#but also i'm thinking abt donnie spending so many hours

[tending-the-hearth]

more of the turtle angst au but this time feat. mutanimals:

leatherhead noticing mikey getting quieter, getting more drawn in on himself whenever they're together. he asks him if something's wrong, and mikey just gives him a bright beaming fake so so fake smile and says that he doesn't want to be a bother (because secretly mikey notices that when he gets too loud karai and tang shen flinch, memories being stirred up, so he's taking it down a notch, but he slowly notices how splinter gives him approving looks, and he just wants his dad to smile at him again)

donnie spending so much more time devoted to finding a retromutagen, even more than when april's dad was mutated, and rockwell seeing this, and just being confused, and donnie explaining that he's noticed the longing in splinter and tang shen's eyes when they look at the photo of their human family of three just of three, so he wants to see if he can help them become normal again (he doesn't mention that normal doesn't include the four brothers, normal is hamato yoshi, tang shen, and miwa, three of a kind, perfect and human)

slash looking for raph one night but stumbling upon leo sitting on a rooftop, staring out at the city, and can't help himself because leo looks so lost and so sad, and despite their differences slash has known leo for the same amout of time he's known raph, has been privy to so many conversations, so he sits, and leo just comments to him that he understands slash's resentment now, he gets why slash was so possessive over raph when he was first mutated, and slash just sits there horrified, because what could have happened to make such a kind and loyal turtle look so despondent, so hurt, so betrayed

and when, ultimately, the boys leave the lair and head to bradford and xever's apartment to stay for a while, the mutanimals are there, and april and casey are there, reminding the boys that they're not alone, that they've got a family who loves them more than anything, and will always be there to take care of them.