#and yeah the shredder had to go eventually but i feel like at this point the show should be over
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His reaction to finding Rahzar's corpse in the bottom of the ocean is interesting because that is not the reaction of someone who seems happy to see the guy he was constantly butting heads with death.
He flinches when he stumbles upon it and then just stares at it for a while and then snatches the body up so they can resurrect him.
It's just that he takes the time to stare at it. I might be looking into nuance where there is none, but the two of them were at it since the beginning. They were partners and rivals for so long and he finds him dead, flinches and just stares. It's like he cannot believe he is actually dead.
But this? This is even more unusual.
Xever, through all the seasons was never afraid of Bradford. Xever can handle whatever he throws at him and toss it right back. In serpent hunt he was ready to stab him too when he pushed him out of the way.
This was not like their usual bickering. Bradford is more aggressive than usual and flat out threatening him. Xever is extremely terrifed and actually fearing for his life here when Bradford tells him that he has devolped a taste for sushi - Bradford never threatened him directly like that.
When Xever was still in that tank, Bradford told him that he has his use when their master might get hungry for sushi but he reacted with anger just told Bradford to come into the water and say it. The only other time when he said he wanted to eat him was behind his back.
With how terrified Xever reacts, this was likely the first time Bradford threatened him like that.
I think that was also part of the reason why he left. He already mentions to Rahzar that a lot has changed and says later to the turtles that all of that is becoming too much, even for him. He absolutely did not like the direction they were headed to.
Shredder was not the same man he once knew and neither was Bradford. And we find out later they were just mindless puppets of that demon guy.
I'll be honest, I did not like the fifth season because it feels like after killing Splinter / Shredder / Rahzar they did not really know what to do afterwards and just decided to resurrect them again. I feel like it could have ended after the fourth season already, so Xever leaving and then not coming back for the rest of the season is so funny to me. This season was so weird that even Xever had enough of it. They have shown that he is not beyond torture and relishes the opportunity, but they start a cult, summon a demon and then bring people back from the death and he is just: "nope, that's too much even for me, bye."
I like when villains have some form of standards.
#i also wanna say#it was so weird in the season finale of season 4#that Rahzar was not there because he died in the previous episode#they finally defeat the shredder but first they have to go through all his mini bosses#bebop / rocksteady / tigerclaw / xever / stockman#and yet bradford is missing#who you know#was there from the beginning and generally fought alongside xever#i am not even opposed to his death and i still think LH drowning him is something#because i suppose if someone had to die#it would be shredder's most loyal#he lived for shredder so he would die for shredder it makes sense#but dude really was not invited to the proper final battle#and then they bring him back#and they add this new dude who knows him who has shredder's helmet and rahzar is like no only shredder is worthy of wearing that#and the guy is like you should really consider my offer it wont last long#and suddenly he thinks the offer is worth considering??#he admtted wanting to join someone that's not shredder and it came out of nowhere#which implies he was not always a mindless puppet#but they dont do anything with it#they just find out he is mindless puppet and Tigerclaw kills him again#..i like how xever is the only one that makes sense in this season#even tigerclaw was extremely different#xever really said im not gonna join a cult#you can tell they killed splinter / shredder / rahzar too early and then realized this was a mistake#it feels like they wanted more episodes#but realized they made shredder too powerful by turning him into a mutant and just got rid of him#and yeah the shredder had to go eventually but i feel like at this point the show should be over#i kind of liked the early episodes#;you can never go wrong with eating them (rahzar)
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📄
NGL, nonnie, I saw this after four hours sleep and squinted at it and tried to zoom in because my sleepy brain honest to god thought it was some kind of weird inbox attachment...
...and then I remembered the WIP meme. Eventually.
📄What’s a WIP you never finished that you would like to go back and revisit?
The Legacy! (See, this being asked multiple times means I can talk about multiple WIPs.) My actual first entrance into published TMNT fic before I got distracted writing Underdark instead, and then everything else that followed. This is another fic with a lot of moving parts and it's a whole bunch darker than some of mine, because anyone who's reading it will note I'm racking up a body count of the Lost Season acolytes. You see, the Lost Season irritated me for a variety of reasons. For one, we went from four seasons of "ninjas in the shadows/outcasts" to "glowy markings DRAGONS WOO" and they were so fixated on telling a big epic story that... there weren't any real character moments in it for anyone? And everyone glowed and turned into dragons and there was a Tribunal etc, and with the passage of time I'm a bit more tolerant about it, but the fact remained that season 5 had such a different feel to 1-4, which I appreciated much more.
Anyway. Lost season also brought us demon!Shredder and a too trite wrap-up (Karai and Chaplin holding hands and walking off into the sunset? Really?) and also an interesting plot point left unaddressed that, despite all my disappointment with the season in general, niggled at me and said "what if".
And thus with great irony did I go "this is the worst season**. Imma write a whole epic following on from that THANKS BRAIN--" but at least I can have fun upping the stakes and playing with demons and necromantic rituals and possession and, yeah, murdering a bunch of otherwise harmless and likable NPCs for a good cause (everyone else's suffering). This one's fully outlined and involves overseas vacations, my favourite tropes, turtles dressing like Foot Elite and somehow getting away with it, and a Leo v Mikey cage match which I am going to give no context for. If I can get my brain going for this one it will be a lot of fun, and really, as per all my WIPs, I've made headway into a new chapter, so. Wish me luck. <
** was the worst season. I'll take a dozen Lost Seasons over whatever BTTS was.
Thank you! <3
WIP meme questions here.
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Hehe. @briandraws and @shygirl4991 because you two seemed interested in these goobers. You can ask me not to tag you anymore and that’s fine-
Still no idea what their ship name should be, so if anyone has any ideas, go ahead and feel free to share them! ^^
Gonna be writing a fic for these goobers eventually.
But yeah, Kris is taller than Donnie. In the show, he’s 5 ft 6 (from what I’ve found. My god, he’s shorter than Luigi-) and Kris is around 6 ft 1, and torments him for this relentlessly.
So, some more general info about this ship below the cut because these dorks and consuming my brain rn. I guess kinda spoilers for the fic?? IDK. It’s more a quick rundown of the plot. If you wanna read the fic I’m gonna write blind, then ignore it.
Kris used to be a Purple Dragon, but sort of switched sides shortly after they started working for Shredder. He sort of became an informant for the turtles, having struck a deal with them so that he could continue to keep the reputation of being a Purple Dragon without actually having to deal with the beat-downs the turtles would give them.
Kris is a year older than the turtles, Casey, and April.
Before they found out that he’s a part of the Purple Dragons, April ended up having a crush on him during her stint of time hating the turtles after her father was mutated. But Kris wasn’t into her and shut her down quick.
At some point, the Purple Dragons and Shredder find out about Kris betraying them and beats him up, threatening to hurt his family if he dares to double cross them again, which leads to him fighting the turtles.
Donnie is confused by all of this and knows something is up, so he heads to Kris’ apartment, where he finds out that he lives with his elderly grandpa and helps take care of his triplet younger siblings (Mark, Ethan, and Amy (If you get the reference you now platonically own my heart)) alongside his twin brother Manny. Donnie then promises Kris that he’ll help him, and Kris sort of brushes him off.
But eventually the foot do kidnap Kris’ family (who had no idea he was a Purple Dragon either), and the turtles jump in to help Kris rescue them, which is when Kris finally decides to quit the Purple Dragons for good and join the team. All of this takes place before the Kraang invasion of New York, so he and his siblings are there for season 3’s events, and Kris joins in for season 4’s events too because my boy is going to space. Manny doesn’t get involved much because he is not much of a fighter. Although he and Mikey do become friends who begin shipping Kris and Donnie together once they see how the two interact.
April is ecstatic over Kris joining the team, and Donnie is now unsure of how he feels about the whole situation because he’s still having his bi awakening, y’all.
But he does have some rivalry with Kris, similar to how he does with Casey, although it is very one-sided. Kris just goes along with it cuz he’s grown to love messing with him.
But after Kris shuts April down for the umpteenth time (yes, she goes after him like Donnie does with her because haha irony-), Donnie realizes that he isn’t really competition for April’s affections. But he still keeps doing what he’s doing and having this rivalry with him, even though April has been completely removed from the equation.
Haha, turns out he’s bi and has a thing for Kris and this realization sends our beloved Donatello SPIRALING.
And to my fellow TMNT 2012 fans… remember the Bigfoot episode?
Kris is absolutely seething with jealousy towards Bigfoot throughout that whole thing. My guy turns greener than all the turtles combined with jealousy. He’s actually the reason Bigfoot runs away because dude just snaps of her for daring to get so close to Donnie and keep bugging him like that.
He eventually confesses to this once the turtles tell him off, although he does say it’s because Bigfoot was “being creepy” towards his “friend” *cough* crush *cough* and that it made him uncomfortable to see Donnie uncomfortable.
And, Donnie may be a genius on paper, but he is dumber than a box of rocks with this shit because he completely misses all the signs that Kris is in love with him. Like… my guy a bit stoopid and I love him for it.
Not gonna spoil how they get together tho.
But as an official couple, they are unbearable. Kris will annoy Donnie while he is working. Donnie will drag Kris into his science stuff and ramble about it for hours. No, Kris will not understand a single word he said but will listen to the yapping anyway.
Kris also came up with a stupid human disguise that somehow worked so he and Donnie can go on dates in public, although they do frequent Murakami’s place for the obvious reasons (although it was strange when Kris first showed up there since he was sort of involved in that first fight but had ran the second he saw 4 giant turtles come in and beat up his… coworkers?? They definitely weren’t really friends. Bro was a part of the gang for survival purposes only)
They are insufferable when it comes to PDA after a while. It takes Donnie a bit to get used to it, since… first boyfriend and first relationship, but once he’s warmed up to it, he’s all for it. Hand holding, kissing, cuddling, they even started calling each other those cheesy pet names, but only in front of others. Like, Honey-Bun, Turtle-Pie, Schmoopikins, all of those.
Kris brews Donnie’s coffee and will drag his ass to bed if it kills him. He takes care of 3 9 year olds. He can handle a grown-ass (sort of…) turtle.
So… that’s all for now :3
#my art#tmnt 2012#2012 donnie#Kris Boyce#oc x canon#Kris x Donnie#my oc#tmnt au#ye#sorry for the long ramble under the cut I just have so much in my brain for these two
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The Turtle Express AU
Major Bullet Points:
Inspired off of, and approved by this person!
Sort of a retelling, the shredder had happened, but not krang
The turtles lost their sewer home because of all the destruction
They set out to find a new home
They find some old railroad tracks that go all around NYC
Donnie says he can fix it, and so he does
Eventually, they add cars to turn the train into a moving base
Donnie upgrades the train over time, more and more
HALF NOTE: gonna be honest, I'd want this to be after the movie, just for the sake of "It takes place after the last moment of the rise canon", but I feel like the Krang would steal the spotlight of the whole premise for the au... I dunno. Not everything needs to be about the Krang ig, but still, meh.
Quick Summary:
So yeah, an AU where the turtles (+ Splinter) now live on a moving train base after losing their sewer home. They mostly drive around for fun, but they can also use the train to spot mutants and/or travel to the crime scene faster than before. They start out with only a train engine and a single car. It’s definitely cramped. But once Donnie upgrades the train enough to be functioning normally, the crew sets on their own personal missions to find abandoned or unused cars that Donnie can fix up and turn into new rooms.
Eventually, Splinter and the four turtles have their own room, there’s a kitchen, a living room, a training room, and a storage room. So that’s 10 pieces total. I’m not gonna give the train more than 25 cars at complete max, and we’re at 9 right now, so I think I’m happy with this current state. I think Donnie would also add quality-of-life updates.
He’d probably add a way for the train to have ‘arms’ that can fold outward from the sides, either to switch rails easier, or to avoid a collision in the situation that their train is running in the wrong direction of the tracks. Though he’d likely only use these for short periods of time, and would prefer to mostly drive the train normally, both because of the weight, and because spider trains aren’t NORMAL.
Anyway, this is definitely turning into a fic and I’m super excited!
Fanfic Link:
Doesn't exist yet, but it will, and I'll update this.
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rise of the tmnt#rottmnt au#tmnt 2018#rottmnt train au#the turtle express au
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Alright, deep breath… I don’t know how long you’re willing to sit and listen but this is gonna be LONGGGG, mkay? So anyway, actually only three of them are ROTTMNT ocs and Ace is a 2012 oc. Two of these are pretty old and two of these are recent and my beloved children I love them so much oh my fucking god
Ace
I’ll do the guy you came for first. Ace is a 2012 oc like I said earlier, and he’s like 12 y/o in most things I depict him in. Ace was a normal human at one point I’ll explain that just hold on. Basically Karai found this random baby on the road and was like “OH GEE WILIKERS FREE BROTHER! And took him home to shredder. She was about four at this time. Shredder really didn’t wanna take care of this stupid kid but did so for his daughter. And this led to what we call.. ✨favoritism✨ shredder decided he may as well make Ace worth something so he decided he’d train him into the “perfect ninja” (aka training him until he passes out and abusing him him or threatening him when he failed). Karai and Ace do have a good relationship tho :3 by the time Ace was twelve shredder had been fighting the turtles and stuff already and he finds out about mutagen. So he does a little test run! He grabs Ace while the kid is sleeping and dunks him into a mutagen tank. Yeah, not too nice for Ace. Anyway, other than that, he’s manipulated into believing the tmnt are evil and whatnot, blah blah, fight fight, and then the second kraang invasion happens. Being a twelve year old amidst the chaos of an alien invasion, he didn’t know what to do until he saw the turtles driving off to Northampton, so he followed them since he had nowhere else to go. For the three months Leo was in a coma, Ace lived in the forest practicing his archery or hunting for food. One day after Leo’s coma he was taking a walk in the woods when BAM!! Ace comes in with a blade to his throat! Somehow after some talking Leo convinced him to stay with them and kinda just realized he was just a misguided and traumatized kid. Eventually he became friends with the turtles and he lived with them until Karai remade the foot clan in s4 so he joined his sister.
Bennu
This is the little doggy guy! He’s not in the same universe as my other rise ocs due to overlapping cannons. I think I can make this one quick. He’s raised by big mama, sheltered, popular bc he’s the champ, has no friends, is manipulated by big mama, befriends tmnt, BOOM!
He’s really childish and friendly and nice. He has PTSD and trauma from all the lives he was forced to take.. he feels like a monster.
Zac
Oh boy this is DEFINITELY a long one. He’s my hyperfixation right now and has 18 (maybe soon to be 19/20) AUS and his story and character is HEAVILY dependent on my friends’ ocs who I made him together with but they don’t really talk to me anymore for some reason so I’ll be using the version of their ocs they left me with. If you guys see this, hi!! I miss you :3 but anyway I’ll be talking about Main Zac for now. Zac grew up with his sister, Emmie, in my own fan made version of a district in the hidden city called Swamp City that’s basically full of criminals and psychos that the police dump there because Draxum made him and his sister after the main turtles but left them there to die after quickly realized parenting is a ton of work. Zac grew up around constant violence and being beat up almost everyday, having to steal to survive. He is dedicated to protect his sister and wants to get stronger and stronger so he never feels pathetic again, and so he feels like he can fight back unlike when he was a kid. Violence ended up being normalized in his head and he committed crimes and murder all for fun, getting genuine pleasure and joy from watching the life fade from someone’s eyes. He also has unnatural strength and teeth sharp as knives because Draxum might’ve messed with a few genes. He escaped swamp city early on in the series after one of Leo’s portals messed up and brought him and Emmie to the surface. He ended up dating Leo (GAY🤮 /j). He made friends, Mel, Nora, and Zivi, and so many more shenanigans happen along with him getting ninpo that give him super strength and increases his defense. (Though, it can be fatal if abused too much or if used to a large extent.) also he has autism and adhd :3
He’s really reckless and can be pretty rude, literally a psychopathic murderer, doesn’t care about anyone other than his loved ones, is actually silly once you get to know him, childish, and his special interest is skibidi toilet :3 I really tried to keep this short and sweet THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO HIM AND SO MANY AUS but those are for another day, my dear friends.
Asher
The kraang?! KILL IT!
But seriously, ash isn’t exactly loved for being a kraang. He’s Zac’s child in the future apocalypse. Zac in the future is married to Leo, who finds a little baby outside of a kraang base…
Long story short, that baby is a shape shifting kraang experiment who is now under the care of Leo and Zac. They keep him inside mostly in fear of the kraang finding him and hurting him or kidnapping him or whatever kraang stuff. But Ash would rather be inside. He distracts himself with comics and cartoons and all his toys, not wanting to think about the war and destruction beyond his walls. He kinda hates himself for being a kraang too. Ash clings VERY tight to his childhood, acting like an 8 year old when he’s 12. It’s how he copes, it’s a way to distract himself. When ash was seven, Zac got infected by the kraang and went on a RAMPAGE, he ended up killing his niece and nephew indirectly and ripped off half of his son’s face. The kraang in Zac realized it was their experiment and sent a kraang to capture ash right after Zac’s coma. Oh yeah, Zac was in a coma. Remember when I said too much ninpo can be fatal? Well, the kraang used a lot and he was out for three days. He also lost his arm and eyeball after Mikey had to burn off the infection with mystic fire to save him. Rescue mission is a go and they save ash! Things go as they do in the movie and having both of his dads dead and being plopped in the past isn’t the best for Asher. And he dies by kraang raph.
There is an au where he survives though! That’s it.
Thanks for staying for my ramble if you made it this far!!!! (Zac is the favorite child if you couldn’t tell.)
REFS:
Can u please tell me about your rottmnt ocs from that post? If you're up to it I'd love to hear some character rambling :3
HAHAHHAHAHHAHAB FUCKING GLADLY OH GOD YOY HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA WHYA YOU GOTTEN YOURSLEF INTOZ HAHA AUAGBANEUAYAHHAHAGGbanahahaggagagHhhahHHAHAHAHHAGAGAGAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH
I will respond in a reblog! Just give me a moment to calm the fuck downABAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA
#art#rise of the tmnt#tmnt leonardo#rottmnt oc#tmnt oc#tmnt original character#rottmnt original character#tmnt zac
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Please elaborate on the “Sondheim fan Steve” and “villain voice over Eddie” I love it so much I didn’t know I needed this before but it’s amazing
@tuvens WELL IF YOU INSIST. Steve wouldn't call him a musical fan, he doesn't dislike them but the only ones he knows are like Grease and Bye Bye Birdie etc. But when he was a kid his mother took him to see a touring production of Gypsy as a bid to expose him to "more culture," not thinking that that's objectively an insane show for a mother to bring her child to. And Steve liked it, more than he's liked other musicals, but mostly he liked that his mom was sharing something she loved with him. Then he caught West Side Story airing as the late night movie and he was like "oh! That's the same guy!" And he starts seeking out more of his work, at first because he thought this could be his and his mom's Thing and eventually because he found himself genuinely connecting to the lyrics and the rhythm of the music and it scratched an itch he couldn't explain. His mom grew distant and then this thing he he thought could be for Them is now just a thing for Him, this secret thing he loves and cherish and makes him feel Seen. Also something something Steve's mom being the one to introduce him to Sondheim and Sondheim exploring his relationship with his abusive mother through his work look if I love a fictional boy I've GOT to give him a complicated relationship with his mother I just GOT to.
Semi-related I have this idea that Steve likes a lot of oldies, a lot of Motown and pop from the 60s and early 70s. It's not his favorite genre but it's the one he listened to most growing up so he's got a soft spot for it.
VO Eddie: I imagine he had a pretty successful music career so he's already an established name, so when there's a gap between albums and tours he decides to do a guest spot on some kids show for fun, let's say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's a goofy episode where the Turtles are trying to stop Shredder from disrupting a concert and Eddie is playing himself, it was just supposed to be a straightforward cameo but he hams it up and makes his cartoon self much more of a diva, leans into the bratty rock star persona and has everyone in the booth howling cause it's so much better than what was scripted. And it's so much fun he loves it, he starts taking on more voice-acting jobs and he's good at it. It gets to the point where he becomes more well-known for voicing cheesy-terrifying villains than his music, which suits him fine. I said this in the tags of the last post but I basically want to give him Mark Hamill's career, I want him to have his Joker or his Fire Lord Ozai, I want him to be the type of VO where you see his name in the cast and you're like oh HELL yeah this is going to FUCK.
#stranger things#thank you for asking!!!!#eddie goes viral cause he says on a panel that every character he plays is Gay because he is Gay#'they are not evil because they are gay they are simply Gay and Evil hoe this helps'#i'm going to flesh out the steve-sondheim thing more i have Plans he's going to sing Being Alive for Eddie#i just have to write like 90K of build up first......
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ps, idk what the biker/college bucky story will include but i can throw out the idea of doing the modern day army veteran Bucky as a one shot or something? or whatever you don't include in the series lol
Recluse
Summary: You barely even expected to get a conversation out of Steve’s reclusive roommate, never mind anything more than that.
Pairing: Modern Veteran!Bucky x y/n
Word Count: 2.8k
Warnings: Language, smut references, references to military service
Author’s Note: You bet your butt I can do that for you anon. This one really got out of hand idk what happened man I couldn’t stop.
---
You’d been living with your friend Sharon for a couple of years now, and it was still going pretty well.
Your ground-floor apartment was very compact, but she was so considerate and easy to get on with, you barely even noticed the lack of space. She cooked for you occasionally, always paid rent on time, even did your laundry without being asked.
You just couldn’t help thinking that things were much more fun when you were both single.
Nothing much had changed in your life, you were still a lone wolf, but she’d been with Steve for almost six months now and you barely ever saw her anymore.
Most nights you were just left to your own devices, clattering around the apartment like some sad old spinster.
It got to the point where, one Friday when you got home from work, you heard Steve and Sharon talking in the kitchen and got excited at the prospect of just having some company for the evening.
Sharon almost jumped on you as soon as you walked in. ‘Y/n! Are you free tonight?’
‘Yeah, totally, completely. You guys sticking around?’
‘You think he’d ever agree to that?.’
‘We were actually thinking of going out for some drinks. You in?’ You contemplated for a second, not wanting to come across too eager, then gave her an enthusiastic nod.
As she grinned back at you, you saw an idea dawn on her. ‘Steve, you should totally bring Bucky.’
Sharon frowned in resignation. You had no idea who they were talking about, their conversation going completely over your head.
Steve went home to change, leaving you and Sharon with a couple hours to get ready before heading out, so you thought you might as well try to probe a little deeper.
‘Who’s Bucky?’ You asked casually, sitting on her bed, watching her hold dress after dress up to herself in the mirror.
‘Steve’s roommate.’
‘I didn’t know Steve had a roommate?’
‘I’d be more surprised if you did.’ She turned towards you. ‘In six months I’ve only met him twice.’
Your eyebrows darted up. She spent so much time at Steve’s place, that made no sense at all.
‘What? Why?’
‘I’m pretty sure he makes a point to avoid people generally.’ She flopped herself down next to you on the bed, her tone lowering to one of deep sincerity. ‘He was in the army with Steve. Apparently he just really struggled to adapt when they got back, collapsed in on himself for a while. I think he’s a mechanic now but Steve is still the only person he really speaks to.’
‘Shit, that’s awful.’
She gave a grim nod and shrugged slightly, before standing back up and starting to get changed.
You figured you should do the same, shuffling back to your room and finally taking off your work clothes, relieved at the thought of getting out of the apartment for the evening.
Just as you were about to leave, Sharon’s phone pinged.
‘Holy shit.’
‘What?’ You’d never seen her look so shocked. She put her index finger up at you while quickly typing something back. ‘You’re killing me here Sharon, what the hell is going on?’
‘Bucky’s coming.’
---
You managed to find a cramped table in the back of the bar. Sharon made you wait for Steve to arrive before ordering drinks, because for some reason he always insisted on buying the first round.
About ten minutes after you arrived, she glanced over to the door, grinned and waved her hand above her head. Following her gaze, you saw Steve pushing through the crowd, followed closely by a statuesque, tower of a man.
Studying him intently as he approached, you noticed how visibly uncomfortable he was, his jaw clenched tight and his hands folded into slowly whitening fists. You let your eyes dance over his huge shoulders and wide chest, feeling your stomach flip a little as he got closer.
‘Hey guys. Sharon, you remember Buck?’ Steve gave his friend a proud pat on the shoulder. Sharon nodded and grinned at Bucky, getting only a short, tight smile in return. ‘And this is y/n.’
Looking up to his face, his sharp blue eyes briefly met yours, prompting you to quickly avert your gaze. He looked tense enough without you gawping at him.
‘Nice to meet you.’ You adopted the friendliest tone possible, doing your best to put him at ease.
Steve went to grab some drinks and Sharon volunteered to help him, leaving you at the table with Bucky, bracing yourself for some intensely awkward small talk.
‘So, you’re a mechanic?’ He nodded. ‘Do you enjoy it?’ Another nod.
Alright, he obviously wasn’t in the mood for chatting.
Christ. If you didn’t break free from this spinster shit soon, that’s exactly where you’d end up.
You didn’t want to force it if he wasn’t comfortable, you could happily sit in silence if that’s what he’d prefer.
You moved your eyes to scan the room, eventually landing on an older woman propping herself up at the bar, downing martinis, eyeing up young men and wobbling on her insanely high heels.
‘What do you do?’
It was barely a mumble, you hardly heard it over the bar’s background music.
Your eyes returned to Bucky’s face, meeting his hesitant gaze.
‘I work in HR, so boring admin stuff mainly.’ He nodded slightly, his eyes flicking nervously between the table and your face. ‘But occasionally I get to use the shredder, which is pretty rad.’
He cracked a brief smile, the sight of it giving you a wave of goosebumps. ‘Sounds thrilling.’
‘I’ve never been here before, have you?’ You were determined to keep this conversation going, especially if there was a chance that you’d be able to make him smile again.
‘No. I haven’t been to any bars recently.’
‘You’ve got quite a bit of catching up to do then.’
Resting your head on your hand, you gave him a mischievous smirk, and felt a little smug as you noticed his shoulders relax slightly and the corners of his mouth curl upwards.
Hours passed, the bar called last orders, and the four of you traipsed out to begin walking home.
Then Steve and Sharon came back with the drinks, pretty effectively ruining the moment you’d been setting up.
Bucky went quiet again, keeping to himself for most of the evening, only speaking when spoken to. You felt his gaze fall on you occasionally, but each time you tried to meet his eyes they were quickly averted.
‘Oh hey, I forgot to ask.’ Steve gestured towards you. ‘Sharon said you went to visit your parents last weekend? How was that?’
‘I couldn’t go in the end, my car's fucked. It’s my own fault, everyday there was a new rattling sound but just ignored it.’
‘I’ll take a look at it.’ Your eyes snapped over to Bucky, a little shocked at how enthusiastically he’d come out with that. ‘If you want.’
You gave him a wide smile. ‘Wow, yeah, that’d be amazing. Thank you.’
---
A few days later, you were faced with another evening alone while Sharon was at Steve’s.
You unenthusiastically pulled a ready meal out of the fridge and poked some holes in the plastic, shoving it in the microwave and reaching for the half-empty bottle of wine on the counter.
‘Hi. Sorry. I was coming this way and Sharon said you’d be in, I thought I could take a look at your car?’
Just as you went to grab a glass out of the cupboard, you were stopped by a faint knock at the front door.
Shuffling over and yanking it open, you saw Bucky standing on your doorstep, looking just as uncomfortable as he did walking into that bar.
You were a little embarrassed that he’d caught in your pyjamas at 6:30, but that feeling was hugely outweighed with how pleased you were to see him.
‘Yeah, great.’ You gave him a warm smile. ‘I’ll just grab my keys.’
You found your gaze pretty quickly drawn to his arms, propping him up as he leant over the machinery like thick, hefty tree trunks. It was amazing how entranced you were by them, but considering how long it’d been since you’d even brushed past an attractive male, it made sense. God the things you’d let him do, if he-
You slipped on your shoes and led him over to the rustbucket, badly parked on the street outside. He flicked open the bonnet and immediately started tinkering.
You had less than no idea what was happening, but it looked very impressive.
‘Could you start it up?’ His deep voice pulled you out of your hazy fantasies.
‘Hmm? Oh, yeah.’
You tried your best to hide how flustered you were as you climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key. An intense rattling started, which he listened to for a second before signalling for you to turn it off and closing the bonnet.
‘You were right, it needs a lot of work. It’s definitely not safe to drive.’
‘Shit, stuck with the bus then.’ You sighed and climbed out, slamming the door behind you. ‘Thank you so much, you really didn’t have to do this. I appreciate it.’
‘Anytime.’ He smiled politely, taking a couple steps backwards before turning, dropping his head and starting to walk away.
‘You can come in for a drink if you want?’ You called after him, a little shocked at your boldness but not at all mad about it. He spun round. ‘It’s the least I can do.’
He took a sip and turned himself slightly to face you. ‘Look, if you bring your car to the shop where I work, I can probably keep the price down.’
His polite smile evolved into a wide grin as he nodded, following you inside.
You grabbed him a beer from the fridge and gestured for him to join you on the couch, smiling to yourself at how nervous he seemed as he balanced himself right on the edge of the seat.
‘Are you sure?’ He nodded. ‘That's so nice, you barely even know me.’
He looked a little sheepish at that, scurrying around for his words. ‘Sharon was pretty keen for me to come take a look, it’s probably best to keep Steve’s girlfriend on side, y’know.’
‘Oh I do know, Sharon can be terrifying.’ You both chuckled as Bucky edged back, settling himself into the couch a little more. ‘So you and Steve met in the army?’
‘We’ve been friends since we were kids, we signed up together.’
‘That’s nice.’ You tilted your head at him, deciding to take a slight gamble on your next question. ‘Do you miss it?’
He fixed his eyes on the ground and faintly shook his head, nervously starting to pick at the label on his bottle.
Shit, you really didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable, you were just curious.
A swift subject change remedied the situation somewhat, and after a while you sensed him beginning to relax again.
You finished off your glass of wine and checked your phone, your hand shooting up to your forehead in shock when you saw that it was close to midnight.
Over the next couple hours he slowly came out of his shell even further, eventually chatting and laughing with you like you were his good friend. The two of you unconsciously edged towards each other throughout the evening, ending up face to face with legs folded up on the couch, as close as you could get without touching.
‘Shit, I have work tomorrow.’
‘I’m really sorry.’ He put his bottle on the coffee table and stood up quickly. ‘I didn’t mean to keep you up.’
‘Oh you don’t have to apologise, it’s not your fault. I had a really nice evening.’
‘Me too.’ He smiled and buried his hands in his pockets, following you to the front door. ‘I’m working every day this week, you can come in whenever.’
‘Friday would be great? I have the day off.’
‘See you then.’
You watched him disappear down the street, feeling your limbs tingle with excitement at the prospect of seeing him again so soon.
---
You usually used your days off to sleep in till midday, but on Friday the tow truck showed up at 7am to take your car to the shop. You didn’t even get up that early on workdays. A pint of coffee was barely enough to keep you from passing out on the ride there.
He eventually noticed you stood there, staring, and your face immediately heated up as he approached.
You hurried inside the garage, scanning the room and eventually spotting Bucky underneath a hoisted truck, reaching up to work on it. His arms were glistening with oil and sweat and his shirt was riding up, exposing the faint trail of hair starting underneath his bellybutton.
Lord in heaven, what a view.
‘Sorry, didn’t want to interrupt.’
‘That’s alright.’ He pulled a dirty rag out of his pocket and roughly wiped his hands. ‘Did you bring the deathtrap?’
‘Yep, just outside.’
‘It’s gonna be a while. I finish at four, d’you wanna come back then?’
‘Sure.’
You walked up the driveway ten minutes early, which you thought was reasonable, and asked the very intimidating guy out front for Bucky. He just eyed you up and down and gestured vaguely to the side of the building.
On the way home you kept accidentally walking into roads, your mind completely occupied with Bucky’s midriff.
The whole day dragged. In your boredom you ended up leaving for the garage about an hour too early, meaning you had to loiter in an off-license, probably looking like you were shoplifting.
Turning the corner, you were met with a pretty impressive, cinematic wide shot of Bucky’s arse as he was leaning over the inside of your bonnet.
You should probably say something. Tell him you were there. Say hello.
Yeah, probably should.
Yeaaah.
You sighed and reluctantly shuffled towards the car.
‘How’s it-’ Bucky jumped and whacked his head against the propped-up bonnet. ‘Fuck! I’m so sorry, are you alright?’
He smiled at you, standing up and rubbing the back of his head. ‘Yeah, all good. Happens all the time.’
‘Oh, really? In that case you might want to consider a career change, could end up with some permanent damage.’ Chuckling, he reached up and slammed the bonnet with one powerful movement. ‘How’s it looking?’
‘Not bad. Want to take it for a spin?’
‘Sure.’ He held up the keys and you grabbed them out of his hand, excitedly hopping in the driver’s seat while he walked around and got in the passenger side. ‘You coming?’
‘Can’t just let you drive off without paying, you might never come back.’
You shot him a wide smile as you fired up the engine, amazed at how smooth it sounded, and pulled away from the garage.
‘I can’t believe it, it didn’t even run this good when I first got it.’ He smirked a little and nodded. ‘Thank you, Buck.’
You were already in the outskirts of the city, so you decided to drive out into the sticks a little, eventually pulling up into a dusty layby on a narrow side road.
Glancing to your side, you saw that Bucky was struggling not to look very pleased with himself.
As he began stroking his thumb along your knuckles, he cautiously pulled his gaze up to your face, looking at you like you’d just told him he’d won the lottery.
His hands were resting on his thighs and, almost unconsciously, you reached out to grab the one closest to you and squeeze it lightly.
He stared down at it for a few seconds, eventually turning his hand over and squeezing back.
You could barely even remember what happened next. You remember the back of your neck tingling, your stomach tightening almost to the point of becoming painful, the feeling of Bucky’s rough, calloused hand against your cheek and the way your heart jumped when he leaned towards you and pressed his mouth against yours.
Eventually pulling away, he buried his face in your neck, planting short kisses along your jawline between laboured breaths. You pushed his head back against the seat and pressed your forehead to his, closing your eyes and letting your hands dance down his chest.
It was slow and tender at first, but it quickly picked up, becoming feverish and passionate.
He threw his arms around your waist and roughly pulled you over onto his lap, holding you so tight to his chest that you couldn’t tell whose heart you could feel thumping like a steam engine.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve done that.’ He sighed, bringing a hand up to bury itself in your hair.
‘Me too.’ Your mouth curled into a smile. ‘It’s been even longer for other stuff.’
Melting into each other in a cacophony of limbs and flesh and tearing clothes, both of you eventually found the release you so desperately needed.
There was a loaded silence, you opened your eyes to see Bucky staring at you intently, wearing an expression that made your toes curl.
You dived clumsily into the backseat and pulled him after you, giggling as you both adjusted yourselves, trying to get even slightly comfortable in such a tight space.
And both of you did all you could to savour the feeling of finally having someone to hold close.
---
#bucky#bucky x reader#bucky x you#bucky x y/n#bucky fanfic#bucky fic#bucky fanfiction#bucky fluff#bucky imagine#bucky barnes#bucky barnes x y/n#bucky barnes x you#bucky barnes x reader#bucky barnes fluff#bucky barnes fic#bucky barnes fanfic#bucky barnes fanfiction#bucky barnes imagine#veteran!bucky#veteran bucky
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Making paper ornaments with the Turtles:
2k12/Bayverse
"Fold the tab over like this," you instructed the boys, demonstrating on your paper star. You were happy to be there making ornaments with them, giving them a holiday they'd never really done in full before. This was their first experience with a real Christmas, and you wanted it to be memorable. So, you started with the tree.
"Fold it over this way?" asked Mikey as he went ahead and creased it, regardless.
Leo was concentrating in complete silence while he worked on his own paper star. Raph was getting frustrated that he couldn't seem to line the creases up right and that his star was the jankiest, and likewise, Mikey was feeling a bit competitive about it as his were not the best either.
You checked Mikey's work so far and gave him a thumbs up, "Just like that."
"This is impossible," Raph huffed, low-key comparing his star to everyone else's. His fingers perhaps weren't the most dextrous, but he tried anyway, which was all you could ask for. He leaned over and grumbled in annoyance when he saw Leo's star, which was neat and pretty as it was supposed to be. "Of course he's getting it."
Chuckling to yourself, you slid over to Raph and took a seat next to him on the floor. He was still going at the project, fueled by his need to compare to Leo's work, though threatened to drop it all together every time he messed it up. So impatient was he.
"Maybe paper crafts aren't your forte," you said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He was turned partially away, his arms folded, and his eye darted to you upon feeling the touch. You thought for a second. If this was really something he didn't enjoy, you didn't want to force him. So you said, "You're free to go if you don't like it. You tried, that's enough."
He was seriously considering getting up and going back to his room, but then he looked around at his brothers, all having fun and for once, it seemed like Leo wasn't thinking about anything but the moment. And he was right—Leo wasn't thinking about anything but the moment. His mind wasn't on battling or when the next move was going to be made by Shredder and his clan. He was trying to fold his star, he was seeing his brothers having a good time, and was having a good time himself. He softened watching them.
Raph hadn't noticed when your hand left his hard shoulder; he was lost in his own little world for a minute there, just taking all of this in. He settled down and picked the paper back up. "I'm gonna do it," he told you, trying once more at it. You smiled as he continued, but after folding something the wrong way, he looked back at you, sheepish. "I...think I forgot how."
"It's all in the technique, bro," Mikey chimed in from across the circle, already starting his third star. His work wasn't much to look at, but he was having fun—that's what mattered. They would still complete the tree. "Want me to show you how?" Mikey gave him a cheeky grin.
"No," replied Raph. He flashed his younger brother a narrow-eyed look, and Mikey waved it off, muttering for Raph to suit himself.
You showed Raph how to do it again, and finally, he had it. He went from acting too stoic go be doing such things to actually kind of having fun, participating in conversation and laughing along with everyone. Though cold outside and down below, the lair tonight was alight with smiles and playful banter and positive prospects. You couldn't have hoped for a better day.
"How're yours going, Leo?" you asked curiously.
Gaguing by his eyes remaining on his work rather than you, he was quite focused, and he answered, "I think I've got it." He finished the little blue star and handed it to you, admittedly a bit proud that his were better than even Donnie's. "Good, right?"
You stared at his neat, cleanly creased paper and then back at yours, noticing the crinkled points and occasional mistake. Leo really did pick up skills in good time.
"Yeah, actually," you answered, having expected to be the best at the activity.
"And what about yours, Raph?" questioned Leo. He cocked his brow.
Raph bristled, "Mind your own business!"
Splinter walked in and you jabbed at Leo's shoulder with your elbow. He quickly cut it out and rubbed the sore spot, taking up another piece of paper.
"I see you are all having fun," Splinter commented, hands behind back as be stood over the lot of you. After their rough week with almost every night occupied by some kind of trouble, this was a well-deserved break. He thanked you for being there to get their mind off things.
Mikey bounced up from his spot and shoved one of his paper stars in Splinter's face. "See, sensei?!
Splinter's ear twitched and he nudged his son's hand aside, a soft smile present on his face. "And Leonardo is making a...paper shuriken."
In a second, he threw the paper star at his Master, to which he caught between his hands, and Leo laughed. "Nice catch, sensei."
"Wait! A paper throwing star? That's way cooler than this stuff!" Mikey beamed as he tossed away one of his finished pieces. Splinter chuckled and ambled back to the dojo, not before sneaking a couple of pieces of paper under everybody's noses.
Donnie shot Mikey a dirty look and turned back to you with an apologetic smile, "You know him."
The calculative turtle went back to his own project, where he was carefully trying to line up each crease to the tee. His tongue poked out at the corner of his mouth as he concentrated.
"A perfect thirty-five degree angle," he said as he did his last fold, accomplished. He cocked a brow at Leo, "Think you can get this close to perfection?"
"You're on," Leo answered with a smirk.
You checked on Mikey next, who was struggling on his yet again. You hated to see him behind everyone else, so you sat down at his side and said, "Need any help?"
"Nope," he responded. He was going at his paper with vivacity, and curious, you took a closer look. He'd strayed from the original star blueprint abd to some kind of wacky creation of abstract lines and weird angles. He'd even scribbled on it at some point with blue marker that you couldn't find even find now. He smiled in triumph and held it out for everyone to see. "I call this one a mutant star. See the mutagen oozing all over it?"
Donnie saw Mikey's odd creation and thought about how his brother was quite imaginative. Donnie could admire his more abstract approach to things; a quality Donnie oftentimes lacked. He was smart, but he had his pitfalls. "Let me try that," he said finally. He motioned for Mikey to hand him his piece.
"I know how to do it," Raph snickered as he crumbled up his half-finished star, throwing it at Donnie's head. It hit him square in the face. Donnie squeezed the paper in his hand hard, irked, and was about to fireball it back at his brother when something flew from the dojo and hit Raph right in the temple.
There Splinter was at the entrance of the dojo, holding a paper shuriken in his hand. He chuckled under his breath and slunk back into the room.
"As I was saying," Donnie cleared his throat, "I'm gonna try to make this...mutant star."
Mikey leaned in real close to Donnie's side, "You can try, but it'll never be the same..."
Brandishing both a bored look and his staff, he pushed Mikey away with it and went back to trying his hand at the new technique.
The entire project derailed from where it had started. But delightfully so—the night went on and eventually, it was time to wrap it up.
The boys were still expected to do their nightly patrol, so it was time for you to go, yourself. You didn't live too far, but you were family, now, and they weren't going to let you wander home in the dark alone. As you gathered up your stuff, Leo approached you with that gentle smile.
"Thanks for the night, y/n," he said, glancing back at the rest of his brothers as they dispersed within the lair to go do their own things until it was time for patrol. "We...haven't really done anything like this before."
You pulled your bag over your shoulder. "I had a lot of fun," you replied warmly, noting the appreciation in Leo's voice. "See you later?" You slipped your shoes on.
"I'm going to escort you home this time. Just to make sure you get there alright." There was a pause, and he added with an awkward laugh, "Can't be too sure with all of these mutants roaming around these days, right?"
"Right. Thank you, Leo."
Before you left, the boys helped you assemble the small fake tree they'd found discarded outside, and when all of you were done putting in your contribution, you took a step back. It was wonderfully unique, paper stars and shuriken and amalgamate creations decorated the tree rather than tradition. The boys were going to make their first true Christmas their Christmas, and as all of you stood back and admired the work, everyone was content. Life with them was beautifully strange.
#tmnt#tmnt 2012#tmnt 2014#tmnt 2016#teenage mutant ninja turtles#tmnt leo#tmnt donnie#tmnt raph#tmnt mikey#leonardo#donatello#raphael#michaelangelo#tmnt bayverse
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@brightlotusmoon Part 2 of the Bay/Rise crossover!!
The memory just kept replaying in Donatello’s mind. He tried dismissing it, but it would return and dominate his mind like a storm over the city. Running. Running, and April was in the lead— Splinter was pulling her along. Michelangelo in his shell. He did that when he got scared, it couldn’t help it. It was biological. Leonardo was there with him…
Donatello’s legs ached. His back ached, and his arms, and his stomach. Everything burned from the strain. He kept going.
Everyone was running. Everyone was ahead of him— he couldn’t keep up. He was falling behind and he was—falling! Tripping. Splinter looked back and cried out to his son, and then Leonardo looked back. But Leonardo couldn’t leave Michelangelo…
Donatello noticed the camera in his exhausted stupor. He disabled it just as quickly. His spider arms couldn’t take much more of this. He needed a break. He felt warm dripping down his arms. He kept going.
There was a weight on his back. A comforting weight that covered him like a mutant shield, hugging him from behind and securing a wall between him and the Shredder. Raphael…
Donatello felt one of his metal arms give way. It echoed painfully and the additional weight made him stop. He could feel those eyes staring at him...
Donatello told him to get off, but Raphael held those seconds steadfast. Raphael held him.
Now he held Raphael. Donatello forced himself to backtrack in his desperation for rest.
The shredder was upon them. Claws of titanium slicing through hard keratin like it was butter. The scream. The blood. The portal…
A sword made him stop a moment. A katana, pointed at him. A clear threat. He tried to call out, but found the words stopped at his throat. He tried to step out into the light…
The rift was unstable. Something was pulling them away from their desired destination. Donatello clinging to Raphael. Leonardo clinging to Michelangelo. Splinter clinging to April. Everyone trying to reach out for the others…
Instead, the light came to him in a blinding flash that made him unsteady on his feet.
Then falling. Freefalling through the sky. The hovers on his battle shell the only thing keeping him and Raphael from hitting the ground too hard.
Donatello had to say something, and he tried to make it something distinguished and peaceful. A plea for salvation. All his mind could think to say was,
“Help…”
*****
At first nobody moved. The shock was too great and the confusion strong between them. When someone did move it wasn’t at Leo’s command. Donnie moved forward on his own, grabbing one of the spiked monster’s massive arms and trying to yank him up.
“You gonna help me or what?” Donnie snapped, looking back at his brothers for help.
“Donnie, we don’t know what they are!” Leo finally broke the shock to argue.
“I know I’m not willing to let this one bleed out, so stop standing there trying to catch flies and help me!”
“Raph.” Leo shook his head and motioned for Raph to help, “Help Donnie! Mikey with me.”
Raph hurried forward and grabbed the massive mutants other side, heaving him up together and supporting the hundreds of pounds of muscle between them.
“Shit!” Donnie eyed the damage to the turtle’s carapace, “Looks like he went ten rounds with a semi!”
“He looks kinda like Raph!” Mikey said, voicing the thoughts that filled his brothers minds.
Leo, Raph, and Donnie all exchanged looks. Leo heaved the smaller turtle onto his back, still muscular and a decent weight despite the smaller size, and Mikey was there to help him.
“Let’s get these guys home and have Don patch em up.” He held up a hand when Donnie tried to speak, “We’ll talk later. Let’s go.”
*****
No one said a word on the way back. Mikey tried a few times but when no one, not even Raph, reacted to his attempts at a joke, he eventually went quiet. They hustled at Donnie’s impatient prompting, and the whole way the box turtle was muttering equations and percentages under his breath that none of his brothers could quite make out. When they came through the tunnels, Splinter was there to greet them. His watery eyes went wide and ears back when he smelled the metal of blood clinging to his sons.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“It’s not our blood, sensei.” Leo answered.
Splinter’s eyes searched up and found the sight of the wounded young mutants supported by his sons.
“Oh my…”
“They’re really hurt, dad.” Leo shook his head.
“Here, here— lay them on their stomachs. Be careful!” Donnie guided his brothers to lay the wounded on a table after swiping everything off of it.
“I’m sorry dad, I—“ Leo tried to say.
“Don’t apologize, go!” Splinter urged, and Leo obeyed.
“They gonna be okay, Don?” Leo said as he laid the soft-skinned mutant on the table alongside the giant.
Donnie pulled his goggles down to get a better read on their vitals. “Leo, I need you to go get my mutant aid kit from my lab— the green one with a turtle on it, not the cross.”
“Okay, Don.”
“What can we do?” Raph offered.
“You can give me space.” Donnie growled, “Nothing you can do here, just try to stay quiet so I can focus…”
Donnie pulled himself onto the table, turning his attention to the struggling snapper— for that’s what he recognized the species as almost as once. He lifted the massive head in both hands, taking a quick look at the nostrils in search for blood. Then he came to the mouth and heistated.
“Actually, Raph.” Donnie called back to Raph before the turtle could get far, “Could you give me a hand here? Just— just open his mouth so I can make sure he’s not aspirating?”
“Sure.” Raph hurried over and pried the massive jaws open without a care as to losing a finger or two should the mutant wake.
“Mm. No blood.” Donnie sighed, “Help me take his gear off.”
Raph obliged Donnie’s command and helped him to remove the armor, tossing in a pile to the side. Leo hurried back with the kit Donnie needed and Donnie was quick to take it. Donnie took a flashlight from his belt and shined it into the massive blue eyes of the wounded beast, giving a grin of confidence as the eyes contracted and reacted to the light.
Donnie pulled on his rubber gloves before he started to examine the obvious source of damage.
“What could’ve caused this?” Leo asked, peeking over the bloody carapace.
Donnie hummed and hovered a finger across the cracks. “The cracks don’t follow the suture borders like any normal crack would. This wasn’t an accident, this was very deliberate. Something… some type of three-bladed weapon. Whatever it was, it got him good.”
Donnie opened the turtle care kit and pulled out a drill.
“Can it be fixed?” Leo asked.
Donnie was hesitant to give any answer other than, “We’ll see.”
*****
While he worked, Donnie made sure to keep a close eye on both the snapper and the smaller companion. A softshell, he suspected due to the face shape. His vitals were stable enough and if they did start to drop than Donnie would know. Fixing the shell without the bone sutures to guide him proved difficult, but not impossible. It just involved drilling a lot more screws in than he usually would, and a much slower, tedious process. Drilling the holes parallel to each other and connecting them with tightened wire to pull the cracks together. The more he worked, the more he realized why the slashes were as awkward as they were. Whatever had attacked him had attacked not only the shield of his carapace, but taken off a few of the many spikes that covered his shell. Two of the dorsal ridges had been taken off at their middle, and a third was slashed off completely. Several more were chipped and slashed at the top, but not enough to warrant repair— not deep enough to bleed. After near two hours of intense focus, Donnie finally backed off the snapper and started to remove his bloody gloves.
“How is he?” Leo was on Donnie in an instant, “Is he okay?”
“He’s… stable.” Donnie said, discarding his gloves safely in the bio hazard bin.
“So are we gonna talk about what the fuck is happening here?” Raph appeared just as sudden and quick as Leo.
“He was hurt.” Donnie said calmly, going to his sink and washing up to his forearms before placing fresh gloves. “Something attacked him.”
“Yeah, we understand that, but… why does he look like Raph?”
Donnie didn't have an answer to give, even if he wanted to.
“Mikey, leave him alone.” Donnie pushed past his brothers, holding his gloved hands out in front of him and avoiding contact with everything that might contaminate the rubber. Mikey had taken the opening of Donnie’s absence to jump on the table and start to poke at the subject that Donnie now turned his attention to. Donnie ushered Mikey off of the table and away from his patients. “If you wanna help, see if you can figure out how to take that shell peice off of him.”
Donnie started to give the other mutant the same mouth and nose exam he had given to the snapper. Mikey obliged Donnie’s request, if only to give him more time to be in contact with the new mutant. Mikey picked up the mutants hand and dropped it, laughing as it dropped hard.
“Dude! This guys out cold!” Mikey stood over the mutant and leaned down to stick his face in the softshell’s.
“Out of the way, Mikey.” Donnie huffed and nudged Mikey away with his shoulder.
“What? Come on dude, I’m helping— I’m helping! Hey, what’s this button do?”
“Mikey, do not—“
Mikey pressed the botton on the mutants belt, and the belt snapped undone.
“Oh.” Donnie blinked, “Guess that could’ve been worse. Might’ve helped, actually.”
“See? Told ya I was helpful!” Mikey picked the armor off of the mutants carapace and tossed it haphazardly to the side. “Yoooo! He looks like a burnt pancake!”
“Mikey!” Leo scolded, “That’s not nice!”
“Why’s his back like that?” Mikey gawked.
“Yeah. It’s more like a moldy tortilla than a shell.” Raph commented.
“Cut it out, both of you!” Leo snarled.
“Why’s he look like that?” Mikey laughed and poked the shell, “ewww! It’s all squishy! And flexible!” Mikey bended the bridge of the shell and made the unconscious mutant groan and wince.
“Stop That!” Donnie nudged Mikey away. “He’s a softshell.”
“A what?”
“A softshell. Judging by these ridges, I’d guess Apalone Spinerifa—“
“In non-geek speak, please.”
“Spiny softshell.” Donnie sighed, “Anyway, his vitals seem stable, and there’s no obvious signs of damage. I’m guessing he just exhausted himself trying to carry that snapper for god knows how long— hell, I was breaking a sweat just carrying him home, and that was with Raphael’s help!”
“But he’s gonna be okay?”
“Mm.” Donnie hummed and started to examine the fleshy parts of the mutant. “He has some minor scratching and abrasions— nothing a little rest TLC can’t fix. They’re both cold, though— I’ll need to hook up a heat lamp to try and keep their body heat from dipping too low.”
“When will they wake?” Splinter asked suddenly, the brothers parting as he approached to let him get a better view of the young mutants.
“Hard to tell— the softshell will probably be up before the snapper, so anywhere from a few hours to a day I’d say.”
“And their ages?” Splinter traced a careful paw between the two wounded creatures, his eyes soft with worry.
“Um. Can’t really get specifics, but still in their teens— no older than sixteen I’d say.”
“Just boys… younger than you four.” He took the softshell’s head in his hands to look at his features more closely.
“What should we do, father?” Leo asked, appealing to the old rat.
“Mm. Make them comfortable. They are our guests.”
“But—“ Leo went to argue.
Splinter held up a paw. “They asked for our help, and we will give it to them. For now, all we can do is wait for one or both of them to wake up…”
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I thought of this idea and was curious if you’d be able to do head cannons on it because your writing is amazing— how would the turtles react to having a human S/O that can turn into a mutant whenever they please?
Ooh I like this one!!
Warnings: Swearing.
Incarnation: Bayverse
Extra Info: The mutant the reader can turn into will be different for each turtle- don’t worry, I’ll explain each one.
Leo:
So, your mutation never really came up in conversation
However, it only came up because you had (accidentally) been dragged into a fight with the Foot Clan
You and Leo had been on a date when Donnie had reported Foot Clan activity not far from your apartment
He tried to convince you to lock yourself inside, but you figured it would be a good time to reveal yourself
So, you managed to be dragged into the fight a few blocks away, joined by Raph, Donnie, and Mikey
You watch the boys struggle. You want to help, but you also want to wait for the perfect time
So you wait until you’re being cornered by four Foot Clan soldiers, and the brothers are busy
Perfect.
One of the Foot Clan soldiers tries to throw a small knife at you…
And you caught it.
“Shouldn’t have done that.”
You throw the knife back and hit the soldier
Using the distraction, you turn
The next time the soldiers look at you, wings have sprouted from your back, your eyes have gotten much larger, talons had grown from your fingertips and through your shoes, and your legs had gotten longer to a scary extent.
You are a half-human half-owl mutant.
“It’s showtime.”
You jumped off of the ground and immediately grabbed two of the three soldiers that had tried to attack you
You flew up above the city, not afraid to press your talons into their skin
You unashamedly flung the two Foot Clan soldiers into the Hudson, then watched them struggle as the current pulled them
You went back to the alleyway where the turtles were, watching from far above as they were continuing to fight the Foot Clan soldiers.
It was like they didn’t notice.
You dove down into the alley and pulled up at the last second, grabbing Foot Clan soldiers as you went.
You dropped them into the Hudson as well
You went back to the turtles, who had retreated to the rooftops to converse about what jus happened.
You were able to grab Leo and brought him many, many blocks away, and he was fighting the entire time
You put him down and landed in front of him- it was weird being taller than him for once…
You turned back, and he gasped.
“Y/N… That was… You?”
You nodded.
“I figured I should tell you at some point but it never came up in conversation.”
He just looked at you, unsure of what to think
He pulled you to his plastron and held you, then pulled your chin up gently
“You’re fucking amazing.”
Raph:
Raph always noticed you looking at him
Especially since oftentimes, you would be looking sad
You knew you had to tell him at some point, but it hurt your heart too much
You had gotten cursed and your lifespan became elongated
Also known as semi-immortal
And Raph was not
You’re body has been 18 for years, but you’re actually nearing your 30s
That was why you had been so against getting into a relationship
You denied him every time he asked you, until the day he turned 19- just to be sure
That was three years ago, and you started seeing signs that he wanted to propose
And you were proven right, one night at dinner
It was just you and him at the Lair- he had talked his brothers into leaving him behind while going on patrol this night
Things were going well, yes, but you knew the reason why he wanted to be alone with you
“Y/N, I’ve loved you for years. I want to be your for the rest of my life, if you’ll let me be in the rest of yours.”
You started crying.
He smiled, thinking they were happy tears
“Raph, I… I don’t know.”
His face dropped, but he nodded
“It’s okay, Darling. You aren’t ready, and I shouldn’t-”
“I’m not mortal, Raph.”
There was a long silence between you two
You tried to stop crying
“I’m semi-immortal, Raph. I… I got cursed years ago. I stop aging and will die eventually, just later than you because my life span will be longer… Much longer… Maybe even by centuries, I don’t know…”
He just stared at you, confused, and almost hurt
The only noise was your crying
You didn’t know what to do
Raph kneeled on the ground in front of you, all possible hurt gone from his face
“Y/N, how old are you really?”
“Um… 29. I’ve been physically 18 for-”
“11 years?” Raph asked you, shocked.
You could only nod.
“That’s why you kept saying no- it felt wrong to you.”
You nodded again.
He hugged you. You tensed, but soon relaxed into him when you realized he wouldn’t be letting go
“Is there anything you can control?”
“I… Just… Yeah.”
“May I ask what it is?”
You hiccupped- you had a bad feeling of where this was going.
“Age manipulation…”
“What?”
“Age manipulation. I can accelerate or reverse the age of organisms and non-living objects…”
You knew the lightbulb went off in his head the moment you said it
He let go of the hug, but remained holding your shoulders
“Raph, I know what your thinking, but no! It can backfire and you-”
“I don’t care-”
“You could forget memories, people, places. You could forget your brothers, even me!”
There’s another long silence
You see the light drain slowly from his eyes
You shrugged his hands from your shoulders and put your face in your hands
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have let it come this far…”
He hugged you again, pulling you off of your chair to put you in his lap
“You’re worth that risk, Y/N.”
“Raph, your brothers-”
“I can’t forget them- I have too many scars and too many memories to forget those assholes.”
You chuckled dryly.
“I’m sorry for not telling you.”
“It’s okay. You were scared… I know it’s easy to be scared when you have such a big secret to hide.”
You nodded against his plastron and snuggled as close as you could
“I love you, Raph,” you tell him. “I really do.”
“I love you forever.”
You smiled- genuinely.
“Then, yes.”
“Yes?” he asked. “What do you mean?”
“To your proposal. I’m saying yes.”
He held you even tighter
Donnie:
Despite loving Donnie with your whole heart, it was hard to be around him while he was in his lab
He had so many thoughts running through his head, it was hard to keep track
So, you often spent your time in the kitchen, talking to you deceased mother
You possess telepathic powers, and you are also a necromancer
You can hear thoughts and speak to the dead after a freak accident you witnessed in your mother’s lab years ago
It was the accident that killed her, but you didn’t know that until your father told you to prepare for her funeral
That was five years before you met Donnie
You were 17 when you met him four years ago, and had been dating for three of them.
You had been able to control it when you were 17, but then when you met Donnie, you had to re-learn
You had never met someone who thinks so much, and so loudly
You can listen to the thoughts of his brothers, too, and you find Leo’s is the most entertaining
(You’ve never heard him physically swear, but his mind is like a sailor)
But Donnie’s is the one who overwhelms you.
“Y/N, you need to tell him,” you mother says to you. “I can tell he’s starting to feel bad- you keep leaving without explanation.”
“I know, Ma. I just-”
“Y/N, who are you talking to?”
You’re heart stopped for a moment. You slowly looked at the doorway, where Donnie loomed
He was totally confused
Thoughts ran through his head
Are they okay? Is something wrong? Maybe they’re just talking to themself. Yeah-
“You’re wrong.” you say to him.
“I didn’t say anything.”
“I know. I still heard what you were thinking.”
“I’m sorry- you heard what I was thinking?”
You glanced at your mother, who had moved to stand next to Donnie
She nodded before disappearing
“I possess telepathic powers, and I’m a necromancer. I was talking to my mom- about telling you, actually.”
Donnie looks at you, shocked
His thoughts were louder than ever and were moving faster than you had ever heard
You covered your ears and closed your eyes- like that would help
He noticed this, and realization
They way I think is like someone screaming in your ear as loud as possible?
He thinks, knowing you were listening
“Yeah. I… I’m sorry,” you whisper, not moving
He approached you, but you didn’t see.
That’s why you leave the lab so suddenly sometimes? It gets overwhelming?
You nod.
He gently removes your hands from your ears and you finally look up at him
He smiles at you, almost guilty
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Don. You can’t help it.”
He takes you into his arms and holds you close
“Thank you for telling me, Y/N. Is there anything I can do?”
Mikey:
Okay, your mutation isn’t too spectacular
But it’s a mutation nonetheless
You were a test subject of the first recreation of mutagen that Shredder ordered Sacks and Stockman to make
But the Shredder and Sacks soon realized you wanted to rebel
Besides, your body was having different effects than they had hoped
So, they released you
And you went to the police
But did they believe you? No.
But a few years later, you saw Shredder fall. You saw Sacks get arrested.
Oh, now the NYPD listens
And when the man who “saved New York” was revealed, you immediately could tell he didn’t
“The Falcon” was a fake- you were surprised that everyone believe his story
Then two more years go by, and Shredder escapes prison, and then a “threat from the sky” tried to attack
But it was stopped- supposedly by “The Falcon” again
But this time, you knew it couldn’t have been him
A week after the incident, you saw a police escort heading toward Lower Manhattan
So, you followed.
Well, hitched a ride on the back of one of the trucks- which was easy in your mutant form
You hid when they stopped, then followed the path the officers made to a boat
In your mutant form, they let you onto the boat without question
Then, you saw the things that actually saved the city, proving your point
They were four turtle-human mutants- like yourself, but different animals. Obviously.
As the boat started to leave the docks, you approached the turtles, only you knowing that you shared their status as mutants
The one wearing an orange bandana immediately started cooing at you, picking you up off of the ground
“What a cute kitty… Leo, can we keep it?” he asked the turtle with the blue bandana
“We don’t know where it’s been, Mikey,” Leo had said.
So the one holding me is Mikey…
Mikey holds you the entire boat ride- and you don’t like to mention that you loved the way he pet you
Yup. you are a house cat. Specifically, a calico Turkish Angora
So, you followed Mikey off of the boat, and he kept smiling down at you as he walked
You soon realized you were at the Statue of Liberty
You saw that most- if not the entire police force of New York was gathered, as well as the Falcon, a woman from Channel Six named April, and some Ragamuffin Hockey Player-Turned-Police Officer
Then you saw Chief Vincent standing at a podium as she started speaking about the turtles who stood next to her
She thanked them for their bravery and service to this city and gave them Keys to the City
After a while of talking, she approached them to have a small group conversation for a moment
Then, she let them into the Statue of Liberty, and let them go into the statue’s torch
You followed them, of course
After the turtle’s celebration amongst themselves, you made your presence known by rubbing against Mikey’s leg
He squatted and greeted you, petting you
You soon backed away, though, and walked to the other side of the torch
You knew he followed, so, before he caught up, you turned into your human form
When he saw you, he screamed
The others immediately rushed over, and were shocked
“Hi. I’m the cat you were petting earlier,” you said- rather casually
“How? You’re a- person!” Donatello said- you had heard Chief Vincent say his name
“Yeah, I’m a person who got screwed over by Sacks and Stockman. I got mutated just before he got arrested.”
There was a long silence.
“Prove it,” Raphael demanded.
You turned into your mutant form and sat. You licked your paw, then looked up at Raphael, who had gone pale
All of them had gone pale, really, except Mikey
“Woah- you’re kinda like us, then?” Mikey asked.
You turned back and agreed.
“Awesome, dude!”
That was nearly five years ago now. Now, you and Mikey are dating, and have been for three and a half years
You never knew you’d meet your best friends because of the mutation you had wanted so badly to hate
#tmnt#tmnt headcanons#tmnt bayverse#tmnt 2014#tmnt 2016#tmnt leonardo#tmnt leo#tmnt raphael#tmnt raph#tmnt doantello#tmnt donnie#tmnt x reader#tmnt x mutant reader#tmnt april o'neil#tmnt casey jones#tmnt vernon fenwick#tmnt bayverse the falcon
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Hi hi, wondering if you are still wanting requests for fics. Could you do either a Lin x fem reader or Kyalin were it’s like. Lin’s trust issues and abandonment issues. So she’s scared of her feelings for reader/Kya. And reader/kya Just reassure and give Lin all the love she needs and deserves? Maybe they get Lin flowers. I headcanon that she’s never been given flowers because people don’t think she likes them
Hi, anon, is it? I love you.
I hope y’all like angst ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
You sat at Lin’s house, waiting for her to get home from work. You guys have been together for a little over six months, so this was a usual for you. You heard the doorknob rattle, and the door fly open. “You’re home.” You said with a beaming smile. “Yeah.” She mumbled. You saw water droplets drip from her hair, which was no longer neatly in place. “Is it raining?” You asked. “Duh.” Lin said. You noticed she had tons of wet papers in her hands. You shot you when you saw her struggle with her coat. “Oh, spirits, let me help you-“ you reached your hand out. “I don’t need your help, (Y/N)!” She threw her coat off. She slammed the papers down in the kitchen table, and walked back to her bedroom, her boots leaving little droplets of water behind her. You picked her coat up and hung tossed it into the washer, along with some other clothes for Lin. You heard the shower turn on when you walked past the shut bedroom door. You grabbed a heater out of the closet and went to the kitchen. You organized Lin’s papers over the kitchen table, and set up the heater pointed at them. You turned it on and went into the bedroom.
Lin sat down on her side of the bed and put her face in her hands, rubbing her eyes. “Are you alright?” You asked. “Do I look alright?” Lin said with an attitude. You’ve seen Lin in her bad moods, but this was unlike the others. “Do you want some tea?” You placed a hand on her shoulder. She shook her head no. You heard a small sniffle come from her nose. “Lin?-“ “Leave.” Lin said. “What do you-“ “Leave!” She said a bit louder. “Okay.. um.. I guess I’ll see you another-“ “No, (Y/N). I mean leave. You’re going to eventually, just do it now.” Lin said. You saw a tear drip from her chin. “Lin, I’m not gonna-“ “Leave!” She yelled. “Okay..” you sighed. You got up and started walking out. “I’ll um..” You didn’t know what to say. Lin didn’t move. It was almost like she was frozen in place. You sighed again while tears filled your eyes. You’d hoped that she would’ve stopped you from actually leaving, but she didn’t.
You quietly put the key into the doorknob and turned it. You took light steps. Being an airbender made it ten times easier. You closed the door and quietly made your way back to Lin’s room. “I can hear you, (Y/N).” You heard Lin yell from her room as you were approaching the door. You sighed and walked into her room, keeping the item behind your back. She was sitting up in her bed, reading a book. “What do you want?” She mumbled. “I wanted to make sure you were alright.” You said hesitantly. Lin didn’t say anything. You approached the bed, sat the item down on the floor, and sat next to Lin. “Hey,” you put your hand on her leg. “What?” She said. You knew it was risky, but you leaned in and kissed her cheek, wrapping your arm around her waist, and resting your chin on her shoulder. You could tell she was no longer focused on her reading. “Are you really upset with me?” You asked. Lin let out a sigh and put her book down. She leaned her head against the headboard. “Not at all, my love.” She said quietly.
“What happened?” You asked. Lin took in a deep breath. “Uh- I um-... I got a letter from Su today.” Lin said quietly. “What?” Your head shot up. “Yeah.” Lin had her eyes closed. She looked like she was trying not to cry. “What did it- what did it say?” You asked quietly. “I don’t know. I didn’t open in. I threw it in the paper shredder.” Lin said. “Why?” You asked. “Because I don’t want to hear from her again!” Lin stood up quickly. “Hey, Lin,” you sat up on your knees on the edge of the bed, and pulled her into you. You wrapped your arms around her waist and hugged her with your head on her chest. She took a deep breath before resting her head on top of yours, and hugging you back. “I’m not gonna leave you, Lin.” You mumbled into her chest. “Please don’t.” She whispered. “What did you set down over there?” Lin asked. “Oh!” You jumped up. You reached over and grabbed it. Lin sat down on the bed. You had a big smile on your face, while she looked kind of surprised as you handed her the bouquet of pandalilys. “What.. what’s this for?” Lin asked. “Well, um, you told me once that pandalilys were your favourite flower.” You said. “You heard that? I was just rambling on.” Lin said quietly. “Of course I did. I hear everything you say.” You said. Lin still looked shocked. “Thank you.” She said. “No need. This was worth the look on your face.” You giggled, gaining a small smirk from Lin. Lin looked up at you and pecked you on the lips. “Do I still have to go?” I said. “I’m still mulling it over, but I guess you can sleep here until I figure it out.” Lin joked. You smiled and wrapped your arms around her neck and kissing her. “Thank you for coming back.” Lin said. “Did you really think I wouldn’t?” You asked. “I’m glad you did.” She kissed you again. And again. And again.
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Raphael x Fem!Reader
Reader is April's little sister and meets the turtles through her. I changed the ages and timeline a bit just because I don't feel entirely comfortable writing the turtles as 15 year old kids. SO the turtles are 18 the reader is 17 nearing 18 and april is 27.
Warnings: some mention of parent death, but nothing else!
Part 1/ ??
Im still pretty new at writing fanfic and have only done a few and this is my very first tmnt one. Constructive criticism and nice things only please!
I didn't remember my dad. My mother gave birth to me a month before his death. I didn’t remember him but my big sister April did. She told me everything she could about him, all kinds of stories and old home videos. It's almost like I know him but I don’t. Sometimes it's sad and I wish for nothing more than to have some memories with him, but I’ve had a good life and have a great family. I’ve lived with my sister since our mom passed 2 years ago from cancer. I miss her a lot, but I like living with April and I love our apartment.
We both have a deep love for media. She is a reporter with Channel 6 and I started making youtube videos right around the time mom died. It was like a video diary back then and has since turned into something completely different, though there are the occasional personal diary type videos.
I was wearing my favorite oversized sweater. It was a deep forest green and nearly reached my knees. It was worn and a bit tattered in some places, but it was the coziest thing ever.. I was barefoot in the kitchen listening to April talking about the latest Foot Clan activity and thinking about the questions she was planning for some guy who worked on the docks. She had convinced her camera guy Vern to take her over there before they shot her morning segment.
“You’re gonna be late!” I called into the living room while putting some breakfastt in a container for her to take on the road.
“Thank you shorty,” She rushed in and gave me a kiss on the cheek as she grabbed her breakfast and rushed out of the kitchen again to grab her bag “I’ll either be back for dinner or late!”
“That's really specific April,” I mutter as a lean in the kitchen doorway and watch her check her purse. “Do you have your touchup bag and your toothbrush?”
April let out a small gasp and rushed back to the bathroom. She came back out with a bag, gathered her things and blew a kiss as she ran out the door. I let out a laugh and went to eat my own food.
I spent the day editing a new video. I just hit 700k last week so I was making a special video to celebrate. It had some songs that I had covered laid over a video of me painting a portrait of my mother and father. It was taken a year before he had died and they had gone on a weekend getaway in the Appalachian mountains.
I didn't look up until April burst through the door. It was already dark out and I hadn’t even noticed.
“I just witnessed a Foot Clan attack!” she called as she walked through the apartment.
“What? Oh my god! Are you okay?” I practically jumped up and followed her as she began pacing around the living room. “April? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine! There I was at the docks trying to get some answers and then BAM! They were there!” She went on about the attack and then started about some kind of vigilante that fought them off.
“Vigilante? Are you serious?” She didn't answer, she just went into her room. I sat back down on the couch and tried to process what she had said. In the end I shook it off and went get some dinner ready.
Over the next few days April was hard to find. She seemed to be constantly on the move and didn't answer her phone. She came home talking about dad's old experiments and giant turtles, and over the next 2 days seemed to just be gone. The spire on the Sacks building fell and The Shredder, who was the leader of the Foot Clan, was arrested and Eric Sacks was revealed to have been working alongside him the whole time. It was a wild time for New York, and April was suddenly quiet about the vigilantes.
Time began to move on and April started talking about these 4 new friends she had that were brothers. They seemed like a fun nice group, and the stories she shared were great.
“So,” I started as we sat together on the couch, “when do I get to meet the brothers?”
April choked on her glass of white wine. “What? Meet them?”
“Yeah, You talk about them all the time! I would like to meet them. They’re all you’ve been talking about for like 3 weeks.” I said as I pushed her with my foot.
“Ummm,” April stopped to think and had a vague look of concern on her face, “I'm not sure actually. They’re pretty busy guys.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Uh-huh. If you don't want me to meet them just say so. I was just curious.” I turn my face away from her.
“No it's not that, It's just they’re kinda shy. They don’t really like meeting people.” April's face said that she was telling a lie.
“Okay.” I left it at that clearly something is bugging her about me meeting her friends.
April-
April went to spend some time with the boys, but couldn’t stop thinking about them meeting her little sister. How would she react? She thought to herself, ‘I fainted when I met them, and there are still times when it kinda freaks me out a bit. I don’t want my baby sister to get scared and I don’t want the boys to get hurt because of it.’ They had tried to act like April’s reaction didn’t hurt them, but she knew it did. ‘I just want everyone to be happy.’ She was sitting in the lair watching the boys fight and Mikey brought up their Christmas pop album again. She smiled, (y/n) loved music and often performed covers on YouTube. She was really good at it. She had even written her own songs but at this point refused to release or talk about them on her channel.
“April, is something troubling you?” The brunette turned, surprised to see Master Splinter.
“Oh it’s nothing really.” She paused, “Actually could we talk? I am having some trouble.” Splinter nodded and gestured for her to follow. Not answering the questioning looks of the brothers, they went into Hashi.
“The boys avoid this room as much as possible,” Splinter said with a chuckle, “they will not listen in in here.”
“Makes sense,” April laughed and sat down on a mat with Splinter while looking at the odd structures in the room, “I’m having some trouble with my sister.”
“Oh yes, little (y/n) she had only just been born. I believe your father brought her down to the lab twice in those last weeks.” He thought back fondly on the small soft baby that looked so tiny in the arms of her father but so big compared to him then. “ what is it that is wrong?”
“She wants to meet the brothers. She doesn’t know that they are turtles, but she knows I have new friends.” April said looking down, “ we are very open. We’re the only family we have left so we always know each other's friends. It’s a safety thing I guess.”
Master Splinter hummed and looked at April, who continued.
“She wants to meet them and honestly I want her to too! I think they would all get along so well and I think the boys would adore her. It would also be nice to know that there are 4 ninjas who would look out for her.” April sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
“I just don’t want the boys to get hurt. What if she is afraid of them? What if she screams and calls them monsters or freaks? What if she passes out or cries. It would hurt them so much, and I don’t want to see my sister frightened anyway.” April’s shoulders slumped and she lowered her face to look across at Splinter.
“You know your sister well? Do you think she will react this way?” The rat questioned.
“I don’t know. This isn’t exactly a situation that has ever come up before or one I ever thought I would be in.” She played with her fingers in her lap and she watched him stroke his beard.
“I think you know your sister well and know what would be the best course of action.” He smiled, “I think the trouble now will be convincing the boys to risk meeting her. I have no doubt that it will be a split crowd.”
April nodded and gave a kind of exasperated smile. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Mikey and Ralph would agree, Donnie was iffy, but Leo would say no.
“Thank you Splinter. That does actually help. Do you mind if I stay in here a bit longer?” She asked.
“Go ahead child. Take your time.” Splinter got up and left the Hashi.
April sat and thought about what he had said. She thought back to everything she knew about her sister and what she knew of the boys. If her sister could be accepting she knew that they could have a great friendship. The boys were half a year older than her and they didn't know anyone their age. It would be nice for them to have that she thought. She knew Mikey would be super friendly right away, maybe even too friendly. Donnie would be polite but wary at first and a bit excited. Raph would be happy just to meet another person, but Leo would be cold. She feared that he would be distant and unapproachable and she knew her sister well enough to know she wouldn't be able to handle that.
She took her time and eventually rejoined the brothers. She brushed off their questions with a simple: “I needed advice.” She sat down with them as they all talked and joked around. Finally Donnie brought up the perfect opportunity.
“April you're lucky you don't have brothers.” He said as Mikey bombarded him with insane ideas for gadgets.
“Well I don't have any brothers but I do have a baby sister.” The turtles all turned towards her clearly shocked by this news. “She's actually about 4 months from turning 18.”
“Woah Angelcakes, We didn't know you had a lil’ sis. Is she as beautiful as you?” Mikey said while batting his eyes at her.
“I think she is absolutely gorgeous, and she sings and does art. She’s about to be a senior in high school.” April said while leaning closer to mikey. “Shes shorter than me and has curves for days. She used to be on the dance team actually.” April laughed and Mikey threw himself back and fanned himself with his hand.
“Why haven't you mentioned her?” Leo asked.
“You never asked if I had any siblings. She was born a few weeks before my dad died.” April smiled sadly at that “She actually asked if she could meet you.”
The boys seemed to freeze at that, and suddenly all eyes were on her.
“You told about us?”. Raph asked.
“Kinda. I might have left out the part about being ninja turtles, but I told her about my new friends and she wants to meet you guys.” Raph scoffed at her answer.
“So you didn't actually tell her about us.” He almost snapped at her.
“Cool it Raph.” leo warned.
“I don't wanna be looked at like a freak. She won't want to meet us when she sees us.” he stood up and walked off. April looked at the others who all looked like they wanted to disagree and agree with Raph at the same time.
“Sorry angelcakes, I'm sure baby angelcakes is great though.” Mikey shrugged.
April sat in disbelief that they all basically said no. The lair was quiet after that and she left after they ate some dinner.
She got home only to remember her sister was spending the night at her friends house. So she had the place all to herself. She let out a sigh and poured herself a tall glass of wine and sat on the couch thinking about the events of the day. She came up with a plan as she finished her cup and decided that by the end of the week they boys will have met her baby sister. She grabbed her phone and invited the boys to come hang out at her place for once this upcoming weekend. They didn't even ask if her sister would be there.
(Y/N)-
April had gone out to pick up some pizza for a late night dinner. I had school, homework, and some video editing to do and forgot to cook. April came home late and said not to worry about it and would grab some pizza. Her new favorite place didn’t offer delivery so she went to go get it. I decided that a nice hot shower sounded good and went in. I got out as I heard the front door open and close. I made my way to my room about to throw on my favorite green sweater only to remember that It had been washed and was in the dryer. So, I wrapped my towel back around me and opened my door to head out into the living room. I walked out and looked up only to meet with 4 pairs of eyes.
“Oh my bad,” I said, turning to go back to my room only to stop and turn right back around. “Ummmm…” I trailed off not sure what to say as I stared at 4 very large, very green, oddly human like turtles, all while in a bath towel that left most of my left hip exposed.
“Oh hi (y/n). I forgot to mention I had friends coming over.” April said walking into the room. “You might wanna put some clothes on though.”
“Yeah…” I said not able to look away from the very large turtle creatures sitting in the living room.
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Fictober prompt 28
ROTTMNT Donatello x reader
Note: Sorry I have been gone for so long! I have been wrapped up in school and I also know that this isn't my normal fandom... This is completely self indulgent because he popped on my feed on youtube and he was my first comfort character. And now I found ROTTMNT and I got hit in the face by my best friend on exactly my type... Intelligent, gremlin, cocky, and emotionally unavailable... So this is a complete callout to everyone who has the same type no matter the gender and please enjoy this drabble. And fully expect on several different fandom releases on Halloween including a oneshot for His World. But enough of my rambling! To the story!
You had been in quarantine for nearly an entire year and now your favorite month had been ruined by the hussle and the bustle of your closest aunt asking you to come to New York. Her explanation was that she was taken ill and she needed someone to look after the house and your youngest cousin April O’Neil, much to your distaste.
It was not that you hated your youngest cousin, opposite in fact you adored her, but you two never exactly saw eye to eye on most things. You two were so close up until about five or six years ago and then she changed and you felt as if for the worst. This change caused you both to drift apart.
Since she was your only friend and family member that got you; this distance caused you swirling into an unhealthy mind set. And you got caught up with the wrong people at the worst time in your life as your younger brother disappeared and your mom got distant.
Which lead you here, packing all research that you had gathered over the past few months since the shredder accident, your Bo staff, and other essential items. Taking the time to slide the delicate frames of your glasses up every few minutes. Your boss Baxter had called you a few minutes ago saying that he set you up an apartment and a plane to New York and expected you be ready for training with Rocksteady as soon as you landed. Thinking about it made you flinch.
Grabbing the metal case with your research, your duffel with clothes and toiletries, and your backpack filled with snacks your Bo and training clothes you headed down stairs. You kissed your mom on the head who was on the phone at the couch; gently leaving a large stack of cash that should last her awhile. You slipped out the front door and slid into a sleek car that Baxter had sent for you.
During the car ride you stayed silent, typing away at your computer, jotting down the breakthrew that you had made. Your specific specialty in his company was the idea of spirits and how to harness them, extract them, and even switch with them. Baxter had found out about you and what people and even yourself, at the time, believed as a silly project about four years ago. You had proven that spirits were real and that there was a possibility to do something with them.
He accelerated you through highschool and college, easily making you apart of a team and gave you everything that you needed for your research. You honestly didn’t care what he would do with it as soon as you had perfected everything in your now extensive project. All you cared about was getting your mom and brother back and he promised to keep the investigation open if you handed all research over to him as soon as you were done.
You barely slept on the plane. Fear creeping up your spine and turned your veins icey as you mulled over what was waiting for you when you landed. The training with Rocksteady was not normal. As he was a huge hog and the training was to get you faster, but it would inevitably end with a concussion and a broken bone as it normally would. Then Baxter would inject you with some green liquid that, yes would accelerate the healing process and you would no longer have any broken bones, but it would feel like your entire body was on fire and your back feeling like it was being ripped to shreds.
You eventually drifted into a fitful sleep. You felt like you had barely closed your eyes before you were woken up by the gentle but cold hand of Baxter. You were in a car now just outside of headquarters.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Oh MAh Gawd! Y/N! What happened to you?!” You winced at the worried yell that came from April. You had just gotten released from the lab and your head was pounding from the lack of food and water.
“Just a little scuffle just outside the office. Don’t worry about it.” You croaked out and offered a, what you hoped to be, a reassuring smile. You tried to swallow against the sandpapery walls of your throat.
You felt her soft but calloused hands cup your face as she looked at you. You winced as she prodded at the dark bruises on your jaw and forehead. She lead you to the kitchen where she started to clean the bruises and cuts up.
After several cups of water and an entire pizza, which you had devoured, she was now questioning you.
“So you are working for Baxter?” she asked, you gave her a quizzical look as you swallowed another bite of the second pizza that she had ordered. You had heard the slight tremor of fear in her voice and now it set you on edge.
“Yeah..” You answered slowly and pulled out your laptop. “He is funding my research. Take a look.”
You pushed the computer over and let her skim through the many pages of work as you dumbed down what she was reading.
“So... what you are saying is that you could put someone in a comatose state and do whatever you wanted to them but at the same time you can still talk to them in a spiritual state?” she summarized. With a soft smile you nodded, your eyes heavy from the long two days you had.
“However there are some side effects. With the trials that I ran at home it is extremely difficult to put them back in and more often than not their mind can completely erase one or multiple people from their memory. They will always remember the time they were, what I call, Ghost. There are still kinks in it but i'm pretty sure in this state there is a possibility to redirect this targeted amnesia to get rid of trauma.” You said excitedly.
She gave you a terrified look and excused herself and ran out the front door into the dim light of the dawn. You felt like you had been punched in the gut. Tears formed in your eyes and you fought down the urge to sob and throw up your food. You slammed the computer closed and stormed into the guest bedroom. You had honestly thought that she was going to be proud of you. She seemed genuinely excited about your research. But it was April, you shouldn’t have expected anything less from her.
A few weeks drifted by lazily and October was slipping through your fingertips. April was avoiding you, especially after you caught her in the act of trying to steal your laptop. So today, as a way to get away from the dreariness of the apartment and the fearful glances of April you were in the lab. You were in a loose hoodie and had a stack of pizza boxes next to you along with a large jug of water on your other side. You had just gotten done with another training session and were now working on a new test. it had gotten dark out and Rocksteady had volunteered for the new test.
You scraped your hand roughly through your hair in frustration as the program refused to start for the third time. You huffed in frustration, and looked up in alarm as the security alarms started to go off. You heard an explosion from behind you. Reaching down and grabbing your Bo you didn’t notice the jug being knocked over causing the computer to go haywire. You panicked as you tried to shut down the computer and the large machine pointed at whatever caused the explosion.
However you were too late to stop it from going off once you were able to press the emergency shut off just in time to prevent it from happening again. You heard a shout and roars from Rocksteady. you tried to reach for your more enhanced staff but were swiftly knocked out. All you saw as the world started to darken was green and a ghostly purple figure.
~~~~~~~~
That was a couple of days ago. You were now with 6 foot tall turtle ninjas. They had explained, with the help of April, what Baxter was going to do with your research. The person that you had shot was their brother Donatello. The genus out of the group who was allowing you to use his lab as you tried desperately to keep his body stable and fix his state with what little tools you had.
Your own paranoia had shot through the roof as any fast movement caused you to flinch very heavily. You and Donnie had found out that Baxter was injecting you with mutagen after a nightmare filled night caused wings to sprout from your back.
You stayed away from the other three turtles and only finding solace with Donatello. You both could ramble on and on about different projects you both were working on and the other would listen intently.
You hadn’t noticed how comfortable or how hard you had fallen until you reached the end stages of completing the ray that would make him right.
Neither of you two had noticed that you had started to flirt with each other. But everyone else knew and were eagerly waiting for him to return to normal. They were excited to see him finally kiss you and actually take you out on that date that he had been teasing you for a month with. April was happy to see you smiling again.
You didn’t realize how much you loved him or he you until you both were going over some of your note s to make sure everything was in order.
It was the end of November, just before thanksgiving. Donnie was excitedly telling you that he had been working on a surprise for you with Shelldon. That he wanted to give it you in person. And that he was excited to finally eat something instead of just watching everyone else eat. He was also rambling on how he was totally going to spar with you.
“i'm excited to finally get an infamous hug from you Don!” You chuckled barely paying attention to the notes and more on him. He laughed and he floated closer to you.
“I’m excited to give you one Angel.” he said cheekily. You glared lightly at him and the nickname that he gave you after your wings came to be.
You however stopped in your tracks as you read the small but major detail that you had mentioned to April all those weeks ago. The air ran from your lungs as a soft. “Oh.” escaped your lips.
“What?” he asked worried. He turned to the computer that had your notes on it and read through it and his face dropped. Tears welled in your eyes and the amount of hurt that ran through you was like that day that April ran.
And something inside of you knew, even as Donnie tried to think of anyone, anyone at all that he could possible forget, you knew it was going to be you. You stared at him tears running down your face and it was then you realized how hard you had fallen. And how much you will lose.
Two days before Thanksgiving was the day that was planned to fix him. You were in a room alone with his Ghost. You couldn’t look him in the eye.
“Here,” he said softly, and gestured for Shelldon to bring a small box forward. “This is for you... don’t open it until my eyes do.. ok?” He said leaning down and trying to catch your eye. You looked up at him, willing the tears back and smiled brightly.
“Will do Don! I will see you for that hug ok?” he smiles back softly and nods. He hovers his hand over your cheek, you lean into it until you feel the cool radiating off of him and you closed your eyes.
That unspoken ‘i love you’ rang through you head as you heard the machine wurr to life. You only stare at him as he floats by his sleeping body and you pray, you hope, and you plead to whatever god is listening. To allow you to have him, to allow him to remember you. As you slowly nod your head and you hear April press the button.
~~~~~~~
You try to stifle the sobs in your throat as you hear him and his brothers enjoy their thanksgiving meal that April and you had prepared for them. He didn’t recognize you as you sobbed in happiness when you saw his eyes open. He thought of you as a threat.
You carefully pulled out the small box as Shelldon floated beside you. You looked at him and he bobbed his head in acknowledgement. Slowly opening it you tried to steady your shaking hands. Inside was a locket, a bit larger than one you would find in a jewelry store. You carefully opened the locket and you saw a picture that you had taken with ghost Donnie and the music box version of your both favorite techno song. Engraved on the other half was the french translation of I love you. A loud sob ripped its way from your throat as you clutched it to your chest.
Donnie was leaning against the wall closest to where you had ran off too. He was watching his brothers laugh and eat with their father and April. He had heard sniffling from the tunnel and quietly escaped the celebration to see where it had came from. He was surprised to see you covering your mouth and Shelldon with you. He was going to call to his creation until you had looked at Shelldon and pulled out a velvet box.
He waited a moment, watching you open it and something inside. He had to nod his head to the song that played. He did not expect the loud sob or the wail that came out of you next. He heard his brothers stop laughing and heard a soft.
“They opened it...”
“Yeah...”
“Poor Y/N... I can’t imagine.”
“Why can’t we tell him my sons?’
“Because he wouldn’t believe us.”
“Yeah! And he already distrusts Y/N... and they asked us not too.”
“A broken heart is something that can kill my children. Especially with a love that deep.”
Donnie didn’t hear anymore from his family. And confusion seeped into him. What happened while he was out?
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“He’s ignorant!” you exclaim loudly.
“Ignorant,” Kelsey nods.
“He’s selfish!”
“Selfish,” she repeats, raising her wine glass towards you.
“He hogged the bed for years!”
“Bed hogger.”
“He always made me orgasm at least twice every single fucking time we had sex,” you sigh, resting your hands on the kitchen counter as you drop your shoulders down with a huff.
“Multiple orgasms,” comes the tipsy reply from Kelsey once more, “wait, what?”
“You heard.”
“Why the hell are you divorcing again?”
“Because… We’re not compatible. We’re on different pages; different bloody books to be honest.”
“Was that what you put on the papers?” Kelsey chuckles.
“No!” you laugh, “had to put it under ‘unreasonable behaviour’. I feel as if I wanted him to fight a little, but it’s all gone very smoothly, weirdly enough. I’ve got the decree nisi already… It’s a little unsettling seeing an actual date on which we can apply for the decree absolute and end it all for good.”
“When will that be?”
“The day after tomorrow,” you exhale with a sudden overwhelming feeling of regret.
How had it even got to this? Why did such a definitive end have to come for you both? Everything seemed to blur into a mess of arguments and unhappiness, but when you thought of the good times, boy were they good. They were great. So how had your relationship got so bad that this was the only way you both saw a resolution happening? Sure, there were differences between you both; him travelling the world for his job, you staying at home with a 9-5 that you enjoyed but wished you could have a break from to join Ben, but you both worked for it, and worked damn hard to make the marriage work.
“Are you seeing him before then?” Kelsey asks as she notices your expression turn downwards as you go through every little moment that lead to where you are now.
“Yeah,” you croak, barely able to talk now, “tomorrow afternoon.”
“Then I suggest that you tell him the whole truth about how you feel, because by the looks of it babe, you don’t want this to happen.”
“Well it’s not as if he’s argued with it either, so he obviously wants to go through with it.”
“I doubt that very much. Just talk to him.”
-
You’d barely got any sleep last night and coffee was the only thing helping you function like a semi-human being right now as you collected up the relevant paperwork ready to meet Ben at the flat he’d been renting since moving out. Today would be the day that you both sign one little piece of paper that said you wanted to end your marriage and send it off to the judge. There was such a finality to it that every time you thought about it, it took your breath away.
Walking up to his floor and heading towards the front door suddenly felt daunting, very unlike the times before when it was all business, no feeling; it was as if you’d done a complete turn around with your feelings, and it was as if the candle you’d still been holding for him had been dropped and all of a sudden there was a whole fire there again, just like when you’d first met.
“Hey,” he grins as he answers the door, “come in, come in.”
“How are you?” you ask as you place the papers down on the coffee table and take a seat on his couch.
“Good, good. Yeah. How are you?”
“Yeah, good,” you nod.
Things seemed a little awkward this time, and Ben quickly dashes off to make tea, knowing exactly how you liked yours.
“Listen,” he says as he sits down next to you with two steaming mugs, “we need to talk.”
“This sounds like what I said when this all started,” you chuckle nervously.
“Yeah,” he laughs back, “but this time I want to end it.”
“Well that is the point of me coming over today...”
“No, no, I mean end this,” he says, picking up the papers and shaking them in his hand.
“Oh,” you reply in shock, sitting there like a deer in headlights.
“We’ve gone too far, but not too far to turn back. Please, I’m begging you, just think about it,” he pleads, literally getting down on his knees next to you, “please.”
He moves the coffee table back to shuffle over in front of you, still on his knees, and as he maintains eye contact with you he gently pushes your legs apart so he can move closer in between them while lifting your long dress up as he goes.
“Ben...”
“I still love you,” he whispers as he ducks his head down and kisses the inside of your thigh, “so much,” he continues as he moves over to the other side.
You stay quiet, at a complete loss for words as his lips kiss their way further up your thigh until you can feel his breath through the cotton of your underwear.
“Ben...” you try once more.
“If you want me to stop, just say the word,” he teases, knowing there was no way you’d stop him now.
“Don’t… don’t stop,” you exhale as his fingers carefully move your underwear to one side.
“I’ve missed you such a lot,” he grins as he stares into the familiar warmth he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
His tongue reaches out and laps at your folds softly which makes you squirm on the sofa and reach out for something to hold onto as he explores deeper and pushes his wet tongue against your sensitive nub.
“Stop stop stop,” you pant, managing to sit up and face him.
“Is everything alright?” he asks with a light frown.
“Ben, I love you too,” you sigh, then bend down to kiss him deeply, eventually ending up on the floor with him.
He undoes his belt, shuffles his jeans and pants down as far as he can, then you manoeuvre yourself astride him after discarding your own underwear, and soon enough you’re riding him on the floor with your lips still locked together. It had been so long since you felt him move inside you and it was as if it were the first time all over again as you have to break the kiss with those sweet moans of his name he’d missed to much.
Ben rolls you both over, almost knocking the coffee table over at the same time, and you both let out a truly happy laugh at the bump he has before he gets straight back into making love to you as deeply and slowly as possible. His eyes never leave your face as your lips open with every thrust, and you slide your hands around to the back of his neck to bring him down for another kiss.
Your bodies turn slick with sweat under the remainder of the clothes you’re still wearing, your breathing is erratic as you both reach climax, and when you’re first to let go Ben forces his eyes open to see the beautiful reaction he’d spent far too long imagining in real life once more. He’s soon to follow as your walls tighten around his engorged length, the two of you a seemingly perfect fit for one another, and the two of you lay side by side once you’ve ridden out every last twitch of arousal, the hardness of the floor beneath you not even registering as you get your breath back.
“So what now?” you whisper as his hand finds yours and he grabs it tightly.
“I’ve got a shredder...” he suggests, turning his head to face you with a smile.
“Sounds good to me,” you grin as you mirror his action.
may i have an oneshot with ben about him and reader getting divorced and they still have feelings for each other so they have sex the night before they have to go to the court house? Ty !
@peachllobotomy @lv7867 @aynsleywalker @captainxholmes @pink-lemo @painthatiusedto @n3shama @itisjustmethistime @mamaskillerqueen @luvborhap @queenslandlover-93 @tenement-funstah @rogmeddows
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i’ll walk through hell with you
chapter 6. i’ll be your arms, i’ll be your steady satellite
read on ao3
read earlier chapters
The Santiago Siblings with families spend a weekend together, Amy’s feeling weird, and Jake’s getting suspicious.
september.
Amy throws out the ovulation tests first. Then, most of the pregnancy tests.
She keeps a few, in case of emergencies, but she hides them so far inside their bathroom cabinet, buried underneath boxes of band-aids and disinfectant wipes, she tells herself it’s the same thing.
She also throws out the vitamin supplements and the gross herbal teas, and puts the cherished pages of the fertility binder through her paper shredder while Jake shakes his head at her.
“You’re being crazy,” he states when she empties the paper confetti in the trash, immediately tying the bag shut and placing it by the door.
“Nope,” she responds. “I’m finally being sane.”
She stops doing yoga, not that she got into a habit with it in the first place. She goes back to her usual diet and coffee habits. She deletes every fertility-related bookmark off of her computer and unfollows all the Instagram accounts she once tried to find support in. There’s a smidge of panic and hard-hitting grief the first few times she sees a pregnant person somewhere, a harsh pain that comes with knowing for certain she’ll never experience it again, but most of all, Amy feels free. As heartrending as the knowledge is, she’d take it over uncertainty any day of the week.
Her days of the week are moving quickly, too. It's like the moment she stopped being consumed by this, the rest of her life caught up with her, and now it’s speeding past. Leah starts her first Tiny Tots preschool class, and her parents cry for a good ten minutes after dropping her off the first time because their baby is growing up and it’s all moving too fast. They start doing proper research on allergy-friendly cats and even schedule a visit at a cattery. Work speeds up and she has to work overtime for more days in a row than she's done since having a kid, making her fear their apartment will fall into pieces and her daughter forget who she is, but she comes home each night to dinner on the table and Leah in pajamas begging her to read a bedtime story. She makes sure to thoroughly thank her husband, especially the night when there’s a takeout box with potato pancakes waiting for her, and promises him a proper reward once the weekend rolls around.
“Cool, cool,” he mumbles half-asleep as he makes himself the little spoon in bed. “Also, while we’re on the topic, those potato pancakes definitely weren’t because Leah and I had ice cream for dinner. In case you were thinking that.”
“Jake.”
“Mm. Goodnight, babe.”
Even without the fertility treatments, her free time between work and family life remains strictly limited, but she does manage to squeeze in something much needed. Every other Thursday night at eight o’clock sharp, Amy finds herself outside the door to Rosa’s apartment, and every night Rosa cuts right to the chase.
“You’re not pregnant?”
“Nope.”
“Not taking any fertility medication?”
“Stopped them all.”
“Take a shot, Santiago.”
She’s decided not to tell more people about her experiences, doesn’t see the point when all she wants is to forget, but every other Thursday night, she vents. Rosa lets her speak, sometimes offering commentary but mostly just nodding, and Amy’s pleasantly surprised to discover it helps.
She’s not alone, and most importantly, she’s going to be okay again.
~
october.
As the end of October arrives, it becomes time for the weekend with all the Santiago siblings and their families renting a cabin upstate. Tony calls it a tradition even though it's the first time they're doing it, but when Amy points this out, he simply shrugs and says it's important to have goals in life.
At first, she's skeptical about it - spending four days in a cabin with fifteen adults, thirteen kids and one dog feels like a polar opposite to the relaxed family time she craves - but it's been forever since she saw them all and she supposes she could use some time away from Brooklyn’s buzzing city life, so they decide to go. She nearly regrets it after three hours in the car with the Frozen-soundtrack on repeat, but then they reach their destination, and all is forgiven when Leah runs to hug all her cousins.
Friday morning, they arrange a big leaf fight in the yard. At first, it's kids against adults, but as more and more children drop out, it becomes Santiago siblings against partners, and as more and more adults drop out too, eventually it's just Amy and Julian against Jake. The fight lasts until Jake starts complaining about there being leaves in his ear. At that point, Amy's laughing so hard her stomach hurts.
“Loser does all the dishes after lunch,” Julian grins, and Jake looks like he's about to cry.
Amy checks in on him after ten minutes. His shirt is wet from the soapy water and she can see the terror in his eyes as he looks to the mountain of dirty plates, glasses, and cutlery, but he’s scrubbing hard at them one by one with furious determination.
“Need any help, babe?” She sneaks her arms around him from behind, pressing a kiss to his neck and pulling out a small twig that’s still stuck in the back of his hair.
“Desperately,” he groans, wiping his hands on his jeans and facing her. “But I have to prove my strength to your brothers.”
“Actually, I’m pretty sure Julian just wanted a reason to see you in a wet t-shirt.”
“He could have just asked.”
Amy laughs, shaking her head. “I’ll help you out.”
He squints. “Are you sure? You look kind of... tired.”
She raises an eyebrow.
“Not like that,” he says, rolling his eyes. “But you look a little - I don’t know - pale? Did you not have coffee this morning?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t finish it. Creamer tasted weird.” He opens his mouth to say something, but she shuts him up with a glare. “I’m fine. Come on, I’ll help you finish these.”
-
They manage to get done right on time for a family walk in the woods. Leah makes it about a quarter of a mile before she starts complaining, so Jake carries her on his shoulders, which results in immediate chaos and tears from David’s twins when they demand the same and David can’t carry them both. Amy helps her brother by carrying Samuel on her shoulders, but the kid must have dog hair on his clothes from playing with Julian's dog, because her nose gets stuffy after only a minute. If it weren’t for the animal being straight-up adorable, or for Leah's excitement when Julian asks her if she wants to hold Oscar’s leash for a minute, Amy swears she would be yelling at this dog, too.
The stuffy nose lasts for the entire afternoon, and she curses the fact that she forgot her allergy nasal sprays at home. Luckily, she’s surrounded by plenty of good distractions, and the afternoon disappears in a jumble of trying to keep different children from hurting themselves or others while also trying to make sure they’re happy, and if she’s not watching any kids, she’s trying to keep up with what feels like a billion different conversations going on at the same time. It’s enough to make anyone exhausted. She tries to have another cup of coffee, black this time to avoid the probably-bad creamer, but she only gets down a few sips before her throat goes all dry and she has to breathe real hard for the nausea to pass. She pours out the rest in the kitchen sink.
Despite her tiredness and stuffy nose and sudden coffee aversion, Amy has a lovely day. When afternoon becomes evening, everyone who isn’t cooking dinner makes their way down to the nearby lake to watch the sunset. Leah’s in Jake’s arms with her head on his shoulder, looking all cozy in her purple fluffy hoodie as she sings the lyrics to Moana in the wrong order, and Amy can’t fight the urge to kiss her sweet little face until Leah grimaces and says stop, mama, hiding her face in Jake’s shirt as he laughs.
They’re her favorite sight in the world - the love of her life, and the child who’s held Amy’s whole heart in her hands since the first time she waved to them on an ultrasound screen over three years ago. Jake whispers something to Leah that Amy can’t hear, the girl giggles, and her heart aches with how much she loves them. She may never get the kids-plural family she pictured in her younger days, but she gets this, and it’s better than anything she could have imagined.
-
When all the kids have gone to bed - save for seven-month-old Charlie, who’s wide awake and happy to get passed around between different pairs of arms - the adults gather in the living room for a chance at uninterrupted conversation and a glass of wine. Amy finds space in the corner of a couch, with Jake on her left and Tony’s wife Clara in an armchair on her right, and gratefully accepts the glass of red wine Lucas gives her. She takes a sip, first enjoying the taste, but the second sip tastes off and the third is awful. She tries to hide her grimace as she puts it down on the side table and asks for a glass of water instead.
She's not really listening to the conversation, zoning out and just enjoying the comfort of Jake's arm around her shoulders, but Clara nudging her arm gets her attention.
“Do you want to hold Charlie for a while, Amy?”
“I’d love to,” she says, and the next second there's a baby in her arms who's shooting her the brightest of toothless smiles and reaching for her necklace. Charlie’s chubby fingers try to grab the L and J-pendants, so she gently separates his hands from them and he starts playing with a sling of her hair instead.
“Oh, you're strong,” she laughs as he grips it. “Wow.”
“Tell me about it,” Clara laughs. “Sometimes he’s lucky he’s cute.”
Amy smiles. The baby is already snuggling his head into her chest, making himself comfortable. He's truly adorable with round cheeks and light-ginger hair, melting her heart as he grips onto her shirt.
She's missed this. Still, it’s less painful now that she knows - she might never have more babies of her own, but she’ll always have plenty of nephews and nieces to hold, cuddle and play with.
“You're adorable,” she whispers to Charlie with a kiss to his forehead. “Yes, you are.”
“Hey, Amy?” David catches her attention from the opposite couch. “Aren't you guys going to have more kids?”
She can feel Jake freeze next to her.
“We’ve thought of it,” she says calmly. “But we landed on one kid. We’re happy with that.”
Jake squeezes her shoulder.
“Really? Huh.” David nods in surprise. “Don’t you want more kids, Jake?”
“It's not my decision to make,” he shrugs, like it was an obvious fact. “I'm just hoping we can get a cat soon.”
Charlie falls asleep in Amy's arms, staying there even as people begin to drop out and head to bed. She gives him back to Tony when it’s time for a diaper change, closing her eyes and leaning against Jake's chest once her arms are free again.
“You okay, Ames?”
“Yeah,” she promises. “Just sleepy.”
“You didn't drink anything,” he notes, nodding to her untouched glass.
“Did you try the wine?” He nods. “I hated it. I think Julian has crappy taste in alcohol.”
Jake shrugs. “It tasted fine to me. Maybe your taste buds are being weird.”
“Or I have better taste than you.” She kisses him on the cheek. “Let's go to bed, babe.”
-
She’s barely closed her eyes before Leah climbs into their bed, full of energy as she makes space between her parents.
“I wanna go outside and play,” she insists, and when this doesn’t garner enough of a response, she frowns. “It’s morning!”
Amy reluctantly opens her eyes to reach for her phone, reading the time. “Half-past seven.” Weird. They went to bed at one a.m. and Leah’s slept through the night, yet it feels like she was woken up after ten minutes.
“Hey, I have an idea,” says Jake, pulling his daughter close and tickling her neck. “How about we play in here for a while? I have a great idea for something.”
“What?”
“Well, you see, bumblebee, you’re a super brave space pirate. This bed is your spaceship, and mama and I are your innocent, weak humans that you’ve captured.” He yawns. “The rules are that we have to lay still. If we move, we’ll fall out into space and, uh, die.”
“Okay! Dada, still!”
“I love this game,” Amy mumbles, pulling the covers closer around herself.
The spaceship game lasts a full ten minutes before Leah tires, deciding that her parents are too boring captives for her taste and starting a new game that circles around her trying to jump from the bed onto her mattress in increasingly creative and less-than-safe ways. Jake defuses the situation before she tries to do a backflip, suggesting that they get out of bed and see if any other cousins are up yet, and Amy tries to open her eyes again. It’s painful - her body screams for more sleep, and she channels this into the pleading look she gives Jake.
“Can I get another half hour? I feel like I’m going to collapse if I get up now.”
“Huh.” A line appears between his brows. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
“Yeah,” she yawns. “I just need thirty minutes, like I said.”
“Okay, I’ll wake you up when there’s breakfast - Lee, wait!”
He disappears out the door chasing after their daughter, and Amy sighs in relief as she lets her eyes fall closed again.
It still feels like no time has passed before Jake comes to tell her the thirty minutes are up, but she forces herself to get out of bed anyway. They have a long day ahead of them, and Amy’s not risking getting teased by her brothers for wanting to sleep in. Instead, she throws on a hoodie to hide the fact that she’s freezing, and pours herself a big cup of coffee at the breakfast table. She manages four sips before it threatens to come back up again. Luckily, one-year-old Milo chooses that exact moment to almost choke on his piece of toast, and no one except for Jake seems to notice the gagging expression on her face as she tries to swallow everything back down.
She must be getting the flu, or maybe she’s picked up some other bug from her daughter. She’s cold, a little dizzy, and the stuffy nose refuses to pass even though she keeps away from the dog. They go to play in the woods while the sun is still shining, and Amy’s enjoying herself as she watches Jake run with Leah in his arms towards a tree, touch her feet against the wood and yell Parkour! only to make the girl lose it with laughter every time, but she’s so tired when they get home, she’s barely sat down in an armchair before she’s nodded off again.
“Hey, Ames.” Jake’s firm hand on her shoulder makes her return to consciousness. His mouth is set in a hard line, and there’s a seriousness to the way he watches her that reminds her of the way he gets whenever she’s really sick, all worried and overly protective like he thinks she’ll instantly drop to the floor if he’s not right there. “Can we talk in private?.”
She nods, following him back to their bedroom where he closes the door. He sits down cross-legged on Leah's mattress, and she takes her chance to lay down on the bed, propping her head up with two pillows. “Okay. What’s up?”
He gives her a scrutinizing look. “Are you sure you’re just tired?”
“I mean, I feel a little off, I’m sort of dizzy and my allergies are annoying.” She sniffles. “Probably coming down with some bug. Why?”
“Your immune system is way better than mine, though. I’m always the first one to get sick after Leah and I’m fine. I don’t even think she’s been ill in weeks. Isn’t it weird that you’re the only one feeling sick?”
Amy shrugs. “Exception that proves the rule?”
“Yeah, or you’re not sick.”
“What do you mean?”
“Ames,” he says in a low voice, his tone slightly hesitant. “You don’t think there’s a chance you might be - I don’t know, pregnant?”
“Come on. How would that have happened?”
“Uh -”
She rolls her eyes. “Sure, but I think we established my body didn’t want it to happen for us again.”
“Maybe, but face the facts. You’re exhausted, your taste buds are funny, and you were like, seconds away from throwing up your coffee this morning. You’re cold, you’re dizzy…” He counts on his fingers as he lists the symptoms. “It sounds a lot to me like before we found out you were pregnant with Leah?”
“Or it sounds like it's been a couple of intense months, my body's fighting an infection and I’m getting ill once I'm relaxing.”
“Have you gotten your period this month?”
She glares at him. “Stop.”
“Well, have you?”
She sighs and pulls out her phone from her pocket, opening it to her period tracker. Current Cycle - day 33. “It's a few days late.”
Jake’s eyes go wide.
“No.” She shakes her head before he can say anything. “Nope. That doesn't mean anything. My cycle got screwed up after the treatments and they said it could take months to return to normal.”
“Yeah, but…”
“No. Seriously. We both know I’m not pregnant.”
He squints. “We do?”
“Yes. And I can’t let myself think about it, Jake, because if I do…” She bites her lip at the crystal-clear memories of ovulation strips, shots and negative pregnancy tests, of feeling betrayed by her own body time and time again. “I’ll start to go crazy. I just got away from that obsessive headspace. I can’t go there again, I can’t have another negative staring me in the face, I just… can’t.”
He nods slowly, gaze still full of worry as he sits down next to her. “Okay. I just thought I’d ask.” His hands rub soft circles on her neck to ease the tension there, his lips brushing against hers for a few seconds. “Love you.”
“Love you too.” She sighs. “God, I need another nap.”
“I’ll make an excuse for you,” he says, and she swears she’s never been more in love with him in her entire life.
-
Jake doesn’t bring it up again, and Amy’s grateful. It's not that she doesn't wish for his suspicions to be true - her falling pregnant naturally would be a miracle - but she can't let herself think about it, let alone hope. She spent a year hoping and it led nowhere. This isn't the first time she's imagined symptoms that turned out to be nothing. If she lets herself have hope another time, only to be faced by cruel disappointment, she's certain she's going to shatter.
The weather changes from gorgeous sunshine to heavy rainfall, effectively locking every present Santiago family member inside of the cabin and creating yet more chaos. Luis and Christian organize a game night for the kids, first consisting of child-friendly memory-games and puzzles, but as more and more kids go to bed, eventually the adults drag out Monopoly and get drunk. They also get insanely competitive. When Simon starts threatening Tony about having him do another challenge for his YouTube channel, and Tony threatens to wrestle Simon right there on the floor, the game is quickly changed to Cards Against Humanity which soon becomes a dangerous game of Never Have I Ever. Amy opts for alcohol-free wine, and it’s probably lucky, because her brothers are ruthless. Never have I ever had a catastrophic double date - drink. Never have I ever made out with someone at work - drink. Never have I ever accidentally startled a man with a genetic heart condition, resulting in his immediate death - drink, remind Julian he’s an asshole, and come up with a good revenge question. She’s relieved they go to bed before anyone can suggest a game of truth or dare.
The next day, she's feeling much better, and manages almost half a cup of coffee without nausea. She must've been right about it being some kind of infection, she thinks, pleased that it seems to be passing.
The weather isn't improving, so she teams up with a few of her brothers and their families to go to a nearby, kid-friendly, museum while Jake, Julian, and Simon visit a sneaker outlet. Leah finds an activity station and plays there for nearly fifteen minutes with her cousins before breaking down in tears when someone takes a crayon from her, and after it’s been another ten minutes of crying, Amy eventually chalks the child’s sudden fury down to low blood sugar. She ruffles through her bag for a snack and finds an unopened bag of dried mango, and two slices later, Leah is back to normal. Amy also finds an unopened tampon package, giving her a nudging reminder that her period’s still nowhere to be seen, but she shakes away the thought. Had this been a couple of months ago, she would've been rushing to take a test, and she gives herself a mental pat on the back for acting so calm about it now. She knows this means nothing and she's not stressing out. There’s this tingling, cramping, feeling low in her stomach anyway, aching for a moment before immediately fading. Surely that must mean her period is coming.
They go to bed early on their last night away, ready for the drive home the next day. Leah wakes up crying about a nightmare, so Amy ends up sleeping next to her in their bed with Leah's little legs curled against Amy's stomach and her hand gripping her wrist. As far as sleeping positions go, she could think of far more comfortable or ergonomic ones, but there's no denying the coziness of it. Leah snuggles her nose into the crook of Amy's neck, and Amy falls asleep just smelling her head, and if she’d ever been asked to describe the word peaceful with one situation, she would have chosen this.
-
At first, she thinks she's dreaming about a real past event. She's back in the bedroom of their apartment, with Jake sleeping on her right and Leah asleep in her room, but Amy's awake. She can't tell why, isn't fully aware of the narrative here, but she can tell that dream-Amy has an instinct. Something is causing her to get out of bed, walk towards their bathroom and grab a pregnancy test - one of the cheap paper strip ones - from a visible spot in the bathroom cabinet. Something is making her take it. Dream-Amy watches the test, sitting perched on the toilet and staring intently at the first line, and after what feels like the blink of an eye inside of her dream-reality, a second, faint but clear, line shows up.
Even though it's a dream, the explosive happiness is every bit as real as if she'd been awake. She takes the paper strip, wrapping it in a bit of toilet paper, and is about to go ask dream-Jake if he can see it too when she’s pulled out of the dream and back to reality.
“What the hell,” she mumbles as she opens her eyes. Jake and Leah are still sleeping, and it's every bit as dark outside as when they went to bed, but Amy's wide awake and officially weirded out. She's never been one for dream analysis or seeing them as omens of any kind, but something about the realistic feeling has caught her attention, leaving her confused and wondering if there’s any truth to it. She tries to repeat to herself that there isn’t, she isn’t pregnant and should go back to sleep, but her mind is reeling. She tries to do some breathing exercises to force her mind and body back to a relaxed state, but it’s out of reach. The what if-narrative plays on repeat in her head, and eventually, she accepts that she’s going to need to at least outrule the possibility. She’s pretty sure there’s a spare test left somewhere in her bag.
Carefully, she frees herself from the three-year-old’s grip and climbs over Jake instead. He grunts and opens his eyes for a second, but closes them again in the next.
Amy uses her phone’s flashlight to dig through the contents of her bag, finding her calendar, pencil case, notebooks, and a crossword magazine. Headphones, painkillers, an extra phone charger. More snack bars and packets of dried fruit. Wet wipes, tissues, hair ties, and some makeup. She moves on to the inner pocket, finding allergy medication, tampons, even an expired condom that seems to have nestled its way into the bottom of the bag and stayed there for years, but no spare pregnancy tests. She almost thinks she’s found one, but a closer look tells her it’s an ovulation indicator, and she groans with disappointment. She could have sworn she left one for emergencies, but suddenly it’s gone, and she could wait until tomorrow and buy one, but she wants - scratch that, she needs - to know now.
“Ames? Are you looking for something?” Jake’s voice is raspy, a mix of surprise and pure confusion in his tone, and she hums vaguely without looking back at him.
“I thought I had something in here,” she says in a whisper. “But I can’t find it. It’s nothing, you can go back to sleep.”
“What’re you tryna find?”
She sighs. “I had a weird dream, okay? So I want to take a pregnancy test, because I just need to know it wasn't real so I can go to sleep. I thought I had one in here, but I don’t, so…”
He yawns, and then, in a movement far swifter than she would expect from someone barely-awake, he gets out of bed and walks over to the plastic bag he brought home from the sneaker outlet.
“Jake, I’m sorry, but I don’t care about your sneakers right now,” she wheezes. He shakes his head and brings out another, smaller CVS plastic bag.
“I know,” he says, “but you might care about this.” He throws her a familiar, pink-and-white carton, and she’s not even caught it before she knows exactly what it is.
“You bought a pregnancy test.”
He nods.
“What - when - why?”
“There was a CVS close to the outlet, I told Julian and Simon I needed to buy some Aspirin, ran in and got this. They didn’t see it,” he assures her, noticing the worry on her face. “I was smooth. And as for why - I know you said you didn’t want to hope, but I thought in case you changed your mind and wanted to know, well... “ He shrugs. “It would suck if you were stuck here with no way of finding out, even if it was just another day. I know how much you hate not knowing.”
She twists the carton in her hands. “I really do hate it.”
“So, are you…”
“I’m going to take it. Now.”
“Now - now?”
“Now.”
There’s a beat of silence, and then they’re silently racing each other out the door.
Amy’s so used to the steps at this point, she doesn’t even feel the anxiety kick in until she places the test on the sink and nods at Jake to start the timer. There’s barely space for them both to sit on the floor of the tiny bathroom, so they’re squeezed together, him stroking her hair and holding her hand as she focuses on keeping her breathing steady.
It doesn't matter what it shows, she tries to tell herself without success. It’s just to check.
And yet, there's this odd sense of hope in her heart she doesn't recognize from the last months.
“How did you guess?” She asks Jake, and he wrinkles his forehead, so she clarifies. “You remembered all the symptoms.”
“Oh.” He blushes. “This is going to sound bad, but… do you remember before we found out you were pregnant with Lee? There was like a week before you took a test, where you kept complaining about how it felt like you were getting the flu, or some kind of infection, because you were feeling off.” He draws quotation marks with his fingers. “You kept repeating that. And I was so proud of myself, because I'm always the first one of us two to get sick, but I was feeling fine. I thought I’d finally get to brag, and I was so excited, but then we found out you weren't sick.”
“Just pregnant.”
“Yeah.” He smiles. “Which, of course, was so much better. Except I never got to brag. It's haunted me since then. So this time, when you said you were feeling off and like you were getting sick… I remembered, and I made a guess. Also, I’ve read the list in your binder. But honestly, it was mostly the first thing.”
Amy laughs, genuine and hearty despite her nervosity. “You're ridiculous.”
He puts his arm around her shoulders. “And yet you keep wanting to have kids with me.”
“It’s like I must be in love with you or something.”
Her comment makes him snicker, and she thinks, not for the first time, that there could never be another person she'd want to do this with - no matter the results on that test.
The timer rings. Jake turns it off.
“Do you want to check, or should I?”
“I don't think I can see another negative test,” she whispers, the fear making her heart beat out of her chest, and he nods and tells her to close her eyes. She hears him fumble for the test, and then he finds it, and there’s a moment’s silence that drives her crazy.
“Ames?”
“Yeah?”
“What’d you say two lines meant, now again?”
She opens her eyes, immediately snatching the test from his hands. “No way.”
It’s faint, but there’s an obvious second line.
Amy just stares at it. She's worried it’ll disappear, like her mind’s playing tricks on her, but it stays.
“This is crazy.” Tears of happiness flood her eyes once she speaks. “This is - this is absolutely insane.”
“Told you so,” says Jake in an attempt of sounding smug, but she can tell he’s about to tear up, too.
“This is positive.”
“Sure is.”
“Oh my god.” She can’t tell if she’s laughing or crying, but she’s shaking, unable to believe her eyes as she looks from the test to Jake and back at the test. “Oh my god, you’re going to brag about this forever.”
He grins. “Consider the fact that I won’t to be a testament to how much I love you.”
She’s too overwhelmed to know what to say, so she just hugs him, smiling into his chest as he peppers kisses to the top of her head.
“Hey, Ames?”
“What?”
“We’re having another baby.”
She’s spent a year wishing for it, getting used to the thought in her desperation to get there, yet his words are impossible to take in. Another baby.
“Seems that way,” she whispers, and he laughs.
There’s a second test in the carton, and Amy wants to take it right away, but Jake convinces her to save it for tomorrow so they can go back to bed before anyone notices they’ve been occupying this bathroom for a suspicious amount of time.
She doesn’t think she’ll be able to sleep, not when a thousand thoughts are running laps in her head and she’s so in shock she thinks she might still be dreaming, but then Jake’s hand sneaks under the hem of her t-shirt and rests low on her stomach to make sure they're warm, he mumbles, and she places her own hand over his and relaxes.
~
november.
Logically, Amy knows she’s pregnant.
All of the tests, a new one every day even though Jake tells her she’s being crazy again, are coming back two dark lines and plus signs and bolded words Pregnant, and the expensive test with the week indicator which shows how long it’s been since ovulation changes from 1-2 to 2-3 and 3+ Weeks. The fertility clinic gives her a blood test, confirms it’s a healthy pregnancy and schedules an early ultrasound two weeks later, which feels like an eternity. Time is moving excruciatingly slow, even slower when the nausea fully kicks in and she wants to spend as much of the day as possible laying down. She’s secretly happy she’s feeling terrible because that means the hormone levels are rising, and Jake insists on high-fiving her after the first time she throws up, but it does make the days feel even longer when all she wants is for them to pass.
Emotionally, the knowledge is much more difficult to wrap her head around. She’s terrified, analyzing every minuscule shift in her body in fear of there being something wrong and checking for blood in her underwear several times a day. She’s short on distractions, because she’s exhausted and moving too much makes her feel sick, so she’s mostly stuck on the couch after work watching movies and cuddling with Leah. They're not telling her yet - they're not telling anyone, except Rosa who figured it out soon as Amy declined a tequila shot - and Amy feels like a shitty parent who doesn't have the energy to run around and properly play with her kid right now, but Leah seems to get that her mom’s not feeling well, because she's more than happy to read books together and watch iPad until Jake comes home and takes her to the park for a bit.
She wants to be happy, and every time she adds another positive test to the growing collection, she is, but she’s also dreaming nightmares and waking up in cold sweats in fear that this will be taken away from them. It’s too good to be true, the kind of happy ending you read about but never experience, and she can’t for the life of her try to fathom that it’s real. In short, she’s so hormonal she cries at stubbing her toe in the doorway, so nauseous she has to force down the few things she can consider eating, feeling guilty over how little energy she has to give Leah and how much responsibility this puts on Jake, and she can’t even allow herself to trust that they are having another baby.
“This isn’t forever,” Jake tells her on a particularly exhausting evening after she's cried in his arms and eaten three lemon popsicles because they're the only thing that tastes remotely good. When she's cried a little more, about her fear and bad conscience and the deep shame in not being able to feel happy about something she's dreamt of for a year, he tells her, “just three more days until the scan,” and that does help.
-
Amy doesn’t want to exaggerate, but she’s pretty sure the hours between six a.m., when Leah wakes up, and nine a.m., when the ultrasound appointment is, are the longest three hours of her life. Mornings are enough of a struggle to get through with a stubborn three-year-old who’ll put up a fight about anything from clothes to breakfast to brushing her teeth if she’s in the wrong mood, and they’re not made any easier when Amy’s feeling like this, but it’s moving particularly slow today when nearly all of her focus is divided between worrying about the scan and trying to keep her breakfast down. In the end, Leah doesn’t brush her teeth this morning and she has a yogurt smoothie in the car, but they manage to drop her off in time and she gives them a long hug each, so Amy considers it a success.
Unfortunately, it’s a temporary one. She’s so nervous she can’t think straight, can’t focus on the Taylor Swift-tunes playing in the car or reply when Jake asks if she’s excited. Her head is playing possible nightmare scenarios on a loop, of there not being anything there, of them not seeing a heartbeat, or something else that will leave them no choice but to terminate the pregnancy. Taylor Swift sings something about cloaks and daggers and bright mornings, and Amy tries to see if she can memorize the lyrics for a distraction. She doesn’t get far before they get stuck in a traffic jam, though, giving them no option but to drive a few feet at a time, accelerating and braking on repeat.
She knows that Jake tries to drive as smoothly as possible. He’s a good driver. She doesn’t have a problem with his driving, but the constant starting and stopping, the inevitable jerking movements, is absolute hell for her morning slash all-day sickness and suddenly all her focus has shifted to trying not to throw up in a moving car.
“I’m really sorry, Ames,” says Jake after casting one glance at her pale complexion, and she doesn’t dare to move her head but she mumbles a ‘not your fault’ before she goes back to taking deep breaths.
She makes it through the congestion, and the nausea’s easing as they drive the last stretch to the clinic, but then there’s a slight bump as they drive into the parking lot and the fight is lost. She stumbles out of the car in search of a trash can, but it’s too far away. Instead, she has to publicly humiliate herself by throwing up right there on the curb just as another couple is walking out of the clinic and giving her what she assumes are grossed-out looks. She feels Jake’s hands on her shoulders as she coughs up the last bit, grimacing at the foul taste.
“Everyone’s going to think I’m hungover,” she mutters as he leads her to a spot further away, urging her to sit down.
“Oh yeah. That’s definitely what they think about all the women who puke outside of fertility clinics.”
His comment makes her laugh, but the laughter makes her feel sick again, so she stops.
“You okay?” He asks, carefully scratching her neck with one hand as he digs in his messenger bag with the other. “I have water if you want to rinse your mouth, and I’m pretty sure I have gum somewhere.”
“I’ll take water,” she says, accepting the green kid-size bottle that was definitely originally Leah’s and taking a cautious sip. “Sorry about this.”
“You’re sorry?” He lifts an eyebrow. “Damn, queen of unnecessary apologies. It’s okay.”
“I feel like crap,” she groans, ignoring him. “Sorry for whining.” “Okay there, ridiculous. Stop apologizing. It’s not something you can control.”
“But I don’t want to whine about this,” it comes out of her before she can stop it. “I don’t want to be sad, or scared. We fought so damn hard to get here! It fucking sucked! And now - I guess we’re having a baby, but I don’t know how to believe that, and I have to deal with the fact that pregnancy sucks, too!” She shakes her head, instantly regretting the quick movement but continuing to speak anyway. “I just want to be happy, and grateful, and I am. But I’m terrified. I can’t trust that it’s really happening, that it won’t be taken away from us again, and on top of that I feel awful all the time. I just… thought it’d be different.”
Jake looks a little taken aback by her sudden outburst, opening his mouth before closing it and watching her with that same worried look she’s seen way too much during the last weeks.
“It will be,” he promises once she stops talking. “You’ve done this before. You know it gets better. You get a baby out of it, which - there are worse deals.”
“Yeah. But it feels so far away. It doesn’t feel remotely real. I wanted us to be happy now, to relax and enjoy this, but it feels like everything sucks.”
“Isn’t that just life sometimes, though? It sucks, and then there are awesome parts, and then it sucks again, and then there’s more awesome stuff.” He grimaces, looking down at the curb before meeting her eyes. “I know you feel like crap. I know you’re scared. Honestly, so am I. But we’re about to see our baby for the first time,” he smiles, “and that’s at least one of the crazy awesome parts.”
She nods. “It is.”
“Yeah.” He reaches for her hand, squeezing it. “I just think that… there’s always going to be shitty things, right? Sure, this year was rough, and I wouldn’t want to do it again, but we also had a million amazing moments with Leah, and together, in-between the bad parts. When this baby comes,” he nods to her still-flat stomach, “we probably won’t be sleeping and everything will be nuts for a while before we figure it out, but we’re going to have two kids and it’s going to be the best.”
“I know.”
“I’m going to tell you something I heard from a very smart person once,” he grins, looking proud of himself. “Life is unpredictable, but as long as you’re with the right people, you can handle anything.”
“That person sounds smart. Did they also make a butt joke after that?”
“Sure did. Made me cry, and everything. But what I was actually trying to say was…” Jake blushes, and she can tell there’s a moment of emotional sincerity coming. “I’m with you. I know that. I also know that as long as I’m with you, all the bad stuff is survivable, and all the good stuff is a million times better. And I’d rather have hard days with you, and Lee, and I guess soon whoever this is,” he holds his hand to her stomach through her sweater, “than good days with anyone else.”
“Me too,” she snivels, having to wipe the tears on her shirt sleeve because of course, this is making her cry. “How’d you get so wise all of a sudden?”
“Married you,” he shrugs. “And had kids. Also, I got hella old.”
“You’re forty-two.”
“Exactly. Shh.”
Amy laughs, with tears in her eyes because he’s hitting that perfect spot between wisdom and humor that’s one of the many reasons she loves him so much, and the smile on his lips grows wider once he sees that he’s made her laugh.
“I love you so much,” she whispers, cupping his face with her hands.
“I know. Love you, too.” She kisses him, and he kisses her back for a second before immediately pulling away and scrunching his nose. “Okay, ew, no. Vomity breath. Gross.”
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to apologize,” she teases. “But I’ll take that gum too.”
“Let’s just go inside and look at our baby,” he says as he hands her the packet, and she doesn’t protest.
There are some routine questions and another blood test, and then they’re ushered into the ultrasound room. She’s nearly holding her breath as she lays down, eyes glued to the screen and Jake’s hand squeezing hers so tight she thinks he might stop the blood flow if he squeezed any harder.
At first, she’s scared she was right and there’s nothing in there, because everything is blurry and she’s not sure what’s what, but then it clears slightly and the ultrasound technician points out a white blob the shape of a lima bean, and there are tears of relief running down her cheeks.
The technician says and here’s the heartbeat, and Amy has to clasp a hand over her mouth to keep from crying harder than she already is when a whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh sounds through the room in quick little beats.
She could listen to that sound forever.
They get printed sonogram pictures of their fetus, which is slightly over an inch and just looks like a white blob but is well and truly perfect according to their doctor, and then they’re advised to go home and celebrate. They both have to stop crying first, though, so they stand outside the clinic for another while, just hugging without needing to say anything else.
“So,” Jake says when Amy’s finally found space to breathe again. “How do you want to celebrate?”
“Do you want to go to Target and look for another shirt that says Big Sister and some stupid cute tiny clothes?”
“Oh, you know I do.”
They get a long-sleeved pink shirt for Leah, six pairs of baby socks with animals on them and tiny pajamas with rainbow stripes, and then they buy alcohol-free champagne.
~
#my writing#b99#brooklyn 99#brooklyn nine-nine#peraltiago#jake x amy#b99 fic#brooklyn 99 fic#brooklyn nine-nine fic#b99 fanfiction#brooklyn nine-nine fanfiction#jake x amy fic#jake x amy fanfiction#peraltiago fic#peraltiago fanfiction#iwthwy
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Oh sweet! Had a huge crush on 2012 karai too she was awesome :P also the brief time when she hung out with splinter and the turtles and there was a moment when mikey called her their sister during battle i think, that made me so soft 🥺 tbh she and Leo's relationship weirded me out bc they're adopted siblings obvs they didn't know but the writers did, not a big fan of their decision. can u rate the tmnt reincarnations next? like in general, i want to catch up with tmnt but idk where to start :)
I think everyone who watched tmnt 2012 had a gay awakening when Karai appeared
I love those episodes where she bonds with the turtles and Splinter. One time, when Mikey hummed the theme song, she giggled. It was a parallel to when they traveled back in time and the same exact thing happened. Mikey hummed the song and baby Karai giggled. I like the subtle dynamic between Mikey and Karai, it gives me the warm-fuzzies.
And yeah, the writers were pretty damn weird about that.
But now it’s time for the big. bad TMNT overall ratings!
I can talk about every single little thing in each series, including art style correlating to tone, but I’m going to give a run down of what I enjoy the most. The ratings are going to be a bit different, as I’m rating them by ‘version to watch/rewatch first’
With the good original cartoon sliding in, it’s...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
The very first thing I ever said when I watched this was ‘hehe turgle’ because of how small and squishy they looked! The art style is really cute and gives a very warm vibe. It reminds me of when I used to watch Gilligan’s Island when I was a kid, a bunch of goofy characters in potentially life-threatening situations. For me, it’s a show to watch for shits and giggles, rather than a serious plot. I don’t really think this is the best starting point. I prefer going from a dark series to a lighter one, so I’d watch this one maybe after a different reboot. Also, I adore the 80′s Shredder, he’s fun to watch and to make fun of.
5/10
Next up is the one I watched on Youtube (but since I didn’t know how VPN’s worked so most of the videos were blocked except for Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
This one made me go ‘hehe turgle’ less, but still quite a bit. (They’re so short what). I think out of all the series, this is the one I’d start with. The plot is well organised (with a few bumps but what story doesn’t?), some well thought out character development and many, many interesting side characters! Bishop, Leatherhead, Baxter Stockman, these characters were so neat in this series. This show I feel was the darkest, and I guess 4kids agreed as some episodes were banned from airing when they first came out and I think there’s one that never finished production as it was too graphic and violent’. The voices in this series are so recognizable. Like here, read this is Mikey’s voice: “See what I made ya do there?” Anyone who knows the voices can easily imagine them. The animation is very clean and there’s some epic shots in there as well. The soundtrack is implanted in my memory and when I rewatched it, I had to pause and think for about five minutes when I got swept in a wave of nostalgia at a few familiar notes. And despite what everyone says about Back to the Sewer, the theme for that season was a bop. I think this is the best place to start if you like dark shows and all the episodes are on Youtube (In Canada because it’s blocked everywhere else).
9/10
This one is the show I love dearly, grew up on and still have a tiny plastic Katana from a Leo figure I can’t find:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
This show in terms of tone slides right in between the 2003 and 1987. There’s so many light-hearted episodes and jokes mixed in with some real scary shit. This one was the first version that made them seem like actual 15 year olds, rather than early 20′s. This is also the show with the most accuracy in terms of ninjistu. I adore the animation and art style and there’s so much going on in this show, there’s no way I’d be able to unpack even half of it. April really developed in this show, she became a Kunoichi and got a badass weapon and she trained. She didn’t become a ninjistu master overnight and that was so important to the character. I love the designs of Shredder’s henchmen in this show, Dogpound/Razar, Fishface and Tiger Claw. Beebop and Rocksteady were a huge highlight in every episode they were. It was nice to see them be shown as actual people before they got mutated, along with their clashing personalities that eventually made them into a great team. Also I can’t stop thinking about ‘I will crush your head like the blueberries,’ I love that line. Cute, fun but with a very serious and real edge, neat characters and designs. A really great show! This would also be a great starter, but the episodes are harder to find for free (unless you have Hulu)
8/10
Now for the series I am currently obsessed with and am BOUNCING for excitement for the new episodes this month,
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Oh oh oh I love this version SO much!!! This how has so much expectation subversion and is really different from the rest. A lot of people were (and still are for some reason???) complaining about this version. ‘Oh no Raph is leader, they’re all different sizes, why are they all Party dudes, etc etc.’ I think that a lot of this is based on the idea that the makers did this as more of ‘change for surprise’ when really, it’s a well thought-out decision. Raph is bigger because it helps him reign in his strength since he could easily hurt others and he’s older, so he assumes the leader position not just by default, but because he’s the one who’s the most grounded. Donnie is a softshell so he relies more on technology to protect himself, Mikey is the perfect balance of funny and annoying, Leo isn’t leader to explore a different aspect of his character. I’m not going to talk anymore about the characters as that is for another time. The art style and animation is AMAZING LIKE WOW. It’s so dynamic and bright and creative! The opening has me speechless alone! This series is still airing and has a lot of potential, with Shredder and Kraang replaced by Baron Draxum (voiced by JOHN CENA, like not a joke, he’s voiced by the wrestler) as the main antagonist. I think this is also a good starting point as it’s fresh and has around 30 episodes, so it’s faster to watch compared to the 100-200 episodes of the other series.
8/10
I’m not going over IDW since I haven’t read too much but I strongly advise using it as a starting point, it’s not finished and the order is tricky to navigate.
Idk so far but don’t start here, maybe after watching 2003/10
I hope this helps in your quest for turtles and thanks for the ask!
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