Chapter Text
“This is a bad idea.”
“Yui.”
“This is a really, really bad idea.”
“Yuichi. Babe.”
“I mean, what was I thinking? Even if somehow everything ends up fine between us, and the place somehow isn’t a horrible, loud, messy, kid-ridden nightmare, Bruce’s men are still looking for me and—”
“Usagi Yuichi.”
The rabbit turned his head to his partner, who, despite his disguise, had a hoodie over his head, “The full name?”
“You’re spiraling.” Moth simply said, and Yuichi humorlessly chuckled, “Oh, you’re one to talk. Or are you forgetting how you freaked out after you met April?”
“It wasn’t that bad—”
“You almost ate all our food for the week because of your stress-eating.” Yuichi stated matter-of-factly, “And then you still had to eat…whatever his name was, I don’t keep track. Point being, that wasn’t nearly bad at this! I lied to Leonardo-san, you ate a bunch of people, and now we have to talk to them over food! In a horrible, loud, messy, kid-ridden nightmare of a place.”
“Hey, don’t act like it’s my fault, we both agreed to this.” Moth said, “Besides, you don’t think I’m scared too? I’m fucking terrified even though I know that for some reason the cannibalism isn’t putting them off. I mean, why the hell is Donnie a cannibal anyways? I have so many questions—” He shook his head, “I’m getting off topic. Look, the worst they can do is say they don’t want to see us around anymore.”
“Or they could kill us.”
“In a ‘kid-ridden’ pizzeria?”
Yuichi stayed silent, merely wrapping his hand in his sleeve. It wasn’t like he was wearing anything fancy—just a sky blue crop top hoodie over his usual sleeveless top, thin black leggings, and his usual foot guards. But for some reason, he had the nauseating feeling he was somehow both overdressed and underdressed. But Moth had reassured him he looked okay, he reassured him back, and they were already at the front door…
“Alright.” He swallowed, “Let’s get this over with.”
“Just act how sauve and cool you are when you do your job, Babe.” Moth smiled, throwing an arm around his shoulders, and Yuichi mumbled as they walked in, “We both know killing people is so much easier than talking to them, Moth.”
The pizzeria was, thankfully, not as horrible, loud, messy, and kid-ridden as he expected from Moth’s descriptions of pizzerias he went to as a kid. No kids running around, no noisy arcade machines, no animatronics coming to life (which was weirdly specific). It wasn’t crowded either, since there was a comfortable amount of space between the booths, chairs, and tables, and seemed to have a whole back corner that curved around the bar. The lighting wasn’t too harsh and warm, too. Besides the usual noise of various Yokai chattering at their tables—some of which had kids, but most seemed to be filled with couples or small groups of adults—it seemed fine. Suspiciously fine.
At the front where they entered there was a little stand and a sign: Please Wait To Be Seated!
Yuichi bit his lip, and quietly said, “Isn’t it so… strange?”
“I mean, yeah.” Moth shrugged, “We did try to kill Da… him, after all.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Yuichi simply said, “Fath… Draxum’s mutants were alive this whole time. They were right under our noses. And we’re going to talk to them. We’ve been talking to them. It’s just so…”
“Surreal.” Moth finished for him with a hard gaze into the rest of the restaurant. “Like…a dream.”
“...We’re not going to mention how much we thought about them when Draxum raised us, are we?” The hare carefully asked.
“Nope.” The human-disguised mutant simply replied, “Too weird.”
“Okay.” Yuichi exhaled, “Good.”
Luckily, they finished that awful bit of conversation when a skeleton dressed in black suit with red accents (and a fedora hat?) walked up to them, greeting them in a Spanish accent, “Just you two, I presume?”
“Um, actually, we’re supposed to be meeting a few… friends here.” Yuichi swallowed, unsure if that was appropriate considering the whole ‘ oh he’s friends with one of them but tried to kill their dad who was also kind of his dad’ situation, “One of them is a… kappa named Leonardo?”
“Ah, you’re the two Pepino told me to look out for. Follow me.” The skeleton simply said, turning around to quickly power-walk away, and the two of them scurried after him as he turned the corner.
When he did, it was revealed the corner room was much bigger than the main room to hold bigger sized booths, tables, and two corner booths, one of which was filled with a huge turtle mutant, three subsequently smaller turtle mutants, and two humans.
“Yuichi!” Leo exclaimed, practically jumping up from said corner booth to walk up to them, “Hey! I was wondering when you were gonna get here!”
Yuichi slightly blushed with embarrassment, heart thumping, “Uh, yes, sorry about that. To be honest, we got a little lost on the way—”
“Pfft, it’s fine.” Leo said, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the booth, “But we already got drinks, so I hope you and your bf are fine with water until the server comes back.”
Yuichi swallowed as Leo sat back down and pulled him down beside him, and then Moth came scooching in, effectively smushing him between the two mutants.
Then without missing a beat, Leo cleared his throat, “So, anyways, I think we should all get a do-over with this introduction stuff since that whole…stuff with Draxum wasn’t really the best first impression.”
“You’re…willing to forgive us over that?” Yuichi carefully asked, and the turtle mutant in orange (to be honest, Yuichi didn’t know his name) shrugged with a smile, “We figured why not! We’ve all done bad things—” “Except maybe for Raph!” Leo interjected, and the huge one in red said, “Well someone has ta keep track of ya wackjobs.” “You know you love too~”
“AHEM.” The one in orange said, and Leo and (who Yuichi assumed to be) Raph both shut their mouths, “Thank you. As I was saying before I rudely got interrupted—we’ve all done bad things, and once Barr— Draxum explained…everything that happened because of him—well, we get where you were coming from. So long as you don’t try to hurt him again, we’re all good.”
“Please. I never want to see his face again.” Yuichi stiffly said, his mood instantly souring at the mention of his adoptive father, and Leo quickly said, “Well, that’s great! Anyways, Yui, you already know me, and Tim, right?” He snapped at Moth, who nodded, “Uh, yeah. Tim.”
“And Tim already knows my twin Donnie and April, and I think April mentioned that you ran into them before at Tim’s workshop, yeah?”
“Yes.” Yuichi confirmed with a single nod, averting his eyes, and Leo smiled, “Cool! So that just leaves Raph, he’s the big one—” Said big snapper offered a small, toothy grin and polite wave— “then Mikey, he’s the small one—” The small orange one crossed his arms, huffing, “Laugh it up while you can, Leo.” “And then Casey, he’s the other human.” “Wow, I'm the other human? That’s my introduction?” The man in the dark green AC/DC shirt leaned over the table to flick Leo’s forehead, “Ow! What was that for?!”
“Just because.” Casey shrugged, and Yuichi couldn’t help but smile slightly at the antic.
“Good, now that we’re all introduced, you guys can use my menu to see what you want.” Leo said, shoving said plastic menu into the rabbit’s hands, “The server was gonna take our orders right before you guys came but I didn’t know if Yui was vegetarian or not so I told her to wait.”
Yuichi’s nose wrinkled with confusion as Tim took the menu out of his hands, “Why would I be vegetarian?”
“Because you’re a rabbit, duh.” Leo simply said, and Yuichi frowned, “I’m a rabbit yokai, Leo-kun, not a rabbit. I suppose you don’t also think I live in a dirt hole and eat carrots all day?”
“Well ya gotta be honest Babe, you do really like carrot cake—”
“Not helping, Timothy.” Yuichi sternly said without moving his gaze off of Leo, who swallowed, “I mean…you do have a literal ability to ‘rabbit hole—’”
“Oh my God, Leo, you’re being racist right now.” April slightly shoved him, and Mikey sighed, “It’s Donnie and Witch Town all over again.”
“What?” Moth asked, Mikey waved it off, and Casey frowned, “Wouldn’t it be like, speciesist?”
“Oh Pizza Supreme this conversation’s already de-railin’ so bad.” Raph put his face into his hands, and Donnie said, facing Yuichi, “Ever since I’ve found out you’re a rabbit yokai, I’ve actually been meaning to ask you about your species’s similarities with regular rabbits—”
“I suppose it’s a bad time to get your orders?”
Everyone paused from the messy conversation to see a waitress with purple skin, messy blue hair wrapped in a bun, and long floppy ears holding up a pad and pen.
“Oh, speaking of Witch Town!” April waved, “Hi Gentry!!!!”
The waitress waved back, “Hi April!!!!” Then glared at Donnie, “Donatello.”
Donnie gawked, “I said I was sorry!”
“Unless your apologies can reverse time to fix your mistake they mean nothing.” Gentry frowned, and then put back on her smile, “Anyways are you all ready to order?”
“Wh-what…?” Moth turned to April, who said, “It was a whole episode. I’ll explain later.”
“Okay…?” He turned back to the waitress, “I’ll get, uh, a slice of Super Creepy Supreme, and uh, just some lemonade?”
“Just make it three whole pizzas.” Mikey said, and Gentry nodded, writing it down.
Yuichi cleared his throat, “Could I get a slice of Vegetable Supreme and a lemonade as well? And not because I’m vegetarian, Leo-kun.” He cleared his throat politely, “I’m just extremely picky with my meat.”
“Make that a whole pizza too.” Leo said, and Yuichi turned to face him, “No offense, Leo-kun, but one slice will be enough for me.”
“Well yeah, but won’t you want leftovers to bring back to your place?” Leo asked, and Yuichi and Moth both grimaced.
“We’re uh…kinda havin’ money troubles right now.” Moth gulped, and Yuichi nodded, “So while yes, we did bring enough money to pay for a whole pizza, I’m not sure we can split the bill evenly—”
“What? Split the bill?!” Mikey interjected, shaking his head, “Nuh-uh, we ain’t having any of that. Gentry, could you make that two Vegetable Pizzas? Plus two Pepperoni?”
“Sure thing! Anything else?”
“Wait—” Leo covered Yuichi’s mouth, making him explode red, “That’ll be all. Thanks Gentry!”
“Mmhn!” Gentry nodded, and walked away.
Yuichi whipped his head towards Mikey, “I don’t understand, we just said we couldn’t afford—”
“Yeah, that’s why we’re paying for you, silly!” April teased, “I guess Tim was right when he said he was the smart one out of you two, huh?”
Yuichi froze, staring at her, “He said what now?”
Moth also froze, and April chuckled, “Oh yeah! First day we met, he told me how he loved his boyfriend so much but he wasn’t that bright.”
“Did he, now?” Yuichi whipped his head to Moth, who raised his arms harmlessly, “Babe, I meant like technical smarts, obviously out of the two of us you’re more skilled and stuff—”
“You’re sleeping on the couch tonight.” Yuichi said, turning his head away, and Moth gasped, “No!”
“Yes.” Yuichi said, grabbing and pointing a butter knife at him, “And I’m keeping the cats to myself.”
“NO!” He grabbed onto his shirt, “Babe, please, I’m sorry—”
Yuichi ignored him, looking at the others, “I suppose if you all insist on paying for me and Moth, then I guess we have no choice but to let you. Thank you.”
It was silent for one moment, and Casey grinned, “Man he really does sound like an old man.”
Everyone else couldn’t help but to laugh at that, including Moth, and Yuichi bloomed red, “No I don’t!”
“Yui, dude, you totally do.” Leo giggled, and Moth nodded, “His pillow talk does put me to sleep sometimes.”
Yuichi gasped at that, half out of offense, half out of embarrassment, and Moth laughed at that even more.
But in the midst of the laughter, April frowned, “Wait, why are you guys struggling with money? I get that Tim goes to college and all, but shouldn’t your uber-fancy assassin job cover that? Like, what’s the point if you’re hired to kill people if you don’t make serious bank?”
That made the pair pause, and Yuichi fiddled with the knife in his hold as Moth cringed, “Well, to be honest, it’s not like Hidden City apartments are any less expensive than NYC apartments.”
“Plus—originally, before I reunited with Moth again—I got the job to pay for um, medical treatments.” Yuichi bloomed red, lowering his hands and averting his eyes as his heart felt like it was going to explode, “Because…well, I’m trans.”
“Damn, medical care is that expensive in the HC?” Leo simply said, and elbowed Donnie, “Maybe we need Mr. Reform here to help get that patched up too.”
“I am one mutant, Nardo, there’s only so much threatening I can do.” Donnie shrugged, “But I could try my best.”
“Oh.” Yuichi swallowed, and politely bowed his head, “That means a lot, Donatello-san.”
“Ew, don’t use my full name.” Donnie cringed, “Just Donnie. Or Donnie- kun, if you must.”
“Yeah, I keep telling him to just call me Leo but he keeps insisting on using those honorific thingies.” Leo said, and Moth nodded, “Dude, I get that. I literally had to use like, full-on tongue to get him to stop using -kun on me.”
“TIMOTHY!” Yuichi yelped, blazing red, and Moth casually added, “Yeah, I get it’s a part of his heritage and whole ‘Bushido-code-samurai-Usagi-clan-honor’ stuff but it’s just horrible if you’re insufferably in love with him.”
“I hate you so much.” Yuichi muttered, and Moth grinned, “I love you too Babe!” Then he placed a dramatically fat kiss onto his cheek, which somehow made the rabbit’s blush worse as he swatted him away.
“ Awwww.” The rest of the group teasingly cooed, and Yuichi smiled—then sharply inhaled, ears twitching.
“We’ll get him when he’s eatin’. He won’t be able ta see it comin’.”
He knew that voice. It was one of Bruce’s lackeys.
Damn it, they found him.
They must’ve followed him and Moth.
This is what he got for not traveling by rabbit-hole. Shit, fuck—
“Uh, Yui?”
Yuichi slightly jumped, nerves on fire as he stared at Leo’s concerned gaze, “Y-yeah, Leo-kun?!”
“You…okay?”
He couldn’t let his own idiocy ruin this. It was going so well. He couldn’t scare his…his friend off and his partners (family) with his own mistakes.
He needed to get them alone. And quick.
“I, uh, need to use the restroom! Yes! Leo-kun, where—?”
“To the right of the entrance. You can’t miss it.” Leo helpfully answered, and Yuichi turned to look at Moth—who simply nodded, and got out of the seat so he could leave.
“I’ll be right back.” He reassured them—more so Moth—and followed Leo’s directions, as naturally as he could, leading him to gates within the wall besides the entrance, which led to a small hallway splitting off into three restrooms.
Surprisingly, the men’s restroom wasn’t as dirty as he assumed it to be. Usually most were—especially in America. At least some Yokai had decency.
But that wasn’t what he was here for.
He knew he should’ve asked Leo to meet him and Moth someplace else. He had wanted Leo and his partners (family) to be comfortable on their terms, so they could start over, see that they didn’t mean to be a threat to them—he knew this would go wrong.
But it hadn’t. Not yet. He could stop it.
He slipped into the first stall, closing it behind him before bending down to see if anyone else was in the room.
But fortunately, it was empty, and he pulled out the butter knife he had slipped into his sleeve earlier. Sometimes his anxiety was a good thing.
He heard heavy footsteps approaching the restroom door, along with the complaints of the lackeys— ”Boss, are we really gonna kill a man while he’s shittin’? Isn’t that kinda low—” “Shut it.”
He pulled out his phone to quickly text Moth.
Heard Bruce’s lackeys
Lured them off to rr
Text u back when I need u
He set the phone carefully on the floor, behind the toilet, and then got on said toilet.
Alright, the butter knife is too dull to pierce dragon Yokai skin, and they’ll probably use their claws because I’m more fragile, but at least one of them will probably have a blade that can cut through—
The door slammed open, interrupting the rabbit’s thoughts, and just as he was registering the leader’s words, “ Alright rabbit, come out now and make this easy—”
It was quick work.
He hopped off the toilet seat to the top of the stall and dropped onto the middle one’s shoulders, using his claws to scratch the top of his bald, scaly orange head, making him yelp.
He flipped off of him just in time to avoid the scratches of the other two, which cleaved straight through the arteries on the orange one’s neck and made him drop to the floor.
“GEORGE!” The green lackey yelped in horror, dropping to the floor to hold his friend as he bled out. and the yellow leader of the trio growled as Yuichi landed at the otherside of the restroom, “Oh, you, little—”
He came running forward, snarling and swiping his talons, but Yuichi was swift as the wind, jumping onto his shoulders and then jumping off to meet the green one—who looked up just in time to get an eyeful of stainless steel.
He opened his mouth to scream—but Yuichi pulled out the blade the dead orange one had on him, bringing up to slice his throat, ending it before it could really start—the green one fell down, and before the yellow one could even step towards him he flung it towards him, stabbing him square through the neck.
The last one fell down with an ugly gurgle of blood, and Yuichi huffed as he stood up, glaring at him.
But his glare was quickly broken by the disgusting metallic scent of the blood pooling, and he quickly snatched his phone from his hiding place before jumping onto the counter. He turned on the sink and stuffed his feet under the running water to get the blood out before it stained, quickly opening his phone.
They’re dead
Come over & take care of b&b
Wow, that was only what, thirty seconds to a minute? Moth texted back, That’s gotta be a new record bby
Get over here bf someone else does
Alr chillax I’m coming lol
Luckily, the blood had been fresh, so it hadn’t gotten time to stain Yuichi’s fur—cleaning it out was such a pain in the ass.
That and it would be awkward to explain why there was blood on his feet. After all, rabbit yokai didn’t menstruate, and even if they did he would’ve had them gone for months now—
“Hey Babe, I’m here—wow, you did a number on these guys.” Moth whistled, shutting the door and grinning at Yuichi, “Nice job, Carrot Cake!”
The hare sighed with a red face, “Shut up and just take care of them already. Please.”
“Look away for me?” Moth shyly asked, and Yuichi did just that.
Even after a whole year of dating, Moth hadn’t let him see the process of putting on and taking off his skin. But it wasn’t important. If Moth needed Yui to look away while he did so, he would. It was as simple as that.
Once he started to hear the sounds of his slurping, he turned back to see his partner sucking up the blood in straw-like appendages, similar to mosquitos. It was disturbing when Yuichi first saw him do it, but like with the rest of Moth he had gotten used to it.
“What excuse did you use?” He asked, and Moth blushed—although it was mostly just the blood filling empty spaces in the mutant’s body—”I told them about how you can get overstimulated in public sometimes.”
Yuichi exhaled, “Great. Now Leo-kun’s either going to feel bad about meeting here or think I’m the lamest assassin ever.”
“Babe, you just took on three dragon Yokai by yourself in a public bathroom, you’re sick as hell.” Moth reassured him through his chewing, as he moved onto the bodies, and Yuichi dramatically sighed, “Oh, the dichotomy of being an assassin with autism.”
“Hey, you’re the hottest autistic assassin I know, Cottontail, so you should consider that a win.”
“You don’t know any other autistic assassins, Timothy.”
“Well, I mean, Donnie might count.” Moth said, and Yuichi snorted, “Moth, I’m your romantic partner, even if Donatello-san is considered an assassin, I think you’re required to say I’m the hotter one.”
“ That doesn’t make it any less true.” Moth answered, and then pulled out the butter knife from the green Yokai’s eye, handing it to him with a tentacle.
Yuichi took and pocketed it, then asked, “You made sure no one’s coming in, right?”
“Yup!” Moth said, “I just unlocked a supply closet and stole an out-of-order sign.”
“For the whole restroom?” He looked at the mutant skeptically, who shrugged, “No one’s tried to come in yet.”
Then Yuichi felt a ping from his phone.
He turned it on to see Leo had sent him a text.
Hey is everything ok rn u guys have been in the br for a while
“Bleh, I hate scales so much—is everythin’ okay, Babe?” Moth looked up from the yellow one—as he had already eaten the other two, being the cannibalistic powerhouse he was.
He nodded as he sent a text back.
Yes, sorry for worrying you Leo-kun. We’ll be back shortly.
Hey man if I had known u were sensitive to stuff like this I wouldn’t have chosen here
No, it’s okay, Leo-kun. I thought I could handle it but I was wrong.
Next time we hang together Imma choose smth more chill k?
Yuichi smiled.
Okay.
Alr cool now get out here b4 ur pizzas get cold lol
Yuichi looked up from his phone, “Moth, are you almost—oh.”
Moth was smiling down and staring at him with his big green eyes, back in his skin and clothes, surrounded by a sparkly, clean floor. Besides his dreads being longer, now—Yuichi assumed it was from the extra keratin of the Yokais’ scales—he looked about the same as before.
“Hi.” He simply said, and Yuichi couldn’t help but chuckle, “Hi.”
“We better get back to the others, huh?”
“Yes.” Yuichi slid off of the sinks, and Moth quickly looked up and down at him, “You sure you got all the blood off of you? It’d be a shame if you had to shower when we got back.”
“Yes I’m sure, Timothy.” The rabbit shot a glare at him, and Moth took his hand with a smile, “I was just teasing, Carrot Cake. No need to get so antsy.”
“Oh ha ha.” Yuichi sarcastically said as they walked out of the bathroom, basically identical to when they had entered it, and they returned to the others.
At the table, the group of mutants and humans were animatedly chatting to each other and eating, some more properly and others more messily. In the center of the huge table was a stack of white boxes, which by the smell radiating off of them Yuichi guessed was the leftover pizza.
“Sorry we were gone so long.” He apologized as he sat back down, and Leo casually shrugged, “It’s cool, man.”
The rabbit frowned at him slightly before looking away to focus on his pizza. As he started to eat it, he started to think.
He felt as if…Leo had been acting differently, as of late. Especially now.
Of course, it was probably because of the recent events that just took place. Of course, anyone would be acting differently towards their friend-turned-almost-enemy-turned-friend. There were also additional factors, such as they were interacting within a larger group now, amongst his partner and Leo’s partners.
But he had been more…friendly, towards him. Well, he always had been friendly since the day they met, but now it was in a more…platonic, casual, not-as-flirtatious way as it had been during their one-on-one meetings and texts pre-Draxum-Incident.
And…Yuichi didn’t know how he felt about that. Well, more like he did know how he felt and was very confused by such feelings.
He supposed he had gotten so used to his and Leo’s flirtatious banter that the lack of it now was…strange.
He shouldn’t have been thinking so much about this unimportant thing. But here he was, realizing that he was, sort of…missing Leo’s flirting?
Well that thought was so ridiculous Yuichi actually audibly scoffed at that. If anything he should’ve been thinking ‘good riddance,’ because he had a wonderful partner that he wouldn’t trade for anything else. And it wasn’t like either of their flirting had been genuine— sure Leo was incredibly easy on the eyes, Yuichi could admit that, but he had not one but multiple partners, both romantic and sexual, and…had Leo’s flirting been genuine? It was clear the mutants and humans in front of him were his dedicated partners, but he had mentioned sleeping with Bruce’s men on occasion, and…huh.
Did Leo find him… attractive?
No, no, that thought was ridiculous. If he did, he would’ve tried harder to bed him. Leo didn’t seem like the type to take a no and give up so easily. Besides, why would he find him attractive, anyways? He wasn’t like any of Bruce’s tall, dark, and handsome henchmen, and whatever similarities he had with Leo’s dedicated partners strengthened their platonic bond, if anything.
It was a good thing Leo didn’t find him attractive. It was a good thing he hadn’t tried to push past a platonic bond.
Besides, hypothetically, even if Leo was attracted to him, even if Yuichi wanted a romantic relationship with him, he wouldn’t give Timothy up for anything.
It always had just been them, together, after all.