#rottmnt bruce | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nani-nonny · 2 months ago

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Hehe the entire Bruce snippet for WDS :D

(because Radio asked so nicely hahaha!)

(2.3k words)

Leonardo pauses mid conversation when the doors to Hueso’s slam open. The volume of the doors hitting the walls make Hueso flinch and immediately stand up, ready to reprimand the rude customers. But a hefty voice with a gravel-like tone stops Hueso short, announcing their arrival like a king awaiting his throne.

“Buenos Dias, Señor Hueso!”

Leonardo shifts slightly to rest his prosthetic on the backrest of his chair, peering over his shoulder for a better look at the owner of the rude entrance.

It was Bruce, leader of the Master of Barbarianism, a dragon yokai that Leonardo remembers meeting in youth. The yokai’s nostrils are fuming, releasing a hazy smoke as his two serpent yokai lackeys hissed with annoyance. The yokai is wearing a traditional black suit this time, and unlike Leonardo, hasn’t aged a day since they last met.

Behind Bruce is a small group of serpent yokai, all ranging in size and shape. They wear black slacks and white dress shirts, but none wear a jacket like their boss. They impatiently await behind the doors, glaring inside as the doors slowly close. It’s a meeting among their ranks.

Bruce steps up to the podium and fishes through the reservation files to pick out his own. He waves the paper around between two fingers as he says with a voice like a teasing hiss, “Pardon the intrusion, Hueso, but I sincerely hope you didn’t forget my reservation.”

Señor Hueso’s eyes flicked to the clock above the door and cursed wordlessly under his breath. He forced a large smile as he rounds the table he shared with Leonardo, using his body to block the drinks they shared. “Of course not, Boss, I know you have a reservation. I was just a little preoccupied with an old friend, come in. I’ll show you and your friends to your seats.”

Hueso glances over his shoulder and sends a look to Leonardo, wordlessly telling the slider to get into the kitchen. He properly meets Bruce at the podium and gestures to the opposite side of the room.

Bruce doesn’t budge as his eyes lock on Leonardo, who nonchalantly takes a sip from his beer bottle. The dragon narrows his eye suspiciously at Leonardo, watching the slider sip without a care in the world.

“Hey.”

Leonardo doesn’t respond or budge.

Hueso immediately steps to the side to block Bruce’s view, “Ah, pardon, no te preocupes! He’s an old friend, I asked him to help me out in the kitchen as a favor! I know you wanted the restaurant to yourself, but I trust him not to say a word.”

Hueso sends Leonardo another warning glance and quickly looks back at Bruce with a reassuring—and anxious—smile. “Come in, come in, let’s get you seated and some drinks in you!”

Bruce still doesn’t budge and leans on the podium. “Hey, buddy!”

Leonardo finishes the rest of his bottle and stands, he wordlessly raises his bottle towards the mob boss in a greeting gesture then walks into the kitchen.

Alone in the kitchen, Leonardo tosses his glass bottle into its recycling bin and washes his hands. In his head, he hears the voices of his siblings.

“It’s Bruce! I remember him!”

“You do?”

“Yeah, Leo and I meet him back when Hueso needed some extra staff. He was a pretty chill guy, but I don’t remember him in the war against Krang…”

Leonardo dries his hands as he answers in a low voice in case Hueso might hear, “That’s because I killed him.”

The voices go quiet.

Leonardo can’t blame them. It had been a tough decision to make. And it never did sit right with him. Plenty “what if” and “if only” questions often came up in his mind when it came to the people they lost. Bruce was one of them.

He feels… guilty, seeing Bruce again. The yokai truly was a good guy, despite the crime. Had a nice family, a well-paying job—minus the crime aspect, a support group—of sorts if a mob counts, friends…

It felt wrong then and it still feels wrong now.

Leonardo feels like he needs to apologize, but to this version of Bruce? The guilt still lies within but this isn’t the man he killed. So he needs to lie low, out of sight until they leave. That’s all.

A loud slam from the restaurant floor makes Leonardo release an exhausted sigh.

But right now, he feels Future Bruce would be understanding of what he plans to do.

“Leo, make it clean?”

“Yeah, it’d be a pain to watch you clean up the mess afterward.”

Leonardo exits the kitchen with a few glass beer bottles tucked in the gaps between his fingers. He slaps a large, happy smile on his face as he makes his way to the boss’s table. Hueso watches with discreet horror as Leonardo makes his way to the center of the restaurant floor and sits right next to the mob boss.

“Azules, vente para acá!” Hueso whisper-shouts between his teeth.

Leonardo ignores Hueso’s furious whisper-shout as he forces the serpent yokai to make room next to Bruce. “Hey, Brucie! —I can call you that, right, Buddy?” He makes a show of using one bottle to open the other, then flicks the other open with his metallic finger. The metal bottle caps fly into the eyes of the yokai sitting across the table, but Leonardo pays no mind as he hands an open bottle to Bruce.

He raises the other open bottle to gesture at Bruce to give a toast. He looks at the mob underlings at the table and smiles, “Come on, let’s have a drink in honor of our pal Bruce! One heckuva boss, right?”

The other yokai in the room exchange hesitant glances before the yokai on the other side of Bruce raises a glass of water.

“To Bruce!” The yokai announces and the others follow.

“To Bruce,” Leonardo claims and downs his bottle in one gulp.

Bruce, on the other hand, fails to lose himself in the sudden positive atmosphere created by Leonardo so easily. He doesn’t down his drink like the others, only taking a single, small sip before setting it down. His eyes narrow suspiciously at Leonardo again, almost glaring at Leonardo with a hint of annoyance in his expression.

“You’re the busboy?” Bruce questions.

Leonardo shrugs, “Sure. For today.” He leans over and takes Bruce’s bottle to chug in one gulp, slamming it on the table when he finishes. He makes a dramatic show of exhaling happily, an exuberant display of satisfaction from the beer. He points to the bottle and says, “Nothing beats a cold beer at the end of a busy day, hm?”

A silent chill passed through the air in response.

Bruce hasn’t said a word, therefore, none of the lackeys attempt to respond.

Leonardo shrugs then runs his finger along his glass bottle. His finger reaches the top and tips the bottle over so it leans, but not enough to the point where it falls over. Instead, he spins it under his fingertip, watching it do a little dance on the table.

The slider sighs, “Alright, you got me. I’m not here to make friends.”

Leonardo picks up the bottle between his fingers, balancing it between his digits before tossing it up in the air. In one swift movement, he kicks the back leg of Bruce’s chair, sending the wooden leg to the other side of the restaurant. He grabs the backrest of Bruce’s chair with his prosthesis before the dragon yokai can reach the floor in his fall.

Immediately the several other yokai in the room jump to their feet, reaching into their pockets and reaching for a fight.

Leonardo smirks smugly as he watches the glass bottle he had flung finally fall down and land perfectly on Bruce’s eyepatch. The glass doesn’t break on contact, but it does make a thick sounding thunk before falling to ground and shattering on impact.

Bruce looks shocked to find himself nearly parallel to the ground, but not enough to the point of losing character. His wide eyes narrow when he’s met face to face with Leonardo. He doesn’t question the slider’s motive, and he doesn’t have to when his knife is pointing into Leonardo’s side.

“Brucie, my pal, my friend, my dearest amigo,” Leonardo begins. He nods in Hueso’s direction, almost breaking into a laugh when he sees the skeleton chewing nervously on his nails and hiding his hand behind his back when the attention is on him.

“Señor Hueso is a good, old friend of mine. He’s like a second father to me—maybe an uncle if it’s too much pressure. Got it?” Leonardo explains briefly.

Leonardo flinches forward, making an act of pretending to drop Bruce suddenly, but the yokai doesn’t flinch. The slider smiles as he gestures to Bruce and looks up at the mob lackeys, “Oh ho! A tough guy!”

No one else in the room shares the same impressed expression as they glare at Leonardo, waiting for the cue to attack.

“Tough crowd,” Leonardo mumbles then, with his free hand, reaches for the knife threatening to stab the thin layer of his shell on his side. He grabs the knife by the blade and asks Bruce, “Wanna see a magic trick?”

Bruce doesn’t respond, his own magic reeling with fury underneath his skin.

“Watch me make us,” Leonardo begins, then activates his power.

In a flash, the pair are teleported to the subway lair where his sword had been hiding from the teens. Bruce and Leonardo are in a dark, faraway room where the lair can’t hear them. Now, Leonardo is balancing Bruce over the edge of a subway platform, and right on time is the sound of an incoming train for the 11 ‘o’ clock ride.

“Disappear,” Leonardo finishes his ‘magic trick’.

Bruce lets go of the knife to grab a handful of Leonardo’s jaw, “What the hell did you do?”

Leonardo remains unphased by the grip on his jaw as he says, “This busboy can’t stand the sight of Señor Hueso being mistreated by a ragtag group of stupid insurance geckos.”

The sound of the train is getting louder by the second, warning its arrival with a light that travels far down the tunnel up to where they are. The train releases a handful of chugging sounds, another warning of its incoming arrival.

“I don’t care what a busboy wants,” Bruce spits out.

“Maybe you should, Brucie. Because this busboy is getting real tired,” Leonardo warns as he loosens his grip on Bruce’s chair.

“You don’t have the guts, boy,” Bruce challenges.

“I’m sure I have enough for the both of us. But if you’re looking for some, then maybe you’d like to see your own,” Leonardo announces then let’s go of Bruce.

The dragon yokai’s eyes widen as he falls back, crashing onto the subway tracks and breaking his chair upon landing. He’s quick on his feet, longing for the platform where Leonardo watches from in a low squat. When his hands grip the edge, Leonardo kicks his face back, sending the yokai falling onto the tracks again.

Flames escape the dragon’s clenched jaw, flickers of orange and red and yellow slipping between his teeth. He instinctually reaches for his hip, grabbing a weapon that isn’t there. “You…,” Bruce begins but flinches when he feels the rumbling vibration on the tracks he stands on.

“What was that Brucie? I couldn’t hear you over the sound of the subway train,” Leonardo teases and flicks the knife he stole from Bruce. The blade lands in Bruce’s shoulder, making the dragon hold his injury.

“Leo…”

Bruce throws the blade back at Leonardo, who catches it with his prosthesis. “You’re going to regret this,” Bruce threatens.

“So will your family if you don’t make the right choice,” Leonardo responds in a darkened voice.

Bruce’s eyes widen. “Leave them out of this, you—,” Bruce snaps but is interrupted by Leonardo’s outstretched hand.

“Don’t be stupid. Your family needs you,” Leonardo says.

The train has now reached them, its light blinding and the chugging loud enough to overpower their voices.

Bruce curses under his breath and takes Leonardo’s hand.

The slider pauses, making Bruce’s eyes widen and about to pull him onto the tracks. But Leonardo smirks and pulls Bruce up on the platform.

Bruce grabs the upper lip of Leonardo’s plastron and growls the words, “How do you know about my family? Who the hell are you?”

Leonardo hands Bruce his knife back as he shrugs, “We’re old friends, Buddy. You don’t remember me?”

Bruce narrows his eyes. “I’m not buying that for a second.”

“You don’t have to. Just leave Hueso alone or keep the tantrums to a zilch,” Leonardo said. He shrugs, “Can’t promise I’ll be so nice next time you give Hueso a hard time.”

Bruce glares but finally accepts his knife back, raising a brow when Leonardo doesn’t let go.

“Ready for another magic trick?” Leonardo teases and they’re back in Hueso’s restaurant in a blue flash of light.

Hueso is surrounded by serpent yokai, teeth shivering with his hands up in surrender. Upon the pair’s return, he points at them and announces, “Look, ¿ya ves? They’re back, calmense, por favor.”

Bruce snaps his hand and the knife from Leonardo’s grasp in a rough, shoving motion. He’s quick to press the point of the knife against Leonardo’s throat, smoke seeping from his teeth. “Who the fuck are you?”

As intimidating as Bruce can be, it doesn’t phase Leonardo. He was there when Bruce lost it all, and he was there to finish Bruce. He knows how Bruce cried, even as the infection spread. He knows how much of a softy Bruce is. No amount of threats or intimidation tactics Bruce attempts will ever affect Leonardo.

Leonardo raises his hands in a light surrender, leaning away from Bruce’s knife but closer to the boss’s gang members. “I’m just Hueso’s temp for your meeting. And I told you: an old friend.”

#whispers of distant souls #rottmnt #rottmnt snippet #rottmnt future leo #rottmnt bruce #rottmnt hueso #rottmnt masters of barbarianism

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