Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The funeral was something their father wouldn’t have wanted.

It was miserable. It was quiet. It was everything both Splinter and Lou Jitsu despised.

Yes, indeed, it was solemn. Their father would’ve wanted something more light-hearted, joyous, cheerful, and even festive. A celebration of the life he lived rather than the mourning of time taken away.

He had never been serious, after all. Even in his darkest times, their father always had a smile on his face, even if it was for them.

Mikey hated that they couldn’t afford the same.

He wished it could all go slower, so they could process it, so they could talk about it, about him. But they weren’t humans, so they couldn’t afford fancy funerals and a nice casket from a funeral home, not even a simple cremation.

So, hastily, Casey and Draxum had worked together to build a coffin, as they were the only ones who hadn’t completely broken down in tears. Raph and Leo were going through it the worst, with April and Donnie not so far behind. Mikey wanted to break down too, but he couldn’t. He had to be there for his mates, for the people he loved. He had to be strong, for them.

They all held each other, right on the floor near their deceased father. Mikey could easily look up from where he was holding the twins and mistake their father’s corpse as sleeping. He was so peaceful, body curled naturally and a little smile on his face.

Mikey shuddered, swallowing a sob, and held the twins tighter as they let out what he couldn’t.

After what felt like years, Casey and Draxum quietly came, lugging in the coffin. It was a mass of wood hastily bought and assembled from a store on the surface, with its edges reinforced by light metal. They didn’t had the time to get nice velvet cushioning, so they substituted it with a blanket from Draxum’s apartment, one that their father had been napping in mere days ago.

Casey and Mikey locked eyes, and the human’s face fell as the box turtle blinked out tears. He and Draxum set the casket down, and he was quick to come over to tightly hug Mikey, at which he let out a broken sob.

The twins held each other as Casey gently took Mikey away from him, running his fingers through his dreads and lightly rocking him. The box turtle was finally able to let out his pain at that moment, not having to hold it back to comfort his lovers.

He loudly wailed on the human’s shoulder, and Casey squeezed him, muttering, “I know. I know. We love you so much, Mikey.”

As Mikey cried, Leo loudly sniffled and wrapped his arms around Casey and Mikey, putting his head against his other shoulder to cry on. Then Donnie came in for a hug too, quickly followed by April and Raph, and soon they were all in a Giant Bale Hug, which was usually for lighthearted cuddling and kissing.

But not right now. Not today. Maybe not for a while.

As the Bale cried together, Draxum stood by their father’s body, quietly whispering to himself. Or maybe to their father.

Again, they cried and sobbed and wailed and held each other for what felt like hours. They probably would have if it weren’t for Draxum.

He gently tapped Mikey’s shoulder, making him lift his red, tear-stained face up, and earning the rest of the Bale’s attention as well. 

The goat man exhaled, painfully averting his eyes, “We should put his… him in the casket it now, before rigor mortis occurs so we can position him. Where…where would you like to put him?”

The Bale looked at each other, silently, hopelessly. Where would they lay their father to rest? It wasn’t like they could go to his ancestral home in Japan in an instant—they would never make Leo create a portal to half across the world right now. They couldn’t and wouldn’t just send him down the sewers, and they couldn’t find a grave on Top and bury him in the middle of the day.

Mikey looked at Draxum, “Is there anywhere in the Hidden City we can…” His voice cracked, and he shuddered, and Draxum’s eyes lit up, like a lamp with one final glow from the last of its oil. 

“I think I know where.”

It had been a month since then.

That was Mikey’s only thought as he and his mates stood on the hill of where Draxum’s old lab had stood, where they had been created. Where their two fathers met each other. Where everything had started.

Casey and April squeezed each of his hands as they stared at their father’s grave, and the headstone that was placed upon it. Mikey had carved it himself. It was made of marble, like the statues of his namesake, and had cracks of gold spread along it, similar to the Japanese art of kintsugi. Repairing a piece of pottery. Repairing one’s self and their purpose. Repairing a family, a clan, a relationship.

The symbolism wasn’t lost on Mikey. In fact, it was the opposite. Just like all his paintings, Mikey was particular with the meaning behind his father’s gravestone. It was the least he could do after the shoddy funeral they gave him.

Besides the headstone, Draxum stood, wiping his eyes of the tears that were threatening to fall down. Leo was doing the same.

“Okay, Dad.” The slider shakily asked, gripping tightly onto Donnie and Raph, “Why’d you bring us here?”

“And on today too?” Donnie monotony asked, voice quiet and raw from all the crying he had done in the past month.

Draxum painfully sighed, grabbing onto the top of Splinter’s grave, looking down on it, “Before—” he gulped— “before Lou died, when his sickness was worsening weeks before, we both knew that it would probably be the end of his life. So he gave me one final wish. One thing he wanted me to do after he died.”

“W-what?” Raph asked, eyes wet and wide.

Draxum exhaled once more, and looked up at his children, tears slowly falling down his face, “There’s something I should tell you. I should’ve told you long ago, but I was ashamed, and kept it to myself. I didn’t even tell your father until after he got sick.”

“What is it?” Mikey hesitantly asked, his grip on April and Casey’s hands tightening.

“There is a reason why I thought of this place as where we would bury him. He…he isn’t the first person I buried here.”

At that, the entire Bale seemed to awaken from their grief, eyes going from a teary blur on their father’s grave to a clear stare on Draxum’s face.

“What do you mean by that?” Leo asked cautiously, stepping back.

Draxum closed his eyes, and then steeled his expression, gesturing to them as he started walking upwards, “Follow me.”

Reluctantly, they did. But not before giving one final look at their father’s grave. They started walking up.

As they did, Draxum quietly spoke, not looking at them, “Before I tell you this, I need you to understand that I am a completely different person now than I was before I met you. Michelangelo knows this. Leonardo knows this. Your father knew this. So as horrible as this knowledge will be, I just need you to know that I regret it, all of it. And from that regret, came a shame so great that I have been too cowardly to speak of it until now. That, and…it was a long time ago. There is no fixing what I did and no penance I can serve that will redeem myself for what I did.”

“Why are you talking like this, Barry? You almost sound like you killed someone!” Leo jokingly said, the half-hearted smile on his face clearly half-assed.

Draxum suddenly stopped at the crest of the hill, and Mikey paused, eyes wide.

“...Dad?”

The goat’s shoulders dropped, “He was my son.”

“What?” Raph froze, and Casey’s brows furrowed, “You never said you had a son in the future.”

Draxum brokenly laughed as they made it to where he was, “I guess that version of me was too ashamed to speak of it as well.”

April gasped as they stared at what was in front of them.

It was a granite headstone, with two things simply carved into it: the words Here Lies Moth, and the dates 2003-2015.

They all went silent.

“You…you had a kid before us?” Raph struggled to say, and Donnie muttered, “But that doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t-wouldn’t have Dad taken him too?”

“I didn’t adopt him until after Lou took you, about four years in fact. He was a human that somehow had stumbled into the Hidden City.”

“And you took him in? But you hated humans.” Mikey stated.

“I…I don’t know why I took him in, I suppose. I just-I just did.”

“And you killed him.” Leo stared at the goat, coldly.

Draxum turned around, eyes wide, “It was an accident. Please. Just let me explain.”

Leo exhaled, and held himself closer to Raph’s plastron.

“Along with him, I adopted another child. A young rabbit yokai named Mizu. I came across her while locating Empyrean in Japan. I only had them for a few years, and I…” His face fell, “And I hate to say that I was a horrible father to them.”

“Is that why you let me help you? Why you stayed?” Mikey asked, “Because you wanted to try to be a better father?”

“I thought that if I could be a good parental figure to you, I could redeem myself for how I treated those children. Of course, I see now, that’s not how it works.”

“Is the other one—Mizu—is she buried here too?” Raph asked, and Casey asked, “What happened? I never heard any of this before.”

Draxum gulped, “When-when Moth died, and Mizu ran away quickly after, I told myself that I would keep them as a secret to my grave. Then I fell in love with Lou.”

The old goat sniffled, and wiped his eyes, “He wanted me to tell you. He said it would help me forgive myself. He said it would be a good attempt to atone for what happened. So…”

He shuddered, and held a hand to his face, looking down.

Mikey stared at the grave, “How did he die?”

Draxum wiped his eyes, quickly, “It was an accident in the lab. I wasn’t a good person back then. I was negligent. I let them mess around without any supervision, even from the gargoyles. I didn’t care as much as I should have.”

“What happened, Draxum?” Leo sternly asked.

Draxum breathed deeply to recollect himself.

“One day during an expedition, my gargoyles notified me of an accident in the lab. When they told me, I assumed it was one of my experiments, some lowly creature…”

His voice lowered, and Mikey stepped back, “Dad.”

“I returned to find what remained of Moth. A prototype of my mutagen spilled on him, and proceeded to eat him from the inside out. What only remained was his skin, for some reason. That’s what I buried.”

“Oh my God.” April muttered, covering her mouth, eyes wide with pure horror as she stepped back. Casey held onto her, doing the same.

“What?” Mikey stared at his father with disbelief, as Raph covered his eyes, and Leo glared the goat, “You know, honestly, not that surprising for a man who threw a fourteen-year-old off a roof.”

“L-leo.” Raph half-heartedly chided, and Donnie shared Leo’s glare, “Allowing a child to be murdered by acid? That’s cruel, even by my standards. Where were your safety protocols?”

“You just let him in there?” April shakily asked.

“I told you, I was a different person back then!” Draxum admitted, “I was a monster! I was nothing more than a cruel excuse of a yokai. I was someone that would have made my mother cry. I took those children in, and I let them hurt. And everyday that I look at you, my children, my creations, is a day where I can’t help but think of what happened because of my own greed. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of the little boy who suffered because of me, and the little girl that ran away into the dangerous streets of the city because of me! There isn’t-there isn’t—” His voice broke with a sob, and Draxum cried.

Mikey had never seen him cry before.

It was an ugly thing. His face scrunched up horribly, mountains and canyons forming along his wrinkles, and it reddened, from its normal berry-mauve to a disturbing fuschia, as tears rolled down his face, flash floods on the normally dry plains of his skin.

The box turtle’s face fell as he watched his only living father cry.

So he did what he did best.

He put aside his own emotions, his pain and rage and horror and shock and betrayal, and he went up to the goat man, giving him the biggest hug he could give.

Leo and Donnie averted their gazes away from the yokai, and Raph stepped forward, but no one opposed Mikey’s decision.

Draxum hiccuped, gently wrapping his arms around the second person he ever considered his son, the only one of the two to be alive when he realized.

“I believe you, Dad.” Mikey said, “And I forgive you.”

Now that sparked protest.

“What?! Mikey, seriously?” Leo exclaimed, and Donnie stiffly said, “Now I wouldn’t go that far, Michael.”

Mikey, still hugging Draxum, defended his decision, “Look guys, I’m not saying you have to forgive him. But I do. Because I understand, Barry. You were a bad person. A horrible person, to be honest. But you’re not anymore. You’re good now. You’re a good father now.”

“By why now?” Raph asked, “Why didn’t ya tell us earlier? Before Dad got sick. When we became a thang. Before the Krang. Why now?”

“It’s only because Dad told him too.” Leo averted his eyes, crossing his arms.

Draxum sniffled, and pulled himself away from Mikey, looking at the rest of the Bale, “Leonardo is correct. I am only telling you this because Lou wanted me to. If…if he didn’t make it his last wish, then I…”

“Then you would’ve kept it to yourself for the rest of your life then, huh?” Casey simply said, “Because that’s what you did in my timeline, since Master Splinter never gave you that last wish. He died before he got sick.”

“Because ya love for Dad was stronger than yer guilt.” Raph added, and Draxum wiped his eyes, “Yes. Indeed.”

“This doesn’t mean we have to forgive you.” Leo was quick to add, and Mikey argued, “Guys, don’t you think you’re being unreasonable—”

“No, Michael, your brothers are equally valid for their choice.” Draxum said, “After all, I don’t forgive myself either. I just hope with… this… that I might, one day. And maybe you. That, and I’m glad I finally fulfilled Lou’s wish.”

He sniffled once more, wiping his eyes one final time, and then solemnly smiled at the Bale. “Okay. We can go home now.”

Chapter Text

Leo sighed as he sat down in front of the mob boss.

It had only been a couple of days since Draxum’s…confession. Sure, yeah, you could call it that. About a month and a week since Splinter…passed. 

It’s funny how time worked like that. After the death of the man who raised you, days felt like years and weeks felt like seconds.

Leo hadn’t seen Boss Bruce since about a month before his dad died. The day after, Mikey managed to send a message to him saying he wouldn’t be able to show up for anything the criminal wanted from him for a while, due to grief. Of course the dragon sent his condolences, along with two months’ worth of salary. For a crime boss who really had transactional encounters with him—whether they be for his pleasure, for his henchmen, for information, always something or other—he had some degree of care for one of his best business partners.

So, Leo figured it was time to get his life back together—no, he was not using it as a distraction from his grief, Mikey—by getting back to what he was doing before. Being a co-leader of an elite ninja team. Keeping tabs with criminals. Making shady deals with powerful figures in the criminal underworld. The typical stuff for an incestuous, handsome mutant freak of nature.

When Bruce mailed him a message—the old man insisted on keeping things formal and business proper despite literally everything— asking him to a meeting of ‘dire importance’ (for a crime boss he was such a theater kid), Leo was quick to tell him he’d be there.

So here he was in the mob boss’s dim, dramatic meeting room. The dragon held meetings in the same manner and room for all his business partners, regardless of how intimate some got more than others. It was a room with mahogany walls and dark, deep velvet-red carpeting, with sleek black chairs and table. Leo sat on one side. Bruce sat on the other. A warm, singular light shined down into the room.

“Leonardo.” Bruce said stiffly, “I’m glad you could make it.”

Leo exhaled once more, and put on his signature lazy, slightly flirty grin, “Hey, Brucie. So what’s so important that you needed little ‘ole me?”

Bruce’s shoulders moved back slightly, “I didn’t message you for a quick fuck, Leonardo.”

At that, Leo huffed a huge sigh of relief, dropping the grin and his shoulders, “Great, because I’m not sure I would be able to go through with it.”

At that, Bruce nodded, “Yes, I understand. Grief is…a hard thing to come to terms with. How are you and your mates holding up?”

“We’re, well…” Leo cringed, “We’re all kinda going through it. I mean, we all did lose the same dad. We’re just spending time with each other and working it out. Tryna go back to how things were and everything.” Then he slightly shook his head, “But that’s not the point. If you don’t want me for that, what do you need me for?”

Bruce leaned in, setting his elbows on the table, and spoke in a hushed tone, “In the past month, starting about a week or so after I got a message of your father’s death, I’ve had several assassination attempts made on me.”

Leo’s eyes widened, “Holy shit, seriously? How many?”

“Five so far.”

“Five?!”

“Yes. About one every week. Right before I sent you my message three days ago, the fifth attempt was made.”

“Damn. Do you have any idea why?” Leo whispered, “Any special info you’re holding?”

Bruce shook his head, “Just the regular amount of info and deals I’ve had with Big Mama and the other crime bosses around here—but, I do have an idea of who might be sending them.”

“Ooh, I love a good mystery~Who?”

“There’s only one person I could think that would want this knowledge, and it would be—”

Suddenly, a crash interrupted him, followed by the sounds of muffled yelling and scuffling. Bruce was quick to stand up, followed by Leo.

“What the hell is that?!”

“It must be another assassin.”

Leo stared at Bruce, “Really?” Then he unsheathed his sword, getting in front of Bruce, “Then we’re cornered!”

Bruce put a hand on one of his arms, and lowered the katana down, “I wouldn’t be worried, Leonardo.”

The slider looked at him like he was crazy, because he was, “What are you talking about? If there’s another assassin after you, then we have to get you—”

The door slammed open, and a figure in black came running in, nothing but the green reptilian skin around his yellow eyes showing. He started to run up to Leo, as he was raising his katana—and was stabbed through the neck.

The black-steeled katana slid out of him with a horrible squelching noise, blood dripping onto the carpet, and he made a horrible gurgling sound, dropping like a fly. As blood started to pool on the floor, Leo looked up to see the yokai who had done such damage.

The white rabbit was wearing a tight, black sleeveless shirt, showing off his biceps, and loose dark blue trousers, tightly wrapped above the sandals on his feet, with his ears tied up in a ponytail-form. His blazing red-pink gaze past Leo’s shoulder to Bruce as he used his shirt to nonchalantly wipe the blood off of his sword, “Sorry to interrupt your meeting, Bruce-sama. Apologies for the mess as well.”

“Don’t worry about it, Usagi. It’s what I pay you for.” Bruce walked around Leo, giving the rabbit a pat on the back as he sheathed his katana over his back, “You came at the right time too.”

He brought the rabbit slightly closer, gesturing to him, “Leonardo, I would like you to meet Usagi Yuichi. He’s my newest bodyguard from an intensive training program in Japan. He’s been dealing with the recent assassination attempts.”

Then he gestured to Leo, “And Usagi, this is Leonardo, the business partner I told you about.”

“ Konnichiwa.” Usagi politely bowed his head, and Leo couldn’t help but slightly ogle him, always a sucker for eye candy, “Hey, handsome.”

That made the rabbit’s face flush pink, and Bruce casually patted his shoulder, “Don’t mind Leonardo, Usagi. He flirts with all my co-workers.”

“Anyways—” He walked back to his end of the table, gesturing to the other two to sit across from him. “As I was saying before, the only person I could think of that would put a price on my head is Boss Beverly.”

Leonardo nodded, quickly switching back to his serious mode, “Right. The head of the Makers of Brutality. That’d make sense, since killing you would ruin all your deals and give her the one-up she would need to take over your turf.”

“Exactly.” Bruce explained, “Out of everyone I know, I would say you are the most clever of them all, Leonardo—” “Oh Brucie you know I have a praise kink—” “Which is why I want Usagi to escort you to her headquarters and find out why she’s putting hits out on me. Convince her to stop and make a deal on my behalf, if you must.”

Usagi’s brows shot up with alarm, “Sir, are you sure about that? Last time I checked you and Beverly aren’t on the best terms right now.”

“Usagi, I don’t blame you for wondering that, considering you’ve only been working for me for about a month now.” Bruce said, pulling out a rolled up, somewhat ripped and ancient-looking scroll out of his pocket, “But so long as you have this, Beverly will be forced to grant you protection.”

He handed it to Leo, who pocketed it. 

“What is it?” The rabbit asked, and Leo cheekily said, “Oh, just some ancient, magically-binding scroll that forces Beverly and Brucie to play nice with the others’ diplomats. So long as we have it, any injuries her cronies give to us will be given to her. That way shit can actually get done without deals resorting to violence every single time.”

Usagi nodded with understanding, and Bruce said, “I will give you the day to meet with her and make a deal. If you don’t come back before sunset with anything important, you’ll both be fired.”

The rabbit’s eyes widened, but Leo casually shrugged the threat off, “Don’t worry about it, bunny boy. Brucie just likes to say that to scare off the weak ones. It’ll take us twenty minutes in and out, tops.”

Usagi averted his eyes, “Don’t call me bunny boy.”

Leo grinned back at him, “Make me stop, bunny boy.”

The rabbit sharply exhaled, and Leo got up, slapping him on the back, making him gasp, “I’m just messing with you, Ugi-kun. Now let’s see if the turtle and the hare story really is true, shall we? First one out of the building loses!”

“What—Hey!”

Leo bolted out of the room, and he couldn’t help but laugh as he heard the rabbit scramble to catch up.

“Okay!”

Leo snickered as Usagi exited the warehouse, the front fur of his bangs all messed up from the sudden run, “First of all, you are incredibly unprofessional!”

The slider grinned, “Was it the flirting that caught you on, or…?”

“Second of all,” Usagi added, going to his side, “it would be ‘Usagi-san,’ not ‘Ugi-kun.”

"If you say so, Ugi-kun~” Leo purred, and once again the rabbit exhaled, face red.

“You really do flirt with everyone, huh?” He asked, and Leo said, “It is one of my defining personality traits, yes. And usually by now whenever I meet one of Brucie’s new henchmen, I’m eye level with their dicks.”

“No filter on that tongue of yours, is there?” 

“Nope!” Leo cheekily said, “But if you want, after this there can be something else—”

“I HAVE A BOYFRIEND!” Usagi yelled, and Leo stepped back out of surprise.

“Er, sorry for that.” Usagi grimaced, surprised at himself, “I just figured if we’re going to be working together under Boss Bruce, then I should let you know I’m uh, taken.” Then he frantically added, “NOT THAT I DON’T APPRECIATE THE FLATTERY—”

“Dude, chill.” Leo sincerely said, putting a hand on the rabbit’s shoulder and patting it, “It’s okay.” He pulled his hand away, casually shrugging, “If anything I should be the one apologizing. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, man. Most of Brucie’s cronies usually like it.”

“Oh, um, thank you for the apology.”

“Yeah. I’m still calling you Ugi-kun though.”

Usagi gasped, “Hey!”

Leo snorted, and Usagi firmly explained, “The honorific -kun is used to denote a more familiar and friendly relationship, and usually comes before a first name—”

“Oh, so it would be Yuichi-kun!”

“No!” Usagi indignantly responded, “Considering we just met as fellow co-workers, my proper title would be ‘Usagi-san’.”

“Ooh, titles. I didn’t know you were kinky like that.”

Usagi blushed, and Leo apologetically smiled, “Too much, Usagi-san?”

Usagi breathed deeply in, and nodded, “Just a little, Leonardo-san.”

Leo winked, “Noted. Now, do you know which way Beverly’s HQ is? Usually I portal there, so I’ve never really had to walk on foot.”

Usagi’s eyes widened, “You can make portals?”

“Oh yeah, it’s part of this whole ‘ancient mystic energy’ stuff that’s been passed down through my family.” Leo casually shrugged, “But I uh, haven’t been doing the best with it lately, due to uh…” He grimaced, averting his eyes at the thought of…everything. “Family-related stuff. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You do not have to.” Usagi said, “Besides, I was going to make a rabbit hole anyways.”

“A rabbit hole?”

“It is, uh, how do I explain this…” Usagi struggled with the words “You know the whole Alice in Wonderland story?”

“Yeah. Is it like that thing the White Rabbit does when he creates holes that take you places?”

“Yes! It’s actually the source of inspiration for that.” Usagi said, “The whole ‘the author was on drugs’ story is actually just a cover-up for the England Hidden City.”

“And I need to know that part why?” Leo asked, and Usagi crossed his arms, “Maybe I just like sharing information, Leonardo-san.”

At that, the slider laughed, “Wow, you’re a nerd. You would get along great with my twin. You could both geek out about the most trivial things.”

“Ooh, trivial. I wasn’t aware you could use such big words.” Usagi retorted, “From what I gathered the only thing that mouth was good for was sweet-talking.”

Leo let out a choked noise at the sudden flirt, and Usagi’s brows lifted, “Was that too much? I thought we were like, playful flirting! I am so sorry Leonardo-san—”

“No, dude, that was hilarious!” The slider lightly punched his bicep, “I didn’t know you were cool like that.”

“I try my best, Leonardo-san. Now please, if you will, back up. Falling into a rabbit hole too early can cause you to get lost.”

“Ooh, mysterious warning. Alright magic man—” Leo stepped back, about a foot away from the rabbit, “Show me what you got.”

Usagi rolled his eyes, although slightly smiled, and closed his eyes. Then, he walked in a messy circle, starting and ending at the original point. When he completed it, he stomped a foot twice, and then the outline glowed the same red-pink as his eyes. He stepped back, and the ground in the circle collapsed inwards, revealing a dark hole of nothingness.

“I hope you’re not afraid of the dark, Leonardo-san.” Usagi said, and then simply dropped into it, silently falling.

Leo rolled his eyes, and then ran in with a grin, “CANNONBALL!”

“AH!” Leo yelped as he was thrown into the air, and then hit the concrete ground beneath him.

“Ow.” He grimaced, rubbing the edge of his shell as he got up, looking at Usagi, “Couldn’t you have made it a bit more gentle.”

Usagi shrugged, “Hey, I just make the rabbit holes. I can’t control them. Besides, I figured we should get as close as possible.”

Then he looked up at the large, metal doors in front of them, with a closed slot in one. Besides that, they seemed to be in a large, dimly lit room, not so dissimilar to the warehouse Bruce used as his headquarters.

Usagi knocked on the door with the slot, and it slid open to reveal the slightest peek of mossy green skin and mustard-yellow eyes, “What’s the password?”

Leo pulled out the scroll from Bruce, opening up so the guard could see it, “The password is open the fuck up. We’re here on diplomatic terms.”

The guard let out an irritated grumble, and slid the opening shut. Then the sound of metal locks turning came, and the doors slowly groaned open.

Leo confidently sauntered in, followed by Usagi’s cautious treading. The room was similar to the one before, except it had a floor furnished with red carpet, and various lights hanging down from the ceiling, some fanciful, jeweled chandeliers and others mechanical fans. There were skulls and heads proudly hung on the ceiling, along with tools of torture and weapons of war. Leo couldn’t help but think that Donnie would love this place.

As they walked in, Leo still holding the scroll, the crowd of ogres, gargoyles, trolls, and various other creatures parted, letting them walk right up to the other end of the room, were a metal bronze staircase led to a throne surrounded by swords, reminding Leo of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.

While Leo clearly preferred Bruce’s gang to Beverly’s—they were much more tasteful in his opinion—he had to admit, the Makers of Brutality had a hardcore aesthetic that absolutely fucked.

But it wasn’t Leo’s fault that Brucie happened to be hotter than Bev.

Speaking of Beverly, the ogre was sitting on the throne, black hair glossy and silver hoop earrings shining under the light. The dark-red strapless dress and black heels she had on went with her usual fur coat, and even matched her olive green skin and single yellow eye.

“Hi, Beverly!” Leo casually greeted, waving Bruce’s scroll up at her, “Me and my bodyguard here have come for a deal on Brucie’s behalf. May I add that your dress is very flattering on you?”

“Your flirting won’t get you anywhere here Leonardo.” The ogre roughly said, looking down at him, “Now tell me, why does Boss Bruce want to make a deal with me?”

“He wants you to stop putting out hits on him.” Usagi bluntly said, and Leo whispered at him, “ Dude!”

“What?!”

Leo grabbed him by the shoulders, “ You aren’t supposed to be blunt with making deals!”

“How was I supposed to know that?!”

“What hits are you talking about?!” Beverly viciously growled through her teeth, “Are you accusing me of assassination attempts, boy?”

At that, Leo frowned, scanning her face. Did she seriously have no clue—

“ANSWER ME!” Beverly roared, bolting up from her chair and making the chamber shake, despite her short size.

If she did have any clue, she was good at hiding it. Better than Big Mama was with hiding her schemes. But since she was just some low-tier gang leader, she couldn’t, so…

“You didn’t put out any hits on him.” Leo realized, eyes wide.

“No, really?! I DIDN’T NOTICE!”

At her anger, the yokai around them started to close in, and Leo raised the scroll again, “Hey, wait! You can’t hurt us! The deal will give our injuries to you!”

“Oh please, boy.” Beverly hissed, “You think I haven’t managed to come up with a solution for that?!” She grinned wildly, “I’ve been looking for an excuse to test it. GET THEM!”

Suddenly, her minions were running at them.

Leo frantically pocketed the scroll, narrowly avoiding a slash to his neck. He smoothly unsheathed his katanas and sliced them at the nearest troll, earning him a flying head and a sliced arm, which splattered blood all over the carpet and the yokai nearby.

The slider turned his head to see Usagi stabbing an ogre in the chest, and then cutting another one’s arm off. Then there was a cyclops, running up from behind—

He jumped at him, slicing his head off, the body falling onto the ground, the head and blood causing others to slip and run into each other, which results in screams and curses. Leo grinned. They were practically doing the killing for them.

“You good?” Leo asked, putting his shell to Usagi’s back, and the rabbit confidently raised his sword again, “Yes. Thank you Leonardo-san.”

“Of course man!” Leo grinned, and slashed at a gargoyle, chopping a wing off, “That’s what friends are for!”

Usagi’s breath hitched as he froze, “Friends?”

“USAGI!” Leo turned to block a sword slashing down at the rabbit. He pushed it away, and quickly turned to block a mace, “Don’t freeze up on me, dude!”

“I-I’m sorry, I—how do we get out of here?!”

Leo sliced upwards, cutting up into an ogre’s stomach, the corpse falling down to add onto the pile of growing, bloody bodies, “Can’t you do another rabbit hole?!”

He heard the rabbit stab someone, the sound of metal ripping flesh raw and wet, “Not in this mess!”

Leo groaned, and kicked the body of the ogre he just killed, leading a troll to trip on it and get impaled by the corpse’s weapon, “Then I’m portaling us out of here!”

“Didn’t you say your portals weren’t working earlier?!”

“DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES!” Leo held a katana into the air, and sliced down, yelling, “HACHI MACHI!”

A bright cerulean portal appeared, and Leo grabbed Usagi, “C’mon!”

“ACK—”

The slider jumped through the portal, and landed outside of Bruce’s warehouse, the two of them tumbling onto the ground.

The portal behind them closed, and Leo sighed with relief, “Oh thank God.”

“Ow!” Usagi rubbed his head, “Are all of your portal travels that rough?”

“Only when I’m in a rough situation.” Leo said, helping the rabbit up, “Besides, it could’ve been worse. We could’ve ended up halfway across the planet.” 

“WHAT?!” Usagi shrieked, and Leo reassuringly patted his shoulder, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh my Titan. You’re fucking crazy.” The rabbit stared at him, and Leo snorted, “I didn’t know Mr. Pretentious Bodyguard could swear. Also, really? Did you just figure this out now, or…?”

He laughed again as Usagi punched his arm, “You know what I meant, Leonardo-san.”

“Right.”

“But—” The rabbit grabbed their swords from the ground, offering Leo his, “For a crazy person, you do fight really well. Your swords went clean through half of those yokai back there! If I may ask, who taught you?”

“Well uh, that’s a complicated question. A little myself, a little my dad.”

“Oh, really? Do you think I could meet him anytime?”

At that, Leo froze, eyes wide. He stared at Usagi, who stared back.

The slider averted his gaze, slumping, “You can’t really get taught by someone six feet under.”

Usagi’s eyes widened, and he grabbed his shoulder, “My condolences, Leonardo-san. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay.” Leo slightly smiled, “And you know, as fun as sex is, it is kinda nice to just have someone to chat with in Bruce’s gang. If you want, maybe we could spar some time together?”

“Really?” Usagi looked at him, up and down, “You’re incredibly friendly for one of Boss Bruce’s business partners.”

Leo shrugged, “Well I’m a friendly guy. Look, Bruce has me for a reason, and it's because I’m incredibly great at reading people. Not to brag or anything. I’ve even tricked Big Mama a few times. You don’t seem like such a bad guy. Or maybe you are, and I haven’t noticed it yet.”

He pulled out the scroll Bruce gave him, and gave it to Usagi, “Either way, I’ll find out next…week? Here? At eight?”

Usagi slightly blushed, and earnestly smiled, taking the scroll, “Uh, sure. I’ll meet you then, Leonardo-san.”

“Leo-kun?” Leo tested the waters, and Usagi rolled his eyes, “Leo-kun. If you insist.”

“Cool! It’s a totally platonic date then!” That had the rabbit sputtering, and Leo turned on his heel, waving goodbye, “Tell Brucie I said goodbye, yeah?”

“Uh, yes! I will!”

“Great! Thanks Usagi-kun!”

At that, there was no protest.

Chapter Text

April sluggishly blinked as she stared at the huge screen in front of her. It had been, what, a month since Splinter died? Yeah, a month.

She sighed, and leaned back, raising her glasses to rub at her eyes.

She knew she looked like a wreck: messy hair loosely pulled back, her natural face revealing deep, dark eyebags, and small stains covering her Eastlaird University sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. She hadn’t had a full night of sleep, since…since Splinter died. Sometimes it was nightmares. Sometimes it was crying. Sometimes it was comforting her mates. Sometimes it was her staying up to try and contact Splinter’s spirit.

That’s what she did for about a week straight before Mikey made her stop. She thought it was the least she could do, since she was the medium of the family. Maybe if she kept trying, she could use her ninpo to contact Splinter’s soul the same way she did with Karai.

That’s what she told Mikey. But he made her stop anyway. Their father had made his peace. There was no unfinished business his soul had for on the mortal plane. Even though they wanted their father back, there was no reason for him to come back. He was gone.

So all April could do was be there for her turtles. They had barely been able to do anything since Splinter’s death. Leo was pretending it didn’t bother him, like every other horrible thing that happened in his life. Donnie had been non-verbal for the first week after Splinter’s death, and even now he hasn’t been able to go back to his lab. Mikey hasn’t been able to cook without breaking down, so April’s mother had been teaching her and Casey to cook food for them.

Then there was Raph. Out of all them, Splinter’s death struck him the hardest. Sometimes he would just stand in the living room, staring at Splinter’s chair, and cry. He would call out for Splinter in his sleep. Then when he wasn’t crying, he was blaming himself. For not figuring out Splinter’s illness earlier. For not being able to help Draxum and Casey bury him. For not being able to comfort the others without breaking down himself.

If April had her way, she would be down there with them constantly. But after two weeks of not going to classes—she excused them with a private family funeral and mourning, which was the truth—the turtles insisted that she shouldn’t have to endanger her grades for their sake. They could start taking care of themselves again, they insisted. 

So she obliged. She was a stubborn woman, but the rest of her mates as a unit were even more stubborn. Everytime she went to class she worried, and everytime she returned, she was relieved. That, and Casey quietly reassuring her that he would be there for them if anything happened soothed her nerves a little more each day.

Maybe she would stop worrying sometime. Maybe things would get better—they always did, didn’t they? After the Shredder, after the Krang, things got better. So they had to get better. April didn’t know what to do if things didn’t get better. But they were getting better, they had to be! Donnie was speaking again. Casey and her had started to let Mikey help them with small things, like cookies and breakfast. Raph was getting into his morning-routine again, albeit slower. Leo…April didn’t know about Leo. Leo was good at hiding things. Always had been. He hid his inferiority complex for most of his life, along with his desires for the others.

But those things did come out, eventually. Whatever Leo was keeping in him they would have to pry out, soon enough. They always did.

Things always got better. They had to.

“Okay, students.” The old professor in front of the class loudly spoke up, earning everyone’s attention, and snapping April out of her thoughts. “As you may have noticed, our class is a little bit bigger than usual. That’s because today marks the start of your collaboration project with the Engineering majors.”

At that, conversation erupted all over the lecture room, and April groaned, covering her eyes. Right. That stupid project where she was supposed to partner up with an Engineering student and write a research paper about some mechanical thingy. She had forgotten about it. But who could blame her? Her partners’ father just died. How could she care to remember about some stupid research paper?

“Class! Class!” The professor shouted, gaining everyone’s attention once more. “The way this will work is that each Journalism student will pair with an Engineering student. If everyone is present, then every student should get a partner. Me and Dr. Spankoffski will allow everyone to choose their partners—but if we see you monkeying around during the first week of this project, we will forcibly choose a different partner for you. Now— orderly— choose your partners and get into pairs. So long as everything goes well, you are free to leave early.”

Immediately people started to get up and walk around the room, and April painfully looked around her. It seemed like every person in the class paired up instantly. Man, why did this always happen to her? No matter how normal and friendly she seemed, she couldn’t make a single friend in any of her classes—THERE!

She launched up, eyes widening as she saw some dude sitting down in the far corner of the room, bobbing his head to whatever song he was blasting from his black headphones. He was large and tan, dark hair twisted into thick locs that were pulled back in a short ponytail. He had what seemed like dozens of piercings. A pair of black snake-bites under his lip, a nose ring, an eyebrow piercing, and several studs on his ears, along with a barbel in one and a chain hanging along the other.

The guy was punk central.

He was casually hidden away from the rest of the students, gently biting his lip and drumming his pencil as he stared down at some list.

April rushed over to him without hesitance, like a predator to unsuspecting prey.

“Hey there!”

The dude jumped, eyes wide at April’s sudden presence, and he removed his headphones, muffled metal shouting from them. “Er, is there something I can help you with?” He asked, looking up and meeting her eyes, lowering the music of his headphones.

They were green. Unabashedly green.

“Do you wanna be partners for the project?” April gestured to the board, and the guy looked at it. Then he groaned, “Ugh, right. I forgot that was today. Wanna sit by me?”

“Sure.” She walked around the table, sitting beside him, and said, “I’m April, by the way.”

“Oh uh, I’m Tim.” He awkwardly offered his hand, and with equal awkwardness, April shook it. “Er, sorry.” Tim embarrassingly smiled, scratching the back of his neck, completely not matching his bad-boy aesthetic, “I’m not really the best with uh…” He looked her up and down, and decided, “ Normal people. Yeah. Well, most people really.”

April let out a genuine snort, “Me? April O’Neil? Normal? Now that’s funny.”

“Well you look normal to me.”

“You just happen to meet me on the most off day of my life.” April said, “Trust me, once I’m out of this…” She grimaced, and shook her head, “Anyways, usually I’m dressed better than this.”

“Life stuff?” Tim guessed with a sympathetic smile.

“Er, yeah.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Tim joked, “You’ve ever seen an emotionally-stable guy dress like this?”

April laughed at that again, and Tim said, “Really. I’m the pinnacle of mental health right now. I honestly don’t know how I do it.”

“Okay, but seriously?” April shook the joke off, and asked, “What do you want to research on for the paper? I’m not the best at engineering stuff.”

“Well I’m not the best at writing stuff, so we’ll get along great.” Tim hummed, tapping his pencil, “Hm, we’ll there’s a lot we can do. We can do research on experimental engineering, anything that has to do with the environment, past feats of engineering…”

He trailed off, and then stared back at her with a cheery smile, “What do you think we should do?”

April gulped as she met the unblinking green eyes, and averted her gaze with slight nervousness, “Well uh, my boyfriend’s an engineer, so he might have a few ideas for our project.”

“I wish I could say the same about mine.” Tim casually said, “Unfortunately I’m the brains of the relationship.”

April felt her chest lighten with relief. Okay. He was safe. She had worried for a second that he would be one of those… ’nice guys’. She already had enough on her plate. She didn’t need to deal with any assholes at school.

“Hey, O’Neil. You look rough. Had a tough few weeks?” Another voice said behind her, and April sighed. Of course.

“Leave me alone, John.” She said, “I have a boyfriend.”

“Yeah, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him~”

April clenched her teeth, and whipped around to glare at the brunette, “As if I would even sleep with you if I was single, you piece of shit.”

The man wrapped his arm around her waist, which she gasped at, “Oh c’mon April-Baby, don’t be like that—”

Suddenly Tim grabbed him by the shoulder and slammed his chin down against the table, glaring down at him, “She has a boyfriend, so back off, man.”

“Oh? And is that you?”

Tim grew an unnerving smile, and leaned down to hiss, “No, and be lucky I ain’t. You would be in the hospital if I was.”

At that, John’s eyes widened, and Tim let go of him, “Now shoo.”

The brunette did exactly that, whimpering to himself like the man-baby he was.

Tim casually turned to April, “You okay?”

“Oh” April smiled, “Uh, yeah. Thanks for that.”

“Hey, it’s what my muscles are for.” He sat back down, with April following, “You know, you should totally report that as sexual assault.”

April nodded, “He hasn’t been flirting with me for a while, so I guess I thought he was done. That, and, you know.”

“Everyone brushes it off the first few times?” Tim guessed.

April humorlessly smiled, “‘Boy will be boys’ is what people say.”

“If I can ask, does your boyfriend know about this?”

“Er, no. He can be…” April grimaced, “ Intense, yeah.”

“And you don’t want him getting into trouble?”

April paused, and nodded again.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Well, now we’re friends, so if that keeps happening I’ll just keep scaring him off.” Tim added, “But like, you should still report it.”

“Yeah, I will.” April nodded, and then changed the subject, “Our professors will probably want to know what our topic will be, so how about we meet again sometime during next week or so?”

“Sure.” Tim said, and pulled out his phone, putting it on the table, “You wanna put in your phone number?”

April did exactly that, and saved it as ‘April.’ Then Tim sent a waving emoji to her, and she saved him as ‘Tim’.

“Cool. I’m kinda busy in the next few days with personal stuff, so I’ll know when I’m free, yeah?” Tim said, and April nodded, “Sure. I’ll bounce some ideas around between me and my boyfriend.”

“Alright, cool.” Tim got up, and waved to her, “See you later?”

April nodded, “See you later.”

Tim nodded, scanned the room, and then left with a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

A gentle knock on Mikey’s car door earned his attention from the slider sleeping in his lap. He turned to look at April, who was right beside him with a lapful of softshell, who was snoring quietly against Leo’s head. The twins had been more inseparable than ever.

Slowly, Mikey pushed Leo off of his lap so as to not disturb his slumber, and then quietly walked across the room. He opened the door to see a shy, hulking snapper twiddling his thumbs. 

“Hey Raph.” Mikey warmly smiled, “Do you wanna join our cuddle pile?”

“Well, um actually—” Raph loudly cleared his throat, which made Donnie make a noise. Everyone froze as the softshell mumbled something in his sleep, and then continued snoring.

Everyone sighed with relief, and Raph whispered, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Mikey softly said, “Just speak quieter.”

“Raph was just wonderin’, with Casey already out on his nightly patrol Topside and everythin’, would you, maybe, want to go on patrol with me in the Hidden City?” He asked with a small smile.

Mikey looked up at him, and couldn’t help but think back to the last time he and Raph had gone out together. It had been, what, maybe two weeks before…before Dad died. The box turtle swallowed. Yeah. It had been a while, hadn’t it? He…he missed going out on dates.

“Raph, of course I would.” Mikey said, smiling up at his partner, and turned to April, “Hey, would you be okay with the twins alone?”

“‘Course, Baby.” April cooed down at the turtles in her arms, giving them both a kiss on the forehead, “They’re easy to deal with when they’re all sleepy like this.”

“Well now you just jinxed yourself.” Mikey said, and blew her a kiss.

April caught the invisible kiss with her hand, and kissed the palm that caught it.

They both couldn’t help but quietly giggle at that, and their female lover smiled and waved them goodbye as Mikey silently slid the door closed.

“Man. It’s quiet tonight.” Raph muttered.

Mikey leaned against him, smiling, “Yeah. It’s nice.”

They were sitting on a rooftop on some random building in the Hidden City, easily overlooking at least half of the secret hideaway. Just like the city above them, the yokai city was lit up with neon signs, bright billboards, glowing yokai, streetlights, the like. It was a miracle anyone could sleep here, especially with the nightly activities of criminals and gangsters.

But tonight it had been strangely quiet. Neither of them knew if it had been like this for a while, or was a new occurrence. Besides one mugger they caught in an alleyway and some yokai stealing fruit from a market stand, the two turtles hadn’t been busy in the slightest. Most of the patrol had spent more time walking rooftops than actually catching criminals.

A month ago the peace would’ve been suspicious. But now, it was welcomed. Mikey did love patrolling and being a hero and all, but, well…things had been hard since their dad died. Obviously.

He looked up at Raph, “You doing okay?”

“Hm?” The snapper made a questioning sound, and Mikey sighed, putting his head against his bicep, “It’s just that, well, out of all of us, you were the closest with Dad. I mean, I-I’ve you crying before, in the living room and even now you’re still blaming yourself for not noticing Dad’s illness. I just…” He squeezed a finger, since the snapper’s hand was too big for him to hold, “I’m worried about you. And I love you. A lot.”

Raph exhaled shakily, shuddering, and Mikey kissed his bicep as the giant wiped his face, “Yeah. I mean…Raph’s workin’ through it. ‘M just having trouble s’all.”

“Well you don’t have to work through it alone.” Mikey whispered, “And nothing is your fault. You being Dad’s oldest doesn’t mean he was your responsibility. He should’ve told us he was sick sooner, okay? And just because you’re the oldest doesn’t mean you have to stay strong for us. We’re all equals in this relationship, remember?”

“I…” Raph loudly sniffled, wiping his face again, and looked down at Mikey with those huge, wet eyes of his, “But what about you?”

That caught Mikey off guard, as he stared back at him with wide eyes, “What?”

“I mean—” Raph wiped his eyes again, and hugged Mikey tightly, “Raph knows that, I just…why don’t you follow that advice? Why-why do you gotta stay strong for the rest of us?”

“R-Raph.” Mikey’s voice started to crumble.

“It’s just, when Dad died, you didn’t…n-not until Casey came in, and..” He pulled back, “And even-even then you don’t cry, you wait till you think no one can see ya when yer cooking, and April and Casey told us—”

Mikey’s face paled, “Raph, I—”

“And Raph loves you so much.” Raph easily said in one breath, as easy as breathing, “We all love ya, Mikey. If I’m not allowed to be sad by myself, then neither are you.”

At that, Mikey’s voice broke into a wail, and he mushed his head into the snapper’s plastron.

The snapper wetly chuckled as he held the box turtle tightly, crying along with him, albeit not as sharply.

As the box turtle sobbed in arms, Raph smiled and kissed the side of his head, at which Mikey hiccuped, “I’m-I’m sorry for getting tears and snot on you.”

“Nothin’ a nice, warm bath can’t fix Baby.” Raph murmured, “Maybe when we get back home we take one?”

Mikey loudly sniffled, “Yeah. That’d be nice.”

“Maybe the others could join us too?’

“Yeah.” Mikey slowly nodded in the snapper’s hold, “I miss having group baths with everyone.”

“Me too, Baby.” Raph gently said, “Me too.”

Mikey sniffled again, and pulled away, wiping his eyes, “Heh. I really needed that.”

“Yeah.” Raph leaned in, “Raph needed that too.”

Mikey smiled up at him, and happily received the kiss.

Raph happily thumped his tail, and Mikey let out a stuttering churr, slightly broken from the ache in his voice.

His mate grumbled back, which vibrated throughout Mikey’s body, and he practically melted into his hold like a bowl of ice cream on a hot summer’s day.

“Mm. When we get home, we should get everyone and have the biggest cuddle pile ever.” Mikey hummed, and felt Raph kiss his head, “Yeah, after the bath.”

“Maybe we end this patrol early?” Mikey suggested, and Raph sighed, “Well, usually Raph doesn’t end patrols early, but since it hasn’t really been busy tonight, I guess we could—”

The sound of loud shattering of glass and fire blazing, followed by screams suddenly interrupted them. The two both quickly turned to a building a few blocks down, where bright orange fire was blazing out of windows and black smoke was rising up to the ceiling.

“Shit!” Raph swore, and they were quick to run to the scene of the crime, where Yokai were running in all directions, screaming and panicking as fiery debris fell from the brick building.

“Okay, Mikey, I need you to get into that building and pull out any survivors, I’m going to check on the ones out here—WAIT!”

Suddenly, some crazy Yokai  jumped out of a blazing window, smoothly rolling to catch their fall on the ground. They were completely covered in black clothing to blend in with the dark area, and when Raph noticed crumpled up papers in their gloved hands, he growled, “Change of plans, I’m catching that guy, LIKE A BOSS!”

“Raph, WAIT—”

But it was too late. Raph was already running towards the criminal.

“HEY, BUB! I bet that doesn’t belong to you!”

The Yokai’s bright pink eyes—which were the only thing uncovered—widened, and they started to run down the street.

Raph was just fine with that. The chase made it much more fun.

He easily jumped over debris and fire alike, yelling at them, “HEY! Hey, pal! I’m gonna get you!”

The Yokai was surprisingly agile and quick for someone so small—especially considering whatever those wrapped things were flopping against their head were probably weighing them down—but they couldn’t outrun him for long. With great size and strength came great stamina after all.

Within a few blocks, Raph managed to catch up to only a few feet behind them, when the criminal sharply turned into an alleyway corner.

Raph grinned as he did the same, effectively trapping the Yokai who stood at the end of the trash-ridden alleyway.

The snapper decided to slow down a bit, seeing as now he was in no rush to capture the criminal who did it themselves.

“Alrighty, pal.” He huffed, pointing at them, “You give me those papers and explain whatchu were doing in that building, and maybe I’ll letcha get off scot-free.”

The Yokai’s eyes narrowed, and swiftly, they used a leg to swiftly kick a circle around themselves. They then stomped a foot twice against the ground, and Raph snorted, “What was that, some kinda threat? Please little guy, there’s no way yer gonna—what the heck?”

A circle started to glow the same pink as the Yokai’s eyes, and quickly, the ground within it collapsed. The Yokai winked at him and waved goodbye as they fell into the hole.

Then, as quickly as the ground disappeared, it filled back in, as nothing happened at all.

Raph gawked at the now-empty alleyway, comically looking up at where the Yokai had been and back down to where they had disappeared, over and over. 

He probably would’ve stayed like that for a while if it hadn’t been for Mikey, who turned around the corner.

“Raph!” Mikey’s voice snapped him out of it, and Raph turned to dumbly stare at his small partner, “There you are! Don't suddenly run off like that again, I was worried like hell!”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry. I shouldn’t have letcha alone with all that back there.”

Mikey sighed, and couldn’t help but look fondly up at him, “It’s okay. Thankfully my razzmatazz and mystic mojo pulled through. I got everyone out and safe, easy-peasy. Did you catch that Yokai you were running after?”

Raph’s shoulders slumped, “Naw. I almost had them in this corner, but then they made some weird circle hole thingy in the ground and disappeared!’

“Huh.” Mikey turned to the corner of the alleyway, “That’s…interesting. Probably some mystic ability or something. Maybe we ask Leo later if he can help us look into any Yokai that can do that?”

“Uh, yeah. That sounds good.” Raph grabbed Mikey’s hand and squeezed, “Still feel kinda bad ‘bout leaving you back there, though.”

“Raph, Babe, it’s okay. Seriously.” He kissed his hand, and then Raph leaned down so the box turtle could kiss him on the cheek, “We’re all good.”

Raph exhaled, “Okay, if you say so. I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night, how about you?”

“Oh, definitely.” Mikey chirped, “I want that group bath you promise!”

“Well, Raph didn’t exactly promise that—”

“ Hey guys?” Casey’s voice suddenly interrupted from Raph’s radio, and he answered, “Oh hey Casey! How was yer patrol? Me and Mikey were—”

“ Look, you guys should come home, like right now.” Casey swallowed over the phone, his voice slightly shaking, “On my patrol I found something…someone. It isn’t pretty.”

Mikey frowned, “Hold on, what happened?”

“ I found a corpse in an alleyway.” Casey said, “Not just some regular one either—both this guy’s arms were ripped off. Donnie was with Leo and April this entire night, so…Leo thinks there’s another cannibal in town.”

Raph and Mikey stared at each other with wide eyes.

Then the box turtle slowly took the radio from Raph, and whispered into it, “Okay. We’ll be there right away, you hear me?”

“Okay. Be safe.”

“You too, Case.” Mikey said, and then looked up to Raph as the channel closed.

The snapper gulped. “Okay. Let’s get home. Right now.”

Chapter Text

“Okay, what’s goin’ on?” Raph asked as he entered the main atrium with Mikey on his shoulder, where the rest of the Bale was.

April and Casey were on the couch holding each other, their gazes switching from the TV to the sunset duo as they walked in. Meanwhile, besides them, Donnie was still laser-focused on the TV, grumbling to himself as the news reported on the accident.

“According to NYPD spokesperson Michaela James, a desecrated corpse was found earlier this night…”

Then there was Leo, who was uncharacteristically muttering to himself as he stood in front of a board he clearly wheeled in, scribbled sticky-notes, photos, criminal databases, and the likes taped on and string together like in crime-thriller shows and such.

The slider was so deep into Leader Mode he didn’t even acknowledge Raph and Mikey when they walked in—and Raph knew he could smell them because it was all he ever talked about. He would be impressed if it weren’t the fact that Leo wasn’t the best at handling his emotions, and with everything that’s been happening?

Yeah, as Co-Leader, Raph had to get him out of it.

He dropped Mikey off with Donnie (somewhat so the box turtle could work his therapy-mojo and get the softshell out of his own obsessive state) and walked over to Leo, putting a hand on his shoulder and making him jump.

“AH! Raph! You scared me!” Leo joked, putting on a grin, but Raph could see the Raph-chasm practically growing on his face, and they all knew how much Leo prided on his good looks.

“M’bad.” He muttered, and leaned in for a kiss, which he knew would break the slider out of his spell for sure. 

It did of course—Raph could see Leo’s gears switching from Leader Mode to Mate Mode, which he always loved. Leo was quick to kiss back, and Raph asked, “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Leo sighed into another kiss, mumbling into his lips, “Just stressed.”

“Yeah, I know Baby.” Raph said, pulling him close, “But Raph’s proud of ya for taking charge. Yer a great leader.”

He smiled as he saw Leo’s tail wag. Some things never changed, thank Pizza Supreme for that.

“Wanna tell me whatchu doin’? Maybe I can help.”

Leo groaned, physically pulling himself away, and Raph’s heart swelled with pride as he saw his younger brother getting serious again. “Okay, so, Casey told you about the ah…body he found, right?”

Raph nodded, “Yeah.”

“Well he wasn’t able to get any DNA samples before some rando found the body and reported it to the police.”

“Don’t forget said rando threw up on it too!” Donning gagged as he leaned into Mikey’s hold, “As if I’d be able to perform a sample analysis with that.”

“We know Donnie, shh, it’s okay.” Mikey gently comforted him, “We wouldn’t make you do anything like that anyways.” 

“But Casey managed to get a few photos.” Leo gestured to the board, “They’re on there, but you don’t have to look at them.”

He then turned to it, “It seems like the victim was a young white male, I would say maybe young twenties? The cannibal that got to him left some pretty distinct bite marks along his arms, so that’s how we know. But they managed to completely decapitate the head without leaving a blood trail, so we can’t exactly tell for certain how old the victim was.”

“Besides, the victim being a white male barely narrows it down.” Casey said, “That’s like, half of New York. Wonderful.”

“Yes, and may I add, whoever this ‘cannibal’ was is an absolutely disgusting amateur!” Donnie complained, “They just left the body there! I mean, who just leaves a perfectly good body?! Like, forget the amount of calories, do you know how much organs sell on the black market alone—”

“Donnie, we love you a lot.” April interrupted with her careful, authoritative, big-sister tone, “But that is not the point right now.”

Suddenly, Casey gasped, bolting up, “WAIT! Donnie might be actually onto something!”

“Wait, I am?’ Donnie then shook his head, confidently smirked, “I mean, of course I am, I am the smart one of the family after all.”

“Cannibals usually like, take the whole body, right?” Casey asked, walking up to Leo, “Like for snacks or a trophy or some shit?”

“Yeah—” Leo gasped, eyes wide, “OH! I get it now!”

Casey nodded, “If this one left the body—”

“Either they’re new to this—”

“ Or they did it on purpose!” Both of them exclaimed, and Raph raised a non-existent brow at them, “Alright. Raph’s not following.”

“New cannibals—and just new killers in general—are really bad at it at first.” Leo said, “Usually cannibals and serial killers like to develop their own technique and calling card, but they don’t perfect it until a few times. This immediately wipes out any former cannibals and serial killers off the list as they never leave the body because their DNA can be left behind.”

“Or,” Casey grinned, “since I found the body with a blood trail around it, this person was really precise with this kill. Meaning they specifically targeted this guy, meaning they had a motive, and also meaning they left the body on purpose for some reason. Maybe as a warning, or as a brag.”

“ Fuck, you are so hot when you’re smart, come here—” Leo grabbed Casey and slammed him against the board, eagerly pushing his tongue into him.

Casey was about to grab onto him, only for Raph to ruin the fun by pulling them apart.

“Hey!” They both exclaimed, and Raph said, “Guys, there’s a cannibal on the loose. We ain’t horsing around during this.”

“Not even a little?” Casey reasoned, and Leo put on his needy eyes that he knew Raph couldn’t say no to, “But I’ve been so good, Big Daddy.”

Raph’s shoulders slumped, “Fine.”

“YES!” Leo shouted, grabbed Casey again—and Raph pulled them apart again, “After me and Mikey tell you what happened during our patrol.”

“Oh shit, right!” Mikey exclaimed from the couch, “Can’t believe I almost forgot about that whole explosion thingy.”

“What?!” The other four exclaimed, and Raph patted Leo’s head, “Don’t worry. No one was hurt. We made sure of that.”

“But there was that guy who ran out the building.” Mikey said, and Leo shook his head, “Okay, wait, start from the beginning.”

The two then filled them in on their side of the night—their lazy night, emotional conversation, the sudden explosion of a building and some random Yokai covered in black running away, and finally the criminal escaping through some weird portal.

“Ugh. Great.” Leo slumped, “First my boss keeps getting assassination attempts, then some random cannibal shows up, and now this. Especially all after…” He grimaced, and shook his head, looking at Raph, “I know a lot of different portalling methods because of Bruce’s gang. What exactly happened? Maybe I’m familiar with it and can narrow down suspects.”

“Uh, hm…” Raph hummed, narrowing his eyes in concentration as he tried to remember, and then snapped his fingers, “Oh right! Okay, so, I had them cornered in an alleyway, yeah?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, like, I’m telling them, ‘If you tell me why you were in the building, I’ll let you go,’ you know, general stuff I tell ‘em, and then they dude this weird kick thing and stomp the ground.”

“What do you mean, kick thing? ” Leo asked.

“Like, they kinda kicked outwards, but then they just kept their leg in the air and swung it around in a circle. They couldn’t have been tryna roundhouse kick me, because they didn’t even jump—”

“And you said they stomped the ground after that?”

“Yeah. Twice. Then some circle started glowin’ under them and they, like, disappeared into a hole? And it like, filled up?”

“Huh. Actually…” Leo nodded, “That sounds familiar to something I saw recently. It isn’t exactly one-to-one, but it’s really close. I know a Yokai who can do something like that. I’ll ask him about it next time I see him.”

“Alright, cool. So what’s the plan then, Leo?” Raph asked, and Leo smirked, “Oh? You’re trusting me with the plan?”

“Leo, we both know I’m the fighting leader, and yer the planning leader.” Raph poked his forehead, “Stop messin’ around. What’s the plan?”

Leo smiled, grabbing Raph’s finger and kissing it, which made the snapper blush, “Well, it seems like we have two problems here. An NYC criminal and a Hidden City criminal. I’m thinking we split into nightly patrols to monitor the same areas, see if anything happens. While we’re doing we can also collect evidence to try and figure out what these guys want.”

At that, April stood up, “Nice! Since me and Casey are humans, I guess we’re taking Topside then, huh? Since the Hidden City might be wary of us and all—”

“Yeah, Casey will take Topside along with maybe one or two of us.” Leo said, pointedly looking at April, “But you gotta stay home.”

“What?!” April exclaimed, “That’s ridiculous, Leo!”

“I don’t know, I mean, he might have a point.” Casey said, and April frowned at the slider, “You know perfectly well I’m capable of taking care of myself.”

“Yes, mi amor, we know.” Leo said, coming over to grab her hands, which April reluctantly allowed, “But even absolutely brave, beautiful, strong, independent women like you need sleep for college.”

April opened her mouth, and Leo pointed at her, “And don’t say you don’t because I can see your eyebags.”

“But-but I—” April stammered, and Mikey put a hand on her shoulder, “You don’t want to be left out, we know. We don’t want to leave you out, April, trust that.” “But your classes are a priority over everything else.” Donnie corrected himself, “Besides your mental health, of course.”

“But there’s a cannibal—”

“I know.” Leo grabbed and squeezed her other shoulder, “And the rest of us will be able to focus on this much easier knowing you’re focusing on college.”

“Hey.” Raph came over, wrapping all of them in a hug, “We just want what’s best for ya, April. I mean, college has been hard on ya enough even before…even before Dad died. We don’t want ya any more stressed.”

“This isn’t because you’re a woman, and it isn’t because you’re a human.” Mikey said, “If Donnie was in college, we would make him do the same thing.”

“And I would probably be as, if not more, stubborn.” Donnie admitted, and Casey looked at Leo, “Maybe we can let April do some investigating in her free time?”

April looked at Leo, and the slider smiled, “Yeah. Yeah that could work.”

“But ya hafta promise us that ya won’t push yer stuff away ta do it.” Raph said, and Mikey added, “And you’ll get at least 8 hours of sleep every night.”

April sighed, nuzzling closer in the hug, “Fine. And you gotta promise me you’ll let me kick the shit out of the cannibal when you catch them.”

“Fairest April I will let you act whatever your dark heart desires on them.” Donnie affectionately promised, and the woman smiled, “Okay. I guess I can accept those terms.”

At that, the hug itself seemed to exhale with relief, and April murmured, “I love you guys.”

Of course, a round of ‘I love you too’s’ eagerly replied back

April smiled, and purred, “You know, I don’t have classes tomorrow. Maybe we can relieve some stress, possibly~”

Leo pulled her into a bridal carry, making April yelp, “ Now you’re speaking my language, Babe.”

Raph exhaled, and Casey fluttered his eyelashes up at him, “ You did say we could ‘horse around a little.’”

The rest of the Bale seemed to do the same, and Raph smiled, “Ya’ll real lucky I love ya. C’mon!”

He grabbed Casey, Donnie, and Mikey, throwing them onto his shoulders and shell, and the two leaders eagerly walked to the bedroom with their Bale in tow.

Chapter Text

“Okay, so we all know the plan, right?” Leo asked, looking around the room.

Most of the Bale nodded, and April sighed, “Yeah, yeah, you guys are going out and doing awesome hero things while I have to stay here and do my chemistry homework. Yay. So exciting.”

“Hey, ya gotta put yer education and health first, April.” Raph said, and Mikey nodded, “We talked about it.”

“Besides, it’s not like you’re going to be alone.” Casey smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her waist, “Me and Donnie are going to be in the lab for most of the night, remember?”

“Well, I mean, yeah.” April pouted, leaning into his hold, “But it’s not like you’re gonna let me in.”

“How about this, fairest April?” Donnie said, “If you finish your homework early, I promise I’ll let you into the lab to accompany me and Casey.”

“And who knows, maybe you can do more than that~” Casey said, wiggling his eyebrows, and April chuckled.

Raph exhaled, “Just promise us y’all get some work done before ya dive off into Horny Land.”

“I will guarantee you an analysis of CCTV footage, but I cannot promise anything more.” Donnie formerly said, and Casey winked at Raph, “We’ll try our best.”

“That’s all we could ever ask for.” Leo said, smiling fondly, and giving the three of them a kiss on the lips. 

“Make sure y’all stay safe if ya go out.” Raph said, leaning down to kiss the three of them as well, and Mikey added, giving them his kisses, “And don’t forget leftovers are in the fridge if you get hungry!”

“We won’t, Angel.” Donnie promised, and April slightly smiled, “Thanks.” “You guys stay safe too, okay?” Casey asked.

“We’ll try our best.” Leo winked at him, and they all waved their goodbyes, watching the other three disappear into the darkness of the sewers.

Once their silhouettes faded away and the sounds of their walking silence, April looked at Donnie and Casey. “Alright. Homework time. Yay.”

Casey fondly rolled his eyes, and Donnie offered his hand like a true gentleman, “To the lab, dearest Casey?’

Of course Casey took it, smiling, “Where else would we go, Donnie?”

“Touche.”

“Alright, unfortunately for both of us, I don’t have direct camera footage of the alleyway where the body was found.” Donnie said, typing into his keyboard as the screen of a CCTV camera came onto the monitor, revealing the side of a street, with a dim alleyway across from it. “However I do have footage from a parlor right across from it, albeit monochrome and slightly blurry.”

“It’s the best we got.” Casey said, leaning against Donnie’s chair. “I found the body around midnight, and it was fresh, so—”

“An hour early, then?” Donnie said, rewinding the footage to eleven the previous night, which showed a dark, empty road with only a few cars parked on the sides, the occasional straggler walking along and disappearing.

“And if nothing happens we go like, thirty minutes back until we hit something?” Casey said, and Donnie nodded, “That sounds adequate.”

So they started to watch the footage.

Luckily, Donnie sped it up, so each minute was only about 10 seconds. The first half of the footage was literally nothing but people walking along the road and the occasional car driving by. The cannibal who committed the crime was smart about it, that’s for sure. In a dark alleyway with little to no surveillance, to a nondescript white guy, eating or taking most of his identifiable traits. The location was a smart choice too, as it was close to Eastlaird University, and along with the cold weather, there would be little chance of getting caught.

Casey had to admit, whoever this cannibal was they probably would’ve made a great strategist during the Apocalypse.

But finally, at 11:42, the footage was completely devoid of people—except for a white guy walking down the street, scrolling on his phone.

“Gotcha.” Casey said as Donnie swiftly paused it, “That’s him?”

“Yeah, has to be. It matches the time frame. Plus, that dude is wearing the same shoes as the corpse was.”

Donnie hummed, “Fair point.” He switched on his screen recorder, and played it.

The victim was walking along the opposite sidewalk like most of the other pedestrians earlier that night, except he stopped by the alleyway, the smallest sound of metal hitting concrete registering on the camera.

The man looked up from his phone, “Is someone there?” 

Something like a low, pained groan came from the alleyway, and the victim walked in, “Oh, holy shit. Are you good man—AHHH!”

The victim was practically pulled in—probably by his shirt since no hands grabbed at his sides—and his scream was quickly muffled.

The alleyway was too dark to see what was happening, but the sounds alone gave up enough to the imagination.

First, the tearing of fabric.

Next, the sharp, painfully crack of a bone breaking.

A loud, muffled scream.

Another crack.

Another scream.

Then blood splattered out of the alleyway, perfectly under a streetlamp, like a spot light.

The sound of something of what Casey could only think of as flesh squelching came—it reminded him of how Krang flesh sounded when it moved.

He shuddered, lightly backing up from the screen.

Donnie stared at the footage with wide eyes, morbidly entranced.

Another crack—and a riiippppp.

Except it sounded wetter than fabric. 

One last muffled scream—

And then it was silent.

For a moment.

Then the sounds of meat tearing apart and desperate, hungry chewing began. Loud enough for the camera across the road to capture it perfectly.

Casey gagged, feeling bile rise in his throat, and he looked away.

After a few minutes, the noises stopped, and a loud BELCH came.

Finally, there was complete silence.

Slowly, Casey turned back to face the screen.

Besides the smear of blood under the streetlamp, the entire ordeal was completely hidden under the darkness of the alleyway. All under twenty minutes.

As the two silently watched the footage pass by, Casey’s eyes widened as he realized a few things, the pieces clicking together in his mind.

One. There were no sounds or indication of a knife or any weapon being used. Not in the footage, and not in the crime scene. Surely they would’ve heard the sounds of stabbing if there was.

Meaning two, the cannibal used no weapons. They tore the victim apart and ate him with their bare strength alone. 

Three. Humans aren’t strong enough to do such a thing.

Four. The footage never showed the killer leaving the alleyway, and Casey didn’t see anyone on the rooftops.

“The cannibal isn’t human.” Casey muttered, “They have to be a mutant or a yokai of some kind.”

“Ugh, great.” Donnie sighed, “First they’re a cannibal, and now they’re a mutant! Just become a great engineer and steal my whole identity, why not!”

Casey grabbed the softshell’s shoulder, squeezing it, “Donnie, this is serious.”

“Well of course I know that, but—woah.” The softshell looked up at Casey, who was staring at the screen.

“Are you…okay?” He awkwardly grimaced, never the emotions guy—that was Mikey’s job in the polycule after all— ”Do you want to…talk about it?”

“Uh, n-no, it’s just—” Casey shook his head, “It’s just been a while since I-I’ve heard something like that. I’ll uh, talk to Mikey about it later, okay?”

Donnie exhaled with relief, “Oh thank Newton. I was worried I had to do emotions for a second. You know I’m bad at them.”

Casey fondly smiled at him, “Yeah, I know.” He leaned down to kiss his forehead, “But thanks for trying. Are you okay?”

“Uh, yes? Why wouldn’t I be?” Donnie asked, clueless.

“It’s just, well…” Casey sharply inhaled, “It’s the first time you’ve been in the lab since…”

“Since Dad died.” Donnie finished for him.

Casey’s face fell as he saw Donnie’s eyes water, but before he could raise a hand to wipe them away, Donnie did it for him.

“Please don’t say you’re fine.” Casey whispered, and Donnie sniffled, “I-I’m…you’re right. I’m… not fine. But I mean, it hurts less. With you and the others.”

Casey leaned in, and they sweetly kissed, despite the horrendous murder they just heard.

“I love you.” Casey mumbled against his lips, and Donnie sighed into the kiss, “I love you too.”

“Alright.” Casey pulled back, “Since the killer’s most likely not human, that means the police probably didn’t catch any evidence that would actually lead to them. So, you wanna go on a little field trip to grab some samples?”

“So long as you touch all the icky stuff.” Donnie said, getting up, and Casey grinned, “I promise, I won’t make you touch anything bad.”

“Okay then. I'll inform April of our plan and that we will be back soon. Will you grab the equipment we’ll need?”

“Yes sir.” Casey teasingly said, and Donnie threw a wink at him before he left the room, “Don’t tease me, Casey.”

“Alright, you remembered to bring the cloaking devices?” Donnie asked, looking down at the crime scene, which was surrounded by police tape and guarded by cops.

Casey nodded, pulling out two small disks out of his bag. He handed one to Donnie, and they both pinned it to their clothing before pressing the button on it.

They both vanished into the air.

“Ah, the wonders of photokinetic manipulation.” Donnie said, “Now come along, Casey. Make sure to watch your step.”

Then carefully and silently, like the ninjas they were, they climbed down a nearby fire escape along one of the buildings, easily infiltrating the crime scene. Having an absolutely genius partner helped things like that happen.

The victim’s body was gone, but where it had laid was marked with chalk, illustrating how the man had been laid against the wall, nothing except the absence of chalk marking how the victim’s hands and head had been taken off.

Besides stains there, along with the blood stain outside the alleyway and the CCTV footage, there were no other traces of the crime. 

Casey quietly set down his bag in the shadows to hide it away from view, and pulled out two glass cylinder container units and a few unopened swabs. Most of the blood and DNA of the victim had probably already been collected or dried up, but they weren’t here for that kind of evidence.

He held out one of each for Donnie to take them, and they started to silently look around the small, cramped alleyway.

Donnie focused on the body, as Casey looked through the dirtier parts of the alleyway, such as the trash and liquid puddles of who knew what.

He did promise the softshell he wouldn’t make him touch anything gross, and Casey always kept his promises. That, and the police could’ve missed evidence in the pile.

Casey quietly tore the first swab open, dipping it into the first puddle he saw. They would most likely just get an analysis of water and possible human body fluids, but it didn’t hurt to get what they could. When he was done, he slid the swab back into its packing—tip first to avoid contamination—and put it in the container.

Then he opened another swab, and—

“Didja hear that?” One of the police officers said, turning around and holding a flashlight, and Casey quickly dropped the swab, staying perfectly still to not make a sound.

“Oh c’mon Joey, it’s probably just another rat. You know how disgusting those things can get.” The other officer said, and the first one sighed, lowering his flashlight, “Yeah, yeah, I know, Carrie. All this cannibal business is just freaking me out, is all. Poor kid didn’t deserve it.”

“Let’s just be glad Forensics identified him then, yeah? At least his family gets some peace of mind.”

“Oh, really? I didn’t know that.” The first police officer said once again, turning away, and Casey let out the smallest sigh of relief, “What’s the kid’s name?”

“Look, technically we ain’t supposed to know about this until they release it to the public tomorrow, but apparently he was from the nearby college, East-something University. One John Bohner.”

“Damn.” Casey’s eyes widened as he heard the name, making sure to mentally store it for later. “Such a tragedy.”

“Yeah. Hopefully the detective can get on the killer’s case before anything else happens.”

Something bright caught Casey’s eye.

He narrowed his eyes as he stared at a small, glowing green dot on a trash bag, and eagerly swiped it up, bringing it close.

It looked like…ooze. The same thing that mutated the turtles. Donnie showed him enough pictures to recognize it.

So it was a mutant.

He put it in the container, and made a small tapping noise against the wall to earn Donnie’s attention. He felt a tap on his shoulder as confirmation, and they made their way back up the ladder.

Now it was time to get back home as soon as possible to analyze their evidence.

“Wow, this is incredible.” Donnie said, as he stared at his main monitor.

“What?” Casey asked, coming over from his own analysis of his first sample—which was just as he suspected, mostly muddy water with traces of urine and blood.

“This isn’t Ooze. At least, not exactly.” Donnie said, staring at the small droplet of green goo in the container in front of him.

“What do you mean?”

“While it does have a very similar chemical composition to Draxum's mutagen, it isn’t a complete 1:1 match. It’s—how do I say this—unrefined, per say.”

“Is it some form of blood?”

“No. While mutants are almost entirely physically changed by mutagen, one thing that mostly does not change is the composition of their blood, which usually doesn’t change color and only has traces of mutagen in it. But this is almost entirely—let’s call it, false mutagen for now, yes? Whatever this came from, it wasn’t mutated by Draxum’s oozesquitos.”

“But it’s similar enough to be related, right?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe Draxum can help us identify it then?”

“Hmm, that’s a good idea Casey.” Then Donnie grimaced, “However, we all know Draxum has been taking…Dad’s death hard. I mean, none of us haven’t really talked to him since what happened. I suppose I could try to contact him and see if he would be willing to offer assistance—”

“But it would probably be good to check in with Mikey before you do that.” Casey finished for him, and Donnie nodded, “Indeed.”

“Alright, cool. Do we have any idea what kind of mutant the killer is?”

“No. Usually samples from mutants have trace DNA from what they were mutated from, but the false mutagen is too unrefined to tell.”

“Okay then. Well, at least we know who the victim is, and that the killer’s a mutant. That’s good.”

“It is indeed, dearest Casey. Leo and Raph will be quite pleased with our results when they get back.”

Casey smiled, “And we all know what happens when they’re happy.”

“Precisely!” Donnie stood up, “Now, I shall grab fair April, and—”

“Yo, Donnie.” 

Both Donnie and Casey turned to where a radio was sitting on the desk, and Donnie sat back down, grabbing it, “Well speak of the devil, or something of the sort.” He responded, “You are conversing with Donatello.”

“Me, Mikey, and Raph are heading back over there.” Leo said over the radio, “Did you guys find out anything on your end?”

“Yes we have!” Donnie happily reported, and Leo said, “Great. We can all debrief together when we get back. Make sure you’re all ready for another family meeting.”

“We’ll do our best, oh Fearless Leader.” Donnie teased, and Casey said, “Get back safe!”

“We will. Leo out.”

Donnie stood back up, “Shall we go get fair April then?”

“I would feel bad if we didn’t.” Casey said, bumping his shoulder, and they exited the room.

Minutes later, the entire Bale was in the living room. Casey, April, and Donnie were on the couch, and Raph was standing beside it with Mikey on his shell. Leo was in front of his board.

“Alright, so.” The slider clapped, “Me and the sunset duo were able to figure out that the building belonged to my boss Bruce, so we’re suspecting that this Yokai criminal is connected to the recent assassination attempts on him. We can’t really report this to the police for obvious reasons, so instead next time I see good ole Brucie I’ll let him know of the situation and make sure he doubles security at all his buildings. What did you guys find out?”

“Okay, this is really interesting!” Donnie jumped up, holding the container with the single drop of false mutagen, absolutely quivering from his excitement to talk about science, “So, from the camera footage, we figured out that the killer isn’t human. We then sneaked into the crime scene, and dear Casey acquired this neat sample.” He handed it to Leo so he could look at it, “It is similar to Draxum’s mutagen in his oozesquitos, but not quite, so me and Casey have decided to refer to it as false mutagen. We couldn’t gather any evidence on what kind of mutant the killer was, but if I can have more time to analyze the sample—or more preferably acquire more samples—I’m sure I can figure it out in no time.”

“Oh, shit, Donnie, this is great!” Leo grinned, “Now all we have to do is find some rogue mutant! That’ll be easy!” Then the slider grabbed his face to passionately kiss him, and Raph cleared his throat.

“Yeah, yeah, Big Daddy, we know. No fun until everything’s done.” Leo said, pulling away from Donnie, who practically had heart-shaped pupils. Having incapacitated Donnie, the slider turned to Casey, “Did you guys find out anything else?”

Casey nodded, “The officers that were monitoring the area were talking about the victim. His name was John Bohner. They said the NYPD is going to release his identity to the public tomorrow.”

“Wait, John?!” April exclaimed, eyes wide, and Leo frowned, “Is something wrong, Babe?”

“I know that guy! He’s from one of my journalism classes!”

“Shit, seriously?” Casey said, and April nodded, “Yeah! He’s been flirting with me like, non-stop! I reported him to my professor, but well—huh. I guess he died before anything could happen.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Donnie exclaimed, snapping out of the dreamy daze Leo had put him in, “I could’ve gotten rid of him for you!”

“Donnie, no.” Raph sternly said, “We don’t kill people who flirt with April.”

“Not even a little?” Donnie whined.

“Hey, hermano, focus.” Leo snapped his fingers in front of the softshell’s face, “Besides, it doesn’t matter now anyway. Someone already beat you to it. Now April—” The woman perked up at the mention of her name— “The police will likely be investigating his classmates and people at your college to see if the killer was stalking him in any way. I need you to try to gather as much info on him as you can without drawing suspicion. Maybe he had something to do with the mutant and his death was a result of that.”

“Yes!”

“After you do your assignments.”

“Oh come on!”

Chapter Text

“Hey, Tim! Over here!”

Tim turned to see April waving him over to one of the red booths, and he grinned, walking up to her.

“Sorry I’m late.” He said, dropping his bag down beside him, across from April, “Me and my boyfriend were just chatting and I kinda lost the time.”

“Nah, you’re good, man!” April waved it away, and Tim whistled, looking around the diner, “Nice place you chose. Haven’t been here before.”

“Oh yeah, this place is amazing! Honestly, top ten burger joints for me, personally.” April pointed at the counter, “I was actually just going to grab some food, you want me to get anything for you.”

“Uh, no, I’m good.”

“You sure? My treat.”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been having big meals for the past few days so I’m not really hungry.” Tim chuckled, scratching his head, “I know it’s super weird and all, the fat guy not being hungry, but it’s true.”

“Wha—I didn’t mean it like that!” April yelped, which earned her many head turns from the nearby customers, and she awkwardly lowered her head, apologetically whispering, “ I really didn’t.”

“Oh, uh, sorry.” Tim exhaled, “I guess I’m just kinda…used to it? I mean, after you hear fat jokes for a while you kinda start making them yourself, you know?”

“Tim, if I saw anyone fat-shame you, I would kill them on the spot.” April earnestly promised, and as Tim’s eyes widened, she then quickly added, “Not literally for obvious reasons though. But they would have a horrible time on Twitter.”

At that, Tim snorted, and smiled, “Thanks April. I mean, stuff like that really doesn’t bother me anymore, but the gesture’s nice.” Then he coughed into his fist, “Now why don’t you get your food and we finally start talking about our project?”

“Yeah.” April stood up, “I’ll be right back.”

As she walked towards the counter, she pulled out her phone, opening her text messages and sending Donnie a thumbs up emoji. Even though she knew he was probably watching her on whatever cameras he could get his hands on, it was always good to reassure him that her friend finally showed up, and she was good. 

Meaning she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going, and knocked right into someone, making one of the drinks in her hands spill onto the floor.

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry.” April apologized, putting away her phone as the woman in front of her swiveled around to glare at her, “I was texting my boyfriend, and I wasn’t watching where I was going—HEY!”

The woman’s other drink was splashed onto her, very obviously on purpose, and the stranger sneered, “Oh, sorry about that! I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

Then she dramatically huffed, bumping into April’s shoulder as she walked out of the diner, leaving her dripping in pop, and everyone looking at her.

She made an embarrassed noise and quickly left the diner, face blooming red. She shivered from the early-winter cold, and turned into the nearby alleyway, sitting down and huddling herself close.

Great. Of course that would happen, especially in front of a bunch of people and a new friend she made! Why couldn’t she just have a good, normal day with a friend? Something bad or embarrassing always had to happen, and now she was shivering cold in a dirty alleyway—

“Woah, April, holy shit.” She slowly looked up to see Tim looking down at her, “Are you okay?”

April pulled herself in closer, and Tim sat down by her, putting an arm around her. “Yeah. Just wet. And cold.”

“What the hell was that about? I mean, who just does that?”

“I don’t know.” April sighed, lowering her head, “I was just texting my boyfriend, and then I bumped into her. Why the hell would she do that? Ugh.”

She shivered again, and Tim slowly put an arm around her, “If it isn’t like, overstepping any boundaries or anything, you could dry off in the bathrooms and borrow my jacket.”

“Really? Won’t you be cold?” April asked, and Tim shrugged, casually grinning, “Nah, I’ll be fine. I don’t really get cold.Your boyfriend won’t mind though, will he?”

“If he does, I’ll kick his shit.” April joked, and Tim took off his jacket, handing it to her.

“Thanks.” She stood up, and Tim nodded his head towards the door, “I’ll be waiting by the entrance. Then we can just grab some hot cocoa and talk about stuff on the way to the subway?”

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” April said, walking to the door, “I’ll be back.”

“Well duh.”

April huffed a laugh, and entered the diner, averting her gaze from some of the people who were looking at her, and gave an apologetic look to the poor employee who was stuck mopping pop off the floor.

She went into the bathroom, locking the door and quickly peeling off her soaking shirt. Luckily she had been wearing a thick sweater, so it absorbed most of the pop and left the rest of her clothes relatively dry. 

She grabbed some paper towels, drowned them under the sink, and quickly started to wipe at whatever bled through onto her skin. Drying pop was sticky and smelly, and she wasn’t about to have any of that. None of the boys would cuddle her like that—well except maybe Casey, but the boy grew up in the literal apocalypse, so April was pretty sure she could be covered in mud and he would still cuddle with her. He was wonderfully, stupidly sweet like that.

That’s when April held Tim’s hoodie up, thinking. She didn’t consider how the boys would feel if she came back smelling like Tim and wearing his clothes.

Well, it’s not like they got unreasonably jealous—oh boy, except for Donnie, April could practically see him grabbing her and frantically trying to rub his scent onto her. The thought made her snort. He was so weirdly adorable like that.

But yeah, she would be fine. Unless…did he smell bad?

It’s not like April was going around, smelling her few friends or anything!

But wouldn’t it be weird to smell his hoodie? Yeah, she was weird, but that Donnie’s forte, not hers.

But also…would it matter if he didn’t know? It was just smelling his jacket and all to make sure he didn’t smell bad, it’s not like she was stealing his boxers to wear—

And she immediately pivot from that thought because woah, where did that come from, people didn’t think of stealing their friend’s underwear—

To escape her own thoughts, April grabbed the jacket and stuffed her face into it, taking a deep inhale.

Huh. It wasn’t bad, actually. She expected maybe the smell of typical BO or Body Axe Spray like most men had, but it had a smoky, campfire smell to it, almost? It definitely wasn’t bad. It was actually kind of good.

She felt blood rush to her face, and quickly zipped up the jacket on her. She had to roll the sleeves about five hundred times to fit on her body, but luckily her muscles filled in the shoulders and biceps of the sleeves.

Then she washed her face to cool it off—man, cold weather sure does get the face burning and all—and grabbed her clothes, making a beeline to the front counter.

Thankfully, the person working the cashier had witnessed what happened, and understandably provided her a take-out bag to put her clothes in with some light explaining.

So, throwing up her hood, she walked out with her clothes in a bag, where Tim was comfortably waiting in the forty-degree weather in just a T-shirt and some sweats.

“How are you not cold?” She asked, lightly shivering, and Tim chuckled, “I got blubber! Like a whale. Now c’mon, I know a hot chocolate stand a block from here.”

A few minutes later, they were standing down in the subway on a bench, April blowing over her cup of hot chocolate while Tim practically drank all of it in one gulp.

“Woah, chill man, you’re gonna burn your tongue.” April said, and Tim shrugged, “Nah, I’ll be fine. I’ve gotten worse than tongue burns before. It’s not that bad when you get used to it.”

“You get burned a lot?” April asked, and Tim nodded, “Yeah, from my engineering stuff. I do a lot of welding, so I’m used to heat.”

“Oh…” April nodded, and Tim took another sip of his drink, “I told you it was good, right?”

“I haven’t had any of it yet, dummy.” April said, and took the smallest of sips, which earned her a burn on her tongue, “Ow!”

Tim snorted, and April said, “Oh shut up. We all can’t be immune to fire, Mr. Welder. Now, about our project, I was thinking about doing something environment-related. I’ve kinda been into environmentalist journalism for the past few years.”

“I know I’m gonna sound like a cringey PBS Kids message when I say this, but conservation and recycling is so dope.” Tim said, and April smiled, elbowing him, “Hey, I was raised on PBS Kids, jerk.”

“Oh hey, me too. Twinsies!” Tim gasped, “What was your favorite?”

“Wild Kratts, duh.” 

“Yes! You are so right for that answer!” Tim said, bumping his drink against her, “I’m gonna be honest, if you said anything else I would’ve immediately stopped being friends with you.”

“I don’t know, CyberChase and Word Girl were also kinda chill.”

“And Magic School Bus.” Tim said, and April nodded, “That show taught me more than my elementary teachers ever could.”

“Okay, wait, wait, we’re getting off topic.” Tim snapped a finger, “Environment-something for the project, you said?”

“Yeah!”

“I was actually thinking something really similar, maybe like the mechanics of nuclear plants—”

“Oh! And a paper on the effects radioactive waste has on the environment! We could write about Chernobyl!” April exclaimed, and offered a hand to Tim, who of course gave her the obligatory high five, “Nice going man!”

“Yeah. For the engineering part I was thinking about building a homemade Geiger Counter and somehow getting my hands on a piece of something radioactive to demonstrate it. I haven’t figured out if it’s legal though.”

April laughed at that, and took a sip of her hot chocolate, mumbling into the cup, “Hey man, one of my boyfriends can hook you up with something like that.”

“One of?”

April spat out her hot chocolate, throat and face burning, “I MEAN MY ONE BOYFRIEND! My one singular boyfriend because who has multiple, that’s so weird hahahahaha!”

She awkwardly grinned, and Tim shrugged, “I, uh, don’t really care.”

“Oh thank God.” April exhaled, and Tim raised a brow, “But it’s a poly thing, not a cheating thing though, right?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely.” April looked down into her cup, “I don’t even know how someone could manage to date five people without any of them knowing.”

“FIVE?!”

The sudden shout had April jumping, making her drip hot chocolate on her leggings, and Tim swore, “Shit, I’m sorry, I’m just surprised.” Then he whispered, “How did you get five boyfriends in a polycule? What’s your secret?”

“Oh well, four of them were actually dating each other already, when I came along.” April said, lying out of her ass because she obviously couldn’t mention the whole ‘incest’ thing. “And Casey kinda just…showed up one day.”

“Ohhh.” Tim nodded, “Nice.”

April smiled, “Uh, yeah. Thanks for being chill about it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Tim said, “It’s your life, April. Just because I happen to be a part of it doesn’t mean I have a right to judge it.”

“Wow. That was…weirdly wise of you.” 

Tim grinned, “It’s the hot chocolate. It gets all my blood warm and moving so my two brain cells can hit each other and produce a thought.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short like that.” April insisted, “I mean, just because I haven’t seen anything in action yet doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re a good engineer.”

“I, uh…what? Was that a compliment?” Tim asked, face contorting with confusion, and April clarified, “It was a double negative. It means I think you’re a good engineer.”

“Oh. Thanks then.”

“Alright!” April stood up, drinking the last of her hot chocolate and throwing the cup away in a nearby trash container. She grabbed the bag her sweater was in, and gestured to a nearby bathroom, “I’ll go get changed back into my sweater so you can have your jacket back.”

“Wait! No!” Tim quickly protested, getting up, and April blinked at him as the man blushed, “I mean, uh, if you want to, you can, but you don’t have to! You can keep wearing my jacket, I don’t mind. Uh, unless you want to go back home in your sweater, then you can, obviously, but I would feel really bad if you did.”

“Oh. Uh.” April slightly blushed as well, smiling, “Okay then. Thanks. I’ll give it back to you next time we meet up.”

“Wait.” Tim grabbed her arm, and whispered, “Will it be okay with your boyfriends? I don’t want to make anyone angry—”

“Tim, it’s just a jacket. They’ll be fine. We’re in a polycule for Pete’s sake, it’s not like we’re getting jealous any time one of us hangs out with someone.”

“Uh, okay. Cool.” Tim awkwardly let go of her arm, putting his hands into his pockets, “I would’ve felt bad.”

April said, “Hey, chill. If any of them were like that I wouldn’t be dating them.”

“Yeah, right.” Tim nodded, “So, uh, when do you want to meet next time?”

“I would say in a couple of days, a week at most.” April said, “I’m gonna be doing research on Chernobyl, and I can already tell that there’s gonna be some technology stuff I won’t get without a translator. That, and you need to meet my boyfriend Donnie so he can hook you up with some uranium.”

“What, does he just casually keep the stuff around?” Tim joked, and April nodded, “Uh, kinda, yeah actually! He has his own lab and everything. He’s incredibly smart. You guys would get along great.”

“Oh, really? Uh, cool then.” Tim said, scratching his head, “See you later then?”

“See you later!” April said, waving him goodbye, and he said, “Get home safe!”

“You too!”

Chapter Text

“You know for a second there I thought I scared you off, bunny boy.” Leo grinned up at the rabbit, who walked out of a shady alleyway, in his usual bodyguard get up.

“And I thought I told you not to call me that, Leo-kun.” Usagi retorted, dropping off a water bottle and a bag, which Leo assumed had bandages and basic antiseptics for taking care of cuts. Leo knew because he brought his own, which was settled right nearby.

“But yes. It will take a lot more than some flirting to scare me away.”

“Really?” Leo crossed his arms, smirking, “Because last time I checked you were redder than ‘ole Brucie whenever I said something to you.”

“I was caught off guard.” Usagi said, unsheathing his black katana, holding it up to him, “But I assure you, I am quite prepared now.”

Leo dramatically unsheathed his katanas as well, “So, straight to it then, Usagi-kun?”

“Oh please, Leonardo.” Usagi plainly smiled, “We both know there’s nothing straight about either of us.”

Then he was running up to the slider, slashing his katana sideways.

But Leo easily blocked it, his katanas forming an X, and he kicked his leg out, pushing him away.

“So, first one to draw blood wins?” Leo asked.

“One would assume so, Leo-kun.” Usagi grunted, easily getting up, and Leo chuckled, “I just want to be careful about staining your fur, pretty boy.”

“Don’t kid me, kappa.” Usagi cracked his neck, “If anyone’s the pretty one, it’s you.”

That made Leo’s eyes widen, heart thumping, and the rabbit came slashing at the sword in his right hand, causing Leo to accidentally drop it. He kicked the sword away, and Leo slashed at him with his other sword.

But Usagi was too quick, grabbing onto his plastron and jumping off of it, allowing him to get out of reach.

Leo grinned, and snapped his fingers, his katana appearing back into his hands in a flash of blue, “Oh, you’re quick, Usagi-kun.”

“Wow, it’s almost as if rabbits are known for their agiliTY—” Usagi’s katana clashed against Leo’s, his voice raising an octave out of surprise.

With a spark and a shake, his grip slipped, and the rabbit narrowly ducked down, leading a graze of a blade on his neck, and fur dropping to the ground.

“Hey!” Usagi exclaimed, diving through Leo’s open legs and rolling, swiftly getting back up. Leo grinned, turning around, “That’s just how the game plays, baby—ACK!”

The rabbit practically threw himself at him, the sudden tackle making Leo drop his katanas in shock, and they fell to the ground.

“Woah—” Leo gasped as he lifted his face to see Usagi straddling his waist, and the rabbit smirked as he held the edge of his blade to his cheek.

The rabbit smirked above him, and Leo felt blood slide down his cheek.

“I win.” Usagi roughly exhaled.

Leo gulped, feeling blood rush to his face, and not just because of the cut.

Oh, yeah. Totally. He was going to have to get Donnie to do this to him later. Because the feeling of blood sliding down his face and the weight of Usagi on his waist was going to be stuck in his mind for days.

“Leo-kun? You okay?” Usagi’s voice asked, snapping Leo out of his thoughts, and he met the rabbit’s eyes to see him panting, “Does it hurt too much? I can patch it up for you.”

Correct that. Weeks.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” Leo said, cracking a flirty grin, “Just thinking about all the other ways I could be under you.”

That made Usagi explode red, but he let out a disbelieving snort, and got up, offering his hand, “Of course you’re fine. You’re probably into that, knowing you.”

“Hey, you said it, not me.” Leo wiped the blood off his cheek with his arm, “But I would love to take that offer up.”

“Okay then. Come here.” They sat down beside their bags, and Usagi said, grabbing Leo’s, “I hope you don’t mind if I use yours. Mine is specially made in mind with rabbit fur, so I doubt it’ll work the same on you.”

“Eh, I don’t mind.” Leo shrugged, and Usagi opened the kit, pulling out antiseptic wipes. He raised one to his cheek, “This might sting a bit.”

“Usagi-kun, trust, I’ve taken a lot worse hits than that.” Leo said, his only reaction a sharp inhale as the rabbit tenderly wiped the blood away and cleaned the cut, “I do apologize though. I shouldn’t have gone for an arm rather than your face. I mean, what will you do with such an important asset damaged?”

That made Leo huff a laugh, and Usagi dropped the dirty wipe down, grabbing a long bandage that would cover it up, “I would put some gel on that to heal it faster, but I don’t want to get my fur sticky, so I hope it’s okay.”

“Eh. I heal fast. It’ll be fine. Besides—” Leo grinned as Usagi laid the bandage flat on his cheek, “We wouldn’t want to ruin your best asset, would we Usagi-kun?”

“No, we wouldn’t.” The rabbit said, setting the supplies away, and as he did so, Leo noticed a slightly red spot on his elbow, “Woah. Where did you get that from?”

“Huh? Oh, that.” Usagi gently cradled it, “Just a small burn I got from one of Bruce’s assassination attempts. Don’t worry about it. It’s almost done healing.”

“You sure? It looks really irritated and fresh.”

“Yes, I’m sure, Leo-kun. It’s merely a little red because of my fur and how it irritates it. Trust me, it’s normal.”

“Okay.” Leo harmlessly held his hands up, “If you say so.”

Then he snapped his fingers, a lightbulb going off in his head, “Oh right! I got so distracted from the fight I almost forgot to tell you!”

“Tell me what?”

“I know Brucie’s in a Very Uber Important Mafia Meeting right now, so I need you to relay some information to him whenever you can.”

“What kind of information is it?” Usagi asked, raising a brow.

Leo leaned in close, and whispered, “I have a lead on all the assassination attempts Brucie’s been getting.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“Okay, so basically.” Leo explained, “A few guys of mine were patrolling the Hidden City a couple of nights ago, when that explosion happened—you’ve heard about that right?”

“Oh did I ever.” Usagi rolled his eyes, “I wasn’t able to sleep afterwards because of it.”

“So anyways, they saw this yokai run out of the building with some paper. Luckily, I was able to do some digging around and found out that the building belongs to Bruce. So I need you to tell him to double security at all his buildings and be on the lookout for a yokai covered in black.”

“Got it.” Usagi nodded, “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Well, I’m not for certain, so don’t tell Bruce this just yet, but one of my guys saw the suspect teleport, and the way he described it sounded like it was similar to you?”

At that, Usagi raised his brow, “Are you seriously accusing me of trying to kill my own boss, Leo?”

“No no no no!” Leo quickly corrected himself, “What I’m trying to say is that I think this suspect may be a rabbit yokai, or at least some kind of yokai with similar teleportation abilities as rabbit yokai. So I would be careful to look out for anyone matching that description, but I don’t want any innocent yokai getting caught up in the crossfire. So don’t tell Brucie yet. This is between you and me.”

“Understood.” Usagi gravely said, grabbing Leo’s shoulder, “This is incredibly vital information, Leo-kun. You really are as clever as Boss Bruce says you are.”

“Well I mean, yeah.” Leo flipped his mask-tail back like it was hair, “I’m more than just a pretty face, y’know.”

“I did not doubt you for one second.” Usagi said, “I promise you Boss Bruce will hear about this as soon as possible. You have my word.”

“Oh! I know you’re not his secretary and everything, but I will be busy patrolling the Hidden City the next couple of nights, so could you ask him to plan a meeting between the two of us next week? I should have more information by then.”

Usagi sighed, but smiled, “I will. There’s too much at stake for delays.”

Leo sighed, “Always the noble, solemn bodyguard archetype, aren’t ya? You were fun a few minutes ago.”

“Well, unfortunately for both of us, Leo-kun, we are business partners first and friends second.” Usagi said, and Leo smiled at him, “Really? I kinda thought it was the opposite.”

“Oh. Well, uh, they can both be a priority.” The rabbit muttered, his face slightly red, and Leo grinned, “You are so fun to tease. You get all red and everything, it’s adorable.”

“Oh shut up.”

“Make me.” Leo blinked up at him.

In response, Usagi put his hand over his mouth, pushing him over, and Leo dropped to the ground with a laugh.

Then the rabbit offered him a hand, and helped him up.

“So, same time, same place next week?” Usagi asked, and Leo said, pulling out his phone, “Actually, I was hoping to get your number.”

The rabbit’s ears twitched at that, and Leo said, “Oh calm down, I didn’t mean it like that. What, are friends not allowed to share phone numbers anymore?”

“Oh, uh, right. Duh.” Usagi muttered, pulling out his own phone with a red face, and Leo grinned, “That, and this is a quick way to get info to you without having to meet up.”

“Right.” Usagi nodded, and they exchanged phone numbers. Leo smiled as he saved Usagi as ‘bunny boy,’ which the rabbit saw, but he merely rolled his eyes without protest.

Leo grinned, grabbing his stuff, “But yeah! Same time, same place. Unless something comes up for one of us. See you then?” He waved at him with a smile as Usagi made a rabbit hole, and the yokai waved back, “See you then, Leo-kun.”

Then the rabbit jumped down, and the hole closed shut.

Leo’s heart thumped again as he thought about how the rabbit had straddled him, and he pulled out his phone to text Donnie as he walked away.

“Hey Donnie-baby.” Leo purred, sliding onto the softshell’s lap, and Donnie sharply grinned, grabbing his hips. “Why hello, Leo. How was your training session with your ‘friend’?”

“Ugh, fuck, don’t get me started.” Leo groaned as Donnie started to bite at his shoulder, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, Usagi was already hot and everything when Brucie introduced us, but when he straddled me—woo! God, I wish he wasn’t monogamous.”

“Do you know for a fact he is?” Donnie asked as his hand caressed his tail, then squeezed it tightly. That made Leo jump with a moan, “Donnie!—Well no, he’s never outright said it, but I know he has a boyfriend—mmhn, Donnie, baby.”

They passionately kissed, and Leo moaned into it, grinding down onto Donnie’s lap, and Donnie purred, “Well then why not ask? I’m sure you can convince both of them with your charms, dearest Leo. You always have been, ah, persuasive. And I am nothing if not eager to fulfill all of your desires.”

“Holy shit, I love you Donnie, come here—”

They kissed again, this time more harsher, teeth scraping each other and Donnie practically shoving his entire tongue down the slider’s throat.

His hand went to the slider’s neck, wrapping around it, and just as he began to squeeze—

“GUYS!” Casey came barging in, eyes wide, and the twins both turned to the entrance of the lab, Donnie’s hand still on Leo’s throat.

Casey blinked, but quickly shook his head, “I am so sorry for interrupting you, but the news is on! Another victim’s been found.”

Donnie reluctantly removed his hand from Leo’s throat, and the slider groaned, this time out of irritation, “Of course there is! Goddamnit, I can’t catch a fucking break! Ugh. Fine.”

He got off Donnie’s lap, pulling him off the chair by his artificial plastron—”Hey!”

“Come on.” Leo grabbed Casey with his other arm, and the human’s eyes flicked down to his soaked shorts, then back up at him, apologetically smiling, “Sorry.”

“When we find this cannibal, I’m going to rip him to shreds.” Leo said, and he dragged the other two into the living room, where the rest of the Bale was watching the news.

“ The young African-American woman was found in a similar state to the last victim’s corpse, with her head and hands ripped off of her, effectively hiding all immediate markers of her identity…”

Leo exhaled, shoulders dropping, “Pizza Supreme, I hate being a hero.”

Chapter Text

“Hey.” Mikey said, grabbing Donnie’s arm before he could knock on the door, “I know the analysis of that stuff is important and all, but Dad might still not be doing so good, so if he isn’t, we’ll ask later, okay?”

The end of Donnie’s mouth twitched, but he nodded, “Yes. I, uh, understand. You’re the emotions expert, not me, Michael.”

Mikey smiled, “Great.” Then he let go of his arm, and the softshell knocked on the door.

A moment of silence passed. Then another.

“Maybe he isn’t home.” Donnie said, and just to prove him wrong, the heavy clacks of hooves against tiles appeared, followed by a heavy sigh so loud it could be heard from the other side of the door.

It opened to reveal the absolute wreck that was Baron Draxum.

He was wearing a heavily stained and ripped blue-grey robe. His mulberry skin was more of a pale, dusty mauve. His lips were cracked, and his eyes had bags so huge they could hold an entire department store’s worth of clothes. Finally, his hair was messy and untamed on his head, like he hadn’t showered in weeks.

If Mikey knew him like he knew the other—and he did—then he would say he probably hadn’t showered in weeks.

The rancid smell of dirty laundry and sweat that came next confirmed his suspicions.

He did his best to be polite about it, only tightly smiling, but when the stench hit Donnie he violently gagged, turning away from the door to cover his mouth.

Mikey opened his mouth to apologize, but Draxum solemnly raised a hand to pause him, “I apologize for the smell. It is merely one of my many, many mistakes.”

He sighed again, visibly drooping like a flower who hasn’t seen the sun in weeks.

“Oh, Barry.” Mikey apologized, “I am so sorry. I-I should’ve come by sooner to check on you and—”

“No, it’s okay Michael.” Draxum rapidly blinked, wiping his eyes, “I understand you and everyone else has been busy. Along with your grief, there’s been those reports of a cannibal in the city. I didn’t want to distract you from what’s important.”

“What?! Barry, don’t say that!” Mikey exclaimed, “You are important! You’re our dad!”

“Not…” Barry grimaced, averting his eyes, “Not as much as Lou was.”

He inhaled with a shudder, and Mikey gently grabbed his arm, offering a sympathetic smile, “Maybe we can come inside and talk about it?”

“Er, are you sure? My living space is quite the mess at the moment—”

“Dad, let us in.” Mikey interrupted, and Draxum nodded, backing away so they could enter the apartment, “Let me grab some air spray so it doesn’t smell so bad, yes?”

He walked away to do just that, and Donnie covered his nose, a muffled “sorry” coming from behind.

“It’s okay, honey. The bad smell isn’t going to hurt you.” Mikey teasingly cooed, making Donnie blaze red, and the box turtle chuckled. They walked through his main apartment room, which was covered in piles of books, dirty dishes, and dirty clothes. Even Barry’s dark grey sofa wasn’t left untouched, as a huge box of papers was set on top of the cushions, with what seemed like a burnt child’s drawing on top, the tips curled and black, and the paper yellow.

As Donnie sat down, Mikey curiously picked it up. It was a simple crayon drawing off 3 stick figures, which were even labeled, like all little kids did to point out who people were as if it wasn’t obvious.

There was a messy, magenta DAD, over a tall, magenta stick figure with a blue triangle as clothes and gold triangles on its head.

There was a pink MIMI under a much shorter, black stick figure with ovals on its head and pink dots and lines on its face, 

Finally, there was a round brown figure, who was more of a circle than a stick. In the same brown, above him, there was a loud MOTHY (ME!!!!).

Mikey’s face fell as he realized what it was.

“It was one of the few things that survived the first destruction of my laboratory.” Mikey looked up to see Barry soberly looking down at the drawing. “I stashed it away years ago when I rebuilt it. Recent events…” His shoulders dropped, and he sadly met Mikey’s eyes as he sat down on the other side of the box, “Lou’s death made me reflect on…everything I did. Including well, raising them isn’t an exactly accurate term. But…”

He exhaled, flopping against the couch, and Donnie tapped Mikey’s shoulder. “Should we–” “No.” Mikey quickly answered, but of course Barry noticed, “What? Do you need something?”

“Well, I mean, yes, but it’s not important right now!” Mikey was quick to add, “What’s important right now is that we talk about you, and how you feel—”

“Michael, please.” Barry sighed, “While yes, you are my favorite child—” “Hey!” Donnie exclaimed—”I do not feel like talking about myself. All I’ve been doing these past months is thinking about the things I’ve done. My mistakes. Being a bad father. Almost killing you and the others, several times. Not…not being able to save Lou from something as so simple as a sickness. If there’s any way I could help you, I would like to. The distraction would be nice.”

Mikey exhaled, and he gently set the paper back down on top of the rest. “Okay. Just promise me once all of this is over you’ll talk about it with me.”

Barry smiled down at his son, “Of course. Now, what is it that you need my help with?”

Mikey nodded at Donnie, who pulled out his vial from his battle shell, giving the test tube full of the mysterious mutagen to him.

Barry frowned, holding it up, and Donnie explained, “We found it at the first crime scene of the cannibal. It’s some form of unrefined mutagen. We figured that since you created mutagen, you would know what it was.”

Barry’s eyes widened, and he mumbled, “...Unrefined?”

His eyes flicked back to the drawing his son had made. “Moth was killed because of my prototype mutagen.”

“We understand if you don’t want to.” Mikey carefully said, offering his hand to take the container back, “We don’t want you to relive anything.”

“No, I…” Barry pulled his eyes away back to look at Mikey, “I want to help you. Especially with this. Mutagen was my creation, therefore all of its effects are my responsibilities, including you.”

He stared hard back at the vial, “The only explanation I can think of for this new unrefined mutagen is that someone may be copying my mutagen experiments. I do know some of my research was apprehended by the Council of Heads. Has there been any news related to such activities from the Hidden City?”

“Well, there’s this one criminal who broke into a building that Leo’s mafia boss owns.” Mikey said, “And we do know that he stole some documents, but we don’t know what exactly was on them.”

“I don’t know why some random mafia boss would have my research.” Barry hummed thoughtfully, “But I suggest that you keep monitoring that case as well. Just to be sure. In the meantime, I will analyze this further. Do you have any readings from your analyses?”

“Uh, a few. Here.” Donnie said, an arm shooting out of his battle shell to offer the goatman a stack of papers. Barry grabbed them, quickly scanning them, “Huh. These are interesting results. I’ll have to compare them to whatever research I have left from my old lab. Good job, Donatello.”

“ Shocked gasp. Parental praise!” Donnie exclaimed, and Mikey lovingly smiled as his adorable nerd of a mate.

“Thank you, Barry.” Mikey turned his head back to his father, who gave him a small smile, “Of course, Michael. I hope the next time you come over, me and my dwellings shall be cleaner.”

“DOES THAT MEAN WE CAN GO?!” Donnie yelled, making the other two stare at him, and the softshell grimaced, “The piles of dishes are just— so gross.”

“”Uh, yeah, they kinda are.” Mikey apologetically smiled, “Sorry Barry.”

“No, don’t be. You’re right. I need to clean anyway. I cannot be productive in such an environment.” Barry stood up, “I hope you too have a good day.”

With that, Donnie eagerly got up to get out of the apartment, and Mikey looked back at Barry, “We hope you have a good day too, Dad.

“I...will try.”

And Mikey closed the door.

Chapter Text

“And we’re sure I’m going to like him?” Donnie dryly asked as he and April walked down the street. While he did have a cloaking brooch that disguised him as an average African American male—save for his purple bandana, because unlike most humans he had style— he still needed a coat for the weather, which was cold but not windy, with a slight dusting of snow.

If it had been a different situation, a different, normal winter, Donnie would have liked getting everyone out to spend the day ice-skating, or cozying up and watching Christmas movies (even though Halloween was the superior holiday). It had been a while since they all had gotten together for a nice, winter date.

Alas, things could never stay perfect for long.

“Yes, you’re going to like him.” April smiled, “He’s nice, he’s chill, he’s a nerd, like you, and he has a boyfriend, so it’s not like he’s going to be making moves on either of us.”

“And have you met this alleged boyfriend?”

“Well, no.” April shrugged, “But if a straight dude wanted to lie to a girl about dating then why wouldn’t he have told me about a girlfriend?”

“He could be bisexual.” Donnie argued.

“My point still stands.” April threw a kiss onto his cheek, “Just calm down. You need more friends anyways.”

Donnie gasped, “I have online friends!”

“Okay, in-person friends then.” April said, “Then you’ll have someone to do nerd stuff with.”

“I do nerd stuff with Casey!”

“Babe, half the time you and Casey try working together in the lab one or both of you usually ends up naked with no work done.” April pointed out with a raised eyebrow, and Donnie protested, “Well maybe if Casey wasn’t so needy—”

“Are you sure?” April interrupted, “Because the last time I walked into the lab while you two were ‘working’” —she said with air quotes— “someone was getting bent over the table and it wasn’t Casey.”

That shut Donnie up with a blush, and April smirked, “That’s what I thought, honey.”

She grabbed his hand, apologizing with a kiss on the cheek, and nodded towards the street they needed to pass, “Now c’mon. His workshop should be—”

A loud whistle interrupted her, and they both whipped their heads to the sidewalk across the street, from which some random guy in a black jacket had his hands up to his mouth, “HEY LADIES! Taking those pound cakes anywhere important?!”

He laughed, and as April gasped, Donnie growled, “I’m not even a girl today, that fucking loser.”

He stepped forward to cross the street, but April grabbed his shoulder, “Hey, no. You ain't ‘bout to murder a guy in broad daylight.”

“Can’t I at least beat him up a little?” Donnie whined with a head turned, and April pulled him back, “You can just track him down later, dummy. Just ignore him.”

“Ugh, fine.” Donnie threw his hands up and then crossed them. “But when I get my hands on that loser tonight I’m going to—”

“Hey! Ricky!” Another voice yelled, and they both looked back up to the other street to see a big, tan guy with a thin jacket walk up to the future meal— man that catcalled April. He swung an arm around him, turning the both of them around, and April muttered, “Wait, how does Tim know that guy?”

“Great. The man who totally has ‘friendly’ feelings towards you knows the catcaller. Wonderful signs.” Donnie muttered, narrowing his eyes at the two as he saw ‘Ricky’ push away from Tim and hurriedly started to walk in the other direction. Tim merely casually waved at him, grinning, “And don’t forget what I said!”

Then he turned around, waiting for the cars to pass to walk to the other side of the street. When he was there, he smiled at April, “Hey April!” He pointed at Donnie, “And you must be Donnie, right?”

“Yes.” Donnie stiffly said, arms still crossed, and Tim offered his hand, “Great! Nice to meet you. I’m Tim.”

Donnie exhaled, releasing a hand to briefly shake Tim’s, more for polite courtesy than anything, “I’m aware.”

“Uh, okay.” He turned to April, “Are you guys fine, by the way. I saw that one dude catcalling you, so like, I came as fast as I could—”

“Oh, no, we’re fine. Thanks for getting him away.” April asked, “But uh, how did you know him?”

“I do cheap car maintenance as a side gig.” Tim easily explained, “Ricky’s one of my regulars. All I had to do was just remind him of all the cheap service he gets from me and poof! Catcalling gone.”

He shrugged, “Anyways, I kinda see now I probably should’ve just led you guys to my shop in the first place. I would’ve felt crappy if you guys got lost in the cold. Now c’mon. It’s right over here.”

He gestured at them to follow him, and as they did, April turned to Donnie, “See? I told you he wasn’t bad.”

“ Scoff.” Donnie scoffed, “So what, he can act like a decent person. I don’t see the appeal yet.”

April exhaled, rolling her eyes with a smile, “Oh, just give it a minute. You’ll see it, weirdo.”

They crossed the street, turned a corner, and then into an alleyway, where there was a rusty door. “My place is down here.” Tim explained, pulling a key out of his pocket, and Donnie hummed, “And where do you do car maintenance?”

“I know a guy who lets me borrow his garage. I kinda just set up shop there when I don’t have classes on the weekends.” Tim explained, and opened the door, “There we go!”

He flicked a switch in the stairwell, which lit up the one lone lightbulb hanging on top of it, and held the door open, “ Es mi casa, es su casa.”

“You live here?” Donnie asked, with a raised brow, and Tim admitted, “Nah man. I just don’t know the Spanish word for ‘workshop’.”

The disguised mutant followed April down, with Tim closing the door behind them, and April whispered, “Stop nitpicking him.”

“I’m not nitpicking!” Donnie argued with an equally quiet tone, “I’m merely just…asking specific questions about his backstory and living situation.”

“Just hush.” April said, and stopped at the bottom of the staircase, where there was another door. “Hey, is this—”

“It’s unlocked. You can just open it.” Tim said, and April did just that.

As they walked into the dark room, Tim flicked on another light switch, which made huge fluorescent lights burst to life. April grimaced, looking away from the ceiling, and Donnie muttered, “He can’t even use proper lighting.”

“Sorry about that!” Tim apologized, “I got so used to the lights I kinda forgot how bright they were to either people. Just, look away from them. Your eyes will get used to them in a second. Anyways—” He gestured to the room, “Welcome to my workshop.”

It was surprisingly clean. In the center were two large metal desks, one with a blueprint stretched out by tools at each corner, the other with boxes of tools, metal scraps, and wires. On the other end of the room was a long table with two chairs, covered in paper and pencils, with a small area cleared out. At each side of the room sat large floor-to-wall metal shelves that held more boxes, metal containers, bottles of oil and grease—what a mechanic would typically have. Donnie instantly recognized almost every material and tool he laid his eyes on.

Finally, in a corner, sat a lone waste basket.

“I hope it’s not too dirty.” Tim apologetically scratched his neck, “I tried to clean it my best, but I didn’t have the time to deep clean the place. I’ve been busy with a bunch of projects and other things lately.”

“What kind of projects?” Donnie asked with a head tilt, and Tim counted with his fingers, “Well, I promised my boyfriend I would fix our dishwasher since repairmen are getting way too expensive. Then there’s that one problem I have to figure out with Ms. Petoskey's car engine—she runs the bodega across the street, we’re friends. I also have another assignment for one of my other classes, and on top with figuring out the Geiger Counter—”

“Geiger Counter?” Donnie perked up, like a dog who heard the word ‘walk’.

“Uh, yeah?” Tim pointed at April, “You know, the Geiger Counter I was gonna build for me and April’s project on nuclear radiation? The whole reason why April brought you here?” He turned to her, “Did you not tell him about this?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise.” April smiled, and Donnie grabbed her, pulling her in “I. Am. Insanely in love with you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re welcome by the way.” April smirked, and Donnie let go of her, marching towards Tim, practically pinning him against the metal table, “Tim, I sincerely apologize for all previous doubts about you—” “Uh, thanks?” “—Have you made a blueprint for it?”

“Yeah, it’s over there.” He pointed at the blueprint on the other table, and Donnie went to it like a bloodhound.

“What-what did he mean about ‘previous doubts?’” Tim asked April, who merely shrugged, “Donnie gets overprotective. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay…is he okay?” He pointed at Donnie, who was staring wide-eyed at the blueprint, and April said, “I dunno, let’s ask: Hey Babe, are you good?”

“I have to say Tim, this blueprint is impressive.” Donnie said, continuing his observation of the blueprint, “While yes, there are a few mistakes in this plan and the Geiger Counter has already been invented, making this nothing special, I can admire as a fellow engineer the organization of your planning. Besides a few needed corrections your blueprint could absolutely be doable from a DIY standpoint.”

“Uh, thanks?” Tim asked, walking to the other side of the table, “You’re complimenting me, right?”

“Precisely.” Donnie answered, looking up to meet his green eyes, “Although I suppose you wouldn’t have everything needed yet?”

“I have some base materials, some scraps of Geiger Counters I’ve managed to get, but besides that not really.” Tim said, and Donnie shrugged, walking to the table with materials, “Well then I suppose refining your blueprint and beginning the GM tube will suffice. We do need to be back for dinner, after all. Mikey’s finally getting back to his cooking and I would never skip his spaghetti.”

“I’m assuming Mikey’s one of your other boyfriends?” Tim asked April, who nodded.

“WAIT YOU TOLD HIM?!” Donnie screeched, which Tim’s eyes widened at, and April walked over to him, whispering, “Not everything! Just, you know, the fact that I’m dating multiple guys.”

“And-and he’s—and you’re cool with it?” Donnie pointed at Tim, who shrugged, “I really don’t care.”

“Huh. Weird.” Donnie lowered his hand, and April said, “Good, now that all this unnecessary drama is out of the way, Donnie, Babe, you keep doing what you do best. Tim, I’m gonna show you the work I did so far on my part.”

“Cool.” Tim followed her to the two seats he had, where she set herself down and pulled out her laptop from her bag. She set it on the desk and was about to open it when Tim pointed at the Atomic Lass sticker on it, “Wait, you like Jupiter Jim too?”

“Of course I do! It’s a fam—group tradition with me and my boyfriends.” April said, “We watch it all the time.”

“Oh shit, seriously? Wait, what’s your favorite movie?” Tim excitedly asked, as he sat down beside her, and April laughed, “Oh don’t get me started on that! My boyfriends and I argue about which one’s the best all the time. Raph, Mikey, and Leo think it’s Jupiter Jim Sails the Seven Galaxies—” 

“Wait, seriously?” Tim interrupted, and April said, “I know right—but me, Donnie, and Casey think it's Jupiter Jim Pluto—” “Vacation 4?! No way, that’s my favorite too!” Tim finished with a wide grin.

“ Exclamation of surprise!” Donnie exclaimed, snapping out of focus, “I love that film!”

“Yes!” Tim jumped up from his seat, “First of all the music is so catchy—” “I sing it whenever we watch it!” Donnie wildly grinned, and Tim continued, “And the gags are so funny, especially that one where Jim keeps getting stalked—” “And pinched by that ice crab, yes!” Donnie snapped his fingers, “You get it! You’re a man of culture!”

“Yeah!” Tim smiled, “Me and my mom used to watch it all the time before she died.”

At that, the mood was instantly dampened.

Donnie’s eyes went wide—as he never knew what to do with such vulnerability—and April stepped up from her chair, putting a hand on Tim’s shoulder. “Oh, Tim. I’m sorry.”

“What? No, it’s—I’m sorry.” Tim sighed, “I didn’t mean to kill the mood like that, my bad. I just ah, I’m so used to talking about her with my boyfriend I forgot it was a mood killer. My bad, really. I’m sorry.”

“If I may ask, how did she die?” Donnie carefully asked, which earned him a glare from April, but he merely shrugged.

“Oh, uh, car crash.” Tim simply said, “When I was 8-ish, I think. It was a while ago. But it’s okay, I’m like, fine, talking about it. Don’t worry. Um, anyways—” He swallowed, and changed the subject, “April, you said you were going to show me your stuff?”

“Oh, uh, yeah. Come here.” She carefully sat back down, and Tim hovered over her as Donnie slowly returned to his work. April said, pulling up her saved files, “I’ve already done some basic research into the events of Chernobyl, and found a few papers on radiation—”

A knock on the door interrupted her.

They all turned to see a pale Asian man with long, white hair and eyebrows—an albino—enter with a small smile, holding up a bag, “Am I interrupting something important?”

Tim gasped, “YUI!”

He practically threw himself at him, at which the human gasped, and they both came crashing down.

“Timothy, the food!” The other man exclaimed, and Tim hurriedly got up, “Oh, shit, sorry!” 

He helped the man up and grabbed the bag, its contents fortunately intact. He set it on a table, and took Yui’s black coat, leaving him in a large, mulberry sweater with a green pendant. 

“Shit, sorry Babe.” Tim apologized, patting him down, and the other rolled his eyes, “It’s fine. I figured it would be a good time to drop some food off before I head to work. You didn’t tell me you’d be having people over.”

“Oh, right!” Tim pulled away from him, clearing his throat, and gestured to the albino, “April, Donnie, this is my boyfriend Yui. Yui, this is my friend April and her boyfriend Donnie. They’re here to help me for that one project I told you about.”

“Really?” Yui raised an eyebrow, “Because it’s been more like ‘April’s really nice Yui’ and ‘April sent me this really funny meme’ and ‘‘April had to borrow my coat because someone spilled a drink on her.’”

“ Yui!” Tim hissed with a slightly red face, and Yui laughed, throwing a kiss on his cheek, “I’m teasing. I’m glad you made a friend. Now, are my papers here? I need them for my job.”

“Yeah, they’re over there—” Tim pointed to a box on the nearby shelf, and Yui sarcastically said, “Wow dārin, you put them in such a secure place.”

“Hey! No one comes here anyways!” Tim argued, and Yui fished a handful of papers out of the box, “I was teasing.”

He went back over to him, got on his toes to plant a kiss on his cheek, “Anyways, I probably won’t be back at the apartment until later this night. You know I have that long assignment today. Make sure there’s some food for me.” 

The albino put his coat back on, and turned to the door, “Have fun with your girlfriend!”

“YUI!” Tim yelled with a red face, and his boyfriend laughed as he left, closing the door.

Once he did that, Tim quickly turned, still slightly red, as he nervously smiled, “Uh, sorry about that! My boyfriend likes to tease. We joke like that.”

He cleared his throat, and went back to April, “Anyways, you were gonna show me those papers?”

“Uh, yeah.” April swallowed, turning back to her laptop, “Come here.”

“And who are you texting?” Donnie asked April as they walked into the Lair.

“Tim. He just wanted to apologize for everything.” April said, texting him back.

“What does he have to apologize for?” Donnie frowned, and April shrugged, “He felt bad for bringing up his mom and ruining the mood, plus all that teasing his boyfriend did.” She slipped her phone back into her pocket, “I have the feeling he isn’t used to other people besides his boyfriend. He’s kinda lonely. I mean, it’s kinda sad.”

“Oh, well don’t tell Leo. You know he has a thing for sensitive men.” Donnie joked, and April chuckled, “Babe, Leo has a thing for any man. He’s a whore like that.”

“But he’s our whore.” Donnie earnestly said, and April nodded, “Yup.”

They both laughed as they entered the kitchen, and Donnie looked up at the table, “Why salutations, gentlemen—and Leo—we’re back—”

Then they both stopped, seeing the table covered in half-eaten plates of spaghetti, but no one in sight.

“The victim was found on the corner of a bodega owned by one Hilda Petoskey.”

At the sound of the news, they both looked at each other, and went into the living room. There, in front of the TV, was the rest of the Bale.

On the couch, Casey was on Raph’s lap, covering his mouth as the snapper stared at the TV. Beside them was Mikey, who couldn’t help but avert his eyes from the screen, meeting Donnie’s.

“Hey guys.” He quietly said with a humorless smile, “There’s spaghetti in the kitchen if you want any…heh…”

April quickly went to his side, and Donnie turned to Leo, who unlike the others, was standing up, “Leo, what happened?”

“While-while you guys were gone, the cannibal killed another man. Except—” He swallowed, “Except the state they found him in—”

“Unlike the other two victims, only the torso remained, with all other appendages ripped off.” The news anchor’s voice interrupted, “ Above the cadaver, written in the victim’s blood in all caps, was one word: MISOGYNIST.”

As the news then went on to describe the time and setting of the body’s discovery, April half-heartedly joked, “Well I mean, at least the cannibal is a feminist?”

She was met with dead silence, and then the ping of a phone.

Everyone’s eyes went on Leo as he frowned, still looking at the TV as he fished out his phone.

He gasped when he looked at the screen, accidentally dropping it.

“What?” Casey asked, standing up, with Raph following, “What’s wrong Leo?”

“I…I have to go.” Leo quickly said, grabbing his phone and turning to leave the room. But Donnie grabbed his arm, “What is so important that you have to leave now? Surely it can wait.”

“Bruce is dead.” Leo said, looking at him with wide eyes, and Donnie let go of him, “What?”

“Look, his bodyguard texted me, I have to go, just-just let me—”

“Okay, you can go.” Raph said, pulling Donnie away, and gave Leo a hard, worried look, “Just come back in one piece."

Leo gave him a solemn nod, and practically ran out of the living room.

Everyone stayed silent for a second, hearing his running echo off the walls. Once they couldn’t hear him anymore, Mikey turned to April and Donnie, “There’s still some spaghetti if you guys want any.”

“Yeah, Angel.” Donnie exhaled, sitting down on Mikey’s other side and cuddling into him, “I would like that.”

“Great.” Mikey smiled and kissed his forehead.

Chapter Text

Leo stared hard at the photo Yuichi sent him.

Meet me at this alleyway now.

Bruce is dead and I need your help.

Bruce was dead. He was actually dead.

Sure, maybe he was nothing more than a Sugar Daddy to Leo, and yeah, he was one of the most dangerous crime bosses in the Hidden City, only second to Big Mama.

But he had always seemed untouchable to Leo. Invincible, even. After the Krang and the beginning of his obsession over his siblings, up to the death of his father, Bruce had been one of the few constants in his life.

Now he was gone. For real.

Shit.

Leo didn’t have time to process these emotions right now. He had to check in on Yuichi.

Yet his mind buzzed with questions as he made his way to the neon sign he recognized in the photo.

How did he actually lose a fight for once?

Did he lose?

Or was he paid off to let it happen? Was he threatened, blackmailed—

“L-leo-kun. Over here.”

Leo whirled around to see Yuichi leaning against the wall of the dark alley, holding his torso, stained in blood head to toe.

The rabbit weakly smiled, “Thank Titan.”

Then his eyes rolled up into his head, and he began to fall backward—but Leo caught him in time, “Holy shit, Yui?!”

He quickly sat him down, and pulled his hand to see blood gushing through his shirt.

Shit. Shit. He could’ve been tortured too.

Yuichi weakly coughed as Leo hurriedly pulled out his medical supplies, first grabbing scissors to cut away at the shirt sticking to his wound. “What happened?!”

“I-I—” Yuichi gasped as Leo bundled up the scraps to harshly press it against the wound, and Leo said, “Sorry. I have to stop the bleeding.”

“It-it’s okay.” The rabbit weakly joked, “But washing all this blood out of my fur is going to be a pain.”

“Hey, no. Joking about injuries is my thing, hotshot.” Leo poked his nose, “The only words coming out of your mouth are going to be explaining what happened.”

“I-I—she was so quick, I didn’t—I barely even registered her—”

“Her?”

“The assassin that killed Bruce. I mean, I assume she was a she, because she sounded feminine—”

“Gender does not matter right now, mister. How did she kill Bruce?” Leo demanded, and then grabbed one of Yuichi’s hands to hold it against the scraps on his wound, “Hold it. I need to sanitize my hands.”

He did just that, also pulling out a bottle of water to clean it. Yuichi continued with slow breathing, “I was—Bruce wanted me to escort him to a remote part of one of his facilities. The one near the river. He wanted to look through the documents he was storing there.”

“Do you have any idea why?” Leo asked, pulling Yuichi’s hand away to remove the blood-soaked cloth, and uncapping the water.

“I think—” Yuichi interrupted himself with a gasp as Leo poured water over his wound, washing some of the blood off from his fur. “Sorry. Cleaning the wound. Keep going.”

“Bruce didn’t really tell me anything, but he was muttering something about a deal with Big Mama and ‘mutagen’—whatever that is.”

“You don’t know what mutagen is?” Leo asked, and then said, “Wait, you’re from Japan, of course you don’t know. Nevermind, just keep going.”

“I think he had some deal with Big Mama, and it had to do with that recent break-in. Oh! That reminds me. In my back pocket, I got something from the assassin, before she escaped. I saw that she had it on her, and I know you guys were looking for that criminal who destroyed one of Bruce’s buildings with those papers—woah, hey! What’s that for?”

Leo had an electric razor on hand, “I think you know what it’s for, Yuichi.”

“Why do you even—”

“After our fight last week I figured that you’d need to shave your hair off to properly clean wounds, so I added a razor to my med kit. Now stay still.” He flicked it on, “I don’t wanna nick you and make your wound worse.”

Yuichi gulped and did just that, letting out a shaky breath as Leo slowly shaved the hair around his wound. Once he thought it was good, he poured more water on it, and then pulled out his small spray bottle of liquid anesthesia, “Okay, I don’t have any sterile needles on me for a shot, so I’m gonna spray the wound with this to numb it, but it won’t entirely work. Keep talking. It’ll distract you from the pain.”

As he applied the spray to the wound, and then threaded his needle, Yuichi swallowed, “I don’t know how she found us, but-but before I knew it she stabbed me, and then Bruce was down.” His breath hitched as Leo inserted the needle and started to sew up the wound, “She got him by the artery on his neck. He was dead when I got to him. So I tried running after her. But—like I said—I could only grab those papers. I-I’m sorry, Leo-kun.”

“Hey, it’s fine man. You did your job. That’s all that matters.”

“N-no, it isn’t! You don’t understand, Leonardo. It was remote! Bruce didn’t install cameras because he was afraid of rival gangs hacking into his feed. N-no is going to believe me. They’re all going to think I killed him! My boss is dead, and-and I have no job, and now I’m going to have an entire gang after me for something I didn’t do—ow!”

Leo pinched his thigh, snapping the rabbit out of it as he finished sewing up the wound, “Hey, you’re wrong about that. I’m still on your side.”

“Really?” Yuichi quietly asked, and Leo nodded, “Really. That’s what friends are for.”

Yuichi exhaled at that, and then cringed when Leo tightened, then tied off the stitch, “O-okay. Thank you, Leo-kun. For everything. You—you’re a good friend.”

“You’re not bad yourself, bunny boy.” Leo winked up at him, and finished his treatment by wrapping the wound with a bandage. “But you should still lay low. If you need any money for like, rent or anything—I don’t really know your living situation—then you can just text me and I can spot you, okay?”

“I—” Yuichi sighed, averting his eyes, “You really don’t have to do that, Leo-kun. But thank you.”

“Yeah.” Leo offered his hand, and gently helped him up. Once he was standing, Yuichi grunted, and Leo asked, “Are you going to be okay on your own, or do you want me to stick around?”

“Oh, I was, uh, going to rabbit-hole to my place, heh.” Yuichi slightly blushed, and pulled out his papers, offering them to Leo, “I just—I guess I just wanted to see you after…tonight. I wanted to tell you myself since I…I couldn’t—”

“Hey.” Leo smiled, and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing it. “It’s okay, Yui. I’m not angry at you. Especially since you got this.”

He took the papers, re-folding them and stuffing them into one of his pouches. “I appreciate it. A lot. I appreciate you.”

“I…I appreciate you too.” Yuichi quietly said, and Leo smiled at him, “I’m serious though. If you need me, just send a text—”

He was interrupted by Yuichi hugging him.

“I will.” Yuichi sighed, and pulled away, taking a step back, “Goodbye, Leonardo.”

“Bye.” Leo said, waving at him, and then swiftly climbed back onto the rooftops where he came from.

As he left, he did his best to switch into Leader Mode, to prepare for planning when he got back. After all, not only did they have that new victim to worry about, but they also had the papers Yuichi found for him.

Yet…his mind couldn’t help but wonder…

If there really were no cameras… how did he know Yuichi was telling the truth?

But…if he did…then why would he kill Bruce anyway? He had no motive. He was literally getting paid to protect him. And then, if it was him, why would he have that stab wound? Bruce used his hands, not blades, and Yuichi…Yuichi wouldn’t stab himself.

Would he?

Besides, if he did kill Bruce, why would he tell Leo what he said? Why wouldn’t he just run off into the night, never to be seen again?

Leo momentarily stopped, thinking about how the rabbit hugged him.

It didn’t make sense. It just didn’t. Yuichi wouldn’t do that.

The slider shook his head to distract himself from those thoughts. He had bigger things to worry about.

Chapter Text

“Alright, everyone.” Leo started, getting everyone else’s attention in the room as he stood in front of a corkboard, “Here’s what we know: approximately three weeks ago, I was made aware that Bruce was having an uptick in attempted assassinations. Later that day, Mikey and Raph patrol the Hidden City and witness a masked yokai exploding a building and stealing papers from it, both belonging to Bruce.”

“So we know the assassination attempts, as well as Bruce’s actual assassination, were connected to this yokai criminal through Bruce.” April summarized for him, and tacked three notecards onto the board: Hidden City criminal, Bruce, and assassination attempts. Then, using red string, she connected the outer two to the Bruce notecard, tacking on a photo of the deceased mob boss as well.

“That means that the reason for the explosion and that criminal stealing the papers could be the same reason for the assassination.” Leo explained, “Because a few weeks after I got into contact with Bruce again, he was assassinated. And while the bodyguard couldn’t catch the assassin, he got these papers from her.” He gave the crumpled, slightly burnt papers to April, who tacked it under the three notecards, using strong to connect them to the criminal and Bruce.

“And we know for sure she’s a she?” Mikey asked, and Leo said, “Well it’s not like Brucie was asking for pronouns while he was getting killed, Mikey. So yes, for now, she’s a she unless we find out otherwise.” “Yeah, I feel like we have bigger priorities right now than figuring out what the assassin’s pronouns are.” April apologetically shrugged, “Sorry Mikey.”

“And why are the papers important?” Raph asked, and Leo pointed at him, “We’re getting there, big guy. Now, that’s the Hidden City situation. Let’s talk about the Topside one. Later the same night when Raph and Mikey encountered the HC criminal, John Bohner was found without hands and his head, along with bite marks along his body.”

As he started to talk, April stuck on notecards a little away from the Hidden City side of the board. The first one on the top in all caps, said ‘ NYC CANNIBAL.’ Then, under it, April put another notecard: ‘John Bohner.’

“We know two things from this incident: 1) the victim was in one of April’s classes and flirted with her—” That made Donnie interrupt him with a growl, and April threw her jacket at him so her scent would shut him up— “Thanks April.” “No problem Baby, keep going.”

“And 2) Donnie and Casey found some unrefined ‘false mutagen’ substance at the crime scene, indicating the cannibal is a mutant.”

With his words, April put two sticky notes under the ‘ John Bohner’ notecard: 1) classmates with April, and 2) false mutagen -> mutant.

“Then, about one week later, another victim was found in the same state as the first one, with no hands or a head: Melissa Thomas. April, you wanna tell them what you told me?”

“I ran into this woman a few hours earlier while me and my friend were out eating lunch together.” April said, tacking that knowledge onto the board under a ‘Melissa Thomas’’ notecard.

“Right, your ‘friend.’” Casey slightly teased with a smile, and Donnie piped in, “You know, Tim actually is a nice companion. He’s quite intelligent, and has a sophisticated taste in Jupiter Jim films—”

“Hey, maybe when this all over the rest of us can meet this new boyfriend of yours.” Leo joked, and April jammed an elbow into his side, making him gasp, “Yeah, right. You guys would torment the poor thing.”

The slider rolled his eyes, not denying it, and cleared his throat, “Anyways, about a week after that, aka two days ago, the cannibal’s last victim was found.” April tacked on a final notecard that said ‘ N/A.’ “Now, the police haven’t released a name yet, but we know this victim’s corpse was a lot more gory than the other two. Only his torso was found, and the word ‘misogynist’ was written above it in all caps, in the victim’s blood.”

Raph grimaced at that, and Mikey offered him a sympathetic pat, “We know big guy.” 

“But uh, ain’t it kinda weird that April like, met two of the victims before they died?” He asked, and Donnie said, “While your concerns are valid, Raphaela, any good scientist knows that conclusions should not be based on two data points. Now, if April happened to be in contact with the third victim before he died— then we should be worried.”

There seemed to be a simultaneous gulp at that, and Donnie cringed, “Sorry. I was trying to be comforting.”

“You did your best honey, and we appreciate that.” Mikey easily soothed him.

April swallowed, then promptly wrote the information on sticky notes and added them under the ‘ N/A’ notecard.

“Now, finally, one more thing to add.” Leo gestured towards Donnie and Casey, “You two wanna translate the mambo-jumbo on those papers for the others?"

“We aren’t a hundred percent sure, so don’t quote us on this.” Donnie said, “But those papers hold calculations relating to Barry’s old research on his unrefined mutagen.”

“Wait, why would some rando yokai be after Barry’s research?” Raph asked, “And why would he kill Bruce over it?”

“Usagi—Bruce’s bodyguard—said Bruce mentioned something about Big Mama & mutagen before the attack, since he was checking on old documents.” Leo said, as April connected a line of string between the HC criminal and the NYC cannibal, “And considering that we know that the cannibal is a mutant thanks to the ‘false mutagen’ Donnie and Casey found—”

“OH! They’re connected!” Raph loudly exclaimed with the realization, “The NYC cannibal and the yokai criminal are working together!”

“Well, we can’t say that for certain, but yeah, they’re related somehow.” Leo said, “What I think we should do is contact Draxum to see if he found anything, and maybe get him over here to help figure all this out. Another lead we have is Big Mama, so a few of us should go over to her. I have a hunch she might be willing to talk with us since…well…since Dad is dead. I’m sure I can get her to sympathize with us and give us some information—”

He was interrupted by the ringing from a phone.

April groaned when she looked at the screen, “Sorry, guys. I’ll be right back, I gotta take this. It’s from my school.”

She walked out of the room and into the kitchen, answering, “Hello?”

“Hello! I’m officer Monroe of EUPD, Easlaird University Police Department. Is this April O’Neil?”

“Yeah. Can I help you?”

“A few NYPD officers came earlier today requesting witness interviews with a few students. You’re the last one on the list. You don’t have to do it today, but they would like to have one scheduled ASAP, due to the urgency of their case…”

Shit. April realized. She was finally going to get questioned about the cannibal’s victims. Made sense and all, considering the point Raph made earlier.

On one hand, it would be bad for all of them if she got incriminated and became a suspect in the cannibal case. Legal trouble or not, her record would be tarnished. 

On the other hand…Leo did say that it would be good if she got any information from police questioning. And she wanted to be useful, damn it! She’s been just sitting around while the rest of them had their fun, after all.

“Actually, today works great! In fact, you tell them I’ll be there in a few minutes, okay?”

“Uh, okay, ma’am. Thank you for your cooperation—”

April hung up, and pocketed her phone, walking into the living room.

“Everything good?” Leo asked, and April easily lied, “Oh, it was just my Public Relations professor. They wanted to meet with me to talk about some internship opportunities they found.”

“ Paid internships?” Donnie raised an eyebrow, and April shrugged, “I don’t know. They didn’t specify. But I'll let you guys know when I come back, okay?”

“Okay.” Leo quickly walked up to her to kiss her, “Some of us will be here when you get back, but I’m gonna take a few of the guys to meet with Big Mama. We’ll let you know if anything big happens.”

“Got it.” April kissed him back.

Then the rest of their partners were following right behind, appropriately smothering April in kisses. She was sure that if they had been wearing lipstick, she would be absolutely covered in it.

Huh. That was actually a fun idea. She was going to have to put that away for later.

“I’ll be back in a jiffy!” She waved at them goodbye as she left the room, “Catch me up on everything when I come back!"

“Okay April!” “We love you!” “Stay safe!” “Tell me if anyone dares touch you!” “Donnie, what did we just talk about—”

April rolled her eyes as she heard her boys’ banter fade into the subway tunnels. She loved them so much.

Alright. She shook her head, getting into game mode. 

“Hello?” April said as she walked into the small EUPD department, looking at two officers who raised their heads to see her, “You’re the NYPD officers that want to interview me, right?”

“Yup!” One of them—a bald man—cherrily said, “I’m Joey! And this Carrie.” The other one, a curly redhead, tipped her hat, “We only have a few questions to ask you Miss O’Neil, and then you’ll be on your way! Follow us.”

The two of them turned into a smaller room, which had a desk and four chairs, two on each side. As April slowly walked in and sat down, Joey sat across from her, and Carrie closed the door.

But she didn’t lock it. Okay. Good.

All she had to do was stay alert and stay aware. As far as she knew, they weren’t even considering her a suspect.

But it would be better to assume they were rather than not. For caution.

Carrie sat down, pulling out a pad of paper and pen. Then Joey cleared his throat, “Okay, so, as I’m sure you’re aware, in the past three weeks there have been cases of three young adults being found without key identifiers.”

“Uh, yeah.” April gulped, attempting to play into the stereotype of a clueless college student, “I mean, I haven’t really been watching the news, but I’ve heard people in my classes talking about it, and it’s been making me real nervous.”

“Well I hope we aren’t contributing to those nerves, miss.” Joey smiled, “We’re just asking a few students questions—you know, friends of the victims, people who have any possible ‘beef’ with them as you kids put it—” April cringed— “and people who have also interacted with the victims the days of their deaths.”

“Well, uh, if I can ask, why do you want to talk to me?” April asked, more for the officers than anything. 

But she already knew. After all, she did interact with two of the victims before they died. And while Donnie was insistent on gleaning conclusions from three sets of data, the NYPD wouldn’t be so strict with their investigation.

“Well, as you may possibly know, the first victim was John Bohner, who was in your Journalism Collaboration class. We have a few witness accounts of people in your class that day as well as CCTV footage that you two talked in class the day of his death. Can you tell us anything about that?”

April heavily sighed, “Yeah, he keeps—I mean, kept flirting with me in class. I kept telling him I wasn’t interested, but he kept doing it.”

As Carrie wrote that down, Joey asked, “Can you go more in-depth about his flirting? Was it just casual, or would you describe it as more aggressive or even as harassment?”

April’s eyes slightly widened, but she said, “I mean, for the first few times he did it was just some talking, and he usually just walked away after I told him no. But I was talking with a friend that day, and he told me to report it since John grabbed me that day—”

“Your friend, Timothy Moore, right?”

“Uh, yeah, Tim.” April asked, “Did you guys already interview him too?”

“The EUPD did call, and told us that he would come by tomorrow. So, yes, just not yet.” Joey said, and Carrie clicked her pen, “But don’t worry about your pal right now. This is about you.”

Then she wrote down more stuff on her pad, and Joey asked, “Now, we also have CCTV footage provided by the owner of Jeffery’s Dinner, that showed you quite literally bumped into the second victim the day of her death, one Melissa Thomas. She spilled her drink on you, if you may remember?”

“Oh, wait, yeah, I do!” April chuckled through her teeth, “Man, that’s such a weird coincidence, huh.”

“Yeah, coincidence.” Carrie flipped to the next page, “Can you tell us what you were doing there that day?”

“Oh uh, I was meeting up with a friend—Tim. We’re working on a project together in my Journalism Collaboration class, where we basically have to work with an Engineering major—”

“Alright, great.” Carrie wrote more stuff down, and April swore under her breath. Damn it. She was incriminating herself and Tim by the second.

Of course…Tim was with her both times.

But they were looking for a human, and the cannibal was a mutant. It couldn’t be Tim.

Unless…he was a mutant.

April couldn’t help but gasp. It would be so easy to hide a cloaking brooch among his piercings.

“You okay, miss?” Joey raised a brow, and April swallowed, snapping back to where she was, “Oh, uh, yeah! I just realized I forgot to do this huge assignment that’s due in a few days. I’m kinda ditzy, heh.”

“Okay then. Let’s move on.” Joey cleared his throat again, “Now, the NYPD plans to release the identity of the third victim later today, but for the sake of investigation, you get a sneak peak, yeah?”

“Uh, yeah. Heh.”

“Now, the third victim was named Richard Hans. Does that name sound familiar to you in any way?”

“Uh…” April opened her mouth, and found herself genuinely dumbfounded, “No, actually. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, miss. But can you tell us what you were doing two days ago, the day he was killed?”

“Uh, let me think…”

Okay, there was a chance Tim could be the mutant cannibal. After all, he was with her on all three of those days…

Wait. Richard. Ricky.

Oh fuck.

Tim couldn’t be the cannibal, could he? This was Tim, after all. He wouldn’t hurt a fly—

Although he did threaten to put John in the hospital. And Ricky had ran away from him—

No, no it couldn’t be Tim. He was messy and awkward and sweet and had a boyfriend and was a good person. He couldn’t be some psychotic, mutant cannibal mastermind.

But…Donnie and Casey and all her other boys were messy and awkward and sweet. And no one wouldn’t be able to guess they were all incestuous, dirty freaks, herself included.

Damn it! She called herself a journalist, didn’t she?! And true journalists weren’t biased. They had to consider all possible leads.

Ugh, but if Tim was just some regular dude and it was all a coincidence…she was going to feel horrible after this. She wouldn’t be able to look into his eyes.

“Miss O’Neil?”

April jumped, which made both of the officers flinch, and she apologetically said, “Oh, I am so sorry! I’m ADHD, so I get lost in my thoughts a lot, and when I was thinking about what I did that day my thoughts kinda spiraled, and—”

“That’s okay, Miss. Would you please just tell us what you were doing that day?” Carrie tiredly asked, and April swallowed, “Oh, uh, I just met up with my friend Tim that day so we could do more work on our project together.”

“And where did you meet up?”

“Oh, uh, at his workshop, or something? He showed me the way there, but uh, for a New Yorker I’m kinda bad at directions.”

“Alright. We’ll just ask your friend when we talk to him tomorrow.” Carrie said, closing her pad, and the two officers got up.

“Thanks for this interview Miss O’Neil.” Joey said, offering his hand, “We’ll contact you directly if we need to speak to you again.”

“Uh, of course! Happy to do my part!” April feigned a grin, shaking his hand back.

Once the officers were leaving the room, April did her best to slowly and casually leave the building, even offering them a good day.

But once she was out, she was speed walking straight to the subway.

As she did so, she opened the Bale’s group chat.

Hey guys, I got some important info about the cannibal case. I’ll tell you about it when I get back to the Lair.

She was left on read.

Chapter Text

“I’ll be back in a jiffy!” April waved the Bale goodbye as she left the living room, “Catch me up on everything when I come back!”

“Okay April!” “We love you!” “Stay safe!” Three of their mates told her as she walked out, and Donnie exclaimed, “Tell me if anyone dares touch you!”

At that, Raph lightly growled at his little brother, turning over to him, “Donnie, what did we just talk about the other day?”

Donnie groaned, “Annoyed groan. Not to threaten people who flirt with April, yes, you’ve told me. Even if they absolutely deserve it—”

“ Donnie.” Raph warned, and the softshell snapped his mouth close.

“Good.” The snapper turned back to Leo, “Alright Co-Leader, whatcha wanna do now?”

“I think we should go see Big Mama, asap.” Leo shook his head, “Well, not all of us. I want Donnie and Casey to stay here for April.” He pointed at them, “I want you guys to try and contact Draxum too about our leads. You know, for obvious reasons.”

“Do we have to? ” Casey pouted, leaning against Donnie, “You haven’t let us do anything fun for weeks.”

“Oh please, we all know you two get each other off to yer nerd shit while we’re gone.” Raph stated, and Mikey chuckled.

“Besides, you’ll get your ‘fun’ when we find these guys and finally get to beat them to a pulp.” Leo grinned, “It’ll be a fun date night!”

“And then pizza after?” “And then pizza after.”

“ Yes.” Casey fist-pumped the air, and then got up, practically grabbing Donnie to drag him along to the lab, “Alright, we’ll be doing nerd stuff, see you guys when you get back! Love you!!!!”

“Love ya too—and they’re gone.” Raph fondly sighed, and then turned back to Leo, “So I’m guessin’ ya need us fer muscle?”

“Well yeah, I do need my strongest, buffest men to help me with this absolutely intimidating task.” Leo purred, squeezing the snapper’s bicep, and Mikey leaned in with a smirk, practically squeezing him between them, “Then we should get going then, huh? Wouldn’t want to waste any time.”

Leo happily sighed, “I love my life.” But, regretfully, he had to pull away from the two of them, unsheathing a katana, “Alright, one portal to Big Mama’s Grand Nexus Hotel coming right up.”

The other two shared a look, and Mikey grabbed his shoulder with a slight frown, “You sure? We could walk.”

“Hey, you said it yourself mister, we don’t want to waste any time, and I actually used a portal just a few weeks ago when I was working with Bruce’s bodyguard. We’ll be fine, just trust me bro.”

“Alright. If you say so.” Mikey said, and Raph nodded at Leo, “Portal us away, Co-leader Leo.”

Leo cheesily smiled, lovingly looking into the snapper’s eyes as he slashed a portal into existence, right in front of them, “Of course, Co-leader Raph.”

“Alright, lovebirds.” Mikey grabbed their hands to drag them in, “C’mon.”

Luckily, Leo’s portal led them right into the first floor lobby, which had a few yokai guests lounging about, along with the occasional bellhop doing their jobs: carrying bags, dusting decorations, greeting guests, the sort.

Leo closed the portal behind them with a flick of his wrist and sheathed his sword before anyone got the wrong idea. The Bale’s relationship with Big Mama and her bellhops constantly changed through the past few years, from outwardly antagonistic to cautious friendliness.

None of them had made contact with her since about half a year ago, just when Splinter was getting sick…

Raph squeezed Leo’s shoulder, offering him a warm, comforting smile, and they all walked up to the front desk, where a familiar owl yokai was typing along on a computer.

Leo easily leaned against the counter, winking up at the huge yokai, “Why hello there, handsome. It’s Owlbert, yeah? You may recognize me and my brothers here. We’re acquaintances with Big Mama, and we would love to see her right now.”

The bellhop merely exhaled, continued typing, and Leo frowned, snapping his fingers in front of him, “Uh, hello? Are you even paying attention?”

“I know who you are, and I am not going to let you do that.” Owlbert monotony said, raising his eyes from his computer, “Everytime you and your little gang of mutants come around here you always pick a fight with Big Mama, and eventually something breaks. Repairs come out of our paychecks, you know. Also, I’m asexual, so good luck trying to flirt your way into Big Mama’s office.”

Then he pulled himself to the other half of the desk, pulling out papers laying in the printer and organizing them evenly, before stapling them down and setting them in a tray.

“Damn it.” Leo muttered, “Big Mama knew I would try that.”

“It’s okay, Baby.” Mikey comforted him, “Sometimes though your pretty face can’t solve all our problems.”

“Alrighty then.” Raph cracked his knuckles, “Let’s try a different tactic.”

Then he set his fist down on the desk, putting just enough pressure to make the wood creak, but not break it. That earned the bellhop’s attention again, and Raph quietly said, “If ya don’t let us see Big Mama right now, yer gonna find out how much damage makes ya broke, buddy.”

At that, the owl practically wilted , “But-but my paycheck.”

“Better let us in then, pal.”

Owlbert dropped his shoulders and sighed. He pulled out a small gold-colored card from his pocket, and pleaded, “Just please don’t break anything.”

“That’s what I thought.” Raph said as Mikey took it, and soon they were walking to the elevator, hearing the bellhop mumble pathetically behind them.

“You know, I almost feel bad for that guy.” Mikey said as they got in, and Leo shrugged, “I don’t. He’s probably one of the dozens of bellhops Big Mama sicks on us constantly anyway.”

The door closed, and Leo purred, turning to Raph to squeeze a bicep, “ Speaking of him, that was really hot, Big Daddy. You should threaten people more.”

“Sorry Baby, not happening.” Raph pulled him off, “Between the rest of ya someone’s gotta have their head on straight.”

“Pfft, straight.” The other two both snickered, and Raph said, “Y’all know what I meant.”

Thanks to Yokai magic, elevators in the Hidden City were much faster than human elevators, meaning they were at the top floor before they knew it. The elevators opened to Big Mama’s office, with walls of mirrors and paintings, the disguised spider-lady sitting in front of the backdrop of the NYC skyline, humming as she looked at the papers on her desk.

But then she was looking up at the three mutants, offering them her saccharine-sweet smile, “Why, if it isn’t my favorite turtley-boos. Well, most of them, anyways. To what do I owe this spectacular greeting to?”

The three of them shared a look, and Leo and Mikey sat down in front of her desk, while Raph stood behind the chairs, crossing his arms intimidatingly.

“We have to talk.” Leo said, and Big Mama looked back down at her papers, signing onto a few lines, “Well, how important is this talk? As you can tell I am absopositively busy at the moment, but if it is the utmost importance—”

“Dad died.”

Everyone froze, including Big Mama, and Mikey hissed, “ Leo.”

“He died about two months ago. We’ve been enemies, and we know what you did to Dad, but at the very least, you’ve always appreciated him at some level. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner, Big Mama.”

The room then went silent, and Big Mama slowly covered her mouth with her hands.

Raph frowned. If he didn’t know any better he would think…he would think she was on the verge of tears.

“And…why tell me this now?” Big Mama swallowed, giving Leo a hard look, “You want something, don’t you? And you want to use my sympathy as a ticket to get it free in lieu of a deal.”

Leo nodded gravely, “Yes.”

The spider yokai exhaled, and turned her chair around, looking out at the skyline, “Tell me. What do you want?”

“We have two situations unfolding, and we think they’re connected through Draxum’s mutagen. And we found out that you made a deal with Bruce about Draxum’s research.”

“Ah. I see now.” Big Mama quietly said, “My condolences. I understand his death must be hard on you as well, considering you were business partners at the very least.”

“Well, thank you, but I—wait.” Leo paused, frowning, “How did you know about his death?”

At that, Big Mama exhaled, still turned around to not meet his eyes, “I could splendidly lie to you and tell you that when a notorious crime boss dies, news tends to spread quickly in the criminal underworld. And, well, I wouldn’t be lying if I told you that. But…”

She turned around, blinking her eyes, and the other three stared at her. While she wasn’t actively crying…there were already dried tear tracks on her face.

“Your father was the bee’s knees. He was quite the dapper gentleman, yet tough at times, and his dancing… ” She sighed, “He wasn’t like any other human that I’ve ever met. And you would be right, Leonardo. Despite my deceptions, I did hold some affection for him. You should be proud of yourself. You’ve successfully emotionally manipulated Big Mama.”

Then she leaned in, “So, if you let me know where you buried Lou, I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

“We buried him on the hill where Draxum’s old lab was. But it isn’t much. Just a simple gravestone.” Leo was quick to tell her, and Big Mama said, “You know turtley-boo, as clever as you are, I wished you had let me know the day he died. I could’ve gotten him a coffin and a burial fit for a king. But oh well.”

She cleared her throat, “To put it simply, I know Bruce is dead because I hired the assassin that killed him. In fact, he was just here a few minutes before you showed up. If you came just slightly earlier I’m sure you would’ve caught him.”

“WHAT?!” The three of them exclaimed, and then Mikey said, “And this is why we don’t assume gender guys.”

“Mikey, we love ya, be quiet.” Raph pushed his head down, and Leo said, “Wait, I don’t understand. Isn’t a staple part of deals between criminals is that you can’t kill each other?”

“Why yes, Leonardo, you would be correct with that.” Big Mama stated, “Me and dear old Brucie did make a magically-enforced deal with that in mind. He couldn’t send assassins after me, and I couldn’t do the same. If we did, we would die the same way. However, I say I hired the ‘assassin,’ when really, he wasn’t an assassin, formally, at least.”

“What do you mean ‘formally’?” Leo asked, and Big Mama cleared her throat, “Let me explain.”

“The deal me and Brucie made was shortly after Draxum’s first lab exploded. The Hidden City Council, in their indubitably efficient way of bureaucracy, took days full of meetings and paperwork to respond and seize his belongings. So, since I was annoyed with the fact that goat stole my Lou, I wanted to pay him back by stealing his research. I wanted to replicate and reuse his mutagen to create warriors for my Battle Nexus. But I didn’t want to risk my operations and make them visible to the Council. So, I gave Bruce the research and the resources to replicate the mutagen with a promise in a cut of profits for when the fruits of his labor finally came. In return, I got to closely monitor his staff and his actions.”

Big Mama frowned, “But a few years ago, when mutants started to appear all over New York, and I met four turtles designed for war, I decided the deal was no longer worth it. Buce was draining my resources, and I was already busy handling the aftermath of the Krang. So once I decided to cut it off, it was delightfully simple, really. All I had to do was hire a bodyguard who had a means of motivation, and then simple foolish assassins looking for a quick buck that he could easily kill and therefore earn Bruce’s trust.”

When she finished, Leo stared at her with wide, harrowing eyes, “He lied to me.”

“What, Leo?”

“He-he lied to me, Yuichi—Usagi, Bruce’s bodyguard, of course!” He bolted upright from his seat, hitting his head, “DAMN IT! I should’ve listened to myself! I was thinking about how it was weird that no one but him witnessed it and that maybe he was lying but he-he hugged me and called me his friend and I—I’m an idiot —”

“Hey, Leo, calm down.” Raph steadily said, grabbing the slider’s arms to pull them away from his head, and then pulled him into a hug, “Ya ain’t an idiot.”

“Yes—yes I am, Raph!” Leo pulled away, already pacing himself into an early grave, “It’s so obvious now, why didn’t I realize this sooner?! At the same time Bruce gets a new stranger bodyguard from Japan he starts getting assassination attempts left to right, and then there’s a sudden explosion at one of his buildings—damn it, Yuichi was probably the Yokai that did that! And I was dumbass telling him to make sure Bruce knew, I should’ve told him myself, FUCK! And I just believed him when he said some random woman killed Bruce. I didn’t even try to ask anything else—”

“Hey, Babe, should haves and could haves aren’t goin’ to fix anythin’ right now, okay?” Raph grabbed him again this time by the shoulders, “What we gotta do now is figure out how he’s connected to the cannibal and Draxum.”

“Well, if it’s any comfort, I don’t have any clue why he would do those things.” Big Mama slightly frowned, “In fact, for a trans man, you would think he would be telling people a man killed Bruce rather than a woman.”

Leo stopped at that, “What?”

“Yuichi Usagi is trans. He was born as a female with the deadname Mizu.” Big Mama shrugged, “Although I don’t see how that’s important. Unless you’re implying that somehow it is, in which case I would be disappointed in you Leonardo, as I’ve never thought of you to be bigoted—”

“NO!” Leo screeched, earning Big Mama’s surprise as he grabbed her shoulders, “For a few years Draxum adopted a Yokai kid named Mizu. Yuichi is Draxum’s son! HOLY SHIT!”

“Uh, what?” Raph asked as Leo turned around, “But why does he want his research?”

“If it helps your case, when making the deal with him, all he asked for was to borrow that research momentarily, something about revenge? He never specified anything, unfortunately. That, and he requested a location spell, which is absolutely mystifying as I could have generously paid him for his services—”

“OH FUCK HE WANTS DRAXUM!” Leo turned around, frantically unsheathing his katana, “You two get over here NOW, we have no time to waste—”

Mikey eagerly sprung up from his chair to do just that, and as Raph passed Leo, he paused to ask, “I get why he would want revenge because of what happened to his brother, but how would use his research to do that?”

Leo paled at the realization. “Oh no.”

“Leo? What is it?”

“He…he wants to kill Draxum. In the same way his brother died.”

“Shit. SHIT!”

As Leo quickly flicked a portal open, Big Mama frowned, and waved them off, “Well, I suppose I’ll see you young heroes some other day, as I do want to talk about giving your father a proper funeral—”

“Thank you Big Mama, we'll see you later BYE!”

And Leo shut the portal. 

As he did, the three of them appeared in the living room again, and April came running in, lightly sweating, “Hey, guys! Did you see my text—”

“April, get Donnie and Casey in here now.” Leo frantically said, “Draxum’s in danger.”

Chapter Text

“What’s going on?” Donnie asked, walking into the living room with Casey not far behind, “And is it important? Me and Casey were—”

“Okay, uh, shit, shit.” Leo shook, eyes wide, “Look, Bruce’s bodyguard is the one who killed him. He did it for Draxum’s research because he’s Draxum’s kid. We have to go now—”

“Hold on, what are you talking about?” Casey asked, also clearly confused, “Didn’t Draxum’s kid die—”

“I mean, he was the other one! Mizu.” Leo was quick to correct himself, “Well, that’s his dead name. He’s trans. He goes by Yuichi now. But look, Big Mama gave him a location spell to locate Draxum, we think he wants to kill Draxum the same way his brother was killed. We need to go to Draxum’s right now and warn him—”

“I’ll call him!” Mikey said, already pulling out his phone, and Leo grimaced, “We shouldn’t waste time—”

“We aren’t. I think I know who the cannibal is.” April blurted out, and everyone comically turned to look at her. “What?” Donnie frowned, “When did you figure this out?”

“Well, uh, so that whole internship thing I left for? It was actually an interview with the police.” April awkwardly smiled, and Donnie screeched, going over to April, “WHAT?! WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL US?!”

“I didn’t want you to worry about me!” April defended herself, “You guys have been so stressed out lately from well, everything I figured out I could help! And I did! I have a possible suspect now.”

“That’s great, Babe, and I love you, but we shouldn’t get so distracted—”

But April interrupted him again with a grimace, “I think it’s Tim.”

“WHAT?!” Donnie exclaimed, squeezing her arms, and Raph grabbed the softshell to pull him away as April said, “Out of all the suspects, Tim’s the only one that hasn’t been questioned yet. And he was with me all three times I ran into the victims before they died.”

“Uh, all three times? Didn’t Don say we should be worried if that happens?” Raph gulped, and Donnie stared hard at April, “Well, yes—and…I do suppose that with all his jewelry it would be easy to disguise a cloaking brooch as a piercing and…wait. April, when we were at Tim’s workshop, and his boyfriend came over—”

“His name’s Yui! Fuck!” April realized, and Leo asked, “Wait, you’re telling me April’s science project partner is the cannibal and he’s dating Yuichi?! Oh God, the first day we met he mentioned he had a boyfriend.”

“And—April, didn’t Tim’s boyfriend call him—”

“ Timothy. That’s what the police called him too, I-I didn’t think—”

“But Draxum said the mutagen killed him!” Casey exclaimed, and Donnie frowned, “Well, we know that the cannibal left a substance similar to his prototype mutagen, and that Moth’s skin melted off from it, but we don’t necessary know it killed him—”

“Wait, doesn’t this mean Draxum’s kids are datin’ each other?” Raph asked, and Leo turned to the snapper, “Babe, I love you, and usually I would make some incest joke about how they’re our types but we don’t have time—”

“Leo, Draxum isn’t picking up.” Mikey interrupted, and Leo turned to his little brother, “What?”

“He isn’t picking up. I’ve been trying to call him this entire time. It keeps going to voicemail.”

“And this is why I wanted—damn it!” He unsheathed his sword, and with a flick of his wrist created a portal, “Alright, Casey, April, you two stay here—”

“What?!” Casey said, and April protested, “Nope, April O’Neil isn’t going to be left out anymore.”

“April, there’s a cannibal involved that eats humans, and you two—”

“Casey, Babe, go grab my bat for me, will you?” April asked, and Casey nodded, already turning around to grab their stuff.

Donnie crossed his arms, and Raph nervously bit his lip, “April, we’ll feel bad if you or Casey gets hurt—”

“Hey, you said me and Casey could join in beating these guys up, didn’t you?” She crossed her arms, and Mikey grabbed Leo’s shoulder, “We did say we would let them a while back.”

“If we get hurt, that’s on us.” Casey said, walking in with his signature Genius-Built chainsaw, and handed April’s bat to her, which earned him a kiss on the cheek.

“ Ooh boy, alright. Come on.” He turned to the portal to walk into it, “Maybe he’s just busy doing science things or has his phone off—”

Then he walked into Draxum’s apartment—which was slightly dirty, with a few piles of clothes and books here and there—but he was more focused on what was across from him.

Draxum’s eyes grew wide, and he strained against the restraints holding him to the wall—green ropes made of the same substance Donnie and Casey had found at the crime scene. The false mutagen.

“Barry, holy shit, are you okay—” 

“Leonardo, you have to go now!” Draxum barked at him, and Leo heard the rest of the Bale walk in behind him, “What?! We’re not going to do that! We came here to save you—”

“I don’t want you to get hurt because of my actions. Please, just go and keep yourselves safe—”

The sound of glass shattering interrupted them, and they all turned to look to the right, where in the doorway from the kitchenette was Yuichi. Sword in one hand, and a broken glass of water on the ground.

“Leo-kun? What are you doing here?” Yuichi stared at him with wide eyes.

Leo grimaced, and stood straight, unsheathing his swords, “Yuichi. Let Draxum go.”

“What? Why…” His gaze went over to the others, who were unsheathing their weapons.

“You’re his mutants .” Yuichi realized, and repeated with a hollow voice, “You’re his mutants.”

“Yeah. We are.” Leo admitted, and stepped forward, “Just let Barry go, and we can talk about this before anyone gets hurt—”

“But he said you died. That’s…that’s what he told us.” Yuichi muttered, and glared at Draxum, “Of course you lied about that too. Why am I not surprised?”

“Mizu—Yuichi, I'm sorry, I didn’t lie about that I swear, I didn’t know they were alive—”

“No, I’m not listening to another word you say!” He jabbed his katana in his direction, and the others came to walk between him and Draxum, “You’ve always lied to us, why would you stop now?!”

“Yui,” Leo carefully said, stepping forward again, “just calm down. I get that he was a bad father—”

“Pfft, a bad father! That’s being generous!” Yuichi yelled, voice wet and cracking, “I can’t believe it! The first friend I made in years and-and of course he’s—you’re—- damn it.”

He grabbed the area Leo knew was his stab wound, and the slider grimaced, “Yuichi, did you stab yourself?”

“Does it matter?” He painfully whispered, and Mikey held a hand up, “Look, I understand things are tense right now, but I assure you, Barry isn’t the man he used to be—”

“ Does it matter?” He hissed through wet eyes, “He’s still responsible for my family’s death.”

“What?!” Raph exclaimed, and Draxum shakily exhaled, “That was an accident, Yuichi. I never meant to hurt Yokai. The fire, it was just supposed to be a distraction, I didn’t know the hay—”

“Draxum, shut up right now.” Mikey narrowed his eyes at him, “We’re going to have a talk about this when we get home.”

“I-I’m not letting you leave with him.” Yuichi said, raising his katana, and Leo clenched his swords, “You’re going to have to stop us then.”

“I—” Yuichi shuddered, and averted his eyes from the slider, “You don’t understand Leo, he deserves this—”

He was interrupted by the door to the apartment bursting open, and green appendages shot out from it. Before Leo knew it, he was being wrapped in green slime, swords ripped from his hands and arms pinned to shell.

He struggled as he and the others were raised up to the ceiling, the only sounds being the crashing of metal on the ground and their struggling, along with the wheezing of breath as the tentacles squeezed.

“Holy shit, Yui, are you okay?”

Leo’s breath hitched as he looked on with horror, as whatever that thing was walked in, going over to cup the rabbit’s face.

Yuichi smiled, slightly nuzzling against the mutant’s—hands? “Yeah. I’m fine. Thank you Moth.”

“Moth?” Draxum’s eyes grew wide, and April gasped, earning her the piercing green gaze of those eyes she knew. Held in an exposed skull, with an assortment of bones and muscles decorating the body, all held together by the same mutagen that melted his skin off, accented by vessels running throughout the entire thing.

“Sorry, April.” Tim looked away from her, and an appendage came to wrap around her eyes, “Don’t look. You weren’t supposed to see me like this.”

“Moth. You’re…you’re alive.” Draxum said with pure horror, and the skull seemed to grin, “Heya, Pops.”

Chapter Text

Draxum stared at the bulging green eyes, which would’ve fallen out of their home if it weren’t for the green ooze covering the…body.

“How…how are you alive? I-I saw—your skin—”

“Well, I’m not really alive.” The slime where a nose would be scrunched up, “Biology really isn’t my thing. I’m more like… undead. That has a nice ring to it, don’tcha think?”

“Well, a category like that would make sense,” Donnie interrupted, earning a turn and a hard, shocked stare from Timothy, “Since most Yokai don’t fit into the human definition of life nor evolution, Mutants probably don’t fit in either—”

Then it was interrupted by Timothy wrapping his tentacles around his eyes, “Wait, shit, Donnie? You’re a mutant? You were disguised, weren’t you, that makes so much more sense—”

“Hey! Unhand me!” Donnie protested, attempting to wrestle the tentacle away from his eyes, and failing.

“Yuichi, tell him to let us go!” Leo demanded, and Yuichi averted his eyes, crossing his arms, “I’m not doing that Leonardo-san.”

“The full name? Really?! I thought we were friends!”

“I-I thought so too.” Yuichi averted his gaze as well.

“Well then you can at least let us look!” April insisted, “We already saw what you looked like, Tim. It’s the least you can do.”

“But-but I—”

“Moth, just let them. It’s not like they’re going to see you after this.”

The slime mutant dropped his shoulder blades, removing the tentacles from their eyes—but not before turning his head around so the two wouldn’t look at his skull.

April made sure to pointedly look at him.

Was it creepy, like that one uncanny human model of the full organ system her senior Biology teacher had? Definitely.

Would it haunt her nightmares? Maybe.

Did she care?

No.

It was going to take a lot more than some freaking mutant to scare away April O’Neil. She faced the literal end of the world. Tim was a walk in the park compared to that.

Of course, he didn’t know that, did he?

“Was I next?” She asked, and Tim made a questioning noise, still refusing to look at her.

“You hear me, Tim. Was I next? After all those other people you ate, was it going to be me next?”

“What?! No!” The mutant raised his head to look at her incredulously, remembered what he looked like, and quickly turned away again, “April, I didn’t even consider that—”

“Then why were ya so attached ta our mate, huh?” Raph lightly growled, immediately getting protective at the mention of such a possibility, and Draxum’s kids both exclaimed, “MATE?!”

“Oh.” Leo said, realizing in fact that they weren’t caught up on the whole ‘incest polycule’ thing—considering the circumstances why would they be, it’s not like they were going out for tea and a casual chat—

“You’re dating all of Draxum’s mutants?!” Timothy exclaimed, and April snarked, “Oh don’t act like incest is where you draw the moral line, Mister.”

“Yer avoidin’ the question.” Raph grumbled, and Tim defended himself, “In my defense, April’s the first person to come up to me and not make a fat joke in like, a decade! I DON’T HAVE FRIENDS, OKAY?!”

Everyone went silent at that, shocked by the outburst, and Timothy grimaced, loosening his grip around the Bale, “I just—having a friend was nice. And-and then there were so many assholes just bothering her for no reason and sometimes I get so angry I just— snap, okay?! And—and okay, fine, maybe I was a little obsessive over her but I wasn’t going to do anything! Homewrecking is where I cross the line.”

“ That’s where ya cross the line?” Raph raised a non-existent brow, and Yuichi squeezed one of Moth’s shoulder blades, glaring back at him, “Yeah. It is.”

“And where do you cross the line, Yui?” Leo stiffly asked, and Yuichi groaned, putting his face in his paws, “Look, I didn’t—ugh! It’s not like I cunningly snuck into Bruce's fold to emotionally manipulate one of Draxum’s kids! You were supposed to be no one, okay?! Just one of Bruce’s lackeys. I didn’t—ugh! We weren’t supposed to be friends, asshole. I just—I just wanted to say goodbye, okay? Titan, you make it so hard to stay professional, you know that? Fuck you.”

Leo lowered his head, and half-heartedly said, “Fuck you too.”

Yuichi’s eyes widened at that, but he quickly blinked, looking away from him.

A beat of awkward, tense silence passed, and then April asked, “So what, you would’ve just left me dead to the police?”

“I was gonna fake a suicide with a confession letter.” Timothy quietly admitted, and both Donnie and April exclaimed, “WHAT?!”

“You were just going to let me think you killed yourself?! ”

“Of course I was, what was I supposed to do, let you live with the knowledge that there was some crazy cannibal stalker obsessed with you being kept alive somewhere—”

“AND YOU DIDN’T THINK I WOULD FEEL BAD ABOUT IT?!”

“WHY WOULD YOU?! I DON’T DESERVE IT!” Timothy screamed, “LOOK AT ME! I’m a freak, even by mutant standards! I’m a monster! I don’t deserve to have anyone care about me—”

“Hey, no.” Yuichi interrupted him, grabbing him by his shoulder blades to pull him close, “Moth, we literally just talked about this the other day. You’re not allowed to say that.”

“But it’s true.”

“No it isn’t” He pulled him into a hug, “If it wasn’t true I wouldn’t be here.”

He glared at April, “You know, it’s not like he eats people for fun! Every day that stupid mutagen that made him like this eats at his body, so he needs to keep eating human dna to retain it, and then he needs extra to maintain his disguise, and then more to keep up with his energy, since he can’t eat organic foods like everyone else—”

“What do you mean ‘disguise’?” Donnie carefully said, “A cloaking brooch doesn’t require energy.”

“Cloaking brooches don’t work on him. They need actual original material from the mutant or yokai to work. Moth’s mutation burned through his original organs years ago. All of this is from people he’s eaten.”

“Oh.” Donnie and April both quietly realized.

“So-so I figured,” Moth shuddered, pulling away from Yuichi. His face was devoid of so much emotion, without the muscles he needed to smile and wink and frown and close his eyes—his bright green eyes, which were tinged red, “If I had to, it would be people I hated. Like the assholes who used to bully me in grade school for being big. They, uh, aren’t so big in their graves now. Heh.”

“Tim—”

“Maybe we should just go.” Moth whispered, and Yuichi cupped his face, “No we can’t. We both worked so hard to get this stupid mutagen and make him pay for what he did—”

“But is it even worth it anymore?” Moth asked, turning to gesture at the chained goat, “I mean, look at him. He’s just…pathetic.”

“It is sad.” Yuichi agreed, staring down at the man who ruined his life, “How far the great Baron Draxum has fallen, from a great mad warrior scientist, determined to protect Yokaikind from any and every threat, no matter the cost, to… this.”

He walked forward, glaring down at the old man, “Was it worth it, Father. All that sacrifice? I mean, look what you did!” He gestured to the Bale, “You made them! Your precious warriors! That you always praised and talked about, so create and perfect your future responsibilities who never focused on your current ones. Was it worth it? Accidentally slaughtering my entire family, disregarding everyone and everything, all in the name of protecting Yokai from the human threat—for NOTHING, to come out of it! Well?!”

“I…” Baron exhaled, and looked up to stare at his former child in the eyes, “I’m sorry I wasn’t a better father. I’m sorry for what I did to your family. None of them, nor you, nor Timothy, deserved any of that. But I’m not sorry for creating them.”

Yuichi growled, “You’re ridiculous. Moth, mutagen.” He held out his hand, “Now.”

“Yui, Babe, are you sure—”

“Now.”

“Alright.”

From within his mass of organs and slime, another tentacle pushed out, this one holding a small glass vial, with the same colored mutagen that made up Timothy, and was left nearby the first victim.

The very false mutagen that started most of this mess in the first place.

The tentacle placed the vial in Yuichi’s hand, and when his grip tightened, Mikey exclaimed, “Wait! He had a good reason!”

Yuichi slightly loosened his grip on the vial, and turned to narrow his gaze at the box turtle, “And what would that be?”

“We did stop the threat. But it wasn’t humans.” Mikey quickly said, “Barry thought it was, but he was wrong. It was the Krang."

“The…Krang?” Yuichi frowned, and Moth nodded, “ Ohhhh those weird alien dudes that invaded a couple of summers ago. Honestly kinda forgot that happened.”

“WHAT?! THERE WERE ALIENS?!” Yuichi screeched, head swiveling to look at Timothy, who casually shrugged, “In my defense, I did tell you a lot of stuff happened while you were in Japan, Babe.”

“YOU NEVER MENTIONED ALIENS!”

“You never asked!”

“WHY WOULD I ASK—”

“And he’s our dad.” Raph suddenly interrupted, voice a little stuffy, earning the looks of Draxum’s kids, “And well uh—after our first dying, it would suck if our second got hurt. Even more.”

“Wait—your dad’s dead?” Moth stared at the snapper, and Yuichi’s face fell, “Fuck. Damn it.”

He held out his hand, the one holding the mutagen to Moth, “Moth, take it back.”

“O-okay.”

A tentacle wrapped around the vial and retreated back into his body, where the mutagen couldn’t hurt anyone, and Yuichi put his face back into his paws, sitting down, “Fuck meeeeee I forgot about that .”

“Uh, Babe?”

“Now I’m gonna feel bad if we mutate him. DAMN IT!” He grabbed at his ears, pulling them with frustration, “I thought revenge was supposed to be simple and fun! Not so—ugh! I dreamed about this for years!”

Moth looked down at him, “Yeah, I know.”

“He deserves it!”

Moth used a tentacle to pull the rabbit’s hands away from his ears, which were red from the squeezing and stretching, “I know.”

“He deserves to rot in Yomi for his crimes!”

“I know Babe.”

“But…you and your family don’t deserve that, don’t you Leonardo-san?” Yuichi crossed his arms, not looking at the turtle’s face.

Leo’s face fell, and Mikey said, “Look, Yuichi, you are right—to some degree—that Draxum deserves to pay for what he did. I’m not going to bullshit you and ask you to ‘be the bigger person’ and that ‘revenge won’t pay for what he did’ or try to convince you that your family wouldn’t want you to kill him or anything. I mean, let’s be honest, they probably do. But I am going to tell you he’s a good person now, and has only been doing better since what happened. And I’m gonna tell you that-that we don’t wanna bury him. Not like how he buried Moth.”

“He did what?” Moth stared at Mikey with disbelief.

Mikey gave him a small smile, “He buried you—well, your skin, at least. On the hill where his first lab was, where you…got mutated, you know. Dad’s—” He swallowed, blinking the wetness out of his eyes, “Our dad’s buried there too.”

“He…buried me?” Moth whispered, “He-he cared enough, to—”

His voice hitched, and Yuichi turned to look at his former father, who looked…sad.

The rabbit huffed, and stomped up to him.

“You’re really lucky that we’re not in the mood anymore.” He grabbed his face, squeezing it, “But I swear to the Titan if you even think about bothering us I won’t hesitate.”

He let him go, grabbing his katana and sheathing it. Then he went to Timothy’s side, whose eyes were still wide, glassy, and unmoving.

“Hey.” He nudged him to gain his attention, which earned him a slow turn of his head, “Let’s go home.”

“Are-are you sure?” The mutant croaked, and Yuichi nodded.

“O-okay. What—what about—”

“Just let them go.” Yuichi said, as he started to drag a foot around them, “They probably don’t want to talk to us anyways.”

“Hey, don’t put words in my mouth!” Leo complained as he felt the tentacles around him slowly loosen and set him, along with the rest of the Bale—and the slime chains Tim had made to hold Draxum, crawling back to him—”Maybe we want to!”

“Goodbye, Leonardo-san.” Yuichi somberly met his eyes as he tapped his foot twice.

“Yuichi—”

Leo stepped forward—and they were already gone.

He stared where the rabbit had been standing, just mere seconds ago.

Chapter Text

“So what did Yuichi mean when he said you killed his family?” Mikey coldly asked, arms crossed as he stared at Draxum, who had his gaze averted away, shamefully sitting on the couch.

He was surrounded by all sides. Immediately after his former children had left, the Bale had been swift to clean the area, check on each other, and then trap Draxum to the couch, demanding answers.

Which they rightfully deserved.

He should’ve just told them all from the beginning—but he had already gotten attached to them, after losing Lou he didn’t want—

“Answer the question, Barry.” Leo glared at him.

Baron Draxum exhaled, slightly raising his eyes, “He meant what he said, Michelangelo. It was an accident—but that doesn’t change the fact that it was solely my fault. I’ll tell you everything.”

Draxum remembered the day well. Like most slow-aging Yokai, a 245-year-old such as himself had a remarkable memory. But he had a feeling that even if he was as fragile as a human, he would remember that day well. Even humans couldn’t simply forget accidentally causing a genocide, right?

He had been running out of the original supply of Empyrean he used for his first batches of mutagen, including the perfected recipe that created the turtles. The biggest sources were in Japan, of course, so he figured a good place to start was a small, tucked-away valley village, full of rabbits.

Tracking them had been somewhat difficult, as the Usagi clan was known for its cunning and evasiveness, but once he started noticing shedded rabbit fur on the ground, he knew he was close.

The village was stunning.

The light tan and yellow shacks from nearby stalks of bamboo and the trunks of hinoki cypress trees were humble, but flattering. Along with the clover and wildflowers dotting the green, rolling landscape—where small bunny Yokai were fighting with sticks, or chasing each other—it created the scene of a close-knit community, hidden away from the outside and the dangers it brought.

Deep down, it reminded Draxum of his old village, the one he had been born and grew up in. But that was a long time ago, and it was not the time to empathize with these rabbits. He had Empyrean to procure, after all.

If things went his way—which they almost always did—by tonight he would be walking off with his Empyrean, and the village would not need to carry the burden of protecting it anymore.

In a way, he would be doing them a favor. Yes, that would be a good way to put it.

Earning the nervous glances of older rabbits—probably all aunts and uncles of the children running around, as rabbit families tended to be huge—he walked up to the biggest hut in the dead center of the village. The Elder’s hut, where the head of a clan usually laid.

In front of the door stood a young adult rabbit—probably no older than 18—with maroon eyes and a slight beige-tone to his white fur. Upon seeing Draxum, he unsheathed his katana, a blade of pure black steel, “Who are you, and what are your intentions with the Elder?”

Draxum harmlessly held up a palm, “My name is Baron Draxum. I have no ill intentions.”

“That’s not what I asked for, Baron Draxum.”

Draxum frowned, “I can assure you, I mean no harm upon you nor your clan, I merely want to speak with the Elder in private.”

“About what?” The rabbit lightly growled—only to be interrupted, “Oh, pay him no mind Kuroshi.”

Draxum turned to see an elderly rabbit, fur more grey than white with wrinkles and thin eyes, shuffling towards the hut with a crooked stick, “Sorry I took so long. Your father had to fix the toilet again. Let me handle this fellow for myself, yes? Why don’t you look over the kits while I talk to him?”

The other rabbit—Kuroshi—glared at him one more time before politely nodding his head and opening the door, “Of course, Grandfather.”

He silently walked away, off to another hut, and Draxum respectfully held the door open for the elderly rabbit.

Draxum calmly shut the door, and the rabbit knocked his cane on the floor, gesturing at the scientist to sit down at the cushion laid there as he sat on his own. “Apologies for my grandson’s behavior. We don’t get many visitors except for the locals, and I have a feeling you aren’t from around here, are you?”

“No, Elder Usagi.” Draxum bowed his head, “My name is Baron Draxum. I come from the Hidden City of New York, but I was born in a small village of satyrs. I work for my Hidden City’s council as their Head of Security.”

“Ahh. I understand now. Of course. You came here for the same reason as so many others do.” Draxum could barely meet the elder’s blood-red eyes, as they were obscured by his wrinkles, “You want our sky-blood. Or Empyrean, as you Westerners call it.”

“Yes, Elder Usagi.” Draxum lifted his head, “You see, a few years ago, a prophet came to the council warning us of a danger to all Yokai, and as Head of Security, I—”

“Save your speech, Baron Draxum.” The elder coldly interrupted, “Yokai like you are not welcomed in this village. I suggest you leave.”

“Elder Usagi, I want to use the Empyrean for good, for Yokai. I wish to use it to create warriors—”

“And there it is.” The elder interrupted once more, with a hiss, “Warriors. Power. That’s what it’s always about.”

“No, you don’t understand—”

“NO! YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” The elder surprisingly roared, slightly shaking the fragile house, “Throughout my clan’s entire history there has always been Yokai like you coming to us, begging us for our sky-blood. They want it as a source of energy. They want it as a weapon against humans. Against other Yokai. To strengthen their spells, followers—it’s all the same. Yokai like you don’t care for safety. You only want power.”

“But I want to use it to protect the Yokai—”

“It always starts with excuses of protection. Then comes reinforcement, and then oppression. Centuries ago, the father of our clan, Great Ancestor Usagi Miyamoto was entrusted with the sky-blood’s protection by his lady, from all threats, whether they come from the skies or the mountains or the seas—”

“This is about protection, you old fool!” Draxum got up, yelling down at him, “Humans are going to annihilate us all!”

“We will not allow you to use it against humans!” The elder insisted, “That would be a crime against our ancestor’s lady and her clan.”

“AND WHERE IS HER CLAN NOW?!”

A moment of silence passed, and the elder quietly said, “We don’t know. The Usagi clan lost contact with the Hamato clan decades before my birth.”

“That’s what I thought.” Draxum heavily sighed, straightening himself, “I suppose you won’t take a bribe then.”

“No.”

“Really? Not even enough money to build a whole new village from the ground up? To buy protection spells guaranteed to last centuries? To ensure no kit of your clan will ever starve or freeze—”

“All of us Usagis are content as we are.” The elder insisted, staring hard up at him. “As we have been for centuries.”

Draxum narrowed his gaze.

He could threaten them—

No. He wanted to protect all Yokai, even the idiotic ones like the elder in front of him.

He would only be proving his point too, wouldn’t he?

He was better than that. Baron Draum was a man of many questionable morals. Slaughtering innocent Yokai for his own gain wasn’t one of them.

“I suppose I should go then.” He politely bowed, not meeting the elder’s eyes, “Thank you for seeing me, Elder Usagi.”

“Get out of my village.”

And so Draxum did.

But he came back later that night.

“I wasn’t aware of the hay bales leaning up against the Elder’s house, for the village horses. When they caught on fire, they rolled all over the village, so when I left the hut…well. I suppose you know the rest.” Draxum hung his head low.

The Bale stared at him.

“Well…that’s a lot to unpack.” Casey awkwardly said.

“We…need a spreadsheet. For all this new information. It’s decided, I’m making a spreadsheet.” Donnie was already typing into his wristband, immediately trying (and probably failing) to cope with the events of the past hour, and Raph held a hand to his face, “So, what, does that mean we kinda are related to the rabbit dude—Yuichi—or…?”

“You wish, Raph.” Leo humorlessly grinned, clenching his teeth, obviously failing to cope, and April asked, “Okay, so…how did you get Yuichi?”

“I saw him running down a nearby hill when I was running away from the village. And-and there was so much screaming, so I-I covered his ears and told him to look away.” Draxum admitted.

“And what lie did you tell him?” Mikey held up a non-existent brow, and Draxum sighed, “I told him I was a simple traveler that was nearby when I saw a bright light. I followed it to the village, which was already on fire. And—he believed me, up until I last saw him—so he must’ve found out some other way between then and now.”

“Cool. Cool cool cool.” Leo clapped his hands, “I think I’m going to have a breakdown, ha ha! Our now only alive dad is a mass murderer! Wonderful! Great! Amazing! You caused the death of several innocent Yokai including children, HAHA!” He turned to the Bale, deciding he wasn’t going to look at the goat anymore, “Guys, let’s go home. I need to cry. Or get my brains fucked out. Maybe both—preferably both. I am not handling this tonight.”

“Me neither.” Donnie quietly said, and Casey gently pulled him into a hug.

April helplessly looked at her lovers, and then Draxum, “And what about Tim? Did you kill his family too?”

“No. I didn’t. He really did just wander up to me in the Hidden City one day. He never told me where he came from, April.” Draxum met her eyes, “I’m sorry.”

“You-you should be, you…agh.”

“I think we need a Jupiter Jim marathon. For like a week. And some ice cream and pizza. A lot of ice cream and pizza.” Mikey solemnly nodded, grabbing April’s hand, “And hey, maybe it’s best to take some time off of school, yeah?”

April sniffled, burying her face into his shoulders, “I wasn’t gonna go regardless.”

Raph roughly exhaled, looking at Draxum, “I think we’re gonna need a couple of days to process this. It’s best to just keep ta yerself, Barry.”

“Yes.” The goatman soberly nodded, “I know.”

“Alright.” The snapper turned to his mates, and scooped Leo up, “C’mon guys. We’re walkin’ home. Leo ain’t gonna portal us like this.”

Leo sniffled, nuzzling into his broad plastron, “Thanks Raph.”

“Alright.” April nodded, turning to the doorway where Casey and Donnie already were, and Mikey stared hard at his dad, “Bye Barry.”

“Bye Michelangelo.”

And so they left.

Later that night, awake—as always—in the group pile, Leo was on his phone, reading over the text messages and late-night conversations he had between Yuichi.

Well, more like it was him rambling and sometimes flirting and Yuichi sending emojis. But it was nice. It had been nice. It wasn’t like the rest of Bruce’s henchmen had been eager to talk and joke past one night stands. It had been only for a month or so of them knowing each other, and Leo had only seen him a few times, and he killed Bruce, and almost killed Draxum—

Leo huffed. This was ridiculous, even by his standards. 

He wasn’t in love with Yuichi. He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. He was just…confused, because he was— had been—really good friends with the rabbit. Who happened to be hot. And charming. And shared some of the qualities that made Leo fall for the others. Totally.

And sure, yeah, maybe he had fallen hard for Casey the first few weeks after he came along, but like, that was totally another thing! Definitely! Yeah. Totally.

Man. Coping was hard.

He bit his lip, looking down at the last text message Yuichi sent.

It was right before he and the others caught him at Draxum’s. 

Leo-kun, I’m sorry. I deceived you. I lied. I’m the one who killed Bruce. You’re a good person. You deserve to have a better friend than me. I’m already gone to Japan, though, so you won’t find me. Goodbye.

A good person? What kind of good person worked with the mafia?

And a better friend? As if Leo wasn’t the one secretly getting off to Yuichi and flirting with him constantly.

And he had lied about going to Japan. At least, not immediately.

Maybe…maybe Leo could convince him to stay. Maybe they could talk about it.

He hadn’t blocked him. Yet. He had a chance.

Hey u text like an old man u know that

Leo stared hard at the screen for a few minutes, trying to will at least a Read notification into existence. He could internally hear Raph and Mikey telling him that it was bad for his eyes.

I’m not angry at u

I get why u did what u did

Can we talk?

I wanna talk to u

I still wanna be friends

Yui

Don’t leave

Stay?

For me?

Please?

The slider exhaled, tiredly blinking at the screen.

Why would he even be expecting a response? It was 2 in the morning. Besides, even if Yuichi was awake…it wasn’t like he was going to respond. Not after what happened.

He turned his phone off, setting it down by the rest of the Bales’ phones, and turned onto his side, cuddling closer to his twin.

Little did he know, if he had kept the phone on for one more minute longer, he would’ve seen the little Read at the end of his messages.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe he did it.” April mumbled quietly as most of the Bale watched the news with unnerving attention — except for Leo, who was on his phone and mumbling to himself, and Mikey, who was in the kitchen making dinner.

“The note detailed the murderer’s location of death and motives, which the NYPD hasn’t released to the public yet.”

“At least those metaphorical pigs are going to keep quiet about you.” Donnie said, staring at the TV so sharply that Casey could’ve thought he was trying to turn it off with his mind, “They better after all those threats I’ve sent them.”

“We’re still going to have a talk about that, Don.” Raph sternly said, and Donnie curtly nodded, “I know.”

“On the bright side, your professor let you turn in your part of the project for a full grade…?” Casey tried, wrapping his arms around April, and the woman loudly exhaled, throwing her fluffy hair of head into his neck, “Yeah. That’s a plus, I guess…I just. Ugh. I can’t stop thinking about Tim—what happened. I mean, he turned away from me. Like he was afraid. And then-and then there was all that other stuff and…I…I’m worried. About him. I guess. I don’t know. Emotions are confusing. And weird.”

“And that’s why you have me!” Mikey’s voice chirped from the kitchen, and April, Casey and Raph chuckled at that while Donnie kept his gaze on the TV, and Leo’s focus on his phone.

Of course, one of them was bound to notice. And who else would it be other than Casey, since the other voyeur of the Bale was currently hyper-fixated on the news?

So he offered April to Raph — who eagerly helped himself and pulled her onto his lap, immediately covering her in kisses — and Casey got up to the other side of the couch to sit on the armrest, “So what’cha doing?”

“Hm?” Leo hummed non-committedly, and Casey dramatically sighed before sliding onto the slider’s lap, which definitely earned his attention then, “I was asking what you were doing, handsome.”

“Oh, me?” Leo smiled down at him, slyly trying to set the phone down, “Not much, but if you want it can be you—HEY!”

Casey quickly snatched the phone, laughing as he pulled away, “Now who were you texting—Yuichi?”

Everyone stopped at that, comically looking at Casey and then Leo, who had just gotten up from the couch, “Uh…maybe?”

“Ya have his phone number?” Raph asked, and Leo scratched his neck, “Well, I mean, yeah, since I was a… business partner of Bruce’s—” “Babe, we know you were his Sugar Baby, you don’t have to lie about it—” “and he was his bodyguard, I figured we could exchange numbers for completely professional reasons—” “Leo, we know ya fucked all of Bruce’s cronies at least once, ya don’t gotta lie about sexting either—”

“Oh, no, Leo’s right.” Casey said, scrolling the text messages, “Well uh, not about being professional, he sent a bunch of memes, but everything seems platonic…” At that, Casey grew a shit-eating grin at Leo, “You like Yuichi, don’t you Leo?”

“What?! No! We’re just friends! Uh, well, I think we are.” Leo grimaced, “ I hope we are. I mean, he hasn’t blocked me yet, so that’s a good sign, but he hasn’t really talked to me either—but that’s not the point! I have completely friendly and non-sexual feelings towards Yuichi!”

“Well I know that’s a lie because I literally saw Donnie getting you off to him a few weeks ago—”

Both of the twins gasped, “SNITCH!”

“That and you have a habit of hiding your attraction to people you have romantic feelings for!” Mikey yelled from the kitchen, and Leo blew up red, “That’s because I fell in love with my fucking family! You know this!”

“Well, if ya think about it, if Yuichi was raised by Barry, and we all kinda see Barry as our dad—” “Raph don’t you dare—” “ then in a way he’s our brother, right? Maybe the other dude too? Uh—Timothy, yeah?”

Leo stared at Raph incredulously, his face somehow more red than his mask, and he sunk back to the sofa, “Oh no.”

“You know, I actually have been meaning to bring it up.” Mikey asked, walking into the living room and leaning against the couch, “How do we all feel about them—Yuichi and Timothy?”

Awkward silence filled the room for a moment, and Raph squeaked, “Like, in general, or…?”

“In general.” Mikey said, and immediately Donnie stated, “I’m not mentally ready nor emotionally available for this conversation.”

“What Donnie said.” Leo said, face shoved into his palms, and April stuttered, “I-I don’t know, I mean, I wouldn’t be lying if I said I don’t think he’s cute—”

“Uh, can we actually put a pin on this?” Raph swallowed, “Raph’s uh, still thinkin’ ‘bout everythin’ that uh, happened.”

“Me too.” Casey quickly added, although it wasn’t entirely the case.

Because on one hand, he didn’t really know these guys at all. Besides what happened a few days ago, he only knew them from what the twins and April mentioned. That, and Casey did find his whole undisguised look…well, chilling, to put it nicely.

On the other hand…they seemed to make the twins and April happy. And Casey was all for their happiness. The Bale might as well be re-named Leo’s Harem, after all. 

One would think that with all the people-eating and tentacles Casey would find him freakily similar to the Krang, but…Casey wasn’t going to lie to himself, the first thing he thought of when he had been grabbed by the mutant’s tentacles was all that tentacle porn Donnie showed him a long time ago (and Leo called himself the pervert of the Bale).

But that wasn’t here or there. First and foremost Casey was here for his partners, his mates, to support and love them in any way he could—

“Okay then. We can all talk about it later, once everything has calmed down and April doesn’t have to worry about her project anymore.” Mikey firmly decided, snapping Casey out of his thoughts, and he swallowed, “Uh, yeah. That sounds good to me.”

“Raph too.” Raph said, and then came the agreement from the other half of the Bale—a thumbs up from April, frantic nodding from Leo, and another singular curt nod from Donnie.

“I’m glad that’s decided!” Mikey perked up, “The sauce should be done simmering now, so I’m going to get back to making dinner—”

Loud beeping interrupted him.

Casey and Raph both looked down at their phones—Donnie had installed his Genius Built Crime Alert App™ on all of them, but Casey and Raph went out on patrol the most often—to see an alert for a jewelry store robbery in downtown Manhattan, and immediately they both got up to grab their gear.

As they hurried around, Leo pulled out his katana to make a portal, and Mikey said as he went back to the kitchen, “I’ll make sure your food will be warm when you come back.”

“Thanks Mikey!” Casey yelled, grabbing his weapon from his room, and Raph exclaimed, “Thanks Babe!” Then as Casey was scrambling back into the living room, hopping on one foot while tying his other boot up, Raph turned to Leo, “Can you—”

With a flick of his wrist Leo had their portal opened before Raph could finish his sentence, and the hulking giant quickly pressed a kiss to his lips, “Thanks.”

“Hey, where are our goodbye kisses?” Donnie complained as the two were walking into the portal. “Sorry Don, no time!” Raph apologized as he disappeared through it, and Casey apologetically smiled, “We’ll make it up to you when you get back, okay? Love you guys!”

Then he left the living room too, now on a skyscraper.

“Do you want to do our usual thing?” Casey asked, prepping the glove with his grappling gun, and Raph fist-bumped him, “Give ‘em the ol’ one-two.”

Just then the sounds of cars swerving and police sirens came, and they quickly made their way down to catch the thieves.

It was quick work. All they had to do was jump onto the van roof, get Raph to punch through it, and have Casey intercept the driver and pull over. Compared to all the shit that had happened in the past month, it had been a breeze.

Afterwards, they decided to walk back rather than call Leo to get them. That way they could do their nightly patrol sooner and get done early. Neither of them were in the mood to stalk the city at one in the morning that night—besides, Casey had a feeling they would need tonight to ‘make it up’ to Donnie and April as they promised. And of course Leo and Mikey would want to join too.

So Raph went one way, and Casey went the other.

Most of his patrol went smoothly. Besides stopping a simple purse thief and hearing Raph struggle with a small gang over their radio—which Casey naturally laughed at, and at which Raph threatened to take away his ability to walk for the next week—everything went calmly, with Casey jumping rooftop to rooftop, occasionally stopping for a brief moment to enjoy the view of the NYC skyline at night.

Two years since he first arrived, and Casey was still rendered breathless by it.

Naturally, it had to be ruined, and what else would ruin it but the sounds of frantic, wet eating.

He looked down into the small alleyway below him. It was barely wide enough to hold a dumpster. Casey could probably stand in it and spread his arms to touch both of the walls.

It was dim too. The lights of the street quickly disappeared in the alleyway, seemingly absorbed by the disgusting amount of trash piling the sides.

Casey could barely make out the dark shape at the end of it.

But now he knew what it was. Moreso who it was.

He jumped down, not caring to be quiet—after all, New Yorkers tended to mind their business, and especially didn’t like to poke their faces in dark, smelly alleyways—and turned his flashlight on, blasting it at the shape.

Which of course was Tim, covered in all black clothing, eyes wide and body a weird mix of green and brown, which was clearly the blood and viscera being absorbed by him.

They briefly met eyes for a moment—and in a blink of an eye Tim’s mass was fucking slithering out of his clothes, which came with the sounds of bones cracking to reshape and slime pouring out onto plastic bags—

“Oh don’t you fucking dare.” Casey hissed, “Get your ass back here right now.”

The mutant has disappeared into the trash of the alleyway, leaving the corpse exposed to Casey’s light. It was nothing more than a mass of bones and organs, as the appendages had been ripped—eaten—off, and the blood was continuing to pool.

Casey swallowed bile down, and continued to glare at the shadows.

“...What?” Came a quiet reply.

“ I said finish your food, dumbass. NYPD doesn’t need another cannibal after the first one supposedly killed himself off!”

A beat of silence passed, and the green puddle carefully slithered his way out of the plastic bags, organs and bones clear through the transparent slime, onto the body, barely covering its viscera with his own.

“You’re just gonna let me?”

Casey shivered. Tim’s voice seemed to just radiate from the mass, without any mouth or other source. Casey didn’t know how it worked—how he worked.

He couldn’t care less.

“Well that guy can’t get more dead and we cannot handle the stress of another murder, so yeah. Cover your mess up this time, and this stays between us.”

Another beat of silence came, and the mutant quietly said, “...Thanks, uh, Casey? Was it?”

Casey sighed, running a gloved hand through his hair, “Yeah, man, whatever. Just—you also owe April an apology. For upsetting her.”

One part of Timothy slightly rose up, shaking up and down like what Casey assumed was a nod, “Yeah. I know.”

They stared at each other again for a few seconds.

Casey turned to grab a fire escape ladder to get back to the rooftops, and he stopped, turning back around, “Why haven’t you left yet?”

“...Huh?”

“Didn’t you or your boyfriend—Yuichi, whatever—didn’t one of you say you were going to leave?”

“Yeah. We did.” Timothy admitted.

“Well? Why haven’t you?” Casey repeated.

“...We don’t know.”

“Well don’t.”

“Wh-what?”

“You heard me. Don’t leave.” Casey simply said, and climbed back onto the rooftop, leaving the cannibal astonished.

Chapter Text

Hello Leonardo-san.

“HOLY SHIT!”

The rest of the Bale immediately flinched at Leo’s screech, which had Raph jumping up from the couch and Casey shooting up from the blanket pile on the floor.

“What’s wrong?!” “Did something happen?!”

“Yuichi texted me!” Leo cheerfully said, physically shaking with excitement like a chihuahua, and April punched his shoulder, “Really? Dramatic much?”

“You got us worried for a second, Leo!” Mikey chided, but the slider waved their complaints away, “Shhh pause the movie I want to see what he’s saying—oh come on!”

I wanted to let you know that Moth had me drop off a package from him at Eastlaird University for his friend April.

Just as Donnie had paused the Jupiter Jim movie— Jupiter Jim Sails the Seven Galaxies, which was clearly the best Jupiter Jim movie—Leo deflated like a balloon, and pouted, “Oh come on! It isn’t even about me. Apparently he just wanted to let me know that he sent a package to April’s college.”

“What? Why?” April asked, and Leo shrugged, “I don’t know, it’s something from Tim but I guess he couldn’t deliver because of the whole being dead thing so Yui did? OOH! I can ask him!”

Just as he was about to start texting like a madman, April took away the phone, “HEY!”

“No, focus mister.” April said, “I want a portal opened to the mailroom pronto. Then I’ll give you your phone back.”

Leo groaned at that, and with a flick of his wrist, summoned his katana with his ninpo. Then he sliced it through the air, and made grabby hands at April, “Can I have my phone back now pleaseeee?”

April gave it to him and turned to walk through the portal. Leo, of course, snatched it up like a dog given a peanut butter treat, and typing with one hand (his other still holding the sword) he wildly texted back.

YUI

HI

U HAVENT TEXTED ME ITSO LAG

SO EXCITED SEE U HIIII

Are you having a stroke Leonardo-san?

TEXTING WITH ONE HANDS RN

Will you please text with two hands?

CANT HOLD POTATO OPEN FOR APRIL RN

I’m assuming you mean portal?

YEAH

ANYWAYS WHATS WITH THE PACKAGE?

Moth and I figured that it would be best if you have it rather than us.

HAVE WHAT???

“Oh shit.” Came Raph’s voice, and Leo looked up from his phone to see the rest of the Bale crowd around April. He closed the portal and came over, “What’s inside it?”

“It appears to be the retro-mutagen they tried to mutate Draxum with.” Donnie said, and out of his battle shell came a mechanical arm. The arm picked the vial out of the box and placed it back into his shell, “I’ll take it to the lab for safe-keeping.”

“Oh, and here’s the other half of our project.” April said, taking the finished—albeit messy—homemade Geiger Counter out of the box, some of its wiring still exposed. “Well uh, the thought’s nice, but this is kind of useless now that I’ve turned the project in—” “I’ll take that too!” Donnie pulled the Geiger Counter of her hand with another arm, and as it was concealed in the battle shell, Mikey pulled the final item out of a box: a white yellow envelope with two words written in messy, blocky pen ink, ‘ FOR APRIL.’

“A letter?” April took it out of the box, “Why didn’t he just text me? He has my phone number and I haven’t blocked him.”

“You haven’t? Why?” Donnie asked, and April sighed, “I mean, I don’t know. I probably should’ve, I just…didn’t want to.”

“Well, have you texted him since then?” Mikey asked, and April shook her head, “No.” “Then he probably doesn’t know you haven’t blocked him, silly. Looking from his perspective he probably just assumed you didn’t want to talk to him.”

“Ugh, I wish he didn’t just assume all that and left.” April rolled her eyes, “And faking a suicide too, if I hadn’t known then I would’ve thought that the only friend I’ve made since Sunita and Cass killed himself—” She cut off with a choking noise, and Raph wrapped an arm around her, “Yeah, we know Babe.”

April sighed, “And maybe…I’m kinda worried he was grossed out by the fact I’m dating all of you? He knew I was dating multiple guys, but finding out four of them are brothers—”

“That’d make him a hypocrite though, wouldn’t it?” Leo said from the couch, setting down his phone, “I mean, the dude is fucking his adopted brother.”

“Yeah, but they’re not actually related—”

“Hey, let’s calm down, okay Apes?” Mikey said, gently squeezing her shoulders, “We’re all making assumptions and worrying about things we don’t even know are true. Let’s see what Tim wrote to you in that letter and then get back to watching our movie, yeah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” April pressed a kiss to the box turtle’s cheek, and unceremoniously ripped the envelope apart, white folded pieces of paper slipping out onto the floor.

April grabbed them and unfolded them, then whistled, “ Wow he has a lot to say.”

She cleared her voice, and started to read the typed letter out loud.

“Hey April. It’s me, Tim. I don’t know why I typed that down (who else would it be?) but anyways, I wanted to say I’m sorry. For pretty much everything. You know for killing all those people and kinda stalking you (I swear it was only a little) and kinda ruining the whole project thing. I don’t know how you’re sorting that out with the professor but I gave you my Geiger-Counter just in case. Although thinking about it right now I don’t necessarily know how you would excuse that to the professor. Too late though I already put it in the box, it’s staying there now.

“Anyways, I know you probably aren’t going to forgive me, why would you? I’m a psychotic cannibal mutant slime thing. Honestly I’m still surprised that Yui is still around. The point I’m trying to make is that you don’t have to worry about any cannibal terrorizing the news anymore. Usually I’m much more careful then I was with those guys but I wanted you to see them? Wow I can’t believe I just typed that. That’s crazy. I’m crazy! Haha. Just ignore everything I say. I’m not good with emotions and people stuff. Just don’t worry about it! Yui said he’s going to edit my punctuation and grammar errors and everything so he’ll probably get rid of that! Nothing to worry about. Just keep typing Tim.

“Yui and I talked about it and we both agreed that it’d be best if you guys took the retro-mutagen. Yui said he already gave Leo (to be honest I have no idea who that is) Draxum’s research and stuff already at some point. My unstable mutation eats at my brain like ALL the time, so I’ll be forgetting it in a few days probably. We won’t be going near Draxum anytime soon. I’m way too currently emotionally and mentally unstable to reenact any revenge right now haha. But everything’s fine! Don’t worry about it! I mean you probably won’t, considering the whole ‘I’m a psychopath’ thing but whatever! The thought’s nice I guess! Yui is going to have to edit the hell out of this thing to hide my crumbling mental state. Haha!

“Anyways, again, sorry for everything. Okay, to be honest, I’m not sorry for killing those guys (fuck them really), I guess I’m more sorry that I traumatized you with the whole ‘seeing all my organs and finding out I’m a cannibal’ stuff. My bad. I hope you get a good grade on the project and I hope I didn’t ruin your life. I wouldn’t be surprised if I did though. Bye.

“P.S.: Also, this is just me being hopeful on my part, but if for some reason you’re fine with everything and don’t hate me then text me, I guess? I haven’t touched my phone since the whole Draxum thing so I don’t know if you’ve blocked me or anything (you probably did though because why wouldn’t you?). It was nice to hang out with you and I’ve missed having a friend.

“Oh, Tim.” April sighed, and Mikey said, “Damn, he might have worse self-esteem issues than Leo.”

“Hey!” Leo exclaimed, and Mikey smiled at him, “You should consider that a compliment if anything, Leo. Ever since we got together you’ve been doing good.”

“If anything too good,” Donnie rolled his eyes, “now all he does it talk about himself like he’s the greatest thing on Earth—”

“Donnie, shut up, yer worse.” Raph lightly shoved his head, and Leo snickered, “Besides, I’m pretty sure you were calling me something similar like that when I was plowing you yesterday—”

“Oh says the turtle who was on his knees for me all day like the desperate whore you are just before that—”

“Alright, you two, that’s enough.” Raph grabbed their heads, making them stop, and he looked back at April, “So what’re you gonna do?”

“Uh, what?”

“Ya gonna talk to Tim again and still be his friend, or ya gonna block him?”

“You guys would be okay with that?” April softly asked, “If I kept talking to him?”

“Why would we be cool with Leo talking to Yuichi but not you talking to Tim?” Casey asked, and April replied, “Because he eats people?”

“Okay. Donnie eats people.” Mikey said, “And that hasn’t stopped Raph.”

Raph nodded, and April stuttered, “Well, I mean, yeah, I just…I don’t know! I mean, especially with Donnie—”

“I would be fine with it as well.” Donnie stated, and April asked, “Really?”

“One one condition.” Donnie said, “I would like to have a sample of his so-called ‘slime’ to study it.”

“Why don’t you just ask him for one?” Mikey asked, and Donnie countered, “He could say no.”

“Why would he say no?” Mikey crossed his arms, and Donnie retorted, “Why would he say yes?”

“Why don’t I just text Yuichi to ask him and Tim if they want to meet up sometime so we can all introduce each other and actually talk about everything instead of just assuming things we don’t know are true?” Leo butted in, and Mikey nodded, “Huh. That’s actually a good idea Leo.”

Leo gasped with only slight offense, “What do you mean ‘that’s actually a good idea’ I am full of great ideas!”

“That’s not what I meant.” Mikey clarified with a smile, “It’s just usually you aren’t so emotionally intelligent.”

“Well, okay, yeah, I can admit that, but I have my moments!” Leo exclaimed, and Raph asked, “Where would we meet them anyway? Most of the city knows what Tim looks like because of the NYPD, and he’s supposed to be dead.” 

“Then we’ll meet in the Hidden City.” Casey said, and Leo hummed, “Well, I don’t know about that, Bruce’s men have been swarming the streets lately since he died—”

“Why not Run-of-the-Mill pizza then?” Mikey smiled, “I’m sure Senor Hueso won’t mind two new customers.”

“Wait,” Donnie interrupted, “Would we be paying, or splitting half-way, or—”

“Uh, maybe we should ask them first if they even wanna meet up at all?” Raph suggested, and Leo nodded, whipping out his phone, “Yeah, yeah, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.”

Yui, he texted, me and my partners have been talking and we were thinking of meeting with u and Tim somewhere to maybe introduce each other and talk? 

U cool with that?

You want to talk to us? About what?

Well 1st of all u r basically our brothers since we have the same dad and we’re like Found Family Central over here 

Plus me and April still want to be friends with u and Tim

We all kinda got on a bad start with the whole ‘stopping u from getting revenge on Barry’ lol

But I lied to you, Leonardo-san, and Moth is a cannibal.

Okay and? Donnie eats people too but that doesn’t stop any of us from kissing the hell out of him

And tbh I’m not actually that hurt from what happened I was just kinda emotionally confused and revved up from everything that happen but I’m chill now

Also I’m pretty sure I told u to call me Leo-kun

Also also u still text like an old man lol

Okay, I will talk to Moth about it.

Also fuck you Leo-kun I do not text like an old man.

YES YOU DO!!!!!

🖕

Just to clarify I do not mean that with genuine hostility.

Dude someone needs to teach how to text lol you just send /j if you’re joking

/j

See you’re getting it!!!!

Alright text me back whenever you want

Byeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Bye Leo-kun.

“Alright guys, Yui said he’d talk to Tim about it.” Leo grinned, “Looks like pizza’s on the menu!”

“Hey, we don’t know that for sure yet.” Mikey said, and Leo shrugged it off, “Yeah, yeah, I know. I wanna get back to watching Jupiter Jim Sails the Seven Galaxies now, we stopped at the best part!”

“Oh please Nardo, even though I dislike this movie I can tell the fight scene between Jupiter Jim and Scor-Pion is better than the confession between Atomic Lad and Atomic Lass.” Donnie huffed, and Leo shoved him, “That’s because you have no sense of romance, Donnie!”

“This turtle with ‘no sense of romance’ expertly seduced all of our current mates into our relationship—”

“For the last time YOU piggybacked on MY rizz!” Leo lightly growled, and Donnie snarled back—

“Alright ya two, ya can have fight sex later. Raph wants to get back to watchin’ the best Jupiter Jim movie.” Raph said, tearing them apart, setting Donnie down with April and Casey and giving Leo to Mikey. Their other mates chuckled, and Leo cuddled into Mikey as the movie started to play.

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.

Chapter Text

Here Lies Moth

2003-2015

“YOU’RE HAMATOS?!”

At the sudden shriek, Moth blinked, snapping his head away from the headstone to see Yuichi wide-eyed, practically shaking Leo.

“Oh. Yeah. I guess I never told you my last name. Surprise, I guess?” Leo casually grinned, and Yuichi gasped, covering his mouth and pulling away, “Titan, I threatened you at swordpoint.”

“Okay, I’m kinda hurt at the implication that it didn’t matter until you found out we were Hamatos.” Leo jokingly said, and Yuichi sputtered, “What?! No! I’m just saying that it’s so much worse that way ! I mean, if I had actually hurt you I would’ve been a disgrace to my clan—”

“Babe, relax.” Moth stepped in with a warm squeeze to the rabbit’s shoulder and a smile, “There’s mostly no hard feelings about it anyways, right?” “Mostly.” Leo agreed, and Moth said, “Besides, when we reunited you threatened me at swordpoint, and look how we turned out!”

“Don’t remind me, asshole, I almost killed you!” Yuichi exclaimed, and Moth corrected, “ Could’ve killed me, if it wasn’t for the whole ‘undead slime mutant’ thing. Get it right, Cottontail.”

“Wait, what?” Leo asked, and Yuichi frowned, looking away, “I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a story for another day.” Moth nodded, and Leo opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted by Mikey, who was sitting on the rainbow picnic blanket he and the others had set up, “Hey guys, it’s time to eat!”

The blanket was huge—apparently crocheted by Raph, with what Moth imagined were Godzilla-sized hooks and equally-huge balls of yarn—easily big enough to fit the entire Bale, Yuichi, Moth, and then some. Sitting (in their respective colored stripes, which was hilarious because Moth bet these guys color-coded everything), was Raph, April, Casey, and Donnie, while Mikey was sitting on the other end, setting up the final plates and dishes.

It was typical picnic food—juicy fruit like watermelon and strawberries, various ingredients for deli and cucumber sandwiches, refreshing drinks like water and lemonade—and just looking at it all made Moth’s heart stop.

He wasn’t hungry. He made sure to eat the leftovers from the pizzeria and did some… hunting. It wasn’t like he could taste the food anyways, since he didn’t waste energy on forming taste buds. But damn, he missed eating normal food. And fuck, it reminded him of the picnics he and his mom would have in Central Park.

But he shouldn’t think about stuff like that. He was here for a good time with his boyfriend and (kinda maybe) friends.

“Let’s go sit down.” Moth said, grabbing Yuichi’s hand to drag him along to it.

Leo sat down besides his twin and Casey, and then bowls and plates were being passed around. 

“So Leo-kun, why didn’t you tell me you were a Hamato before?” Yuichi asked, and Leo shrugged, “Well I didn’t think it was a big deal.” “What?! How could it not be a big deal? You’ve known from the start I was a Usagi, and serving the Hamato clan is basically our whole deal—”

“Oh, yeah, we didn’t even know what the Usagi clan was until Barry told us.” Raph said after swallowing a sandwich down whole, and Yuichi exclaimed, “What?!”

“Yeah, before Dad got mutated, he didn’t really believe in Yokai and stuff, so I guess he assumed all the Yokai myths and everything weren’t true.” Leo swallowed a bite of his sandwich down, “But then he got mutated and had to raise four mutants, and then the Shredder happened, and then the Krang—”

“YOU FACED THE SHREDDER?!” Yuichi shrieked, and Casey said, “Dude, chill. I think the whole Hidden City can hear you.”

“Sorry, not a Hamato-history nerd, what’s the Shredder?” Moth asked, raising his hand like a student, and immediately Yuichi went into infodump mode, “The Shredder was an entity born from the fusion of the powerful Kuroi Yoroi armor and Oroku Saki, the bloodthirsty warlord and head of the Oroku clan—”

“Basically he was our thousand-times great grandpa possessed by Krang tech who got banished to another dimension but then the Foot Clan resurrected him and with the help of our Grandma Karai we defeated him and both of their souls went to the Spirit Realm.” Leo casually explained, and Donnie added, “Yeah it was like a whole four-part season finale, you kind of had to be there.”

“Ah.” Moth nodded, “So typical Hamato stuff?”

“Yeah.” Pretty much the entire Bale said, nodding their heads, and Yuichi sighed, dropping his elbows, “I wanted to tell the story.”

“Well good news, Yui!” Leo said, “Now that Dad’s dead you get to be the new source of Hamato exposition dumping. Congratulations!”

Everyone stared at him for that, and he said, “Hey, don’t look at me like that. I’m not even joking! We all know Dad would want someone to carry on his legacy of infodumping Hamato lore when the situation conveniently calls for it.”

The other turtles paused, and April nodded, “Yeah, Splints would want someone to do that.”

More nods of agreement came, and Yuichi carefully said, “You all seem to have a very interesting…relationship with him.”

“Well, I mean, Dad did try his best. It really wasn’t easy for him.” Raph simply said, and Leo nodded, “Yeah, Raph like went into Dad’s mind and saw his whole sad backstory firsthand, so like, trust, Dad had it tough.”

“But he reconnected with his Hamato roots eventually, and trained us, and helped us defeat the Shredder and the Krang, and yeah.” Mikey said, and Leo said, “And he never threw off a roof like someone.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Yuichi blinked.

“Draxum tried recruiting us to be his army soldiers when we were teens and when we told him no he threw me off a roof.” Leo, once again, casually explained, and Yuichi’s eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth—and Moth slapped his hand over it to muffle the shout, “Cottontail, if you keep screaming every time you’re surprised the cops are gonna get called on us.”

Yuichi’s protests were muffled as Moth pulled him back down, and Donnie stated, “You seem unsurprised by this.”

“Well this is the same Draxum who accidentally left his lap open and accessible to twelve-year-olds which caused this—” He gestured to his entire being— ” whole ordeal, so can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Oh! That reminds me.” Mikey asked, “Tim, how do you feel about your grave?”

Moth froze at the question, eyes wide as he stared past his shoulder, “What.”

“I was wondering how you felt about it? I mean, I understand if it’s too personal of a question for you considering everything, but I just wanted your thoughts on it because me and Barry were talking…”

But Moth had tuned him out at that point, laser focused on the two lines of his gravestone.

Here Lies Moth

2003-2015

Those were the only words engraved into the granite. Nothing about him being a good son. Nothing about him being a good brother. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the rounded marble headstone just a few feet off to the side of it, with cracks of gold. 

Here Lies Yoshi Hamato, Lou Jistu, Splinter

A lover, a teacher, and a father. 

HOT SOUP!!!

1961-2024.

Timothy knew it was ridiculous. Utterly selfish. But he couldn’t help feeling jealous of the treatment. Draxum could’ve at least gotten his headstone polished. Or learned his full name. But apparently he hadn’t loved him enough to do either of those things.

Had he just been a passing thought, all these years?

At first he had been glad to hear Draxum buried him, that he had actually cared enough to, but seeing it in person, compared to the grave of someone else he cared for, and apparently so much more…he was starting to think he had done it out of obligation rather than love.

But it was whatever, right? He shouldn’t be caring anymore about this ghost of a father figure after his ‘death’. Besides, he wasn’t even dead. He could get a better gravestone.

Whenever he died. 

If he could die…

“Timothy?” Yuichi gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and Moth blinked, snapping out of it to see everyone staring back at him.

“Oh, uh—it’s fine I guess. The grave, you know.” He swallowed, feeling the mutagen underneath his skin swirl with nerves, “I mean, it does what it needs to do. Besides, I’m not even dead, so it doesn’t even count, y’know. It-it’s whatever. I don’t even care.”

“Well, okay. If you say so. But I wouldn’t mind re-doing it if you change your mind.” Mikey offered, and Moth swallowed, “Oh. Okay. I’ll…think about it, I guess."

“Great.” Mikey smiled, and Moth nodded, “Great, yeah.”

Once that was settled, the conversation separated among the others, some reminiscing about Splinter, some talking about new projects or hobbies.

Moth sighed, looking away from them, and Yuichi intertwined their hands together, “Hey, you okay?”

“Yeah, I just…don’t want to think about any of it, really.” He quietly said, and Yuichi suggested, “If you want, when we get back we can watch one of your stupid Jupiter Jim movies.”

“Hey, you better be quiet about dissing Jupiter Jim around these guys. They’re hardcore hardcore fans of it.” Moth smiled, and Yuichi shrugged, “I think they’d move on from it.”

“Oh yeah?” Moth turned around, grinning, “Hey guys, did you hear Yuichi hates Jupiter—mmph!” “No! Shut up!” Yuichi exclaimed, slapping his hands over his mouth, but the word Jupiter already got out, and Leo gasped with dramatic offense, “ What?!”

Moth laughed, pushing Yuichi away, “Yeah, one time he told me the franchise is, and I quote, ‘the most stupid, non-sensical, and overdramatic human franchise to ever exist—’”

“No! I didn’t say any of that! Slander! Lies!” Yuichi protested, and Leo shook his head, “This isn’t going to do. I’m sorry, Yui, I can forgive almost killing our dad, but hating on the Jupiter Jim movies is where I cross the line—”

“Okay, okay! I’ll watch them for you! I’ll watch them!” Yuichi held his arms up like he was surrendering, and the rest of the Bale laughed.

“We have the entire collection back at our place. We could do a movie marathon!” Mikey suggested, and Leo said, “Well, our monthly Saturday Night Marathon’s coming up this weekend anyways, so you guys might as well join us.”

“Oh, no, Leo-kun, we couldn’t intrude like that—”

“He’s backing out because he doesn’t want to watch them~” Moth sung, and Yuichi said, “ No, it’s because I respect their privacy—”

“Yuichi, we don’t give a shit about privacy, you two might as well join us.” Casey insisted, and Yuichi sighed, “I have a feeling Leo-kun’s going to drag me over regardless.”

“Yup!” Leo added, “With Tim’s permission of course.”

“Pfft, permission, as if I can control Yui.” Moth laughed, and Yuichi sincerely said, “Hey, I would never do something that makes you uncomfortable. You know that.”

“Yeah, I do.” Moth smiled at him, and Leo teased, “Should we leave to give you two some space?”

“No, I think everything’s good, right Moth?” Yuichi said, and Moth earnestly nodded, “Yeah. Everything’s great.”

And that was something he didn’t need to pretend.

Chapter Text

“And you just let him go?!”

“What was I to do?!” Katsuichi exclaimed at the furious rabbit yokai in front of him, “We both know how your clan raised its warriors. He may have only been eight when the rest of your family died, but he knew the ways of Bushido Code and its Virtues. He came to me to train, and I trained him.”

“You killed him is what you did!” The other shouted, the horrible pink scar along his cheek contorting with the snarl.

“We don’t know if he’s dead!” The lion argued back.

“YET!” The other rabbit yelled, “You let him run off to kill Baron Draxum! What’s he supposed to do against that maniac?! You had one job as his Sensei, damn you Katsuichi!”

“My job as his Sensei was the same as I had with the rest of your brothers and sisters: train him to be the best samurai he could be. And you don’t think I didn’t try to stop him?! Me, my wife, and my children all begged him not to go! But Yuichi is just as stubborn as he was when he was a kid. He insisted, Kuroshi. For you. For your whole family.”

The rabbit yokai growled, and sheathed his katana, “Then I have to go and finish the job.”

“We don’t know if he’s dead, Kuro—”

“Do NOT get my hopes up, old man!” Kuroshi snarled, making the lion yokai step back, “I didn’t spend almost 15 years of my life believing I was the last Usagi only to get my hopes up.”

“But he could be, Kuroshi.” Katsuichi earnestly said, “Your first priority should be locating your brother, and then killing Draxum. Do not make the same mistake he did and go in blind by rage.”

“Rage is all I have left, lion.” Kuroshi muttered, his red eyes as dark as dried blood. “The satyr will be given no mercy for killing my family and abducting my otōto.”

He turned away from his former sensei, pulling up his kasa hat, and grabbing his cape from the hanger.

“Remember the Code, Kuroshi.” Katsuichi said, “A samurai must have as much mercy and self-control as they do courage and honor.”

“I am no samurai anymore, Katsuichi.” The ronin hissed, and left the house, leaving the former sensei alone.