#i got new sliders so i decided to try them out!!!!

[faestelle]

i dunno how 2 caption this

[snorfbin]

.

[yellowharrington]

wildflower and barley -- joel miller x reader

pairing + fandom: joel miller x reader, the last of us (hbo)

word count: 5k+ oops

warnings/notes: smut smut smut!!! minors DNI, 18+!!! no outbreak!au. age gap (it's implied reader is in her 20s while joel is 45) and mentions of joel being kinda perverted and liking it lol. drinking (both reader and joel, not excessive), use of a dating app like tinder but not specified, unprotected PIV w creampie and oral (m+f receiving), do not fuck your tinder hookups without protection i'm just horny and gross. excessive use of darlin' as a nickname. implied that reader likes men. she/her pronouns used, afab!reader (with mentions of body parts), no use of y/n. if i missed anything lmk!

a/n: heavily inspired by this post by @yesttoheaven about joel's tinder profile!! it has been rotting my brain since i saw it which literally inspired me to write my first fic in the tlou fandom ever so please be gentle with me. i imagined show!joel because i've never played the game so do with that what you will. please reblog and leave comments if u enjoy it <3333

divider by @cafekitsune

summary: after deciding to change your age range on a dating app in hope of a change of scenery, you stumble across joel miller.

No one likes using dating apps.

Swiping left, left, left mindlessly at troves of men holding fish, showing off their trucks, or with deer heads mounted to the walls behind their selfies holding guns.

This was Texas, after all.

Having just moved here, it was a little shocking, to say the least. But you were getting used to the “eligible” bachelors that were your age generally looking and acting the same. When you did end up finding someone of interest, you were usually turned off pretty quickly by whatever shitty pick-up line they had chosen. Or, your personal favourite, “wanna fuck?”

No thanks.

It was an idyllic summer evening, the hot stuffy air of Austin flowing in through your windows. You laid in bed, propped up on the pillows against your headboard and sorting through the faces that adorned your screen. No one particularly interesting, as usual, and every profile was starting to melt together to look the same.

You sighed, looking into your settings, adjusting and increasing different metrics to hopefully change the pool just enough for there to be someone new or interesting. 

Age range: 25-30

Your eyebrow cocked as you looked onto the screen, pulling the slider more to the right experimentally. No one was here to see you, and even though it was slightly embarassing to be interested in older men, you’d be lying if you said it didn’t pique your interest to imagine it. Even just to try, and see, if they ever really did grow up. You imagined it was wishful thinking, but increased the range anyways.

Age range: 35-45

Feeling the need to throw your phone across the room after doing that, you placed it face down under your pillow and slid out of bed. No use in swiping through them now, and you were getting tired of looking. A pint of Ben and Jerry’s and a new episode of your favourite show was waiting for you downstairs.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

Joel Miller does not use dating apps.

He barely knows how to send a text on his phone, let alone navigate the world of online women. Not to say he didn’t explore the options, so to speak, but they usually were not ones that were single, his age, and in his area. Unless the ads on those sites were real, that is.

“It’s starting to get sad,” Sarah had remarked at breakfast, when they got on the topic, and Joel feigned hurt. Hand over his heart, he dropped his fork onto the plate. “It’s not sad, Jesus. I’m just busy, is all.”

“Busy not gettin’ busy,” Sarah remarked, and Joel’s eyes widened. “Hey now! None of that.”

A blush spread up his cheeks and ears as they continued to eat breakfast in slightly awkward silence, before Joel took his plate to the sink. “Okay, off to school, you. And no more conversations about my dating life. Ever.”

Sarah laughed as she finished off the last of the juice in her glass. “I’m just saying, dad. You can if you want to. Might be nice for you.”

Joel planted a soft kiss to her head before she bounded out the door, rolling his eyes and calling out a ‘love you’ before she closed the door swiftly behind her. Joel stared at his cell phone on the table. Maybe it would be nice.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

The following evening, you were a little too excited to see the dating app specimens you had acquired. Not sure what to expect, really, and you went in with no expectations. It’s not like they’d magically all be tall, dark, and handsome, but some variety never killed anybody.

Paul, 41

Daddy, but not yours. No libs allowed. 6’ because that matters.

You sighed deeply. Some things never change. 

After swiping through much of what you were used to, a profile managed to catch your eye among the sea of disappointment.

Joel, 45

Just a Southern gentleman trying this out for the first time. Contractor of over 10 years. I love my daughter, BBQ, strong coffee, and sleeping in. 

Now that was the most interesting thing you’d seen in a while.

He didn’t look a day over 40. His eyes creased at the corners when he smiled wide in his photos. He looked tan, a product of the Texas heat and his job, you thought. His features were accompanied by salt-and-pepper facial hair and messy curls that looked soft and pliable. His photos showed off his physique incredibly, tight wash-worn t-shirts pulling over his arms and shoulders, looking big, broad. He was no doubt the most handsome man you’d seen on an app, maybe ever.

When you swiped right before you could think too hard, you were surprised to see the green “Match!” Flash across your screen.

Your fingers ghosted over the keyboard on your phone, thinking of a witty thing to say, probably for too long.

Your phone buzzed as you saw a notification pop up.

Joel has sent you a message.

Hey, darlin’. How are ya?

You felt your face warm at the sweet message, when was the last time someone had called you darlin’? Ever?

Hey cowboy. I’m great, how are you?

He was certainly an eager responder, taking only a few seconds to reply. You found yourself smiling down at your phone screen.

Cowboy… I like that. I’m better now that I’m talking to you.

Oh, Joel, who told you to say that? 😂

No good?

Not bad. 6/10. 

Only 6/10? I’ll work on it. I like to think I’m better in person. 

I would love to find out. 

You found yourself emboldened by how easy the conversation was flowing. Joel was certainly easy to talk to, easier than the other matches you had going for you, and infinitely more handsome.

Oh, would you? Alright. I’d love to take you to dinner sometime. If you don’t mind being seen with an old man such as myself in public. Or meeting a stranger from the internet.

He’s a very handsome stranger. I would love to go to dinner with you. Know any good spots? I’m new around here.

There’s a great barbecue spot in downtown Austin. If you’d prefer something fancier, let me know.

I love bbq. Just tell me where and when, cowboy.

Tomorrow, 7pm ok?

You sent him your phone number in the message. Fuck it.

Sounds great. Text me the address, I’ll be there. :)

Joel’s reply didn’t come. Instead, a text appeared at the top of your screen with an unknown number. 

It’s Joel. This the right number?

Yup. You found me.

Great. Talk tomorrow sweetheart. Looking forward to it. :)

He texted you the address of the restaurant, right before you opened the contact card, saving his name as “cowboy ♡”.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

Cowboy. Cowboy. Cowboy. It was playing over in his head like a broken fuckin’ record. 

Joel was positively freaking out about this date.

Sarah had managed to secure a sleepover at her friend’s place, so the house would be empty for the night. He had been busying himself with cleaning the entirety of the house, even taking the time to mow the grass before work and vacuum the family room. He can’t remember the last time he vacuumed anywhere.

Would she even make it back here? How does this work? Will she want to sleep over or hang out on the couch or should he be making a dessert for after?

His mind was brought out of it’s craze by Sarah jumping down the stairs. She plopped her bag down on the freshly wiped countertop.

“Careful,” he warned, putting a hand up. “I just cleaned that off.”

“I can tell. It smells like the cleaning aisle threw up in here.”

He smirked before patting her head with his hand, as she aggressively smoothed out her hair. “Dad! Don’t!”

“When do you wanna go to Ellie’s?” He asked, more gaging how long he has left to get ready than actually asking.

“Probably soon. Why? Tryna get rid of me?” she poked her dad in the side, but when she flinched away instead, a large smile spread across her face. He was tense.

“What’s your deal?” Joel hated the way she knew him so well sometimes.

“Nothing.“

“Are you going on a date?”

Silence fell over the kitchen between the two of them, as Joel’s shoulders slumped in defeat. “How did you know?”

“Oh my god, you actually took my advice,” Sarah laughed, watching her dad’s face burn red with embarrassment. “Just don’t do anything weird on communal surfaces, please.”

Joel shook his head at her suggestion, already becoming annoyed with the whole prospect. He was so nervous, about what to wear, how to act, what the expectation was… let alone, what would happen if they made it back to his place at all. 

Although, when he was able to shake his nerves for a second, he was just really fucking excited.

“Wear those dark jeans, and that green shirt you wore to Tommy’s last week. Looks good on you.” Sarah smiled as she put her arms around Joel’s middle, while his worries melted away with her touch. “She’ll love you, I promise.”

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

It had been such a long time since you’d been on a proper date, you were starting to lose your mind at the simple process of deciding what to wear.

Clothes were strewn across every surface of your apartment, shoes matching with jeans that matched with cardigans, tops that matched with belts and jackets.

It’s 87 degrees at 5 o’clock, idiot. You’re not wearing a jacket. Relax.

Exhausted of picking out outfits and making decisions, you collapsed on your couch and took a look at your options. You landed on an easy sundress, putting the rest of your clothes back in their respective drawers, and pulling out all of the products you were expecting to use to get ready.

You scrolled through your phone aimlessly as a notification bubble popped up on the screen.

We still on for tonight darlin’? Or did you change your mind?

No worries if you did. I respect that.

You let out a cackle at the message, thinking about how he must look right now. Was he nervous? Scared? Was he just looking for a controversially young fuck?

You weren’t… completely against that.

Didn’t change my mind, wouldn’t in a million years :)

Meet you there. Can’t wait to see you.

His eagerness to meet up would’ve been a red flag if it were any other run of the mill guy, but something about Joel felt special. There didn’t seem to be any funny business with him; too sincere to try anything other than just a good old fashioned date.

You too, cowboy.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

When Joel showed up at the restaurant, he clenched a small bouquet of pink peonies in his right hand and checked his watch obsessively. The minutes ticked away, as he kept a high alert for anyone who could be his potential date. He knew what you looked like, of course, but this being his first time doing anything of this sort is making him hyperaware of anything going awry.

When he does lay eyes on you, his whole gaze softens. A pink sundress, hair pristinely styled and a bounce in your step that reminded him of summer. You looked like an angel, the sunset behind you painting the sky tangerine, which reflected off of the shine against your supple skin. So young, beautiful, it was taking his breath away.

“Joel?”

Your voice matched your sweet demeanour, and he was taken out of his waking daydream.

“Hi,” is all he can say, letting his breath out as he relaxed. “Yes, hi, sorry. I’m Joel.”

“Hi,” you laugh back, eyes darting to the flowers in his hand. They matched your dress.

“These are for you,” he gets the hint, extending his arm out, and you can see the veins bulging in his forearm. He looked so much stronger in person, it was making your knees go weak.

“Thank you, wow,” you held them up to your nose to smell the sweet aroma. “I love peonies.”

“Me too,” he smiled, showing off a string of pearly white teeth, that contrasted with the pink of his lips and the even tan of his skin.

“Shall we?” He extended his arm to you for you to grab onto, and you got to feel the warmth of his skin for yourself. Your hand wrapped around his forearm as he opened the door of the restaurant for you, leading you inside and catching a glimpse of the backs of your thighs as you walked in front of him.

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

When you were finally sitting, the conversation flowed easily. He was truly a Southern gentleman, like he had said. It wasn’t normal for you to open up so quickly, but Joel was so easy going and smart, he asked the right questions and knew when to listen. He knew how to listen, a warm gaze and a nod along, asking follow up questions to your answers and easily getting to know you.

You asked about his daughter, his family, his work. He was happy to tell you. 

“So, what’s a man like you doing being single in this city?” You take a sip of the wine in the glass in front of you, burgundy staining your bottom lip. 

He takes a bite of the food in front of him, a napkin pressing to his lips quickly after. “Been busy,” he started to say, honey brown eyes meeting yours for a second. His gaze sent an electrifying pulse down your spine.

“And, well, when Sarah’s mom left there was a ton to do,” he says it nonchalantly, as if that should be something normal to happen. “House, work, school, she keeps my hands full. Hasn’t been a lot of time.” His syrupy drawl is pulling you in, you’re enticed by the way he speaks to you. So easy, warm, soft. You wonder what his hands feel like on your body, lips pressed to your neck, torso pressed against yours.

“Sorry, that’s a lot of information for a first date,” he laughs to cover the awkwardness, and quietly curses himself for going into so much detail about his precarious family situation and basically admitting to you that he hasn’t fucked anything other than his hand in the last 5 or so years.

“No, it’s okay,” you slide your hand across the table, palm up, urging him to slot his hand into it. He takes it, easily, enveloping yours. His fingers find the pulse point on your wrist. You let your eyes drift up to his, drinking in the way his chest fills out the shirt he chose.

“What’s your story?” He asks earnestly, giving your hand a squeeze. “Can’t imagine there isn’t a long line of people outside waiting to take my place, darlin’.”

You blush furiously at the nickname, and let your eyes meet his once again. “You have no idea the… mess that is out there,” the wine is calling your name to take another sip at the mere thought, but you refrain. “Certainly not too many I am interested in.”

“So, is that why you’re on a date with an old man on a beautiful summer night in Austin?”

You could tell Joel, in a twisted way, liked that you were younger than him. It made him feel younger by admission, that you’d want to spend time with him. 

“You’re not that much older,” you laugh, not even believing it yourself as the words left your lips. “And I like to try new things. Don’t you like trying new things, sometimes?”

It was his turn to let his face go red at your insinuation. If only you knew how ‘new’ this really was for him, how much he was pushed out of his comfort zone right now.

You didn’t notice. 

A little more polite small talk and exchanging of stories was all you could take before the tension was becoming too much. After another glass of wine and a shared plate of sky-high chocolate cake for dessert, you were enjoying his company and could tell he was enjoying yours all the same. When you met his gaze again, hands still intertwined, you could tell there was a question on the tip of his tongue.

“Would you want to…“ - a nervous pause, with a halo of lust - “come back to mine for a nightcap? I’ve got an empty house this evening.”

You couldn’t help but smirk, knowing in your heart that Joel must’ve made arrangements for his family not to be home in anticipation. He had to have planned for you, known in his heart you’d say yes.

“I’d love that.”

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾

Joel’s home is unmistakably him. It smells like a pine candle that sits near the front door and a faint aroma of laundry detergent. There’s photos everywhere, him and his daughter, his brother’s family. Big windows were letting in the twinkling lights of the city outside, the inky sky making them look brighter against its canvas.

“You have a beautiful home,” you say, although it seems a little formal for the situation. What else do you say to a grown-up in their house?

“Thank you,” he takes a bottle of whiskey from the bar cart and pours two rock glasses, handing you one. He flicks on a lamp, ambient light filling the room and painting his skin amber orange, as he joins your side by his kitchen table.

“I did a lot of the construction myself, the decorations are my daughter.” He points lazily to the trinkets on the shelves and photos on the wall. “I don’t really have a good eye for that type of stuff.” 

You take a sip from the drink and it coats your throat, burning down as you suppress a cough at the taste. You nod along as he explains the design choices he made in the home, and you play along, knowing it’s likely out of anxiety.

“What about upstairs?”

Your eyes are innocent as they meet his, although you understand the implication you’re making whole-heartedly. He puts his glass down on the kitchen table and you follow his lead, his strong hand around your wrist as he leads you up the stairs wordlessly.

“It’s not anything,” - he clears his throat - “special,” he shows you around the second floor, finishing at the door of his bedroom that has been left slightly ajar. 

You step in quietly, leading him inside as you take in the bedroom. Neatly folded clothes, a made bed that looks well loved. Blue sheets and fluffy pillows, big bay windows that let the moonlight in.

“I think it’s nice,” you say simply, letting yourself turn around to meet his broad frame. He looks down at you slightly, eyes meeting yours as your hand drops from his grasp and snakes around his neck. His hands come up the sides of your dress, pulling it up slightly, but landing on your waist.

“Is this okay?” He asks tentatively in the dark of the room, his lips so close to yours already you can practically taste the whiskey on his lips for yourself. You answer him by pressing your tentative lips to his, slotting them together easily.

Joel’s grip on your waist tightens momentarily as he takes you in, pulling you as close as he possibly can. He can smell the perfume on your neck and the wine on your lips from earlier, and it’s making his need for you increase tenfold. 

You pull him into you as you stumble back to let your knees hit his mattress, sitting down and letting your hands come to his belt buckle. Your hands came to undo it as he pulled his t-shirt off to throw onto the floor beside him, bending down to help you pull the dress over your shoulders to meet his t-shirt.

You made quick work of his jeans, pushing them to the ground and looking up at him with a keen glance. You could see the breath making his belly rise and fall, anticipating your touch on him any second.

When your hand wrapped around the base of his cock, his breath hitched and his head rolled back. He was already half-hard only from kissing you, so a few pumps made him easily ready for your mouth.

“You’re so big,” is all you can think to say, head spinning from the sheer size of him right in front of your face. Your mouth watered at the way his hand palmed through your hair, pulling you in closer to him for some relief.

It was intoxicating to him, the way your mouth fit around his cock. Such a beautiful sight to see, your head licking and sucking at his tip, gathering spit there to lubricate him. His knees were going weak as he watched intently, no thought able to cross his mind, other than maybe how long it had been since he’d had anyone to do this with. He was going to have to pace himself if it was all like this.

Your mouth constrained around the length of him, taking him deeper and deeper with every bob of your head. Filthy sounds were filling the room now, of your eager mouth pulling him in as best you could. His hand stayed steady at the back of your head, not pushing, just softly pressed there for support. His other hand found your shoulder, pushing down your bra strap.

“God, darlin’,” was all he could choke out, using his hand to pull you off of him. Your hand lazily stroked him as you looked up at him, spit collecting at the corners of your mouth. “I’m not gonna last long if you keep doin’ that,” his laugh eased some of the tension in the room, as you took your other hand and wiped the spit away.

He leaned down, pressing a fervent kiss to your lips before using his own hands to unclasp your bra and let your breasts free. His lips traveled to the side of your neck, before he was kneeled down between your legs, sucking your nipple into his mouth. He lapped at you, all consuming, as his hand came up to grasp the other breast that wasn’t being serviced. He moaned at the noises you were making, lewd whines into the night air that only encouraged him. 

His lips made their way down your body to your clothed centre, your back against his soft sheets. You looked down at him intently, watching as he pulled your panties down your legs and immediately delved into your pussy with broad strokes of his tongue.

Your body jerked upwards at the contact, hand fisting the sheet beside you as he lapped at you, like a man starved. His expert tongue found your clit easily, sucking and licking at you for what felt like hours. You thought about his heavy cock between his legs, begging to be touched, hard as ever as he licked at you desperately.

“Joel,” you whined out, feeling your hand reach down to grab at his curls and push him deeper into you. That only made him moan, one hand lazily fisting his cock as the other came up to dip a finger into you, allowing you to see stars when you screwed your eyes shut.

His fingers were so large, pressed into your core as you fucked yourself on them and his tongue in tandem. He was groaning and grunting, and you hoped his neighbours couldn’t see into the window at the desperate filth that was going on in his bedroom.

“Fuck, Joel, please,” you begged, but he had no mercy, and your orgasm was creeping up on you. He was ready to watch you come undone, pushing a second finger into you and furiously sucking on your clit. His other hand left his own pleasure and wrapped around your breast, pressing and playing with the hard nub there, pinching to provide a little bit of sting to it. It was sending you into another dimension.

“Come for me, sweetheart,” and his voice is gravely and debauched, enough to send you into your first orgasm, chanting his name and pulling on his hair. He was happily licking at you, fingers still pressing in and out as to not mess up the rhythm, as you rode out your orgasm against his face. 

When you started to come down, he finally detached himself from you before standing up between your legs and pressing his broad palms to your thighs. He stayed there for a moment, cock still hard and heavy between his legs as you gazed up at him, out of breath from his work.

“You’re really good at that,” was all you could think to say, head clouded with arousal. You moved up on the bed a little, opening your legs and pressing your knees apart to show your pussy to him again.

“Please fuck me, Joel,” you breathe out, letting your hand find your own clit to rub it teasingly for him. It was still so sensitive, but the way he was looking down at you, eyes dark and stormy with need, you could almost come again just from that.

He put a knee down on the bed and crawled on top of you, his lips finding yours once again as your hands found his face. You held him there, savouring the kiss as his tongue crashed against yours, all warmth and spit and the taste of you. His hand found your breast and continued to play with your nipples, softly, coaxing more moans into his mouth from yours.

He leaned back and slipped his cock inside of you, filling you up immediately and making you gasp. He groaned into the side of your neck, tonguing the side of your ear and kissing you feverishly as he pumped in and out of you.

Your legs wrapped around his waist, pulling him impossibly close, your moans filling the room as he rocked in and out of you. He kissed your jaw and chest, before reaching down between your bodies and pressing his thick finger to your clit again, using the wetness there to draw circles around your sensitive nub.

“So pretty,” he smiles into your neck, your hand on the back of his, playing with the now-sweaty strands of hair on the nape. “So pretty for me, taking my cock,” the dirty talking is welcome as he continues to bring you closer to a second orgasm, your breath hitching once again.

“Come inside of me,” you say it like a whisper, a secret in the stillness of the room, and Joel is unsure he even heard you correctly.

“Are you sure?” He says it not accusingly, but in a way that conveys he feels like he just won the lottery.

“Yes, please, fill me up.”

You can see the way his eyes darken more, shifting so he’s on his knees and using your body to fuck himself on his thick cock. His hand continued to play with your clit, bringing you so close to your orgasm that tears pricked at the corners of your eyes. His cheeks were getting hot as he thrusted in and out furiously, and you could almost see the stress melt off of his face as he came close to his own undoing.

The white-hot feeling washes over you once again, eyes shutting before you’re back on your elbows and watching intently. Your whole body feels like it’s on fire as his thrusts become sloppy, your name pouring out of his lips like a prayer. You’re clenching around him and letting him ride out his high alongside you, slowing after his hot cum coats your walls and leaves you full of him.

He collapses on top of you, cock softening inside as you both catch your breath together. Your chests are sticky with sweat as you breathe, taking in the smell of him, and the feel of his warmth on your body.

He pulls himself from you and flops beside you, still taking a moment to admire you. You look over at him, a lazy smile on your face as your hand reaches out to caress the skin of his chest. He takes the time to run his fingertips up your arms and back as you lay there in silence together, just soaking in the moment in a post-sex glow.

“I guess I should get going,” you say after a few beats, sitting up to grab your dress off the floor. You cringe at the thought of throwing your underwear on and leaving, this being just another random hookup for you that never lead to anything. Joel was sweet.

A confused look spreads across his features and his brows knit together, before sitting up next to you at the edge of the bed.

“I mean, I don’t know how these things usually go,” he laughs, as his hand finds your lower back. “But you don’t gotta run outta here like a scared animal or somethin’.”

You look up at him again, unsure of what to do next. In your, albeit limited, experience with dating app hookups, you were expected to leave pretty much right after.

“Oh, um,” you look around the room at the soft worn-in sheets and the TV across from Joel’s bed. You take a look at him again, your eyes meeting his to match his gaze, where you can tell he’s mentally begging that you’ll stay the night.

“I mean, if you don’t mind, I’d be happy to stay.” Joel smiled lopsidedly and let his hand rub soothing circles at your lower back. 

“I’ll make it worth your while,” he laughs, stepping over to go into the bathroom and warm up a cloth for the mess spilling out from between your legs. “I wouldn’t mind wakin’ up and doing all that again tomorrow.”

You laugh and lay back onto his bed as he presses the warm cloth to your pussy, his lips once again finding yours to pull you in for a sweet kiss. 

You nod, sliding between the comfortable sheets as Joel runs downstairs to grab your abandoned drinks as well as a couple of bottles of ice cold water. He slips into the sheets next to you, not bothering to throw on any pajamas (not that you were complaining), and settling in beside you. After a few gulps of water, you nestled into his chest and let your hand find his tummy, resting on it as you listened to the even pattern of his breath.

“We should do this again. Like, after tomorrow morning.” you say quietly as you’re drifting in and out of sleep. His fingertips continues to slide across your arm and give you goosebumps as you snuggled closer into him, hearing a laugh exhale out of his nose and feeling a kiss press to the top of your head. 

In his sleepy, deep southern drawl, he replies. “Don’t have to ask me twice, darlin’.”

[twignotstick]

Broken Brothers (and How to Fix Them)

Part 2 💙 | <- Part 1 🧡

Note: This story is based on @cupcakeslushie 's Empyrean Weeping au. These characters are not my own, and this story is in no way canon to the main story. I wrote this as my love letter to the story and the characters. Especially April :)

Tags: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ROTTMNT, Leo & April, NOT MY CHARACTERS, Empyrean Weeping AU, recovery (i have a sneaking suspicion that will apply to the whole fic,,), talking it out because we're adults, movies, comics, they're becoming friends

Warnings (if there's anything I should add here, tell me please!): Mention of violence (its one sentence, but figure I should still put it here :P)

Words: 1,588 (there's less setup this time)

Summary: April was able to figure out her first brother easily. Now, she gets three more, with a couple more issues to worry about.

----------------------

As soon as she even saw Leo for the first time, she knew he wouldn't be as easy to get along with as Mikey was. Mikey was always so open, so bright, so bouncy. Leo, in comparison, was still, dull, and closed off. He had just come from a terrible ninja clan, beaten by his own master. It was kind of warranted.

Any time April would enter the medbay where they were keeping Leo, he would silently stare a hole in her soul. His face had hardly loosened from the scowl he had adopted, and any time April would get near, it would just harden more. Even so, April kept trying to get close. Despite Raph's concerns for her physical health. (And with Mikey's encouragement, because he was happy to enable the potentially dangerous behavior.)

One afternoon, she decided to bring a ton of her Jupiter Jim comics to read. The boys needed a break from watching their somewhat-volatile-yet-severely-wounded brother, and April knew he wouldn't talk to her. So, once she settled down in her chair a few feet away from the bed where Leo was scowling, she pulled out the comic she'd left off on: Jupiter Jim Breaks Newton's Fourth Law, Volume 8.

After a few minutes of reading, April couldn't help but notice a change in Leo out of her peripheral vision. He wasn't staring at her anymore, but at her comic. This glare wasn't full of discontent and uncertainty. Instead, it was filled with emotions he was trying (and failing) to hide- curiosity and excitement.

“You read Jupiter Jim?”

Leo was surprised by the sudden question and whipped his gaze away, a slight flush coming to his cheeks. “No.”

April's journalism senses were kicking in. There was a story here. “Why not?”

“Things like that are…” Leo's posture tightened, almost as if the thing he was about to say wasn't what he believed, “useless distractions.”

“I don't think so,” April said, shifting her chair a little closer to the bed. “I think it's important to have distractions sometimes. Y'know, during finals, when you're sick, when you've got a broken arm…” Subtly, April started slipping the comic in her hands to the bed. “You can read it, if you want.”

“No. I can't.”

Leo looked surprisingly aggressive when he responded. He seemed to catch his unwarranted anger and mumbled, “I still haven't read 6 or 7.”

“Oh!” April sat up straight and grabbed her bag from the floor. “I've got the whole arc up to 9 in here, I thiiink-” Once she had fished out the comics she was looking for, she placed them on the corner of the bed by Leo's feet.

The slider stared at the comics like they'd offended him.

“...well?”

“I-I can't. I can't hold them with my arm-”

“I can hold it for you!” April said. “I can turn the pages whenever you need.”

Leo finally looked back at April with that trademark scowl he always had. “What's your game, woman?”

April smiled. “No games, just trying to make you feel comfortable in your new home.”

Leo huffed. “This isn't my home.”

“It's where your family is, isn't it? Isn't that what matters?” April asked genuinely.

Leo looked back down at the comics. His eyes softened while the rest of his expression remained, and he picked Volume 6 up with his good arm. He opened it and silently began to read.

They both sat and read for a while. April noticed Leo struggling to turn pages sometimes, but she didn't dare try to help him. She thought he might bite her hand if she did. He was still scowling at the comic as he read, but it looked less like a scowl of anger and more one of concentration.

When he got done with Volume 6, April spoke. “So, who's your favorite character?”

“...JJ, obviously.” Leo slowly reached out and grabbed the next volume.

“Seriously? That's so basic.”

Leo scoffed. “Really? Then who's your favorite character?”

“Atomic Lass, obvi,” April said, flipping her hair for emphasis.

“Atomic Lass?! Her personality is literally just ‘woman’.”

“Uh, yeah, and that's the point?! Atomic Lad is just ‘man’. Haven't you watched Jupiter Jim on the Atomic Sub-Moon?”

Leo's shoulders lowered. “...watched?”

April sprung up and put her arms on the bed, looking down at Leo in shock. “YOU'VE NEVER WATCHED A JUPITER JIM MOVIE?!”

“NO?! THEY MAKE THOSE?!”

“THAT'S IT!” April grabbed her bag from the floor and moved it over to the side of Leo's bed. “You, keep reading. I'll get one of the boys to watch you. I need to head home and get my box set. We are having a movie night. Understand?!”

“Y-yes ma'am!”

“We can start with Last Trip to the Moon 1, but then we are watching Atomic Sub-Moon, I DO NOT care if the context is lost, you'll figure it out.”

“O-okay?!”

“RAPH!”

----------------------

“So… the real Atomic Lad and Atomic Lass are dead?!”

“Yes! And the Atomic Lad and Lass we know are-”

“People carrying on the legacy, who the Atomic people believe are still the originals?!”

“YES! That's why they never use their real names, that's why-”

“Why they act like Barbie and Ken for space…”

“Now you get it!” April leaned back into her bean bag and put her arms behind her head. The movie night had gone way better than expected. They had to set up the best pillow pile they could, since they didn't have a sofa big enough for everybody. In the end, April and Leo stayed in bean bags and watched the movies while the others went about their day. It took a minute for Leo to get into it, but once the moon buggy showed up, he was hooked. For the first time, April saw a child in Leo. 

“So, have I won you over with an emotional, heart breaking backstory?” April asked slyly.

“Uh, no.”

April's eyes snapped to the slider. “WHAT?! What do you meeean?! I don't get how you like JJ more than Atomic Lass!”

“Well, he's the main character for a reason, for one.” Leo took another bite of the pizza slice he had been eating. “And second, he's the one who always gets everyone out of the bad stuff. He's the hero, and he isn't scared to sacrifice for his crew.”

“But, consider this, Atomic Lass has a giant rocket powered hammer, Leo.”

“JJ doesn't need a weapon. He's got the nerve pinch technique.”

“They never use the nerve pinch technique, though!” April whined.

“That doesn't mean he doesn't have it!”

“I never thought someone could be as dorky as April,” Raph said from where he stood a few feet away from the bean bag setup. “And yet, here we are.”

“Wh- dorky?!” Leo scoffed, looking at Raph incredulously.

“Yeah, dorky!” Mikey popped out from behind Raph's shoulder. “Y'know, nerdy? Geeky? Criiinge?”

Leo's face flushed and he curled in on himself, stammering.

“Hey, y'all are just jealous that we're bonding,” April defended. “If you gave JJ a chance, you'd like it too.”

Raph and Mikey both shut up quick. April waved them off, and they hurried out to the kitchen again, saying they were “getting more snacks”.

Now that they were alone, April looked over at Leo again. “They're stupid. Can't appreciate good media.”

“Good media?” Leo asked. “You mean B-Movies and old comics?”

“Yeah, man.” April grabbed a blanket and tossed it over at Leo, making him fumble to keep it off his face with his good arm. “It makes you feel good, doesn't it?”

Leo looked down and contemplated. “I mean… yeah. But I-”

“Shouldn't?”

Leo took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

“You don't have to worry about what you should or shouldn't do here, Leo,” April said, sitting more upright to look at Leo better. “You do what you want. What makes you feel good. That's all you should worry about when you're home. Doing what you want and feeling good.”

Leo turned away, looking at the TV, paused at the end of the credits.

“If it means anything, this really made me feel good,” April said. “It's cool to have somebody to talk about ‘nerd stuff’ with. And I'm glad you liked the movies. Atomic Sub-Moon is one of my favorites. Not as good as Pluto Vacation 4, but good.”

“There's more?” Leo asked timidly.

“Oh, there's loads more!” April grinned. “There's like a jillion Last Trip to the Moons, there's Jupiter Jim and the Overly Complicated Magic System, Jupiter Jim Squared Minus One, Jupiter Jim Breaks into Federal Prison, there's tons! We can have more movie nights, if you want.”

Leo looked at the blanket laying over him, grabbing it and rubbing it between his fingers. “I think… I think I want that.”

April pumped her fist. “Sweet! This means I've still got time to win you over to the Atomic Side.”

Leo let a single laugh escape his lips. “Yeah, not happening. Jim is the best, I don't care what you say. Even Red Fox is better than Atomic Lass.”

“AH! HOW DARE YOU?!” April stood up and looked down at Leo. “Just you wait, nonbeliever. Just wait until I show you the Atomic Lass spinoff comic. Or the Atomic Lass movies. You will change.”

“I wouldn't bet on it.”

“Oh YEAH?! I will bet on it. I'll bet on it so hard, you can call me Troy Bolton.”

Leo's eyes nervously shifted from side to side, centering back on April. “...who?”

“...YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL?!”

“NO?!?”

“RAPH!”

○●○●○●○

Yippee! Part 2! Part 3 is giving me more... issues... so it might take a minute to come out. But its coming! 🟪🐢

I really leaned into Leo's inner dorkiness here. I just thought him and April bonding over their obsession with an insane astronaut man was so cute. <3 (This is also why I'm so excited for the rest of Leo's arc in the actual comic! GAH!!!)

Congrats to everyone who won the first round of @tmntaucompetition voting! Very excited for the next round coming up :)

Part 3 -> 💜

[rottenpumpkin13]

Shinra Floor New Year’s party from hell pretty plz? 🥺

The New Year's Resolution Challenge

• Sephiroth and Genesis arrive at the ballroom. Both of them are dressed in the exact same blue suit.

Sephiroth: Happy new year, director.

• Lazard doesn't reply. He takes one look at them, spits out his drink and starts laughing.

Genesis: Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want. We didn't coordinate this, you know!

Lazard: You look like two penguins—

Sephiroth: We coincidentally had the same suit and chose to wear it tonight.

Genesis: And we could not decide who got to wear it, so we gave up trying to settle the issue.

• Rufus Shinra walks by also wearing the same suit. Lazard absolutely loses his shit.

• Reno and Rude swing by, both with cameras and starts taking pictures of the trio. The camera flash is so strong, Sephiroth is blinded and topples onto Genesis. The two start squabbling on the floor. Reno takes more pictures.

• Lazard watches all of this go down. He looks at his drink sadly.

Lazard: I'm going to need something stronger.

• Later, Zack and Angeal are arguing as they walk up to the table.

Zack: You're so pessimistic!

Angeal: No, I'm not. I just think making "eat healthier" your new year's resolution when your favorite food is a deep-fried donut bacon sandwich is useless.

Genesis: What are you two on about?

Zack: Angeal doesn't think I can keep my new year's resolution! I want to eat healthier food. *he takes a bite out of his fifteenth slider*

Genesis: And I want a robot who slaps Sephiroth on command. Doesn't look like either of us are getting our wish.

Sephiroth: Zack, if you want to keep your new year's resolution, why don't you start tonight? That way, you can assess how well you'll be able to keep it.

Zack: You know what? You're right! *he throws his slider over his shoulder⏤it hits Heidegger on the back of his head* I'm starting now! From now on, no more junk food! I'm a changed ma⏤wait, look! They just brought out the cake!

Sephiroth: Zackary.

Zack: Fine, fine. You're right! I don't need cake!

Angeal: Actually, that's a great idea. Why don't we all start our new year's resolutions tonight?

Genesis: Oh-ho! Do I hear a challenge? The loser who can't keep his resolution until midnight owes everyone else G$1000.

Angeal: The only reason you're so keen on putting money in this is because you don't have a new year's resolution.

Genesis: How can I be any better than I am now?

*Everyone starts talking over each other giving suggestions*

Genesis: Okay OKAY I get it! Goddess!

Sephiroth: My new year's resolution is to be more approachable and friendlier.

Angeal: Mine is to not get stressed out too easily.

Genesis: And I'll take a vow of silence! One whole night without quoting Loveless nor speaking at all⏤

Sephiroth: FINALLY.

*Everyone looks at him*

Sephiroth: I mean *clears his throat* That sounds like a wonderful idea.

• Later, Zack and Angeal are hanging around the buffet table. Angeal is admiring the fruit display (mostly the pyramid of Banora Whites) while Zack looks longingly at the mini hotdogs.

Angeal: Why don't you have some fruit? Zack: Good idea!

• Zack reaches for one of the dumbapples at the bottom of the pyramid. Immediately the display crumbles and crashes to the ground. Over 100 apples roll around all over the place. Angeal goes red in the face and opens his mouth to scold Zack.

Zack: Ah-ah! You can't get mad at me!

*Angeal's eye twitches*

• Meanwhile, Genesis and Sephiroth are walking around the party. Genesis is silently reading his book, trying his best not to talk. They approach Kunsel and a few other SOLDIERs. Sephiroth grins big and wide.

• The SOLDIERs scream and run away.

Sephiroth: What's wrong with my smile? *Genesis opens his mouth to respond, but then the realization dawns on him. He clamps it shut again*

Sephiroth: Hm. I bet you're dying to make fun of me.

Genesis:

Sephiroth: If only someone would point out every single critical flaw of mine.

*A thick blue vein appears on Genesis's forehead*

• Meanwhile, Lazard is showing Angeal some deep breathing exercises.

Lazard: Relax, inhale. Imagine you're walking on a beach...

• A football flies in out of nowhere and hits Angeal in the face, knocking him down. Kunsel rushes up to him.

Kunsel: Apologies! Me and the guys were messing around!

Angeal: *eye twitching* It is fine.

Kunsel: You're blue.

Angeal: IT IS FINE.

• Meanwhile, Zack is watching Reno load up his plate with steak, fries and fried chicken. He's salivating.

Reno: Dude, one slice of pizza won't kill you. It's all about moderation.

Zack: No way! I'm a changed man. I don't need all that heart-attack food to be happy.

*Reno takes a bite out of a chicken wing*

*Zack immediately starts sobbing*

• Meanwhile, Sephiroth and Genesis are back at their table. Sephiroth has Genesis's copy of Loveless in hand and is reciting it wrong on purpose. Genesis is slamming his head on the table.

Sephiroth: Hath the shattered dreams of the morrow.

*BANG*

Sephiroth: Wings are lost, dreams stripped away.

*BANG*

Sephiroth: Mystery in infinite is the goddess of the gift.

*BANG*

Sephiroth: Two friends go into battle. Three of them die.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

• Meanwhile, Angeal is under a table meditating. There's ten minutes to go until midnight. He just has to last ten more minutes.

• Suddenly, there's a commotion outside. Angeal slips his head out to see that Zack has attacked president Shinra. Apparently, the president had a 20lb lobster delivered to his table and Zack went feral. Four turks are trying and failing to pull Zack away from the lobster meat on the president's plate.

• Zack has failed his new year's resolution.

• Angeal rushes out. "I TOLD YOU YOU COULDN'T DO IT! LET GO⏤LET GO OF THE MAN'S LOBSTER, ZACK! ARE YOU GROWLING AT ME!? THAT'S IT *He slips his shoe off to use it as a weapon*

• Angeal has failed his new year's resolution.

• Meanwhile, Sephiroth and Genesis approach Tseng and Rufus. Sephiroth is smiling.

Sephiroth: Good evening, gentlemen. I hope you're having a wonderful new year's eve. How are you both?

Tseng: I'm well, Sephiroth, thank you. You're being awfully sociable,

Sephiroth: It's my new year's resolution.

Tseng: You're doing a good job!

• Rufus notices Genesis's silence.

Rufus: What about you, Rhapsodos? What's your goal for the new year?

Genesis:

Rufus: Do you understand my question?

Genesis:

Rufus: Oh, have I upset you? Are you mad at me?

Sephiroth: Genesis is just shy because he has feelings for you.

*Genesis snaps his head towards him, then looks at Rufus, shaking his head violently*

Rufus: ....Is that so?

Sephiroth: Oh, yes. He's just gone on and on about how attractive and charming he finds you.

Rufus: I had no idea you felt like this, Commander.

*Genesis is glaring at Sephiroth. If looks could kill, Sephiroth would be slaughtered*

Rufus: You don't need to be shy around me, Genesis. We can talk about this like men.

Sephiroth: That would be hard to do. Genesis claims to feel emasculated around me. It appears that my⏤quote⏤strong, unyielding masculine energy provokes his inferiority complex.

*Genesis is turning purple*

Tseng: There's nothing to be ashamed of, Genesis. We all have our flaws, you especially.

• Genesis inhales.

Genesis: THAT'S IT! I DON'T NEED THIS! I DON'T NEED THIS AT ALL. I'LL PAY YOU EACH 1000 GIL! HECK, I'LL PAY YOU 10,000 GIL EACH IF IT MEANS I'LL NEVER HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!

*he turns to Tseng*

Genesis: HOW DARE YOU CLAIM I HAVE FLAWS. MY FLAWS ARE MY BUSINESS, YOU INSUFFERABLE LAP-DOG!

*he turns to Rufus*

Genesis: AND PLEASE! I AM SO OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE! HOW DARE YOU BELIEVE ALL THAT RUBBISH! THE ONLY FEELINGS I HARBOR FOR YOU, RUFUS, ARE CONTEMPT AND PITY!

*he turns to Sephiroth*

Genesis: WHENEVER YOU SMILE, YOU LOOK LIKE THE SHARK FROM FINDING NEMO!

Sephiroth:

Genesis: AND ME, FEEL EMASCULATED AROUND YOU? YOU, WITH YOUR GIRLY HAIR AND QUADRUPLE-D CHEST?? YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND.

Genesis: NOW, IF YOU GENTLEMEN WILL EXCUSE ME, I'M GOING TO GRAB A MICROPHONE, GET UP ON THAT STAGE, AND TALK FOR AN HOUR!

• Genesis stomps off angrily.

Tseng: He needs an exorcism.

Rufus: By the way, Sephiroth, why did you instruct the turks to deliver a 20lb lobster to the president's table?

Tseng: And why did you have me suggest to Angeal that he meditate under the table right across from the president's?

Sephiroth: Because I am a mastermind.

[fishsticksloser]

May request tmnt smut 🔞 one-shot of (Dom! Future Leonardo x bottom! Fem! Adult reader)?

The 2 are in official relationship, as they were trying new clothes and outfits they bought their collection were quite the spicy one and turns on, and it was enough for them to decide to take the relationship to a new level.

Truly Madly Deeply

f!Leo x fem!reader

Warnings: swearing, fluff, flirting, sex, p in v plus aftercare, fingering, oral (female receiving), first time together, Leo centered 2nd person, red eared slider courtship rituals, so much consent, Leo talks a lot, please let me know if I missed anything

A/N: This is explicit, don't like it? Move on... Sorry there's not much of reader talking, I got sick and kinda gave up... I have learned things that I would rather forget... But I'll share because I'm going insane... turtle penises are 30-40% the size of their body... Meaning the Future Leo we meet in the movie's junk is... 26.4-38.72 inches long... Because he's 7ft4in... I apologize for putting this information on you. No I don't...

"Damn, baby...!" Leo whistles, seeing you in one of your new outfits. He sits on your bed, politely commenting on your new clothes.

"This next one, I think you're really gonna like..." You smile, going back into the bathroom and changing. You looked yourself in the mirror, the dark blue lingerie laying beautiful in your skin. You step out and do a small spin for Leo. Leo's fingers are sitting in his lap, wiggling. "What you doing there, Leo?"

"Huh? Oh..." Leo looks down at his hand before hiding them. "Sorry."

"What does that mean?" You ask, smiling at him, genuinely intrigued.

"Uh..." Leo blushes, covering his face. "It's to attract a mate..." He mumbles the last part, it's almost to quiet to hear.

"So... You're flirting?" You smile, approaching him. His blush darkens and he nods slightly, watching you apprehensively. "Cute..."

"Cute!?" He gasps dramatically. Leo's fingers wiggle more, unable to stop them. Leo decides to grab your hips, pulling you onto his lap. He smiles flirtatiously. "You look amazing..."

He kisses you softly, his hand staying on your waist respectively. You can feel him smile when you wrap your arms around his neck. Leo kisses you deeper, your hands splayed out on his carapace. He flips you onto the bed, hovering over you. Somehow - guessing pure strength - he didn't break the kiss.

"Do you want to stop?" Leo pulls away and looks at you, a soft yet hungry look in his eyes. "You can tell me and this doesn't go any further. I want to make sure your comfortable, that matters more than anything."

"I don't want you to stop." You answer, nodding at him. Leo smiled softly, kissing you again, practically vibrating in excitement.

"You want to take our relationship to the next level?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?"

"Just making sure..."

Leo uses his amputated arm to hold himself up, his other caressed your side. Sparks ignited as Leo's lips brushed yours tentatively. Your lips were warm and soft, like they were every time you two kissed, still his heart raced. He almost worried his heart was beating so hard it would crack his plastron.

"I don't deserve you..."

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard..."

He hovers over you, pressing your bodies together as his heart hammers in his chest. He slowly makes his way down, his breath warm and heavy as his nose brushes your neck. Leo’s fingers trail up and down your arm, teasing over your skin, over your lingerie, over your back and shoulders. His mouth doesn’t stray far from your body, his breath hot against your ear as his hand wanders. He’s not taking the lingerie off — not yet. There’s more to this, to the way he’s touching you. Leo is exploring.

"God, you're so beautiful," he whispers into your ear, moving his tongue up your neck until finally meeting your lips with his own. He kisses you tenderly, wanting to make the first time between you just... perfect. Leonardo wraps his arm around your waist, holding you close as your tongues dance in each other's mouths. He pulls away after a moment, smiling down at you.

"Is this alright?" He asks, voice slightly breathless. "I don't want to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"Yes, yes. I'm fine." You answer, breathlessly. Leo can feel a warm hand trail up his chest, slowly drawing across his collar as it wraps around the back of his neck and pulls Leo into a kiss, you push him gently back into the mattress and press into him.

He doesn't move for a moment, stunned by your boldness, the way you take control, his heart racing as you kisses him, and for a moment, he forgets about all the things he's scared of, everything he hates about himself and just enjoys this moment.

"Is this okay...?" You all, pulling away from him. You look down, both of you absolute messes; lips swollen, eyes dilated, faces red.

"Yes, it’s okay." His voice full of affection and wonderment as the warm sensation of your touch radiates through his body, his heart still fluttering slightly. You lean back down and kiss him, slowly moving to kiss down his jaw and neck. Leo closes his eyes, relaxing into the kisses, enjoying your touch as you kiss his jaw, his neck. There’s a deep, passionate hunger to the way you kisses him, like you've been waiting for this.

You gently take his hand, guiding it to your back. Leo catches on, slowly unclipping your bra. He pulls it off, setting it to the side. His eyes are soft as he admires you, his heart beating out of his chest.

"You like what you see?" You tease.

"I love what I see," Leo replies, tracing his finger along your side. His eyes are filled with admiration, his lips parted in a slight breath for how gorgeous you look. "You’re absolutely beautiful..."

You laugh softly, tracing the dips in his plastron. "You lost all your cockiness... Still flirty, but not like normal..."

"It's you... You do all these things to me," he replies gently, brushing a few strands of hair away from your face. "You make my brain stop working, make my heart jump out of my chest. You turn me into a soft blob of whatever it is I am." Leo smiles, feeling warm in his chest as he gently traces your face with his thumb.

"Now I've got poetic Leo, huh...?" You hum softly, closing your eyes and leaning into his touch.

"I know, crazy, right?" He kisses the corner of your mouth, tracing the outline of your lips with his tongue. His eyes are warm and soft as they look at you. "I never thought I’d say this to anyone again, but I love you. You're just so damn amazing. How could I not be poetic around you...? Am I being cheesy?"

"Very, but... I love you too."

He laughs and tackles you, so you're laying underneath him again. He leans down to nibble on your neck again.

"You're beautiful, smart, funny, charming, sexy... What else can I say?" Leo holds you by your hip, pinning you down to the bed as he smiles to himself. He gives you a cocky grin and speaks in a hushed tone. "Your smile is the brightest thing I've ever seen."

"You're the most amazing person I'll ever meet. I can't believe I found you. You're so damn gorgeous... Everything about you is just perfect..." Leo starts nibbling from your collar bone up to your jaw, slowly tracing his hand up your thigh. "I want to take you to the next level, baby... So... How should we go about it?"

"Just do what feels right..."

"Your wish is my command," Leo leans down, his lips brushing gently against yours. You can feel his breath against your skin, his heartbeat pounding against you. Leo pulls back slowly, his eyes locked on to yours. Leo smirks, a devilish, playful gleam in his eyes, his hand trailing up and around your body. "You trust me, baby? Because I'm gonna make you feel really, really good."

"With my life..." You answer, watching him somewhat curiously.

“Good,” Leo replies breathlessly, trailing his lips over your chest and stomach, slowly kissing his way to your bellybutton. “Because I’m here to make you feel better than you ever thought you could. More alive than you ever knew was possible…”

"You're... You're incredibly sexy right now.." You pant, his lips still gliding over your skin.

"What can I say, I know how to treat the woman I love." Leo chuckles at your comment, kissing down your stomach. "You’re... incredibly sexy yourself," he whispers to you, his head coming up to meet yours. The heat and passion he feels for you in his eyes is practically contagious.

"Your skin is soft, your body is beautiful, and you deserve to feel it too…" Leonardo's eyes go back to your neck and stomach. "I want to make it worth it, baby. I’m only getting warmed up…"

Leo smiles at you gently, kissing you again with genuine love and affection. His hand takes your chin and holds you in the kiss, closing his eyes as he leans down to nibble on your neck, on your collarbone, working his way down to your chest.

"Anything you want, baby," he groans, kissing your stomach, trailing his hand over your thigh and up your side. "Anything to make you feel good." He whispers breathlessly. Leo gently parts his lips, blowing a soft puff of air along your stomach before leaning in, planting more kisses along your belly. "You got it, sweetheart…"

Leo hears your breath hitch as he finally remove the last piece of your clothing- your underwear. Leo pauses for a moment after pulling off your underwear, his fingers tracing your hips as he looks you over. Leo looks at the underwear for moment, biting his lip with a smile on his face.

"You're... stunning." He whispers quietly, his heart once more roaring in his chest. He looks you in the eye, concern on his face as he searches your face, seeing you're a little anxious. "You okay, baby? Do we need to stop? You want me to turn off the lights?" He cups your face in his hand, leaning in for a small kiss.

"No... No! This is just our first time together..." You mumble, shaking your head. You wrap your arms around yourself.

"I get why you’re nervous… What's on your mind? Let me help." Leo pulls himself back up, hovering above you as he waits to hear what you have to say.

"Just... I want to make you feel good too." You huff softly, crossing your arms over your chest. You pout playfully, looking up at him. "It's also not very fair for you to still have clothes on."

"I understand." He winks, his voice smooth as butter with that signature grin of his, looking down at you. With one swift movement, he pushes his sweatpants off his hips, letting them drop to the floor. He takes a deep breath, his chest rising and falling slowly as he lets you take in his body, letting his nakedness speak for him. "You're impatient."

"I'm not impatient." You continue to pout.

"You're face tells a different story, pretty girl." He chuckles under the weight of his teasing. "We can take this as slow as you want it. You know I don't want you to feel awkward or uncomfortable, right?"

"I understand and... I'm ready." You answer. Leo leans down and kisses your stomach, hand gliding over your thighs.

"Good," he purrs, his lips tracing down your belly. "Ready to have your world rocked, babe...?"

"Absolutely." You laugh, your arms wrapping around him again.

Leo flashes you the familiar smirk as your lips meet once more. "Alright, then," he whispers breathlessly, his hips grinding gently against yours. "Let’s get to it, shall we?"

Leo hears you moan softly into his mouth as he grinds his hips against you. His hand drift down to your legs, caressing them softly. He traces shapes towards your slit. His fingers gently brush your heat, experimentally.

Leo pulls away slightly and looks down at you, his tongue slipping from his mouth to brush against your neck. "You sure you’re ready to take this step?" He’s suddenly serious, his breath slow and soft as he looks into her eyes. "There’s no taking it back."

"Yes I'm sure... I want this. I want you." You reply, cupping his face gently.

He smiles thoughtfully and kisses your cheek. "Alright, babe," Leo whispers slowly, "I'm going to make this great, you have my word…" He kisses you again, moving his hand up your ankle and leg. After a second, he trails his fingers up and around your thigh. He pauses, taking a deep inhale before kissing your hips and stomach again, feeling your breathing speeding up. "Slow and steady wins the race, yeah...?"

You nod and snort slightly at his little joke. Leo smiles widely before kissing your hips and down to your thighs. He gently drapes your thighs over his shoulders, resting your legs on his shell. Leo kisses, nibbles, and licks his way to where you needed him most. He gives a tentative lick along your folds. He pauses and makes eye contact with you, asking if he could continue. Once he gets a small nod from you, he practically dives in. Leo may be a bit sloppy due to his excitement, but he makes sure you're feeling good - keeping eye contact so he can see any and every change in your face. Leo pulls away for a moment to catch his breath and to somewhat change directions. He slowly pushes a thick finger into you, kissing your thighs to relax you. Leo is still studying your face to check for any changes.

"Are you okay?" He asks, breathlessly. He moves back down, kissing your stomach softly, waiting for an answer.

"I'm fine." You answer just as softly, he smiles up at you before pushing his finger in more. Leo smiles smugly to himself as he watches your head fall back against the bed. He slowly thrusts his finger into you, not wanting to hurt you. He gently pushes his other finger in, watching you intimately. He's slow, methodical. Stretching you out while also being soft and gentle.

"Tell me if it hurts, okay?" He asks softly, with a slight bit of concern. He removes his fingers and finally kneeling between your legs. He kisses all over your face, pushing in slowly. Leo feels you squirm and he stops, pausing and looking up at you intently. "Are you ok? Did that hurt?" His voice is soft, gentle, and concerned, and he wants to make sure you’re comfortable. "Please let me know. It’s totally ok if you want to stop."

"I'm okay, promise." You answer softly. Leo nods and kisses you quickly. He presses himself against your body, pushing into you like before, to make sure you're fully comfortable.

"We can do this at a pace you're comfortable at. We don't have to rush… This can go at whatever speed you want it to." He moves his hand back to your waist, kissing your neck once more before moving his hand back down to your thigh. Leo continues with small and gentle movements, watching your face and expressions to make sure you’re alright. Leo stops when you whine, frowning worriedly. He looks at you intently. "Are you ok? Should I stop? Are you in pain?" he asks frantically, stopping all motion and pulling out slightly. "Please tell me what to do. I don't want to bring you any hurt or pain!" he says, sounding legitimately worried for you.

Leo frowns, still worried about hurting you. He pulls out completely now, looking at you for any signs that something is wrong. “I’m so sorry. I really don’t want to hurt you, I promise.” He sighs softly. "Do you want to keep trying, or do you want to just stop?"

"No! I'm okay." You promise. Leo moves slowly, trying to be very careful not to hurt you. He looks up at your face intently and then looks back down again.

"Tell me everything that you're feeling, ok? I want to make sure you're comfortable and that you're ok." His voice is soft and soothing, as he continues his patient movement. Leo slows to a stop, as far in as your body allows. He looks up at you intently, his eyes conveying a sense of calm and a desire to put your well-being ahead of his own desires, and moves his fingers into your hair, starting to stroke it. "Ok-Okay, I'll just stay right here for a bit now," You hear a hint of concern in his tone, as he looks at you earnestly, his eyes full of concern. Leo pulls out slightly to give you some space to adjust to his size. He waits patiently, looking down at you for any sign that you're ok.

"Okay... I'm okay." You breathe. Leo starts moving again, going slowly once more. You can tell that he's trying his hardest to be careful, and he still stops every few seconds to make sure that you're okay. His eyes are filled with concern as he looks down at you intently, and his heart is filled with a profound desire to respect you and make you feel safe and comfortable. When you let out a soft moan, he feels his face flush, and his breathing deepens. He moves his mouth closer to you, kissing the corner of your mouth.

"You're so beautiful… you're so perfect." he whispers. He kisses your cheek for a moment before pulling back and slowly starting to speed up. His eyes are filled with love, and his breath grows heavier as he gets into the rhythm. Leo smiles, watching your face and body react. "Wow. You like that, huh?" He asks, continuing his slow, deliberate strokes. He looks up at you, waiting for a reply with a look of soft-hearted adoration.

Leo chuckles as he hears your moans. "I'll take that as a yes," he says with a grin. "I'm glad you're having a good time." He moves to kiss you gently. "You feel amazing… You're so beautiful, you know that. You're perfect. Absolutely perfect." The words fall out of his throat, as he stares into your eyes, he's breathing heavily through his nose now, his face growing red with his face covered in sweat. His eyes convey an immeasurable amount of desire and passion.

Leo pulls you close to him as he speeds up a tad. His eyes are filled with adoration as he watches you intently, wanting you to feel good and to get the most out of this. It's obvious just how much you mean to him, and how you're an integral part of his life. He keeps going, wanting this to be something you'll remember fondly. Leo's forehead falls against yours. "I'm close…Are you close too?"

"Yes!" You tell him quickly. Leo continues his movements, not wanting to stop for even a moment. He's lost in the moment, in the intimacy, in the passion, and he's just so in awe of you.

Leo kisses you once more, passionately and intensely, you both climax together, before he pulls away slowly. His breath is heavy, and he seems completely content. His face is filled with passion and pride, and he looks down at you fondly with eyes full of pure adoration.

"Wow… That was incredible…" His voice drips with awe, love, and warmth. He slowly pulls out, trying to make it as painless as possible. "You're so beautiful and so perfect! I can't believe I get to love you,"

"Quite the charmer..." You hum softly, completely breathless, kissing him again.

“Did you like it that much? Am I that good?” Leo asks with an amused grin. He kisses you again, softly and tenderly. You shove him playfully, watching him dramatically fall onto the bed next to you. Leo chuckles at your reaction. “Alright… I’m sorry, I don’t mean to come across as conceited.” He sighs softly, still teasing slightly. “But that was… incredible. I’m really glad I was able to pleasure you.”

You snort at him and kiss him gently, leaning over him. "Clean up time..." You mumble softly.

"Bath?"

"Preferable... As long as you join me."

"I'm going anywhere my queen desires." He winks at you. Leo scoops you up and carries you to the bathroom, setting you on the toilet so he can prep the bath. Leo helps you slide in once its' ready before sliding in behind you. "You're a queen," he whispers into your ear. "A goddess, the most beautiful woman I've had the pleasure of meeting in all of my years."

You spin around in the tub to face him, kissing him hard. Leo's caught off guard by your surprise, aggressive kiss and flushes red, knocking his breath out of him. A low moan escapes his throat as he slowly lays down in the water with you, kissing you back with passion as he holds you closely. "You know I love you, sweetpea," he mumbles with a soft smile.

[babygirl-diaz]

Lookin' Good Good Looking

Kinda inspired by Ryan's new IG story

***

Eddie would deny if ever asked, but he liked to dress up and make himself look good. He especially loved to make himself look good for his boyfriends. Now that they had their daughter, Eddie temporarily took time away from firefighting to work at dispatch, he had a lot more time on hand. So he put that time to good use by learning new recipes for his boyfriends and son and learning new ways to make himself look good. Tonight was one of those rare nights when Chris was away at his friend's place and both Tommy and Buck were going to be at home since their shifts ended early. So the three of them decided to make a date night out of it.

After getting off work, Eddie picked Lily up from daycare and took her home. He let her nap while getting everything ready for dinner.

It was a movie and dinner in the backyard kinda night. The three of them bought a house with a big backyard with the sole purpose of holding movie nights in the back with their friends, but tonight it was just the three of them.

Dinner was all movie theater themed food. He got everything ready for the build-your-own nachos bar, as well as the mini sliders and hot dogs. By the time he finished snacks and dessert, Lily was awake. He brought her to the kitchen and fed her some mashed veggies which she always ate with little fuss.

"You like that huh?" Eddie cooed to the 6-month-old and leaned over to kiss the top of her head.

Lily made gurgled noises in return, making Eddie laugh.

"After this, you're gonna help Daddy pick out his clothes for tonight."

Lily giggled at that and clapped her hands together.

"You're so cute," Eddie said in awe and picked her up from her high chair. He took her to the sink and had her wash her hands and face before taking her to his room, where had one of her playpens. He put her in it and then started looking for what to wear. He found a white shirt with small flowers on it, picked up a pair of blue chinos, and showed it to Lily. "What do you think, Lily?"

He didn't get any reaction from her and she instead just blinked up at him with her big brown eyes.

"Yeah, I didn't think so either." Eddie frowned at the clothes in his hands like they had offended him personally. He threw them aside and picked up the next pair.

After seven tries, he finally got a reaction from Lily when he picked out a light pink shirt and paired it with white pants. This was a new set he had just bought but never worn because he wasn't sure he could pull it off.

But Lily seemed to love it as she made happy noises and clapped her hands together again.

"I like this too, but I don't know if I can pull it off," Eddie told her.

Lily just tilted her head to the side and blinked at him.

"You're right, I should try it, anyway."

After that, Eddie left to take a shower, letting Lily continue to play in her playpen.

After showering, he got ready and looked at himself in the mirror, letting out a deep breath. He looked good if he said so himself. The pink brought out the color in his cheeks and the tight white pants accentuated his thighs and even his ass when he turned to look at it.

Eddie put all the products in his hair and spiked it but he didn't like how it looked so after several tries, he finally just put it back like he usually did and left it at that.

"What do you think, Lily?" He asked his daughter who just giggled in return.

"I'll take that as a good sign," Eddie replied and picked her up.

He put sunglasses and a hat on her and took her to the backyard in her stroller where he set everything for movie night. Once the chairs were lined up and the projector was set, Eddie sat down on the chair with Lily and looked up at the sky as the day started changing to night.

He bounced Lily in his lap and cooed to her, making her cheer happily in return.

When Eddie looked at his watch, he realized it was close to 8 and Buck and Tommy still weren't home. He sent them both a text and got a quick reply from Buck telling him they were still on a call. Tommy, however, did not reply. Eddie tried not to let that concern him as he figured Tommy was probably flying.

Eddie's stomach growled at some point but he ignored it and instead played with his daughter. He doesn't know when, but sleep soon took over him and he fell asleep on the chair with Lily protectively held against his chest.

"Eddie."

Eddie heard his name being called and slowly opened his eyes. Buck's face came into view and Eddie couldn't help but smile softly, "Hey."

"Hey," Buck replied stroking the back of Eddie's cheek with his hand. "Looks like you and Lily took a nice long nap."

Eddie felt something heavy on his chest and looked down to see Lily fast asleep. "What time is it?"

"10," Buck replied.

"Sorry, we got home late."

Eddie looked over to his other side and saw Tommy giving him a remorseful smile.

"It's okay." Eddie sat up slowly, making sure not to wake Lily up. "I'll put her to bed."

"I got it," Buck offered and took Lily from him.

Once Buck left, Tommy squeezed into the seat with Eddie, making Eddie chuckle as the lounge chair wasn't big enough for two men their size. Tommy pulled Eddie into his lap and kissed him. "You look beautiful," he told him.

"Yeah?" Eddie asked as he got up and straddled Tommy's lap instead.

"Mhmm," Tommy hummed, slipping his hands inside Eddie's shirt. "You made yourself look pretty for us?"

"I made myself look pretty for me," Eddie replied, smirking. "And maybe you two too."

"Feeling a little left out here, fellas," Buck said coming over to them and pulling another chair close. "Damn, you look really nice by the way, babygirl."

Eddie blushed at that. "Thank you," he said.

"That's what I said," Tommy added. "I feel worse now for coming home late."

Eddie shook his head, "Hey, don't be. Work is important."

"Not as important as you," Buck replied. "Either one of you or our family."

"I agree," Tommy replied and kissed Eddie before leaning in to kiss Buck as well.

Eddie also kissed Buck before laying his head down on Tommy's chest and reaching out to take Buck's hand. "So do we still wanna do movie night?" He asked them.

"Hell yeah, we do," Buck replied. "We promised each other a movie and dinner date and that's what we're going to do. Besides, I think I saw nacho toppings in the kitchen."

"And I saw some chocolate strawberries in the freezer," Tommy told him, smirking.

"Were you two snooping?" Eddie playfully narrowed his eyes at them.

"Of course we were," Buck replied and kissed the tip of Eddie's nose.

"Thanks for doing this, Eddie," Tommy told him and brought Eddie’s hand to his mouth, kissing his knuckles. 

Eddie chuckled and tried hard not to blush again but failed.

[itzzaira]

TMNT Fandom Family Reunion - Campfire event || short story

Based off of these tags below from this post (tags belong to Allyheart707, their tumblr tagged below)

You thought you could hide these there and I wouldn’t notice? ✨️

Cabin 10 - the besties

Little Subjects - @allyheart707

The Wrong Side of the Portal - me!

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

--------

Heishi was not someone who took breaks.

He fought, he thought, he planned, he trained, he was on the lookout- the little slider was always doing something.

Anything at all.

Don't stop.

Just so he wouldn’t be seen as weak, or a waste, or-

Just to hopefully make his Master proud. Just to be enough. Just once. That's all he wanted.

Keep going.

But as if that hadn't been hard enough before, these other three stupid turtles made it so hard!

Like seriously?! Sitting around a stupid campfire listening to stupid stories and making those stupid snacks that actually tasted amazing- aaaugh Heishi no!

He shouldn't be liking those snacks. They weren't healthy. They made him weak.

Weak.

Heishi refused to be weak.

...Yet, against his will, he was still roasting a marshmallow above the campfire.

Mikey had pushed one into his hands- heck, he had even invited Heishi to join him and the other two, but the young warrior had simply huffed, shook his head, crossed his arms, and looked away. He shouldn't be here, he had things to do! Like train! Or anything! Just more! He had to do more!

Not enough.

Curse the other big Raph for managing to convince him to stay.

"Say, none of these guys have had any training, right?" The big Raphael had said, watching as his own version of Heishi- who he kept calling 'Leonardo' was handing Mikey a s'more. "And there's a lot of new people here... so wouldn’t they need a tough warrior to keep an eye on them? Just in case they got into trouble?"

...Well.

If he was stuck here anyway. He might as well keep watch.

Keep working.

It wasn't the best thing to do, but... it wasn't the worst thing either. Heishi liked these guys.

Currently, both Mikey and Donnie were asleep, leaning against the log they had been sitting on earlier with a blanket tugged around them. Raph sat on said log, having been dozing off but woke up when the other Raphael tried to tuck a blanket around him too. "Go back to sleep, kid." The big one whispered, patting his shell. Raph, however, slowly shifted his gaze to look at Heishi.

"...Leo." The snapper whispered, holding out am arm sleepily. The slider scoffed.

"Heishi." He corrected.

"Leo."

"Heishi."

Even though he acted annoyed about the name, 'Leo' didn't feel as bad as it should. Which just made poor Heishi feel worse. Why did the name sound right? He didn't want it to! Master Draxum would be so angry at him for disrespecting the name his creator had given him-

"Don't you feel tired, bud?" The big turtle asked- he wasn't the same species as Raph. He didn't even have freckles- he did have a crack in his plastron and wore a red bandana. "It's late."

"No." Heishi shook his head, stubbornly facing the fire, ignoring the other three tots completely. "Warriors don't sleep. Need to keep watch." Even if his eyes were drooping. Even if he felt exhausted. He had to keep awake and finish the job he had been assigned.

Try. Harder.

"...Ah-ha." Raphael looked a bit confused but didn't argue. He wasn't as nice as Raph. "...Aren't you like- four?"

Excuse me? "No! I'm big!"

"Five?"

Heishi huffed, puffing out his cheeks and glaring in an attempt to look angry- but in Raphael's eyes, he just looked stupid. However, there was something else...

This was familiar.

"...Alright, bud." The turtle decided- and for a brief moment, he looked at 'Leonardo', so fast Heishi almost missed it- but he noticed. Why did he look at Leonardo like that? Why did he give that same look to the tiny slider? "But you do know you need to be close to those you guard, right?"

...What? Heishi looked up, confused. Raphael nodded, a serious expression on his face.

"Come on, every warrior knows that." He said, placing both his hands on his hips. "How are you supposed to protect those you guard when you're far away? Evil will get to them before you can!"

Humans.

Heishi had never heard of such thing before- Master Draxum never told him. So. Was Raphael lying? But Raph didn't lie. And Raphael was Raph. Just from another world, but older. So Raphael wouldn’t lie either, right? Did that mean master Draxum hadn't taught him something? But why?

'Well duh.' His mind supplied. 'He probably thought you weren't ready for such a responsibility! You fail all the time!'

This was Heishi's chance to prove he could do something.

With a newfound determination, the young turtle nodded and got up. This caused him to remember he still had been roasting a marshmallow- and cringed when he saw how burned it had gotten. Raphael patted his back- that felt nice. Why did it feel nice-? "I'll get you a new one, kiddo, just sit down."

Heishi nodded, threw the marshmallow on the ground, and held the stick in front of him as some sort of sword as he marched over to where his brothers the other three turtles slept. He could do it! He would do great! Because he was Heishi. The greatest warrior of them all!

He saw down, stick in his lap.

He wouldn’t fail. Not this time.

.......

.........

...........

Okay this was boring.

Heishi yawned, shook his head, then looked at the fire. The fire was pretty. It was bright, warm, and... so cozy. And useful. For keeping warm, for cooking...

...Okay. Those marshmallows were not as bad as the young turtle had claimed them to be. He hoped the other Raph would bring more soon he actually wanted one. Plus! Food is important! To grow big! And strong! It wasn't his fault that that happened to be sweet treats.

...Not like Master Draxum was there to tell him no.

A soft murmur had him looking to his left- Mikey shifted slightly in his sleep but didn't wake, holding a bit more onto Donnie, squishing his cheek onto the other's shoulder. Heishi couldn't help but snicker. But he yawned afterward and leaned his back on the log behind him.

...Actually... now that he wasn't sitting up anymore... he was pretty tired.

But- no! He said he would watch over these guys! That's his job! He couldn't just abandon his job. No way!

Try harder.

But he was so tired.

Not enough.

Tiredness didn't matter! This place was new. He didn't know anyone. Who knows what kind of dangers there were lurking around?

Failure.

But the campfire was cozy. Everyone was laughing and talking. There were blankets and marshmallows shared everywhere. Best of all- barely any humans at all.

So.

This place couldn't be that bad, right?

His eyes drooped, and the little turtle looked up at the ceiling, trying to think.

...The ceiling was pretty.

Colorful, sparkly, glittery- were all caves this pretty? And dreamy. And soothing... and...

He hadn't even been aware that he had been dozing off until an arm wrapped around him.

Heishi blinked his eyes open (when had he closed them?) Surprised to see Raph- his Raph, (just barely) awake, no longer sleeping on the log but now sitting in the floor next to him, trying to pull the young slider close. "You looked cold..." he murmured, pulling the blanket and clumsily trying to cover Heishi with it too.

For whatever strange reason, the younger turtle didn't push him away as he should.

Instead, he let Raph pull him into a hug, just like when he had done in the lab. Curling up in his lap on instinct, his tail doing a little wag when he felt the older one's arms wrap around him. Raph put his head on top of Heishi's, blinking slowly, while lifting his knees- causing Heishi to snuggle closer to the snapper. That was fine. The slider nuzzled into his neck. This was nice.

...Maybe Heishi wasn't watching over them right because he was tired?

He yawned, and snuggled closer to Raph. The snapper shared his blanket with him, making sure he was fully covered before leaning back. The blanket was thin and soft. So soft.

So... if he was messing up because he was tired. That meant he should sleep, right?

"Sorry it took so long, kid, apparently someone tried to take the marsh-...oh."

"Shh." Raph shushed above him, pressing his fingers to his lips. Raphael nodded, unsure what to do with the marshmallows now. Sad. Heishi had wanted some- but he was sleepy. He would take some tomorrow, then, he was already drifting off.

At some point, a second blanket got thrown over them- Heishi opened his eyes a little bit to see his own counterpart, 'Leonardo'- the one in blue smiled gently once they made eye contact. "Go back to sleep, baby blue." He whispered- Heishi didn't understand that nickname. He should ask tomorrow, once he was awake. He instead hummed for now, relaxed, and fell asleep for real this time.

But not before he felt arms tightening around him, and hearing the softest 'Goodnight, Leo.' whispered to him that he ever heard, while another, bigger hand, patted his head.

[britt-kageryuu]

Leo is streaming, lounging on the big beanbag chair again. His model is in space themed comfy clothes, with slippers, and a star covered mask.

He was playing through a rouge like game, not fully sure what he needs to do yet, but still having fun fighting off the multiple waves of enemies. It's noted that he's sticking to the sword based weapons, even if there are multiple weapons available from the beginning.

Suddenly the graphic of a cartoony slider riding a skateboard, rolls across the screen followed by "Thank You Chaotic_CinnamonRoll for the $10, 'Why did you decide to go into the medical field? You might've mentioned medical books in the past?'"

Leo let out a nostalgic sigh, "Well, that was part of why I got into medical stuff, let me tell ya. I think Dee mentioned how we didn't have legal identification for years, so if something happened with us Dad couldn't really take us to any medical facility. But he got ahold of as much supplies, and field medic training manuals, and medical guides as he could find." Leo has a smile on his face as he continues, "And while Dee is big on science, they don't like viscera, so Pops started to show me how to help. It just goes from there."

Leo spys a comment in chat, "For the person asking about Pops not using insurance, well after his sudden retirement, he didn't have insurance anymore, and he didn't know how to apply." Leo lets out another sigh, "Plus he wasn't familiar with how things worked, because he had a manager or assistant to do all that stuff for him. He was just a confused father of 4 who was trying his best while dealing with his own depression! I'm not trying to justify anything, just stating a fact."

Leo suddenly stretched himself out to grab something and rolled over onto his stomach, facing away from the camera, he's grabbed his phone to check a notification that wasn't heard over the mic, for once. What ever the message was it made his happy, because his tail was wagging a bit fast. He spends a few minutes messaging back and forth with who is assumed to be Leo's boyfriend.

He eventually remembered that he was in the middle of a stream, and sheepishly apologized for ignoring them.

"So since this game is newer than most that I've played, there aren't many guides on what I chould do yet. Sooo I gotta keep throwing things at the enemy and see what's most effective. Like that, wait was he a Croc, or and Aligator? Either way he was the first mini boss! Image how hard the other will be until we get more upgrades!" Leo says excitedly as he goes over the upgrades menu after returning to the start after dying right after the boss, from low health. "We also got this new 'Side Scroller Beatem Up' game because it and the DLC was one sale. Though that might be better played with more players, and our schedules don't always line up multiple people being on the stream. Plus I promised Dee our next game would be his choice."

Leo is half focused on going through the upgrade menus, and talking to the characters around the hub area. Thinking that the blue guy he was playing as could lighten up a bit, be more like the orange dude, but hey their Dad is missing and everything is tense. And where is the last person of the group, or do they only appear after going a certain distance in the game?

"Though I do like the look of that spikey turtle dude, reminded me of Red, though he's wearing, was it dark blue or a deep teal, either way cool dude. Hope he shows up in the hub area. Now do I want to switch to one of the other 3, or just continue as my blue guy?" Leo is rambling, if only because the analytical part of his mind is currently at war with the 'Oh Shiney! What was I doing?' part of his mind. "ALSO! What is with the odd element system that the flavor text is talking about, not the water I get that, this Utrom thing, it's kind described as tech based, but what is an Utrom? Why am I asking chat when they mostly say they've never seen this game before?... Did I forget to take my medicine, because I don't usually ramble my thoughts out loud this much."

He then pauses the game to check his phone for his medical data. "So I need to take a break again real quick. I either didn't take my medicine, or somehow took the wrong medication. So please hold while I go check. And don't any of you go looking up the game to purposefully cause spoilers. I want to figure out enough on my own first. Okay BRB!"

The screen switches over to an animated scene of the guys cartoony turtle selves are swimming about, though Mikey is jumping between Raph and Leo, and slightly submerging Leo in the process. Donnies is occasionally trying to bite Leo for bumping into him.

The chat is talking among themselves, notifications are going off, and some jokes about the medic taking the wrong medication.

------------------

Masterpost

I still don't quite understand my own writing process. Like I had only the 'why I got into the medical field' part planned, then just decided to have him ramble about the game which is 'TMNT Splintered Fate' but not quite. Then at the last minute I was like 'I should make up a reason for him being very ramble-y right now'.

If I should change this, let me know. I do like feedback.

[hotgirlbedtimescenarios]

The Beginning: Chapter 1

Javier Peña x f!reader / (2,849)

Summary: Fresh out of college, you just moved to Austin, Texas, and are starting fresh. It's Friday night, so you take yourself out to the bar for a quiet dinner and drink but end up blushing under the gaze of the gorgeous older man you meet.

Notes: This is my first ever fanfic, so go easy on me! Im not sure how long this series will be or the direction it will take, besides smutty ;). Please let me know what you guys are interested in or what you'd like to see so I can create the fantasies you girlies are dying to have come to life.

Disclaimers: This series is for adults over the age of 18.

It's your first Friday night after moving to Texas the week before. Your apartment is finally clear of cardboard boxes and miscellaneous piles of your belongings crammed into corners or atop every available bit of counter space.

The move was exciting and stressful following the whirlwind of a month you had prior. Graduating college, landing your first job hundreds of miles away, and saying goodbye to friends and family has kept you busy for so long. Now, you find yourself settled and alone in a new city which is why you decided to take yourself on a much-needed self-care date night.

You had been holed up in the apartment all week unpacking, ordering takeout, and wondering how the hell you were going to create a life here in Austin where you know a total of zero people.

Tonight, instead of feeling sorry for yourself you decided to explore your new city and act like the adult you are trying to become. You brush your hair and wear it down along with a light dusting of makeup. Just enough to make you feel like you got ready but nothing major. You throw on your favorite skirt and tank top combo then slide into some shoes and head out the door.

Summer in Austin is in full swing, even at 8 p.m. with the sun down and the breeze blowing, your skin is flush from walking a few blocks through downtown to the cozy dinner spot you scouted earlier in the week.

The restaurant is bathed in cozy dim lighting from the warm string lights overhead and Edison bulb fixtures found in every other trendy spot downtown. It's just the vibe you were going for, perfect for sitting alone at the bar with a book, a few apps, and a strong drink to ride out the night which is exactly what you do.

You cross the restaurant and reach the bar at the back wall, offering a smile to the bartender who greets you and tells you to sit wherever you like. You choose the left most barstool and sit down to empty the contents of your slouchy, knit tote bag you had slung across your shoulder. You place your book and cell phone onto the dark mahogany countertop and relax into the chair.

“What can I get for you tonight?” the bartender asks. “Dinner or drinks?”

“Espresso martini and a menu please”

“You got it”

Several minutes later with your drink placed before you and your order of garlic parmesan french-fries and sliders on the way, you take in your surroundings. It's dim, and cozy, and the restaurant is busy but it's mostly groups of what looks like college students who occupy big tables or couples out for date night. You don’t mind being here alone though, it will be nice to have a night to dive into your delicious romance novel in the corner with no one to bother you. Speaking of, you turn back to your book and crack it open as you take a sip of your martini. You aren’t sure how much time passes, but your food arrives and you thank the bartender who promises you a second martini is on the way before you even have to ask.

“You read my mind,” you say, and he chuckles as he walks away. You dig into your sliders which are greasy and indulgent, exactly what you wanted. You turn your attention to your fries and pick at them as you pick your book back up and focus on the story once again. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a figure moving towards the bar and when you look up you can't help but stare.

Walking in your direction is a tan-skinned man with dark hair sweeping to the side with a few stray stands falling down the front of his forehead towards his eyes. He walks slowly and swaggering, the sway of his hips telling you exactly how confident he is. Dressed in dark tight-fitting jeans, a blue button-up shirt, and a black leather jacket, the man looks a bit brooding and serious as he sits 4 barstools to your right.  Before you get caught staring you tear your eyes away from the man who, admittedly is very handsome despite being at least 20 years older than you.

You force your eyes back to your book, but you aren’t reading a word because you are too aware of the stranger sitting a couple of feet away from you. You hear him order a whiskey and you sneer, the last time you had whiskey was at your graduation party which ended up giving you the most outrageous hangover of your life.

“What’s wrong with whiskey?” you hear a gruff, deep voice ask in your direction.

You startle and look up at the stranger “Uh.. what?”

He turns his head in your direction “The look on your face. You seem offended by my drink of choice.” His eyes are big brown and dark but seem to sparkle despite the tension on his face. His jawline is strongly defined, and he has a masculine nose with a thick dark mustache perched atop full pouty lips.

Your face flushes when you snap back to reality and realize he is still staring straight at you waiting for a response. “Oh, you saw that?” you say embarrassingly, damn your inability to keep your facial expressions to yourself. “Whiskey reminds me of a few messy moments if I'm being honest”.

“Huh” he chuckles, “it seems to help me forget about mine.” His gruff words brought darkness to his eyes and creased lines into his forehead.

Before you have a chance to even think about that convoluted response the bartender returns with both your drink and the handsome stranger's whiskey on ice. “Any food for you tonight sir?”

“Are those any good?” he asks, turning to you and nodding towards the fries, catching you off guard yet again.

“Oh yeah, pretty fucking good” The words come out faster and easier than you thought they would. Under the weight of the man's gaze, you would usually be a bit shy, but your martinis have given you just enough liquid courage to set your anxieties aside.

“Some fries and another whiskey when they come out,” he orders and sits back in his chair. The waiter leaves and now it's just you and the stranger. “I’m Javier by the way.”

You tell him your name but after that, no other words pass between you. Eventually, you move your focus back to your book as the stranger drinks and picks at his fries that finally come.

By now, you are a couple of chapters deep, nursing your third espresso martini, and internally squealing at the sexual tension between the main characters in the book you're reading. You live for that tension and desire that frankly; you haven’t had in a long time. Dating in college consisted of a few flings here and there but nothing substantial and certainly nothing as delicious as what your favorite romance characters get to experience.

“That must be good,” Javier says to you with a smirk on his face. His eyes glanced from the blush on your cheeks to the book in your hands.

Your face goes red hot, and you meet his eyes. Your lips part, trying to come up with something to excuse your flustered look, but you know from the smirk on his face that you’ve been caught red-handed reading smut at the bar. You are about to drown in embarrassment but instead, you decide to feign unconcern and quip back, “A hell of a lot better than any real man has been.”

“Oh,” he says taken aback by your brazenness “, that’s a real shame. A pretty girl like you deserves the best.” His big brown eyes roam down your body and drink in the sight of you. He pauses ever so slightly at the hem of your skirt and when his eyes rise again to meet yours in challenge, they seem a bit darker than before.

Internally you are screaming, why the hell would you say that to a man you don’t even know? How do you even navigate this conversation when you are pretty sure has taken a very sharp turn into flirtatious territory?

Your brain is scrambling to come up with a solution to abort the mission but then you pause. You are an adult woman out in her new city, flirting with the hottest older man you’ve ever seen, and he seems interested in you. Why should you end things when you could pursue some romance of your own instead of living vicariously through your books? And hell, Austin is huge, you probably won't ever see this guy again after tonight so you might as well have a little fun.

You settle into your decision then meet his eyes with your own smirk and ask “And where can I find the best, Javier?”

The second his name leaves your mouth, you sense the change in mood, it's game on. The corner of his mouth turns up into a smile, and he rises from his barstool to stalk towards you. His eyes don’t leave yours as he takes the seat directly next to your and responds, “You’re looking at him.”

Your blood heats and nerves twist in your stomach. You’ve never met someone so straightforward but god it’s exciting. “You sound a bit cocky if you ask me.” You tease and lean forward, closing the distance between the two of you.

Before Javier can respond the bartender comes back and clears his throat, noticing the air around the two of you. You straighten up in an attempt to hide your flirting and look forward as the bartender lets you know that the restaurant is closing and he is about to bring the cheques.

“Add her to mine,” Javier says and hands the bartender his card before you have a chance to interject. The bartender rolls his eyes and lets out a huff but does as he is instructed. Weird, you think to yourself. Maybe he’s just annoyed because he has to redo the cheques. You don’t give it any more thought because your mind is a bit warm and fuzzy thanks to the handful of drinks you’ve had tonight.

Surprised, you thank Javier and excuse yourself to the bathroom while he waits to close out. When you return, Javier and the bartender are having an exchange that you can't quite hear. Whatever it is, both of their faces are plastered with scowls. When you reach the bar, Javier is staring down the bartender, his eyes dark and jaw clenched “None of your business” he says to the man and then he stalks outside to wait for you on the sidewalk.

You glance back at the bartender and ask, “What was that?”

“Nothing,” he says. “Just be careful.” He huffs, then walks away, leaving you alone.

Confused, you pack your things back into your totebag and make your way outside to meet Javier. When you step out and see him on the sidewalk, his brows are knit, and his fists are clenched. You even see a muscle tick in his jaw before he turns to look at you.

“What's wrong?” you ask, taking a worried step toward him.

He stands straight, keeping his distance, and says,” Apparently, I’m taking advantage of you” he spits out.

“Where the hell did you get that idea?” you balk.

He nods his head toward the restaurant. “I'm sorry if you feel that way.” Reaching up and running his hand through his hair, “I guess I got carried away.”

“Well, in case you didn’t notice, I'm old enough to make decisions for myself and everyone else can mind their own damn business.”

His eyes meet yours again, but you can see that the fire behind them is gone, and instead, they are empty. “Listen, sorry if I gave you the wrong idea, sweetheart. I enjoyed meeting you, though.”

Annoyed at the turn of events, you respond, “So that’s it? What happened to me deserving the best?”

He lets out a sigh “You do, but I’m far from it.” He says darkly.

You can feel the wall Javier is stacking up between the two of you. The flirtation is gone, and the night you were beginning to look forward to was slipping away. “Well, it was nice to meet you anyways, have a good night.” you clip and turn away to walk home.

Before you make it too far, you hear Javier walking behind you, so you stop and turn around. “You don’t want to talk to me anymore, but you’ll stalk me through the streets?” you slur at him a bit rudely.

He walks right up to you frowning and says, “I’ll at least walk a drunk girl home late at night. I might be an asshole, but I'm not stupid.”

“I’m not drunk,” you scoff, crossing your arms and starting to walk away again.

Like before, you hear him trailing behind  “Maybe not drunk, but definitely tipsy.”

You give up on trying to get rid of Javier and let him catch up to you. You spend the 15-minute walk home together mostly in silence, but he does ask a few questions. You tell him you're new to Austin, how you got there, and why. You try to ask him a few questions as well, but he is a lot less forthcoming with information. Eventually, you make it to the entrance to your apartment budling, and you stop mid-stride.

He pauses, “This is where you live?”

You nod, waiting for him to turn and leave, but he doesn’t. “Are you waiting for me to invite you up? I thought you weren’t interested anymore?” You say.

“Never said that,” he grumbles “But no, that’s not what I'm waiting for. I'm making sure you get inside, and then I'm gone,” he says coldly.

“I don’t need you to take care of me, you know. I can do that just fine myself. In fact, I was fine on my own tonight before you played hot and cold.”

You can't help but be annoyed with the blatant rejection from this man you just met tonight. You didn’t go out with hopes of meeting someone to bring home for the night, but when the handsome velvet-voiced man sat beside you, you were instantly captivated. Not to mention when he started flirting with you, which had your cheeks blushing and your stomach full of butterflies. It was almost embarrassing how quickly you'd decided to spend the night with him, but then he changed his mind at the drop of a hat.

Your words struck him somewhere deep “Listen honey, I’m sorry about that, but you don’t want this, you don’t want me.” He said with a pained but stern voice.

“And what if I do? Just for one night?” you say, looking up at him, pleading.

“Then you'd be wrong.” He says, then clenches his jaw and begins to walk away.

You watch him continue down the street for a few steps before turning to walk inside your apartment building's first floor and to the elevator.  You're still thinking about the gravel in his voice and the way it had you hanging on to every last word back at the bar when you finally make it to the door of your third-floor apartment.

You search for the keys in your tote bag and let out a sigh when you hear the door unlock and push inside. Kicking off your shoes and locking the door behind you, you shuffle through the living room and into the bedroom.

Glancing at the clock on your bedside table, you see that it’s just shy of 11. Now that you're home and the excitement of the night is disappointingly over, you can feel the tiredness creeping up on you. Before you change, you walk up to close the blinds on the window beside your bed.

You were actually so excited about the windows in your new apartment because you have a great view of downtown Austin from your living room. Unfortunately, though, your bedroom window points directly at a window in the neighboring building, so it's much less exciting, or so you thought.

Right before you close the blinds, you see the light in the room of that neighboring window flick on, and a pair of broad shoulders hidden inside a familiar black leather jacket stride into that bedroom. You let out a gasp and watch as Javier fully enters the bedroom and throws his jacket and keys onto the dresser across from his bed. As he turns to close the blinds precisely as you were about to do, he freezes, and his eyes meet yours.

Maybe he was right; you might be drunk. Or maybe you just want him to see what he’s missing out on. Right now, you don’t care which it is, so you give him a small smile and begin to undress under the weight of his stare.

*part 2 is out now*

[platoniccereal]

If you could undo any of the retcons in DA, what would you choose and why?

the inquisition.

i mean, this is a short answer, but as time goes by, i understand that this is an honest one. this is a tangent, but i guess dai is just an example of electronic arts' production hell if bioware planned the second game only as a bridge for the inquisition's main conflict, and then we get this regarding the mage uprising. like, it's reasonable to assume that since da2 was supposed to be a preamble, the dai's initial main focus was the mage rebellion? and then it's just one main quest in the beginning of the game, and that's it.

but this is not about retcons, it's just me being annoyed. it's just the dai is the most fruitful regarding the topic.

hawke suddenly hating on blood magic. they tried so hard to push it with leandra's death, and then just decided to take the matter in their own hands, ig.

whatever the fuck hawke and varric say about anders. this is not their point of view, at least not in every case, in da2??

whatever the fuck they did to dalish.

like, vallaslin? i guess it's cool if you get inspired by real-world peoples, and then decide to make vallaslin slave marks.

or make their gods powerful slavers Just Like The Nations that inflicted the genocide on them. nothing about andrastianism, tho.

dalish actually kick out the mages is the obvious one.

the point of view on the red crossing. same reason. i count it as a retcon because of the implications that elves actually did that (i.e. the exalted march) to themselves.

also iirc they changed relationships between dalish and city elves/ made it worse to shit on elves again. stop that wtf!! they won't, ofc.

i dunno if it's a retcon or just conscious disinformation, but the presentation of celene and briala in-game. no spoilers, but did they suddenly decide that celene actually didn't do anything she did in the masked empire?

whitewashing of alistair, fiona and briala. they don't look like that, you fuckers???

make these cullen endgame sliders canon again and work from here, cowards. i actually got them in my playthrough even tho they deleted them, afaik. (the ones where he snaps and kills three mages.)

actually, the whole cullen arc. i won't say anything new here, his story was supposed to end in dao, da2 at most.

and i think there are other sliders from dao they retconned and put aside, like with the circle that mages built near orzammar? do it, cowards! it would make such a good plot point in a normal version of dai where your focus is the mage rebellion.

the ending of dragon age absolution. i'm sorry, did anyone find it satisfying? did anyone go, like, hell yeah finally? or i knew that!

the wardens. of course they're suddenly all that stupid to fall for cory's lap dog's lies and shenanigans!

i dunno if the last one counts as a retcon, but it surely falls into the same line of crimes against the previous lore. suddenly bioware felt an urge to shit on every group da:o players held dear. because grey morality. but, you know, even without "i like diversity and opportunity to be a dick, i don't appreciate when the game tries to push an agenda in defense of the oppressors and you can't fucking escape it", sooner or later one should understand that trying to mix grey with every colour in the picture will lead only to it looking dirty and messy. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

thank you for your question! :)

[14muffinz]

@blackfire-fanfiction it's 2am, but here's the fic as promised

first week

words: 2169

Notes: i didn’t remember the rise timeline, so i’m just going in the order on wikipedia. There’s a lot of food mentions because i forgot to eat dinner and i got hungry. Sue me.

~~~

it’s a bit weird right? that over there we’re almost fifteen, and then over here we’re almost fourteen? wonder how that worked out

shit, right. this is supposed to be important info only, sorry

Leon’s pretty sure that it’s pure luck that’s holding the page of the notebook together. He’s written down so many things in preparation of swapping, only to wake up the next day still in ‘his’ body, and have to erase it all.

The body’s not actually his. There’s a bit of a silent agreement that he belongs in this world and the other guy belongs in the other, just because that’s usually where they are. The longest Leon’s ever been on the other end was a couple of weeks, he doesn’t know those brothers like he knows the ones here.

Plus, no hate to the other guy and whatever he’s got going for himself, but it’s weird and wrong to be the same age as Raph and Mikey. To somehow be the soft spoken one, even though that’s almost the complete opposite of who Leon is.

The switching’s been more frequent than normal as of late. It’s got them both on edge, from what Leon can tell. Unfortunately, you can only write so fast in a notebook, and apparently the other guy’s barely touched a keyboard so even if they could find a way to stop Donnie from hacking everything tech-y that they own, it wouldn’t be any faster. But they have talked about it, sort of. Mostly about who has taken notice, with maybe one or two theories thrown in.

Good news, countdowns ticking. They’re about to be fifteen in the other world, and Leon just has a feeling that something’s going to happen over there. He doesn’t want the other guy to miss out on that, so he’s doing anything he can to stay up, even though he’s not entirely sure if that’ll prevent a switch or not.

He was planning on staying up late either way, if he’s honest. After all, fifteen over there means that he and Donnie are about to be fourteen over here, and that’s pretty important. Leon, for several reasons, does not know if he’s actually fourteen, but it’s the thought that counts.

At about five minutes to midnight, Donnie lifts up the curtain leading into Leo’s room, settling himself next to Leo on the bed, and silently handing over a party horn. Leo very, very carefully sliders the notebook underneath his sheets.

Right as the clock strikes twelve, in a mutual silent agreement, they blow into the horn, the paper uncurling and making no noise at the end. Damn, that’s overwhelming.

“I blew first,” they both say in perfect sync, before turning two glares on one another. There’s no way to prove it, as always, but Leon will fight for his status as the older twin, please and thank you. With nothing to decide it for them, they usually resort to things like rock paper scissors or who can do something first games. They never warn each other, either, it only adds to the fun.

One of the many reasons that Leon prefers his Donnie to the other one. He might pretend to be all distant and cool, but he’s still Leon’s twin and it doesn’t seem like he plans on dropping that title any time soon. But other Donnie spends most of his time cooped up in his lab with the small amount of materials he has, or with other Mikey. Having the ‘twin’ interactions with other Raph just isn’t the same.

“Considering I am wearing my glasses and have been caffeinated, it’s reasonable to assume that I would have a quicker reaction time than you.”

“We both I have the better reaction time, Dontron,” Leon argues. “And that I’m much faster than you.”

“Lies.”

“Are they?”

⠀

⠀

The surface is weird over here. Like, it’s cool finally seeing what’s above this lair, but it was hard trying not to act underwhelmed. The other world’s a lot more colourful. I have a feeling you won’t like it up there.

They finally tried pizza, and thank goodness they are hooked. I don’t think I could last too much longer on algae and worms, haha. Definitely need to track down Mike Tony Lou’s, though, I need to get them hooked before it’s too late.

Onto the good stuff! We are very, very close to figuring out what mutated us. We found another canister tonight! And a lot of other stuff, make sure that nobody else bothers you before you read this because it is a lot.

“You doing your writing again?”

Leo can’t help but jump, looking out his open bedroom door, where Donnie is peering in. He winces, frantically shutting the worn and slightly water-stained notebook shut, sliding it underneath his covers before Donnie realises that it’s one he stole from Raph. “Uh. Yeah.”

“Cool.” Donnie pauses for a moment, before continuing as though nothing happened. “Do you want breakfast?”

No. Absolutely not. Ever since the first time he’d had real food in the other world he has not liked eating over here. It’s disgusting. Why are his brothers still okay with eating algae and worms?

“What time’s it?”

Donnie barely hesitates before responding, “Nine-ish.”

“I’m going to sneak out,” Leo decides. It’s prime pizza hour! He can’t ignore that!

“Are you crazy?” Donnie hisses.

Ehn, maybe. Not that he can tell his brother that. Leo just wants to have some bread, so that he has a reason to ask for a toaster, so that he can have toast. Master planning, very important leader stuff that he’s thinking about.

“If Dad doesn’t know, he can’t yell at me,” Leo decides. That’s not the card he’ll usually play in this dimension, but sometimes a little misbehaviour for the sake of the greater good (his family’s taste buds) is worth it.

Donnie considers this. Leo can’t tell how serious he is, his brother mostly just looks tired. “Good luck.”

He proceeds to walk away.

Leo goes back to updating his other self on the Kraang situation.

⠀

⠀

… I’m not entirely sure what happened to S.B, actually, just that he made it out of that fight. One of us should probably bring that up to our brothers. He could cause problems.

By the way, we have cereal finally. You’re welcome. Make sure Raph gets his first, you know how he is.

Leon stares down at the notebook, shocked by all the stuff detailed in his other self’s ramble about the last two weeks-or-so. It was a lot, and Leon doesn’t think that the weird shapeshifting dudes and creepy lab guy really hold up in comparison.

He crams the notebook between his mattress and the wall, before beginning to stretch his fingers and toes, adjusting himself to the unnaturally large hands that this body is stuck with. He swears, if it weren’t for the switching, one of them would never have heard of wrists or ankles, because they barely exist in this body.

For the first time in a while, he’s not ready to face the day. So many unknowns have just been thrown at him, and he’s not sure how casual to be about them. Silence is always an option, but Leon’s not a quiet guy. He’s the jokester, the face man! Even without the eye bananas from the other body that he loves oh-so-very much, he wants to keep that role here.

Not the leader.

Goddammit, other Leo. If you were that jealous of Ra– big Raph, why didn’t you just say so?

The differences are apparent pretty much the moment he steps into the main area of the lair. Mikey is sitting in the pit with a plate that only has two slices of bread on it, and he’s biting into the third. In this Mikey’s usual chaotic neutral fashion, he’s biting right into the side, crust and all. Beside him, Donnie is leaning over his own notebook, scribbling something down frantically.

It’s not, like, weird or anything, but last time Leon was here, algae and worms were pretty much the only thing these guys ate and Donnie would usually be in his own space rather than in the pit while he works.

He’s good at rolling with things, though, and he’s too hungry to care.

Slipping into the kitchen without offering a good morning, Leon comes across Raph leaning against the counter with a bowl of cereal in his hand. He’s practically asking to spill it, wow.

“Morning,” Raph greets shortly.

“Morning,” Leon returns, already looking around the room trying to identify which cabinets have probably been filled with actual food. One of the worst parts about swapping is not knowing where anything is, like that one time his other self washed his mask and forgot to tell Leon and so he spent the entire morning tracking it down.

Whatever, the biggest one probably has something in it. Raph doesn’t seem to care that much anyways.

“Hey dudes!” Mikey shouts from the other room. “Wanna try and set up a ramp for a bit? I’m bored!”

Heck. Yes. Leon misses the giant ramps from back home, like, all the time. He’s going stir crazy in here! All the time. All the time. Trust him on this.

“Be there in a minute!” He responds eagerly.

Hopefully other April plans on coming over together, he really wants to meet her. He’s been wondering if there’s an April here or not, and he finally has an answer.

⠀

⠀

so those green bugs kinda sorta came back out the portal thing with us. and went everywhere. so that is a bit of a problem, and we don’t really know how to handle it yet. another mutant popped up btw, a pig dude. really weird, 0/10 would not recommend fighting

you also missed the rat flu by like two days. don’t ask raph what happened, because he is a lying liar who lies, but fingers crossed that you’re around for it next year

we’re going out to see a wrestling match wednesday night, no april

The nice part about this world is that Leo can spend two minutes reflecting on what he just read with his head in his hands, just trying to make sure he read that all right. He’s not sure what he was expecting when he showed up, considering how his own week’s been, but it definitely wasn’t this.

He’d thought that the whole brain aliens thing had upped his weirdness tolerance, but an entire magic city underneath New York is pushing it a lot. As is the teleporting dog/cat, sentient vines(?), and all the other madness that his other self has apparently dealt with.

But you know what? This is the dimension where he’s able to speak his mind without getting weird looks. If he told these brothers that this is insane, he’s pretty sure at least one of them would agree with him.

Leo rushes up the stairs and skids into the kitchen, being greeted by the wonderful smell of this Mikey’s cooking. Absolutely the best part of showing up here is the pleasant wakeups. As much as he loves training (he loves it, he loves it so much, even when Raph is constantly showing him up) sometimes it’s nice to just have a peaceful morning.

“Morning Leo!” Mikey greets happily, moving around the kitchen expertly.

For how much the other Leo wrote down this week, very little seems to have changed.

“We have anything planned today?” He asks, hoping that he sounds more tired than quiet. Leo’s not the loudest person unless he’s quoting something, but the other guy is and he spends more time in this body, so Leo just has to deal.

Mikey shrugs. “Raph wants us to head topside tonight and do more hero stuff, probably. I think that he should be saving his energy for when we watch the match tomorrow.”

Raph wants to do hero stuff? Really? Raph from the other world spends most patrols complaining about how Leo leads the team, or just having to waste time patrolling in general. Which is weird, because Leo knows that those brothers are excited by being topside, including Raph. (Maybe this is something he should prompt his other self about?)

For the next few minutes, he’s left awkwardly standing around as Mikey finishes up a batch of pancakes, trying to think of any more questions that he needs to ask before he starts the day. He has several questions about what’s happened on this side of things in relation to those bugs, that secret city, and more, but he doesn’t know how to ask without sounding suspicious quite yet. He’ll just have to go off of context clues.

“You look tired,” Mikey notes as they both finally settle around the table.

He does? Whoops. It’s not the first time this Mikey’s said that to him, so maybe it’s just a swapping thing.

“I’m fine,” he responds.

~~~

more

[matrixxsystem]

I can't not tell you guys the story now-

buckle up sluts this so much more comfort and fluff than I've ever written before-

This is how Leo found Marmalade This is a western AU where after the invasion the surface of New York was too triggering so they ran off to the middle of nowhere to try and heal. CW: This AU is a little dark, it wont be explored in full but there might be mentions of dealing with mental illness and having PTSD so just be a lil warned, but this is supposed to be just a lil one off about how he found his lil lady :3

Boots With The Spurrs

The sun had just reached the apex of the sky, heat beating down with such a vengeance you'd think someone owed it money or something.. Though lets be real, it wasn't like it was any cooler yesterday or the day before. The slider never minded though, he loved the sun and all that came with it. And that cool summer breeze that nearly blew his hat off, even as he held on while the wind shoved him back towards the house, or tired to at least- He loved that too. It was so clear each night and so quiet every morning.. The air was so clean, and the grass was so soft.. The first time he stepped foot on the property of their new home he spent a good hour just laying outside and taking it all in. He couldn't remember why exactly him and his family came out here, but it'd been maybe five or six years since they moved now, and it was a hell of an adjustment sure, any city boy would be turned on his head being stuck out in the middle of god knows where. But even when he missed some of the busy aspects, the bright lights and colors, the smells and constant chatter of people, he could only remind himself that there was a reason they left the city. Something about everyone's mental health, about needing space and time or whatever vague excuse Donnie told him each time he asked.

There was a small town not far from where they lived, maybe a twenty minute walk or so, and five minutes if they rode horseback. Oh yeah, didn't I mention? They bought a farm. Yeah, They bought a plot of land that was just outside a small town, fixed the place up, and since Donnie loves plants and Mikey loves animals it seemed fitting to start trying to grow things and really leaning into the towns rustic aesthetic. Who knew they had green thumbs.. Well… Fuck okay who knew they had metaphorical green thumbs- And would be oddly good farmers?? Yeah, me neither. Anyway, after the first two years things really took off for the brothers. And cause I can read your mind, don't worry, Aprils there too, she got a job working at the local news station, her and Mayhem easily became a hit. And Casey Jr came along, and Cass, hell even Barry decided he might as well tag along and make sure the brothers don't get into anymore weird time altering shenanigan's. And after Splinter.. Passed, it helped having everyone be there with them. Leo looked back up at the sky, trying to read the clouds to see if there was any sign of rain, maybe if he could convince the others.. They'd let him go into town for a bit, they needed food soon anyway right?

Oh yeah, second thing about this story. This is one where Leo lost his arm, yeah no, when Mikey pulled him from the prison dimension Kraang was just a little faster and dug his claws into Leo's arm, tearing it from his body as Mikey rushed to close the portal and save what was left of his brother. So yeah, most of the time he spent healing from that is just a blurred mess to him now, then he woke up in the turtle tank out in the country one day. He remembers people by his bedside in the medbay talking about it, asking Leo or trying to ask how he felt, if he wanted to go anywhere, if there was anything he wanted to do outside the city. Anytime it's brought up he's always teased about how he only said things like "I wanna be a cowboy baaabyyyy" or "I just wanna live on a ranch, and sit on a porch swing, with my boyfriend.." (He did not have a boyfriend, or know anyone who could even come close at the time) So they continued to poke fun at his responses, which he blames the pain medicine he was on at the time for.

Leo sighed a little as he sat on the old wooden stairs, rolling his eyes at the audible creek that came from the shift in weight. He took the very cowboy-esk hat from his head waving it in front of his face, trying to get a little more of a breeze to cool him off. He'd just been out moving the pipes Donnie ordered to make he's own watering system for the plants, he wanted to start a new patch on the other side of the house and Leo just knew he'd be bribed into doing all the dirty work somehow.. Though he'd do it if asked, he knew that something bad happened to all his brothers before they moved that left them all a little less able then they used to be. For Donnie his back got hurt badly, most days he was fine but some days he'd get these real bad flare ups and he couldn't put any weight on his back or be on his feet for more then maybe fifteen minutes at a time. Leo liked to call it his "No Bones" days, since he'd usually end up just rag doll-ing in his bed all day. It was actually pretty scary the first few times it happened, Leo wasn't sure why everyone else was so calm that his brother couldn't move. But after a while and a couple explanations he didn't fully understand he came to accept that for Dee it's just something that happens when he overworks himself.. For Raph he lost sight in one of his eyes and hates being snuck up on, there were scars over the eye but they didn't look like any animal Leo had ever seen, he didn't ask though. He knew he didn't like talking about it, none of his brothers did really. Even Mikey, who was an open book all other times.. He had some faint scars from his hands up his forearms, and if he used his hands too much they'd start shaking or locking up, he always blames him drawing too much when he was younger but Leo knew deep down there was something else he just wasn't saying. But like any other time Leo was able to quickly shake those thoughts from his mind, it wasn't important and if they didn't want to talk, then he didn't want to know. He knew enough, and knew prying would only hurt them in the end.

He turned his head to look at the front door hearing the screen door swing open, "Hey Leo, you finally had enough of tha' heat?" Leo put his hat back on and smiled up at his oldest brother, "You could say that- Think if I asked Mike would be willin' to make us some lemonade?" Raph's eyes lit up as he weighed the options for a moment, food always got his big brother motivated and Mikey always made the best lemonade..

Leo let out a little laugh at his brothers reaction, "Though if we're gonna have a drink I s'pose we'd need to head into town to get the lemons don't we..?" Raph tensed up a bit hearing the mention of town. Compared to New York this town was more like a small village- It was like something straight out of a western movie it seemed. Raph let out a little grumble, muttering something about town and Leo just laughed again, giving Raph a reassuring pat on the lower half of his shell. "Oh c'mon big guy, it'll take all of forty minutes to get in, out, and back home." Raph carefully passed Leo on the stairs, once again weighing his options. "Raph..?" Leo asked, a little softer, "I know I shouldn't keep askin, but why don't you guys like goin' into town? Seems like y'all lock up whenever it's mentioned but I can't recall the reason."

"Its.." There was a pause, maybe he was trying to think about his words so he didn't sound like he was yelling at Leo. "It's nothin' really, if you wanna go, we'll go. Saddle up an I'll give Don the heads up that we're goin for a ride." Leo practically jumped up to get ready, "Are you sure we wanna tell Don? If he knows you're goin he'll send you off with a whole grocery list to bring back-" Raph shrugged, "If we're goin' we might as well make sure we get all we need, 'sides, Don ain't feelin well again so it might be good to bring him back some more medicine." Leo glanced back at the house, up to the second story where Dee's room was, "He havin' one of his 'no bones' days?" Raph rolled his eyes at the name but nodded, "Yeah, just one of those days. Now go on and get saddled up while I run in and get some money and everyone's orders." Leo gave a playful salute and a 'yes sir!' before heading around to the barn where the horses we're kept. He gave each one a little attention as he passed, Donnie's being an all black horse of course, Mikey's being some kind of calico with all matter of spots and specks decorating its coat, and Raph's was a big ass Belgian draft horse with a dark grey coat that faded to black at the feet. And Leo's, it was this blonde almost iridescent light color. "Well hey there sunshine" He cooed as he opened her gate, stepping and and getting ready to head out, "Looks like we're goin' for a ride today, a real one, not just round the house. You excited?" The horse turned her head nudging Leo and almost knocking him over, he laughed as he gently pushed her back, "I know I know, I told Raphie we need to take y'all out more but he don't want me goin into town alone, don't think he wants me goin anywhere alone actually-" After he was all set he took her lead and walked out of the barn, nearly bumping into Raph on their way out.

Once they were both set they headed out, Leo riding up and around roads, goin as fast as his Sunshine would let him, she liked going fast too, part of why he was able to get her at all. Her last owner couldn't get her to calm down or stop running off or throwing anyone who tried to ride her. Leo pretty quickly figured she just lived a bit faster then others, just like him. So he'd made a bet that if he could ride her without being thrown he'd get a big discount. Instead of trying to get her on his level he got onto hers, encouraging her to run and jump to her hearts content, and they've gotten along pretty damn well since then. Once they got into town went and hopped off his horse, not bothering to tie her up unlike Raph and his gentle giant, who he carefully tied up at a post outside the local grocery store, pulling a few treats from his bag and setting them down. "Good girl Boots" He muttered with a little pat before heading into the store, Leo trailing behind. They browsed for a few minutes, well, Leo did, Raph just picked what they needed and only that. Going right to the sections that had what he needed, he really didn't want to be there longer then they needed to be it seemed.. Leo rolled his eyes and tosses a lemon his way, "Heads up Raphie-!"

The lemon bonked the side of Raph's head and fell into his basket, he turned to Leo with an unamused expression, Leo braced to be yelled at, to be scolded like they would when they were younger, maybe even a playful slap on the back of his head for being impolite at the store. But Raph just took a breath and sighed, picking a couple apples up and setting them in the basket next to the lemon. Leo pouted a little but let it go, it wasn't like he wanted to be yelled at, but it didn't feel right for them to not even fight playfully? He huffed and set another dozen or so into the basket and gave Raph a little shoulder pat, "I'm gonna go wait outside okay? Make sure Sunny ain't found any trouble." Raph just nodded, seemly he was almost done, the basket was already full but he was still looking for a few more things.

Leo stepped outside, a few people had paused to eye his horse, ones that pretty were usually pretty expensive so it made sense people would look at her. He whistled and she perked up, heading over and lowering one front leg to look like she was bowing, he was pretty proud of teaching her that trick.. Het gave her a few pats and praises and grabbed his bag off her side, reaching and getting out a sugar cube, "There we are, I knew I had one left in here. Whos a good girl? Hm?" "She sure is-" Leo turned around to see another yokai approach him, he hadn't seen this guy around but he sure looked familiar..? "Never seen one that well behaved before.. Your horse must've cost a pretty penny but you don't look the fancy type?" Was.. Was this guy saying he looked poor..? "Sunny here ain't no ones horse-" He joked, giving her a few more pats, "Ain't that right Sunshine? You don't belong to no man huh?" She flapped her lips blowing out a huff as she shook her head, turning to nudge Leo. He just laughed a little louder, "Yes mam, you're as free as the breeze ain't cha? You just follow me home for the treats huh?" The stranger smiled a little, he took half a step closer then stopped, "Is it alright if I pet her? Think she'll let me keep my hands?" Leo just shrugged like he wasn't sure but quickly nodded, "I'm just messin- Yeah you can pet her, she loves the attention don't worry." He nodded and stepped closer again, getting into her line of sight and carefully approaching. Leo took a step back and watched in the interaction, whoever this guy was he seemed to know a lot about horses with a temper, and she seemed to like him well enough.. He took his hat off setting is on his saddle to feel the coming breeze. Sunshine turned to look at him before turning back to the stranger and biting the brim of his hat, lifting it off his head and turning to put it on Leo. The yokai was a bit shorter than Leo, and without the hat long white ears fell on either side of his head, it was a rabbit yokai- Kinda cute actually... Not many of those in such hot and dry places like this town. Their eyes met for a moment before Leo realized he was staring at the stranger, "Ah- Sorry 'bout that, she got that lil trick from my little brother-" He took the hat back off and gently set it back on the guys head, "Think that mean's she likes ya heheh- Uh- Say stranger.. You got a name to go with that face?"

"Y-Yeah, sorry, where are my manners.. I'm Yuichi. Yuichi Usagi." Leo stuck his good arm out to shake his hand, "Leo. Leonardo Hamato. Pleased to meet cha."

"Hamato..? Like.. The Hamato brothers?" Leo perked up a little, "Oh? We got a name 'round here or somethin'..?" Yuichi shook his head, "No no, just.. You guys were a big thing back home, everyone in my village knew about you guys savin' people. Didn't expect to find you all the way out here is all." Leo looked a little confused, it'd been a handful of years before he'd done anything heroic.. But people still talked about them? That was kind of cool… Raph came out of the store and started putting his stuff away in the pouches strapped to his saddle. "Well Yuichi, it was a pleasure meeting' you. Not sure how long you plan to be here but if you need anythin' we live just down the road here up on brasshill." He picked his bag back up fastening it and hopping up. Yuichi looked surprised, "Wait- Brasshill? I'm stayin' with my auntie who lives on that road. She's also a rabbit. Leo gasped, "You're related to Nonanoka??? Dude! She's the best! Oh y'all gotta come over sometime then, we'll have a nice get together, tell her Leon's got somethin for her when you see her alright? Shes got our line if you ever need us." Yuichi nodded a little and gave them a little wave as they headed off towards the end of town, fixing the hat on his head and stuffing his ears back into it to get them out of the way.

Once they were back home Raph carried everything inside while Leo took the horses back to their stables, then headed inside once they were back safe. He opened the door being met with Mikey coming down the stairs, he must've heard Raph come in and wanted to see what all they got. "Heya mike" He said giving his hat a little wave before he hung it up, "Leoooo! You're back already??"

"Yeah, Raphie was in a bit of a rush I guess, he never likes to take long you know that" Mikey nodded a little and gave Leo a quick hug, "Well when you get everythin' put away I wanna go for a ride too!" Leo gave Mikey's shell a little pat, "As long as the suns out and Raphie don't mind stayin' with Don. I think he can be bribed though" He gave Mikey a little wink and moved his head to gesture to the kitchen where Raph was emptying the two big bags of food. Mikey peeked past Leo to see the fruit basket on the table now full of lemons and oranges. His eyes lit up as he got an idea, by now Leo was pretty good at getting Mikey to have ideas he thinks are original despite Leo being the one to plant the idea in his head. Mikey slowly walked into the kitchen with his hands behind his back as if he was hiding something, "Heya Raphie, how was the store? Y'all have a good time?" Raph glanced over to him and shrugged, "As good as going into town gets I guess, Leo made a friend I think, the nephew of nona-"

"Nonanoka has relatives in the sates? I thought she said all her family was back in Japan??"

"Must be vistin' or somethin, seemed nice enough tho.." Mikey scooted over climbing onto Raph's back to peer over his shoulder, "Ooooo, we outta bake nona somethin' maybe a pie? We do have a buncha apples now…"

"That's a good idea Mike" Leo said as he sat at the table, he reached for his satchel but then it moved- Everyone's eyes turned to look at the bag, "That- Wasn't just me right?" Leo asked hesitantly, both Raph and Mikey shook their heads as they watched the bag. Leo felt an odd sense, it wasn't dread, he didn't get a bad feeling, but something was making his anxiety go off the charts- He took a deep breath and slowly opened the bag,

"Mew!"

Leos eyes widened as a small kitten, maybe the size of Leos hand, wobbled out of his bag. It was orange with lighter colored stripes. It looked up at Leo and mewed again, tilting its head a little and glancing around to the others. Raphs eyes grew at least ten times seeing that little cat look his way, "Leo- How in the- Where do you even get a cat??"

"I didn't?? I don't- I didn't go anywhere-!" He slowly reached his hand out and pet the cat, it leaned into his hand starting to purr, "I mean I set my bag down to say hi to the new guy- Maybe this lil guy smelled somethin sweet and snuck in..? There are a few strays in that town…"

"Well- Put it back-!"

"Raph!! I'm surprised at you! Look at this sweet lil thing-" Mikey carefully picked the cat up to inspect it after getting off Raph's back, "Hey there lil one, you hitched a ride with the right guy, we'll take good care a' you.." Raph sighed a little, he was too tired for this and knew it was a loosing argument trying to talk them out of keeping the cat. "If we keep her we'll need to go stock up on food, and a bed, and a litter box n litter and a collar- It's a lot of work and on top of runnin' the farm and all out other animals-"

"Her?" Leo asked, Raph nodded, "Yeah can't ya tell she's a girl? She's a month old, maybe a month n a half- What? Why are y'all lookin' at me like that-? I like animals alright? Just- Make sure she don't get outside before we get a collar on her… I'm gonna go bring Dee some food before I start cleanin' up for the night." Leo nodded and looked back at the kitten, "She's so cute- How'd a miss somethin' that sweet sneakin' into my bag hahah.. She's gonna need a name too... Hmm" Mikey set her back on the table, "Let's see... Pumpkin? Cause she's orange? Or... Cinnamon?" "That might be a good name for a horse but she's a much lighter orange.. This lil lady needs a real good name.." "Maybe a snack will help us come up with somethin good! I've been cravin a toasted PB&J, you want one?" Leo chuckled as he was playing with the kitten, "Yeah, make it two if ya would" "Yessir! You want strawberry, marmalade or elderberry jam?" Leo perked up a little, "Wait, say that again.." "Uh.. You want strawberry, marmalade or elderberry jam?" "Marmalade..?" He looked over at the open cabinet, the jar Mikey pulled was filled with a light orange color, he looked back down the to cat, "Marmalade?" She tilted her head a little, it got her attention it seems. "So that's the one you want? ...Leo..? Leeoooo?" He snapped back to reality (ope there goes gravity) and nodded. "Yeah.. I think that's perfect."

[pudding-parade]

Get to know you - Sims Style

@rstarsims3 tagged me for this a while back, and I'm finally posting my answers, which took me a while to compile because 1) Blabbity blab blab blab, as usual, and 2) Still needing lots of rest and stuff, so no sitting at a computer for hours on end.

But here we go! I'mma put my blabby answers and my tag list behind Ye Olde Cut.

What’s your favorite Sims death? What an odd question, especially to lead off… Well, I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the one from TS2 where cloudwatching occasionally brings a satellite down on the cloudwatcher's head. But generally, mine die of old age, if they manage to get that far. I play with long, but realistically proportional, life stages, mostly because I'm almost always playing "experimental" saves where I'm "road testing" rulesets and such, so I need a lot of time to work out kinks and test ideas and stuff.)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I land on a combination of more-realistic (but not ultra-realistic) stuff for CAS, but for everything else, like with furniture and deco and stuff, I tend to prefer CC stuff that visually fits in with the EA stuff in terms of style and textures and whatnot, so that the CC doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when combined with EA stuff. In fact, my "go-to" CC for build/buy is stuff that adds on to EA stuff, like more doors/windows that match an EA door/window.

Do you cheat your sims weight? What, to make the fat ones skinny? The skinny ones fat? The skinny ones buff? No. I don't see why I would. It's easy enough to make a sim gain or lose weight without cheating, which I'm assuming means just using the sliders.

Do you move objects? Is there anyone who doesn't? That's a serious question. Is there any one who doesn't? I want to know.

Favorite Mod? I'm leaving aside the NRaas mods because I don't see them as mods so much as things that are just essential to make the game playable in the often-weird ways that I play. There are others that I also consider just essential for when I'm playing in certain styles, especially for more primitive settings. But for ones that are optional and just pure fun, I'd nominate all of @thesweetsimmer111's baby- and toddler-related ones.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? I know for TS2 it was Seasons. For TS3…For a long time, I had just the base game, which I got when it came out, but didn't play beyond trying it out and then going back to TS2. Then, years later, I got a new computer and decided to give TS3 another try, but I couldn't find the CD or DVD or whatever it was, so I bought a combo pack with the base game, Late Night, and the High End Loft or whatever it is stuff pack, so I guess it would be Late Night. Other than that, I bought all the other TS3 EPs in one go when EA had them on sale for 50% off via Origin, which that combo pack forced me to install. (But which I am now free of again. 🏴‍☠️)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? As aLIVE. Because that is when the game is live. Games do not live, but they can be live. See, this is one reason why English sucks.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Here's a thing about me: I don't really get attached to the pixel people. For me, they're just tools. I'm guessing it's because I'm not a storyteller when it comes to Sims, so I don't see sims as characters. Sure, sometimes I find one endearing for one reason or another. Usually, they have traits that make them assholes, and I like to watch them create chaos and ruin wherever they go. One of the founders of the Random Legacy that I will get back to one of these days is one of those. But I find I like other people's sims more than mine, though that's more of a testament to those simmers' story-telling skills than anything else.

Have you made a simself? Only by accident. A few times I've just been randomly moving sliders around and somehow I ended up with something that looked like me at some stage in my life. It stayed that way for a minute or three, before I yelled OH GOD NO! and quickly slidered the horror away.

But to be honest? I find the entire concept kind of creepy, at least in terms of putting a self-sim in the game and playing them as a character. That would just feel weird to me. That said, I suppose it might have been something that would have appealed to me if I had played when I was a kid, but the game didn't exist when I was a kid. Computers didn't exist when I was a kid, at least not in a form that regular people could own and that could fit on a desk. I was in my 40s when I started playing the game. My daughter played TS2 when she was a kid, and she had a self-sim inserted into the stories she would play, so…yeah. Maybe it's a younger-person thing. Or maybe I'm just weird. Yeah, it's probably that second option.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? Probably the black, but even with that I have to add some highlights to it because otherwise the hair just looks like a creature from the void eating the sim's head.

Favorite EA hair? None of them. They all need to DIAF.

Favorite life stage? I don't have one. I have a least-favorite, babies, because they're basically just objects, but once they're actually sims, I enjoy playing sims of all ages equally.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I originally bought TS2 just to build in it, and for a couple of years, that was all I did. I only started actually playing the game later. Now, I enjoy both building and actually playing the game, depending on my mood. Usually, I'll have a binge of building, but I eventually come to a point where I'd rather do anything other than build. Then I play the game. Then, eventually, the urge to build comes back. So it's a back-and-forth.

Are you a CC creator? I made lots of stuff for TS2, mostly object retextures/recolors. I've made a few minor things for TS3, and I retexture hairs and add preg morphs to clothing for my own use, but I wouldn't consider myself a CC creator for TS3. In fact, I'm actively resisting learning how to make stuff for TS3 because I really don't want to go down that rabbithole again.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? Friends in the sense of "people I enjoy talking to and sharing ideas with and sometimes arguing with here on Tumblr?" Sure. Are those the same as friendships that develop face-to-face in the real world? Nope. But, sometimes I like talking to my Simblr friends a lot more than talking to my real-life friends, so make of that what you will. Y'all are less draining sometimes. LOL

Do you have any sims merch? No official merch, but my brother-in-law is into making pottery, and several years ago he made me a big stoneware mug with a plumbbob on it. Which is ironic because when I play the game I turn off the plumbbobs because I hate them. LOL But I love the mug. It's heavy enough that neither cats nor wagging dog tails nor giant snakes (though he could do it if he focused all four of his brain cells on the task) can knock it off of tables, but not so heavy that I can't comfortably lift it. I use it for eating soup and the occasional mug cake, and also for drinking the awful herbal tea my husband makes me drink, though since the recent surgery, I don't have to drink that anymore! *dances* So now it will just be my soup or cake mug. Or one for tea that I actually want to drink.

Do you have a YouTube for sims? I don't have a YouTube for anything. Well, OK, I have a YouTube account for watching other people's stuff and making playlists of things I want to watch, but I don't post videos on it, and I don't really watch video game-related stuff on YouTube, either.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? It hasn't, really. I've pretty much always just come up with wacky scenarios to play and see how they go. In fact, for me, coming up with the scenario and figuring out how to make it work in the game and then inventing a ruleset to govern it is sometimes more fun than actually playing the scenario. LOL

And my Sims all look like the game made them because…the game makes all of them. I just poke the random button until it produces something that doesn't look too much like a freak of nature, then I hit up a couple sliders to remove or tone down any remaining freakishness. (Though I confess that I will spend an inordinate amount of time sculpting the titties of those who have them. Why? I have no idea, other than I just like me a nice pair of titties. Too bad there aren't any sliders for male titties…) Then I just slap on a different hair, maybe change the eye color, and slather on some makeup and facial/body hair and shit until they don't look too stupid, and then off I go. From there, they're all born in the game, and I just leave them as-is, mostly because I can't be bothered. "I can't be bothered" is pretty much my philosophy of life.

Who’s your favorite CC creator? I hate this kind of question. I feel like all they do is disappoint and discourage people if they're never picked. I refuse to do that over something so trivial. So, my favorite CC creator is you, the person reading this. Yes, you. Even if you don't make CC. It doesn't matter. You're the best.

How long have you had Simblr? I started my TS2 one in 2013. (I can remember that only because I know that I started it the same year I met my husband. LOL ) I started this one….2 years ago? 3? Something like that.

How do you edit your pictures? Other than basic cropping and resizing and maybe adjusting brightness/contrast a bit if the pic is too dark or whatever, I generally don't. I don't even use Reshade all the time anymore, only in certain situations, though I do have an NVIDIA profile for the game that adds ambient occlusion and better antialiasing and shit like that. Sometimes, though, I'll decide to photoshop scenery pics, and then I just kind of stab at it with various tools and filters and layer blends and shit until I like I how it looks. There's no actual process involved. I'm random like that.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite? I gotta go with World Adventures. Bits of it are a bit, shall we say, culturally problematic, but man, I never get tired of doing those stupid, stupid tombs. LOL Plus, I love that NRaas Traveler allows you to "travel" to any world, and I don't think that mod works without WA, so…. Yeah. WA.

Tagging: I have no idea who's done this, so I'll just tag a few random people, off the top of my head. Feel free to do or ignore, as you choose. No pressure from me! So...@nectar-cellar, @happy-lemon, @erasabledinosaur, @esotheria-sims, @lilleputtu, @littlefrenchsims, @anamoon63, @lazysunjade, annnnnnnnd @papermint-airplane.

[thdorkmagnet]

The Great Christmas Tree Heist

Summary: A Turtle Tots Rise of the TMNT holiday special, where Raph, Donnie and Leo all steal a Christmas tree for Mikey and things go wrong like they always do.

Disclaimer: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle belongs to Andy Suriano, Ant Ward, and Nickelodeon. All rights go to them.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and down in the lair, young Mikey did ask for a gift oh so rare. 

Not games or toys or yo-yos to fling, in fact he asked Santa for just one little thing. 

A Christmas tree, a real one, with lights all aglow, like the children he'd seen have in all the holiday shows. 

And thus was decided by his big brothers three, this year they'd come back with a real Christmas tree. 

So they waited and waited till the youngest was asleep, then rose from their beds and up to the streets.

A manhole was lifted then pushed to the side, three heads popping up to view the outside. 

The snow was falling gently on the streets of New York, Donnie said something smart, Leo called him a dork. 

Raph did shush them and told them to wait, then rose from the sewers to make sure it was safe. 

With no humans around, blue and purple emerged and I'm going to stop rhyming now cause it's getting absurd. 

“Okay, boys,” Raph said in a whisper, unnecessary since the streets were completely empty this time of night. Normally it was far too cold for them to be out this late but they had all dressed warmly, wearing matching coats of their own signature colors, as well as scarfs, hats, mittens, and boots so there was (hopefully) no risk of catching a cold or getting frostbite. “You remember the plan?”

“Yes, Raph, we know what the plan is,” Donnie scoffed, rolling his eyes. 

“Stealing a Christmas tree!” Leo enthusiastically answered, giving his older brother two thumbs up. 

Raph chittered at his brother, correcting him quickly, “Not stealing, borrowing. And just for one day.”

Leo deflated a bit at that, while Donnie raised a skeptical eyebrow. Raph cleared his throat after a short awkward silence, before getting them all back on track. “Leo, you got the coordinates loaded up on your phone?”

Leo pulled out his cellphone, double checking the map was loaded correctly before nodding. “Yep!”

“And Don, you got the equipment?”

“Affirmative.” Donnie patted the large duffle bag he was carrying. 

“Then it's time to begin Operation: Get Mikey a Christmas Tree or Die Trying!” 

“Eh, too wordy,” Leo said in disapproval. “How bout we call it the Great Christmas Tree Heist! Now that rolls off the tongue.”

“It's not a heist,” Raph argued. “And I'm the leader so I get to make the names.” The snapper started down the street, not waiting for the other two to follow. “Now let's hurry up and get that present. We only got a few hours before Mike wakes up.” 

“Oh, fearless leader,” Leo's voice sang, causing Raph to flinch and glance over his shoulder. The twins stared at him with bemused expressions, the slider jabbing a finger in the opposite direction. “The tree is that way.”

The red turtle's face lit up in a blush, sputtering out an excuse as he shuffled past the two. “Right well, Raph knew that. I just got… turned around.” 

Leo and Donnie snickered as they fell in step behind their embarrassed brother. 

…

Under Leo's careful directions the three turtles arrived at the tree lot with no issues. However, they did run into a problem once they got there, a large fence and locked gate, the only things that seemed to pass for security in this place. None of this deterred Raph in the slightest. In fact the sight of thick pines peeking over the fenceline only fueled his determination and without any warning he rammed into the gate, trying to knock it open. 

He bounced off instead. 

“Uh, Raph, shouldn't we try not breaking the door down,” Leo logically stated. “Kinda a big clue somebody broke in.”

“It's fine,” Raph grunted, pressing his shoulder into the gate’s surprisingly tough frame and pushing into it, hoping for any give. “Donnie's got a fix for it.”

“Yes, because of course I’m carrying around an accurately sized replacement door in my duffle bag,” Donnie sarcastically quipped. 

“See, it's fine,” Raph said, too distracted to pick up on the obvious sarcasm. He dug his heels in and pushed harder. 

“Sigh,” Don groaned with a face-palm. “Oh well, I suppose just let him wear himself out. He won't be able to break it down anyways.”

“Yes I will!” Raph shouted back.

“So why'd we pick this place exactly?” Leo asked, looking at his twin in confusion. “I think there's easier places to rob.”

“Not robbing!” Raph yelled, the veins in his neck starting to pop out from the strain.

“A couple of reasons, actually,” Donnie began, completely ignoring Raph. “First, we all agreed we were getting a real tree not some plastic knockoff which really limited our options. Since this place was closer than the others and had no security cameras, it seemed like the best spot. Not to mention it's run by a man in his seventies so unlikely he'd be up this late to interrupt us.” 

“So we're stealing from an old man?” Leo asked in concern. “Isn't that kind of wrong?”

“It's not stealing!” Raph growled, feeling his strength start to waver with still no give on the door. 

Again the snapping turtle went mostly unheard as Donnie replied to Leo instead. “Yeah well, most people already bought their trees for the year so any leftovers are just taking up space. So really our quote, unquote, ‘borrowing,’” Donnie did air quotes in emphasis. “...is really more of a benefit to him than a crime.”

“Right, I'm sure the police would see it that way too,” Leo teased, winking and elbowing his twin.

Raph's muscles finally gave out and with one last strained scream, he collapsed against the door, panting and defeated. Leo and Donnie went over to check on him, the blue turtle tapping him on the forehead. “You good, big guy?” he asked when he received no acknowledgement from his exhausted brother. 

“Yeah,” Raph huffed, weakly batting Leo's hand away. “Just… gotta… catch my breath. Then I'll… try again.”

“Orrrrr we try something a little less asinine,” Donnie countered.

Raph and Leo shared a confused look. “Wha's that mean?” the older asked.

“I think it means epic,” Leo said with a shrug. 

Donnie groaned, running a hand down his face. “My point being, there is another way in which you neglected to notice.” He gestured at the wall with a pointed look. 

“Oh yeah, good idea, Dee! We can climb over!” Leo shouted, scooting over to his purple counterpart's side. “Boost me up!” He spread his arms and legs wide in preparation to be lifted but Donnie made no move towards him. 

“You are confident and have a great personality,” Donnie joked flatly, expression focused as he searched inside the bag on his shoulders. Though a small smirk did cross his face when Leo howled with laughter. 

Finally he found what he was looking for, pulling out a grapple line and hook. “But in all seriousness, how about instead of breaking ourselves trying to get in, let's do this the smart way. Or as I like to call it…” Donnie swung the rope around a few times before throwing it up towards the wall. “My way!” he finished with a dramatic flourish. 

Unfortunately, the softshell’s aim had been ever so slightly off, causing the hook to bounce off the top before plummeting straight down. Donnie was too busy gloating to notice it, the metal falling directly on his head, knocking him to the ground. 

“Dee, you okay?” Raph asked, trying to rise to his feet to check on him even though his legs felt like jelly. 

Donnie sat up and rubbed at the bruise forming under his mask, face flushed in embarrassment from Leo's hysterical laughter. The blue turtle was full-on rolling on the ground, feet kicking the air in delight, throwing snow this way and that with each frantic movement, creating a lopsided snow angel underneath him. 

“Yes, I'm fine,” Donnie finally muttered to Raph. “The only thing hurt is my pride.” He winced as the bump on his head throbbed. “And a possible concussion.”

Leo was kind enough to check Donnie’s head after he had recovered enough from his laughing fit to focus, using the light from his phone to check his brother's eyes for any dilation. Once he was sure it was nothing more than a light bruise, Leo picked up the grappling hook and tried his hand at it. He managed to catch the edge on his first attempt and was quick to rub this in Donnie’s face. “Huh, look at that. And with zero head injuries, too. You proud of me, Don?”

“No but I am considering asking Santa for a replacement twin,” Donnie rudely retorted. 

Leo snorted. “Bold of you to assume you got on the nice list, Dee.” 

“Knock it off you two,” Raph scolded before the twin turtles arguing could break into a fight. He forced himself to stand, testing to see if he could walk yet. His legs were wobbly but stable and he managed to join his brothers, positioning himself between them just in case they didn't get the message. “We're here for the tree, remember? So let's just focus on that.”

“Okay, I'll go first!” Leo exclaimed, racing over to the rope and climbing quickly. Donnie was still salty but he said nothing more, climbing up behind his brother with an annoyed frown. Raph clambered up after both, ignoring the subtle aching in his arms.

While the softshell and snapper took their time climbing, Leo rushed, thanks to the excitement and adrenaline pulsing through his veins. Once he reached the top he plopped down on the small ledge, leaning forward so he could watch his brothers’ progression. They were both only about halfway up and Leo couldn't help but tease them for it. “C’mon, slow pokes. I've seen grandmas that move faster than you two.”

“Shut it, Nardo,” Donnie snapped, sounding slightly out of breath. Out of the siblings he was the least athletic and wore out the quickest during playtime, so it was no surprise he was struggling here.

“Just be patient, Leo,” Raph added, watching the softshell closely. He would have been at the top with Leo already if not for Donnie, but he didn't mind. This way he would be able to catch him if his brother ended up losing his grip. Which seemed necessary since Donnie was clearly struggling, huffing and puffing tiredly. So Raph reached a hand up to help support him, only to be stubbornly kicked away. The red turtle let out a yelp, less in pain and more in surprise, watching stunned as Donnie wiggled up a few more inches on his own. Raph felt his chest warm at his brother's determination. Because while Donnie struggled to keep up physically with his siblings, he never stopped trying and refused help unless it had been made by his own two hands. 

Raph didn't offer any more assistance after that, letting his brother climb up on his own, but still watched him closely all the same.

Leo, meanwhile, was getting bored waiting, trying to pass the time by catching snowflakes on his tongue, legs swaying unevenly in the cold, night air. Eventually he got tired of this too and let out a loud groan. “Ugh, you’re taking too long! It's gonna be New Years before we find a tree!”

“Just wait, Leo,” Raph ordered, attention still focused on Donnie. “We're almost there.”

Leo groaned again, crossing his arms in annoyance. He was itching to do something, still hyped from his successful throw and record-breaking climb. He needed something else to try, something to impress his brothers, or at the very least entertain himself.

 But hopefully that first thing too. 

After all, he hadn't gotten his fill of showboating yet, he wanted to gloat some more. Which meant he needed to step up his game. 

A smirk stretched across his face as he was struck with inspiration, leaping to his feet a second later. He stood on top of the large stone wall, smiling superiorly down at his brothers. “Hey, I bet you I can do a backflip off of here.”

“Leo, no,” Raph said in a warning tone, eyes narrowing dangerously. But this only proved to encourage Leo, grinning wider as he started tensing and untensing his legs in preparation for the jump.

“Climb up here and stop me then Grammy Raph,” he taunted, looking quite proud of himself for the insult. Raph growled low, grip tightening until his knuckles turned white. He wanted to take Leo up on that offer, scramble up that rope and physically pull him away from the stupid stunt but with Donnie blocking his way, so he was powerless to do much beyond scolding or glaring. Both of which were ineffective weapons against Leo's impulsive nature.

“You're gonna fall and break your brain, dumdum,” Donnie commented. “If you even have one.”

Leo shrugged this concern off quickly. “Oh, come on, the worst thing that happens is I land in some snow. Big deal.” 

“Don't. You. Dare.” Raph hissed in the most intimidating tone he had, reserved only for when his brothers were threatened, either by some outside force or themselves. 

Leo actually seemed to think better of his idea, smirk vanishing off his face as he looked shamefully down at his big brother. He sighed. “Yeah, you're right. What was I thinking? I definitely shouldn't do this!” Then without warning, Leo leaped backwards angling his body so he'd do an arc in the air. Raph screamed his brother's name in a panic, starting to climb over Donnie in his haste. 

To his credit, Leo managed to do a full 360 flip before tucking into his shell to lessen the impact.

Donnie and Raph nearly jumped out of their shells as a crash sounded from the other side of the wall, accompanied by snapping and cracking noises that sounded just a bit too much like bones breaking for Raph's comfort. Donnie blinked, confused by the loud racket. That was far too loud for just falling into snow. There was a soft moan of “owww” on the other side that was unmistakably Leo. With renewed strength, Donnie scrambled up the wall, Raph right on his heels, the two peering over to check on the state of their brother. 

Leo's shell lay in a pile of sticks and branches all haphazardly stacked next to the wall. Many were broken under him and Raph practically gasped in relief that snapping sound hadn't been his little brother's limbs. Leo popped out of his shell, looking winded and face scrunched up in pain but otherwise unharmed. 

“Okay, I was wrong. There was something else besides snow down here,” Leo choked out, still struggling to regain the breath that had been pushed from his lungs. 

“Which is exactly why we told you not to jump down there Leo!” Raph yelled, unsure if he wanted to check on him or strangle him. 

“Did I at least look cool?” Leo asked hopefully.

Okay definitely that second one.

“Dumdum,” Donnie whispered under his breath. 

Once Donnie and Raph were safely on the ground and Leo had pulled himself from the pile of sticks (with thankfully nothing worse than some small scratches and a sore rump) the turtles got their first good look around. On the outside, it didn't look any different from any other part of the city but once past the fenceline, it was like stepping into a whole new world, one made of wood, branches, and pine, not the cluttered cityscape they were used to. Trees towered over the three, reaching high enough they couldn't even see the massive buildings stretching behind them. It was a forest, bathed in a layer of soft, white snow and scented in pine needles. They had been to the park before but the trees there were few and far between, now there were more trees than any of them could count, each varying in size and scattered about with no sense of organization or purpose to their placement. Some were already on metal stands, perfectly cut at the bottom. Others were still rooted in the ground. Still others were no more than sprouts. Stumps poked out from beneath a blanket of white, looking like craters on a dusty moon. A small gardener's shed was set up off to the side, old and rustic and practically crumbling into itself. Other than that there were no signs that man had ever set foot here and the turtles suddenly felt even more like intruders than they already were. 

Up to this point, none of them had even thought about why Mikey was so invested in a Christmas tree this year, they had just decided to get it without question because it was Mikey and he always got whatever he wanted. But now that they were here, standing in awe of the forest stretching before them, delighted gasps fogging in the chilly, winter air they finally understood what all the hype was about. 

“I know why we couldn’t bring him but I kinda wish Mikey was here to see this,” Leo's voice finally said, breaking the spell over them all as Raph and Donnie nodded in agreement.

“Okay, let’s get down to business,” Raph said once his focus had returned, hands clenched into excited fists. He looked around at the trees trying to select the right one. “Now which one of these guys is coming home with us!” 

“How bout this one!” Leo said, pointing to a monster of a tree towering high above them. 

“It’s taller than the lair, dummy,” Donnie replied with a roll of his eyes. He pulled out his phone, typing quickly before turning the screen so his brothers could see. “Besides, I already figured out which one to grab. I did some measuring and I think our best bet would be a five foot tree. It’ll be easier to move and fit perfectly in-”

“Or we grab that one!” Raph exclaimed, pointing out the tree that had caught his eye. 

He grinned and crossed his arms, feeling quite proud of himself for finding it so quickly. 

Donnie was less than impressed though, drawn-on eyebrows scrunching together as he looked the tree up and down, trying to measure the height in his mind. Once his calculation was done he gave his brother a skeptical look. “Raph, that one has to be at least seven feet tall!”

“Exactly!” Raph smiled brighter. “Mikey will be super impressed with it.”

“What’s the big deal? There’s enough room in the lair right?” Leo asked. 

Donnie sighed but nodded. “Yes but I really think we should just stick with mine. it’ll be harder to carry and I’m not sure how we’ll get it down the-”

“Great! Then let’s take this baby home!” Raph ran over to the tree, grunting as he tried to rip it out by the roots. Leo was quick to encourage him, yelling praises and cheers while Donnie just groaned in defeat and reached into his duffle bag, looking around for something. 

“Wait, Raph, before you hurt yourself let me try something,” Donnie said, gaining the snapper’s attention enough he actually stopped what he was doing to see what his little brother had in mind. 

“Oooo you got some fancy invention that’s gonna like pick it out of the ground?” Leo asked curiously, leaning over his brother’s shoulder to see.

“Yeah, like a Gravi Gun from Jupiter Jim and the Invasion of the Portal People!” Raph shouted, eyes glittering in excitement. 

“Oh man, that thing was so cool!” Leo agreed, fanboying as he thought of his and his brother’s favorite movie franchise outside of Lou Jitsu. “Please tell me you made one of those! I wanna lift stuff without using my hands!” Leo bounced on the balls of his feet, rocking Donnie with each little motion. 

“No but it is just as effective as one,” Donnie replied cryptically. His face lit up as he found what he was looking for. “Ah, here it is.”

Leo and Raph both flinched as Donnie pulled out not some futuristic-y gadget straight out of science fiction but instead a very real, very dangerous looking chainsaw, spray painted in Donnie’s signature color. 

“Whoa! Where’d you find a chainsaw?!” Raph asked, face going pale as he shuffled away in panic. 

“You’d be amazed what people throw away, dear brother,” Donnie replied with a dangerous smile, fingers tapping against the handles in vibrant anticipation. 

“Ohhhh, sweet, let me try!” Leo exclaimed, rushing to take the tool from his twin. 

Donnie twisted his body so that his brother couldn’t quite reach it, holding it as far away from Leo as he could. “Leo, no! You aren’t trained to use it!” Donnie hissed, trying to elbow his annoying brother in the plastron.

This didn’t deter Leo at all, in fact it only made him fight harder, arms flailing as he tried to maneuver around his purple counterpart, who just barely managed to keep it out of his hands. “Neither are you!”

“Scoff! Am too! I read the manual online!” Donnie managed to angle his foot so that Leo tripped and fell face-first into the snow. The red-eared slider was only down for a second though before he leapt at his brother, trying to snatch it away before his twin could react. Donnie had anticipated this though and managed to stop him with a raised foot to his plastron. 

“C’mon just let me try it already, Don! You're hogging it!” His arms flailed wildly, causing Donnie to pull it further from his reach. 

He shot him a warning look and pushed a little harder against Leo’s plastron. “No! You’ll probably cut your hand off or something stupid!” 

Leo grabbed Donnie’s ankle and yanked it up, causing his brother to lose his balance and tumble back. He let out a little yelp before hitting the snow, Leo snatching the chainsaw out of his loosened grip a second later. The blue turtle giggled in victory only to run head-first into Raph, who scooped his brother up with practiced ease. 

“Hey! Raph!” Leo wiggled in his brother’s grip but the snapper wasn’t shaken, holding the slider under one arm and the chainsaw in the other. “No fair! Give it back!” 

“Nuh uh, it’s way too dangerous for you to be messing with, Leo,” Raph said in an authoritative tone. He walked over to Donnie, who was busy wiping snow off of himself and his thick clothing, before handing him the chainsaw back. Donnie’s face lit up and mouth twisted into a superior smirk. 

“What?! No fair! Why does Donnie get to use it!” Leo whined angrily. 

Raph ignored him, instead giving his genius brother a nervous smile. “Here you go, Dee. Just… be careful okay.” 

“As if that were ever in question,” Donnie said dramatically, still eying Leo smugly. Leo, powerless to do anything else, just crossed his arms and pouted. 

With a few pulls of the cord, the chainsaw revved to life and Donnie’s face twisted into something wild, curious, and terrifying. The power beneath his fingertips was enlightening and he felt giddy with the possibilities. With slow, almost sinister steps he crept up to the tree, the vibration running through the chainsaw pulsing all the way down to his feet. Taking only a second to calculate the correct spot, he placed the sawblade against the trunk, resisting the urge to violently start cutting in. 

“Raphael, goggles!” Donnie commanded and Raph rushed to pull a pair from the discarded duffle bag, Leo still unhappily tucked under his arm. The eldest ran up to the softshell and slipped the goggles over his brother’s eyes. 

“Thank you, dear brother,” Donnie said, words polite even though his voice sounded mad with power. 

“Uh sure,” Raph muttered, backing away so he could give Don his space. His eyes jumped from the chainsaw to his brother then back, starting to regret his decision already. “Y-You sure you know what you’re doing, Dee?” 

“Oh yes,” Donnie replied in a steady whisper, tone dripping with bloodlust. “I know exactly what I’m doing.” 

He gave a small chuckle which slowly rose in volume as he finally pulled the trigger, the spinning sawblade slicing through the tree like it was butter. “Evil laugh!” Donnie howled, before breaking into a cackle again. 

Raph and Leo could only watch the whole display with growing concern, this new side of their brother terrifying them down to their core. “I think we just created a monster tonight,” Leo whispered. 

Raph just nodded dumbly as the tree toppled to the ground. The chainsaw was off a second later, Donnie planting a foot atop the new stump and draping the tool over his back in a triumphant pose. “Well, how was that?” he asked, looking back at his two awestruck (and slightly unnerved) brothers. 

“That was, uh,” Raph began before losing his voice halfway through. He didn’t know how to begin to describe what he just witnessed.

“The most terrifying and cool thing I’ve ever seen,” Leo admitted, eyes sparkling in admiration. 

Donnie rubbed a hand against his plastron before blowing on his nails arrogantly. “Why thank you, I try.” 

Raph finally lets Leo go, who rushes over to examine the fallen tree with his own eyes. “Whoa, you took it down in like two seconds!” he gasped, staring up at his twin in disbelief. 

“Seventeen actually but who’s counting,” Donnie replied, smiling proudly. 

Raph bent down to check the tree too, running a hand over the bottom. It was completely smooth all the way across and he couldn’t help but be impressed by it. “Nice work, Donnie. Though I’m not sure you should keep using that thing. Seems a little… dangerous.” 

Donnie rolled his eyes. “Scoff. Well yes, Raph, it’s a chainsaw, it is made to be dangerous.”

“No I meant… you seem a little dangerous.” 

“Nonsense.” Donnie dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. “I was just having a little fun, but not like worrying fun.”

“And the evil laugh?” Leo asked skeptically.

Donnie’s face twisted into the same sinister smile. “Dramatic effect.” 

Despite how concerning that look and response was they were still on a time crunch and so Raph decided to drop it for now, focusing back on the task at hand. “Alright, knuckleheads, let’s hurry up and get this back to the lair and decorated,” he proclaimed. 

Donnie fetched some rope and tied both ends to the trunk before handing the middle over to Raph. The snapper looped the rope around himself and dug his feet in the snow, pulling against the tree with all his might. He could feel the strain in his muscles, the dull ache in his limbs from before but he just continued to tug mercilessly against the rope, willing it to move despite his body's protests.

With a sudden lurch the pine followed, Raph so surprised he nearly tripped over his own feet, turning back to his brothers to grin widely. Donnie and Leo gave a thumbs up and quickly took up the rear to help push. It made little difference but Raph still appreciated the help. It was hard work and slow going but none of them minded all that much, even Leo not bothering to complain about his own impending exhaustion. Their thoughts were elsewhere, already imagining Mikey's smiling face when he came downstairs on Christmas morning and saw the fruits of their labor. They could already hear his little squeals of delight and feel his warm hugs as he celebrated the ‘Christmas miracle’ with them. 

That thought alone was worth any amount of work, no matter how tiring. 

But they were all abruptly snapped back to reality as Leo noticed something they had all neglected to consider, staring at the sealed gate and towering wall in horror as he asked dumbly, “Um, guys? How are we gonna get the tree out?” 

…

It took less than a minute for their calm discussion of escape to turn to a full-blown argument, Raph and Donnie both insistent that their plans were better and the others nonsensical. Raph wanted to try his original plan of busting the door down which Donnie reminded him would only expose their crime and lead to more trouble down the line. Donnie tried to explain the practical applications of a pulley system only to be shut down by the eldest that it would end up taking too long. Leo tried to pitch in that the whole argument was taking too long, only to be shot down by both before they went back to fighting again.

Leo sighed deeply. He could tell this would last a while, so seeing no other alternative he decided to just wait it out. He plopped onto the fallen pine, an elbow propped against his knee and head resting in his hand, drumming his fingers against his cheek. He watched for a while in growing boredom, finding the whole thing pointless and stupid. It was a waste of time in his opinion, neither of their ideas were good and they were both right in pointing it out. Raph's idea was too reckless and Donnie’s too time-consuming. If they wanted to get back to the lair before Mikey woke up they needed a new plan, not continuing to argue the same moot point. 

But it seemed stubbornness was a family trait and neither was going to admit defeat without some kind of outside interference. “Guess its up to me,” Leo muttered, hopping off the tree. 

He stepped over to the gate, examining it up and down for any weaknesses or ideas. It was made of sturdy wood, though the red paint was peeling and fading with age. Off to the side was a rusted metal handle, a small keyhole just beneath. And that gave Leo an idea. 

He remembered seeing someone lockpick in a Lou Jitsu movie and it had looked simple enough that Leo was sure he could pull it off. The only problem was that they had used some kind of hairpin to do it and that wasn’t really a viable option for a mutant turtle without hair. 

Guess he'd have to improvise. 

Leo ran over to his brothers, tapping his purple counterpart on the shoulder to gain his attention. “Hey Dee! You got something in that big bag I can pick a lock with?” 

Donnie snapped his attention onto his blue brother, seemingly confused by the interruption. “What? No, go away, Leo. I'm talking.” He shooed his brother away with a wave of his hand, before focusing his attention back on Raph. The two had ceased their argument and were now discussing the effectiveness of attaching a rocket engine to the tree. Because of course Donnie had one of those in his bag but not a hairpin. 

Or maybe he just wasn't listening. 

Both were likely options. 

Leo huffed dramatically and crossed his arms, pouting bitterly. When this also went unnoticed he stomped his foot and loudly declared, “Fine! I'll just go find it somewhere else then,” before turning his back on his brothers. 

The somewhere else ended up being the only other place Leo had to search: the gardener's shed, which was thankfully unlocked. Leo poked his head inside, squinting into the dimly lit room looking for something useful for lockpicking. He saw many tools stacked inside but most were too big for his purposes, stepping inside to get a closer look. He scanned the nearly empty shelves for something usable before his eyes landed on a small brass key. 

Leo's mouth dropped open and he quickly snatched it off its hook. “It couldn't really be that easy. Could it?” he wondered aloud, slowly turning the key over in his hands. 

Leo was out of the shed in an instant, racing past Donnie and Raph (who didn't even look over to acknowledge him) and right up to the gate. He stuck the key in, letting out a sharp breath as it slipped easily inside. So far, so good. 

He turned the key until he heard a noticeable click, smiling widely and pumping his fists in the air in silent victory. Oh boy were his brothers about to be jealous. 

Donnie and Raph at this point had exhausted every option that came to mind, frowning in mutual defeat as they stared at the ground instead of each other. “Hey guys!” They both turned to see their brother leaning against the gate with a knowing smirk. Before either could question the look, Leo stood straight and declared, “Check this out,” before pulling on the handle. The door opened with a loud creak and the turtles’ jaws went slack. 

Raph was speechless, eyes bouncing between Leo and the opened gate and back. Donnie, on the other hand, had many things he wanted to say, none of which could quite leave his lips, thoughts spinning around his mind in a jumbled mess. So he settled for the most important one at the moment, “How?!” 

Leo shrugged, the smug grin never leaving his lips. “Told you I knew how to lockpick,” he replied, making sure the key was stuffed deep in his pocket where his brothers couldn't see. 

…

They were all in high spirits as they made their way back to the sewer entrance, the tree much easier to pull now that they were on the slippery sidewalks, the icy ground doing most of the work for Raph, which his sore body was thankful for. They sang Christmas carols the whole way there, sometimes together, sometimes singing over each other in a competitive game, but always with a bright smile on their faces. 

Finally, they were back where they had started, the manhole cover still pushed to the side, though now covered in a thin layer of snow. After a bit of maneuvering the boys managed to get the tree positioned next to the underground entrance, Raph holding the pine upright and sliding it over until it dropped into the hole…

… and stopped. 

Raph’s smile vanished in an instant as he stared down at the manhole in confusion, spotting the culprit instantly. The trunk fit in easily but the pine branches had caught on the sides, thicker around than the entrance itself. “Wait, what?!” he exclaimed, grabbing onto the tree and trying to push it down. The thick tangle of branches refused to be manhandled, popping back up the second he let go. “No, no, no!” he whined, forcing more and more of his weight on it but only managing to stuff a few limbs through. “This can’t be happening!”

He continued trying to force it down before switching to light little shoves against the pine branches, trying to bend them into a shape that would allow it to slide past. It stayed stubbornly in place. 

He tried flipping it over in the hopes that the top of the tree went down smoother. It didn’t. 

He tried jumping onto the tree and wrapping his legs around it, ignoring the way the pine needles itched against his skin, hoping his weight might be enough to make it fall. It instead tipped to the side, causing Raph to slip off and hit the concrete hard. 

With each new failure, the snapper's frustration grew. Until finally out of options, Raph sat back and stared up at the tree hopelessly. It was still wedged tightly in the manhole, hanging limply to the side, seeming to mock him with its very existence. Raph stared down at his feet sadly, tail wrapping tightly around himself to provide a little comfort. He was so distraught he didn’t even notice Leo sitting down beside him until his hand was on his shoulder. “It’s okay, Raph. I’m sure Donnie will figure something out,” he assured him softly. 

Donnie plopped down on Raph’s other side, arms crossed and expression flat. “Yes well, I wouldn’t need to if you had just listened in the first place. I tried to tell you something like this might happen but you were so insistent on this tree I couldn’t argue.” 

“Not helping, Don!” Leo hissed. 

“Luckily…” The softshell continued pointedly, shooting his twin a look. “I do have a solution. I just need to trim it down some on the sides. It won’t be as big but it will fit.” 

“Wait, really?!” Raph gasped, giving his genius brother a hopeful look. “You can do that!”

Donnie nodded, a smirk tugging at his lips. “Of course I can. I’m a genius, afterall.” 

Leo’s eyes lit up like Christmas lights. “Does this mean you're gonna use the chainsaw again?!” 

“Indeed,” Donnie replied with a short nod. 

Leo whooped before jumping to his feet. He was at Donnie’s side in an instant, digging inside the bag for the deadly tool. “Let me use it this time!”

“Absolutely not!” Donnie snapped, ripping the bag away from him. “Not until you’ve watched every safety video about chainsaws known to man, Leo.” 

Leo huffed but relented, turning his back on his brother just to be rude about it. 

That was when Leo noticed lights in the distance. Two bright lights, yellow and low to the ground.

And coming right towards them. 

Leo’s heart dropped as he shouted, “Car!” his brother’s swerving on their heels to see. The second his eyes landed on the fast approaching vehicle Raph scooped his brothers up into his arms and dove for cover. He managed to get behind a trashbin just before a semi-truck drove by, going far too fast for the frosty streets. It plowed into the pine tree, snapping the trunk in half and sending the rest tumbling over the top. Each collision caused wood to snap and pine needles to explode in all directions, tearing the poor tree apart with each violent roll. 

Finally, mercifully, the tree tumbled off the back of the semi, landing broken and heavy on the icy streets. The truck didn't even slow down, undeterred by the destruction it had just caused, and was soon gone around the next corner. 

Raph, Donnie, and Leo all peeked out from their hiding spot, eyes wide with horror as they saw the state of their beloved Christmas tree. It was in shambles, loose branches hanging from severed limbs, its once smooth base now torn into jagged edges and sharp points. It looked dead, murdered. The messy street looking like the site of some vegetated massacre, bits of wood and bark scattered about and everything coated in a layer of pine needles, more of which seemed to be on the ground than the tree itself. 

The boys were left speechless by the sight, faces twisted into expressions of disappointment, confusion, and defeat. Finally it was Leo who broke the depressive silence, giving his brothers a lopsided smile. 

“Well, on the bright side, it'll totally fit down the hole now.”

Raph said nothing, instead banging his forehead as hard as he could into the metal bin. 

…

“Y'know it looked bad before but now that we've got it in some light…” Leo paused, smile wilting as he stared at the broken, mangled mess of a tree now sitting in their living room. Donnie had already attached a metal stand to the bottom but it didn't make it look anymore presentable. It was still as sad and pathetic as it had looked on the surface, maybe even more so since now they could fully see the damage. 

“It looks worse,” Donnie finished for Leo, voice a cold monotone. 

The tree looked empty and barren with only clumps of pine needles dotted about its branches. Most limbs were in tatters from the nasty tumble it had taken. Large cracks ran up its center, looking like veins. If Mikey was to see the tree at that exact moment he probably would have burst into tears of empathy for the shabby shrub they had brought home. The exact opposite response they were all going for. 

“It doesn't really look like the trees in those movies,” Raph admitted, cringing at the mental image.

“Understatement,” Donnie commented sarcastically.

“Maybe we can grab another one?” Leo weakly suggested.

“Well it's already after four,” Donnie pointed out, silently running the calculations in his head. Past data proved Mikey was an early riser, especially on Christmas, so statistically there was a good 98.5% chance of him waking up around 6. That left them with very little wiggle room and knowing their luck they would only end up with more complications and delays that would absolutely get them back too late. So he felt confident in saying, “By the time we’d get back Mikey would already be awake and probably completely given up on his belief in Santa.” 

Leo and Raph hung their heads low, hopelessness draping over them like a dark cloud. It felt like a punch to the gut after all the hard work they'd put in to making their little brother happy. All the pain and exhaustion and fighting and stress, all amounted to nothing in the end. The only thing they had to show for their efforts was a sad, broken tree that looked as miserable as they all felt. The three all sighed as one, each lost in their own gloomy thoughts. 

After about a minute of wallowing though, Raph decided he needed to say something encouraging. His brothers were sad and Mikey was still without a Christmas tree and as the big brother it was his job to fix these things. So no matter how much he wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, he forced the bad feelings down, shoving all the sadness, guilt, and worry way deep inside him and made himself smile at his bros. It was small and pathetic but he did his best to back it up with confidence, using the best big brother voice he had. “Well what’s done is done. We’ll just have to use what we got. And hey, maybe with enough decorations Mikey won’t even notice the tree’s all banged up!” 

Donnie highly doubted that but chose to let that thought go unspoken for the moment. Instead, he said, “I’ll go get the decorations,” and started for the door. 

“I’ll help and I’ll carry way more than Donnie will!” Leo boldly declared, sounding lighter now that there was a plan in place, and jogged after his twin.

Raph listened to them bicker until they were out of earshot, then let out a massive sigh, thankful his words had actually managed to cheer them up a little. He hadn’t really expected it to work but he was glad it did. Feeling a swell of pride and accomplishment, he turned his attention away from the tree and got to work on his own task. 

Although the Hamato family never owned a Christmas tree it was always a family tradition for them to each make their own ornaments out of clay, which they would lovingly hang on the walls to greet Santa each year. Only this year, Raph was gonna see to it that they had a proper place to hang. Especially Mikey's. 

He carefully took each one off the wall, setting them delicately next to the tree, taking only a moment to admire the designs. 

Leo had tried to model his off of Lou Jitsu but it barely resembled their idol, looking more like a lumpy egg with stick arms and legs attached. The head was a small lump, the top part painted black for his hair, with a yellow triangle in the center for his signature sunglasses. Donnie had tried to make Atomic Lass in an effort to match his twin but had quickly gotten frustrated when the clay didn't work the way he wanted it to, so had instead switched to a simple candy cane with purple stripes. He had spent hours making sure the lines were all even and symmetrical, using a ruler and protractor to carefully shape each section until it pleased even his critical eye. Raph had made a teddy bear with a red bow, though it more closely resembled Leo's in quality, mostly due to his massive hands struggling to shape small clay. 

Mikey's was easily the best one out of the bunch. It was ironically enough a Christmas tree as it seemed the box turtle had been on a bit of an obsessive streak. Although the lines weren't quite as smooth as Donnie's, there was still a delicate precision to Mikey’s sculpting that could only come from an inspiring artist. The painting process was where he truly shined though, a glossy green coating littered with small dots of every color for the lights. The trunk was brown with some light texturing to make it look like real wood. Mikey had even added a small present at the bottom and a golden star at the top. It was still clearly made by a kid but there was talent there thanks to all the time Mikey spent drawing and coloring and painting the walls. It was clear his baby brother had a passion for all things artistic and Raph couldn't be prouder. 

He had even started baking, at least what he could since he was still too young to use the oven or stovetop without Splinter present. Though even that did little to stop him, as more often than not his puppy eyes were more than capable of getting their dad out of his chair and in the kitchen to help. Raph wished he had that kind of power over their pops but he was glad that at least Mikey got the extra attention. 

Mikey and Splinter had been hard at work baking the whole day, making all kinds of gingerbread treats which the whole family had been snacking on endlessly. Mikey had been careful to save some back for Santa, three cookies stacked on a plate off to the side with a tall glass of milk and a little homemade sign reading “For Santa: Leo do not touch”. Raph smiled at Mikey's crooked handwriting before snatching a gingerbread man and biting off its head. 

It felt a bit weird to be taking their dad's place as Santa, even if it made sense with the plans to get the tree. It had always been Splinter's job and it felt strange taking that away from him, even if he had seemed more than happy to pass the task onto his eldest children, telling them how excited he was to retire early on Christmas Eve rather than having to wait up for four excited kids to finally fall asleep. But Raph was pretty sure that wasn't entirely true as he noticed their four stockings which had been empty before they left were now notably bulging. So it seemed their dad wasn't quite done playing the role of Santa just yet.

Though it did make Raph wonder how many more years of being Santa he had in store. 

Mikey was now the only Hamato who didn't know Santa wasn't real and they were all eager to keep it that way. Raph had found out the truth pretty early on thanks to being the oldest and Donnie had never bought into such beliefs even if he thankfully never said so out loud. Leo, however, had only found out earlier that year, when he discovered their dad's secret present stash and was shocked to find ‘From Santa’ on some of the gifts. Leo had been pretty devastated at first but sworn to keep it a secret from Mikey. 

No one wanted to be the one responsible for ruining baby Mikey's innocence, even the loud-mouthed Leo.

Leo had since changed his tune, especially when he found out he could stay up Christmas Eve so long as he promised to help. The slider hadn't brought it up since, so it was safe to say he was over it. He'd even jokingly suggested they dress up for their little excursion: Raph as Santa, himself as an elf, and Donnie as the reindeer, which his twin had vehemently protested.

Raph had just finished his cookie when the others got back, Donnie using a remote-controlled hovercrate of his own invention to carry the heavy boxes. Leo followed behind with nothing but a shoebox, looking none too happy to be upstaged by his brother. “Uh oh, what happened?” Raph asked, Leo looking away with a pout. 

Donnie rolled his eyes before stating flatly, “Nardo almost dropped everything trying to carry more than me.”

“At least I didn't cheat, Smellatello!” 

“Well I needed some way to carry everything since my helper couldn't be trusted, Nerdo!”

“Okay, enough guys!” Raph scolded, making sure his tone was louder than their arguing. “You're gonna wake up Mikey.” 

Both boys begrudgingly obeyed and went quiet, though Leo couldn't resist sticking his tongue out at Donnie, who retaliated by twisting a knob on his remote so that the cart suddenly flew towards Leo. It stopped just shy of bowling him over, the slider screeching and lifting the shoebox high over his head, balancing on one leg as he tried to lean away from the dangerous hovercraft. 

“Hey, watch it! This stuffs breakable, remember?” Leo snapped, cheeks flushed red from embarrassment.

“Hand slipped,” Donnie responded simply. He slowly started twisting the knob again and Leo quickly moved to hide behind Raph. 

“Knock it off, Donnie,” Raph began in a warning tone, grabbing the shoebox from Leo before anything else chaotic could happen. He peeked inside to make sure nothing was broken, the box half-filled with homemade ornaments from previous years. A toothy grin spread across his face as memories of past Christmases flashed through his head.

Leo, in the meantime, finally noticed the plate of gingerbread men, gasping in delight. “Mikey’s cookies! Raph why didn't you say something?” Ignoring the sign, Leo picked up a gingerbread man and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth, chewing loudly. “Mmmmm, I love being Santa.” He washed the whole thing down with the glass of milk, swallowing it all in a few quick gulps. 

Raph snatched up the final cookie before his brother could devour that too, taking it and the box of ornaments over to Donnie. He handed him the gingerbread man and the softshell nibbled on it absently, focus on the mangled tree beside them. Raph could tell by the way his false eyebrows were pinching together he was worried. 

“Do you really think this is going to work?” Donnie asked, eyes not leaving the tree. 

“Not sure,” Raph admitted with a shrug. “But if we don't do anything then we've already let Mikey down, so we gotta at least try.” 

Donnie finally met his eye, still nibbling away at his cookie. Raph noticed he actually ate the gingerbread man from the bottom and worked his way up and held back a little smile at that information. “I suppose you have a point there,” the softshell muttered between bites. 

Now Raph actually smiled, bright and cheerful. “Besides Mikey won't even be able to see the tree through all these decorations you bought.” He gestured over to the four stacked boxes no doubt filled to the brim with Christmas stuff. 

Donnie grinned, clearly pleased with the praise and Raph felt his chest warm. “Of course, I'm nothing if not prepared.” Donnie puffed his chest out proudly. His face turned sour, however, as he added, “Although Leo called it overkill.”

“It is!” Leo defended from the other side of the room, trying to subtly dig inside his stocking to see what he got. “It looks like you bought out an entire store's worth of stuff!” 

“Scoff. Four boxes is hardly equal to a store's worth, Nardo. I just didn't know what we wanted so I got one of everything.” 

“Well I say we use all of it!” Raph enthusiastically exclaimed, throwing open the shoebox and pulling out clay figures to hang on the branches. Before he could though, Donnie jumped between him and the tree, arms spread wide to try and better block his brother's path. Raph froze, giving his brother a wide, confused look.

“Whoa, Raph, what are you doing?! You can't just hang up whatever! What are we, savages?!” 

Donnie sounded as if it should be obvious, but Raph really had no clue what he was doing wrong. Wasn't the whole point? To put stuff on the tree. Wasn't that why he bought all of this? Why would Donnie suddenly not want that? Maybe it was because Raph was using the homemade ones? But he had seemed enthusiastic about using the clay ornaments when they talked about it. 

On top of that, Raph had absolutely no clue what ‘savages’ meant but Donnie looked like he should know, so maybe that was on him. For a lack of anything better to say, he stumbled out a very hesitant, “Uhhhh, we're… turtles.”

Donnie slapped a hand to his forehead, making Raph flinch. “Groan. Metaphors are lost on you dumdums,” he murmured unhappily. Then in a much calmer tone, he explained, “You need to wait on that stuff. There's a system to this. Lights first, then garland, then ornaments.”

Leo let out an annoyed groan of his own. Of course Donnie would ruin their fun with rules. 

But Raph was just relieved he knew what Donnie was upset about now, seeing no issues with following his lead. He knew way more about this, anyways, so who was he to question his little brother's method. He slipped the ornaments he was holding back in the box, saying, “Sure, Dee. You're the expert.” 

This only further inflated Donnie’s ego, turning to his twin with a smug grin. Leo just let out an irritated huff, pointedly ignoring his twin as he started rummaging through one of the boxes for something interesting. Donnie was lucky this time. Leo would have been more vocal about his grievances if Mikey wasn't asleep just a few rooms over. 

“I'm so glad to hear you say that, dear brother.” Donnie started shuffling backwards towards the pile of boxes, keeping his gaze and grin on Raph. “Because I have something that's gonna really dazzle our little brother.” 

Uh oh. Raph knew that tone. That smile. That look. It meant Donnie was trying to get away with something, playing innocent in hopes Raph wouldn't notice. 

Raph braced himself as Donnie reached into a box. 

He was expecting mechanical snowmen that shot lasers from their eyes or bombs carefully concealed as ornaments or any number of dangerous things his genius brother was no doubt capable of making. 

So it caught him more than a little off-guard when Donnie pulled out a seemingly normal string of Christmas lights, grinning that pleased grin reserved for when he made something cool and impressive. “Behold, the future of Christmas!”

Raph cocked his head to the side, trying to see what was so special about them or why Donnie was being so sketchy about the whole thing. “Does… it shoot lasers or something?”

“No,” Donnie said with a frown. “That would be highly inefficient.” But the smile returned as he dove into one of his patented infodumps, carefully laying them out on a table to be better admired by his brothers. “What it is, Raphael, is a highly advanced lighting system that I invented. It's capable of glowing three times brighter than your average Christmas lights while using five times less energy. I also upgraded the bulb with a heat-resistant fiberglass, effectively eliminating the risk of it catching fire, making it a far safer substitute to traditional lights. It's cost efficient, energy efficient, and pleasing to the eye, a perfect combination if I do say so myself.” 

Okay, Raph only understood like half of that but it did sound impressive and maybe a little too good to be true. There had to be a catch. Otherwise why was Donnie trying so hard to get him to agree. It was more than a little suspicious. 

After some thinking, Raph realized what Donnie had failed to mention, something that made all the difference when it came to his inventions. “Did ya test it yet?”

Donnie’s eyes widened before forcefully returning to neutral, a few beads of sweat appearing on his face. His smile was just a bit too wide and posture just a bit too stiff, hands tapping against his legs in that distinctive Donnie way that only happened when he was nervous or overwhelmed. “It's functional,” he managed, eyes not quite meeting Raph's. 

Yep, there was no doubt about it now. Donnie was lying. Or more accurately, hiding the truth, since he hadn't really lied yet. But now his suspicious behavior made sense at least. “You didn't answer my question, Dee,” Raph pointed out. 

“Didn't I?” came the softshell’s timid response. It was almost ironic how someone who could be so good at concealing his emotions could be so awful at lying.

Leo gasped, hitting him with an accusing look. “You totally didn't. Test them, I mean,” Leo said, seeing through Donnie’s thinly veiled lies as well. That wasn't surprising since Leo was the resident expert on both Donnie and lying. 

The purple turtle let out a whine of guilt before reluctantly admitting, “Okay fine. I may not have had all that much time for testing.” His voice rose several octaves as he added, “But that's only because I was too busy planning for our heist!” 

“It wasn't a heist, it was borrowing!” 

Leo patted the eldest on the shoulder, saying gently, “Raph, you know we love you but you can't return something after it's been hit by a truck.”

“But it does work,” Donnie cut in, emphasizing each word so he knew they heard him. 

Raph hadn't doubted that, everything Donnie made worked, but it wasn't really the problem. Because even though Donnie was an undeniable genius, that didn't mean everything he made functioned properly. 

And normally Raph wouldn't mind that. In fact, under any other circumstances he would be more than willing to try out Donnie’s new tech, even if it sometimes turned the microwave evil or made the toaster explode. 

But Mikey’s Christmas was on the line! And that the one time Raph knew they couldn't take the risk. 

“Sorry, Don,” Raph said in the kindest, softest tone he had, careful not to say anything that might upset his sensitive little bro. “I’m sure what you made is really awesome and cool but this tree’s barely holding together as is. Let's not try anything crazy, okay?”

Donnie had known that answer was coming but it still didn't make him feel any better about it. Disappointment weighed heavy on his heart and he could feel his ego deflating as he pouted sourly. And even though he knew it was pointless, a part of him still wanted to argue and pitch a fit about it. He would have too if Raph wasn't looking at him with that annoying tender look that made it impossible to stay mad at him even if he really, really wanted to be. 

So, Donnie begrudgingly relented. “Fine.” And because he was still very much bitter he added, “But when Mikey isn't properly dazzled you'll only have yourselves to blame.”

Then, he set to work pulling out the lights they wanted from their boxes, making sure to ignore Leo's smug look as he did.

Raph and Leo joined him, helping sort everything into neat little piles. The mood changed for the better after that and they were all soon enjoying themselves again. Leo and Raph had fun looking at all the decorations Donnie had bought, showing off each one to the other and talking excitedly about it. Donnie just continued untangling lights, trying to pretend to still be annoyed even if his fond smile betrayed him. 

They were all having so much fun in fact, they didn't hear the padding of small feet approaching. 

“Raphie.”

The three turtles froze, recognizing the voice behind them in an instant as their baby brother. A quick glance over their shoulders and sure enough there stood Mikey in the doorway, favorite kitty plush pressed to his plastron.

Raph, Donnie and Leo were on their feet and across the room in a heartbeat, creating a semi-circle around Mikey to try and block his view. “Hey, little man~”  Raph began in his baby voice, reserved for Mikey alone. “What are you doing out of bed?” 

Mikey took a second to process that, eyes glassy and half lidded. He rubbed at them tiredly before glancing between his brothers’ smiling faces in hesitant confusion. It was clear he had just woken up. “Klunk and I were thirsty,” he muttered drowsily. He squeezed his plushie a little tighter. “And you weren't in your room.” 

Mikey was still too little to reach the cup cabinet, so always went to Raph whenever he needed one. The snapper gave him an apologetic smile, saying gently, “Sorry, Mike. I was, uhh-”

“Making sure no rats got into the cookies!” Leo, the naturally born liar, said it as if it was as easy as breathing. “Well, non-dad rats, I mean.” 

Mikey blinked lazily, a tiny smile tugging at his lips from the joke. “Did Santa come yet?” he mumbled, trying to look past his brothers but Leo moved to block his path, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Nope! Not yet!” he said quickly, spinning him around and giving him a small push. “So you better hurry and get to bed so he can!” 

“Don’t you need to sleep too?” Mikey’s words came out slurred, eyes starting to drift closed again as he swayed unevenly on his feet. 

“We will,” Raph assured him, taking his little brother’s hand in his own. “But first let’s get you that water.” 

Mikey let out a noise of agreement, allowing Raph to guide him to the kitchen. Leo and Donnie shouted goodbyes to the box turtle but he wasn’t listening, burying his face in his soft cat plush and yawning tiredly. His eyes closed, trusting his big brother to get him there without any trouble. 

Raph glanced back at the twins, mouthing the words, ‘Start without me.’ They both gave him thumbs up and he grinned before returning his focus to Mikey, whispering gentle words as they walked. 

Donnie waited until they were both out of earshot before turning to Leo, not bothering to hide the mischievous glint in his eye or evil grin on his face. “Wanna use my lights?”

Leo’s eyes widened in surprise, before reflecting Donnie’s own look back at him. “Raph'll be mad,” Leo said, voice a hum. 

“Yes but he also isn't here to stop us.”

As expected, that was all the convincing it took. “I'm in!”

By the time Raph had Mikey tucked back into bed, the lights were done. Donnie was plugging them in when the snapper entered the room, mouth instantly going slack. “Donnie!” The softshell flinched, dropping the cord he had been fiddling with. He turned to his brother with a startled look. “I thought we agreed to use the regular lights instead!” 

“Yes but I figured once you saw them you would change your mind,” Donnie replied plainly, showing not even a hint of remorse. 

“So you went behind my back!” 

The slider slapped a hand over his older brother’s mouth, saying with a finger to his lips, “Uh, Raph, maybe try and keep the voice down. Mikester’s still asleep in the other room, remember?” 

Leo pulled his hand away before Raph could get mad and the snapper let out a huff. “You went behind my back,” he repeated in a whispered but still very annoyed tone. 

“Leo assisted me.” 

Raph directed his scolding glare at Leo, who let out an offended gasp and placed a hand to his chest dramatically. He didn’t bother watching his volume either as he cried, “You would betray your own twin so heartlessly!” 

Donnie shrugged. “I never claimed to be above such things, Nardo.”

“Oh you are so on the naughty list,” the blue turtle hissed, fuming. 

“Actually you're both on Raph’s naughty list,” the eldest declared, grabbing the back of Leo’s shirt and lifting him off the ground. “Now take those off and put on the other stuff.”

“That would be a huge waste of time, Raphael,” Donnie pointed out nervously. As quick as he could he finished plugging everything in, the lights flickering on and filling the room with a brilliant purple glow. “Besides they are already on and not malfunctioning so I vote we leave it as is.” 

“Uhhh,” Leo raised a hesitant finger in the air. “I vote for whatever won’t get me in trouble.” 

Raph shot him a look but set him back on his feet. 

The snapper sighed before saying in the calmest voice he could manage, “I'm glad it didn't mal- whatever but that's not the point. You didn't listen to me.”

“Only because you were trying to stifle my creative genius,” Donnie argued, folding his arms in front of his chest. 

“Um guys?”

“I just didn't want it to explode or something,” Raph retorted. 

“Should it be smoking like that, Donnie?”

“Scoff. It wasn't going to explode! The worst it could do is catch-”

“Fire!”

“Yes, thank you, Leo,” Donnie snarked, frustrated at his twin for finishing his sentence for him.  

“No, I mean it's actually on fire!” Leo screamed pointing at the tree in terror.

Donnie and Raph swiveled in place, spotting a flickering flame on one of the branches which quickly spread to the one above it and then the one next to that, until the whole tree was ablaze in a matter of seconds. Raph screamed, Donnie ran, and Leo grabbed the oldest's arm, shaking him violently. “Do something!” 

But Raph was too overcome with panic to think straight, yelling and running around, looking for something to put out the blaze. “Water! Water! Where's water?! Need water!!” 

“The kitchen!” Leo screamed in reply, snatching Splinter's favorite blanket off his chair. 

A second later the lights shut off, Donnie no doubt cutting the power in the room, explaining his absence. 

Raph flinched as everything went dark but another prompt from Leo got his legs in motion, leaving Leo behind to desperately try and fan the ever-growing flames. 

Once in the kitchen he dashed straight to the sink, yanking it on and cupping his shaking hands under the steady stream. He started to run back only for the water to sloosh onto the floor instead. He went back and collected more, only for it to spill before he even made it out the door. His thoughts were too scrambled to consider the plethora of empty cups, bowls, and pans he could fill instead, so went with the only option that came to mind…

Raph stuck his head under the running sink, filled his mouth close to bursting and dashed back to the blazing tree as fast as his legs could carry him.

Leo was clearly losing his battle to the flames, huffing and puffing with each labored breath, arms aching as he flapped the thick blanket up and down. “What took you so long?!” he screamed upon spotting Raph. The snapper didn't reply, instead sucking in a deep breath and spewed the water from his mouth, spraying the tree in the process.

“Ew, gross!” Leo wailed in disgust, shuffling backwards. “You couldn't have grabbed a cup or something?”

“Stand back!” Donnie shouted in warning, fumbling with the fire extinguisher he was carrying. The blue and red turtles backed away as their purple counterpart pulled the safety pin free from the handle. He took aim before unleashing a torrent of white foam to the blaze, snuffing it out quickly and effectively. 

He used the entire can, making sure every inch of the tree was coated in the flame-retardant substance, only stopping once he was sure the flames were out and the extinguisher was empty. Then he pulled the can to his chest like a lifeline, sighing in relief. 

For a moment the three boys just stood there trying to catch their breath, accessing the damage as best they could. It was hard to tell just how badly the tree had been burnt through the thick foam that covered it but it was clear the trunk was about half its size now, bark devoured completely by flames. The branches were now withered husks, curling up on themselves thanks to the pressure of the heat, while many others had crumbled into ash. The ends were gnarled and twisted into sharp points. Strips of metal wires and frayed electric cords all that was left of Donnie’s creation. 

The air was thick with smoke and the blanket Leo was holding was singed at the ends where it had been licked by flames, but other than that nothing else had been harmed. 

No one spoke or even breathed a sound, the three brothers powerless to describe the feelings of frustration, hopelessness, guilt, and lingering terror that tore at their frazzled heartstrings. Finally it was Donnie who broke the silence, finger tapping a nervous rhythm against the extinguisher as he cleared his throat. “I think I might have had the voltage too high.”

“Ya think!” Leo and Raph shouted as one. 

…

The boys salvaged what they could of their present, thankful Mikey had somehow managed to sleep through the whole fiasco. Donnie did his best to clean the foam off but he wasn't able to do much without compromising the tree’s structural integrity. Leo tossed Splinter's blanket, prepared to gaslight him into thinking he lost it should the need arrive. Raph swept up the ashes and lit a bunch of sweet-scented candles to hopefully drown out the smoky scent in the air. Then they all hung up the decorations, garland, and functioning Christmas lights (much to Donnie's ire), placed all their presents under the tree and went to bed. 

None of them managed to fall asleep though, even as exhaustion pressed heavy on their tired bodies, trying desperately to relieve their aches and pains by pulling them into unconsciousness. Their minds were a buzzing hive of worry, fear, and dreaded anticipation. No one knew how Mikey would react to seeing the Christmas tree but it could hardly be a positive one. 

After all, Mikey was imagining a perfect, movie-accurate tree, not the burnt, mangled monstrosity waiting in their living room.

They could practically see Mikey's tears as he sobbed in disappointment. Would he reject Christmas after this? Would he hate Santa? Would they be forced to tell him the truth and then he'd hate them? Had they collectively ruined Mikey's innocence and Christmas spirit in one night?

It was admittedly a worst case (and more than likely impossible) scenario but it was difficult not to go to extremes when their thoughts were so clouded with negativity and they lacked the strength to fight it off. 

They each blamed themselves for the situation they were currently in: Raph wished he'd listened to Donnie and taken the tree he'd picked out, Donnie wished he'd taken the time to check the wiring and voltage so it had never caught flame, and Leo… well, honestly Leo couldn't think of anything directly he'd been the cause of. Still he wished he'd been a little less obnoxiously antagonistic all night. 

But there was nothing that could be done now, the turtles could only wait for the youngest to wake. After about half an hour, Raph heard shuffling and giggling outside his door and pretended to look fast asleep, shoving the guilt and fear deep down inside him as he did. 

He heard little feet scramble across his room before a weight plopped onto his bed, tiny hands tapping his cheek. “Raph. Raph, wake up. It's Christmas,” Mikey squealed, not even bothering to lower his volume in his excitement. 

Raph let out a hopefully convincing yawn and opened his eyes, giving his baby brother an affectionate smile. “Morning, Mike,” he said, rubbing at his eyes to try and sell the bit. “Merry Christmas.”

Mikey beamed sunshine, eyes shimmering despite the dim lighting. He was wiggling and bouncing in place, incapable of holding still for even a single second. Donnie had once joked that if he turned Mikey into a battery he'd be able to power the whole city and despite knowing nothing about science, Raph believed it. 

“Can we open presents now?!” Mikey asked enthusiastically, ignoring his brother’s greeting. 

Raph felt his stomach churn with worry and hoped it didn't reach his face. “Let’s get everyone else first, okay?” 

Mikey sprung off the bed and was out the door in the blink of an eye. Raph smiled despite his anxiousness. 

…

Mikey plopped down on top of Donnie, foregoing the gentle approach in favor of hurrying things along. Despite only pretending to be asleep, the softshell still jumped at the sudden physical contact. He sputtered to try and make sense of it all. “What? Angelo? Why did you-”

“It's Christmas, Dee,” Mikey emphatically informed. 

“Yes, and?” 

“And that means you gotta get up now so we can open presents,” Mikey continued, hands on his hips as he tried to mimic his brother's know-it-all tone. “Don't you wanna see what Santa brought you?”

As curious as he was to see if his dad had gotten him those computer parts he needed, he was much more worried about Mikey's present. All he really wanted right then was some coffee. But since he couldn't say any of that without arousing suspicion, he instead went with a simpler response. “I suppose I should get up then, since it seems I'm not allowed to sleep in.”

Mikey nodded, pleased he'd convinced his genius brother. Donnie tended to be grumpy first thing in the morning. “Yay!” Mikey cheered, hopping off him so he could stand. Despite the impatience bubbling in his chest he waited for his brother to climb out of bed, just to make sure Donnie didn't fall back asleep without him there.

Once he was on his feet, Mikey took his hand, leading him away from the warm, inviting bed and into the chilly hallway. He followed along limply, looking like a puppet being pulled by its strings. 

Raph met them in the hallway and Mikey waved and released Donnie's hand, leaving his brother swaying unevenly. “I’mma get Leo,” Mikey said cheerfully. “Make sure he doesn't fall back asleep, okay?”

It was weird hearing Mikey give orders, especially since it was clear he was trying and failing to mimic Raph's ‘big brother’ tone, but the snapper just nodded in assurance, putting a hand to Donnie's shell to help keep him steady. “I will.” 

Mikey, satisfied with that answer, grinned and trotted off for Leo's room, humming a Christmas song as he went. Once he was out of earshot, Raph leaned down and whispered, “You think he's gonna hate us?”

Donnie paused, trying to consider that carefully but it was far too early, his brain was far too tired, and emotions were something he struggled with on a good day. So instead he just groaned, leaned up against Raph's plastron and fought to keep his eyes open. “Ask me again once I'm awake.”

…

Leo was the most convincingly asleep, his covers strewn about, the muscles in his face and body relaxed, he even let out little snores so close to the real thing that Raph and Donnie might have actually believed he was sleeping, if not for the fact that Mikey couldn't seem to get him to wake up and Leo was notorious for being a light-sleeper. 

To his credit, Mikey seemed to realize this too, getting more and more irritated as the slider refused to acknowledge him. He tried everything he could think of, he called his name, he patted his shell, he hit his shell, he told bad jokes, he tried to peel his eyes open, until eventually he was trying to physically push Leo out of the bed, whining bitterly. “Come on, Leo! I know you're awake! I wanna open presents!” 

Leo yawned in a distinctively fake way, rolled over and pulled Mikey to his chest. “Hmm what's this new teddy bear I found,” the blue turtle murmured and Mikey let out a few angry chirps, fighting his hold.

“I'm not a teddy bear, I'm a turtle! And let me go!” Mikey kicked his little feet around, knocking the last of the covers to the floor.

Leo's mouth twitched as he fought back the grin. “Oh it's so noisy, it must be an electronic one,” Leo continued, squeezing his brother tighter to keep him from escaping. He finally peeked an eye open, looking over at his two brothers in the doorway, both of them grinning at the whole display. Mikey just continued wiggling. “Hey Raph, I think Santa gave me your  present by mistake.”

Mikey finally managed to jerk a hand free, retaliating by tickling Leo behind the neck, where he was most sensitive to the attack. Instantly, Leo burst into laughter, releasing Mikey so he could try and pull away. But the box turtle wasn't having it, flopping on top of him so he couldn't escape easily, then tickled his neck with both hands to help add to the torture. 

Leo tried to push him off but couldn't muster the strength as his lungs burned and his limbs turned to jelly. “Okay, Mikey! I give! Uncle!” he shouted between bouts of laughter but the baby turtle just tickled harder. 

“Nope, this is my revenge,” Mikey giggled. 

“Raph, Don, help!” Leo screamed, waving his arms desperately to get their attention. 

Neither of them moved to do anything, Raph saying smugly, “Nah, you got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out.” 

“Come, dear brother, let's wait for them in the kitchen,” Donnie added with a mischievous but still tired grin. 

“Let's,” Raph replied and the two started off together. 

“Traitors!” Leo yelled after then, still howling with laughter.

…

The four eventually made it to their dad's room, Leo carrying Mikey piggyback, but were shocked to find it empty. Their confusion didn't last long however, as a sweet scent in the air led them to the kitchen, where they found their dad and five steaming mugs. “Merry Christmas, my sons,” Splinter greeted them kindly, taking a small sip from his cup. “I trust you slept well.”

“Did Santa come? Did he bring me what I asked for?” Mikey asked, bouncing a little against Leo's shell. 

Splinter chuckled. “I'm not certain. How about you drink your cocoa and then we'll go check.”

“Yay! Dad's hot cocoa!” Mikey exclaimed, jumping out of Leo's arms. Splinter handed him a cup and he settled down at the table to enjoy, sipping slowly so he didn't burn his mouth. 

Splinter set his own cup down and picked up the three remaining mugs (using his tail to carry Raph's) and brought it over to the boys. “Here you are, my sons. For all your hard work.” He made sure to keep his voice down. 

“Thanks, pops,” Raph said, rumbling softly as the warmth spread through his fingertips and up his arms. It felt nice.

Donnie leaned against his twin for support, still fighting for consciousness. He glowered at the mug in his hands, wishing it was coffee instead of cocoa. He barely even liked cocoa.

Leo looked more awake and alert than his brothers but was still sporting a nasty pair of eyebags. “Did you go into the living room yet?” the blue turtle asked, half curious, half confused. 

Splinter gave him a suspicious look. “No, why?”

Leo's eyes widened and he quickly looked away. “Um, no reason,” he nervously muttered, bringing the cup to his lips so his dad wouldn’t ask anymore questions.

But he jerked away a second later, sticking his tongue out in disgust. “Ugh, why is it so bitter?” 

Splinter leaned forward and whispered, “Ah, that would be the expresso I added to your drinks.” 

Donnie swallowed the entire cup before even needing to take a breath. 

Raph and Leo followed suit, drinking greedily as they felt the edges of exhaustion slowly creep away. By the time they were done, they all felt lively and energized again, a comforting warmth filling their insides, making each of them sigh in contentment. 

Splinter smiled as each of them thanked him and handed back their cups. “Yes well, I had a feeling you’d need some of my ‘Santa special’. The only thing that got me through some years.” He winked then returned to his own simmering cup of cocoa. 

Mikey jumped to his feet a second later. “Okay, I’m done! Now onto presents!” 

“Yay,” Leo, Raph, and Donnie said as one. They tried to sound enthusiastic, with varying degrees of success but the box turtle didn’t even notice as he led them towards the living room. 

The walk there was nerve-wracking for the older turtles, dread pooling in their stomachs as they watched their little brother. Mikey was skipping and singing and beaming ear to ear, blissfully unaware that every step only brought him closer to crushing disappointment. Leo tried to think of some way to stall him. Raph wondered if he should say something to prepare him for what he was about to see. Donnie was strongly considering setting off the emergency alarms just to get them out of the lair long enough for him to finish burning the tree to the ground. Anything to keep Mikey from stepping inside and seeing his disaster of a present. 

But before any of them could implement their plans, they arrived. 

Mikey slipped inside without a second thought and the three had no choice but to follow. The box turtle gasped loudly, causing his brothers to violently flinch, grimacing at the sight of the tree.

Somehow, despite all common sense, it looked even worse than before.

Raph, Donnie, and Leo nervously crowded around Mikey, trying desperately to interpret his shocked expression. His eyes had grown wide and mouth hanging slack, but it was impossible to tell if it was out of disappointment or not. 

Still the boys couldn't imagine him liking it, suddenly feeling like the worst big brothers in the world. Their bodies stood tense, bracing themselves for the crying and screaming and rejection of all things Christmas to begin. 

Instead, Mikey squealed, the shrill noise making their ears ring. “He came!” the box turtle exclaimed and his brothers froze on the spot, staring down at him in confused silence.

“He came! He came! He brought my gift!” Mikey was a giggling, joyful ball of energy, fluttering around the tree like a moth would a flame, trying to see as much of it as quickly as possible. His tail twitched and his eyes shone like diamonds as he pointed to the tree emphatically. “Guys! Guys! Look! Santa did it! He really did it! He got me a Christmas tree! And it’s decorated and got lots of presents underneath and everything!” 

Slowly, the shock turned to relief and then to joy, Mikey’s big brothers pleasantly surprised by his reaction. Leo gave Donnie and Raph a thumbs up, the snapper letting out a soft sigh before beaming, while the softshell felt his heart swell with accomplishment and pride, lips twitching into a fond smile as he watched his little brother. 

Splinter stepped into the room and Mikey was at his side in a heartbeat, grabbing him tightly by the hand as he bounced up and down. “Dad! Dad, look! Santa brought me a tree, just like I wanted!” 

The rat opened his mouth to reply, only to be taken aback by the sight, turning to the others, who were suddenly very interested in staring at the walls, ceiling, and floor. He plastered on a smile, managing to say, “It’s very, um, unique.” 

“Uh huh! It’s even got snow on it!” 

“I would refrain from touching that,” Donnie spoke up but Mikey wasn’t paying attention. 

He went back to admiring it up close, squealing at every little thing he saw. “Ohmigosh, he even put our ornaments on it! Come see!” He gestured them all over and they happily gathered around. 

“Huh, how about that?” Raph said with a hopefully straight face. 

“There’s mine,” Leo said, pointing it out. “You can tell from how cool it looks.” 

“Yours is subpar at best,” Donnie retorted. 

“Ohhhh someone’s jealous that mine are all higher up than yours. Guess that means that Santa likes me better.” 

“What does height have to do with anything?” 

“Just admit you’re jealous.”

“Why would I admit to something so obviously not true?”

“Can you two please not argue on Christmas,” Raph sighed in annoyance. 

Mikey tugged on Raph’s arm and the snapper immediately dropped into a crouch. “Can you lift me up, Raphie? There’s something I wanna do.”

Raph nodded, picking his little brother up like he was nothing and setting him down on his shoulder. As the snapper stood, Mikey reached into his hoodie pocket to pull something out. Raph tried to peek up but the orange turtle put his foot over his eyes. “Don’t look, it’s a surprise!” 

The snapper lowered his gaze again, staring at the ground. Once Mikey was sure it was safe, he went back to fishing his surprise out of his pocket, tongue sticking out in concentration. Out of his peripheral vision Raph could see Mikey putting something on the tree. 

After a moment, Leo and Donnie took notice of their little brother but when they moved to see Mikey ordered them to cover their eyes, which they immediately did. Finally, Mikey was done, nodding once in satisfaction as he climbed down Raph’s arm and onto the floor. “Okay, you can look now!” he shouted to the family. Everyone glanced up at the tree, spotting Mikey’s surprise in an instant.

Just below the star were five clay ornaments, clearly the work of the little box turtle, each hung on different branches. Four of them were turtles wearing a separate color each: red, blue, orange and purple. Mikey had even added small details like Raph’s spikes, Donnie’s glasses, Leo’s eye stripes, his spots. The final one hung in the middle of the four, a rat with a bright smile on his face. 

“Awww, Mikey! You made ornaments of us!” Raph cooed, cuddling his brother close to his plastron. 

“Uh huh,” Mikey replied proudly, little tail twitching in joy. “That’s why I wanted the tree so bad! I wanted them to have a special place to go! Plus, it looks really nice!”  

Raph felt tears in his eyes and Donnie and Leo quickly joined the group hug, tucking into the snapper’s sides, placing warm hands on Mikey’s shell. Splinter took his place at Mikey’s back, hands wrapping around to hold all his young sons. They were getting steadily bigger, by next year he doubted he could hold them all like this, so he decided to enjoy it while he still could. 

“You shouldn’t have, little bro,” Leo said brightly. 

“Yes, but we appreciate it, nonetheless,” Donnie added, tone gentle. 

“You are too good to us, Orange,” Splinter murmured, nuzzling a cheek against his head, making the box turtle giggle as the whiskers tickled his leathery skin. 

Mikey just beamed and said lightly, “Merry Christmas, you guys!”

“Merry Christmas, Mikey!” his family echoed to him. 

And as the Christmas lights twinkled, the small family held fast, knowing this feeling would stay and would last. 

The hug lingered and lingered, not one pulled away, the celebrating could begin a bit later that day. 

And the big brothers three, though had feared it a mess, declared this Christmas mission a rousing success.

For the youngest sung praises to Santa with joy, his spirit unbroken, a greater gift than a toy. 

Now the heisting was over, a word Raph would protest, so they could relax now and catch up on their rest. 

Until Mikey declared with stars in his eyes, “Maybe next year he'll bring me a real reindeer that flies!”

Thank you for reading! I hope everyone enjoyed! I barely managed to finish this one in time for the holidays but thankfully I got a last minute burst of inspiration when I got to Mikey's part so I was able to get it done in time. I think I just really like writing Mikey back when he was a baby, hehe. But then I like writing all of the family and their shenanigans give me so much life XD

Can't believe this is my first official Rise fic! I've still got lots of ideas for the series as it's become my most recent obsession, haha. In fact, I'm wanting to make a whole series of little Turtle Tot one shots, among other things. So yeah, if you enjoyed maybe consider giving that one a read whenever it's ready. 

For now I'm gonna go and enjoy my holiday! Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! Or Happy Holidays, regardless of what you celebrate!

[cal-kestis]

Nik. Hi. Real talk. I need to know /how/ you colored the top gif in this set bc whenever I color Mustafar it always comes out too green or too red or even too blue

https://at.tumblr.com/starwarsblr/hayden-christensen-as-anakin-skywalker-star-wars/2lzo9t926g76

Please and thank you!!!

hi shale!!! I can definitely try to explain it but tbh I just kept slapping new adjustment layers on until I got to something I liked lskdjfklsjd

under the cut, I'll try to explain how I went from the faded, almost all-yellow HDR coloring to this natural-looking skin tone and monochromatic background!

I'm just going to mention each adjustment layer and try to describe why I used them:

1. Brightness/Contrast — No adjustments, just set this layer to screen and it helps create an even brightness across the gif

(I'll keep that masked circle there so we can keep track of the original)

2. Color Balance — I just toggled the sliders and I honestly can't explain any rhyme or reason so I'll just include screenshots of my settings ldkjflsd

3. Levels 1 — I increased the highlights (the right-most slider) A LOT

4. Selective Color 1 — After doing stuff to get rid of yellow, I... added yellow lmao. But you can see the difference from the masked section. It feels more like a natural-looking yellow now imo

5. Selective Color 2 — This time, I used the red, yellow, neutral, and black channels. For red and yellow, I mainly focused on neutralizing the yellow by adding more cyan

6. Hue/Saturation 1 — This was just a baby hue/sat layer where I reduced the saturation of red by -7, pulled the hue slider down for red by -2 and for yellow by -4, and then I fully desaturated greens, cyans, blues, and magentas

7. Hue/Saturation 2 — In this layer, I fully desaturated the yellows and masked Anakin's face! Working towards making the background monochromatic

8. Hue/Saturation 3 — This time I fully desaturated the reds and fully darkened them, using my brush to apply these settings only to select parts of the background and Anakin's robes where I saw red peaking through

9. Levels 2 — In addition to using the RGB channel to brighten and add shadows, I also used the Red channel to make the shadows more cyan. You can see below how it made the background a bit more blue. Later, when I come back in with another hue/sat layer, I’ll be able to desaturate the cyan again and further neutralize the background.

10. Hue/Saturation 4 — Fully desaturated cyans and blues like I said I would! Now the background is neutral again

11. Hue/Saturation 5 — This time fully desaturating the yellows and masking out Anakin’s face. If you look at the difference between the image above and the one below, you can see the one above just had a tinge of yellow still in the background. And now that’s gone!

12. Selective Color 3 — I mainly added blacks to the red and yellow channels to deepen the shadows of Anakin’s face!

13. Levels 3 — Just making things a bit brighter again

14. Hue/Saturation 6 — His skin was looking a little too yellow, so I neutralized it a bit using the red and yellow channels

15. Levels 4 — Uh, brightening again sdlkfjsld

16. Hue/Saturation 7 — His skin was still looking a bit too saturated imo, so I desaturated the reds by -6 and desaturated the yellows by -28

17. Levels 5 — Lastly, there was some heavy grain in the upper corners from brightening the gif, and the dots were moving so violently that it was distracting, so I decided to darken it a bit only on those corners!

And that’s it! :jerrycry: 

I hope something of this was coherent and helpful!! lsjdflksj