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aealzx · 11 months ago

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The living room was fairly easy to locate, especially since Leon could hear his brothers’ hushed voices along the jangle of a small bell. The back of Raph’s head above the couch was the first part of his brothers that Leon saw, then he quickly caught sight of Lil Mikey swishing a feathered toy through the air between them. Leon was a little surprised to then see a mostly white cat scramble across the floor before leaping after the toy, reaching Lil Mikey’s shoulders easily and earning a series of muffled cheers and coos from the two boys.

“Hey Mikey- woh-,” Leon started as he reached the edge of the couch, breaking off when he noticed there was another figure with them, and said body was fast asleep on the couch next to Raph. “...How is he sleeping through this?” Leon asked, squinting in confusion down as Mikey just snored softly, seemingly oblivious to the playing around him.

“I dunno, but Raphael said we shouldn’t have to worry about waking him,” Raph responded before getting immediately distracted by Lil Mikey leading Pepperjack to jump onto Raph’s lap. Both of his legs were propped up on a square cushioned stool, so it was easy for the cat to perch on his thighs and swat at the feather Lil Mikey was swinging. Leon was pretty sure Raph would start crying with the way his eyes were shining over having the cat perched on him so readily.

“Are you here to play with Pepperjack too? Isn’t she cute? It’s the best name, isn’t it?” Lil Mikey asked in rapid succession, the arm that wasn’t caught in a sling swirling random patterns with the stick.

“Well I am curious why she’s named that, but I’m actually here for you,” Leon admitted with a chuckle, pleased to see Raph and Lil Mikey both doing a lot better than when he��d first found this lair. And Raph was even getting ridiculously spoiled with someone carrying him around and a pet not being afraid of him.

“Me? What’s up?” Lil Mikey asked, pausing in play for only a moment before realizing it probably wasn’t urgent and therefore he didn’t have to stop immediately. Leon was being rather relaxed, so it was probably just a casual request.

“Yeah, Donnie is awake, but he’s in his ‘I hate food’ phase,” Leon explained, wiggling his fingers in quotes and imitating his brother despite not having heard Donnie say that before. “But he also has to eat something considering it’s been like fourteen hours since he fell asleep and he has blood loss to deal with,” Leon rambled, rolling his eyes slightly as flopped his raised hands out into a shrug. “The stew from last night makes him wanna puke. Can you figure something out for him? Preferably with a lot of iron?”

“O’oh… Yeah, let me see what I can do… Or what I can boss you around to do,” Lil Mikey stammered slightly, wiggling the fingers of his injured arm with a mild gesture to it. He wasn’t going to be cooking on his own anytime soon, and he could understand Donnie being in one of his selective moods. He could still remember the rage that had saturated Donnie’s ninpo as he’d mutilated Augustine’s machines. Even under the protective barrier he'd created, the energy had prickled Lil Mikey’s skin. And the way Donnie had spoken to them made it obvious to Lil Mikey that he had been borderline to breaking down screaming. Honestly Lil Mikey was surprised Donnie was even talking at the moment. “What’s got iron in it?” he asked, pushing the memories from his mind for now and passing the feathered toy to Raph before following Leon on the way back to the kitchen.

“Beef. Red meat, spinach…. Uhhhh, “ Leon was quick to answer at first, but then trailed off before fishing his phone out to search the internet for a reminder. “Eggs, shrimp, sweet potatoes, strawberries, beans….”

“Hmmm… that should be easy enough then- Hey Don,” Lil Mikey hummed, thinking over the options pretty quickly, then greeting Don when he saw him at the table.

“Hey Mikey,” Don returned with a slightly sleepy hum around the mug held close to his mouth. Just sitting there smelling the rich scent of coffee was so relaxing. “How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?”

“I’m good! My arm isn’t numb anymore, but it also doesn’t hurt,” Lil Mikey chimed, swinging his arm slightly then wincing as the movement earned a twinge of pain in his upper arm. “Unless I move it too much, heheh,” he corrected sheepishly.

Don could only smile thankfully at the response, knowing that Lil Mikey would still be sore if he moved too much and just glad his arm didn’t hurt when it was still. He also knew he couldn’t expect a teenager to keep an injured limb still for long. “Let me know if anything feels unusual,” Don prompted automatically, then glanced at Leon in a sheepish flinch before apologetically adding. “Sorry, habit. You can still go to your brother if you’re more comfortable that way,” he assured, not wanting Leon to feel inferior or replaced in any way, and addressing him next. “Let me know if you can’t find anything you need in the infirmary.”

“...Sure,” Leon responded simply before focusing more on Lil Mikey.

It was a bit of a surprising response, but after a bit of consideration Don realized it was probably just because Leon was concerned about something. Either that or he wasn’t in need of help that only they could offer so was back to being wary of them. Or perhaps it was something else? Don ended up lost in thought about the sudden shift in behavior as Leon opened the fridge again to follow Lil Mikey’s directions.

“I think he might eat some steak if we cut it thin enough and keep it plain. Looks like they have spinach too, so we can just make sure that’s washed well,” Lil Mikey mused, looking over what ingredients they had in the fridge and latching onto some of the foods Leon had listed.

“Really? Just bland boring steak and raw veggies?” Leon voiced his doubt despite still grabbing the containers Lil Mikey selected.

“Yeah. It’s still hard to predict what won’t bother him. Usually I just default to his flavorless juice, but since he needs more than that I think keeping it simple and something that’s completely within what he would expect would work,” Lil Mikey hummed, doing his best to help with one hand and snatching the bag of carrots before Leon closed the door.

“What if that doesn’t work?” Leon asked, following Lil Mikey’s direction to snap open the package of beef and start cutting it up. He’d never had to help with this issue before, so hadn’t really paid attention. Lil Mikey cooked for them a lot, but other than that they usually tended to feed themselves. And the last time Lil Mikey had been unable to cook for them both Leon and Donnie had been unable to help either.

“Lock him in the kitchen and he’ll eventually piece on enough things to feed himself,” Lil Mikey responded bluntly, earning a snort from Don that caused Leon to glance over at him after giving his own snort.

“Well that explains a lot,” Leon snickered, letting Lil Mikey locate the frying pan and click on the stove.

It was a simple enough meal that it didn’t take long at all to cook, even with Lil Mikey having only one hand available. Watching the two interact and make easy comments to each other earned a fond gaze from Don as it reminded him of several moments he’d had with his own brothers.

“Are you sure that’s cooked enough?” Leon ended up asking when Lil Mikey told him to take the beef strips off the frying pan.

“We’re making steak, not shoe leather,” Lil Mikey shot back, swatting Leon’s hand away and grabbing the tongs to pull the beef off himself. It really was a very plain meal, but Don wasn’t about to comment on it. They knew their brother way better than he did, so he’d just have to trust them to get Donnie fed.

___

After each taking a turn in the small bathroom, April and Donnie had shuffled back to the bed they had woken up on. Donnie’s wary eyes were constantly flicking around the unfamiliar room, and when he had even the slightest suspicion something might touch him he was all for flinching away from it. Especially anything that hinted it might touch his exposed back. It was obvious he wasn’t comfortable there, but it wasn’t like he could leave and go somewhere to decompress. Which meant he had both hands gripping April’s hand like a lifeline, his form keeping close to her as she tried to match his pace back to the only established safe spot. Sleeping on a bed for fourteen hours was enough to have it categorized as probably safe in his mind. Safe enough that he was quick to scuttle back onto it and shuffle the blanket up around his shoulders to give some sort of cover to his back. And only after a moment of April sitting on the bed in front of him did he register that she was unnecessarily exposed as well. Which prompted him to wordlessly extend one arm, offering her the option to share the minuscule ward that was the blanket.

April could only snicker slightly at the offer, but nevertheless scooted over to tuck in next to Donnie again. She’d honestly thought Donnie would have been ecstatic about being in another dimension. But something was obviously wrong, and he obviously didn’t want to talk about it. April didn’t know what exactly had happened, but the minimal information she had gathered from both Raphael and her own observations made it easy for her to jump to undesired conclusions. There was always a fear of what would happen if certain people got a hold of her brothers. And with Raphael saying they had a run in with a scientist, and Donnie was suffering from blood loss yet had no visibly major wounds, April was fairly confident in her thoughts. As much as she hated to think them.

Feeling a little sullen now, April wrapped her arms around Donnie’s upper arm while she leaned against him. They were quiet as they waited for Leon to return, listening to the quiet hum of the infirmary machines. She could be patient. Her brothers were all together in the same home now. There was nothing immediate to worry about.

Apparently Donnie wasn’t as patient though, for after at most ten minutes he shifted uncomfortably. “...Raph is in the living room,” he announced quietly, somewhat abruptly and without explanation for why it was important.

It caught April off guard for only half a second, but she was somewhat used to this kind of behavior from Donnie and hesitantly proposed an action in response to the comment. “Wanna go join him so he isn’t alone?” Donnie hadn’t mentioned anyone else with Raph, so she could only assume Raph was alone, and that might be bothering Donnie at the moment.

It seemed her assumption was correct enough, for Donnie nodded once and gave her a moment to respond, or at least register the response from him, before he started squirming off the bed again.

Snickering slightly once more, April complied and scooted off the bed as well. Donnie insisted on clinging to her and keeping the blanket over them both though, so they ended up shuffling out of the room in an awkward waddle.

The new lair was unexpectedly quiet as they made their way down the walkways, half remotely directed somewhat by Leon, and half just able to see the living room and Raph once they reached the railing. Donnie wordlessly nudged them along, falling a little more quiet as the room they were in was now more open and had more potential for other people to be there. He seemed determined to join Raph though, almost single mindedly pattering towards his big brother. The closer he got the more a small strain of comfort threaded into his tense form.

Until someone new abruptly threw their arm around his shoulders.

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Well that took freaking forever |D Major holidays are a pain =<= But I guess cutting off all caffeine to try and fix insomnia issues, and then stopping a mood med because I found out it reacts with the stomach meds probably didn't help either.

Anyway X'D I'm really glad you guys like Pepperjack and Onion Ring. It took me like 5 days to think of their names X'D Hopefully Pepper looks okay, drawing animals is always an effort for me, I'm so inexperienced |'D

I can't remember anything else I may have wanted to ramble, so enjoy =3=

#my art #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #mikey #cross dimension kidnapping #rise + 2003 crossover #writing #long post #fanfic

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