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twignotstick · 11 months ago

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Broken Brothers (and How to Fix Them)

Part 3 💜 | Part 1 <- 🧡 | Part 2 <- 💙

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

Tags: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ROTTMNT, Donnie & April, April & the Turtles, NOT MY CHARACTERS, Empyrean Weeping AU, recovery (hehehehehe), talking it out because we're adults, skating, social avoidance? idk how to tag that

Warnings (if there's anything I should add here, tell me please!): yelling, some violent actions

Words: 2,065

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

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One brother was already a lot. He was sweet, if a little violent. April was content with one brother.

Then she found out he had two more. Lost in their youth, taken away, never to be seen again. Suddenly, one wasn't enough. April wanted three brothers.

So she got them. One by one, she welcomed her new brothers into their home. She helped them feel safe and welcomed. And, in turn, they helped her learn her place as a big sister.

Now, four? Four whole brothers? That was pushing it.

Donnie was a wild card. Some days, he'd bounce around madly, blabbering about whatever “improvements” he'd made in the lair (always putting Splinter on edge, yet he could never find any problems with whatever Donnie did, probably because his brothers did damage control before he could catch it). Other days, he'd literally hiss at April until she left. Not just left the lair; left the sewers.

This day was supposed to be one of those days. Donnie was visibly shaking with all the pent up energy in him. The brothers had apparently had an “intervention” with Donnie after the previous night, when he had almost broken a major support beam in the lair just so he could collapse it on April. Now, he wasn't allowed to show violence to April in any form for a whole week. In exchange, he'd be allowed to take a single blood sample from each of his brothers, which was the weirdest trade April had ever heard. But Donnie really wanted it.

And boy, was it hard for him.

“Did you see that?! Did you see? I totally landed that one!” Mikey yelped, shaking on his skateboard.

“Good job, big man.” Raph stepped up beside him, lightly touching Mikey's shoulder and making his eyes widen as he tried to maintain his balance.

Mikey had been wanting to practice his skate tricks, and Raph wanted to make sure he did it in a safe environment. The skate ramp in the lair was perfect. Even if they were just practicing kickflips at the bottom, it was safe and contributed to good vibes.

While Raph and Mikey stood at the bottom, April, Leo, and Donnie sat at the top with their legs dangling beneath them. Well, April and Leo's legs were dangling. Donnie was perched up like a frog, knees thrown out to the sides and his hands curled on the edge of the ramp. Leo, of course, was between him and his self proclaimed mortal enemy, absorbing as much murderous intent as he could. It was a lot, to put it nicely.

“Do you think he'll ever actually get to use the ramp?” Leo asked, enjoying the spectacle of his youngest brother getting properly babied by his oldest.

“Four is definitely tough enough to survive a fall from this height,” Donnie responded cheerily. “His shell is the best of all of us. A human, on the other hand, would likely get severely injured if they were to be shoved off the edge.” His face grew the slightest grin at the imaginary violence.

“Watch the language.” Leo raised a brow to Donnie. “And it's Mikey, remember? Not Four.”

“R-right!” Donnie stammered, patting his hands on the side of the ramp. “Four is Mikey.”

“No, Mikey is Mikey. His name isn't Four, and it never was. Just like my name isn't Two, Raph's name isn't One, and your name isn't Three. You're our brother. Donatello.”

Leo was getting slightly agitated, and Donnie- or maybe Three- was starting to fidget and rock back and forth. It was clear that Leo wanted Donnie to just give up all this number talk and act like their childhoods hadn't happened. But that was just an impossible task. April could tell that this situation would be quick to spiral.

“Hey, uh, Leo?” April asked, getting his attention.

“Yes?”

“Betcha can't do an ollie.”

Leo turned fully to face April. “A what?”

“I-it's a skateboard trick…” Donnie said, causing Leo's attention to whip around again. “F- Mikey showed me a couple days ago.”

“Oh.” Leo's brow ridges tightened as he whipped back to face April. “You think I can't pull some stupid skate trick? You are so on.” Leo slid down the ramp, using his carapace like a sled. “Mikey! Give me your board!”

Donnie watched him slide down with wide eyes. “Has he… ever skated before?” He asked, mildly concerned.

“Nope. Never even touched a board.” April smirked. “He's gonna be stuck down there for at least an hour.” She looked over at Donnie, who was gazing down at his brothers with a lost glaze over his eyes.

“You wanna go join them, Donnie?”

The softshell's neck popped as he snapped to glare at April. The murderous intent that had been building suddenly channeled into his face, and he growled before standing up and stomping away swiftly toward his recently decorated room.

April glanced down at the three brothers having fun, then pushed herself up to follow the one who wasn't.

“Wait, Donnie! What's wrong? I-”

“Stop.” The turtle hissed, not turning around to face her.

“Stop? Donnie, what did I-”

“I SAID STOP IT! STOP CALLING ME THAT!” He pressed the heels of his hands into the sides of his head.

“What do you mean? Just tell me what's-”

The turtle turned on his heel in the doorframe. “JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! I don't know how to put it in a way your STUPID HUMAN BRAIN WILL UNDERSTAND!” His face morphed into a manic grin. “Goodbye! So long! Sayonara! Toodaloo! GET OUT OF MY FACE!”

The door slammed shut, and April was left breathless.

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April came back the next day to a much quieter lair. The boys were keeping space from each other, whether consciously or not. Raph was wandering around, trying to act like everything was okay. Leo was training in the dojo. Mikey was spending more time around Splinter than he usually did.

The final brother was still locked in his room.

April decided to join Mikey to bring him his second meal of the day. The first one, a small plate of rice, was still outside the door, now cold and dry.

Mikey knocked lightly, barely tapping the door with his knuckles. “Donnie?” He whispered. “I've got more food for you. It's your favorite- flavorless mush! I tested it myself, no taste at all. I promise!”

The offer was met with silence.

Mikey sighed and let his shoulders slump, backing away from the door. “I just don't get it,” he muttered pathetically. “He hasn't even come out to pee, April. Do you think he's just peeing in a cup? Or a corner? Does Donnie have a pee corner that we don't know about?”

“Mikey, it's okay.” April grabbed his shoulder. “First of all, yes, he probably does, and that just means we get to bond over cleaning his room when this is over. Second, you shouldn't have to worry about this.”

“I'm so sorry, April.” Mikey looked down to his feet. “I don't know why he hates you so much. Maybe if we hadn't-”

“Don't apologize,” April interrupted. “If anyone needs to apologize, it's me.”

Mikey looked back up at his big sister with wide eyes. “Why?”

She sighed. “Because I did something wrong.” April took the food from Mikey's hands. “I'll get him to eat. I'll text you if things go super wrong, but otherwise, ignore any loud noises. I have a feeling this might get… violent.”

Mikey puffed his chest. “Roger, roger!” He saluted and rushed down the hall, supposedly to find Raph and warn him of April's plan before he could start panicking.

April stood next to the door. “Hey, bud,” she started. “It's April. I've got your food, and I'm not gonna leave until you let me in to give it to you.”

After about two minutes of just standing there and getting no response, April sat down. She would say something every few minutes, just to remind him she was still there.

48 minutes later, the lock clicked.

April opened the door slowly. Glancing around the room, she could see the state of disarray it was in. Clothes carpeted the floor, as well as abandoned scrap projects. The turtle was cloaked beneath blankets on his bed, only his bright eyes glaring out at the invader.

She left the door open and stood to the side, getting just close enough. She didn't want him to feel threatened or trapped. She placed the (well cold by now) food next to the growling blanket pile and backed away. Waiting a second, just until he proved he would actually start eating, she spoke.

“Why don't you want me to call you Donnie?”

The pile shifted. “You just… you just can't.”

“Why not?”

“...because Splinter gave me that name. It's my name as his son. As Raph, Leo, and Mikey's brother. Not yours.”

April was about to pose a question, but the softshell suddenly sat up and started showing his anger. In the action, he also revealed the red marks growing on his arms from squeezing them.

“Because I don't care how much time you spend around us. I don't care how much One likes you, or how much Four draws you, or how much stupid stuff you watch with Two! You aren't related to me. It's scientifically impossible. We don't share any genetic material. You aren't my brother!”

With frazzled eyes, he turned and grabbed April's collar, bringing the two face to face.

“And you are most definitely not my sister.”

He shoved April away and sulked back in his den. The girl decided to take the violent outburst as an invitation to get closer, and sat on the edge of the bed.

“...that's okay.”

She only got a sniff in response.

“I don't need to be your sister. Or your brother. All I want is to be your friend. And if that means I call you something else, that's okay. Just tell me what you want me to call you, and I'll do it. Maybe I can call you Purple like Splints has been. Or I'll call you Three, if you really want me to.”

The turtle, Donnie to some, showed his face, keeping the blankets wrapped around his shoulders. His fingers were digging into his upper arms.

“And I know you might not like me, but I'm not going anywhere. Your brothers like me, and they'll be upset if I go away.” When she saw the softshell's grip tighten, she quickly added, “And I know that if they had to choose, they'd pick you. But they don't have to. They don't want to.”

The turtle stared aimlessly in front of him. “...I don't… I…”

“I can just not call you anything if you can't decide. Y'know, just call you ‘dude’ and stuff.”

His shoulders lifted higher, touching the sides of his chin. “That… that works…”

April smiled wide. “Great.”

The two sat there, just accepting each other's company. Donnie's tight posture slowly loosened, and April focused on making sure his breathing was even.

This poor boy had never known true family. He had never known learning to trust people and taking them in. He had never been taken in. This concept, choosing family, was so foreign. Because to him, family wasn't something you could choose.

April would never allow that. Never again.

“...sooo, do you have a pee corner?”

“What?!”

April held her hands up defensively. “Mikey said you haven't come out to pee! I just wanted to know if you had a pee corner!”

“No?! Why would you automatically assume I have a pee corner?”

“Because you haven't come out of your room to pee! What, do you have a pee cup instead?!”

“No!”

“Then what have you been doing?!”

Donnie pointed to a spot in the room, and April looked over to see a very D.I.Y. toilet, made of scrap metal welded together. (She could recall that Donnie's welding materials had been taken from him weeks ago.) “I hooked it up to go straight into the tunnels,” Donnie boasted proudly. “I even dug the holes myself! Digged? Dug.”

“...yeeeah, we're getting rid of that,” April grimaced.

“WHAT?! WHY?!”

“YOU KNOW VERY WELL WHY.”

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[In time, Donnie would let April call him by his name. And, in time, he would learn that his name was his, and his alone.]

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And that's it! Totally! April has started on her long journey to fixing all of her broken brothers! She has NO OTHER BROTHERS THAT HAVE ISSUES, why would you ever think that 🟥🐢

This part gave me quite a few problems. Knowing that the "Maps" comic is probably going to explore April and Donnie's relationship, I was a little scared about making assumptions. Also, you don't realize how difficult it is to write someone who isn't all there until you're actually trying to do it. Eventually I just said "screw it, if he's out of character, its fine". So now we're here :)

ALso, no one tells you how motivating and powerful the high you get when someone you look up to praises your work is, I thought this would take me WAY LONGER to finish 🤡

aanyway, congrats to all the tmnt au comp winners, again. Can't wait to see who moves on from here :D

Part 4 -> ❤️

#tmnt #tmnt au #tmnt fanfiction #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #save rottmnt #unpause rottmnt #tmnt separated au #separated au #tmnt au propaganda #tmnt april #tmnt donnie #twig writes

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snappedsky · 8 months ago

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ROTTMNT: Retired Leo AU

Leonardo helps April with a job interview.

Mr. O’Neil

April slumps down the subway tunnels, head low and feet dragging. When she enters the lair, Leonardo is sitting in the TV chair with Splinter on his lap; Leo and Casey are sharing a beanbag chair as they play on their phones; Donnie and Raph are facing each other in a video game on the TV; and Mikey is sitting in the other beanbag, watching them.

April drags herself across the room and collapses face first on Mikey’s beanbag, groaning.

“Hi, April,” he says happily.

“Hi, Mikey,” she mutters. She groans again as she rolls over onto her back, dragging her hands down her face. “I’m gonna remain a jobless loser forever.”

“Why, what happened now?” Donnie asks apathetically.

“I applied to be a security guard at the mall,” April explains.

“Oh, you’d be good at that,” Casey remarks.

“I know!” she agrees, “but because I’m not 21, and because I’m a woman- they didn’t actually say that part, but I’m sure it’s gotta be one of the reasons- they want my parent to come in with me for the job interview.”

“So what’s the problem?” Raph asks.

“My mom will never agree to the job,” April replies, “she’s been real worried about me lately and wants me to stay safe and responsible and whatever.”

“Does she not know that you helped saved the planet from a hostile alien invasion?” Leo asks.

“That’s part of the reason she’s worried,” she clarifies, “she doesn’t know I helped fight the Krang, but I was away from home during the whole invasion. And I’m always staying out late and often coming home with bruises. I feel bad for stressing her out all the time, but I really want this security guard job.”

“Well, April,” Splinter says, “I will gladly pose as your father for the interview.”

“Uh, I appreciate that, Splints,” April replies hesitantly, “but I don’t think anyone would buy that we’re related.”

As he pouts, she looks past him up at Leonardo, who’s mostly focused on his can of soda. “But, Leonardo! You could totally do it!”

“Huh?” he questions as April jumps up to her feet and grabs his arm.

“You’re great at sweet talking people,” she points out, “you could pose as my dad and convince the manager to give me the job!”

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt au #rise leo #rise donnie #rise raph #rise mikey #rise splinter #rise april #rise casey #rise sunita #future leonardo #original characters #retiredleoau #myart

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mrabubu · 28 days ago

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🎄

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rufwooff · 7 months ago

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Dnne

Mkey

#ruf doodles #rottmnt #donatello #rottmnt never part again au #never part again au

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nikaserb · 5 months ago

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#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanart #tmnt #my art #rottmnt movie #never part again au #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt never part again au

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catzncoffee · 5 days ago

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Pacific Rim x Rottmnt

Okay so this might be a little far fetched but-

Hear. Me. Out.

So the human government fucked with kraang tech after the apocalypse.

Because of fucking course they did.

Enter the massive fucking Monsters × Kraang DNA when they decided to try and re create the Ooze Draxum created by using the kraang blood. They thought they could use the kraang they captured alive (sister kraang) to control them. They were proven very VERY wrong when the monsters ripped apart and ate Sister Kraang in front of them.

Round two of the apocalypse, except now it's entirely the humans fault.

Humans and Yokai are forced to combine technology within their governments on the down low, both resentful of the other and committed to hiding the fact Yokai are involved from humanity.

The mechs are a result of this team up. The link in the mind field between two pilots was done by the Yokai, and they stated the rules of this spell had to be very specific. The two have to be genetically compatible, not related, just compatible. There cannot be any strain on the spell or it WILL break with bad consequences. The two pilots will be linked mind and soul, they will know every part of one another, so choose the pilots very wisely. For the first few times, they won't be linked as deeply, but once the link sets in there is no hiding.

The humans main contribution was the weaponry section of this team up. Humans are cruel and violent, and they are much smarter then the yokai gave them credit for, as the yokai come to learn. The mechs are built with weaponry mixed with magic, nuclear power cells they some how managed to contain flowing next to veins of pure magic engraved into the mech. It was terrifying and efficient.

Both groups were now far more wary of the other now that they knew how effective the other was.

The mutants, however, were an outlier in all of the secrets, much to the ire of both governments. The yokai all knew what had happened by now, they'd seen the humans be turned into something like themselves, and they simply saw them as strange outlying yokai.

Tho, the term 'Mutant' was widely considered a slur in Yokai society, so you can imagine what that said about behind the scenes opinions. That being said, they did accept them into jobs and accepted help from them.

The humans of the general population didn't know much, but the apocalypse had broadcast the 'covered up' existence of Mutants. (Specifically a certain few turtles, a rat, and some other odd sightings in NYC)

Most didn't care, or outright denied their existence along with the government, but to those who knew they were out there, the had two, and only two, reactions.

One was they thought they were weird but didn't care as long as they were useful.

The other was pure hatred.

Now mutants were not accepted in the human government so they could not be pilots (so ruled the government officials 🙄😒) and any Yokai pilot was hidden from the public, but that didn't mean it had never happened.

To be exact there has been exactly One mutant pilot who faked being a Yokai to become one. Splinter. Why wasn't he outed? Because his co pilot was Draxum.

(Rest of AU below Cut)

But Draxum made a discovery during this (that will be revealed later 😁) that was crucial to future success. Naturally, of course, what ever he told the governing bodies of both groups had him kicked out. Splinter wasn't ever discovered seeing as he slipped away after Draxum was kicked.

Now the Turtle Bois have been through it. They stopped the apocalypse. And they all have lasting trauma from that, only for the human government to create what are basically giant kraangs again. And this time they are literally not even allowed to help.

Donnie was literally connected to the fucking technodrome so he can literally hear when a new one is moving and he can't fucking stand it. He still can't eat anything slimy and rarely if ever takes his battle shell off. He now gets splitting mindgrains due to the technodrone as a side effect.

Raph is blind in one eye due to the kraang take over. He also got an extra boost to strength that he despises with every once of him. He had already been having nightmares because of the kraang forcing him to harm his brothers. Way to psychologically damage a guy. He's now terrified of his own strength, especially towards his brothers.

Mikey is an artist, and an acrobatic fighter. His hands were nearly shattered, he had to re learn how to use them, and they still have episodes where they shake or hurt. His magic awakened but he had to do so much training to just contain it that he's exhausted. He's desperately trying to comfort his brothers and dad's in a healthy way but there's only so much one turtle can do.

Then there's Leo.

Leo is in an extreme self destruction spiral and not a single one of his family members knows how bad it actually is. Why? Because he's the face man! He extends every ounce of energy he has into his latest and greatest act ever: Leo Is Perfectly Fine And Normal! And the whole world is his stage. He rarely sleeps, barely eats and has put his entire being into perfecting his portals and strategies. You need a portal? He can get you to the exact place you want in two seconds, he's absolutely become a beast in battle with his portals, and his strategies (Even all the ones he keeps hidden, and all the back up plans after back up plans, after back up-) are all working down to the last letter. Ask him when he last slept and he'll say last night ofc ( -for exactly one minute, and suddenly he was back in the prison dimension and he's dying again and WIPETHATGRINOFFY-) So don't even worry about it. (He still feels immense guilt and is absolutely convinced the apocalypse, fucking both of them, are all his fault. The mechs are holding on but for how long? They keep multiplying. Not one person in his family knows exactly how close he was to dying except for Draxum, who treated him. He genuinely hates himself and believes he shouldn't have been returned from There but needs to live to be of use to his family. )

So yeah. They aren't doing great. So during a full two years the boys fight their normal villans and a few new ones (who the fuck is Usagi any ways, whys he keep going for Leo, what's up with the samurai thing? - Donnie ) and the Mechs hold up against the Kraang Kijus that just keep appearing?!?! However no one realizes that the humans did something incredibly stupid. They cut ties with the Yokai after creating suits that wouldn't need the mind field and were more 'efficiently human'. The Yokai also were convinced they would be fine after developing a barrier to seal their city away that was 'supposedly' strong enough to hold against the Kraang Kiju. This happened only shortly after Draxum was kicked, so there are only a few depots left that have the original mechs with trained pilots.

Then the mechs the humans built start failing.

In a panic the original suits are discharged to multiple places in a frenzy, and three more are destroyed, leaving only three depots left holding genuine mechs, and all of them are furthest away from Kiju hot spots (because of fucking course the government would try and hide them away when they thought they had made something better.)

So now not only are they low on the mechs, but also pilots who can use them since most have died off.

Things kick off when April decides to go into pilot training at one of these outposts right when the human-only made mechs begin to fail and she learns to true nature of what's been happening behind the scenes. Which she immediately tells her mutant family about.

Draxum and Splinter both get recall messages around the same time.

The boys are distraught in all different ways.

Donnie is horrified when he realizes that this is why his head has been hurting so badly and he senses so much, the Kiju were evolving. Raph is immediately panicked that something is going to happen again where he will be possessed by this newer version of the Kiju. Mikey is terrified that his family might get torn apart again and that his magic isn't enough to stop it. Leo spirals even further, tossing himself aggressively into training and strategies, except now he's added the pilot training he isnt supposed to know about by swiping training videos and textbooks. (He also starts to portal. Anywhere. Everywhere. He searches for absolutely any sign of the Kraang creatures because this is ALL HIS FAULT)

When Draxum is recalled to the main base where the Yokai-Human mechs have been gathered, he reveals to the Captain there what he had discovered. Mutants, and those who match with them, are the most ideal and in sync pilots with the mechs technology, most likely due to being a mix of yokai and human DNA just as the mechs are a mix of human and yokai technology.

The boys are immediately called in to train as Pilots (obviously)

Donnie excells in being entirely connected to the mechs, and knows how to work with them, repair them, and upgrade them almost instantly.

Mikey's magic interacts nearly perfectly with the magic within the mechs, and his understanding of people and sociology makes him extremely ideal in a partnered scenario.

Raph is excellent at using his enormous amounts of strength to use the heavier mechs, and his kind personality makes it easy to work with him.

Leo Flys through training (to a concerning degree to the Captain) with extreme skill. He acts as if he's lazy or aloof, but pilots a mech in training as if it were an extention of himself, very similar to how Donnie does, but to a less mechanical degree. His stratigical work is nearly immaculate, (though he never tells his full plan as the Captain notices) and is extremely charming.

April is an excellent pilot as well, a hard worker with huge amounts of energy and drive, as well as being extremely Personable. (The Captain would like to note that the girl is noticeably possessed by a teaching spirit that makes her much wiser than her years in battle. Creepy. But very effective. )

April and Raph turn out to be a very good match, which was surprising considering that most thought she and Donnie would be partners. Their mech is a heavy hitter, heavily armored and, when Raphs ninpo is activated, can be the absolute strongest hitter in the battle.

Donnie and Mikey team up and their mech is used for maneuverability and very effective weaponry. Donnie is able to produce any weaponry with his Ninpo for the mech while Mikey's ninpo is able to make the mech move and float with ease, along with the specialty chain Donnie made for Mikey's side of things. All in all, a deadly duo.

Leo is the resident strategist, the man in the chair if you will, the face man who deals with the government officials when they get antsy about mutants and yokai being involved with the mechs (alongside Draxum and the Captain, but Leo is dangerously effective at it) and most of all, the emergency back up. See, Leo is compatible with all of his siblings (including April, fight me she IS their sister) however he has never gone past a single meld with any of them. (Cause you know, gotta hide that mental illness ey Leo?) He says he's 'more of a solo act' as an excuse which mostly everyone buys. He's filled in for Raph and April both once, and once for Donnie ( But hasn't ever melded with his twin, maybe because he knows Donnie will meld with him fully right away).

Leo's biggest contribution is his portals, which he's become extremely good at, almost overnight in his family's eyes. So that problem about the mechs being too far from the hot spots? No longer an issue with Leo around. Within a mech, Leo can summon a sword and is able to make a few, very critical, portals while in the mech. He's only portalled twice within a mech before and it was in emergency situations. (He hid the fact that both jumps had him nearly passing out and Violently ill afterwards best he could.)

Draxum and Splinter are only to be deployed as a last resort, same as Leo.

This is all working very effectively until they realized exactly why the monsters have been evolving.

The kraang kiju managed to figure out where a very large store of empyrian was.

In the Hidden City.

They sniffed it out and now they were trying to get to it, and to do that they were forcing themselves to evolve within the place they dug out as a nest, deep under water. Then they were going out, getting as close as they could before they were stopped, then forcing themselves to evolve to get closer to their goal.

Apparently eating Sister Kraang had given them a taste for empyrian, and they were starving for more.

The plan was to blast the nest to finally eradicate them before the 'bad timeline' apocalypse but revised came to be. However a particularly nasty Kraang Kiju damaged Donnie and Mikeys mech in a solo battle, and Mikey was injured. Raph and April were deployed to another depot that was under heavy fire, that they are now realizing is by design of the Kraang, to attack one place heavily to divert them away from their goal. Then, they sent the heavy hitter to get to the finish line. They managed to stop it but barely. Splinter and Draxum were deployed to buy time for what had to come next.

Que Leo needing to be paired with Donnie. On paper they were the most compatible pair out of everyone. They're fighting styles would link perfectly in the mech, the fact that, in their human DNA, they ARE actually twins (partially if that makes sense?) And their mind link has been estimated to be one of the few that will set in immediately. Leo however is adamant that it is a horrible idea, to the extreme confusion of Donnie. Because. Leo was the one who had insited the two where twins. They fought, but they were extremely close. Hell the two were called ' the twin Naturals' in the hangar by pretty much anyone who was watching them train.

To counteract what he knew was coming, the Capitan ordered that it would be himself, Splinter, Draxum and the twins ONLY when they link the twins up within the mech. (Minimizing who sees what was going to happen, to which Leo is extremely grateful.) He says to minimize distractions and people believe him. Except Donnie, because at this point he knows something is up. So they go to the hanger where there's an unused mech that's been matched up with the two (The Mech is called Nightshade don't ask me why)

The two link and immediately it's just.

Hell. That is the only thing Donnie can describe in Leo's headspace. He feels absolutely everything Leo has been feeling, had been doing to his body, sees the Prison Dimension Leo was trapped in, the same one Leo sees whenever he closes his eyes, can hear the Kraang and every awful thing that godawful monster did or said to his twin. Can feel the overwhelming guilt, the absolute hatred of himself, the pure exhaustion that Leo slaps a smile over as if it were a bandaid, the way he obsessively trained his ninpo, his fighting, his piloting and his mind and Donnie just. Gets lost in this absolute tital wave of pure fucking PAIN.

So naturally the mech goes out of fucking control, and the two are disconnected as soon as possible.

Leo portals off, but not before the Captain jumps through after him, and Donnie is left absolutely distraught and disturbed with Splinter and Draxum.

Donnie genuinely can't think for once because what? Leo has been the most confident, collected and cocky person Donnie had ever seen for his whole life. That was his twin. The one who cracked jokes and made sure every single one of his brothers was okay. The only one who got exactly what Donnie was trying to say without him even having to say it, the one who spotted him getting too overwhelmed before anyone else, the face man, the one with a plan for everything. That? That had been the opposite of everything Donnie had even known about his brother, and his world veiw has just been knocked violently off its axis. He had felt his brother DYING. Felt the life sliping away as Leo floated in that hell dimension before Mikey got to him. And before Mikey got to him? That wasn't just 7 minutes. Leo had been gone to them 7 minutes, but Leo had been trapped in there for so much longer with what Donnie now knows to be from a Time dilation effect. He's terrified about what this has done to Leo, how close they were to losing him before and how close they were to losing him now when they didn't even know.

Leo is being tackled to the ground on the roof of some building in Canada in early winter because the Captain needs to keep him from portaling away. Again. The two eventually manage to establish that Leo isn't going anywhere and they just. Sit for a second. And because Leo can't handle silence he just starts talking. He talks about exactly what he went through during the invasion. How he started it. How he was irresponsible and dumb during the whole thing. How he almost lost Raph. How Casey Jr. had told him how he'd caused the deaths of everyone. How he'd ordered his twin to pilot the technodrone. How he'd fought and realized exactly what needed to be done, his life needing to be sacrificed. How he'd entered that dimension and gotten absolutely beaten to shit. How close he'd come to dying, life slipping away with that picture of his family being the only thing he could focus on for what felt like an eternity.

Then the aftermath.

Mikeys poor hands, Donnie's shell and head, Raphs eye and paranoia. The guilt he held for all of it and how he destroyed himself as penance for his existence. The hours he poured into the numerous plans and strategies and the back ups to the back ups of those plans. The second coming of the kraang. How it made his mind turn even darker and made him push himself to be better, stronger, faster, smarter. How he stole the training textbooks and guides as a preemptive measure. And how he worked himself even harder here, knowing how crucial his role as resident Portaler was, and how he started all of this so it didn't matter what it did to him.

The Captain sits silently through all of this (frankly horrifying) explanation and gathers one thing: This was a Child fucking soldier. Leo was 17 when he counted his own life as forfeit. He was 19 now, and in another war. And he blamed himself for it, even though it was the fault of the people trying to open it in the first place, and the Kraang for being the most evil bastards to exist. So he tells Leo this. And Leo just breaks down. Finally, because this boy has been due for a breakdown for a very long time. It was kind of a miracle he was even alive with how badly he was straining himself.

So Leo portals back and is immediately hit with a certain soft shell who, while he does not speak a word, will not let go of Leo. At all. The two end up being ordered back to their rooms, although they both end up in Donnies room because Donnie had quite literally created a death grip on Leo and Draxum nearly lost a finger when he tried to get him off. (The captain stopped Splinter and Draxum from going after the twins cause they needed to talk, and also, YOUR CHILDREN HAVE TRAUMA and the Captain has words that need to be said about how severe it is.)

So Donnie and Leo are just sitting there clinging to each other because Holy fuck they need comfort right now. And Donnie asks why Leo would ever hate himself for something that wasn't his fault, and Leo breaks down crying, and telling Donnie about how sorry he is that he caused him to get hurt and even killed in the bad timeline. Donnie stops him immediately and hits him with the fact that he is Donnies twin, and he is not fucking allowed to die, or wish he were dead, or be left anywhere fucking NEAR that hellscape because Donnie needs him right here. Not a single goddamn thing that happened was Leo's fault, no matter how much he thought that one small mistake with not getting that key made it that way, it was Not. His. Fault. (Also he will be having WORDS with Casey Jr. because while Donnie can logically say that Jr. was going through, and had gone through a lot of shit, not one person on this goddamn fucking earth can look Donnie's twin brother in the eye and tell him that the deaths of his entire family were on his head and get away without Donnie getting a word or two in. Not that he tells Leo this of course.)

The two try the link again and oh fuck, Donnie still ends up in the Hellscape of Leo's fucked up memories and feelings. After failing once more, Donnie pleads with Leo to try again, cause he was just not ready for it that time, they've got this. If Leo can hold steady with all this running through his head on a good day and take on Donnies trauma at the same time, then by fucking God, so can Donnie, his twin.

So they try for a third time.

The third time goes significantly better. Leo spirals again at first, chasing the rabbit, but Donnie is right there with him, telling him he wasn't alone, and he would never be alone in this so get up and fight with him. And because Leo absolutely loves his twin more than he could possibly hate himself, he does.

And boy were people right when they estimated that Donnie and Leo as a Team WORK. The two fit perfectly as a mech pilot team, and that mech is now possibly the most deadly thing they've ever let onto the field. See, Mikey had Skill and Restraint, while Donnie had extreme intellect and Skill. But Leo has Skill, strategy, and a drive to do ANYTHING necessary to succeed.

Restraint? The Disaster Twins? Never.

The two obliterate the evolved Kraang Kiju and head to the nest with the charges and get two in place. Then the nest lets out three of the evolved Kraang Kiju and things take a turn. Draxum and Splinter are deployed to help, as the final thing needed is the charge to be dropped straight down the middle, but before they can get it down all the way the Kiju land a massive hit, one that sets off the charge too early and damages both mechs. Donnies side is unresponsive, so Leo is about to eject him, as he cant singular portal while connected to the mech. Donnie however catches on and stops him, saying dont you fucking dare. Before he can do anything though (like sacrifice himself again) Splinter and Draxum send out a group message through the coms. Their mech is already falling down into the nest, as their mobility and thrusters are completely offline, and the mech is already leaking radiation. They tell everyone that they are pushing the self destruct, and will act as the final bomb. The dad's tell the boys and April that they love them and turn off the coms, and push the button, comforting each other as they die. Leo ejects both him and Donnie (he couldn't portal the mech considering how bad of shape he was in and the fact that the mech was also beginning to leak radiation) then portals the two ejection pods back to the hanger before the nest explodes. They are Greeted by Raph and April who had made it just slightly too late, a wheelchair confined Mikey and the Captain, and all of the siblings comfort each other through the loss of both of their parents (or in April's case, Parental figures.)

The Captain checks them for injuries and makes sure their settled and WILL be compensated for the rest of their lives ( He literally threatens the government into it, with surprising help from the Yokai, who realized halfway through the evolved Kiju arc that the barrier would not hold, and those turtles just saved their lives, AGIAN)

The Captain ends up going to live with the boys in the sewer, seeing as he had nowhere else to be now that the war against the Kiju was over, and helping them adjust with the loss of the parents. (Also figuring out that no, the police were absolutely not the ones stopping literally all of the mutant and even some human crime, that was these guys the whole time.)

Also Leo finally gets therapy through Donnie telling Senor Hueso (who is basically what Draxum was to Mikey for Leo) about all of the shit that happened and that WAS happening that Leo hid. Que Senor Hueso immediately getting Leo a therapist who he made absolute sure was neutral about Mutants, and having regular check ups on Leo. The rest of the family learns that Leo has been struggling (though Donnie is the only one who knows intimately what Leo has gone through and the explanation of all of this was a watered down version of what Leo told the Captain)

And the family is horrified, and they all make sure that everyone in the family is open about the issues that have happened and work on getting better. Leo's therapist also sets up therapists for the rest of the boys too, because they definitely need it, as soon as they hear about what happen to Leo's brothers as well.

(Bonus Points if Future!Leo is the Captain for added feels((He wore a cloaking broach to appear human and only trained the pilots for combat, never actually connected to one))☺️ Plus a Splinter/Draxum love confession in their final moments.)

(Also lemme know if anyone likes this kind of thing, have a bunch sitting in my notes app from a bunch of diffrent fandoms)

#pacific rim au #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #fanfic #rise raph #rise mikey #rise donnie #rise leo #splinter #baron draxum #rottmnt april #Pacific rim x Rottmnt #random notes fic #tmnt #tmnt au #rottmnt au

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klunkcat · 1 month ago

Text

sun digs its heels

rottmnt characters: mikey & klunk & oc part of the archer au by @goodlucktai!

trigger warning for animal death in this (not on screen) read on ao3

Days seem sometimes as if they'll never end Sun digs its heels to taunt you But after sunlit days, one thing stays the same Rises the moon Liana Flores, Rises the moon

The night Mikey has to say goodbye to Klunk is just a regular day in December.

Life is funny like that, he thinks; you find things and lose them in nearly perfect semicircles. The world feels like it’s supposed to stop right there in its tracks, the sun burnt right up in the sky, but it goes on. People step across the grates on their way to work, cars beep in the streets, and nothing changes. It’s a hole punch through the wet paper of your heart, a boulder in the middle of a river, but somehow you breathe around it anyway. The ripples grow farther and farther out to the horizon until you nearly convince yourself they’re leaving.

You’re the orbit: the tragedy stays. You never learn.

Regular days for him are a long continuous trudge down an empty hallway anyways. There’s nothing to count meaning by, really. Home hasn’t felt like home in a long time, just a place he has to go. Sometimes he fantasizes about getting up, springing up from the cold couch like he used to have the energy for and sprinting straight down the sewers all the way out to Times Square. Sometimes there’s a rage in him that could demand that the world shut itself down the same way his family has.

Parts of him crave the idea of just running until it stops feeling like sludge and concrete in his heart just to exist here like this. He stares at the front door without meaning to, drawn back again and again. Sometimes he thinks he can almost break through the pins-and-needles numbness in his scarred hands and move, and then he’ll hear Don’s chair squeak down the hallway, or the click of Dad’s door, and it leaves him all at once.

For a while the gravity well that kept him locked in step was just as simple as Klunk. The world’s sweetest cat, but not quite talented enough to open his special kidney care food all on his own. No one was left to love him right if Mikey went away, so he stayed put.

Don regularly got too swooped up in his projects and missed hours entirely, even before everything else. He couldn’t feed himself at the right times without Mikey sliding post it notes or leaving saran wrapped bowls in the fridge for him to graze on, let alone a pet. Raph… slept. More than he probably should. Crept around in the shadows and worked himself half to death at whatever odd jobs he found when he wasn’t. And Dad was— well. Mikey wasn’t sure how Dad felt most of the time. He couldn’t leave Klunk with him either way.

(There’d been a long warm stretch of sepia toned years where he’d have thought of Dad and warmth as the same words spelled in different ways. None of the words fit together like that anymore.

If he closes his eyes, he’s back there. Nursing a fractured elbow and staring up at the sky like it could house a miracle. Listening to the static coated goodbye message of someone none of them could bear to lose. None of them ever left the island, not really. They’re all watching the sky tearing itself apart and drifting farther away.)

Once, he’d have said that Klunk was spoiled rotten, completely overflowing with love and attention in all the ways the smartest cat in the world should be. Before Klunk needed special diet wet food only, Don had rigged up an automatic feeder for him and a machine that would give him scritches behind his ears if Mikey was away on a mission too long. Raph would let him climb all over his shoulders when he worked out and send Snapchat selfies to their group chat of the two of them with silly captions most days.

Leo used to call him Sunspot.

Finding Klunk had been something special, he used to brag about it a lot. Kismet souls colliding, he’d say because he read it somewhere on an artist's post and adopted it for them. A soul cat, because Klunk was the perfect cat and so sweet, and always rubbed his fluffy head right under Mikey’s chin when he was stressed over a drawing or a comic cliffhanger or when he was sorting through grocery lists.

Now, it’s hard to think anything cosmic could have ever minded him. He thinks it’s the way things go: something good comes in, and it can’t stay.

Mikey can’t make it stay.

The regular day in December stands out even without the semi circles funneling back. A regular day is also a bad day; most days float somewhere ambiguously between barely manageable and knock down all out brawls to claw through the evening. There’s something frigid around each step forwards, even before Mikey knows.

When Mikey wakes up he knows that Dad hasn’t moved since last evening, his room still and dark, and Don’s circular stages have taken him all the way back to bargaining. He’s lost in another project around timelines and paradoxes that Mikey knows will only sink him down further into that barbed wire place the grief sits. He’s fixated on something, a project to help dad’s memory maybe. Or to mend his own. The way Donnie’s eyes land just to the left of Mikey’s face when he stops by still cranks up the dread in his chest like a vat of acid boiling over.

(‘I can fix this,’ he’ll say, not with words but in the set of his jaw and the sudden feverish flicker of his hands. It never lasts, it’ll tire him out worse and drag him farther out to sea to believe it. “There’s a new study,” he says instead. “They found proof, traces of old collapsed universes.” Mikey will nod, carefully wedging himself on the ledge of Don’s empty cup laden desk, trying not to drum his fingers or let any of his nerves through.

“There’s been ones, maybe just like ours. Expanding all the way outward and sinking back in, the science is there.”

Mikey will steel himself, brace for impact. “The science for what, Don.”

He can never say it, Donnie can never make himself believe it. There’s another universe out there to him where he’s still one part of two wholes; it’s not the one that Mikey got for them.)

Don’s mostly outside himself these days. He says a lot of harsh words and burr laced insults for the want of being alone. Mikey can’t fault him for it, has only ever been grateful that he has the miracle of Don sticking with them anyways. It’s hard not to think Donnie knows, with every inch he creeps forward into this halflife. The magnitude Mikey failed him.

He’s never blamed Donnie.

He ends up calling April, just for the excuse to be somewhere else for a minute. To satiate his guilty, constant urge to run. She’s always happy to have him, even though she doesn’t come by much anymore, even though she glances at him sideways sometimes with a resigned sort of helpless loss he can’t hold enough of for both of them. The relief is enough, to know there’s a world still outside of the haunted house his life has become, even if he also wants it to stop.

She hands him tea, brewed exactly like he likes it (like Leo taught him to like best) and he listens to the clock ticking loudly on her yellow painted wall. He still thinks he could run. He always thinks he could run. He can’t leave Klunk.

Klunk’s getting old.

April takes a breath in, pauses. Gives him another quick side glance before saying, “How’re things?” All hesitantly and unsure, like she thinks Mike might be mad. He doesn’t have it in him to be mad about anything anymore, least of all his big sister that won’t come home.

He manages a shrug for her. It’s been okay, he means to say, because it’s what he always says.

“Worried it’s too cold down there for Klunk,” he says instead.

April’s eyes widen slightly before she schools herself. Her hands are tight around her own mug. “You can bring him up here, Mom won’t mind.”

(She’s been taking care of her mother lately, she’d had a bad fall. June was always happy to see Mikey just like April was. Everyone was always happy to see him. He wonders if they would still if they knew.)

Klunk would love the windows. All the smells and the carpet. They’d remember to feed him, too. Could probably get him the vet care he needs, and would have the funds to fix whatever might be wrong. It would be an excuse for Mikey to—

No, he smiles ruefully. He was never going to run.

(He can’t be the thing that leaves, he knows he’s always going to be the thing that's left.)

“Thanks, Apricot,” he pats her knee. “Think that might be a big scare for him, is all.”

She nods like she knew what his answer would be already. “Well, if you change your mind. He’s always welcome.”

You’re always welcome, she means. Like she has to say it, like things have strained so far apart it might be a question anymore.

Like it maybe doesn’t go both ways.

The old him would have had some inspirational thing to say, some soft spoken hand-held speech to convince her that her place with them will never change. The new him knows they lost all of their words the moment the purple in the sky ripped apart into orange and green. He mostly just lets her hold his hand and pretend like the pieces of their hurt are something that can be scooped into anything meaningful.

“Love seeing you, M,” she says kindly, every time, but he knows Casey stays there most weekends when he works late at his new job, and the unspoken everything between them is making her choose between family in a way she shouldn’t need to. She has a job, a career now. She has responsibilities they never had as kids when she could drop her bags off at the dinner table and slouch her way onto their overstuffed couch. She can’t be there and up here helping Casey sort things out, she can’t be there and watch them anymore than Mikey can.

(The thing about grieving is that it never folds up small enough to carry only within yourself. It spills out, black holes and whirlpools in everything you’ve ever loved. It hurts everyone with you, and there’s nowhere for the love or the blame to go.)

It’s hard for her, too. Big sisters and big brothers and all. It’s hard for Mikey to let himself be little anymore. He can manage.

He never stays longer than a few hours, drives the smaller motorcycle Donnie made for them years ago so nobody will miss him too much. Don has trackers upon trackers, and the loss has made his need to know a more paranoid fragile thing, but he never asks.

Going home isn’t anything— Don’s stuck on the evening to late night shifts at his remote gig, which suits his sleep schedule mostly alright. It means he won’t be around for Mike to talk to, because the job restructuring means that he has to take incoming calls instead of the management role he’d been promised. Raph hasn’t said anything more than a hollow ‘hey’ at him in weeks. He pretends the way he has Dad’s schedule mapped out in his mind as a series of Do Not Enter’s is normal.

The radio plays a song he’s growing to hate. He takes the long way home and turns the volume up.

It’s winter, there’s the barest hint of snow in the air that twirls under the streetlight on their garage’s street. He remembers the first time they ever came up top in the winter, the way his hand had been firmly wrapped in Raph’s mitted one because he’d wandered off so much as a kid. The way Leo had tried to dare Mikey to stick his tongue to a fence and Donnie had burst into a series of lectures about frostbite. He remembers the smirk Leo gave him, the secret one he used to have only for baby brothers, before he’d shoved a handful of snow down the back of Raph’s too big parka.

The winter is just cold now. The snow only means driving will be harder in the morning— he tries to remember if he has ingredients for anything special for dinner and gives up. No one will eat it anyways.

April likes to give him care packages for the weeks he doesn’t stop by, and thoughtfully includes a special goodie bag of cat toys and treats. He’s been using them sparingly, mostly because Don says they don’t have the budget for the kind of treats Klunk likes. He wonders if Donnie has factored in the pizza he hasn’t been ordering— mostly because he keeps defaulting to toppings Leo likes and losing his appetite— but he’s not sure it matters. Regardless, it feels like an anniversary of something.

Tonight is a good night to spoil his best pal, an early Christmas present.

The Lair is empty and dark when he wanders in, and the sigh he lets out echoes into nothing. Klunk doesn’t meow happily and trot over to him like he used to, but he’s older now and sometimes naps under Mikey’s bed where it’s warm. The familiar tuft of greying orange appears like clockwork the moment Mikey has a throw over his legs and a crinkling package in his hands.

“There you are, buddy,” Mikey coo’s at him, leaning down to lift him onto his lap. Jumping is harder for him, he’s done enough research about kitty arthritis and its signs. Klunk’s getting old in all the ways Mikey feels.

He’ll be twenty five next year. Every stolen second feels like an eternity and nothing at all.

His big brother had been sixteen: the year Mikey turned sixteen, he’d spent the entire day curled up on Leo’s bed. Raph had left a lopsided cupcake in the doorway with a single candle, and sat down on the floor beside him without saying anything. They stopped counting Donnie’s.

(Leo used to sing him to sleep sitting on the floor beside him, just there. He’d wake up bleary as anything at two in the morning and find him with his head tilted back, tapping the beat to his favorite song softly on the sheets by Mikey’s ankle, scrolling through his phone. The missing of it is a hole he’ll spend his whole life dancing around, he understands why Raph sleeps.)

Holding Klunk feels like nothing, his skin holding a heartbeat and a warm pocket of love in between his bones, and nothing else. He’s still soft; Mikey presses his face into the back of Klunk’s head and thinks about universes.

(In the morning, Klunk will be gone. He’ll do Mikey the favor of not having to contend with medical details they don’t have access to, or the horrible long drawn out playing god decision he doesn’t want to make. Quietly slipping out the back door, smartest boy in the world as always. Mikey will doze off on the couch and find him, and tears he doesn’t think he has left in him will burst through anyways, and he’ll sit for hours just outside of Donnie’s door without ever daring to make a sound.

Raph will find him, of all people. He won’t remember throwing himself into the crush of Raph’s arms, or the way he’ll press his beak into the divot of his shoulder. He’ll remember his heart spilling over and shattering in the cold winter air and think that he only has his family when they’re all sinking down with him.)

He’s alone in his loving of Klunk. Klunk’s always been his. Maybe it will be a comfort to think of a pawprint just his size living inside Mikey’s heart, or to imagine Leo lurking nearby, just outside of Mikey’s broken ninpo. Ready to scoop his Sunspot into his arms and doze off on the couch together again. Maybe Don will stumble out for his mid day coffee and find Mikey curled over something that’s already wandered away, and remember himself outside his grief long enough to hold Mikey under his chin like he used to.

In the morning is a long time away.

When he’d found Klunk it had been on a day like this. Mid December, frosty outside in the thin sheet of snow that ever existed in New York. It had been a lot louder then. April and Dad and Hueso, and a family that existed in shared spaces like it was the one place they always fit. Warmer and lighter, lights thrown on and noise everywhere.

Now, he keeps blankets stocked on his favorite corner of the couch, and folds them up neat for guests they don’t have. He gets colder, easier.

He’s had Klunk for twelve years. They’d been coming back from April’s place, the new lair still feeling expansive and unexplored, feeling light and jazzed up in the way youth does. He remembers that there’d been a mugging in an alleyway, that the fight with Shredder was still fresh on their minds. Mikey’d been all but unstoppable. He’d shared a half glance with Leo before his big brother had smiled back, all smiling easy confidence as he opened up a portal for him and said ‘showin’ them the Angie special?’.

He almost hadn’t seen the cat behind the dumpster at all until he’d thrown one of the thugs into a wall and the ka-thunk of the lid had scared the thing straight out into Mikey’s arms. The way he’d immediately started purring while Mikey had stood there stunned made his brothers snicker.

‘Told you to stop going dumpster diving, Angie, he thinks you smell like munched up fish food,’ Leo’d joked.

‘Great, another thing for Raph to be allergic to,’ Donnie had sighed.

‘Raph’s not allergic!’ Raph had complained, eyes watering. ‘This is adorable! He matches your mask, little man.’

Mikey had held the tiny, scrunched up ball of hackled fur and gotten an almost instant green eyed blink back. ‘Yeah? How’s that sound, buddy? Wanna match with me?’

The cat had sneezed, and carefully stretched a paw up to hook onto the ledge of Mikey’s plastron. He remembered thinking Gram Gram might have sent him at first, or that they’d found each other in some other past life, or that he had a magic way with cats. He thinks now that Klunk just loved like that.

Big and open, bright enough for the whole world.

Leo and Klunk had spent a lot of time together, he remembers. When he was smaller and more likely to spring up on all of them around corners and fight their bandanas from the backs of their shells, it seemed like he ran off an endless battery. With Leo’s chronic issues with sleep, it made for a perfect pair.

Sometimes he’d wander in to fry up breakfast, turn on the big overhead lights in the kitchen, and find Leo curled up just outside on the couch. Klunk bundled in a tiny ball right on his stomach, snoring with him.

Semi circles stretching out beyond the horizon. His blankets stay folded.

Klunk rumbles at him now, wide green eyes staring at him as he stretches slowly on his lap. Mikey lets him purr and nudge his cheek into his finger happily. “Long day of catching Z’s, my man? Least one of us has it all figured out.”

Klunk pads at his legs, curling slowly into the divot and settling down. Burying his face between his paws as the TV lights bounce off his fur in the background.

He doesn’t move very fast anymore. He can’t jump, he doesn’t eat all of his food. Mikey watches his sweet boy pace aimlessly around stone floors like he can’t remember where to go. Everything Mikey has in his day to day is someone else's, but Klunk has always been his.

“I love you,” Mikey tells the sunshine burst of peppered fur right there on his lap. “I wish you could stay.”

Tomorrow, he’ll have to consider how thin Klunk is getting, or the way he paces aimlessly, or the rabbit-quick way he breathes. Tomorrow, he might creep into Raph’s room and see if his big brother is awake enough to let him crawl into bed beside him like he used to, like he’s still small enough to want things and ask for them.

Tomorrow he’ll have to be okay with another kind of missing, even if he doesn’t want to.

Right now, Klunk is warm against his knee. He’s loved because Mikey loves him. They don’t have anywhere else they’re supposed to be.

Mikey scratches the top of Klunk’s head and tries to be something warm enough to stick around for. He knows the leaving is not up to either of them anyway.

There’s a gentler world, one where Mikey gets to know he was always strong enough. One where there’s no floodwaters to sink in, no need to float.

An unfamiliar turtle brings his big brother home, and there’s nothing at all to miss.

Sometimes Mikey wakes up feeling lost, a deep dark place he can’t name sputtering and going dark for all of a moment, terrifying him in a way he can’t explain. The kitchen lights, he thinks, nonsensically, and scrambles out of bed in a flurry just to make sure they’re still on.

It’s never cold here, not even in the winter. The couch is messy with snack bowls they forgot to put away, and dragged in blankets from all of their bedrooms. He shivers anyways.

Days like this he thinks of ripples in pond water. Big long stretches of silver circles spinning out infinitely. He thinks about the news on TV he heard the other day, about universes from millennia ago: there’s an old sob caught in his ribs he thinks must not belong to him.

The door slides open, a quiet click.

Gio stands there, strangely soaking wet and bedraggled in a way Mikey’s sure he’s never seen. In the six months he’s known the guy, he’s always been a steady, stoic source of calm and cool. Sometimes it’s funny to watch, Gio with his flat expression in between the twins, bouncing and raving off some bit only they understand, hands on his shoulders like he’s a launching pad for their next insanity. He always thinks Gio looks happy underneath it, though, the kind that’s soul deep.

Dark eyes blink at him in the darkness across the Lair. “Oh,” Gio says, simply. “You’re up.”

Mikey plods forwards, as unafraid as anything with Gio. “You’re freezing,” he gasps, pulling at Gio’s scarf. It’s bunched up strangely at his front, he hopes he didn’t rip it again. Gio had gotten all quiet sad last time, which was a travesty worth committing several crimes for. “Were you sewer swimming? It’s December!”

Gio shakes his head, pauses. Nods. Mikey plants his hands firmly on his hips with his lower lip jut out— Gio always gives him a strange look when he lectures him like this, but he listens. Mikey sees him listen. “Turtles don’t do well in winter, you know. If you froze into a popsicle, I’d have to fish you out, and that would definitely bother Raph.”

“Sorry,” Gio says, all fond and sly like a secret he’s keeping. “Emergency.”

He holds the wet front of his scarf out, and a tiny orange head pushes through. “Oh,” Mikey says.

Green eyes blink at him, it sneezes.

“You found a cat.”

Gio shrugs. “He found me.”

Mikey reaches forward tentatively, the poor thing's hair sticks straight up on the top of its head. Damp as anything. The cat sniffs at his hand, then rumbles happily at him, pushing its face directly into his palm.

Gio pushes the pile of fabric into Mikey’s arms. “He looks like you.”

Yeah, he thinks of ponds and ripples and universes. He does, doesn’t he.

#rottmnt #my fic #rise of the tmnt #hamato michelangelo #hamato giorgio #the archer au #this is basically just me having big feelings about my old lady cat sorry

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