#the day of the krang invasion

[its-wabby-stuff]

Camera Flash

“Alright everyone, huddle up, this deserves a spot in my archives,” Donnie chimed. Where am I? “Ready, 3-2-1, Bam! Good one fam.” A bright flash of light. Everything froze. Like my mind wanted me to remember this.

How could I forget it?

The dusty, abandoned subway station we had just moved into. Boxes piled up against the walls of all the remaining things we could find from the rubble in the sewer lair. Our new home, since the Shredder destroyed our last one. The artificial light still stung warm, and the metallic smell in the air was just starting to grow familiar. I remember Mikey’s work in progress graffiti outlined on the walls. The fumes of burning metal coming from Donnie’s lab. Dad’s hums and embarrassing booty shakes as he cleared through some boxes, reminiscing good times.

I remember my room. Messy, unkempt.

Most importantly, I remember that day. The day I lost the key.

“I don’t see what the big deal is, Raph.” Idiot. Dad had only just left the room. “We’ll get that weird tiki totem looking thing back. The foot clan isn’t going to use it right away.” I waved it off. “Their last plan took what? 6- maybe 7 months to complete? Even then the worst that happened was Shreddie. Who, may I remind you, we beat. What could be worse than that?” So much.

“Errr,” Raph growled, his knuckles going white.

“Can we please move the discussion point off of Leo’s mistake,” Donnie remarked, trying to air out the tension. “We wouldn’t want Papa to come back.” Mikey was sticking close to him. Raph took a deep breath.

“I’ll let it go after he apologizes,” Raph gritted.

“What!?” Mikey yelped, putting his hand over his mouth trying not to draw too much attention. Donnie sighed.

“An apology, that’s what you want? Ahohoho, okay.” My brothers looked surprised. I put my arms down, and laid them on Raph’s shoulders, looking completely, dramatically, sincere. “Raph, I’m sorry,” pause for effect, “for stealing the spotlight. It’s not my fault brother, it just naturally gravitates toward me. Like a flame to a moth.”

Donnie smacked his forehead.

“Leeeoooooo.” Raph just about grabbed me by the throat, but I backed away cackling. I was cackling.

A loud, musical melody filled the air. “What the hec- oh, it’s April,” Donnie tapped the icon on his wrist band, “you are conversing with-“

“DONNIE!” She screamed.

“Tis I.”

“I’VE GOT HUGE NEWS.”

“I am ecstatic,” Donnie spoke without a hint of inflection.

“I was,,, in the lab,,, all this,, wild stuff,, I stole,,, a professor's badge,,,and” April spoke between labored breaths. Was she running? “It’s crazy. I almost,,, forgot to call you.”

“Loud gasp.” He pressed his hand to his chest. “How dare you.”

“Hey April!” I reached over Donnie’s shoulder and tilted the screen toward me, before bolting away using Donnie as a backboard for a flip turn as Raph, yet again, tried to pound me.

“April,” Mikey appeared panicked, “send help! Raph is going to kill-“ Mikey’s words were drowned out as Donnie slowly pushed Mikey off of him and out of frame.

“Uh,,, hey boys,” April smiled a bit. “Should I,,, be worried?”

“Angelo’s got it under control,” Donnie said, looking back at, fists at the ready, side to side, boxing match me, Mikey with one arm out towards each of us, in a frantic state, and Mr. Rampaging Raph about to charge me.

“Oh we’re gonna be in so much trouble,” Mikey whined.

“See,” Donnie went back to April.

“Whatever you say. Listen,,,,I’m on my way over,,,I’ve got samples and video,,, This story is gonna blow the lid off Big Chem!”

“You got samples? Of a herbicidal deforestation bomb! Oh my shell, it’s finally happening. The day my two passions collide; Botany and explosives.”

“And it might,,,,land me my first gig,,, as a real journalist!” She jumped a little, “Down with the patriarchy, baby!” She lifted one arm up and the video view changed before she readjusted the camera, keeping both hands toward the screen.

“Are you calling from your laptop?” I asked, looking over Donnie’s shoulder, backing into him and away from Raph. Mikey clinged to the big guy’s arm, trying to drag him down very unsuccessfully. His whole body was wrapped around Raph’s arm. He looked like a helpless koala.

“Yeah,” April’s breath got heavier, “My phone broke outside the school.”

“My condolences,” Donnie said, “I shall have a replacement ready upon your arrival.”

“Really!? Thanks De.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about it. Arrivederci,” Donnie went to end the call, I called out quickly.

“Don’t drop your laptop in the sewers! The rats will break it down for parts!” The call ended.

Donnie whacked me over the head.

“Ow.” I rubbed the spot.

“It’s ‘like a moth to a flame,’” Donnie corrected, turning toward his lab. Raph smirked, looking satisfied.

“Mikey,” Raph looked down, “get off me.”

“No!” Mikey shook his head, his eyes sealed shut.

“Miiikey,” Raph shook his arm up and down.

“Nooo,” Mikey yelled as his grip slipped and he went flying toward me, ducking into his shell. I slid back as he landed square in my chest, knocking me over. His legs popped out around my head, kicking me in the face.

“Has everyone had a turn causing Leo pain, or is there still a line?” I mumbled with a foot pressed to my cheek.

Raph sighed. “We’re not done talking about this, Leo. We still have a serious problem, whether you see it or not.”

“Yeah, yeah, your Raph chasm is becoming a real distraction to the team.” I stood up, dusting myself off.

Raph’s growl hummed through the air, but he managed to take a deep breath. “Meet in Donnie’s lab when April gets here. You can do that, right Leo?” Raph left the area in a huff.

I mimicked his command orders with my hands. Blah, blah, blah. “You can do that, right Leo? He’s so bossy. He can’t tell me what to do, I’m the leader now. Yeah. I can’t believe this-“ I walked over to my room, a massive hole torn straight through the train car. Comics and what little figurines survived scattered around. Sheesh, what a mess.

“Leo,” Mikey called, walking closer. Oh, not this again.

“Oh, mi hermanito, mind helping me patch this little hole up?” I charged away to find a rod, and he followed.

“Lee,” Mikey caught up, “that was a pretty heated fight. Do you, maybe, wanna talk about it?”

“That’s gonna be a no.”

“It always helps to get it off your chest.”

“Look, Mikey,” I put my hands on his shoulders, “you don’t need to worry about me and Raph, alright? We always work it out. In our own, unique, way. We’re brothers,” I shrugged, “we’ve got each other's shells.”

Mikey paused as I began to dig through some scrap metal. I was looking for something long enough to stretch across the tear in the train car, and maybe hang a curtain or blanket across. At least get a little privacy where I can.

“But-“ Mikey chimed in, “it hasn’t stopped yet. You guys have been at each other's throats for months. Ever since pops named you-“

“Hey, he’s just jealous because I’m a better leader than him.”

“That’s not true, Leo,” Mikey defended. It struck a nerve, “Raph did a great job when he was leader.” Mikey dug around in the scrap too, getting to my level. “If you're- nervous- about something, Raph would understand. You just need to talk to him.”

“Psh, I’m not nervous about anything. I’ve got this.” Even then it sounded like a lie. Mikey stared off, a little uneasy. This hadn’t gone the way he wanted it too. I hate seeing my brothers defeated. “I’ll talk to Raph,” I relented and Mikey cheered up.

“And you’ll work it out?” Mikey asked.

“I’ll work it out,” I shrugged it off, but a hard stare from Dr. Delicate Touch had me reconsider. “ I promise, okay?”

“Okay!” Mikey smiled. I’m terrible at keeping promises.

“Aha!” I lifted up a long metal rod, “I think this’ll do. Let’s go.”

“Alright, fearless leader,” Mikey laughed. Fearless, huh? “I’ll take this side,” Mikey suggested as we once again returned to the scene of the crime.

“Are you sure you can reach up there?”

“Hey, I’m not that short!” Mikey pouted with his still very baby looking face. So round. Mikey had always been very strong, and very talented, but he’d never been very tall. He struggled to get the rod up to Raph height. Luckily, he had a creative solution. He bounced around, on top of some boxes and railings and landed on top of the train car. “Hand it up to me,” Mikey said proudly.

“That’s one way to make yourself a bigger person.” He slid it into place, and an oversized old blue curtain was hung over the rod.

“Teamwork makes the dream work, baby,” Mikey yelled, jumping down in a series of flips and cartwheels

“Good as new,” I inspected our work, “we’re really starting to wear the new place down.”

“Pretty soon, it’ll feel just like home!” Mikey cheered.

A loud crash echoed through the tunnels. Me and Mikey raced toward it, and were met with a family reunion. “I thought I told you boys to be quiet!” Master Splinter yelled from the other room.

“Hey, y’all,” April waved from the floor amongst the tipped over and open boxes she had attempted to pass through. “Have these always been here?”

“Only since yesterday,” Raph went over and picked her out of the mess, “we moved some stuff around when Mikey and De found a foos-ball table in the dump.”

“Nasty.”

“Only mildly,” Donnie chimed in, “quite honestly, it was a steal. A true treasure amongst trash. And thoroughly cleaned since its discardment.”

“Now we can all take a turn defeating Donnie,” I remarked.

“Ignoring that,” Donnie groaned, “I believe we have prior arrangements regarding science! The lab is all prepped and ready, Pril.”

“And I got your samples right here,” April pulled out a glass tube filled with a mysterious glowy blue liquid.

“Pretty,” I said.

Mikey got up close to it, “Ooooooo what does it do?”

“Careful, it’s dangerous,” April pulled it away, “probably.”

“That is what we shall discover,” Donnie led the march to the lab, “Personally, I hope it’s deadly.”

“Not a good way to start, De.” I followed behind.

[snekplush]

Home Au

More Home au because the ideas are banging against the bars of their cells in my brain.

I have decided to take away Leo’s fading ability because being incorporeal is Mikey’s thing. Instead he will regain his “i can snap on severed parts of my body like a lego man” thing. Also, instead if Mikey becoming a fire spirit from overuse of his mystic powers when he becomes a mystic warrior its from using his mystic hands to try and save Leo during the movie. He fails and becomes a mystic warrior because of his new body. Because of this, Donnie uploads his conciousness into a computer file to be immortal because hes scared all of his brothers will outlive him if he cant bring back leo. And then Leo returns and all hell breaks loose because hes ferak.

I feel like I need to change Raph because I literally just discovered an au that has the exact same Raph.

[kathaynesart]

Hi! Hope you're having a great day! Just want to say that I absolutely LOVE Replica! It's such an amazing comic! Curious though,on the recent part,were those "dog" things that were with Krang One,were those Draxum's gargoyles that have been Krang-ified,or just Krang dogs? I also noticed that all 4 Turtles have visors like Donnie's. Did they stop using masks during the invasion or just as they grew up?

Thank you so much!

Oh no no, the Krang hounds are just like the regular hounds you see in the opening. They have a bunch of them at their disposal. Also, to avoid confusion this is NOT Krang One faces in the latest update. Krang One has the crown on his mecha and is much much bigger. This is just one of the many Krang soldiers like in the beginning of the movie. This was done very intentionally to show how differently Leo handled this same scenario in the past vs in the last moments of his life. It was much easier to deal with the Krang back when they had their Ninpo still (and when Leo's not bleeding out from another wound).

As far as masks, they still wear them beneath their visors, I was just too lazy to color them haha.

[goodlucktai]

9, raph and leo?

dialogue prompts

9. “I know, I know it hurts.”

x

When Raph was eight years old, the twins decided they needed their own bedrooms and, like with all other things they had ever decided, they made it everyone else’s problem. As a united front, the two of them had the capacity to wear down a squad of Navy Seals in a manner of days, let alone one overtired single father. 

The campaign for separate bedrooms turned out to be a long con. Donnie had been denied an evil science laboratory by Splinter multiple times, on the grounds of it being dangerous, and Donnie being seven, and evil being bad. But a room of his own could be whatever he wanted, and he wanted a lab. 

It took most of a week for Splinter to discover that the twins were still doubled up in the room that was ostensibly Leo’s while Donnie’s was being used for nefarious purposes, but by then Donnie had installed an electronic lock on the door that he built out of components gutted from old kitchen appliances and was fully ready to die on that hill. 

While Pops and Donnie were locked in a contest of wills that would ultimately go in Donnie’s favor (because Splinter’s achilles heel back then—and even now—was that he thought little turtles at their most sulky and unreasonable were just adorable) Raphie had looked at Leo with a confused frown on his face. 

“How come you went along with it, Lee? You didn’t even get your own room.”

Leo shrugged, bright gold eyes shining with interest as he watched his twin and his father argue back and forth. He was following it carefully, probably ready to join in if it looked like Donnie was going to lose—more engaged than he ever was playing video games or flipping through comics. 

At the time, all Leo said was, “Just wanted to see if I could.”

Raph thought it was because he was a troublemaker, and he maintained that idea up until Mikey—intuitive beyond his years, even as a sweet little six year old—said he figured it was just that Leo’s head went as crazy fast as Donnie’s did, only in ways that didn’t involve breaking and building things. 

A full decade later, Raph knows Mikey was right on the money. Looking back, he sees a kid who was wickedly smart and terribly understimulated. Leo didn’t create trouble for the heck of it, he just liked having problems to solve. He wanted conversations and tricks and puzzles, he needed hoops to jump through like dolphins did on TV, or else he’d get cranky and sneaky. 

Their world became a much simpler, more peaceful place once Leo got his first phone and discovered an online chess app with a leaderboard. 

All this to say, Leo has had a mind for strategy since before he could talk in full sentences. He’s a natural-born leader, and after the failed Krang invasion, he really stepped up and took it seriously. Raph is so proud of him he doesn’t have words big enough to contain the size and shape of it all. It isn’t as hard as he had imagined it would be to let go of the reins and give Leo the room he needs to shine. 

Some days are better than others. For the most part, Leo says jump and his brothers don’t even ask how high, they just shoot for the rafters. Their teamwork is cohesive, as solid as it was when they initially realized their ninpo, and Raph thinks he’d feel sorry for the Shredder if that guy showed his face in their town again. 

But there are also days like today, when Leo says something that Raph’s big brother meter pings as Leo being silly, stirring shit up for lack of better thing to do, and he doesn’t linger on it past that initial knee-jerk impression. 

They’re working with a group of mutants out of Hell’s Kitchen, mutants who are walking the line between vigilantism and outright crime. They’re rough around the edges, but good-natured for the most part. The turtles kept bumping into that other group as they crisscrossed around the city until finally their leader, Old Hob, said, “Why don’t we just get on the same program instead of stepping on each other’s heels?” and a tentative partnership was formed. 

It’s been a week since then, and in that time Raph and his brothers have been firmly adopted by the grown-up mutants, who ask pointed questions about what time they went to bed the night before and whether or not they had a decent breakfast and how their online classes are going. 

“This must be what having overbearing aunties is like,” Donnie said to April on the phone none-too-quietly, and Sally, feline mutant and aforementioned overbearing auntie, knocked her knuckles on his battleshell reprovingly. But that about summed it up. 

There was one spanner in the works, and that was Liam.  

——

“Anyone else getting bad vibes from that guy by the way?” Leo says one day. 

There’s something performative about it, his usual pomp and charisma with a plastic edge. Mikey tilts his head like a service dog who just caught the scent of a potential medical emergency. Donnie looks up from his phone, eyes keen the way they only are when he and his twin are about to communicate with the telepathy they’ll deny they have.

But Raph is having a bad pain day, and his well of patience for shenanigans is much shallower than it normally is. 

“Leon, don’t start,” he says, rubbing the slider’s head playfully to take any sting out of the dismissal. “If I have to put up with any middle child nonsense today I’m gonna scream.”

There’s a beat, his second-youngest brother visibly hesitating on a mental fork in the road. He’s gotten so good about being forthcoming but his first impulse is still to play along, deny, conceal-don’t-feel. He still has this idea in his head of what a good leader is supposed to be, and he’s still willing to whittle parts of himself away that don’t fit that mold. 

To his credit, Leo tries again. “I don’t like him,” he says with less certainty. 

“You don’t have to be best friends with the guy,” Raph replies. There’s enough warning in his tone that Leo knows to drop it. “Just get along until we go home.”

He works his shoulder, trying to do something about the solid ache it’s become, and Leo’s eyes drop to the mass of scarring there and then flit away. He starts to outline the route their patrol is going to take, reaching into his belt bag for the jar of Tiger Balm he’s taken to carrying with him and handing it over to Raph as he talks. 

Raph smiles, the warmth in his chest ballooning up to swallow the impending impatience and annoyance brought out by pain. That warmth stays with him through their whole run, even as Donnie video-calls April and deadpans “POV you’re tailing some guy who didn’t get the memo that armed robbery is cringe as hell,” even as Mikey goes out of his way to jump and tumble off a fire escape in time to give Mondo a high-five as he skates by in the opposite direction, even as Leo progressively gets quieter the closer they get to their two AM check-in at the Mutanimals’ railyard base.

Looking back, Raph can count all the red flags he missed and hates himself a little more for each one. Leo sometimes causes problems for fun, and he likes to see what trouble he can get away with or get himself out of, and he is a downright menace to society when he’s bored—but he’s good. He’s sweet, and charming, and wants to help. He wouldn’t have raised an issue with the other group of mutants, potentially cutting ties with useful allies, unless he had a decent reason to. 

And that reason, Raph discovers that night—after information has been exchanged and all that's left is to hang out at the base watching TV and playing table tennis until Splinter inevitably texts to remind his sons of their curfew—is Liam. 

He doubles back into the meeting room where he left his phone and sees the goose mutant has put himself between Leo and the only exit, head lowered on a serpentine neck, beak open to show a flash of sharp teeth in a display that Raph’s animal hindbrain reads clearly as threat. 

His grip on the doorframe causes it to crack. 

“Leo,” he says in a voice he doesn’t recognize. 

His little brother’s head jerks up, half-hopeful, half-disbelieving. Later, Raph will hate himself for putting even a sliver of doubt in Leo’s mind, for unknowingly invalidating his feelings. Leo should never be surprised that his big brother showed up for him. He should never have been left to fend for himself in a situation that made him uncomfortable, especially after he found the courage to be upfront about it. 

“C’mere,” Raph says, lifting an arm—a little turtle’s cue to tuck themselves safely against Raph’s side. 

Whatever his expression is doing, it’s caused dead silence to blanket the room like a foot of packed snow. Liam looks markedly unhappy to see Raphael standing there, but Leo runs to meet him. 

A strategist, a faceman, a leader, and barely seventeen years old. 

“We were just talking,” Liam says with a lightness that rings as false. 

“Next time I find out you and my brother were just talking, I’ll wring your skinny neck,” Raph replies, matching his tone. Liam may be twice Raph’s age, but he’s half Raph’s size, and Raph has gone head-to-head with the Krang general and the Shredder and walked it off each time. Raph is fully prepared, in this moment, to murder this fucking goose. 

Leo taps on Raph’s carapace, just as one of his violent inner voices is lifting its head in the back of his brain and considering making an appearance. On Leo’s end, a warning that someone else is coming from down the hall. On Raph’s end, a reminder that his first priority is the one he’s holding. 

He turns, keeping Leo beside him, in time to see Hob appear around the corner. The cat mutant stops dead in his tracks, slitted eyes moving from Raph, down to Leo, to the doorway beside them, and back again.  

“Problem?”

“We’re going home,” Raph says, a rumble in his voice he wouldn’t know how to temper even if he wanted to. “And we’re not coming back. Don’t call us unless someone’s dying or there’s another alien invasion.”

“Knock on wood,” Leo mumbles near-silently. 

Old Hob doesn’t answer right away. It’s impossible to tell what the older mutant is thinking on a good day, outwardly recalcitrant and unfriendly, even though he has never snapped at Mikey’s cheerful rambling or Leo’s wheedling attempts to goad him into yet another chess match or even Donnie’s accidental ninpo-related shortage of every appliance in the Mutanimals’ kitchen. He and Sally and Ray and Herman all go out of their way to make their base comfortable and accessible to the turtles and Mondo and Pete, like it really matters to them that the younger mutants have a safe place tucked away that they can fall back on. 

And Raph had appreciated that, up until now. Up until they proved it wasn’t safe, actually. Up until he’d seen a grown man leering meanly at his baby brother, just because he thought he could keep getting away with it.

When Hob does speak, all he says is, “Get home safe, boys.”

Raph shoulders around him, and collects Donnie and Mikey from the main room immediately. Mikey says, “Woah, are you guys okay?” and Donnie shoots a poisonous look behind them, like if he glares hard enough he can see back in time to what happened to put those expressions on Leo and Raph’s faces. 

“We’re peachy, Miguelito,” Leo says, disquietingly convincing. “Just had a difference of opinion with our hosts is all.” 

“Stay out of Hell’s Kitchen from now on until I say so,” Raph adds sternly. 

Raph tells dad about Liam when they get home, because there is no universe where that doesn’t happen, and Leo immediately gets hauled into Splinter’s room for what sounds like a very serious conversation. Raph, Donnie and Mikey cluster shamelessly outside the door to eavesdrop, and some frightened thing in Raph’s heart lets out the breath it’s been holding when Leo says, “Nothing happened, papa, I promise. He was just weird.”

“Let him be weird to my Baby Blue one more time and I will show him exactly why your father was the undisputed Battle Nexus champion,” Splinter says. He cups Leo’s face and rubs his thumb over a striped cheek, as if he’d like to keep his son right there where no one had the capacity to hurt him. “Thank you for telling us. I’m so proud of you. I will actually kill him if he looks at you again.”

Leonardo smiles brightly, daddy’s boy of the family and glutton for attention that he is, those leftover dregs of anxiety in his eyes finally melting away. 

“I think we should let dad kill him,” Donnie announces, eyes icy, tone flat. 

“Nah,” Mikey says, disingenuously cheerful. “Next time we run into Liam I’m setting him the fuck on fire!” 

“Language,” Raph scolds by rote, but his heart isn’t in it. 

He can’t get that scene he walked in on back at the railyard out of his head. He can’t help thinking what if something worse had happened because I didn’t listen? 

It feels like there’s a ghost in his chest, rattling his heart. He’s haunted by the what if. 

——

After dinner, Leo looks at Raph meaningfully and points at the infirmary. Doctor Leo’s orders supersede all others, 100% of the time, so Raphael sighs and surrenders his controller to Mikey’s grabby hands without bothering to make the token argument. He keeps driving Princess Peach off the track anyway. 

“Have you been stretching?” Leo says, feeling along Raph’s upper arm, where the muscles are visibly knotted. Even his careful touch hurts—that whole side of his body is tender with pain. Raph can’t help but flinch when his shoulder spasms and Leo hisses. “Shit, sorry, I know, I know it hurts. God, Raphie, you gotta say something before it gets this bad. I’m not afraid to bench you, big guy.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Raph says, amused by his little brother’s no-nonsense tone, warmed by the care Leo always takes with his family when they’re sitting in his infirmary and putting their hurts in his hands. 

There’s nothing performative about him here. It’s just Leo, stripped of every false layer. 

“Let’s try to massage it out,” Leo says, all his attention bent to the task. “Then we’ll apply heat.” 

Raph hums, watching him work. His arm radiates pain, and he has to grit his teeth as Leo goes to work on the knots and the ache flares close to unbearable and wanes to a dull throb and then flares again. 

“Hey,” Raph says before he can overthink it any more. “What would you have done if I didn’t see you and Liam?”

Leo pauses, but only for a split-second. He’s as good as cornered here, because there’s no way he’ll leave Raph when he’s in pain, and there’s nowhere to hide. Thankfully for Raph’s sanity, he doesn’t try to pretend he doesn’t know what they’re talking about, even if he takes a long moment to finally answer. 

“Would’ve made Angie make me a Portal Promise to never be alone with him,” Leo admits. Flushing slightly, he mumbles, “It’s, uh, a thing we do—we both make portals, you know, so—it just means we have to keep that promise no matter what happens or what rules we have to break, and we won’t get in trouble later as long as we’re honest.” 

Raph’s heart hurts. His little brothers are so sweet, and people exist in the world who would hurt them, and he has no idea how to reconcile that. He hates that both things could be true at the same time. 

“Tello doesn’t need to be encouraged to stay away from people, and I’m pretty sure he can read my mind? But I would’ve told him anyway,” Leo goes on. “I tell him everything. I’d try to word it so he didn’t get angry enough to do something drastic, like, cut the brake lines on Liam’s Toyota Corolla. And I’d have to make it sound like you and I were on the same page, otherwise he’d go to you about it, and you’d—uh, be annoyed that I didn’t drop it, I guess.”

Getting impaled by the Krang hurt less than this, Raph thinks. He feels sick. 

“Leo—”

“I know,” Leo says quickly, a little too loud. “I know that I don’t always take stuff seriously. It’s not your fault for thinking—you know. You didn’t do anything wrong, Raphie. I just gotta grow up.”

This kid, who—like the rest of them—has already matured well past his age, well before he should have had to. Who’s terrified of letting his family down, who has so much he thinks he needs to live up to. Any perceived failure weighs on him like the death penalty, and Raph knows he had a hand in that. 

He needs to listen. Even when he’s aching and short-tempered. Even when Leo is talking around something that scares him. Maybe especially then. 

“Can we make a deal?” Raph says, reaching up to hold Leo’s hands still under one of his own. Leo is staring hard at Raph’s plastron and doesn’t seem willing to lift his eyes for love or money, but he jerks his head in a nod. “Next time I’m not hearing you, and it’s something serious like today was serious, tell me, and I’ll stop.”

Leo’s mouth twists a bit. If it were for anyone else’s sake, he’d get in Raph’s face and make himself heard no problemo, but it’s an entirely different story when it’s his own safety in question. That part of Leo that wants to always rely on his brothers is constantly at war with the part that believes he’s not supposed to need anyone’s help anymore. 

It would be impossible for him to plant himself like a tree and refuse to be budged and demand Raph’s attention if he thought for one second that it would make Raph angry at him. 

“What if we came up with a code word?” Raph offers, squeezing Leo’s hands. “If I’m being a stubborn punk, you can tell me the code word, and I’ll listen, and I won’t get mad. Even if it turns out to be a mistake or a misunderstanding. Okay?”

He finally gets a peek of gold as Leo dares to make eye contact. He looks embarrassed, like they’ve made a huge deal out of this for no good reason, and hiding inside his shell until everyone promises to pretend like nothing happened is looking more tempting by the second. 

But he’s Leo, their fearless leader. He stared down that portal into the prison dimension without flinching. If he can do that, he can do anything. 

“What word?” he finally says. 

“You pick,” Raph tells him. 

A smile creeps onto Leo’s face, picking its way carefully across shaky ground. 

“‘Goose’,” he suggests.

"‘Goose’ it is," Raph replies firmly, committing it to memory.

He lifts his good arm and drags his little brother into a solid hug, ignoring the twinge in his back and side. Leonardo scrambles to return the embrace, shoving his face against Raph’s unscarred shoulder and clinging for all he’s worth. Which is a lot. He’s worth so much. 

Later, when Raph’s got the electric heating pad on his arm and he and Leo are watching TikTok compilations to pass the time, Mikey comes through the infirmary door at top speed, waving his phone above his head like a maniac. 

“Look what Mondo sent me!” he shouts at full volume. “I put it in the group chat!”

The video shared in the Mad Dogz chat shows Liam being kicked out of the railyard, his bags tossed into the road. Sally is going off at him at the top of her lungs, and Hob is standing by with his arms folded like he’s fully ready to let her maul the guy, and the rest of the grown-up mutants are making it pretty clear with their body language that the goose isn’t welcome anymore. 

“Dunno what they saw on the security cam, but they effin’ hated it,” Mondo says in the recording, unbothered by the absolute chaos unfolding in front of him. “Good riddance, Liam sucks. Oh, Mikester, Hob wants to know if you guys’ll be back in the Kitchen for Herman’s D&D oneshot on Saturday so he knows how much food to order. He said you should bring your dad around this time—as if we need another boring old man in the group, ugh. Anyway, let me know and I’ll pass it along, dude!”

A weight Raph hadn’t even realized he was still carrying melts off his shoulders. Leo huffs under his breath, a disbelieving little laugh. 

“Can we go, Raphie?” Mikey asks with wide eyes. “Don worked so hard on all our character sheets. He even 3D-printed custom figurines.”

“My bard is going to carry this team,” Donnie says loudly from the next room, because he’s never met a private conversation he wouldn’t shamelessly listen in on. 

It’s so important to the Mutanimals that their young friends feel safe with them, and here’s proof of that in Mikey’s hands. Raph doesn’t fully understand why they care, but he’s grateful that they do. It didn’t hit him until now how much it hurt to have the railyard taken away—and how relieved he is that they can go back, after all. 

He squeezes the arm he still has around Leo’s shoulders, prompting his brother to look up at him. 

“What do you say, Fearless?” he says warmly. “Your call.”

Raph’s listening this time. 

[somerandomdudelmao]

Cass apocalypse Au: Casey took the hit in episode 2 and ended up getting sick. How quickly would his uncles find out and end the Krang invasion out of pure rage and spite? Or would that scenario have a much more tragic outcome?

As soon as I read your question, my first reaction was to say that Casey would have shown signs of illness almost immediately and would have died pretty quickly. Because he's a human child and his body is m u c h weaker than Donnie's.

But then I remembered about the ancient demonic flowers.

And just imagining that the flowers would have given him resistance to Krang's infection? Maybe??

Maybe he would have carried the virus around all this time and not even known it? Maybe he cut himself accidentally one day and realized his blood was slowly turning pink?? And almost immediately had a massive panic attack? Maybe the virus can't kill him at all because the flowers are too powerful, so it starts messing with his head instead?

I don't know.

The possibilities are numerous

[mochiimadness]

Okay so this MIGHT sound odd but, do you think you can do headcanons for a neurodivergent reader giving the turtles (either Rise or 2012, whichever versions easier to write) gifts as their love language?

And what I mean by that is giving them little things that they think they’ll like, for example giving Donnie an old toaster that stopped working for spare parts, or sharing a cool recipe with Mikey, etc etc? And the turtles would be confused until they learn about it being a love language/neurodivergent thing :)

(And btw, I love reading your headcanons!!!)

2012 Turtles x neurodivergent reader who's love language is gift giving

Writing for the 2012 turtles, they need some love ^^

Ack, I missed the last part and had to go back and almost didn't add the confusion part in r.i.p

Also wasn't sure if you wanted this to be romantic or platonic, so it's left up to interpretation ^^

Fearless Leader

He appreciates your gifts so much

You took saw these little trinkets and thought of him????

He's tearing up

He always thanks you and gives you a hug when you gift him anything

Even if on the off chance he doesn't like it as much,

He'll still put it up on his shelf with the other trinkets.

At first,

He was thankful of course, but why were you giving him all these gifts?????

Didn't want to seem rude by not accepting them,

But the more you kept doing it, the more confused he got

Eventually, he just politely asks why you're doing this.

Was he suppose to be doing something specific in return???

But when you tell him it's just your love language

He kinda has a

"Oh!!!" moment of realization

Absolutely treasures anything relating to tea, meditation, or Space Heroes

Oh??? You saw this brand of tea and thought he might enjoy it???

He is savoring every sip (even if he doesn't like the flavor, he can and will drink it all)

Or you had some left over candles and wanted to give them to him for meditation???

He lights them every time, they're his favorite scents now

All the gifts you give him are well kept!

Especially the Space Heroes comic you had found while thrifting

"Hey Leo, I found this comic on sale and thought you might like it!"

He takes the Space Hero comic from you with such gentleness, you'd think you'd just given him an egg

Even long after he finished the show and moved on,

He still held such a fondness for it

It is always near and dear to his heart

So when you gifted him a comic of his favorite show??

He nearly cried

His eyes shine with unshed tears and he brings you into a firm, but gentle hug

"Thank you so, so much."

Donnie-pedia

Gift giving is also Donnie's love language!

Usually, he's the one making and giving gifts to his friends and family

So when you start giving him gifts that you thought he might like??

He gives you one of the biggest, brightest, gap-toothed smile you've ever seen

"You got this? For me?? Really?!"

He's so excited

Already ranting about how neat the gift you've given him is

It could be a toaster or some spare krang parts you'd found (there's always some to be found in the back alleys and sewers of New York) or even a random book

He always finds a way to use or appreciate them

He's not as confused as his brothers about you giving him gifts,

After all, he does a similar thing!

But he does start overthinking

What if you're expecting a gift in return?????

What if it's an important day???

He starts worrying over this,

Which leads to him busting out his old white board and writing down everything these gifts could possibly mean

You end up explaining that this was just your love language, once you walk in on him connecting red lines on his theory board

(seriously, why would you giving gifts to him have anything to do with foretelling a dimension X invasion?)

Usually, when you give him anything that can be used in his inventions-

He'll set straight to working on it, after giving you a quick squeeze, of course

"Oh this is perfect, I was looking for something to use in this!"

He presents to you his finished machine,

The gift you gave him having been the missing piece he needed

After showing it to you, he gives you a quick hug

"Thank you so much! That gift was just what I needed."

Also makes gifts for you!

For example, if you gave him some colorful bolts you managed to find

He'll turn them into little matching bracelets for the two of you!

Dr. Prankenstein

Mikey gets so excited every time you gift him something

Has and will pick you up and spin you around each and every time you gift him something

He honestly doesn't find it confusing at first!

Genuinely is just happy to receive these gifts

Doesn't really think twice about it-

Until someone points out that you don't exactly go around giving gifts to just anyone

Then he gets curious, and a little confused

He will just ask you about it flat out

Oh??? It's your love language???

Cool!!!

He loves receiving random recipes from you

"Hey Mikey! I found another one I thought you might like."

"Ooo- let me see!!"

Loves to try making those dishes with you

Sometimes they end up with the kitchen covered in accidentally exploded mash potatoes

Sometimes they end up with the most delicious cake you've ever tasted!

Either way, Mikey loves it

He also loves receiving any other gifts from you

It could be a really cool rock you found

or some cute stuffie you found

He loves them all

Has a whole section of his room dedicated to storing and displaying your gifts

He even carries around a rock or two that you gave him

"For good luck, duh!"

Will also go to the surface to try to find you some little gifts in return

Usually he makes you flower crowns and chains!

Sometimes, he gets help from April or Big Sis Karai though

They'll get him some snacks that he knows you like

When you come down to the lair, he'll jump out and surprise you with some snacks and a movie night!

Also has one of the latest dishes he made with the recipes you gave him ^^

Mean Green Fighting Machine

Raph may act tough around his family

But he's an absolute softie

He's choking up whenever you give him these lil' gifts

Tries his best to take care of these gifts

Though, they may get a bit roughed up during a particularly angry episode or fight

When this does happen though, he does his best to fix them up

Hates it when the gifts you have him get broken or lost

So he keeps them in a storage box for safe keeping!

Though at first,

He was a little suspicious and confused when you started giving him gifts

Like, why???

Did you want something from him??

Were you planning something???

What did you want?

"No, seriously, what's with all the gifts? Ya up to somethin'?"

Pls just explain to him that it's your love language before you get interrogated

Once he knows tho??

He's so touched

You got this for him just because you care??

No strings attached?

Congrats, you've got a turtle who can and will beat up anything that brings you harm

It's how he shows he cares ^^

Surprisingly enough,

He loves receiving any artsy things from you

Especially paint or paint brushes

He goes out of his way to make sure those stay safe

He also loves receiving anything artsy!

If you ever make him a drawing or oragami

He's going to cherish it forever

He may even invite you to join him in an art session later-

"Don't ya dare tell anyone though."

Hope you enjoyed!

[daedelweiss]

NEW MASTERPOST✨

first up: Life Mission: Save My Brothers (Comic) 🌟

"Life Mission: Save My Brothers" is a Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles separated AU (alternate universe) where it explores on the concept that Splinter saved only one turtle after the mutation process: Leo. The other turtles are separated in the world: Raph was brought to and raised by Big Mama to be a Battle Nexus Champion, Mikey was taken by Draxum and trained to become a warrior to combat humans for the Yokai to take over the surface, and Donnie was thought to be dead but was taken in by a mob until he ran away and found Big Mama at the age of 7. Their story involves their process of finding out that they are not alone, that they have family, and how they reunite and become the ninjas they were always meant to be.

THE COMIC:

THE RED KNIGHT'S ARC Episode 1: The Buried Memory

SET 1 (Beginning of Episode)

SET 2

SET 3

SET 4 (End of Episode)

Episode 2: Found Alone (Coming Soon)

WEBSITE 🌟 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST YOUTUBE PLAYLIST

TRAILER:

TAGS: rottmnt life mission AU, life mission AU, life mission comic

more AUs under the cut 💖

THE SKY GARDEN DISCORD SERVER ⛅🌼🌷✨ (18+ ONLY)

Quiet Your Mind (Fanfic) 🌌

15 years into the Krang invasion and everything is going south: food was running low, everyone had to take multiple shifts in multiple jobs, and almost everyone is missing a family member. Mikey's mystic powers haven't developed fully and Donnie's and Leo's were dwindling. There was one way to regain that power, one way to turn the tide to their favor, and, possibly, save the twins' bond.

The cost? Silence.

TAGS: rottmnt quiet your mind, quiet your mind

Pieces of Home 🌊

"Pieces of Home" is an original TMNT iteration where Donnie is the oldest, followed by his twin Raph, their middle sibling Mikey, the youngest turtle Leo, and their little sister April. The turtles were all once human and lived a happy, normal life until one day, a mysterious person cursed them with a green, magical liquid that burnt away their human bodies and mutated them to half turtles. Their father, Splinter, was mutated to a rat and his husband was never seen since. 12 years later, Leo ventures to the surface despite his oldest brother's wishes and finds secrets about his other father. Their journey begins when they discover who he was and when they receive gifts he left them.

(More about the iteration coming soon...)

TAGS: my tmnt, tmnt: pieces of home, pieces of home AU

Links to my other socials can be found in the bottom of the Life Mission website ✨

[dandylovesturtles]

this is a brain worm that spawned as soon as I read the second injury prompt, bad future timeline, from the prospective of someone outside the family (civilian, fellow resistance fighter, etc), where one of the brothers/april/or either of the casey’s are injured, “Someone get the medic. Get the medic!” and the medic is leo, unknowingly responding to a gravely injured loved one

shit this is a good prompt anon, thanks

credit to @promptsbytaurie for the injury ask meme!

cw: ROTTMNT bad timeline, mentions of blood and injury

———

He finds her leaned against some rubble, the carcasses of four krang hounds strewn around her. They don’t bleed like earth creatures, but the stringy bits of their mutilated bodies are strewn across the ground, and all he can think is, Good.

There is blood, though: her blood, gushing from a set of lacerations in her side. She’s so still that he thinks, for one awful minute, that she’s dead.

Then she shifts and groans and he stumbles quickly to her side, dropping to his knees and putting pressure on the wound, the way he was taught in ROTC a million years ago.

She sucks in a breath, gritting her teeth, and then her eyes open. They rove the battlefield with a dazed confusion, and he wonders if that’s a concussion or just the blood loss. Or both.

“Commander O’Neil,” he says urgently. “We need to move you.”

Her head turns and her searching eyes find his face. She blinks rapidly and squints at his face.

“Who…?”

He smiles, because it’s a kindness he can give her. Kids in school used to make fun of his buck teeth. Weird how an alien invasion makes some things easier. “Jake West. I joined your squad last week.”

“Oh, right.” She grunts and starts to shift. “New guy. Help me up, will you?”

Jake shakes his head. “I don’t think you can walk with that wound.”

“Well, I’m not letting you carry me out of here like some damsel in distress,” she says stubbornly. She slings an arm over his shoulders, gritting her teeth. Her brow is sweating, but she repeats, “Help me up.”

Jake’s only been part of this resistance colony for two weeks, since the tattered remnants of his last group was found by one of their scouting parties, but he already has a lot of respect for O’Neil. She’s a foot shorter than him, but she embodies toughness in the set of her shoulders and her refusal to back down. She’s more fearsome than most of the old military guys Jake’s ever met.

So he helps her up.

She stumbles when she’s on her feet, and he moves in to keep supporting her. The blood drips down her side, and she hisses when she sees it.

“Can’t believe I let those hounds get a piece of me. Dee’s gonna be insufferable.”

Jake wonders who “Dee” is, but doesn’t ask. They have to get out of here - the onslaught may have calmed for the moment, but the krang always come back.

O’Neil can’t move very quickly - Jake finds himself dragging her more than he helps her walk. He suggests carrying her again and she turns it down, though only with a shake of her head this time. They stumble through the rubble in mostly silence, making for the base’s hidden entrance.

Above their heads, there is a noise like a sonic boom, a streak of orange lighting up the sky as it goes past, latching onto an approaching krang drone ship and pulling it out of the sky.

“There goes Mikey,” says O’Neil, without even looking up.

Right; Master Michelangelo, one of the turtles. Jake had felt a little trepidation, when he had first learned this resistance group was full of - and even run by - inhuman mutants.

Then he’d seen what they could do, and that feeling faded fast.

He hasn’t actually met the turtles, only ever seen them in passing. He’s heard from those have been here longer that they’re actually really friendly, or at least all of them but Master Donatello are. More importantly, they put their lives on the line every day for what remains of the people of earth. Jake hasn’t needed to be here more than a few weeks to see that.

They fight like they have everything to lose. Jake respects that.

Master Michelangelo’s cover makes the trip back to the base easier, even as O’Neil flags more and more against his side. By the end he’s carrying her whether she wants it or not, draped half across his back in a fireman’s hold. She’s too out of it now to object. He hopes that doesn’t mean he’s too late. He’s so tired of losing people, even those he hasn’t known long. He likes Commander O’Neil.

He stumbles through the tunnel and into the bright synthetic lights of the entry checkpoint. Most combatants have already returned by now, but there are still people milling around, checking for any signs of krang infection in those coming back.

“Someone get the medic!” he hollers as he enters. “Get the medic!”

There’s a few echoing shouts, and then a door flings open and out walks Master Leonardo himself. He’s wearing a makeshift surgical apron, covered in blood, gloves, and a mask hanging loose around his neck. Jake’s never seen him this close, and now he’s a little taken aback, the way the turtle towers over everyone, moving so lithely despite the bulk of his shell, a commanding but easy air to his presence that seems to demand respect but also offer reassurance to everyone else in the room.

Every time Jake’s seen him from afar, he’s been grinning, laughing, smiling. He isn’t now.

“Don’t yell unless someone’s dying,” he says, eyes scanning the room until his gaze locks with Jake’s. He sees the body slumped across Jake’s back and grimaces. “I need to learn to keep my mouth shut.”

He crosses the room and directs Jake toward one of the cots. “Alright, put ‘em on the triage bed and let’s see what we’re working with.”

“Lacerations, sir,” says Jake, as he lowers O’Neil to the cot. “She was conscious when I found her, but she’s lost a lot of blood. Maybe a concussion.”

He trails off as he turns back and sees Master Leonardo’s state. His eyes are locked on O’Neil’s face, like he’s only just recognized who it is on the cot. His mouth hangs slightly open, and there’s an open, vulnerable devastation, a naked fear on his face. One Jake recognizes too well.

Even the mutants, with all their powers and all their strength, can be afraid.

Then, just like that, he pulls it together again for a fleeting glimpse Jake saw Leonardo, but now the Master is back, and barking orders.

“Marta!” he calls, turning his head to address a woman standing at the inspection line. “Prep OR now! And get us ready for a blood transfusion- B positive if we have it.”

“On it,” says Marta, and she’s gone just like that. Jake turns his attention back to Leonardo, who has taken O’Neil’s wrist in his, feeling for a pulse.

He’s quiet for several seconds, then he nods to himself and starts asking questions.

“Any idea what did this?”

“It was hounds, sir. I found her with several dead ones.”

“Sounds about right.” Master Leonardo sounds almost amused, though he doesn’t stop his work. “Any sign of infection?”

“No. She was talking and able to walk most of the way.”

Krang infections take over the host so quickly, they would know by now, with a wound like that.

“Hounds can only infect with their bites, and these look like scratches from claws.” Leonardo comes out again, as he reaches for O’Neil’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “Knew you wouldn’t let them get a bite in.”

The way he looks at O’Neil is so tender. They clearly know each other, and not just as fellow resistance commanders. Jake can’t help but wonder how they know each other; how a human and a mutant came to have a bond this close.

He doesn’t have time to ask, of course. Seconds later, O’Neil is being moved to OR, and Leonardo is making to follow them.

“Sir!” Jake calls after him. “Is there anything else I can do to help the commander?”

Master Leonardo barely pauses. “Get yourself checked for infection, and donate blood if you can. Then get some rest. You’ve done enough today.” He glances over his shoulder. “And stop calling me ‘sir’. Makes me feel so old.”

Then he’s gone.

Jake watches the door Leonardo just disappeared through for a second, then moves to do as he was told. He thinks about the way Master Leonardo looked at Commander O’Neil. Like she was part of what he was fighting not to lose.

And he thinks, maybe, that they’re lucky here. That this just might be the resistance that saves the world.

[microsofttothemax]

a long list of post-movie headcanons i randomly thought up

mikey uses braces for his hands, but is reminded not to overwork his hands often

donnie absolutely despises anything brushing against his shell, no one is allowed to touch it without permission

leo permanently wears hearing aids and uses crutches or a wheelchair in the first few months of recovering because he’s used to the low gravity of the prison dimension

mikey has had a lot of breakdowns over worrying his hands will never stop shaking, some days are worse than others

raph freaks out whenever he gets pins and needles in his arms or legs because it feels like krang matter when he got possessed

donnie hates slimy textures, only accepting broth or foods with low flavor, no in-between. spaghetti is banned from the hamato household

casey jr tries to spend most of his time with raph, as he was the first to go in the future timeline

raph often is reminded to eat or sleep, as he spends a lot of time doing chores or standing watch while the others were bedridden

mikey needs help with preparing foods in the months of recovery, splinter often helped him in that time

leo is forbidden to make sacrificing jokes for the foreseeable future, a rule implanted by donnie and supported by the fam

casey jr spent a lot of time by leo’s bedside, reminiscing about his sensei with him

in the weeks after the invasion, when the boys were all still beridden, splinter spent his time reading stories to them to get them to sleep

april spent almost all of her time with her mom and the boys in the weeks after the invasion, helping them recover

the one positive of the invasion was that it brought splinter closer to his sons, he spends as much time as he can with them

casey jr and leo have many inside jokes, no one but them know what they mean

draxum and april are the main two that went out to grab medications and necessities for the lair immediately post-invasion

casey jr often tells stories of the future timeline to the others

[angelpuns]

50au Part 22

“Sooooooooo, Raphael,  right? Where'd you all get your names, anyway?” Leo asked, leaning a little too far into Raph’s space. 

Once Mikey and Donnie had set out on their ingredient-hunt, Raph had helped Leo to the TV room to watch a movie. And instead of watching Leo was asking him questions. 

“ cause they're a little too matchy-matchy to mine, ya know? Makes this whole thing seem like total bullshit,” 

Raph sighed, not daring to look at Leo right now. He was still working on…on being present when it came to hanging out with Leo. It wasn't that he didn't want to hang around his little brother, just sometimes if he looked at him too long he started thinking about…the krang. And nearly killing him. 

And now he got to add the ‘ watch him almost bleed out’ and ‘remember holding him down and tranquilizing him’ to the mix, which was making it really, really hard to not let his mind drift off. 

Because he really, really needed to keep an eye on Leo. Donnie had mentioned that even he didn't know if Leo was faking or not, and that he could try and make a run for it. 

Fucked up leg or not. 

Just when things were getting better for them. For him. Just when Raph and Leo were starting to be normal around each other again, everything seemed to blow up.

“ Pops named us, that's why they match. He was goin' through a super weird art history phase back then, had a buncha random books about it,” He answered, sighing. Raph knew he shouldn't ask at the risk of it making him upset, but he needed to know, “if Pops wasn't there, how'd you get your name?”

Leo leaned out of his space with a laugh, “I was watchin' Romeo and Juliet and thought he was pretty. But Romeo didn't fit me, so I took the actor's name instead,” 

Raph couldn't help but laugh, that sounded like something Leo would do. It was kind of a relief to know that even though his memories didn't have any family, he was the same old Leo. 

“ Sounds like somethin' you'd do, yeah,” He snorted, “once a middle child, always a middle child,” 

“ Yeah, well, I was actually an only child, soooo” Leo shrugged. 

Raph didn't day anything about that. He didn't know what to say. Obviously Leo didn't really believe them, and Raph sure as hell wasn’t gonna be able to convince him. Even Mikey couldn't convince him. 

They were quiet for a while, before Raph finally spared a glance at his brother. 

Leo looked tired. He was watching the movie, but his eyes kept fluttering closed before opening again with a start. Even when he was relaxing against the arm of the couch, Raph could see the tension in his arms and legs. Like he might need to run at any second. It made Raph's chest ache and that persistent fog on the edge of his brain start Creeping in. His little brother was scared  of him. 

As he should be, though. Raph seemed unable to do anything but hurt him, after all. 

“ Didn't sleep well?” He rumbled, instead of spewing all the bullshit that was building up in his head. This wasn't a good idea either, he knew that, but it was better than sitting in silence watching Leo be scared of him. 

Leo glanced over, shrugging a little and fixing his expression into something less exhausted and more neutral. 

“ Eh, but I don't sleep well normally anyway,” He started, opening his mouth to say more and then shutting it again. 

“ yeah, I know. You didn't sleep a ton right after the- “ Raph cut himself off. It was probably not a good idea to bring that up. He didn't want to make Leo even more scared or panic by talking about it. 

He'd gotten better about it in the last couple of months. They all had. But it felt like all progress was out the door on the face of this curse. 

Leo sighed, “...yeah. Had a lot of… a lot of nightmares..” 

Raph swallowed. He really, really didn't want to talk about this. But maybe this would help Leo feel…safe. He didn't know. It felt like the wrong choice to make,but Raph had never been known for making the best choices, even before the invasion. 

“You had one last night?” he murmured, “ That why you were watchin’ the camera light?”

Leo pulled his legs up to his chest, wincing a little when he pulled the injured one up, “ ….yeah. I guess it looked kinda like..when I was stuck in the…well, I guess you know,” 

“ Yeah. I know,” Raph murmured. 

It was quiet again for a moment, the sound of a Lou Jitsu fight playing on the screen, cheesy sound effects and all. 

He cleared his throat. He was going to regret this, but Leo didn't seem anymore tense than before. 

“ You had a nightmare the second day, too,” He murmured, “ that's why Donnie's set up all these crazy precautions and stuff. We didn't want you gettin' scared and runnin' away again…gettin’ hurt bad again,” 

Leo was looking at him. He wasn't looking st his brother, but he could see Leo's gaze on him in his peripherals. Raph couldn’t tell what expression he was making, but he hoped it wasn't scared. He didn't want to see Leo scared anymore. 

“ …oh. Right. That makes sense..” Leo murmured, “ you guys didn't mention that in the video, I- I didn't know that happened….”

“ um…” 

Raph didn't move. Leo put a hand on his arm, “ Look, I'm real sorry about running before…i mean, I really wanted to rjn in this morning, don't get me wrong, but…maybe…i mean this makes some sense, ya know?”

Raph blinked. It was one of the only genuine apologues he'd heard coming from Leo. And he was totally lucid, unlike after the invasion when he'd- 

Don't think about that, Raph. Don't thjk about that right noe. 

“ H-hey, that's okay. I mean, I'da been scared and run off, too,” Raph chuckled, “  a big guy like me comin' in and wakin' you up after a nightmare, I mean, it'd scare anyone”

Leo chuckled and gave him a little pat, “You’re not scary, Raph. From what I can tell, you're just a big ole softie,” 

Leo yawned, stretching his arms up and relaxing back into the cushions, “ I'll bet you wouldn't hurt a fly” 

Raph had been so happy and relieved to hear the first statement that the second one hit like a ton of bricks. He was going to be sick. 

If only Leo knew. If only he knew what Raph had done. Both when he was under the influence of the krang and when he wasn't. Leo would be so scared of him. He should be so scared of him. 

Raph felt like he couldn't move. Not a muscle. He couldn't move or else he'd break whatever trust Leo had in him because if he moved, Leo would know. He'd know to be afraid of Raph. He'd know he wasn't safe like this, not with Raph. 

So he didn't. He sat there and stared through the projector screen, afraid to move or think or breathe. Afraid to even look at Leo again. 

And eventually, Leo scooted closer and closer, sleepily burying his face in his arm and murmuring that he trusted him. He trusted Raph. And that he was just going to take a little nap if that was okay.

Raph didn't move a muscle.

---

I feel like I'm maybe not as good at writing Raph POV so this was interesting to do. I just find his POV difficult cause I having practiced it as much is all.

Anyway he's got a lot of conflicted feelings cause on one hand he wants Leo to trust him more than anything but on the other all he's done lately is hurt Leo and Leo doesn't even KNOW.

Anyway enjoy, I'm queuing this and I will add links later cause I'm sleepy

Part 1 | Part 21 | Part 23

[anime-greek]

(GenisysAU) “Mind Mikeys”

Mikey is taught a spell that is a different way to access a being’s mind (to avoid attacks from within). Angelo is the subject of practice.

The memory of his choice is the day of the Krang invasion for Angelo.

—

If you notice inconsistencies and color errors- no you don’t. That’s in your mind 😭 this is meant to just be sketch colored and that’s it

Started this around October and finally finished. It was sporadically worked on two pages at a time.

1-4 in October ; 5-6 in November ; 7-8 in February ; 9-10 in May

Reason why it kinda took so long is because I switched over to drawing in Procreate on my iPad as opposed to Clip Studio on my computer. I wanted to have the same brush outline and consistent coloring. However I don’t use my computer except for games and animatics now, and even that’s kinda rare-ish.

This was a learning experience for me though so that’s great!

[tmnt-ocxcanon-comp]

TMNT OCxCanon Comp Round 4

Learn more under the cut!

Carla Day

@mortallytransparentzombie

Shipped with Mikey - Friends to lovers

Carla Day is a blue tongue lizard yokai. She befriended Mikey shortly after the Krang invasion, being friends for years before they started dating. Carla is somewhat of a celebrity in the hidden city - dividing her time between her family at home and her bustling music career. Despite her schedule, they make it work and are raising 3 children together. She is kind, very loving and loves to spoil her husband whenever she has the chance. Carla also likes to share tea with her friends, both herbal and verbal.

art by @fruitgoops

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Hassan Singh

@morning-sun-brah

In a relationship with Michelangelo (romantic). Rise!Mikey. 

Description; Hassan is a criminal defense attorney who met Mikey in the back alley of his law firm. Thinking that Michelangelo was illegally tagging (graffiti), a small argument ensued- in where Michelangelo explained that he’d been hired to add a mural to the side of the building. After that they bumped into one another at a City Event (Mikey and his brothers were being awarded for stopping a villain), and Hassan began to send Mikey gifts (hair care products and other expensive things), and eventually they began texting. They fall into the enemies to lovers troupe. Eventually they both fall and love and express their feeling to one another.

art created by Sha-Biest

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[kathaynesart]

Now that we're starting to hop around the timeline a bit, I figured it would be wise to post an official timeline of events to avoid confusion (note: always subject to change). I had also considered doing a similar Happy>Angst Scale Timeline like what Cass and Tapa have done in the past but... even I'm not 100% sure I want to see what that is going to look like haha.

NOTES OF INTEREST LISTED BELOW:

Pre 2022 is literally just the show ROTTMNT. These boys are supposed to be as close to canon as possible so it's a good reminder that everything that happened in the show happened to them as well (no they were not human kids that got mutated at a zoo, that was a big fat lie they told the EPF, I keep getting questions about that haha).

2022 - The Invasion catches them all by surprise and the Krang begin their conquest of the planet Earth. The Mad Dogs do what they can, but are as much in the dark as the rest of the world as to what these things are and where they came from.

2026 - This is the point where THIS INTERVIEW happens. Their Lair is destroyed by the Krang, as is the Hidden City. Splinter is killed and with nowhere left to go the boys turn to the last remaining human colony in the US. It is here they finally discover the true origins of the Krang and Leo realizes his hand in it.

2028 - The Holiday Special when Casey Junior is born! Look forward to it!

2030 - "The Day the Sky Bled Red" The fall of the Central Park Colony, the EPF, and the last remnants of the US Government. The survivors create the Liberty Colony located beneath the Statue of Liberty and form the Resistance, where humans, yokai, and mutants are treated equally.

2036-44 - Where the vast majority of Replica's story will be told.

Leaving some details sparse because they'll probably be addressed at some point in the story, but hopefully this information might help give better context.

[goodlucktai]

only going up from here

rise of the tmnt word count: 4k pairing: leo & mikey i wrote this for one of my very favorite people and best friends, the bentley to my bookshop and ben to my sammy and mikey to my leo. HAPPY BIRTHDAY @mykimouser! i'm genuinely better off for having you in my life, it would be significantly darker around here without you. i hope your day is absolutely amazing and you're surrounded by people who love you and you get everything you want forever <3 title borrowed from bummerland by AJR read on ao3

x

If you asked Mikey if he was protective of Leo, he would say of course he is! He wouldn’t even have to think about it, what kind of question is that? He’s protective of everything and everyone he loves, and he loves all his siblings more than life itself.  

If you asked Mikey if he was overprotective of Leo, he would say whaaaat? I don’t—I think you’re breaking up actually, shhhcchhkkchhssh—and he’d artfully dodge the conversation by literally sprinting away from it.

The thing is, Mikey knows how annoying it is to have well-meaning loved ones go into hypervigilant mode anytime they come within a five-foot radius of your person. He’s been lobbying since he was twelve for Raph to take the kid gloves off! And throw them far away!! Down a deep hole that Donnie could fill with cement and Leo could plant fake biohazard warning signs around so that no one would ever dare excavate!! 

But Leo has always been independent, more than any of the rest of them. More than maybe he really wanted to be. He takes care of himself, like he has to—like there aren’t a half dozen people around him who would happily do it, who want to do it, who would jump at the first chance to prove that he can depend on them for anything. 

Mikey doesn’t know when Leo got this idea in his head that dealing with him is a chore but it’s an idea that grew up with him. That grew about ten feet taller after the Krang invasion. It’s always towering over them, keeping Leo even further from the people who love him with both its long unwanted arms. 

Sometimes Mikey can slink past those arms and find the hole that Leo hides in and climb in there with him. He’s the best at it, because he’s the smallest, and the one their enemy’s eyes tend to jump right over when they’re sussing out a fight. He can go places the others can’t. And it’s a rule of the universe that once he gets within hugging distance of his brothers, they’re compelled at a molecular level to hug him. 

When they’re holed up together, in that place Leo goes to when he’s alone, it gets a little warmer but it’s still cold. It feels like one of those early winter mornings when the shadows are the longest and darkest and cover more ground than they do the rest of the year and Mikey is just waiting for that spring thaw. He’s been waiting for what feels like forever, but he knows it’ll come. He knows it will.

Two months after the invasion, the sun peeks out.  

“I’m going to tío’s,” Leo announces to the lair, one foot out the door already. 

There’s an immediate crash from the lab, and the familiar sound of a weighted barbell falling on a snapper’s chest from the dojo, as two older brothers scramble to either throw their entire weight into stopping him somehow (impossible) or at least convince him that one of them should tag along (more likely, but Leo would not be happy about it). 

Mikey scrambles from his upside-down seat on the sofa to poke his head over the back of it and call out, “Can I come?” 

Leo glances back down the hall, probably calculating the seconds until his quick escape is botched, but then he looks back at Mikey with that crooked, mischievous smile that’s been Mikey’s favorite since he was two.

“Grab your shoes, Miguelito. We’re prison breaking.” 

“Gimme two shakes!” Mikey says over his shoulder, already bolting for his room. 

Mikey’s arms have mostly healed up from the golden portal he opened into the Prison Dimension. There isn’t a crack or a scar left but the lingering nerve damage is killer. The colorful custom arm braces that Draxum sourced for him help a lot and he’s good about remembering to wear them—so there is really no reason for their entire family to be such worrywarts about it. Especially when Don’s shell is still too tender for battle armor and Raph’s lucky he can still see out of his right eye. 

“It’s because you’re both the babies,” April said a few weeks into their collective recovery period, poking Mikey right on the beak that he had wrinkled in frustration. “The youngest in the whole clan. Even Casey Jr.’s older than you two. Deal with it.” 

Donatello is technically a month older than his twin, not that either of them care about pesky things like birth dates. They’re twins in their souls. Even though that means Leo has to grit his teeth and plot convoluted revenge when Donnie dares play the older twin card. 

But also, Mikey knows even though no one has come out and said it, they’re the two who scared the rest of their family the most. 

Donnie and Raph did what they had to do because it was their direct responsibility. Donnie was the only person alive who could have piloted the Technodrome with some degree of success even without his ninpo-powered technopathy. And Raph gave Leo his escape pod because his top priorities have always started and ended with his little brothers. If there had been another way out, he would have taken it. 

Mikey was willing to disintegrate to get Leo out, holding that portal open even though it hurt, even though every ounce of instinct and intuition was telling him to let go, even though he had no way of really knowing it would work the way he wanted it to. Leo threw himself feet first into hell for the rest of them and came out the other side broken and bleeding and traumatized, and he wasn’t sorry he did it. He would do it again, and again, and again. 

So—Mikey gets it. He does. 

It doesn’t stop him from cramming his Jordans on and snatching up the nearest hoodie—pink; he never gave that back to Raphie, oops. He whirls around to find Leo in his doorway, sword slung over his shoulder, weight braced on the neon blue foldable crutch in his opposite arm. 

“Little rowdy back there,” Leo says peacefully, regarding the state of chaos in the lair as their older brothers actively hunt them down. “Let’s take off from here.”

“You got it, boss,” Mikey chirps, hopping in place as he ties his shoe. 

The cyan portal opens as easily as April opens her bedroom window to usher them in for a movie night, bright and inviting. Having opened a portal of his own, Mikey has a brand-new appreciation for how incredible Leo’s ninpo is. He’s never hesitated to hop right through, even back when Leo was still getting the hang of it—either he’ll go where he’s meant to, or he’ll have a fun adventure wherever he does end up. Literally win-win. 

He steps out into Run of the Mill’s back of house. A harried server pauses mid-step to give him a strange look. Then she visibly clocks the blue of the portal behind him, rolls her eyes and continues on her way. Mikey beams at her retreating figure. She should know who Leo is, Leo is the best. 

Leo takes long enough to join him that Mikey has started poking around in the dry storage area. 

“Raph caught me,” Leo says faux-somberly. “I let him know we’d be home by dinner.” 

“With some calzones as a peace offering,” Mikey says with a nod, matching his grave tone. It makes Leo crack a smile, because it’s always charming to him when his siblings commit to the bit. 

“Can I please get through for a can of tomato paste,” a salamander yokai in an apron and unnecessary hairnet says loudly from behind them. Oh, they are kind of just hogging the whole doorway, huh?

“Weeeell, since you said please,” Leo replies, steering Mikey by the shoulders out of dry storage through the prep kitchen and out the employees-only door. 

Mikey ambles along agreeably, and accepts the hot basket of mozzy sticks Leo plops into his hands without questioning where it came from, and hops up into a seat at the bar since the dining room is pretty full. 

“I’m gonna go bug tío Hueso for a bit,” Leo says. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and if you do—”

“—deny everything and throw Draxum under the bus however I possibly can,” Mikey recites. He would never actually throw Draxum under the bus—unless it was a really funny bus—but they both know that so there’s no point bringing it up. 

“You’re my favorite,” Leo tells him. He knocks his knuckles on the bartop to get the attention of the rabbit yokai back there and wiggles his fingers in a wave when he has it. The yokai’s fur poofs a bit, like always, and he immediately drops the handful of forks he was holding with a noisy clatter. Then Leo whirls off to go make trouble elsewhere, crutch slowing him down not at all. 

The rabbit yokai is one Mikey knows pretty well from a hundred other afternoons just like this one. Usagi isn’t old enough to serve drinks, but he likes to roll silverware behind the bar so he can prop his phone up beneath the counter and watch TikToks. He always watches the Hamatos when they come in—maybe one Hamato in particular. 

It would probably make him less flustered around Leo if he knew that Leo’s entire family had a betting pool going on the two of them. Or maybe it would make it worse. Hmmmm. Mikey won’t mention it just in case. 

“Hi, Usagi,” Mikey says cheerfully, popping open the lid on the marinara sauce nestled into his ill-gotten gains. “Mozzy stick?”

“Hi, Mikey,” Usagi replies. “No, thanks. I’ve already eaten like a million garlic knots today and señor Hueso is making me take the leftover lasagna home since Auntie isn’t back until—” He cuts himself off, embarrassed. He always volunteers a ton of information and then wrongly assumes his friends don’t want to hear about all of that and reels himself back in. “Anyway! How are things?”

“Good!” Mikey says. “I’ve been one-hundred percenting all my Pokemon games since I’m stuck inside so much.”

Instead of remarking on that, or on the bright eye-catching colors of his arm braces, Usagi says, “Woah, even Diamond?”

“Yeah! Ohmigosh, I forgot to tell you, I caught Feebas!” Mikey pulls his phone out to show him proof, the victorious picture taken of his Switch screen. “I finally had to just lock in and totally ignore my phone for like two hours. Raph definitely thought I died when I didn’t reply to a meme Donnie sent in our group chat. Check it out!” 

Usagi leans over the bar to see and his reaction is everything Mikey could have hoped for. He gasps, “It’s a shiny?” 

“It’s a shiny!” Mikey hollers, then ducks his head a bit when the actual bartender gives the two of them a pointed look. Tucking his phone away, he says, “So what is your aunt up to? And what does it have to do with leftover lasagna?” 

“Oh! Well, she’s visiting with her sister, and I told her I could definitely fend for myself while she was gone, but yesterday there was kind of an incident with the microwave—”

Someone settles into a stool at Mikey’s right, and cuts right over Usagi to say, “Hey, Michael, right?”

Mikey glances over to find a really tall cat yokai, tawny fur with a black rosette pattern which makes Mikey think of a jaguar, except his ears are long and fluffy, and his face is distinctly more human than feline. 

“Half-right,” Mikey responds, frowning. “You just completely talked over my friend, bee tee dubs.”

“I’m sorry!” the cat is quick to apologize. “I didn’t realize you were friends, I thought he just worked here. You don’t mind, do you?” he adds to Usagi. 

Usagi has the deer-in-headlights look of someone thrust into a social interaction they Do Not Want To Have, and Mikey cringes a little at himself for it. Resolving to make it up to him later, he swivels in his seat to get the attention back on himself. 

“What’s up?” he says, hoping they can speedrun whatever this is. 

“I was just wondering how you’ve been since the invasion,” the cat says. “We haven’t seen you or your brothers around here much recently.” 

“Yeah, we’ve been spending more time at home,” Mikey says, the usual canned response they’ve taken to giving when their friends and associates wonder about their less frequent appearances lately. “We had some close calls but—you know, we won, so.” 

Usagi’s ear twitches, and his mouth turns down, and he gives the silverware he’s rolling his full attention. He has a lot of feelings about the Hamatos being involved in a huge fight that he was completely unaware of until it was long over. Mikey thinks he would have helped if they’d asked him to. He’d definitely do anything if Leo asked. But how could they ask? 

The cat yokai says, “Yeah, I saw the footage. Very impressive.” 

Mikey frowns and stops turning his seat back and forth. “Donnie—my brother wiped all the footage with us in it.” 

“I’m sure he did. But someone captured a few minutes of your battle on a scrying mirror and it made the rounds down here.”  

Ugh, magic, Mikey thinks with derision for the very first time in his life.

He makes a mental note to ask Draxum about how they can get rid of that footage, too. 

If Draxum doesn’t know, Big Mama will. Leo is her favorite. 

“Did I see Leonardo come in with you?” the yokai is saying, leaning in a little. “A few of my buddies and I, we were wondering if we could interest him in a proposal.”

A suspicious little animal in the back of Mikey’s brain sits up straight and starts paying attention. It’s weird that the guy guessed at Mikey’s name but knows Leo’s. It’s weird that he’s been paying attention to their comings and goings from the one place in the Hidden Cities they frequent regularly. And it’s weird that he has a proposal for a teenager.

On the other side of the bar, Usagi’s eyes are dark and watchful. He and Leo can talk shop about kenjutsu for hours at a time, and in this second Mikey doesn’t have trouble imagining Usagi with a sword in his hand. 

“Why?” Mikey says. 

“Those portals—I’ve never seen anything like it,” the cat says. “He could do so much with that ability. I’m sure he’s got people falling over themselves left and right to offer him work, but my employer could probably double any standing offers.” 

He still sounds surface-level friendly and admiring, but there’s a rot beneath it all, sickly-sweet. A greed. Mikey abruptly wants this guy at least one ocean and a language barrier away from himself and his big brother. 

Yeah, Leo’s portals are second-to-none. It’s incredible, the way he can think in three different places at once and account for every single sibling on the field like he’s playing 5D chess while everyone else is playing checkers. He makes it look easy because he’s Leo, and that’s what he does—he makes impossible stuff look like a breeze. Give his ninpo to a clown like this cat and they wouldn’t be able to accomplish a tenth of what Leo has in two years. Even if they had a hundred years. 

And Mikey can feel himself falling into that trap that Raphael so often falls into—that Donatello is guilty of tripping into now and then—the overprotective one. In the same second he thinks about how capable and cool Leo is, he’s thinking about how he would do anything to keep creeps like this away from him. He’s thinking about how Leo deserves to be around people who like him and appreciate him for him, and not for what he can do for them. 

“He’s sixteen,” Mikey says coldly. To him, sixteen feels very grown-up, but he makes sure to say it the way everyone else in his family constantly says it. “If he wanted a job, he’d work here.” 

“Oh, yes!” Usagi blurts. Then, “Uh, I mean, we’re hiring.” 

“A guy who can portal like that, taking pizza orders? Please,” the yokai says with an amiable grin, like they’re all in on the joke together. “Seriously, can I give you my card? Let him think about it. He could, uh—do some real good. For the community, you know? The Krang left a mark everywhere, even here. If he wanted to give back, there are lots of opportunities.” 

He takes a monochrome business card out of his wallet and slides it across the bar. Mikey doesn’t even look at it. He can feel himself getting really, properly angry. 

Leo’s too clever to get played, but he’s so guilt-motivated. He’s got that huge shadow hanging over him that convinces him so easily that he has all this stuff he has to make up for. He has all this love he has to earn. If this creep framed his job opportunity to Leo as a way to give back, to help people in the wake of an invasion he entirely blames himself for, then Leo would be lured right in. It wouldn’t even be hard. 

Michelangelo is so. Sick. Of this guy. 

“Can I just save you the time?” he says, smiling super brightly. “He’s not interested.”

The yokai’s smile fades a little, expression distinctly less friendly, but just for a second. He looks at something above Mikey’s head, and the smile stretches back out again. 

“I’ll wait to hear that from him,” the guy says, nodding to indicate something behind Mikey. 

Looking over his shoulder, Mikey sees Leo and Hueso chatting as they emerge from the office. Leo is waving his hand while he tells whatever story he’s telling, bright and animated, a far cry from that frightened boy they pulled out of the Prison Dimension. He feels safe here and he doesn’t have to put on a performance for anybody here and it shows. It’s why Raph let him go earlier without much of an argument. 

Mikey isn’t about to let anybody ruin it for him. 

Hueso wouldn’t exactly thank him for starting a brawl in his restaurant during the late lunch rush—and Mikey’s done a really good job of not getting banned this month! 

So sabotage it is. 

He’s the youngest of five—six, now, with the addition of Junior to their ranks—and when it comes to big, wounded eyes and crocodile tears to shake dad off his trail and throw another sibling under the bus, nobody does it better than him. 

Moving fast, Mikey pitches himself sideways off his seat. The stool clatters over noisily and Leo looks up in time to see Mikey hit the floor. Picture-perfect. 

“Ow!” he cries out, only half-faked. He did kind of land on one of his wrists a little too hard. 

“What the hell,” the yokai says dumbly. 

Leonardo is beside Mikey so fast, Mikey’s not one-hundred percent convinced he didn’t teleport himself there. He crouches, broken knee and all, and says, “Gravity two-hundred and eight, Angie zero.”

“No fair,” Mikey protests, sitting up. “It was two-hundred and two yesterday.” 

“Well, this wipe-out was embarrassing enough it’s worth multiple points.” 

Despite his teasing, Leo is entirely focused as he tests Mikey’s wrist for pain. When that doesn’t cause more than a wince, he pulls at the velcro straps until it’s loose enough to slide off. Mikey patiently endures Doctor Leon’s careful assessment of his arm, and buckles the brace back on when he’s allowed to. 

“What the heck happened?” Leo only asks when Mikey is helping him to his feet. 

“That guy pushed me down,” Mikey said immediately, head lowered enough that he has to look up more than usual to meet Leo’s eyes. 

“What?” the yokai snaps. “I didn’t push you down!”

“Sure, I just decided to fall down for no reason,” Mikey shoots back sarcastically. 

“That’s exactly what you did!” 

Leo glances at Usagi, the only eye-witness. Usagi says, to the cat yokai, “I saw the whole thing, man. You’re really gonna sit there and lie?”

Oh, we’re keeping you, Mikey thinks gleefully, almost forgetting to ham up his hurt expression. 

The cat yokai is definitely pissed off, but Leo stands up tall and steps in front of Mikey, his body language daring the guy to say one unkind word about his little brother. Hueso takes over before anything unfortunate can happen, encouraging the yokai to get his food to go and also to consider never coming back to this establishment since he thinks it’s acceptable behavior to bully a child, et cetera. All in a day’s work. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Mikey sees Usagi sweep the business card off the bar and probably into the trash somewhere behind it. 

They hang out at the bar for the rest of the afternoon. Usagi isn’t on the floor today, restocking and cleaning and running food instead, so he gets away with chatting and sneaking them free cranberries-on-the-rocks up until they leave. Leo finds out about the leftover lasagna situation and convinces the rabbit to come over for dinner, including a calzone for him in their take-home order to sweeten the deal.

“Uh,” Usagi says, “sure. Okay. That’d be—yeah.”

“Nice,” Leo says. He sounds way cooler about it than Mikey knows for a fact that he is on the inside. But that’s Leo to a tee—make it look easy. Don’t let anybody in on the big secret that you struggle, too. You have to unlock like fourteen friendship tiers before you get on the other side of all that. 

They portal most of the way to their favorite manhole back home, walking the final city block for a few extra minutes under the warm red evening sky. 

“So what happened with Puss in Boots back there?” Leo says apropos of nothing, when Mikey’s dramatic rendition of his capture of the Feebas and ultimate one-hundred percent completion of Brilliant Diamond has winded down. 

Mikey looks at him sidelong, but Leo is still looking ahead. He does kind of need to pay attention, the city sidewalks aren’t always clear, but that usually doesn’t stop him from looking at his brothers while they talk, to his brothers’ eternal exasperation. 

“I told you, he pushed me.”

“Uh-huh. And what actually happened?”

Ughhhhhh, Mikey has only fooled Leo like three times in his entire life, why did he automatically assume this would be success story number four? 

“That guy was weird,” Mikey mutters. He watches the ground while they walk, his untied shoelace flapping around with every step. “He knew about your portals and wanted stuff from you. He was super shady, Lee! He was like if Kingpin from the Spider-Man comics and Gaston from Beauty and the Beast had a baby. And were cats.”

Leo snorts, and Mikey jerks around so fast he’s not able to hide his smile in time. 

Aha! Mikey thinks, doing cartwheels in his mind. He laughed, I win!

“I’m not gonna let anybody walk all over you,” Mikey says, clenching one fist in front of him. “I know that you don’t need anybody looking out for you—believe me, I know.” They share a commiserating look, two little brothers against the world. Leo looks distinctly amused, like everything Mikey does is worth watching and bragging about later. “But I just love you so much, Leo. If this was a perfect world, everyone would love you as much as I do. But since that’s impossible, and no one will ever usurp me from my number one spot as your biggest fan, then I’ll settle for everyone at least liking you as much as I do. Which is still a pretty high bar, but it’s doable. If they just put the hours in, if they, you know, worked for it—”

“Oh my god, Miguel, stop,” Leo says, pushing at his shoulder. Mikey sways sideways with the push and comes right back, undeterred. 

“I’m unstoppable!” he hollers, lifting both arms and punching his fists up above his head. 

“Yeah,” Leonardo says, sounding like his old self again—sixteen years old, the whole world in his corner. “You’re the best.”

Mikey thinks he could do anything, he could light up the sky, he could punch a hole in the dimension, he could travel through time—he can definitely protect his brother. He’s the only person in the world who can get away with doing it, after all. That’s a big responsibility. Good thing Mikey is big enough to hold it. 

Daylight is only an afterthought in the sky now, all those rich autumn colors dimming into deep, vivid hues of purple and blue. The tunnel home is just around the corner, and they’ll have to reheat the food when they get there, but they’ll have to reheat Usagi’s anyway. 

When Leo reaches over and strings his arm around Mikey’s shoulders, Mikey adjusts his stride, shuffles his takeout bags to one hand, and puts his arm around Leo right back. 

“Thanks, Mike,” Leo says. “For being on my team. I know I don’t make it easy.”

“Your team is the only place I wanna be,” Mikey announces, when he’s sure his voice won’t wobble and give the wet sheen in his eyes away. “If you ever try to kick me out I will make your life a living hell. It seriously would not be worth it for you. Don’t tell Raph I said hell.”

Leo throws back his head and laughs for real. His crutch skids on a dead leaf and since they’re attached to each other they both stumble wildly and almost drop the calzones and get dirty looks from other Manhattanites. It’s the kind of moment that becomes the kind of memory that settles deep in the core of a person, never to be forgotten. 

And Mikey sees it—spring. The sun is finally coming out. Someday really soon, he thinks, those shadows that cling to Leo will have to find someone else to haunt. 

Until then, he can be sunshine enough for them both. 

[gooeseyleo]

Gooseyleo Masterpost

Welcome to Gooseyleo~

Leo awakens to a post-apocalyptic New York following the Krang invasion. To his horror, he seems to be the only survivor. For years, he lives alone, until he runs into a strangely intelligent goose that befriends him on the spot. Antics and mysteries ensue as what happened to Leo's family, and the city in general, are revealed. But mostly silly goose antics.

Warning: This AU contains a LOT of angst as well as comfort and silliness. Each angst post will be tagged accordingly

Bear with me as I work thru getting everything organized! ^^' I'm going to update this as I post more!

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Before Goosey

Childhood memories

Afterman

Soup (angst)

Leaves from the Vine (angst)

Kendra and Donnie (angst)

Need Some Sleep || Don't Make Promises

We Need You

Donnie and Goosey

Prologue (heavy angst; grief, familial death, blood, thoughts of suicide, funeral, survior guilt)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7||Part 8||END

Leo remembers Splinter (mild angst)

Food: step one (mild suicidal ideation, grief)

Gooseyleo

And so it begins...(first Gooseyleo ever!)

Bread and a Box

Petting the Goose

silly goose

Staying Warm

Best Buddies

Habaneros

Passing on the Mask

Leo finds a motorcycle

Leo tries to find clothes that fit him

Watching TV late at night isn't good for your brain

Peepaw having a moment

Goosey ESA

Fabuloso

New Rule

Leo's birthday

Valentine's Day

Fear of water

Goosey's Nightmare (angst) Another nightmare (angst) And another nightmare (tw flashing, glitching)

Survivor's Guilt (mild angst)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

The Next Morning...

Part 1 || Part 2

The Barrier

The Wilds

Prosthesis (angst)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8 || Part 9 || Part 10 ||

Casey Junior

Goosey and Mikey (mild angst)

Yuichi has entered the chat

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Miscellaneous (outside of timeline)

Robots FTW

You Got the Goods (although they do have fashion shows every friday, these are non-specific in the timeline)

Gooseyleo Requests

Ref sheets

Retconned:

Seeking shelter in a sandstorm (angst, blood, trauma) (SCRAPPED)

Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3 || Part 4 || Part 5 || Part 6 || Part 7 || Part 8

[blueberri-blu]

hello hello!! <3 Might I perhaps ask for some rise don/reader after the events of the movie? I rewatched it recently and woof. comfort fic needed. maybe he's staying with his partner while the lair's being patched up and they're struggling to get him to part with his battle shell for bed time? or something to that effect. -@boybeholding

Squealing, twirling my hair, kicking my feet! Thank you so much for the request! I absolutely love this idea!! ♡⁠(⁠˃͈⁠ ⁠દ⁠ ⁠˂͈⁠ ⁠༶⁠ ⁠)

Of course you may!! I re-watched the movie and, I sobbed, with snot coming out of my nose and everything (⁠っ⁠˘̩⁠╭⁠╮⁠˘̩⁠)⁠っ

Flood after the Storm ｡⁠:ﾟ

As Donnie moved many of his things to your place, you allowed him to set up his lab in the living room/spare bedroom. Most of the day was spent moving and cleaning. Cleaning the lair, seeing how to repair it, and moving things from the lair to their temporary homes.

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The battle left everyone with scars. Raph and Leo beat themselves up over almost not being able to protect their brothers, Mikey seemed to try to cheer everyone up, even though he was the one who needed it. Yet your turtle seemed to act as if nothing happened. You'll admit, he was a bit more emotionally expressive but, other than that, he didn't seem to acknowledge it at all. Due to the lair being... Well not in its best shape, Between you, April, and Cassandra, the turtles split up into y'all's places. Donnie, being your genius boyfriend, obviously stayed with you, and his brothers decided they stay with April or Cassandra, to give you and Donnie alone time.

As you and Donnie finally settled in for the night, you could tell Donnie was in deep thought as he unpacked. You decided to just stay near him, giving him space while still letting him know you're there for him. But as your eyelids felt heavier and heavier, you decided to talk to him. "Hey, don...?" "Yes, my dear?" He said all too quickly. "How are you feeling?" "Well, I must admit, my brothers have yet to give me their opinions on my rescue pods, however I do believe they were extremely satisfied, so I'll be working on them tonight so they're reusable". You knew that gathering data helped him calm down (as he made this very well known during the Krang invasion), so you decided to help him collect data from his brothers and April. Once his spreadsheet of opinions was done, you told him that it would be better if he worked on them tomorrow, as his brain would function much better after a good night's rest. "Grumble... I suppose you are correct" he said with narrow eyes. As you finished your nightly routine, you realized Donnie was in bed... With his battle shell still on. You decided that maybe you'd let him leave it on for a couple days, knowing how vulnerable he felt without it during the battle.

That was 2 months ago. Now, you struggled to get him to bed, he was upgrading the escape pods, making armour for his brothers, and trying to upgrade his battle shell. You also noticed he would randomly check Leo's location, and text or call him to check in. You knew it was going to take a good amount of time for him to settle down, but he was still going to bed with his battle shell on.

You had finally had enough, as much as you tried, you couldn't get him to open up to you. Although he was more open to giving you affection, calling you by pet names such as Love, Dear, Mon Amor, and Mi Amor, he refused to talk about the invasion. So that night, as you laid in bed, waiting for Donnie, you thought of a plan. With a newfound confidence, you marched up to Donnie in his makeshift lab, and started to cry.

Donnie was immediately pulled from his work, and ran to you, frantically asking you what was wrong. And you started to talk to him about how the invasion affected you. How you had night terrors, often waking up just to check in on him and make sure he was alive, how you went into fight mode whenever you heard loud noises, and how you desperately wanted to help him.

After you let your feelings out, and calmed down, you looked at Donnie, and told him that most of all, you were worried about him. That you understood that he was acting this way because of what happened, and that you would wait for him to open up, but most of all, that you wanted to help him get better, you wanted him to get better. After hearing this, Donnie realized that he'd been repressing everything that happened, and, due to you opening up to him, he realized you probably felt alone and scared. So, your show of trust comforted him enough to open up to you.

He told you everything, how he was scared for Raph's life, how he felt helpless and vulnerable without his battle shell, and how he felt like a horrible brother for not being able to save Mikey and him from being crushed, and most importantly, just how soul crushing it was to think Leo had died. In that moment, he opened his heart out to you, and you held him gently, while holding him tightly, rubbing his arms, rocking him, and crying along with him.

By the end of it, you and him were wet with tears, trembling from how vulnerable you two were to each other. Once you two calmed down enough, you hugged each other as you walked to your bedroom. Once you sat on the bed, you gently rubbed Donnie's shoulder, quietly asking if you could take his battle shell off. He was hesitant, but nodded. You took his battle shell off, along with his shoulder and knee pads, and finally his mask.

You both laid on your bed, his head on your chest, your beating heart bringing comfort. You laid like this the entire night. Your newfound trust for each other only strengthened with time, as you both grew, you healed from old scars, and as new ones appeared, you worked through them, together.

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I really hope you liked it! I tried my best to keep it in character! I loved this request!! Was definitely needed after the events of the movie, thank you so much for the ask!! I love it when you guys send them! Anyway, hope you are all doing well, I love y'all <3