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ahsbitch · 5 years ago

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Something Strange In The Air-Hawthorne!Michael Langdon x Reader

Word Count: 7162

Summary: Michael will be staying at Miss Robichaux’s for a few months leading up to competing against the Reader in the Seven Wonders Test.

Warnings: NSFW, cursing, dirty talk, oral (female receiving), overstimulation, reader blacks out, also there’s a snake, if you’re scared of snakes maybe skip down to the last section bc pretty much all the others involve a snake, and a snake bite, Hawthorne!Michael deserves his own warning, yeah, also this is very much not proofread so, be prepared for that

A/N: This is written in honor of @guiltyfiend bc, you right, I think everyone wants to dom Hawthorne!Michael a little bit. This took me forever to write and is stupidly long (we love waxing poetic for no reason) but I hope y’all like it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was something strange in the air.

There was always something strange in the air, of course. Strange was probably too subjective, anyway. You’d never quite managed to find a place where the air was simply air, and in a city as electric as New Orleans, at a school as volatile as Miss Robichaux’s, there was always something prickling you, needling its way through your veins. It was why you took the time to meditate in the first place, to give you a chance to sort through it all, when you didn’t have to deal with physical world interrupting, when it was simply you and your mind and the universe playing a game of chicken, seeing which would bow to which, in the end.

But there was something that was a different kind of strange today, something that you hadn’t ever felt before.

No, you’d felt it before, you certainly had, but something you’d never felt quite so strongly, that was it.

It was a deep, poignant, throat catching sense of doom.

A hum rippled through the air, someone was taking a deep breath, and you knew in your mind that they were about to call out to you.

“Y/N,” It was Zoe, and there was a grit in her voice hidden so deep she probably wasn’t even aware that she was already annoyed, “The warlocks are here!”

Yes, that was it. That was the presence. The warlocks were here, and more importantly, Michael Langdon. The others had known the sense of doom too, the Supreme Cordelia had even had a vision about it. Cordelia was in fact probably the only person who felt the doom in a similar way to how you did, with her prophetic powers. The others felt it because it was so strong, but you were doubtful that it overwhelmed them like it did you, that they felt it so deeply they could practically taste it.

But that wasn’t the point.

The point was that now, you needed to go meet this mysterious Boy Wonder that had made some of the women you respected most in the world, leaders in your coven, shake in their boots.

You opened your eyes, finally, your head tilted back to look at the sky. After a moment, you slid down the steepled roof of the school, leaping nimbly to the nearest tree, scampering to the ground as quickly as you could. You took a step, but something squishy was under your foot, and you jumped slightly as you heard a loud hiss.

“Fuck,” You muttered to yourself, kneeling down, coming face to face with a snake, coiled back in preparation to strike, white mouth opened wide. You waved your hand in front of it, once, and as you watched your magic flow a sense of calm through the snake, you reached out to let it sniff you, smiling at it gently, “Hello, little friend. What are you doing so far from the water?”

The animal flicked its tongue out twice, slowly bringing its head back down, touching its face to your hand gently.

“I like you,” Moving slowly, you picked the snake up, looking levelly into the slitted eyes, “You wanna stay with me for a bit?”

The cottonmouth raised and lowered its head, and you pulled your hood back to rest it gently inside, the snake nestling instantly into the fabric.

With that, you hurried to the front of the school, where you saw four men and five women waiting for you.

The women, you knew. Cordelia, the Supreme, stood at the head of the line, her shoulders rolled back. Next to her was Myrtle Snow, then Zoe, and next to her were Madison and Queenie, the witches that Michael had rescued.

The men, you didn’t know, but in an instant you recognized which one was Michael Langdon.

He was beautiful, with fluffed, golden curls, piercing blue eyes, a cherubic face that held a smile so lovely most people would probably miss the sneer holding it up. He wore the Hawthorne uniform, which you’d only seen in photos, a black bow tied at his throat, his jacket thrown over his shoulder.

They had already made introductions, it seemed, all turning to watch you approach.

“There you are,” Cordelia gave you a small, reassuring smile as you moved to stand beside her, “Gentlemen, this is Y/N Y/L/N, one of our brightest witches, who we believe may be the next Supreme. Y/N, this is John Henry Moore, Behold Chablis, Grand Chancellor Ariel Augustus, and Michael Langdon.”

You nodded confidently, smiling at John Henry Moore as you shook his hand, a slightly smaller smile at Behold Chablis, your face dropping all emotion as you shook hands with Ariel Augustus, almost coughing as you were hit with a rush of negative energy.

“Did you just fall from a tree?” Ariel questioned, gripping your hand tightly.

You concentrated on making yourself smile again, and once you had a grin securely in place you shrugged, “I jumped, actually. I was on the roof, but jumping straight off the roof seems like a good way to end up injured, and I don’t like to transmutate immediately before and after I meditate.”

“Why were you on the roof?” John Henry Moore asked, looking amused.

You almost responded, but Behold spoke before you could, “Didn’t she just say? She was meditating.”

Myrtle moved behind you, resting a hand on your shoulder, “Our dear Y/N is very sensitive to the vibrations of the universe. I believe it’s what makes her so good at playing my theremin. She meditates to sort the different callings that pull at her.”

Nodding, you turned to the mysterious Michael Langdon, watching him. He stared back, cocking his head to the side, and after a moment he extended his hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Y/L/N,” He said coolly, his voice strangely melodic.

You shook firmly, not releasing when the shake was done, not intending to fully end the shake until he moved to end it himself, “Hello, Boy Wonder. It’s nice to- no, actually it’s not particularly nice to meet you. But I’m happy to finally meet you. I’ve heard lots of stories, and I’m grateful for what you’ve done for our coven by returning Madison and Queenie to us.”

His brows furrowed, and he opened his mouth as if to object before suddenly jerking his hand back, frowning, “I’m sorry, but what is that?”

What was he talking about?

A slight hiss next to your ear explained it. The snake had crawled up to your shoulder, and you glanced to see that it was looking at the Grand Chancellor. It seemed that the snake didn’t trust Ariel Augustus either.

Ariel jumped, staring, his hand raising up and mouth opening, and you could tell that some type of spell was on the tip of his tongue.

“No,” You snapped, reaching a hand up to the snakes head, and Ariel stumbled backwards, pushed back by magic that you hadn’t even meant to send out, “Sorry. It’s a snake. A cottonmouth, although I’ve never seen one this far from water. I just found him. Stepped on him, actually, although he didn’t take it too personally. I mean, he almost bit me, but I wouldn’t have particularly blamed him if he did, and after I calmed him down with a little charm he seemed happy to come with me. I’d like to keep him,” You turned away from the warlocks, glancing at Cordelia, “May I? I’ve already thought of a name for him.”

Madison, Queenie, and Zoe had all stepped away from you, anxiety thrumming through the air from their direction, but Myrtle chuckled, and Cordelia nodded, something inquisitive just behind her eyes, “You may, so long as you take good care of him, and so long as your new roommate doesn’t mind.”

You whipped back around to Michael, beaming, “What do you think, Boy Wonder? Can Richard stay with us?”

A deep frown etched into his features, which he looked annoyingly pretty in spite of, and he turned to Cordelia and the warlocks, “What does she mean?”

“We’re happy to have you staying with us for the next few months leading up to the Seven Wonders test, but there is currently an overflow of witches. Every room is currently occupied, some by multiple girls,” Zoe stepped in to explain, “Y/N had space for a roommate. I’m surprised that the Grand Chancellor didn’t tell you.”

Ariel shrugged, mumbling something about it not seeming important, and Michael looked at you, horrified, as you slung an arm around his shoulder, “I probably could’ve swapped around with someone, but I thought it’d be fun if we bunked together. Give us a chance to get to know each other better, y’know? So c’mon, Mikey, can we keep the snake?”

“Do not call me that,” He snapped, shrugging you off of him and adjusting his collar, “I don’t care about the snake. I don’t like you.”

“The feeling is mutual, don’t worry,” Blowing a kiss in his direction, you whispered a celebration to the snake before turning back to your sister witches, “Let’s give them a tour!”

You were pleased with this interaction. He was taken aback by you, and you could tell just from a single glance that Michael was not one who was easily taken aback. His energy shifted, something hard to determine just under the surface. You were curious to see what you could learn about him, before the two of you competed against each other during the test of the Seven Wonders.

Alongside that was the strong feeling that at some point you would either fuck him or beat him up, and you found that you were also curious to see which it would be.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Langdon was an asshole.

You’d managed to catch him by surprise the day you’d first met him, to get him to stumble, but by the time you’d walked through the front door of the school he had found his composure, and you hadn’t managed to see him without it since then. He was always well put together.

Alongside being an asshole.

The other witches in your coven were finding themselves swayed by him, you could tell. They didn’t want a male Supreme, but they were fading into his easy charm and good looks. Most spent their time flirting with him, and he seemed incredibly smug at all the attention. They didn’t seem to mind how clearly indifferent he was to them, not particularly harsh, but also never making an effort to be nice, either.

The only person he actively disliked? You.

You couldn’t blame him, of course, but he was a huge pain in the ass.

For example, he was stealing your study room.

There were several areas in the school where students could study, of course. Most of the girls just did it in their rooms, and there was one room at the back of the house that was your favorite, holding a large table with bookshelves on either side and a large picture window opposite the door. You were the only one who used it, because there were nicer ones with tables that didn’t have splinters and light bulbs that weren’t constantly flickering no matter how often they were changed.

And then Michael Langdon showed up, and started hogging the room.

It wasn’t as though you really needed the full study room to yourself, of course. But he took up so much space.

He spread books along the entire table, and he always used his magic to adjust the lighting and change the temperature.

“Boy Wonder,” You sighed one day, about a week and a half after his arrival, “Can you please give me some space on the table?”

Michael glanced up at you, a smirk tugging at the edge of his lips although he kept the rest of his face neutral, “What’s wrong, little witch? Are you mad that I beat you in here for once?”

“I’m mad that you take up all the room,” You snapped, “And that you’ve made it fucking freezing in here.”

“I can make it snow, too. Wanna see?”

You kinda did, actually, but you weren’t going to tell him that.

“No, I want you to put the temperature back so it’s warm enough that I can’t see my own breath. I can literally see the heat waves rolling off of you, Boy Wonder,” And you could, and it was really fucking weird, in a very interesting sort of way.

Still not bothering to turn to you, Michael shuffled his books around until there was a new one in front of him, “Little witch, why do you think I’d give a fuck what temperature you want it to be?”

“Because, Boy Wonder, Richard can’t handle this cold,” You gestured to the snake who was wrapped around your shoulders, shivering along with you.

Shrugging, Michael stood up finally, walking over to you and reaching a hand out. You stared for a moment, slowly reaching your own out and pressing your palm to his, and the two of you stared at each other for a solid minute and a half, his hand searing hot against your own cold palm, and when he finally pulled away he raised a curious eyebrow at you, “I was reaching for the snake.”

He still wore that ridiculous fucking Hawthorne uniform, and looking at him in it made you wonder once again how well you would fare in beating him up.

“Oh. Shit, sorry,” You said hurriedly, pulling Richard off your shoulders and down around your arm, but then you paused and looked at Michael, your voice heavy with suspicion, “Why do you want him?”

“I’m warmer than you. He can hang out with me and you can go study in our room. Or you can take him back to the room and study with in there with him. Either way,” He said simply, as though you were a bit stupid for not knowing that already.

Glaring, you took a step closer to him, trying your best to be intimidating, “I can’t go study in our room, actually, because your shit is all over my desk, too. And I don’t want Richard to spend all day stuck in the room. He likes going other places. Just make some damn space.”

Michael took two steps forward and suddenly your back was against the wall. He looked closely at you for a minute, and then he reached his hand out again, drawing his thumb across your lower lip, “Why do you always wear lipstick?”

“What?” You stared up at him, dumbfounded.

“You wear lipstick a lot,” Michael pulled his hand away, glancing at the residue left behind on his thumb, and then turned it back to you, “I’m curious why. Can you get this for me?”

“What?”

Rolling his eyes, Michael gripped your chin, pushing his thumb against your lips until they parted. Your eyebrows scrunched together, and you closed your eyes for a moment as you tried to concentrate on what the actual hell was happening.

It wasn’t even lipstick, it was tinted lip balm.

His energy had reached a point that was especially strange, still dark and angry like always, but with a type of curiosity to it as well. He was wondering something, and that made you wonder what he was wondering, and there was such a loop of wondering going on that you didn’t even realize that your tongue was swirling around him, didn’t even notice the slight shift in his demeanor as he pushed the two more of his fingers into your mouth, shoving them down your throat.

What the fuck?

You shifted, trying to reach up and push him away, but his magic pinned your hands at your sides and all you could do was gag around him, frantically struggling. Magic, magic, do something with your magic to get him to stop, but you couldn’t get it to work, couldn’t get anything to happen. You bit down, desperate, and he hissed as he raised his other hand to your chin, holding it pulled down so you couldn’t bite anymore, scratching his nails gently across your jaw as he did so.

“You look good like this, do you know that? Gagging. I think you were made for it. It’s interesting, how aware you are of energies, of vibrations in the universe, and yet I don’t think you’re even conscious of the energy you send out. How desperate you are for me. You aren’t aware of it because you don’t want to be. I can read your mind, little witch. You may not like me, but you do want to fuck me. You wear revealing clothes and you act like you’re doing it for yourself, like you’re empowered, but you’re not. You act high and mighty, as though you’re wise and powerful, but really you’re just a dumb, depraved, desperate little whore who wants nothing more than to be dicked down by your rival.”

What the fuck was he talking about? That wasn’t true!

Was it?

He was pretty fucking hot, you had to admit, but you didn’t want to get dicked down by Michael Langdon.

You couldn’t want that.

Fuck.

Finally, finally, when you thought you were going to pass out or puke or maybe both, he pulled completely away from you, stepping back.

You doubled over, catching your breath, and when you straightened up your magic was finally working again, sending Michael flying across the room until he was pressed against the window, and you gasped, “What the fuck, Langdon? What the actual fucking fuck?”

Michael tried to shrug, but his shoulders wouldn’t move, and after a moment you released him, wishing that he would maybe fall over, but he just smoothly stepped forward, making his way back to you, “I’ll raise the temperature back to normal. And here,” He waved his hand in the air and the books in front of one of the seats at the table flew to other spots, clearing you an area, “I suppose there’s room for us to share the table. No promises on my kindness extending to tomorrow.”

“Then I’ll beat you here tomorrow,” You said, thinking through each of your words carefully as you spoke, “And you can suck my Dick, Langdon.”

Richard raised his head up and down as you set him on the table, slithering closer to Michael as if in emphasis to your point.

“Good one, little witch. That’s very clever, for you,” He chuckled, taking the seat next to the one he had cleared space for you at and sliding his fingers into his own mouth, tilting his head back as he cleaned them off and then pulling them back out with a flourish, shooting you a condescending look, “Are you going to sit? If you’re just here to stare, I’d prefer it if you’d leave. You can be very distracting sometimes.

Numbly, you took a seat next to him, trying hard to ignore his cocky grin, and pulled a book out of your bag.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing a bedroom with Michael Langdon presented its own challenges. He was an asshole in private just as much as he was in front of others, and it was pretty fucking annoying.

“Are you ever gonna go to fucking sleep?” Michael snapped at you, pulling his pillow over his eyes.

“There’s too much noise,” Sighing, you cracked your knuckles, letting Richard the snake trail across your legs, “And not enough noise, at the same time. Am I really bothering you that much? I turned the lights out and everything.”

He growled, removing the pillow from his head and squinting across the room at you through the darkness, “Doesn’t matter, does it, little witch bitch? You’re still a pain in the ass whether the light is on or off. Can’t you just ignore the noise?”

“Fuck you, Langdon, you don’t know shit. I can’t just-shit! Ow, motherfucker,” You hissed, jumping, as Richard bit your finger, “Why the fuck would you do that you dick?”

“What happened?” Michael straightened up, “Y/N?”

The snake was slithering away already, and as he did you were flooded with a strange feeling, the metallic taste of magic in the air. Richard hadn’t bitten you of his own accord, someone had made it happen, and that someone was probably Michael.

“Y/N,” He repeated, “Come over here.”

Your feet carried you to his bed without your brain guiding them, and you dropped to the mattress next to him, holding out a shaky hand, “Richard bit me.”

Michael wrapped his fingers around your wrist, his large hand engulfing yours as he brought it closer to his face, examining carefully, “Yeah, you did. Weird. You feeling okay?”

You weren’t. Your mind was hazy, and you didn’t know why. It wasn’t the snakebite that did it, you could just tell, it was something deep in your chest and spreading through your body, making you feel like you were in a great fog, and you stared at him, “I don’t feel great, actually.”

“Would you like me to fix it?” Pressing a kiss to your palm, Michael raised an eyebrow at you.

“I, uh, I don’t know what you, what you mean by-” You cut off, closing your eyes to concentrate, rather than letting yourself get lost looking at Michael.

Dammit, why did he have to be so fucking pretty? It was such a pain.

Night was the only time you saw him looking casual, too. Night and early morning, when he was in bed.

Seeing him unbuttoned like this made a strange flip turn in the pit of your stomach.

“I can make the pain go away, little witch,” His voice was hoarse and whispery, “Just say the word.”

“Okay,” You breathed, even though you probably shouldn’t, you should say no, should pull away, should find a way to fix it yourself or maybe go to Cordelia or one of the other witches for help, you didn’t trust Michael, you shouldn’t trust Michael, but the word came out and you were making eye contact with him and fuck, fuck, fuck what were you doing with your life?

Michael pulled your finger into his mouth, wrapping his lips just below the bite wound, and began sucking gently.

“What... what are you doing?” You asked blearily, unable to break your eyes away from his, “I don’t... I don’t think you can really suck out the venom. I don’t even know if there is venom? He bit so quick, it was more of a nip than anything, I don’t-”

Pulling his head away for a moment, Michael frowned, “Are you ever quiet, little witch? Just hush, for once, and let me make you feel better.”

Why was he being so nice? It wasn’t nice, you knew it wasn’t really, there was some type of trick to this, some type of trick to everything he did, and yet you felt swept away, some how. Overwhelmed, intoxicated, by Michael Langdon.

You nodded, and his lips were around you again, and it was working, you could feel it. The strange pain in your body, that had started to cloud your chest, your throat, stomach, everything, it was fading away.

You weren’t quite sure what was replacing it, as it certainly wasn’t anything you were used to, but it was mostly calming. There was a thrill of adrenaline spiking through you, but something else. Something deeper. There were few emotions that you couldn’t identify, but this was perhaps one of them. Whatever you were feeling, it was not something that you were used to.

When the pain was gone and your head was a bit clearer, you tried to pull your hand away. Michael held firm to your wrist, although he let you ball your fingers into a fist, releasing you from his mouth. “How does that feel?” He cooed, tapping his fingers along your veins.

“Better,” You said slowly, and then, “Weird, though. I feel weird. I want... I’m tired, I think.”

“What do you want?” Michael asked, and there was a smirk on his face that made you want to slap him, and then because your head was still not altogether there, you did slap him.

Your hand, the one he wasn’t holding in place, hit his cheek at an astounding speed, leaving an angry red mark, and before you could even process that you had done so, you threw your leg across his lap, straddling him, and pressed your lips to his.

Releasing your wrist finally, Michael pressed his hands into the small of your back, pulling you closer to him, and you stroked your thumb over the mark on his face, listening to Michael’s growl as you pressed down.

You pulled away after a moment, cupping his face in your hands, panting, “I don’t know why I did that.”

“Which part?” Michael nipped at your bottom lip, smiling a smile that did not soften his eyes at all, “Slapping me? Or kissing me? Because I’ll be honest, I wasn’t fully expecting either of them, little witch bitch.”

“You’ve done something to me,” You mused, beginning to kiss along his throat, “I don’t know what, or how, or why, but there’s something you’ve done. There are a lot of things I want right now.”

“Tell me,” Michael commanded, but then he let out a groan as you brushed your lips over the spot where his jaw met his neck, and his usual suave, intimidating demeanor dropped as you began sucking furiously at the spot. He spoke again, more softly this time, “Stop, tell me.”

Leaning back to glance at him, you smiled sweetly, “Make me, Boy Wonder,” and then you were at it again, leaving a large clump of bruises near his ear.

“Seems like you have feelings for me, little bitch,” With mocking laughter, Michael trailed his hands to your hips, giving a harsh squeeze, “What would your sister witches think?”

“The only feeling I have for you is loathing, Langdon,” You snarled, and in a moment your lips were connected once again, teeth clacking against each other, and when you both paused to catch your breath, you pressed your forehead to his, “Fuck, I really want to suck your cock.”

Michael snorted, “Everyone thinks you’re the future Supreme? You’re just a pathetic little cockslut.”

You ground your hips down against him and reared your hand back, but this time he caught your wrist, glaring, although he bucked slightly against you. “Fuck you, you’re the one who’s all marked up. You’re the one who’s fucking dry humping me. Look at you. You’re the pathetic one.”

“Sure I am,” Michael had a low, snarly chuckle that made a bolt of need shoot through you, and also made you very desperately want to hit him again, but seeming to know what you were thinking, he captured your other hand as well, “Such a fiery thing you are, little witch.”

Scowling, you bit his bottom lip and tugged, licking up the blood that beaded up and began to trickle down his chin. Smiling at the bitter taste, a yawn made its way through you before you could stop it. You felt yourself blushing a little at that, muttering quickly, “Sorry about that. I’m more tired than I thought, I guess. Being this close to you kinda blocks out a lot of the other energy, makes it all a lot quieter.”

“Then let’s sleep.”

You had started to kiss along his collarbones, but you paused at that, murmuring against his skin, “What?”

Michael wrapped his hand around your jaw, pulling you back so that he could look you in the eye, “You heard me, little witch. You’re tired. I am too. As much as I would love to see you gagging on my cock right now, I’d also enjoy getting some sleep. I’m planning to get up relatively early tomorrow to study.”

“I call the study room,” You said quickly, and you hadn’t even realized that Michael had shifted the two of you so that you were laying down, one hand still cupping your jaw, making it a bit difficult to speak, “What are you doing?”

“You really are quite dim, little witch. I’m going to sleep. You should do the same,” His voice was softening, although not in a kind way. It was soft, yes, but commanding, dangerous,and you struggled to keep your eyes open.

Straining against his arms, you tried to stand, “I’ll go back to my bed.”

“You can’t sleep in your bed,” Michael said simply, rolling onto his back, one arm still flung across your waist, holding you in place.

Frowning, you turned your body towards him, curling into his side. He was warm. You didn’t even have a blanket covering you, and already you could feel yourself starting to overheat. You didn’t voice this though, not yet, too confused by the entire interaction to focus on that, “Why do you care so much how I sleep?”

“I don’t,” He said simply, “I care about my sleep. And I’m not going to lose my sleep just because you can’t grasp your own. Now, stop squirming around so much. Are you that worked up?”

“I’m hot,” You snapped.

“And bothered, apparently.”

“Langdon, do you ever shut the fuck up?” You jabbed your elbow into his side, “That’s not the hot I meant and you know it. I’m warm. You’re like a fucking furnace.”

Sighing, getting grumpier by the second, Michael hooked his arm around you and pulled you onto his chest so that you were straddling him once again, arms on either side of his body, head hovering over his chest.

He laughed at the way you yelped, being pulled so suddenly, and his hands rested on your back, bringing one up to guide your head down to rest against his chest, “Did I scare you, little witch?”

“No,” You answered quickly, and then, “Just, this is a weird position.”

“It should be a little cooler for you this way. Just sleep, yeah? Get comfortable, and let’s go to sleep,” Michael’s hand stroked up and down your back, probably unconsciously, and you nodded sleepily.

“Goodnight, Mikey,” You murmured, still largely unable to control your impulses.

“Don’t call me that,” He replied, and then, after a moment, he added gently, “Goodnight, Y/N.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Why are you always here?” Michael sighed the next morning, setting his books down on your table.

“Why are you always such a dick?” You retorted, shuffling your own books to the side.

He shrugged, stiffening a little as you rested your hand on his thigh, “Because it’s fun. Listen, about last night, I don’t want you to think-”

“I don’t think anything,” You reassured him quickly.

“Well that’s obvious,” Michael snorted, “You’re far prettier than you are smart, and far more annoying than you are pretty. I’d be surprised if you used that little head of yours for much more than deciding what color lipstick you should wear and fantasizing about getting fucked.”

Pulling your hand away, you scowled at him, “That’s not what I meant, asshole. I was going to thank you for helping me fall asleep, but now I’d rather just give you another hickey or something, so everyone who looks at you like you’re a god will see what a little bitch their Boy Wonder actually is.”

“I would take that back, if I were you,” He said coolly, his voice deadly calm.

You stood, though only for a moment, and pushed his chair back enough for you to be able to sit, straddling his lap much like you had the night before. Hooking your arms around his neck, you looked at him with a smile, “I have no intention of taking anything back. I said what I said, and I fucking meant it.”

Faster than you knew he could move, Michael stood and slammed your back against the table, knocking the wind out of you. His hands reached under the fabric of your dress and he ripped your underwear off quickly, stuffing them into the pocket of his dress pants as he looked at you, “You have no power here, do you understand that? You may have felt like you were in charge last night, but that’s only because I fucking let you. You’re feisty, and I like that, but you need to learn your fucking place, little witch bitch. Tell me you want that. Tell me you want me to teach you your place, and I will. If you don’t, I’ll leave. But I think we both know which option you prefer.”

You nodded, swallowing thickly, and at his raised eyebrow you spoke, “I do. I mean, I, uh, I want you to show me my place. Whatever. Just fucking do something, Michael.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” He growled, sitting back down in his chair, and he tugged at you, pulling both your legs over his shoulders, your hips lifting off the table, so that his face was level with your pussy, “I’m the one in charge. Get it? I want you to sit there and-fuck, you’re already so fucking wet. You think you want to be in charge, but clearly you know that you’re meant to be at my mercy. I want you to sit there and melt underneath me, and you’re gonna keep melting until there’s nothing left of you. Get it?”

“I get it,” You agreed quickly, although you really weren’t quite sure what he meant by that, and your hips bucked weakly forward at the feeling of his hot breath against you, “Please, Michael.”

“So fucking desperate. You’re fucking dripping for me, and I’ve barely even touched you,” Chuckling, Michael placed a tiny, barely there, ghost of a kiss against your clit, and even though he wasn’t touching you anymore you could feel his wolfish grin at the way you whined when he pulled away.

Michael dragged his teeth against the soft skin of your thighs, nipping at the junction of your pelvis, and you knew as he continued that there were dark flowers blossoming along after his teeth. You squirmed underneath him, and when he finally finished with your thighs he placed his palms against them, holding them open, his long fingers pressed against your hips so they stayed down.

You sat up as well as you could to look at him, and you watched as he stared intently at your pussy, leaning forward after far, far too long to lick a slow, languid stripe up your clit. You moaned weakly, giving a flick of your hand to slam the study room door shut and lock it, and after a moment you dug your hands into his hair, “Michael, wait, the window.”

He leaned back for a moment to glance at the large picture window that took over the wall to your left, and then he beamed up at you, “It’s fine, little witch. No one will walk by, and if they do, it won’t embarrass me, so it doesn’t matter much. That reminds me, if being noisy is gonna make you embarrassed, you might wanna find some way to be fucking quiet for once. I know that’s not your strong suit, but it’s the best you’re gonna get.”

What a dick.

You were about to voice this thought, tell him what a dick he was, but then Michael clamped his teeth down gently on your clit, giving a playful tug, and you let out a shriek at that, bringing one hand up to stop yourself from making too much noise.

Suddenly his tongue was inside you, tracing along the walls of your cunt, exploring, searching for something, and when he found the spot he was looking for you bit sharply into the palm of your hand.

He was masterful in the way he ate you out, his nose still brushing your clit as he fucked you with his tongue.

It didn’t take long until you felt your stomach tightening, ready to burst, and you tugged at Michael’s thick golden curls, whimpering, “Fuck, Michael, I’m gonna-”

“Do it, little witch,” He spoke against your skin, and you shuddered at the vibrations it sent through you, “Melt for me. Let yourself dissolve for me.”

Your orgasm washed over you, Michael attacking your g-spot with a ferocity that you probably should’ve expect but didn’t. He kept going, and you gasped, pulling harder at his hair, “Michael! Stop, you gotta stop, give me a minute.”

He pulled away for just a moment and you gasped, but then his lips were around your clit and sucking furiously. You cursed loudly, another orgasm already approaching, or maybe the first one extending, you couldn’t tell, couldn’t think about it, you were overwhelmed.

For the first time in your life, you could only feel one sense of energy coming at you. Everything else was blocked out, hidden away behind the deep, angry lust that rolled through the air between you and Michael.

He moved back down and began lapping furiously at your folds. Pulling back for a moment, Michael spat on your pussy and then buried his face against you once more, shaking his head furiously, and you struggled to hold back your moans.

You weren’t intending to give him the damn satisfaction.

Michael seemed to realize you were holding back as he started speaking again, his voice muffled against you but bringing another orgasm bubbling to the surface of your skin, electrifying you, “You taste delicious, do you know that, little witch? So sweet. Maybe a little bitter, but so sugary. I could eat you for hours. You know what? I think I will.”

“Fuck,” You let out a hiss as he dove back in, tongue delving into you once more, and you did your best to act smug, like he wasn’t sending shockwaves through your very being, “Is this the best you’ve got, Boy Wonder? You’re supposed to be teaching me my place, right? But I’m kind of-dammit to fuck, holy hell-kind of the one in charge here, huh? I’m the one above you right now.”

You couldn’t even be sure why exactly you were saying this, why you were egging him on when it was becoming painful how much pleasure was running through you, but he didn’t respond. At least, not out loud.

Leaping to his feet, Michael pulled you up closer to him, so that only your shoulders were still laying down. You adjusted your position frantically, scrabbling to grip onto the edge of the table. You were upside down and practically vertical, and he dug into you as though he were indeed starving for you, snarling and slobbering, glaring down the length of your body at you. Your body had started to spasm, and you bit your hand until you tasted blood.

There were explosions going off in your mind, and not just metaphorical orgasmic explosions, but actual ones too, nuclear blasts dancing across your hazy thoughts.

You couldn’t be sure how long this went on, how many times you came, it was all a blur. You’d given up on keeping your sounds under control and were now openly sobbing, shuddering as he continued to devour you.

“Stop, Michael, please, I can’t take it,” You were blubbering, straining hard against him and desperately trying to pull away, but Michael held you firmly in place, chuckling at your desperation.

He pulled your clit into his mouth once more, the suction almost unbearable, and you were smashed with your final orgasm, his teeth grazing the sensitive flesh as he moved to lick at your folds again, a dark glint in his eyes as he watched you pant, watched your own eyes rolling back in your head, and the sight of him smiling against you was the last thing you see before a dark haze overtook you.

You were surrounded by darkness, everything you saw misted in a painful, prickling fog. The air smelled like sulfur, and you looked down to see that you were covered in blood.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” A familiar voice rang in your ear, and you swiveled slowly, sluggishly, to see Michael standing just to your right, an admiring grin on his face, “We did very well, my little witch.”

You tried to respond, but your words stuck in your throat, and you simply stared at Michael. He was wearing something other than pajamas or the Hawthorne uniform for the first time you had ever seen. His hands were folded neatly behind his back, but as you stared at him he reached one arm out and entangled your fingers in his.

The sky was thick with grey and black clouds, and Michael’s hand was searing hot against your own. When he pulled away, moving to examine a piece of rubble not far from you, you looked at your palm to see that it was bright shade of pinkish red, as though it had been sunburned.

Michael turned back around to look at you expectantly, and you saw that the piece of rubble he was leaning against had a large sign on it, with a large chunk missing from one of the top corners.

--Miss Robichaux’s Academy For Exceptional Young Ladies--

Holy shit.

When your eyes fluttered back open, Michael was sitting in his chair once more and had adjusted you so that your back was resting on the table again, although your legs were still splayed over his shoulders.

You gasped when you caught sight of his face, your mind still tumbling at the...dream? vision? mirage? You weren’t sure what it was, but you were scrambling to reconcile what you had seen with what was happening now.

Michael merely raised an eyebrow at you, pulling your legs off of his shoulders, “Are you back with me now, little witch?”

“Fucking hell,” You breathed, trying to sit up.

Placing a hand on your stomach, Michael tutted, “Stay down. At least for a few moments. You blacked out and you’re gonna do it again if you’re not careful.”

“I’m okay,” You reassured him, sitting up again after a few moments, swinging your legs down and frowning, “Fuck, I can’t feel my legs.”

“That makes sense,” Michael stood, looking down at you coolly, “I think I’ll go study elsewhere. See you around, little witch.”

“What? You can’t just leave,” You couldn’t believe it, and you tried to stand but fell back immediately, your entire lower body trembling.

Michael didn’t bother to respond, just turned away from you with that ridiculous smirk on his face, and walked out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was something strange in the air, but this time you knew what it was.

Desire.

Michael Langdon was an asshole, but you knew from everything that had happened that you two were destined to meet, although you weren’t sure why.

It seemed that you were going to have to figure it out.

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skylarmoon71 · 4 years ago

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TMNT 2014/2016 Raphael x Reader- Oneshot

“No way you’re lying!”

“No uh! We got it yesterday. April said it was a gift from NYPD since it’s our birthday and all. I’m telling you it’s awesome. I’ve been trying to get my hands on it forever. Donnie says it’s too expensive. Can’t believe we finally got it. “

Mikey talked non stop about getting the just dance system. The both of you were suckers for the game. So hearing that he finally managed to score the machine, it was music to your ears.

If you’re day wasn’t already going well, it was nothing short of awesome now.

“What are we waiting for, let's go!”

You were already in the tunnels of the sewers, you picked up your pace, racing to get there first. Mikey was laughing behind you following. As you ran in through the entrance, you almost tumbled into Leo. He held you by the shoulders, laughing softly at the excitement on your face. “Woah there, is it Christmas?” you shook your head, trying to peep over his shoulder. When he saw the direction of your gaze he smiled.

“So that’s what you’re here for. And I thought for a second you wanted to wish us a happy birthday.” you grinned, reaching over and giving him a hug. “Happy Birthday Leo!” Of course you would never forget their birthday. You’d been waiting all month just to stop by. But when Mikey told you about his birthday present your excitement got the better of you. Leo returned the hug, and when you pulled away, you dug into your bag, taking out a small gift wrapped box, along with a few books. Leo’s eyes lit up like a child, and he hesitated for a second. “Is this..for me?”

“Of course silly, who else is standing here.” He took it slowing, a bit in awe. They weren’t used to getting gifts from others. It had always been just his brothers and Splinter. He appreciated the gadgets and gizmos his brothers managed to get their hands on from above, but actually getting a gift from someone other than family, it was foreign. He opened the small box, and stared at the chain with a silver sterling dragon.

“My dad says dragons are fierce leaders that protect their own. It kind of reminded me of you, so I thought I’d get it. Do you like it?”

“I love it (Y/N), thank you.” he placed the books down on the table, putting on the necklace with a smile. “How does it look?”

You gave him a thumbs up. “Awesome my guy.” you responded in a deep voice, trying to imitate a man’s voice.

“Hey where’s our gift!” Mikey called.

“You really think I’d forget my favourite boys, never.” you placed the bag down, folding your legs. Donnie seemed to catch unto the commotion from his spot. “What’s going on?” he called, eyes still distracted by his screens.

“(Y/N) brought us presents!” Mikey said excitedly. Splinter who was at the back making some tea, walked out from behind the small shed where he usually brewed his drinks.

“That’s very nice of you. I’m sure they are very grateful.” you just brushed it off.

“Yeah it’s no sweat. You guys absolutely deserve it trust me. If I was a millionaire I would have bought a mansion. Sadly I’m still saving for college so you’ll have to settle for these.” One by one you took out their presents. Each gift was wrapped in their signature color. Mikey took his running on the spot in anticipation. When he opened the rectangular box, his eyes grew wide.

“No way..” It was a pair of metal tonfas. Mikey was glued to his original weapon, but you remembered the way his eyes lit up when he saw the advertisement a few months ago. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted. He picked them up slowly, testing it out.

“THESE ARE FREAKING COOL!” well, it seemed that he approved.

“(Y/N).” from Leo’s tone you could already tell what he was going to say. “Leo come one, it’s really no big deal. You only celebrate once a year, you have to make every one memorable. Plus he loves them.” you grin. Mikey was making action noises as he struck the air. “Thanks (Y/N)!!”

“You’re welcome.”

You turned to Donnie, who was staring nervously at you. “Y-You really didn’t have to get me anything.” He assured. You rolled your eyes. “Like hell, of course I did.” None of his brothers probably knew, but Donnie, despite his very logical nature, was pretty sentimental. With all the little knick knacks he’d already obtained, you were stumped for a while on what to get him. Then it hit you. Donnie always loved the pictures you showed him of your family and friends.

You lifted the square package that was tied with a violet ribbon. He took it with a small thanks, pulling the string loose. As it fell open, the paper slipped off the side, and Donnie stared at the indigo patterned photo album. When he flipped it open, Leo leaned over, watching the pictures stuck in the small clear page. They were placed in sections. Each picture displayed a different story. One when you were wrestling with Mikey, another with Leo and Raph arguing. There was even an image on when they were awarded the keys to the city.

“This is incredible…” He was speechless. The images captured so much, Donnie thought for a second he would get teary. He pushed up his glasses, shuffling over to give you a hug. “Thank you.”

“No problem.” You replied. You patted his shoulder lightly as he pulled away. He was already rushing over to set it up. You giggled. Your eyes lifted to give out your last present, but the turtle you were looking for was nowhere in sight. “Raph is in his room. He’s never been the celebrating type.” you nod. “Well I’ll change that. “ you zipped up the bag, about to head over to his room.

“When I’m done we’re definitely having a dance battle Mikey!”

“You’re on!”

Leo and Splinter watched as you jogged to the older turtle’s location.

“She is a very special girl.”

“She really is.” Leo was thankful, not just for himself, but also his brothers. The care that you showed them, it was as if it came effortless to you. It never stopped surprising him. And he was more than grateful. He just hoped his numskull brother didn’t blow his chance with you. Leo knew full well how you felt about Raph.

Raph was probably the only one who didn’t see it.

“Maybe today will be his lucky day.” With that, Leo walked away, taking the books with him.

You knocked twice. Raph always yelled at Mikey for constantly barging in. Even though you strutted there all confident, you were nervous as hell. Raph was the only one who ever made you anxious, mainly because of your gigantic crush on him. You couldn’t remember exactly when you fell for him. For as long as you knew them, they’d always been just really good friends, almost family. But somehow, you’d fallen for the hot tempered turtle. And today, you decided you’d finally own up to it.

“What do you want Mikey,I told you I don’t want to celebrate.”

“It’s me.” you twisted the knob, walking in slowly. When you entered Raph was standing with his back to you. His fists were clenched, and you realized it must have been because he was punching the bag hanging from the pole above. “What do you want?” his rough tone didn’t help much with your nerves.

“I-I just, I got you a present.” you had no idea why you were speaking so softly. Your hands gripped the backpack tightly, not sure if it was such a good idea to approach him when he was already in a bad mood. To your surprise he turned, and he didn’t look as agitated as you thought he would be.

“I’m sorry if I interrupted you. Mikey and everyone else is out there having fun, maybe you should join them. I’m sure you'll have fun. Why don’t you like celebrating your birthday anyway?” The moment you asked you wanted to take it back. Because it was obviously a personal issue that he maybe didn’t want to talk about.

“Y-You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to!”

“I’m an idiot.” you scolded yourself.

Raph looked to the side, moving to his bed. He took a seat, bracing his elbows on his knees and joining his hands. There was a flash of hurt in his usually sure emerald eyes.

“Every year in this place, it was a reminder that we’d never be accepted up there. It’s different now, we’re a part of the NYPD helping people. But what about the rest of the world. No matter what we do, they’ll never see us the same. “

So that was it. Who would have thought. Of course he was sad. They had feelings just like everyone else.

You placed the bag down, walking over to take a seat right next to him on the bed. His head turned to you, and you smiled.

“I’m so sorry you went through so much Raph. You deserved so much more. You guys are easily the coolest people I’ve ever met. U-Uh I mean turtles.” you corrected. A small smile inched its way on his face.

“You’re not so bad yourself.” You couldn’t believe it, you actually got him to smile. And it was the purest thing you’d ever seen. You could physically feel the way your heart pick up. You just hoped it wasn’t loud enough for Raph to hear. He was still looking at you, and you him. Maybe your body stopped functioning, because you couldn’t pull your gaze away.

Raph was having a similar problem. You swallowed, hand raising slowly. Your palm rested on his cheek lightly, and you could only pray that your next move didn’t completely ruin your friendship. Raph didn’t utter a word when you started to lean forward. Your hand slid from his cheek to his shoulder. He should have done something to stop you.

He told himself that maybe you just felt sorry for him, or got caught up in the moment. But with the fluttering of your eyelashes, and your plumpness or your deliciously rosey lips, how could he stop it. When he felt your soft breath brush his lips he came to his senses, placing his hands on your shoulders to halt you. It felt like a dagger to his chest, the hurt that was now reflected in your eyes. His head lowered, unable to speak with you watching him so sadly.

“You don’t have to do this just for me…” He fully expected you to pull back and storm off. Maybe even smack him across the face.

“Good thing I’m not doing it for you then.” His head shot up, eyes opening in confusion.

“What-” you darted forward, claiming his lips. Raph stiffened, hands hovering in the air.

He wasn’t sure what to do now. Were you really kissing him because you were...

“Shit..” he groaned. At some point you managed to slip into his lap. His hands found your waist. You were so small compared to him. Yet, the way you were kissing him, it wasn’t hard to tell who was in control. When he felt your fingers trailing down his chest he almost lost it. His hands tightened on your waist and you moaned, rocking your hips into him. Raph parted from the abrupt action, gasping softly. When he pulled away he could see the need in your eyes. This entire time he wanted to convince himself that this was a pity kiss. Nothing more. He poured a bit of his heart and you were just trying to offer comfort.

The need glowing in your usually innocent gaze, it certainly had nothing to do with pity. You were panting, but your eyes were still marking his slightly moist lips.

“Raph..”

Why did you have to say his name like that. His will power went right out the window.

“Is this my present?” he smirked at you, and you grinned.

“It’s one of them.” you whisper, wrapping your hands around his neck and going in for another long awaited kiss. “I don’t care how other people see you Raph, because to me you’re just...you.”

He didn’t feel like he needed much validation from the world right then. Because if you would continue to stare at him with such unfiltered want, then he could do anything.

This was the first birthday he really didn’t mind celebrating. Now he had many more to look forward to with you.

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twentiethcenturymoviesandtv · 4 years ago

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The Goonies: The Characters

No matter how good a story is, how great the cinematography, or how subversive the genre-usage, a movie cannot stand without use of characters.

Characters are perhaps the most vital element of any story ever told. An interesting plot helps a movie greatly, but without a use of compelling characters, it falls flat on an audience who doesn’t care about the well-being of the people pushing the story forward. Viewers need flawed, interesting people, moving the story and trying to overcome conflict, in order for a movie to feel satisfying.

Or, they can have a bunch of bickering children stumbling and screaming their way through caves, led by Head Goonie: Michael “Mikey” Walsh.

Only Sane Man Mikey is the glue of the group, bringing the Goonies together in an adventure, instead of just a bunch of kids hanging out in someone’s living room. He’s got the initiative, he’s the Determinator, and the Leader, and also, surprisingly, the Heart, in a rare combination. He’s the one jumping at the call, the Kid Hero armed with the Rousing Speeches in his desperate attempt to save the Goondocks. It would have been easy to make Mikey the most boring of the bunch, but he’s not, if anything, he’s the most interesting. He’s certainly the most inspiring.

Mikey is the driving force of the entire story. Despite the fact that he was reluctant to let his friends in the attic in the first place, once he’s there, he’s instantly pushing for his end goal. As much as Data is the inventor of the group, when you get right down to it, Mikey is probably the smartest of the bunch. It’s Mikey who figures out where they need to go, Mikey who leads the Goonies through the tunnels, Mikey who convinces them to persevere, to not ride up Troy’s bucket, to leave Willy’s private stash alone.

He’s dedicated to the point of almost insanity at times, judging from how Brand has to pull him back from going back after the treasure when the cave collapses. He’s also very interested in One-Eyed Willy himself, and acts like he knows him, or understands him, anyway.

“One-Eyed Willy. Hello. I’m Mike Walsh, you’ve been expecting me. Haven’t you? Well, I made it. I beat you. I got here in once piece. So far. So, that’s why they call you One-Eyed Willy. One-Eyed Willy. We had a lot in common, huh, Willy? You know something Willy? You were the first Goonie.”

Apparently, Mikey sees a little bit of himself in this pirate, perhaps as a fellow leader or adventurer, or even a fellow outsider.

Like I said, Mikey could have been the blandest character in the bunch: just filling in as ‘the leader’ of the group, but instead, he’s as quirky as they come.

Despite the fact that this is an ensemble film, with every character sharing about the same amount of screentime, Mikey is clearly the protagonist, no questions asked. He is the character with the goal here, and as much as it benefits everyone else, it’s clearly his mission, his quest. The others are just along for the ride. Mikey is the character the audience is meant to identify with the most: he gets the most insightful dialogue and we as viewers identify more strongly with him as a character.

Although he’s one of the last characters introduced to the audience, it’s very clear right away who the story is about based simply on the Protagonist Problem: basically, do they have one? And while it’s clear that the other Goonies aren’t happy about moving away, none of them are taking it as hard as Mikey is. He is, immediately, the character with a Problem, and he’s also the only one to jump at a solution.

He’s the idealist. He’s cool under pressure (for the most part). He easily takes charge, despite his tamer personality in comparison with the others, even over the older kids, and he’s nice to boot. His goals are easily defined, he’s active, going after his goals and overcoming obstacles, he seems to be the perfect protagonist, if it wasn’t for one thing…

Mikey never really changes.

Sure, he throws away his inhaler by the end, which could be interpreted as symbolic of development, but honestly, Mikey is very much the same kid at the end of the film that he was at the beginning. Same personality, same worldview…even the same goals, which is another big protagonist no-no.

Most great protagonists have goals that change from beginning to end of the film, as a sign of their own developing character, but Mikey never does. Instead, he ends the film getting exactly what he initially set out to get: enough money to save the Goondocks. Sure, he has the relatively minor goal along the way of ‘staying alive’, but in the grand scheme of narrative stakes, to Mikey, clearly the treasure is all that matters.

The question is…is this a bad thing?

Well…no.

The thing is, Mikey is only one in a group of seven main characters, and while some of them have more screen time than others, when you come down to it, that’s a lot of characters to balance, meaning a lot of dialogue split up, and a lot of audience focus divided. In other words: Mikey doesn’t get development because he doesn’t have time. There’s just too much going on for the audience to stack character growth on top of it.

While there’s not nearly enough time from a script perspective, there’s also just no time from a linear perspective, either.

The story of The Goonies takes place around, give or take, a day, and while there are a few stories where development is done over that time, (Such as 12 Angry Men, actually) the fact is, twenty four hours is a really short period of time to change who you are as a person, or even change your goals. It’s very difficult to cram in the story, the characters, and everything else in such a short time span, and heap a deep, meaningful character arc on top of it. There’s just no time.

So, does that damage the film?

Not really. Like I said in the genre article, The Goonies is a roller-coaster adventure of a film, without much in breaks. There’s a lot going on all at the same time, and honestly, in order to keep the pace up, it’s for the betterment of the film that they didn’t try to cram Mikey’s character development within.

To be fair, it’s not as though he doesn’t change at all. But he changes about as much as the rest of the cast do, in very similar ways: kind of like his brother.

Brandon “Brand” Walsh fills out the other side of the sibling dynamic between himself and Mikey, the older brother who gets annoyed with him, but is also supposed to be taking care of him. As much as he starts out the film looking like he’s at least trying to be an Aloof Big Brother, when the chips are down, his Big Brother Instinct comes out, protecting Mikey from actual danger. Beginning the film as somewhat of a Butt-Monkey, ending up Hoisted by his Own Petard in the form of his exercise equipment, at first, Brand looks like he’s not really going to be terribly involved in Mikey’s Goonie adventure.

In the end, though, Brand turns out to be One of the Kids. But for careful viewers, that’s not really a surprise.

Even Brand’s first scene, where he interacts with Mikey, it’s pretty clear that although there’s a bickering dynamic between them, there’s also sympathy and affection. Brand knows that Mikey doesn’t want to leave, he understands and he tells him so. He hugs him and brings him inside when Mr. Perkins comes by with the papers to sign over the house. And sure, Brand bullies him a little and shoves him around and Mikey repays the favor by tying him to a chair with his own exercise equipment and running off, but that’s typical sibling stuff, as anyone with siblings can tell you.

Although Brand does initially try to ‘take charge’ and occasionally gives the marching orders, in the end, he leaves most of the leading to Mikey, which is a little strange. Once or twice he takes over, and is the most protective of the group, but while he may do most of the ‘planning’ here, he lets Mikey’s goals and priorities take center stage for a while.

Brand’s other chief ‘item of note’ concerning characterization is, of course, his relationship with Andy.

It’s mentioned fairly early on into the film that Brand is supposed to go out with her, and we see her once or twice, but it isn’t until she and Stef show up to check on Brand that we get to see any of that relationship. It’s sweet enough, aside from them constantly choosing the wrong time and place to attempt a first kiss, with Brand taking a side-role of protector for Andy specifically, again, showcasing that defensive side that comes in handy for the rest of the group from time to time.

But there’s more to the Goonies than the Walsh kids.

Probably the most recognizable of the characters from The Goonies is Lawrence “Chunk” Cohen.

Chunk has most of the most memorable lines and scenes in the film, elevating himself in pop culture beyond simply the ‘Fat Comic Relief’ and klutzy, cowardly character that the movie seems to be pigeonholing him into at first. See, even though Mikey’s the one with the goal and character arc concerning the treasure, Chunk’s character arc revolves around the Fratellis.

Of all the Goonies, Chunk is the first one to get involved in the story. He is the first character we see indirectly interact with the villains of the story, when he spots the car chase, and by the end of the film, he is the character that has interacted with them the most, being drug around, interrogated, and locked up by them as a result of being left behind by the rest. Fittingly, his arc has very little to do with One Eyed Willy, and everything to do with the criminal family that he happens to fall into, to the point where they’re almost his arch-nemeses instead of the rest of the Goonies.

While an initial viewing could give viewers a very basic impression of Chunk as just the ‘token fat kid’ of the group, the fact is, he is one of the only characters who gets any real growth.

Chunk is established almost right away as the Boy Who Cried Wolf, a teller of tall-tales that have rendered him completely unbelievable to his friends and the local police force. By the time he has an actual story to tell, nobody around him is ready to buy it, and honestly, it’s hard to blame them. Some of his stories do sound ridiculous, and even the one that he’s telling now about the Fratellis would be hard to believe, if the audience didn’t know for certain that he was telling the truth. Of course, although he is able to feel vindicated when the Goonies discover he’s telling the truth, his tendencies to exaggerate backfire on him spectacularly when the police don’t believe he’s in trouble, and he’s left on his own.

Well, not quite on his own, but more on that in a minute.

Chunk primarily holds up the B-plot of the film on the villain’s side, arriving at the end to play hero and bail the rest of the Goonies out, proving to them, and then the rest of the authorities at the end, that this time, he was right, and proving his bravery after an entire film of attempting to chicken out. But as impressive as his last-minute heroism is, Chunk isn’t in this alone.

Despite being separated from the group fairly early on, sparing them from his complaints, hunger, and clumsiness, Chunk finds another ally in Sloth, the Fratellis’ brother, and befriends him, forming the ‘Brains’ to Sloth’s brawn, coming in to save the day and even adopting him at the end of the film.

Chunk is the most memorable Goonie, not just for the Hawaiian shirt and plaid-pants combo that he’s rocking, but because he has a lot of very memorable and iconic scenes, possessing a pretty unforgettable (and loud!) personality and an arc: from zero to hero, when nobody, not even his fellow Goonies, expected it, complaining through the entire early adventure, and overall displaying an overwhelming desire to Not Be Here, making it all the more impressive when he goes after them with Sloth to rescue them.

But there’s more to the Goonies than just the leader and the breakout role.

Clark “Mouth” Devereaux is not the easiest kid to get along with. A Deadpan Snarker Jerk with a Heart of Gold, Mouth is the member of the cast with potentially the most Meaningful Name: he never shuts up. A classic case of ‘With Friends Like These…’, Mouth comes across like the most antagonistic character in the film other than the actual villains at times, abrasive and loud, bullying the rest of the group and picking fights with Stef.

Unfortunately, Mouth’s…mouth, can get him into trouble. Quite often, in fact, like when he can’t let well enough alone and ends up getting threatened with having his tongue cut out.

With that said, though, Mouth does have his uses, and they’re not all to do with smuggling treasure in his most distinctive trait.

Fittingly, language is where he comes in handy: he’s the only one who can read (and speak) Spanish, leaving him as the obvious choice to translate the map, and also to translate the Walsh’s housekeeper’s exclamations that the treasure is not entirely lost. Without him, the treasure hunt is impossible.

Mouth may want the treasure as badly as the rest of them do, but he is far less idealistic than Mikey is about it. He’s the last of the kids to believe Mikey in the beginning, and while it can be chalked up to his overall personality, there is a dash or two of Hidden Depths implied about him, notably in the wishing-well sequence:

“Yeah, but you know what? This one, this one right here. This was my dream, my wish. And it didn’t come true. So I’m taking it back. I’m taking them all back.”

Armed with a comb and occasionally appearing as though he’s deliberately striking a pose in order to look cool, Mouth is actually one of the first to start falling apart when their lives are in danger, crying and panicking with the best of them. (Again, he’s only thirteen.)

Despite having the loudest personality, Mouth is content to let Mikey lead the group, hanging back and picking on all of them, but by no means not one of them.

There is, of course, one more thing of note about Mouth as a character, and that is his dynamic with Stef. The pair carry a belligerent tension, bickering and snapping at each other throughout most of the film before demonstrating genuine affection towards each other (with a deleted scene referenced involving Stef promising to keep Mouth alive when they get pushed off the plank). It’s a hint at something going on between them for sure, but it’s also a fairly good example of Mouth’s relationships with everybody: he’s a lot more bark than bite, irritating and loud for sure, but a loyal friend who’s more than ready to help you look for treasure, even if he doesn’t 100% believe in it at first.

Like the rest, he doesn’t change a whole lot from beginning to end, with the adventure perhaps simply knocking some of his cockiness away and even leaving him a little nicer, but again, just like Mikey, it’s hard to say: this is all over the course of one, very exciting day. More on that later, though.

After all, Mouth’s hardly the last Goonie of the bunch.

Richard “Data” Wang is the inventor of all things Awesome but Impractical, falling somewhere between Bungled Inventor and Gadgeteer Genius. The Smart Guy, Data is good with his Homemade Inventions for sure, but there’s a bit more to him than that.

While the other Goonies (especially Chunk and Mouth) can best be remembered for being annoying or clumsy, or dropping things, or talking too much or too loudly, or setting off booby traps, Data is actually pretty even-keel. He’s excitable, and he really doesn’t want to move to Detroit, but overall, he’s fairly content to be the least talkative Goonie, letting his Dynamic Entries speak for themselves.

He’s a smart kid, and he actually is the only one who one-ups the Fratellis at any time, using his inventions to trip them up and hurt them, after the same inventions saved his life earlier. Data certainly does have a flair for the dramatic (best seen when telling Mikey that he won’t be taken alive) and is an energetic kid, proving himself as reckless as the rest, but he has a good head on his shoulders. He’s the one who discovers the counterfeit machine, and it’s fairly safe to say that without him and his Slick Shoes, the Goonies probably wouldn’t have made it out alive.

Like the others, Data doesn’t change much – in fact, he probably changes the least. This could be due to the fact that again, this is all over the course of roughly 24 hours, but it’s also possibly just a side-effect of being the most even-keeled of the bunch: he’s quieter, and therefore, we hear less from him, meaning we see less of his flaws. Still though, Data’s a solid character, hugely entertaining, likeable, and memorable.

Now for the other outliers:

Andrea “Andy” Carmichael begins the story as first The Cheerleader and Dude Magnet, and then The Load. Clearly not used to this style of Goonie Adventure, Andy kind of becomes a Hysterical Woman throughout a good portion of the journey, needing to be comforted a few times in order to keep her head. It’s hard to blame her: between the skeletons, the guns, and getting locked in a tunnel is pretty frightening, but Andy doesn’t do a whole lot (especially early on, during her Heroic BSoD) and manages to not retain much of a personality throughout most of the film, chiefly appearing at first to serve as a token female character and to be in love with Brand.

But there is more to her than that.

Even early on, Andy demonstrates a little more backbone when she elbows Troy in the lip and ditches him to go find Brand, and although she initially just follows the Goonies to hang out with Brand (and then to escape the Fratellis), she ends up becoming one of them when she makes the choice to stay instead of riding up the wishing well, sending up his letterman jacket instead. It’s a big step for her, a demonstration of her true alliances (a deleted scene was to include her being sworn in as an official Goonie at this point, actually), and sets her up for the rest of the film as being more ready and willing to actively participate in the adventure.

Near the end, Andy has to come through to save everyone, as she’s the only one who can play the piano even a little bit, and it falls on her to play the bone organ in order to get them away from the Fratellis and towards the treasure.

Andy actually has some more growth than a few of the others: she steadies out and truly does change, becoming a true Goonie by the end of the film, proving herself more capable than when she began. Although she doesn’t seem to have a stake in the treasure, she’s just as determined by the end to get it, and celebrates with the rest of them by the end.

In a way, she shares that with the other Goonie outlier: Stef.

Stephanie “Stef” Steinbrenner doesn’t really seem to serve a whole lot of purpose within the story besides being another girl Goonie so there isn’t just one. She’s a friend of Andy’s, the Tomboy to her Girly Girl, who splits off to join her to find Brand and then ends up swept along with the rest of the adventure, and there doesn’t seem to be much more to her than that. She’s a Sarcastic Devotee, who feels Surrounded by Idiots: she trades snark with the best of them and tends to feel (rightfully so) that the people she’s around aren’t exactly geniuses. She’s loyal though, and sticks by Andy and the other Goonies until the end, proving just as determined to get to the treasure and get out alive as the others.

Stef serves as a reality check, another cynic who’s just as frightened as the rest of them, like Andy, without a stake in the final treasure, and while she’s never officially branded a Goonie, the implication by the end is clear. She sort of takes on a belligerent ‘big sister’ role throughout most of the film, and although she doesn’t have much of an arc, she is entertaining to watch, which honestly sums up the entire cast pretty well.

The characters of The Goonies do not exactly ‘grow’. There are small things: Andy’s growing courage, Chunk being finally right, Mikey’s growth as a leader, Data’s inventions being useful, Mouth taking some of his snarky edge off, and Brand being a better big brother, but honestly, these are very minor things in the grand scheme of the story.

The characters in The Goonies are not deep, whether it’s the actual Goonies themselves or the villainous Fratellis, who are mostly characterized by striking a balance between being comedic and being a genuine threat. There are no huge life-lessons being learned by these people, and they aren’t really doing a lot of growing so much as they are running for their lives.

In a film that is essentially a ‘roller coaster’, The Goonies is not designed to have seven major characters with fulfilling character arcs: like I said before, there’s simply no time. It’d bog the story down for each character to have a moment of growth, to change significantly from beginning to end. In this case, the best thing about the characters is actually their consistency from beginning to end: there’s little change, and as a result, the audience never has to recalibrate to something else going on within the story.

In other films, this would be a huge problem.

A feature-length film where there is no discernible character change is typically not a good call, but in this case, it works for multiple reasons. The story is too fast paced and focused on too much to allow for consistent breaks in plot that allow for character moments, and with the extremely short timespan, a big change would actually come across as forced and unrealistic. The characters are children forced into a tight spot, where their chief concern is their own lives. There simply isn’t the option open for development.

However, where the film lacks on ‘growth’ of characters, it makes up for in everything else.

The chief purpose of a character is to be there for the audience to like, to be invested in. There are actually plenty of films where characters don’t change a lot, classic movies that are well-liked because the characters, although unchanging, are hugely entertaining and interesting. Films like Back to the Future or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off don’t suffer from characters who don’t do any changing due to the fact that the main characters are fun to watch and have the audience’s attention and interest.

Which is just what The Goonies does.

Everyone can find a Goonie to relate to: the leaders, the loudmouths, the geniuses, the attention-seekers, everyone has a place here, and even adults who have hopefully grown out of some of the more immature kid-like behavior, there’s still the glimmer of familiarity in these kids. Like I mentioned before, we relate to these kids, and we want to see them win.

The Goonies as a story is designed to have simple, relatable characters for the audience to remember, and if that’s the goal, then it works perfectly. There are no deep characters with complex motivations here, and that’s a good thing: it fits the tone of the film consistently and coherently. Every character here is likeable in some way, memorable, for sure, and sticks with an audience enough that the audience wants to stick with them too, and wants them to succeed.

In the end, the characters of The Goonies make you care about them, make you root for them. They carry the story and do it all in a way that’s plenty of fun to watch, and when it comes down to it: that’s exactly what characters should do.

Whether you like or hate them, a character is there to make you care, and The Goonies certainly do their job. They leave a strong impact, and as a result, we remember these characters and their quirks long after the movie is over for a reason.

Join me next time where we’ll be looking at the 80s cultural impact on the creation of The Goonies. Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you in the next article.

#The Goonies #The Goonies 1985 #80s #1985 #Film #Movies #PG #Adventure #Comedy #Family #Sean Astin #Josh Brolin #Jeff Cohen #Corey Feldman #Kerri Green #Martha Plimpton #Ke Huy Quan #Richard Donner

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fossadeileonixv · 3 years ago

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Athletico 2 Milan 1

So close.

A brutal way to lose a game.

As usual front to back thoughts and ratings.

MAIGNAN 7 Hard to blame him on either goal. I know that’s a cop out thing to say but it’s true. Excellent once again in cleaning up balls in the back and distribution to the wings. late save on Felix was unreal.

CALABRIA 7 Good job holding down Carrasco as well as keeping an eye on Suarez lurking at the back post. Headed away several chances. Didn’t offer much going forward but had his hands full.

TOMORI 7.5 Excellent once again. It’s hard to find any fault in his game. Got better and better as AM circled closer and closer.

ROMAGNOLI 6 Played 83 great minutes and then shit the bed. Totally lost on the cross to Griezzman. Didn’t dive in, stick a leg out or anything. That has to be cleared man.

THEO 6.5 Good on offense and questionable at best on defense. Kessie’s first card, albeit a terrible call IMO, comes from covering for Theo. Plain and simple. Who’s that on Theo? Kessie? Pioli? Take your pick. No matter who you look at it covering for him has been an issue for about 18 months now and isn’t changing.

KESSIE 5.5 Let’s be honest, both calls were terrible. The first should be a warning. A yellow that early has to be for some completely egregious. A shirt pull is not that. The second is just 2 guys going for the ball. He doesn’t come through the player from behind or anything. Kessie also has to be super aware after that first card though. He can’t take any chances. He just had to at least get to the half for a sub. In short in 29 minutes he got 2 cards, was dispossessed twice and was easily the FOTM

BENNACER 8 Absolutely fantastic all game long, not only on the stat sheet but via the eyeball test. tackles, dribbles, clearances he did it all. repeatedly cut out attacks through the midfield. Really mad up for the poor showing at Anfield. Not a clue why he was subbed off.

SAELEMAEKERS 7.5 Similar to Bennacer was all over the place not only on the stat sheet but on the field. help keep the attack alive after going down to 10 men while also helping Calabria to bunker in. One of his best performances to date. Taken off just as he was getting tired and sloppy.

DIAZ and LEAO 8.5 co-MOTM Where in the world would we be without these 2 this year? 7 goals and 3 assists now between them in all competitions. Incredible work rate and effort to keep us not only in the game but to keep attacking while down to 10 men.

REBIC INCOMPLETE Had to be sacrificed after Kessie saw red. Probably a good idea since his mouth was probably gonna get him a red as well.

Subs

TONALI 7.5 Had this conversation with a friend before the game that went something like this.

friend: I see Kessie is starting

me: Is that a good thing considering his form?

friend: Good point. He’s been shit of late

me: Meh

Right now Tonali/Bennacer needs to be the double pivot. Kessie is now the odd man out.

GIROUD 6.5. Not much you can do in that spot besides hold up the ball and pray. Did have one half chance that almost became something.

BALLO-TOURE 6 He played. Not sure why.

FLORENZI 6 Got beat on the cross that led to the tying goal. Tried to make up for it by creating some chances late. Overall though a sub that made little sense.

KALULU 6.5 Saele was washed and had to come off. Kalulu came on and had a rough time. Totally caught ball watching on the tying goal. Made a beautiful defensive play before ultimately getting shafted on the handling call.

Coach

PIOLI

When he gets the subs right we look great. When he doesn’t we really suffer. let’s go sub by sub shall we?

SUB #1 TONALI for REBIC No brainer there. Down to 10 and needed another mid. We become a sort of 4221 where we can still apply pressure but also defend well.

SUB #2 GIROUD and BALLO-TOURE for DIAZ and LEAO I get Giroud coming on. You need that main guy up top to at least be a focal point to hold things up. I’m not sure I understand Ballo-Toure though. He’s barely played and when he has it’s not been great. I can’t believe I’m gonna say this, but i would have kept Leao on at LM for his work rate and defending. Shocking, right? Now though we have a 441 with no real creative and a LM in Ballo-Toure that’s playing out of position. Mikey no like. I hate guys out of position.

SUB #3 FLORENZI and KALULU on for BENNACER AND SAELEMAEKERS.

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I could understand Florenzi for Saelemaekers as he was clearly getting tired and Florenzi is a fine discount version of him.

Kalulu though? Bennacer OFF? Bennacer was fantastic. He could easily have been co-MOTM alongside Diaz and Leao. He was amazing. So you bring on a RB and move our RB into the midfield? No. NO. NO!! Our final lineup would look like this:

Kalulu-Tomori-R13 -Theo

Florenzi-Calabria-Tonali-Ballo-Toure

Giroud

You might be able to get away with that against Spezia but not against Athletic in the Champions League. Come on man. Just leave Calabria at RB and Bennacer in the midfield! Athletico saw that weakness and came right at it. Come on man. That can’t possibly be your finishing lineup in a game like this. Four backups across the midfield? No way. Credit to him he’s usually top notch at handling subs but not this day. He had those 5 subs burning a hole in his pocket and just couldn’t resist. He shit his pants late. There’s really no other way to put it. He gets a slight pass as we were down to 10 men.... but still. Ugh.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

- Still can’t believe Kondogbia didn’t get sent off for the two handed shove. That was trash.

- F Luis Suarez

- F the ref

- watching the replay of that PK call makes we want to puke.

FORZA MILAN!

Lisi

#IMIT

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writefasttalkevenfaster · 7 years ago

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Jack Mccoy (and Mike Logan) / Jealousy

Okay, so I have a little crush on both of these two, but can you blame me? So I concocted this idea after thinking about how interesting it would be to have the “reader” date someone from the police department who worked with Jack in the past, and the reader didn’t know. That’s where Mike Logan comes in. Enjoy!

Before you and Jack had started dating, the two of you had dated around quite a bit, much to the other’s slight discomfort and almost disdain. You both wanted the other to be happy, but it didn’t mean that you were happy without them. You had dated a variety of different men, all of whom you had either stood up, made excuses to, or canceled on at one point or another. You didn’t seem to care much about the dates you always seemed to lose. However, there was one notable exception. A few months before Jack and you began to date, you had been dating a police detective for about a month now. The only thing Jack knew about him that was his name was Mike. You had been speaking to Abby about him, discussing how well the relationship was going, much to Jack’s discomfort. Although he was happy for you, he couldn’t help but have an empty feeling inside.

Unfortunately for you, you were called on one of your cases to draft a last minute motion in order to get some relevant evidence reinstated. You had showed up at Jack’s door in a dark maroon dress with a simple jacket pulled over it. Your legs weren’t bare, with pantyhose pulled over it. Your lips were painted a similar red color to your dress, while your eyes were even more striking with eyeliner. You walked over, heels clicking. “Here’s my motion, just finished typing it up.” You sighed, checking the time.

“Did you miss your date with Mr. Perfect?” Jack quipped, and you gave a quick nod.

“Yes, I’m surprised you remembered. I didn’t think you were listening to me and Abby,” Jack wasn’t the type to pry into your personal matters, nor were you, unless the other was truly bothered by something. “We had tickets to go see a show, but I’m so late, I told him to go ahead without me.”

Your disappointment was written on your face, as you sighed, and Jack felt a moment of what if. What if this was his chance? He felt himself hesitate, but then he decided. He was going to do it. “Would you want to-” but there was a knock at the door. You snapped your fingers at that moment.

“Shoot, I left the other copy of the motion in Nora’s office,” You left to go grab it, as Jack went to open the door.

Jack blinked twice, as an old face emerged from behind the door. “Detective Logan?”

“Long time no see, counselor,” They shook hands, Logan keeping one hand behind his back. “Sorry, I think I got the wrong room, I was looking for someone else,” That’s when you reentered the room.

“Here’s the other copy,”

“Y/N,” He grinned, as you turned around, shock and delight written on your face as he pulled out flowers from behind him. “I guess I didn’t walk into the wrong office,”

“Mikey, what are you doing here?” You walked over, hugging him and a quick kiss on the cheek, before taking the flowers. Jack raised his eyebrows. Mikey? “They’re beautiful, but I thought I told you to go to the show. You spent so much on those tickets.”

“I rather spend the night with you than at some show without you,” Mike brushed your hair back, as you leaned into his touch. Jack felt a twinge of some feeling he pushed down, plastering a small smile on his face, before clearing his throat. You moved away from Mike, remembering that he was still there, but Mike grabbed your hand, engulfing it with his own. “Plus I got to see that you work for my old DA.” You turned from Mike to Jack, looking back and forth.

“You two know each other?”

“Detective Logan was Lennie’s old partner, before Detective Curtis,” Jack explained, leaning back in his chair. “I thought you got transferred to Staten Island,”

“He did, that’s actually where we met. Remember the Van Guard case?” You reminded him. It was a case of a missing wife who the husband had claimed was on vacation in Europe, though she had never gotten on her plane. He had claimed he had no idea where she could be, that was until her body showed up. “I had to go out to Staten Island when the body was found there, and I met Mike when he was on the job investigating the case when I was trying,” Jack nodded, recalling that particular case. He had actually spent a lot of late nights with you then, and there were a lot of times where it had crossed his mind again. The same damn thing he always did. The thing that he was known for. But he didn’t, and that’s when you started dating Mike.

Mike checked his watch, “We should go, I have reservations at Chez Nouveau tonight,” He said, much to your excitement.

“Shut up, really?” You turned to him, before beaming at Jack. “Do you want to join us, Jack?” Jack shook his head, waving you guys off.

“Go ahead, I have some work to finish up.” The two of you bid him farewell, and the door shut behind them. Jack couldn’t figure out what he felt at that moment. Was it sadness? Not quite. Anger? Not particularly. Then it occurred to him. Jealousy. He chuckled, turning back to his work. He had so much to do still.

#jack mccoy #jack mccoy x reader #jack mccoy x oc #law and order #law and order svu #law and order: special victims unit #law and order imagine #svu imagine #mike logan #detective mike logan #sam waterston #fanfiction #the original law and order

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prompt-master · 8 years ago

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My Hero

Anon asked: Michael is getting bullied, so protective boyf riend Jeremy steps in.

Anon asked: Jeremy hasn’t seen Michael all day and was texting him and stuff. So, lunch comes around and he can’t stop staring at his phone,when Jake nudges him and Jeremy looks up to see him nervously smiling with a black eye. (I know it’s stupid, but I dunno I just thought…)

I mean if by stupid you mean god damned brilliant cuz I love this with a burning passion and I wish I was a better writer to give it justice. Let’s get into it!!

‘Hey Mikey, wanna meet up at the caf before homeroom?’

‘Also can I hitch a ride to school?’

'Dude?’

'yo Mikey you aren’t skipping without me right?’

'Sorry for all the messages it’s probably annoying but where are yoh??’

’*you’

'Are you sick? Alarm not go off?’

Jeremy frowned at his phone, reloading the messages for about the tenth time to still find no response from Michael. The bus pulled up to him, and with a defeated sigh he climbed in. Alright Jeremy just do like you always do, stare at your feet and sit alone in the front of the bus. Easy peasy. Jeremy plopped himself down into a sticky cold seat, and leaned his head against the shaking window as he pulled out his headphones, eager to drown out noise. Once he played some random dog from his playlist he reloaded his messages once again.

No new messages.

He hoped Michael was ok. He was the kinda guy who responded almost instantly to texts, as people with no life tend to do. Jeremy’s the same but only to Christine and Michael, otherwise he just casually forgets he was even texting you and responds a week later. But Michael isn’t that kind of guy. Was he ignoring him? Shit. What if he was having an anxiety attack? Since the incident last year Michael had had more and more trouble with his anxiety. He didn’t want Jeremy’s help though, something about needing to get over a dependency problem. But Jeremy still wanted to help his best friend be ok. Jeremy tugged at the sleeve of his shirt, stretching out the fabric. Jeremy’s fingers moved to reload the page again, when a buzzing similar to the shaky vibrations of the bus went off in his hand. Jeremy’s face out up and his shoulders instantly relaxed, Michael.

'Hey sorry man :( I got distracted lol, can still give ya a ride tho’

Jeremy sunk into the bus seat with a smile unconsciously crossing his face, his long legs curled up uncomfortably to dig into the seat in front of him. Another reason Jeremy picked the very front seat, he always worried the person in front of him would be set off by him sitting like this. He knows the person behind him is annoying the shit out of him, knees digging in and out of Jeremy’s spine.

'Its cool man, already on the bhs’

’*Bus’

Jeremy tapped his finger to the side of his phone alone with his music, he liked the texture of his phone case. For a moment he began to day dream when his phone buzzing cut him off, he was glad Michael was back into his usual texting habits. Jeremy was just letting paranoia get the best of him that’s all. He let that bad feeling go right down the drain as he messaged Michael.

'Sorry dude, I’ll see ya at school tho!’

'I’d hope so. So what were you distracted with??’

For a moment the typing symbol came up and Jeremy watched it for a moment, expecting the next reply to come fast. But then it disappeared. And reappeared. Then disappeared again. That’s weird.

'Porn.’

Jeremy snorted through his nose at the blunt response. He gripped onto his backpack strap with one hand and texted with the other as he got off the bus and walked towards the senior cafeteria, where his new friend ground would be.

'Dude. Relatable.’

’:P’

Jeremy gave his phone a fond smile before sitting down in his designated seat. Well ok he was never told he had to sit there but you know, unspoken seating charts and all. Jeremy placed his phone in his lap as Rich came over and slammed his hand down on the table.

“Morning Hetero!!”

Jeremy lifted his hand in an awkward semi-wave, “Hey Rich.”

Inbetween talking to Rich, Jeremy would look down and text Michael. Rich teased him once or twice but Jake eventually came and his attention was diverted. Jeremy half listened to the conversation as more people flooded in, something about if you’d kiss a snake for money. At some point someone, pretty sure it was Rich, said “Well Jeremy’s a furry so we know his answer”

But at the moment that ridicule wasn’t on his mind. He lifted his head and scanned his friend group, watching them all talk with way too much happy and ease for late 7 AM. Everyone was there besides…Michael. He huffed a little and went back to texting, his neck awkwardly bent down in a horrific display of bad posture.

'where you at? You said you’d be here??’

Again the typing symbol stuttered. Going up and down, in and out. Jeremy felt his jaw move to left in thought.

'Sorry, traffic.’

'Woah wait dude have you been texting me while driving?’

Jeremy suddenly got a string of messages, something Michael tended to avoid for fear of annoying someone.

'What??’

'No! No! Nono’

'Traffic man. Don’t worry I’m safe n shit.’

Jeremy sighed, 'ok…see you at lunch I guess?’ Seeing as the bell for homeroom just rang.

'Yeah man. Lunch. I can still text tho. Promise.’

That was essentially how the rest of the first half of the day went. He texted Michael throughout classes, and found himself disappointed that he wouldn’t get to walk the hallways with him. Christine had seen him walking alone with his phone in hand. She went over and walked with him, so at least he wasn’t alone. He still missed Michael though, as nice as overanalyzing musical numbers with christine was.

Soon lunch rolled around and Jeremy was still glued to his phone. It was strange without being able to turn and talk to Michael every two seconds. So he sat there with his best bed through his phone, absorbing all the interaction he could get. Every now and then someone would ask him a question and he’d numbly nod in response as he reloaded his messages again.

“Jeremy, your gay is showing.” Rich suddenly said, leaning forward to peak over Jake who was sitting on Jeremy’s right side.

Jeremy looked up from his phone, “w-what?”

“Stop texting your future boyfriend and talk to us dude. Tell Christine that I’d kick her ass if the hunger games was real.”

Jeremy rolled his eyes but smiled anyway, “sorry Christine, but you’re too nice.”

She gave a…slightly concerning laugh, “what if that’s just my secret weapon?”

“Chrstine the other day you cried because we passed by an animal shelter and you wanted adopt them all.” Chloe said, looking up from her lunch.

“They don’t have homes! Haven’t yojcseen those commercials!!”

Jeremy let the conversation fade out as he focused on the one with Michael through his phone. After a bit of waiting he felt his paranoia bubbling too high and was about to ask where he was when an elbow his the side of his chest. Jeremy jumped up and looked at the source, Jake, who was staring at him with concerned eyes.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow, “what’s wr….” He voice trailed off when he saw Jake’s eyes move from him to a figure sitting across from him with a slight nod towards them. Jeremy followed and- shit.

Jeremy feels bad about it looking back but just wasn’t able to stop the gasp that came out of his mouth. His eyes held the attention of Michael’s figure, his eyes polish and unable to look away. What had Jeremy’s attention? Michael’s face, which held a very clearly nervous smile that Jeremy’s staring wasn’t helping with. Michael’s smile twitched a bit as he sat down, silently waiting for Jeremy to react. But more importantly than the anxious look in his eyes was his right eye. It was blue and purple and swollen so badly that Jeremy had to wonder if he could he even see through it.

“Michael holy shit!” He yelled. The rest of the table was already looking over Michael all of them holding their own worried expression.

“Dude what happened?!”

“I uh…jacked myself off so hard that I punched myself in the face?” The way Michael couldn’t meet Jeremy’s eyes said it all though, that awkward side shrug as he tilted his head down. It looked like Michael wanted to run away. The way all this came along was proof enough he was lying.

Christine was getting an ice pack out of her lunch box. She gently moved Michael’s glasses and ignored his little, “I’m fine Chrissie” in favor of gently holding it to his eye. Michael smiled and held it there himself.

Jake then spoke up, “Dude is someone messing with you? Cuz crutches make a good weapon I’ll beat their ass”

Michael instantly waved his hands around in defense “no no! It’s fine really!”

Jenna frowned, propping herself up on her elbow, “…michael that was pretty defensive are you sure-”

“Yeah! Look I know it looks bad but it’s just a bruise.”

Jeremy then answered, “yeah it looks bad! It looks really bad!”

Michael smiled at his worry, “it’s ok jer…can we just eat?”

Jeremy sighed, his phone now I’m his pocket as he poked his…uh…mashed potatoes? With a fork. He’d ask Michael about this more later.

“Oh and Jenna I swear if everyone finds out about my black eye ill-”

“Lips are sealed jeez. So rude.”

–

Later Jeremy had decided enough was enough. Michael was still avoiding meeting up with him between classes and now he knew this morning’s “traffic” was a lie too. So all this lie was obviously to cover up the injury, Jeremy could put two and two together. But more important why did he hide it? Jeremy picked at his skin as he felt his mind race with an awful list of possibly scenarios, the best being jerking off too hard. Either way Jeremy couldn’t take it anymore, he wasn’t going to let this spiral into a bad situation so he went straight to Michael’s last period class when the bell rang. He hoped to catch him, hitch a ride, and then ask what really happened. Michael always felt calmer and expressed his feelings more in the car. It was like a theraPT-cruiser.

Jeremy rehersed lines of how to ask Michael in the least anxiety inducing way when he heard the slam of a locker. He turned his head to find a tall blond shoving Michael against a locker. Jeremy isn’t make it out over the buzz and fuss of the hallway, but he knew the guy was yelling down at Michael. Michael glared up at him defiantly and fixed the headphones on his ears, cringing at the yelling. That is until they were yanked off his head forcefully, Michael’s phone falling out of his pocket as the bully pulled it away.

Jeremy clenched his fists at his side, feeling red hot anger and an overwhelming sense to protect come alive from inside him. He wished then that he was Jake or Rich and could right. Or one of the popular girls with enough cred that they could look at a guy wrong and make them stop. Jeremy was just Jeremy. But damned if he was him sit by and let this happen. Just as the guy yelled “I’m fucking talking to you” and threw Michael’s headphones to the ground before stepping on them, Jeremy felt a surge of courage.

“Hey!”

The bully froze and turned to Jeremy, looking confused before his brown eyes turned into a dirty glare. Jeremy felt himself flinch, he watch Michael’s worried and scared eyes scan him. His face told Jeremy to run away. But instead Jeremy stood up straight as he was trained to last year.

“Y-Yeah! I’m talking to you!” He marched forward, glaring up at the guy.

The certified shit field laughed and looked at Michael, “Well look who’s come to join us!”

Michael flinched and pulled on the strings of his hoodie, “no wait…you..you said you wouldn’t bother him remember?”

Jeremy allowed himself a moment of shock, was Michael allowing himself to be bullied for him? Thats fucking stupid. Heroic and touching, but stupid. The guy shrugged and lifted his fist again. Jeremy moved so fast he didn’t even realize how he reacted until someone explained. He had thrown himself in front of Michael and held out his arms pritectivly. Jeremy can remember the rush going through him at that moment. In a brilliant decision he gave a swift kick right to the guys crotch, laughing awkwardly as he fell like a rock.

Michael’s hand dragged him away from the scene quickly, both of them ignoring the yells of “I’m gonna kick both of your geek asses to hell!”

When they were alone Michael grabbed onto Jeremy’s sleeves “Dude that was amazing! Thank you so much.”

“That guy….did he..is he the one who?”

Michael nodded with an apologetic smile

“Why was he fucking with you?”

Michael sighed and looked away, staring down at the dangling headphones he had dragged along.

“Michael tell me.”

“He uh… I guess he’s a old ex friend of Jake’s and heard it was your fault he stood up on his legs at the play? And like…he’s been pissed since.”

Jeremy’s eyes widened “…since..?”

Michael waved his hands “it’s ok it’s ok! He only found out a month ago and I told him to leave you alone and it worked until well…yesterday.”

Jeremy frowned, “so when you were late this morning”

Michael sighed and rubbed a finger on his face then showed it to Jeremy, allowing him to see the faint residue of make-up, “I was trying to cover it up”

“And avoiding me all day?”

“…” Michael kicked his foot a little, his eyebrows quirking downward, “didn’t want you to worry…”

“Michael I…you gotta tell me about this stuff!”

“I know…”

“I just care”

Michael smiled this time, “I know…thanks.”

Both of their eyes turned to the smashed up headphones on the floor. “Well I guess those are busted.”

Jeremy nodded, “sorry man…”

“Its ok..” Michael swung an arm around Jeremy, smiling as he led him to his car, “I still have the minions ones you got me for my birthday!”

After the two of them winded down and were left to their houses they instantly pulled out their phones. Both of them allowed themselves to fall into this familiar fast reply daze, and Jeremy couldn’t have felt happier when Michael sent him a goodnight message followed by “my hero" and a heart emoji.

#be more chill #bmc #boyf riends #fanfic #sorry this is garbage

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spectrumscribe · 8 years ago

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aftershock.

because literally no one showed any sort of concern about Mikey having basically died for a little while there, and then sacrificed himself so they could all get to safety, i present you all a How Things Should Have Gone fic for post-When World’s Collide. i will have family hurt/comfort dammnit even if i have to do it myself

The moment Mikey steps into the lair, his brothers sweep him off his feet and plant him on the couch.

Mikey is still kind of discombobulated from disintegrating his atoms over and over- that had been such a head rush- and doesn’t quite register what just happened until his nunchucks are being taken away from him.

“Um, guys?” Mikey asks, squirming a little as he’s relieved of his weapons. Aw no, there goes his favorite throwing knives, too. Not cool.

“If you move from this couch, so help me god, Mikey,” Donnie says in his scariest doctor voice.

“Um??”

“I’m getting blankets and pillows,” Raph says, disappearing with Mikey’s belt and weapons. Still not cool, he tends to feel better with them in reach.

“Tea, sandwiches,” Leo says shortly, disappearing similarly but towards the kitchen.

Donnie starts poking and prodding all over Mikey’s body and he is just so, so confused.

“Okay, what the fuck is happening.”

“You nearly died, dipshit,” Donnie says, still in scary doctor mode. “Hold still so I can give you a full body checkup before I end up needing to do an autopsy.”

He starts pinching bits of Mikey’s body. “How much sensation are you getting right now?”

“Ow, all of it, god. Stop pinching- ow!”

“Your nervous system seems to still be intact. Good.”

“No shit, genius,” Mikey grumbles, and Donnie gives him a flat glare for that.

“I lost sensation in majority of my nerve endings for over five hours after I was disintegrated,” Donnie says in an even flatter tone. “I’m checking to see if your post-disintegration status is anything similar.”

Oh. That puts some of Donnie’s urgency in perspective.

Mikey stops complaining as he lets Donnie finish the checkup. It’s still a little weird, though. Getting so much attention like this, and he’s not even bleeding anywhere. Just some cuts here and there and feeling a little drained. All the psycho energy he’d had earlier is gone.

Being filled to the brim with electricity had been like chugging twenty energy drinks and then adding pure adrenaline to that. It’d felt like he was on top of the world, like he could do anything- even if every time he used his powers it made the edges of his body get blurry, and every time he teleported it made his heart do something just on the side of painful.

Maybe there’d been something to Bishop saying it could do long-term damage to him. Hm.

Mikey thinks about that, the pros and cons of staying the electro-turtle, while Donnie sits back with an exhausted sigh.

“Okay, you seem normal enough, and Bishop’s gun should have pulled the excess energy out of your body. I’m assigning you three nights of downtime; no training, no patrolling, and no practicing backflips off the pool ledge.”

“Aw what. Dee, I’m not hurt or nothing. I barely need a bandage.”

“Doctor’s orders, and you’re going to follow through with them even if I have to sit on you the full three days.”

The look in Donnie’s eyes makes it seem like he really would do that. On the one hand, aw, he cares so much. On the other hand, lame.

Mikey then finds the lair a lot darker than normal, as a blanket descends over his vision.

What.

There’s a bunch of soft thumps all around him, and also on him. Said soft thumps are indeed very soft and feel like the pillows Raph promised.

“Move over, idiot, I need to arrange this right.”

What is happening.

Mikey gets his vision back, shoving the blanket off his face, just in time to be lifted up by Donnie and hoisted off the couch. He yelps, and grabs his brother’s shoulders as Raph bustles in to start pulling the couch cushions onto the floor.

“Oh my god,” Mikey says, wrapped awkwardly in a blanket and Donnie’s arms both. “What is even going on.”

“Put him down here,” Raph directs, and Donnie sets Mikey right in the center of the massive pillow-cushion pile. It’s warm and comfy, and Raph throws like five blankets on top of him right after. Then sits himself down on Mikey’s left side while Donnie goes to the TV.

Wait a second. This all feels familiar.

Didn’t they do the same thing, but with Donnie instead, right after he got disintegrated?

“Am I being aggressively cared for right now?”

“Yes. Shut up and accept it.”

Mikey laughs. “Oh my god, Raph. I’m fine. You’re all overreacting soooo badly right now-”

Raph growls at him, and puts a hand on Mikey’s blanket covered plastron to shove him deeper into the pile.

Mikey laughs again, and accepts the forced action of snuggling. “Okay, shutting up now.”

“Good.” is all Raph replies with. And, ugh, he got to keep his weapons but not Mikey? Unfair.

Leo comes back out of the kitchen, pushing through the curtains with a plate of sandwiches and a platter of mugs. He sees how Mikey has been bundled into being the turtle-burrito, and nods at Raph and Donnie like this is exactly what’s supposed to be happening.

Mikey’s brothers are all ridiculous. He’s fine. So he kind of lost his physical form for a bit there- no biggie! He reached out- which had hurt, it had hurt a lot and it’d been the kind of hurt you feel with your mind, body, and soul- and pulled all his molecules back together into a Mikey-shape. Then he’d gone to the place that had the most people who felt like his family, and shoved his way back into reality.

And then ta-da, one electro-turtle at your service.

His brothers were so overreacting, he’d only been in itty-bitty pieces for what, like a half hour tops? Maybe he’d nearly lost sight of who he was in that half hour, and maybe he’d had a really hard time finding every single piece of himself in all the other scattered pieces lost in the weird halfway dimension he’d been trapped in, and maybe it’d hurt like hell to bully his way back to life and his family-

-and okay maybe it was all hitting him right this second how fucked up his evening had gotten. Okay. Breathing is a little hard all of a sudden.

Hhhhhhhhhhhhh and that would be the shock ending. Oh boy.

“Mikey?” Leo asks, stepping close to him and Raph with his food tray.

Mikey has lost the will to raise his head. He settles for staring at the ceiling and making a short wheeze sound.

“He’s coming out of shock,” Donnie narrates from his fussing with the television.

“Right,” Leo says. He lowers the platter to Raph’s level. “Give him this.”

Mikey gets a sandwich and a mug pushed into his hands, and a firm instruction to eat the damn things from Raph.

Mikey eats the sandwich and drinks all the tea, suddenly feeling like he’s starving. His last meal was forever ago, and he burned probably every calorie he had just by coming back to life. The last time he slept also seems to be forever ago, and he’s got all his exhaustion catching up with him all at once.

So maybe his brothers making a big fuss about him is a little warranted.

“Could have told you that,” Raph says, because Mikey is apparently speaking out loud without noticing it.

Mikey laughs shakily, and burrows a little deeper into the comforting sensation of pillows pressed around him. He remembers still how it felt to have no physical boundaries between him and the free floating molecules of the world. What it was like to have no substance.

The blankets and pillows are a good level of weight to combat those sensations. So is Raph’s bulk beside him.

Mikey counts ten slow breaths and focuses on them.

Better.

Donnie takes a place on Mikey’s free side, slumping into place and securing another peg to Mikey’s reality. Leo ends up between Mikey’s feet, reclined and a solid weight on the blankets over Mikey’s legs.

Even better, he’s covered on all sides now and feels like he couldn’t dissipate if he tried.

The film The Grand Buhdapest Hotel starts up on the television, and that adds to the good feelings steadily surrounding Mikey. They all love this movie, because it’s ridiculous and bizarre in ways even they aren’t.

They get through the first act of it, before someone breaks the silence.

“That was ten times scarier from the outside,” Donnie says quietly, right next to Mikey’s ear slit. “You guys never told me how scary that really was.”

Mikey’s got most of his sense of control back, and shrugs nonchalantly. “You never told me how freaky it is to lose sense of who you are.”

“Neither of you know how terrifying it is to see it happen twice,” Leo says, leaning his head on Mikey’s kneecap.

“And you three don’t know how painful it feels to see one of you guys sacrifice yourselves for the billionth time,” Raph says bitterly. “No more of that shit, okay? We’ve lost enough people as it is.”

Their father’s absence looms for a brief moment, as that grief still tends to. It’s been a long while, but that sensation of loss just never seems to completely leave.

“No more disintegration,” Leo adds. “Ever.”

“Agreed,” Donnie mumbles, turning his head into Mikey’s shoulder. “No more sacrificing ourselves and no more disintegration. That means you too, Mikey. Okay?”

Mikey thinks about how it felt to havean entire ship blow up around him and his physical form go with it.

He thinks about how it got his family to safety, and then thinks he’d do it all again no matter what it cost him.

Then he thinks of one of his brothers or friends in his place, and the hole his father left widens just at the thought of losing one of them.

He couldn’t do that twice. Couldn’t bury a family member again. It’s an unrealistic thing to think he can prevent forever, but… not so soon. He couldn’t take it again so soon.

“No more of those sounds good to me,” He agrees.

He lays his head on Donnie’s, like Raph has put his head on Mikey’s other shoulder and Leo’s remains on Mikey’s knee- and sighs.

Shock and post-shock are over. Now he’s just plain tired.

Feels not too bad, surrounded by care and stubborn affection like he is.

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thelostandforgottenangel · 7 years ago

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School - Part 2

AU for TMNT 2k16 where mutants are the majority species and human’s are less seen or treated badly if not in authority role

~~Just so nobody is confused my versions of Splinter, Yoshi, and Oroku were friends from childhood (This does include Shen) all four went to school all the way through college together... they all knew each other well~~

Please enjoy this next part sorry it took me so long to post, it took me a while to retype a few things

~Adjustments~

Raven couldn’t relax no matter how hard she tried and an hour later of trying to go to sleep after the house had gone quiet the teen was still wide awake

She sat up leaning against the wall in the silence clearing her mind before finally moving off the bed stepping into the hall checking to see if the guys were still up before she went into the living room sneaking past the doors closing both after seeing they had gone to bed pushing the coffee table out of the way doing her katas knowing it would calm her down enough she might just be able to fall asleep pretending she could hear her dad’s voice talking to her, slowly coaching the teen through the movement losing track of time as the hours slipped by until someone cleared there throat behind her

She turned to find all of the guys behind her watching as she moved through the motions of the workout Master Splinter had taught her to do when she had been a kid every day before training “I’m sorry did I wake you” they looked between each other sharing a small worried expression before Leonardo shook his head

“Raph got up to check on you when his alarm went off he woke me when he found you weren’t in your bed, we just wanted to see if you were okay. Started to worry but we saw you were already up”

She smiled going to take a step so she was standing upright “Aw you were worried about me… I’m sorry I train early in the – OW!” the sudden movement made her jump as the sharp bolt went up her leg making her lift it feeling the discomfort from the sudden movement limping forward seeing Raph had jumped over the couch as Donnie stepped closer letting her lean on him before he pulled up the pants leg seeing her ankle was swollen almost twice the size it should have been “Danm”

“How long have you been walking on this… looks like you twisted it pretty bad?”

She looked at it trying to think back since she hadn’t felt it earlier guessing the pain pills Raph had given her were just now wearing off “I - it was only hurting after one of those morons kicked me in class… but it’s just now bothering me I swear”

“Oh we wouldn’t want you to swear” he smiled helping her over to the couch grabbing some bandages as he felt around the area before wrapping it tightly “I’m surprised you’ve been walking on it since yesterday. It doesn’t look too bad just a small sprain so try to take it easy today”

“I’ll see what I can do but can’t make any promises doctor” he chuckled as Mikey moved towards the kitchen as Donnie helped her to the table sitting her down before Leo came back placing an ice pack over the area that was wrapped looking her over as he examined her face with a small grin

“Well the swelling went down and it looks like you’ll heal up in no time. You hungry Mikey was talking about making you an extra special breakfast since it is your first day officially living with us? He wanted to try to make today better than yesterday was for you”

“Oh I know! I’ll make her my extra special fluffy blueberry pancakes with chocolate caramel drizzle, whip cream, and rainbow sprinkles… and I’m sure Donnie will share his coffee”

She swallowed hard drawing the biggest turtles attention as she looked around the room avoiding Leo’s eyes almost seeming nervous that they were being so kind to her “Oh well that’s so nice… but I’m okay for now, I have P.E. first period and I’m not feeling all that well - I didn’t want to eat a lot since I’m not in the mood for getting sick this morning if the teacher runs me ragged”

They all turned around looking worried as she tried to get up holding her foot up slowly putting her weight on it looking back at the youngest turtle seeing his face had fallen into a small pout that pulled at her heart “Oh Mikey you know I never liked that face…” she limped over giving him a big hug feeling him return it before she had to pull back pinching his cheeks getting a small grin out of him remembering something similar from when she was a child “Tell you what, let’s settle for toast and a cup of coffee today – but tomorrow I don’t have class until eleven so you can make me the biggest breakfast you want and I won’t say a word – deal?”

He mulled it over for a moment before smirking scooping her up in his arms planting several kisses on her cheeks putting her back in the chair propping her foot back up “You run a hard bargain but I’ll take it babe, how do you take your coffee… Please don’t tell me you take it extra black with a pound of sugar like Donnie”

She giggled as Donnie thumped him in the head sitting down at the end of the table with his computer and a giant mug of the wonderful smelling liquid pointing for her to sit back down when she tried to get up “If it’s okay I’ll make mine just fill a mug three fourths a way with coffee and bring me the milk, chocolate syrup mix… and if you have it some creamer” he nodded with a small bow to her disappearing into the kitchen coming back a minute later with his plate and a coffee cup

“Thanks Mikey” he sat down watching as she assembled her coffee so he would know how to make it next time as Leo sat down a plate in front of her reaching over pulling two pieces of bacon off Raph’s plate winking at her while the biggest turtle wasn’t looking

She looked away from him when his eyes met hers fast “Really Leo”

“What fat ass? You have a pound of bacon on your plate she has a piece of toast just let her have them” she ducked her head as Mikey exploded in laughter as his golden eyes met hers as she picked them up placing them back on his plate without a word

“Kid I was playing ya can have some – it was a joke”

“It’s okay I didn’t want any today” he looked slightly ashamed as the teen took a bite of her toast sipping at her coffee silencing her stomach as it growled loudly catching their attention but she didn’t look up tearing off small pieces of bread until her coffee was gone

“You want something else Rave…? If you’re still hungry I could make you more toast”

“Nope I’m good” she hurried off to her room before they could ask her anymore questions being extra careful to not turn her foot a certain way finding as long as she moved with caution it didn’t hurt so bad getting dressed finding her jeans were clean meaning one of them must have washed them

She pulled on her hoodie heading out of the room to see Raph already dressed leaned against the wall across from her room waiting “C’mon kid I’m gonna walk ya down since we got the same class with Leo. He’ll meet us down stairs in a bit”

“You don’t have to…”

He sighed pointing down the hall with a small eye roll following her as soon as she moved “Just go I didn’t ask I said I was going to walk ya down”

She waved to the others getting another big hug from the more affectionate younger turtle before they both were out the door, he strolled next to her as she walked with a little limp staying at his side as they moved down the stairs until she couldn’t feel it anymore and was able to walk normally with just the smallest twinge every now and then guessing she just needed to stretch it out

Raven kept her head down as they walked past a few guys she had seen outside last night before they had jumped her hearing a few snicker “Well good morning… How did ya sleep last night Freak?”

They all fell silent as the two moved past them, she didn’t say anything but she saw Raph shift letting her scoot closer to the wall so she could hold onto the rail before shooting the guys from the football team a look when they started to make fun of her when they saw how tore up she was; hearing a low growl from him they shut up quickly falling back a few feet from the massive turtle

“So what classes ya got today?” she looked up seeing he was trying to start a conversation as they made it down to the yard seeing him stretch taking a deep breath of the morning air cracking his neck

The teen was going to answer before she saw her other shoe laying in the center of the yard where she had gotten jumped sliding it into her bag as they started walking down the street seeing that even though classes had started there were still a few stragglers amongst the early risers who were jogging down the sidewalk, Raph coughed trying to hide a smile as a girl stumbled past them carrying her shoes wearing a short sparkly dress as she headed for the apartments to the left of them, he chuckled looking down at her “The dreaded walk of shame…”

She elbowed him in the side giggling “Oh like you’ve never taken it before” he shrugged with a smug grin walking through the gates shaking her head before looking up as a football almost hit her; Raph had been about to move but almost as if it were second nature she brought a hand up fast grabbing it in midair turning her hips as she tossed it back hard knocking one of the guys down as he caught it to the side of his head looking shocked as he laid there

“Oh – sorry… I thought you could catch numbnuts”

His eyes were wide as she looked back to him her face completely calm as he regarded the young woman at his side once again surprised by her “Danm… that’s one hell of an arm ya got” he grinned at her one of those rare bright glimpses of his childish side she could recall from the early days when they had last seen one another and that somehow made her relax completely as they continued down the walk “Never seen a girl throw like that before - so what classes ya got again kid?”

He hoped she couldn’t tell just how nervous he was around her, feeling something deep in his chest that made him want to continue to push her away yet at the same time he wanted to protect the girl even if he knew she was capable of protecting herself after yesterday – it had been bothering him all night which was probably why he had repeatedly checked on her until he had finally passed out a few hours before they had to be up

Something about her just seemed to keep drawing him in closer

“Well there’s P.E. and my martial arts class this morning, then I have an engineering class around noon then I think I get lunch around two forty five followed by a free period before art class at six-thirty. I was going to sit and watch the football practice but-” a soft quiet laugh from her had him focusing on every word that was coming from her lips trying his damndest not to look at her “I don’t want to get ya’ll in anymore trouble” he smiled as Leo jogged up tossing him a brown lunch bag before he got to them seeing the guys across the yard looking at their friend who had yet to get off the ground and staring at the teen

“What did you do Raph?”

“This time I promise it wasn’t me Fearless” The oldest turtle rolled his eyes as another boy yelled for his friend to go long before he threw the ball curving it low to where it would hit the girl standing at his side barely moving before Raph reached out pulling her towards him and snatching the ball before it could hit her holding it up slightly before giving it one good squeeze popping it like it was nothing “That was me”

They walked to the football field sharing a small laugh as he tossed the ball to the guy who had thrown it seeing the girl was slightly confused as they lead her to the sports ground “We’ll be meeting at the field since today is so nice. If it’s raining coach makes all of us meet in the gym but on good days we get to be outside”

A girl ran up waving to the two guys handing her a pair of black shorts and a green shirt but seemed completely focused on the two men at her sides “Hey Leo… Hi Raph – um new girl, these are yours Coach Gwen asked me to get them to you so get dressed before she gets here and we’ll get started”

“Oh - okay” the teen nodded moving over to the locker rooms going into the girls changing quickly pulling her shoes on before walking out setting her bag down in the bleachers by Raph and Leo’s before looking up at them “Is it me or is this a little… you know, short and - tight”

They turned looking her over as both their mouths dropped seeing Raph’s eyes widened when he saw she had filled out the uniform making her chest stick out “Holy… Uh – well, no ya look great in it kid. Looks perfect on ya”

“Liar… I’m going to ask for something different and way longer I don’t like this – rather sweat my ass off then look like a skank bunny”

They shot her a grin before a whistle blew and the girls started lining up giving her two quick thumbs up as she ran to get out on the field jumping over the railing landing carefully on her unhurt ankle hearing Leo laugh as Raph sighed

“Good god praise the lord!” she looked over as a few guys turned to watch her as she bolted past them when Coach Saki came out onto the field seeing both her friends getting up to go change

Raven could feel their eyes on her as the bruises she had hidden were now in the open with a few scars and new cuts that had recently appeared as they stretched out doing a few quick exercises and several stretches before they were given the choice to either play soccer or football with the guys, running the track, or could go participate with the cheer group doing flips and drills before everyone dispersed into groups

She headed over to meet Raph and Leo as they got back to the other side of the field having just finished their workout seeing three other girls join the group giggling as they looked at all the boys, she felt her face heat up slowly as Raph ripped his shirt over his head as she stepped closer to him taking notice that they were mostly looking at the turtles next to her “Alright guys its shirts verses skins, Tony ya can pick first”

“Do you think maybe - I could play?”

He glanced over shrugging as he nodded stepping back to stand next to the short human girl crossing his arms over his chest “Yeah that’s fine by me as long as ya feel up to it kid”

Coach Saki must have heard them because he was next to her fast making her jump closer to the two turtles seeing Leo move forward so he was in front of her but it didn’t stop the man from glaring at the teen “I will not allow a woman to play with my boys… especially one who seems to have a knack for getting into trouble” the teen returned his look seeing he was ignoring the fact that there were other girls standing in the back

“Coach let her play she’s got one hell of an arm. Saw her throwing to Derrick this morning” the kid who had spoken up tossed the football under his arm to Raph “Show him what she can do Beast”

The biggest turtle grinned at the nickname looking at her seeing a small smile as she nodded “Okay then. Go out for a pass kid”

Raven took off down the field feeling her ankle starting to ache but ignored it running out a few yards before turning seeing Raph throwing the ball hard making her jumping up to catch the ball fast flipping backwards landing gracefully on her uninjured foot before tossing it back hearing the kids out there cheering as the ball made it back to the coaches who were looking at her in astonishment as Raph had to jump to catch it

She jogged back hearing a few people clapping feeling a pleased shiver run up her spine just getting to see the faces of a few of the football players who were gawking as she stopped next to Leo who was still laughing at the shocked look on Coach Shredder’s face

“Where did you learn to play football?” she shrugged stretching out her arms when she saw Raph’s eyes light up with interest once she was back to where she had been standing next to him moments

“My dad, he use to teach football along with martial arts when I was little and I use to practice with the teams he coached until I got old enough to play, I was on a team up state until I transferred schools”

She looked up seeing a slight glint of spite in Saki’s eyes “Well I guess there’s nothing wrong with the little girl playing with my boys, but understand this child it’s tackle football and I don’t want to hear you bitching if you get hurt”

She smiled nodding slowly “Okay I can work with that… not like I can get hurt any worse from this point – or that any of them can hit anyways” he mumbled something as he walked off seeing Leonardo’s eyes following him as the teen pulling her shirt up slightly tucking it under the sports bra she was wearing wincing when she brushed past her sore side catching when Raph and Leo’s eyes glanced down at the huge black and purple bruises that were now fully developed on her middle and ribs seeing some looked really bad making her wish she hadn’t forgot that they were there

Raph grabbed her arm pulling her over to him as the guys picked teams “You’re on my team kid and I don’t want to hear any complaining cause I need ya to be running back”

“I ain’t complaining big guy – but I’m glad you picked me… I have the feeling you were going to get stuck with me anyways” he rolled his eyes as she came over standing next to him as Saki waved over a kid who would be a tackle on the opposite team whispering something to him but the way the kid looked at her told her all she needed to know

“Listen up! This game if no rules tackle. Have fun” he smirked walking off the field looking please with himself

Leo moved away still looking at the man’s back before shooting a look at Raph who nodded slowly as the oldest turtle patted the teen on the back gently trying to be careful with her in case there were more injuries they didn’t know about “Well I’m going to run track since we’re not playing soccer today, Raven remember to be careful on that ankle – Raph?” he met his brother’s golden eyes as the teen agreed to be extra careful

“Got it Fearless just shut up and go”

Raph pulled her to the center of the field as a few guys on the other team stepped closer looking the teen girl over slowly before a rabbit whistled giving her a once over “Maldito bebé busca un hombre de verdad manejar todo ese culo?”

Raph stopped looking back at him as a few of the guys laughed high fiving him “Yo, Whaddaya just say to ‘er Martinez”

“Oh come on esé she know what I just said. And she knows she wants it – don’t you bebé”

Raven grabbed his arm as he stepped forward fast giving the massive turtle a shrug when she looked up at Raph with a quick wink before she was in front of the rabbit brushing her fingers over his cheek seeing him grinning before she leaned in closer so her nose was inches from his “No podía manejarme si te di el conejo de oportunidad”

His mouth dropped fast as she shot him a grin stepping back to stand next to the huge turtle who looked just as stunned as the rest of the guys “I’m sorry, did - did you not know that the new girl can speak over five different languages including Japanese, Spanish, French, sarcasm, and real shit… and understand perfectly that you were asking if I wanted you to handle this ass – like you have a chance”

The team looked her over as she turned to face Raph hearing the ticked off mumbles behind her back “Okay ‘m curious and I don’t speak whatever the fuck that was but ‘m guessing ya just tore that sons a bitch a new hole” she gave him a small shrug before grinning as he nodded looking pleased “I will take that as a ‘Hells yeah’, okay now that I understand listen up squirt. Stay close to me and watch yer back, if ‘m right he has them gunning for ya”

Raven nodded as they got in position to run the first play looking down the line seeing she shouldn’t expect much protection from the other players and she was right as the ball was snapped the guard and center both moved aside letting two players through the line

She didn’t miss it and got down after throwing the ball to Raph once he was open hitting both of them low throwing them to the ground before dodging to the left running through another guy before the whistle blew stopping the play

She jumped up turning on her heels seeing one of the guys who had tried to hit her was still down breathing hard, she stopped over him seeing him glare up at her before his eyes shot down “Come on it won’t bite” she held out her hand to help him up surprised when he finally took it “Good job, next time stay low”

“Uhh… Thanks - you too” he watched her as she moved back to her spot grinning as Raph shoved her playfully enjoying herself finding she was smiling a genuine happy smile for the first time in years

And it seemed like that smile only grew wider when she saw the man in the stands was fuming seeing the teenager wasn’t on the ground after several plays

The football snapped as she backed up looking for an opening dodging one guys before she threw it to Raph who was down at the in zone in seconds getting their third touchdown hearing the whistle seconds later straitening up turning to get back in line before a guy tackled her from the side slamming her hard against the dirt before jumping up moving away “How you like that Freak?”

She rolled over getting up fast brushing her butt off keeping a smile on her face even though it felt like she had been hit by a train as Raph ran up checking her over carefully looking worried “Hey ya okay?”

He couldn’t believe she was still upbeat even after that hit glaring at the salamander who had tackled her seeing the coaches paying attention were already getting onto him before he was scanning her over checking to be sure she wasn’t hurt to bad seeing Leo was standing off to the side where he had stopped waiting to see if she was okay

“Yea I’m fine. He hits like a little bitch” she saw the boy who had put her on the ground turn hearing what she had said followed by Raph’s thunderous laugh before they lined up again

Raven was having so much fun that she didn’t even realize the two hours for class was almost over as the coaches came back onto the field “Okay get to the locker rooms and get changed. Next period starts in ten minutes”

She looked up as Coach Saki walking out onto the field calling Raph who was catching his breath “Just letting you know practice is canceled today, I have some stuff to attend to so just go over the plays tonight and we’ll all pick up where we stopped last night” the turtle nodded keeping his body between the teen who was still at his side glancing over at her before looking at her dirty clothes “I hope my boys weren’t too rough on you. Wouldn’t want you getting hurt now, although Sanchez slammed you down good”

She noted the look of disappointed when she shook her head no “Oh no, course not – I’m fine it didn’t hurt at all. I actually had the time of my life”

Raph cleared his throat as they moved to the bleachers grabbed their bags and hurried over to the locker rooms getting dressed

She threw on her sweat pants, a loose shirt Leo had let her borrow, and her oversized hoodie running out the door to see Raph talking to Coach Shredder, they both turned when she started to approach them

“Ms. Hamato I thought your name sounded familiar yesterday, you’re the daughter of Yoshi. We went to school together when we were younger, how’s the old bastard doing in his old age. Still alive and kicking”

Raven could hear something in his voice that was hinting for some reason he probably already knew the answer to his question but forced a small smile as she nodded quickly “He’s doing great, got a business down state that seems to be taking off well this year”

Raph saw the conversation getting thick pulled her away as the bell rung “C’mon kid we need to hurry so we ain’t late getting to the next class” she gave a wave as they walked away seeing the confusion that came over Saki’s face before he hurried off the other direction

“He really doesn’t like ya kid”

She grinned shrugging seeing he hadn’t been joking “Nobody does. I guess it’s my shitty personality”

He looked down meeting her eyes for a second before pulling his backpack up higher on his arm something in his posture showing his tenseness “Or it could be the fact that ya trashed the entire football team calling us lousy players”

“Is it my fault that out of the entire team you’re the only one that doesn’t suck ass and has talent – I mean… with your stats you have a chance of getting drafted by the pros in a few years” he stopped looking down at her with a look probably wondering how she had known that as she looked back at him watching him moving toward her slowly “S–Sorry… You had a wall of fame going in my room so while I was cleaning I read a few articles here and there as I put them in a folder. From what I understood the school’s football team is 5-0 this year because of you and a few people from the NFL are looking at you…”

He held up his hand cutting her words of fast eyeing the girl thoughtfully “So when ya were talking about the football team sucking I wasn’t included in that”

“Well no why would you be - you are faster than you were at ten… I guess I can give you that” he grinned as she shoved him not moving the turtle an inch but he laughed shooting her the finger rolling those gorgeous golden eyes as she started up the steps to the building he had lead her too

She walked in to find all of the guys in there already waiting on her and Raph seeing Mikey bolt over putting his arm around her shoulder as she glanced around seeing that the classroom was set up like a traditional dojo with thick mats in the center, several weapons were on racks that were built into the walls

“This is the second area of the class, you go through those doors and our desk are there today we just get to practice what we’ve already learned. Leo thought it best since today we have you with us – but don’t worry baby girl we’ll get ya caught up in the notes later-”

It was hard to breathe for a moment as she stepped in further remembering her home fondly as she tried to listen to Mikey ramble on before seeing Leo sitting at the front of the room in a meditative state concentrating while the students who were in the room were talking and messing around “I didn’t know Leo was our teacher”

Raph laughed before his older brother stood up looking around seeing if everyone was there “Okay get in your spots and we’ll start if all of you are ready”

Raven dropped her bag next to the others removing her shoes as a few more students entered the class looking less than enthusiastic to be there sitting down next to Raph when he patted the mat “He wasn’t supposed to be our teacher but the guy who was teaching at the beginning of the year didn’t know the first thing about Ninjitsu and tried to make all of us do these stupid exercises so until dad able to gets down here he’s filling in”

She looked up at him hearing that Master Splinter was coming to teach the class and got excited knowing that she would get to train under him again like when she had been a little kid knowing it was an honor to get to train with somebody who had trained with her father.

They went through several exercises stretching out their bodies before Leo got them started with some katas, she was having a hard time since the first few they did were new to her but when Leo turned to see how they were doing she caught a proud look as he crossed his arms

She saw him smiling at her when he realized she was copying his movements exactly stepping over getting behind her pulling the teen’s body against his tapping her side silently telling her to relax as he corrected her stance slightly brushing his fingers lightly down her arm moving it the slightest bit until she was lined up with him showing her how to transition into the next pose easier

“You’re doing good just keep your stance like this, keep it up” she nodded keeping her form clean and stopped long enough looking up at him checking to see if that was okay getting a big grin and a small nod from him “Very good just like that”

“Hai Sensei” he chuckled shaking his head as a few students snickers before moving on catching Raph glare at him for being too close to her before he moved away mumbling under his breath at him as he corrected him next tapping his chest plate until he straightened his back

“Focus Hothead”

She was so fixated on what he was teaching them she was sad to hear the bell ring but when she looked up at the clock seeing it wasn’t anywhere near time for her next class she was more than a little confused

“Best part of being in this class is we get to fuck around until Leo kicks us out” she looked up cocking her head to the side seeing Raph and the others gathering at the mat not realizing until then that it was just the five of them left “You wanna spar for a bit or do you need to go Baby girl” he was at her side instantly pulling her over as she nodded excitedly jumping up moving towards them “Like I said we’ll catch you up in notes later on but for now let’s party”

His brother’s groaned as he twirled the teen around winking at her as she tried to move away before Raphael pulled the smaller turtle away seeing she looked uncomfortable

“Can I watch one of you first before I try… I’m a little out of practice”

Mikey jumped up flexing for her as he pulled out a set of nunchucks spinning them to show off “Oh yeah! Let her watch guys because I’m up first, Leo get over here, I’m defiantly gonna beat you today for sure. And if I win I get a kiss from our lovely maiden”

“In what universe do ya think she wants to kiss yer ugly ass”

Raven grinned seeing Donnie shaking his head looking back at the oldest turtle that was pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration “Well - we wanted him motivated”

“If it makes him focus for more than two seconds then I don’t care” he glanced at Raven who was smiling pursing her lips before she nodded finding them mildly hilarious once it dawned on her none of them had changed in the time she hadn’t seen them

“Winner gets a kiss guys” she saw Mikey punch the air doing a few playful flips before watching as Leo stepped over stripping his shirt off pulling out a weapons belt with two twin katana’s strapped to it from his bag rolling his shoulders once they were on him as he stepped onto the mat moving over to the center of the room

“Okay then, Get ready Mikey” he bowed to the other turtle who returned the gesture taking a starting position as she scooted closer to Raph seeing him shift slightly as she moved closer letting her arm brush against him

“Ya’ll use real weapons during sparing” they nodded before the match started her eyes followed each movement and pose carefully seeing that they both were skilled at a certain weapon noting Leo was serious and focused while Mikey was more playful and laidback like she remembered from their childhood memorizing every movement completely surprised when Leo won the match so quickly putting Mikey on the ground in less than ten minutes before all the guys started poking fun at their baby brother who was pouting

“Come on Leo you won” he raised his brow at her as she stood up leaning up placing a small kiss on his cheek turning to look at Mikey who was still laying on the ground sulking acting like it was the end of the world that he had lost again “Aw poor thing… Mikey did focus better wouldn’t ya’ll say”

“Yeah… I guess he deserves something. He really was trying this time” she saw him perk up as she leaned down cupping his cheeks planting a kiss on his forehead before moving back fast as he jumped to his feet doing a small dance around the room

“Alright Mike sit the hell down it wasn’t that awesome ya still lost ta Fearless, she just wanted ya to stop being a baby” Raph twisted around tripping the smallest turtle up making him hit the floor with a resounding thud chuckling as his brother groaned

“Okay both of you stop. Raven you want to give it a try” she nodded standing up pulling off her jacket dropping it to the side looking around the room for a second “Do you want to try out a few weapons get the feel for the one you want to use”

She lifted a staff looking it over before spinning it just playing with the pole finding she had to keep her arms higher so it wouldn’t hit the floor making it the wrong thing to use if she was going against one of them stopping it so it as across her back seeing Donatello understood what she was doing – the staff was much to long for her to use in a match

Donnie took it glancing at his older brother showing her his clicking the button in the center making her jump as it expanded to her height moving away as she flipped it in her hand twisting it around until she was standing again grinning before she handed it to him

“Um could I use one of the weapons on the wall?”

Leo shrugged as Raph jumped up walking over to his pack handing her a pair of sais “Here ya can use mine, ya do know how to use these right”

Raven nodded looking down for a moment as he flipped them around “I actually know how to use all of these. Dad wanted me to be versatile when it came to my choice in weapons so I was trained to use everything from the katana all the way down to the sergama chains” they all looked surprised as she took and flipped them in her hands getting the feel for them meeting his eyes as she stepped back moving with them flawlessly before moving towards the mat as Leo tossed Raph a different pair of sais from the wall before he stepped in front of her waving the teen forward.

She saw him grin as she bowed to him waiting until he returned the gesture before stepping back into her starting stance flipping the sais between her fingers, he chuckled lightly moving his feet apart before Leo waved them to go “Hajime”

Time seemed to blur as they faced off with each other dodging each attack like their minds were connected moving flawlessly against each other until she smiled seeing him make a mistake leaving an opening for her to win before dodging a kick hitting the ground sweeping her leg out kicking the back of his leg hard laying him out on the mat bolting on top of him pressing the handle to his neck catching her breath as the guys clapped

She kept her eyes locked with Raph’s seeing the surprised look that came over his face as she shot him a small grin before Leo was over them grinning at his bigger brother “Hijō ni yoi imōto! Your sensei trained you very well. That’s the first time I’ve seen somebody take him down without cheating”

“Anata no ani ni kansha, guess I wasn’t all that out of practice after all” she looked down seeing he was looking at her still grinning dumbfounded that she had really taken him down – something only his brothers and father had ever accomplished

She jumped up seeing she had been straddling him holding a hand out to help Raph off the floor seeing he was trying to hide a smile from the others “Good job kid ya kicked my ass”

She laughed as she heard the bell ring for the classes to change rushing to grab her things handing him his sais when he stepped over to her “Could I change my clothes in the back room”

“Yeah the second door to the left is the bathroom baby girl” She nodded running into the small room wiping down with a sweet smelling wipe to clean herself up since she didn’t have time to shower before changing into the pair of ripped jeans and her other shirt

Raven heard a few yells coming out to see Don spinning his bow staff deflecting several kunai knives Mikey was throwing at him turning to block an attack from Leo’s sword seconds before he lashed out popping him on his shell making a loud crack echo through the room clicking a button in the center making the staff shorten in his hands dodging both before they had him blocked in seeing him grin as they closed the space together before the genius twirled his staff between his fingers pressing the button once his brothers were close enough

She leaned on the wall laughing so hard she was in tears as the Bo extended fast hitting both of them in the plastron knocking the youngest back onto his shell with a small groan rolling to his side while Leo had backed off slightly just getting the breath knocked out of him

Raph got up from the floor shaking his head waving for the teenager to follow him to the door “Hey I’ll be back in a moment guys” they grinned waving him off as Mikey shot him a look motioning that he was watching him as they exited the room “Do ya mind if I walk ya to class, this looks like it will just take forever to get serious”

She laughed giving him a quick nod as they walked out of the building heading down the outside hall as he tried to ignore the spark of what he could only guess was mischief in the girls eyes “Thanks for the escort big guy” he rolled his eyes glancing away at something before looking back over at her feeling slightly nervous as he thought of what he was wanting to say

“So - Whaddaya doing after engineering?” a small smile came over his face looking down at her seeing a little shrug as she kicked at the rocks doing the same as him not wanting to look right at the turtle who seemed to step just a little closer to her “Do ya wanna meet up with me at the practice field and go over a few of my plays or we could go get lunch-”

Raven stopped in her tracks looking him over for a moment trying to figure him out as she processed his words “Are you - asking me out…? I could have sworn last night you didn’t like me Raphie” he exploded into laughter shaking his head

“No… Hell no kid - since football practice was canceled I’m free for the rest of the day so I thought ya could meet me - and the guys for a bite to eat or come run a few plays with us for fun, ya know just hang out and get to know each other a little better since ya live with us”

She put her head down thinking for a moment continuing on with him “You know what - that sounds like fun… yeah I’d love to hang out with you”

“Great, I’ll see ya later on – until then I’ll head back an kick Ol’ Fearless’s ass”

He grinned as she giggled before they saw the door to her class but when she stopped to look back at him with a smug grin he couldn’t help enjoying the sparkle in those green orbs “I really did kick your ass back there didn’t I?”

He rolled his eyes growling before she stopped him with a short wave showing she was just teasing before looking around slowly as she reached up grabbing his shirt pulling him down until she could reach his face quickly placing a small peck on his cheek before he pulled away from her

“The hell was that for?”

“Losers who were trying hard deserved rewards too… you can thank Mikey for that Big guy” his cheeks flushed making his emerald skin darken as she walked down towards the class spinning around quickly seeing him still standing there in shock touching his cheek giving him a small wave “See ya later Raphie” she stepped into class seeing him grinning like crazy when he thought she wasn’t looking

After scanning the room she took a seat in the back of the room before the teacher walked in setting down several books and a huge stack of packets on his desk grunting as he erased the board realizing she had seen him in the main building yesterday

“Okay let’s all settle down, get out your supplies and I’ll be around in a moment with your packets” she reached in her backpack grabbing out a pen she had found on the ground looking up at the teacher as he stopped at her desk sitting a book in front of her “You must be Raven, glad to see you getting around okay after yesterday’s ordeal”

“Thank you sir” he scanned her face obviously looking at the bruises that were there but didn’t point them out thankfully

“Well I’m Mr. Traxmus, and since we are in the middle of a lesson just try to follow along the best you can and I’ll work with you later on to get you caught up. It’s pretty much over building and rebuilding engines for motorbikes so read along with us and I will try not to call on you – and if you do fall behind just wave me down and I’ll try to keep a steady pace, tend to rush every now and then so apologies in advance”

She looked up at him as he flipped the book open to the page written on the board setting down a packet on top of it “I’ll do the best I can Mr. Trax”

He started class as the teen kept her head down reading along while filling out the packet without a problem since she already knew a lot about motorcycles taking extra notes on things he was writing on the board or things he explained knowing they might be important if he tested them

“Mr. Horns I was wondering if you saw the bike that is parked out in the lot yet… if I’m correct it looked to be altered in some ways, maybe if you could find the owner they could bring it over for us to look at as an example” she looked up seeing the teacher mull it over before nodding seeming to have noticed the bike as well

“That would be a good idea Trevor” he looked out the window for a moment before looking back at the class “Does anybody know who the bike belongs too?”

“Why do you ask?”

He looked up at the teen as one of the guys at the front of the class looked back at her with a scowl “Mind your own business Freak nobody here is talking to you”

The teacher slammed his hand down on the boy’s desk making him jump “Behave Joe! You don’t speak to ladies like that… Raven do you know who the bike belongs too?” she shifted grabbing up her messenger bag giving him a quick nod

“Yes sir, she’s actually mine” every head in the class spun around to face her seeing a few mouths drop

“She’s a liar”

The teacher scalded another boy as she got up pulling her bag onto her arm “If it’s okay could I bring it around to the back… I don’t mind if it will help you teach”

“Well then. Go get it ma’am” she nodded running out the door to get her bike kick starting it with ease pulling behind the building into the garage seeing the people from her class were already waiting there looking at her in awe as she put up putting the kick stand down hopping off as the teacher moved closer looking it over

“Very nice! I believe this is a 05’ Kawasaki ninja 250 right” the teen grinned nodding her head as he leaned in close observing a few things he could already see were different “And whoever had modified these parts did a splendid job - the welding on the attachments around the engine are spectacular and just look at the accelerator this is fine work”

“Now ain’t that a beauty” she turned when she heard a familiar voice behind her to find Leo and Raph standing outside the garage walking in after a moment once Donnie and Mikey had caught up to them as the teacher continued to look over her bike

“Could I ride it around the yard?”

“No” the teacher didn’t even look up from the motor as he answered for her

“Sweet ride, she yers” Raven looked back to see Raph admiring her motorcycle running a hand over the seat as the others came over to look “What up Mr. Trax” he bent down looking at the engine with the teacher touching a few parts when the teacher shifted over letting him get closer “Most of these don’t go to a Kawasaki… nice weld job to keep them from shifting”

“You know about bikes hothead” he nodded looking it over pointing out that a few parts that she already knew were loose but kept looking at it complimenting the workmen ship and paint job seeming to like the design painted on the sides

“Where did ya get this thing kid – and who hooked ya up with this custom look”

“Nobody actually-” looking surprised he glanced at her regarding her with a confused glance like the rest of the class as she traced a scuff on her seat “I built this baby from the ground up and did the paint job myself took me two years to finish it completely since I had to find the parts that would transition with the originals” his mouth dropped as the teacher moved closer looking at it again

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew about bikes I would have let you work on something else instead of holding you back”

Raven shrugged messing with something on the seat before looking back up at him “I just didn’t want any special treatment, I already don’t fit in around here so I don’t mind working with the class – and if you want I could let you use it as an example for all your classes”

“That would be great, and after class if you stay for a bit maybe we can find you something to work on that still coexists with the lesson but won’t hold you back”

She agreed as they started going over the parts of the bike making it feel like class seemed to fly by after that and soon she was sitting across from Raph waiting on the guys to get into the buffet on campus but wasn’t the slightest bit bored since her and Raph had been talking about different things the entire time mostly bikes but she avoided anything about her dad seeing Raph figure out she didn’t want to talk about her father before the others joined them

They all talked back and forth cracking jokes at each other until Mikey started to get annoying grumbling under his breath until Leo got the message “You hungry Rave?”

“Yeah” Leo nodded as Mikey jumped up racing over to the hot plates as she pulled out her wallet following them finding she only had enough to get a granola bar paying for it before heading to the table

She had sat back down as Mikey and Donnie watched her for a minute Mikey had eaten a big breakfast and was going to eat two burgers where as she had eaten a piece of toast, she had to have been hungry and the look he gave his brother as he took a bite of his pizza confirmed he was thinking the same thing

All four of them were watching as she opened it pulling one of the bars out setting the other down as the youngest dug into his chili cheese fries glancing over seeing Leo eyeing the girl when she practically stuffed half of it in her mouth before he started eating glancing at Raph for a second sharing a silent conversation between the two of them she hadn’t noticed

“Dudes the homework in chemistry is killing me… are we supposed to understand it”

“Mikey the class isn’t that hard. I guess we could try to find someone to tutor you later if it don’t get better” she smiled as they kept talking about classes slowly becoming aware that she wasn’t feeling well holding tight to her head feeling a headache coming on “Hey you okay. You look a little pale”

She looked up as Donnie leaned closer feeling her forehead as she nodded giving them a small smile “Oh sorry - I’m fine, just a small headache”

Leonardo looked around the table as the teen ate the other half of her granola bar putting the second in her bag before he scooped up part of his meal putting it on a smaller plate scooting it towards her with an extra plastic fork “Hey try this, if I’m correct you use to love Lo mein with broccoli and beef. It’s not as good as Tang Shen’s but it’s decent” she opened her mouth to decline the plate but he held up a hand pointing to it again “Just try it, your mom’s cooking was always my favorite and you would know the difference”

She finally nodded picking up a small sample of the food placing it in her mouth closing her eyes as she chewed before she smiled “Your right… it does taste like mom’s although it’s missing the special sauce she loved to put on all the food she made” he nodded as she took another bite looking please to see her eat something other than a snack “Raven, where did you move here from?”

She chewed the food in her mouth slowly as Donnie looked at her seeing she was processing the question as she swallowed “Kind of everywhere… We’ve moved around a lot in the last few years so dad could work, I came up from Texas to start school”

“Wow that’s a long way. And you came by yourself or did your mom bring you down?” her face fell as she wiped her mouth looking around the table slowly blinking back a few tears as Leo leaned forward somehow knowing something was wrong seeing the pain that twisted her features before her eyes were looking back at them, but this time they were lifeless and dull as she took a deep breath swallowing hard

“Oh – um I guess none of you know… mom – momma died guys – about a month after you four returned home from Japan. She’s been gone for years…” Leo froze looking over at Raph who was looking at her in a way that read unimaginable pain telling him he had noticed too that she had said it just a little too casually “I’m sorry I just figured Master Splinter would have told you - although now that I think about it, I have a feeling dad might not have told him… he never talks about mom anymore”

Leo reached over taking her hand in his giving it a hard squeeze as she looked down at the plate he had given her “Rave – we’re so sorry…”

“Don’t be! Guys you couldn’t have known I don’t like talking about it all that much… in the last ten years I’ve learned to fend for myself, dad taught me self-defense and trusted me to be careful. When I was younger he trusted me enough I even had some small jobs to help him out over the years after she died” the guys smiled before they all turned yelling at Mikey who had been stealing off their plates

Raphael could see how down she seemed that happy person she had been pushing falling with her walls to show the actual person that resided behind the fake grin

She looked at the clock behind them a while later scooting her chair out “I’ll be right back guys” they nodded looking after her as she walked towards the bathroom seeing the small tremble in her body as she ducked into the bathroom

… … … …

She had left so fast not seeing the way they had looked at her feeling bad that they hadn’t realized what she had just told them before she had to “I–I can’t believe Shen… should we ask how she passed away? Why didn’t we know she was- how could Master Yoshi never… why didn’t we know?” Leo looked up at his youngest brother who was tearing up before shaking his head no slowly

“Don’t Mikey, she’ll probably tell us later”

Raphael’s eyes drifted back to where the teen had disappeared fast before clearing his throat “No she won’t – ya saw that look Fearless… Poor kid was caught so off guard she blurted it out”

Three sets of eyes looked over as he dropped all his trash onto his tray grabbing up hers not wanting to make her do it now that he could see what she was hiding from them “Master Yoshi took it so hard she never thinks about it anymore – poor kid probably can’t even talk about her mom without upsetting him- it’s like she was learning of the death as we did she never got to mourn because she was trying to not let him down”

He got up leaving to throw his stuff away leaving them to process his words before Donnie nodded as Leo cleared his throat “Master Splinter always did say he had a soft spot for Raven – but to not let a child speak of her mother-”

The table fell silent as they decided to let it go comfort her if needed but to give the girl time to open up in her own way

… … … …

Raven dropped her bag on the floor wiping away the tears that fell down her face as a sob shook her shoulders taking a few deep breaths splashing water on her face trying to shake the nauseated feeling before she was running for the stall heaving as her stomach emptied groaning as she leaned up going back to the sink rinsing her mouth out trying to rid it of the bile taste

It took a moment but she finally calmed down making sure they wouldn’t know she had been crying before headed back out seeing they had already thrown their trash away giving them a big smile to hide the pain she was still feeling

“Well we have to get to class”

Raph stepped around the corner looking more aggravated then usual stopping to look back over his shoulder before growling as his eyes landed on the teen quickly looking away as his brother’s noticed the change in his temper the longer her stood there seeing Donnie bump him in a silent question “Some girl just asked me out”

Raven swallowed feeling sick again as Mikey turned around obviously excited “Dude who asked you out?” he glancing over his shoulder pointing out a tall fox with gorgeous blonde locks that was pulled carelessly into a loose messy bun wearing a dress that was probably just a tad to short “Brah she’s fucking hot”

“She’s not my type Mikey…”

Donnie looked over at the bigger turtle with a sigh “Raph you could at least try to date someone again – it’s been three years-” he was met with a low growl from the Raph stopping the genius turtles sentence fast before they exited the building

“Ya know I seriously hate dating just because all the girls here are trying to do is score popularity points by dating or fuckin’ a jock or one of the other athletes their not interested in me-” she heard the guys groan mumbling under their breaths mouthing silently along with him seeming to know just what he was about to say “Women are all the same”

She sighed rolling her eyes at him as he remembered she was standing there “Not all of us are evil bitches from the fiery depths of Satan’s anus but thanks for that I will forever believe that all jocks are pricks” he glanced at her smiling at the sarcasm dripped words when the others broke off heading for their classes as they made their way to the practice field seeing it was completely abandoned since classes had already started

“So by the way you said that – you accepted?” he groaned nodding slowly looking ashamed to be admitting it to her as they moved over to the center that way nobody would see them sitting in the middle of the bleachers so they could talk without anyone interrupting “Why don’t you just set boundaries for dates that only you know?”

“Whaddaya mean by ‘boundaries’ kid?”

The teen shrugged trying to think of a way to explain it before deciding to show him “Are you comfortable with holding hands?” he nodded as she moved closer “You so much as laugh at me and I’ll kick your ass… just gonna test out your level of comfort so don’t flip out on me”

“I can’t promise - but I’ll try”

She shot him a look seeing him smile before pulling his hand closer holding it tightly “Does it bother you when I do this?”

He smirked looking at her like she was crazy “God no”

Raven leaned in closer pulling his arm around her shoulder placing her head on his shoulder giving him a small smile “Uncomfortable yet big guy?” once more she got a hesitant no “Then that means these are safe moves. A girl can do that and you should be okay”

He chuckled seeing she wasn’t teasing him or trying to make him look stupid but actually trying to help him feel more comfortable with the fact that he was going to go out with somebody after such a long time before she placed a hand on his leg making the turtle jump moving his leg away from her taking that as a yes on the uncomfortable scale

“Sorry! Sorry didn’t mean to do that – but that makes a good point, if a girl touched you and you have that reaction its off limits until your better acquainted” getting a nod she carefully made another move hesitating for a moment before running one hand up his chest while the other floated over his arm seeing her cheeks flush every second her hands were touching his hard chest or rough flesh as he pulled away from her to some extent

“That bothers me slightly. That’s really bordering for me” she pulled her hands away fast realizing she was still touching him standing up trying to breathe calmly unsure why being this close to him was causing her to feel nervous and jittery but found she wanted to be near him “Hey ya okay kid?”

The teen turned motioning for him to stand up even though she was completely freaking out “Just look at me – and don’t flip out okay”

He watched her carefully as she placed a hand on his shoulder seeing a slight discomfort as her fingers moved up to his neck having to stand on her tiptoes to reach before placing a hand on his chest wrapping her fingers around the lip of his chest plate keeping herself balanced as she leaned in closer until they were only inches apart feeling the itch of wanting to smack her hands away

“I-I don’t really like that kid” the teen went to pull away from him fast letting him go leaving the turtle feeling cold without her touch as he moved wrapped his hand around her back stopped her from leaving the sudden bubble they were in pulling the young woman closer to him until her body was pressed against his “But - I don’t really mind so much - when it’s ya doing it kid”

She gave him a small smile before he moved closer, leaning down until his face was only inches from hers hearing her heart going crazy in her chest as his warm breath floated over her face “So do you understand the boundary’s you can set now-?” he gave her a smile as his strong scent washed over her senses quickly started to fog her mind the closer he got “R-Raph… What are you?” he swiftly pulled the teen to his chest cupping one of her bruised cheeks in his hand being so gentle she almost didn’t recognize him even though she had been looking at him the entire time

“There’s one more thing – I wanna try”

Raven’s heart was pounding so hard she was sure that if he couldn’t hear it any moment now it would fall out of her chest as his face slowly moved closer seeing he looked completely nervous until his eyes were closed and their lips were less than an inch from one another, her eyes drifted shut as a wave of heat from his breath float over her skin physically holding her breath waiting for his lips to touch hers.

She heard the bell ring looking at her watch seeing the time as she stepped back looking around when classes released and students ran out the doors catching how he forced a smile as a few guys stepped out onto the field tossing the football mumbling that maybe he could hit them if they wanted to play full contact before they saw Raph hollering for him to come join them he looked over seeing her sit down

He started to sit back down not wanting to just leave her there but she waved him to go grinning as he paused looking confused “Go have fun I think I’ll sit out this time – my ankle is killing me so I don’t feel like running” he jumped over the side seeing she was going to watch thankful she wasn’t like other people who would have been offended by him wanting to go do something else while they were hanging out

The smile on her face seemed genuine when he looked back as she watched them running plays

After a moment she took out a pack of cigarettes seeing she was down to half a pack as she lit one taking a long drag trying to calm her nerves wondering why she had reacted to him being so close to her slowly releasing the smoke that had filled her lungs suddenly feeling calmer watching as Raph threw the ball to a few guys but by the look of his body gesture and the tensing of his muscles he was on edge

Raven looked away as something shifted across the way feeling her heart slam to a halt when she saw the coach looking at her from the other side of the field taking a bigger hit blowing out the smoke keeping her eyes on him something in her afraid to look away not too sure what it was but she kept telling herself she knew him from somewhere “Ya okay kid? I didn’t know ya smoked”

The teen jumped looked up in shock seeing Raph towering over her with a soft smile, glancing back across the field seeing Mr. Saki had disappeared making her uneasy looked back to Raph when she noticed he was looking in the same direction returning the smile after getting her nerves together “I don’t… we’ll its more of a once in a blue moon thing had these for over a year - so did you get bored?”

“More of I can’t be around them long without wanting to rip their heads off for beating up on ya”

Raven nodded blowing out more smoke noticing he was slowly approaching her as her eyes drifted back to where she had seen Mr. Saki before ruffling her hair trying to loosen her back up “Could I bum one, give ya one of mine later – left my pack at the house”

A small grin crossed her face as she looked over handed him one with her lighter as he sat down next to the teen “This brand sucks ass ya know that right” she looked up seeing him giving her a shit eating grin placing his arm behind her back draping that hand beside her as she rolled her eyes at him

“If you don’t like it walk back to the apartment smart ass” he barked out a laugh making her smile before he leaned up looking her over

“Ya got a beautiful smile, ya should really wear it more often” she looked up at him half expecting him to make fun of her but instead saw that he was being sincere looking at her with a gentleness she had never seen from anyone

“Uh thanks…” she blushed as he leaned closer brushing a few loose strand of her hair behind her ear with a small smirk “So why if you don’t mind me asking – is it the football hunk almost every girl on campus has the hots for uninterested in dating”

“Almost all the girls… What ya sayin’ ya don’t like me kid?” she looked up blushing brightly just in time to see that rare but oh so sexy smile of his shining on her making the world that much brighter stumbling to regain her ability to speak

“Oh – uh n-no not me… I met a girl yesterday that didn’t seem to like you to much. Or at all actually”

“Ah so she was talking shit… figures. All she does if talk shit and crawl up peoples asses” she looked him over as he rolled his eyes to the sky mumbling under his breath before finally shaking his head telling her she wanted his to ignore the comment “That would be a mistake I dated for maybe a week without my brother’s knowing a few months ago… by chance what name did she give ya?”

“Clarisse – I think”

He nodded looking away from her with a slow eye roll “Real name’s is Brandy, but I knew ‘er as Lisa, to most of the football team she was Jennifer, Sandy, Mallory, the list goes on. We were in the middle of a date and the next thing I knew three guys walked up yelling at me for touching their girl – every guy here has to have bedded her” he growled under a rough breath before looking over at her sighing as he continued “So what did she say”

“That you are trouble making yahoo, which if my memories of you from when we were kids is anything I could believe it” he chuckled shrugging as she shoved him slightly loving the smile she got from him since it had to be the first real one she had seen from him all day seeing for just that second the ten year old Raphie who acted like he couldn’t stand her but was always smiling when she was close “She also said - I shouldn’t trust you”

He looked over as she shifted in her seat pulling her legs up next to her to look at him forwardly seeing him flinch at the statement as his jaw tightened “Ya believe her?”

“Course not… there was something about her that made me uncomfortable, plus would you really put your neck on the line to break up a fight for someone you didn’t really know if you weren’t a good person – or go out of your way to check on me just to be sure I wasn’t dying last night. I mean, they were your teammates maybe even your friends until yesterday – I caused you guys a lot of problems and I’ve barely been here a full day”

A deep chuckle pulled her attention back to him before he stomped down on the butt of his cigarette really taking in her words “I never liked those two idiots. Yer a human girl and ya were fighting two giant mutant guys who were trying to kill ya. Yeah I was going to step in friends or not it wasn’t right” he glanced over seeing a small smirk on her face as she examined something that had caught her eyes “And cut that shit ya ain’t a problem to us kid”

The small laugh she gave had his chest bubbling seeing the genuine look knowing she understood it was meant well even if it had come of a rude “And that’s why I can trust you. All the guys that were standing around didn’t try to help, your brothers called for them to stop and you stepped in out of everybody here you four seem to be the only ones I can trust – well I’m trying it’s hard to trust people these days”

He smiled pulling out his binder flipping through his papers looking for something as the air between them fell silent quickly becoming uncomfortable

“Raph – I know it’s none of my business and you can freely tell me to fuck off but, you said you dated Brandy a few months back” his eye came up meeting hers before they seemed to show something she didn’t like to see but couldn’t figure out what it was “Donnie said something about it’s been three years - since your last relationship I’m guessing… What happened?” he sighed putting his book down before the teen saw his eyes focus on something in the distance waited a moment seeing he was uncomfortable and no longer looking at her “I’m sorry - I shouldn’t have asked -”

“Its okay kid – ya didn’t know and I don’t like talking about it… but ya do live with us so ya probably should know”

“You don’t have to tell me… I mean if you ever wanted to, I’d listen but- if its personal I don’t want to pry” she stopped as the turtle waved for her to calm down sighing as he really mulled over how to say something he probably didn’t talk about a lot

“Rave, I would feel better if I told ya then ya hear it from Mikey… he has a knack for telling people things I don’t”

He didn’t like sharing stuff that made him think about those horrible days or the painful moments that followed seeing those as a weakness but had been serious - he’s rather be the one to let her in on the secret before Mikey or Don could – or Leo got the chance

She didn’t move watching him for the longest time wondering if he was changing his mind

He looked up at her for a second as she nodded showing she would wait before he was pushing his sunglasses down over his eyes so she wouldn’t be able to see them “It will be four years next month but it’s like it happened yesterday. I was with this girl Isabella for six years, we were engaged to be married in the spring time planned on having it in a botanical Japanese garden, I had gotten everything she wanted for the day but I was being stupid and tried to make some extra cash so I could take ‘er to Hawaii for our honeymoon… she always wanted to go but with me being in school I couldn’t afford to take ‘er - while I was doing something I told ‘er I wouldn’t do anymore I got into a bad accident and it landed me in a coma… doctors told my brothers I was lucky to be alive at all but she didn’t see it that way.”

He hadn’t been looking at her but when he stopped talking to clear his throat turning his head away so she couldn’t see his face she realized what he was trying to hide

“I woke up six months later unable to walk with a shattered skull – then Leo had to give me the news that a week after the accident she left and hadn’t been seen since, a month later I was just starting to get up hoping to get into physical therapy she stopped by the hospital, just to tell me it was over… and that’s when she decided to tell me she had been sleeping with a friend of mine”

Raven looked up fast as he leaned back in his seat seeing the remnants of tears falling down the cheek she could see “Raph-”

“They got married a few months later” he rubbed his face keeping his eyes hidden from her before laughing shaking his head as he looked to the sky “She had been cheating on me for two years with him and then decided to end it with me when I was literally on my death bed barely making it”

The teen didn’t think about it before she reached over taking his hand in hers holding tight to it as he looked back down at her seeing a tear dripping down her cheek, she was quick to wipe away the streaks that had made it down his face gently pushing his glasses up so she could see his golden eyes to make sure he was looking at her “You must have really loved her” he nodded slowly as she leaned in closer making sure the guys weren’t looking as she dried his face “She had no right – she had a good man who did everything to make her happy and she didn’t appreciate it… and because of her – I’m starting to see that man making sure he won’t ever be happy because I think he’s scared to get hurt again”

He shook his head laughing hiding his eyes again from her but could tell he was still watching her “Sounds like yer speaking from experience kid”

“No – just saying what I can see with my own eyes… I’ve never had a boyfriend. Hell I can’t even say I know what that’s like; I won’t even try to pretend I know what that kind of pain feels like… I’ve never even been in love – so I don’t know what that kind of love feels like” she quickly shut her mouth realizing she had been rambling on seeing him looking at her openly with a small grin as she cleared her throat “Sorry – I do know she was one lucky girl and… if I was her I would have never let - somebody like you get away”

His face flushed before she was looking down seeing he was holding her hand back pulling her closer before he tilted his head “Wait just a danm minute – are ya telling me a sweet person like ya - never had a boyfriend ever”

“Well no – I guess I’ve had one but-” his eyes softened as he pushed his glasses back up on his head seeing she was instinctively put up a wall focusing on their hands as his grip tightened on hers making sure she knew he was there “I was in a relationship with this guy Johnathan who was nineteen when I was fourteen but – it’s funny when you think about it but I… he never loved me for real, I don’t think he ever liked me and truthfully I don’t think I ever loved him either”

“What happened to ‘im”

She looked up at him before her face was looking down again, he saw a few tears dripping down her cheek even as she wiped them away quickly clearing her throat “You don’t want to know – trust me it’s really depressing”

“C’mon let’s hear it kid, ya listened to me bitch about my ex now ‘m gonna sit here and listen to ya”

Raven closed her eyes taking a needed deep breath before clearing her throat of a knot that was forming as she fought to keep the tears at bay “H-he died” Raph’s eyes widened as she looked away from him watching the sun falling over the second set of bleachers “We were arguing one night and I tried to leave him, I finally told myself I was sick of the way he treated me when he was drinking… he could be – sweet when he was sober but - abusive when he had to many. The last thing I remembered was him yelling for me not to turn my back to him before…” her words caught in her throat as she struggled to clear it toughing up her bottom lip as it quivered “I think I blacked out when he hit me over the head and when I came to he was trying to strangle me… I reacted knocking him off me – he grabbed me and the last thing I saw was the flash of his bowie knife”

She looked up seeing the turtle’s eyes had gone wide probably somewhere between thinking she was joking with him and praying she wasn’t serious but when she didn’t say anything he swallowed gripping her wrist a little harder to make sure she couldn’t pull away from him “So did yer dad get ahold of ‘im… or maybe a protective friend came to yer rescue since yer sitting here and he’s – ya said dead…”

Raph stopped cold as his eyes landed on her but she refused to look up at him “No dad - was away on business in Japan and I don’t really have many friends”

“So how did he-” he reached out cupping her chin pulled the teen’s face up slowly looking her over carefully “Kid ya didn’t – it couldn’t have been ya, yer so… sweet”

“Told you it was depressing – I never meant to… I didn’t mean to- I was so scared - I shifted under him, I guess he lost his balance and fell on the blade while trying to grab me… it was self-defense but – I always wished I hadn’t…” his hand came up stopping her words before he shook his head stopping her from finishing whatever she was about to say

“Kid – it doesn’t matter to me what happened, yer here and alive. I’d rather have ya here then some sorry bastard out in the world that took the life of – somebody like ya”

She gave him a weak smile as his arm came around her pulling her into his side, the talk long forgotten they had been sitting comfortably for a while just enjoying each other’s company when she jumped beside him hearing a low rumble erupt from his chest as he started growling under his breath seeing one of the guys on the field coming closer “Yo Raph you coming back to play” she realized he was trying to send a message to them not to mess with her and to be honest it was kind of cool and really sweet

Raven grabbed her bag seeing him glance over to look at her “I’m going to go ahead and head to art class but I’ll see you later hothead”

He grinned as he got up fixing his shirt “Ya want me to walk ya… got nothing better to do unless I get the urge to kill one of those bastards”

She smiled stepping over to the steps heading down hearing him following behind her “Correct me if I’m wrong but – don’t you have a date with Foxy the cafeteria slut in ten minutes” he groaned making her turn around seeing a small eye roll as he shook his head grumbling something she couldn’t make out, she knew that even if he didn’t want to go he had said yes so not to come across as a dick but she could see he was trying to find a way out

She turned to head down the ramp seeing he was going to at least follow her down to see her off taking in his relaxed posture as he rocked on his feet “You know, if you want - we could hang out tonight and talk some more or just watch a movie if you’re getting tired of talking to me” a rare grin crossed his face had her heart beating that much faster in her chest as he shifted on his feet

“That’s the thing kid; I don’t think I could ever get tired of talking to ya.”

A small smile slid across her lips as he glanced back over his shoulder checking to see where the other guys were who had been on the field giving her a small wave as she checked around to see if anyone could see them leaning forward grabbing his letterman jacket pulling him closer seeing his face flush when she was inches from his face giving him a small peck on the cheek smiling as a slight tint of red that came over his face darkening the skin under his mask

“You know I said you couldn’t walk me to class but, if your date with the tramp doesn’t go amazingly well and you opt out to hang with her tonight” his lips curved upward as she shot him a shy smile making her emerald green orbs shimmer in the fading light “I wouldn’t have any arguments with you picking me up from class when it ends and walking me home tonight”

“Even if this stupid date does go well – I’ll be standing outside that door at 8 waiting for ya”

“Class doesn’t end until 8:30”

“I’ll still be there before then kid, after last night I ain’t gonna let ya walk home alone” she giggled shaking her head as he leaned his shell against the rail looking up as the bell rang before his eyes came back down looking disappointed that their time was coming to an end

“See you later then hothead” she turned away seeing the unmistakable smile that came over his face as he watched her leave before he stood up stretching.

She took off jogging across the grass as the second bell rang giving one more quick glance back as she entered the building on the other side of the yard showed he was still standing there watching after her, that glorious smile still plastered on his face before hearing somebody calling his name seeing the girl waving him down grabbing his arm as he lead her towards the parking lot giving her what looked like a small forced smirk

For a moment it hurt to see it; she adored his smile even if it felt weird when he shot it in her direction she wanted to see it more because it felt like she could never hope to capture his heart just knowing how guarded he kept it from people – plus she had just helped him with his dating problem so who knew maybe him and that girl would get along great and be happy together

She wanted him to be happy – he deserved to be happy with someone special

Raven sighed continuing up the steps until she was standing outside the class room seeing the teacher wasn’t there yet having a small inkling of regret for not letting him walk her up so she could talk to someone glancing out the window of the second story seeing him getting in a truck before pulling out of the parking lot before she looked back seeing the other students heading into the classroom

The tabby cat who had let them in the classroom introduced herself as Mrs. James who smiled at her at first but moments later was staring at her with a weird look as the teenager took down a few notes from the board in a spiral her mind still on him an hour later listening to the teacher as she yammered on about her trip to England with a few students as soon as she had given them their assignment

Raven worked quietly at the back of the classroom jumping out of her skin when the plump cat placed a hand on her shoulder making her look up, she flinched seeing the bruises up close but complimenting her on her work before she looked over towards the door with a smile patting her on the shoulder as she walked off.

She kept her head down until a small movement caught her attention at the door looking over to see Raph leaned against the wall just in her eye sight, looking at him she had a feeling she was already getting in too deep when it came to her feelings towards him – whatever they were

That thought was quickly banished from her mind as soon as he looked up smiling at her with a short wave when he saw her looking at him before she decided they couldn’t be that bad if it was him she was feeling them around

#university #tmnt 2016 #tmnt raphael #tmnt leonardo #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt donatello #oc female

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misc-oneshots · 8 years ago

Text

The Winter Soldier of Oz

The Winter Solider of Oz

Bucky Barnes x Reader Words: 5,691 @mikeys-thighs @cassandras-musings

Bucky Barnes and the Reader may work together but that didn’t mean that they trusted each other, he’d tried to kill her too many times and the Reader’s powers make him uncomfortable. Eventually they warm to one another and a friendship blooms from their mutual love of The Wizard of Oz and, through no fault of their own, end up in a prank war with Tony and Steve.

To say that you didn't trust James Barnes would be an understatement, considering that he'd tried to kill you twice already. Once when you'd been helping Steve, Nat and Sam bring down SHIELD and then later when The Winter Solider had escaped custardy he'd tried to throttle you.

Otherwise you'd tried to stay out of the fight between Tony and Steve, you'd not even read the damn document yet and they were already way too eager to take strips out of each other. In the end the decision had been taken out of your hands, you'd arrived at the airfield that day in the hopes of calling a ceasefire and finding a way to work it out for the sake of your sanity. You skidded into the aircraft holder just as Black Panther was about to stop Steve and The Winter solider. “Steve what you’re doing is crazy.” You had implored him, the pair of you had been good friends until this, not that you had many friends, and you didn’t want to lose him because of this. Steve ignored Black Panther for a moment to set his sights on you, “Y/N you have to know that I believe in what I’m doing. I believe what Bucky has said, if we don’t go now then the world will be in worse trouble. You have to trust me.” Trust him, he’d said, like it was that simple. Like he wasn’t putting all of his faith in a man who’d strangled you until you’d turned blue, not once but twice. The solider himself looked almost repentant when you looked over at him, did he even remember trying to kill you? Again the choice was taken from you, which was actually good because you were indecisive at the best of times. Outside of the door you’d come through into the hanger Vision’s aim must have been off because something rocked the building and part of the ceiling hurdled down towards you.

It had barely registered with you that you were about to be crushed when you were yanked forwards. It hurt your arm getting snatched forwards by the metal hand that had twice before tried to strangle you. Instinctively you swung your fist as you were pulled and punched him square in the mouth. Barnes barely blinked at the collision even though his lip began to trickle with blood and luckily your leather gloves had softened the blow of your knuckles against his teeth. Ripping your hand from his grip you jumped back and eyed the cement block that had landed where you'd just been before eyeing him wearily, "Thank you."

“You’re welcome.” He grumbled with more politeness than you’d expect from someone that you’d just slugged in the face. Natasha arrived to stop Black Panther and in a moment of pure insanity, you helped Steve and your attacker-come-saviour into the aircraft and stayed to help Natasha. Life went a bit mad from there, you were locked away with the others until Tony managed to get you all out, of course there where rules. For the most part you were all under house arrest unless strictly needed and Tony explained to you everything that had happened with him and the two men out of time. Your heart went out to both Barnes and Tony, the one who had killed a family and the one that lost it. How Tony had found it in his heart to let Bucky move into the tower you’d never know but if you had to guess it had a lot to do with Steve in his ear. He was going to be under more orders and rules than all of you, never allowed to be out of sight of at least one of you, not allowed out of the building unaccompanied. Tagged and monitored but at least he got to escape prison if the country found him useful.

You weren’t sure how you were going to get on living with the man who had both tried to take your life and saved it.

After many years of living in solitude it had taken a while to get used to the idea of living with other people but Bruce's assurance that they were good people kept you with the Avengers, he’d had similar experiences to yourself. You’d met them while they were looking for Enhanced before Tony had made Ultron. They been quick to trust you since you’d worked for SHIELD before you’d been forced into the experiments that had given your icy powers. You radiated cold and if you were holding something and lost your temper then the thing would be no more than an icicle. That alone should have been enough for Steve Rogers to be weary of you after his years in the ice but if it fazed him then he didn’t let him show and, maybe it was because he understood what it was like to be experimented on, he became a close friend quickly. Clint had basically decided that you were one of his children and though Natasha didn’t give much a way the others told you how much she had taken to you. Thor helped your confidence a lot as well; with your powers being focused around the ability to conjure Ice Thor's knowledge of the Ice Giants aided you. Tony's constant playing of the Frozen soundtrack did not.

"I can't believe you made me wake up for this." You grumbled and rubbed your eyes, you'd only been awake for about half hour and now you were all sat around the table waiting for Barnes to be brought in. "Let it go, Y/N." Tony smirked at you over the top of his coffee mug. God, you were sick of that joke. Clint rolled his eyes, "Tony if you carry on with that then we're not going to stop her from freezing you." When Clint's threat did nothing to lessen Tony's smug expression you pushed yourself over the table to reach where Tony sat across from you and reached out to touch his coffee mug with one finger so that the liquid inside it froze. You sat back and Tony groaned and dropped the mug down onto the table. The frozen coffee block slid out onto his saucer, "You're an ass."

"Takes one to know one." You countered and the others shook their heads at you both. "Are you always so childish?" Tony asked and you stuck your tongue out in answer. “Tony leave her alone.” Steve, ever your defender, jumped in. “Hey! She could turn you back into a Capsicle and I’m the bad guy?!” Tony gestured to you exacerbated. You nudged the table with your knee so that the coffee cube rolled around in his saucer because you knew that the noise would annoy him, “Least I didn’t make a homicidal robot.” You sang. His eyes narrowed and his crossed his arms over his chest, “Just for that I’m going to put heaters in your room.” “I’ll freeze your whiskey.” You countered and he pouted. You both knew alcohol didn’t freeze properly, from your last attempt, but you’d never threaten to freeze his suit, not after he’d fallen from space partially frozen and terrified. You didn’t want to bring that up for him.

Your back and forth was cut off by the doors sliding open and the Winter Soldier, or Bucky or Sgt Barnes, whatever name you knew him by, was marched in with a group of armed soldiers. Beside you Steve bristled at the sight and on either side of him you and Wanda both put a hand on his thick arms to remind him to be calm. This was a delicate enough situation without him throwing his shield at it. The head of the little group stepped forward with a regimented stamp of his foot that you knew Tony was dying to mimic. “I am to ascertain whether you are all certain of the obligation you’re about to undertake?" He barked. “What?” Wanda asked, annoyed at his sharpness. “He means, do we want to keep him.” Sam explained and it was clear from Bucky’s expression that he was ready for Sam to have him sent back for a refund. “Well he did save me from getting smushed.” You told them all as you spun slightly in your chair. “Not a real word.” Clint mumbled and you shot him an amused look. The jumped up Army man was still waiting for an answer when Tony waved him away, “Yeah, yeah we know, all sales are final, we want him. Go away. Actually no, bring me a coffee, mines gone cold.”

You gave him a big grin at that and slowly the armed men left you with Bucky and no one knew where to look.

---

It was about a week before things started to fall into a pattern, of making sure that Bucky was always with someone and getting used to living with someone who had shaped the course of history by murdering people.

You’d stopped being bothered by his presence after a few weeks and the more Steve told you about him the less you worried that he was about to try to strangle you again but that could have been thanks to him giving you a wide birth after finding out about your powers. After all, it wasn’t just Steve that had been frozen against his will for years and you tried hard to keep control of your powers when Bucky was around to try to make him feel more at ease.

By month four you’d gotten used to each other, the restraints against Bucky had eased to the point of him being allowed to be alone as long as someone was within 5 minutes of him within the tower. It was often you who was in so you got used to seeing each other in the kitchen for snacks and when you wanted a drink.

For the most part you stayed in your ‘lair’, Tony coined the name, it was a small room by the towers standards that doubled as a library with a large spare wall that you could project movies onto. Tony let you do whatever you wanted with the space and people often joined you for a film night if they wanted to hang out or just read together. Bucky, Steve and Natasha were the few who were unbothered by the coldness of the room after you’d been locked in there for a long time of your own.

The Winter Soldier had joined you a few times for joint silent reading. You stood and stretched your shoulders, “Hey, er Barnes?” You asked, you had found it was the most neutral thing to call him, “I’m going to get a drink do you want anything?” He looked up at you, “Water please, if you don’t mind.” The first few times you’d offered he’d simply shook his head so it was nice to see that he was starting to get used to live with you all in the tower. You nodded and on the way out, for the first time, you noticed what he’d been reading. A history of music from the war, your heart pulled a little at the poetry of it.

After you took Bucky his water and put your own on your desk in the lair, you nipped out to your room and came back with your laptop and your old iPod, Tony had brought you one for your last birthday and you didn’t like to throw things away so you’d kept your old one. You sat down with them at the desk and set to work. After an hour of restoring, downloading, uploading and charging you were ready.

You stood and walked over to Bucky, stopped just short of him and waited for him to notice you, he looked up from his book and sensing that you wanted his attention he closed it and placed it on the arm rest of his chair. “Something I can help you with?” He asked, his voice edged with its usual gravel. “I’ve got you a present.” You told him, the iPod in your hands hidden firmly behind your back. His brows shot up into his hairline, “It’s not even my birthday.” He joked deeply and you gave him a small smile at his attempt. He’d been joking more with Steve and Sam as he’d gotten used to being in the tower.

You pulled your hands from behind your back and presented him the iPod, “Ta-da!” you exclaimed as he took the offering from your hands slowly with his human hand. He rarely used the metal one if it could be avoided, you noted. He flicked it on and began to scroll through the songs and it was hard to repress the smugness of being right when you’d thought that he’d be able to use the device. He just seemed so much more in tune with modern technology than Steve and you’d been right to assume that he could use it. “Hopefully it will be full of all the bands in your book.” You told him eager to watch his expression. He looked up at you with complete sincerity in his eyes, “Thank you.” He didn’t have to say anymore, you were already blushing like crazy with how he studied your face.

He was looking back at the song list when his eyes lit up, “Steve told you about The Wizard of Oz?” “Steve? No.” Your face flushed again, “Sorry it’s just one of my favourite films. I’ve put the soundtrack on everyone’s device in case I lose my own.” His lips tugged with a smile, “It’s my favourite too.” “No way!” You cheered, “lets watch it, I have it hooked up to the projector!” He gave you a quizzical look and you pointed to the projector which pointed at the blank wall near you both. He gave you a half smile, “Okay then.” “Yes!” You cheered again and he stood, slipped his new iPod into his pocket before following you down to the kitchen to get the much needed snacks.

“So did you see the film back in the day then?” You asked him as you were raiding Tony’s cupboards looking for popcorn. Bucky flinched visibly and you instantly felt bad, he only talked about his old life with Steve. But after a moment he answered you, “Yeah, it came out during the great depression. No one that we knew could afford to go see it.” “But Steve told us that you both lived together, that you never had any money either.” You told him. He gave you a look that, if you believed your eyes, was almost cheeky on the Winter Solider, he shrugged, “I was nimble with my hands. I stole some meat from the back of the butchers shop and sold it on, got the tickets with the profits. Steve was getting over a bad chest infection and needed some fun and medicine.”

“Well aren’t you the bestest friend ever.” You teased, “I bet it blew your mind didn’t it?” His cheeks flushed slightly, “Shut up, it was the first colour film I’d seen of course it blew my mind.” It was nice to see him joke and somewhat tease, the poor man who had been frozen and enslaved. He waved his human hand like he was waving away the thoughts of the past, “Anyway less than a month after it came out the war began. Obviously we didn’t join the allies straight away but it affected us instantly all the same.”

You threw the popcorn in the microwave while Bucky looked for other sweets and snacks that you knew Tony had hidden away. This time Bucky restarted the conversation, “Tony reminds me of the Tin Woodman.” You titled your head to the side as you contemplated it, “The suit?” “No, wanting a heart.” He tapped his chest where Tony’s Arc reactor would lie, “But the suit is a good comparison.” “What about the Scarecrow?” You asked enjoying the way that you’d slipping into such an entertaining conversation. Bucky didn’t miss a beat, “Steve. How he used to be all thin and gangly, he used to bend in the wind.” You laughed at the image before asking, “And wanting a brain?” “He only had to look at an ill person to catch a cold and he was always getting into fights that he couldn’t possibly win.” He paused, “Well couldn’t win back then.” “I bet you always rushed into save him, didn’t you?” You asked and enjoyed the way that Bucky’s cheeks hued again.

After a moment you asked, “And the Lion?” Bucky thought for a moment, “Dr Banner.” You irrupted into giggled and Bucky spared you a smirk. He pulled out a bottle of fizzy pop from the cupboard and set it down, “It’s warm but is this okay?” he asked. You reached over and held the side of the bottle with your palm and slowly the plastic started the get more rigid and freeze. You stopped short of freezing the drink so that it would be just enough to keep it cool and Bucky was visibly impressed by your control.

After a moment you asked, “What about you?” He scratched his scruff on his face in thought before deciding, “Dorothy.” You grinned instantly, “I could see you in red heels.” “Ruby heels.” He corrected and you laughed before he continued, “More the long way from home.” “You’re not enjoying it over the rainbow?” You asked lightly but you both knew what you were insinuating, was he starting to feel human again? “It’s not so bad,” He reassured you slightly, “But there’s no place like home.” There was a tense pause before his guff voice asked, “Who would you be?” “Toto.” You answered promptly. “The dog?” He asked his lips pulling into a small smile. “Hell yeah the dog,” you told him as you pulled out the popcorn from the microwave, “Toto was the star and she was in like forty other movies you know.” His raised his brows, “Wow you really do like the film.” You shared a smile and went back to your lair to settle in to watch the film and gorge on your snacks, neither of you spoke during the film, you figured it was Bucky’s first time watching it in 75 years so for the most part you left him in peace. Except every time the gang where on the yellow brick road you looped your arm through Bucky’s human one and nudged him from side to side like you were skipping down the road. You had no idea what had processed you but after the second time he wasn’t so rigid and finally when the gang where nearly at Oz and released from spell in flower fields by the Glinda the Good witch, you could have sworn that he was moving with you.

Your shared passion turned your uneasy alliance into a new, tentative friendship. You discussed Oz and he told you about the original book series which you immediately ordered, on Tony’s card, so that he could reread them. Once you’d both read them you also lent him the Dorothy Must Die book series. He didn’t like them as much as the originals but that was because the originals were a connection to home. Eventually you shared more TV with him and he shared more books with you and through them you divulged information about your lives to one another.

He told you about his life before the war and, if he was feeling up to it, he’d tell you about some of his time as The Winter Solider and in return of his trust you told him about how you’d been taken by Hydra and experimented on. Your late parents had worked for SHIELD and you’d followed in their footsteps to a small degree, you worked as a coordinator for SHIELD, often helping plan out the logistics of missions. Apparently Hydra had been watching you for some time, they’d seen potential in your parents, and had taken you one night as you’d arrived home. When your powers had first taken over you, you’d frozen the entire Hydra facility and from what Steve had told you on his last recon, it was still frozen. You’d had little control of yourself back then but your connection to SHIELD had made the Avengers trust you and helping fight Ultron had given you a much better handle on your powers.

The others had noticed your friendship with the Winter Solider blossoming but the only person to say anything was Steve, he’d taken you to one side and thanked you for trying hard to be nice to be Bucky. “Not to be rude or anything Cap, because you know I love you,” You had told him and waited for what he was sure would be an insult, “I didn’t try to be nice to Bucky for you. He’s a good guy whose had a lot of shit handed to him.” Steve smiled and dropped his massive paw onto your shoulder, “This is why I like you.” “Well I can rest easy now, knowing that you like me.” You teased and he nudged your shoulder playfully.

You both walked into the kitchen to find Natasha and Bucky sat at the table and Tony stood waiting for you by the counter with his hands on his hips. “And just what do you call this, Icy?” Tony pointed to an empty coffee jar on the counter before his hands went back to his hips like a sassy mother. You raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t you supposed to be a genius?” Steve joined Nat and Bucky at the table and you didn’t need to look over to know that they were watching your little spat. Tony ignored your remark and pointed to the boiling kettle on the side, “I came to make myself a coffee and low and behold, someone has used all the coffee!” “Well who did that?” You asked innocently. “You were the last to see the victim alive.” Tony accused and your rolled your eyes, it was always your or Clint and you both always tried to set each other up. “Tony why are you mithering, you don’t even like instant.” You snarked. “I have to have instant because you froze my coffee machine!” He snapped his face full of more sass than a grown man should have. “Sure, blame the girl with the ice powers,” You argued, “Anyone could have done that!” Tony started to complain at you but you tuned him out and sent a side eyed glance at Bucky who was watching you with amusement in his eyes. When you knew that you had his attention you leaned up onto the balls of your feet and clicked your heels together like Dorothy would. At the table Bucky held his glass of water up to his face to hide his amused smirk at your antics. You didn’t pay attention to Nat or Steve to know that they’d shared a look.

“Are you even listening to me?” Tony brought you back to the conversation at hand. “No, I’m not really.” You told him. His face flushed, “I’m serious Ice Queen, behave yourself or there will be consequences.” At the table Steve shook his head, he knew how this was going to end. You put your hands on your hips, mimicking Tony, before answering, “Don’t threaten me Tinman, it won’t wash.” With that you held your hand out and placed it on the boiling kettle, making it freeze entirely.

His face flushed and his mouth opened and closed several times as you turned on your heels and left, calling over your shoulder as you went, “Enjoy your coffee Stark.” Tony cursed loudly and stormed out. Steve shook his head again and drank his tea, “Well I’m sure this will end well.” “They’ve done this before?” Bucky asked. “They usually go at each other until one of them ends up injured or Bruce loses his cool.” Nat picked up her mug and took a sip. Steve watched her before asking, “Is that coffee? You finished it off?” She offered both men out of time a smirk, “Well it was getting a little boring around here.”

----

Tony’s retaliation started small, as it always did, with him breaking into your room and swapping all of your clothes for Elsa outfits. So you froze his favourite car before he was due to go to a press conference. He replaced your desk in your lair with speakers blasting out ‘Frosty the Snowman’ on repeat. You released pictures to the press of him dancing to AC/DC in his boxers.

He used FRIDAY to turn the heat up in your bedroom. You turned the floor of his lab into an ice rink.

He took every book in the tower and hid them away somewhere. You dyed all of his party suits teal – he hated the colour, said it made him look fat.

He told the press that you wished to referred to as ‘The Ice Queen’. You put homemade slime in his all of his left shoes.

He wiped all the songs from your iPod. And that’s where things got complicated, you’d meant to freeze Tony’s stereo but your aim was off and you ended up freezing Steve’s recorded player and inadvertently got Steve to join Tony’s team against you.

You sat cross legged on your bed with your chin rested on your hands and sighed, “I need something new.” Bucky, who for all accounts was lounged on the other side of your bed, dropped the book he was reading, Steve had snuck it too him, you’d still not found the other books. “I can help you if you want?” Bucky asked, his deep voice laced with amusement, “Even the playing field.” “What, are you a secret prank master?” You asked and let yourself roll onto your back beside him on the bed. He smirked at you, a smirk that you were sure he saved only for you, “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” “Like how you hair always looks so nice even though you never do anything to it?” You teased. “You like my hair?” He countered and your face flushed instantly.

He sat up and patted your knee affectionately with his human hand, “Come on let’s go to the lair and make a plan.”

---

“Honestly, sometimes I impress myself.” Tony told Steve as he brought up the towers surveillance on the screen. Clint and Natasha watched them both idly while playing cards at the table. “What have you done?” Steve asked as he came to join Tony in front of the screen. “What’s one thing that you can never clean off entirely? That sticks everywhere?” Tony asked him. “Blood?” Steve tried. Tony rolled his eyes, “Glitter. Not only is it impossible to get off but it clumps and sticks to sweat.” “I’m worried that you know that.” Clint quipped from the table.

Tony ignored him, “So I made a glitter bomb and placed it here.” He pointed to a hallway on one of the screens, “This is the hallway from her bedroom to her lair.” “Glitter bomb?” Steve asked. “Yep, she walks past it and bang! Glitter face forever!” He laughed and then pointed at the screen excitedly, “Look there she goes with her metal armed puppy.”

Clint and Natasha shared a pointed look before Clint spoke up, “She’s with Barnes, near a bomb like device?” “Yes, isn’t it brilliant?” Tony grinned. Clint pinched his brow and Natasha following his train of thought took out her guns, Clint continued, “Barnes? Who we know suffers from PTSD from the war and Hydra? Who, you know, follows Y/N around and has a tendency to lose his mind? You thought it would be a good idea to leave a bomb around for him to find.” “Fuck.” Tony cursed and the colour drained from his face as he watched you and Bucky approach where the glitter bomb was hidden in the wall.

---

“I think dying his hair is the best idea that we’ve had so far.” You told Bucky as you were headed towards your lair. “Do you think Pepper would help us with that?” He asked you and you shrugged. A ticking sound bothered your ears and you turned to Bucky, “What’s that no-”

It happened fast.

The next thing you knew you were pressed up against the opposite wall in darkness. Had the lights gone off? No. It was Bucky, his body was completely blocking out the light. It took you a moment to realise what had happened. The noise ringing in your ears was a small homemade bomb; Tony had taught you how to make them once.

Surely he hadn’t been so stupid to put on in the tower with Bucky around?!

His head was over yours so you couldn’t see him well but you were face to face with his heaving chest as he let out ragged breaths. His metal arm was completely embedded in the frozen wall beside your head and his human arm was holding your body to his chest. From what you could tell you’d frozen the whole wall in your panic, you hoped that his human arm wasn’t too hurt by your powers. “Bucky?” You breathed. No answer. “Buck?” His breath quietened slightly. “Barnes?” He inched his shoulder back to give you more breathing room. “Jesus, James are you okay?” You asked and this time he looked at you, his eyes where dark and sorrowful. Now able to move your hands, you inched them behind his back then brought them back to show him your glitter covered fingers, “James. Bucky, you’re okay. It was just a stupid prank, its glitter, everything’s okay.”

His eyes searched your face, “I thought. I thought it was real.” You swallowed at the sad look in his eyes, “I know, I know but you’re okay. We’re both okay.” Your hands reached up tentatively to rub the tops of his arms. He didn’t move except to rest his head on top of yours. You dared to speak again when realisation of your situation slapped you in the face, “You thought it was real and you hid me?” He didn’t move his head from yours. You continued, “Bucky you’ve got glitter all over your back and head. If it was real, it wasn’t and you’re safe, but if it was, you could have died.” He moved his head to look down at you, his eyes searching yours, he swallowed, “I just reacted. I’m sorry if I hurt you I just couldn’t see you- -see you hurt.” His words swept you up and soon your body followed as you reached up on your toes and gently brushed your lips over his, soft enough that he knew your intention but could push you anyway if he didn’t want this.

His gasp danced across your lips and for a moment you were worried that he’d rejected you but then his lips pressed against yours in solid, loving kiss. His metal arm came from the wall to wrap around your waist holding you to him whilst your hands went to his hair, tangling your fingers into it as you kissed in the hallway. The scruff of his cheeks scratching your cheeks was delicious and you deepened the kiss.

You separated from each other, you released his hair and he let you down as you stepped back from each other and you both breathed heavily. His hair stuck out full of glitter and frost and your hands weren’t much better and you said the only thing that came to mind, “Glitter suits you.” “You too.” He nodded and pointed to your cheek where you’d had glitter from his face wipe onto your face. A whirring interrupted your awkwardness and when you looked up you saw a half frozen security camera, you’d frozen half of the hallway in your panic, trying desperately to move. You pointed at it, “It looks broken but someone still trying to use it. This was Tony.” “They’ll be down here in a minute, they’d know how I would have reacted.” Bucky mumbled like he didn’t want to admit it. You turned to him with an evil smirk, “Then let’s get out of here. Tony put this here knowing that it could trigger and upset half the people in this tower. This is our final prank. What do you say? It would mean pretending to have lost your mind again.” You winced when you realised what you were asking.

Shouting down the hallway prompted him to answer, “You have a plan?” “Half of one?” You answered, “It does involve writing ‘Surrender Tony’ in his lab with spray paint like the Wicked Witch did in Oz?” He gave you a smirk, “And after, we’ll talk about,” he gestured between the pair of you, “us?” Your face flushed, “I’d like that.”

He held his hand out to you and when you took it he pulled to you his chest and he cupped your face with his hand so that he could wipe more glitter over your cheek. You pushed his hand playfully. “Let’s a way to rust the Tinman.” You grinned. “Flying monkey at your service.” He clicked his heels and gave you a mock salute and made more frost and glitter fall from his hair.

You giggled and, taking his hand, you ran off together away from the shouting. That was the first of many ‘annoying Tony’ dates running down that hallway, your own Yellow Brick road.

I was a bit worried about this one because it was just my idea not a request but I really enjoyed writing it and I hope your enjoyed reading it!

#the wizard of oz #the wonderful wizard of oz #wizard of oz imagine #james bucky barnes #james barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes oneshot #marvel imagine #marvel oneshot #avengers imagine #avengers oneshot #avengers x reader #the winter soldier imagine #the winter soldier oneshot #the winter soldier x reader

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frontproofmedia · 5 years ago

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Boxing Legends, Champions & More Give Their Predictions For Wilder vs. Fury II

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Published: February 18, 2020

LAS VEGAS (Feb. 18, 2020) — As fight night nears, boxing legends, world champions, celebrities and more shared their predictions for the highly anticipated rematch between unbeaten WBC Heavyweight World Champion Deontay "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder and undefeated lineal champion Tyson "The Gypsy King" Fury ahead of the historic, mega PPV event this Saturday, February 22 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Tickets for the event are on sale now and can be purchased at www.mgmgrand.com or www.axs.com. The event is promoted by BombZquad Promotions, TGB Promotions, Top Rank and Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions. A Premier Boxing Champions presentation. The heavyweight championship rematch has garnered debate ever since the controversial end of their first fight in December 2018, and remains a 50-50 fight just days before they square off again. Here are predictions from throughout the boxing world and beyond for Saturday’s main event, with the respondents leaning towards Wilder to retain his title over Fury, by an 18 to 14 margin: Sugar Ray Leonard, Hall of Famer Wilder W 12: “I like Deontay Wilder to win, possibly by knockout, but, in truth, I don’t see either guy being knocked out. I think that Wilder not only has that powerful right hand, but that he has improved in his ability to set it up. “On the other hand, I know that Tyson Fury has excellent boxing abilities and a tremendous chin from the way that he got up from the two knockdowns in their previous fight. In the end, I think that Wilder is always in shape and that he will use his speed and power to get the job done.” Jamel Herring, WBO Junior Lightweight world champion Fury by Majority Decision: “If Fury can box the same way he boxed in the first fight, without any scares, he can pull it off. On the flip side, it’s hard to pick against Wilder, as he always looks more impressive in rematches.” Manny Pacquiao, WBA Welterweight World Champion Wilder KO 10: “Never bet against a puncher, particularly one like Deontay Wilder. I look at Wilder like I do at a Mike Tyson, another puncher. I see Wilder winning this rematch with Tyson Fury by 10th-round knockout.” Carl Frampton, former two-weight world champion Fury W 12: “I think it’s a very difficult fight to call. Fury won the last one by a mile, but I think Wilder will be more aggressive this time, which may play into Fury’s hands. Wilder can win by KO at any moment, but put a gun to my head, and I’d say Fury on points.” Thomas Hearns, Hall of Famer Wilder W 12: “Deontay Wilder can box and win, but I think that his power will be the difference in defeating Tyson Fury. I believe that it will go to a decision again, but with Deontay Wilder winning it.” Mikaela Mayer, undefeated super featherweight/2016 U.S. Olympian Fury by decision: “I Fury is the better boxer and smart enough to make the adjustments needed from the last fight. If he can avoid a bomb from the ‘The Bronze Bomber,’ I think he will win on the scorecards.” Evander Holyfield, Hall of Famer Wilder W 12: “I’m picking Deontay Wilder based on his confidence and the fact that he does all of the right things to remain in great shape, and that he’s committed to his craft. “Wilder’s not just a big guy with a right hand, but he’s also become more calculated in his approach. That’s why I’m picking him to win this second fight against Tyson Fury.” Michael Conlan, WBO No. 1 Featherweight Contender Fury by decision: “He needs to be even more careful this time, but he looks like he’s put in some serious work and is ready finish what he started last time.” Shawn Porter, former two-time world welterweight champion Wilder KO:” I have not had this hard of a time picking a winner of a fight after dissecting every component in a very long time. I honestly believe that this fight right here will seal both of their legacies. “This is a 50-50 fight for several reasons. Deontay Wilder will be much more patient and freer from the anxiety he had trying to put on a big show in the first fight. Tyson Fury is now two years from depression, two fights from the retirement he came out of to fight Wilder. “Fury has changed trainers in order to take the fight to Wilder and win by KO. Fury still has his speed and quickness, while Wilder is still powerful and more confident. It’s going to be a great fight. “It’s razor thin until the end. I’m picking Wilder to win by KO, Fury by points, or Fury by KO. This is a 50-50 fight. I said on ‘Inside PBC Boxing’ a couple of weeks ago that Wilder wins by KO, but I’m picking the fans to win.” Xander Zayas, 17-year-old welterweight prospect Fury by decision: “He will outbox Wilder and make the necessary adjustments. It will essentially be a repeat of the first fight, only more convincing.” Larry Holmes, Hall of Famer Wilder KO 7-8: “Deontay Wilder will knock out Tyson Fury in the seventh or eighth round if he does what I know that he can do, which is stay on the outside, use his jab, throw that right hand over the jab.” Colin Cloud, LIMITLESS at The Mirage Wilder KO: “I predict Wilder will win by a knock-out in the first three rounds. I further predict Tyson will get ‘in the zone’ listening to some classic Jay-Z, Whereas Wilder will be listening to Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ album, because ultimately he is both a lover and a fighter.” Adam Kownacki, undefeated heavyweight contender Wilder KO 7: “I’m going with Deontay Wilder, and I think it’s going to be a knockout in round seven. I think it will be a rematch similar to the one with Luis Ortiz, whom he stopped in the 10th round the first time and in the seventh round the second time. “Wilder will be patient, wait for his opening, and then, he will deliver. I think Wilder lands the big right hand and that, this time, Fury doesn’t get up.” Robert Garcia, trainer of Mikey Garcia Fury W 12: “I see Tyson Fury winning by a decision over Deontay Wilder. Unlike the first time, where he was knocked down twice, I believe that Fury will be fight more cautiously and that he’ll win a decision.” Keith Thurman, former unified welterweight world champion Wilder KO: “I’m going with Deontay Wilder, who is one of the most dangerous punchers in boxing history. There’s something about the first time that you step into the ring with an opponent, the entire, ‘I’ve never seen you; you’ve never seen me before.’ “But the fact is, Wilder now knows the movement, the speed and the tactics that Tyson Fury has, but, of course, Fury has the ability to dance, move around and change it up. But as long as Wilder can keep up with and move with him, I believe that he will do what he does best. “I believe that Wilder can end the fight at any moment, aiming that right hand straight down the pipe, which he just about did in the last fight. It’s a tremendous event, I missed the first one, but I’ll be present at this next one and another great heavyweight rivalry. Team BombZquad.” Matt Goss, 1OAK Las Vegas at The Mirage Fury W “So proud of Tyson and his mindset and all of the battles he has won in and outside of the ring. Massively respect you Tyson, from one Brit to another, go and do what you do best, TCB.” Mikey Garcia, former four-division world champion Wilder KO 8: “I’ve got Deontay Wilder knocking out Tyson Fury in the eighth round. Wilder will be much more aggressive than he was in their first fight. Wilder will catch Fury with a big shot in the eighth round.” Michelin Star Chef Akira Back, Chef for Yellowtail at Bellagio and Kumi at Mandalay Bay Wilder KO 9: “Wilder in a 9th round KO. And after he knocks out Fury, I hope he will have time to stop by Yellowtail to celebrate and have a shot with me.” Ruben Guerrero, trainer of Robert Guerrero Fury W 12: “Tyson Fury is much more focused going into this fight. He’s not partying like he was, and he didn’t go into camp out of shape. He’s gotten God-centered in his life now, so I’m picking Fury to win by decision over Deontay Wider.” Jermall Charlo, Undefeated WBC Middleweight World Champion Wilder KO 10: “Deontay Wilder by knockout in the 10th over Tyson Fury. Deontay has to establish the jab early to get close, then crank right hands repeatedly.” Marcus Deegan, MC, Thunder from Down Under at Excalibur Fury KO 2: "After Tyson Fury got up like a zombie from the dead after that devastating knock down in their first fight, it shows his heart is beyond those of a normal human. This time around, I believe Tyson Fury will be victorious via knockout in the second round." Chris Colbert, interim WBA Super Featherweight Champion Wilder KO 8: “I feel like Tyson Fury is less confident for this fight, and I think that Deontay Wilder is going to win by knockout. I would like to see Fury put up a helluva fight, but I don’t think that will happen this time. “Wilder has more hunger to come back and to do better in his rematches, like he did against Bermane Stiverne and Luis Ortiz. I don’t think Fury goes any further than eight rounds this time.” Paulie Malignaggi, former two-division world champion Fury W 12: “I feel like it’s going to be Tyson Fury on points, but it’s a fight between the two best fighters in the weight class. “The onus is Deontay Wilder to make the adjustments, whereas if Fury fights the same fight, odds are, he’s probably going to get the decision. “I do think that Fury has to be careful with getting careless in spots, but Wilder can’t just fight believing that he can land one shot and get him out of there. “Fury is a great boxer who can probably be better at avoiding the shot the second time around because he knows what he’s dealing with.” David Benavidez, undefeated WBC Super Middleweight World Champion Wilder KO 11: “I think Deontay Wilder knocks out Tyson Fury in the 11th round, but I think it’s gonna be a close fight until that happens. Still, I think Wilder wins the fight. “I think Tyson Fury will have a lot of success early, but that ultimately Wilder will catch him with that big right hand and knock him out.” Andy Lee, former middleweight world champion Fury KO 2: “Tyson Fury can win this fight with Deontay Wilder in any way that he wants, whether by stoppage or knockout or accumulation of punishment on points. “But the way that Fury’s looking in training, I will say that he wins by stoppage or knockout, and I’ll say he wins in round number two. “I’m a former Kronk Gym fighter, and he’s being trained by [Emanuel Steward’s nephew Javon] SugarHill Steward, and you know what all of us Kronk Gym fighters want – knockouts.” Anthony Dirrell, former two-time super middleweight champion Wilder KO 8: “I am picking Deontay Wilder to win the rematch with Tyson Fury, and I think that it will happen in Round eight or nine. “I just believe that Wilder will be better than he was in the last fight, and you can just look at his record in rematches against Bermane Stiverne and Luis Ortiz.” Terry Fator, Terry Fator: The VOICE of Entertainment at The Mirage Fury KO 4: “I am a huge fight fan...it's why I never miss a presidential debate. My prediction--Fury in 4 when Wilder hits the floor.” Charles Martin, former world heavyweight champion Wilder KO 8: “Deontay Wilder’s gonna win by knockout. I believe that Tyson Fury will be out-boxing Wilder for most of the rounds, but then, he will get stopped by that powerful right hand in the eighth.” John Ryder, former WBA interim super middleweight champion Fury KO: “I believe this fight will be a lot more explosive then the first. I believe Deontay Wilder will feel Tyson Fury can’t hurt him and will go for the KO very early and fade later in the fight. Tyson will get him out of there anywhere after the eighth round.” Luis Ortiz, heavyweight contender Wilder W 12: “Deontay Wilder will win a decision over Tyson Fury, who will be coming in respecting Wilder’s power and being wary of taking a shot based on all of the evidence of Wilder’s previous fights with me, and from their first fight. “Looking at what Wilder was able to do with me during the championship rounds of our first fight and also much sooner than that in our second fight, he’s going to be worrying about taking a similar shot, otherwise, there’s a locomotive coming.” Bermane Stiverne, former world heavyweight champion Wilder KO:” I think Deontay Wilder will knock out Tyson Fury, it’s just a matter of when he lands the right hand or the left hook and finishes him off. “Wilder’s power saved him in the last round against Fury the first time, but I think that now that Fury has tasted Wilder’s power, I think that has to be in the back of his mind. “Whether it’s the first or the last round, just like Fury was doing well in the first fight, I think it’s going to be a knockout for Wilder.” Michael Clift, “Barry Gibb”, The Australian Bee Gees Show at Excalibur Hotel & Casino Fury W: “Wilder will come after Fury and try for a big knockout punch, that's his best hope. Fury will bide his time and use his reach and awkward style to wear Wilder down and strike when he sees him tiring. I'd like to see Wilder win but I think Fury will be too strong. Fury to win!”

(Featured Photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)

#HF #Deontay Wilder #Tyson Fury #Top Rank Boxing #Premier Boxing Champions

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spectrumscribe · 8 years ago

Text

I hear static, I hear you.

An AU, set directly after The Power Inside Her. Canon divergence from the ending of the episode. AO3 link.

———————————————————-

Part Ten. (Master Post)

There ended up being a lot of sleepless hours between planning their next move, and actually executing it. Leo didn’t think he got more than a handful over the course of the day.

For most of it, he’d stared at his ceiling. Thinking and wondering if April’s plan was going to work or not. In the privacy of his thoughts and the darkness, Leo had allowed his anxiety to roil in his thoughts. After all, he wouldn’t be able to let that happen whenever night rolled around. If he did…

Well. They’d seen what happened when they let their emotions and thoughts run unchecked. Leo didn’t want to put Donnie through that again, further changing him from the brother he’d known.

In the very, very private space of his thoughts, Leo admitted he was almost scared of his brother. Before and now. How far he’d changed from his original self, hollow eyed and like something from a horror movie...

Leo wasn’t sure how he was going to fully control his instinctive reactions, even though he knew that Donnie wasn’t aiming to hurt them. The reflexive fear was just so powerful, Leo didn’t know how Mikey had, and was, doing it.

He’d figure it out though. Staring up at the familiar stone ceiling of his room, Leo swore to himself he’d control his emotions and thoughts. Donnie’s life depended on him doing that, on all of them doing that.

Even though, after their family meeting, they’d all been extremely busy collecting the required supplies late into the night, Leo felt restless all through the day and only managed a light sleep.

He ended up rising before evening anyways, despite his best efforts to get enough rest. Too much in his head to actually do that, and too much anxiety over their plan.

Instead of continuing his fruitless attempts to sleep, he chose to nitpick their set up in the lair.

After they’d left the meeting, they’d split into two teams. Splinter and Mikey stayed in the lair to haul out every mobile light fixture they had, and keep watch in case Donnie returned home again. April had said it was unlikely, but there was an unspoken vow to take no chances.

Raph had gone with Casey, and… Leo had been paired with April, for scavenging. They needed as many lamps as they could feasibly get to work, and Leo had kept a steely grip on his emotions for the sake of getting the job done. Even as being so close to April had worn him thin, mentally and emotionally.

Her hair was so much shorter than it’d used to be, but Leo still saw how she’d been on that night. Red hair flying free, swirling with each burst of destructive power. Her blue eyes were weary and dark now, but Leo could easily imagine how unearthly light had glowed from them.

He hadn’t talked with her much. Mostly, they’d driven the Party Wagon in silence, and continued the silence as they loaded the van with every lamp stand that seemed like it would work.

Once or twice, Leo had been tempted to ask how she’d been, but the question died every time he looked at her. April had shrunk, for better lack of words. The confidence she’d gained over the years having vanished into bone deep weariness, and then turned into grief.

Leo knew April was sorry. She’d said so, and had cried over what she’d done. It didn’t change how his stomach turned being close to her, or how he couldn’t stop seeing a murderer in the place of his friend.

He’d kept things polite, though. Out of respect for the relationship they’d had before this, and for the efforts April was making to right her wrong.

Now, Leo moved through his home in the early evening. Footsteps as quiet as the home itself. After they’d all regrouped, Leo and the rest of his family had put their restless energy into setting up the first half of their plan.

Lamps of all sizes and shapes now dotted the main room, most of their sockets empty and shades discarded. It’d been a chore to gather so many working ones from garbage bins, but they’d done it. Casey and April had the jobs of getting the lightbulbs they’d need, and come evening they were supposed to return with the fragile glass. Then they all would wait. For Donnie.

Leo sighed under his breath, moving a slightly bent, tall lamp a step to the left. It would’ve been fine where it was, but he needed to do something to pass the time. Maybe he’d just move all the lamps a step to the left. There were enough it’d take him at least a few minutes.

Leo stepped over the tangled cords across the floor, minding his foot falls so he didn’t trip and pull everything down with him. On a whim, he clicked the switch of a lamp he passed, and was briefly surprised that the old bulb turned on.

Then it started to flicker rapidly, and Leo’s heart stuttered.

“Donnie?” Leo asked aloud, eyes darting around. The blub kept flickering for a second longer, and then settled.

Leo watched it for another tense moment, and then let out a quiet breath.

His heart was still jumping around a bit, so he put a hand on his chest and tried to calm the rapid pace it’d picked up. To no avail, since it just kept on thudding far too fast and loud.

Leo sighed hard, and tried to get a grip on his nerves. Tonight was probably going to be harder than he’d previously thought, and he’d already felt reluctant about the whole plan.

To counteract the overwhelming effect all of their minds and emotions had on Donnie, they were planning on filling the lair with enough ambient energy that Donnie would be able to stabilize. Hopefully, if it worked, Donnie would remain coherent enough to deliver the other portions of his plan to April, and… whatever that plan turned out to be, that would be their next move.

For this to work, all they had to do was control all of their emotions and thoughts so they didn’t create a looping feedback of terror and fear that would cripple them and send Donnie back over the edge. No pressure or anything.

Leo wasn’t feeling confident. Not with how scattered and wrecked they’d all become, since Donnie’s… not death anymore, but disappearance. There was still a chance.

Leo swallowed his doubts, and tried to rally himself as he moved onto another lamp. They could do this, they would do this. They couldn’t fail, and Leo would somehow make sure they didn’t when the time came.

Leo’s internal clock, and tired feeling eyes, told him he still had a few hours yet.

He sighed again, louder.

He moved another lamp to the left, because he could. Because that’s all he could do, at the moment. And keep waiting, as agonizing as that was becoming.

Leo had moved all the lamps exactly one space to the left by the time his family started emerging from their rooms, and then had moved them all back one space to the right by the time Casey and April arrived.

Once the bulbs were in place, the lamps plugged in, and the television and radio turned on- they waited.

Donnie appeared only at night, for some reason. Maybe it was because Leo and their family were typically awake at night, or it could have been something else. Leo wasn’t sure, and he didn’t try to figure it out. He didn’t care what hour Donnie appeared at, he just wanted that hour to be soon.

April had taken position in the center of the lights. Legs folded beneath her as they waited for Donnie to make an appearance. The rest of them had spread out surrounding the imperfect rings of lamps.

Raph and Casey sat close together, talking in low tones as time ticked on. On occasion, they’d glance at April, but for the most part ignored her. Mikey sat close to the television, and miracles of miracles, seemed to be meditating as they waited. Back straight and eyes closed, Leo hadn’t seen his brother move once since he sat down. Leo almost went to ask him what he was doing, but he decided in the end to let Mikey be. Better to not interrupt a good thing.

Their father sat by the radio, it’s speakers on but playing nothing. He’d told them that Donnie had spoken through it once, and had added it to the lamps as an extra measure. Anything to ease Donnie’s struggle to exist on the living plain.

Leo himself sat on the far side from Raph and Casey, and folded his legs into a similar position to Mikey’s and April’s. Once they’d all settled, Leo closed his eyes and started to open his mental barriers.

If Mikey was connecting to Donnie by being ‘open’ to the connection, then Leo would lower his defenses to let his brother in.

After the first Kraang invasion, and after Leo had woken up from his coma, he’d started having vivid nightmares of the Shredder. Specifically of the attack that had put him in a coma. In order to get any sleep at all, and stop the flashbacks he’d have in the middle of regular training, Leo had applied a technique their father had taught them not long after they’d started their war.

Leo had built impenetrable walls around his mind, and repressed the experiences completely. Unless he wanted to remember them, he wouldn’t. Donnie had commented it wasn’t the healthiest thing in the world to do, simply forcing his mind to not think about the trauma, but Leo had figured it was worth it. After all, what good was a leader who couldn’t spar without seeing his worst enemy in the place of his brothers?

And if Donnie had wanted him to lower those defenses back then, then he’d likely be happy Leo was doing it now. For him no less.

Leo waited, meditated, and opened his mind for when Donnie would appear.

It took an amount of time, but the moment the air changed in the lair, Leo’s eyes snapped open. A chill ran through him, and with his defenses completely down, the crawling sensation went directly into his skull.

Leo’s heart sped up for a moment, and then he forced it to remain calm. He’d remain calm, no matter what.

Leo was on his feet the same time as everyone else, watching the lights of the lamps go crazy. Each bulb pulsated at faster and faster rates as the room got colder, an icy grip spreading over everything. Leo’s hands clenched as he instinctively wanted to reach for his swords, but he wasn’t wearing them, and wouldn’t ever draw them on Donnie. Ghostly creature or not, he would never do that to his brother.

Leo shifted his feet nervously- no, he couldn’t be nervous, he couldn’t afford to be- and he readied himself for what would inevitably come next.

Without his mental walls, Leo swore he could hear something whispering to him. It sounded wrong, and he wanted to put the walls right back up. But he couldn’t, because that was probably Donnie, and he wouldn’t ignore his brother, never again.

Wind, despite the lair being far underground, brushed past Leo, and he shivered at its temperature. The last of the heat in the room vanished, and the television and radio’s crackling static increased in pitch. Leo held his breath as the lights turned darker and darker, and didn’t dare move when the light became so low he could barely see.

Then.

They flickered back to life, and Donnie was there.

Leo heard a sharp intake of breath from someone, but his focus was on Donnie.

His brother hovered on the edge of the lamps, a good three feet off the floor. He’d materialized on the edge furthest from everyone, and was looking at them all like he had last time. Silent, hollow eyed, and with no emotions to be seen.

It was a reset to him before being overwhelmed. That was good, that meant they had a chance to get this right.

Leo swallowed, and continued to maintain iron control of his emotions, while remaining open to Donnie’s connection. Under the creeping sensation of wrongness emanating through the air, it was beginning to be harder than Leo had thought it would be.

No one spoke as Donnie started drifting forwards, towards the first ring of lamps. So far, their plan seemed to be working, and the lamps darkened as Donnie drew close. Their energy was providing him stability, which meant the next step of the plan could begin.

“Donnie…” April said, her voice soft and careful.

Donnie turned his head slowly, the movement somehow disconnected and leaving wisps behind as he did.

Leo’s eyes darted between them both, watching as Donnie focused in on April, and April swallowed obviously.

“I know I sent you away last time, and I’m s-sorry,” April stuttered on her apology, likely because of the reaction it had triggered previously. Donnie gave no indication of his anger yesterday evening, and she continued. “We’ve got electricity for you this time, though. And we know what we’ve been doing wrong. It won’t happen again, I promise.”

Donnie blinked slowly, and continued to give no response. The television and radio crackled with static, and a wave of dimming went through the lamps. Everyone stiffened again at the actions.

Leo took a slow breath, and prayed that everyone would be able to control themselves. The air felt cold and tense, and he knew that they were still one wrong step away from everything falling apart. They couldn’t afford any mistakes.

Donnie floated closer to the ground, moving another ring nearer to April. He was only ten feet from her now. He tilted his head, looking at her with his dead, blank eyes.

April was standing straight, but Leo noted a tremor in her hands. She maintained steady eye contact with Donnie, though.

April moistened her lips, and spoke again. “I know this isn’t the plan you tried to give me, but you gave me too much last time, Donnie. And then you took most of it back with you. Can you try showing me your plan again? But slower this time. I won’t be able to handle it all if you go too fast.”

Leo’s nerves jolted as the radio and television’s static suddenly changed, and a distorted voice came from the straining speakers.

ar̙̦̩̰̳͈̝e̠̥̦̗̟͝ ̡̥y̴̥o̗͞u̹̠̻̠͈͖ͅ ̺̘͚̻̮̮́l̬̠͔̣͡ì͉̜̰̩͕̻s̞̮͈͎͚̕ͅt̲̮͡e͜n̦̱i̯̰n͈͍̤͍g̻͈͉̤͈̯͘ͅ?̻͜

“Yes,” April replied, voice steady. “I’m listening. We all are, Donnie. Please, just one more time…”

Donnie’s form warped for a moment, then stabilized again. He stared at April, blank expression somehow communicating scrutiny. Leo tried to figure out what Donnie was waiting for. Why was he hesitating? Wasn’t this what they’d all been trying to achieve?

A wave of something moved through the room, and Leo tried not to shudder. He could feel Donnie, his brother’s presence as ambient as the lamps throughout the lair. It was so cold, like ice was trying to grow right inside of Leo.

Was this what Donnie was feeling? Trapped between worlds?

Leo was- not scared not scared he wasn’t scared- worried to find out. Worried for his brother, and how painful it must have been to experience the coldness in full force.

.̝̥̣̰̤̲͘.̜̳̙̦̥̦.a̙lr̨͍̺̫̼i̫g͓h͙͎̹̰t̫̮̟.̣͎͉ ҉̱̲l̹͙̤̜͡e̛̬̮̮̙̥t'̯͚͖s̘̫͖̮ͅ ͔̺͇̻̱t̢̞̬̯͓̗̯ṟ̺̟̳͔y̴͚ ̮̬̮̪̰͍̞a͎̲͎͕͕ͅg̴͍ͅa̱̥̱̝̭̝̪i̧͔ṉ̡͔̣.̗̮́ ̯L͍̲̩͉̤̤͘ị̷̖͔̝ͅs̝͚̱̪̰t͚͡ęn̩͉̞̻͚͈͍͡i̦̩n̶̝͍ͅg̩͔͎͜ ̗͈͇ͅt̮͔͖̣̟̣̮ḫ̣͎̙̬́ͅǫ̗̘̯͎̗u̥̘̟͔̰͎͢g͙̟̫̣̖̺͉h̞̹ͅ. ̦p̧͕͔̱͓l͈̹͙̗ḙ̭̜̙͍͘a҉s͏̼͎͕e̪̹̮̦͎͈͝ ̸̯̠͉͕̺l͟i̤̖̜̝̻̪͠s̛̘t̯͟ẹ̠̙n̥͕̹̞͈̪̩,͚ ̞̹͝l̹̞̜͈͘i͓͕͕͇̝̖s͙͕̙̤̝̦̺t̝͍͇̞̠̘e҉͖͔̟̩n̨͇̜͇̗ ̷̪̱t̼̞̯̠̦̺͘o̴͚̳̪̹͉̝ ̙̲̦̱̖̗̕M̲̪͍̣̭̕e̥̯̪͉̲̤.̰͘

“I’m listening,” April said. “I swear I’m listening, Donnie.”

Donnie drifted towards April, the lights closest to him dimming as he went. A trail of pale afterimages followed him, limbs not quite lining up in their movements. Leo held his breath, forcing himself to remain steady as his brother approached April.

Donnie stopped right in front of her, just three feet away, and hovered. Waiting.

Leo’s eyes darted quickly to the other people in the room, rapidly checking for any sign that someone would falter in this crucial moment. Mikey was staring wide eyed, utterly still and silent. Raph and Casey stood together, both their hands curled into fists. Splinter stood, tall and ready, with his ears laid back against the ever growing static from the radio and television.

Leo’s senses felt off, the static and flickering lights interfering. And Donnie’s wrongness was still seeping through the air, easily brushing over Leo’s mind now that he’d removed his blocks.

Leo watched April’s hands shake, as Donnie drifted a slight amount closer. Donnie stared at her, wide and white. And then, as April’s face went completely pale-

-his expression twisted like it had last time, and then Leo’s senses screamed.

The full force of the connection slammed into Leo, and his knees buckled immediately. A snarled mess of emotions and thoughts that weren’t his overrode everything, and he choked under the strain.

-guilt guilt guilt fury shame hate sel͢f̵-d́is̛g̡u̢st R̝͖̳̻A̳̘G͠E͍͖͉̰̺̠̯̕ -

Ice clawed at Leo’s chest, and he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find air, there wasn’t anything nothing no o͢n͝e ͡it w̧a͞s͟ ͠su͡c͡k͞i̷ng hi̕m ͡įn tea̛ri̛ng h̕im ͜apart̕ ͞ he̶̫̼̥ḽ͉̗̳̜͟p̝͔͍͕̤̞͇ ̭͉͖h̡͔͖̻e͔̠l̦͓̥͉̪̰͚p̖ p̀l̡̞͓ḙ̬̟͜a̪͉͉̜͚̙s̻̫̰̥̙͎ͅe̺̝̯̩͚̺ ̢g̺͈̖̙̹̗e̶ț̛̰̺ ͇͓m̨̝e̘̤ͅ ͘o͢u͏̯̩̗͈ͅt̯ ̘̳̝̟͞G͘E̫̪͎T̶̩ ̪͍͍͚̠͚͘M͇̣̳̰̰E͍ ̝͕͙͎̹̦O͖̱̹̬̕U̪̞͖͘T̳̼̗̠̺͉-̸̳̥̼̙͙-

- a͡l̀l ̧m̴y̸ f̵au̸l̡ţ I d̕idn't͢ mea̸n̛ ̴t́o҉ ̢I͟'͞m̸ şor̵ry I'm̶ ͝s̶oŕr̵y ̶pleasè I̸'m ҉S̡OR̶R͜Y̸-

Leo wrenched himself free of the howling thoughts, and forcefully slammed his mental shields back into place. The thoughts disappeared, but the screaming, the screaming-

It wasn’t just in his head.

Leo struggled to his feet, taking in how things had deteriorated again.

This time, Donnie wasn’t hovering in place and screaming. He was everywhere, rapidly disappearing and reappearing as lights shattered in the rings of lamps. April was on the ground, clutching her skull and yelling.

Leo, shaken and struggling to return to full control of himself, realized the sudden influx had come not just from Donnie, but April too.

His ears were ringing- or maybe he was just feeling the after effects of the full connection- and the shouts of his family were distant. Mikey, open and vulnerable to the connection, was obviously struggling to stay standing, and Raph and Casey seemed at a loss of how to break into the situation. Every time they moved forwards, Donnie would shift where he was, and they would be forced to retreat or risk running into him.

Glass fell onto the floor as Donnie swept through another row of lamps, shattering the fragile bulbs in a sweep of blinding light. The television’s screen was too bright to look at, arcs of electricity coming off it like the ceiling lights of the lair above them all.

“Donatello! Calm yourself!” Splinter yelled over the shrieking static of the electricity, barely hearable over April and Donnie’s combined voices. His words only seemed to make things worse, and Leo’s mind was wracked again by an intense blow of snarling emotions and thoughts.

His own fear rose in response, and Leo couldn’t control the rapid thudding of his heart, the need to run or fight or hide-

i҉̙͙̬̼t̥͘ ̺h̦u̟̪̼͓̱r̲̜͇͍͎̥̣t͎s̠͇ ̬̝̤͉̝̬̣i̬̰̖͖̱̲̲t̲̖͙̠̲͉ ̶ḥ̹̙͚͡u̗͚̩͙̯̣̩r̖̝ţ̘͙͚̝̗͈̳s̺̦ ̢͇̜i͙̩̰̲̻͙̞t͎̳͠ ͍̰̜͚̝͠Y̧͎͓͈͚͚O̢̦̫̣U͖̞͖͕̱̲͞R҉̭ ̵̰F̦A̵̮̗̺͉͎ͅU̠̦͈̯̭ḶT ̨̖̼̤͕͇͈m̙̫̰͟ỳ̗̫̮̯ ͏̱̤̩f̀��͇͉a̴u̧̙͍͖̰͎̗ͅl̢̙̪̙̤̩ͅt͓̮̻͕̼͉ ̺̹̣̗H҉͇̘̰̲̗̙͙Ę̹͙̝̳̜̻R̩͖̙S̸̘̤͇̬ ͏͙IT̻̪̤̦̜ ̼̟̳W̡ÁS̱͡ ̟̼̖̬̬́H̘̠̘̙̩́ͅE͍R̯̠̩̰͘S̕ ̫̗͢ͅỌ̪̥̯̪U͙̩̤ͅT̢̼͕̞̩̰ ̧̜͎͕͕͉OU̵̯͕̼͕̣ͅT̟ ̴̹̫̭̝̳̲O̫̯ͅU̵̥̹ͅȚ͖͈̭̜͙ ͞m̗̹͡a̻k͏̘̜͈e̷̼ ̠͇iţ͕͔͉̳͈̗̪ ̡͈͉͉s̱͕͍̩̯t͏͎o҉͖̝̫p̩̺̘̙͖͜ ́m̞̹a̴̼̠̳͈̤k͈e͏̯̯̻̦̮ ̴̳͉̬̤̲̯i̢͇t̼͍̙̙̱͉ ͈̼͇̹s̹͉̝̩̼̕t̵͎͈̦͈̤ͅo͖̟̖̞p͓̣͈ ̢̹̩̩̣͔I̟͓̹̮̮̭’̗̮̗m͘ ̖͖͖̤͉̘s͉̭̝̰̝ͅo͉̦̣r̺̖̳̙̜̘̟r̵̙̺͎̖̙̣y͈͓̭̞̟̫ ̨p̛̬͈̩͈le̙̹a̡̼s̱e̖͚͎̰̹͟ ̯͙̲̥P̜̻͚̯͓̳̻L̩̙̤̩͎̖̬͝Ḛ͎̮̹͍̝̝͡A̝͈̙S̖̳̖͓͝E͓̜̞̗̼͈̪ ̥͇̫͈̱͙̖H̱̭̭̳E̳̞̼L͈̘̠̪P̵̻-͓̻͚̦͢

-̴̝͎̭͍̜̯̻s̪̗̼̭͓͘t͍ọ̣̻͓p̖ ̳̤̝̜̤s͍͈̘͡t̩̫̘͜o͏̤̱̞p̡̮̤̯ ̰̭͍s͙͓t̕o͎̼̬̮p̢͔ ̲̞͎̭̥̖͢I̻̹̩’̞͚̩̮M͉̤̖̺͙͜ ̹͍̰̲̻S̜͇̙̭̗O͏R̘̣̱̥̜̝R̜̥̤͕̟̳͘Y͏̹̟̠͈̖ ̵̭I̤͖̠̯ͅ ̵͕D̼̦͓̯̥̹I̙͍D̠̬͎͍̬̼̳N̸̯’̸͈͙̣̤̮T̪̻͇̗̯͇̣́ ̫M̨̹͖̠͉̮̩̪E̗̭͕̻̱̰ͅÀ̘̝̤͇̰̪ͅN͎̯͖͕̤̱ ̡͈̱͇T̹̱͓͜ͅO̻̼͈̺̰ ̢̪pl̷̪̘̙̼͎̠̱e̛͉̫̤͖̘ͅͅa̭̩s̙̞̙̰e҉͔̖͓͇ ̦͓̩͉̰P͙͚͞L̥E̹̺̤̞͘A̰S͜E͇̳̟͔̦̖̖ ̥͓͈̜̹I̵̭̜̣̲̫̗’̧̩M̰ͅ ͉̳̘̝S̠O̯͎͚̻͉R̘̠̺R̭Y-̵͕͚̼

“April!” Leo shouted, shoving his own emotions away. “APRIL! Calm down! You’re only making it worse!”

Another collection of bulbs exploded, and the combined scream of April and Donnie both filled the lair. Then-

Abruptly, all the lights in the lair went out, and Leo’s vision was plunged into darkness. The intruding thoughts fell away again, and everything went eerily still. No screams were heard anymore, and the only things Leo could hear were his fearfully thrumming heartrate, and ragged breathing from the room’s inhabitants.

Then, a wave of sheer and utter guilt pulsed through Leo, and his sightless vision watered at the crushing sadness following it. He couldn’t breathe, the feeling of despair wracking through him so deeply nothing could enter his lungs.

He curled on himself, a deep and cold pit opening in his chest and swallowing everything. His shields had fallen again under the brute force of the attack, and he couldn’t manage even a sliver of strength to bring them back up.

Leo gasped, and couldn’t inhale at all. Ice encircled his neck, and his mind fell into depths of terror and pain that weren’t his.

Light slowly came back to his sight, as he struggled to drag himself out of the spiraling despair, and Leo turned his head against the stone floor to look at its source.

Electricity was arcing off Donnie’s scales, the only source of illumination, as he hovered in the air. Only the lamps around him were lit, all the others still dark. He was staring at April, expression still dark and furious.

It looked so wrong on Donnie, Leo thought distantly. Then, it became horrifying, as Donnie’s form distorted worse than ever before.

All the emotions and thoughts, flowing and howling between them all, were manifesting in the worst way. It didn’t look like Donnie could handle it, even with all the extra electrical current.

Donnie’s head glitched, and for a moment, three different heads took the place of it. One’s expression was furious, another was screaming silently, agonizingly, and the final one, the middle one, stared with emotionless judgement at the girl lying on the stone floor.

Leo couldn’t breathe or move, as the monstrous version of his brother bore down on April. Glitching his form over and over, having one and then three and then one head again and again. The bright flashes of electricity from the lamps shone on the scene, showing April’s unmoving body on the ground. Donnie steadily drew closer and closer, lowering himself to the ground.

Leo struggled to shove himself onto his elbows, but his vision kept skewing, and his body wouldn’t respond how he wanted it to. He’d hooked himself in too deeply, let too much foreign influence into his mind. Donnie’s ice-cold power held him in place, and April’s emotions took care of the rest.

Leo couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening, and he knew, as Donnie moved according to April’s fury and self-hatred, whatever happened next wouldn’t be good.

Leo fought the feeling of heaviness, struggling to pull himself from the gripping emotions and thoughts, and desperately tried to stand, to get to Donnie or April or both of them, anything to save them from what they about to do to each other-

“STOP IT!”

Leo gasped, and was suddenly able to get air into his lungs. Some of the hold on him abated, and he was able to shove himself off the ground. But that hadn’t been April’s voice, or his, so who-?

Leo turned his aching head towards the scene again, and found-

Casey, arms outstretched as he glared with a pale, but stubborn expression on his face. He stood in front of April’s prone form, staring Donnie down, even as Leo’s brother kept glitching menacingly.

Leo, for a moment, was thrown by how stupid the idea was. Standing in the way of a poltergeist, how would that do anything?

M̩̬̠͊͌ͩͩ̎O͚̮̺̦̟̻̔V̝̖͙͖̱̮̠͋̋̀̎̿̈Ë̩̠͖͉͎̤́ͪͣ̃̀͋ͬ, Donnie’s disembodied voice commanded, coming from everywhere at once. The three heads appeared again, and Leo’s stomach turned at how wrong that looked.

“Yeah, no,” Casey snapped. “Not until you calm down and she calms down and we all fucking calm down.”

Casey’s words were brave, but Leo could see him shaking. Casey’s eyes were wide enough that the whites showed in the flashes of mini lightning Donnie was giving off, and his grimace was deep and nervous. He stayed put though, even as Donnie growled a wordless, bone deep sound.

“Look around!” Casey exclaimed, a hint of strain in his voice as he did. “Look at what you’re doing! This isn’t you, Donnie. Hell, this isn’t April either!”

ge̞̬̻̜̘̹͔t̟͕͈̻̱̭̅̓ͫ͂̅̃ͫ ̠͕̰̫̰̰͉̌ͤo͓͙̣͎͑̓ͩͅu̬͉̼̮̤̟̓͆t̠̮̳̰̣̜ͭ͂͛͒ ͓̰͇̰ͯͪ̓O̯̤̞̼͙͍̩̽ͣF̟͇͖̭̫̖̀ ̣͔͙̥̹̞͈̀̍ͥ̎͊͑̌T͚͓͙͍̠ͨͧ̑ͦH̜͚̹̑ͤ͆̍̐E̯̭̦ͧ͋ͦ̇ ̞̱̎͛ͦ̏Ẁ̟̖͈͆̓̐͗͒͋ͅǍ̼̝̳̺̮̙̤̒̚Y̖̞̥ͪ̐͑̅, Donnie yelled, his form splitting into three heads again.

“NO!” Casey yelled back at Donnie, not even flinching away from the horrific sight. “Not until everyone calms the fuck down!”

Donnie’s heads reunited as one, and he snarled at Casey in a way that Leo could feel in the air. Casey didn’t back down, even as Donnie suddenly flashed to stand on the ground, five feet in front of where Casey was blocking him from April.

Leo noted that the pressure from Donnie’s presence was abating further and further, and the other members of his family were shaking off the attack. Donnie’s focus was completely on Casey and April, and it was giving them all space to breathe again.

But, as the pressure on Leo lessened, it seemed to worsen on Casey, and his footing became shaky. Casey was breathing heavily under the focused power, and his breath steamed in the frigid air surrounding him.

g̮̗̥̞ͅe̹̳̣̦ṯ̤ ̴̬̼̟̟̰̹̝o̤u̲͙̬̱̦̫̫t̛̫͖ ̯̺o͖f̘͘ ̴̯͎̲ṱ̺͚̰ͅh̩͇̻̺͎͖e̘̦̳̦͓̜̫ ͔̕w̡͓̮ͅá͖̪y̙̦ ̢̱̲C̦̹͎̞̥̯a̢̟̩̩̼̞̥ͅs͎̲͕̻̣̫͟ey̡̹̪͖, Donnie’s voice said, even as his lips didn’t move. Then, his head split again, and he yelled, G̺̟̝̀È̼T҉̲ ̱̟̳̙̜ǪU͏̹T̢̯̭̞͓̘ ̳͔͡O͖̜̜̞F̠̼ ̶̟͕͎̟̭̳̖O̶U͏͈̱̥̭̤̞̱Ṛ̛͙ͅ ̶̲̣̞̫̭͇̖W͚̹̟̤̤A̡͕͍̰Y̢ ̢O̢̖̯͇̱͖̻R̰͞ ͎̠̻͢I'͙̹͔̺̤͠L̞̫̻̗L̶͓̳̲-̨̙̺̱-

“Or you’ll what?” Casey snapped. “Go all Paranormal Activity on me? Kinda already are, so get a new trick already!”

Casey was antagonizing the highly volatile poltergeist in the room, because of course he was. Leo wasn’t sure what he expected to happen. Probably not this.

Donnie’s snarl caused the lights around him to brighten, and an increase in arcing electricity. Casey kept staring him down, even as the flashes of light got dangerously close to him and April.

“Look around, Donnie,” Casey said, voice firm and even despite the situation. A rush of determination went through the connection Donnie had built between them all, and Leo knew for fact it was Casey’s. “Fucking look at yourself! Look at what’s happening! We might not always get along like best buddies, but I know this isn’t what you would have wanted to do. We’re trying to help you. April’s trying to help you. So calm down and let us help you!”

When Donnie didn’t respond, other than reuniting his form and letting another rolling wave of terror move through the room, Casey squared his shoulders, sending another push of bull-headed determination through the link, and yelled, “I watched one of my friends go nuts with power, I won’t let another one do the same thing!”

And before Donnie could react, Casey closed the distance between them, raising his fist as he went, and-

“So wake! The hell! UP!” Casey shouted, and he punched Donnie across the face.

Leo’s jaw dropped open at the sheer absurdity of the move. Then, to his complete shock, and likely everyone else’s in the room, Donnie reeled from the punch like he’d actually felt it.

Casey let out a pained sound, and clutched his arm to himself, hunching over the hand he’d hit Donnie with. And then, with something popped in the connection, and the ringing terror from earlier was gone. The last of the pressure in the room disappeared abruptly, and the lights came back up slowly.

Donnie hovered off the ground, a hand on his cheek and showing actual confusion on his face. Leo felt similarly, and not just because of the empathy link between them all.

Then-

ca̲͖s͏̱͔͈͚e̤̞y͔̞?̪̣̬̪͡ Donnie asked in a small voice.

Casey’s stiff posture slumped a bit, and he gave a strained grin at Donnie. “Hey dude, thinking straight again?”

w̦̙͟ͅḥ̴ͅa̠͠t̸̪̞͉ͅ?̥͘ ͎̜̤̠̳́w͉͞ḥḙ̦r̞̞ȩ̠̝͇͈ ̭̫͈͈̭̟̮a̶̯m̨͔ ̰͎i̖͚͓̲̟̩-̠̰̙̠̥͇́ Donnie stopped, staring at April on the floor still. His blank eyes widened, and he floated forwards an inch, only to reel further backwards. a̳̮̞̱͕̞͟p̙r̲͔͙i̢̦l̖̣̠̠̤̕?̗͚̠̮̠̰̱ ̝̦̻̣̳͕n̞̘̲̜͔͍o͏͚͙̥͚ ̱n̦o͇͚͕ ͡n̺̰̳̫̰o̴̘͙̙̥,̠̟̘̫̦͈ ̬͍̙̻͇̰̝t̯̺̻̱̫̰͝h̟̲̭͍̼a͜t̪̫͇̱̱̯̗'̱̙̪̰̰͡ṣ̠́ ̷̣n̡̘͈ơ̤̜̠̲̹͓t͈͈̮̟̗̹͔ ̠̯̼̗͘w̶̪̗h͓͎̹͘at ̨͉̭̪i̬̟̭̰͕̭- ị͈̹͇͓͖ ̤̫͇͙̲̩d̪̰̖͈̲i̪̪̝d̲̝̜̩n̮̞̩͉'̜t̬̫̙̖͉ ̱̺̥̺̝̯̩m̪͎͚̺̕ea̷n͕̙͘ ҉̖̤̼t̗̬̠͉̻̬o͓̬̞̤̞̪-̼̯

Donnie shrank on himself, paling and becoming nearly not there. i̟͟'m̹ ̧̰̮s̤͖̣̻͖̟̝orr̥͢y̺̮̲,̗͎̯͓̹͜ ͓͔̞͔͉̙͠i'̹m̱̘̥̣ ̫͙̺͟ș͓̞̠͈̜̮o̲r̢͇̩ŗ͙̝̯̫y̟͖͎̙̞,̶̘ i'͈̱m̼̰̩͙͖̜ ̱̘͖s̠̞̙̥̼o̶̹r̭͉͟r̛̬̬̮y̯͉̩.̟̩̜̭͢ͅ.̤̮̟̳̝̝̠.̬̭͇͎̜̘͕͢

“It’s not your fault,” Casey said hoarsely, still clutching his arm. “We’re the ones fucking you over. You didn’t mean to.”

no̹̙ ͈́n͙͕͕͎͙ͅo̢̭͔ ͖̰͎̹̟̫̭n̨̮̱̦͚̞̖o̝͕͕̤ ̸nͅo͖̖̹̜͔.̗.̷̜̼̝.͏̭̦̹̮.̵̜̳̪̟ Donnie mumbled, voice getting quieter and quieter as he hid behind his hands. Leo then realized his brother was in danger of disappearing again, and after everything they’d done to bring him this far, if someone didn’t do something-

“Donnie.”

A rush of warmth flooded the connection, and the pit that had opened in Leo’s chest filled itself.

Mikey was standing beside Casey, having moved there while everyone was focused on Donnie. Mikey closed his eyes for a brief second, and Leo could feel the comfort he was pouring into their connections. A sense of home, care, and love filled the link, and overrode the fear and cold.

Donnie’s form stabilized again, and he slowly regained visibility. As Mikey stepped towards him, Donnie lowered his hands, and stared down at Mikey.

Mikey stared up at him, looking determined and sad. “You didn’t mean to, and I know that for a fact. You’re the guy who opened up the link, after all. You can’t hide much once you do that.”

i̩̲̱͠'̼m̭͙ ͕̟͍͙̲s̭̠ǫ͉̪̦͕r̨̟̳͍͍̤r̞̗͉̳y̛̳͇̘͍̞̮, Donnie said again, lips actually moving as he said the words. i̦t͈̺͙̖̕ ̪j͚̠̜͎u͓͓s͏̬͈̳ͅt̪͇̼̺ͅ ̩̤͉͜h̲̩͓̪͕̝u̱̰̺̱̥͞r̴̗̦͇ts̺̗̟̖͝ ̮̲̹̘̲ͅi͠t̡̫̘͍ ͈͝h͉͖̜̰̤͟u̮͈̱̮ͅͅr҉t̹̖̩s҉̪̭͕͚̰̺ ̨a̗̩̝̥̤̮nd ͉͚͖i̱͎͚ͅ ̦̫̺̥͘c͍̠̗͘o̥u̘̱͜l̟͎͓͓͞d͙͙̝n̢̩̟̯'͓̦͍̰͓t̥̯̮͍̰̹̜ ̮͎͍̞̳̣c̥͓͇̯̹o̴͎̦n̖̫t͏̞͉r͍͜o̮̞̗͓̮͘l̦̞ ̻̘̥̳͍i̦͔͠t̸̤

Mikey winced slightly at the pitching static in Donnie’s voice, but didn’t flinch away otherwise. “It’s cool. Everyone loses control sometimes.”

Leo’s feet started moving towards his brothers, then. He drifted forwards, following an unspoken request. He saw Raph moving close as well, and their father’s tall form joining the group.

Leo took his place beside Mikey, with Casey, Raph, and Splinter. Donnie stared at them all, still hovering, still partially curled on himself.

Leo’s earlier fears were erased, feeling the strength of the bond they were all sharing. With Mikey pushing for it, Leo’s own familial love slowly leaked out. There wasn’t any fear anymore, only the sensation of being a part of a group, of a family.

“Let’s try this one more time,” Mikey said, smiling softly at Donnie.

Leo felt a hand on his shell, and turned his head to see April shakily making her way to the front of the group. She was let through, and even Mikey stepped aside to let her stand in front of Donnie.

Only the quietest twinge of guilt and shame came from her, before it was overpowered by the warmer emotions flowing through them all. April’s hands weren’t shaking anymore, and she held her hand up to Donnie.

“I’m ready,” She said, voice strong. Leo felt her power reach out to Donnie’s and watched as his brother’s hand reached out to meet hers.

It was only a gentle touch, Donnie laying his hand on April’s palm. He closed his eyes, and after a beat of concentration, opened them again to smile at them all.

Then he vanished, fading away too quick for Leo stop.

April’s stumbled, and Leo instinctively reached out to steady her. She was clutching her hand like Casey was, and fresh tears dropped from her eyes.

“I got it,” She said, voice cracking. “I got the plan. He- he couldn’t stay anymore, but I got his message. I heard him.”

Her shoulders shook, and Leo followed impulse as he wrapped an arm over them. The last of the empathy link was dying off with Donnie gone, and Leo only caught the tail ends of the aching sadness April was feeling. But it was more than enough.

“Good job,” Leo said, holding his friend as she tried to pull herself back together. “I- I knew you could do it.”

April scoffed wetly, but let him hold her.

Then, Leo noticed her fingers had turned blue, and his concern turned into concern, the same time as Raph exclaimed “HYPOTHERMIA!” behind them.

Leo turned his head, and saw Raph and Mikey already rushing Casey towards the kitchen. Splinter approached Leo and April, and Leo got the silent message they should probably do the same with April.

Casey was being held against the sink by Raph when they entered, blue tinged fist shoved into a sink filled with room temperature water. Leo’s father led April the same direction, instructing both the humans to keep their hands in there until they stopped being in danger of paranormal-induced hypothermia.

Leo was then commandeered by Mikey, to go start sweeping up the definitely dangerous glass shards everywhere, while Splinter and Raph treated their human friends. The last he saw of April and Casey, was April leaning her head on Casey and saying something too quiet for anyone else to hear. Casey seemed to hear it though, because he lowered his on head to set it on top of hers.

Leo grabbed a broom and joined Mikey in clean up, and put aside his questions about Donnie’s plan for later.

They’d figure it out later. Right now, they’d tend to the injuries accumulated through the experience, and Leo would focus on building up his mental shields properly again.

He paused for a moment though, as he passed Mikey while they cleaned, to pull his brother into a tight hug. While the majority of Mikey’s emotions had been loving ones during the connection, there had been an undercurrent of sorrow to them. Such deep sorrow that it still echoed in Leo.

Leo hadn’t spent nearly enough time with his brothers lately. Not nearly enough time comforting them as they struggled with grief. The exposure to April’s crippling self-hatred and Mikey’s soul deep sadness had knocked Leo off his axis, and he wasn’t sure how to deal with either.

He’d started though, by holding his youngest brother, and telling him he was proud of what Mikey had done. Believing in Donnie when no one else had, and then helping avert what could have been a disaster.

Mikey seemed confused by the sudden praise, but warmly returned the hug anyways.

Leo held his brother tight, and swore he’d do the same to Donnie whenever they got him back.

continued.

#*prays there aren't too many typos*#my writing #I hear static I hear you tag #Poltergeist Donnie AU #FUCK YEAH I'M BACK #Donatello #Casey Jones #leonardo #michelangelo #raphael #Splinter #FEELINGS #DRAMA #PAIN #ENJOY YA MOOKS I HAVE TO RUN AND ATTEND TO REAL LIFE #*SHRIEKS*#IF THERE'S TYPOS DON'T TELL ME #I'LL FIX THEM LATER

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