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mad4turtles · 3 hours ago

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hold the world to its best (1/?)

rottmnt word count: 2k pairing: raph & OC, raph & leo title borrowed from light by sleeping at last part of the archer au

for @soldrawss who wanted the deaged gio arc we've discussed to death in the group chat to finally become canon in some way shape or form 🩶

It takes all of six minutes for a family outing to the Hidden City to go completely off the rails. Raph would be mortified, except that’s not even breaking their record.

He has no idea how Gio got there as quickly as he did. One minute he’s sandwiched between Mikey and April at a stall selling little whimsical glass figurines that moved and changed color, fully prepared to fork over an absurd amount of money for the sizeable stack of them they had picked out so far, and the next he was on the other side of the market, shoving his way between Donnie and the witch that had snuck up behind him.

Raph was already in damage control mode, but now it swiftly shifts gears from the more harmless ‘convince Gio not to spend a cool two hundred dollars at the drop of a hat just because Mikey and April got suckered by some kitschy souvenirs’ and moves into the more immediately imperative ‘stop Gio from breaking someone’s arm for the crime of approaching Donnie with a look on their face that Gio didn’t like.’

It’s a task in and of itself to carve through the crowd without bulldozing over the yokai just trying to do their evening shopping. Raph tries to be mindful of his size on a good day, but he has a bad feeling. It doesn’t take much for anxiety to stir in the back of his mind. Every foot between himself and his brothers feels like a mile.

Whatever happened in Witch Town three years ago, Raph is beginning to think April and Donnie only gave the rest of them the spark notes version, or else why would the witches still be nursing a grudge?

“Hey,” Leo’s voice pipes up at his elbow. Raph looks down into a smiling striped face as Leo hefts the bags of food he’d collected from Hueso’s victoriously. “Got dinner. Where’s the fire?”

“Twelve o’clock,” Raph replies, and decides he’s had enough mincing around. “Hitch a ride, kid.”

Leo whistles low, clearly impressed by the amount of trouble their siblings must have caused to warrant the urgency, but doesn’t hesitate to hop up on Raph’s shell, maneuvering around the spikes with the ease of a lifetime of practice. His leg has healed to the point that he no longer carries the foldable neon blue crutch on outings, but Raph gives him an extra breath to settle anyway. Then he straightens his shoulders and stands up tall and the crowd parts for him like water around a stone.

The witch is hissing between her teeth, the mane of fur framing her face bristling with resentment, needle-point fangs poking out from beneath her top lip. Gio is meeting her glare with one of his own, the soft expression he’d been wearing not even a full minute ago, watching April ooh and ahh over a tiny crystal shark swimming in midair, a thing of the past. Donnie looks offended and he’s already running his mouth over Gio’s shoulder, because he’s never met a fire he wouldn’t throw gasoline on.

The next few seconds seem to stretch into hours and also shrink into an instant. The witch lifts her hand and blows something out of her open palm that glitters in the lantern light like broken glass. It hits Gio’s face with the force of a slap and Donnie’s startled yelp is audible to Raph’s ears over every other sound on the street and a thick plume of smoke obscures all three of them.

Leo’s weight disappears from Raph’s back. When the smoke has cleared and Raph has shoved himself the rest of the way there, Leo has the witch pinned against a storefront wall with his sword to her throat. She is very carefully not moving an inch. Donnie is digging frantically through a pile of loose clothes on the ground. Gio is nowhere to be seen at a glance.

Raph’s immediate thought is one he’s not proud of later, but in the moment he thinks if Gio’s gone I’ll let Leo kill her.

“What did you do to my brother?” Leo says with a smile that cuts as easily as any one of his blades ever did. “In ten words or less. Don’t waste my time.” When she only stares at him, quivering like a mouse under the cold, calculative eyes of a bird, he adds pointedly, “My arm’s getting tired.”

“Okay!” she blurts. With a pang, Raph realizes she can’t be that much older than Mikey. “Okay okay! It’s not permanent, it doesn’t even hurt, I’m not allowed to use spells that harm until I pass my A-Levels! I just wanted to ruin his day!”

“What’s going on?” Mikey says, brow furrowed as he and April join them. “Is that Georgie’s scarf?”

“OKAY NOBODY PANIC,” Donnie interjects in a significantly panicked tone of voice, the scarf in question clutched in his hands. “We’ve found ourselves in a situation that I am very much not equipped to handle, so I am tapping out and tagging Raphael in. That’s your cue, brother dearest.”

What Donnie could possibly be under-qualified for that Raph isn’t, he has no idea. And he has no idea what he’s going to see when he steps over to Donnie and looks down at what Donnie is hovering uncertainly in front of, what his bulky battle shell has blocked from their siblings’ collective view.

“Oh my fucking god,” Raph says without thinking.

“Raphael!” Donnie hisses. “I’m implementing a swear jar and you’ll be receiving my Venmo request imminently.”

“How the turntables,” Mikey mumbles behind them, kept from crowding close to look by April’s arm thrown out in front of him. Just in case it’s something bad. Something he can’t unsee.

“Is he okay?” Leo calls over. There’s a thread of tension in his voice that only the people who love him would be able to hear. “Someone tell me if I need to add to my Hidden City arrest record.”

The witch’s eyes widen, and she looks like she’s about to risk wriggling her way to freedom, sharp sword against her neck be damned.

“He’s okaaaay,” Donnie says in a not-reassuring way, tone lilting uncertainly at the end. Leo’s body language rockets past worried and straight into alarmed.

“Stop,” Raph says, putting firmness in his voice but not raising it, hyper-aware of Gio’s eyes tracking his every move. “He’s fine, Leo. We’ll call Barry and get him sorted out. But I think it would make you feel better to come see for yourself, so get your new friend’s contact info and cut her loose.”

Leo scoffs, but sheaths his sword over his shoulder. “Gimme that,” he says without an ounce of charm, pointing at one of the bangles on the witch’s wrist.

Her yellow fur is sticking straight out at this point, but she works the bangle off and all but shoves it at Leo without a word. Leo doesn’t bother explaining why he wants it, what purpose it will serve. Raph knows that Mikey, an earnest student of mystic arts ever since his arms healed from the invasion, would be able to track the owner of a personal item through hell itself and out the other side.

The witch doesn’t know that, and doesn’t ask questions. She lingers one second, then two—then, when it’s clear Leo isn’t playing a trick on her, takes off at a dead sprint and disappears into the marketplace crowd. A few yokai have lingered to watch the show, but for the most part business has carried on as usual. Raph loves and hates the Hidden City in equal measure for its quasi-lawlessness and customary chaos.

Mikey is all but climbing over April at this point, and she has both her arms looped around his middle to bodily haul him back, since no one’s given her the clear to let him go yet. Leo joins the cluster of his big brothers and, to his eternal credit, the state of their eldest sibling only stuns him into stillness for a moment.

Then he smiles the way he’s only ever smiled at Michelangelo and folds his legs underneath himself and says, in a voice so unlike the one he spoke to the witch with that he might as well be a different person, “Hey, you. Do you know who I am?”

A tiny spotted turtle with Hamato Yoshi’s brown eyes looks up at them, absolutely swimming in Giorgio’s dark clothes and gear, the compound crossbow on the ground beside him laughably big in comparison. The bead art ladybug keychain clipped to the bow stock is the only thing that makes for this tiny baby to have near his person. He can’t be older than four.

The baby turtle looks surprised that Leo is talking to him. He scoots his arms and legs a little closer to himself, hands curled into fists that he hides in the folds of the coat Gio had let Splinter tuck him into two hours ago.

Eventually, very carefully, he shakes his head. It must come as a blow. Gio spoils all of his siblings recklessly but he dotes on Leo most of all.

“Aw, that’s okay,” Raph interjects, talking to them both but looking at Gio. He’s keenly aware of how much bigger he is than this pint-sized version of his only older brother, practically towering over him, and he’s quick to crouch next to the twins. He’s still in damage control mode, even if now it’s taking a tone that reminds him vividly of his childhood of being the de facto babysitter and the one responsible for breaking up screeching fights over the Wii remote and soothing hurt feelings. “Do you see how we’re all turtles like you?” he asks.

Gio’s nod comes slightly quicker this time. He doesn’t uncoil from his tight little ball, but he doesn’t seem overly fearful. He just watches them with huge dark eyes, absorbing everything.

“Well, his job is to make sure little turtles aren’t hurt after big falls,” Raph says, patting Leo’s carapace. “Does anything hurt anywhere? Do you feel an ouch?”

Gio’s face is round and soft and young, with spots he hasn’t grown into yet that crowd for space on his cheeks and forehead—so to see him wearing that serious expression they’re all so familiar with at this young age will be both funny and cute just as soon as Raph is capable of finding anything funny or cute about the situation.

Mikey, who finally breaches containment and lifts himself over Donnie’s shoulders to see, has no such compunctions and coos audibly.

“He’s so precious!”

“Michael,” Donnie says at length.

“What, are you going to tell me he’s not?”

“Of course not. I’m a man of science, and it’s an indisputable scientific fact that baby turtles are adorable. But it’s not the time or place for selfies so put your phone away.”

Mikey scoffs, but slides his phone back into his pocket. Raph is about to lose what little is left of his cool. While the peanut gallery is sniping back and forth, Leo has inched closer, and Gio is agreeably allowing him to check him over. Aside from a tender spot on his knee that will bruise tomorrow, presumably from his rough landing, he’s perfectly fine.

Leo still puts an unnecessary Barbie bandaid on the sore knee with a silly amount of fanfare, and then pokes Gio on his spotted cheek playfully, and earns himself a tentative, inching smile.

They’re holding up traffic, but Donnie and Mikey turned and stared down the one person who dared clear their throat at the inconvenient turtle roadblock until that person got uncomfortable and silently walked around them, and no one else bothered them after that. But Raph still wants to get home sooner rather than later. He feels vulnerable, like his heart or a lung is on display out in the open, where anyone with cruel intentions might step on it or steal it away.

So he mentions dinner, as if he’s thinking out loud. Leo looks guiltily over his shoulder at where the Run of the Mill takeout is probably laying in a heap on the street, but Mikey is quick to jump in.

“Oh, Georgie, let me make your favorite! Whatever you like to eat! And you can help me cook, how ‘bout that? I bet you’re a good helper!”

“That does sound fun,” Raph says. “What do you say, buddy? Does that sound good?”

Gio nods, the fastest response they’ve gotten yet. Then he surprises the hell out of Raph by lifting his arms, the universal sign of a child that wants to be picked up. It’s not a big, enthusiastic want, it’s more hopeful than anything—two little hands that still know how to reach out, that haven’t been taught otherwise yet.

It bothers Raph that Gio is so comfortable with strangers. That he hasn’t cried or fussed even though he clearly doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing here. That he tucks himself into a quiet little ball and just lets things happen, like that’s what he’s used to doing, and there’s no point trying to raise his voice to be heard.

But Raph had a seventeen year streak of being the oldest brother, and he’ll always be the biggest, so it’s muscle memory to scoop the baby turtle into his arms. The tiny curve of Gio’s black, white-spotted shell is a perfect fit in the crook of his arm.

The faded friendship bracelet that Raph has never once seen Gio without is comically big on his thin wrist and in danger of falling off at any second. Raph carefully removes the bracelet and pockets it for safekeeping, and Mikey passes over the prized ladybug keychain for Gio to hang onto instead. Donnie and April have Gio’s clothes and gear and bow bundled haphazardly in their arms. Leo is holding a sword down by his side, standing close enough to Raph that Gio probably can’t even see it.

“Do you want to see a magic trick?” Leo asks Gio in a sneaky tone that has, historically, always rallied other turtles into running headlong into mischief and trouble with him.

Sure enough, Gio nods again, maybe even eagerly this time.

“Close your eyes,” Leo says.

Gio obeys, even pressing his little hands over them, ladybug and all. The ground at Raph’s feet glows blue, a disk that spreads wide enough to encompass all six of them. When Gio opens his eyes again, they’ll be home.

#rottmnt #I AM DECEASED I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS

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mad4turtles · 3 hours ago

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I have an idea that Shadow doesn't actually know Tails' age.

Like no one ever told him and he just assumed that he was only slightly younger than the rest of them, by like maybe a year or two. But him thinking Tails close enough in age to everyone that he never felt the need to get a concrete age on Tails. Shadow mainly drawing this conclusion because of how smart Tails is, the fact they bring him everywhere, and that Eggman even has admitted to have been fighting Sonic AND Tails for years now. (He thought Tails was just short for his age).

Later though this comes back to bit him in the ass.

For what ever reason Tails and Shadow have to team up on a mission just the two of them and right when he's about to leave to meet Tails, Rouge drops just a little unthinking comment of

"You better keep an eye on that little 8 year old genius. He's smart ~buuuuut~ he was raised by Sonic."

And that makes Shadow full stop pause because

".....I'm sorry....what do you mean he's 8????"

And thus Rouge has an absolute delightful bit of news to drop on their resident angsty hedgehog and enjoys watching him go full 404 error mode over it.

Shadow meanwhile is rethinking every single interaction he's ever had with Sonic and Tails. MAINLY all the times he's attacked Tails (mostly kicking the back of his head). Because now he has the context of he was straight up attacking a literal child that hadn't even hit the double digits yet.

So now Shadow has to have all this circling his brain while also on a mission with said child and tasked with keeping him safe (as threatened by Sonic who had to go on a separate mission from them).

And he's just there watching as this 8 year old not only hacks circles around Eggman's firewalls but also dismantling his robots as he fights them and holds his own fairly well the whole time.

And like Shadow is impressed but also still in little bit of the mindset of "OMG THAT'S A BABY!!!!!"

It all comes to a head when Shadow keeps hovering around Tails and Tails is getting a little annoyed/stressed about it because Shadow has barely let Tails go two feet without being RIGHT THERE with his usual resting bitch face and not saying anything. So Tails snaps a little bit asking if Shadow has a problem with him or what he's doing since he's hovering and Shadow just replies with

"Are you really 8?"

Which was not what Tails was expecting to be asked so he just confirms and Shadow just goes quiet and gets a far off look on his face.

After that though he does start actually talking with Tails and they both end up having a good time hanging out on the mission together and find they get along well. Shadow secretly can't wait to bring his bike and guns to Tails for him to modify with what modifications him and Tails started to basically geek out over (not that Shadow would ever admit it).

The mission goes fine and they're meeting back up with everyone but then for some reason when Shadow sees Sonic it's ON SITE. Just attacks him and they speed off in the now random fight while everyone is asking Tails if something happened to which Tails has no answer for them.

Shadow meanwhile start just laying into to Sonic about how stupid and irresponsible he is to let such a young kid go with Sonic and everyone on such dangerous missions/adventures.

Sonic finally getting an idea at least why Shadow decided to start a fight. Keeps retorting with how he'd be a hypocrite not letting Tails be free to do what he wants when he's been fighting from a young age too, etc, etc.

It goes on for a bit with insults, ideals, and hits thrown back and forth before they both finally calm down and in the quiet after fight Sonic goes into the story of how he meet Tails and WHY he had to bring him everywhere with him since neither had a place to go (and the one time he tried to find Tails a permanent home it was a trap from Eggman). And how their only home turned into wherever the other was.

Which almost makes Shadow want to hit Sonic again because that means Tails was even younger than he is now when he started to fight Eggman. He doesn't but it's a close thing.

After the fact Shadow has a whole new little bit of respect for Sonic but he mainly has a lot of respect and almost awe for Tails and his capabilities at such a young age.

And if he now checks on Tails and brings him things to modify to the point he starts to actually bond and form a friendship with Tails...that's no one else's business.

(p.s. this is not shipping them, I see Shadow as another older brother for Tails so please to tag as shipping them)

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