[ cw: scars / permanent injuries / chronic pain / ]
Leo’s shell gets some permanent cracks in it due to the Krang, and as a result his shell’s pattern is all messed up.
He makes a fuss about it in a lightheartedly vain way, but it’s clear that it bothers him, more than just the chronic pain that comes with it.
The one who breaks about the cracks isn’t Leo in the end, it’s Mikey.
It’s a night where Leo can’t sleep, insomnia and the remnants of a fit pulsing through his shell keeping him awake. When making the rounds to check up on everything, he sees Mikey, crouched over some old crayon drawings, drawings that were only salvaged by some miracle.
Mikey always loved matching with his “cool blue bro” growing up. Their shell designs were something they had in common, different from the spines/spikes that their other brothers had. It felt good to share that with Leo.
To Mikey, seeing that pattern tarnished felt a little too much like their home getting destroyed. Worse, even. The two of them are complementary colors, it hits harder when things disrupt that.
And Mikey admits this to Leo, on this day where emotion kept mounting up in him until he couldn’t help but break a little. It feels selfish to say, but it’s the truth. It’s a visual that’ll constantly haunt Mikey, knowing what the cracks represent, knowing how they lost something that was just theirs to share.
Drawing Mikey to him, a hand on Mikey’s intact shell pattern, Leo admits that that’s what kills him the most too. He can deal with the pain, he can deal with the appearance, but he can’t deal with no longer seeing himself in the crayon drawings they managed to salvage from their past. Drawings that highlight their shell patterns, because Mikey always had a lot of fun drawing those.
He always loved what they decided they represented.
———
“Like links of a chain!” Little Mikey had called them as he scribbled them down in oranges and blues.
“Of course it’s like chains!” Little Leo nodded, having never noticed that before, “It, like, shows how we’re- how we’re always connected!”
Little Mikey had gasped at that, stars in his eyes as he babbled endlessly about how that meant they’re the chains holding the family together, right?
“Raphie and Donnie don’t have chains on their shells, so we gotta step up to keep everyone together!” Little Mikey said as he drew big circles around his drawings of their family, overlapping circles of orange and blue around everyone.
“Yeah! And if anyone gets lost, we’ll bring them back!” Little Leo boasted with a laugh, “No one has to be alone, we’ll make sure of it!”
“We’ll make sure of it!” Little Mikey echoed with a happy giggle.
———
‘You sure made sure of it, Mikey.’ Leo thinks, continuing to run his hand comfortingly down Mikey’s shell.
Then a thought hits him.
“Well, we got something better than just shell patterns in common now!” Leo starts, waiting until Mikey looks up to continue, “We got portals, little brother!” He grins, “And y’know, I think you’ve done a great job keeping us all together, Miguel. Sorry you had to pick up my slack.”
Mikey looks two steps away from sobbing at that, but his smile is wide, “You just got lost, of course I had to bring you back.” He leans back, out of Leo’s hold, and looks his big brother in the eyes, “That’s what we said- Raphie and Donnie don’t have portals…”
“-So we gotta step up-“ Leo continues.
“-To keep everyone together!” The finish simultaneously, laughing a little at the juvenile words.
A wry smile crosses Leo’s face, “Again, sorry I’ve been dropping the ball there. Feels like I did a lot of the opposite instead.”
He yelps as Mikey swiftly smacks him on the head.
“Nuh uh uh, none of that!” Mikey puffs out his chest, “I’ll have no slander toward my fellow portal pal!”
“Alright, alright…”
It’s not a fix to anything, more of a new way of looking at a change. Bringing that change into their lives as something familiar.
The cracks in Leo’s shell remain, and the cracks in Mikey’s hands scar over, but their family stays together all the same.
They gotta make sure of it, after all!
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Okay but may I just say that I LOVE what Pit Babe is doing rn. It is rare to see a show have the balls to just completely neglect both of the main characters for an episode or two straight only to flesh out the side characters and Pit Babe is doing the side characters so well.
Babe and Charlie were barely even there this episode but I also didn't miss them bc I was just so invested in whatever Kenta had going on. I was absolutely overjoyed at the handful of scenes where we see Kim just being a part of the X-Hunter family. I am ecstatic every time North and Sonic are literally just on screen, chilling in Alan's house like they actually live there. I was in shambles about Pete and Kenta because of one single flashback scene. Hell, I even cared about Way genuinely being sorry for all the bullshit he pulled.
This isn't just a show about racing or omegaverse or human trafficking rings or even the main couple's love story, it's a show about all of the characters and their stories and their personal growth and their relationships with each other, both romantic and platonic, and I am so here for it.
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the thing about qslime is like. he’s BEEN in denial about flippa’s death ever since it happened. when the eggs were taken away when the brazilians first arrived he was fully expecting flippa to show back up with them, he actively went looking for her. this thing with codeflippa isn’t like… new. at all
also, tangentially related, i honestly feel like etoiles reassuring him that tilín’s death wasn’t his fault may have had a negative effect? at least in regards to how much guilt he feels. because his emotions are all in extremes — he either loves mariana or hates her guts. he either feels so guilty that he runs off thousands of blocks away and tries to summon an angel to bring tilín back or he doesn’t care anymore because it was “just an accident” (a sentiment which doesn’t extend beyond himself because he is, ultimately, as self-centred as he is self-unaware). charlie said it himself when going through the element rooms in cellbits castle — his character is entirely driven by emotion, and he’s an absolute wreck about it. that’s why his character would be blood (even if charlie himself chose energy/chaos)
the other islanders are very much used to how.. volatile he is. so they just kinda let it go (at least on the outside) as seen with cellbit, roier, phil, etc. hanging out with him and codeflippa and helping them do her “tasks” which obviously probably isn’t the best approach (except on an information gathering front, but i mean for slime specifically here) but like… how do you even help someone like that? someone so deep in that they can’t even see that they’re losing themself to something that isn’t even real. he’d have to get to a point where he actually lets himself realise that something is wrong but he just. can’t
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