#I'll probably sleep in rhett's room for some of it

[arctic-space-penguin]

Me: I need to rewrite my fanchildren being babies again

Also Me: *goes back and rereads a work I did about them being children to get reacquainted, but only succeeds in making myself more obsessed with the idea* *Incoherent muttering, planning, and squealing*

Sadie, Sorrel, Kane, Mica, and Rhett are five; London and Diego are four; and Selah is one in this

Exists in vacuum of space after the movie

---

Saki tiredly pushed the door to Donnie's lab open, legs almost giving out from running around chasing Diego for thirty minutes. The aforementioned softshell turned in his chair and pulled his goggles up.

"What's wrong?" he wondered, taking in her slumped form.

"I really need you to watch them..." the tanuki desperately tried to keep her eyes open. "...while I take a nap."

He hums. "Where are they?"

"Somewhere behind me..." she trails off, leaving to make it to their bed before she could collapse.

He sighs, pushes away from his desk, and goes off in search of his four kids. He quickly finds them in the spacious living room, guided by shouts. London and Diego were having a fight of dominance while Sorrel, Mica, and Selah were casually putting coloring books to use and Sadie and Rhett were not-so-discretely messing with Splinter as he slept on his couch chair. Kane was nowhere in sight, probably 'helping' his dad in the kitchen or something.

Donnie rarely ever has times where he thinks he really was never ready for parenthood, but now was definitely one of those times. With the much-needed assistance of his spider-shell, he began collecting his kids one by one.

Diego whined when he was removed from his winning battle. "Why do we have to leave? I wanna keep playing with London!"

"Your mother left me in charge of you while she sleeps, and that means I have to keep you four cretins in my lab for now," Donnie explained.

Diego huffed and folded his arms across his chest as best he could. Sorrel was still managing to color in the book she had dragged along when she was picked up. Selah was quiet, and Sadie was just as upset as her brother was.

Donnie finally arrived back in his lab. He closed the door behind them and had half a mind to turn the lights on a little brighter. Diego immediately ran for something he shouldn't touch as soon as he was released, making Donnie get up a second after settling in his chair to stop him. Sorrel handed Selah a few markers and they continued on the pages. Sadie got Diego to pass a paper ball from the trash back and forth with her.

Their dad was able to return to his project now. He sat with a hmpf back in his chair and pushed his goggles back down. He hadn't even been working for five minutes before a hand tugged on his elbow.

He groaned, not bothering to look in the offending child's way or take his goggles back off. "Yes?"

"I'm thirsty, Daddy," Sadie told him innocently.

Donnie was sure she wasn't innocent in her intentions now. "There's cups and a water dispenser in the back you can reach."

"But I'm only thirsty for kitchen water, Daddy," Sadie's bottom lip wobbled. Oh no. "Please can you get me some?"

And there it is. Donnie steeled himself to resist. It barely worked.

"There's cups and a water dispenser in the back," he repeated.

"Please!" Sadie begged, lip wobbling more.

Donnie's resolve to give in shattered. "Fine! Fine, yes, I will get you some water from the kitchen, but if any of you so much as--"

Diego was already gone.

Pizza Supreme in the sky, he wasn't ready for parenthood.

Sadie instantly perked up. "Thanks, Daddy! I'll stay put, I promise!"

Donnie would make sure of that. By taking the remaining three children with him.

He dragged them along to the kitchen, just to see Diego back to wrestling London to the floor and re-securing his victory over her. He startled halfway to the ceiling when his twin spoke, suddenly beside him.

"Hey, London, come on, you can beat him," Leo encouraged.

The black-masked girl adjusted her head to face her father and beamed at him. Diego got briefly distracted by this, giving London the opportunity to shove him off and pin him.

Donnie frowned. Leo cheered.

"Yeah, that's better! A winner, just like her old man!" Leo exclaimed, nudging Donnie. "See that, DonTon?"

"All I see is an insufferable dum-dum who just encouraged his daughter to potentially injure my only son's shell," Donnie didn't give Leo a chance to protest before heading into the kitchen.

"I was just trying to boost her winning attitude," Leo muttered when he recovered from the completely uncalled for blow. "Not my fault Diego didn't have his protection on."

Donnie snatched a cup from the drying rack next to the sink, filled it in the dispenser built into the fridge, and handed it over to Sadie. He got himself a cup afterward.

Mikey skipped into the room a second later. All eyes turned to him. Selah abandoned her post by Sorrel's side, waddled over to Mikey, and made grabby hands up at him. The box turtle smirked at Donnie before lifting her into the air.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite niece!" Mikey nuzzled Selah's cheek.

"Hey!" Sadie whined, dropping her water. "I thought I was your favorite!"

Mikey glanced down at the other girl, staring up at him with that cursed wobbling lip. Donnie, meanwhile, cleaned the spilled water off the floor.

"You can't use my own trick against me!" Mikey protested.

Selah's eyes locked onto the tails of Mikey's mask. She reached back and tugged so hard the mask slipped off. Mikey blinked in surprise before gently setting Selah back down, who was now chewing on the mask.

"I'm gonna need that back..." Mikey whispered, bending over to slowly try to grab the spit-soaked mask.

Selah chirped and held it away. Mikey sighed and stood back straight, eyeing his amused older brother.

"I better get that back washed and dryed later."

Donnie nodded. "Sure thing, Michael."

Mikey left, but not before muttering something under his breath. Donnie returned his attention to his three (present) kids and left his cup in the sink to find Diego again. But not before running into Raph with a desperately-trying-to-stay-awake Rhett sitting on his shoulder.

"Oh, Don, hey," the snapper greeted. "Wanna go to the Hidden City with Raph and Tomio after I put this little man to bed?"

"...no...bed..." Rhett protested sleepily.

Sadie leapt expertly up her dad's back and leaned her face in front of his. "Pleassssseeeee can we go?!"

Donnie hefted her up and off of his head. "You cannot, and Saki still isn't awake yet, sorry Raph."

"That's alright, next time," Raph offered a smile and headed to his room to put Rhett to bed.

Donnie pressed Sadie closer when he vanished. Sorrel and Selah were scooped up too.

"Perks of having long arms," Donnie praised himself.

He carried them all back into the living room a short walk away. Splinter was still in his couch chair, but seemed to have woken up. Diego was intently watching the show that was playing on the projector with London and Mica. Donnie came up from behind.

"Mind watching them for a minute, Pops?"

The rat startled and nearly fell out of his chair. "Oh, uh, sure, Purple."

"Great, I'll be right back," Donnie released the three kids in his arms, who all thankfully darted to watch the show too.

He hurried to his and Saki's repurposed room. He glanced at the kid's beds before his eyes landed on theirs where a small lump was curled in the middle. He went over and slowly lifted up the covers to reveal the sleeping form of the tanuki he so loved.

"Saki," he whispered.

The tortoiseshell cat only curled up tighter. He tossed the covers so that she wouldn't be under them anymore. This made her uncurl and stretch before shifting back into her actual form.

"There she is," Donnie said.

Saki let out a weak hiss, blindly reaching for the blankets. "And here I am not."

She yanked the blanket back over her body, but not covering her head, and closed her eyes again. He sighed and got under the covers too. She turned her body so her back was facing him, regretted it, and turned back to wrap her arms around him. He let her, despite his normal aversion to physical affection (he always held a softspot for her and Mikey and anything soft).

"The kids are okay, right?" she asked after a while.

"Mmhm," He hummed in confirmation.

"Good," she nuzzled closer. "They didn't cause trouble?"

"Nothing I couldn't handle," he replied with a yawn. "You're making me sleepy now."

She chuckled. "Give into it, it feels nice. Whoever is watching them can handle it, I'm sure."

He let his eyes slip closed. She followed suit soon after. About an hour or so into their nap, Splinter found his way into the room with four kids practically falling asleep on their feet. He was just going to shout, but noticed the slow rising and falling of Donnie's and Saki's chests, so he stopped himself.

Sadie, Sorrel, Selah, and Diego all stumbled over to the bed. Splinter had to help Selah up then left silently so as to not wake anyone. The four kids glanced at each other mischievously before squirming their way between their parents. Donnie, ever the heavy sleeper when he does fall asleep, didn't wake up when they did so, but Saki did.

She backed up a little to accommodate her kids between them, waited for them to all close their eyes, then re-closed hers with a soothing purr.

---

love how nobodies mentioned yet how Donnie will just forever be shocked at anything I write lol

Like, Live Donnie Reaction:

(I'm so gonna put this at the top of something whenever it's overly angsty lol)

[crinkled-emotions]

Would you do 47 and 57 with Rooster please? Thank youuu

You got it! Let's gooooooo!

In other news, I love Bob so much but I wrote over 10k of whump and angst for Rhett and I was like hEY wrong character! Then I was like fuck it you can stay.

47. "Hiding sneezes" and 57. "Stop telling me you're okay"

Notes: shaking it up a little! Daderick is on holidays 👀 what are the Daggers gonna do?

Out of the Daggers who flew the mission it was safe to say Phoenix, Hangman and Rooster had known each other the longest. While Natasha and Jake joined the Navy at 18, Bradley had been nearly 23 and while he wasn't the eldest in their class he was older than a lot of the applicants. This meant he had an air of maturity to him, independence already established. Natasha and Jake, before they became Phoenix and Hangman, had taken one look at him and decided he needed someone to confide in.

That was before Jake and Bradley started punching each other in the ready room after a training hop, then it was suddenly Natasha and Bradley versus Jake. She reached out to Jake but he pushed her away without a solid reason.

This meant, however, that she knew those two like the back of her hand. They'd managed to patch their shit up after the Dagger hop between the three of them and it felt like Natasha, Bradley and Jake were back.

When the team found their seats in class on Monday morning and Maverick didn't come running in, their attention immediately flicked between Rooster and Hondo who would know exactly where their leader was. Rooster looked a little spooked but Hondo waved them off.

"Mandatory vacation time. Pretty sure he's going away with Penny and Amelia."

"And he didn't tell you, Rooster?" Bob frowned.

"No, he probably mentioned it. I dunno."

Phoenix caught Hangman's gaze across the room. Jake nodded, and she shook her head. He raised an eyebrow and she squinted at him. Finally, he cleared his throat.

"Okay, then who's taking us?" He said. Hondo winced.

"Maybe you guys should go and prep for your hops."

There was a strangled noise from the front of the room and Phoenix glanced over her shoulder.

"I think I should say bless you?" She said to Rooster who waved her off.

"I'm okay, but thanks."

"Sure thing."

This time when she looked at Jake he got up, heading for the exit.

"C'mon guys, you heard Hondo. Let's get goin'."

When no one moved Phoenix cleared her throat.

"Okay team, let's roll."

Everyone stood at her direction and Hondo stifled a laugh when Hangman's face pinched in irritation. Rooster got up last and made that strangled noise again and Hangman caught him by the shoulder.

"You're gonna make your brain explode, man. We need your brain cells."

"Because you've got none?" Rooster deadpanned dryly. He followed the others out the door without anything further.

Between the team getting to the tarmac, getting into their flight suits and completing preflight checks, Rooster had stifled every damn sneeze threatening to break out. Satisfied with her jet's condition Phoenix made her way to Hondo, frowning.

"You know Rooster's not well, right?"

"I'll keep an eye on him. Go on, Cyclone and Bob are waiting for you."

Rooster was going up in the air last, with Hangman and Coyote to do some specialised single seater training. At that moment he was leaning against his jet, aviators covering his eyes and the dark bags from a lack of sleep. He attempted to stifle another sneeze and Bob frowned as he clambered down Phoenix's jet.

"Dude, let 'em out. It's gonna only make it worse."

"I'm okay," Rooster said softly.

"Stop telling me you're okay!" Jake finally snapped from the other side of Rooster's jet. Everyone held their breath, expecting another punch up, but to their surprise Rooster's eyes fell to the ground.

"Fine. Actually, I don't feel good at all, but Cyclone is waiting for me to fuck up and I can't just-"

"-what? Take a sick day? Roo, Cyclone would be okay if you took a sick day. And if not, well, he's got us to answer to. Insubordination is kind of my strong suit," Hangman said as he rounded the corner. Bob crossed his arms.

"He's right, B," Phoenix said softly. Rooster's shoulders shook.

"I don't want to be a burden," he muttered. Fanboy, Payback and Coyote, who had been preoccupied until now, made their way over and the team exchanged looks.

"Hey, Jake, take Roo back to the ready room and get him sorted. We got Cyclone and Hondo," Coyote said confidently. Jake agreed, hooking an arm over Bradley's shoulders.

"C'mon, don't fight me on this."

[maybeseveralthings]

working 3-4 am tomorrow

whooooooo I am so excited to wake up at 2:15 and leave for the fucking day!!!!!! which will not end until at least 9 pm!!!!