Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After a long day of celebrating the ultimate family reunion, the Jones family took their leave for the night, and Leonardo didn't even make it to his room, dropping into a deep sleep right there on the couch. Little Raph wasn't surprised—his dad had still been up when he'd gone to the kitchen at 3am, and aside from a few micronaps, he'd been fighting the exhaustion all day.

"Uncle Don?" Little Raph asked, poking his head into the kitchen where Uncle Don and Uncle Raph were washing the dishes. "Does Sensei have a bed made for him?"

"He fell asleep on the couch, didn't he?" Uncle Raph laughed.

"Yeah," Little Raph grinned.

"Well I say we just leave 'im there. He can sleep through anythin' once he finally drops," Uncle Raph snickered.

Little Raph fidgeted—he didn't want to contradict Uncle Raph, but he was pretty sure it wasn't good for his dad's neck to sleep sitting up.

Uncle Don flicked soapy water at Uncle Raph and picked up a dishcloth to dry his hands. "Not the point, Raphie. Come on, Little Raph, I'll help you get him to bed."

"I can carry him," Little Raph said, falling in step with Uncle Don towards the sitting room. "I just need to know where to go."

"Put Don to bed while yer at it!" Uncle Raph called from the kitchen.

"Planning on it!" Little Raph called back without missing a beat.

Uncle Don gave him a mock-affronted look. "I'm fine, Little Raph."

"Uh-huh," Little Raph nodded easily. He stepped ahead of Uncle Don and leaned over the back of the couch to scoop his dad into his arms. Leonardo didn't even stir, his limps flopping limply around until Little Raph had a handle on all of them. If he'd seen this kind of limp-noodle look on anyone else, Little Raph would be checking that they were still alive, but he knew from experience that his dad was just that exhausted.

"You got him? I can help—" Uncle Don said, fussing with Leonardo's arms and tucking them over his sleeping brother's chest.

At first Little Raph thought Uncle Don was worried about Little Raph carrying around his own father when he was just a kid—he’d gotten comments on it before—but then he remembered that Uncle Don was raised by Master Splinter, and he chuckled and held his dad tighter.

"I got him, Uncle Don, it's okay. You said he's got a room?"

Uncle Don gave him a weary smile and nodded. "This way.”

He led him up the stairs to the second landing and past two other bedrooms that stood open and into a third. Little Raph followed him inside and waited for Uncle Don to turn down the covers before he set Leonardo down on the bed. Uncle Don pulled the blankets back over Leonardo and then led Little Raph back out into the hallway.

“Thank you for doing that,” Uncle Don said.

“Of course,” Little Raph nodded.  “Thanks for making all of this possible.”

“It wasn’t really…” Uncle Don sighed and shook his head, clearly tired of having this conversation over and over. “Sure thing, Little Raph.”

Little Raph paused beside the last bedroom door, which stood open to reveal a poorly organized mess with faint purple highlights in the decorations. “I bet you’re ready for a nap, too.”

Uncle Don stopped walking and gave him a knowing side eye. “You going to carry me to bed, too?”

“Maybe,” Little Raph grinned.

Uncle Don chuckled, and something relaxed in his shoulders, allowing them to droop in clear exhaustion. “Pretty sure I can get myself all five steps over there, but thanks anyway.”

“You’re welcome!” Little Raph said brightly, ushering Uncle Don to his room and waiting until he was safely inside before he eased the door closed. “Goodnight Uncle Don!”

“Night, kiddo,” Uncle Don said faintly as the door slid shut.

Little Raph went back downstairs and helped wash the dishes and take out the trash with the rest of the family. Lee was doing most of the talking, regaling them all with wild stories about school, road trips, and space adventures. Uncle Mike joined in, adding even crazier details that Lee nodded along to. It was impossible for Little Raph to tell if they were serious about any of it, but he found that he didn’t care so much—it was worth it to hear Uncle Raph’s scoffs of disbelief and see Master Splinter’s fondly exasperated expressions.

It was late by the time the lair was clean, and everyone agreed it was time for bed. Little Raph accepted shell slaps from Uncle Mike and Uncle Raph, and a firm hug from Master Splinter, and then his little brothers all piled onto him to be carried to Angie’s room. They all quickly settled into a pile of blankets and pillows, and as soon as he stopped moving, Little Raph was out like a light.

Over breakfast on their second day together as a family, Lee washed down a mouthful of biscuit with a glass of milk and cleared his throat. "Hey dad? What about school?"

Michelangelo looked up from his eggs and biscuits with a surprised face. "Uhhh, good question."

"Yer kid's in school?" Raphael hummed over his glass of orange juice

Michelangelo angled a look at him. "Your kid's not ?"

From across the table, Dee rolled his eyes. "I'm in college. Online, self-paced. I was going to start my next semester in a couple weeks."

"Angie's home schooled," Donatello put in.

"Me too!" Little Raph grinned.

Leonardo looked at his son thoughtfully. "Do you... want? To go to school with Lee?"

Lee spoke over the top of Little Raph to say, " Am I going to school?"

Dee scoffed, "Uh, yeah? Duh? School's important."

"But it starts in two weeks, and I've got twelve years of grampa-time and uncle-time and auntie-time and cousin-time to make up for!"

The adults all exchanged glances—no one had to verbalize the fact that none of them had gone to school as teenagers.

Michelangelo shrugged. "You could do it online again? Like that one year when we were travelling?"

"Ew,” Lee grimaced. “But... yeah, okay. I'll be online buddies with Dee."

Little Raph was quick to add, "I can, too!" just half a second before Angie piped in, "Me too!!"

Donatello hummed thoughtfully. "It might be good to keep everyone close for the next few months, at least. I can look into the required placement tests. But you'll need to go back to your universe eventually…”

Beside him, Raphael, muttered, "Oh so we're having this conversation now ?"

Donatello continued, "…and probably soon. We don’t know when your universe is going to start having, uh..."

"Canon events," Michelangelo smirked.

Donatello gave him a confused look. "....what?"

Michelangelo huffed a half-hearted laugh and hunched over his plate. "Never mind."

Angie quietly reached over and whispered conspiratorially, "Don’t worry, we got the reference, Uncle Mike."

The rest of the boys all nodded and grinned.

“Why, what’s that mean?” Raphael asked, angling a suspicious look at them all. Dee blinked languidly back at him while the others avoided eye contact. “Ooohhkay then,”

Michelangelo snickered, then paused. “Oh, I should, uh. Let my boss know that I’m not coming back tomorrow.”

Lee slapped a hand on the table. “Le gasp , you’re quitting?? But you love your job!”

“Ehhhh, good point,” Michelangelo shrugged. “Maybe I’ll just take a couple months off and go back part time.”

“You work ?” Raphael asked, angling a brow at his brother.

“Yes, yes I do,” Michelangelo sniffed haughtily. “Do you ?”

“Sure, I gotta mechanic gig goin’ in a few dimensions, but ain’t no one gonna miss me,” Raphael shrugged. “Who the shell hired you ?”

“What, you want my business card?” Michelangelo snarked.

“Yes, actually,” Donatello said, and Leonardo leaned forward eagerly as well.

“Alright, gimme a sec.” Michelangelo pulled out his phone, navigated to a picture, and slid it across the table to Raphael first.

“This oughta be good…” Raphael looked over the image, and slow, genuine smile spread over his face. “No way. Really? You’re Mertle Nitan?”

“ What .” Donatello gasped, whipping his head around to stare at Mike.

“Aha, yep, that’s me!” Michelangelo laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Surprised you know the name.”

Donatello eyed him carefully. “Cloaking broach?”

“Cloaking broach,” Mike nodded.

“Isn’t that jut the coolest thing ever?” Angie sighed appreciatively, stars in his eyes. “Mertle Nitan is my uncle !”

“Seriously,” Dee agreed, and Little Raph nodded while Lee smirked through another bite of biscuit.

“…am I the only one who’s still in the dark?” Leonardo asked in a wry tone.

“You are not,” Master Splinter hummed, brow furrowed. “Who precisely is Mertle Nitan?”

“He’s a comic book artist,” Donatello explained. “Supposedly a human one. He draws comics and storyboards for the Jupiter Jim franchise.”

Both Master Splinter and Leonardo recognized that name, at least.

“Ahh, how natural, then, that young Angie would be so drawn to these comics.”

“Little Raph, too,” Leonardo said, nudging his son.

“We’re all Jimmers!” Little Raph grinned. “That’s how I met Lee! We were wearing the same Jupiter Jim’s Pluto Vacation hat!”

“Ah,” Leonardo smiled, looking over to Michelangelo. “I imagine you had a much easier time getting ahold of that hat than I did.”

“I bet,” Michelangelo snorted. “I just found it in a back closet at the studio and asked if anyone would miss it. I didn’t realize how rare it was until after Lee had already been wearing it for months. Where’d you guys find yours?”

Leonardo and Little Raph exchanged a glance. “Thrift store, originally. Then someone literally stole it and we hunted them down. Ended up busting a pretty big vintage theft ring by the end of it.”

“Really?” Lee snorted. “People actually go round stealing vintage stuff?”

“It was a whole thing,” Leonardo nodded. “Got me my job, actually.”

“I still can’t get over this,” Raphael huffed, finally sliding Michelangelo’s phone back across the table. “You draw comics, and they actually pay you for it?”

His tone was genuinely excited, and Michelangelo raised a brow at him. “Yes? Comic books cost money for a reason you know.”

“Yeah, but just—that’s your dream job, bro!” Raphael was grinning now. “Man, I woulda liked to see you after that job interview. Bet you were on top of the world for days.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Michelangelo grinned. “We partied hard with my first paycheck, didn’t we, Lee?”

“Mmhmm!” Lee agreed enthusiastically through a mouthful of food. Swallowing quickly, he added, “That was when we got matching blue laptops! And Minecraft! We had junk food for days !”

“Good times,” Mike sighed.

“Segue,” Dee said, looking to Donatello, “Can we go back to the part about how we need to get back to our dimension sooner rather than later? Because as much as I hate to say it… I agree.”

“How much sooner is sooner?” Angie asked with a small whine. “We just got back!”

“Well, Little Raph and I need to clean out our apartment,” Leonardo put in. “I already got the keys back from Mrs. Brocktree.”

“Oh yeah!” Little Raph realized. “Wait, what are we going to do about the garden?”

“I bet the Donnies can whip up something for us here,” Leonardo said.

“How big of a garden we talking?” Donatello asked.

“Not that big,” Leonardo assured him. “Calling it a garden at all is a little generous. They’re all just potted plants on our balcony.”

Donatello looked ponderous. “So this is a strange question,” he laughed a bit, “but where do you live?”

“By the police station on the east side,” Leonardo said.

“Hah, no wonder we never ran into each other,” Raphael huffed. “Dee and I always stuck to the west side. Our new place is right next to the train station.”

“And we were up north,” Mike added thoughtfully. “Wanted to stay close to Hueso since he was, y’know. The only person I knew.”

The Duncles fell sharply silent, and Grampa Splinter reached over to place a hand on Mike’s arm.

Lee was quick to step in and lighten the mood, snorting, “Can you imagine if we were accidentally neighbors or something?”

“I was just thinking about the odds we never ran into each other at the grocery store,” Dee nodded.

“That would’ve been hilarious ,” Lee snorted.

“We always shopped at LeeLee’s Market,” Little Raph said.

“Dude, I’ve been there !” Lee gasped. “That’s the best Asian market in the Hidden City!”

“Me too!” Angie said. “They have the best snacks!”

“I think we’ve been once or twice,” Dee said, looking to Raphael, who nodded.

Little Raph’s eyes got big. “We actually could’ve met at the market.”

“We totally could’ve, dude!”

“That’s it, we have to go to LeeLee’s,” Lee determined. “We gotta get a group picture.”

“Yeah!” Angie said, punching the air. “Can we go, Dad? Please? Please ?”

“We do need to water our plants, even if we don’t move out immediately,” Leonardo added upon seeing Donatello hesitate.

That seemed to be the last factor that tipped the scales, and Donatello nodded. “We might as well get you moved out sooner than later. I’ll buy up the rest of your lease, and don’t you dare argue with me on this.”

“Alright, I won’t,” Leonardo chuckled, “but someone else is going to have to break the news to Mrs. Brocktree and little Rosie.”

“Oh yeah,” Little Raph said in a sad tone. “They’re our neighbors,” he added for everyone else’s benefit. “Rosie waters our plants when we’re gone.”

“I’m sure you will be able to return to visit them,” Grampa Splinter assured him.

“We’ll need to move outta our apartment, too,” Raphael realized.

“Us, too,” Michelangelo agreed. “Oh, except we got a house. Hey Donnie, how does one sell a house?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Donatello promised firmly. “Let’s just get everyone home.”

“Will we be able to fit all our stuff in here?” Michelangelo wondered, looking around at the comfortable, fully furnished home.

“Whatever you don’t want to sell can be stored at the mansion,” Donatello said, waving a hand.

Multiple people around the table snorted their drinks or choked on their food and exclaimed,

“Did you say mansion ?!”

“We have a mansion ?”

“How big of a mansion are we talking about here?”

“Not that I’m surprised, but how ?”

Donatello smiled sheepishly. “I… kinda bought an island off the south side of the Hidden City and built a base on it? It’s only three stories tall, nothing outrageous.”

“And a basement!” Angie piped in.

“Yes, and a basement,” Donatello acknowledged. “We’ve got enough space for everyone, don’t worry.”

“Dude,” Lee said, eyes wide and a grin slowly spreading on his face. “We’re gonna live in a mansion. This is so epic! ”

By the time they had finished breakfast and cleaned up the mess, Angie was bouncing up and down at the idea of getting to see where all his brothers had been living for all these years. Even Master Splinter came along as they all teleported to the Hidden City of Angie’s home dimension.

They went to Dee and Uncle Raph’s place first, since Dee assured everyone they would be the fastest to pack up. He and Uncle Raph were used to dropping everything and running at a moment’s notice, and Dee carried most of his possessions in his battle shell anyway, so it didn’t take long to gather the rest of their things and transport them to the Hamato mansion with the portal disks. Uncle Don took a few minutes to talk to the office staff and get the cost of cleaning and the remainder of the lease squared away, and they were done before lunch.

They decided to have lunch at a Japanese shop by LeeLee’s, which allowed the boys to get their photoshoot and for Master Splinter to have a rare treat. He didn’t get out of the sewer much these days, much less into a restaurant, and he enjoyed chatting with their servers in Japanese while they ate.

After lunch, they stopped by Uncle Mike and Lee’s house so they could pack up some essentials. They’d been living in that house for five years now, so it would take a fair amount of work to sort through all their stuff and get it ready to sell. They stayed long enough for Little Raph to take a nap, so Lee had time to show Angie and Dee all of his comic and video game collections. He had an impressive number of Legend of Zelda titles, and he was itching to get his hands on the new game that had come out in their dads’ universe.

Little Raph woke up with renewed energy, and they all took a quick trip back to Angie’s home to dump Lee and Uncle Mike’s stuff. Grampa Splinter was understandably tired, so he opted to stay while everyone else went to start packing up Little Raph and Uncle Leo’s apartment.

While they had a bit more stuff that Dee and Uncle Raph, Uncle Leo and Little Raph were still living a fairly spartan life. Uncle Don took one look and declared that they’d have him all moved out by dinnertime. Uncle Leo and Little Raph decided to take that opportunity to go to the police station that Uncle Leo usually worked with to say goodbye to his old coworkers, who had all taken turns watching Little Raph during Uncle Leo’s assignments.

"Gramma, gramma! There's alotta turtles outside! I think they're going to Mr. Leonardo's!”

Mrs. Brocktree, an old badger yokai, turned and craned her neck from her easy chair in an attempt to see the front door. She certainly heard enough thumping and voices in the hallway and apartment next door that Mr. Leonardo could be having guests over. "What's that, Rosie? Lots of turtles, you say?"

Little Rosie, so named for the faint pink tint in her eyes, scampered back to her grandmother's side and jumped up and down excitedly. "Lots and lots and lots! C'mon, Gramma, you gotta see!" Rosie took Mrs. Brocktree's hand and pulled her out of her seat. "Come lookitt alla turtles!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Mrs. Brocktree chuckled, allowing her little granddaughter to lead her to the door. Rosie ran forward to open it and then beat a hasty retreat to hide behind her grandmother's legs.

Sure enough, the stairwell was crowded with an entire assembly line of turtles passing boxes down to the street. Two of the four turtles that Mrs. Brocktree could see were children—one was just a little larger than Rosie and the other a lanky teenager with brightly colored stripes. The other two were nearly identical to Mr. Leonardo, save for their headbands, which were purple and red. Two more turtles moved in and out of sight at the bottom of the stairs, bringing Mrs. Brocktree's total count to six, none of whom were her neighbors but all clearly relatives.

"Oh my!" Mrs. Brocktree chuckled, patting Rosie's striped head. "That is a lot of turtles!"

The one in the red bandana was closest to their door, and he grinned and nodded pleasantly towards them. "'Pologies for the noise, ma'am. We'll be done in a coupl'a hours, I think."

"By six!" the turtle in the purple mask nodded with a little wave.

Mrs. Brocktree and Rosie watched them shuttle a large box down the line and came to the same conclusion at the same time.

"Is Mr. Leonardo movin' away?" Rosie asked plaintively, hugging Mrs. Brocktree's knees and hiding her face in her apron.

"It certainly looks that way," Mrs. Brocktree said as she stroked her granddaughter's fur. Raising her voice a bit, she asked the turtles, "Are you Mr. Leonardo's family? He said he was looking for you all for a long time."

The red and purple masked turtles exchanged a fond look and quiet murmur, and then the red one stepped out of the assembly line to stand close enough to Mrs. Brocktree's doorway to have a proper conversation.

"Yeah, we're his family, ma'am," he said. "We've been looking for him for a long time, too. He'll be along soon to see you."

"And what might your name be, young man?" Mrs. Brocktree asked.

"Raphael."

"I see." Mrs. Brocktree couldn't help but smile as she took in the red bandana again, and she felt her granddaughter look up in surprise as well.

"But that's Little Raph's name!" Rosie gasped. "Why are you wearing little Raph's mask?"

"Hush, Rosie," Mrs. Brocktree said, still smiling. "I do believe it was Mr. Raphael's name and mask before it was Little Raph's. Isn't that right?"

Mr. Raphael chuckled and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, something like that. You're Mrs. Brocktree and Li'l Rosie, aren'tcha? Leo said you looked after him and the kid a lot."

"That's cuz we're neighbors!" Rosie declared.

"And Mr. Leonardo was a wonderful neighbor to us in return," Mrs. Brocktree said with fervor. "We're very sad to see him go, but I can't tell you how thrilled I am that he's found you all."

"Us too, ma'am," Raphael grinned. "We won't be going too far—I'm sure we'll run into you in town plenty."

"You had better," Mrs. Brocktree teased. She looked over the long line of turtles carrying boxes downstairs, taking special note of the lean teenagers, and raised her voice. "Do you boys like chocolate?"

Startled, the teenagers looked at each other, at the adults, and then back up to her. "Uh, yes ma'am!" the one with stripes said.

Mrs. Brocktree nudged her granddaughter towards the kitchen and told the boys, "You all stay right there!"

Within five minutes of meeting the legendary Mrs. Brocktree, Raphael and the rest of the moving crew were passing around a tin of chocolate truffles while Mrs. Brocktree moved from one turtle to the next, demanding to be introduced to each of them individually. Little Rosie quickly became obsessed with the kids, fawning over Dee in particular, who ate up every lick of attention.

Then Leonardo and Little Raph arrived, and Rosie abandoned the other boys to climb up Little Raph's shell and plop herself right on his shoulder. Little Raph took this with a grace that spoke of a long history of their friendship, and Raphael couldn't help but laugh when he saw Dee pouting.

"Did yer brother steal yer liddle maiden?" Raphael snickered, grabbing Dee in a loose chokehold and rubbing his head.

"Yes, he did," Dee grumbled, standing straight and stiff throughout the noogie. "But never fear—I shall win her back!"

Over the next few hours, Dee and his brothers took turns attempted to woo the little badger girl as they passed her doorway carrying boxes. Rosie giggled nonstop and enjoyed escalating the drama with contradictory statements and proclamations of love and disdain in turn. The kid couldn’t be more than eight, so it was all in good fun, and Raphael was glad to see the kids enjoying themselves.

It was interesting to watch them interact—they hadn’t known each other long enough to act completely like siblings, but they were obviously already close friends. Raphael couldn’t help but look at Little Raph, especially when the kid took charge of the group, and wonder how things would play out in the long run.

Chapter Text

Donatello’s portal disks were used liberally in the next week as they all went back and forth between packing Lee and Michelangelo’s home, unpacking at the mansion, and resting at the lair. It might have made more sense for them all to sleep at the mansion, but Michelangelo had been waiting for twelve years to sleep in a real New York sewer again, and he didn’t want to spend a single night away for the next month at least.

Master Splinter didn’t seem to mind. He always greeted them all with a warm embrace and spent many long hours sitting with them and listening to them all tell their stories.

On Wednesday night they were invited to have dinner with Lou Jitsu, and they drew a few stares as they trooped through the immaculate lobby of his apartment building.

“Talk about fancy,” Raphael grunted as they filed into the elevator. It was a bit crowded with all of them, but they were all a little thinner with their cloaking broaches making them look human. The smell of pizza quickly permeated the tight space. “Reminds me of Cody’s.”

“Tell me about it!” Michelangelo nodded, holding a stack of pizza boxes in one hand while he tapped at his phone with the other. “Aaand there, now he knows we’re here.”

“Pretty sure he was notified when we checked in at the front desk,” Leonardo hummed.

“Pretty sure he ignores those messages,” Michelangelo snorted, waving his hand with his phone dismissively.

“It’s a long way up,” Donatello commented idly, watching the floor numbers tick by. “Glad we can use the elevator.”

“We didn’t the first time,” Lee grinned. “Dad climbed the whole building with me on his shell!”

Everyone looked at Michelangelo, who laughed subconsciously. “Well you were the one who followed me all the way here—I wasn’t about to leave you on the ground!”

“You climbed a 23-story building carrying a kid?” Raphael asked.

“Yes…?”

Raphael snorted and shook his head. “And people call me crazy.”

“Pizza delivery!” Lee shouted as he walked in. He shucked his shoes at the entrance, tapped his cloaking broach, and swept into the kitchen before Lou could even rise from his stool at the counter.

“Ah, thank you Green!” Lou chuckled. “You may put the pizza over there—no, not on the stove, it is still hot! Over there , no, look where I am pointing Green—”

“Got it!” Lee chirped, spinning on his heel and plopping the pizza on the counter beside a neat stack of plates. Then he bounded over to the entrance, where his family was following his example and removing their shoes and turning off their broaches. “So these are my brothers! This is Dee and Angie and Little Raph, and these are our Duncles! Raphael and Leonardo and Donatello!”

“And me,” Michelangelo grinned, flicking Lee in the head and making him squawk indignantly. “I’m a Duncle too!”

“He already knows you!” Lee scoffed.

“I can’t believe this is finally happening!!” Angie squeaked, staring up at Lou and hopping up and down while flapping his hands. “I’ve had dreams about this day!”

“Metaphorically, I have as well!” Dee said, his voice pitching up in excitement. He and Angie grabbed each other and tried to muffle their screams.

“It’s such a pleasure to meet you Mr. Lou Jitsu!!” Little Raph said in a rush, pumping Lou’s arm up and down vigorously.

“Aha—yes of course!” Lou said, grasping Little Raph’s hand in both his own. “That’s quite the grip you have, young turtle! And so tall! I’m sure you inherited that from me, of course.”

He winked, and Little Raph squealed in delight.

Leonardo cleared his throat behind them, so Little Raph reluctantly released Lou’s hand, scooped up all three of his brothers, and stepped to the side, hopping and prancing in place while they watched the Duncles greet the man who would have raised their children in another life.

“Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo,” Lou said, bowing formally, “it is a great honor to see you together again. Thank you for rescuing me and the little turtles—I do not know what could have possibly happened if you were not there.”

The Duncles exchanged a quick glance. They had a fair idea. Leonardo took the initiative to return the bow and said, “It’s good to meet you properly as well, Lou-san. There’s someone else who’d like to meet you, too.”

Then the turtles stepped aside and made room for a nearly-five-foot rat man wearing a brown robe and using a walking stick to shuffle forward.

“You must be Master Splinter,” Lou said, bowing deeply. “Michelangelo has told me much about you, Sensei.”

Master Splinter walked up to Lou and looked him up and down carefully, but then he nodded to himself and bowed as well. “It is a great pleasure for me to meet a version of my dear Master Yoshi, and I thank you for the care and wisdom you have offered my son and grandson in my absence.” Rising from his bow, Master Splinter tapped his cane. “Come, children. Let us eat and we will talk of what the future will hold.”

The turtles all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Lou had passed the Master Splinter vibe check.

Lou was quick to offer his penthouse as a home for the young turtles in any capacity they wished to use it. He indulged the children with their questions, mostly about his movies, his rise to fame, and about the facilities available in his penthouse—the purple and red ones were especially excited about his private pool, and the orange one was thrilled at the prospect of having his very own art studio with a gorgeous view of the New York skyline. Lee of course practically lived here already, and he reminded his brothers that they had an in-house theater, popcorn machine, ice cream machine, and soda machine, and the children were just as excited about that as anything.

Gradually, the adults began steering the conversation back to Lou’s past.

Lou was as open as he possibly could be.

“You have said I am a version of your Master Yoshi, Sensei,” he said to Master Splinter, his tone turning hesitant and grim. “I am afraid you will not find me so honorable. I turned my back on the Hamato clan long ago to pursue fame and glory. I have since learned that such things are fleeting. But I will not be rejoining the clan, if it still exists at all.”

Master Splinter stirred his bowl of noodles with his chopsticks and eyed him carefully. “And why is that?”

Lou’s tenuous tone grew firm. “The Hamato way is the way of sacrifice. To protect the world, members of the clan were selected to withdraw from society and protect rare artifacts. Parents were torn from children, sisters from brothers, fathers from sons. If I were forced to choose between the fate of the world and the fate of my family, I would choose my family every time. This is not the Hamato way.”

“Guess yer in good company,” Raphael huffed.

“Mmm,” Master Splinter agreed, mouth curling up. “I think we will find there are many differences between our dimensions, Lou-san, but in the end, we find much in common between ourselves. I have but one last question for you.”

The table went quiet, watching Master Splinter set his chopsticks down and look at Lou with the full gravity of his dark eyes.

“Who is your family?”

Lou huffed a laugh and smiled. “A few years ago, I would have said I have no family. Even my last connection to the Hamatos, Grampa Sho, passed some time ago. But now…” he looked up at Mike and Lee, who grinned back, and he gestured to the whole table of turtles and rat. “You are my family, if you’ll have me.”

“Too late, we adopted you a long time ago,” Lee snarked, causing all the adults to laugh.

“Welcome to the family,” Donatello agreed, and Lou could not be happier to hear that sentence, giant turtles and rats notwithstanding.

The next day, Donatello brought the kids together to give them their high school placement tests.

“Do I have to?” Angie whined. “Can’t I just be in Lee’s class?”

“Being in my class won’t mean anything if we’re doing things virtually, bud,” Lee laughed.

“Yeah, this semester,” Angie said. “But we’ll go in person in the spring, right?” He looked at his dad, who had pursed his lips in an uncertain expression. “Right, Dad?” Angie pressed, alarmed.

Dee spoke up instead. “You’re assuming we won’t be doing full-time hero work by then. Besides, I’m not in Lee’s grade, and do you see me getting all upset about it?”

“You’re in college,” Angie huffed.

“I don’t get what the big deal is,” Lee said. “I bet you can test into high school no sweat!”

He gave his brows a wiggle, and Angie remembered one of their late-night talks at camp where he’d joked about missing questions on purpose so he wouldn’t skip any grades so he could stay with his friends.

“Yeah,” Angie sighed, sagging forward onto the table. “Yeah, I know. It’s just so long .”

“How about this,” Lee said. “We’ll all do it with you!”

“Yeah!” Little Raph cheered, as if he didn’t have to take it anyway.

“Please no,” Dee groaned.

“Aw c’mon Dee, are you saying you don’t want an opportunity to rub your superiority in our faces?”

“You make a compelling argument,” Dee amended quickly.

Donatello smiled and shook his head at them. “Alright, four high school GED-slash-placement tests, coming right up.”

“Hey Mike?”

Michelangelo finished his fighter combo in his video game before he acknowledged Donatello’s call. “Yeah bro?”

“Can you come look at something for a second?”

“Sure!” Michelangelo paused the game, making Raphael groan.

“How long ‘s this gonna take, Don?” Raphael called. “I’m whooping his shell in Smash Brothers!”

Donatello poked his head into the room and gestured to both of them. “You might wanna see this too, Raphie.”

“Oh boy,” Raphael grunted, but he followed Michelangelo out of the game room and into Don’s turtle cave, which had an entire wall of computer screens.

Leonardo was already there waiting for them, a troubled look on his face, but he offered his brothers a smile. “Guess this does warrant a family meeting.”

“What’s going on?” Raphael asked. Up on the central screens was a bunch of statistics and several videos running some kind of quiz.

“I had Angie and Little Raph take a high school placement test,” Donatello began, “and Lee and Dee got roped into taking them, too.”

“Course they did,” Michelangelo smirked, easily imagining how little Angie’s big sad eyes had played them all for fools.

“Dee’s already in college,” Raphael scoffed.

“And his test scores reflect that,” Donatello assured him. “He aced them all. But so did Lee and Angie.”

Michelangelo’s brows shot up, and he looked first to Donatello, then to Leonardo. “Little Raph… didn’t?” he asked first.

“He has some expected knowledge gaps in social studies and grammar mechanics,” Donatello shrugged, sitting at his main console and clicking through something on the center screen. “Nothing that can’t be corrected in a semester or two. But here’s the kicker.”

Four color-coded test scores and grade placements were displayed. The purple one was at 100% and correctly placed in college, but the other three were firmly set in the 50 th percentile for high school freshmen.

“So they all placed with Lee? But you just said Angie and Lee rocked their tests,” Michelangelo said, scratching his head.

“They did, but that was before they submitted them,” Donatello said. “Little Raph, Angie, and Lee all went back and changed their answers to get placed as Freshmen. I only noticed because I was keeping score as they went.”

Oh.

Well that explained Leo’s weirded-out expression.

“Aw shell,” Michelangelo groaned while Raphael started laughing hard.

“Indeed,” Donatello said with a tired smile. “I’m assuming you didn’t know, then?”

“Not exactly, but I can’t say I’m surprised, either,” Michelangelo sighed, rubbing his forehead. “His teachers have always said he could move ahead if he wanted to, but every time I asked he wasn’t interested. Probably didn’t want to leave his friends.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” Donatello hummed.

Raphael’s laughter had eased, and he said, “So lemme get this straight. All our kids are scary-smart, don’t need to go to high school at all, and little Lee-Lee-boy has been cheating the system for years just to hang out with his friends?”

“Pretty much,” Donatello agreed. “We have a few options moving forward. Option A, get all the kids their GEDs and enroll them in college with some remedial courses for Little Raph.”

“I like that option,” Raphael smirked. “Would knock Dee down a peg or two.”

“Option B,” Donatello continued, “Give them the choice of going through with high school or moving on to college courses.”

Michelangelo sighed heavily. “Lee would stay where he’s at. He’s been doing it this long.”

“And Little Raph and Angie would probably follow his lead,” Donatello nodded. “Which leads us to Option C. Do nothing and let them be high school freshmen together.”

“I know my opinion doesn’t count for much here,” Raphael said, looking to Leonardo, “and I know Little Raph ain’t me, but I really don’t see him sticking with four years of kiddie school if he already knows all that junk.”

“Me neither,” Leonardo nodded. “I’m going to give him the option. He can always test out later if he wants to.”

“Same,” Michelangelo said, grateful that Leonardo had put his feelings into words. “Lee’s been doing this long enough, he’d probably be pretty bummed out if I pulled the rug on him now. But at least he won’t have to hide it anymore.”

There was a beat of silence, and they all looked to Donatello, who was staring at the screens and wringing his hands.

“Donnie,” Raphael sighed. “Whatcha thinkin’ in that big brain of yours?”

Donatello jumped in surprise at getting called out, then sighed and shook his head. “It’s just… I don’t know. I’ve been Angie’s teacher his whole life. Did I push him too hard? He’s only twelve, and he’s testing out of high school. That’s not normal.”

“Normal?” Michelangelo scoffed, throwing his arms out. “Since when did we care about normal? Dee’s only thirteen, and he’s in a bachelor’s program—and isn’t this whole meeting about the fact that all our kids could skip high school if they wanted?”

A smile reluctantly tugged at Donatello’s beak.

“Pretty sure we don’t have enough data points for normal , either,” Michelangelo continued, in full-swing now. “Besides, has Angie ever said you were pushing him too hard?”

Donatello frowned and opened his mouth, and Michelangelo quickly backtracked. “Wait, never mind, this is an alternate me we’re talking about, he probably complained about learning his ABCs.” Donatello huffed a laugh and nodded ruefully. “Has Master Splinter ever said you were pushing him too hard? Or April? Heck, she at least went to real school!”

“No,” Donatello said quietly. “No, they never seemed worried about it.”

“Then don’t worry about it,” Michelangelo said firmly. “Or better yet, ask Angie about it while you’re talking to him about being a clever little smarty-pants.”

Lee, predictably, wanted to stay in high school with his friends, though he did ask to start taking a few college courses on the side. Little Raph looked relieved the moment his dad gave him the option and elected to study enough to get his GED and not worry about college at all. Angie was more reluctant, but after talking it over between Lee and Dee, he decided to join Dee in attending college online. The boys spent most of the next semester doing their various online school courses together, so none of them particularly cared which classes they were doing anyway.

Chapter Text

It had been a few weeks since Dee and his family had settled in his Pops’ home universe, and he was putting the finishing touches on a line of new devices for everyone. He’d done a good job at hiding them so far, but his luck had to run out eventually, and apparently eventually was today.

At least he only had Little Raph’s tablet sitting out when Lee sauntered into his lab unannounced.

“Ohhh, shiny!” Lee said, zeroing in on the new piece of tech.

“Paws off, Lee,” Dee said without looking up from his computer screen. He was scanning through font options at the moment and didn’t want to lose track of his spot. “It’s for Little Raph.”

“Oh, wicked! Do you want me to get him?”

“No!” Dee snapped. “It’s not finished!”

“Really?” Despite Dee’s warnings, Lee picked up the tablet and turned it on. “Heh, you even made Ghost Bear his lock screen. Awesome!”

“Put it back, Lee.”

Lee did not put it back. Instead he somehow hacked his way past the lock screen and started scrolling through the apps. “Dude, you’ve literally got all of Little Raph’s favorite stuff on here. You should give it to him!”

“Stop! No!” Dee finally gave up on his scrolling and spun around in his chair, snatching the tablet out of Lee’s hand. “Literally nothing is organized on it yet! If I gave it to him now he’d hate it!”

Lee sniffed haughtily. "Yeah well, I've known him longer than you have—"

"By five minutes!" Dee scoffed.

"Hey, we connected in those five minutes! Trust me when I say Little Raph is going to love this."

"I do not, and he will not. He'd hate it because it’s not finished."

"What are you even talking about? This looks great!"

"No! I-I still need to find the perfect default font!"

"Dude, you literally already have the perfect font!"

"But what if there's a better one? What if he secretly likes Calibri more? I have to run field tests—"

"Nope, that's it, I'm taking it."

"Wha—LEE! UNHAND ME YOU PBFFPFPFPT—"

Lee shoved Dee's face into the desk as he wrestled the tablet out of his hands, and then made a dash for the door. Dee sprang up after him, his teeth snapping dangerously. "Nardo, so help me, I will—!"

"Eat my dust Dee-boy!" Lee shouted, holding the tablet over his head as he bolted through the lair faster than any turtle, mutant or otherwise, had the right to move.

Dee chased after him anyway. He had to do an about-face when he heard Lee call "Hey Little Raph!" in the living room behind him, and he entered the room just in time to see Lee shout "Catch!" and wind up to throw the tablet through the air to where Little Raph was lounging on a beanbag chair.

Dee caught Lee in a flying tackle, but Lee still managed to get the tablet airborne, and Little Raph darted forward to catch the shortened toss. Dee snarled and proceeded to do his best to throttle Lee, but Lee proved to be a slippery adversary, and soon they were in an all-out wrestling match. Dee ended up on top as he always did, and he ratcheted Lee's arm up behind his back and twisted until Lee was squealing "Uncle! Uncle! Mercy! You win!"

"Serves you right!" Dee gave Lee a final slap upside the head and then released his arm, though he remained sitting on top of his shell, effectively pinning him to the floor.

Only then did he look up and realize that Little Raph was already tapping through the tablet with a confused expression.

"No!" Dee shouted, making a lunge for it. "It's not! Finished!"

Lee, the traitor, reared up and snagged Dee around the knees, bringing him back down hard against the floor. "Too late! It's his now!"

"It's what?" Little Raph asked, finally looking up from the tablet.

"It's yours big guy!" Lee called. "Dee made iiiiaaaahhhhh!! Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

Dee smirked and pinched even harder, making Lee squeal again, but then a large three-fingered hand descended on his battleshell and lifted him into the air.

"Alrigh', alrigh', ease up, Dee," Uncle Raph grunted, setting Dee on his feet and reaching down to help Lee up.

"No, Pops!" Dee snarled. "He stole my private property and made me chase him and knocked me down and--"

Lee took full advantage of the situation and hid behind Uncle Raph's shell. "And you tried to rip my arm off!" he whined, rubbing his shoulder. "Look Uncle Raph, it's already bruising!"

Uncle Raph spared him an unimpressed glance. "Yeah, and I'm sure Dee's split lip just did that by itself, huh?"

Dee hadn't even noticed, but he rubbed his mouth and sure enough, a streak of blood came off onto his hand. Probably from Lee's last tackle.

"Uh, whoops?" Lee laughed nervously.

"Alrigh' kiddos," Uncle Raph said, drawing them out and holding them both firmly in front of him, "you know the rules. If there's blood, there's gotta be a sit-down."

Dee groaned long and loud. "I don't care , Pops. Just make him say sorry and I'll take my tablet back and leave ."

"Nope, them's the breaks," Uncle Raph said, tone unwavering. He looked up at Little Raph, who was watching the whole thing with interest. "'S that the tablet?"

Little Raph shrugged. "Lee chucked it at me. It unlocked for my face, though, and it's like… got all my favorite stuff, so…."

Uncle Raph read the room in an instant and shrugged. "Then keep it—Dee was pro'lly gonna give it to you anyway, and I gotta make sure these miscreants make it to the dojo."

"Grampa time!" Lee cheered while Dee groaned again.

They attempted to jostle each other as they were frog marched them out of the room, but Uncle Raph gave them both a shake and a warning growl, "Don't make me get Fearless."

Lee and Dee glanced at each other and wordlessly agreed to avoid that. Getting disciplined by any of the Duncles was annoying enough, but Uncle Leo was infamous for his longwinded dissertations on the merits of Bushido, discipline, and honor. After the first couple times it became extremely boring and was therefore avoided at all costs. The Duncles, being the devious snoops they were, caught onto this immediately and took full advantage of it—even Grampa Splinter had called in Uncle Leo once as an extra punishment after he'd caught the boys snacking out of his tea cake cupboard. Dee hadn't quite forgiven Grampa Splinter for that one yet.

Both Dee and Lee paused and groaned quietly when they opened the dojo and saw that Uncle Leo was already there with Grampa Splinter. They weren't getting out of this one so easily.

About half an hour later, Dee was regretting a lot of things. He regretted leaving the tablet where Lee could see it, regretting letting him take it, and most of all, regretted lowering his guard to the point that Lee was able to get a solid hit on him. Because this was the worst. And sure, Lee was sitting right next to him through the same horrible lecture, but Dee was the one Uncle Leo was grilling. He'd implied several times that Lee couldn't help the way he was, but Dee could, and he should have known better. And while Dee wasn't about to extend the lecture any further by arguing with him—he'd made that mistake only once, in his first week with the family—he was inwardly seething. His Pops and Grandpa Splinter were sitting right there, going along with it, and Dee had never thought he could be so angry at his own family before, but he clenched his jaw and was determined to ride it out.

It caught everyone off guard when it was Lee who interrupted Uncle Leo. "It was my fault," he said, voice firm and utterly serious. "I was nagging Dee, and I stole the tablet— I'm the one who knocked him down and gave him the split lip—"

"Lee," Uncle Leo chided, "it's alright. We all had to learn how to work through Mikey goofing off when we were kids—it's time your brothers did, too."

"No," Lee snapped back, sitting ramrod straight and glaring up at his uncle. "I'm not my dad. So play back everything you just said and imagine if someone told you that."

A moment of shocked silence fell in which Uncle Leo slowly cocked his head at Lee, Grampa Splinter smirked to himself in his meditative pose, and Dee staring at Lee slack-jawed. Then Uncle Raph snorted and laughed, "He's gotta point, Leo. Have you played chess with this kid yet?"

"He never asked me to," Uncle Leo said, shaking his head without taking his eyes off Lee.

Lee raised his chin defiantly. "You never asked me, either."

Uncle Raph chortled, and Grampa Splinter's smile grew. Dee didn't dare look at Lee, keeping his eyes fixed on a point over Uncle Leo's shoulder, but he hoped Lee could feel his smug approval through their twin sense—not that Lee was lacking in smugness as it was.

"Alright," Uncle Leo huffed good naturedly and looked between Lee and Dee. "I suppose I have been treating you as if I knew the two of you, and I don't. I'm sorry."

Lee looked to Dee first, who gave him a tiny nod, and then Lee turned back to Uncle Leo. "Apology accepted on the condition that you spend a mandatory game night with us."

Dee wrinkled his beak and looked over at Lee. Why on earth would they want that? But Lee winked at him, so Dee shrugged and accepted the fact that he had a plan, and Lee was in full protective mode, which Dee hadn't seen since summer camp, so it had to be a good one.

Uncle Leo smiled in surprise and shrugged. "Sure, I'm always willing to spend time with you boys."

Lee grinned sharply at him. "Glad to hear it. Are we done here?"

Grampa Splinter hummed and opened his eyes. "I believe we are. Thank you, children. I would like to speak to Leonardo and Raphael privately now."

Lee and Dee didn't need to be told twice. They stood and bowed to Grampa Splinter and bolted for the door.

"What'd I do?" Uncle Raph grunted as they left, and Dee slowed a little to hear the response.

"You will call your other brothers on this infernal device for me."

Dee grinned and ducked out. He knew Grampa Splinter hated touchscreens, and Uncle Leo was equally helpless with them. Dee's Pops wasn't about to get any IT certificates, but at least he could set up a three-way call.

Lee was waiting for Dee just outside the dojo, and as soon as the door was closed, Dee turned to him expectedly. "What's the plan?"

An hour later, the first round of Bang was in full swing, and when Uncle Mike played his next card, Uncle Don gasped in offended surprise. "Mikey, why are you still sabotaging me?! We're both outlaws!"

"Because I'm the fun uncle! It's in the job description," Uncle Mike grinned.

"Then why aren't you sabotaging Leo?" Uncle Don demanded.

Uncle Mike scoffed. "Because he and Lee are in the middle of a duel of honor! No way am I interrupting that—I'd get destroyed if I tried."

"Yes, you would," Lee said primly, sorting through his cards one last time before making his move, healing himself up and putting down a protective barrel.

Uncle Leo remained focused on analyzing Lee's play, but the other Duncles exchanged a glance, and Uncle Raph smiled, picking through his cards. "Sure, I'll poke the bear."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Dee warned. He was pretty sure his Pops was a fellow renegade.

"Pretty sure I can take it," Uncle Raph smirked and tossed down an attack on Lee.

His attack was immediately cancelled out and a counterattack launched. Uncle Raph cancelled that one, but after two more he was forced to fold. "Jeeze, kid, you just nerfed yourself to take me down." He flipped over his character card, revealing he was an outlaw, and Dee tsked to himself—who was the other renegade?

"Nah, I'm still in the game," Lee was saying, collecting his three cards as a reward for killing an outlaw and giving Uncle Leo a significant look. "You'll see."

During the next round, Lee lost a few health points to various group attacks and Uncle Leo, who'd been targeting him from the start, but he was indeed still alive.

Uncle Don was out now, and he and Uncle Raph joined Angie in a loud dead-man-huddle to discuss theories for everyone's identities. Uncle Mike was obviously an outlaw, but Lee, Dee, and Uncle Leo had thus far been helpful to Little Raph, who was the sheriff this round. Angie had been a deputy before he'd been sniped by the outlaws (and Little Raph, who had thought he was a renegade and was mortified upon discovering he was wrong).

Dee fingered his own Renegade identity card and looked around the table again. Lee would be the most obvious choice for the other renegade—he had egged Little Raph on to finish off Angie, even though it was obvious that Angie truly was a deputy (the kid couldn't lie to save his life). He'd never played an attack on Little Raph, either, not even a group attack. Uncle Leo had played a few of those, but never targeted Little Raph directly. Ultimately, one of them had to be the other deputy and the other was a renegade, and as far as Dee was concerned it was a tossup for who was who.

Little Raph had gotten gun-shy after the incident with Angie, so he focused all his attacks on the more vocal outlaws even though Dee and Uncle Leo were also within easy reach.

Dee played his attack on Uncle Mike and knocked another health point off his card, which Mike took with good humor, attacking Dee right back and exhausting his "Miss" cards. Lee's turn was next, and Dee fully expected him to finish Uncle Mike off, but instead he attacked Dee .

"Dude," Dee groaned, out of the game in a blink. "Uncle Mike was right there ."

"So were you," Lee grinned.

No one was surprised when Dee revealed his character card, and Lee and Little Raph shared a fist-bump for defeating a Renegade.

"Don't fist-bump him!" Angie cried to Little Raph. "He got me killed!"

"Sorry Angie," Lee shrugged, not sounding particularly sorry. "I had to be sure, you know?"

Uncle Leo snorted but didn't say anything. He'd been pretty quiet throughout the game, but Dee assumed that was just the way he played.

Little Raph lost no time in finishing off Uncle Mike, and then it was down to him, Lee, and Uncle Leo.

"Well, here we are," Lee said, watching Uncle Leo draw his cards and rearrange them. "What's your move, Big Me?"

"Well," Uncle Leo said, drawing out the word and giving his cards one last rearrangement. "You're the last thing standing in my way to victory, so this shouldn't come as a surprise."

He threw down a duel card. They exchanged a couple of "Bang" cards and then Lee took the hit. Lee took his turn next and immediately played a duel card of his own, and Uncle Leo took a hit.

Little Raph looked between them with a smile. "Hmmm, since Little Raph doesn't know which one of you is the deputy… Gatling gun!"

Lee and Uncle Leo each took another hit. Lee was down to his last life while Uncle Leo had two left, and it was Uncle Leo's turn, so the results looked inevitable, but Lee's last card was a miss, and he was somehow still alive at the end of it.

Lee drew his cards and stared at them for a long moment before discarding one and turning to Little Raph. "Your turn bro. I know you've still got that Indians card. This would be a good time to play it.”

Little Raph frowned. "But then you won't have any cards left against Uncle Leo."

Lee shrugged. "I know. But you gotta take him down."

Little Raph stared at him for a long moment. "You really are my deputy, aren'tcha?"

"You bet I am," Lee grinned. "C'mon, big guy, win this thing!"

"Now wait a minute—" Uncle Leo started, but Little Raph was already playing his cards.

Lee ticked off his last health point and proudly flipped over his character card, revealing the second deputy. "In your face, renegade!" he crowed as Little Raph played his last "Bang" card and defeated Uncle Leo.

"I admit it, you guys got me," Uncle Leo said, raising his hands in surrender. "That was well played, Lee."

"Shell yeah it was!" Little Raph cheered, slapping Lee on the back. "We won!"

"And me! I won too!" Angie cheered, throwing his arms over Little Raph and Lee's shoulders. His grip on Lee turned into a strangle hold for a moment as he hissed, "Even if both of you literally got me killed!"

"Yes, yes, I know, I'm the worst," Lee laughed, reaching up to give Angie a noogie. "I won for you, didn't I?"

"You did," Angie said, "but I'm still taking you out next round!"

"Fair enough.” 

They played another round, and sure enough, Angie attacked Lee mercilessly, despite the fact that they were both outlaws, and he was the first one out. Uncle Leo followed soon after, so they started a game of chess. Dee was a deputy this round, so he felt justified in going all out on Angie and getting himself killed in the process. He eagerly left the Bang table and huddled next to Lee’s chessboard to watch the masters at play.

Dee knew how to play chess, of course, but not with the same skill and passion as Lee. Uncle Leo was no slouch, either, so it was an entertaining though silent match to watch.

Experience won over youth today, but only by a hair, and both Lee and Uncle Leo stood and shook hands, complementing each other on their strategies.

Seemed like they were on speaking terms, so Dee huffed to himself and resigned himself to tolerating Uncle Leo.

For now.

Chapter Text

After everyone had settled into the lair and the children started school in earnest, Donatello and his brothers began alternating time between dimensions. Master Splinter was still quite independent, but Donatello didn’t like leaving him alone for more than a few days, and his brothers were more than happy to work out a rotating schedule to always spend some time in their home dimension. 

Donatello spent Tuesdays working with April at O’Neil Tech and Thursdays on Tello Communications, and Michelangelo ended his leave of absence and began working part time on his comics as well. Leonardo and Raphael were more than happy to quit their day jobs and spend time relaxing with their family—Leonardo could often be found having long conversations with Master Splinter about the finer points of Bushido, and Raphael split his time between eating, sleeping, and building his muscle mass back up under their supervision.

The family would share evening meals and stay up through the early morning hours talking, but Donatello still felt that the time was slipping between his fingers faster than he could keep up.

There was simply so much to do.

Little Raph had never been to a licensed doctor aside from a brief health clinic visit just before camp. He needed a comprehensive health screening, an array of vaccinations, a dentist appointment, eye exam—the works.

Dee needed much of the same. His and Raphael’s chaotic living conditions meant he’d never had a stable source of medical care, and while he’d done well enough for himself to survive, Donatello would not rest easy until he received a clean bill of health.

Lee and Angie were already on top of their health, but between the two of them, they convinced the entire family to enroll in therapy at the clinic that Lee and Mike had been going to for the last several years.

Donatello would be the first to admit that the sessions helped—he felt more stable than he had in years—but they just took so much time.

And he was running out of time.

Most universes didn’t get intense until the turtles were around fifteen years old, and Little Raph wouldn’t turn fifteen for several months, not to mention the boys were all different ages to begin with, aside from Lee and Dee whose birthdays were only a few weeks apart.

…Not that their birthdays were exactly accurate. When someone brought it up, Dee decided to move his birthday to share it with Lee since Lee already had legal documentation with it and Dee had a history of adjusting the day he celebrated according to what was going on at the time anyway.

Still, though, Donatello performed some analysis during one of their quiet days and determined that the boys’ ages were probably accurate, more or less.

One thing Donatello knew, though, and it didn’t come from any outside resource, simply a deep feeling in his shell.

The world would turn against the children when Little Raph was fifteen.

He did everything in his power to prepare them. If he wasn’t at work or building something with Dee, he was training with the boys, drilling them against mock Foot soldiers, EPF agents, heck, even Triceratons.

Leonardo was all for it. He also seemed to sense a growing danger on the horizon, though he said little about it—his presence and grim urgency at every training session spoke for him.

Raphael took it with good humor, even though Donatello knew he didn’t understand. He had his own challenges to work through—the sudden transition to a stable home after living on the run with a child for twelve years had pulled the metaphorical rug from underneath Raphael, and he struggled for some months to regain his footing. With the support of the family, counseling, and many, many long talks with Master Splinter, he was just starting to settle back into a healthier routine.

Then there was Michelangelo.

He never actually stated that he disapproved of Donatello’s preparations, but he would give him long hard looks sometimes when it came up in conversation, and he made a point to disappear during training time.

Lee hadn’t said anything, either, but Donatello could sometimes see a flash of hurt cross the boy’s face when Michelangelo would leave the room just after Leonardo called them all in for training.

Finally, the week before Little Raph’s birthday, Donatello gathered his brothers and sat them down for a long talk. He grilled Michelangelo especially hard until Michelangelo finally broke and admitted that the idea of having their kids go through the same things they did was eating him alive.

“I can’t watch Lee go through that,” he hissed through fast tears. “I can’t, Don, I can’t.”

“You won’t,” Leonardo said, rubbing his shell. “They have us.”

“Yeah, if you think we’re just gonna sit back and watch them save the world, yer stupider than I thought you were,” Raphael said, his voice husky with emotion. He’d obviously been dreading the same thing but had tried to power through it.

“I’m sorry I didn’t make our plans more clear,” Donatello told them both. “I wanted to train the boys in case they’ll need it, but we aren’t backseat-driving this party van. Not on my watch.”

Michelangelo made that crying-gasping-laugh that they’d all heard much too often the last few months.

“Could you imagine having four Master Splinters watching our backs? Not to mention Lou Jitsu,” Leonardo murmured, still rubbing Michelangelo’s shell. “It may not be easy—there’s a lot about this world that’s different from ours—but we’ll be right there with them. All of us.”

“You promise?” Michelangelo asked, dashing the tears from his eyes and looking at each of them in turn.

They all nodded and murmured agreement. “We’re all in this together, Mike,” Raphael huffed. “No turtle left behind.”

Michelangelo looked to Don with a profound expression of relief. “I was s-so scared you were g-gonna stay somethin’ stupid about t-trying to preserve the sacred t-timeline or somethin’.”

Donatello couldn’t help the snort that escaped his nose. “Pretty sure the sanctity of their timeline was shot to pieces a long time ago, Michelangelo. Ours too, for that matter. Not even Renet’s gonna touch us now, not with a twelve-and-a-half-foot pole.”

“Ohh, you did not just make a Grinch reference while I’m busy bawling my eyes out—!” 

While Donatello had that rare moment alone with his brothers, he shared what he’d learned from the small glimpse he had seen from their kids’ original timeline—or his best guess at their original timeline, since it had already been tampered with when he found it. He hadn’t been able to keep the time window open for very long, but he’d taken copious notes.

The first scenes he’d watched were from a time that their version of Splinter entered the original Dee’s turtle tank into a demolition derby, lying to Dee about it and infuriating him in the process.

From this glimpse, Donatello learned that Lou Jitsu originally mutated into a rat man, and that he didn’t take it well—when confronted by Dee, he’d admitted he had entered the derby in some twisted attempt to re-live his glory days. He also wasn’t very involved with the boys’ lives to the point that they were desperate for his attention any time it was offered. He loved the boys, though, and genuinely apologized once the truth had come out, and all was forgiven.

At that point, Donatello had realized he only had minutes left to keep the window open, so skipped ahead two years to see what else he could learn.

He landed on a strange scene where their universe’s Casey Jones, tied to a chair, informed the turtles, Splinter, and April that he was from an apocalyptic future. The family laughed at first, but then Splinter recognized the word Krang and they all realized that Casey was serious.

Donatello and Raphael had each seen many iterations of the Krang in various universes, and they were usually most comparable to their Utrom. Therefore, Donatello was reasonably sure that they could help prepare the boys for a similar alien encounter.

With the last thirty seconds before the time window burned out, Donatello had skipped forward a few months, and he saw the family all together, happy, and introducing their Casey Jones to the wonders of pizza.

So, for all intents and purposes, they had every reason to believe that the boys would pull through just fine. That didn’t change Donatello’s plans to help them, but Donatello and his brothers found great comfort in knowing that the kids were perfectly capable of fighting their own fights.

Donatello’s primary concern was making sure they would all be in the right place at the right time to put up those fights in the first place.

There was war in the Hamato household.

It was a rare weekend when all the Duncles were at Hamato island with the boys, Master Splinter was back in his home dimension, and the boys had just finished a week-long after-school training in stealth, and they were eager to put it into practice.

Dee and Angie were stalking down the basement hallway, alert for any stray creak or moan of the floorboards. Their prey remained oblivious in the basement room ahead, humming along to a catchy tune from his headphones. Uncle Mike loved sneaking down here to play his newly restored Game Guy and enjoy the warmth next to the hot water heaters and boilers. Uncle Don and Uncle Raphael had even dragged a couple couches down here for him and whoever else might want to join him.

No one was with him today—all the Duncles were scattered throughout the mansion, absorbed in their own interests. With his headphones on and focus locked onto the small screen in his hands, Uncle Mike was the perfect target for a sneak attack.

Dee motioned Angie to halt, and he leapt in, flipping gracefully over Mike's head and grabbing both his mask and his headphones as he sailed through the air.

Mike squawked in surprise and instinctively snatched at his head, missing his headphones but managing to yank his mask back out of Dee's hand before he'd even landed on the ground.

Angie didn't give him a chance to recover, cannonballing into Uncle Mike's shell and knocking him flat on his face. Dee knew they wouldn't be able to hold him down, so he tossed the headphones aside (safely onto the spare couch, he wasn't a monster) and wrestled Uncle Mike's mask out of his hand. Then he and Angie bolted.

Uncle Mike didn't stay stunned for long. "Oi! Get back here, you meddlesome kids!" he shrieked, shaking his fist as he ran for the door, but by the time he got there, both the kids and his mask were long gone. 

He considered pursuit, but his Game Guy was still blaring boss fight music from where he'd dropped it, and he was sure he was just a few more attempts away from beating this one. Chasing kids could wait.

Dee and Angie took their prize to the designated meeting place—a storage room on the 4th floor with a loose window latch—and were only half a heartbeat ahead of Lee and Little Raph. Lee had Uncle Raphael's red mask in his hand, and he and Dee rushed to exchange their prizes.

"Of course you'd go for my dad," Lee snarked, snatching the orange mask and looking it over for damage. "He's in the boiler room, right? Cakewalk."

"What? You never said we couldn't strategize," Dee smirked as he carefully folded his Pop's mask and stashed it in his belt. "Well, Little Raph, shall we?"

"Yeah!" Little Raph grinned, stepping over to the window with Dee while Angie fell back with Lee.

"No jumpscares on my dad, guys," Angie hissed. "I mean it!"

"We won't!" Little Raph waved cheerfully before he followed Dee out the window. "Good luck!"

"No thanks!" Lee shot back with a grin. "We got skills instead!"

"You got that right!" Angie laughed. They gave each other a high-five and slipped silently out of the room.

A chill came over Donatello, gone as soon as it arrived, but it got his sixth sense tingling. He was being watched.

"Friend or foe?" he called out.

"Oh, hey Uncle Don!" Little Raph's voice called from the direction of the window. "We come in peace! Uh, mostly!"

Coming in through the window explained the brief chill, at least. Donatello didn't even turn around from his computer. "You know the rules, boys. No playing in the lab."

"Right, right! Could you, uh, step outta the lab then? Just for a second!" Little Raph asked, his voice upbeat and excited and coming from a new location deeper in the room.

"I'm not the one playing games," Donatello called back. “Out.”

"You could be!" Little Raph's voice invited cheerfully, closer to the door now.

Donatello arced a brow in his general direction. "There are many, many more straightforward ways to ask me to play than to sneak into my lab through the window."

"Yeah, but they're less fun!" Little Raph laughed.

Donatello sighed and stepped away from his computer. "Alright, come out where I can see you and we can go play something."

Little Raph obediently stood up from where he'd be crouched behind a worktable, grinning widely, but Donatello kept scanning the room. "All of you."

"It's just me in here, Uncle Don," Little Raph said, his smile wide and innocent as he walked over to the door and tossed it open. "C'mon, I bet we can get the others on board if we go find them!"

Donatello planted his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'd bet a lot of space money that you're already playing. And you know the rules."

Little Raph took a single step outside the lab door. "Is this better?"

"Hm." Donatello turned back to his screen briefly and opened a heat sensor camera view of his lab. It was empty aside for himself, but he knew Little Raph had referred to himself as we when he first entered the room. Whoever had come in with him was already gone.

Donatello sighed and shook his head. "Alright, boys, but this better be good."

He followed after Little Raph, and the moment he stepped out the door of the lab, there was a sharp tug on his bandana, which slipped over his head when he instinctively ducked away.

"You got it!" Little Raph cheered.

"RUN!" Dee screamed, leaping over Donatello's head and landing on Little Raph's shell as he turned and bolted down the hall. Dee whooped in triumph as he was carried away, Donatello's lavender mask held up in one fist.

Understanding dawned on Donatello, and he stood up slowly from his crouch. He looked up over the doorway, and yeah, there was a tiniest little lip above the frame, but it must have taken some serious balance and core strength to hide there for any length of time.

Donatello huffed a laugh and went back into his lab, locking the door and the window shut before returning to his work. It would only take a couple minutes to finish analyzing the data from this last financial report, and then he could go hunt down his mask.

Dee and Little Raph didn't have to wait in front of Angie's room for very long before Lee and Angie bolted up the stairs, breathless and wide eyed, Uncle Leo's mask held tightly in Lee’s fist. “Ninja vanish!” Lee hissed, and in an instant they had split up between Angie and Dee's rooms and found a safe spot to hide--Angie retreated into his shell behind the beanbag chair in his room, Little Raph scrambled into Angie's massive walk-in closet, Lee dove under Dee's bunk bed, and Dee used his doorframe perch trick for the second time that day, this time over his bedroom door. 

Dee barely had time to take a steadying breath in his new position before Uncle Leo's swift stride could be heard on the floorboards down the hall. 

Upon finding an apparently empty hallway, Uncle Leo gave vent to a world-weary sigh and started opening the doors to each of their rooms, calling out, “It's alright, boys, I'm not mad. Just give me my mask back please.”

“They got you too?” Raphael's voice grunted from the other end of the hall, moving quickly to join Uncle Leo in front of Angie's room.

“Lee and Angie asked me to teach them a few moves with the odachi,” Uncle Leo sighed as they entered Angue's room and began looking around. “I guess it was just an excuse to get close enough.”

Dee’s Pops chuckled. “Oh, they got you good.”

“Yeah? What about you?” Uncle Leo asked, sounding a little annoyed.

“I was conked out in front of the TV,” Raphael admitted freely. “I only woke up like two minutes ago when a commercial came on.”

Uncle Leo made a noise of concern as they moved to Dee's room. “You didn't notice someone touching your face?”

Dee felt himself tense up, ready to abandon their game and go down to defend his Pops, but he took a silent breath and held firm.

His Pops’ stiff reply spoke volumes on its own, anyway. “Yeah, I did that while sleep-with-one-eye-open gig for about twelve years, Leo. Sue me if I felt safe enough here to actually sleep for real.”

“Ah,” Uncle Leo winced. “Right.”

Dee fought back a snigger as the most awkward silence fell over his Pops and Uncle Leo. 

Luckily for them, Uncle Mike arrived before too long, calling, “Oh booooys~”

“In here, Mike,” Raph called.

“Oh cool, you're all naked too,” Mike said with a laugh in his voice as he joined them in Dee's room. “Wow, that is purple.”

“It's Dee,” Raphael huffed. “What did you expect?”

Dee felt a swell of pride even as his arms started to get the slightest tremble from holding his position for so long.

“What are the odds that Dee miniaturized them all?” Uncle Leo asked. 

“If he did, he's in big trouble!” Uncle Raph said sternly in a voice loud enough to reach all the rooms on the floor, and Dee rolled his eyes--as if he hadn't gotten that lecture often enough already.

“I dunno compadres,” Uncle Mike pronounced badly, “I feel like there's a lot of hidey holes in here, shrunk kids or not.”

He was right, of course—not even Dee's brothers knew just how many places he could hide in here should the need arise.

“You and Raph go check the other rooms,” Uncle Leo decided. I'll keep looking in here.”

Ah, perfect--all Dee had to do was hang in there a little longer (literally) and then once the Duncles were scattered and distracted, he could slip away.

Dee's Pops went to Lee's room while Uncle Mike double backed to Angie's room, and Dee had to give his brothers some credit—despite the thorough searching, they all managed to blend in or silently change positions just enough to avoid detection. Dee was in the most exposed position, really, but his very purple room served some measure of camouflage, and even trained ninja often forgot to look up. 

“I see I wasn't the only target of shenanigans this evening,” Uncle Don's voice laughed from the hallway, and Dee's eyes widened, realizing what was about to happen.

“I could use your help in here,” Uncle Leo called, and Dee bunched up his already aching muscles in preparation to move.

Uncle Don took one step into the room and turned around to look at the top of the door. Dee allowed just a moment of eye contact before he burst into motion, swinging down from the doorframe and into the hallway shouting, “You'll never take me alive!”

Uncle Don and Uncle Leo naturally gave chase, and Dee saw Uncle Mike come to the door of Angie's room as he sprinted past. This should give his brothers plenty of time to escape and regroup—all Dee had to do was stay one step ahead of the Duncles for an indeterminate amount of time.

No problem.

After Dee's convenient distraction, it took a matter of seconds for Lee, Little Raph, and Angie to meet up outside their bedroom windows and agree on a plan. They climbed down to another open window on the first floor, and once they were back inside, they headed downstairs while Angie texted Dee a single word: “Dojo” 

With all the commotion going on upstairs, it was an easy walk for them to get in position. Lee made sure to give Little Raph the blue bandana he'd stolen from Uncle Leo, and Little Raph gave Angie the purple one from Uncle Don.

A particularly loud shout made them all look up for a moment. “Think he'll make it?” Little Raph worried.

“Sure he will,” Lee nodded, looking over to the stairs. “In five, four…”

Sure enough, many sets of footsteps started pounding down the stairs, and Lee pulled out his dad's bandana from his belt and lined up with his brothers.

Dee, panting heavily and goggles partially askew, came sliding into the room and skid to a halt in the gap left for him between Lee and Angie. He whipped out his dad's red bandana, and just as Lee finished counting down, all four maskless Duncles poured into the room, and Lee and his brothers all bowed and held out the stolen bandanas in perfect sync.

Uncle Raph was the first to start chuckling fondly, and soon the rest of the Duncles were, too. Lining up and stepping forward together, they all accepted their bandanas back and put them back on.

“Well played, boys, well played,” Uncle Raph grinned.

“Except for the part where Dee bit me,” Michelangelo grumbled, rubbing his arm.

“That was some impressive work from all of you,” Uncle Don said, his gaze lingering on Dee for a moment, who suddenly found the ceiling to be very interesting. 

“Indeed,” Uncle Leo said, and something in his voice brought the Duncles back to attention. “Well done, ninja.”

The Duncles bowed in sync, and the kids bowed back.

Uncle Leo straightened first with a small smile. “I hope you all realize that next time won't be so easy.”

“Challenge accepted,” Lee smirked, and then they all broke formation and started laughing and recounting play-by-plays of their antics.

And thus the stealth war ended, and peace was restored to the Hamato household.

Chapter Text

It was a crisp day in October when Lee spotted Baron Draxum in the crowd of yokai milling around a farmer’s market in the Hidden City.

The first thing he did was take a selfie with Draxum in the background because the old goat looked even older and grumpier than the last time Lee had seen him.

Then he tugged on Uncle Leo’s kimono and pointed.

Uncle Leo recognized Draxum instantly and Ninja Vanished™ Lee and his brothers all out of the market before they were spotted.

…Probably.

They had a family meeting when they got home, of course, but they ultimately didn’t change any of their standing routines because Lee and his brothers weren’t allowed to go anywhere without an adult anyway.

However, just because they weren’t allowed to go out alone didn’t mean they never did. Dee and Uncle Don may be on good terms now—they’d cooked up some wicked cool new inventions together in the last few months—but they were also locked in a silent battle of out-programming each other as Dee kept finding new ways to work around Uncle Don’s surveillance tech so they could sneak out. Angie was surprisingly helpful in this, having grown up with the life goal of outsmarting his dad one day. Little Raph was either oblivious or ignoring the rebellious aspect of it and just going along with the rest of them.

Lee knew that the only reason Uncle Don tolerated it was because he could track them with their phones, and one of the Duncles inevitably started tailing them until they got home, but Lee wasn’t about to call anyone’s attention to that. While he enjoyed sneaking out, he wasn’t naive enough to think they were exactly safe doing it. 

And now that Draxum was back on the scene, Lee knew it was only a matter of time before they had a confrontation, and he was getting more and more antsy as the weeks ticked by.

Finally, on Halloween (because of course it’d be on Halloween), Draxum ran into them on the streets of New York.

It wasn’t entirely a surprise to see him topside—half the Hidden City enjoyed taking this day to wander around the human realm. All of the Duncles were with them, and Draxum did a doubletake when he saw how many turtles he’d bumped into on the corner of a random street.

“Turtles!” he gasped belatedly.

“Back off, goat-man!” Uncle Raph growled, shoving him back hard in the chest. “Just walk away, and we might consider not tellin’ the Heads that we saw ya!”

Uncle Leo and Uncle Don flanked him with their hands on their weapons while Mike pulled out his nunchucks and gestured for the kids to back away. Lee, Dee, and Little Raph slowly stepped backwards, and when Angie drifted forwards instead, Little Raph snatched him up and tucked him securely under his arm like a football.

“The Heads have no jurisdiction on the surface,” Draxum scoffed, forming mystic brown seed-pods between his fingers and raising a hand in warning.

None of them wavered an inch.

“How much are you willing to bet on that?” Mike snarked. When Draxum’s gaze flicked over toward him, he added in a much more serious tone, “Go home, Draxum. And stay away from our kids.”

Draxum looked over the four angry, armed adult turtles and seemed to reconsider his position. He lowered his hand and turned away to slink around the corner.

The Duncles did their best to keep the rest of the evening upbeat, but they were so jumpy and wigged out that Lee and his brothers asked to go home shortly thereafter.

It wasn’t until they were walking through the front door of the mansion that they realized Angie was gone.

Baron Draxum was sitting on the ground in a quiet alleyway, enjoying a moment of quiet and stewing over his life choices.

Alas, his moment did not last long.

“Why did you create us?”

Draxum startled hard and looked up at the dumpster, where a young green mutant was now sitting with his legs crossed and his hands tucked around his ankles as he looked up at Draxum with big curious eyes.

“Turtle!” Draxum gasped, snapping to his feet and splaying his hands out at his sides, eyes scanning for more intruders, but as far as he could tell the boy was alone.

After taking a moment to process the question, Draxum slowly answered, “You were created to eliminate the human threat.”

“But why?” the child asked, rocking back and forth a little with absolutely no regard for his station.

“…There is a prophecy,” Draxum said. “It states that all of yokai-kind will be under threat of extinction from a powerful enemy, and what else could this enemy be?”

The little turtle’s eyes lit up. “So you’re just trying to protect your people!”

“Yes! You understand!” Draxum said, feeling an unexpected rush of validation despite the fact that it was coming from a literal child. “Will you aid me in my quest, little turtle?”

The mutant stopped rocking and screwed his face up in a grimace. “Mmm, see, I’m gonna need a lot more details about this prophecy first. Like, are you sure it’s humans? What if it’s, I dunno, like, aliens or something!”

“I am not interested in hypothetical alien creatures,” Draxum said, crossing his arms and looking down his nose at the child. “Humans are the real threat. They have already driven us underground. Should they discover the Hidden City, they would not hesitate to destroy us.”

The mutant peered up at him and then inexplicably smiled. “We’ll work on that!” he said. An electronic boop-beep sounded from his shell, and the boy hopped to his feet, dusted himself off and grinned. “Welp, gotta go! See you around, Draxum!”

He threw a small pellet down on the ground that erupted in a small plume of white smoke. Draxum choked and coughed in the acrid scent, and by the time the smoke cleared, the little turtle was gone.

Angie used a portal token back to Hamato island and climbed up to his bedroom well in view of his dad’s perimeter cameras.

Sure enough, his dad threw open his bedroom window within seconds and clambered down to pull Angie close to his plastron. “ANGIE! Where were you? Are you okay?? Why isn’t your phone tracer working?!”

“It’s alright, Dad, I’m right here,” Angie assured him, hugging him tight.

Donatello tried to continue scolding him, he really did, but his voice quickly failed and he settled for holding Angie tightly and taking deep breaths.

“Donnie? You found him?” Uncle Leo called, hanging out of Angie’s window for a moment, but when he saw them, he hopped out and joined them on the lower roof. He took in Donatello’s trembling as well as Angie’s patient shrug and set his hands on Donatello’s shoulders. “Hey, it’s alright Donatello, you got him back. Let’s get inside, yeah?”

Donatello allowed Leonardo to lead him to the nearest window—Donatello’s bedroom, conveniently—and he tapped his wrist controls to allow them inside. Once the three of them were all standing on the plush purple carpet, Leonardo closed the window behind them and set a hand on Donatello’s shell, leading him downstairs to the living room.

Little Raph saw them coming and shouted to the rest of the house that Angie was home, and with a quick murmur, Leonardo sent him back upstairs to close Angie’s window. By the time Little Raph returned, the family was gathered on the couches and buzzing with questions for Angie, who was still trapped in his father’s arms.

“You were missing for an hour and forty-three minutes, Angie,” Dee said, his hands gripping his tablet and his legs tucked tightly under him as he leaned against his Pops.

“Why did you leave?” Little Raph asked.

“Can’t a turtle get some personal space once in a while?” Angie scoffed.

“Not in this family, no,” Dee rebuffed instantly.

“So, what, you were just wandering around New York?” Lee snorted. “You expect us to believe that?”

“No, but you wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth, either,” Angie sniffed haughtily.

His dad gave him a squeeze, and Angie sighed, turning in his arms to hug him again. “I’m sorry, Dad, I know you hate it when you don’t know where I am. I’m right here, okay? I’m not hurt.”

From his seat beside Donatello, Uncle Leo looked Angie up and down as if to verify his claim, but seemed satisfied. It was then that Uncle Mike got up and sat on Donatello’s free side. He tossed an arm around Donatello’s shoulders, then poked Angie in the beak.

“Hey, kiddo. I get that you’re trying to help us all calm down, but we really need to know where you were, okay? You chose a heck of a day to blip out of existence for an hour and a half.”

Angie sighed and nodded. “Alright, just… I’m fine, okay? I’m fine, I’m not hurt, and no one followed me back here. But I kinda… wentAndVisitedDraxumAndTalkedToHimALittle, okay?”

Donatello found his voice. “You WHAT?!” He grabbed Angie by the arms and shook him a bit. “Angie, he could have killed you! What were you thinking?!”

“He wasn’t going to hurt me!” Angie protested. “It’s just humanity he wants to destroy! He’s just trying to protect the yokai—if we can just convince him that he’s reading this one prophecy wrong—!”

“Angie, NO.”

Angie’s jaw clicked shut at the fierce tone in his father’s voice.

Seeing his wide-eyed shock, Donatello sighed and did his best to even out his tone. “That’s not your job, Angie. Even if there is good in him, it’s not your job to find it, alright? It’s ours. The adults. Do you trust us to handle it?”

“But you didn't even give him a chance!” Angie cried, eyes welling up.

Uncle Mike poked him in the beak again. “That’s because you were there, kiddo. We had to make sure you were safe before we start taking chances with any morally gray characters.”

Angie looked at him with his best big sad eyes. “Then you’ll talk to him?”

“Sure, we’ll talk to him,” Uncle Mike said easily. “I’ve got some things I wanna to say to him, anyway.”

“But you have to listen to him, too,” Angie insisted, looking around to include Uncle Raph, Uncle Leo, and back up at his dad. “He’s doing this because he thinks it’s the only way to save the yokai. You should have seen the look on his face when he realized I was actually listening to him.”

A stiff silence fell over the room, and Donatello started trembling again.

“Yeeeaaah, not gonna lie, bro,” Lee said, “that’s not my favorite image in the world.”

Uncle Raph nodded in agreement. “The jerk probably thought you were letting him recruit ya, kiddo.”

“Please don’t do that again,” Donatello said hoarsely. “Please. Promise me?”

“Only if you promise to listen to him when he talks,” Angie said, giving him a squeeze.

“We will, Angie,” Uncle Leo said, patting his shell. “We promise.”

“And I promise not to sneak off alone again,” Angie returned.

The room as a whole seemed to sigh in relief. Uncle Leo got up and walked over to the blanket closet to pull out a quilt, and that triggered a ripple effect of motion in the others. Dee got up and took a moment to pat Angie’s shell and then stalked off towards the stairs, muttering about going up to his lab. Lee dashed off to join him, and Uncle Raph invited Little Raph to the kitchen to make some hot cocoa for everyone. By the time Uncle Leo had the quilt tucked around Donatello’s shoulders, the living room was practically empty.

Uncle Leo put on a movie, and it wasn’t long after drinking the cup of hot cocoa from Little Raph that Angie fell asleep. Once he was sure it was safe, Donatello carefully snuck a hand in Angie’s shell and pulled out his cellphone, then passed the boy over to Uncle Mike and took the phone to his lab for analysis. Mike put Angie down for the night and checked in on Lee and Dee. They were understandably still upset, and Mike took them down to the kitchen for more hot cocoa and a long talk about what had happened and coping methods for the residual anxiety. Little Raph sat in on that discussion as well, and by the time they were done, the boys were all nodding heavily with exhaustion. Mike called in Raph and Leo to help them get the kids in bed, and then they all trooped into Don’s lab to get him to rest for the night.

At long last, Mike collapsed into his bed and let himself finally, truly relax for the first time since seeing Draxum that afternoon.

What a day.

On the plus side, it was the first time Mike had faced Draxum without being one bit afraid. He would never forget the creeping feeling of impending doom when he faced down Draxum in the Hidden City courtroom to prosecute Lee’s kidnapping. Mike may have won the court case, but the way Draxum had sneered at him and looked Lee up and down like a piece of meat had convinced Mike that he couldn’t trust a restraining order to keep him away forever.

Today was the first time he’d come face-to-face with Draxum since then, but Mike had his brothers right there with him, and he knew the four of them were more than a match for one goatman, mystic warring warrior scientist or not.

On the downside, little Angie had intentionally placed himself in the exact position Mike and his brothers had been trying to protect the kids from.

That had not been fun.

Mike liked to think he was an easygoing, open minded kind of guy, but when it came to Baron Draxum, he knew where he stood. He didn’t trust him one iota, especially around the kids.

But he was also a turtle of his word. He’d go to this talk and hear the guy out, but one step out of line—even an insinuation that we would take the children—and Mike was calling him out and shutting it down.

Baron Draxum was deep in his studies when his doorbell rang. He sent Muninn to turn away whoever it was, but the little gargoyle came back with a surprising report of the four turtle yokai standing on his doorstep.

There wasn’t much that would have pulled Draxum away from his work, but that was one of them.

Draxum opened his front door and looked down at the turtle men in reserved curiosity. “What do you want?”

The one in the blue kimono answered, “We understand that Angie had a conversation with you the other day. We wanted to discuss the prophecy you told him about.”

Draxum’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked over the turtles again. The one in blue was calmly waiting for his reply, Purple was analyzing him with a grave expression, Red was glaring at him with crossed arms, and Orange—Michelangelo, if Draxum recalled correctly from his court hearing—was in the back, watching him with hard unblinking eyes.

None of them trusted him, but they were here, and asking about his life’s work. Draxum couldn’t exactly turn down the opportunity to persuade them.

“I see,” he said at length. “Would you care to come inside and sit down?”

Angie was waiting just inside the door when the Duncles returned to Lou Jitsu’s penthouse, and he saw in an instant that it hadn’t gone well—Uncle Leo looked sad, Uncle Raph was grim, Uncle Mike was fuming, and Angie’s dad looked even more worried than when they’d left.

“What happened?” Angie asked anyway.

“I’m not sure what to tell ya, kiddo,” Uncle Raph shrugged, stepping forward to run the top of his head. “He’s convinced the prophecy is about humanity. Nothing we could say about other bigger threats got anywhere. After a while he just told us to get out so he could get back to work.”

“And you listened to what he had to say?” Angie demanded.

Uncle Leo sighed, “Yes, Angie, we listened, and we did our best to reason with him logically. He’s not budging.”

Angie looked to his dad, who was starting to wring his hands. Donatello gave him a small sad smile that spoke volumes.

“Uncle Mike?” Angie asked, turning to the turtle that his dad said could always find the good in anyone, if there was any to be had at all.

Uncle Mike just shook his head and scowled. “It wasn’t a good time, Angie. He said some things that nearly made me forget that I’m a gentle-turtle.”

Uncle Leo reached out to Uncle Mike and put his arm around his shoulders. “C’mon, Mikey, let’s get something to eat and go find the kids. Get your mind off it for a bit.”

“Sounds like a plan t’ me,” Uncle Raph said, blowing out a sigh. “For real though, he’s a walking talking magic goat guy—you’d think he’d be more open to the idea of aliens. Mikey had evidence, fer crying out loud!”

Angie’s uncles all trooped past him towards Lou Jitsu’s kitchen, leaving Angie staring hard at his dad.

Donatello just opened his arms in invitation, and Angie climbed up his body to hug him tight like a koala. 

“I’m sorry, Angie,” Donatello whispered as he made his way to the living room to sit on the couch. “You can’t change people who don’t want to be changed.”

Angie let out a huge sigh and laid his head down on his dad’s shoulder. “I know. I’m sorry for stressing everyone out. Thank you for trying.”

“You’re welcome,” Donatello murmured, nuzzling the top of his head. “Thank you for trusting us to try for you.”

Angie nodded and sat quietly for several minutes, listening to his dad breathe and wondering what was going to happen the next time they ran into Draxum, because he knew—all of them knew—that surely they would.

Chapter Text

Little Raph was bored.

His brothers were all doing schoolwork, and while any of them would have been thoroughly entertained by TV shows or scrolling through social media, that kind of thing couldn't keep Little Raph's focus for more than an hour or two. He longed to do something, anything with his hands, so he shuffled downstairs towards the kitchen.

Little Raph didn't consider himself a great cook by any means, but boiling diced potatoes, peas, and ham and stirring them into a roux was well within his abilities.

"Whatcha got there, little me?"

Little Raph looked up from stirring his soup and smiled brightly. "Hey Uncle Raph! It's raining, so I thought soup sounded good."

"Smells good, too," Raphael said, walking over and looking at the pot's contents. His brows shot up when he saw the creamy white sauce. "You know how to cook, bud?"

"I guess?" Little Raph shrugged. "Angie’s been teaching me. Here, it should be ready now." Little Raph gestured towards a stack of bowls on the counter, and Raphael filled two of them. Little Raph made sure to turn off the burner, and then they took their meal to the table, snagging some of Angie's homemade rolls from the breadbasket to dip in their soup.

It didn't take long for Raphael to figure out the real reason behind Little Raph's sudden culinary endeavor, and Little Raph was thrilled when he was offered some hand-to-hand training. And knitting lessons. And crochet. And metal working, and engine tune ups, and how to ride a motorcycle.

Little Raph soaked it all in like a sponge and asked for more, and Raphael was happy to provide.

About a week later, Little Raph was just starting to get bored of the feed on his phone when Uncle Raph came and found him.

"Hey little me! C'mere, I wanna show ya somethin'!"

Little Raph grinned and put his phone away, following his uncle towards the garage. "What is it?"

Raphael gave him that confident cocky smile. "You’ve been enjoying going out on my motorcycle, haven’tcha?"

"Yeah!" Little Raph could practically feel stars popping into his eyes. "Motocycles are the best!”

"Then you'll love this!"

Raphael led him inside the garage and over to the corner reserved for his own motorcycle. Little Raph was instantly fawning over the new bright red paint job, but Raphael bypassed the bike entirely and walked over to the far wall, where a tarp was wrapped around what Little Raph had assumed was one of Dee's or Uncle Don's projects.

Instead, Raphael pulled the tarp away to reveal a sleek black and red motorcycle, sized up a bit to exactly match Little Raph's needs.

"Here's yer helmet," Rapahel said, passing him a black helmet with a stylized red sai on each side. "Wanna take it out for a spin?"

"Uh, yeah!!" Little Raph spluttered. "Did you make this for me?!"

Raphael rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Dee helped with the paint."

Little Raph was vibrating with excitement as he ran his hands over the smooth exterior and plush seat. "This is SO COOL!!" Little Raph jumped up onto the bike and settled his hands over the handlebars, all exactly sized and colored to fit him.

Raphael smacked the helmet over Little Raph's head and flipped the visor up so he could talk to him face-to-face a bit longer. "You good to follow me for a coupla blocks?"

"Sure!!" Little Raph agreed, nodding so hard his visor flipped back down.

Raphael chuckled and slapped the top of his helmet. "Alrigh', I'll see ya there, kid!"

They went to a wrestling show and watched from the rafters. Little Raph had never been in person before, but he quickly decided it was 1000% percent better than watching on the TV, and he and Uncle Raph made a point to go to as many matches as they could from then on.

Aside from their outings and other lessons, though, that still left Little Raph with a lot of downtime, especially when Uncle Raph took his turn to hang out with Master Splinter, or when Little Raph and his brothers would spend the odd weekend at Lou Jitsu’s.

Those weekends in particular gave rise to a new hobby, however, and that one was arguably more important than all the others combined.

Little Raph felt naturally drawn to old things.

A large part of it was probably because everything he'd known for the first twelve years of life was now considered ancient history.

Another was perhaps that he'd had a lack of family things around him growing up—his dad hadn't been carrying much in the way of family heirlooms when he and Little Raph fell through that portal. Leonardo had instilled in Little Raph a great respect for his elders, their possessions, and the few trinkets Leonardo had brought with him on that day: his katanas and the melted portal stick, obviously, as well as his headband, belt, shell cell, and the bits and bobs he'd carried in his pouches.

So when Little Raph was roaming the spare rooms in Lou Jitsu's home and found a closet full of old dusty boxes, he couldn't help but feel curious.

The first box was filled with old threadbare Japanese robes. Little Raph handled them gently, laying them out on the floor beside him. They were all different but with a single common crest that kinda reminded Little Raph of a pepperoni. He wondered if it belonged to Lou Jitsu’s family or someone else.

"Hey, there you are—what's that?" Lee asked, coming in from the hallway. He leaned over the robes and kitten-sneezed three times in a row from the stirred up dust. "Ugh, how are you breathing?" he coughed, waving a hand in front of his face.

Little Raph snorted and moved onto the next box while Lee strode over the window and threw it open—it was a brisk October day outside, and they shouldn't keep that open for too long, but it did help.

"Thanks," Little Raph said, running one claw down the old crusty tape holding the next box closed.

Lee sat across from him and took another box for himself, giving it a shake (the contents clattered metalically) and coughing at the cloud of dust that rained from the cardboard. "What is all this stuff, anyway?"

"Dunno, but Lou said we could look at his stuff, so I'm looking. I think—oh!" Little Raph gasped softly, reaching gingerly into his box and lifting up a wide, fat scroll.

Lee leaned forward, glancing between Little Raph and the scroll with a big grin. "You think we'll be able to read it?"

"Not sure," Little Raph whispered, turning the scroll over in his hands with infinite care. He found the ribbon tying it closed and gave it a gentle tug.

The fabric didn't look or feel as old as the rest of the document—it didn't crumble in his hands, at least, and gave easily when he pulled. There were more scrolls in the box, but Little Raph pushed it aside and set the open scroll on the floor between him and Lee, blowing a layer of dust off the inner layer.

"Is it Japanese?" Lee asked, voice tight and cracking with excitement. "Can you read it?"

"Yes!" Little Raph laughed, skimming over the characters running top to bottom on the scroll. "This is—! This is the same dialect I grew up with! It says—"

Little Raph read it in an undertone in Japanese first, then translated, “Hamato Family Scroll of Mysticism.”

Lee followed after Little Raph as the larger turtle made a bee line for Lou, both of them carrying boxes. 

“Hey Lou? What’s this?”

“Hm?” Lou spared a glance for the box of scrolls in Little Raph’s hands as he and Angie mashed buttons on their game controllers in an all-out war against two CPU characters. “Oh, those belonged to my Grandpa Sho. You may have them, if you’d like.”

“Really?” Little Raph gasped.

“Yes, yes, I have not touched them since I got them—I do not even remember what they are!” The round ended (Lou and Angie were victorious) and Lou took a moment to peer a little closer at the contents of the box. “Oh, these are very old Hamato writings. I could translate them for you, if you’d like.”

Little Raph beamed and held the box closer to his chest as he scurried towards the beanbag chairs on the other side of the game room. “I’m good! Thanks though!”

“Little Raph grew up in Feudal Japan,” Lee reminded Lou in a flat voice. “He’s already geeking out over the calligraphy or whatever.”

“It’s called kana and it’s beautiful!” Little Raph shouted from the other side of the room.

“Yeah yeah,” Lee huffed. He pulled his own box open and passed it to Angie. “Here, I think you’ll like these.”

“Oooo sweet, new nunchucks!”

Little Raph learned a lot from the scrolls. Certain elements were familiar, to some extent—like his brothers, Little Raph had been raised on his dad’s stories of the Shredder and the Foot Clan. He’d also personally met several Utrom, so he wasn’t surprised by the implications that something called the Krang came from the stars, but was disappointed that they were evil. At least they were sealed away forever in the Prison Dimension.

Lou Jitsu knew the highlights of the Krang story, but the rest of the scroll was unfamiliar to him, including the mystic Hamato Ninpo. He volunteered to join Little Raph in meditation once, and that was the first time Little Raph saw their Hamato ancestor spirits manifest themselves.

“Hamato Yoshi, you have summoned the ancient spirit of your ancestors,” a ghostly green figure in robes intoned as it stood midair above their meditation mats. “I am here to guide you. What wisdom do you seek to carry on your sacred duty as part of the Hamato Clan?”

“Don’t look at me,” Lou Jitsu shrugged. “Little Raph is the one who wanted to chat.”

“I want to learn about Hamato Ninpo!” Little Raph said, practically vibrating in place with excitement of seeing real life ancestral spirits.

“Ah,” the spectral said, his glowing eyes turning up as if he was pleased, “You have brought the next generation to be trained. Very good. Hamato Ninpo is our family’s ancient technique that connects us to past generations and grants us their strength. It requires great focus, inner peace, and unity. When we are together we are strong, and where there are Hamato, there is hope.”

“Awesome!!” Little Raph whispered to himself, eyes sparkling.

“We will begin with meditation,” the spectral continued, folding down to sit cross-legged as he floated in the air. “Four hours should suffice for an introduction.”

“Uuuugh,” Lou Jitsu groaned, flopping down to his back. “I did not sign up for this!”

Little Raph nodded, frowning. “Yeah, we can do that later! Can’t you give us, like, a list of things to do, and then we can practice on our own time!”

The spectral muttered something about kids these days but unfolded to stand on the air once again. “Very well. Meditation will be the foundation of your training. Meditate with members of your clan whenever possible. You must also train in the Hamato combat forms found in the scrolls. Let go of your childish ways, and be remade in the image of your ancestors. You will become more than an individual—the old version of you will be gone, shed like a skin. You must become an extension of the clan, ready to sacrifice all. Only then will you be—”

“Uhhbup-bup!” Lou Jitsu interrupted, his arm rising in the air as he sat up and shook his finger at the specter. “Excuse us for just one moment!” Hooking his arm around Little Raph’s shoulders, he brought the boy in close. “You may train in the Hamato ways all you like, and even unlock this magic Ninpo mojo if you so desire, but listen to me, young Raphael—” 

Lou Jitsu took in a deep breath and dropped his voice to a low whisper. “You must promise me—promise me, boy—that you will never throw away your life for the sake of some spirits in dusty old scrolls. Remember that those you would leave behind are here, now, and they are infinitely more important. Do you understand?”

Little Raph’s eyes widened at the intensity in Lou Jitsu’s voice, the weight of past grief in his eyes, and he nodded. “I promise.”

Lou patted his plastron and smiled. “Thank you.” He stretched his arms up and then sat back in a more relaxed pose and looked up at the robed specter before them, waving his hand dismissively. “You may continue now!”

The specter huffed in annoyance and turned his gaze back on Little Raph. “Only when you have completed your training will you be prepared to protect the world from the threat of the Shredder should he ever return.”

“Oh,” Little Raph breathed, suddenly very, very glad he’d found these scrolls. He figured he had a really, really good chance of using these skills for their exact intended purpose.

He totally had this, no problem.

—Duncles Group Chat—

Leonardo: Little Raph learned some things today that you all might be interested in. 

Leonardo: Fun Fact #1: Lou is the direct descendant of Karai, who lived 500 years ago

Leonardo: Fun Fact #2: Shredder is Karai's biological father

Leonardo: Because of Fact #1 and Fact #2, our boys are therefore direct descendants of both Karai and the Shredder

Mike: ew

Mike: wait no don't tell the kids I said that, that’s their family

Mike: but wow that kinda sucks

Raphael: ^

Donatello: Good to know. Thanks Leo.

Mike: are we telling the kids?

Leonardo: I think they deserve to know. Also Little Raph is the one who told me.

Mike: ya ok fair

Leonardo: Fun Fact #3: Little Raph found a scroll of ancient Hamato writings that explain how to defeat their Shredder should he ever return.

Raphael: sounds useful

Mike: aw shell yeah!

Donatello: I would like a photocopy of that scroll please.

Leonardo: Little Raph will bring it to the mansion tomorrow.

Donatello: Thanks!

Mike: aw man these kids are so lucky. wish we had step-by-step instructions for defeating shredhead

Raphael: i just hope it’s actually useful and not a waste of everyone’s time

Leonardo: From what Little Raph has told me, it’s mostly just rigorous meditation and physical training along with some mysticism.

Donatello: Sounds typical for their universe.

Mike: ya can confirm, lotsa mystics stuff going on over there

Leonardo: Based on what he’s told me so far, I doubt it’ll hurt anything, and it may do them a lot of good. I plan to study the scrolls myself to incorporate into our group training if that’s alright with everyone.

Dontallo: Sounds good.

Raphael: no complaints here

Mike: sure knock yourself out. thanks for asking tho <3

Leonardo: Of course.