneously learning how to care for herself. And yes there were some sleepless nights where she had to stay up and watch Splinter to make sure he did come into her brother’s room and cause a scene.

But! That’s all in the past! They had their good times and their bad, but Sensei had his reasons for acting like that! And Leo was no saint either! She couldn’t judge!

“Although I will say…” Lee was drawn back from her thoughts and to the conversation at hand.

“I do believe that you shouldn’t be using food to quell your worries… You can’t just steal from your brother because you’re a bit upset,” Splinter stated. His eyes narrowed in suspicion and frustration.

“Besides, I doubt you need the extra food.” Lee felt herself shrink a bit, shame burned her cheeks.

Hunger still stabbed her. She felt so nauseous. But… She still could see where her father was coming from. She was being wasteful.

She nodded, “Okay, sensei,” she responded in a soft voice. He then waved, “Now, go.” He ordered.

Lee looked at him blankly. She felt… Hollow. She wanted to keep talking to sensei– This was one of the rare times when she could. And she wanted to take advantage of that– There are so many things that Lee wanted to ask her father, especially when he’s this decile.

But she knew better than to push it. So she got up and silently walked back to her room.

She was happy with how that turned out, honestly. Because that just meant that maybe those moments would happen more often now. That’s always how these events seem to go.

Splinter goes a long stretch just being… Yeah. Everything Lee hates about him comes out, and he stays like that for a while– Weeks, months… Years, even.

Then he acts nice. He cares for them. All of them, even if there is something, especially when that time is winding down, that hints at hatred underneath it all.

Lee’s pretty sure that it was only because he was in one of those ‘nice’ sprees was the only reason she was able to convince him to let them to the surface.

But, hey! Sensei is being nice again, which means that these phases are becoming more and more consistent, right? That means that all of these times– All of the incidents are paying off somehow.

After all, she’s gone 15 years. What’s another few?

She put a smile on her face as she walked through the lair. Her body aching and rebelling against her in pain as she did so.

What’s another few….

She’s fine. It’ll be fine.

It’s not fine. She repeats: It’s not fine.

Lee was currently curled up in the fetal position on her bed. Her face contorted in a wince of pain as she gritted her teeth together.

A whine escaped her lips as tears poked from her eyes. Her stomach growled in hunger. She coughed and her body shook and whimpered as pain flooded her system.

She whimpered and buried her snot into her pillow. It felt like there was pressure pushing against her ribs. Constricting her lungs so that she couldn’t get a full breath of air.

She shivered, but she wasn’t cold. She was sweating a bit, but she wasn’t hot. Could she be coming down with something?

Her moonstone dinged with a special ringtone. It sounded like a twinkling star while the other sounds were like a bell.

She knew it was Damian’s ringtone. And it only made her let out a sob.

She had set it to something special because she needed to know if something was going on with Eclipse, or if something important was happening.

But right now she didn’t want to see what Damian had said. She knew Eclipse was fine, they put a monitor in her room and she could watch her baby dragon on her phone.

So Damian was texting her for no reason.

Most likely to tell her that he knew everything– Everything that happened with April’s father and that he’s disgusted with her for how she handled it. He thought that she was an awful person and that he hated her for everything that had happened.

He’ll never forgive her for how she made April avoid them, and for the pain that she not only brought April but also Jamie and the others.

He most likely wants to tell her that he never wants to see her again. And she doesn’t blame him it’s just–

She doesn’t want to see that right now. She blinked, allowing a few tears to drop down her cheeks.

She shivered once more and tried to run through all of the possibilities, and her mind landed on one that made her spiral.

Was she infected?

She immediately jolted up and had to muffle a choked scream from the pain.

She looked over herself– Trying to find any hint that Leaf had told her about before.

Red vines? Dark splotches? Moving in the veins? Something that looks like a worm under your skin?

And… No. Nothing, she couldn’t– What?

Then what was going on?

She grimaced again, her throat still hurt from stomach bile.

She knew something was wrong. She knew it would have something to do with the underworld. But… The only people she could talk to about it either hate her, resent her, or if they don’t know, they will soon.

She sighed. She couldn’t go one like this.

Maybe…

…

She made a promise she wouldn’t leave them.

That was when she had an idea.

Lee grabbed her moonstone and quickly swept to avoid seeing Damian’s message. She opened her contacts and went to Aenda’s.

She figured that maybe– Just maybe nobody had told Aenda yet.

So, she took a breath and thought for a moment. She needed something that would get Aenda’s attention, that way she could segway into seeing what was wrong with her.

Something then popped into her mind, and she chose to start this rollercoaster.

*User*: Hey, Aenda? Funny question.

*User*: But is one of the symptoms of that dragon phase thing increasing hunger?

*User*: Just wondering.

With those few messages sent, Lee got back into the fetal position and waited. She felt her stomach twist and rumble, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

She doubted that she was going through the ‘dragon phase’ or whatever. She just had her birthday a few days ago– And she was finally able to get her hoarding senses under control. She can’t go through something like that again.

She felt panic slowly rise in her as the seconds ticked by.

What if they have told Aenda? What if she just reached out– Just to be ignored? What if they tell the others that Lee had the gall to reach out after everything? What if–

Ding .

Lee flinched at the sudden sound and had to stop herself from throwing her phone.

She read the message that came in.

Aenda: Yeah? It’s one of the starting syptoms.

Lee squinted in confusion. Okay… She didn’t expect that.

Aenda’s messages continued.

Aenda: *Symptoms.

Aenda: Normally, the hunger is followed by aching of the body, stomache pains, and taste buds not working properly for certain foods.

Aenda: Why?

Lee thought about brushing Aenda off when another wave of pain hit.

She gritted her teeth and whined as she texted back.

*User*: Little help

Aenda’s portal request came through as soon as she sent the message.

The moment she hit accept, a portal whirled to life in front of her, and Aenda stepped out, a panicked and worried look on their face.

Lee immediately tried to sit up but regretted when another wave of nausea hit.

Lee didn’t even realize Aenda had brought a trash can until she was hunched over it, shaking as tears ran down her face.

Her vision blurred at the corners, and she could feel a scaly hand on her shell.

“Hey… Hey,” Aenda whispered, “How do you feel?”

Lee snorted at the question, “Add two and two, does it equal four?” she stated but grimaced at the bite in her voice.

After a few seconds, she mumbled, “Sorry.”

Aenda shook their head, “No need, you’re in pain, I get it.” They sighed, wrapping their arms around her in support. They said, “Let’s head to my place– I can show you what you want to do.”

Lee followed. She had her arm slung over Aenda’s neck as the Dragonborn carried both her and the trashcan through the portal.

She couldn’t help the guilt that was growing.

When they made it to Aenda’s home, they immediately set the bin down and started to help Lee over to where the kitchen was.

“You made it on a perfect night,” Aenda remarked, “I’m having steak right now for dinner– And there’s extra since a friend couldn’t make it due to an emergency.”

Lee wasn’t really listening to Aenda, the thought of eating made her head spin. She was more interested in the building she was in.

The floors were white tiled, and the walls were dark, almost black, purple which had golden accents for things like handles and decorative patterns for the walls.

It looked… Bare. But at the same time– Lived in? She didn’t know how to put it.

That was when she caught a glimpse outside of the window– Which was a long rectangle.

And she saw… Clouds?

“Aenda… What is this place?” She asked, her voice tired to the point it was almost a whine.

The older chuckled, “It’s my home,” they stated, “I refurbished an airship that was abandoned after the war.”

Lee blinked at them, amazed, “I thought you lived in that wagon?”

They shook their head, “Nope. That’s just for when I’m doing land trades– This is my pride,” they gestured to the area around them.

Lee nodded along. They finally found the strength to stand and walk on their own.

When they finally made it to the kitchen, Lee continued to analyze her surroundings.

The kitchen looked like one you would find in a cafeteria. Tiled floors and walls, there was a table smack in the middle of it, though, and wooden counters with marble tops to boot. The stove looked as though it was powered by wood, but the fridge was the only thing that looked old .

“Have a seat,” Aenda offered, Lee nodded and pulled back one of the four chairs that lined the table, and a loud screech echoed from the chair scraping against the floor.

She winced, “Sorry,” she apologized, Aenda just shook their head with a smile, “Happens all the time– Think I’m going deaf because of it.”

Lee chuckled and sat down. Aenda then pushed a plate over to her.

She immediately backed her head up a bit and looked warily at the plate. “Huh, Aenda? Shouldn’t we take care of the… You know…”

A wave of pain hit and she gripped her head in an attempt to make it stop.

Aenda looked back and dealt with the cooking food for a moment, then looked at Lee, “Trust me on this– That will take care of it.”

Lee looked down in confusion. She eyed the meat on her plate.