#donnie: leo where’s part nine | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dandylovesturtles · 6 months

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leo and mikey, treat

(fav duo tbh, pretty underrated)

More Sidelined AU! Are you sick of me yet? Hopefully not because this has consumed my brain.

Part 1

Part 2

We're jumping ahead a bit in time to hopefully give you guys a bit more idea of The Flavor of this AU. And also to give it a bit of a happier note. It's not all doom and gloom!

No content warnings to speak of on this one

---

Mikey lands on the roof and powers on his earpiece, whispering, "Mikey in position. Can you hear me, Base? Come in Base."

"Helloooo New York City," comes Leo's voice, loud and clear. "You're tuning into L.A.I.R 179.12, with your host, DJ Neon Leon! Bringing you the hottest rock from the other side of the millennia."

Mikey snickers, then tries to pull himself back together. "Leo, come on! I'm here."

"Who?"

He sighs, even though he isn't mad at all. "I'm here, DJ Neon Leon."

"Ohohoho, excellent." He hears the click of typing, and then Leo says, "Can you get me visuals, Shelldon?"

"Right away, Neon Leon," Shelldon's voice crackles through the comms. There's a moment of silence, and Mikey can just imagine Leo rolling his chair around his "command center."

(He and Donnie had spent ages building it to look like the bridge of the S.S. Starbolt, with added mobility access, of course. Leo loves it as much as Donnie loves his lab.)

"Got your visuals, dudes," says Shelldon. There's some more typing from Leo's end, then he says, "Alright, Miguel, you should see two guards coming around the building riiiiight... now!"

Sure enough, two guards in plainclothes circle either side of the old apartment building across the street. Mikey watches as the two of them meet in front of the entrance, exchange a few words, then turn and head back the way they came.

"Right on time, Leo."

"Perfect, we're synced." Some more typing, and then, "The rooftop will be clear - let me know when you're over there and I'll get you inside."

"Roger that," he says. "Mikey out." Then he clicks his earpiece to silenced.

A hop, skip, and a jump later he's on the opposite roof. There's a door here, and he edges toward it before contacting Leo again.

"I'm here!"

"Alright... Disabling alarms... now!" Mikey can just see how dramatically he must have pushed the button. "Check the door to see if it's locked."

Mikey reaches out and jiggles the handle, but it doesn't budge. "Locked."

"Alright, no problem - you got your lockpicks?"

"Yep!"

"Remember what I taught you?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Alright. Make me proud, little bro."

Mikey grins, pulling his lockpicking kit out of his gear. It takes him a few minutes, because he's nowhere near as fast at this as Leo is, but he gets it done without needing to ask for help. The training Leo made him go through is still fresh in his mind.

"Alright, I'm in," he says as he slips through the door. He's in a deserted stairwell, but just to be safe he crouches down into the shadows near the wall.

"So far, so good. You need to go down two flights of stairs. No guards are coming around right now, but keep it quiet just in case."

"Don't worry, I'll be silent as a mouse!"

"Knowing Dad that's not giving me as much confidence as you think."

Mikey giggles, then sucks in a breath and gets his game face on. Right. Silent. Ninja skills GO.

He does manage to make it to the right floor without major incident. There's no one in the hall when he enters, looking at the rows of numbered doors. He doesn't know why this is where the artifact is being kept hidden, but it doesn't matter.

"According to our intel, you should be looking for door four-oh-nine," says Leo. "The floor's clear, so get goin'."

"Got it," whispers Mikey, then hurries along in a silent crouch to the door Leo specified. He stops when he gets there, hissing in disappointment.

"What's up?"

"There's some kind of keypad lock."

"No problem. Just hook Donnie's doohickey in there."

Donnie would definitely hate it if he heard them calling it a "doohickey," and that makes Mikey grin. He pulls it out of his gear (it looks like a USB stick, but slightly thinner) and slips it into the maintenance slot on the keypad.

"Alriiight, hacking in progress," says Leo. "Big solo mish is going pretty smoothly so far, huh?"

"Yep," says Mikey proudly. "Told you guys I got this."

"That you did. Oh, and... alakazam!"

There's a click as he says it, then the red light on the keypad turns green. Mikey grins and opens the door, slipping inside the dusty apartment.

"You're getting pretty good at that hacking thing."

"Uh, you know I don't actually hack anything, right bud? I just get Shelly here to do it for me, or shoot it off to Dee if it's too complex."

"Don't sell yourself so short, dude!" says Shelldon. "You're picking it up real quick!"

"Ugh, don't say that. It makes me sound like nerd."

Mikey laughs again, searching the apartment for... well, he's not sure exactly. But he's pretty sure he'll know it when he sees it.

"What's the Foot Clan want this thing for, anyway?" he asks.

"Ours is not to question why, Miguel. I'm leaving that question for Donnie to answer."

"Mm... guess so..." He's about to say something else, but then he feels... something. Like a pulse, getting stronger as he moves toward a closet.

"...I think... I can feel it."

"Feel it?"

"Yeah... it's like..." He frowns, moving forward. "Like it's calling to me."

He opens the closet to find a safe. It also has an electronic lock, so once again he inserts the doohickey. The safe door opens with a click, and he peers inside.

There's only one item: a glittering green stone, with markings he doesn't understand carved in its surface. The pulse is super strong now, waves of energy washing over Mikey. Whatever this thing is, it's definitely powerful.

"I found it!" he says to Leo, a little louder than he should. He reaches in and wraps his fingers around it.

"Great! Hold on, just let me see if-"

Before he finishes his sentence, Mikey pulls the stone out - and immediately a loud alarm starts blaring, making him jump.

"What the heck is that!?" he yelps, jumping to his feet. He hears Leo curse on the other end of the line.

"Pressure alarm. Get out of there!"

The windows are barred - it's why he didn't come in that way in the first place. Mikey has no choice but to go back the way he came, dashing into the hallway. He turns on his heel and is making for the stairwell when his earpiece crackles again.

"No good, they're coming up the stairs."

"Then where am I supposed to go!?" he asks, frantic. All the windows are barred in the hallway, too, so that's no good.

"Okay, okay, hold on... oh, I got it! Opposite direction, about five doors down. Laundry chute."

Mikey sprints. Just as he hears the door of the stairwell open, he's tipping into the chute, pulling his limbs into his shell.

Getting chased by guards? No fun. Sliding down a laundry chute? Very fun.

"Whoooohoohooo!" he cheers when he reaches the bottom, landing in a pile of old rags and t-shirts. "That was awesome!"

"I remember having a distinctly less fun time the last time I had to do that," says Leo. "Anyway, stay there. I'm going to set off the roof access alarms and lure the guards up top, then you go up the stairs and slip out the front. Got it?"

"Got it!"

Leo's plan goes perfectly, and within a few minutes he's back outside. One later and he's back on the rooftops, running to safety.

"Yessss!" he yells once he's finally far enough away, jumping in the air and pumping his fist. "Mission successful baby!"

"I knew you could do it, little bro!" cheers Leo, his voice full of pride, and it makes Mikey beam.

"Couldn't have done it without you, Leo," he says back, truthfully.

It takes Leo a second to answer, which puts the smallest damper on Mikey's enthusiasm, but finally he comes back with, "Sure thing. You know I'm always here to help."

It's not perfect. But it's getting better. Leo is getting better, every day.

Mikey's celebratory mood cannot be quashed. He whoops again, eliciting laughs from Leo's end.

"Alright, now get your butt home before Raph freaks out. He's walked past my door twelve times."

"Thirteen," Shelldon corrects.

"Thirteen!" Leo echoes.

"You got it! Mikey out!"

He clicks the earpiece to silent, then runs and jumps to the next roof with an extra spring in his step. His solo mission was a complete success!

Of course, no missions were truly solo anymore. Not with his faithful older brother ever in his ear.

#dandy fanfiction #rottmnt #dandy trick or treat #rise mikey #rise leo #sidelined au #I told you it would get better <3

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halogalopaghost · 5 months

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Heck it, TMNT 2003 Raphael Ninja Turtle headcanon time

Leo and Mikey are subject to any and all verbal ridicule. He will straight up say "you are ugly and I wish you'd never been born you piece of garbage brother" to the most minor offense

BUT. If Leo so much as stubs his toe he is all over it, he's the first responder on scene and he's taking a full set of vitals, he's rolling out the red carpet to the infirmary to put a hello kitty bandaid on it and kiss it better

Mikey is subject to both verbal abuse and laughter at most minor physical injury

Donnie is immune from both

He'll joke around with his dad, Splinter isn't totally immune to teasing and verbal abuse, but he is so fucking gentle with him physically. Like, he will hold his arm while he's going up and down the stairs at the farm on days where Splinter's leg is bothering him, he'll make tea for him and insist he doesn't get up, the whole nine yards. Splinter loves it but sometimes even he is like "okay please you are being so so clingy"

If anyone dares to even look the wrong way at Splinter, Raph will murderkillmaim them so fast. Casey gets squarely slapped in the face for disrespecting Splinter on accident exactly one time, and then he watches his fuckin mouth after that because wow, that little green dude is kinda scary when he's mad...

Raph has a high pain tolerance and a low pain threshold. Meaning he feels pain rather quickly—cuts, strained muscles, headaches, it hurts faster and more intensely for him than it appears to for others. But since he can tolerate the pain, it usually goes unacknowledged. When Donnie finally figures this out he comes so close to just putting a bubble around him. Indefinite house arrest, not allowed to get hurt ever again.

He's autistic with a side of ADHD, RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), and PDA (pathological demand avoidance). His "anger issues" are just.....that.

He struggles with identifying emotions, and articulating them by extension. This is part of the reason he's such a tactile person; he could say he loves someone, but he'd way rather just hug the living daylights out of them. He could say he's angry, but he'd rather go work his punching bag for a few hours.

LOVES film noir. Eats that shit up constantly. He picked up a lot of speech patterns from watching those old movies, and maybe a little bit of that accent too tbh. He calls April a dame exactly ONE time and gets laughed out of NYC entirely (by his brothers. Even that early on, April can smell the RSD on him)

Loves Christmas. Loves sweets and gift-giving and being warm and knitting, Christmas is just the natural extension of that. And he likes the focus on being with your family/quality time.

Does NOT like Christmas music

#I'm not projecting YOURE projecting #turtleposting #tmnt #the ghost speaks #raphael tmnt #tmnt03 #tmnt 2003

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normal-internet-user · 1 year

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Okay, so can you do like a day in a life for child reader and bayverse tmnt (okay so I kinda want to see how they would react to y/n being the same height as the turtles

Also have a good day / night absolutely love your work 😄❤️👍

I actually really like writing sibling reader, I always giggle to myself while I'm writing this stuff, thank you for the request @bubbathebuzz 💕💕

DAY IN THE LIFE OF SIBLING READER

Where do I even begin to describe the chaos?

Every morning you are the first to wake up,

No matter what.

You even wake up before Leo.

How, none of them can figure out.

You beg to have a poptart for breakfast, and while you do get them occasionally, someone will ususally make you eggs and toast.

It's just not healthy for a child your age to have poptarts for breakfast everyday.

After breakfast, the boys have training, depending on how Splinter feels that day determines the type of training.

Your favorite type of training is posture or balance training because Splinter gives you a stick and your job is to hit your brothers on the ankles with it.

That's why Splinter only has balance training on weekends,

Since you have school the rest of the week.

Speaking of, Donnie makes it a point to tutor and help you with your school.

Which is definitly part of the reason you're the smartest kindergardener your teachers have ever seen.

(My little sister came up with a headcanon and I just had to share it, Donnie gives you a broken keyboard just to make you think you're helping him with his work, and you won't realize that it was broken untill you're like, 17, and you'll realize your whole life was a lie.)

Ahem-

If you aren't at school, one of your brothers is always keeping you busy,

They found out the hard way that leavinga bored toddler to their own does not end well.

It will forever be known as the "Paintball Incident" and I refuse to elaborate any further on the subject.

Mikey likes to play video games with you,

Leo won't let you play any 'mature' games until your older, stuff like Call Of Duty or Tomb Raider,

So you guys usually play games like Mario Kart, Stardew Valley, and Minecraft.

As it turns out, you are incredible at Mario Kart and are currently the house champion, and no one knows how tf you keep winning.

The entire fam goes into slight denial when you start growing up.

They kinda forgot you wouldn't stay small and wholesome forever,

So when you get to the age of, well, angstyness, shit gets wild.

Backtalk, sneaking out, rolling your eyes, Leo does not appreciate the attitude.

You not directly a jerk to any of them, just alot more sarcastic than you used to be,

But most of the time you're a really good kid.

Good grades, you do good in training, always have your chores done,

The whole nine yards.

(You are Splinter's favorite by default)

You are decently close with April,

You have sleepovers at her apartment, and she'll take you out shopping sometimes,

She's like a breath of fresh air compared to the chaos that is the Lair.

Casey is like that cool uncle that lets you do stuff you probably shouldn't be doing,

Like try beer.

One time, you were spending the night at April's apartment during hockey season, and Casey was there so you could all watch the game together.

April got up to use the bathroom, and Casey used to opportunity to do cool uncle things and let you try some beer.

You did not like it.

You choked slightly as the taste caught you off guard, "That taste like shit." you coughed out.

Casey scoffed, "It's an aquired taste, smalls."

"Thats code for, 'It taste like shit'."

Kareoke night is a regular thing on Fridays.

It usually ends with you passed out on the couch and one of your brothers carrying you to bed.

But it's your favorite part of the week.

If you end up growing to be around the same height as the boys', they will literally hate it,

You used to be so small 🥺,

They think it's unfair that you didn't stay that way.

It hits Splinter particularly hard when he realizes you grew up,

Because the same thing happend with the boys'.

But no matter how old you are, he is more than willing to be your person to go to,

Even if you are grown up, he's still you're dad.

(He still sings you to sleep if you have a nightmare.)

When you start patroling with your brothers, they are fucking terrified.

You can get hurt, alot easier than any of them can, so it's only natural that they're nervous.

You don't have a protective shell like they do after all.

If you ever get hurt after a fight, they are fa-reaking out.

Donnie's got the med-kit and starts checking you for everything from a concussion to lung cancer,

Mikey's panicing in the backround, while Leo just paces dramatically,

And Raph is currently beating the shit out of whatever poor idiot decided to hurt you.

Word spreads quickly amongst the criminals of the city to not go anywhere near you should they encounter the turtles,

Lest the be in mortal danger.

All in all,

It's chaotic,

It's fun,

And you know for a fact you have a family to back you up in anything you do.

.........................................

Fun fun. I love writing this stuff, it's makes me giggles lol

#tmnt #tmnt x reader #x reader #leonardo x reader #donnie x reader #raphael x reader #leonardo x reader tmnt #sibling reader #platonic x reader #tmnt x reader platonic #younger sibling #tmnt bayverse #bayverse x sibling reader #mikey x reader

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our-happygirl500-fan · 1 year

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So the episode Mind Meld is the episode where Donnie reprogrammed his brother’s personalities to be more like him.

But something that is interesting is that even when programmed to have a more Donnie-like personality their original personality traits still shone through here & there, just with a Donatello-like twist to them.

Donnie: Wait you’re messing with my tech?

Raph: Tech? Ha, you call this junk tech

Raph was able to keep the side of himself that teases his little brothers, yes Raph loves his brothers very much but he also teases & makes fun of them countless times. I mean look how he rubbed getting the Jupiter Jim sidekick position in his brother’s faces in the episode Sidekick Ahoy!

Raph: HA! In your face!

Donnie: I’m sorry you went into my workshop

Mikey: Yes, and I also reorganised your motherboards by processing power!

Mikey: Too busy rewiring your systems

With Mikey he kept the aspect of his personality that wants to help people. Mikey is always trying to be helpful & the peace-maker (as seen when he carried Draxum’s redemption on his back) & throughout the episode Mind Meld, Mikey is constantly messing with Donnie’s stuff but I think that’s the aspect of Mikey that likes to be helpful.

He’s trying to ‘improve’ Donnie’s systems, he’s organising Donnie’s stuff & trying to make it his version of ‘better’ because he’s driven by the Mikey-urge to help.

Mikey: Dinosaur trampoline always cheers you up so I thought I’d try it on Baron Draxum

Leo: All set worm holes!

Leo: What if we could use it to launch a whole network of satellites?

Leo kept the part of him that’s a sci-fi nerd, Leo loves sci-fi (as seen with his love for Jupiter Jim) & you’ll notice that his thoughts in Mind Meld are space oriented, he calls his portals worm holes which are a popular feature of science fiction, he wants to use the Dragon’s Tooth to break the earth’s atmosphere & launch satellites into space. Even when Donnie messes with his personality Leo is still a sci-fi nerd.

Leo: Freeze Jupiter Jim! Or I will blast you with the invisible blaster from sed-alpha-nine as seen in ‘Jupiter Jim and the invisible blaster from sed-alpha-nine!’

Yes all these traits that I’ve mentioned are also Donnie traits as well: Donnie makes fun of his brothers, he sometimes crosses boundaries trying to help & he’s a sci-fi nerd as well but I think it’s interesting that it’s the traits that each brother shares with Donnie ended up being the ones that were most prevalent when Donnie messed with their personalities

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #leonardo hamato #michelangelo hamato #raphael hamato #donatello hamato #rottmnt #tmnt

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cupcakeslushie · 1 year

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Ok so it’s quite obvious Donnie isn’t mentally stable after his upbringing with Draxum, but what kinds of effects did Mikey and Leo’s childhoods have on them? Does Leo shut himself off in his room to get away from the watchful eyes of other people? Does he have any regrets?

Lots of questions sorry; but I noticed there wasn’t much attention on the trauma of the tide pod squad lol

I’ve mentioned this once before, but Leo and Mikey have their own issues, they’re just better at masking them.

Leo is all work no play, very serious—no indulgences. And he can be quite harsh with his brothers before the cleansing ritual. But at the same time, when he’s calm, he’s very much anxious about Mikey and Donnie’s whereabouts because he’s worried about losing them. Once he realizes Splinter and Raph aren’t so strict about morning training, Leo ruins his sleep schedule, because he’s dealing with nightmares almost every night. So he’ll train into the wee hours until he makes it back to his room in time to pass out. Not his room, but the dojo is kinda Leo’s safe space to get away. Nine times out of ten, Leo will be found in there, tiring himself out until his katas are perfect.

Mikey is the best out of everyone at putting up a front, thanks to watching Big Mama all those years. He’s got lots of quiet anxieties about being abandoned because he was a bother, but Mikey hardly ever lets those fears show past his bedroom. For the most part, the family thinks Mikey is dealing with his insecurities in a healthy way, by staying busy around the lair, but it eventually gets to a point where all the cooking and cleaning overwhelms him.

#rottmnt #ask slushie #separated au #rottmnt separated au #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rise leo #rise mikey

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as8bakwthesage · 16 days

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I gave Tem Souldancer a proper reference for their civilian self and their Magical Boy/Enbie transformation!

So a couple of notes:

Tem Souldancer is 16 years old when they meet the Turtles. They use they/them pronouns. They are also a self-insert who I ship with Donnie.*

Tem is short for Artemisia, a name that they adopted after moving to NYC. Their "real" name is Crow, but they did keep their surname out of respect for their family's culture and history. So they went from Crow Souldancer to Artemisia Souldancer, but everyone calls them Tem for short.

Tem is Two-Spirit, and is on Testosterone. Their gender is "your worst nightmare." They are also ace-spec.

Tem was diagnosed with ASD as a child. Their special interests lie in the complexities of magic and systems of the mystic arts. They study magic almost like it's a science. And also crows. They have a huge thing for crows. Duh no shit

They are very silly

Tem's Backstory and Powers...

Tem's Backstory:

Headcanon time! The magic in ROTTMNT stems from two sources - from the Spirits of the Earth or from the Krang/Onni. The magic that comes from the Earth and its Spirits acts like veins, and ties all living creatures together. The veins are in all kinds of colours, depending on the life force of the person a single vein is connected to. For obvious reasons, Raph's is red, Leo's is blue, Donnie's is purple, Mikey's is orange, April's is yellow, etc. However, most people cannot see the Veins, including the Hamatos.

Tem, and by extension their family, can see these Veins, alongside some other stuff. This is because many centuries ago, a young woman was given these abilities by one of the more powerful Spirits in order to protect the Earth from the Demons who would try to destroy it (the Krang.) This woman adopted the title Souldancer because it felt like she was dancing among the souls of the living. This would become the surname for Tem's family.

Souldancer children are born with a small crystal on their body, varying in shape, colour, and location. These are called Soul Crystals, and they help the Souldancers use their powers. However, they only appear on firstborn children. Any other children born after do not get a crystal. The secondborn are taught how to do magic for reasons that will become apparent in the next paragraph.

The firstborn child would be trained in the mystic arts and in the ability to see and manipulate the Veins. The secondborn child would be responsible for producing the next generation of firstborn and secondborn children, so that the Souldancer line never died out. The firstborns are not allowed to have relationships or develop attachments to others. (Kind of like the Jedi Order in the Star Wars prequels, and the reasons why are the exact same.) The firstborn are called Guardians, and the secondborn are called Carriers.

Tem is a very weird case because they and their brother Rook are the firstborn together. They are twins, and they both have crystals. Rook's is green while Tem's fluctuates between white, shades of grey, and black (I'll come back to why that's weird later!) But Souldancer twins have never been born before this, so Tem's parents had to figure out what to do. Because Tem was born a few minutes after Rook, their parents decided that Rook would be the next Guardian because he was older. Tem would be the next Carrier. They were supposed to marry a man who was nine years older than them when they turned 16.

They tried to smile and continue living. But they've always loved using their magic and protecting and helping others, and they don't want to give up that part of themselves. So when they turned 15, they ran away from home and moved out to NYC, where they knew an entrance to the Hidden City was. They figured that being closer to the Hidden City would mask their Soul Crystal from their parents' detection.

Tem set up shop and began working as a waiter, while also doing VTubing on the side (which they are slowly but surely getting more views and money from.) They also use the nights to their advantage to not only fight crime and help out injured people using their powers, but also to fight any and all remnants of the Demons' armies. Tem is also trying to destroy any and all remaining Krang weapons (one of which being the Dark Armor.)

Tem meets the Turtles in season 1 of ROTTMNT. They get very insecure about having to share a spotlight with any other heroes. Tem has lived in their brother's shadow for years and wants to escape it and make something of themselves independent from their family. They project hard on the Turtle brothers as a result. However, they soon become friends with the brothers, and develop a rivalry/friendship with Donnie (which eventually turns into a romance, but that's a very slow burn.)

Tem's Powers:

Remember how I mentioned above that Tem's Soul Crystal being greyscale is weird? Well, here's why! All Souldancer firstborns are born with a Crystal, and they all come in different shapes and colours. However, no child has ever been born with a Crystal like Tem's before.

The scale of White to Black shades in magic is reserved for those with a LOT of power, typically Spirits. White magic was typically more focused and could allow a person to utilise any kind of magic they wanted to. Black magic, on the other hand, was harder to control and was more prone to instability. However, it was also the culmination of all colours, so it could also do crazy powerful stuff. The shades of Greys in magic are a combination of both of these aspects. The darker the shade, the more magical energy a person had, but that magic was unstable and difficult to control.

Tem's Crystal changes colour depending on how upset they are. If they feel a very strong emotion such as hatred or terror or even love, their Crystal gets darker. However, Tem's appearance while transformed is a mix of different shades of greys mostly because it is a reflection of their experiences with their magic and emotions. The colour of their Crystal only changes whenever Tem overexerts themselves.

Tem's powers are more specific however. They can see the Veins, but they can also interact with them. If they spend enough time, Tem could find anybody in the world using the Veins. They can even siphon magical energy from a large network of sources to heal others. Think of it like the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Typically, minor injuries like cuts or bruises or even sprains don't take too much magic or effort. Wounds, stabs, broken bones are trickier but also not too difficult to heal. Near-death injuries are harder, but not impossible. However, when someone dies, it is basically impossible to heal from that.

Tem also can drain the life force and magical energy from others. Very similar deal to the Healing magic. Draining magic is easier when it's in smaller quantities. Typically draining small amounts of magic from someone will make them tired or weaker. In larger quantities, it could bring someone to near death or even kill someone. However, removing so much magic from someone as to practically take their soul would absolutely be way too much Black magic for one person to handle and it could possibly kill them.

Alongside that, Tem can also mimic the powers of the Turtles, mostly whenever they are in close proximity to them. So the closer Tem is to a brother, the easier it is for Tem to mimic their powers. Their crystal and clothes even have the colour of the corresponding brother added to them, which disappears when Tem is no longer using their powers. It's also important to note that the more Tem uses one of the Turtles' magical abilities, they also tend to feel whatever it is the brother in question is feeling. They can only use one power at a time, and if they try to do multiple at once, it is too much.

In their Corvid form (as they like to call their transformed black and white self), they can glide, jump farther, run faster than any ordinary human. They also have a significantly higher pain tolerance and much faster reflexes.

*I have been a TMNT fan since 2012, and I was 16/17 when Rise was announced/released. Tem is an abridged version of myself in 2017/2018, which is when the events of the first season start. I'm adult now, so any and all content from me about teen Tem and teen Donnie will be strictly SFW. This is kind of a grey zone for me in terms of self-shipping because it's retroactive and Tem's experiences differ from my own drastically.

Why I'm retroactively self-shipping is very personal to me, but it boils down to healing my inner child/teenager. I grew up with these characters and I'd like to pay homage to my younger self and give them some love and support from healthy places. This is very much a love letter to teenage Aso.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #rottmnt oc #rottmnt self insert #art #my art #tem souldancer #self insert

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garbagesimp · 2 years

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LEONARDO

Gets EXTREMELY ANGRY when someone (other than donnie) calls him Nardo. it’s a twin thing. get over it.

on a same but slightly different note: leo never yells. like he “yells” when he’s excited or in the middle of the fight but he NEVER gets hot-angry. he only gets cold-angry and uses the extra energy it generates to just dig at the other person. like he starts digging a hole, hands them the shovel, says “get to it asshole” and they dig their own graves.

scarily persuasive. could coax nuclear codes out of a brainwashed, lizard being, warcrime committing government official and get away with it.

transmasc with a sprinkle of extremely gay. whenever i see someone go “leo is straight >>:[[[[[” i think “have they ever even?? watched rottmnt????” cause like other iterations? totally, yeah, mans straight as fuck (or transfem but we’re not here for that rn) THIS VERSION THO? have you seen the way he stands??

splinter doesn’t play favorites but if he did it would be leo because he reminds splinter the most of himself. which also gets him the title of least favorite, but that happens with everyone. splinter ain’t special.

is. terrifyingly good at reading body language. can tell you’re lying before you even lie. is part of the reason he’s so good at getting under peoples’ skin

toxic trait #1: intentionally pokes at insecurities!! like that scene in the movie where leo pretends to not be listening when raph is spilling his damn heart out?? THAT’S A COMMON OCCURANCE. he mostly does it when he’s frustrated with how little his family trusts him. major soft spot for him. so of course he lashes out, cause that’s how the Hamato family roll.

(minor tangent: the fact that so many 2012/rise crossovers focus on how dysfunctional the 2012 fam are while glorifying and praising the rise fam just like. completely ignore the negative traits, especially with raph and leo? like mikey too, but they completely disregard raph’s lack of trust in his brothers and leo’s shitty communication skills. i have more to say about this but i’ll do that in a different post)

to the people who write fics or draw comics or even just CLAIM that leo spend days/months in the prison dimension: first of all how dare you make me feel things second of all i can only justify this alternative telling of events if leo loses his right leg or his left arm. yes it has to be one of those two specifically, if you know you know.

toxic trait #2: is actually Just That Cocky. is it partially a defense mechanism? yup. does he actually think he is god? YUP.

not explicitly amoral but would do A Lot for the sake of his brothers. like Raph and Donnie take it further than Leo would, but people would die.

became the medic of the group because of his idolization of Raph. got his first medkit when he was around eight or nine, but starting researching when he was seven. raph Really Really wanted to help patch up his brothers but his “clumsy hands” couldn’t manage the precision work his dad could do, but because of Splinter’s terrible vision (it’s a rat thing) he struggled to do it on his own. hence Leo stepping in, because Donnie was usually the one getting hurt (and also hates the smell and look of blood) and Mikey was still like, really young.

is probably chaotic neutral? might be chaotic good. i struggle with alignments but i think it works.

#rottmnt #rise leonardo #rise leo #rottmnt leo #rottmnt leonardo #rise raphael #rise michelangelo #rise splinter #rise donatello #rise headcanons

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taizi · 1 year

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give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around

chapter nine: don’t know where we’re going but i’d like to be by your side

rise of the tmnt pairing: leoichi (leonardo / usagi yuichi) word count: 4k title borrowed from are you bored yet? by wallows post-movie

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read on ao3

The next time Yuichi is invited to the lair, five very significant things happen.

1. Leonardo meets Yuichi’s friends

The first thing Leonardo announces to his family when he tumbles through the portal between Usagi Farm and his own living room is “Kitsune and I are gonna STEAL!”

His siblings take a moment to absorb that and then look behind him at Yuichi, who had all but shoved Leonardo in and then hustled through himself.

Yuichi, feeling harassed, says, “They are not going to steal.”

The last forty-five minutes have felt like a four-day marathon.

Yuichi is spending the day at the lair, on Leonardo’s invitation, with the added assurance that his family would love to have him. When the striped turtle initially offered to portal him there and back, Yuichi leapt on the offer embarrassingly quickly.

He would never admit it on pain of death, but here’s Yuichi’s reasoning: if he doesn’t have to spend nearly an hour driving each way, that’s an additional two hours he gets to spend with his favorite person, so yes. As much as he loves his bike, he’s team portal.

They made these plans a week ago, and Yuichi’s first mistake was mentioning it to Gen. So he wasn’t expecting his friends’ ambush the second Leonardo stepped through the portal into the yard, but he probably should have been.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Chizu said, in a way that made it clear she was not asking. “We’ll get parfaits.”

Leonardo, who had been on the farm for all of three minutes at that point, which was more than enough time for him to have collected two small children and one small dinosaur, said, “Uh, yeah. Okay. Can lizards have dairy?”

Yuichi didn’t even have time to worry about his friends and Leonardo not getting along, because at the very first sign of being left behind by the teenagers, Sonoko and Momiji pitched a fit loud enough that it attracted Jomei and Botan, who were quick to join in.

This is usually when he strong-armed them back into the house, but Leonardo said, ostensibly to Gen but with his voice pitched loud and performative so the children take notice, “What do you think? Should we bring all the well-behaved bunnies back a treat?”

It worked like a charm, because of course it did, because that was the cousins’ angle in the first place. Once they were mollified, Yuichi’s group could escape, and Chizu said, “You shouldn’t let them play you like that, Leo. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”

“I was gonna get them ice cream anyway,” he replied. “Let them think they won, it’s good for their devious little brains.”

“Are you speaking from experience?” Gen rumbled, his tone warm with good humor. “Is this a lesson from the school of ninja?”

“Oh, sure.” Leonardo guided Champion up onto his shoulder, where she curled around his neck like a scaly scarf, so his hands were free to fold in the pose of a wise old master. “Lesson one—strike hard, fade away into the night, and always let the babies in the room think they’re smarter than you. That way they’re never actually smarter than you.”

“And have the funds to buy their loyalty,” Kitsune pointed out.

“That’s the easy part. Donnie’s been seeding funds from untraceable backdoors into Fortune 500 companies for years,” Leonardo said. He turned to walk backwards, leveling them all with a narrow stare. “And I don’t wanna hear any judgment from the Samurai Squad about it, either. My twinnie’s single-handedly kept the lights on by stealing from people so rich they don’t even notice.”

Chizu and Yuichi sighed at the same time. Gen laughed. Because Kitsune bounced up to her full height, shoulders squared, and announced, “I steal, too! I’m basically Robin Hood, without all the murder! Last month I did a casino sweep, baby!”

Leonardo’s eyes brightened. “Tell me everything about that right now.”

So, within minutes, Yuichi went from being really excited that his favorite people were getting along, to being absolutely certain in the knowledge that Kitsune and Leonardo could never be left unsupervised, ever, because they were the exact same level of chaos gremlin.

Gen was easy. He’s a straightforward person, and there are certain qualities he admires that Leonardo has in spades. His battle-scars and the weapons strapped to his shell cut him a dangerous figure. His obnoxious laughter when Yuichi tried to hop over a puddle and landed in mud instead softened him again. So Gen challenged him to an arm-wrestling match, and then best two of three, and then best seven of ten, and then Champion bit Gen’s thumb with her tiny baby teeth for hogging her person. But by then Leonardo had cemented himself as a Cool Guy in Gen’s eyes.

Chizu was more exacting than that, and sometimes her protective nature could turn sharp against people, and Yuichi was worried she might be unkind. But she studied Leonardo’s interactions with Gen, how unfazed he was by Gen’s size and how he didn’t treat the rhino’s simplicity as stupidity.

And she observed the way he and Kitsune matched each other’s energy, both of them a clever trickster learning the ins and outs of the other’s wits. When Kitsune withdrew her cute qiankun bag to show him some of her favorite purloined gems and trinkets, Leonardo responded in kind, pulling his phone out and swiping through a photo album of some of the best things his brother had invented with his stolen means.

And she watched him dither over the ice cream menu, dragging Yuichi over by the sleeve to help him pick out treats for the kids back home, charming the yokai employee behind the stand into making the world’s tiniest strawberry soft serve for Champion. And it seemed to be enough.

On the walk back to the farm, Gen lifted the bags out of Leonardo’s hands so he didn’t have to juggle everything and a lizard, and Leonardo didn’t even notice because Kitsune was distracting him by outlining, in great detail, her dream of successfully pulling off the world’s biggest art heist one day—not even because she likes art, just because—and Chizu looked past the three of them to meet Yuichi’s eyes.

She tipped her head towards Leonardo, raised a brow, and smiled. It very clearly said Okay, he’ll do.

But she wouldn’t be Chizu if she didn’t like to make people sweat, so when they were back at Yuichi’s house and handing off ice cream to greedy little kids, and Leonardo was beginning tense negotiations with Champion, who had decided the inside of his jacket was the perfect place to hide from the injustice of being left behind again, Chizu barked, “Leo!”

He jumped a foot. Dangling from his elbow, Momiji giggled.

“Jesus—what??”

“Next Thursday, we meet in battle,” she said. “Go match. Bring your wits.”

“Good thing I bring those with me everywhere. You’re on,” Leonardo said, all bold, unflinching confidence. Then he opened Google on his phone, frantically typing “how to play Go beginner cheat sheet” into the search bar. Yuichi loved this idiot with his whole chest.

“And don’t forget!” Kitsune shouted. “Art heist! This summer! The Louvre!!”

“Art heist!” Leonardo shouted back, and that was when Yuichi decided it was time to go for real.

And now Leonardo is telling Michelangelo, “We’re so gonna steal.”

“I still have custody of your dinosaur,” Yuichi mentions in a loud voice, which is enough to make Leonardo heave an exaggerated sigh and roll his eyes and move onto something else.

“You’re not gonna be able to hold Champy against him forever,” April points out, sounding amused.

“I know,” Yuichi says woefully. “I’ll figure something else out.”

2. Yuichi meets the Hamato patriarch

Yuichi doesn’t even realize there’s an additional presence in the room until the very last second.

Something goes flying at the back of his head, and he whirls around and deflects it with the flat of his hand, spiking it into the ground like a volleyball.

Only it’s not a volleyball, it’s something delicate and made of what sounds like porcelain? Given the tinkling little noise it makes as it breaks into about a billion pieces?

Yuichi only has about three seconds to be completely mortified before the turtles and April erupt into hysterical laughter. Even Casey is smothering giggles behind his hand.

“Dad, was that your favorite teacup?” Donatello asks, lowering his goggles over his eyes and twisting one of the lenses, as if he’s zooming in with a camera to capture his father’s gobsmacked expression in full detail. “Was it? Dad, was it?”

“Oh my god it’s so broken,” Michelangelo wheezes, hugging his stomach. “I’m gonna throw up.”

“I thought he would catch it!” the rat says, waving his hands above his head. “Why would you just—why would—”

“That’s what you get, pops,” Raphael butts in. “It was rude of you to throw stuff at our friend.”

He pats Yuichi on the back warmly, and it’s an unmistakably friendly gesture, but there’s enough force behind it to send any normal person toppling forward. Yuichi grew up with an affectionate rhinoceros for a best friend and knows when to lock his knees. He doesn’t even sway under the touch and offers Raphael a smile.

“Yeah, you missed the boat, Splints,” April says, wiping the tears from her eyes with the heel of her hand, glasses all askew. “Besides, my boy Usagi here is a keeper.”

“Hmph,” Splinter says, shrugging his hands into the sleeves of his robe. “Just because he’s swayed the rest of you to the dark side, I won’t be deceived. Besides, Baby Blue is much too young for—”

“PAPA,” Leonardo all but shrieks. He looks mortified. All of his siblings are glaring daggers at the rat now. Yuichi thinks he missed something, because he has no idea where Splinter was going with that statement. Too young for—? The dark side? Is this a Star Wars thing? Botan loves those movies.

Disgruntled, but unwilling to fight all six of his kids all at once, Splinter says, “He can keep up with Blue, at least. Who was your teacher, little rabbit?”

Yuichi straightens, lifting his chin. He can feel himself brighten, his smile growing into a grin. He’s so proud to be her student, he always loves when he can boast, “Karasu-Tengu-sensei! She’s the best!”

Splinter’s expression changes immediately. The grumpy, displeased look falls away and he somehow manages to look pale through his fur.

“Karasu-Tengu? That terrifying creature is your sensei?”

Yuichi nods cheerfully. She is terrifying. She can quell even the biggest meanest yokai with a single look. He’s seen her do it. It’s amazing. He wants to be just like her when he grows up.

“Oh—well, then,” Splinter says, and reaches up to pat Yuichi on the head clumsily. “Ah, that’s. Wonderful. How lucky we are to have you in our home. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to speak up. And if your—sensei—asks, tell her I said you’re a delightful boy and my son is better off for knowing you.”

Leonardo and his siblings all have a look of slow-dawning delight on their faces. Yuichi wasn’t expecting such a glowing endorsement just minutes after getting a teacup lobbed at his head, but he certainly isn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Usagi, listen,” Donatello says suddenly. “This is so important. We have to have your teacher over for dinner.”

“No, like, we have to,” Michelangelo adds, super intense.

“She’s traveling now, but when she gets back, I’ll let her know!” Yuichi says, pleased.

For whatever reason, Splinter looks like he’s going through the five stages of grief.

3. Donatello finishes the electro-yoyo

He comes out of the lab singed and covered in soot, yo-yo in hand. He doesn’t seem to mind that the toy quite literally blew up in his face, and none of his siblings treat this as anything entirely out of the ordinary either.

The armored turtle holds it out to him. Slowly, gingerly, Yuichi stretches his hands out to take it. It doesn’t explode.

“So it looks like your yo-yo has a ghost,” Donatello says unremarkably.

“I’m sorry?” Yuichi says, still holding the toy at arms’ length.

“It’s okay, our ghost is scarier,” he adds, and holds up a hand without looking to fist-bump April, for some reason.

It still needs some testing before Donatello is satisfied enough to call it finished, so they go to the dojo for that, where a very sad-looking training dummy is pushed into the middle of the room.

Although the yo-yo is heavier now, reinforced with metal plating and whatever tiny gizmos Donatello has packed inside, it’s still a familiar shape in Yuichi’s hand. But he’s never used it as a weapon before, and he finds himself at a bit of a loss until Michelangelo helpfully compares it to a kusari-fundo.

“I used to have one,” the smallest turtle says brightly. “It got broken, but I saved the fire spirit that lived inside it. It lives in a camping lantern in my room now.”

“Wait, what?” all three of his brothers say at the same time.

“Anyway,” Michelangelo goes on, “has your sensei ever let you train with rope or chain before? Maybe if you think of it like that you’ll have a better idea how to use it!”

It helps a lot, actually. Within twenty minutes, Yuichi has a pretty good handle on how to use the toy as a flail, and also how to loop it around the dummy’s neck or arm, the weighted disc hooking over the reinforced string and creating a collar that only tightens the more you pull.

And the electroshock function definitely works. After the second small fire they have to put out, the dummy’s materials decidedly not conducive to this area of testing, Donatello marks the yo-yo down as a unilateral success.

4. The hooks come out of Leonardo’s shell

Sometime after lunch, Splinter comes back into the room. He’s holding a cup of tea in hand, steaming and faintly fragrant.

Leonardo makes a face at it, but when April bumps their shoulders together, he takes it without argument.

“Mandrake tea,” he says when he notices Yuichi’s curious look. Ah, that explains both the smell and Leonardo’s distaste. It’s very medicinal, and tastes like how Yuichi imagines drinking perfume out of the bottle might. But its restorative properties are second-to-none. “Barry was basically funneling it down our throats after the invasion. These losers got to stop drinking it weeks ago.”

“I think that would make us winners,” Donatello says mildly.

“Barry?” Yuichi asks.

“Our weird stepdad kind of?” Leonardo explains, his tone raising at the end like he’s not sure. “He threw me off a roof once. Now he works at April’s old high school.”

There’s really not a lot Yuichi can think of to say to that, so he settles for, “Okay then.”

Splinter taps Leonardo’s chin gently. “I’ll still make you drink it, even if you let it get cold,” the rat says, not unkindly. “It certainly won’t taste better out of the microwave.”

Leonardo wrinkles his beak—cute, the unhelpful part of Yuichi’s brain supplies—but keeps sipping. Apparently, it’s his last dose, because as soon as he hands the empty cup off, he’s shrugging out of the jacket of the day—pink, this time, and so big on him that Yuichi knows who it must belong to even before Leonardo bundles it up and shoves it toward his eldest brother.

And then his shell is on full display, for the first time since the invasion. Yuichi has seen his plastron, and he can see that the dramatic cracks there have faded into faint pencil-mark lines, but he’s never so much as glimpsed the damage done to Leonardo’s carapace.

It’s a lot. It’s a roadmap of cruelty. The pretty patterns on the shell are interrupted by jagged dashes, like scarring where the pieces have fused back together after it was crushed. At a glance, Yuichi has no idea how his friend could have survived it in the first place. The mandrake tea and that healing coma—mystic in nature, he’s beginning to suspect—might have saved his life.

Turtle shells are so fundamentally important to their overall health, and infection is a very real fear. So it’s very likely that, in part, Leonardo was keeping it covered up to protect the hooks and bandages that were keeping the broken edges of the keratin together.

But from the way his shoulders hunch up to his jawline the second his back is exposed, Yuichi also gets the sense that he’s ashamed.

Splinter sounds a little choked up when he says, “Oh, Blue. Your shell has healed perfectly. We can take these hooks out now, and sand you down, and you’ll be as good as new.”

“Ooh, sanding, that’ll feel nice,” Michelangelo says enthusiastically. “It’ll be like a spa day!”

He hopped up onto the infirmary bed next to Leonardo the second the jacket came off, and he’s been scooting closer by the second, and now he’s tucking himself under Leonardo’s arm. Yuichi is standing behind Leonardo, so he can’t see what his face is doing, but it’s clearly causing Michelangelo some real distress. The rest of his siblings look grim and miserable, too.

Yuichi remembers the first time he sat in Leonardo’s bedroom, looking at those cracks in his plastron and thinking they were perfect, because those cracks meant his shell did its job and held up to a horrifying enemy and protected the precious life in its care.

He stands by that.

So he puts a hand on Leonardo’s carapace, and smiles a little when Leonardo jolts in surprise and then goes perfectly still. Rabbit behavior.

The pad of his thumb brushes over one of those healed lines, where it cuts through the pale blue pattern, and Yuichi says, “Have you ever heard of kintsukuroi?”

Almost immediately, Donatello’s phone is in his hand. April and Casey lean over his shoulders from each side to watch as he looks it up. Raphael leans over his head.

Leonardo’s breath shudders when he goes to answer, so he clears his throat and tries again.

“Can’t say I have. Fill me in, Cottontail.”

Rolling his eyes, feeling nothing but fondness, Yuichi says, “It means ‘golden repair.’ It’s the art of repairing broken pottery with gold.” Making something more beautiful for having broken in the first place, he thinks, but doesn’t have the courage to say out loud.

Donatello wordlessly turns his phone around so his little brothers can see the Google Image results. Michelangelo says, “Oh, oh wow, Leo! Leo I’m getting so many amazing ideas right now! You have to be my canvas later, okay? Promise?”

Leonardo laughs. It’s a breathless, punched-out sound, and it’s not the bright thing it’s supposed to be, the bright thing it was learning how to be again, but it’s still there. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole miracle.

“More good news,” Donatello says, his eyes trained without blinking on his twin’s down-turned face. “Your cast can come off, too.”

It does the job. Leonardo’s head jerks up, and he says, “Really?”

“Really really,” Donatello replies, smiling slightly. If Yuichi didn’t know him as well as he did now, he might have missed it. “That’s two reallys. To the lab, dum-dum.”

The four youngest Hamatos ramble off together like a very noisy, many-legged creature, hooting and pinballing off the walls and attached at the shoulders. The eldest two stay behind. Their father makes noises about calling someone named Draxum with an update on Leonardo’s progress “so he gets off my tail!” and hobbles from the room.

“You’re a sweetheart,” April says, resting an arm on Yuichi’s shoulder. “Golden repair, huh?”

“I meant it,” he says, lifting his chin.

“Me, too,” she counters evenly.

They watch as Leonardo jumps onto Donatello’s back, nearly causing his purple-banded brother to fall on his face to said brother’s very vocal displeasure, and they disappear from view inside the lab. Casey and Michelangelo are laughing as they pile in after them.

“Yeah, so it’s going to be heckin’ impossible to keep him still after this,” Raphael says off-handedly. He glances down at Yuichi and says, “Wanna stay for a spar?”

Which leads to the fifth, and most significant event of the day:

5. Yuichi and Leonardo spar

Leonardo springs to the center of the mats and turns to face the rest of them with a dramatic twirl. Leonardo is looking right at Yuichi, a devilish grin on his face, bright eyes pinning him in place like a butterfly to corkboard.

“The rematch of the century,” he crows, arms spread out to his sides, as he’s rallying an audience of hundreds, “the tortoise and the hare, a one-night special engagement, here to set the record straight once and for all!”

“We’re not racing, idiot,” Yuichi says, unable to help smiling at him as he slides his jacket off and unbelts Edgewing from his hip. He hands them off to Raphael and steps onto the mats readily. “But I guess I have time to teach you a thing or two.”

“Alexa, play ‘Smooth’ by Santana!” Michelangelo calls out, as eagerly as if he’s just been waiting for this opportunity, and across the room, the speaker system blinks to life.

“Thank you, Michael,” Leonardo says pointedly, like he would use much stronger words if their father wasn’t in the room. And then he dives forward and Yuichi meets him halfway.

Leonardo is clearly holding back, because the dojo is small and because Yuichi isn’t one of the super-powered brothers he’s used to tumbling around with, and maybe also because he’s been out of commission for a little over two months now.

But even with all of that, he’s fast. Fast enough that Yuichi can feel his blood begin to race a shis body prepares itself for the upcoming workout.

It isn’t really kata. It’s definitely not the type of sparring Yuichi would practice under sensei’s disciplined eye.

It’s more of a game, an effortless back-and-forth. And it’s fun. And Yuichi is fast, too.

They trade blows and blocks and dance around each other like they’ve been doing exactly this for years and years. Leonardo moves like a construct of wind and mischief, never pulling the same move twice, zigging when it would make more sense for him to zag, and it costs all of Yuichi’s attention and intuition to keep up with him.

Yuichi is aware of the others filing out of the dojo. Michelangelo and April are all but shoving Splinter out the door ahead of them. But it’s second-hand awareness at best.

All of his focus belongs to the boy in front of him. They’re alone in the room with alternative rock crooning out of the huge speaker system in the corner and the walls are so tall and so close that it creates a reverb, an echo chamber. It’s music and motion and Leonardo’s gold eyes, his flashbang grin, and the blood in Yuichi’s veins is singing. His heart is straining at the seams.

This is a conversation. This is hey, I know you, you’re just like me.

When Leonardo aims a kick at Yuichi’s left shoulder, Yuichi catches his leg and holds it there, and kicks his other leg out from under him in the next second. The turtle goes down with an oof and before he can twist up to his feet again, Yuichi pins him.

He’s straddling Leonardo’s middle, knees planted against the mat on either side of him, forearm pressed to his neck. If it were a real battle, against an actual enemy, he would have a blade pressed there instead. The match is decidedly his.

His chest is heaving with exertion and that giddy runner’s-high feeling and he knows he’s probably grinning wildly.

Leonardo is staring up at him like Yuichi is the first point of light after days in the dark. He looks so cute, all wide-eyed and winded. Yuichi leans in, so that they’re nose-to-nose and all that gold belongs to him, just for this one moment. What a prize.

“I win,” Yuichi says smugly.

“Uh-huh,” Leonardo replies, sort of faint. “You got me.”

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #leoichi #usagi yuichi #hamato leonardo #my writing #tmnt fic #these bright blue city lights

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paytato435 · 3 months

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Chapter 13: Breach of Contract

Good Morning!

“Hey, there you are!”

“I’m here! Finally…”

“Girl, you said it was twisted, not fucking broken!”

“It’s not broken! It’s just a sprain. It should be fine in a couple weeks.”

“If you’re on crutches it might as well be broken. Go the whole nine yards.”

“Leo!”

“What? I’m just messing around.”

Everything felt numb. As if he were wrapped in the thickest blanket burrito. Wait, he could feel… no, his heart was pounding, but it was pounding inside his head. It seemed to be the only part of himself he could move. With pained effort, he managed to drag his eyes open.

“Hey! There he is! Good morning, big guy!” Raph’s big green face smiled warmly.

All eyes were on him. Leo, April, Raph, and Splinter surrounded him on all sides.

“Orange,” Mikey’s eyes snapped over to the small and scraggly fuzzball at his side.

“Hey Dad,” he groaned. Splinter held tightly to the box turtle’s hand, but Mikey could only feel a very distant pressure. He knew what his dad's hand felt like; it shouldn't feel like… well… nothing! It was as if his entire body rested on solid air. The only texture he felt was from the fabric of the pillowcase behind him.

He stared at the connection between himself and his dad. Why didn't he feel it?

“Where-?”

“We’re in the hospital,” Splinter explained. “But we’re all safe now, Michelangelo.”

Mikey looked around the room, but noticed two of them were missing.

“Donnie’s with Casey,” Leo answered before he could ask. “But he probably won’t wake up for a while longer.”

“What?” Donnie was still unconscious? What happened to him?

“Do you remember what happened, Mikey?” April asked gently.

“Why can’t I move?”

“So, you were like… sooooo heavily sedated, dude,” Leo gave him a nasty smile. “Doc said you won’t feel anything for a whole day!”

“What?” That didn’t make any sense. Why would they do that?

They must have seen the look on his face, because Raph’s little chasm deepened with worry.

“Your shell is fucked bro.” It seemed Dr. Delicate Touch was rubbing off a bit onto Leo.

“And your arms, a bit,” Raph added, in a much gentler tone. “Your left is just grazed, but your right…”

Mikey looked down to his shoulder and saw nothing, because everything there was to see was wrapped tightly in bright white bandages.

“I couldn’t move it before,” he remembered trying to support himself on the wall back at the facility.

“Yeah, it’s kind of messed up at the moment, but it should recover. The bullet passed right through and tore some ligama-whatsits,” Raph explained. “But apparently the doctors here did their magic and it should be right as rain in a few days.”

“I can’t move it for days?”

“You almost lost it, my son, you are very lucky,” Splinter pointed out. “And I know I’ve already said this to you all already…” he gave the stink eyes to his other children, and they groaned. “But you should have called me! Running off on your own like that was extremely dangerous!”

The box turtle wilted with shame. They should have reached out to Dad immediately. He must have been so worried.

“I’m sorry Dad,” Mikey sniffed. Splinter patted his hand and gave a sad smile.

“I know, Orange. But you really scared us there. I’m so happy you made it home safe.”

“How is Donnie?”

“He’s doing great!” April spoke up. “He made it out of it unharmed, amazingly enough.”

“Then where is he?” Mikey gave a confused look to Leo.

This time it was Leo's turn to look embarrassed. He rubbed his arm with his thumb nervously before admitting, “Casey’s got a concussion. Donnie's keeping an eye on him in another hospital.”

“What?! Casey’s hurt?”

Leo nodded. “Aderman knocked him in the head pretty good. He should be okay too, but he hasn’t woken up yet.”

Oh. He’d gotten them switched around in his head. Wait… Mikey noticed something was off with Leo’s face. He narrowed his eyes at the slider. It was covered in nasty cuts and bruises.

“What happened to you?”

“It’s… it’s a long story,” Leo averted his eyes, crossing his bandaged arms.

“Leo…”

But just then Leo’s phone buzzed.

“Purple!” Splinter’s face lit up as Leo dug out his cell.

“Bueno,” Leo hummed casually.

Donnie’s voice could barely be heard on the other side.

“Of course, I’ll be over there soon! Hey hey guess what, the Mikester’s up too. Yeah. Really? Well, don’t let him in. What do you mean he’s already there?”

Leo took a quick glance around the room. “Gotcha gotcha. I’m on my way. Ciao!” The moment Leo hung up, Splinter and Raph both gave him the same suspecting look.

“Who’s over there?” Raph asked.

“Who?” Leo asked, repeated dumbly. “I dunno what you’re on about. Donnie needs help with somethin’. I’ll be right back,” he spoke so quickly Mikey had a hard time keeping up. At the same time, the slider whipped out a single katana and cut open a portal.

“You broke another one?” Mikey groaned, noticing the second empty scabbard.

“The doctors said you’re gonna have a wicked scar on your shell, hermano,” Leo winked before disappearing.

“Wait what?!” Mikey squeaked, partially confused by the sudden change in topic. Looking helplessly at his remaining brother, Raph only offered a shrug in response.

“It’s a shell, not skin, dude. Best we can do is staple it back together.” He pointed with a thumb to the chip in his own carapace.

Mikey groaned. How was he supposed to keep up his sweet baby charm with a shattered carapace? It took him another two seconds to realize Leo had already left them behind.

Stop

When Leo stepped into Casey’s hospital room, he tried to mentally prepare himself for what was likely an unpleasant encounter.

“What are you doing here, Synth?” the slider greeted cheerfully.

The bobcat stood with his back to him, facing Casey, who was still asleep in bed. Like Leo, his Casey’s head was also heavily bandaged. At least he didn’t look as bad as Mikey, but Leo’s stomach still churned. It was his fault Casey had gotten hurt.

When Synth heard the slider, both his bobbed tail and ears twitched to attention. He turned his head and narrowed his creepy round eyes.

“There he is,” the yokai growled.

Leo put his remaining sword back into its sheath, and grimaced as he recalled what he had just done to the other only a few hours ago.

He also remembered that he'd tried to kill Aderman. He still wasn't sure how he felt about that.

“What’s up, man? How’re you doing?”

Synth did not look impressed.

“You brothers are reckless,” he growled. In the corner, Leo could see Donnie roll his eyes. He was sitting in a chair by the window. They’d heard that enough before.

“We’re working on it,” Leo shrugged, trying to look unbothered.

"Oh really? Because it sure doesn't look like it!" Synth snapped raising clawed hands toward both Casey and Leo's face.

"I heard your "sword" shatter from across town! You've learned nothing!"

"I had to defend us somehow-" Leo tried to defend himself.

"And you failed to do so. Your brothers are hurt because of you-"

"Shut up!"

The bobcat froze.

"That's inaccurate," Donnie told them quietly.

"Donnie…"

"It's my fault. I never should have gone sneaking about without you guys." Donnie looked over to Casey, who was somehow still sleeping through their escalating argument. Once he'd heard Mikey was stable, he'd refused to leave Casey's side, even though both Splinter and April offered to watch him. The guilt written all over his face was evident.

"Donnie, it's not your fault those guys were mondo evil-"

"But it's my fault for being stupid!" he interrupted, his arms and fists tense at his sides. "We keep throwing ourselves into situations without actually thinking things through! I could have handled it so much better if I wasn't so…"

He couldn't even finish his thought. He choked up, and tears started welling up in his eyes.

Leo glanced over at Synth, who was eyeing the soft shell curiously.

"I think you should go."

The bobcat's nose twitched. "I will gladly, but I was hoping Casey would wake up before we went back to the Hidden City."

"We?" Leo asked, confused.

Donnie gave the yokai a dangerous look. "Synth told me he's going to take Casey back to the Nexus."

"You what?! Why?"

"He's been sneaking over there everyday this week," Donnie explained.

“You were tracking him,” Leo remembered.

"Because he was a mess after the pizza place fiasco," Donnie defended.

Leo looked over to Casey. This couldn't be right. Just yesterday he had been having what he thought was a heartfelt conversation with the kid. Had he made all of that up?

"What's… what's he doing at the Nexus?" he asked, unable to keep his voice from cracking.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," Synth answered coolly.

"Well then you can't take him," Leo answered simply.

"I have to."

"Over my dead body, he's injured!" the slider growled.

"He'll be safe. We'll look after him there."

"That's not the point!" Leo hissed, moving between Casey and the yokai.

Synth gave Leo a glare, but the slider held his ground. "Tell me what's going on here."

"It would be in everyone's best interest if you let me take him."

"It would be in my best interest if you fucked right off."

Synth's ears twitched. "You don't fully believe that."

"Well if you won't tell me what the fuck is happening then what am I supposed to believe?"

Synth looked past Leo over to where Casey was resting.

"Tell me what's going on," Leo insisted.

"Leo…" Leo looked over to Donnie, who pointed back to the bed. He spun around, and saw Casey, now awake, watching him.

"Case…"

"Good morning, sunshine," Donnie gave the human a tight lipped smile.

"Morning?" Casey mumbled, confused, his eyes moving around the room until they landed Synth. He flinched, his eyes widening in fright.

"Yeah, mornin' sleepyhead," the yokai growled. "You've missed yer appointment."

All of the sudden, the color drained from Casey’s face. The kid looked like a frightened rabbit, his eyes darting from Synth, to Leo, to Donnie and back again in rapid succession.

"Relax, man. I ain't told them anythin'."

"But you're going to," Leo said, crossing his arms.

"No!" Casey yipped, causing the three of them to jump. "No he is not. No he’s not no he's no he’s not…" Casey pulled his knees up to his chest.

"Please don't… please don't tell them," he pleaded, his eyes glued to Synth.

"I'm not," the yokai agreed, giving Casey a reassuring nod. "But you have to come back to the Nexus… now."

"He's not going with you!" Leo protested.

He turned to face Casey again. "What's happening, Casey? Has Big Mama done something to you?"

Casey just shook his head slowly, wincing as he did so, but that may have just been from the pain.

"I have to go Leo," seemed to be all he could say.

"You literally have brain damage! You can't just-"

"Stop."

Leo stopped.

Casey furrowed his brow and stared down at his bed sheets. "Stop yelling. It hurts."

"Your injury has made you more sensitive to light and sound," Donnie pointed out. "You should be keeping activity to a minimum. The Battle Nexus isn't the best place to rest."

"I'll be fine," Casey grumbled, running his hands through his hair.

Out of the corner of his eye, Leo noticed Synth's ears twitch. Not that Leo needed the confirmation- it was clear that Casey was lying.

"Casey, remember what I said the night before?"

Casey didn't even look up.

"You can tell us anything; we're here for you."

"I can't," he answered in barely a whisper. "I really, really wish I could, Leo. But I can't."

"Why not?"

Casey didn't answer.

"Casey!"

Casey carefully pulled the covers back and slid himself out of bed. He shook as he stood, but took Synth's hand when it was offered.

Tears were running down his nose as he kept his eyes on the floor.

"I'll be back soon," he told Leo quietly.

"But-"

"You should really focus on yourself," Synth growled. "I told ya what we should do. We can't move forward with what we discussed until ya do."

Synth snapped his fingers and one of Big Mama's red-violet portals materialized behind him.

"With what? With the knife?"

Synth's bug eyes were unreadable.

"Of course,” he confirmed. “I mean what I said. Things can't stay as they are. If they do, a lot of people are gonna be hurt. You get yer shit together, then we’ll meet again."

"Geez, I'd be honored," Leo sneered, but the malice evaporated when he saw Casey taking careful steps toward the portal.

"Do you really have to do this, Casey?"

When Casey brought his eyes up to meet his, Leo was surprised to see that they were focused. He was terrified, obviously, but there was something there fighting for dear life. It was a desperate determination that was intimidating enough that Leo took an involuntary step back.

"I do."

"Fine, go."

Casey seemed immune to Leo's pout; he turned and stepped through the portal first, Synth following him through promptly.

The room went dark as the violet light dissipated. The twins were left in silence.

“What a total asshole,” Donnie jeered after them.

Leo nodded in agreement, his arms crossed in a frigid posture. “Hey, do you still have that virus that IP bans any user from Minecraft?”

Donnie nodded sagely. “An excellent suggestion, Nardo.” He shook his wrist tech awake and began tapping away manically. “I'm working on a new one for Steam as well,” the softshell smiled mischievously. “He'll never be able to play video games online ever again. Pending an apology, of course.”

“Of course,” Leo rolled his eyes. “We aren't savages.”

“Of course, of course…”Donnie agreed before baring his teeth. He paused suddenly, and fished something out of a black duffel bag at his feet. Leo recognized the bag as the first aid kit from the tank. Donnie tossed a phone to him.

“I uh… forgot about Casey's stuff.”

Leo pressed the power button and Casey's lock screen flickered on. The background image was perfectly generic- almost embarrassingly so. Did this kid not have any personal interests?

Or he really just didn't want them to know him.

“I can't believe he forgot,” Leo squinted. “He never lets anyone touch this.”

“Should we see what's on it? I could probably break it open.”

Leo rolled the device over in his hand in thought. He really wished Casey would have opened up to them, but at the same time…

“No. Not yet,” Leo frowned, tossing it back to his brother. “He said he'd be back. Let's give him a day and he can explain things when he returns.”

“Fair,” Donnie shrugged, also looking the device over. “He better get back soon. He has a lot of explaining to do.”

What the Actual Fuck is Happening

When the twins returned to Mikey's room and let everyone know where Casey had gone, the room quickly erupted into chaos.

He did what?

Why?

What about his head?

We should have been there!

“You should have stopped him!”

Leo glared at his older brother for that last one. “I tried to talk to him. What was I supposed to do? Restrain him? Fight him while he has a fucking brain injury?”

“You shoulda stopped the cat man,” Raph crossed his arms. “Or portal them somewhere else! Anything!”

“Well sorry for not thinking of every possibility, hermano,” Leo scowled, dropping into a chair by Mikey's bed. The box turtle had fallen asleep while he was gone. “He said he'll be back.”

“And you believe him?!” Raph pressed.

Leo's eyes darted away as Raph rolled his.

“You're at least keeping an eye on him, right?” Raph asked Donnie.

“Of course! I'll know right away if something happens,” Donnie nodded confidently. The snapper sighed, and whatever frustration Leo had built up waned. Raph was just scared; they were all scared.

“I'm sure he'll be alright,” Leo assured them.

Nobody looked convinced.

April shifted in her seat. “He looked pretty messed up when we met up again, what happened to you both?”

“I fucked up,” Leo lamented, as he relayed to the others how he had broken his sword again and Casey had nearly died.

“She used my portals against me. I couldn't do anything.”

“Used them against you?” Donnie's head perked up in curiosity. “She stopped my weapons completely.”

“Bishop did the same thing,” Raph growled. “That's how Mikey got hurt. No clones, no cover.”

“Could he use your powers?” Leo asked, curious. Raph shook his head.

“No, thank God. Things woulda turned out a lot different if he did.” Raph looked over in concern at their youngest brother. Leo had trouble doing the same; he looked so… gone. He kicked himself for breaking the group up when they found Donnie. They should have all left together…

“It probably has something to do with the Krang they're keeping in there,” Apri pointed out.

“The what?!” Splinter and Donnie interjected at the same time. April took a moment to describe what the rest of them had already seen inside the facility.

“So they like, duplicated whatever… thingy… let's them cancel our powers out?” Raph figured.

“Is that even possible?” April asked.

“Why would they do that? Are they afraid of mystic energy?” Leo wondered.

“Why wouldn't they be?” Donnie suggested. “Magic is incredibly dangerous. The government sees the Hidden City as a huge potential threat. And if there's conflict between yokai and humans-”

“They want to come out on top,” Raph finished. “Getting ready for a fight that may not even happen; cowards.”

Leo noticed Donnie shift uncomfortably, but didn't say anything.

“That might be presumptuous, but I also would not be surprised,” Splinter sighed. He turned to April. “I know you were curious to find that dangerous chemical, but after everything that has happened, perhaps you should pause your investigation.”

“What?! No way!” April protested immediately.

“You can't even walk, Apes,” Raph pointed out.

“I can get around if I need to,” she insisted. “And there are other ways to find out what the EPF is doing besides breaking and entering.”

“We don't even know if they have the herbicide, Boringson may not have been involved with them at all,” Donnie pointed out.

“You think it was a coincidence?” April asked with disbelief.

“Hold on there guys,” Raph interrupted. “What's the EPF?”

“The so-called Earth Protection Force,” Donnie explained. “The government agency that is using the facility.”

“Their logo was plastered all over the building, don't you remember?” April asked Raph.

Raph looked confused. He clearly did not. “Thought Mikey said they were the Men in Black.”

“Ah yes, my bad, I forgot to consult the goober dying from blood loss,” Donnie rolled his eyes. Leo kicked him. “Ow!”

“Well, regardless of if they know anything about the herbicide, we should probably do something about the fact that they are, I dunno, keeping and torturing a live alien species?!” April asked. “We should stop them!”

“You mean the killer alien that wants us all dead? You want to help her???” Donnie asked.

April crossed her arms. “I don't think she deserves what's happening to her now. You didn't see it but…”

“It was messed up,” Leo finished. “I don't like it, but I think April's right. The problem is, I don't know what we could do about it.”

“We take the pictures I got and publish them, get the public to see what's happening.” April explained. “Then, when my ankle's okay again I'll find out what Aderman was up to. And from what Splints was saying, she's probably not going to be getting up to much of anything, maybe… ever.” she looked over at Leo.

“That wasn't my idea!” Leo jumped, panicked. “That was all Casey!” Donnie gave him a curious look, Raph looked down at the floor.

“What was Casey's idea?” Donnie asked, confused.

“You didn't see her?” Leo asked his brother. “She was like… shit, dad… we left her die!” He looked over at his father with horror.

Splinter narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, as if he were trying to remember what had happened.

“She wasn't there when we left, Blue.”

“What?” Leo looked over to his twin. “You didn't see her?”

Donnie shook his head. “It was just you three when I woke up.”

That… couldn't be right.

“There's no way she just got up and walked away,” Leo argued. “You should have seen her, her legs were… Casey…”

Leo felt like he was going to be sick.

“We were going to kill her.”

…

Leo had a hard time looking up at his family. It had never really been something they had had to consider. Casey hadn't considered it at all. In fact, the more Leo thought about it, the more it made sense. Casey grew up in a world where everything was always trying to kill him. And to his credit, Aderman was trying to kill them.

Leo pulled his legs up to his chest and looked over at his dad again.

“You all need rest,” Splinter sighed, crossing his arms under his robe. “Especially me! You’ve all given me enough to worry about in one night for the rest of my life! We can talk about it more tomorrow.”

Leo frowned. “Shouldn't we be talking about this now? Casey butchered that woman, and if he hadn't… I was gonna… I did-”

“What do you want me to tell you, Leonardo?” Splinter asked, raising a scraggly brow. “You protected your family.”

“Did I?” Leo asked. “I didn't do shit! Casey saved himself!”

“You saved your brother.”

“Not for long! We'd have been fucking dead without Case, and I… I don't…”

Leo didn't want to say it out loud, but he was pissed at Casey. He had done the right thing, and Leo hated that. When Leo was useless, Casey picked up the slack. And now, Casey was gone.

Leo was supposed to be the leader, and he couldn't even keep his team together. He should have never split the team up.

“Pops is right, Leo; we should sleep on it,” Raph told him gently.

“Sleep on it? On this?! On Casey just fucking leaving us? On THIS whole situation??” Leo gestured to Mikey. “There's no way I can just-”

“Enough!” Splinter interrupted him. “Mind your voice, Blue. People are resting here!” Splinter turned to his oldest son.

“Red, take your brothers home. I will stay with Orange.”

“Are you sure pops? I can stay with him…”

Splinter shook his head. “You've all been through so much, and you're too noisy! Go home!”

“But Dad-” Leo tried to cut in, but the glare from the rat man shut him up immediately.

April pushed herself up carefully from her chair and onto her crutches. “We're gonna be okay, Leo. Well, at least until my mom sees me.”

“I'm surprised she still lets you hang out with us, really,” Donnie shrugged.

“Yeah… well… there is a reason you met her after I moved out.”

The discussion of the many things Carol O'Neil would have to say to April continued as Leo portalled everyone home.

An hour later, the turtles were settled back home in Donnie’s lab. Despite their father’s best wishes, nobody was ready to sleep yet, and Donnie wanted to see what he could do about Casey’s shattered face mask.

“What did she have to say?” Donnie asked April on his phone after she had been dropped off.

“The usual, ya know? ‘You should always stretch before you fight supervillains! You forgot to share your location with me again!’ I really do try to remember. I need to be better at that,” April sighed, sounding very tired.

“I could send her my tracking data,” Donnie offered.

“That might be a good idea,” April admitted. “She will call you if you go somewhere suspicious though, I can't be held responsible for anything she says to you.”

“Yeah… I didn't mean my-” but Donnie was cut off by Raph.

“Guys, it’s late, and we still have a lot of shit to cover before we go to bed, can we bench this for now?”

“What do we still have to go over?” Donnie asked genuinely.

“Oh I don’t know,” Raph rolled his eyes. “Maybe the fact that Casey tried to kill somebody!”

“In self defense,” Donnie scoffed. “Can you blame him?”

“Yes I can blame him! He didn’t need to do that!” Raph snapped back.

“You weren’t even there!”

“You weren’t even awake!”

The both of them turned to Leo expectantly. He was really hoping they wouldn’t do that.

“Me? I don’t… I don’t know… he did what he had to, I guess…” Leo supposed, sinking down into Donnie’s futon. “But he only had to because I couldn’t beat her. So really, it’s my fault. I’m sorry, Raph.”

Raph’s expression softened. “It’s not your fault buddy, you did the best you could.”

“But now he’s gone! He wouldn’t have gotten hurt or had to leave if it hadn’t been for me!”

Raph scratched his head. “Yeah, I wanted to talk about that too. You said he was taken to the Nexus right?”

Leo nodded.

“I was actually, uh… plannin’ on going on a walk around there… uh… tomorrow.”

“That’s not vague or suspicious at all, Raphala,” Donnie crossed his arms. The snapper chuckled.

“Heheh, yeah. Well, you see… I’ve been doin’ some investigatin’ of my own,” he admitted, looking a little flustered. “While you guys have been at school ‘n stuff.”

“Your own investigation? Have you like, started a detective agency or something?” Leo asked sarcastically.

“Maybe?” Raph answered, tucking his head into his shell as far as it would allow (which wasn’t all that much, to be honest).

“What do you mean, maybe?” Donnie asked, leaning in and raising a magnifying glass from his workbench to peer at his massive brother. Raph leaned away from the scrutiny.

“Well, Casey and I have been lookin’ into some missing persons cases around town, lately.”

“Instead of him going to school?” Leo asked, confused.

“No no! Uh, Cassandra,” Raph clarified. Leo squinted at him, and couldn’t help but notice his face was a little… flushed? “It was her idea. She’s been obsessed with mystery novels recently, and decided to become a P.I.”

“A private investigator?!” Donnie exclaimed. “That’s so cool! Why didn’t you tell me, I could be her guy in the chair, outfit her with secret agent gadgets?!”

“It’s uh, it’s just a little thing she’s working on,” Raph explained nervously. “She’s been trying to find herself and all that, you know? She just occasionally asks for my help.”

“And so she’s asked you to go into the Hidden City? What’s there?” Leo asked, curious.

“Well, we weren’t exactly sure at first, but there’s been at least three people that have disappeared around the Battle Nexus in the last month. Additionally, a lot of the mutants we’ve had run ins with before have also gone missin’. Usually after somethin’ bad happens to them.”

“Like Repo?” Donnie asked. “His lot’s shut down temporarily.”

“Exactly like Repo,” Raph nodded. “Him, Meatsweats, and Todd have all gone rogue. Meatsweats was running a shady food truck anyway, but Todd’s puppy park is in danger of being shut down too. Somethin’ to do with zoning violations.”

Donnie’s lips puckered. “I may have neglected to check the requirements before we started construction on that.”

Raph nodded. “Anyway, Casey noticed those people disappearin’ round the Nexus, and now you’re telling me Junior has been there the last few days and isn’t sayin’ anything? That’s incredibly suspicious.”

“You think Casey has something to do with this?” Leo asked.

“I’m not saying he is, but if he’s been in the area, chances are he knows somethin’,” Raph figured. “So I’m going out tomorrow to see if there’s any signs of those kids around in the city. It might be a long shot, since it’d be pretty hard to hide humans down there, but I think it’s worth a look.”

“Why not just go to the Nexus and ask Big Mama herself?” Donnie asked.

“Aside from the fact that Casey actively doesn’t want us there?” Leo added.

“I was planning on it, actually,” Raph admitted. “But after everything that’s happened just today, I thought it might be smarter to try a more indirect approach. No offense Donnie, but we don’t need a repeat of last night happening so quickly.”

“None taken,” the soft shell assured him confidently.

“I want to go with you,” Leo told Raph, straightening up. “I need to find out what’s going on with Casey.”

“You have school tomorrow, I was going in the morning.”

“I don’t need to go to class,” Leo lied. “I can miss a day and be fine.”

“How about we reschedule? You can come with me in the afternoon?”

“And sit in class all day wondering if Casey’s okay? No way!”

“I’m not even looking for Casey!” Raph argued. “I said they might be related. If you want to go after him, go on your own.”

Leo grumbled and crossed his arms.

“He said he’d come back, remember?” Donnie offered, putting a hand on Leo’s shoulder.

“He did,” Leo mumbled. But that didn’t mean he had to believe it.

Breach of Contract

Casey was led straight into Big Mama's office.

“There he is!” Mama sighed as Synth pushed him to stand in front of her desk. She drummed her nails impatiently on its reflective surface. Casey winced in annoyance at the sound, but she didn't notice.

“Where on earth have you been?”

Casey looked down at the carpet and clumsily wiped his tears away.

“Don't look down!” she snapped. “Look at me!” Casey flinched, but complied, blinking repeatedly in a failed attempt at keeping back fresh tears.

Deep breaths. 1… 2… 3…

“Where were you?” she asked again, squinting her eyes. The question came not from a place of concern, but as an accusation. He focused on the frames of her delicate glasses, avoiding eye contact as best he could.

“I was… was… in the hospital,” he choked.

“Why weren't you here?” she hissed.

“I was knocked out. If I could have, I… I would have been here-”

“But you weren't!” Big Mama snapped. “Why were you knocked out? What happened to your himbly head?”

Casey squeezed his eyes shut.

“Nah ah ah! Eyes on me,” she insisted.

He felt like he was about to fall over. He spread his feet and bent his knees slightly to steady himself.

“I… could you repeat that?”

“Why were you at the EPF laboratory?” she hissed.

He tried to slow his breathing. “Uh… Donnie was… he was taken there. We were trying to break him out-.”

“And you got more than you bargained for, hm?”

“Yes,” he said simply instead of nodding.

“Stupid.”

“Stupid?”

“It's only been four days, foozle! And you've already breached your contract! You put yourself and my entire operation at risk! If you meant to keep your appointments as seriously as you should have, you would have not put yourself in such a hasslydoo in the first place.”

He should have never gone? Casey looked down at the floor, perplexed. It hadn’t occurred to him to not go save Donnie. He had to… right? Even if it had ended up hurting himself…

It had hurt him so much. Now he was trapped here. Yeah, this was Donnie’s fault. He should have never ran off alone in the first place.

“What… what happens now?” he asked quietly.

She stretched out an upturned hand, expecting him to know the answer. He did. Casey felt like his spirit might just leave his body. To be stuck as a turtle again on top of all this was the last thing he wanted. He looked down at his ankle, and realized he couldn't make himself bend over.

“I can't reach it,” he whimpered. If he moved his head too much, he knew he was going to fall over.

“Yes, you can,” she insisted wickedly.

Casey took another deep breath. He wanted to curl up into a ball and die. (How he'd get there, he wasn't sure.) Instead, he kneeled, keeping his head as upright and still as possible. Of course, he stumbled and, losing his balance, tripped over his own feet and fell onto the carpet. He yelped as the pain in his head followed. Synth took a step away, and he could hear the spider woman's irritation as she clicked her tongue.

“Hurry up!”

He fumbled to sit up as stars danced across his vision. He clawed at his leg, his heart racing as he fought back more tears. It took too long, but eventually he got his trembling fingers around to untie the knot, and he shook even more as he felt his center of gravity shift. Without standing up, he slapped the ribbon onto Big Mama's desk, where he heard her snatch it up right away.

“Up on your feet!” she ordered.

It took him entirely too long to stand; he had to use her desk for support. And even when he was up, he still felt so dizzy that he continued to grip onto it for dear life.

Big Mama snapped her fingers, and Casey reluctantly looked up.

“I'm extremely disappointed in you,” she told him quietly, as if he cared about that at all. “I was really thinking things would go smoother than this. You seemed so determined…” she sighed. “Unfortunately, there are consequences for our actions, are there not?”

When he didn't answer, she snapped her finger again.

“Answer me!”

“Yes,” he answered through gritted teeth.

“Yes, Mama.”

“Y-yes, Mama.”

“That's better,” she whispered. Casey watched her fingers as she pulled at the ribbon until the fragment of Sunita's brooch was picked up between her two fingers.

“But it's not enough for now,” she sighed. She snapped her fingers a final time, and the fragment shattered into glass dust. Orange mystic light escaped and scattered into the air; the last vestiges of Master Michelangelo's magic dissipating into nothing.

Casey's breathing hitched.

“The box turtle…” she hummed as she watched the last of his glimmers fade. “Interesting.”

Casey swayed precariously enough, but now his knees buckled. In his mind's eye, he was losing his beloved uncle all over again.

“I need your apology, Casey,” Big Mama hissed. “And say it right the first time.”

He couldn't move his hands for fear of falling over, so instead the tears he blinked away were left to fall freely down his face. They dripped onto the lacquered surface he clung to; a surface so reflective he could see his pathetic face for just a moment before meeting her again.

“I'm sorry, Mama.”

“Good boy.” She whispered gleefully, before straightening.

“Now, you're free to go. Obviously, you don't need to see my stinkpot again. However… if you do wish to stay here, I suppose she will still need guidance. And I have so many other odds and ends around here that you can make yourself useful with in the meantime, too. What do you think? Sound like a fair trade? An hour with Stinkpot for a night's stay at the most luxurious hotel in New York City. That's a hell of a deal if I've ever heard one.”

Where else would he go? He couldn't return home like this.

Brain Damage

At the ungodly hour of Casey's arrival, Sunshine was already asleep. Until she was up for the day, Casey was given a room on the same floor as all of Mama's other little projects. If he had thought Sunshine's room was claustrophobic, the atmosphere of his new lodgings was pointedly oppressive. The purples of Sunshine's room were replaced with a heavy maroon that seemed to pull the ceiling and walls as close together as possible. A hydra was mounted over his bed, black scaly necks twisted and reached across the room, their ruby eyes turned to threaten anyone who dared enter.

It reminded him he was being watched constantly. A pair of eyes on the door, on the bed, toward the closet- he had no room to exist in such a cramped and unwelcoming space.

And she wanted him to be thankful. Now that the fear and embarrassment was over, all Casey was left with was resentment. If he weren't in such god awful pain he might've thrown himself at the disgustingly elegant vanity, ripping out drawers and smashing them against the glass window.

And he didn’t forget why he was in this situation in the first place. If Donnie hadn't gotten his ass in trouble, this wouldn't have happened. Casey was starting to see a troubling pattern. Donatello could always have the best intentions, but it always seemed to end up in Casey getting hurt. He was sick of it.

If he tipped the wardrobe down with the doors open he could probably snap them off and break them in half over the remaining assembly. The hydra heads would have to go too of course, he didn't figure they could even support his weight.

It was a violent and childish fantasy, to take his anger out on objects where the source of his problems were all too far out of reach. And he couldn't even act on that.

He was completely and totally helpless.

The only thing he could do was crawl into bed and try to sleep. He didn't even bother to change out of his clothes. They were the only possessions he had brought with him, he realized; a pair of shorts, boots, jersey, and a hoodie. He didn't have his saw, his mask, his phone. God, he hoped the turtles had those. He remembered his mask shattering, and the saw in Aderman's chest…

He hoped that bitch was dead. fuck that bitch was crazy. She had somehow copied both Donnie and Leo’s mystic powers! That was extremely troubling, especially given what he knew about how their powers worked. As far as Master Michelangelo had figured, there were only a few circumstances that someone could use Hamato ninpo.

First and most blatantly obvious, you had to be Hamato. That was the biggest strike against Aderman. As far as he knew, Hamato Yoshi had been the only descendant of the clan. And even if Aderman was somehow distantly related to them (as unlikely as it was), she would have to have a strong relationship with the family to even use those powers.

She didn’t seem to be the type of woman to have close ties to her family. Especially with her particularly villainous outlook on life.

Casey felt his stomach turning into knots. That family connection was the deciding factor. He knew it was why he couldn’t access his own ninpo, even if he knew it was there and had been aware of it for as long as he could remember. He had thought his connection to his sensei and Master Michelangelo would have been enough, but it never really clicked.

And it didn’t click here either, of course, because he couldn’t allow himself to open up to the Hamato clan in the present. He was also fairly sure that if he did open up to them, it would shatter Leo’s connection to his ninpo again. Because while he had never said it out loud, Casey was fairly sure sensei had permanently damaged his connection to his mystic powers after his fight with Donatello. And if that had never happened, perhaps they’d all still be alive today… er, in the future. Casey wouldn’t even have to be here.

He had once again circled back around to this being Donatello’s fault. The fucker seemed to live rent free in Casey’s head.

He threw himself (as gently but angrily as possible) under the covers, grabbing also his hoodie and pulling the drawstrings in an attempt to block out everything. As he curled up into a fetal position, the only thing comforting him was that at least the fabric still smelled like home.

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Notes: Today’s subchapters related to Casey are Pink Floyd songs. I can’t help myself; The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon just start playing in my head when Casey is in pain. It’s a whole fucking MOOD.

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#rottmnt #snapper and stinkpot #rottmnt casey jr #rottmnt fanfiction #rottmnt leo #casey sas au #casey jones #rottmnt big mama

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aquietwritingcorner · 18 days

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The Tot, The Vigilante, and the Laundry

Title: The Tot, The Vigilante, and the Laundry Fandom: TMNT 2003 Word Count: 3270 Author: aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl Rating: G/K Characters: Donatello, Casey Jones Warning: NA Summary: Casey is babysitting Little Donnie. Nothing can go wrong with this, right? Notes: Part of the Little Don AU, an AU I’ve had forming in my head where, during a crisis with the Time Scepter, Don sacrificed himself to save everything. Instead of it killing him, though, it turned him into a baby, and his family has needed to raise him all over again. ff.net || AO3

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The Tot, the Vigilante, and the Laundry

“And you’re sure that you’re good?”

Casey rolled his eyes and huffed, holding the nine-month-old Donnie in one arm. “I told ya, Leo, it’s fine! I know ya think I ain’t got any experience with babies, but you ain’t seen all the cousins I’ve got. I can handle one mutant turtle baby for a few hours.”

Leo looked at him a bit uncertainly, but Raph leaned forward and clapped a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Come on, Leo. Case has this. We’ll be gone for a few hours and then we’ll be back again. It’s supposed to be a quick, in and out ceremony.”

Leo looked at Raph, and then back at Casey. “If we’re not back, then you have enough to take care of him, right? And April will be back to help you?”

Casey nodded. “Yeah, Leo, I got this. Ape and I keep stuff for Donnie stocked here, and we know where you guys keep it and where to get it. ‘Sides, like you said, April’ll be back later tonight. She’s out with some girl friends of hers from college. They ain’t gonna stay out too late.”

Leo still looked a little uncertain, and Casey really couldn’t blame the guy for being protective of Donnie, but it was getting kind of old. Finally, he nodded, and let Raph pull him away. They disappeared out the window, and to wherever, Casey assumed, Mikey and Master Splinter were getting the ritual to go to that Battle Nexus place ready.

Donnie watched them go, and then turned big, uncertain eyes on Casey, even as he chewed on his fingers. Casey grinned at him.

“Doncha worry, little man. You and me, we’re gonna have a lotta fun!” Casey said. “I gotta be a fun uncle, after all.”

“Aaahp.”

Casey grinned. “Glad you agree. Now let’s see ‘bout getting you some toys out, a’ight?”

When they had realized that this change was permanent, April had set about finding Donnie some of the best baby toys on the market. She’d researched and compared and criticized, intent on finding Donnie the best brain stimulating toys that existed. She’d even pulled Leatherhead and that robot professor guy in on it, and they’d debated, found, and even created some toys for Donnie that were supposed to help with his brain development, motor skills, and language acquisition. They’d presented them to Donnie—to the guys, really—proudly.

And then Donnie had played with the tissue paper and boxes instead.

Maybe Casey had laughed a little too hard at that, and maybe he’d slept on the couch for a few days, but it really had been funny to him. Don had been a guy that could make things most people couldn’t dream of out of garbage when he was, like, fifteen. He took things apart just to see how they worked, and then looked at ordinary objects and saw new ways for them to work. It only made sense to Casey that Donnie would be the same way. The toys were nice and all, but he wanted the stuff that he could take apart and the things he saw others using.

So, when he went to get toys for Donnie, he didn’t pull out any of the fancy things they had. Instead, he gave him an old water bottle with a lid too big to choke on, a couple of boxes, some tissue paper, those stackable rings, some balls, and some blocks. He settled Donnie down in the middle of them, and Donnie immediately reached for the tissue paper grabbing it and shaking it around.

“Alright, little man, let’s watch some hockey and play,” he said with a grin, turning on the TV.

For the next couple of hours, Casey played with Donnie in the floor, letting the little turtle crawl all over him—something he’d started doing a lot earlier than human babies—lightly wrestling with him, yelling at the TV together, and just generally playing with the boy. It was actually a lot of fun, and Casey honestly enjoyed it.

Eventually, though Donnie got cranky because he was hungry, and Casey took the tot to the kitchen to feed him some food. That was, as usual, a messy thing, as Donnie, while able to eat solid foods quicker than a human baby, was still just as messy as one. That, of course, meant bathtime afterwards, and Casey had learned that bathtime with a baby turtle was a whole different thing.

Donnie loved being in the water, splashing and playing, and holding his head under the water for an uncomfortably long time. He squealed at bubbles, and used cups to pour water, splashing with the boats that were floating in the tub. Casey got almost as wet as Donnie did, but he didn’t regret it, even if he wished he had thought to at least take off his shirt first.

Still, when the water cooled, Casey finally bathed the small turtle, stopping the games, and pulled him out, drying him off. There were some pajamas that could be used, if it looked like Donnie was getting cold, but it was well known amongst the family that Donnie tended to just pull off the clothes as soon as he could.

Casey stripped himself down to his boxers, taking his wet clothes to the laundry room, Donnie tucked in the crook of his arm.

“You got me almost as wet as you were,” he said, teasing Donnie a little. Donnie grinned at him and giggled, and Casey, emptying his pockets and tossing his wet clothes down, tickled him. Donnie laughed, and Casey grinned. There was something about that laugh that just made everyone smile.

Casey glanced around the laundry room, looking at the piles of clothes lying in it. “Huh. Looks like there’s enough here to do a couple of loads,” he said. He checked the dryer, seeing some clothes in it, and turned them around for a few minutes. “I’m gonna let those warmup, and then I’ll take ‘em out and put what’s in the washer in there,” Casey said. “But while I’m doing that, wanna help me sort clothes?”

“Ah!” Donnie smiled, waving his hands around, and Casey grinned, getting to work.

The two of them had fun with it, Casey sitting Donnie down on the floor, and tossing clothes out. He’d toss some on Donnie, and the baby would squeal and pull them off of his head. He would, though, to Casey’s amusement, crawl over with the clothes to the piles and sit there, before trying to put the piece of clothing he had in one of the piles.

Unsurprisingly, he got it right most of the time.

It didn’t take Casey long to have the clothes sorted, and switch over the loads. The ones from the dryer went in the basket. The ones from the washer, went in the dryer. And the ones from one of the piles on the floor, went in the washer.

He turned when he closed the lid on the washer and looked back at Donnie. The little boy was clinging to the side of the basket, curiously petting the clothes in them.

“Yeah, they feel all nice when they’re warm, don’t they?” he said. He scooped Donnie up and put him in the basket, to which the baby laughed, and carried it and the child back to the living room. He laughed when he saw how Donnie had buried himself inside the basket, churring, and let the tot stay that way for a bit, while he put himself on some new, dry clothes, and picked up the living room a little, leaving Donnie’s toys out. Then he fought a surprisingly determined toddler for the cooled clothes, folding them up.

Casey reached down and rubbed Donnie’s shell when he was finished. He could tell that the boy was getting tired, but he wasn’t quite ready to go down yet. “Alright, little man. Hows about you stay here and play with your toys? I’ll go put all of this away and work on the kitchen. And then, after that, it’ll be bedtime, alright?”

“Ahabahabaha,” Donnie said.

Casey nodded. “Glad to know we got an understandin’,” he said.

He put Donnie in the middle of his toys again, and stood up, putting away the clothes and taking the laundry basket back to the laundry room. By that time, the load of towels was dry, and he piled them in the basket for later, before transferring the laundry over and starting a new load. He checked in on Donnie, who looked back at him, curiously, before heading to the kitchen. The kiddo was okay, so he could take a few minutes to clean up the mess in the kitchen.

It, of course, took longer than a few minutes, but Casey got it done relatively fast. The living room had gotten quieter, and Casey wondered if maybe Donnie had fallen asleep. It’d be fine if he did. He’d just bundle the little turtle up and put him in the pack’n’play in his and April’s room.

Drying his hands on a towel, Casey walked into the living room, expecting to see a sleeping turtle—and stopping short when that wasn’t what he found. Sure, Donnie’s toys were still out, but he couldn’t see Donnie anywhere. Keeping himself from panicking, Casey looked around the living room.

“Donnie?” he called. “Donnie, where are you?”

Not a peep.

His fear starting to grow, Casey started to look for the little turtle in earnest. He hadn’t crawled under any of the furniture in the living room, and he wasn’t behind the TV or in the curtains. The staircase still had the baby gate up, and it didn’t look like it had been messed with. Nothing looked as if anyone had broken in. But Donnie wasn’t in the living room.

His panic starting to grow, Casey quickly searched through the other rooms in the apartment. Nothing. He didn’t think that the little boy could have gotten down the stairs that led to the shop, or out of the door to the stairs in the hallway, but he ran down them, checking both of them out, too. The doors to the shop and the outside were still both locked, so no one had gotten in. And Donnie wasn’t in the basement, either.

Casey’s panic multiplied, and he raced back up the stairs to the apartment. Donnie had to be in here. He had to be in here somewhere. He was little and he was smart, and Raph was always saying that they found him in the oddest of places. He had to be somewhere in the apartment. With his panic leading him, Casey tore the apartment apart, looking in every nook, every cranny, pulling out everything from any place that the small turtle could be hiding. He called for the baby but got no answer.

He went back downstairs, to the shop, treating it similarly, not caring about how angry April was going to be with him. That wouldn’t matter if he was killed by three angry brothers. No—Casey wouldn’t even make it that far. Master Splinter would get to him first, and that would be the end of it. And Casey would deserve it for losing Donnie.

Casey searched from one end of the building to the other, turning every space in it upside down and inside out. There was no sign of the child on any floor.

He was going to have to call April.

He was a dead man. April would kill him before Splinter did, just because she’d get to him first. And Casey wouldn’t even fight her about it. He trudged back up to the apartment, trying to think of what he was going to say to her.

He reached in his pocket for his phone, only to realize it wasn’t there. Cursing to himself, he tried to remember the last place he had it. Maybe the laundry room? Yeah, he’d emptied his pockets out there, so that was probably where it was.

Casey walked into the laundry room like a man condemned to die and spotted his phone on top of the dryer. What was he going to tell April? “Hey, babe, listen, I know I said I’d be responsible, but I lost Donnie and I’m telling you first, so you can kill me before the ninja master rat can?” Yeah. That’d go over well.

The dryer was still warm, the load in it having just finished, and Casey, trying to think of what he was going to say to his wife, opened it, taking out the laundry and plopping it in the basket.

The basket that churred.

Casey froze and looked back at the basket of towels and now-warm clothes. No. It couldn’t be that simple, could it?

Casey turned and started to carefully pull the clean laundry out of the basket. There, buried halfway down and covered in towels, was a small, curled up, mutant turtle baby, yawning and whining a bit as Casey let in the cool air that the towels had been insulating him from.

Casey sat down hard.

“Oh, man, oh Donnie,” he said, reaching in to pull the baby out of the basket. Donnie made a displeased noise, and Casey reached for one of the warm t-shirts to wrap around the child. Donnie chirped again, settling in and Casey laughed, relief filling him. “You got no idea how bad you scared me, Donnie,” he said. He leaned back against the dryer. “Oh, man.”

April walked quickly, heading towards her building. She’d been out much later than she’d planned on, and she hoped that Casey was doing alright with Donnie. She’d not gotten any calls or text from him, so she hoped that was a good sign. She was just walking past her alleyway when she saw a flash coming from it. Curious, she peeked in, only to see a glowing blue portal on the wall, three turtles and one rat emerging from it. Smiling, she turned to join them.

“Hey, guys!” she said. “Just getting back?”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “The ceremony went on longer than we thought.”

“Who knew that every Battle Nexus Champion there would have to give a speech!” Mikey said, grinning.

“A speech?” April said.

“Don’t ask,” Raph said. “Numbskull didn’t completely embarrass us, a least—but it was near thing.”

“We are fortunate that Michelangelo has the gift of spontaneity, as well as speech,” Splinter said. “Unfortunately, his gift of social cues comes and goes.”

“What?” Mikey protested.

April shook her head and started to fish her keys out of her purse. “Well, sounds like it was entertaining, at least,” she said.

“How was your night?” Leo asked. “Aren’t you getting home a little late?”

“I am,” April said. “But we started talking and just having so much fun, that by the time we realized what time it was, well, it was late.” She paused, putting the keys in the door to unlock it. “And I made sure all of my friends had a safe way home. Not all of them have the advantage of being trained in ninjitsu by actual ninja, you know,” she said.

Mikey laughed as April opened the door to her shop. “And don’t forget—training by the Battle Nexus Cha—whoa!”

Mikey cut off as April flicked the light switch, and they all saw her shop. Furniture was turned over, drawers were pulled out, cabinets were open, clothing was strewn about. The place looked ransacked.

“Donatello,” Splinter breathed, and as one, they all raced to the circular staircase, running up it to the apartment above.

The apartment was in no better shape, with things overturned, taken out, strewn. It was clear it wasn’t just in the living room, either, but in all the rooms. Donnie’s toys were scattered, and the TV was still on, but there wasn’t a sign of anyone around.

“Casey!?” April called, fear clear in her voice.

“In here!” Casey called back. His voice sounded soft, weak, and no one took that as a good sign.

They all rushed towards where his voice had come from, alert for any enemies. They didn’t find any, but they did find Casey, leaning against the dryer, with a towel wrapped Donnie sleeping on his chest.

“Hey guys,” Casey said, keeping his voice soft so he wouldn’t wake Donnie. “Welcome back.”

“Casey, what the shell is going on?” Raph demanded.

Casey blinked at him. “What—oh, right, the apartment!”

“The apartment, the store,” Mikey listed.

“Ah… yeah,” Casey said, “about that…” he rubbed the back of his head. “So, it’s kinda like this. See, me and Donnie, we had a good time, right? Played, watched some hockey, stuff like that. Then we ate, and he got a bath, and I started some laundry. Little Man was getting sleepy, so I set him to play with his toys while I cleaned up the kitchen. Only when I got back, he was gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?” Leo said, an edge to his voice.

“I mean, he wasn’t where I left him,” Casey said. “And he wasn’t anywhere in the living room. I looked. I looked everywhere, and then I looked again, and then I looked again,” he said. “I was gonna call April, let her be the one to kill me for loosing Donnie before the rest of you could, when I found him in the laundry basket.”

“The laundry basket?” Mikey questioned.

Casey nodded. “Yeah. I think he liked the warm towels or something, because if he starts getting fussy, all I gotta do is pull a new warm one outta the dryer, wrap him in it, and he settles right down. We’ve uh, been sitting like this for a couple of hours now.” He looked at the baby in his arms. “After losing him, I kinda didn’t want to let him go.”

For a moment, there was silence, with the exception of the small churrs coming from Donnie, and the sound of the dryer.

“Let me get this straight,” April said. “You lost the baby, ransacked our apartment and the store looking for the baby, found the baby, and then sat here holding the baby.”

“Uhhh,” Casey winced. “Yeah? And I kinda ransacked the whole buildin’ so…”

April stared at him, and then let out a breath. “To be honest, I don’t blame you,” she said.

Casey blinked at her. “Uh… what?”

“Thank you, Casey,” Splinter said, reaching out a hand to rub on Donnie’s head. The baby churred contentedly. “Although I am not happy you lost him in the first place, the fact that you would go to such lengths to find him is appreciated.” He looked back at the other three turtles. “Come, my sons. Let us help April put her home back together.”

The other three turtles nodded, and headed out, while April leaned down and put a kiss on Casey’s forehead. “If you take this good of care of Donnie, I can’t imagine what a great father you’ll be one day.”

Casey stared at his wife as she sauntered out the door after the rest of their family, then looked down at the still sleeping Donnie. “Huh,” he said. “That… wasn’t how I was expecting that to go.” He shifted a little, making sure Donnie was still comfortable. “Well, I’m gonna guess they’ll let me babysit you again,” he said.

“You’re on probation!” Leo called back.

Casey looked up, and then grinned. “Yeah, okay. On probation. I can live with that, little man, if you can.”

Donnie simply churred and snuggled deeper into Casey’s hold.

#tmnt #tmnt 2k3 #tmnt fan fiction #tmnt fanfic #tmnt donatello #tmnt casey jones #tmnt 2003 #tmnt AU

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thejavavoid · 10 months

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what was it like for all your 2012 boys growing up? like, any specific things?

weeelllllllll.......

raph was raised completely by the foot for the most part. he was found when he was only about a year old, and he didn't even remember his own name. the only reason shredder knew it was 'raphael' is because it was written on the inside of his bandana (which at the time was more like a blanket for him since he was so teeny-tiny). he wasn't even raised by shredder himself, but moreso by the foot ninjas. they're the ones who kept an eye on him when he was a baby and made sure was (somewhat) healthy. out of everyone that worked for shredder, i'd say the one who cared for raph the most would be xever. he didn't want to see raph grow up and turn out the same way he did (granted, he was still not the best parental figure, but at the very least he cared). when raph was about six, shredder decided it was a good time to start training his 'weapon'. shredder was pretty horrible in terms of parenting. he didn't see raph as a living human being, but more like a weapon or a sick pet. he had no memory of his brothers or splinter or anything, and he was always extremely jealous of karai (who seemed to have pretty much everything she wanted).

compared to mikey though, raph's childhood was pretty tame. he was kidnapped when he was six by the kraang, who saw him wandering in the sewers. he was abducted and the others had absolutely no idea, to them he'd just vanished. he was pretty much put through hell, being subject to tons of experiments and the harsh environment of dimension x. while mikey was captive, he ended up meeting another mutant- leatherhead. leatherhead was like a second father to mikey, and whenever mikey was scared (especially in his first few years) leatherhead was always there to make him feel somewhat safe. mikey remembered leo, donnie, and splinter pretty well, and he always believed that one day they would find and rescue him. that did happen eventually, but that was when they were fifteen. when mikey was thirteen, though, leatherhead was taken off to one of the kraang's daily tests and was never brought back. mikey had thought that leatherhead died, and he became extremely depressed those last two years. he wouldnt eat anything, the kraang ended up having to force-feed him so he wouldn't die.

donnie grew up with leo and splinter for quite some time, and despite having lost mikey and knowing that there was possibly another turtle out there, he was pretty happy. but when he and leo were nine, there was some heavy construction in the sewer area where they lived, so splinter decided to have them move. donnie ended up getting lost, and accidentally made his way up to the surface. for a while he scavenged and stole pretty much anything he could get his hands on that he thought would either keep him alive or help him get home. at some point, he had an accidental encounter with a young april, who was heading to school when she tried taking a shortcut through the alleyways and ended up finding donnie. they became close friends pretty quickly, and april promised not to tell anyone about donnie. she would visit him whenever she could, and told him all about her life at home and mainly at school (donnie was extremely interested in school). one day though, she went to visit him like usual and she found him pretty banged up and hurt. april decided to take donnie home to get help, because well, he can't go to any regular hospital. april's dad (kirby) was kind of shocked when he first met donnie, but eventually took him in like his own child. he and april did the best they could to help donnie try and find leo and splinter, and donnie used to spend his free time either trying to remember his former training, or scavenging for any loose bits of technology he could work with (that ended kind of quickly once he was fifteen though, due to a certain incident involving a drunken man one night).

and as for leo, she was raised by splinter. after losing donnie, splinter actually became extremely paranoid and refused to let leo go out on her own. of course there were times leo snuck out, but it wasn't all that often. leo always tried to honor the others, and she knew that they were all probably out there somewhere. she swore to herself that someday she would go out and find them all, and fix their family. leo was raised pretty well by splinter, BUT he was excessively overprotective at times.

also bonus leo backstory: when she was about eight, she realized that she felt more like a girl than a boy (at least, the kind of girls she saw on TV). she eventually confronted splinter about this feeling and splinter was very accepting (confused, definitely, but accepting anyways). leo didn't actually know she was trans up until she met casey, who taught her all the terms and such. she never considered changing her name though, mainly because she still wanted to respect and honor it and also because even though she felt more feminine, she still felt comfortable with the name itself.

#jjq&a #tmnt 2012 #2012separatedau #tmnt au #2012sep!au raph #2012sep!au leo #2012sep!au donnie #2012sep!au mikey #2012sep!au splinter #2012sep!au april

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theblindgoddess · 1 year

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Hello again tumblr! People asked for my new rottmnt au, and I shall give it!

The Anastasia au as I am calling it, is not an Anastasia au, but is called The Anastasia au because we have one character suffering from amnesia most of their life missing a family they don't remember, and the family searching desperately for the character with amnesia.

It starts when the turtles are little kids, Raph is 10, Leo and Donnie are 9, and Mikey is 8. They all have brand new friendship bracelets that Mikey made them, the colours of the bracelets correspond to the colours of their brothers, so Leo's bracelet is orange, red, and purple, Mikey's is red, purple, and blue and so on for the rest. One day Leo wants to go up to the surface, but splinter tells them that they can't go up to the surface today. He doesn't give the boys a reason but he does have a reason, that reason being that he is having a bad day mentally and can barely get out of bed and his boys are too young to go out by themselves. He doesn't give the kids a reason because he is ashamed of his self perceived inability to be a good dad, but he does tell them they can go out the next day.

Leo, however, still wants to go to the surface, and after seeing that his dad isn't feeling good, even if he doesn't know why he isn't feeling good, is even more determined to go so that he can get something to make his dad feel better. So he convinces his brothers to sneak out to the surface to get something to make splinter feel less sad.

So the boys are out on the surface, trying to figure out what they should get their dad when they get attacked by some yoki. (I haven't figured out why the yoki attack them yet, probably just gonna be that thing terrible people do where they beat up weaker people to make themselves feel strong.) At the end of the attack all the boys are injured and out cold except for Leo who is still conscious despite the multiple head wounds and concussions he has. Leo is understandably freaking out and after hiding his brothers behind a dumpster runs off to get home and get splinter since little nine year old Leo can't carry all of his brothers at once.

On his way home however, he gets spotted by a group of very violent and very mean humans, who decide to beat up the weird looking and already injured kid they just saw. Leo is also able to escape this encounter, but not with out receiving even more injuries and head trauma. He is also very lost and has no clue how to get home. He eventually finds his way to the Hiden city somehow and then passes out in an alley way because the adrenaline finally wore off and baby boy had a really bad day.

The next day Draxum is just out and about in the Hiden city for reasons when he hears the sounds of soft crying and decides to check it out for other reasons that I haven't figured out yet. What he finds is one of the turtles that he mutated a few years back, very sad looking, very cute, and very injured. He goes up to the kid and asks him what's wrong. He finds out that the kid seems to be suffering from amnesia, likely in part caused by the head injuries he can see and some that he can't see, but what the kid can remember is that he is 9 years old, he has three brothers and a dad, he and his brothers are colour coded, and he (incorrectly) remembers that his family is dead and that it's his fault. Draxum asks him if he can remember his name and the kid after thinking on it for a while says he thinks it might have been Narin. Draxum, being hit with a sudden wave of dad instincts but not knowing it, decides to take Narin in. He did make him after all, and while the other three turtle are dead, he can still use this one to help him wipe out the human race. So Draxum picks up the kid, tells him that he had helped create him and that he will take care of Narin now.

Meanwhile on the surface, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey all wake up, see that Leo is missing, and run home to tell splinter what happened so that they can go find Leo. Splinter, as you can imagine, is not having a good time and blames himself for Leo going missing, reasoning with himself that if he has just not been pathetic and had gotten out of bed and been a good father that his children would not be hurt and Leo would not be missing. The Hamato's search high and low looking for Leo, but are never able to find him. Splinter feels incredibly guilty, but this situation ends up giving him motivation to power through the bad days to make sure that he never loses another son again, even if this motivation can be unhealthy and harmful to himself at times. He also might become a bit over protective, I haven't decided yet. Tell me what you guys think.

Over time each Hamato eventually comes to accept the fact that Leo is probably dead (this realization hitting Donnie the hardest because disaster twins superiority) except for Mikey, who has declared that he will never stop looking for Leo, and who insists that he can feel that Leo is still alive. (Baby boi's really strong in the mystic arts it's just that nobody knows it yet)

Over in the hidden city, Draxum gets Narin patched up and checked out by multiple doctors who come to the conclusion that the only problems caused by the brain damage is the amnesia and the occasional violent mood swing. Narin also has a scar on his temple from that day. Draxum then has to figure out how to be a dad to a kid who is morning a family he can't remember and his dealing with some major behavior issues because of it. Narin is not an easy kid to raise because of all his trauma and the effects it has on him. Draxum is not shy about telling Narin about his plans to genocide the human race and Narin, who has vague memories of being attacked by humans the same day his family 'died' and has decided that humans killed them, is all for the human extermination and gets more into it then Draxum does, which worries Draxum because he's pretty sure no kid should be that murderous.

Narin ends up having a good childhood, as good a childhood someone can get when they have as many issues as he does from both physical trauma and mental trauma. He's still our goofy Leo, just two steps to the left and teetering on the edge between slightly less stable and completely unstable. He always keeps the friendship bracelet on him and when it got too small to fit his wrist he put it on a necklace. He also has the blue bandana that he was wearing the day Draxum found him wrapped around his wrist because I think it would look cool. Narin is also, as you can imagine, very protective of Draxum. He lost his family once, he's not going to again.

Eventually we get to the plot, and the ninjas find their way into Draxum's lab to rescue April and Mayhem. Because of the outfit that Narin wears, which includes a mask that covers his entire head and features a pattern only slightly inspired by Deadpool's mask, don't recognize him as Leo, their missing and presumed dead brother, and just think he is a worryingly murderous turtle ninja. And Narin for his part sees these three 'yoki' turtle brothers who are colour coded like his brothers and takes that as a personal insult. Needless to say, Narin doesn't like them, and what Narin doesn't like, Narin kills, with Draxum's permission. And as for Draxum he doesn't realize that these three new turtles are the other three turtles he mutated, because Narin told him that they were dead and who was he to doubt his son's eye witness account? Of course, he does put the prices together and realizes that these are the three missing turtles, but that leaves him with a bit of a predicament. He could tell Narin that the brothers he misses very much are actually alive because that would make Narin happy and Draxum wants his son to be happy, but on the flip side Narin's mental state is very unstable and telling him has a very high chance of ending with Narin having one of his worse episodes and trying to kill Draxum for the 'ill tasting joke'. Which in turn would send Narin into a rapid downward spiral. Draxum eventually decides that he will tell Narin, but he has to wait for the right time or else Narin could fall off the edge into the completely unstable side with no way of getting back.

That's all for now! @cosmi-trashbin , @xandriagreat , @goosebumpsturtlegal , and @disastertwins9000 all expressed interest in hearing about this au when I teased about it yesterday, so I'm @ing y'all to let you know it's here! Hope you guys enjoy!

Also if I can get some suggestions for the parental title that Narin gives to Draxum, that would be really great! Thanks!

#au #rottmnt #rottmnt au #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #The Anastasia au #rise leo #seperated au #kinda #its kinda a seperated au #angst #rise raph #rise mikey #rise donnie #rise draxum #found family

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thelaundrybitch · 2 years

Text

Little Blue Hearts Update - Chapter 26

Happy Tuesday Turtle Doves!!!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

I hope you all had a nice few weeks (I'd say while I was away, but I can't stay away. I love you all too much 😍😂) while I was on vacation.

I LOVE this chapter. It was fully inspired by the wonderful @imagine-turtles who was gracious enough to let me use the idea.

Here is the original post: The Golden Post *angels sing, clouds part*

@imagine-turtles I can't thank you enough for your brilliance, and for letting me write this out in my fic 😍🥰😘

Thank you, thank you, thank you 💙

I hope you all enjoy a good giggle 😘

18+ content - for mature audiences only!

Reblogs only, please!

Little Blue Hearts cover art by the lovely @leosgirl82

Boning the Guest

~Leonardo~

I'm pacing back and forth in my bedroom like a maniac. I can barely contain myself.

Ashley called a meeting this afternoon and told us she had just spoken to her cousin.

Liv will be here in approximately 24 hours from now.

And I'm so not ready. Holy mother of all that is good on God's green Earth, I am not ready.

Hell, I could barely hold my shit together when I saw her over video chat. And I didn't even meet her! I only watched her!

Oh, God, what if she meets us and she's terrified? What if she meets us and refuses to stay?

What if she meets us and thinks we look like horrible monsters?

Even worse, what if she doesn't mind that we look like complete freaks, but she doesn't like… Me?

I'm not sure I could handle it.

I need to pull my shit together.

I need to get some of this nervous energy out.

Meditation?

Reading?

Katas?

Mikey.

I hurry out of my room and head to Mikey's room. Ashley waves to me with a big smile. She's on her way out with Donnie to grab some food that Liv likes, then he'll drop her off at work. I wave back at her with a nervous smile, and turn down the hallway where Mikey's and Raph's rooms are located.

As I get to Mikey's door, Ashley comes jogging down the hall, "Hey," she says, a look of love and concern on her face.

"Hey," I say, looking down, mindlessly letting my hands fiddle.

She puts her hand on my forearm and I look up at her. "It's gonna be ok," she whispers. "What's got you so upset?" She asks me.

"I'm just afraid she's not gonna like me, I guess. You know, she's gonna look at me like I'm some kind of freak. A monster," I confess.

"The great Leonardo? Prince Charming himself? Not possible," she says, reassuring me, and making me smile shyly. "Leo, she's gonna love you. Really. I need you to trust me on this. I didn't freak out, right?"

"No," I agree with her, "but you're different."

"And so is she. Think about all the stories I've told you over the past, what? Eight, nine months? Does she seem the type to just judge someone based on their appearance?" She asks.

I think for a few seconds before responding to her, "No, but she's never seen anything quite like us, either. I'm sure," I tell her.

"Leo, I want you to have some tea, do some meditation, and maybe burn some incense that relaxes you. After you do whatever you're gonna do with Mike, that is," she instructs me. "I promise you, there is absolutely nothing to worry about."

I nod and take a deep breath.

"Alright, now, I need to go with Donnie before he beheads me," she says, rolling her eyes. "He's already bitching about other things he has to get done before patrol tonight."

She smiles and squeezes my arm before she turns to jog back to Donnie so they can leave.

Deep breaths.

I love that girl - like she was my own sister. Mikey did well. He really found himself a great woman.

I knock twice on Mikey's door and let myself in. He's sitting in a gaming chair in the corner of his room, playing Mortal Kombat.

"Hey, Leo! What's going on?!" He asks, excited to see me as he turns around toward the door.

"I need to be distracted," I tell him, straight-faced, stepping back and forth nervously.

"Ah. You have 'The Night Before Christmas' syndrome," he chuckles.

"Excuse me?" I ask.

"You know… So excited you can barely function. Super giddy. A bit anxious. Thinking about every scenario that could possibly happen when she arrives… You're a bundle of nerves because you're about to get the best gift of your life!"

"I don't think she's a gift for me Mikey, but I think I understand what you're getting at," I say smiling at my brother, who is CLEARLY being ridiculous so I calm down and cheer up.

"It's an analogy, man," he smirks," but you never knOOOooow… She could be," he says, wiggling his brow ridge. "NOW! Come sit down so I can beat your ass in some Mortal Kombat!" He exclaims.

I grab his other gaming chair and roll it to the TV that's hanging on his wall and he tosses me a controller with a smile. I smile back at him, grateful he doesn't poke and prod about my feelings. He doesn't have to. He just knows, and I love him for that.

After four hours of having my ass handed to me, we decide it's probably time to make some dinner, and I follow him to the kitchen to assist him in whatever he's going to make everyone for dinner.

Mikey is the chef in the house because no one else likes to cook. He has this amazing ability to take something that no one likes to do, and he finds a way to love it. He researches and practices until he's perfected it. Dude cooks and bakes like a Michelin Star Chef.

"Whatcha feel like for dinner, bro?" He asks me.

"Is it weird that I want your chicken and vegetable soup?" I ask with a smirk.

"Not at all, man! It's a comfort food!"

He goes to the large fridge that holds all the produce, taking out everything he needs.

"Can you flip the counter to the chop-board side?" He asks, bringing his selection to the island-countertop where I'm standing.

"Of course," I say, clicking the switch and then pushing the button to flip the countertop in, revealing the wooden cutting board beneath.

"You mind cutting some veggies, while I prep the chicken and spices?" He asks with a hopeful smile. Cutting vegetables is his least favorite thing to do. I, however, love it.

"Heck yes!" I say, grabbing a knife, and getting right to work.

The soup, along with some homemade garlic bread, is made and served within an hour - and it's absolutely delicious.

As we sit and eat at the Tatami, the others are discussing Liv, how they think she'll react, and what they think she'll be like - having only heard about her personality through Ashley's stories.

Everyone seems really excited that we will have another guest in the lair - even Sensei - who's been sitting with a sly grin on his face all through dinner.

We decide to continue our little gathering and enjoy some desserts and hot beverages together.

Raph is drinking some hot chocolate and nibbling on some French vanilla Pirouette cookie sticks. Mikey has a tall glass of milk and he's eating some chocolate chip cookies that Ashley made for him earlier this morning. Donnie is enjoying a piece of Tiramisu with his giant cup of coffee, and I'm drinking some lavender tea with a couple of shortbread cookies. And, as per usual, Dad has his nightly vanilla chai. He's also decided to try some of Ashley's cookies, which he's really enjoying.

Once all the chatter starts to calm down - finally - Master Splinter pipes in, "I would like to add some insight in contribution to all of this excitement," he says, sipping his chai.

We all turn and look at him, nodding and waiting for his wisdom.

"I realize that there is a wonderful human being about to move in with us for an unset amount of time," he begins. "A lot of times when non-family members move in, some… Feelings… Can develop," he continues. "And I want you all to know that this is both normal and completely ok with me."

We all stop and glance around at each other.

Oh, no. Where is he going with this?

"Actually, I want you all to know that I would love nothing more than for one of you to get close to her," he says.

Ok. That's not so bad.

We all go back to consuming our after-dinner treats.

"Just keep in mind, there are others living here, and you all tend to have zero sense of privacy for one another - you all like to walk into each other's rooms at any given moment," he says. "So, you need to lock your doors and keep it down if you're going to be boning our guest," he says, deadpan.

We have a simultaneous, unbridled reaction.

"DAD!" Raph yells, as Donnie chokes on his coffee, I spew my tea across the table at Mike, and Mikey just spits out a belly laugh.

Master Splinter slowly raises from the tatami with his now empty cup, chuckling.

"Have a nice night, my sons," he says, not looking back as he exits the room.

"What the…" Says Donnie, still recovering from choking, as I clean up my mess on the table.

"He thinks he's hilarious," says Raph, shaking his head.

"He is!" laughs Mikey.

Little Blue Hearts Master list HERE

@leosgirl82 @turtle-babe83 @drowninghell @chicchanmooshy @roxosupreme @mysticboombox @nittleboo @post-apocalyptic-daydream @xanadu-702 @xanadu702 @pheradream15 @mistyroselove @ashleighclark98 @jurikyu-blog @sewerninno @tmntspidergirl @raphielover @zombiesnips-blog @raphslovemuffin80 @brightlotusmoon

*If you aren’t on this list, please let me know if you want me to tag you in my other work or if you prefer me to not tag you 😘

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