#TurtleFeels

[7iction]

🎶 Be Better Brother – A 2012 TMNT Musical Adventure with Heartache & Healing! 🎭

✍️ By: Ozzie7 | 📖 Now Complete!

Summary:

One harsh comment. One moment of weakness. And someone dangerous was listening.

When Mikey gets hurt and taken advantage of, the brothers find themselves in a wild chase—through music, manipulation, and mayhem—to get him back.

With help from the ever-parental Fugitoid and support from April and Casey, it’s time for Leo to be the big brother Mikey needs… and for Raph to make things right.

Set in TMNT 2012, with a dash of Mount Rageous (Trolls) flair, this fic brings musicals, misunderstandings, and mutant emotions to the stage.

📌 Details: 🔹 Rating: General Audiences 🔹 Warnings: Choose Not to Use Archive Warnings 🔹 Fandoms: TMNT (2012) 🔹 Characters: Leo, Raph, Donnie, Mikey, April, Casey, Fugitoid, OCs 🔹 Tags: Good Sibling Leo, Protective Raph, Hurt Mikey, Parental Fugitoid, Music, Dancing, Singing, Brainwashing, Heartbreak, Musical Instruments, Mount Rageous Setting, Car Chases, Sirens, Krang Mentioned, Emotional Fallout, Brotherhood Themes 🔹 Word Count: 35,303 🔹 Chapters: 20/20 (Completed!) 🔹 Published: Apr 25, 2025 | Completed: May 1, 2025

📖 Read it here: Be Better Brother on AO3

🔄 Reblog if you love music, brotherhood, and emotional rollercoasters! 🎶💔🐢

[brendan-block]

Backstory: The Diamond Song and Brendan’s Turtle

Feel free to skip this because this is entirely about Brendan and Matthieu.

(Also this has apparently been sitting in my drafts for three years, whoops. Finally posting it because I was trying to find it earlier among my notes and realised I’d never actually put it on the blog and now I’m fearful that tumblr will just eat it like it’s done with other drafts of mine.)

During their first mission together in Paris, Brendan and Matthieu had to stay in a small apartment directly above a jazz bar/cafe. When staff and patrons left for the night Matthieu decided to show Brendan his skills on the piano downstairs, after casually mentioning that he could play courtesy of being forcibly trained as a child. That night he played an original composition he called “Diamonds”. Brendan later put some simple lyrics to it (like.. years later, after they eventually started dating) that weren’t necessarily fitting to the title but fitting to them personally.

Viens avec moi (Come with me..) Ma petite tortue (My little turtle) Mon petit pour tu (My little “for you”) J'ai besoin de toi (I need you) J'ai envie de toi (I want you) Viens avec moi (Come with me..)

The third line “mon petit pour tu” is not grammatically correct but it is intentionally so (the rest might not be perfect either, but that’s because my French is not perfect), because it’s also an in-joke between Brendan and Matthieu that’s tied to the previous line “ma petite tortue”. When Matthieu laughs, his head wobbles ever so slightly and the first time that Brendan noticed this it made him think of a bobble-head turtle, much like the toys some people like to keep on the dashboard of their vehicles. Thus Brendan referring to Matthieu as his “little turtle”. Brendan has a hard time remembering and saying the word “tortue”, though, because he instinctively for whatever reason wants to make a ‘puh’ sound instead of ‘toh’ after “ma petite”, changing “tortue” (turtle) to “pour tu” (for you). It makes Matthieu laugh every time. It’s because of all this that “Diamonds” has the alternative name of “The Turtle in the Ocean of Diamonds”.

NOTE: I think the reason I let this post sit for so long (and forgot about it) is my being indecisive as to what animal Brendan would affectionately associate to Matthieu and occasionally refer to him as, as an alternative to the more traditional French “mon canard” (my duck). I’d always intended to change duck to turtle, but the more I thought about it the more I worried it might come across as unintentionally offensive because of Matthieu’s disability making him physically slow (I’m sure the misunderstanding would be highly more likely to occur between characters in-thread than anything happening OOC, but.. my brain won’t let me not worry). The alternatives to turtle were frog and bat, the first because of Matthieu’s love of frog soup, the second because of Matthieu’s vampiric blood-drinking of his murder victims. Bat obviously won, but I still imagine Brendan referring to Matthieu as his little turtle from time to time.

NOTE: I did actually compose a small tune on my old piano to be Matthieu’s “Diamonds” song (because I’m that Extra) and even recorded it, but I’ve gone through several computers since then and no longer have a piano or have access to the recording or even remember the tune. My headcanoned “stand in”, however, is Temple of Dreams by Jonathan Fritzén.

[mollykittykat]

#turtlefeels

[blacknerdcomedy]

Thank you @tmnt_fangirl13 for giving me the Ninja Turtles comic and the drawing you made for me at San Diego Comic Fest! #TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles #NinjaTurtles #NickTurtles #NickTMNT #SmoothDonatello #TurtleFeels #SDComicFest (at San Diego Comic Fest)