#Leo’s shell is cracked - not as bad as it was after the portal closed to the prison dimension | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tmntxthings · 2 years ago

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hi! can you do a rottmnt x sibling!reader where splinter wasnt able to rescue them from draxum and so the reader grew up to be draxums assistan, i need the sibling angst

has a bonus they have a redemtion arc like draxum

Lost & Found

author’s note: anon, i think you’re a absolute genius, this might be super long (I’m writing this before I start heh) honestly there are a lot of ways this could play out, but I’m going to hone in on your request for some sibling angst and let that take me where it will! thank you so much for requesting c; hope you enjoy~

p.s. >.< i haven’t finished season 1 on netflix (I’m rlly close tho like episode 23 I think) sooo im kinda lost in the sauce with ‘draxum redemption arc’ life’s been super busy as of lately I hardly have time to write much less watch the show *cries* but I shall find out what you mean sooner or later!!!

warnings: angsty angst, cursing, violence, abuse, sibling!reader, comfort ending

> part two <

—————————————————————————

[13 years ago]

After Draxum had injected him with the ooze, there was only so much time Lou Jitsu.. no, Splinter had left. To escape, to grab the turtles and each one was in a different capsule. Splinter was weak, he didn’t have time, and had barely broken into the fourth’s when Draxum burst into his lab. Lights were flashing red, everything was so loud. Draxum was quick to block off the last cage, that held the fifth child, the final turtle. Splinter didn’t want to leave you. He hurt everyday knowing your fate was in the hands of the lunatic named Draxum. And yet he had hope, that someday, you would finally be reunited with your brothers. But they weren’t ready, none of them were. Splinter was too old now, he had run out of time. It would be up to them, Splinter decided, when they finally showed him they were ready, and capable of facing you. Because Splinter knew that whatever you had turned into, it would be something completely different than his sons. A powerful mutant under the influence of the mad scientist and manipulator, Draxum.

。・゜・(pov change: you)・゜・。

[the present]

You knelt before your creator. “I’ve got a mission for you,” you kept your head bowed, knowing the consequences of looking up too soon. You had been on the receiving end of many ‘lessons’ and you were too old to be beaten for anything other than failure. And that was something that only happened on rare occasion. “Get rid of the pests that keep interfering with my work.” Draxum sounded irritated. It was unusual, he normally didn’t seem phased by anything, and if he had a tone it was arrogant and full of smug confidence. “Yes Draxum,” you rose to your full height. Looking up into those cold, calculating eyes that had raised you. “Don’t disappoint me.” If you fail I will squeeze your shell until another crack forms. You could read between the lines, hear the underlying threat. “I won’t.” you muttered as you turned your back on him, leaving the Hidden City, going into the human realm. New York City is a real piece of work and that’s putting it politely, you thought as you emerged into an alleyway. The smell of trash flooding your senses. “Alright fellow turtles, prepare for your demise..”

。・゜・( pov change: everyone )・゜・。

“This is greatttt,” Leo said sarcastically. Waving his ōdachi around making little portals. He was utterly bored. “Sometimes Leo, heroes have to wait for crime to happen,” Raph was leaning down over the edge of the rooftop looking down at the streets below. “In any case, isn’t that a good thing! No crime means no bad guys,” Mikey said rocking back on his heels, nonexistent eyebrows waggling at Leo. His older brother rolled his eyes, “then what are we here for let’s go back to the lair!”

“Hold on I’m picking up something,” Donnie said looking down at his wrist tech. Leo waited a whole 5 seconds before complaining, “yeah a whole bunch of nothing!” Raph shot a look at Leo, telling him to shut up silently, the blue turtle only stuck out his tongue. “Bingo!” Donnie’s wrist tech flared up in a flash of color, “What was that Leo?? A bunch of what??” He goaded his twin, smiling smugly. “Let’s hear it Don,” Raph prompted not wanting to waste anymore time. “Two streets away, northwest, someone’s breaking into-“ “Bla, bla, bla time to goooo!” Leo cut Donnie off and waved his sword into a big circle. “Oh no no no, it’s only two streets awayyyyy~!” Donnie yelled out as they all fell into Leon’s portal.

“That was fun,” Donnie grumped, while Mikey snickered. The portal had put them 7 streets away from their target, and effectively ruining any sort of hero work that night. “Look if I don’t practice how am I gonna get better at it,” Leo said thinking he was being pretty logical. “How about practice before an actual patrol? Huh? Ever thought about that my dumb dumb of a brother?” Leo peered over at Mikey and started mimicking Donnie’s voice. Mikey had to hold in his laughter, hand slapping over his mouth loudly. “Enough you two,” Raph chided, “it’s already over with let’s just get back to the lair, we’ll try again tomorrow.” When Leo grabbed for his sword this time, Raph stopped him, shaking his head, “practice on your own time like Donnie said,”

“Tch,” was the only reply Leo could come up with. He wanted to say something like, you guys are just jealous my power is ten times awesome-er than everyone’s combined. But he held himself back, somehow, someway. Who was he kidding, “you guys are ju-“

Something whizzed past Leo’s face connecting into Mikey’s and slamming him back and onto the ground he skidded a couple of feet before coming to a stop. “OW!” Mikey groaned as his brothers came running, a collective “Mikey!” yelled out in worry. They formed a circle around the youngest, “What the fuck was that?!” Raph said as he looked around for any signs, any clues to what had just pummeled his little brother. “Felt like a fist to me,” Mikey coughed as Donnie knelt down over him, making sure he was okay and then helping him up. Leo was on guard too, “why don’t you pick on someone your own size!” he barked out. “You saw it??” Raph said still searching, only giving Leo a glance. “No but I’m guessing whatever it was chose Mikey for a reason,” Leo explained, eyes narrowing in on a billboard.

Raph nodded his head and they were off, both jumping up and weapons drawn for anything that was on the other side. “Huh, nothing,” Leo commented as Raph huffed in frustration. The moment they had left Mikey’s side, Donnie had a matter of milliseconds before he was thrown back on his shell. The air being knocked straight out of his lungs as Mikey’s eyes widened and yelled for his brothers as he threw out his mystic kusari-fundo hoping to wrap whatever it was that kept throwing them to the ground. But as the chain wrapped around its target Mikey hadn’t been prepared to be jolted forward at such speed, he was practically half-dragged, half-flying after whatever he had caught. “GUYS,” he screamed in panic as he zoomed forward, leaving his brothers in the dust as they called out for him to let go. But Mikey didn’t listen and when he finally landed on a rooftop, somehow on his feet, he was tense, and more than a little scared to be facing whatever this was without his brothers.

You looked down at the chains wrapped around your torso. Bright orange, your shell facing your opponent not worried in the slightest. “I see you’ve stolen something,” you commented and Mikey just held onto his weapon tighter. “Borrowed actually,” he corrected- a turtle?! Mikey blinked and his grip loosened immediately. He saw the state of your shell, his stomach rolled, his own shell tightened as if he could feel your pain. You felt the slack and turned only your face. Black bandana waving in the wind. “You” Mikey said stunned, “you’re like us!” He couldn’t help it, a smile of recognition replaced his frightened features. You scowled, not returning the sentiment. One second you were yards away from Mikey and the next you were throwing him onto the rooftop again. He cried out in pain, “I’m nothing like you.” And even though he was hurt, his innocence was too pure to be shot down. “But you’ve got a shell, and a bandana,” he groaned out as he forced himself up. Noticing you had released yourself from his binds the moment you had him on the ground.

“Get away from our brother,” Raph hollered as he came down as a huge red figure of power. You side stepped, letting the cement feel his wrath instead. So the orange wasn’t the only one who stole. A purple drill came next, you jumped into the air it missed your feet by centimeters as you came back down, your eyes widened in surprise for the first time this fight, as you didn’t touch the ground but went through a blue circle. Suddenly blue was all you could see, and you activated your power, a black shadow surrounding your body and time slowed, you watched as the portal ended and the blue one was ready and waiting with a sword held out. You landed with grace, crouching immediately but you didn’t need to, while in your power form you were faster than all of them combined. You kicked the blue straight in the groin, feeling somewhat irritated that he had gotten the best of you for a split second. He went down as you continued to move, not wanting to be caught off guard again, you went back to normal form after you put two rooftops in between you and the four.

It was a stare off. All but the Red had felt how powerful just your fists and feet were. It was his turn, and then you would destroy them completely. “What do you want!” Raph roared, angry that he hadn’t been able to protect his little brothers. “Nothing from you,” you let your voice be carried by the wind. Unable to find such passion like the Red one, no one but Draxum could make you howl like he just had. In fear and anger, in anguish and pain. You took a step forward, all but the Red flinched. You found that quite funny. “Then just leave us alone,” Raph begged, standing over Mikey and Leo while Donnie stood a little staggered next to him. “I’m afraid I can’t do that,” you said taking another step forward. Why were you wasting time like this? Answering his buffoon questions, for what? You gritted your teeth from your own condescending thoughts. “Why?!” The red exasperated. “Because,” you glared reaching for the sole tantō (short sword) behind your shell. You only unsheathed it when necessary, but all these questions were grating your nerves, “I was ordered to.” And maybe that was what pissed you off the most. As you lunged forward eyes seething with pitch black rage.

Raph braced himself calling onto his power to create a shield from the shadow that was hurtling towards him faster than anything he had ever seen. He tried to keep his eyes open, but at the last second he flinched closing them tightly hoping his shield would hold. “Boys?” Splinter said in confusion. They had all just been saved by Leo’s well-timed portal and if it wasn’t for the near death experience he would have boasted about it proudly. Raph fell back on his haunches, his weapons dropping limply from his hands. Mikey was the first to recover, “Dad you’ll never guess what just happened!” Bruised everywhere he exclaimed, “we met another turtle!” “Met?” Donnie shook his head, “that Michael, was not a meeting, that was a blindside!” He had to hold his side wincing when he raised his voice.

Splinter fell back into his recliner. “So you finally crossed paths,” it had been a weak whisper. Silence stretched on after that as Splinter relived that haunting night. Where time hadn’t been on his side, not enough to save everyone. “What do you mean dad?” Raph asked, breaking the silence. “The night I rescued you all and myself from Draxum’s lab, I hadn’t saved everyone that night,” his voice sounded far away. The brothers all looked at each other, shock and confusion written on their faces. “Are you saying, that we just met our sibling out there tonight?” Donnie expounded, eyes bugging out. Splinter nodded. Another collective silence. “Well, they wanna kill us,” Leo put plainly, trying to get up. “No they don’t!” Mikey said defensively. All three of his brothers turned on him with crazed expressions. “I’m serious! You heard them, they were ordered to come after us!” Mikey had his hands out as if it were obvious. Splinter kept silent, Leo looked doubtful, while Raph and Donnie both shook their heads.

“It doesn’t matter Mikey, if Leo hadn’t portaled us outta there, we would’ve been turtle soup.” Raph said, and he wasn’t joking. “Yeah but, maybe if we talked to them, showed them that Draxum isn’t their real family, then maybe-“ Mikey was cut off by Donnie, “No. Mikey listen to yourself! You wanna go back out there after three of us got pummeled and Raph was about to get sliced?!” Mikey’s cheeks puffed out in frustration, they weren’t listening to him. “…maybe Mikey’s right,” Leo pipped up looking at his little brother. “What if one of us had been left behind?” Splinter winced. Leo paused, continuing after awhile, “shouldn’t we at least try?” Donnie scoffed, “try what exactly, reason with the trained killer of a psychopath who wants us dead?!” Mikey nodded. Raph blew out a long breath. “Not anytime soon,” he said giving in, he couldn’t help it, looking at it the way Leo had put it. He’d try. “Once we are healed a hundred percent and Leo practices his portals more… then we can try talking,” Donnie glared at them all. “If this backfires I don’t care if it’s my last dying breath, I’m saying I told you so,” with that he was off to his lab. Mikey smiled to himself, hoping this would work, that you would listen, and see that they were your real family.

After Raph’s orders were carried out, all of them healed up to the max, and Leo did practice on his portaling, it was time. “So how’re we gonna find them??” Mikey questioned as they all exited the manhole, Raph the last out and covering it up. “The Hidden City,” Raph said, since they knew who was behind your strings aka Draxum. “Righttt,” Mikey agreed. “We’re breaking into Draxum’s,” Donnie explained further for his little brother to catch up to speed. They all knew he had zoned out when the plan was being discussed, Mikey was too excited. Which had all of his older brothers worried for the impending disappointment they all expected. “Alright, breaking into Draxy’s,” Mikey said rubbing his hands together in mischief, finally up to speed.

They went the same route they had came when April had been with them. It seemed like they were always trying to rescue someone from here, first Mayhem, now you. All the turtles peered down into what had been an exploded lab last they left it. Now it was fully refurbished and off to the side you came into view.

Horror. Raph tried reaching for Mikey to cover his eyes, but it was too late. He had seen, your limbs were spread far apart, vines wrapped tightly around your wrists and ankles. But what held all of the turtles stares was the thick vines that were in a vice-like grip around you torso, around your shell. Draxum appeared from a doorway. “Not tight enough?” He commented as your head hung to the floor, but as the grip tightened around your shell you gasped, head lurching up once more. This had been going on for days, ever since you had returned, since you had failed. “Why are you being punished,” Draxum questioned as you panted in pain, it was getting to the point where you would pass out. “ANSWER ME” his voice raised in authority and anger, “I-“ the vines tightened again and you finally screamed out in agony. New streams of tears flooded down your cheeks. “Say it.” He seethed, “I f-failed you,” you sobbed. Head falling in front of your body unable to keep it raised any longer. “You are pathetic and weak. You expect me to believe those pests outsmarted you?” He spat in disgust. “They had mystic weapons,” you tried to explain, you hadn’t realized how vital the blue one could be for escape. You were paying for it now. “Excuses,” Draxum shook his head, “I gave you a mystic weapon, I trained you and this is the result I get?” Your head was swimming in pain, it was becoming hard to breath and you knew what was coming next, the sound haunted you in your sleep. Crack! “Please!” You begged, knowing it was useless because you had been through this before, “I’ll do better, I’ll get them next time just give me one more chance!” You’d say anything, promise anything if it meant you could save yourself from the living nightmare you were experiencing.

An fiery orange chained whipped out of nowhere and snagged Draxum up and off the ground. “Leave them alone!” He cried out, tears pouring down his own face as he yanked his weapon backwards, continuing to pull Draxum away from you. Raph’s fist was three times its size, and punched the sheep yokai, slamming him to the floor of his lab. Donnie and Leo were quickly cutting away at the vines that held you hostage. Leo catching you before you fell to the ground. “Let’s go!” Leo called out as Donnie positioned himself defensively, his mystic tech aimed at Draxum’s figure that was still on the ground. He turned and faced the turtles he had created, his face pure fury, “Y/N!” He bellowed and that was the last thing you remembered before you slipped into unconsciousness.

[one week later]

“They should be waking up any moment now,” a not so familiar voice said informatively. “But when exactly??” someone whined. “They’ve been through a lot just give them time,” someone else chided. “Look” another voice said, and as your eyes moved underneath your eyelids, listening intently and very much awake, you realized they must’ve noticed you were up. “Hello?” you squinted open one eyelid, and orange was so close you could see down to his esophagus. “Mikey, give ‘em some space!” red said exasperated as if he had said it a million times already. “What did I tell you guys, any moment!” purple said as a matter-of-factly. “We get ittt,” sighed blue. All of them had curious eyes on you, the red had one weapon drawn, and purple had a finger hovering over a button. Blue had his arms crossed and orange was still in your face. “We saved you!” He explained, “from Draxum’s crazy” “psycho” “sadistic” “ass.” They all had a word for your creator. And they all seemed to be waiting for you to say something or do something. You slowly opened up both eyes, “please back away orange,” you phrased it as nicely as possible but the frown on his face couldn’t be missed. “Told ya,” Raph chuckled, silently putting away his weapon. “So how old are you?” “And what kind of turtle are you?” “What’s your mystic power exactly?” “Are you hungry?” Mikey pitched in last, recovering from your first sentence to him. It seemed to be the only question you would acknowledge as you nodded slightly. The rest looked at one another, with wary expressions. “Where am I?” you decided it was better to be the one who asked the questions. “In-“ a hand slapped over Mikey’s mouth. “Why don’t you go get them some pizza?” Raph said. “Oh right! Be right back!” He said bouncing away. The three older ones sighed in unison. “Look Y/n,” you blinked no one but Draxum had ever used your name. “You’ve gotta answer our questions first,” the red one claimed.

You wondered if you were fully recovered. Because if so, you’d rather just leave than have to sit through an interrogation like this. You could feel the unwelcomeness roll off these three. But as you did a mental check, you knew you would have trouble using your power and making a speedy escape. So you sighed, admitting defeat nonverbally. “I am 13 years old, a diamondback terrapin, and to put it shortly speed,” Donnie went to say he wanted the longer more detailed version because he obviously had gotten that. But Raph stopped him. You were Mikey’s age. Raph couldn’t believe it, how polar opposite the two of you were, and it crushed him to think how Mikey might have been in your place. “I see,” Raph murmured. “Now my turn?” You asked, prompting for an answer to your earlier question. “We’re in the sewers!” Mikey answered coming back into the room. Leo face palmed himself. “What?!” Mikey exclaimed, “they deserve to know!” and he handed you a plate stacked high with slices of pizza.

“Well I guess we’ve got a lot of catching up to do,” you gave Mikey an inquisitive glance as you stuffed your face. You hadn’t eaten in what felt like ages. Raph and Mikey both smiled at the sight of you eating heartily. “Because we’re family!” Mikey explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. And that had you swallowing, you looked around the room, these four were your brothers? “Draxum never told you?” Donnie asked quietly, and all you could do was shake your head. You kept looking all around, like suddenly everyone in the room looked different looked more familiar. And you hadn’t realized it when one tear streaked down your face. “Family?” You echoed. Draxum had never used familial terms between the two of you. He was your creator and you were his creation. Black and white, plain and simple. You always believed you were on your own. The thought of a family, it was too good to be true. “Yeah!” Mikey cried, the instant he saw the tear go down your cheek. And space bubbles be damned! He leapt on top of you hugging you close, “you’re our family!” Mikey said and the rest of the gang piled in, more tears were shed, even from Donnie. It was a miracle you thought, and maybe finally you could be happy, here with your family.

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remmushound · 4 years ago

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Hello! I have another request. Could you do a story where 2012 Donnie decides to use the Rise!Turtles' weapons for a test drive without their permission? I imagine 2012 Donnie trying to figure what kind of materials it has in order to create the mystic weapons and testing it out. But then things goes wrong and he attempted to fix it but can't. Bet the Rise!Turtles won't be so happy at Rise!Donnie's counterpart for taking their weapons without their permission.

@assanmaharielsreblogs

He had to get a better look at them. I mean, when else was he gonna get a chance like this one? In his world there was no magic— there was tech far behind his understanding, sure, but that was still tech. Tech that someone engineered, using their own knowledge, for a specific purpose. But here? It was all over the place! Just one patrol using Donatello’s goggles had keyed him into hundreds of mystical hotspots all around the city! He had seen their weapons in action, but he needed to see them closely— in controlled settings under a microscope! To see the inner workings and try to replicate them! If he could get his hands on that kinda tech, then he and his brothers would be unstoppable! And these guys were just using them like toys! Well, not on Donnie’s watch!

Michelangelo’s kusari-fundo had been a difficult thing to snatch. The box turtle was sleeping with the thing on his bed, hugging the weapon like it were a toy. If Donnie hadn’t known better, he’d have said the blades looked almost soft. Michelangelo snored just like Donnie’s Mikey did, tucked under a soft, fluffy comforter and dressed in an orange unicorn onesie. Mikey shared the bed with him (as did Leonardo with Leo and Raphael with Raph), but the older box turtle was sleeping like a rock.

Donnie carefully pried the tool from Michelangelo’s grip with the skill and delicate touch of a true ninja, quickly replacing it with a stuffed animal. Michelangelo gave a soft groan at the disturbance, but quickly hugged the toy as he settled once more. Donnie grinned and looked at the weapon in his hand. Staring into the slick, painted surface, Donnie almost thought he saw an eye staring back at him. He quickly shook his head, looked back, and the eye was gone. Just his mind playing a trick. Leonardo was next.

******

“What are you doing?”

Donnie almost screamed. “Wha— what are you doing awake?!”

Leonardo crossed his arms and glared, his face remarkably bare without his mask and only slightly stifled by a blue nightcap.

“I’m a ninja with crippling insomniac tendencies— sue me.” Leonardo said calmly. “What are you doing with my sword?”

“Uh.” Donnie glanced between Leonardo and the katana he was holding, “nothing?”

“Nothing?” Leonardo scrutinized with a piercing gaze that seemed to call Donnie out in his lie

Donnie hesitated, then sighed. He gave a light laugh and ran his hand across his head. “S-sorry! Just panicked. Other Donnie wants to uh. See if he can use some of the mystic energy from your katana to reverse-engineer a rift for us to get home— me and my brothers, I mean.”

“Ooookay.” Leonardo’s eyes betrayed his distrust, but he didn’t say a word against it, “just ask next time, okay?”

“Yeah. Will do.”

********

Getting the Tonfa from Raphael was nerve wracking. Access to Donatello’s staff was easy— Donnie already had permission to examine and admire its inner workings, so his touch was programmed into the systems anti-theft database as a non-threat. Michelangelo’s kusari-fundo required stealth, sure, and Leonardo’s sword required cunning, but this? This required him escaping with the Tonfa and from the crushing bite of a genetic predator. No matter how calm and content he acted while awake, after that first night’s run-in with savage Raph, Donnie was more than cautious to avoid another similar outburst. Lucky for him, the Tonfa were hung up at a safe distance from the snapper on the wall, and Raphael’s snoring drowned out any noise he might have made.

And just like that, Donnie had everything he needed for a test run. Of course, he was far more skilled with the familiar bō staff than with any of the other weapons (past experience had taught him just how difficult learning a new weapon could be, nevertheless mystic ones), so naturally Donatello’s bō was the first one to try out. Though it itself wasn’t of mystic origin, Donatello had stated many times of the mystic enhancements that made the weapon flourish from a simple multi-tool to what could classify as a weapon of mass destruction.

“Okay...” the staff, despite its greater size to the one he was used to, was surprisingly light in comparison. A quick weigh-in brought it to only fifteen pounds which, given the amount of tech it carried, was an incredible feat. Just how his younger counterpart could manage such a thing seemed almost impossible to the older Donnie’s mind, but that only served to scratch his curiosity even more! There were so many buttons on the shaft he didn’t even know where to start...

He went for the biggest button first out of pure, childish curiosity. This curiosity led to the worse possible outcome as the end of the bō furrowed out and turned into a compact rocket, which turned sideways on itself and shot out sparks of power. Donnie tried to catch himself, but it was too late. Already the power of the launcher dragged him off his feet and forced his unprepared body into a spin. It took his mind a few seconds to catch up with his body and press the same button to withdraw the blaster.

“Note to self... big button bad. Shoulda known that.”

From them on, he was much more careful with his examine. Every press of a button was met with a brace-for-impact in case a similar issue occurred, but he thankfully avoided such an outcome. One button shot a burst of electricity out the opposite side of the bō from where the blaster was, while another button shot two reinforced wings out either side to form a glider. Another button produced a blade on either side of the staff, and another revealed a compartment filled with gauze and alcohol thread and a needle safely tucked into a surgical pouch— an emergency kit, he supposed. He remembered Donatello also having a much bigger one in his battle shell, so this turtle obviously came prepared. Another compartment had a pair of glasses and a bottle of ibuprofen.

“Wow. No such thing as traveling light, I guess.”

He put the bō staff safely to the side before grabbing the Tonfa next. He placed both Tonfa on the table and the first thing he did was examine one of them under the microscope. It was nothing special— just redwood, as far as he could see— albeit old enough to date back to ancient Japan and perhaps even further. Then he put on Donatello’s goggles and looked at the Tonfa through the lenses, which opened up a whole new world of beauty to the normal-looking weapons.

The Tonfa lit up an impossible red, and on the screen appeared the word Muladhara. The red chakra— the root chakra as Donnie knew it best, represented by a red lotus with four petals. Vitality and strength. Instinctual tendencies and the densest of all seven chakras. The more his mind worked it over, the more it made sense. Muladhara was Raphael down to the finest detail. It commands attention and can be forceful at times. The color of passion and love and determination— the color of anger and daring. A color and chakra associated with abandonment and inherited trauma...

Donnie didn’t want to think about it anymore. And he didn’t dare try to activate the weapons knowing their power. He sat them aside and moved onto Leonardo’s katana.

Like the Tonfa, they were nothing special at first glance. Blades made from tamahagane steel common in ancient Japan, and the Tsuka was as unique as every tsuka, covered in ray skin and silken rope, with writing from the first ever wielder of the blade.

Anatawa Hitorijanai... you are not alone.

Under the goggles, another new vision of the mystic weapon opened up for him. The blue chakra of course— Vishuddha. The throat chakra. It took a lot more critical thought than with Raphael’s weapons, but Donnie supposed that the chakra could fit Leonardo. The balance of Vishuddha would speak truthfully, encouraging conversation and relying on self expression. Speaking with confidence and feeling compassion for those around you— communicating your worries even when you were scared to... but an unbalanced Vishuddha with no way to express it could easily lead to the anxiety Leonardo often felt in social settings. Perhaps his chakra was underactive, or blocked completely, by the feeling of something... unfulfilled in his life.

Donnie had more confidence experimenting with the teleporting sword than he did with the Tonfa. He wouldn’t have to go through it himself, he figured— he could just toss something through and study how it worked. He picked up the blade and looked it over before holding it out to the air in front of him. Leonardo had told him that he had to have a very clear image in his mind— no other thoughts clouding it. Any mistake or misthought could lead to an unstable portal, and unstable portals were extremely dangerous. You could get trapped between rifts, or get portal jacked, or end up hundreds of miles away from where you intended! Donnie closed his eyes to better imagine the room in front of him. Every fine detail... every flaw and crack and puddle and crawl space... every bug skittering around and every sound and every smell surrounding him like a cloud of mist.

He traced the blades point through the air and he was sure he could feel some minor resistance, but he kept focusing on the room. Droplets falling on the stone floor... forming puddles...echoing down the tunnels...

He completed the circle and opened his eyes. Immediately he pulled back as the brightest shade of turquoise almost blinded him, and after a moment of shielding his eyes he finally forced himself to look toward the brightness. The circle wasn’t perfect. In fact, the rift itself seemed almost squiggly, as if distorted by water. Distorted, but hopefully functional. Donnie took a pen out of his tool belt and reluctantly approached the portal, resisting against the temptation of its mystic pull and holding out the pen ready to throw it in. Then another thought occurred to him. What if he just…

He dropped the pen. At first the pen made as if it was going to fall but stopped midair by some otherworldly force. Then it was drawn to the portal and through it with a bubbling noise as it disappeared. Then another rift came to existence above Donnie and, before he could do anything more than look up to it, the pen fell out and hit him on the head.

“Ow.” It didn't hurt, but he said it anyway as he picked up the pen and put it back where it belonged. Curious. Very curious…

He took the sword and slashed through the original portal, destroying both it and its awkward counterpart with nothing more than a soft blip as the magic returned to the blade. There, no harm done! Now all that was left was Michelangelo’s.

A long chain, surprisingly rust-free for how far back it dated. The previous owners must have taken extreme care to keep it in the shape it was in. A chain that, despite how flexible and controlled it looked in Michelangelo’s skilled hands, was short and almost stiff in Donnie’s. The weighty was only on one end, as opposed to both as would be used with most kusari-fundo. A round weight with a ring of spikes across it. Donnie gave one point an experimental poke and yelped as it broke the skin and he started to bleed.

“Another note to self— pointy bit sharp.” He examined the serrated edges a bit longer before moving onto the goggle-inspection.

The sacral chakra, as Donnie had expected. Swadisthana, the orange chakra located in the lower belly. Connected to empathy and intimacy, pleasure both sensual and sexual. Creativity, fantasies, feelings. Everything that made up Michelangelo. An imbalance could lead to someone with boundary issues… yes, definitely Michelangelo, Donnie added to himself with a slight snort as he remembered just how clingy and touchy this world’s Michangelo’s was. At least his world’s always directed that touch-hunger to Raph or Leo and not to him.

A carving on the side of the weight caught Donnie’s attention and he spun it around to get a better view. The design was very faint, but it was there. It looked almost like a smiley face with closed eyes, something Donnie figured to have been added quite recently by Michelangelo. But further examination of it showed that the carving was old, as old as the weight itself, and installed by a previous owner. He even doubled and triple checked just to be sure he wasn’t seeing things.

Now all that was left to do was test it out. He had minor experience with chain weapons (the likes of which still haunted him to his day and made him give an uncomfortable shiver) and it wasn’t like he was actually going to fight with it! He was just going to test out the weight distribution and how effective it would be during fights since he had yet to see any of the other-world counterparts in battle.

He grabbed the handle securely, nodding at the nice distribution he was already feeling. He was just about to take a swing when he remembered the goggles still on his face and decided to take them off first, in case they somehow screwed with any of his data. He did so and turned to swing the kusari-fundo once more until something else this time stopped him in his tracks.

The glow didn't stop. He had taken off the mystic sensors and he tapped his head just to be sure! But the glow didn't stop. The smiling face was a much more prominent yellow against the orange, and Donnie was sure its eyes had been closed before…

The pupils in the eyes moved to stare at him and Donnie screamed and dropped the weapon in horror as he crawled back against the wall. The weapon pursued. On it’s own with no master or anything physical to command it. It drifted up and it’s living, flaming eyes followed Donnie’s every move. He made an experimental motion toward the door and the weapon made the same motion as it readied to pursue until Donnie returned to his original position.

The thud of approaching feet sealed Donnie’s fate in stone. Seconds later, seven mutant turtles poked their heads into the room, three of them armed and the other four looking confused and concerned by their lack of weapons.

“Donnie?” Leo tried to make a motion to approach his brother, but quickly withdrew out of the room when the kusari-fundo gave a warning spark. “The hell’s that thing?”

“Sparky!” Michelangelo ran into the room confidently with his arms extended, his brothers spilling in after him.

“Wait, no!”

Donnie awaited a terrifying assault that didn't happen. Instead, the fiery weapon subsided it’s flame and fell swiftly through the air to land in Michelangelo's arms. Michelangelo cuddled it closely and churred as he covered the tiny face in kisses.

Finally able to breath, Donnie went to part from the wall, but was stopped by a rough hand the size of his plastron.

The anger in Raphael’s eyes was uncanny. “You have a lot of explaining to do…”

#tmnt fic #rottmnt #Tmnt 2012 #fanfic #Tmnt #rottmnt donnie #rise raphael #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey

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lucdoodle · 4 years ago

Text

Big Brother To The Rescue

Big thanks to @prototypelq for the ideas!! (these are not in a chronological order by the way)

Also on Ao3

Summary: Leo knew he could always count on his older brother to help him out when he got into trouble. He and his other brothers were so lucky to have such a great guy as a big brother. Leo hoped Raph knew they would always be ready to return the favor back at him.

Or, three times Raph protected his little brothers, and one time they protected him.

1- Donnie

"Master Shredder, destroy your enemy!"

Under the command of Foot Recruit, the Shredder attacked them using an inhuman speed, successfully destroying Raph's mystical form in the blink of an eye.

Before anyone could react, Donnie, Leo, Mikey, Raph, their father and April had been separated and scattered in separate places in the room.

Recovering from the shock and regaining his bearings, Donnie sat down. When he noticed he had landed in a shadow of something, he had the silly (yet logical, he knew) instinct to look up.

Above him was Shredder. He looked huge and was towering him completely, engulfing him in his shadow as if Don was nothing. To make things worse, their gazes met and they stared into each other's eyes.

...

Well, shit.

He was deep into trouble, he knew it. His brain was inquire him with all the ways he could end here and now, and there were far too many different ways and possibilities for his liking. He calculated his odds of surviving for any possible outcome of this situation, and maybe he was a little pessimistic there but they were ridiculously low at the moment.

They already had such a hard time fighting The Shredder last time, even if technically speaking, they had more limited the damage and win some time for Leo to come back, they hadn't 'defeated' him.

And now Shredder was staring right at him.

Donatello was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice the threat approaching him. His mind refusing to cooperate for once.

He didn’t regain his feet on the ground until his vision was filled with a very familiar green.

Before Donnie could say anything, Raph positioned himself to form a shield around him. This stupid big brother of his was ready to be killed to save him.

Raph had probably regained his senses not long ago and had noticed the situation in which Donnie was in, then run to protect him without any thought for his own safety. That stupid big brother.

Despite that, Donnie will never even admit it for all the gold and purple jackets in the world, that he was sincerely grateful for the familiar presence of his brother by his side while he was terrified.

And so he clung at Raph's arm as if it were a lifeline, putting all his trust in his big brother. He hated acting on instinct, as Mikey often did for exemple, he always preferred to react out of pure logic. But right now he had to cheet on the logic and could just believe that a miracle would saved them all.

Donnie tightened his grip on his older brother's arm and tightly closed his eyes. He could feel the moment when Raph's arm flexed and also by the sound when The Shredder started to crush and press down on his brother's shell. Forcing him down, towards Donnie. And he knew that Raph was doing everything in he could to not hurt him.

He felt terribly bad for Raph. Not that he never was depenent of the red turtle, just as much as his brothers, they could just say 'Raph will fix it' to each of their problems.

But it was something else. Shredder was something else. And he hated most of all when his big brother ended up injured, either trying to fix problems, or totally ignoring his own safety in favor of the one of his little brothers in a self-sacrificing gesture that was typical of Raph. Just, typical.

And that was one of those situations, he could feel Raphael giving in to the pressure of the monster above them as he tried with all his might not to let himself let down. But each repeating blow from Shredder caused him to lose ground and Donnie himself started to feel the kicks.

Donnie didn't even want to start imagining what pain his brother was under right now. And he knew that aftermath, the red turtle would apologized to him that he couldn't have protected him better than that.

Which was totally ridiculous since he knew that Raph was doing everything he could to protect him, regardless of his very own safety. But that scenario was only possible if they could make it through this situation in the first place, whitch only some sort of miracle could allow.

That miracle was not brought about by Raph, whose plan was to shilelding his brother no matter what happens until death if it was necessary. But by Leo and Splinter, using Leo's Ōdachi to drive the beast away from them and create a portal on the ground allowing them to escape.

Aftermath, Donnie noticed that Raph had on his shell a little crack, small enough to not be noticed unless you were conscious of it, and Don felt terrible about it. Raph, noticing his expression, he hurried to assure Don that he was perfectly fine, trying to cover it up by saying that he was proud of his all his scars because they proved he was a great fighter. Which didn’t make him feel much better. The fact that he was more of a man of science and less of a hand-to-hand fighter maybe played a little.

He knew he wasn’t the only one who hated Raph’s habit of always putting his brothers before himself, Leo and Mikey also shared the same feeling as him. The red turtle was always the one to protect them, he just wished they could do the same to him for once.

2- Leo

Leo's steps echoed through the rainy night, followed by other steps noises that dragged his trail behind him, the sounds of rain hitting New York soil around them.

As he ran, (or rather fled) jumping from roof to roof, he opened a portal, then another, and another. All teleporting him just a few feet away from where he was previously. He didn't fully master his Ōdachi yet, and while he would very much like to be able to teleport into the lair directly, je just couldn’t. But that's not what would stop Leo from trying! But whatever which roof he was jumping on, the noise of steps chasing him never stopped.

He messed up.

The fact is that Leo unintentionally offended a bunch of new-mutants who then attacked him. Why did all the mutants around New York tried to kill them anyway?? There were the crabs-man, the worm guy, Meetsweats… He couldn't even remember all their names and why they were attacking him and his bros! (Okay, Meetsweets had nothing personal against them and was going after everyone, but he was still one of the mutants who was trying to destroy them so he still counted.)

And for some reason, they all decided it was his fault and attacked him.

Leo had tried fighting them, but against his will, he had to admit that seven against one turtle (no matter how cool he was) was very difficult to win, which he shoudn’t be since he was the Battle Nexus champion once, before a shadow-thing or something like that took his place, by what he heard last time he went to Hueso’s pizzeria. But the fact that these mutants were extremely strong didn't really help either.

After a hard fight, he had come to the conclusion that his only way out was to flee, he had even triggered the panic button on his belt to warn brothers and dad that he was in trouble.

Still jumping from building to building, he looked behind him. The mutants pursuing him were still on his heels. Damnit.

The rain that had started to fall didn't really help, because now in addition to trying not to be caught up, he had to be careful not to slip on the edges of the buildings. And it's not like he liked rain like Donnie does. And if he was honest with himself he could feel his legs getting tired.

"Leo!" He was pulled out of his thoughts by a very familiar voice calling him.

He turned his head very quickly in the direction the voice came from, where a certain red turtle was running and jumping from roof to roof towards him. Raph must have gotten the button signal and be the nearest from him.

Leo felt a lot relief and his confidence being restocked in him by just seeing his big brother. He was always happy to see him, but right now he had to admit that he was a little more than usual. Leo even let out a small laugh of disbelief and sudden relief. A big smile was now painted on the face of the blue turtle, not that the other mutants could see it from where they were, especially ince they were too busy trying to keep up the pace not with the blue ninja turtle.

But in contrast to Leo's new smile, Raph’s face only expressed concern. Although Leo knew that expression would soon go away when the older turtle would lectured him for being careless, even though this time Leo did next to nothing, apart from being in the wrong place at the wrong time but he knew that after explaining this to his brother, he would no longer be mad at him.

But Leo wasn't going to let the look on the red turtle's face take his smile away.

"Hi bro!" He said loud but casually. As if he wasn't into a pretty dangerous situation and being chased at the moment.

"Don't 'Hi bro' me Leo!" He sounded a little angry, "How did you get into that mess?!" And although there was anger in his voice, Leo could distinctly hear concern for the younger turtle. His big brother was such kindhearted.

The blue turtle analyzed the situation, a quality he thought his brothers needed to give him more credit for, the enemies were about 3 or 4 buildings behind him and Raphael was about six or seven buildings away in front of him, but the distance got smaler and they were getting closer overtime. And Leo himself was starting to get tired from running and also by the previous fight.

Suddenly, an idea struck him.

He smiled in a cat-like way, looking like a cat right before they do something they're not supposed to.

"Oh no." Raph said knowing this expression too well on his little brother’s face for over ten years of living together, his ninja training allowed him to clearly see Leo's expression despite the distance that separates them.

"Hey Raph!" Leo called as he opened a portal way below, near the floor of one of the alleyways between two buildings, "CATCH ME!!"

And without more warnings, Leo took a step into the void and let himself fall from the building and straight up into his portal, managing to destabilize his pursuers, before reappearing through another portal located in the sky above from where he was, and facing upwards.

Due to the speed the blue turtle had accumulated in his fall, Leo reappeared through the other portal like an arrow, projecting himself very fast and far away.

Maybe a little too fast.

With nothing and no one to catch his fall, Leo would be as good as a turtle scramble, and not one as neat as Meatsweats could do, probably.

Leo looked as little as a fly as he blasted through the second portal, passing Raph and sending him high into the air.

That’s when Raph understood Leo's plan.

From where he was into the air, Leo stuck his tongue out at the mutants who were chasing him while he was upside down, having little control over his position or trajectory, although they probably couldn't see him at all anyway.

Then he saw his brother, jumping from roof to roof after him, following the path that his careless little brother had taken and running as fast as he could to catch up with him. Not letting the little blue and green spot up into the sky that was his brother actually out of his sign. The other mutants having been sown for good now.

But Leo had complete trust in Raph, and he knew he would catch him (Although he had slightly been sent flying a little too far and fast than he had originally planned). He knew that his big bro would soon catch up with him.

When Leo finally started to approach the ground a little too closely for his liking, the blue turtle thought he had to warn Raph to hurry up, "Um, Raph? Could you catch me a little faster please? I'm kinda falling here and you’re supposed to catch me noooOOOoow!"

Which was followed by a loud and clear "I’M TRYING!!" filled with frustration but also fear.

Seeing Leo approaching the ground to the point where he passed below the level of some of the tallest buildings in the city, and still not within arm's reach. Raph made a dangerous decision.

He jumped to the ground, glad they had arrived somewhere where there were only a very few people out at night while trying to get to where his brother was supposed to land.

He heard a "Huh... Raaaph?" calling for him just a little uncertain, which he replied from the top of his lungs so that he could hear "I KNOW!" He was going to grab his little brother, no matter what. He had done it before and he would do it again.

And when finally the big red turtle was close enough to Leo to see about how he was definitely going too close to the ground, he threw himself forward, not caring in the least about all the scratches he would probably get on his chestplate and activated his powers to summon his mystical form.

And then he felt a weight land on his mystic hands vaguely, and stopped sliding on the wet floor of New York.

Leo, "YAY! I knew you could do it!" He exclaimed in a tone WAY too casual for the situation.

"Don’t do that ever again!" Raph replied catching on his breath, his mystical form dissipating and softly setting Leo on the firm ground.

Leo walked over to his exhausted older brother, and then hugged him. Raph, surprised at first, did nothing but then gently returned the hug, being careful to measure his strength (which he tended to forget when he cuddled).

And although his big brother couldn't see him, Leo smiled, “Thanks! I never doubted you!"

"I'm your eldest brother, of course I was going to catch you," Raph grabbed him by the shoulders, "But seriously don't EVER do that again, get it?! Never again!" shaking the little brother by the shoulders, causing his whole body to shake by extension.

Leo knew he would get a long lecturing from his big bro about how completely careless he has been and how he could have hurt himself and all later. But right now he wanted to just savor the moment of relief with his big brother.

“Want some pizza?" He said nonchalantly. In the back of his mind he thought that even if the other mutants managed to find their track (which was very unlikely), Hueso's restaurant in the hidden city would be the perfect place for hiding a bit.

A sign, "Sometimes you’re impossible you know?" Raph said wearily to the blue turtle. Leo laughed.

He wasn't alone anymore, and Leo knew he could always count on his older brother to help him out when he got into trouble. He and his other brothers were so lucky to have such a great guy as a big brother.

Leo hoped Raph knew they would always be ready to return the favor back at him.

3- Mikey

Mikey was just six years old when he had started to get an interest in skating, although he had never tried it before, for the simple reason that none of them had any skateboard.

But after seeing and researching in so many magazines all about that, he had asked (harassed) his father to give them one all one for Christmas. Mikey was sure doing it together would be a lot more fun than alone. And Splinter had read enough books whose title always was variations of 'how to raise children' and 'how to be a good father' to know that giving a gift to everyone would be better to avoid jealousy, or the feeling of preference than to give one to Mikey only.

Then for Christmas, Mikey's wish came true and he could swore he had never been happier in his entire seven-years-life, he couldn't help but squeak out loud from excitement. Leaving his imagination to think of all the new things they could do.

Mikey could even draw on it and even on his brothers' skateboards if they gave him the permission. It would be so cool!

It was then that eight-year-old Raph, being the eldest of the brothers (Although not from much) and trying to behave like the more mature one directly made it a rule to always ensure that they all put on the proper protections before skateboarding.

And right now Mikey was happy and excited, as he ran down halls of the lair to the new ramp their father had built them for the occasion. He was running with his new skate under one arm towards his destination to finally test his gift for the first time, he stopped in front of the big ramp, (without any idea that when they would be older their dad would make one way bigger, but for seven-years-old Mikey the one they had was the biggest, and also only, skate ramp he has never seen).

He dropped the board on the ground, put one foot on it, and-

“Mikey." Oh he knew that voice, that firm tone despite the hight-pitched voice. He turned to his oldest brother.

Raph was not far behind him, both arms crossed over his chest and looking at him with an expression Mikey couldn't quite read, "Haven't you forgotten something?" His brother continued.

The orange turtle tried to reflect, forgotten? What could he have forgotten? He had his board so… He was good, right?

"Ah! You wanna skate with me Raph? Sorry if I forgot to ask you and you wanted to-" Before he could say anything else, Raph put a helmet on Mikey’s head.

“You forgot to put on your gear!" There was no judgment or disapproval in his older brother's voice, it was more a fact than anything else.

“Oh, right. But do I really need to?" he asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to try anyway.

“Definitely! Or else you could get hurt." His brother didn't waste a second answering.

Mikey sighed in submission, Raph could be so protective sometimes, they didn't even have such a big difference in age to begin with (even though he was definitely the biggest and tallest of them all), even if Raph was the eldest and he was the youngest, the red turtle behaved the exact same protective way with his other brothers too.

Mikey sat on the floor, letting his brother help him put on his knee pads while he put on his elbow pads. A voice caught their attention “Hey, what are you guys doing?"

The orange turtle looked up and saw his two other brothers, who had their respective skateboards in their arms.

“Oh I'm just helping Mikey put on his gear to try his skateboard later." Raph replied.

“Yeah! Wanna join us on the ramp afterwards? It’ll be even more fun!" Mikey was excited at the idea of tem all skating for the first time together.

“But you have to put on your gears first." Raph informed them as a fact, like a kid reciting what adults told him before, which to be fair, was probably the case.

"Sure." Donnie said nonchalantly, knowing that arguing with Raph about that was pointless. He sat down next to Mikey and began to put on his protections from the box where they stacked all their gears not far from the ramp.

Leo who wasn’t as smart as Donnie didn't get that and made a dramatic pose like he often did, "But do we have to? It’s useless isn’t it?"

“It’s really not!" Raph retorted, almost offended that he would think that.

"Come on Leon," Donnie said, knowing that Raph's protective spirit will never be bent by Leo's complaints, "If you don’t put those, Raph will remind you to put on your protection gear every two minutes."

Realizing that this would be way more annoying that way, Leo sighed, "Fine! But that’s just for you Raphi! They’re still useless!" And took his stuff from the box, sat down, and began to put them on. Satisfied, Raph didn't reply anything and continued to help Mikey then Donnie and finally Leo who was struggling whith his elbow pads.

Once they were all ready, Raph included, they inaugurate the ramp for the first time, each of them in their own way. Donnie preferred to leave his skateboard rolled by itself a few times on the ramps at different levels of speed and distance to test how it worked, Raph was just rolling back and forth on a short distance, still keeping an eye on his little brothers at the same time but looking like he was having a good time. And Leo tried to go higher and higher each time. Mikey just loved doing whatever he wanted on the ramp and was having a lot of fun.

They were having so much fun that about half an hour passed without any of them really noticing, then a voice caught Mikey and his borthers’ attention.

“Hey!" Leo had climbed to the very top of the ramp when no one was looking, he had a confident pose, holding his skateboard by the end while the other tip leaned on the ground. "Wanna see something awesome?"

Leo was obviously notexpecting a response but the red turtle replied anyway, “Leo, no!"

“Leo, yes!" Then he put his feets on his skateboard and bagan to hurtled down the ramp.

Raph took Mikey by his shoulders because he was the closest from the red turtle and shifted him out of the way and so out of the ramp, standing next to it now, Raph not far from him. Unfortunately, Donnie hasn’t been as lucky as him and had no time to react before Leo launched into the descent, and as it might be predicted from a eight years old mutant turtle on a skate, he was barely standing up on his skateboard and had absolutely no control over his trajectory. And so Leo and Donnie inevitably crashed onto each other.

"Are you guys okay??" Raph instantly asked with concern although even Mikey could see that the fall wasn’t a big deal at all, the ramp not being that big in the first, adapted to their height (little did he know that years later they would have a way bigger ramp when they’d grown up a bit).

"I'm fine..." Leo mumbled, "Dee, you okay?" Some concern passed in the voice of the blue turtle.

“Yeah, the gear cushioned the fall." Donnie replied simply.

A silence.

"So, they're useless, huh?" Raph said, with a little smug smile on his face, enjoying being right in front of his little brothers.

“Aaah, you shut up!" Leo retorted blushing from embarrassment that he just might have been wrong about something.

Mikey laughed, finding the whole thing rather funny and Donnie must have felt the same because he was laughing too, and soon after they were just all laughing. He really enjoyed spending time with his family and was suddenly even more glad that his Christmas wish came true.

The whole thing reminded him of the comics he’s used to read, although Mikey was more drawn by the drawings than the scenario, he remembered the superheroes in them, they were all brave, caring, protecting people, also always looking out for others, and sometimes broke things with their fists and were very strong too. All these characteristics corresponded to Raph!

A while later, after they were done playing on the ramp for the day, Mikey approached the red turtle from behind him and pulled his shirt’s sleeve to get his attention.

"Raph, you’re my hero!" He said simply, hoping to get the message of how proud he was of his big brother.

Apparently not by the look of confusion on Raphael's face. “Um, sure Mikey. I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’ll take that as a compliment!"tThen patted his little bro's head affectionately.

But it didn't bother him that much that Raph didn't understand the his meaning behind his words, because he would always admire his hero big brother and be proud of him, always! And Mikey hoped that one day he could become as strong and big as him and be able to protect others too, even Raph!

4- April

April O’Neil felt like she was frozen, she folded her arms around herself in hopes of getting some more warmth as she walked through the cold streets of New York as the sun was just beginning to set.

She finally reached the sewer cover she was looking for, already excited of just about being in the fully air conditioned lair by Donnie.

After descending the ladder and walking the short path to her friends/brothers. She entered with a "Hi! Guys!" Which was returned to her with ‘Hi April‘, ‘Sup!’ and the like.

April finally took her jacket off and put it somewhere not far from the entrance, she sat down on one of the armchairs not taken by Raph and Mikey who played a video game displayed on the TV and sighed contentedly, relaxing in the armchair as she relaxed as she could finally enjoy the perfect soft warmth of the radiator.

“What is it April?!" Raph asked curiously, not looking away from the game.

" Oh nothing." April dismissed with a vague wave of the hand. "It's just that it's so cold outside, it's good to have a little warmth in here."

"Yeah, Leo said the last time he bad been outside he almost froze such it was cold. But also he was out in the middle of the night, so it must have been colder." Mikey inquired absently, Raph stayed silent.

"You don't have a scarf, gloves or something like that April?" the red turtle asked her, sometimes Raph made her thought of her father with a sort of similar parental protective instinct, although she still appreciated the thought.

"It's all good Raph! I really need it! It’s not a little cold that will knock me down!" The fifth group member replied, her voice picking up on a heroic tone towards the end of her sentence.

“Yay! You go April!"supported the younger turtle, starting to gain advantage in the game they were playing at the same time. April laughed heartily, but she didn't hear the gears in Raph's head working to come up with a decision.

Days later, they had all gathered into the lair to go on the surface but still away enough from the town, after a lot of snow fell last night to take advantage of the white blanket that was now all over the place. But when they were ready to go and had already put on their coats, Raph asked for their attentions.

“Hey, so… Here!" Then the red turtle pushed into the April’s hands and each of them something something that felt... soft to the touch?

“Wow Raph, that’s fantastic!" Mikey's excited voice came first, holding his present in front of him.

"You've really outdone yourself there big brother! And I know I sound sarcastic but I’m not at all." Leo said completely genuine.

Donnie, seemingly impress" Wait, did you actually make those?"

“Well, yeah." Raph responded to the question, a little embarrassed and running a hand behind his head. "I thought it might protect you from the cold."

Then April finally layed her eyes on her own soft gift into her hands, it was a scarf the color of her favorite variant of green, the same green as her usual jacket and also her beanie.

And despite the fact that they were right at the exit border of the sewers, near of the manhole cover, and so out of the comfortable warmth of the lair. I it was therefore rather chilly but she felt her heart warmed up and couldn't help a smile growing on her face as she marveled like the others in front of her amazing gift.

The red turtle cared so much of them, the least they could do was to give him a proper thank you April thought.

“Thanks Raph!" Was the only clue the red turtle got before April pounced on him and hugged the turtle tightly. Raphael was confused at first but then smiled, chuckled and hugged back.

The remaining brothers looked at each other in silent agreement before pouncing on Raph too, one after another, all thanking him, until they formed a giant hug pile.

April loved her second family so much that she wouldn't trade it for anything else in the world. April wanted to be there for them as much as they always been here for her, even if it was just by small gestures like sewing scarves for her and her bros, one in her favorite color to protect them from the cold after she only complained a little bit before.

4- Raph

While Raph was doing one of his patrol as the Red Angel of Preventing Harm, he was grumbling a little about the fact that his brothers hadn't joined him once more. He knew it was a waste of time to hope for them to come but there was still a little hope inside of him that at least one of them would join him by surprise.

The night was rather calm, and if Raph usually enjoyed the calm of those nights, something, he couldn’t say what exactly, but something made him uneasy, as if he was being watched.

Suddenly, Raph's ninja instinct told him to be on his guard.

But it still took him a some time to realize that he had just received a humanly impossible strong kick that sent him flying into a nearby wall. The contact between his shell and the wall created several small pieces of debris falling on the ground.

The blow had been so sudden that the pain started a second late, and Raph suddenly felt as if a bulldozer had hit him in the stomach.

As he fell back to the ground, debris from the wall falling with him. Raph saw a large shadow advancing towards him, blocking the street lights. Holding the spot where he had been hit in the stomach with one hand, the red turtle looked up to see who his enemy was.

Raph instantly recognized Heinous Green, after all that was not everyday he got to met someone that taller than him, especialy an other turtle, but he was also the criminal he had been mistaken for during his visit in the Hidden City which had resulted in him being thrown into prison.

Raph didn't know how he found him or how he escaped from the prison. But he knew one thing, he didn't seem happy, and was probably looking for revenge.

Raph was in trouble and he knew it. But he had already beaten him once, he could do it twice! Seeing that his enemy was about to launch a second attack on him in the form of a punch, he decided to play on his speed using their difference in stature to get behind him before he struck. Taking advantage of the lapse of time that would create the moment his fist hit the wall, he could attack in return.

Or at least that has been the plan.

Because the second he passed on Heinous Green's left, Raph felt his arm get caught and squeezed tightly to the point it hurt. Then the red turtle felt its whole body sway to the left, and to the right, then back to the ground, colliding with something extremely hard each time. And every time he took another hit, he could feel the pain reverberate throughout his whole body.

Each sway to the ground or else were extremely strong but also fast at the same time, leaving Raph no space to try to defend himself.

Suddenly the red turtle has been completely let free, and went sent to a wall at full speed. Falling back with a heavy sound, the red turtle could almost no longer feel his limbs and was also bleeding in several places, but none of his wounds were too deep, fortunaly.

But that's not what was going to prevent him to fight back!

As the criminal advanced towards him with probably the will to finish the fight, like a cat after playing with a mouse. Raph, still on the ground, tried to get up and summon his mystic form, but fell back on his knees, apparently too weak for being able to use his mystic powers. He only managed to lean on one of his fists and panting for air, exhausted.

Before he could register it, Heinous Green was right in front of him. He wondered distractedly if he should activate the panic button on his belt before realizing that it had been torn off from the belt during the fight. Well, shit.

Before he could think of anything else, Heinous Green cornered him against the wall behind him, his head hitting the wall, and prepared himself to punch him in a way he was sure to really hurt.

Closing his eyes tightly to prepare for the blow, he unexpectedly heard a very familiar voice.

“GET AWAY FROM MY BIG BROTHER !!"

A very familiar orange weapon flashed out of nowhere and wrapped itself around the raised fist of the biggest turtle, then because of the effect of surprise and the surprisingly great strength of his little brother and his habit of swinging things much heavier than that, he managed to send the criminal flying pretty far away from Raph, who fell to the ground once again with a grunt.

“Raph!" Leo's worried voice called out for him.

Leo and Donnie were by his side in an instant, helping and support him. "Raph, are you okay?" Asked the purple turtle, also worried about their older brother's state.

"Huh, yeah, I'm okay..." Raph did his best to give a reassuring smile but only managed to make one in pain. And by seeing the look on Donnie's face, it really showed.

“How DARE you making me feel feelings!" Don said, sounding offended but at the same time honestly worried. Raph’s smile get a little more genuine.

“H-How did you know I was in trouble?" he asked.

“Oh well, our brother instinct never fail us, you know." Leo said as if it was obvious, in a cheerful voice, trying a little too obviously to lighten the mood.

"That and your panic button went on." Don inquired, matter of factly. It must have been probably activated by mistake when it fell off.

“Donnie, not helping!" the blue turtle replied, fully offended.

The red turtle couldn't help but let out a small laugh, which was quickly cut off by a growl of pain. He could feel Leo and Donnie's hands tightening around him in concern for their big bro.

"But this dude’s pretty tough, you should go away now…" he managed to say, the last thing he wanted was for his little brothers to get hurt by his fault.

Finally, Mikey landed from the roof of a near building and positioned himself between where Heinous Green had been yeeted and them. Then turned his head back to Raph "You’re always protecting us. Let us protect you for once!" He said confidently.

And although Raph was used to be the one to protect them. Sometimes his brothers would prove him that they could take care of themselves, like when they had go looking for the antidote to the pizza puffs. Although Raph had to punch himself in the face to keep himself from coming protecting and helping them.

He knew he could trust them.

And so he nodded at Mikey, trying to convey the fact he trusted them in this interaction, also aware that Leo and Donnie were watching as well. And that seemed to work by the determined but happy gaze Mikey gave him back.

Several approaching footsteps interrupted their conversation, heavy enough to shake the ground with each of their every step, as the biggest turtle charged on them with a war cry. Determined to not give up that easily.

Leo made an unsatisfied noise, "Aww come on, we’re having a family moment here!" he complained. "Don’t worry Big Brother! We'll take care of this quickly, okay?" and then he set off towards their enemy.

“Yeah, just stay here! We are taking care of this!" Donnie added, as if Raph wasn't positioned at the end of a dead end anyway, even though it was just concern speaking over him.

A great fight ensued, Leo using his mystic portals and his Ōdachi better than ever before, Donnie with his high-tech bō at full capacity and Mikey jumping with agility and using Kusari-fundo to constrain their common enemy.

Raph really wanted to get up and help them, part of because he knew it wasn't their fight, but the red turtle also knew he wasn’t into the right state to fight and couldn’t do much at the moment.

And he had made the silent promise to let them help him this time, though he wouldn't hesitate a second to go and help as best as he could if things turned out in their disadvantage. But judging from the fight in front of him, they clearly was fine on their own on that one.

And soon enough, Heinous Green backed down, realizing he couldn’t win against this family. And Leo wasted no time calling the Hidden City police number he got from his friend Hueso, who had spent enough time with the blue turtle to know that he could get into all kinds of trouble.

"Raph, are you doing alright over there?" Donatello asked directly after making sure they were no longer in danger, running to their big brother’s side.

“Y-Yeah. I’m good." The injured turtle replied, not wanting to worry his lil bros, besides he was pretty sure he had nothing broken, just some scratches and some wounds that needed to be bandaged to stop the weak bleeding, that was all! Really! Even though his whole body ached a lot.

“Riiiiiiiight." Leo said in a tone that sounded like he didn’t buy it at all.

Mikey intervened, "Anyway, we need to get back to the lair to bandaged your injuries." he said concerned about the eldest turtle’s health. "Can you walk Raph?"

Instead of giving a response, the red turtle decided to try walking directly. But he only had time to take a single step forward before his knees gave up under him.

But the feeling of the ground he was expecting never came, instead he found Leo in front of him trying as best he could to hold Raph weight from his chestplate, he was obviously struggling trying to hold his position.

Then Donnie and Mikey joined him as if they had agreed on a silent common decision like they sometimes did, though they mostly did that in battles, except that Raph had apparently missed it somehow. That or maybe he didn’t notice because he was hurting like crazy. Yeah, that was probably that.

Feeling his weight being slowly lift off the ground and carried by his brothers, he asked to no one specifically, “What are you doing?...” If he was being honest with himself, all that Raoh wanted to do was to take a little nap, but he knew it really wasn't the right time for that.

"Don’t worry Raphie, we’ll carry you to the lair!” Replied Donnie’s struggling a little more than the others over carrying Raph’s weight was very clear in his voice.

“What?!” Now way more awake, Raph wondered what could have possibly crossed his littles brothers’ minds, there was no way they could carry him that long!

And yet, even Donnie who was the least physical of them was doing his best to hold Raph up properly.

On one hand Raph was so moved he wanted to cry, on the other he wanted to scold them for that silly idea. But all he wanted to do more than anything right now was to take a good nap, and his muscles relaxed without him really noticing.

"Um, Raph? You just released the tension in your muscles, right? Try to stay awake until we get home, okay?" Don's worried voice returned. He nodded with a, "No prob D." although he knew it might be quite the challenge, but he loved challenges.

"Hey Raph?..." Mikey's voice unusualy hesitant came, "You’re always protecting us, but we will always protect you too! You can count on us!"

“Yeah! We have your back!" Leo agreed.

“Same. And that’s a fact. So don't even start saying that we don't need to do that, you can just deal with it." Donnie said, which made Raph chuckle.

“Guys?" the red turtle caught the attention of his brothers," I'm glad to have you as brothers." He said from the bottom of his soul.

“Awww!! Same here!" Mikey answered sounding very happy.

" You're welcome!" replied Leo, proud of himself.

“Glad to have you too, big red!" Donnie said in turn, trying to keep a neutral tone but failing miserably.

And so they came back to the lair, not without efforts, and Raph could finally take a little nap (fell unconscious on the couch) while Donnie patched him up.

He was glad to have such cool lil’ brothers. And to know that although generally he was the one protecting them, he too could always count on his awesome family to have his back.

The day after, April came to visit the lair and asked Raph where his bandages came from, after he told her what had happened she asked the name as well as a detailed physical description of the one who beat him up. When Raph asked her why, April didn't answer and just walked away, her bat on her shoulder and said a determined "I'll take care of it."

Donnie who had witnessed their conversation, being in the same room as them, stood up and approached April.

"Count me in." he said, then they bumped fist together as they left the lair leaving Raph behind, tilting his head in confusion.

#fanfiction #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt raph #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey #rottmnt april o'neil #tw blood #tw injury #ijust in case

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limeblood-exe · 4 years ago

Text

A Singular, Bloody Mattress (part 2)

So much fluff, you guys, it’s tooth-rutting. And a lil bit of Raph angst, too because why not. Ok, but it’s also mainly fluff. Enjoy!

He can’t sleep. It’s three in the morning, and Raph lies completely awake, staring at the cracks in his bedroom ceiling.

Out of all of his brothers, Raph has no problem sleeping. Mikey might have the occasional bad dream or he might stay awake playing video games or doing art, but for the most part Mikey has taken to heart Raph’s lectures about needing to get a good amount of sleep each night. “It’s important for a growing, young turtle,” he had explained. However, he wishes that his other younger brothers would have taken that advice.

Donnie and Leo are Raph’s headaches when it comes to making sure all of his brothers are taking care of themselves. Donnie has an even worse habit of staying up too late, but it’s mostly because he gets so absorbed with a new project that time passes without his knowing. It’s common for Raph to find Donnie either passed out on his worktable in his lab, or stumbling into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. But while his younger brother does stay up late occasionally, he enjoys sleep probably the most out of any of them, so it’s easy for Raph to convince his brother to sleep (convincing, as in Raph mentions the time to Donnie, who replies with “Wow, would you look at that,” and then promptly sleeps for the next twelve hours).

And Leo just doesn’t sleep sometimes. Honestly, just even knowing the fact that Leo has insomnia was actually discovered from pure luck. Raph didn’t even know his brother was having problems with sleep until he accidentally came across him on his way to the bathroom just hanging out in the family room, binging some Jupiter Jim films.

He tried to talk to Leo about it, but every instance he brought it up his brother had an annoying ability of dodging the topic. Finally, with Raph having to resort to the “I’m gonna tell Splinter” card, he had admitted that sometimes he has issues falling asleep, but that it wasn’t anything to worry about, and he would let them know if it got worse. So Raph had agreed to let it go with that promise in mind. That didn’t stop him from staying up a couple of nights spying on his brother just to make sure the problem didn’t, in fact, get worse. He never saw Leo leave his room those nights, so he either must have gotten through his sleep drought or knew Raph was watching him and used his portals to secretly escape his big brother’s view.

He doesn’t know which one it was, to be honest.

And he feels he should have done more, Raph comes to realize, because this whole “not being able to sleep” thing is just awful. The stinging sensation in his eyes, the restlessness of both mind and body. He can’t understand how Leo would try to hide this instead of just asking them for help. He has no idea how long Leo might have been suffering from insomnia, but one night and already Raph feels like splitting his bed in half, despairing that sleep has slipped from his clutches.

But he's no fool, he knows the cause of why he is not currently sleeping.

It's because of the fact that his aforementioned brother is currently holed up in their infirmary.

No matter what he tries, Raph can’t stop thinking about what had happened just a couple days prior. They had come so close, too close, to losing their brother. Not just when they were cornered by their enemies; as soon as they got back home, it was a fight to keep their brother alive, restoring his lost blood with blood donations from Mikey, who argued that he wanted to do it, he wanted to feel helpful, and stitching together torn skin and shell.

He was fine, though. Damned lucky, their father had said, but he managed to pull through.

And yeah, they cried when he opened his eyes for the first time since they got back home, but that doesn’t matter. What mattered was that their team had not been reduced to three.

Leo is gonna be fine, things are heading back to normal; so how come Raph can't stop thinking about how useless he felt during the entire ordeal?

Sitting up abruptly, Raph decides that staring at the ceiling isn't gonna help him get any sleep.

He leaves his room quietly so as to not disturb any of his brothers, who desperately need the rest just as much as he does, and departs for the kitchen. He's thirsty, so it seems like a reasonable first destination.

He walks mindlessly, his mind swallowed by too many thoughts.

Water sounds nice, maybe that’s what I need. A glass of cool water, and I’ll head back to bed, Raph thought to himself.

Entering the room, he turns on the light, looking for the fridge hoping to find-

This is not the kitchen. An easy discovery, what with the lack of kitchen essentials and instead he sees humming machines, a curtain, an occupied bed-

Ah, he’s in the infirmary. Without thinking, his feet had unconsciously brought him here.

He immediately slaps the light switch off, worried he woke his brother from his needed rest. He hadn’t meant to come in here; he didn't want to be in here. Not right now. He’s supposed to be trying to keep his mind off things.

He can just go back, he didn’t hear his brother wake up; didn’t hear a groan or even a peep, so there would be no harm in him just walking away.

But he might as well check that Leo is asleep as he’s already here and all; he does have a track record of hiding any of his sleep issues.

Raph pads to the side of the bed, spotting his brother cocooned in a hill of blankets. The only parts of him he clearly can see are his head and his arm that sticks out, dangling over the edge of the bed. Raph lays his hand on Leo’s chest, feeling the rise and fall of his steady and constant breathing. Raph can't see them right now, but he's painfully aware of the large swath of bandages that cover his middle.

Content that his brother is indeed asleep, he grasps Leo's dangling arm (noting he has one of Donnie’s techy bracelets strapped to his wrist, most likely monitoring his vitals) in his gentle hold, and positions it back in his warm bundle. Tucking his brother in, he smiles softly before he makes his way to the kitchen to grab something to drink.

"Raph?" a soft voice mumbles before he even takes a single step, and he definitely did not give a little yell of surprise, no matter what Leo says.

"Leo! Sorry," Raph u-turns instantly and puts a hand on his brother's head, patting it gently like a parent would to a kid. "I didn’t wake you, did I?"

"You did," Leo gives a jaw-cracking yawn before he continues, talking into his pillow, Raph straining his ears to hear him, "but it’s fine. I feel like I’ve been asleep for too long anyway."

"That’s pretty normal, and you’re gonna have to get used to it. It’s going to be awhile before you’re back to normal, buddy," And the events of that night once again rush to the forefront of Raph's mind. He looks to the ground, unable to look his brother in the eye, afraid that Leo will see through his eyes and read his thoughts.

"Huh? What is it?" Leo looks more alert due to the seriousness his face had suddenly morphed to, struggling weakly in his blankets to lean up against his pillow.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”

Leo squints up at him with a disapproving look. Like he’s gonna believe that for a second.

“Now, why don’t I believe that? Are you lying to me, bro?”

"No-it’s just-I’m not lying to you,” Deflating under Leo’s sharp glare, Raph nervously rubs his hand together, gathering the courage to speak.

“…Back then, I couldn't do anything. I'm supposed to be the leader, Leo, and I did nothing." His face scrunches, and his hands clenching together in a show of anger. "And I'm… I'm sorry, Leo. I’m sorry that I couldn't protect you."

Raph would expect his brother to do many things after his revelation; make a joke to lighten the mood, ignore the apology altogether, saying something along the lines of “please don’t embarrass yourself by talking any longer”, etc. He did not expect for his brother to grab his wrist suddenly and pull him close to the edge of the bed, and with one large motion, wraps his arms around Raph’s neck. If he wasn’t too shocked, he would have admonished Leo for moving around so much, since he just got mortally wounded, but the hug feels so good at the moment that all he can do, all he wants to do, is hug his brother back.

“I don’t blame you Raph, you don’t have to ever apologize for something like this,” Leo comforts. His voice is gentle and kind and so unlike Leo’s usual carefree tone that Raph lays one of his hands on the back of Leo’s head checking for a fever.

Not finding one, he buries his face in his younger brother’s shoulder, and Raph has to choke down the sudden lump in his throat to softly mutter, “But I should’ve done, you know, more. I’m the eldest, it’s my job to protect you guys. And at that moment, I failed. And it’s not just that, I couldn’t come up with a plan. My mind felt so gooey and slow and I just-because of that I put you at serious risk, Leo. If you couldn’t-if you didn’t-”

“But I did. And stop putting all the blame on yourself,” Leo adds. “If you wanna play the blame-game, then I think I gotchu beat.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do. We wouldn’t have even been in that situation in the first place had I never gotten hurt. I let my guard down, Raph, and I paid the price for it. And so did all of you.”

“That’s not fair, Leo. You couldn’t have known that those paper guys would have been any more dangerous than the ones we’ve already fought before,” Raph pulls apart their hug, going into his lecturing mode. “You can’t blame yourself for everything that happened.”

“But that’s what I’m saying. It was a sucky situation, so you can’t blame yourself as our leader when things go bad, because it’s not just on you. We’re a team, and we’ll fail together as a team.”

While bleak sounding, it sparks an understanding in Raph.

We’ll fail together as a team.

He understands where Leo is coming from. He always thought that the pressure of failing would be on his shoulders alone; he’s the leader, and a good leader takes responsibility. A good leader would know better than to lead their team to their deaths.

But a good leader would also know that you can’t win every fight. Raph doesn’t want to accept that as a possibility, he might never be able to, but he can know where he stands when it does.

He’s lost this argument, so Raph just slowly nods. He still feels like he could’ve done better, and he knows it might take awhile before he accepts what Leo had to say, but he feels relieved, the burden of feeling so alone lifted from his shoulders.

Raph, thickly says, "Thank you, Leo."

"Anytime, brother." Leo replies. As Raph rubs at his eyes, clearing away beading tears, Leo adds, "Now, pay up."

"What? What do you mean?" Raph asks, confused. Leo sticks out his quivering lips, his eyes pouting upwards. Leo raises his arms towards Raph, his hands making a grabby motion in the air.

"Carry me."

"What? No! Why would I do that?"

“Because I’m bored! I’ve been lying here for, what has it been, three days?”

“Just two, actually.”

“My point being! I need a change of scenery.”

“Uhh, but you’ve been sleeping for the past couple of days? How can the scenery bother you when you're not awake to see it. Besides, you’re still recovering.”

"Oh, come on! That's not fair, and you know it. I'm healing just fine," Leo doesn't give up and increases his efforts to be held, mimicking a petulant child demanding attention. "Please, Raphie, I don't like the infirmary."

"No."

"Pleaaaase-"

"Alright, fine!"

Leo laughs victoriously as Raph leans down to pick up his brother. Leo wraps his arms around Raph's broad neck, and his big brother puts his arms behind Leo's back and beneath his knees, making sure to do so around his blanket as well. He doesn’t want his brother getting cold, after all.

Straightening his back, Raph glares disapprovingly at Leo, who just smiles happily in return, snuggling his cheek against the dip between Raph's plastron and his neck.

"Where am I going exactly?"

"Anywhere is fine."

"Uh-huh."

Raph is convinced that Leo made a big fuss just to be held, but who is he to deny his brothers want they want. After all, it wasn’t just Raph that went through a tough ordeal. If Leo wants to be held, it's the least Raph can do.

With the choice being left to Raph, he decides that the family room is the perfect spot and makes his way there.

Leo begins to doze in his hold, snuggling close to the heat of his brother.

Why would he need a change of scenery if he was just gonna fall asleep anyway.

Raph doesn't have it in him to wake him back up, so he sits cross-legged on the floor as soon as he arrives and holds his breathing brother close.

This was not how Raph thought his night was gonna go, with Leo asleep in his lap and the night continuing to tick by. Content regardless, Raph rests his chin on top Leo's head, appreciating the living movements of his brother: his breaths, his sleepy snorts, his leg twitches, they're all proof that he's alive.

Being up so late and having the comfort of his younger sibling close, Raph feels himself starting to doze off as well, imagining the swell of sleep that would finally overcome him. Ready for the bliss of sleep to take him, the thundering of distant footsteps startles him to full alert mode. With the frantic, but familiar, steps coming closer Raph looks to see none other than Donnie rounding the doorway, whipping his head around in search of something. Spotting the two of them on the floor, Donnie rushes forward.

"Is Leo ok?!" Donnie asks.

Taken aback by the urgency in Donnie’s voice, he says, "Uhh, yeah. He’s fine.” Looking down at his dozing brother as if to confirm his own statement, he looks back to Donnie as Leo sleepily mutters into his chest. “He's sleeping right now, so if you could be quiet, Donald." Raph slightly scolds Donnie for his loud shout.

"Wha-excuse me!" Donnie, offended by his brother's admonishment, stares incredulously at his only older brother. "I just thought, you know, that something must've happened, Raphael, with my tech informing me that one of Leo's stats changed. I had gone to check on him when, to my surprise, he is nowhere to be found."

Oh. That would explain Donnie’s panic. The tech bracelet on Leo’s wrist was meant to monitor his well-being, so of course Donnie would have had any sort of change being directly messaged to his own wrist-band, alerting him if anything were to happen. That must have included his sleep cycle, and with Leo awake long enough to have a conversation with Raph, he was awake long enough for Donnie to be alerted.

"Oh, my bad... Sorry, Donnie, I didn't know."

Donnie breathes a deep sigh, the act calming himself and he regains a more collected composure.

"It's fine, I was just worried that he did something stupid again, like trying to use the bathroom on his own when he can't even stand properly." He takes in the sight of his two brothers cuddling on the floor together, fully registering what's before him. "Um, but might I ask what you two are doing?"

"I couldn't sleep, and I think Leo was getting bored of the infirmary." He slightly shrugs his shoulders. "So, here we are."

"Bored of the infirmary? Does he not understand the whole concept of 'I nearly died and I should take it easy?'" Donnie crosses his arms, "I swear, sometimes I wonder where his head can be. He be just as bad as Mikey sometimes-"

Donnie pauses, leering suspiciously at Raph.

"Wait, what did you mean you couldn't sleep?"

"It means that I couldn't sleep, Donnie." That was before his talk with Leo, and as much as he loves his heart-to-hearts with his brothers, he doesn't feel it in him to do one more for tonight. "And besides, that was way earlier. I'm better now."

His brother just mm-hm's to himself. Donnie then joins Raph on the floor, sitting next to his side with his legs sprawled out in front of him. A moment passes as Raph waits patiently for Donnie to speak first.

"Do you still want to talk about it? I'm up now, you might as well take advantage of having me all to yourself. Not many get the privilege of that, dear Raphael."

Raph gives a good natured eye-roll, but before he can give his own snarky response, someone beats him to the chase.

"Wow, conceited much?"

"Shut up. Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" Donnie asks at the same time Raph mumbles to himself, "Are you ever asleep?"

Leo slowly morphs his face into a smirk, then replies simply with a cheery "Nope."

He continues to say, "And how can I? You guys keep waking me up. For once I have the chance to get a full night's rest, and you guys are ruining it."

His brothers have no argument to counter him with, so Leo counts that as a small victory.

“Well, speaking of sleep, I’m gonna go back to bed now that I know Leo's not gonna crack his head open on the toilet or something,” Donnie stands, stretching his arms above his head. “What are you gonna do?”

“Me and Leo are good here,” Raph says.

“You’re gonna stay like that? On the floor? Call me crazy, but that doesn't sound very comfortable, Raph.”

“Yeah, I know. But we’re already here, sooo.”

Donnie gives a thoughtful hmm, hand to his chin in a contemplating manner. After sometime, he raises a pointed finger to the ceiling, eyes bright with newfound determination.

“You know what, I actually have a brilliant idea. Hang tight, I’ll be right back.”

Curious as to what Donnie has planned, Raph complies with Donnie's order. He watches the descending back of his brother and wonders just what he has gotten himself into tonight. He grows impatient when minutes tick by, and even Leo starts to huff in annoyance, the waiting anticipation keeping him up.

Ten minutes later, Donnie reappears with a sleepy Mikey in tow, both loaded with pillows and blankets, which are so stacked it's nearly blocking their view.

"You didn't have to wake him up, Donnie."

Mikey just shakes his head, setting down his load by Raph’s feet.

"It's fine, Raph, no biggie. Dee told me we were gonna have a sleepover in the family room," Mikey smiles through an obnoxious yawn, laying out the blankets (some, Raph notices, are from his own room) to form a giant pile on the floor. "And I thought, ‘Oh, man! We haven’t had one in so long!’ It sounded nice, especially after everything that’s happened."

Now that Mikey mentioned it, they haven’t done this for a long time. They’ve been so busy dealing with the whole mutant outbreak that sleepovers kind of took a back-burner to their list of priorities.

Raph, with Leo in his arms, mumbling something he can't quite make out, moves to stand a distance away, making space for Donnie and Mikey as they prepare the rest of the room.

Donnie and Mikey make quick work, busying themselves with preparing a blanket fort by using nearby objects to hold up the blankets, ranging from Splinter's recliner to using the projector as a tether for the fort's ceiling. And since this just so happens to be the genius and artist of the family, the fort they create is a mix of both their technical and artistic skills.

The fort, while not only being huge, would put most other blanket forts to shame in just style alone.

Mikey suspends numerous low-lit strings of light on the ceiling, giving the fort a warm glow while Donnie works to construct the cushions and blankets on the floor to maximize their comfort. Throwing in a couple of stuffed animals along with some glow sticks they found in Raph's room, their blanket fort is complete.

Donnie grabs one end of a blanket, acting as a curtain for the entryway, while Mikey grabs the other and simultaneously they pull them back to reveal the inside of their new masterpiece with a bow. Raph “aah’s” at their display, entranced with the sight.

Raph lays Leo in the middle of the fort, who sinks delightfully into the cottony bliss, exhaustion overtaking his body which has reached its limits for staying awake for so long. Mikey leaps into the fort and lands next to Leo, giving a mirthful shout as he immediately grabs one of the blankets covering his sleeping brother and bundles himself next to Leo, snuggling into his shoulder and wrapping his arms around one of his big brother’s.

“Be careful, Mikey,” Raph warns. Mikey would never intentionally hurt one of them, but Raph thinks it safe to at least warn his brother that Leo is still recovering from an injury.

“I know!"

Leo gives a little huff, turning his face towards Mikey and blowing a quick gust of air into his face. Mikey makes a face, grunting, "Ew, your breath stinks," while Leo replies with, "Some of us are trying to sleep, Miguel."

Mikey giggles into Leo's shoulder as he says, "Sorry," but he doesn't sound all that reproachful.

Raph is next to settle down, laying on Leo's other side, grabbing Donnie's wrist, who was distracted admiring his and Mikey’s handiwork, and pulling him down with him. Having lost his own snuggle buddy to Mikey, Donnie has become his next victim, squashed between Raph's massive arms. But he only gives minor complaints, so Raph doesn't feel all that bad.

The combination of soothing lights from the ceiling and the glow sticks and the cushions beneath them lull the turtles into a comfortable daze. Next to him, Raph can hear the sleeping forms of his youngest brothers, cuddled together with their limbs entangled.

"You know, next time you have problems with sleeping, you can always come to one of us. You always help us when we can't sleep; of course, we'd want to do the same for you," Donnie gently mentions. Patting Raph on the arm, he adds for good measure, "You're our big brother, but we can still help you."

We're a team.

Surrounded by the warmth of his family, knowing that everything has finally gone back to normal, Raph smiles.

"Yeah, I know, Donnie."

Donnie hums, accepting his answer, and in a couple of minutes his own breathes become slow and even, deep in sleep.

His brothers, all of them, are right here, safe and sound. Raph still might have self-doubts as a leader and as a brother, but for now, he'll let go of his troubles and join his brothers in the blissful land of slumber.

In no time at all, Raph feels the dregs of sleep consume his mind, falling asleep with a peaceful smiling gracing his lips.

#rottmnt #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt fanfic #rottmnt leo #rottmnt raph #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt mikey #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #so much fluff #some angst #my writing

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kazdoesntknow · 4 years ago

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The Return.

PLOT: two years after the events that caused the city to fall completely under yokai control and shove mutants and humans alike underground, leo is finally found.

CHARACTERS: leonardo, donatello, lavi (oc).

TRIGGER WARNINGS: injuries, self-harm mention.

“Don- Hey, Donnie!” The hushed whisper lures the purple clad turtle’s amber gaze from the deep blue dot on the tracking GPS- the one that told where Leo’s last location before he disappeared two years prior. Her slender finger points, and his whiskey eyes follow the direction, where it lands on... Oh my God. What the hell happened? Two years have passed, and though Donatello had expected bad, he hadn’t quite expected this.

His twin’s skin was still it’s usual bright green, though his right shoulder looked to be recently burned, the pinkish-ashen flesh glaring at him. The blue bandana that had commonly adorned his features was absent, but his brother wasn’t facing him, his large shell pointed in his direction. A crack near the left shoulder. A wound- messily healed, as if no one had thought to take care of it- scars the back of his thigh, stretching to the front, from what Donatello could see. Everything he usually wore had been discarded at some point. He leands heavily on his sword, skin blood splattered, the dark crimson clashing against his signature light green. He looks as if he’s been through hell- and perhaps he has, though only Leo would know that for sure.

“I think he’s bleedin’.” The brunette beside him is quick to spring down from their tucked-in hiding spot on the apartment building’s fire escape, her feet making the softest thud on the concrete beneath them. The sound causes Leo’s head to snap around in almost a predatory manner, although when he realizes it’s just a friend, the animalistic haze seems to fade. But upon seeing his twin’s face, Donnie halts in following Lavi, surprised by what he sees. His right eye was left unseeing, the teal having of dissolved and the pupil a milky blue, the whites of the eye now a pinkish red. A scar runs it’s way over that same eye, and a burn splotched across it in the shape of a blob of paint, though the wound there doesn’t look as recent as the one on his shoulder, it is definitely what caused blindness in his eye. However, it doesn’t stop Lavi from darting forward, tugging one of Leo’s arms around her shoulders and the other around his waist, before releasing his arm, where he keeps it tight around her shoulders. Her dark gaze flicks back to Donatello, who finally takes a tentative step forward. His twin- he’s there, close enough to touch, and yet.... Donatello can’t seem to believe his eyes.

“Leo?”

For Donnie, this was like seeing a ghost, someone from an old memory he would have never forseen seeing again. Of course, Donatello held a flicker of hope- it’s what got him searching- but he hadn’t expected to actually find Leo. Still, his arms are half raised in front of him, his hands outstretched, with the desire to reach out to him, but he isn’t sure if he should. Leo might not be ready for that so soon, to be accepted by his family after everything.

“Your hand.” Leo’s voice comes out raspier than he remembers it, like he were dehydrated. Like speaking was something he no longer did. “Your... face.” No, that’s not it. It was raw, as if he had screamed too much.

The scars that cross his snout and beak, his cheekbone, his chin. And the hand he had cut off for “self-improvement.” “You look worse than I do.”

“Hm,” is his brother’s only reply. No witty remark, no smart-aleck reply, no claim that despite his injuries, he was still “the face man”. That’s how Donatello knew his brother was far from the same person he used to be, different from his bright and cocky self of two years ago. That he would never be the same, that parts of him were gone and never to return.

“Leo, you’re bleeding.” He says as he steps closer, swiping Leonardo’s other arm around his shoulders.

“Probably.” He murmurs softly in reply, a feeble attempt at ending a conversation he doesn’t want to have. Donnie doesn’t seem to catch on.

“You’re bleeding a lot.”

“Not all of it’s mine.”

The mumbled reply surprises Donatello, his drawn-on eyebrows raising slightly, mouth parting a little. Then, it closes. He was trapped by a bunch of ninja and yokai. Chances are, he had to complete some extreme feats of strength to get out of there, especially if he managed to steal his sword back on the way out, and even more so with his injuries. Now that Donatello’s closer, he can see the scars across the terrapin’s plastron, the tiny little dots across his inner arms. From what, Donatello could only imagine. He parts his lips to ask, but Lavi’s gaze cuts to meet his golden one, silencing him, as if she’d known what he was going to say. Her eyes are sad, and if Donatello could guess, chances were that she had the same thoughts running through her head as he did.

“How’s this thing work?” Lavi asks quietly, swinging the ōdachi sword in her free hand.

“Mmm... Believe you can do it.” He murmurs, turning to rest her head on his shoulder. Tired, his eyelids fluttering. Standing seemed to be a struggle, and he was practically dead on his feet.

“I’m believin’ pretty hard, Leon.”

The movement is exhausting to watch, though Leo already has a hand wrapped around Lavi’s, swinging the sword and opening a portal. “I thought I taught you this.”

“You did. I just... Forget.”

Donatello pulls his brother’s arm around his shoulder with an eyeroll at their tiny conversation. But in truth, he was glad his brother was home. He slowly leads the three of them through the portal, careful not to accidentally bump himself into any of Leo’s injuries, open or closed.

One step was all it took to transport them from the darkened alleyway of New York City to their sewer home. Carefully, Leo slips from their grasp, his eyes wide as he gazes around the room, taking a couple slow steps forward, seemingly walking into new territory, though he had lived most of his childhood here. Absorbing in his home again as if he’d never seen it before. Tears start forming in his left eye, while the tear ducts in his right were destroyed by the burns. Then, in one sudden movement, he collapses to his knees, causing both Donatello and Lavi to rush forward, kneeling beside him. His head bows to the floor, his curled hands pressed against the concrete as the orange light hits his skin. One tear slips from his cheek onto the concrete, followed by another until he’s letting out choked sobs, forehead pressed against the floor. His body trembling, shaking, though when Donatello peers closer, he can see those are tears of joy, that he’s grinning so wide the whites of his teeth show.

“I don’t have to fight anymore.” He laughs quietly. A broken laugh, the one of a man who was shattered, who has never laughed before in his life, who had never had a reason to. Finally, he looks up, his voice the whisper of someone who has been ripped to shreds over and over again and finally found a scrap of happiness.

“I’m home.”

#rottmnt #rottmnt leo #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt oc #rottmnt au #tmnt au #cityfall au

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spectrumscribe · 7 years ago

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Three times Leo was there for his brothers (and the time when they were there for him.)

commissioned by a lovely fan, a TMNT 2012 AU where Leo actually acts like a good older brother and is there for his siblings when they need him. (and in turn, his brothers are there for him when he needs them.)

AO3 version.

Leo finds Mikey, some days after their misadventure in Dimension-X, staring upwards at the night sky with an oddly contemplative expression.

Usually, Mikey would be the first to have gone inside Murakami’s. He’d even broken off from patrol earlier and said he’d meet them here. Leo’s brother never misses a chance to snag the bulk of their order, or at least be the one to make his order first. Sitting outside on a clear night, perched on the edge of the roof and absolutely quiet, is out of the ordinary for Mikey’s behavior. He doesn’t even have his headphones on at the moment.

Of course… Mikey has been a little off in general the last while, in small moments here and there. But none of them have been too big- just Mikey being quiet for a while, or staring at everyone during training for a few more seconds than he normally would. Leo hasn’t worried, not until now.

Food is important to Mikey, since it can sometimes be hard to get good sorts on the table and their ingredients often end up limited to non-perishables. Mikey holding off getting food that’s fresh and hot and made by someone who accepts them for who they are is definitively weird.

So Leo, changing course from beating Raph and Donnie down to Murakami’s, hops up to the roof in silent bounds. Mikey still hears him, somehow, and twitches all over; turning his head and casting a guarded look over his shoulder at Leo’s feet hitting the rooftop.

When Mikey sees its just Leo, he relaxes subtly and returns to looking up at the sky. Leo frowns, because that’s new, too. Out of all of them, Mikey used to have the hardest time keeping track of his surroundings when he zoned out. Leo dislikes that he can’t remember when that stopped being a thing.

“Hey,” Leo says, walking over towards his brother. “How come you’re not inside already? You ditched us like, a full hour ago.”

Mikey shrugs, keeping his eyes on the dim stars of the NYC skyline. “Dunno, just thought I’d wait for you guys or something. It’s not so bad just hanging out, you know?”

Maybe so, but coming from his brother, who some nights can’t sit still even if and when his life depended on it, it sounds out of character. Leo sits down on the ledge with Mikey, hanging his legs over free air and knowing they’re both hidden by the glare of the sign below them.

Leo looks up at the sky Mikey is so intent on studying, picking out what faint constellations will show. He used to dream about going up there someday, meeting aliens and having his own space cruiser- until he figured out that turtles aren’t really allowed to do that, and lightspeed travel hasn’t been invented yet. The thought is still nice, though. The idea of populated worlds out there and the potential of contacting them.

“The stars are nice tonight,” Leo offers casually, finding the big dipper. Mikey hums in agreement.

“Yeah, they’re pretty,” He replies. Then he adds, “Dimension-X didn’t have a night sky. Or a real sky at all, actually.”

Leo glances over at Mikey. His little brother isn’t looking anywhere but upwards, still with that weird contemplativeness.

“…yeah, I noticed something like that,” Leo says slowly, watching Mikey. “Though I guess I wasn’t there long enough to know if it had a nighttime.”

“It doesn’t,” Mikey says. “It’s bright as hell all day every day. And pretty much everything is the sky? I- I wandered pretty far, a few times. Hopped downwards on those island thingies as far as I could. I don’t think they have solid land there. Just… sky.”

Leo notices that the more Mikey talks, the farther off his gaze gets. He touches Mikey’s shoulder and his brother blinks, coming back to himself. Mikey turns his head towards Leo, questioning.

“Are you okay?” Leo asks, feeling a squirm of worry in his gut. Mikey, as far as he knows, hasn’t actually… talked to any of them about Dimension-X, or anything he experienced there. There wasn’t time when they were rescuing him, and Mikey didn’t seem like he had anything to say other than how cool it’d been, knowing what was what when no one else did.

“Who, me? Yeah, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be?” Mikey asks, eyes leaving Leo’s and looking away again. Avoiding eye contact is a classic trick Mikey pulls when he’s hiding something, so Leo pushes.

“Mikey, is there something that happened in Dimension-X you didn’t tell us about? You’ve been acting weird lately, and…” Leo puts a hand on Mikey’s, curling his fingers under his brother’s. “you’re kind of worrying me right now, honestly. Is there something you wanna talk about?”

Mikey looks down at their hands, and then back up at the sky. “It’s just…” His mouth goes tight around the edges. “D-X kinda felt endless sometimes, and there wasn’t ever really somewhere I could stay more than a few hours? I mean, half of the time it was really fucking cool- way more interesting than runnin’ the same patrol route the millionth time, right? But it… never stopped?” Mikey turns his hand over in Leo’s, not holding on, but not pulling away, either. “I got energy to burn, man, but… sometimes felt like you guys weren’t ever gonna get there. It got tiring, some days.”

Mikey’s eyes don’t stray from the sky the whole time he speaks, and stay there even after he stops. Leo’s squirm of worry becomes a weight of concern in his chest, and his eyes skitter across Mikey’s hand and arm.

There are scars there that hadn’t been, prior to Dimension-X. Some still partly pink, others healed over completely and silver-green, now. That’s at least two months of healing right there, if not more. There’s one right along Mikey’s jaw, straying a little too close to his throat for comfort, and that. That makes Leo feel unsettled all the way through.

Leo looks at Mikey, and finally, it slots into place why Mikey seems off in moments and a little more than different in others. Because he is. Mikey is different. There’s time between them now; time that felt like mere minutes to Leo, but were months for Mikey.

Without anyone to see and share it, Mikey grew up a little more without Leo or any of their brothers. And he spent that whole time wondering if anyone was ever going to come find him.

Leo grips his little brother’s hand- and Mikey is his little brother, whether he’s a few months older than Leo or not- and it draws Mikey’s attention back to him.

“We were coming to find you the second you went through the portal, Mikey,” Leo says, trying to be firm and feeling a little off-kilter as he does. “It’s the time dilation’s fault. We were always going to get you out of there, okay?”

Leo will die before he ever leaves one of his brothers behind; he knows that as clearly and intrinsically as he knows any one of them could die each night they go out. A few seconds or a few years- it doesn’t matter. Leo would have gone to find Mikey, no matter how long it took. He would have found his brother and brought him home.

He wishes all the jargon of physics and alter-dimensions hadn’t made it take so long, this time around. For Mikey’s sake.

Mikey squeezes Leo’s hand, tight and reassuring.

“I know,” Mikey says, and smiles like he wasn’t alone for all that time; bright as before Dimension-X, scars or no. “Loneliness just makes you think dumb things sometimes. I knew you guys would show up eventually, whenever you got your lazy butts in gear.”

The humor doesn’t completely cover the vulnerability there, and that hurts Leo, somewhere deep inside. That even for a second, Mikey might of have doubted his own family would rescue him.

So Leo draws Mikey close, and hugs him; tucking Mikey up against himself and trying to undo those months of loneliness with a single gesture.

“We wouldn’t have left you there, I swear,” Leo whispers, repeating his first word’s meanings. Mikey has to know that, he has to.

Mikey’s arms come up around Leo’s shell, clutching him back with a sudden grip.

“I know,” Mikey whispers back, small and young. “I know. Thanks.”

Leo keeps hugging Mikey until his brother draws away, covering the emotional moment with a joke about all their food being nicked by Raph and Donnie before they even get a crack at it. Leo lets Mikey go only because he knows his brother isn’t going anywhere far.

He makes a silent promise to hug his brother more often, and to spend time with Mikey that’s not just patrol and training.

Leo grabs Mikey’s shoulders as they head into the restaurant; giving his brother an affectionate noogie as Raph and Donnie tease them about missing the chance to weigh in on the order. Mikey fends Leo off as their brothers welcome them, and Leo makes sure Mikey gets sat right between Donnie and Raph; safe and happy and back where he belongs.

--/--

Months later, Leo wakes up and finds again he’s missed Mikey growing up a little more. He’s missed all of his brothers growing up a little more, and their friends as well.

The world kept moving along while he was in his coma, and for the first while Leo just doesn’t know what to do with that. New York is sealed off from the rest of the world, their father is missing, possibly dead, and Leo-

Leo can’t walk at the moment. Not on his own.

He can’t lead while his legs give out under him without warning, and his voice sometimes cracks and won’t come back for hours. Leo is healing, but as he is… he can’t be the leader of his team. Who can follow a leader that can’t even walk with his own strength?

Donnie, who is gaunt and exhausted in little ways, tells him it’ll take time. That Leo needs to be patient and let them take care of him. Leo wants to fight that, protest and keep trying to force himself back to wellness, but he reluctantly agrees in the end to take it easy. If only because he can see in Donnie’s eyes, every time they sit down for daily physical therapy, that Leo’s brother blames himself, for whatever reason, that Leo isn’t at full health already.

Leo lets Donnie fuss about treatments, trying to ease that guilt, and swallows his wounded pride that he’s so useless like this.

He’s always been the leader, always been someone to depend on. He’d always tried his best to be that, and because of a failure and trauma that’s left him crippled, he can’t be anymore. Not for a long while yet.

It hurts, having to admit he’s not fit to lead at the moment. It hurts worse that he feels like he’s let down his team, his family, and will keep letting them down so long as he’s stuck with crutches and a gravelly voice.

Nothing he can do about that, though. Not as he is.

So Leo rises in the mornings, and helps Mikey prepare at least a little of the breakfast for Casey and April before they go to their part-time jobs. He washes dishes as long as his leg will hold out, and then he goes to find wherever Donnie’s collapsed this time. Leo sets a mug of hot coffee beside Donnie’s slumped form at his desk, wakes him gently, and obediently follows Donnie through therapy exercises once he’s fully conscious again. Lunch is just the four of them, Leo and his brothers, and he attempts to help coach them all through training when April gets home. He can’t join in more than gentle stretches on the sidelines, unfortunately.

It’s not much, but he tries to keep positive. Leo can’t be a leader right now, but he can at least be a brother.

Though he wonders. While he was in his coma, who’d been leading in his place? Who’s still leading in his place, while he finishes healing? He doesn’t doubt that they can all handle themselves on their own, his family, but this many people can’t be coordinated effectively without at least one person guiding. Someone has to have been doing that for things to be running this smoothly.

It takes an embarrassingly long time to notice who has been and still is leading in his place. Leo blames the fact that he’s still only a week and a half out of his coma.

Its little things that, in the end, tip him off. Maybe his brother doesn’t even notice he’s doing it, since unlike a year prior, Raph isn’t advertising his spot at the helm of their team.

Leo knew it’d been Raph who’d sat beside his bedside every day and nearly every night, monitoring his condition in case it took a turn for the worse, or for the better. But he hadn’t known until he really looked that Raph has been doing much more than just playing sentry.

It’s in how Raph is just present, even just in the periphery. Sometimes closer in, talking low and steady to whomever he’s with at the moment. Grounding, solidly there. Finishing the dishes Leo can’t and not saying a word about it, putting away leftover food before Mikey can even reach for the saranwrap and playing any videogame their brother wants; leaving a blanket on Donnie’s shoulders when he finally collapses from lack of sleep and putting a plate of food within reach during the day, encouraging April with curt words as she builds strength and stamina in training and watching her so she doesn’t get hurt; catching Casey’s attention before he can think too hard about his missing family and never leaving him or any of them truly alone.

Being there for them all.

Leo’s missed a lot, including Raph maturing enough to be capable of holding the fort down like this. In a way he still feels ashamed he was gone so long, that he’s still unable to be a dependable support, but more so he’s proud.

Maybe a year ago, he would have felt jealous that Raph is holding a position Leo always has. Now though… maybe he’s matured some, too.

Not more than a day after he arrives to that conclusion, Leo finds Raph sitting by himself on the back porch steps. It’s late at night, and as much as Leo would rather be asleep, the taint of nightmares is already too much for him to handle. So he chose to come outside; see the clear night sky and remind himself he’s not alone in that construction site anymore.

The unexpected company isn’t unwelcome. Seeing his family, talking and interacting with them, it makes it all the easier to wash away the residual terror of a bad dream. As his crutches’ thuds against the wood draw Raph’s attention, Leo sees in his brother’s expression that company to him might not be so unwelcome either.

Raph’s mask is hanging around his neck, and even with just the dim porchlight to see by, Leo notes there are dark circles under his brother’s eyes. None of them sleep too well anymore, but the dark shade of Raph’s bags is a little worse than normal. Leo wonders if Raph has also been suffering nightmares. He wouldn’t blame his brother for it.

“Evening,” Leo croaks, then wincing at his voice’s struggle. He clears it discreetly as he can. “You mind if I join you?”

Raph nods mutely. Leo sits down as his brother moves over on the step; easing his bad leg out and sighing under his breath at being off his feet.

“Is it bothering you?” Raph asks, eyeing the leg as Leo rubs his knee. “You want me to get your pain meds?”

Leo waves him off. “No, no it’s fine. I already had my dose at dinner.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure. I’m okay.”

“…hrm,” is all Raph replies with. Leo ignores his brother’s disbelief and looks out at the wide lawn of the farmhouse. The trees in the distance are a formless bulk of black, full of far off animal noises. The sky above them is not full of stars, but certainly peppered with a gracious amount.

It’s beautiful, and nothing like they’ve ever gotten to see in the city or sewers. Even with the circumstances, Leo feels lucky to be here. He’s never seen so much green in his life, or stars.

Towards the edge of the wide lawn, the lights of the barn are still on, spilling through the cracks that riddle it. Leo doesn’t even have to guess why, though he does wonder why Raph is out here so late.

“Are you waiting on Donnie for something?” Leo asks Raph. He shrugs.

“No,” Raph replies, and then pauses. “Well, sort of. He’s been at it since early morning. He’s gonna fall asleep sooner or later.”

Leo then sees the blanket on Raph’s lap, mostly concealed by his arms as he leans on it. Leo smiles fondly.

“You’re tucking him in?” Leo says, keeping a laugh out of his hoarse voice. “Why not just get him into an actual bed, jeez.”

Raph rolls his eyes. “’cause then he’d wake up and go “oh no my science experiments shit” and find caffeine to inject himself with. Which would put us at square one again. Trust me, this is the only way he’ll get sleep these days. I had Mikey hide the coffeemaker halfway through the afternoon today; he can’t last much longer.”

Leo does laugh at that, because it’s true. The only way to get Donnie to rest up is to let him wind down, and then keep him asleep as long as possible. Leo’s noticed though that that habit of Donnie’s is much worse now. Usually, he’d only do it during really stressful periods of time.

Leo supposes this still counts as that, their situation being stuck on the farm and Leo stuck with his bum leg. They can’t leave until he’s fully healed.

The fact that he’s causing Donnie this stress, even just indirectly, is an unpleasant one that sits sickly in Leo’s stomach. He moves away from it by focusing on what Raph is doing right now, which is a considerably nicer thing to think on.

“Do you do this every night?” Leo asks softly, though he has his own suspicions already.

“…no,” Raph says, a beat too late to be believable. Leo gives his brother a look, and points at his eyes.

“The bags say otherwise.”

Raph frowns/grimaces, which is his default expression whenever he doesn’t know how to respond. Or how to admit he’s having feelings.

“Sometimes.” Raph allows, and Leo rolls his eyes. “Just when I got time.”

“Well, we definitely have plenty of that,” Leo says wryly, rubbing his sore leg again. “That’s good, though. Good that you’re keeping an eye on him. Donnie always runs himself into the ground when he’s left to his own devices,” Leo shakes his head. “Don’t know what we’d do without you right now, bro.”

“Hn, you’d get by, somehow,” Raph says curtly. “You’re all not that stupid.”

“You sure? ‘cause last I looked, you’ve been doing a lot around here lately,” Leo smiles, feeling that gentle touch of pride in his chest again. “I actually wanted to say thanks for that, properly. The way things are… I can’t do much for anyone. So, thanks for filling for me. Makes it easier for me to rest up knowing you’ve got things under control.”

He expects Raph to preen, or at least puff up a little under the praise, but his brother just hunches his shoulders and won’t look at him.

“I’m not… actually doing anything, though,” Raph says, eyes on the treeline instead of Leo. “I mean- come on. Anyone can do this stuff. The others… they got something to contribute. Donnie- Donnie saved your life, and Mike’s the only one who can actually cook anything decent, and April and Casey are the ones doing the real work bringing money in and keepin’ the lights on. I can’t do any of that, all I’ve been doing is-”

“Holding down the fort,” Leo interrupts, not letting Raph keep on. He lowers his voice, making it gentler. “I’ve only been awake a little over a week, Raph, but I can already see how much you do. You’re their rock. You’re always there when they need you, no matter what time of day. Being that for them… that’s more than enough, especially considering I can’t even try to be that right now.”

Raph sits silent, still not looking at him. Leo reaches out, putting a hand on Raph’s shoulder, drawing his brother’s attention onto him. Raph finally meets his eyes, and Leo smiles warmly.

“You kept them together, Raph,” Leo says sincerely. “and you’re still keeping them together. I can’t even imagine how hard that’s been- I know it would have been so, so difficult for me to watch one of you go through what- what I did.” Phantom pain laces through him, and then fades. Leo doesn’t dwell on that nightmare longer than a second. “You might not think so, but you’ve done amazing. And I’m really proud of you for that.”

Raph stares at him for a long moment, and then lets out a small chuckle. He scrubs roughly at his nose, covering a soft sniffle, and turns away again. “Shut up, you sound like Sensei. It’s weird for my brother to say that.”

“I am basically your older brother though, so. Not so weird,” Leo points out, teasing just a little.

“None of us knows who’s actually older,” Raph says in a mumble, a fight they’ve all had multiple times over the years. Tonight though, it doesn’t become that. It’s just a welcome familiarity.

Leo gently moves himself closer to Raph, getting close enough he can sling an arm around his brother’s wide shoulders and give him a sideways hug. It only takes a second for Raph’s to wind around the back of Leo’s shell, hugging back.

“Dunno how you do this stuff all the time,” Raph says with a tired huff. “It’s exhausting being the responsible one.”

“After years of practice dealing with you assholes, I got the hang of it,” Leo replies, only fondness in his words.

“Yeah, well. Good to have you back, then,” Raph says, clearing his throat. It hardly hides the emotion there. “I was getting bored of being the stick in the mud anyway.”

Leo laughs quietly, feeling touched. “Good to be back.”

Raph hugs Leo to his side a moment longer, and then lets go. He doesn’t make any move to put space back between them after that. So they sit in relative silence on the steps, waiting for Donnie to finally be ready to sleep, and remain shoulder to shoulder the whole while.

After everything they’ve both been through the last months, it’s a welcome lull of peace.

--/--

Peace never seems to last long for them, not with how many enemies they’ve made and how often they get themselves into trouble. Leo regrets that this case happens to be caused by both at the same time; an enemy… coming from inside of them.

He’s failed a number of times over the years. Failed to have the strength to stop Shredder in that construction site that still haunts his nightmares, failed to stop him again from murdering Splinter at the worst possible time, and failed to save an entire world from oblivion. Thankfully, that was all undone for the most part, even if he still carries thick scarring up and down his leg and around his throat.

Donnie’s death was undone, too, but not really. Something like that can’t be taken back, not completely. An experience that traumatic doesn’t go away; Leo knows that too well.

Leo failed to see one of his team members, one of his family members, falling under the influence of something horrible, and both Donnie and April paid for it. Leo’s been on the receiving end of near death more than once, but never at the hands of one of their own. He can’t imagine being hurt like that, or hurting like that.

April says she’s fine, that she just needs time to recover, but the hollowness to her is clear as she leaves. Like a shell of herself, emptied out of what makes her shine so bright. A part of Leo wants to reach out and pull her back into his home- which hers too, after all this time- but he knows she won’t be open to comfort. Not yet. Maybe not for a while.

And besides. There’s a larger part of him that’s instinctively defensive. Defensive of his family, as much as April is a part of that. She’s still his friend, and he knows this wasn’t her fault, that they were the ones who hadn’t seen she wasn’t herself the past weeks-

But she hurt his brother. And that’s not something he can forgive easily.

They all need time apart, he thinks. Their whole team. When the wounds are less fresh, they’ll talk about it. Try to mend things between them all; give apologies for mistakes and figure out where they go from there. For now though, they go their separate ways.

In the end, Leo and his brothers do the same. Drifting to their individual rooms for restless sleep now that the immediate drama is over. Casey limped off into the early dawn not long after April did, and Splinter has already turned off his light by the time Leo and his siblings are closing their doors. Donnie shuts his first; making his point again that he’s not in the headspace to interact with anyone, much as they’ve all tried to.

Leo respects that sometimes, especially when bad things happen, you need time to collect yourself. He has moments like that still, more often now days when Karai wears the Kuro Kabuto around her base, less often than the months after his coma. He’ll give Donnie space until he’s ready to talk.

Though he should have expected, Donnie will never be ready to talk. The four of them are all repeat offenders for internalizing things and avoiding actual confrontation; Leo should have known that Donnie would lock himself inside his lab and skirt the subject of temporarily dying like it’s the plague.

Leo is familiar with bad coping mechanisms, and his family has rarely let him get away with them for long. Donnie was there for him after the fall of New York. Leo in turn is going to be there for him now.

And maybe Donnie wants that, however much he’s been shutting them out, because the lab doors aren’t locked when Leo tries to open them a week after the Za’naron Incident.

Donnie is bent over a lab table in the middle of the room, hunched around some fiddly bit of technology connected to… something. It’s in too many pieces for Leo to even try to figure out its purpose or use.

He crosses the room with a calm stride, approaching the table with as little intention to startle as possible. Not that its needed; his brother doesn’t even notice him directly on the other side of the table. Donnie only looks up when Leo clears his throat; eyes hidden by his black goggles and a distinct bleariness to his, “-whuh?”

Leo holds out one of the two cups of tea he’s brought. Donnie doesn’t need any more caffeine than he’s already doped himself on.

“Hi,” Leo says, smiling comfortingly. “feel like talking?”

Even with the goggles in place, Leo can see Donnie blink in confusion.

“’bout what?” He asks with a slight slur, scrutinizing Leo. The amount of sleep deprivation he must have hit by now is really starting to show. Leo sighs.

“You’re the genius here, Donnie. You know what about.”

A grimace tugs at Donnie’s mouth.

“And if I don’t want to?”

“Then I give a sternly disapproving glare and ask again later.”

“…and if I say I don’t want to, again?”

“Rinse and repeat.” Leo won’t stop coming back until they do this, just like his brothers didn’t stop until he actually talked about what happened in that construction site with the Shredder.

Talking about things like that hurts, but sometimes you need to hurt a little more before it gets better. Leo knows that. Donnie knows that, too.

Which is likely why Donnie sighs, putting down the soldering iron in his hands and pushing up his goggles to rub his eyes. They’ve got dark bags under them, and Leo ventures Donnie has scarcely gotten a full day’s sleep all week.

“Okay, let’s talk,” Donnie says quietly and holds out his hand for the tea. Leo gently presses it into his grasp, pulling up a seat to the table.

It’s probably only because Donnie’s been worn down over a whole week by all of them, trying at different times to get him to talk about his recent trauma, that Leo gets him to talk at all. It’s slow going, words coming in soft fits as Donnie fidgets with his tea and tools both. Leo is patient though, listening all the way through about Donnie’s early suspicions about April’s mental sanctity. Like he should have, right back at the beginning when Donnie first starting voicing concerns.

This could have been prevented. That is a stark and painful regret in Leo’s mind. But it wasn’t, so now they just have to pick up the pieces and put them back together best they can.

Leo doesn’t want this to have lasting damage on Donnie, or April, or their friendship. It probably will anyways. That may be the saddest fallout of this whole mess.

Leo listens to Donnie talk about how he started noticing irregularities in April’s behavior, little ticks that appeared or disappeared, and how he’d seen the obsessiveness she started about the crystal. Leo listens to his brother talk about the few times he tried to confront her about it, to try mitigating a possible disaster he suspected was budding, and how April had shut him out time and again. Leo has to hold his cup a little tighter when Donnie gets to the part that no one listened to him, and how that led to the Incident happening.

His voice gets very, very quiet as he talks about the moment he’d been suspended in the air. Leo hadn’t been able to hear anything of the exchange between April and his brother from below, but the conversation has clearly left its mark on Donnie.

It’s hard to listen to. There’s a long pause of silence when Donnie trails off, full of regrets and still sharply fresh memories.

“…I know it wasn’t her,” Donnie says eventually, voice nearly whisper quiet, “but I just… can’t get my head around the fact she. She knew me, still. At the last second, she talked to me. And then…” He swallows. “still did it anyway.”

Donnie’s eyes lift from his hands around his tea, giving Leo a look of guilt and deep pain. “Does it… does it make me a bad person?” He asks, voice wavering. “To feel mad at her for that, even though it’s not her fault?”

Leo tries to find something wise to say, something to heal that hurt with a single sentence, but he comes up empty. All he can say is, “No. No I don’t think it does. I think that’s… normal to feel.”

Donnie closes his eyes, takes a slow, shuddering breath, and opens his eyes again. They’re glossy under the lab lights, but Leo doesn’t say anything about that.

“It’s not her fault,” Donnie says again, like he’s been saying since the night happened. His voice is hoarse as he does. “I should have done something sooner. It’s not her fault this happened.”

“It’s not yours either,” Leo says gently, even as Donnie looks away from him. “We should have listened- all of us should have listened. You knew something was wrong and we ignored it. It’s not her fault, and it’s not yours. Okay? You did your best, Donnie.” His brother still won’t look at him, and the way Donnie’s jaw clenches is painful to watch.

“It wasn’t enough,” Donnie whispers tightly, eyes hard and bright. “It wasn’t enough and she. She.”

Killed me, hangs in the air. Bitter and heavy as it’d been the first night after.

“…she wouldn’t hurt you on purpose, Donnie. Not in her right mind,” Leo says, and it makes Donnie take a harsh breath in. “April wouldn’t do that to any of us. I’ve… talked with her, a few times. She feels awful about this. But it’s neither of your faults. It’s Za’naron’s, okay? Don’t take blame for something you shouldn’t.”

Donnie shakes his head mutely, and they lapse into silence again. The longer it stretches, the worse Leo feels about having nothing to really fix this. He understands now how Donnie must have felt, the months it took for Leo to recover from his coma. The wanting to say a few words and make his brother feel better, to understand it’s not his fault, that April wouldn’t hurt him on purpose, that he shouldn’t feel so badly for resenting her just a little for doing so…

That brings a thought to Leo’s mind. Accidental hurts.

“…Karai’s rebuilding the Foot clan,” Leo says, which is enough a topic change that Donnie finally looks at him again.

“…so?” Donnie asks. “She’s been doing that for months.”

Leo nods once. “She wears the Kuro Kabuto most nights, too.”

Donnie keeps giving him a look of blank confusion, obviously wondering why Leo’s brought this up right now. Leo keeps talking. “She uses his throne, too, you know. You’ve seen her in it. And they kept the same uniform dress code for the Foot soldiers. Even the same insignia.”

Donnie clearly doesn’t see Leo’s point yet. “And?”

“She’s taking his place, Donnie,” Leo says plainly. The shadowy form of Shredder looming over him plays in his memory, like it often does on bad nights. “He’s still out there, and she’s already decided she wants to put things back to how they’d been before. Except she’s the master of the clan this time around.” He laughs without humor. “It’s a little hard to see her walking around with that helmet on, you know?”

Donnie keeps staring in confusion until finally, it clicks.

“Oh. Oh, Leo,” Donnie’s expression morphs into sympathy. “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe I didn’t even- I never even thought of that. God.”

Leo nods, giving a wry smile. “I haven’t said anything, and I don’t plan to, but it’s… difficult to swallow. Spending years trying to dismantle the Foot and its control of New York, and having our own sister start building it right back up.” He gives himself a small shake, brushing off the old and new nightmares that follow him. “Look. Point is, Karai doesn’t even know she’s doing it and I doubt she’d mean to give me flashbacks on bad nights. And I know it’s not the same thing- not anywhere near the same thing, but… I just want you to know. I kind of get it. What it feels like to get hurt unintentionally by someone you care about.”

Donnie looks at him for a long moment, and then smiles wetly.

“It sucks a lot, doesn’t it?” He says, and then covers his mouth; hunching on himself. Leo is already coming around the table when Donnie let out the first muffled cry.

Leo is taller than his brother like this, him standing and Donnie sitting. He takes advantage of it to tuck his brother’s head under his chin while he hugs Donnie; holding onto his brother until he can pull himself back together. Donnie clutches Leo tightly, and barely lets out any sound as his breathing falters, then unsteadily continues. Growing stronger with each intake.

It won’t fix anything immediately, but it’s a good step towards fixing things eventually.

It’s as much a comfort to Donnie as it is to Leo; holding onto each other like this. Donnie had been outside anyone’s reach for help that night, but he’s here now. Tangible and alive.

A long time ago, Leo told himself he’d die before he let one of his brothers do so. He failed that promise. He makes a new one that he will never, ever, fail like this again. He couldn’t take the experience twice, he just couldn’t.

When Leo and Donnie finally emerge from the lab, cups empty and hearts at least a fraction lighter, they’re welcomed back by Raph and Mikey, who are none too subtly waiting on the couches for them. They take Donnie and set him in the middle of everything, surrounded on all sides by sympathy, comfort, and listening ears.

Donnie’s voice doesn’t waver so badly, now. Encircled and protected. It’s a small victory, but Leo will take it.

It’s not fixed with a single evening of sharing empathy, the broken and battered state of Donnie and April, of their relationship and minds, but it’s a start. And they- the two of them, Leo, their whole family- are all willing to work towards the better future lying ahead.

It’s Leo’s job, officially and unofficially, to make sure his brothers are okay. They’re not little kids anymore, but that doesn’t mean the gut reaction to keep them safe, to make them happy, has gone away. And so long as Leo has them by his side, it never will.

--/--

He fails his promise a second time.

Splinter dies, and Leo.

He.

Becomes lost.

The night it happens, everything burns. He cuts away the drowning grief and turns his blades on the source. He marches them into battle and refuses to let himself stop moving, one foot in front of the other, his bad leg be damned- until it’s over.

And then it is, and he.

He doesn’t know what to do.

Leo washes off the spray of mutant green blood on his hands, cleans his swords and gear, and then just. Sits. Stops thinking.

He sinks. Silently. Into himself, his mind, the black ocean that’d claimed him on and off, after the Shredder broke him the first time. He sinks, and he can’t even wonder if he’s drowning. He just knows he is.

Leo has always guided his brothers, but he has always been guided in turn. By their father, by the only source of parental love they’ve ever had. The first person to ever love them. Shells and all, unconditionally.

And now Splinter is gone, and Leo. Leo needs to.

Lead them. Protect them. His brothers, he has to keep them safe in place of their father. That’s his job. But.

He can’t. Not like this.

There’s no do-over this time. No time travel, no psychic power. Just. Finality.

Leo feels like he’s dying as he kneels in front of the dojo tree. He almost wishes he was. It would be escape from a grief that’s swallowing him up and leaving nothing behind. Only emptiness.

He doesn’t know which way to go, how to move forwards. Leo’s eyes burn, like he’s been trying to do to everything poisoning him through. It hurts, but not nearly as much as his heart does. Splinter is dead. He’s dead and never coming back. There’s no one left to lead him, no one left to tell Leo that it will be alright, even in the worst moments when he’s too weak to say it himself. How could he move forwards from this, how could he ever move past it-

How is he supposed to-

-live like this, missing such a huge chunk of himself and- and-

-he’s all alone, in charge and bearing a mantle that’s still decades too big for him to hope to handle. He’s not ready, he can’t be the Sensei, he doesn’t want to be a Sensei, he just wants to be a son and be held, be quieted and told it’s okay, it’ll all be okay, eventually, don’t worry, you’re not-

“-alone, Leo,” Mikey whispers, arms tight around Leo’s back. His voice is hoarse, but firm. “You got us. It’s gonna be okay, you got us. We got you.”

Leo comes back from the suffocating depths, where his worst fears and memories hold him in night terrors and flashbacks, and takes in a shuddering breath. His face is wet, and everything hurts, but Mikey is here. He’s not alone.

A second set, stronger and broader, wrap around them both from the side. Raph’s forehead is laid on Leo’s shoulder, hiding the struggle Raph hates to show, but comforting. Saying he’s here, too, for Leo. On the opposite side, the way only lanky arms can, Donnie encircles all three of them in his grasp. Adding his tireless support, the way he always gives it whenever one of them is in need. Leo is wrapped up in a group hug and he’s no longer alone.

He was never alone. He’ll never be alone.

Not so long as he has his brothers.

Leo sobs hoarsely, but he doesn’t fall any further. He’s drawn up and away, kept from the ocean of despair by three pairs of arms that would never leave him there. Supporting and grounding, keeping him present and together. Holding onto him until he can hold himself up again.

And they need him, too. They’re broken, but they’re together. Their father is gone but they’re all still here, the four of them. Like it’s always been.

Leo raises his hands, gripping Donnie and Raph and Mikey’s arms, and holds onto them just as tightly.

Leo can’t be their Sensei, no matter what their father wanted, but he. He can be this. He can be their brother.

And maybe that’s enough.

--/--

They move forwards. They move on. They mend the hole that Splinter left, but they don’t close it over. It’s there, and always will be, but it fades to an old scar like the many others covering their bodies. It becomes bearable.

Leo leans on his brothers until he can stand again, and then they walk forwards together. Supporting and being supported.

Their father is gone, but like they always have, right from the start.

They have each other. They have their brothers.

For Leo, that will always be enough.

Commission info & Kofi link.

#spec commissions #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #leonardo #My writing #team as family #this leo? this is a good leo #he works hard and does his best #he makes me proud #what a good bean #Good Older Brother Leo AU #shame this has to be an AU #bc canon is and always will be shit

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