#it's the biggest contributer as to why leo doesn't tell anyone why he thinks there's something wrong w/ him

[darth-sonny]

"Box..."

Mikey paused.

The cat's cradle in his hands was unfinished - halfway done - but that didn't matter anymore.

Leo spoke. Spoke for the first time in weeks ever since they brought him back home...

And Mikey was confused as to the meaning of his brother's first words.

"What did you say?" he asked.

Leo raised a heavly bandaged hand - his only hand - and slowly pointed one finger at him. Mikey could see with crystal clear clarity how heavy the way Leo's arm shook, as if the action alone was so physically daunting that it tired him in just a few seconds.

Mikey was ready to gently take Leo's hand and lower it down when his brother spoke again, voice raspy and so, so different than what it had been weeks ago.

"Box."

With his brother's hand pointing at him, Mikey connected the dots.

"I'm... I'm Box?"

Leo nodded. "Box," he repeated again.

Mikey tried to smile, he did, but the way Leo's eye went to look down at the blanket covering him in shame made him realize that his smile was more or less of a grimace.

"Ssso-... orry..."

"It's okay!" Mikey chirped, wincing a bit at how Leo flinched at the loudness. "I'm fine with a new nickname!" He hummed, making a show of thinking the name over. He even scrunched up his beak. "Hmm, Box... Box... I like it! Box! We can add that to the list-"

"Na-... name..."

Mikey blinked. "What?"

Leo leaned forward, his face twisting in pain just a bit as his finger poked Mikey in the middle of his plastron.

"Box... is y-... yeerr... na-name..."

Leo's face then changed to one of confusion.

"Wha-... what's a-a ni-nick... name?"

lots of severe head trauma + deliberately messed with memories + recently getting possessed = amnesia

(mikey is box and raph is brute. the rest of the fam will get theirs once i decided on what they will be)