#leverage 2008

[soupforsoup]

One thing about Eliot is he's gonna go so in on a grift. A wedding caterer? Get the fuck outta his way he's got two hundred guests to cook for and these canapes aren't gonna plate themselves. A baseball player? Fuck the con he gets a damn sandwich named after him. A supermarket worker? He's doing his full day of work AND THEN starting a union uprising first chance he gets. Sophie is "the grifter" but Eliot is the one who can match and beat her freak for commiting to a character so hard it becomes your new personality for the next week

[schrijverr]

Okay, what if there is a 9-1-1 Leverage cross over with the 118 as the Leverage crew, who would we cast as who? I'd say:

Bobby Nash -> Nate Ford

Hen Wilson -> Sophie Devereaux

Chimney Han -> Alec Hardison

Buck -> Parker

Eddie Diaz -> Eliot Spencer

I know it won't work if you insist on being shippy about it and configuring big ships in either fandom to the other, but I feel like this might fit best?

Like clearly Bobby and Nate have a lot of overlap in backstory and are the leaders, so I feel pretty confident in that one.

And I thought Hen as Sophie, because she is very much a second leader and the person others turn to with their troubles, plus she has the potential to be a grifter, like remember her confidencing herself into an OR and catching a thief lmao. Like she could.

Then I thought Chimney as Hardison, because he is kind of the heart of the operation and gets played as comic relief, even if he has a lot of emotional depth. I think he might be a bit too repressed to be Hardison though, but most are lmao, but due to that Buck was my alternate here (also because the baby of the crew vibes that grow into their own even if they don't grow into being a leader that Buck and Hardison both have).

Buck as Parker stems from the young wild card that blossoms under mentorship of Nate/Bobby, you know, need a gentler hand and care to get them on the rails of becoming a normal person after a reckless childhood. I do think that Buck is a bit too self aware and people pleaser-y for the full Parker experience, but it's broad translation. But name vibes match xp

And then Eddie as Eliot was mostly due to background similarities and their in depth relationship with violence, even if their relationship to violence is pretty different. However, they have that rough exterior, gentle soul thing going for them and are both country boys.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure this is exactly what I feel, but upon first thought it is. But I'd love to hear what other people think! :D

[jaysfishpit]

i introduced a friend to leverage and it’s been So Fun to hear their reactions as someone going in blind!

top reactions include

1. elliot’s hair + the ponytail in the tap out job

2.

3.

i would highly recommend this it’s a great time (this is also an endorsement of leverage (2008))

[the-deal-breaker]

Do- do you see the vision?

Ive been watching leverage again because I love it. And this was a really old AU but mostly part of my Swap au untill I decided this just makes sense!

I will be drawing these. It the main picture was mostly just for fun cuz it made me laugh.

This is definitely not how I deal with how bad the manga is making me feel at all. Why would you think that.

[would-you-punt-them]

Colin "Chaos" Mason (Leverage)

[apparently-i-am-an-adult]

I just showed my parents Leverage episode 8: The Mile High Job and they tore it to pieces.

They have both been professional pilots for over 21 years. It was hilarious.

The only thing that was correct was the alarm going off when the autopilot was disengaged.

[elexuscal]

watching Leverage for the first time and it's funny cuz like

through fandom osmosis, I was aware of The Trio. folks I follow (and Red from OSP) would not shut up about the Trio. Spy, tech guy, the muscle. Polyshipping out the wazoo; very fun, a nice twist on usual fandom shipping dynamics.

I was vaguely aware there was another guy. Older white dude. Sure. Probably the more protagonist-y protagonist, the leader, and kinda generic for it. That's all born out.

Somehow the fandom entirely failed to mention the other woman in the party. Which would make sense; she's kiiiind of a generic femme fatale spy lady. Except for the absolutely hilarious concept where she's a terrible actor unless she's conning someone.

that's hilarious guys. why didn't u bring that up

[mellosdrawings]

what's Leverage (this is an invite to infodump)

Hohoho ok ok ok. Wiki-level infodump incoming!

So, Leverage is a 5 seasons TV show from the early 2010s that has come back in 2021 with a follow-up show called Leverage: Redemption. It is a Robin Hood kind of series in which a group of thieves help poor/honest citizens get back at the rich/powerful who wronged them/stole from them/abused them.

Despite most episodes following the same format, it manages to stay interesting and attention grabbing thanks to its peak attention to details. Everything you see in the episode is a hint for how they get the bad guy, which should be a staple of the police genre but which is particularly well done here.

It's a character focused series, with very interesting development and overarching themes and plots. It also does an amazing work at blurring the line between "good" people and "bad" people. Some good guys are absolute pieces of shit, some bad guys are just down on their luck. Several episodes have the main gang changing plans totally because the "bad" guy they were trying to scam ended up being just another victim, so instead they started offering their help to fight the actual bad guys. Many times the bad guy is a piece of shit but when there needs to be nuance, the job is done incredibly well.

There's also a very purposeful Found Family Trope that's just... great. It's awesome.

Now, I just said it's a very character focused show so I'll have to dive in more into the actual characters. I'll be trying to keep it to the very first episode and remain vague on the rest but there will be some spoilers ahead! Especially so since every single in-show introduction is a masterpiece that I must talk about.

The Mastermind: Nathan "Nate" Ford is the brain of the group. He's an ex-Insurance employee who got fucked over by said insurance company when they refused to pay for his son's medical fees (something I'm sure many US citizens can relate to). He ends up having to work with criminals he has previously hunted down before, which gives him a good overall knowledge of how they all work while his time in the insurance company explains why he knows so many scams.

Despite being the "token good guy" in the first season, I'd say he's the most interesting at first. He's a self destructive genius with a terrible alcohol problem, and that alcohol storyline is just so beautifully handled in the first 2 seasons, I was completely hooked. Starting season 3 the line between honest man and criminal blurs though, as it should considering his activities for the past couple years, so he lost my interest just a bit. Still a very strong character with amazing storylines and a terrible personality.

Among the Found Family Trope, he is the depressed alcoholic father who pushes his kids too far but would still do everything to make sure they come home safe. His arc is literally going from deadbeat dad to the dad that steps up.

The Hacker: Alec Hardison is an early 20 years old sassy chatty black kid who, not content of being one hell of a hacker, is also an amazing grifter who picks up skills on the fly. While the sassy chatty hacker who is the comic relief of the show is a common trope, he's one hell of a charming character who will weaponise everything he has underhand to get away with stuff. Absolute kudos to his actor who was also in his early 20s at the time who regularly offer some of the best performances ever seen on TV. I swear that guy is too good.

His introduction depicts all that in seconds. He's the first thief to appear, already talking his head off and giving his opinion on the technology he's been given for the job. His introductory flashback is interesting as it doesn't show him in the middle of hacking, but instead getting caught by police having fun in a hotel room he stole and giving a Star Wars reference. Just from both of those you flag him as a young easy-going guy who still messes up a bunch.

In the Found Family Trope, he is the youngest child who messes up a lot. He has the most obvious father/child undertone with Nate, and an equally obvious bigger/younger sibling undertone with Eliot.

The Hitter: Eliot Spencer is a thirty something years old man whose job is keeping the rest of the gang safe. When it comes to the hardened ex-military trope, you expect scary brooding man who always avoids being hit while getting rid of his opponents in seconds. That's not quite the case with Eliot. Yes, he gives off scary and brooding vibes, but he actually has the biggest heart of the gang. He's regularly shown being the one who worries the most for others, and there's an ongoing thing about him being the defacto person to go to get help help when you're 18 and under. Eliot has an incredible amount of screentime being soft and helping/protecting children.

Not only that, Eliot isn't some kind of super soldier. He gets hit. A lot. But the point is that he always gets back on his feet to continue the fight. His hitter prowesses come more from the fact that he has a lot of knowledge in the matter, rather than from being a perfect fighter. He also has an underlying theme with self-control and anger issues. Eliot is a character that is constantly annoyed/angry, and who uses fighting as a self-regulating tool.

On top of all that, he's also a good grifter who, when not there to hit people, is there to hit on girls. He's regularly used as eye candy to keep the attention away from the others. He's also (not so) surprisingly low key. Eliot is often described as "hiding his game well", his opponents often underestimating him.

Eliot is the second thief to appear on screen, being asked by Hardison what exactly was his job here and not answering, nailing in the "low key" aspect of him that confuses his opponents. It's reinforced by his introductory flashback which has him sipping coffee while having guns pointed at him, then cutting to the outside of the room so we don't see his skill in action, then back to the room where he's still sipping his coffee, unfazed, while everybody else is K.O. The last part of his introduction comes when he finally shows what he is capable of, appearing out of nowhere to put out of commission several guards who hold Hardison at gunpoint, to which he finally answer to Hardison earlier question of what exactly he was here for, with a smile. That's where you start getting a glimpse of his softer side that is entirely focused on keeping his team safe.

In the Found Family Trope, he is the eldest son. He bullies Hardison at least once per episode (and Hardison fucks him over about as many times too), and is the one who, with Sophie, keeps Nate in check so that he doesn't go overboard. Nate and Eliot have a lot in common and while they are rarely clashing, there is definitely a tension between them.

The Thief: Parker is a (most likely autistic (edit: she is indeed autistic, it's canon)) young woman who loves money and throwing herself off of buildings. She starts off as quirky/weird/off putting until we (and the main gang) start to understand her. She is both the most obvious and the most complex character of the bunch, who unabashedly loves what she does and has a lot of fun with her new partners, all the while having absolutely no idea how to handle interpersonal relationships.

She is the one that grows the most during the show, picking up skills left and right (fighting from Eliot, grifting from Sophie, etc), developing her interpersonal skills and empathy, learning to rely on others and falling in love. Her evolution is just the best and she never gives up her whimsy while developing.

She's the third thief to appear on screen, but she's actually the first one being mentioned! Nate tells his client that "Parker is crazy" before agreeing to take the job. She appears hanging upside down from a rafter, interrupting the boys to ask playfully if she can have an earpiece too, and finally jumping off the building with a joyful yell before Nate can give the go. Then in her introductory flashback, we see her as a young kid, with a terrible family situation, literally blowing up her house after her "father" dared her to become a better thief to get the bunny plushie she wanted. And so you know Parker is the wild card of the team who is actually pretty forthright once you've pinpointed her interests.

In the Found Family Trope, she's the middle child who has... whatever is going on with Hardison and Eliot. While the boys have more obvious family interactions with Nate (the father), Parker mainly has them with Sophie (the mom) who teaches her the most out of everybody. Nate still regularly is there to explain things to her when she's confused, and Eliot teaches her how to bully Hardison (lovingly of course).

The Grifter: Sophie Devereaux is an actress that the gang fetches when their client fucks them over. It's a bit hard to depict her personality like the others because her whole theme is that she has identity issues. As a grifter she has many identities, and she plays them so often that she comes to forget who she even is in the first place. She's a quick witted, caring person who helps tempering Nate and coming up with plans, she's a femme fatale who either seduces or instills fear in her preys, she's the one who puts at ease the clients who come ask the group for help, she's the one who comes up with on the spot solutions when something goes awry and needs an immediate fix, she's the one always at the forefront of the plans keeping the attention on her so the others can do their jobs, etc etc. Sophie is everything and nothing all at once, which makes her a fascinating character that is difficult to explain properly.

She's the last thief to appear on screen, being brought by Nate. She's introduced as a terrible actress, all three thieves being appalled by her prestation on stage while Nate is smiling wildly. Then we get a glimpse of the romantic tension between her and Nate when he asks her for help, and another glimpse at their closeness when the three thieves turn to her when Nate confuses them, only for Sophie to tell them he really hasn't changed. Her introductory flashback focuses on her stealing a painting, being intercepted by Nate, and them both firing at each other. Finally the last part of her introduction comes when she shows off her actual acting talents while grifting the bad guy, startling Hardison who was still worried about her acting skills.

Sophie is introduced with her acting skills and her relationship with Nate instead of her personality or quirks like the other (the only quirk here being that she's a terrible actress on stage but an excellent one when she's grifting), which keeps nailing down her identity crisis.

Since we're on Sophie, I'd like to point out how well the writing team handled the actress being pregnant and needing to stay away from the show for a while. Her reason for being away tapped into her identity crisis, but she still was there to give advices to the others, mainly the "kids". While it was obvious in one episode that they placed the characters and angled the camera to avoid showing she was pregnant, the rest was handled beautifully well.

The show seems very respectful of its actors, to the point it lets them showcase their skills in season 3 like Hardison and Eliot's actors' music prowesses. It also allows them to shine in the filler episodes by having them play other roles, to which they deliver amazing performances (especially Hardison's actor. I'll never shut up about him, he's just perfect).

And yes, that was the time when we still had filler episodes! And they are GREAT! Some of my favorite episodes are filler episodes, like one where the whole gang go over a theft they all accidentally did together years ago, constantly fucking each other over without realising, all from their own perspectives. There are jabs at each other, like Sophie's accent or Eliot being a ladykiller and a terrifying psychopath, but there's also an insane amount of details scattered. One of my favorite being that everybody else saw the head of security carrying a rifle while Eliot was the only one (save Nate) to see it as only a box. It's a minor background detail that the show doesn't even point out, but when I caught it I got super invested in the episode. At first I believed it was because Eliot hates guns and sees them as sticks to beat people up with, but with the last perspective being shown with the "truth", it turned out Eliot was the only one seeing it as a box because it was a box. Eliot would be attuned to the amount of danger the objects around him would pose, and so wouldn't mix up a box for a gun. Once more, it's a background detail but it just ended convincing me that the showrunners care a lot about this show.

Ok I'm officially out of fumes. I think I could go into more if I dove into the actual episodes but I don't want to spoil more than I already did. All in all, great show, handles heavy stuff like addiction and grief and neurodivergency incredibly well without being condescending, scratches a hitch by fucking over powerful people in the most horrendous ways, makes you aware of the kind of scams there are around, etc etc.

It's just one hell of a good show. 10/10 would recommend. I only wish the 5 seasons box set wasn't so expensive, I can't throw that much money in it ToT

ONE LAST THING! If you wanna watch, the seasons are all available on Youtube (US only, get your VPN ready if you're not from there) in the RIGHT ORDER! The first season was aired out of order by the network so you will probably find it in the wrong order online too. It's not much since each episode is mostly contained, but it did make me pause at one point because of consistency issues.

Season 1 link

Season 2 link

Season 3 link

Season 4 link (careful, the Playlist starts with the last episode and finishes with the first. You gotta reverse the order of the Playlist!)

Season 5 link (careful, the Playlist starts with the last episode and finishes with the first. You gotta reverse the order of the Playlist!)

Redemption S1 link (careful, the Playlist starts with the last episode and finishes with the first. You gotta reverse the order of the Playlist!)

You're welcome 😘

[soupforsoup]

Brb killing myself over the fact that this is what Eliot looked like when he worked for Moreau :)))

[dont-read-this-im-dead]

The number of people on this website that's obsessed with Leverage really says a lot about our natural obsession for finding the world's greatest love story.

It also says a lot about what an amazing show Leverage is, so.

You should watch it.

[independent-fics]

I find myself noticing so many things I haven’t noticed about Leverage season 3 that I hadn’t noticed before even though this is my nth rewatch I’m sure.

But it’s such a strong season and the Moreau build up was great.

I think this scene stuck out to me because it’s only the fourth episode but it’s beginning to hint at Eliot thinking about what he knows about Moreau and his past. I feel like her words remind him why he’s changed what he does but also you can see in his face that he’s thinking about how what he was involved in in the past is now coming back for the team.

[morningstarbee]

The Rashomon Job is actually really funny

I fucking LOVE when shows do this thing where it shows the same events from multiple perspectives, and it's different each time, based on each person's memory and perception of the situation + making themselves look better.

(I'm exposing myself when I say the only other example I can think of is MLP: FiM 6x22 P.P.O.V (Pony Point Of View) which is hilarious btw)

Like everyone fucking up Sophie's accent, Hardison acting like the tiny multitool penknife is a huge kitchen knife, everyone speaking really strangely from Parker's perspective + her excitedly handing Eliot the knife. The way Hardison is shoving hors d'oeuvres into his pockets. Why does Sophie know that Hardison's fake identity has a shrimp allergy???? The naked security guard Hardison runs into carryover from Eliot's perspective where he stripped the guard and stole his clothes.

Also I love how Parker doesn't say anything until the other three tell there story and then she smiles and it's like

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

Hank!Eliot

Leverage Redemption S01E10 The Unwellness Job.

[teetle-time]

We Always Imagine We'll Be Stronger If It Happens To Us, But…

Leo and his family are taking Mikey out for a night on the town to celebrate his 21st birthday.

It just kinda sucks that, for all his planning to make sure none of his family was someplace they couldn't get backup in case something went screwy, he forgot that he might be the one who wound up needing backup.

(or, i was sexually harassed a week or two ago so i'm making leo go through The Horrors so we can both get The Catharsis.)

〜

wrote that venty fic about The Horrors i've been puttering off and on about on my main since i experienced The Horrors. it's on ao3 now :) TW for harassment of what I'm like 95% positive is the sexual variety and also transphobia. luckily for leo, he is never alone.

〜

Hindsight was 20/20, and Leo had already had that particular lesson beaten into him years ago by a chewed-up-bubblegum-ass alien and a kid about his age or so who'd grown up in the apocalypse. It was all said and done, and he'd already made sure that he'd stay on his toes so nothing like that could ever happen again.

So why in the name of Pizza Supreme he was stuck in a less-than-great position, despite how he could very easily think of several points in time that he could have used to avoid said position, he had no idea.

It went something like this: he, his brothers, April, Sunita, and the Caseys had decided to hit the town. Well, the Hidden City, at least- topside NYC was still a bit jumpy about nonhumans from the invasion. They'd decided that Mikey's 21st birthday was as good an excuse as any to go explore, and if Mikey decided to dip his toes into drinking alcohol, they'd make sure nothing bad happened.

Leo could have insisted they pick a different bar in their lineup, but he didn't, and so they didn't.

Strike one.

Then they'd been distracted by a group of street performers doing a startlingly bopping a capella rendition of several songs from both human and yokai history, all melded together into a series of medleys that had Donnie tapping his feet and bouncing to the beat. Leo had offered to stick with Donnie for some of the performance, then the two of them would catch up to the others at the bar. It was just down the street, after all, and they were the family who'd kicked the Krangs' asses right back into the prison dimension. What could go wrong?

Leo could have pushed Donnie to just grab a photo of the board with the troupe's name on it for later googling, then ushered him along to the bar with the others, but he didn't.

Strike two.

Then, after the troupe's set seemed to finally be over- and wow, Leo hadn't even known some of those songs existed, let alone how fun they were to listen to- Donnie had turned to Leo and told him in no uncertain terms that "I will not be leaving until I get their autographs, Nardo." Leo had chuckled and given him a shove towards the troupe.

Leo could have gone up to join him in asking for the autographs, but it was something Donnie wanted more than Leo did, and he wanted to make sure everybody else was still at the bar down the street. The crowd that had gathered around the troupe was still there, after all, so it wasn't like he could really see the place at the moment.

So he didn't.

Strike three.

Leo was scrolling through his messages on his phone, chuckling to himself at a photo Mikey had taken of a tipsy-looking Raph blubbering over Casey Sr.'s phone with the caption "bro forgot cats existed and just found out they do 😂😂😂" and going to respond-

-and an arm fell over his shoulders as a voice he didn't recognize exclaimed boisterously, "Oh my god, there you are! My mom and I have been looking everywhere for you! C'mon, if we hurry we can get to the water fountain in time for the light show tonight!"

Leo did not flinch.

He'd made sure to train himself out of it after the failed invasion.

It didn't stop his spine from going cold as ice as he grimaced and slipped out from under the arm, turning to look at the stranger with a grin faker than he'd used in a good long while. "Sorry, bub, I think you've got the wrong turtle."

The stranger looked like a tortoise yokai, which made the earnest expression on his face come across that much more easily to Leo. An older tortoise sitting in a hovering, mystical-looking version of a power scooter watched their younger companion tiredly, but made no moves to intervene.

"No, I've got the right one! C'mon, don't you recognize the hat we agreed I'd wear?" The stranger gestured to the goofy-looking hat on his head, a pattern of cartoony rubber ducks running across the entire thing.

Leo subtly stepped back a short ways, red flags going up in his mind. "Whaaat are you talking about?"

"Oh, c'mon, you remember me!" insisted the stranger. "Rubb3rducky6969? Eddie Gates?" He lifted his arms as if to cross them in front of his chest, but he just held them parallel to each other as a mystic tattoo under his scales lit up, displaying his name along his forearms in bold, gothic lettering.

"Not ringing a bell," Leo said shortly. "Look, I'm just here for-"

"Our meetup, yeah!" Eddie smiled and nodded fervently, shifting on his feet like some kind of fully-grown schoolboy. "I've been dying to meet you, y'know, and, well, I don't wanna say anything that could get misconstrued, y'know, but you've talked so much about your womanly figure and…wow."

Steel shot through Leo's spine, and he only barely managed to keep from grinding his teeth together as he took another step back. "Dude, I'm a dude."

"Well, yeah, I mean, I guess," and ooh, if the flippant reluctance of that phrase didn't set some distant, not-already-creeped-out part of Leo's blood to boiling, "but-b-but I just…oh c'mon, you seriously don't remember me?"

"Absolutely not," Leo said without hesitation. "I'd say this has to be one of those things, like, how human society has that whole 'statistically, 7 people on the planet look exactly alike despite not being related at all' thing or however that goes, but…"

Eddie frowned thoughtfully, then smiled and nodded as if remembering, "Ohhh, right, you did mention you tend to get blackout drunk."

Thinking very much of how alcohol tasted like whatever gas stations had going on in the air around them, and thinking very much of how Splinter only ever kept a few bottles of sake in the house, which Leo had never really enjoyed the taste of, Leo scowled. "I don't drink."

"R-right, right, you don't drink often," backpedalled Eddie, though he immediately un-backpedalled with a, "but when you do, you drink a lot."

Leo shifted on the balls of his feet, reaching ever-so-slowly for his swords to portal the guy directly into the nearest yokai hospital, propriety be damned, but Eddie just kept on babbling.

"I just-! You mentioned your greatest turn-on is 'feeling rushed,' and you were insistent on it, too. All caps, the whole shebang, haha," Eddie chuckled.

Leo found himself suddenly thinking about an episode of a show Splinter had fallen asleep watching, back when he was only about nine or ten. The characters in the show used their skills in manipulation, trickery, and deception to lie tastefully to their marks and get them to reveal information about themselves- information that the main characters could then use to set right the wrongs that their marks had done.

Kid-aged Leo had imprinted on the idea of being able to tug at people's emotional states to get them where they needed to be.

Teenaged Leo had tried to do exactly that when he'd first had leadership dropped on his head, only for it to backfire in such a spectacular fashion that they'd needed time travel to avert the ensuing disaster.

Present-day Leo had the stark realization that Eddie What's-His-Nuts was trying to do exactly that to him.

This realization fled his mind almost immediately, however, because the next thing Eddie said-

"I said to myself, I said, 'Cmon, Eddie, Nardo seems like such a sweet girl-'"

The swell of ringing in Leo's ears drowned out anything else Eddie said.

Leo hadn't given this complete and total stranger any part of his name, least of all the Donnie-specific-

DONNIE!

They'd stuck together in case something happened and they needed to bail the other out, and Leo had been pretty sure Donnie would be the one in need of bailing, but-!

"I don't know you!" Leo managed, louder than he meant and stiffer than he'd thought he could be. "Don't call me th- I don't know you!"

And he spun on his heel and lurched through the crowd, making as close to a beeline for Donnie as he could manage without being able to actually see him.

"Wh-Nardo, wait-!"

But Leo just shoved through strangers with equal parts "sorry" and "I don't know him" falling from his beak, and ooooh he was hyperventilating now, that wasn't gonna be good for his unshakeable cool guy image-

"Leo?!"

Leo looked up at Donnie and the members of the troupe, frozen mid-autograph (from Donnie, funny enough- did they recognize him from someplace? Did Donnie already get their autographs?) and visibly confused, and he tried to explain what had just happened.

All that came out was more of the same "I don't know him, I don't know him" and shaky gesturing back in the vague direction of Eddie What's-His-Nuts.

And heavy breathing too quick to be healthy.

Couldn't forget that.

Donnie's expression hardened, and he gave the troupe a curt nod. "Apologies, but I believe I must cut our interaction short, gentleyokai. It was truly a pleasure-"

"Who's this, Nardo?" asked fucking Eddie from behind Leo.

Leo most definitely did not jump a foot in the air and yelp, "I don't know him!" before dashing into the space just behind Donnie.

"Oh, goddammit, Eddie, what are you doing?" groaned one of the members of the troupe, slapping a tentacle to their face as they slumped.

Donnie scowled deeply. "Yes, I believe I would like to know that as well, especially if you all do know him. Our family will also want to be informed of this incident, if it was enough to cause such a bad panic attack in my-"

"I-? You didn't say you already had someone, Nardo," interrupted Eddie, sounding hurt.

"He is my BROTHER, you cretin!" snapped Donnie.

"Wh-? No, she's got those marks on her eyes-!"

That was all Eddie got out before Donnie was up in his face, what looked like half the US Military's arsenal hovering all around them and glowing a downright furious violet. "You will leave my brother alone. You will stay away from him. If you so much as sneeze in his direction-"

-one of the spidery legs in his battle shell unfolded for just long enough to smack a sticker on the back of Eddie's neck, one in Mikey's artstyle that showed a crab puff snapping crabby claws-

"-I will know." Donnie grinned toothily. "And you don't want that. Got it?"

Eddie nodded hastily and scrambled away as fast as his legs could carry him.

"No subcutaneous tracker for him?" Leo tried to quip, though his voice was still a bit too strained to come across as completely natural, goddammit.

"Family members get the tracker," Donnie said lightly, dismissing his ninpo with a wave of his hand. "Dum-dum creeps who refuse to back down and cause immense mental distress, but who can't physically harm us, get a completely normal sticker that is definitely not sending location information to the authorities, he said convincingly."

Leo managed a disbelieving snort. "You're siccing the cops on him?"

"What? Of course not, scoff!" Donnie crossed his arms. "You remember those yokai that Raph ran into that one time we all came down here and went off to do our own things, only for all of them to blow up in our faces so Dad and Mikey had to bail us out of a place that was definitely not jail? And how they've been skirting just a little bit closer to the straight and narrow lately?"

That got a full-on wheeze out of Leo.

"I am so sorry about Eddie," said one of the higher-voiced members of the troupe. "He's always given us the creeps, but we've never actually seen him act on that whole situation until just now."

"We're absolutely firing him, right?" asked one of the basses.

"Oh, that wasn't even in question," answered someone whose voice fell a bit closer to Leo's in pitch. "Hey, Wanda, your aunt's still in the music business, right?"

The one who'd apologized for Eddie nodded. "I'll call her once we're back at the hotel." Then, to Leo and Donnie, "You dudes good to get wherever you're headed?"

Leo scrubbed at his face to loosen up the muscles trying to lock him into a rictus grin, then smiled a bit more genuinely. "I've got mystic portals, when I've got the presence of mind to use 'em. We can just portal to the others, right?" He glanced at Donnie.

"I will send them a text to ensure we have enough space to arrive, but if they don't read it, that'll be on them." Donnie grinned, this time with only the mischief of brotherly shenanigans in the expression.

"Good." Wanda nodded and started putting mostly-emptied water bottles in a backpack sitting next to her. After a moment, though, she paused and turned back to the two of them. "And, hey, I told your brother here already, and I'll tell you… my aunt was wearing a cloaking brooch in Metro Tower that day."

She didn't need to specify which day.

"She only survived because you guys fought off the Krang quickly enough that the healers were able to reverse the damage," continued Wanda. "So…thanks. And you're welcome at any of our shows, whenever, wherever. That goes for all of you, too, so tell your friends."

"More welcome than Eddie, amirite fellas?" called the bass with a sharp laugh.

Leo bit back a snicker. "Thanks. I…I kinda needed that, to be honest. After…y'know."

Wanda's face didn't really lend itself to humanoid expressions, but her posture softened all the same. "No prob. Stay safe, yeah?"

"Yeah." Leo grinned.

He and Donnie stepped closer to each other, and with barely even a flick of one sword, a portal opened beneath them-

-and they were in the bar.

Casey- both Caseys- seemed to have gotten into a drinking competition a short ways away, and April and Sunita were enthusiastically cheering them both on. At the barstools, Mikey sat and sipped from a fancy-looking drink that smelled more of fruit than anything else, and Raph seemed to be pouting in a booth off to one side.

At Leo and Donnie's arrival, though, Mikey lit up- literally, when it came to his spots, but also with normal relief on his face. "Oh, thank goodness you're here! Raph's been on stage three of turtle tipsy basically the whole time!"

"How fortuitous," said Donnie mildly, and oh son of a-

Donnie bodily picked Leo up and chucked him at Raph, yelling, "RAPHALA! HUG THIS MAN!"

"DONNIE, WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON Y-!" Leo started, only cutting himself off when he landed against Raph's plastron with a grunt.

Raph perked up right away, and almost before Leo knew it, he was wrapped up in a bear hug and vibrating with the force of Raph's churring.

Vaguely, he had the impression that his and Donnie's flashy entrance had caught the others' attention, and he was pretty sure that they were gonna be asking what had happened any second now, but Raph just tucked Leo's head under his chin like they were little kids again and churred louder.

Explanations could be Future Leo's problem.

"Have I ever mentioned how much I love you guys?" Leo mumbled, the leftover tension draining out of his body at record speeds as he let himself sink into his big brother.

Raph was too far gone into this stage of turtle tipsy to respond with words, but he still shifted Leo in place until he was more secure, then smiled blissfully and started rocking Leo ever-so-slightly from side to side.

Leo felt his eyes start stinging with tears at the sheer safety of it all, but the sleep of the exhausted claimed him before he could do anything about them.

[lunar-years]

i started leverage. so what makes Parker Like That.

[soupforsoup]

Bring back my wife (Eliot's glasses) from the war (tv continuity erasure)