#rise raph is so hard to draw what the shell

[raphtdm]

the girls r hanging out !!

og image

i want to draw the others images too,, all of the turtles will be drawn trust

[goodlucktai]

17 with rise b-team?

dialogue prompts

17. “How many fingers am I holding up? ... I don't have six fingers.” 

x

“Ohmigosh!” Mikey scrambles down the fire escape with half of his usual grace—which is to say, not much—and lands with a clumsy splash next to Donnie’s boneless sprawl. “Donald, you hit the ground so hard pops probably heard it at home. Are you okay?”

Donnie makes a noise that just sounds like eeuuugrrgghheeuugh. Rainwater is seeping into him from all sides thanks to the puddle he landed in. Normally, he would be making this everyone’s problem by now. The fact that he’s just kind of laying there like he’s given up on life is really worth freaking out about. 

Worried, Mikey tugs frantically at the shoulder of Donnie’s jacket until he opens his eyes, then demands, “How many fingers am I holding up?” 

Squinting at him, Donatello thinks about it for a moment, then announces, “Six.”

“I don’t have six fingers!” Mikey shrieks, the peace sign he’s still holding up an inappropriately cheerful gesture for the current situation. 

His big brother scrambles upright at that, his wooden expression falling away and sheer panic flashing across his face instead. 

“What in Lovelace’s name do you mean you don’t have—”

Mikey lifts his left hand in its bright yellow short arm cast. They both look at it, and then Donnie puts his face in his hand without speaking in a way that manages to speak volumes. 

“You’re the one who told me to pretend like my broken hand wasn’t even there!” Mikey says defensively.

“Yes, because Nardo will hunt me for sport if you make that break any worse while I’m directly responsible for you.”

Drawing himself up to his full height, which isn’t remarkable on a good day and even less-so when he’s kneeling in the rainy mush of a Brooklyn alleyway, Mikey grits out, “I’m not a baby. I don’t need supervision.”

“Counterpoint, you are a baby and you do need supervision,” Donatello says dryly, heaving himself up off the ground. The battle shell absorbed the brunt of the impact, designed to protect his spine in pretty much every conceivable scenario, but he still looks like he feels pretty sore after that dramatic fall. He puts his hand out for Mikey to take, but Mikey sulks at him and ignores it. “Michael, I just watched you do a handspring off the railing of a sixth-story fire escape. 

“Yeah and it was sick.” 

Or it would have been, if not for the rusted joints that gave beneath roughly one hundred and fifty pounds of ninja turtle. Donnie’s last-minute save was sick as hell, though. 

He didn’t think twice before grabbing Mikey and hauling him onto the safety of the solid rooftop, using himself as a counterweight to pull it off. He wasn’t wearing the battleshell that could fly or turn into spiderlegs, because they were doing a junkyard run and he wanted the one with extra storage space instead. He knew he’d fall, he’s too smart not to have run all those calculations in the split-second he had, but he didn’t miss a beat. 

Mikey doesn’t like that Don almost got hurt helping him. It sours his righteous annoyance a little. And it also lessens his argument by a lot. 

“There are four of us, which divides neatly into two halves of two,” Donatello says patiently. “Two of us who are older, and two of us who are younger. You are firmly in the younger half. If it makes you feel any better, our fearless leader is, too. Why do you think Raph refuses to let him out of his sight while his leg is in that brace? You’re both the babies.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say that to his face,” Mikey mutters, but it does make him feel better, so he lets Donnie haul him to his feet. 

And Donnie was right about more than that, because the second they meet up with Raph and Leo, Leonardo demands, “Miguelito, what did you do?”

As one, Donnie and Mikey look down at his cast—which, okay, which has a thin crack down the middle. Presumably from when Mikey landed on the roof after Donnie’s Hail Mary throw. How did Leo even see it from way over there? 

Donnie starts to look hunted even before Leo whirls on him and says, “You had one job, Tello—make sure his razz stayed un-tazzed!” 

“That is easily a three-turtle operation and there is only one of me!”

Since the twins can go on for ages once they really get started, Mikey drifts over to Raph, offering his biggest brother his best smile. Raph smiles back like a knee-jerk reaction, reaching over to rub Mikey’s head affectionately.

“Have fun, big man?”

“Yep!” Mikey says sweetly. “Donnie will probably tell you some crazy story about acrobatics on a rooftop, but you know how he likes to exaggerate when Leo eggs him on. We had a totally lowkey junk run. Can we get Crazyshakes on the way home?”

Raphie’s not stupid, but he has three very significant blind spots, and they’re all little-brother-shaped. He softens completely and lifts Mikey up to sit in place of pride on his shoulders, tall enough to see all of Manhattan. Then he passes up his phone, even though Mikey totally would have ordered the shakes on his!

He’ll never not complain about being one of the babies, but he has to admit—just to himself, in secret—that there are definitely some perks. 

“Make sure you get that shortcake one for Leon,” Raphie says offhandedly. “He’s been on a strawberry kick recently.”

Part of Mikey wants to roll his eyes at this additional bit of proof that Donnie is constantly right about everything. The much larger part of him just feels warm and sweet and cared for.

He wraps his arm around Raph’s head and squeezes, as much of a hug as he can manage with the phone in one hand and the other in a cast, and adds all four of their favorites to the order. The twins’ argument bounces off the alley walls around them, both of them on the verge of laughter by now and trying not to be the one who breaks first.

Mikey normally isn’t very fond of rainy days, but this one he wouldn’t mind living in. 

[atearyamallari]

Bath, Bed, and Late Night Phone Calls

This is another entry for @tmnt-write-fight. Get attacked, @untitled-tmnt-blog! This was the prompt I had answered:

New dad Splinter is very unprepared but is trying the best he can.

Not a parent, but having worked closely with children, I can tell you that parenting is hard. Hope you all enjoy the story! (and if you're reading this, I recommend having tissues nearby)

Words: 3669

Rating: Gen

Tags: Fluff, Family Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Minor Character Death, Bubble Bath, Sad Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Bittersweet.

Iteration: Rise of the TMNT

You can also check out the fic here on AO3!

Enjoy!

\\

Splinter looked at his sons as they cuddled on the couch together, watching one of his films. Admittedly, it wasn’t the best thing to show to children – violence toned down was still violence, after all – but he didn’t have any other movies for them. Besides, putting something on the TV was one of the only ways he could get all four of them to calm down and be quiet for longer than ten minutes. And the boys seemed to really enjoy this movie in particular; their jaws were slack, and their eyes twinkled with awe as they watched Lou Jitsu beat up a dozen bad guys on screen.

Little did they know that Lou Jitsu was standing nearby, and that he was going to pull the rug out from under them. He snatched up the remote with his tail and turned the TV off. “Alright, boys! It’s time for your bath!” he said.

The room grew to a near-deafening volume as all four of them started complaining at once. “But Papa, I don’t wanna take a bath!” Leo whined.

“No baths!” Mikey said.

“Yeah, we already had one,” Raph said. “We’re all clean.”

“No baths!”

“That was two days ago. You need to take another one today,” Splinter said.

“But we want to watch the movie!” Donnie said.

“No baths!”

Splinter’s sanity was slipping from him, like a balloon slipping from a child’s fingers and floating out of reach. “How about we take baths one at a time, and when you’re not being washed you can watch the movie?” he said, trying his best to refrain from yelling. “Does that sound good?”

Bargaining seemed to do the trick. “Yay! Movie time!” they yelled happily.

He turned the TV back on, and the projector hummed with life as it displayed their favorite movie once more. “Red, you will go first,” he said, setting the remote down.

“What? No fair!” he said. “Why do I have to go first?”

“Because I said so.” He grabbed his son by the wrist and tried to gently coax him off the couch.

“I don’t wanna take a bath!” Raph said. “I wanna stay here with my brothers!” He wormed his arm out of Splinter’s grasp, then retreated his head and limbs into his shell.

Normally, that level of stubbornness would have caused Splinter a headache, but thankfully, his son wasn’t smart enough to realize that hiding in his shell only made him easier to carry. Splinter picked him up off the couch and was immediately surprised by how heavy his Raph was. Five-year-olds were supposed to grow a lot, but it should have been illegal for him to grow this much. As he lugged Raphael away into the bathroom, he wondered how much longer he would be able to carry him before he grew too big.

Their bathroom was barely larger than a closet, but it was the only room in the sewer drainage junction that they had come to call home which had spigots to draw water from. A wooden barrel that had been sawed in half functioned as their bathtub, and Splinter had added shelves to the walls to hold soap and towels. As he gently set Raph down into the tub, he realized that his son was almost too big for it now. Another reason why it should have been illegal for him to grow as fast as he did.

Splinter connected a garden hose to a faucet in the walls and turned the valve handle. Water gushed out, brown and murky at first, but eventually it ran clear. Splinter aimed the hose into the bathtub and began filling it. Curious, little Raph peeked his head out from his shell, then his legs, then his arms. A smile slowly crept onto his face as he began to splash around.

“Are you having fun?” Splinter asked, amused.

“Yeah!” Raph said. He slammed his arms into the water, making giant splashes.

“Careful! You’re gonna get water everywhere,” Splinter said. He turned off the faucet, grabbed some liquid soap from one of the shelves and began pouring it into the bath. Mountains of bubbles grew in the tub, much to Raph’s delight.

“Look, Daddy!” Raph said, scooping bubbles with his hands and smearing them on top of his head. “I’m Lou Jitsu!”

Laughing, Splinter took off his red bandana, then scooped up some more bubbles and added them to his son’s head. “You look just like him!” he said.

He spent the next couple of minutes scrubbing him down with a sponge. Halfway through the bath, Raph had managed to splash all the water out of the tub, forcing Splinter to fill it up again. But before long, he had Raph wrapped up in a fuzzy red towel. “Daddy’s gonna get you all dried up,” he said.

Somewhere in another room, glass shattered. Splinter’s heart dropped as soon as he heard the sound. “Never mind. You’re old enough to do this yourself, right?” he said to Raph. Then he bolted out of the bathroom.

Leo and Mikey were standing in the middle of the TV room, looking down at the mess they had made. Between the two of them was a football, a lamp shade, and a pile of broken ceramic. “Did you two just break our brand-new lamp?” Splinter said, aghast.

The boys pointed their fingers at each other. “He did it!” they said simultaneously.

Like the rest of their furniture, the lamp had been salvaged from a dumpster, but it was one of the nicer appliances that Splinter had added to their home. “That’s it! Leonardo, Michelangelo, you’re both in trouble,” he yelled. “No more playing football in the lair.”

“Sorry, Daddy,” Leo mumbled.

“S-sorry, P-papa” Mikey said, bursting into tears.

Seeing his son crying caused his chest to tighten with pity. Still, pity wasn’t going to clean up the mess. Splinter picked up the football and carefully plucked out the ceramic shards before placing it on the very top of the do-not-touch cabinet he had in the TV room. Then he carefully swept up the broken pieces before his sons could cut their toes on them. By the time he was done, Mikey had stopped crying but was still sulking where he stood.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you,” Splinter said, picking him up. “But I need you to be careful. I don’t want you getting hurt. Now, let’s get you back on the couch.” He fluffed up the cushions with one hand before setting him down, then turned to Leo. “Come, Blue. It’s time for your bath now.”

“Okay,” Leo said in a whiny tone.

Taking his hand, Splinter led him to the bathroom. All the while, a nagging feeling ate away at him, telling him that something was wrong. It wasn’t until they had nearly left the TV room that he realized what it was. “Where’s Purple?” he asked Leo. He asked as calmly as possible, but his heart only pounded faster when he remembered that he hadn’t seen Donnie since he took Raph’s bath.

Leo silently pointed behind him. Splinter turned to find Donnie standing just a few feet away, dragging a bucket by the handle. “I’m right here, Papa,” he said.

Crisis averted. Splinter let out a giant sigh of relief. “Donatello, go watch the movie with your brother,” he said.

“Actually, I want to take a bath now,” Donnie said.

“But Daddy said that it’s my turn for bathtime,” Leo said.

“You boys can have a bath at the same time,” Splinter suggested. Thankfully, the two of them were small enough that they could both fit in the tub.

Leo took Donnie’s free hand and together they walked into the bathroom. Raph was standing where Splinter had left him, swaddled in the towel. It was obvious that he hadn’t done anything to dry himself off, however, since water was still dripping from his shell, and he was now shivering. Splinter helped Leo and Donnie into the bathtub, then finished drying Raph off while the bath filled with water. Eventually, he let Raph scamper back into the TV room and turned his attention back to Leo and Donnie.

Donnie was floating his bucket in the bathtub. Lately, he had picked up the habit of walking everywhere with it and often filled it with little trinkets he found around the house. “What do you have in your bucket, Purple?” Splinter asked as he gently took off his bandana.

Silently, Donnie reached into the bucket and pulled out a spoon, then let it drop into the water. Then he drew a second spoon from the bucket, and a third, dropping each of them into the bath. Although this probably wasn’t normal behavior for a child, this didn’t surprise Splinter at all. Donnie, for some reason, had an interest in shiny metal objects. What did surprise him, however, was the next few items that Donnie pulled out from his bucket. They were metal rods shaped like the letter C, and for some reason Splinter had the feeling that he had seen them somewhere before. It wasn’t until Donnie had dropped the fourth one into the bathtub that he realized that they were the handles of the kitchen drawers. “What –? How did you get the handles off?” he asked incredulously.

“With a screwdriver,” Donnie said, beaming.

If any of his other sons had done this, Splinter would have been concerned. But Donnie had always been a little too smart for his own good. Splinter tiredly dragged one of his hands over his face. Considering that his four-year-old son was able to remove the handles, it should be easy for him to place them back on. “What else do you have in the bucket?” he asked.

“A toaster!” he said, pulling one out.

“No no no no no!” Splinter said, catching the toaster before his son could toss it into the bath like the rest of his trinkets. He set the toaster on one of the shelves, away from the water, then took the bucket out of the bathtub. “Let’s play with this later, okay?”

Like with Raph, Splinter scrubbed Donnie and Leo down with a sponge. It took a little longer than normal because whenever Donnie was distracted, he took the opportunity to reach into the bathtub and pull out the spoons and drawer handles. In a few minutes, however, he had them clean and swaddled in their favorite purple and blue towels. Once they had both dried off, he led them both to the TV room. “Orange, it’s your turn,” he called.

Raph sat on the couch watching the movie, but Mikey wasn’t with him. “Red, where is your brother?” he asked.

He shrugged. “I dunno. I’ve just been watching the movie.”

Splinter looked down at Donnie and Leo, as if they would have the answers, but they only shrugged in reply as well. This was just great. He should have known that it was getting too quiet around the lair. That’s what he got for teaching them basic ninja skills.

Leaving the rest of the boys in the TV room, Splinter walked around and called Mikey’s name. The longer time dragged on without a response, the more panic dug its claws into his chest. All the doors leading out of the sewers were child-proof, so there was no way Mikey could have left – but if he had managed to break through, then Splinter could only hope that his chubby toddler legs didn’t take him very far.

After calling his name for what felt like the hundredth time, Splinter finally heard a response. “Hi, Daddy!” came Mikey’s voice, bouncing across the walls of the atrium.

Splinter spun around wildly, trying to pinpoint where the sound had come from. Finally, his eyes rested on the sight of a little box turtle hanging from a pipe suspended ten feet off the ground. “Mikey!” he said, horrified. “Get down from there!”

“Okay!” Mikey said. He let go of the pipe.

“That’s not what I meant!” Splinter screamed. Adrenaline pumped through his body as his instincts took over. With a giant leap, he stretched out his hands and caught his son as he plummeted to the ground. He landed expertly, still holding onto Mikey.

“Yay! Do it again!” his son said.

“Nope! Not again!” Splinter said, nearly crying from sheer terror. “Bathtime only.”

Splinter gave Mikey his bath, and by the time he was done, exhaustion weighed down every bone in his body. He wasn’t the only one; little Mikey started nodding his head as Splinter dried him off and he seemed to struggle to keep his eyes open. It was a little early in the evening – but it was never too early for bedtime. Splinter picked up his son and carried him to his bedroom. Mikey was sound asleep before his head hit his pillow. Chuckling softly, Splinter knelt over him and kissed the top of his head before returning to the TV room.

Raph, Donnie, and Leo were all sound asleep, cuddled close together on the couch. Splinter grabbed the remote and lowered the volume to the movie, which still droned on in the background. One by one, he picked up Raph, then Donnie, and carried them to their beds, before tucking them in and kissing them good night. As he brought Leo to his bed, however, he began to stir. “Papa,” Leo murmured sleepily as Splinter lay him gently down on his pillow. “Can you tell me a bedtime story?”

“No, it’s time for you to sleep,” Splinter said.

“Please?”

Leo’s sleepy little eyes were simply too adorable to resist. “Okay,” Splinter said, sitting on the edge of his son’s bed. He racked his mind for a bedtime story until at last he remembered an old fairy tale from his childhood.

“Once upon a time there was a young fisherman named Urashima Tarō,” he began. “He lived with his mother and father in a humble village on the coast of a small island, and he was a good son who ate all his vegetables and didn’t complain about bathtime. One day, when he was walking along the beach, he came across a group of children. As he drew closer, he saw that they were torturing a baby sea turtle who was stranded in the sand dunes. Feeling pity for the turtle, he drove the children away, then he carefully watched over it as it found its way to the surf and disappeared into the waves.”

“Those were some mean kids,” Leo mumbled.

“Yes, yes,” Splinter said. “Now don’t interrupt. Two days later, when he was fishing on his boat, a giant sea turtle swam up to him. It was no ordinary sea turtle, for it was the same one that he had rescued. And it could talk! The turtle thanked him for saving its life and offered to take him to Ryūgū-jō, the underwater palace of the Dragon God. Since Tarō was a human and could not breathe underwater, the turtle magically gave him gills, and since he was not a strong swimmer, the turtle let him ride on its shell until they came to a beautiful palace made of pearls at the bottom of the ocean.”

“Saving the turtle had made Tarō the hot-shot of the ocean. He got to meet all of the important people in Ryūgū-jō, like the emperor, and his princess daughter, Otohime. But as the days went by, he became homesick. He wanted to go back to the island to see his mother and father. Otohime was sad to see him go, but she gave him permission to return home and gave him a special box, a tamatebako, to keep him safe from harm. However, she gave him instructions to never open the box. Tarō took it with him and rode on the back of his sea turtle friend until he made it home.”

“When he came to his island home, he found that everything had changed. He couldn’t recognize any of the people there, and he couldn’t find his parents. Just when he thought he had traveled to the wrong island, some of the villagers told him that they knew where his mother and father were. They took him to a pair of graves at the edge of the village – his parent’s graves. Three hundred years had passed since he had disappeared at sea, and his parents were long gone. Distracted by the grief, Tarō opened the lid of the tamatebako. White smoke poured out, turning his hair silver and forming wrinkles in his skin. It was too late by the time that he realized that the box had held his old age.”

Leo’s eyes were closed, and his breathing was soft and even. Splinter gently cupped his son’s face in his hands, stroking the edge of his bright red stripes with his thumb, and leaned over to kiss the top of his head. Then he quietly got up and walked out of his room.

Now that his sons were asleep, the lair was completely still, but despite the peace and quiet Splinter found himself unable to relax. Today marked the third anniversary of their collective mutation – the boys mutating into giant sentient turtles, himself mutating into an ugly, oversized rat. His fur stood on end as horrible memories wormed their way into his mind. The glow of bright green ooze. The acrid stench of chemical fires burning in a crumbling lab. The ache in his bones as he transformed. The horrible, churning feeling in his gut when he realized that Draxum intended to turn innocent baby turtles into weapons of war.

After three years, that gut-churning feeling never really went away. He felt when he and his sons were on the run, living in the streets. He felt it the one time someone had caught a glimpse of him and his boys and screeched in horror. Even when their lives weren’t in immediate danger, he couldn’t ignore the feeling that he was doing this parenting stuff all wrong. He had rescued the boys from a soldier’s life, only to deliver them to a life in the sewers.

He couldn’t do this anymore – not alone, anyway. It was time to ask for some help, or at least some parenting advice. Splinter tip-toed to his room, grabbed an oversized hoodie, and slipped it on. Then he lifted his mattress and snatched up the loose change that he had hidden underneath. He counted the quarters, adding them up until he had nearly thirteen dollars. Enough to make an international call.

Quietly, he tiptoed out of his room and into one of the sewer tunnels that led to a maintenance shaft. He turned the door handle and heaved the giant vault-like door open before slipping through and shutting it behind him. When he reached the top of the maintenance shaft, he lifted the manhole cover and crawled out onto the street. Pulling his hood over his head, he headed east.

Two blocks later, he reached a row of payphones on the side of the road. He lifted one of the phones from its hook and inserted quarters into the coin slot before dialing the number. Although it had been over thirteen years since he had talked to his grandfather, he still remembered the number to his landline.

Splinter nervously twist the phone cord in between his fingers as the phone rang in his ear. Would his grandfather be happy to hear his voice, or disappointed that it took over thirteen years to reach out to him again? Would his grandfather even remember him? Was his Japanese still good enough to carry a conversation? Part of him was tempted to save himself the shame and hang up so that he could get his money back. Clutching the phone tighter, he forced himself to stay on the line. This was for his sons, he reminded himself.

The line clicked as someone picked up the phone on the other end. “Jiji! It’s me, Yoshi,” Splinter said. “I’m sorry I haven’t called you sooner. I need help –”

“I’m sorry, who did you say you were?”

“Yoshi. Hamato Yoshi,” he answered. His stomach twisted when he realized he didn’t recognize the voice on the other end.

“I think you have the wrong number.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry to bother you. I was just trying to call my grandpa, Hamato Sho.”

“Hamato Sho,” repeated the stranger on the other end. “I recognize that name. I think he was the previous occupant of the house I am living in now.”

If the stranger knew his grandfather, then he still had hope of reaching him. “Do you know where he lives now? Or what his new phone number is?”

The stranger paused. “Listen, I know this won’t be what you wanted to hear but… Hamato Sho passed away five years ago.”

A tear slipped down Splinter’s face. “Oh,” he choked out.

“Yeah. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”

His chest tightened as a sob threatened to escape his throat. “It’s okay,” he said. “Thank you for your time.” With shaky hands, he put the phone back up on the hook.

Splinter’s legs felt heavy the entire walk back to the sewers. Tears streaked down his face now as he allowed himself to cry. His jiji was long gone, and he never got the chance to properly say goodbye. He never even apologized for the way he had left things between them. There was no one left of his family now.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Splinter had four sons now – four rambunctious, troublemaking, sweet turtle sons. When he returned to the lair, it was still quiet and peaceful. In the morning, it would be loud and chaotic as they woke up. But for now, they were asleep in their rooms, perhaps having pleasant dreams about what the next day would bring. Splinter crawled into bed, still wondering if he was raising his sons right. But no matter what, he was going to try.

[angelmichelangelo]

Whump #31, Storm's A Coming, Rise turtle tots dealing with flooding and thunder and lightning, Splinter trying to be comforting and reassuring.

turtle tots my shaylaaaaa !! thanks for the prompt, hope you enjoy :]

x

Freezing saltwater bubbles at the storm drains, pounding heavy against the manhole covers with a chorus of thunk, thunk, thunks that echo down the long, twisting tunnels that run beneath the city.

Coming in with it, the icy chill of the winter breeze that settles in across the home. Splinter wraps his robe around his middle a little tighter, chasing out the cold with only a limited amount of success, when another gust of air comes rushing through the sewer, making the fur on the back of his neck stand as a chill races down his spine.

It’d been hard enough, keeping four young infants healthy as well as just about alive in such squalor conditions such as the ones he’d recently found most resourceful for keeping them all away from such prying eyes.

He couldn’t risk it anywhere else, up above in the bustling city as well as the likes that remained Hidden. He didn’t feel particularly welcomed in either regard, and so, the sewer had felt most fitting for a rodent such as himself.

But his children – because that was what they were now, he’d decided without so much as a shadow of a doubt when they’d latched onto his thumb with all three little chubby little finger, and blinked up at him with those big, round, curious eyes. His children, he knew somewhere nestled in the heart he’d thought had broken beyond repair a long time ago, deserved so much more better than this.

A crack of thunder erupts from the sky, traveling down the storm drains and amplifying off the brick walls of their home, making it sound like it’d spawned right here in their makeshift living room.

With it comes the startled cry of his turtles, one by one they sound off before he’s rushing to them to do his best to soothe.

Raphael sits up in bed, his eldest child with one fist curled tightly into his old, moth bitten comforter, the other he’s jammed right into his mouth as big tears tracks down either sides of his face.

His twins, Donnie and Leo aren’t too far from one another, inseparable where they lay on the old twin mattress, clinging to one another with fat little fingers, hiccuping a chorus of sobs.

And his youngest, Mikey – almost entirely hidden away where he’s placed within a nest of blankets inside an old chest drawer, tucked up tight and safe inside the snug confines of his shell, vibrating just faintly with the sound of his mournful cry.

“Daddy!” Raph is clamouring to reach him, little feet getting caught up in the blankets before he’s kicking himself free to rush towards him, a drooled on hand outstretched towards him. “Daddy!”

He feels the tiny weight of his son as he barrels into his middle, sniffling and sobbing as he buries his face into his stomach. It sets off the twins, who start to fuss, clumsily trying to copy their big brother as they struggle to roll off their shells to get to him.

With Raph still attatched to him, Splinter makes his way to the other bed, one handedly scooping up Leo and Donnie, allowing them to hang off his side.

Then, he moves over to the wooden draw and picks up his youngest.

“Aw, come now,” he says, his best attempt to console each of them where they’re tucked up tight against him like barnacles spawning off his limbs and torso. “It’s only a bit of thunder.”

The sky erupts once more, bringing with it a clap of booming thunder to travel right through the sewers with yet another drawn out echo that makes all four of his children stiffen briefly before burrowing into him, little elbows and knees go digging about his ribs as they wail and claw at him for safety.

He’s able to make it back to the living room, dropping himself into the plush comfort of his armchair, a rare luxury item he’d been more than willing to take with open arms when he’d seen it lingering without supervision from the back of the moving van one summer’s evening when he’d gone topside to grab supplies.

Spongey springs fit to his shape where he nestles against the seat, his children fitting just as perfectly in his lap.

“It’s alright, little ones,” he hushes their sniffling, tracing a thumb across the swell of Raph’s face, gathering up the moisture that slides down his cheek from his nervousness. “It cannot hurt us, it’s just sound.”

“Loud!” Little Leo whines, patting his palms over the sides of his head repeatedly before gently moving over to do the same for his twin brother. Donnie whines in tandem and screws his face up, however Splinter knows his discomfort stems more from the sound of the thunder than it is at his brothers touchy actions.

Mikey has yet to reappear from where he’d tucked himself away in his shell, Splinter’s free hand comes to rest across the waxy, little shell, tapping gently rhythm against the grooves there.

“I know,” Splinter assures them once more, gathering them up to hold them close. “It’s just a storm, it will pass soon enough.”

Raphael sniffs, his snout wrinkles with his disdain, more tears and snot gathering across his face before his father is moving to wipe it away with the sleeve of his robe, not caring when it gets damp and heavy.

“How long?” He’s asking him, lashes clinging to more tears unshed, highlighting his fretfulness. “How long, Daddy?”

Peering upwards with a slight crane of his neck, Splinter could just about make out the flash of lightning that brightens up the street above through the sliver of sewer grate that greets in the light.

He waits, counting in his head between the flash of light and the boom of noise that follows. It earns him more point elbows and knees into his tummy and hips that has him squirming before they finally settle when the sound finally peters out.

“It’s moving away now,” Splinter drops his head to tell his son, once again gathering tears up underneath wide, frightful eyes.

“How—how do you know?” Raphael says with a tiny hiccup.

Looking up again towards the tiny patch of sky they can just about see, he nods for Raph to follow his gaze.

Another snap of lightening captures and highlights his awe. Splinter counts again, numbers drawing out further and further before the thunder follows.

Less reaction now between his sons, only grabbing tightly at the front of his robe without trying to worm under his skin.

“See that?” He asks his eldest, jostling him slightly on his knee. “That means it’s leaving us. It won’t stay, my child.”

Raphael sniffs, and then uses the back of his hand for good measure to wipe away the snot underneath his snout. “Really?”

Leo claps his hands together with enthusiasm, Donnie curiously following suit.

“Bang! Bang, bang!”

Another flash, another long delayed roll of thunder to come after it.

“See?” He drums his fingers against his youngest shell, his round, curious face now carefully creeping from the confines of his shell. “It’s going. It’s going, now.”

Raph breathes a sigh of relief, slumping against his fathers chest, head still tipped backwards to watch for the light, and then the sound, the two starting to seperate with distance.

Splinter allows them to stay with him for a little while longer, rocking them close by, gathered up into his arms until Mikey unfurls from his hiding place and Donnie and Leo go still and Raph’s breathing evens out where his chest is flush with his.

Cradling the back of his head, tracing sleepy patterns across his scutes until he feels his full, tiny weight sag against him with his impending slumber.

And much like the thunder and the cold and the winter, all that had plagued him before, would surely, and eventually, come to pass.

[skelebab]

*bats my eyes at you cutely*

My rise sep au :D

A break down of each of the bois

Champion (Leo)

- he was found by big mama and raised to be a battle nexus champion

- very showy and confident (at least outwardly) and has the combat skills to back it up

-lou jitsu's number one fan

- used to duel wield, but no longer can due to an injury he got in one of his earlier fights

I knew immediately what I wanted to do with him cuz I wanted to play with him wanting to be his brother's champion in the show (like in the maze ep)

Mystic Warrior of The Sun (Sunny (Mikey))

- ended up in witch town

- started using his mystic powers at a young age and quickly became a master

- took out those monster dudes as a child, and so the citizens treat him like a hero (more like a deity tbh)

- decided they should keep the friendship celebration around though, because he liked it, but instead of there being a spell they just make a really big pot of soup

- uses Dr. Delicate Touch and Dr. Feelings to help deal with people's day to day problems

- can sense the other turtles' existences, but has faith that they'll find their way to him one day

- really wishes that people would stop insisting on calling him by his full title

-draws on his pants

I just really wanted Mikey to be in witch town and also wanted him to overtake it (like in the mystic library's kid section)

Purple (Donnie)

- lives with splinter

- April is his best (and only) friend

- has more robot kids (made metal head as a little kid to keep him company, SHELLDON as a preteen to help around the lair, and Iris as a teen to help with his plants)

- has a lot of plants

- makes clothes (most of April's closet is Genius Built (tm) apparel)

-wears a hoodie over his battle shell at all times (battle shell is more for equipment and not protection)

I liked the idea of Donnie being almost the same, but all his machines work and he has separation anxiety. That's p much it

Soldier (Raph)

- the one turtle Draxum didn't lose

- bigger and stronger because he's been training to be the perfect soldier all his life (and Draxum has def done some experiments on him)

- calls Draxum "boss" because of hugin and munin

- still secretly loves soft things

- was raised to hate humans

I saw Raph being a big bulky intimidating guy who can and might crack a skull but who still loves stuffies and is a softy at heart and said "bet"

More arts :)

They're silly together

Soldier really tries to get Champ to like him, but it's hard when the slider is the way he is

Tumblr isn't letting me add anymore pics, so I'll put the last few in a separate post! :)

[foxovobear]

Heres another 2003 moment I loved and wanted to draw the Rise boys in lol

[asexualotl-does-fanart]

I return to deliver more fanart for Heroes that are half-scaled by @nicoleisaboat-blog ! Turns out combining my Rise hyperfixation with my life-long love for dragons is a sure fire way to get me to obsess over a fic. Well played.

So here we’ve got some full body sketches of my interpretations on how they look like as well as two more quick doodles from work.

(I feel like Raph is starting to compete with Donnie over being my favorite turtle. I mean

look at this guy. Look at him and tell me you wouldn’t die for him. You can’t.)

I wanna go over some design choices real quick (I’ll try to keep it short lmao)

Mikey is very Round™️ except for his horns which resemble the stickers on his plastron (as stated in the fic). Unfortunately I think they’d prevent him from fully retracting his head (I also think none of the others can retreat fully into their shells since their limbs, necks and shells are kinda massive compared to before. I do feel like Mikey would get the furthest tho).

Donnie is obviously the smoothest both scale wise and in regards to lack of horns and spines/spikes. Like I said before, shortish legs, long-ass neck and tail (bc softshell turtles’ necks extend). Kept all his tech and, most importantly, his eyebrows. Speaking of tech, his draconic battle shell was one of my favorite aspects to design even tho I normally hate drawing machinery. Figured I’d give it a dragon scale pattern to fit the aesthetic and I think it works well. Also, snoot.

I absolutely love how Leo turned out. Braincell 1 was like ‘what if we gave him this kinda snout’ and braincell 2 went ‘absolutely based, let’s do it’. His red “ears” extending all the way to the tip of his tail is an awesome idea and I wanted to make them a bit jagged bc parallel lines are Boring. I broke up his “mask” so it’d be a bit more expressive and to have some extra variation between all of them (it does extend almost all the way to his shell on the back of his neck). Possibly my favorite design element is that the base of his antlers look like the base of his ōdachi!

Raph still is the most armored among all of them but like, dialed up to 11. Extra hard massive shell, scales extra spikey, alladat. I also gave him multiple rows of spines kind of like an alligator. He has the shortest neck relative to body size among all of them, mainly because I feel like bulkier, heavier dragons tend to be more stocky or “compressed” I guess (plus variation value. I wanted them to be 100% distinguishable even without looking at their shells).

As you can see I am obviously Very Normal about this AU.

[8beats-per-minute]

Human!Rise Turtles AU… with a twist

Okay so I’ve had this idea for a while but like

Human!rottmnt but they’re not… completely human. Like they can pass with clothes but if you pay attention you can tell they aren’t human

Also plz don’t steal my idea… if you want to draw this or add to it plz give credit… it’s like my baby now

They all still have shell-like things on their backs, it’s just more stuck to their bodies like a second really hard skin. There’s like a bit of it that goes a bit higher than where their shoulders stop and the way the hard skin grows makes the skin almost grow like scutes, so they fall out and are replaced by bigger ones as they grow

Maybe raph has spikes on his shoulders/back, where his spikes are already

Donnie’s is soft (cause he’s a soft shell obv) and he still needs a battle shell

Mikey and Leo have the same pattern on their backs that they do already, just their shells are just a slightly different shade than their skin, so the blue and yellow stand out

This shell or hard skin can easily be covered up with clothing, even on their shoulders it’s not much of a problem. Raph has a small problem with his spikes on his back but Donnie make covers for his so he could wear cool clothes still

Their skin looks dry at first glance but if you examine it it’s much closer to scales than skin. Maybe it’s very slightly green but I’m not totally set on that

Obviously they’re half black and half Japanese

They’re a bit taller than what I think they are in canon (I don’t remember their exact heights) at 16, Leo and Donnie are around 5’9, at 17 Raph is 6’3 and Mikey at 15 is like 5’5

Leo has vitiligo (again obviously) over his eyes and on his arms and legs and I’m thinking he has red birthmarks over his eyes too, not perfectly in like with the vitiligo but around the same areas in the same shape, idk I’m not really set on that either, it’s kind of a passing thought

Mikey also has vitiligo, just more on his arms and hands, still a few spots on his face just not as noticeable as Leo

Donnie still has his lil Tetris on his arms and legs. I also want to add some to his face, which is a common thing I see people drawing and I love it. Instead I think I’d put it closer to his jaw rather than his eyes or on the side of his face, like between his cheek and ears

Speaking of ears, they have them. Buuuutt… they’re also slightly off. Like the very top of their ears are still a bit connected, but again, not super noticeable. You’d probably notice the scaly skin before the ears if covered well enough

Their noses are normal I think, but the bottom of their faces are a bit pushed out like their snouts are still barely there (also not set on this…)

Raph still has his sharp tooth (I forgot what it’s called). They also still have very similar appetites to their turtle species

They have 5 fingers, but their pointer/middle fingers and their pinky/ring fingers separate like half an inch/a centimeter higher than normal. The connection between their middle finger and ring finger are normal tho

They have hair and eyelashes but their eyebrows are a bit thin (this is just mostly so I can justify Donnie still having his drawn on eyebrows)

I think that’s done for the descriptions but yea

April thought they were kids who got caught up in some sort of radioactive material or they were an experiment gone wrong at first but thinks they’re cool (you’re almost on point April, they’re just an experiment gone right)

They kind of become urban legends (they probably already are but still)

I think that’s it for now, I might add more later or if I forgot something. It’s 3:30 am and I want to sleep.

I was thinking something like “Human’t AU” or something for the name, not sure yet tho. Idk seemed funny.

Maybe the Vaguely Human AU

Yea I like that

This is the official first post for the Rottmnt #Vaguely Human AU

(Wow I really said yes vaguely human AU is an amazing name and it has nothing to do with the fact that it’s 3am)

EDIT: Okay so credit to @scribblesugar for the name name cause I just love it so much

Uncanny Valley AU. That’s such an amazing idea I can’t even describe how much I love it

Part 2

Designs

[remmushound]

Bay/rise 19!! @brightlotusmoon @errorfreak88

Ten minutes should have been more than enough. Then ten turned to fifteen and Splinter started to worry. When sirens started to sound off in the streets below, he could felt as if he had swallowed his heart and it was still beating while still in his stomach. His being churned with a cold nausea as scenarios ran his mind into a painful war zone.

“April…?” Splinter peered over the wall, his twitching nose betraying his anxiety. It stopped just in front of a pizzeria and the rescuers ran in with a stretcher. Then like a speeding bullet, out they came with an unconscious young girl held on the carrier between them. “APRIL!”

His immediate reaction was to run out to his daughter's aid. He had slung almost the entirety of his body over the wall before his mind could catch up to the actions of his body. There were so many people down there. New Yorkers watching and whispering as they watched the poor girl be taken away into the wailing vehicle. Splinter watched helplessly as it drove away. 

Slow as if he were made of stone, he pulled himself to hide behind the wall once more and curled into a tight ball to hide in the shadow. It was barely big enough to hide him anymore and quickly being eaten away by the sun, but it was enough for now. He couldn’t catch up. Even if he gage it his all and ran himself to the ground. He was old. He wasn’t Yoshi anymore, and this definitely wasn’t a movie.

She was going to a hospital. She was going to get help there and return to him when she was better. But she couldn’t do that if she didn’t know where he was! That’s how he justified him laying there helpless and silently brewing in his hurricane of self-hatred. He just had to hide and wait, like he’d done for fourteen years. Why, then, did this time feel so agonizingly impossible?

The sun hurt. It stung his eyes and almost seemed to burn his sensitive pink skin. He felt uncomfortable in the very fur covering his body. In all of fourteen years in this body, he could count the amount of times he’d been exposed to direct sunlight on two paws. He would be able to move a lot faster come night, without the sun to burn and blind him. If she didn’t returned by then, he told himself that he would go find her. It couldn’t be so hard, and he’d certainly had similar trials of difficult endeavors. For now, however, he was so tired mentally and physically that he just wanted to sleep. His family would be okay… they were okay… they were okay…

He couldn’t have been in that state for very long before he heard a faint, familiar hum. He rubbed his ears and silently cursed tinnitus before sliding his paws to his eyes for additional shelter. A second of thought later, he recognized that it wasn’t tinnitus— it was familiar to him in a different way.

“Blue…?” He lifted his paws from his muzzle and squinted up at two shadows staring down at him.

“Pops!”

Splinter grunted as the smaller of the shadows ran and scooped him up, powerful arms crushing him in a hug.

“Orange!” Hugged the box turtle in turn, “Blue!”

Splinter closed his eyes and gave a content sigh as Blue hugged both him and Orange.

“Dad. You okay?”

“Yes, I am fine. Oh, my boys…” Splinter teared up as he brought his paws to both of his sons’ cheeks and stroked them gently. 

Blue let his cheek be pet a moment longer before taking Splinter’s paw in his hand with gentle rubs of his thumb on the rat's palm. 

“Dad— where’s April? We thought she’d be with you.”

Splinter’s ears perked up slightly, but then quickly fell in response to the question. “I… she was. I don’t know what happened…”

“Do you know where she is?” Blue asked, his voice still happy and calm as he addressed the old rat, “I mean, she’s probably better off than us in the city, you know with this whole… situation.” 

“She… went to get food.” Splinter explained softly, then quickly changed the subject. “Where are your brothers? Where are Red and Purple?”

“Relax. They’re safe I promise.” Blue reassured with a pat to Splinter’s shoulder. “They’re… in the sewer. And Raph’s all patched up. We can go meet them after April gets back.”

“Did she just leave her bat here…?” Orange picked open the engraved bat and frowned as he turned it around in his hand. “She never leaves her bat… she loves this thing!”

“Not like she could bring it into a sushi bar, Miguel. Not even a skeevy burger joint would let her bring in a weapon! Probably safer to leave it here with dad anyway. When do you think she’ll be back? Cause we got a quad squad of angry Shrek’s on our shell that mean business and are even uglier than Raph.”

“What?” Splinter said sharply. “What Shrek’s?”

Blue hummed while he considered his words, and then said, “Eh, long story. So April?”

“She… I don’t know what happened. The ambulance took her…”

“What?” Blue’s cheery voice quickly shifted down an octave and Blue’s grip on his fathers shoulder tightened.

“Omigosh!”

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know— she was fine when she left here.”

“How long ago?” Blue interjected sharply, “How long ago did they take her?”

“I don’t know, maybe twenty minutes?” Splinter estimated. 

“Then she’d be at the hospital right now…” Blue put his odachi to his forehead to keep the sun out of his eyes as he looked around the city, “Closest hospital is… that one!” He pointed to a distant building that Splinter could barely make out. “I think. You stay here, pops. Mikey and I will go check on April.”

“None of you are going anywhere.”

At the new voice, Splinter felt his fur stand on end. He tried to push past Blue and Orange to put himself between them and whatever the massive four yokai were— big like Red, with an odd assortment of trinkets hanging from them like Orange usually had. Splinter see the outlines of shells— big, bulky shells. Kappa maybe? They were a bit oversized from the ones he was used to seeing in the Hidden City…

“Oh come on! Not these guys again!” Orange groaned. “I thought we gots rid of you!

“Pops, it's cool.” Blue said quickly, drawing Splinter from his thoughts of monsters. “They’re just egotistical show offs. Dad, meet the other turtles. Other turtles, my dad.”

One of the shorter shadows crouched down and offered a three-fingered hand. “Sorry to startle you, but your sons here have caused me and my brothers some trouble.”

As Splinter focused on the yokai’s face, he could start to make out the color of a blue mask and green skin. Other turtles? Splinter grunted, but accepted the hand. It was rough and callused from years of hard training and blistering skin, and the grip itself was firm.

“So, if you don’t mind, you and your sons really need to come with us.”

[sylvain-writes]

If We Say the Words (Raphael x Reader)

Rated: G Gender Neutral Reader, friends to lovers, pining, affection, confessing feelings You and Raphael have been 'dating' but not really. It's finally time to confront your feelings, if only Raphael would make his move. for @bppeny32

Raphael's arm brushes yours as you approach your door, rough and solid and perfect. You hold yourself back from linking your arm with his and leaning in, but the fantasy niggles at the back of your mind. 

Your discussion has turned animated as you playfully argue whose Mandarin was better when you'd practiced with Meili at her family's restaurant during dinner. While Raphael was the clear winner last week at Omatsu, you think you've pulled out a win tonight. 

"Admit defeat,  Raph,” you tease, switching to walk backwards. You poke his chest to make your point known. “I saw you pretending to like the peanut noodles. You could have told her you messed up your order." 

You give him a playful shove that does nothing to alter his stride, and it’s really just an excuse to touch him again.

He pretends the overcast sky is the most interesting thing he’s seen all night, but then gives you a sideways glance and a twisted scowl that has you in stitches. 

"Still a sore loser, huh?" You pivot to face front as you approach your townhouse. The steps are slick with wet fallen leaves, and as you lead the climb, Raphael steadies you with hands on your waist. 

"Sore?," he says, "Wouldn't know." You wonder how he's so unaffected by the touch that’s left you breathless.  “I neva lose." The soft light of the streetlamp gives his eyes a mischievous twinkle.

"Oh, come on!" You give him a slap on the stomach before fishing for your keys. "You're coming in, right?"

Raphael tips his head with a grin, poised to say yes, when his pocket starts to ring. He lifts the phone to his ear with a gruff, "Hello," and a voice speaks immediately over the line.

Raphael meets your eyes. You smile, but he turns away. 

He grunts into the phone, trying to mask his frustration with short answers and a tight jaw.  But it bleeds through his protests. 

You slide your hand up the curve of his shell in silent support of whatever he's going through. The clench and release pattern of the free hand at his side gives away his struggle to keep his even tone. You're proud of him for not losing his cool.

Abruptly, the conversation comes to an end. Raphael turns, his bulk and stature smaller somehow as he rounds his shoulders and dips his head low. He gives you a soft, despondent look before dropping his gaze to where your hands are linked. You don’t remember reaching out for him. You cover Raphael's hand as it flexes and turns.

When his eyes meet yours again, they're searching. Intense, and wide, and needful. Raphael stares and you take the smallest step forward. But instead of coming closer, Raphael lets his hand fall from your grasp.

"That was Leo," he says, telling you what you already know.

"Ok." Your short nod is a familiar one. Just as his goodbye will be. 

"Mikey found a lead. I gotta go."

You think maybe tonight’s goodbye hurts more than the others. 

You barely register the lonely walk up the stairwell. By the time you reach your floor, you know Raphael is already sprinting across town by the rooftops. 

Your palm is hot with the memory of holding his hand. With the texture of his shell under your touch. Your fist curls around the phantom sensations regardless of how silly it is to think you can hold onto the feelings forever. 

You can’t help but sigh with want for the loss of him. For the loss of the kiss that seemed a hair's breadth away before Raphael's hand dropped from yours. 

It would have softened the goodbye; it would have been a sign. It would have been a long time coming. With a heavy heart, you think, It'll be a long time still. 

You can't force Raphael to move faster than he's willing to go. And if he's not comfortable, if he doesn't feel safe exploring the feelings you both clearly share, then you'll go at his pace. You’ll follow his lead. Quietly you admit to yourself, you’ll follow him anywhere.

You've been spending more and more time together. And now it seems like you have a standing dinner date for Tuesday nights. No, not a date. Dinner and movies and moonlit walks. Stargazing and late night phone calls. Family game nights and music exchanges. But no dates. Right. You're not dating.

And when you stand close or choose the seats closest to each other, when your heart leaps into your throat at his texts and your breath catches in your chest at each compliment, when his face lights up the moment he's caught sight of you, that's not a testament to your mutual attraction.

You flirt and you touch and everyone says that one day you'll be more than friends, but each day that passes without Raph taking the next step leaves you feeling like maybe everyone's imagining it all. 

Yawning and trying not to think about how your loneliness feels heavier tonight, you flick off the light in the hallway and walk into your bedroom. 

You're too focused on the drawstring tie of your pajama bottoms to notice the large form seated at your window. But once you look up, there's no way you can miss Raphael's imposing figure. 

Only, he doesn't look intimidating at all. In fact, he looks smaller than he's ever seemed. And it's not that he's lost bulk.  No, it’s the way he stoops and curls in on himself, as if afraid to take up too much space. And it breaks your heart to see your boisterous, confident warrior like this twice in a night.

"Raph?"

He grinds his fist into his palm, refusing to meet your eye. "I'm always cuttin' out." It's an apology and an accusation against himself rolled into one.

"It's ok."

"Naw, it ain't. Ya deserve so much better than that." His accent is heavier than usual; his voice thick with emotions you can tell he’s holding back.

You let what he says hang, afraid anything said to the contrary might incite an argument. It would be so easy to fall into the trap, so easy to say the wrong thing and push him away. So, you draw him closer instead. 

"You must be tired," you acknowledge delicately. "I know I'm beat, and I wasn't the one running all over the city chasin-"

He holds up a hand to stop you from going further. He doesn't like to drag you into the mess of what's going on. Foot soldiers were one thing. But since the aliens and mutants started popping up, he’s tried to shelter you from whatever the News doesn't cover.

"Come on," you say, climbing onto the bed. You don't direct him to lie with you, you don't ask for a cuddle. But the request is implicit. Even if these are things the two of you don't ask for out loud.

When he sits against the headboard, you slide into place as you've done dozens of times before. The weight of his arm curls around you, a shelter and a shield. Your head and hand fall gently to his chest and he lies back with a quiet sigh. 

You draw circles over his heart, following the swirling pattern of his plated plastron and perhaps this would be the time when other couples open their hearts and talk about their feelings. But you don’t expect that from Raphael. Not when words are so difficult. 

When emotions run high, he lies low. And you have always taken Raphael - you've always loved him - as he is. 

It's a long while of silence. But it's comfortable and sweet. 

You gather every minute. Clutch them tight. Cherish them. It sometimes feels like you steal these moments from his hectic life. You don't take a second for granted.

His blunt fingertip follows the shell of your ear and your heart skips with the yet unspoken affection between you. He stops at your earlobe, offering slight pressure. Distracted by his thoughts, he rubs the soft flesh between his thumb and forefinger. 

Raphael draws in a deep breath and the shift in his pattern has your full attention. 

"What if..." Raphael starts and stops. His voice sinks into the space between you, rough and broken. "What if we were doin' this for real?" 

Hearing him struggle for words, you hate to ask for clarification. “This?"

Raphael's breath hitches and you swallow hard to push down your rising nervousness. "You and me. But, y'know..."

"For real," you finish his thought.

"Yeah.” His focus is on the delicate curve of your ear, the slope of your neck, anywhere but your eyes.  “Know I ain't good enough,” he says and gives a small grunt to clear his throat from shaking.  “Know I'm always gone or leavin'. But when I'm not, I wanna be here."

You tuck your chin and rest your forehead on his chest. Your 'yes' sounds more like a whimper than a word; you're not sure Raphael heard it for what it is. 

His words burrow into your heart, and the muscle aches as if his confession has expanded the muscle.

You confess more clearly, "I want you here," and your arms encircle him as best they can and squeeze. 

Raphael combs his fingers through your hair. He pets and waits, and you lift your gaze to his.

His green eyes shine, catching the glow of the bedside lamp. "...That mean we're doing this thing?” Hope tremors through his chest and your palm tingles with the vibration. “Cause I been wanting to kiss ya."

You crawl up beside him and plant a little kiss on his cheek. His skin grows warm and dark. Then, with a hand on his neck, you coax him to turn for more. The kiss is natural and safe. It feels like home, with the excitement of a favorite holiday. Your heart flutters and flips. You smile against Raphael's lips.

When his phone interrupts your night again, you kiss his cheek and settle back on the pillows to allow him room to answer the call. 

“Leo?” Raphael relaxes immediately, then flushes dark, and gives a nervous chuckle.

Your smile returns easily. Watching Raphael’s relationship with Leo evolve has been a warm thrill for everyone who knows them. 

“Yeah, I did.” Raphael answers Leo, and his hand sneaks toward you over the mattress. Though still wrapped up in the call, he hooks a finger over yours and smiles. “Yeah, I am.”

Raphael gives a contented grunt before tugging you close. You can hear Leo on the line as the pair of brothers exchange goodbyes.

“...happy for you, Raph,” Leo says and you blush at the approval. “I’m proud of you.”

Raphael stills in your embrace, unable to respond to his older brother's praise. Leo is understanding; he ends the call and Raph sets the phone aside without a word. 

You cup Raphael's face and look into his eyes. You take your time, gazing down at him in a way you felt hasn’t been your right or privilege until now. “Thank you,” you whisper. 

“Didn’t do nothin’,” Raphael mumbles humbly, his eyes transfixed on you. 

But you know the truth of it now. Going to Leo for support, for help, still doesn’t come easily for Raph, despite the closeness they’ve gained. And if Leo is checking in, asking about you, then Raphael must have confided in him. Trusted him with his vulnerability.

You give Raphael a soft shake of your head and a firm kiss on the lips. "Wasn't nothing." 

With your nose nuzzled against his, you tell him again. Because there are more words to be said - more you'd like for him to hear, and believe, and maybe one day say back. But today you'll start with this. 

[elladescent449-artspace]

It started with the milk: Chapter 2 - Breakfast and a brawl

Breakfast and a Brawl

Leo awoke to the violent clatter of pots and pans. Despite the stiffness, the sleep was still there with him, desperately trying to drag him back into a dream that he couldn’t remember. When another bang sounded, he turned over with a groan and covered his head with his sheets. The movement triggered a soreness in his shoulders, and he very suddenly became aware of the growing crick in his neck. With another quiet growl he turned over again, trying to alleviate some of the unwelcome aches and pains. He stilled, focussing on the warmth of his sheets and the sound of his own breathing. It was still raining. Aside from the noise from the kitchen he could still hear the blurred whir of New York’s spring rainfall.  Leo heard a quiet boom of thunder and he remembered those quiet noises from the night before, although they were definitely more of a distant hush now that the morning was here. With the adjustment of his body and the warmth of his sheets, Leo began drifting off again. It was slow and comfortably heavy as he sank back into a sleep-like state, he felt warm and comfortable, and he slowly began to forget that he was ever awake in the first place.

Leo twitched at the combination of a heavy slam accompanied by a shout. It ripped him into a sitting position and he groaned, forcing himself out of bed and taking his blanket with him.

--

Mikey was already dressed for the day, and by dressed, Leo meant that he was out of pyjamas and wearing his favorite belt. Mikey’s phone was leaning on the cereal box and was plugged into a pair of earphones that trailed into his head. He multitasked eating his cereal while watching a video, swinging his legs cheerily as he giggled on whatever was on screen. He noticed Leo and removed one of his earbuds.

“Good morning, Leo!” He said with a smile. Mikey watched as Leo trudged into the kitchen.

Leo’s voice was a barely coherent mumble, “m’rnin.”

The source of this morning's clammer was found not too far from the door, where Raph had squeezed himself halfway into the bottom cabinet. He was on his knees and surrounded by an explosion of pots, pans, plastic tupperware, and glass and metal bowls.As Leo carefully stepped through the mess, Raph noticed him.

“Oh, hey!” Raph shot up too fast and hit his head on the top of the cabinet with a bang that was even louder than the ones Leo had woken up to. He rubbed his head and excited the cabinet with a glowing smile, “morning Leo.”

Leo replied with a grumble as he walked past him. “What are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for that Lou Jistsu ‘Hot Soup’ bowl that dad was using the other day, y’know, the red and yellow one?” 

Leo yawned, “you mean the really big one or the one the size of a shot glass?”

Raph used his hands to illustrate the size, “the REALLY big one.”

Leo shuffled further into the kitchen, “why do you want that?”

Leo blindly opened the fridge and reached for the juice bottle, he grasped it by the neck but pulled up too hard, sending his hand rocketing into the top of the fridge. Someone had put the empty orange juice bottle back in the fridge. He turned to Mikey who gleefully sipped at the last of it. With a sigh he chucked the empty bottle into the garbage. Dad’s teakettle was still on the un-lit backburner so he shuffled to the stove, slid the kettle forward, and cranked on the heat. 

“Okay,” Raph started, “so I was watching Lou Jitsu’s ‘Lou Jitsu’s Soba Showdown’ and Lou eats that 25 gallon bowl of Soba to gain the trust of the Mafia leader, before doing a double betrayal and defeating the bad guys, remember?”

“I recall,” Leo was feeling peppermint today so with another yawn he popped open the box and took a packet, (he was getting low on the mint, might have to put that on the next grocery list). 

“Right,” Raph’s excitement grows, “so I’m gonna do that.” 

“Meet up with the mafia??”

“No, eat the Soba!”

“25 gallons?” Leo exclaims as he returns to the fridge and takes a lemon from the drawer. “Of Soba?” He cut it open with a knife that was already on the counter and squeezed some juice into the mug.

“Yeah!” Raph dives back into the cabinet and another few bowls slip out onto the floor. “So I need to find that bowl, because it’s the biggest one we’ve got.”

“Wait,” Mikey interjects as he removes one of his earbuds again, “Raph, what are you looking for?”

“The Lou Jitsu bowl!” The set of copper bowls falls from the cabinet with a ringing clang, bummer, those are Dad’s favorites.

“Which one,” Mikey asks, “the really big one, the cereal one, or the one the size of a shot glass?”

Raph sticks his head back out from under the cabinets, “cereal one? We have a Lou Jitsu cereal bowl?”

Mikey takes a bite of his cereal, “yeah!” 

“Where?” Raph asks.

Mikey chews a bit before answering, “I’m using it.”

Leo turns to Mikey as he rotates his bowl, sure enough, white and red flames with a cartoonish picture of Lou adorn the dish.

Raph gasps, “how long have we had that?”

Mikey swallows before taking another mouthful of cereal, after a brief pause he answers with a smile, “a while.”

Leo tuned out of the next part of their conversation when the kettle started whistling behind his shell. He turned and quickly switched the stove off. He carefully poured the boiling water into the prepared mug and set Dad’s kettle back on the backburner of the stove to let sit in case he needed it again.

Raph and Mikey were still talking about bowls as Leo began his walk towards the table. Raph had retreated back into the cabinets to continue his dig so Leo bent down quietly and picked up one of the smaller glass bowls before shuffling over to sit across from Mikey at the breakfast table.

“Why can’t I find this bowl?!” 

“The cereal bowl?”

“No!” Raph shouts from the cabinets, “the really big one! Soba Showdown!”

“Oooooh!” Mikey draws the word out with a mouthful of cereal as Leo starts filling his own bowl with breakfast flakes.

“Raph,” Leo loosened the sheets around his shoulders as he became more comfortable with the temperature of the room. The left-over exhaustion from last night was starting to wear off as he began to wake-up. “Are you sure you’re even looking in the right cabinet?”

‘ “This is the bowl cabinet! Why wouldn’t it be in the bowl cabinet?!” Raph’s frustration was rising.

“I keep this bowl in my room,” Mikey had turned off the screen of his phone at this point. He wrapped up his earbuds and took the cereal from Leo to refill his own bowl. “Maybe Dad has it?”

“No, I asked Pop’s last night and he said it was in the bowl cabinet,” he hit his head on the inside of the cabinet again and growled, “with the bowls!”

“What are you looking for?” Leo turned his head as Donnie walked into the kitchen. He was awake and alert, holding a coffee cup.

“Good morning, Donnie,” Mikey took the milk before Leo could use it, “Raph’s looking for the Lou Jitsu bowl.”

“The shot glass or the big one?” Donnie walked over to the coffee machine and detached the pot to refill his mug.

Mikey, Raph, and Leo all said in unison with varying degrees of energy, “the big one.”

“It’s on top of the fridge.”

Leo, Mikey, and Raph all looked to the top of the fridge, where a massive bowl with red and white flames sat filled with potatoes and onions. Donnie sat at the table next to Mikey and took the milk before Leo could grab it, quietly pouring a little in his coffee. 

Raph took a short stack of the largest bowls from the ground and skipped over to the fridge. When Donnie finally sat the jug down, Leonardo grabbed the milk before anyone else could take it and poured it over his cereal. With the milk finally added, he took a few bites. It was Mikey’s favorite too-sweet, marshmallow and wafer bargain-brand cereal that he always asked Dad for. Leo picked up his tea and took a sip to check the temperature, it was still really hot but not painfully so. The lemon and peppermint came through nicely so he took a deeper sip.

Donnie sat his mug down with a smile and pulled out his phone. Mikey zeroed in on the cup.

“Are you drinking choccy milk?!” Mikey squealed.

“What?” Donnie was caught off guard at the sudden, loud question.

“You’ve got chocolate milk?!” Raph shouted from the fridge, trying to balance the large bowl (still full of potatoes and onions) on his shoulders as he took it down.

“No!” Donnie sighed, “you just saw me pour the milk, Mikey, it’s coffee.”

“Aw~” Mikey sighed and plugged his earbuds back in to continue watching his video.

Leonardo took another bite of his cereal and chewed for a few seconds. Donnie took another swallow from his mug, keeping his eyes on the screen of his phone. The night before was a blur. Leonardo remembered waking up exhausted and really wanting to go back to sleep. Messing with Donatello was fun for a million reasons, but this morning, as he sat across the table from him, his cereal was sitting uncomfortably in the bottom of his stomach. Leo picked up his tea and took another sip, eyeing Donnie as he did the same with his own drink. “When did you start putting milk in your coffee?”

Donnie's eyes flicked upwards, “hm?”

“You’ve always taken your coffee black,” Leo took another bite of cereal and looked at the mug in Donnie’s hand, it was the same mug as the night before. With the kitchen lights on he could see it was a purple mug with a picture of Atomic Lass on the side. “When did you start adding milk?”

Donatello put down his mug and attempted to focus back in on his phone, “uhh, just…” he started typing something. “I don’t know… recently?” 

Leo smiled, “what happened to ‘I like my coffee to be as black as my soul.’” Leo deepened his voice at the soul coffee line, teasingly chuckling at Donnie who was looking at him now. He looked confused, studying Leo with an expression that Leo couldn’t recognize on his brother’s face.

“When did I say that,” he scoffed, “milk and coffee go great together.” Donnie swallowed audibly as he finished the last of what was in his mug. He set the cup down again and kept typing on his phone. Leo took another bite of his cereal, he was getting close to the bottom of his bowl now, but he wasn’t as hungry as he usually was so he didn’t think he’d be going for a second bowl. Mikey chuckled with a mouthful of cereal and Donnie looked up again, first at Mikey but then back to Leo with furrowed brows. “Why do you care?”

Leo stopped chewing, “I don’t, I just…” he wasn’t done chewing but he swallowed to clear his mouth. It stuck to his throat. “Making conversation?” Leo picked up his tea and swallowed, trying to move the cereal down. Donnie made another face that Leo didn’t recognize, it still had the inquisitive nature but more… suspicious?

Donnie looked hesitant, picking up his mug again to take another sip before he realized his cup was empty, “I mean, it definitely tastes better.” He left the table, breaking eye contact as he walked towards the coffee machine. 

There was suddenly a small stone forming in his stomach, it wasn’t heavy, but it was there. Leo adjusted his shoulders and sat up trying to get comfortable again. ‘Donnie’s a lot more tired than me,’ the little voice in his head rang. That’s right! Donnie was up before and, supposedly, after Leo had woken up last night working on that secret thing. He must have been drinking coffee non-stop and needed a little change to the bitterness. Leonardo’s tea was room temperature now and he greedily swallowed the rest. He sat the cup down with a loud tap just as Donnie sat down.

He didn’t take the milk this time.

Mikey stood abruptly with a satisfied “wew!” He had finished his cereal and his show, and with a quick stretch he left the table. 

Donatello slowly took a mouthful of his coffee, noticeably trying to stifle the grimace that forced itself on his face as he swallowed. Leo stared for a moment, ‘he’s drunk his coffee black since we were 10,’ the small voice whispered, ‘all those fluorescent lights must’ve killed his taste buds’. The reasoning wasn’t as confident.

Leo had to look away when Donnie’s eyes shifted to him with that bitter-coffee-scowl, it wasn’t Donnie’s, ‘you’re annoying me, brat,’ look, it was resentful and reserved, and it caused a density that reached across the table. Leonardo took another bite of his cereal but the weight in his stomach only deepened under his brother's unfamiliar gaze. He wordlessly pushed the milk towards Donnie.

“I got the bowl!” Raph bellowed, appearing behind the table and holding the themed movie bowl above his head. The dense gaze was immediately alleviated as Donnie was pulled away from the stare of his own making. Leo sighed in relief as Donnie took the milk and unscrewed the top.

Mikey put his bowl in the sink, “Raph, why do you need a Lou Jitsu bowl the size of a bathtub anyway?”

“He wants to try and eat 25 gallons of Soba.” Leonardo leaned back in his chair, using his knee to pry away from the table. With the gaze lifted, Leo put on a smile as he directed his information to no-one-in-particular.

Donnie looked up from his mug as he finished filling it to the top with milk, “I’m sorry,” exasperated, “25 gallons?”

“Of Soba,” Leo’s smile widened, “yeah.”

“That’s an awesome idea Raph!” Mikey cheered, “now how do you make Soba?” 

“Uh...:” Raph paused, “I was just gonna, y’know, buy it from somewhere.”

Mikey scoffed, borderline offended, “you were just gonna buy soup?”

“Yeah?” Raph mumbled, his voice starting to sound confused.

“No. No no.” Mikey continued with the tone of refusal in his voice escalating, “no no no no no.” He whipped out his phone in a dramatic fashion and started typing. “This is a Soba. Showdown. Challenge.” He pulled up an image and Leo had to lean out of his chair to see the LED picture. The image was a human lady sitting at a table surrounded by empty bowls in a restaurant, headlined “Woman eats 300 bowls in 17 minutes.” Mikey showed the image to Raph and then Donnie, who was showing little interest as he dove into his own phone. “We are gonna make our own Soba.”

“Mikey,” Donnie sighed, “you don’t know how to make Soba.”

Leo chimed in, “hey, he can probably figure it out.” There was a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, but it wasn’t full hearted. Mikey was, afterall, a better cook than any of them. Japanese cuisine wasn’t exactly his forté, but he was pretty killer with Italian.  “And he’s right,” Leo added.

“About what?” One of Donnie’s eyebrows rose with the question.

Leo pointed to Raphael, “Raph, is this really a soba eating challenge?”

“Uh,” Raph hesitated for a moment before he answered excitedly, “yeah! Yeah it is!”

“‘Hot Soup’ is our catchphrase,” Leo picked up his bowl and drank the milk from it, setting it down with a loud tap before he finished his sentence with a refreshed sigh, “as much as we talk about soup we should be able to make our own.”

“Yeah!” Mikey shouted, “what he said!” 

“Yeah! Except…” Raph deflated as he set the bowl down on the table between the four of them, Leo had to sit up straighter to see over the bowl, it was ridiculously large. “We don’t even know if we’re going to like Soba.”

“What are you talking about,” the familiar rasp caught Leo by surprise. “You boys love Sansai Soba.” Splinter walked into the kitchen with a hearty yawn as he passed his boys, skipping the breakfast table and walking directly to the fridge. It was unusually early for him to be up, his normal wake up time was closer to noon.

“Sorry pop’s,” Leo chuckled, “but we’ve never had Soba.”

“Yes you have.”

“What’s Sansai Soba?” Mikey inquired, walking over to lean on the counter.

“You’ve had it,” Dad pulls out a leftover Panda Express box, hopping onto the counter close to Mikey with a pair of chopsticks.

“Uh, no Dad,” Donnie looked up from his phone as he brought his mug close to his face, “we haven’t.”

Dad popped open the box, mixing up the contents with his utensils, “yes you have.”

“Yeah,” Donnie muttered under his mug as he took a sip, “pretty sure we’d all remember something like ‘Sansai Soba’.”

“Dad, when did we have it?” Raph questioned.

“Mm,” their Dad hummed thoughtfully, a smile creeping in as he searched through the brain fog to find the answer, “Red, you were about… five years old?”

“Oh, yeah,” a scoff erupted from Leo, “like we’re gonna remember that!”

“Eh,” Splinter remarked.

Mikey repeated himself, still curious, “Dad, what’s sansai soba?”

“Sansai Soba is a soup,” Splinter took a bite of cold noodles, talking with a full mouth. “It’s made with mountain vegetables, buckwheat noodles, and dashi stock.”

“We ate that?” Raph said in disbelief.

“Surprisingly,” Dad swallowed, “yes.”

Mikey crossed one of his legs as he leaned closer, “where’d you get it from?” 

“I made it.”

“You can’t cook.” Donnie said matter-of-factly.

“I can too,” Splinter retorted, rising out of his wake-up haze at Donnie’s comment, “I cook all the time!”

Mikey teasingly chuckled, “putting chips in a bowl doesn’t count, Dad.” All four brothers laughed at that while Dad only scowled with a facefull of noodles. Most of the time Dad didn’t use a bowl, he would just eat an entire bag by himself.

“You know nothing!” Dad spat, “I will show you!”

“You’ll make the Soba?” The wonder in Mikey’s voice was hopeful and full of excitement.

“No,” Dad sat the box on the counter and slid off, “we will be making it.”

Mikey gasped, “yay, family time!”

“Count me out.”

“Yeah i’m good.” Donnie and Leo spoke at the same time, but they weren’t heard over the excitement from Raph and Mikey. Raph had picked his massive bowl back up and both he and Mikey eagerly followed their father out of the room, leaving the pile of bowls forgotten on the kitchen floor.

Leo’s bowl was empty now, and he was out of tea. He leaned back in his seat and looked to Donnie, who quickly looked away from him and back to his phone as he sipped at his coffee… with milk.

“Not eager to put your chef skills to the test?” Leo teased, an awkwardness had resettled now that the two other brothers were gone.

Donnie looked back to Leo and was silent for a moment before smiling with his response, “no more than you.” 

Leo chuckled as he stood, taking his dishes with him to the sink. He loaded his things into the dishwasher (including his cup from the night before) and walked back to grab his blanket.

Leo could hear the taps of Donnie’ finger pads against his phone as he typed. Leo rolled his blanket into a messy ball as the weight in his tummy returned. “Are you okay?”

Donnie stopped typing and looked up, not really moving as his eyes lifted to Leo. There was a wary uncertainty as he answered. “Yeah?” He took a long sip as he stared thoughtfully, “why do you ask?”

Leo didn’t take too long to answer, the pauses were getting monotonous, “just asking.”

He left the kitchen but felt Donnie’s eyes on him as he walked. It was uncomfortable as he felt holes being bored into the back of his neck. When he entered his room Leo threw his blanket on the bed. He could still hear Raph and Mikey talking to their Dad in the living room, but the details of their conversation were obscured by distance and action movie noises. Leo sighed and stretched as he circled his room. The soreness in his neck and shoulders were finally fading into afterthoughts from the movements, he felt a lot better after eating something, but the rock in his stomach from the breakfast table hadn’t left. If anything, it was heavier now, and it grew larger and more uncomfortable the more he thought about the interaction he had with Donnie. There wasn’t anything in particular wrong but it just felt… unfamiliar? ‘Remember,’ the little voice repeated, ‘he must be really tired.’ It didn’t help it’s own case though, because it kept repeating images in his head. The way that Donnie’s face contorted when his tongue touched the black coffee was so unfamiliar, the flickering eye movements were not something that his twin did, the ‘why do you care?’ was too hostile.

With a huff he pushed it all aside, the lack of sleep was just making him paranoid and he knew it. Donnie is tired too, he repeated, Donnie is tired too. Leo stood for a moment, trying to occupy his mind with something else. What did he want to do today?

-

This was Leo’s sixth song, and he was on a roll. He didn’t have a perfect score, but he was high in the ranks of Dance Dance Revolution; and by high, he meant he was back in third place. The tired metal and aged plastic creaked under the furious motion of his feet and he began to break a sweat as his score continued to rise. He hadn’t selected the hardest song in the game, he was planning on working his score up and then he’d choose one of the harder songs for last to see if he could get past Mikey’s score. He wanted to beat Raph’s score, but that was a bit of a pipe dream considering how much Raphael loved this game.

They hadn’t had the dance machine for very long in comparison to some of the other arcade games they had collected. This machine in particular the four brothers had only possessed for about a year, and they hadn’t really found a lot of time to play it with all of the action that had been going on in their lives. Raph had the highest score since he enjoyed the game the most, and towered above them all with a whopping score of 4370, and Mikey was second  with a score of 1993. Leo and Donnie, on the other hand, were always switching between third and fourth place. Donnie had held the better dance score for the first month, but then Leo had swiped it during a competitive ‘Pluto the First’ challenge dance, after that, they had kept switching every time they played, neither of them really getting too much of an upper hand. Leo decided to play this when he found himself in fourth place with a score of 620, and Donnie in third with 659.

As the song approached its finale the number of coordinated moves increased, picking up the pace. Leo needed this, after the exhaustion from this morning and his paranoid awkwardness, the dancing was a fantastic distraction from it all. He just needed to get his mind off of it and get his body moving.With one final tap the song finished and Leo sighed in exertion. He took a step off of the pad and bent down to unscrew his water bottle-

“Wow, great score Leo!”

Leo nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise, nearly dropping his water in the process. Donnie was there and leaning against the rails of the dancing machine with a look of interest. He was wearing his favorite purple hoodie with the hood draping over his shoulders, this morning’s hostile look was gone. Leo shook off the chill in his spine and played it cool, “why thank you,” Leo bowed dramatically. His score was now 780. Leo took a sip of water before re-capping the bottle and setting it back down to the floor. “I am once again in third place,” he stretched and faced Donnie, a few inches taller than him now thanks to the dance pad, “take that,” he snapped his fingers into a finger gun to accompany the words.

Donatello hummed in response as he looked at the screen. His eyes flicked between the screen and Leo, and for a moment they fell on the water bottle on the floor. A playful grin spread on his face as his eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so,” Donnie leaped over the rail and landed on the alternate pad, “2-player challenge.”  He used the buttons below the screen to select the most difficult song in the game: Paranoia Survivor Max. It was short but it was a beater. “Winner takes third.”

Leo chuckled and scrolled down to the start button for him. “You’re on.” He slapped the start button and jumped into place. 

The screen displayed “HERE WE GO” and Leo only had a quick moment to look at the info tab on the bottom right side of the screen - BPM 290; challenge 16. His current score was displayed along with the info. On Donnie’s side of the screen the same information was displayed with his measly score of 659, and Leo was going to keep it that way.

It started quicker than Leo anticipated (as usual) and they were immediately thrown into the fray. Down up down right down up down left up down up down left. This was the most difficult song in Dance Dance Revolution history, and he wasn’t gonna lose to Donnie this time. Donnie usually lost to him, but it was always close, and he had been getting better every time due to his love of dance. Leo winced as he missed a step, but he wasn’t going to let it get to his head, he was going to get into Donnie’s head. A break in the song (literally half a second) was enough time for him to do a spin before landing on the next combination of arrows, he laughed when he hit successfully and added a bit more flare to his movements with some enthusiastic arm choreography.

“Yo, Bootyyyshaker9000.” Down up right up down up left.

“Yeah?” Donnie replied with a pant, Leo could already feel a sting in his ankles as he continued the ridiculously fast paced dance. 

He’d start with a low blow. “How does it feel to rank number 4 in the dance department?” Leo didn’t dare look at Donnie’s side of the screen, he was already missing a few points and he wasn’t going to lose anymore by looking at someone else's arrows.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” their steps were almost in sinc, “last I checked, I was the better dancer.” This morning's pestering weight was dissipating in the activity. This was Donnie! The dance, tech, and Atomic Lass loving dork that had some pretty sweet moves when he wanted to. Leo could hear the smile on his twins face as he was enjoying this too, it had been too long since they had competed like this, they should do it more often. It made him laugh.

“Ha!” Leo did a few key steps, “you call that dancing?” He was going to win this round “You rely too much on a machine, brother, this is dancing!”

Leo began exaggerating his movements, building up kicks and adding a few more spins as he pumped up the energy. Not everyone gets tired when playing DDR, but man, he was starting to feel it. It didn’t matter though, his score was high and he felt good. He did another spin and looked over his shoulder as he did the dance backwards. He heard Donnie emit a sound of frustration as Leo kept up with the movements. Leo laughed and switched back, it was a show-off move but nothing he could do for long.

They were getting close to the end, Leo could tell because he had watched Raph play this song a hundred times (that was an exaggeration, maybe six times, because this song was too crazy to do a hundred times.) He waited for the last move, where he spun again and dabbed at the last step.

Leo let off a sigh of exhaustion and put his hands on his knees as he panted. 442 points! Not marvelous, but perfect in the eyes of DDR. “Take that Don-” 120. Leo did a double take. Donnie’s score was only 120. Donnie was panting but he wasn’t nearly as tired as Leo. Bootyyyshaker9000, the guy who danced with Atomic Lass in times square, who was able to beat Mikey in DDR’s butterfly dance (but no other song and it was only that one time because it was Mikey), who always came close if he didn’t beat Leo in a double challenge, was sitting close to fail in the score system.

Donnie had his hands on his hips, faking exertion. “Wow, you sure beat me-”

“Donnie are you okay?” Leo cut him off. The rock dropped back into his guts as he stood up straight, coming to eye level with Donnie.

“What?” Donatello looked confused.

“If somethings wrong, you can tell me,” Leo continued as he took a step closer to Donnie, “are you feeling sick or something?”

“Uh... No, I'm fine,” he chuckled, albeit a bit uncomfortably, Donnie chuckled.

Leo continued. “Is it insomnia?” He took another step closer, now on Donnie’s side of the pad. He knew that sometimes Donnie experienced insomnia, the family wasn’t sure if it was chronic or just because of how much coffee purple always consumed, but when he did get insomnia, he got it bad. “You were up pretty late last night.”

Donnie scoffed with a wavering smile, “so where you!”

“Yeah, but you stayed up! It’s okay if somethings wrong, Donnie,”  Leo put a hand on his arms, “just tell me.”

Donnie shoved Leo’s hand off, his voice rising. “I’m fine!”

“I don’t think you are!”

“I’m fine, Leo!” Leo took a step back at the shout. Donnie wasn’t looking at him now, but he was glaring uncomfortably as his eyes darted around trying to find something to focus on. Donnie flipped his hood on and straightened with a sigh. That weight was growing uncomfortable in Leo’s stomach, so he picked up his water bottle and took a chug to try and drown the feeling. It didn’t help. 

“Can I have some of your water?” He didn’t know why, but the request put goosebumps on his skin. Donnie hated backwash, he was the guy who would just buy you a drink if you asked for some of his own, and Leo was already halfway through the cheap plastic bottle. Donnie held his hand out expectantly.

With a brief hesitation, Leo put the bottle in his hand wordlessly, stepping off the dance pad as his brother took a few swallows. He didn’t feel like dancing anymore, or maybe he just didn’t want to be in the same room as Purple.

“Thanks, here,” Donnie smiled awkwardly as he reached the water back towards Leo.

“You can have it.” Donnie’s smile dropped into a blank stare and it sent a chill down Leo’s shell, “i’m not thirsty right now.”

Leo left the room, but neither the chill, the goosebumps, or the weight left him as he could feel a stare tracing him as he walked.

[we-rate-tmnt]

I request: Leonardo. Please and thank you 🙏.

Idk if everyone loves Leo or if my header and avatar just remind everyone about this amazing blue boy. (This one’s super silly btw. I’m just sillier as time goes on. Character development I guess?) 

The iconic leador Leonardo (1987)

Bro idk why but I loved this Leo. I have a tiny memory, especially with this version but I clearly remember that I thought he was the funniest and the coolest. I mean, he had swords, what was I supposed to do as a 7-year-old. NOT like him??? Anyway, while Raph was the best at insult comedy, I think Leo had the best puns and punchlines. I really like how nonchalant this Leo is compared to his iterations, going along with really silly ideas and having fun along the way. But because of this, his leadership is a little forced at times, he seems like such a chill and fun dude that when he gets serious, I have to squint and ask ‘are you Leo? Or were you just putting on act a moment ago?’ Or my perception is entirely warped over time. Either way, good turtle boy, could have used some work tho. 5.7/10

Here comes grumpy lad wooo this is all read very monotone btw Fearless Leader (2003)

What. What the fuck happened. I was actually so confused when Leo turned really angry and serious and almost manic. I thought that episode when he popped into Casey’s window and was like ‘Hey bitch lets go beat the shit out of some lowlifes’ I was WOAH THERE BUDDY BACK UP BACK UP BACK TF UP. It was so sudden to me and when it was finally explained, it made some sense??? Like yeah, character development is great an’ all but this ain’t it chief. I can’t imagine what it was like having to wait for these episodes to release one at a time. Bc I watched every episode back to back on Youtube and I was genuinely bamboozled. But when you have an experience like that where guilt is weighing down on you from a situation you couldn’t control, it would’ve been HELLA HELPFUL to have at least a flashback, like a line saying ‘I was so useless!’ at BARE MINIMUM. Like right after Shredder is booted off to Planet Zula, Donnie would notice that Leo didn’t seem all that happy and would ask why and Leo would get upset and yell at Donnie saying that ‘You wouldn’t understand’, ‘You don’t know how I felt, how I feel because of that’, etc. Like you don’t even have to say he felt guilty or helpless, just give us something to grab onto. We’re merely six-year-olds who thought they could climb the YMCA rock wall in easy mode but instead the script riders harnessed us up on the hard one and wouldn’t let us come down until we rang the little bell at the top. I think that is the only problem I had with his Leo. The sudden change of calm and decisive to angry and irrational was so jarring that it felt unnatural without that crucial context. If you want a surprise reveal, at least hint at the reveal (like just about every Disney movie with their ‘twist’ villains) not wait until the very last moment. I think this might be my least favorite Leo and I think the season where he stood out the most and seemed the strongest was Fast Forward (Which was GOOD FIGHT ME), especially in scenes with Dark Leo, his clone. He sees so much of himself in Dark Leo but he also sees something he had once grasped (AKA the poorly written character arc, I CANNOT stress how bad I thought it was). Although, I honestly think he’s a really good character and he’s a pretty neat guy. However, this score is entirely held up by Fast Forward and his connection with Usagi, sword bros to the end of time. 3/10 (2 for FF and 1 for Usagi)

And now a Leo that makes me genuinely feel UWU Leo (2012)

I cannot stress how much I like this guy! Like his design is so appealing, his dedication, his obsession with Space Heroes, like I FUCKING LOVE IT. And everyone knows, that shit with Karai, at first when they didn’t realize they were related, I can let slide but kajsdflksadf what even like why did the writers feel the need to add in more ‘love interest’ implications like yuck yuck yuck. The only two interactions with Leo and Karai that I really like are when Leo defeats her using the healing hands technique and when Leo has a goth/emo/punk/idk I’m new here phase and they team up and EXPLOSIONS. He was introduced to us as being incredibly naive and his idea of leadership is from some old cartoon that’s basically star trek but ethically questionable. After his fights in season 1, to the finale with the technodrome, you can see his growth. He’s able to formulate plans and make life or death decisions. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE. When Leo got hurt, I felt like the oof sound effect mixed with some tears I normally shed at some Shojo manga bs. While the episodes following were super weird, it was a nice way to help Leo recover, not only physically but spiritually (Although I don’t remember the spirit arc at all except the epic Raph vs Fishface fight, so we’re skipping that). When Master Splinter really died, you could tell there was a huge impact on Leo, but he had to remain stoic and lead the family now. A lot of heartbreaking moments in this series came from Leo and I’m glad they took at least some thought into developing him. Tiny head Leo will haunt my nightmares, but the giggly fanboy will warm my heart constantly. 6/10

I only have one word for this Leo (Heroes in a Half Shell: Blast to the Past)

This is a super crazy bad idea accent on the super crazy bad part have I mentioned it’s also a really terrible idea/10

Okay, spoiler alert, didn’t really think this Leo was that grand Leo (2014/2016)

Painfully average. He didn’t stand out that much, Raph was part of the focus and had that touching scene at the end, Donnie was ICONIC and Mikey (with his weird-ass eyes) was super lively and funny! Leo? Uh, I don’t remember a single line he said. Because he never really grabbed my attention, I don’t have too much to say on this version. The Raph and Leo fight felt forced and the whole ‘keep this stuff that could turn us human a secret’ was pretty pointless and was added just to cause drama, I don’t even remember what that Splinter and Leo conversation was about. Design-wise, really neat! You can see some more traditional Japanese clothing/style mixed with modern (I’d feel a lot better about this assumption if some could tell exactly what the heck he’s wearing, but I get traditional Japan warrior vibes from it) in his look which was super neat! Other than that, if you like him, please tell me why because I don’t get. He was just kinda eh. 5/10

AHHH MY BOY YASSS WHOOO!! Neon Leon (2018)

Okay, I loved Ben Schwarts already from Parks and Rec but like him being Sonic AND Leo, like DUDE. He’s super funny by himself but teamed up with this shows writing and animation, it makes it hilarious. I literally love this Leo so much, maybe because we’re alike but honestly, he’s amazing. I love his design with the red and yellow crescents accenting his skin and livening up his color pallet. He has a very healthy and natural dynamic with his brothers, he’s the first to know what’s wrong and tries his best to make up for his actions. This is really prominent in the most recent episodes, along with the episode portal jacked. In both, Leo is separated from his brothers. Portal Jacked is in a more literal sense, while Air Turtle handles in more of an emotional sense. While both are brief, Leo sees his error and tries his best to make it up to them. I love his dynamic so much and it’s so nice to see something like this compared to the unnecessary drama and tension between the brothers in the previous series. It’s refreshing and this is something a younger audience needs to see; instead of fighting, it’s better to work together and improve yourself along the way. Improvement is a big theme for Leo here. He’s a goofball, makes jokes at every opportunity and isn’t quite skilled at fighting or using his weapon. But he grows over time, he learns to manage his power and he’s working on mastering it. He’s trying to put aside his narcissism more and focuses on his family. I think the approach they took with him rising to leader rather than slapping it on his forehead was the goddamn best decision they could make. He’s making plans, finding loopholes, helping out and getting out of his comfort zone. I cannot stress how well this show has handled Leo, along with the other characters. I can’t wait to see more episodes about his growth and I am awarding him with one of the greatest honors I could give... 10/10

Storytime: I drew a super cute 2012 Leo, you should look at him. Shameless self-promo, but you should follow me on my main blog bc I’m nice and I draw pretty pictures. Also. I have a little 2012 Leo Happy Meal toy??? I think??? guarding my window and he’s been there for YEARS. I need to bring him in and refresh his paint job.

Wow! I didn’t expect this many requests for Leo, so the blog will be momentarily spammed with the requests, but it shouldn’t be too much! Up next should be the last turtle (Mikey) and then we can get to some REALLY great requests I’m eager to answer. As usual, please comment and reblog! I’d love to hear your opinion!

[rottmntquotes]

The Best He Can

Okay, so maybe saying what Donnie said was a bit stupid and insensitive, even for his standards, and maybe using the tone that he did conveyed a message that he didn’t mean, and maybe, just maybe he should have paid attention to Leo’s body language as the words that flowed into the air continued to rise in volume and lower in mercy. He understood that now, and he was desperate to apologize to his twin, despite how terrible he was at it. When all had been said and done, when hearts had been broken, tears had fallen, and nothing was able to break the tension as Leo ran away, everyone else knew that it was time to do something.

‘Besides,’ Donnie thought to himself, ‘even though apologizing isn’t my strong suit, this can’t end up being that difficult, right? It’s Leo for crying out loud! He’ll be ready to forgive and forget in no time!’

And now, because of that train of thought, Donnie found himself standing underneath a large tree in the forest, his brothers and father(s) near for moral support. It was on the eighth branch that had a decent length- and a curiously steady hold despite how thin it was -where Leo hung upside down, and ‘Oh my god, when did our tails become prehensile?!’,  Donnie thought to himself. When he sensed his family near, Leo’s head pulled into his shell, along with his arms and legs, leaving only his shell and his- just barely visible tail -out in the open.

“I don’t want to talk to you! Leave me alone!” came Leo’s muffled shout, pain evident in his voice. “Go back home!”

Of course, Raph took this as a challenge, and he- being the sweetheart he is who is willing to do anything to keep his family happy -started to climb the tree, ignoring the words of protest he earned from the others. Every now and then, the words “You’re too heavy! The branch won’t hold!” would be spoken, but Raph responded with a very convinced claim of “I’m a ninja! If I can be Light As A Feather, I can balance myself on a branch!”

Splinter muttered an exasperated curse in Japanese under his breath, having become fed up with the stubbornness that was very clearly an inherited trait of the Hamato family. “Raphael! The branch is going to break! You may have advanced in your Ninjutsu, but you are still the size of a car!”

“Guys! Stop worrying!” Raph scoffed, finally making it to the branch that his upset brother dwelled. With slow and steady steps, Raph inched over to Leo, smirking smugly as he continued on without making the branch even creak. “Hey buddy... I know that you’re not feeling too happy right now, but I promise that Donnie is really super sorry about what he said.”

Leo hissed loudly, momentarily poking his head out to snarl at Raph before retreating into the dark sanctuary that was his shell. Raph huffed, moving closer and closer to Leo. Low warning growls were directed at Raph, but he pointedly ignored them, reaching out a hand to try and grip the edge of Leo’s Carapace. In one swift movement, Leo popped out of his shell, unwrapping his tail from the branch and hopping onto one higher up. The sudden movement caused the branch to break, sending Raph falling flat onto his face.

“I’m okay.” Raph mumbled, lifting his face and shaking the grass off his face. “So... maybe me going up there wasn’t the best idea.”

“Oh really? Who would have guessed?” Draxum scoffed, looking directly at Donnie. “You! Purple! You were the one who started this! Go up there and soothe your brother!”

“But I-”

“DO IT NOW!” Draxum’s order echoed through the forest, and Donnie yelped, activating the wings on his battle shell and flying up to gently land on the branch his brother was perched upon. With one final glance to Draxum, Donnie sneered before turning his full attention to Leo.

“Um... hey...?” Donnie muttered, clearly unsure of what he was supposed to do and say. Leo scoffed at the awkward attempt of an icebreaker, his tail wrapping around the branch as a warning that any wrong movement or word would send him straight back to his hiding position. “Well what do you want me to do?! You know how bad I am at this!”

“Yeah, I do, and you wouldn’t have to do it if you hadn't said what you did.” Leo turned his back to Donnie, pretending to stare out at a cloud that was coincidentally shaped like a rubber ducky. “All I did was pull a prank, bro. I didn't mean to hurt anyone, let alone you.”

Donnie frowned at the reminder, rubbing the back of his neck bashfully. “I know you didn’t, ‘Nardo, but...” Donnie took in a deep breath; if he was going to set things straight, he might was well do it with a clear head. ‘Tell the truth’ is what his mind constantly told him, and he intended to. “I wasn’t yelling at you, per se, nor was I trying to hurt you in any way.”

It was clear from the look on Leo’s face that his interest was piqued, and he finally turned to look at his twin. “What’s that s’posed to mean?”

“Do you remember that time we got our tongues stuck in those mouse traps?” Donnie asked. Leo nodded, a bit annoyed that his question was answered with a question, but trusting that he would get an actual answer soon enough. “It was a stupid dare that got us yelled at for nearly half an hour. I honestly remember it like it was yesterday; to tell you the truth, I swear that I’ve never seen dad’s veins that visible since.”

Leo snickered, smiling for a brief second before replacing it with a frown when Donnie looked his way. “Is there a point to this, or are you just trying to avoid the subject?”

“There is a point,” Donnie assured, “but I would get to it faster if you shut your snout.”

“I make no promises.” Leo quipped, slowly but surely unwrapping his tail from the branch. It wasn’t exactly an ‘I Forgive You’ gesture, but it was close enough to spur Donnie on.

“Well, to delay your inevitable chatter, I will ask one final question.” Donnie waited for the frustrated groan from Leo he was sure to receive. When it came, Donnie continued. “Do you remember why dad yelled at us like that?”

“I don’t remember the exact wording, but I’m pretty sure it was something along the lines of “I was more scared than angry. When I saw you two in pain, I couldn’t help but feel the need to protect you.” which is when he proceeded to ground us.” Leo recounted the event almost easily, a fond smirk appearing on his face. “But what does that have to do with... what you said?”

“When I yelled at you, I wasn’t upset. I was honestly kind of terrified...” Donnie paused, scratching at a bit of loose skin from the branch the two were settled upon. “You don't know how scary it was to see my own twin brother lying on his Carapace, covered in blood.”

“But it was fa-”

“I know that! But I didn't care! One of my biggest fears is losing you, all of you! I thought that I had left something out that had hurt you, that I was the reason why you were just... lying there... you looked so lifeless.” Donnie wiped away the streams of tears falling from his eyes. “Ugh, look at me... the guy who doesn’t understand feelings is sitting here crying because of some stupid prank pulled by his equally stupid-” Donnie cut himself off, remembering the words he’d uttered that started this mess.

“Go on, say it.” Leo huffed, his frown returning. “Say that I’m just as stupid as the prank.”

“No.” Leo looked up at the refusal, asking many silent questions with his wide eyes. “I’m not going to say it, because it isn’t true. You aren’t stupid. I was just upset, and when I get upset I get snappy.”

“Snappy? That’s what you’re calling it?” Leo asked in disbelief, giving a genuine snicker, which soon turned into a full-hearted laugh. For a while, Donnie watched Leo in confusion, wondering what was so funny. “Dude, you cannot tell me that you truly believe Snappy does what you said justice! Your face was as red as Raph’s mask! You looked like a freakin’ cherry!”

“Okay, I get it, ‘Nardo. You don’t need to ruin the mood.”

“Uh, what mood? This whole conversation has been as awkward as Dad’s relationship with Draxum!” An indignant scoff came from Donnie, and Leo barked out a laugh that left him coughing violently. “Don! Can’t breathe!”

Donnie groaned, drawing Leo close and massaging the back of Leo’s neck. A good minute or so passed, and Donnie had started to contemplate karate chopping Leo in the stomach, but Leo eventually stopped coughing. A loud sputter was shared between the twins, and they chuckled at the coincidence.

“So uh... am I forgiven?” Donnie asked, wanting desperately to be able to get home and disappear into his lab to try and forget this mess. Unfortunately for him, however, Leo was aware of this plan, and the mutant Slider gave a false hum. “Leo...”

“I’ll forgive you on one condition.” Leo chimed, looking directly into Donnie’s eyes. “You have to spend the rest of the night in the Apology Nest with me, where we will drink hot chocolate and watch cheesy B-Movies until we pass out.”

“I am not going to do that.”

“Then I’m not going to forgive you. What you said really hurt, Dee. I hope you at least realize that it’s a feat in itself to get me to forgive you for... y’know.” Leo lowered his gaze to the ground, where the rest of the family had sat down to talk about whatever. “It made me cry, Dee. Something that’s really hard to do, mind you.”

Donnie sighed heavily, weighing his options before deciding that, yes, he did owe Leo the Apology Nest treatment. Nothing could excuse what had happened in the lab earlier that day, and Donnie knew this. What he said was despicable, thoughtless, and heartless. Even if he meant none of it, he had no right to say it.

“Alright,” Donnie finally whispered, “I accept the conditions.”

“Good. And thanks.” Leo replied happily, standing up and balancing on the branch.

“What for?” Donnie raised a brow, standing up as well and holding Leo in a tight hug so that they could both safely float down to the ground. As they descended, Leo responded:

“For doing the best you can.”

[chickenscript]

affection and hanging out (rottmnt x reader headcannons)

A/N: had a major block but managed to get this done! i hope it doesn’t read too similarly to anything i’ve posted in the past. it’s been a while since i’ve looked through any of my old stuff (^^;)

and since rise is back in full swing, i really wanted to post something for it. i’ve missed the boys (〃▽〃)

hope you enjoy!

                                                         ----------

Don:

- he's always been a bit detached, and has his own way of expressing his feelings

- affection comes in a few forms with him. As you’ve learned from more than one sleepy time cuddle

- with time, he’s warmed up to you and is able to let loose when you’re hanging out. For the most part. He’s a bit less biting when he has one on one time with you and much more talkative (mainly because you’re the only one so far who actually really listens to him), and that’s usually when you catch glimpses of affection. 

- but, it’s pretty random and the only time you’re certain you’ll see any is when he's hit a slump and all you can think to do is distract him from it

- when you sit with him in his lab during the wee hours, he unconsciously drifts closer to you if you're sitting on or at his desk and he’s milling around, hard at work with some project

- usually, night time is when you hang out the most. Donnie has always been the resident night owl, finding it easier to get things done when his brothers are asleep, and you've also always found yourself able to function better at that time of day too 

- your favorite spot in his room was the mound of bean bag chairs he had set up in front of a massive TV where you would often take full advantage of his gaming systems. If you’re both sitting together, you’re either leaning against the other, or he’ll sometimes drapes himself over you or hold you close in an almost possessive embrace

- often he likes to pull you into his lap, gangly but strong arms wrapped around your middle to hold you there. Giving you the occasional squeeze

- you've noticed he tends to make small, rumbley noises of content in moments like that. He'll sometimes even nuzzle into the side of your neck, maybe nip at you, or bury his snout in your hair, and you can hear more of the purr like warbles. If it’s not purring he’s up to, he’s humming the tune of some song he likes

- you discovered that you can also entice happy rumbles when you gently run finger pads down the sensitive, spinal knobs on the back of his bare shell (the texture of his shell half reminded you of what it felt like to touch a stingray)

- though he'll deny it like everything else- you think this behavior of his is cat like almost. Not to mention really cute

Leo:

- he really enjoys showing you little places around the city that you might not have known about (like cafes or shops he’s been too scared to go in because of his appearance) and sometimes, you’ll both go for a night stroll. His turtle-ness hidden under clothes

- but, if you’re just hanging at the lair, sometimes he's like a pampered, high energy lap dog

- he’s tent times more open about wanting affection than Donatello 

- if you're situated on the couch, he'll zoom over to hop onto the beat up cushions, squeeze in next to you, and get all up in your business

- he’s way more into social media than the rest of the brothers and he’s always trying to coax you onto more platforms. He also does a lot of channel surfing when you’re watching TV and it’s a battle to get the remote from him

- when you’re not at war trying to figure out what to watch (you like to cheat and just pull up Netflix and grab something for you to binge), he takes to nuzzling and purring away unabashedly at you

- the moment you reciprocate however, he admittedly gets flustered. Not that it stops him for long 

- he likes to lay his head on your lap so you can pet his head or play with his mask tails. He also likes to peck the inside of your wrist or your palm

- he's one for carapace scritches as well and that gets him purring like a speed boat

- he also really just likes to listen to you talk. He’ll play with your hand while he’s lounging on your lap and you’re going on some tangent about whatever topic you’ve gotten settled on

- you’ll of course get embarrassed and stop talking once you realize it’s only you who’s been going on and on for a substantial time, but he’ll insist you continue. And it’s one of the few times he actually sounds honest and not teasing or playful. It always manages to shock you

- and when you mention that, he becomes a squirmy, blushy lump that you could just eat right up

Mikey:

- he's affectionate with everyone and doesn't really have an off button

- but you love him for it because he's always there when you need a pick me up snuggle

- he's your go to when the other boys are busy or if you're feeling particularly down, or just plain out of it

- he's perfect cuddle size and loves to just wraps his arms around your middle and rest his head on your shoulder, nuzzling the side of your face. It was like if a teddy bear came to life, full of warmth and bottled up sunshine

- though, he especially likes to lay his head on your sternum when you're both laid out on the couch. Twisting your hair into loops with his finger

- he loves playing with your hair actually, and gives plenty of pecks to your cheeks. When you peck his, he gives the cutest giggles and sometimes chirps in glee

- sometimes you’ll just hold his round little face in your hands (the only thing you could compare it to was what holding the whole world felt like) and he’ll stop come to a stop for once, meeting your eyes with a blisteringly wide stare

- then you’ll boop his nose with yours and he’s off to giggling again

- and when you’re just sitting around without much to do, he asks if he can draw on you. You’ve become a human canvas more times than you can count and you love every piece he’s scrawled on whatever patch of skin your clothes hasn’t covered up 

- he get a really fixed look in his eye while he’s painting, a focus you can compare to Donnie when he’s working on a project. Sure, his tongue doesn’t stick out like his older brother’s, but that concentrated glint showed just how much care and passion he put into what he drew

- you could especially see that in the designs yourself when he was done. And every compliment you’d give was enough for him to spring a hug on you with rosy cheeks

- he was such a baby

Raph:

- you think he just likes the body heat

- of course, being the largest of his brothers, he does needs more of it

- he's always basking the longest under the heating lamp in the morning (on the occasions that you're there at that time, you've seen him laid out for an entire hour or so longer than his more streamlined brothers)

- he's always happy for a hug or something of the sort. And you've noticed that, sometimes, after a long day- he's particularly tuckered out

- so if you sit him down to watch something, odds are he'll nod off. Curled around you like an abbey cat. Or well, a big cat. And, if you’re lucky and get him laughing while he’s drowsy, it sounds more like a chuff rattling deep in his chest that you can feel reverberating in your bones

- you don’t mind being stuck as his personal heat pad at times. You know just where to recline between the spikey terrain on his skin so you’ll be comfortable

- on the flip side, you always like to nap on his wide plastron when you’ve had a long day and get the chance to lounge around with him

- he was the perfect lazy enabler. Not to mention the perfect, turtle shaped bean bag

- when you’re not being two, lethargic losers; you’re either sparring or baking. Two very polar opposites, but Raph loved them both

- you started trying your hand at martial arts when the brothers offered to teach you. They each spar with you, and Raph does the most. Of course, he still has the habit of going easy on you (because of his sheer size and strength), but you always like to show him that he shouldn’t entirely underestimate you

- you’ve got a lot of confidence now that you can fend for yourself in a scuffle, even with the Foot

- while you’re comfortable with your skill, Raph on the other hand is still struggling with his baking

- his main past time, aside from sparring, is knitting. And, as much as he loves it, he wanted to take up baking too. So you and Mike (whom is definitely the cook of the lair), have been helping him get better at it. And get better he has- you already were notorious for floating around the kitchenette to nab samples of Mikey’s food while he’s cooking, but now you’re just as bad when Raph is baking

- you can’t really help it though, you’ve always had a sweet tooth

[turtlestrash]

Let Your Fire Burn (I)

______

A silent Michelangelo tip-toed across the sewer lair, letting his skill of stealth work its magic as he did not want to wake his brothers. The air was chilly, its unforgiving cold breeze making the orange-banded turtle shiver from the gust. Just as he had gotten a few feet away from his brother’s bedrooms, his stomach mumbled; it craved something to eat.

“Don’t worry, tum, pizza’s on the way.”

Mikey sighed to himself, as his gaze fell upon the the harsh shadows cast by the moonlight’s trickling stream of radiant light. Although, the few rays of the moon would not subside the cold temperatures of the sewer.

“I don’t get it, it’s usually warmer down here...” Mikey whispered to himself in wonder. “I’m so cold!”

Momentarily, after a few more paces, he finally had reached a small fridge in the corner of the living room—a makeshift one, as he and his brothers gladly called it. As he halted in his tracks, staring at the rummaged pillows and blankets on one couch, memories flowed to his mind. His brothers were always messing around in here; weather it be playing games, having cuddles, or even spending time with Dad.

I love this family.

Where was he? Oh, yeah. Pizza.

Mikey swiped a slice of pepperoni from the fridge, and began to munch. It was cold, not unlike the rest of his body, but at least he wasn’t hungry anymore. As he finished the slice, he started heading back to his bedroom to get the rest of a good night’s sleep.

Rustle.

“...what was that?” Mikey turned his head back to investigate the noise, but alas, nothing had appeared behind him. Stupid imagination. He stifled a yawn and began walking again.

“Pst!”

Okay, now that wasn’t imagination. He had definitely heard an unfamiliar voice shot him a greeting. Or, maybe he was just tired...in fact, he was actually getting very tired just then. So tired, that he was about to collapse on the ground. As his vision started to dim to a pinprick, he semi-consciously lay on his shell on the cold, hard sewer floor. He’d thought he felt a pair of hands swoop him up before everything went dark.

💚💚💚

“Hey, man. You all right in there? Hellooo? Anybody home? Please, wake up, dude. Wake up.”

Struggling to open his eyes, Mikey found himself now in some sort of dojo. He could make out a large cherry blossom tree in the middle of it, and below him was what felt like a soft rug. But nothing compared to what he saw above him: another turtle looking almost exactly like him.

“I...who...where...” Mikey tried to get some words out, but it was no use. He was too confused on where he was, who this turtle was, or if what he was experiencing was even reality.

“Who are you?! What am I doing here!?” The poor box turtle shot up and hid in his shell, for he was afraid on where he was. “Please don’t hurt me!”

“Woah, dude, chill!” The other turtle seemed to draw near Mikey and pat him on the shell, and his head peeped out. Maybe he wasn’t a threat after all.

“Please, just...t-tell me who you are and where I am,” Mikey stammered. “I’m scared.”

“My name is Michelangelo,” the blue-eyed turtle began, “And where you are right now is—“

“Your name is Michelangelo?”

“Yes, we’ll get to that later. Anyway, where you are is my home world. Or...sleeping.”

“Sleeping?” Mikey cocked his head to one side in confusion. “What?”

“This is a dream,” the other Mikey explained. “But, what you are experiencing now isn’t made up, dude. I’ve come to you to explain your purpose.”

“My...purpose?”

“That’s right! You’ve got a super special destiny ahead of you! In fact, all of your brothers do.”

“How do you know who my brothers are!?” Mikey, suddenly alarmed, backed up a bit from his counterpart. “Do you want to hurt them?”

“No, no!” The mirroring Mikey shook his head in opposure. “Just follow me into the lair. We’ll talk things out.”

Although hesitant for a slight moment, Mikey did follow the turtle. What appeared in front of them was another room, with a couch, pinball machine, and a television. Pizza boxes littered the ground. Three other turtles—also looking like his other brothers—darted their eyes toward the pair of green reptiles.

“Uh...Mikey, we weren’t supposed to bring him yet,” the turtle with a purple mask, what Mikey assumed to be this world’s Donatello, gave a stern glance at the other orange turtle.

“It’s okay, I’ve got this!” The counterpart sauntered to his brothers, and gestured Mikey to follow.

The turtle in the blue mask spoke up when Mikey was sitting in front of him. “Welcome, Michelangelo. My name is Leonardo, the leader of this team. Now, I’m sure you’re used to Raphael being the leader in your world, but...well, things will change.”

“C-change?” The confusion returned to Mikey; what did this world’s Leo mean by “change”? Will something happen to Raphael?

“But, this is about you,” Leo spoke once more. “I know you are facing adversity, but you shall overcome it. Now, you’re dreaming. So, you think you can create your weapon in this world?”

“I’ve always wanted to see the fire one,” the last turtle to speak, one in red—Raphael, Mikey presumed—eyed him with awe, as if he was interested to see what the littlest brother could do.

“Uh...all right.” It only took a few seconds for him to spawn his magical weapon; the kusari-fundo appeared straight before his eyes, gleaming and glowing with fire. Mikey smiled, admiring his signature weapon of choice.

“Michelangelo,” Leo pointed to the firey weapon. “I assume you remember how cold you were in the lair before arriving here?”

“Yeah, it was freezing...”

“I think that’s a perfect example of what you’re facing.”

“Huh?” Once again, Mikey was puzzled. “I’m not facing anything. I’m as happy as ever!”

“What about your brothers?”

My...my brothers.

Mikey paused; his mind and body both seemed to halt in mention of his brothers.

He’d always feel useless to the team, because he was the youngest. Leo, Raph, and Donnie loved him, and he knew that...but he couldn’t shake the feeling of being inferior.

“Bro,” At last, the other Michelangelo broke the devastating silence. “I know how it feels to be the runt of the litter. But, I’ve seen your family. And they all love you very much.”

“I...” Mikey began to fight tears as his eyes began to water. But, it was to no avail. Suddenly, a waterfall of tears started to stream from his eyes and sting his cheeks. “I’m no help to my brothers! I’m useless! You all say I have a destiny, but that’s not true. I don’t make the team better, I just slow it down! I’m useless! Worthless! I’m...I’m—“

“Shh,” Mikey’s counterpart placed a hand on his shoulder, while wiping away tears. “Mikey, listen. Your brothers love you with all their heart. You must fight the cold feelings inside your heart, and tell em to buzz off.”

Mikey sniffed, trying to get a hold of himself through the flood of emotions reeling through his mind. “I don’t get it...h-how?”

“Your heart is your biggest strength,” the Raphael stood up to meet Mikey’s gaze. “It is your fire, seemingly like your weapon. And, listen; you have the power to kick all those jerk’s butts who keep invading your city. You and your brothers.”

Donatello took a knee to face him. “That’s right! Your brothers will always be by your side.” He gave Mikey a large grin.

Finally, Leonardo looked him in the eyes. “You must burn your fire,” he stated, almost grimly. “Let your fire burn inside if you want to rise. If you all want to rise!”

Mikey was going to finally give the four turtles a thank you, but his head suddenly swam all around him. After a few moments, he was flooded by a pitch-black darkness.

[the-lupine-sojourner]

Aftermath [One-shot] [Featuring my OCs] [RotTMNT Movie]

So, I know I should wait til I’ve done all the Rise series, or at least the movie, but I just cann’t help it! 

The Rise Movie is still giving me brain-rot, so here we go! 

In case you are new, I made a bio for my OCs, Asami and Lupa Hamato! If you have questions, the bio should answer them, but if not, feel free to ask! :)

I would like to take a moment and tag @fluidfoxwritting123​ since they have been super supportive of my girls! 

I hope this isn’t too confusing! ^.^’ 

Again, please let me know if you guys have questions! *thumbs up*

Last thing I’m going to say is, if you like my writing, please consider buying me a ko-fi, or if you want, you can continuously support me writing stories by joining my Patreon!

(P.S: ‘Ane’ is Japanese for big or older sister. Asami likes using just a little Japanese after finding out her human DNA is Japanese. The others like making her happy so they use it like a nickname.)

God Bless and Good Day! 

~The Lupine Sojourner

It’s hard, staying awake after such an intense few days, but I don’t have a choice. 

My brother and future self need my help. I have to monitor Big Me’s ribs and shoulder, plus Leo’s shell came this close to cracking all the way through from whatever the Kraang did to him in that prison realm. 

Understandably, neither of them wanted to talk about their time in that other realm, the memories too fresh. 

From what I’m seeing, though, I know whatever was done to them was meant not only to hurt, but also to kill, and kill slowly. The Kraang wanted to draw out killing them, to make them suffer until the end.

Of course, I didn’t dare say that out loud. Because that would make it too real. 

So I bandage their gashes, stitch Big Me’s shoulder again, set a few ribs and patch Leo’s plastron as best I could, and then I sit and monitor them quietly. They were unconscious, unable to stay awake even the short time it took to get back to the Lair. I had looked them over for signs of concussion and hadn’t seen any, so I let them sleep. They’d need a lot of rest to recover for this... 

The others come drifting in and out to get their surprisingly few and minor injuries looked at. 

There was no sign of Mikey’s mystic strain except a small tremor in his hands and a feverish warmth to his skin. If either of those symptoms would go away was anyone’s guess, but for now, I wrapped his hands to stabilize them, had him drink some ice water, and gave him a big hug. 

Lupa, who'd stayed with April, Casey, and Dad, had been smacked around pretty good, so she needed some pain meds and a few minor bandages, but all in all she got off easy. 

Donnie, fortunately, did not have any marks or lasting effects from his time connected to the Kraang Technodrome, but he nearly refused to let me touch his shell, flinching away, eyes wide in fear, before his brain registered that it was me and he calmed down. All I needed was a few small touches to ensure there were no signs of damage before I cleared him. There weren’t any serious injuries on him, thank God.

Casey, thanks to his armor, had little to nothing physically wrong with him, but he kept asking about Leo and Big Me, which wasn’t helping anything. I told him again and again they would be ok, that they just needed to rest, but it seemed like this poor kid expected them to…you know. 

I eventually convinced him by letting him listen to Leo’s strong heartbeat with a stethoscope. He sat there for what felt like a long time, just listening, before he quietly asked to do the same for Big Me. I let him, and it was another few minutes before he stood and slowly walked out, casting several glances over his shoulder.

Raph’s eye showed no damage from the strange mutation he had endured. Not physically, anyway, but I could tell by the way he hesitated to touch anything, to look his brothers in the eye or scoop them up in a hug like he normally would, that the experience had not left him unscathed. 

This whole situation had been even worse than the Shredder. 

When Leo and Big Me were in the prison realm…it felt like I couldn’t breathe. I’d begged Leo to portal us up, to do anything but what he was about to do, but he only asked Casey again to close the portal, begging the poor kid to finish the fight. And just like that, Casey grabbed the Key and the Technodrome was no more. 

It was gone, but the victory felt worse than fighting the Kraang.

I thought for sure I’d lost them for nearly 25 agonizing minutes until Mikey pulled that miraculous mystic stunt to get them back. 

My heart stopped when I saw those yellow cracks on his hands, and it started to shatter when I saw the pain in his eyes at the new sensation. Holding back tears, I’d instantly run to him, right alongside Raph and Donnie. We all shared the burden of creating such a portal, and it worked…somehow. 

Somehow, we had defied all odds and rescued our siblings without re-releasing the Kraang. I still can’t believe how well this whole thing went, all things considered. 

This very easily could’ve devolved into history being made worse with Raph’s capture and the Technodrome being brought in from the prison realm, but somehow we still clung to any scrap of hope we could find and kept fighting and that led to…this. 

This moment, watching my future self and my little brother breathing. Maybe not breathing easy, but the point is they’re here and they’re alive. That in and of itself is a miracle. 

I don’t realize my eyes are closed until the heart monitor for Big Me started beeping just a little faster and I had to open my eyes to check on her. 

Her eyes are open. “H-hey.” Her voice is small and strained. 

I smile at her. “Hey.” I murmur, trying not to wake Leo. 

“Everyone else ok?” She asks, thankfully not trying to sit up, which is probably more a testament to her pain than her self control. 

“G-guys…I don’t think…I don’t think Leo and I can walk right now…” She’d said as we stayed in our family hug for longer than we probably should have, considering their condition. 

Now…it was clear she was hiding her pain. I’ll give her a bit more morphine…if we have any left. 

But for now, I gently move hair from her face and nod. “Yeah, they’re alright…thanks to you. You and Leo…” I swallow. “I hate that it came to that.” I suddenly can’t speak past a lump in my throat. “I thought…” I manage to force out, but can't get further.

“I know. In our defense, Leo didn’t bet on losing his swords. We planned on portaling down as soon as we had the Kraang in position and Casey could grab the Key, but…” She grimaces and draws in a slow breath. “That’s not how things turned out.” 

I hold back an angry, hurt tirade about how stupid their stunt was and how scared I had been, and end up just sighing, tears pricking my eyes. 

“Leo’s just lucky Casey found them.” I try for humor, but there’s none in my voice. The poor kid thought the swords were all that was left of his mentor and Leo…

“Yeah, he’s a lifesaver.” Big Me smiles fondly, then glances over at Leo. “I hate that he did that, too, you know. S’why I went with him.” 

I nod through tears soaking my mask. I move it up and let them flow. “I know.” And I did, cus I felt the same way. I felt the same sadness and small bit of shame that my poor little brother had to shoulder that burden at only 16 years old. 

16…way too young to understand real sacrifice, to understand what responsibility is. 

What if Raph and I had taught him that being a hero means sacrificing yourself? That responsibility means putting everything on yourself? 

I'll have to talk to him…

“For what it’s worth…I’m sorry.”

I exhale to rid myself of sarcastic retorts or angry words I’d regret later. 

“What happened over there?” I ask instead. 

Maybe, if I knew exactly what they endured, I’d be less angry, I’d see that they’d been punished enough for their poor choice. 

“Oh, the usual villain thing; Kraang wanted to take his anger out on us, get his revenge, yada yada.” 

I wince. “I see.” Yeah…they’d definitely been punished enough. I knew that from the moment Big Me said she and Leo couldn’t walk. 

But somehow it took til now to really start to forgive them for scaring us like that.

“It’s not your fault.” Big Me says and I can’t help a sob. 

“If I’d managed to stop the Kraang from sending us off the technodrome--” 

“Then what?” Big Me interrupts gently. “We all might have gone to the prison realm, or the fight would have dragged on, and we all might have gotten this badly hurt. Bringing you back up wasn’t worth that risk. I just…I just hate that Leo chose to make that sacrifice. I wanted so bad to be the one to save him this time…” 

I grimace. Big Me had mentioned that Leo sent her back here, but nothing other than that…

“I’m sorry.” 

“You wanna know what happens to your brothers in the future? They all die fighting the Kraang!” Casey had said that to Leo in that hole in the rubble, no idea what damage those words did to Leo. Or to me…

“It’s ok. At least…I’m here now, in this time. And I know we won’t end up like them…but I can’t help missing them.” She takes a breath. “I’m sorry. I...I don’t know how much Casey told you and Leo…but--” 

“He told us they all died. I don’t want to know how.” I interject, hand on her good shoulder. “Like you said, you’re here now. You can honor them, grieve them, and eventually find peace here…or at least, I hope you can.” I sigh. “This whole…situation is kinda messed up, but…I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad Casey is here, too.” 

Big Me chuckles a little, but stops with a barely contained wince. “Y-you know, you’re supposed to come to me for wisdom like that.”  

“We’re the same person.” I quip in a deadpan voice Donnie would be proud of. 

Big Me laughs, but stops quickly with another subtle wince. “Stop making me laugh, kid!” She tries to poke me, but can’t quite reach. 

“Never.” I reply.

Silence falls over the lab and suddenly my eyes are heavy again. 

“Do me a favor?” Big Me asks. 

“Yeah?” I take a long blink before looking at her.

“Go take a picture of everyone for me, then come back, ok?” 

I grab my phone. “You got it.” 

I find them all in a pile in the living room, pillows and blankets haphazardly strewn about them. 

They haven’t done this since Shredder…

I smile, grabbing a blanket and settling it over Mikey, who hums a little but doesn’t stir from Raph's chest. 

As the blanket settled over him, Donnie flinches subtly at Raph's left side, but he stills just as quickly, scooting subconsciously closer to Raph, who has his arms out, complete with pillows for his siblings. 

Good. At least he isn’t scared to touch them any more… 

Lupa is curled into a ball against Raph’s other side, one hand clutching his belt like she’d never let go. I’m almost glad to cover that hand with a blanket. 

Mikey is flopped on Raph’s chest, snoring lightly as I tuck a larger blanket around him and Raph.

It takes me a minute to find Casey, and when I did, I nearly wished I hadn’t. 

He’s stationed himself like a guard by the door to the lab, curled up against the wall as tight as he could go, with only a blanket covering him. His mask is down over his face and he’s still wearing his armor. 

I grab a spare pillow from the pile and stealthily lift Casey’s head, slipping the mask off and the pillow under his head in one movement. 

Years of being a big sister had paid off. 

That is, until I notice Casey’s eyes are half-open. I ease the hair off his face and shush him. “Sleep, Casey…” I murmur softly and his eyes drift close. 

Once I was sure Casey was asleep, I take a quick picture of the pile of mutants and Casey and make my way back to the med bay. 

“Give you one guess where they are right now.” I chuckle as I resume my seat next to Big Me. 

“The living room, right?” 

I nod and show her the picture. “Where else would they be?” I shake my head, amused. 

“And Casey?” The humor fizzles a bit. 

“Outside the lab. I had to get him a pillow. Poor kid…” I sigh. “You know, I almost wish they wouldn’t do the pile any more…”

“Yeah...They only do it after they’ve been through something like this.” 

"I guess I'm just glad they're getting sleep. They've been through so much lately…" I muse. 

“You’ve been through a lot, too, you know.” Big Me points out softly. 

“Not as much as--”

“No. You went through the same hell they did and deserve a break.” Big Me pats the space beside her. 

Whatever protest I might have come up with can’t make it past my throat, so I just take off my mask and lay down, my arm automatically going over Big Me’s hip when she gently puts my arm back. “Huh?” I can’t help but ask. 

“Turn over.” She instructs. 

I blink stupidly at her, but in the end, I do turn over, feeling distinctly childish. Even more so when her arm, pulling the covers up in a fluid move I’d done a thousand times myself, settles on my hip. 

“You're not, um, sleeping on your bad arm, right?” 

“Sleep.” 

I smile, cheeks warm. “I feel a little childish.”

“Sleep.” Big Me insists firmly.

I sigh. Maybe, just for tonight, I can let myself relax. 

Just for tonight, it’s ok to share a bed with my future self, to have her hold me like I held the kids all those years after a nightmare. 

And so, my heavy eyes finally close with no cause to open them again, blessed sleep coming swiftly.

If I had stayed awake, however, I would have seen Leo briefly wake up, notice my sleeping situation, carefully get out of bed to snap a picture, then lay back down, staring at the picture for a while before he sets his phone down and falls asleep. 

But I knew none of that til the next morning at breakfast.

=#=#=#=#=

I slowly start to come awake and realize I don’t hear the monitors any more. 

Instantly, adrenaline rushes into my veins and I leap up, scanning the room frantically for the patients that should be in bed. 

But they aren’t! 

I grab my mask and tie it on as I rush out of the med bay into the lab, but they’re not there. 

I make it to the living room, but no one is there! 

What the--?! 

“--had pancakes?! Oh, booyyy am I about to blow your mind!” 

Mikey! The kitchen! 

I sprint over, ignoring some overworked muscles protesting my rapid movement, to find my family in the kitchen, getting coffee and waiting for Mikey, who was pouring batter on the griddle like he was being timed, eager to show off his cooking skills. 

Before anyone sees me, I march into the room. 

“Hey!” I bark, pointing at my renegade patients, who were sitting at the table, thankfully. “You two! Back to bed!” 

Everyone goes silent and still.

“Morning, mis hermana!” Leo chirps, pointedly not showing any pain he’s feeling as he waves. 

“Donchu ‘mis hermana’ me, boy! Bed! Now!” I protest hotly. 

“Little me, it’s ok, I promise. Remember, I’m the team medic, too. I’m watching him for you. You go get ready for the day. We’ll still be sitting here when you get back.” 

I hate that Big Me knows me so well, but I guess she’s just speaking from experience… 

“...” I turn and walk off, not trusting anything that might come out of my mouth. 

I grumble to myself about how stupid it is that those two are out of bed with their injuries while I brush my teeth and grab some fresh clothes, though. 

But then it hits me. 

Leo and Big Me, they looked so…relaxed and happy being around the others. They probably needed the company…

I feel like such a jerk as I walk back to the kitchen. 

“...I’m sorry.” I mumble, fiddling with my fingers. 

Big Me smiles patiently at me. “Come sit. We’re having pancakes.” 

I nod mutely and sit, accepting the mug of coffee Donnie presses into my hands. 

“You guys feeling better today?” I ask automatically, sipping at the warm coffee. 

“Other than stiff from sleeping on the floor…nothing has changed.” Donnie reports, smiling a bit at me as he sits across from me, knee brushing mine under the table. 

“Good. Raph?” 

“All good, hoss.” Raph replies, and I notice Lupa in his lap, scrolling on her phone. 

I smile. “Excellent. Hey, chef, you feeling ok?” I call. 

“A-ok! Oh! I left something on the table there!” 

He’d drawn a picture. 

Our new family group, posing for battle with the words Mad Dogz: 1 Kraang: 0 as the headline. It was clearly done hastily to test how steady his hands are, but I still snap a picture on my phone.

“Fantastic, Angelo.” 

I take a breath. Things are…fairly normal for a change. It felt really nice just sitting here enjoying breakfast, so I drink coffee. 

The only warning I have of the coming embarrassment is a split second of mischief in Leo’s eyes as he grabs his phone, then I hear Lupa’s phone vibrate in her hands. 

Seconds later…

“Awww that’s so cute!” She squeals, eagerly showing Raph, who visibly melts, eyes shining with happiness. 

“D’awww! Show Don!” 

I raise a brow. “What’s going- -”

“Ohmigosh that's adorable!” Donnie chuckles. “Didn’t know you two were cuddlers!” 

My heart skips a beat. “What're you- -Leo!” Lupa thrusts her phone in my face, revealing a picture of Big Me and…me, asleep, Big Me’s arm still around me, but I’d turned to face her, one hand against her stomach as if I needed her touch. 

Maybe I did…

Despite the embarrassed warmth in my cheeks and ears, I smile. 

“I won’t apologize. It was a good night’s sleep.” I sniff haughtily, as if daring anyone to try to tease me, but no one does. 

Evidently, they all knew I’d needed the sleep and the comfort. 

“Nor should you apologize.” Big Me nods like the matter is settled. “Now, how’re those pancakes coming, Mikey?” She asks and for the first time I notice her eyes…they’re shiny with tears. I can’t tell if they’re sad tears or glad tears, so I don’t call attention to it, just smile at her and shake my head to say ‘what’re we gonna do with them?’. 

She smiles back, shrugging, and I realize they’re happy tears. She most certainly needed the company…she’s been suffering so long…

“Coming along great! Oooh Raph! Can you get some bacon going? Maybe some of those sausage patties, too! After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” Mikey is back to his bubbly, hyperactive self, which brings me no small sense of relief.

“Really?” I hadn’t even noticed Casey in a corner of the room closest to us, as if he wasn’t sure where he should be. 

I notice beside me is a free seat, so I gesture. “Yup! C’mon, don’t be a stranger!” I call, patting the seat beside me. 

“But you know me.” Casey replies, confused. 

“Sit’own, kid.” Big Me chimes in. “Breakfast is supposed to be a social affair.” 

“I guess…” The kid reluctantly sits down and I notice he doesn’t have the armor on, or the mask, and I find I like seeing more of him. 

I then get an idea and grab my phone and text Leo the picture I took of the pile.

“You guys did a pile without me?!” Leo snaps, looking at his siblings in betrayal as he slams his phone down on the table. 

“You can be part of the next one, soon as your plastron is healed.” I sip more coffee as Leo crosses his arms (careful not to hurt his plastron) in outrage. 

“No way! I should’ve been there! I never miss a pile!” He whines. 

“Sorry, Leo, but our injuries made a pile not possible. We’ll have one the night we’re cleared, right little me?” Big Me glances at me, knowing I’d back her up.

I nod. “Sounds like a plan!” 

“...What’s a ‘pile’?” Casey asks timidly. I show him the picture, noticing everyone’s phone chiming. Leo must’ve texted them all the picture. 

“The kids like to sleep all together after…something like this.” 

“I wondered why no one was going to their rooms…” Casey murmurs. 

“We all have coping strategies.” I shrug, putting my phone down as Mikey brings over the first big plate of pancakes. 

Of course, he splurged and put chocolate chips in them, but I let it slide. This was definitely worth the chocolate chips (which were a bit hard to come by lately). 

“I’m just glad I didn’t roll over on you guys.” Raph quips as he puts the bacon on a frying pan, another one heating up for the sausage patties. 

After all, some of us had dietary needs to meet. Namely, Lupa and I, but Donnie and Raph as well. 

I grab a few pancakes and snicker. “Remember that time Mikey had a cold and climbed into your bed? He elbowed you to the edge before you could say ‘cowabunga’!” 

“That little tike almost had me on the floor!” Raph huffs, but his smirk betrays his amusement. 

“You know I need room to move, Raphie-boy!” Mikey retorts, winking at Raph, who just rolls his eyes. 

“Yeah yeah.” He grabs a pancake and eats half in one bite. “Great job on the pancakes, little- -I mean big man!” Raph rubs Mikey's head as if he were ruffling hair.

Mikey beams at Raph, happy Raph's recovered enough to touch him. “Thanks!” Mikey pats Raph on the arm and I don’t see Raph flinch, so hopefully all this means he’s starting to trust himself again. 

That mutation…we still don’t know what part of Raph was conscious of what he was doing, or if it was all a blank. 

I kinda hope it’s a blank…

I then shake myself. “Anyone got the syrup handy?” I ask the table, grabbing a few pancakes and stacking them on my plate. 

"Here, Ane!” Leo calls sliding it over without moving his chest too much. 

“Thanks, mis hermano.” I pour it on and sigh contentedly as I look around me. 

Everyone was here, everyone was safe and recovering.

That’s what matters here.