#tmnt: out of place

[glitter-alienz]

throws a quick OOP colored sketch at you, to remind that i didn't forget about this tmnt iteration

teh evil twins 😈 their mom hates them or whatever

[TMNT: OOP tag] <- lowkey empty cuz im still figuring them out

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Lone Raph and Cat! I love the big gruff one being the softest on the inside, gotta be one of my favorite tropes.

Raph in Rise seems to be pretty disliked by animals despite his love for them, which may be because he’s a bit too eager to pet them so he seems scary to such a small animal. I’m sure that, if taught to let them come to up to him first, cats would find Raph as perfect a climbing tree as his brothers do! Let him pet all the cats, he deserves it!

[goodlucktai]

9, raph and leo?

dialogue prompts

9. “I know, I know it hurts.”

x

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

His grip on the doorframe causes it to crack. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Problem?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

——

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Leo—”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What word?” he finally says. 

“You pick,” Raph tells him. 

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

“‘Goose’,” he suggests.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Raph’s listening this time. 

[truths33k3r4]

(Warnings for this chapter are at the bottom of the page to keep from giving away spoilers.)

CHAPTER 9 - Dreams of the Haunted

Raphael watched as Lotus finally stilled in Leo’s arms, her stuttered breaths and sniffles slowly descending into silence. Her panicked words twisted and pulled at his mind, deepening his growing concern for her. Frustration began building in his heart as he watched someone so frail and scared fight a horrific, inner battle.

And all he could do was watch.

It brought him no comfort that he was the one that possibly sparked such awful memories in the frightened girl. How she looked at him… It was as if he was the ghost inhabiting all of her nightmares. As if it were him that caused her to flail out of bed in sporadic jolts, wearing beads of sweat on her trembling brow.

 The familiar, sticky tentacles of guilt quickly slithered around his heart, constricting the limited air in his lungs, and filling his mind with useless reprimands.

You shoulda just left her to Leo.

It’s your fault she’s afraid all the time.

She’s scared of you.

Raph shook his head in an attempt to focus back to the matter at hand.

The “matter” that now laid limp in his oldest brother’s arms, softly sighing and nestling into his plastron. The fiery brother watched in silent adoration as Leo stroked the young girl’s shell, successfully calming her enough to make her fall back to sleep. Raph remembered seeing Leo do the same calming motion when they were kids, using it to settle a frightened youngest brother surrounded by darkness, or steady a stressed nerd with too much homework, or simmer down a heated temper with nowhere to go but out.

Raph had used it once or twice as well. The faint memory passed through his mind like a soft breeze as he remembered Leo’s shuttering body hidden fully in his shell after another nightmare. However awkward that night had begun, Raph still recalled it with a warm endearment, remembering all of his brothers combining forces to bring comfort to their newly titled “leader”. Yeah, it was cramped and full of mushy feelings and tears; Three things Raph himself normally hated more than Math homework, but it was all worth it to be there for Leo. 

It was all worth it to bring comfort to their comforter.

As Lotus let out one final, heavy exhale, Leo skillfully weaved out of her embrace, laying her down gently onto the pillow and carefully draping the blanket over her. She didn’t stir the slightest, seemingly sinking deeper and deeper into the cushion of the mattress and the grounding weight of the blanket. Leo sighed as he looked down at her, his shoulders and body falling as if another weight had landed atop them. Tenderly, he reached out and wiped away the last of her tears speckling her cheeks. 

And he wonders why he was the best pick for Team Medic. Stinkin’ show off.

As Leo pushed himself off the floor with a winced grunt, he patted the dirt and grime off his knees and legs. Raph’s eyes involuntarily widened at the dark patches of dirt littering his oldest brother’s body. Normally the brothers kept their room a bit more tidy than that, but…

…a lot had happened. And some things carried more priority than household chores. 

“Raph, come on!” Leo shout-whispered, knocking the fiery brother’s train of thought clean off its tracks. “She’s asleep. Let’s go.” 

Raph gave a slight nod and followed his brother into the hallway, the two siblings being as silent and swift as wind sweeping across snow.

 They walked side by side in the hall, remaining quiet even after they were far past the brothers’ bedroom. Raph couldn’t help but subtly peer his eyes across to Leo, gauging what was going through the leader’s head. It wasn’t abnormal for the eldest to go silent, far from it in fact. Especially after something big happening, Leo would normally not speak as he contemplated the next best course of action. This had actually formed into a problem when they were younger, with Raph and Don’s impatience being stretched to their limits as they had to just wait for their leader to find a solution without a single conversation being had. That had sparked many unneeded forest fires of fury between the twins and their leader. 

Raph couldn’t help but snicker to himself as he remembered how ticked off Don had gotten, spouting off facts and insults in tandem when he wasn’t kept in the know-how. 

“Raph- What was that?” Leo asked suspiciously as he turned his gaze towards the fiery brother. “... Why… are you laughing??” He asked with a slight tint of incredulous confusion in his tone.

With Leo’s frosty irises now locked onto him, Raph found it a little hard to open his mouth and make words come out. 

“Uh… I was…”

Just speak, it ain’t that hard!!

“...Um…”

Leo’s Mom Glare™ suddenly shot up to a “should I be worried??” expression.

JUST. FRIGGIN. TALK.

Raph forcefully rolled his shoulders to release some of the energy building in his body.

“Heheh I was… rememberin’ how ticked off Don got when you went quiet on our missions. You remember the crazy insults he called you?”

Leo’s interrogative gaze flickered and dissipated as he turned his face to the ceiling and sighed with a smile.

“Ahhh yes…” The eldest huffed as his grin grew in nostalgic amusement. “Dad caught him swearing so many times so he just decided to make up new insults…Ah man, which one had you and me cracking up that one time?”

“Ooof, dude. How could ya pick? There’s too many good ones HA!”

“... Was it “Lint Licker”? Or maybe “Shiitake Mushroom head”, HAHA!!!”

Hearing the past substituted insults ignited a warm, soothing flame to ignite in Raph’s heart, leaving him clutching his stomach with how hard he was now laughing alongside his brother.

“WAIT WAIT- HAHAHEEE- Do you remember the time he called you a “Mother Clucker”?! BROOO I couldn’t even breathe I was laughin’ so hard!!!”

“OH DANG- HAHA!!! I can’t believe I forgot that one!!!” Leo was now clutching at his side too, leaning his shell against the wall of the hallway for support as he cackled and sniffed away tears from his eyes. “Don was so mad his face was as red as your mask!!!”

Now Raph could barely breathe with how hard he was laughing.

“Heee… He just sat there- HAHA- With his arms crossed holdin’ his breath- HAHAHA!!! You were afraid he was gonna pass out!!”

“He almost did!!! You had to catch him!!!” Leo’s voice cracked and broke with the laughter erupting out of his throat. Without meaning to, some of his words shot to an extremely high pitch, only worsening Raph’s guffaws to the point where he collapsed to the floor, splayed out and pressing down onto his torso.

There the two brothers were, one propped against a wall, the other laying flat on the ground, laughing.

Despite all that they had been through.

Here they were.

Laughing.

As their chuckles petered out to sniffs and snickers, Leo pushed himself off the wall and walked up to Raph’s prone body. The eldest reached out his hand with a big, real smile gracing every inch of his face. Raph couldn’t help but return Leo’s kindness with his own grin, gratefully accepting his big brother’s hand and allowing himself to be helped off the floor.

“Come on…” Leo laughed again, gasping for air, “Let’s go check on the Clean Up Crew.”

Raph nodded with a knowing smile as the two continued down to the living room.

“MIKEY!!! DON!!” Raph called out with his hand cupping the side of his face. “WHERE YOU GUYS AT??” 

After being answered with silence, Leo and Raph ventured into the kitchen. Walking past the doorway, the first thing Raph noticed was the “used” trash bin propped near the sink. The second thing he noticed, or rather was SMACKED ACROSS THE FACE WITH, was the pungent smell of lavender fumes filling up the entire room. Both his and Leo’s eyes immediately sprung up with more tears as they began to flap their arms to wave out some of the potent aroma. It didn’t do much, and unfortunately, living in the sewers, there were no windows to open and let out the powerful scent. So they just stood there for a bit, waving their arms, until finally both of them gave up in between hacks and coughs and simply retreated to the couch instead.

Comparatively, hacking and choking on fumes was apparently a much more effective way to beckon for their little brother instead of just casually calling to him. 

“What the shell happened to you guys??” Mikey yelled as he ran through the lair’s entrance into the living room. He was out of breath and wearing far-too-big gloves on his hands.

“Us?? *COUGH COUGH*- What- a-about you?? WHY were you *HACK* up top?!” Leo sputtered indignantly as he turned his head to look at his thirteen year old brother that was apparently alone in the big, scary world that towered above them.

Raph chuckled as he watched Mikey roll his eyes and tsk at the eldest’s obvious concern.

“Leooo I’m fineeee. I literally just took out the trash, CHILL.” Mikey grumbled as he pulled off the oversized gloves from his fingers.

“I will NOT CHILL.” Leo retorted right back, now wearing his patented Mom Glare™ and speaking as if he were Mikey’s parent rather than his oldest sibling, “You, young mutant, are thirteen. You aren’t allowed up top by yourself, you know that.”

“Yeah~ I’m fully aware, Mom-o-nardo. But Don was busy trying to hold in his lunch, so I took care of it.” Mikey sluggishly declared, his words dripping with nonchalance. “You’re welcome~.” He flicked his hands with the dramatic flair of a magician, tossing the gloves onto a nearby side table, effectively making them ‘disappear’ from his person. 

Raph let out a silent “Ooooh~” as he turned to see how Leo would react. And as always, the eldest did not disappoint.

“Do I need to tell Master Splinter of your little solo errand?” Leo asked in a tone that was as cold and sharp as an icicle’s tip. 

The youngest’s face fell immediately as Leo played his highest card:

“I’M GONNA TELL DAD.”

Classic oldest sib move, Raph thought to himself. Game set match.

With an offended pout only a youngest sibling could pull off, Mikey growled and stomped his way into the kitchen.

 He quickly regretted his decision.

Raph and Leo couldn’t help the satisfied grins crawling up their faces as they heard Mikey begin to cough violently, clapping his hands over his snout and hightailing it back into the living room. He unceremoniously crumpled to the floor in a hacking heap.

Raph leaned further into the couch cushions and rested his head over his crossed arms, while he watched his little brother writhe dramatically on the floor. With a quick glance, he saw that Leo was subtly checking if Mikey was actually okay or if he was just being dramatic. He obviously came to the same conclusion Raph did as the two oldest siblings sat back and watched, the smiles on their faces never leaving for a second.

“Yeah… seems Don did one shell of a job “decontaminating” the trash bin, huh lil bro?”

Mikey’s head lifted from the ground long enough for him to spit out, “I BET ASTRONAUTS COULD SMELL THAT.”

Leo shook his head as he rolled his eyes, allowing a faint smile to grow on his face. Raph couldn’t help but ask himself how long it had been since so much laughter and smiles had graced the rooms of his home. 

In order to keep the bright composure he was carrying on his face, he pushed aside that thought and just sat as he watched his brothers just be kids again.

. . .

Images flashed past Raphael’s eyes as his body was forcefully shoved through a long, grey hallway. Echoes of horrified and pained screams blared into his skull. Shadows peeled from the walls and engulfed him, slithering their arms into tight bands around his biceps and ankles. Despite the fear penetrating every cell of his body, his mind remained completely hollow, as if he didn’t carry enough strength to create a simple thought. 

The only voice that could be heard in his mind wasn’t his own.

It promised safety and warmth; an easy way out of this trap. Its gravely whispers poked and scratched inside his head, trying to tangle and pull apart any chords of willpower he had left. He could sense the bristling flame of his determination and spirit continue to flicker into nothing. With each seductive, hushed word, a vital part of his identity was extinguished, replaced with an empty husk of compliance.

He wanted to scream, to run, to fight. He longed to beat the shell out of the siren that continued to whisper and enchant his body to bend to its will. 

His mouth stayed shut. 

His legs remained still.

His hands hung limp at his sides, bristling the tipped edges of his sais.

Now watching as if a spectator in his own body, Raph’s legs began to move. They pressed forward with an unnatural uniformity, pulling him closer to a pair of doors leading into a frighteningly familiar room. Raph watched as a pair of crimson-tipped fingers unlocked the door, beckoning him to continue on his way inside. No matter how much Raph’s spirit bit and snarled and yanked, his body complied with the voice’s wishes.

His form climbed into a cushioned chair surrounded by heavy machinery littering every surface. The haunting shine of scalpels and saws glistened on trays set up near his head. His wrists and ankles were slid into metal cuffs as his body unnaturally relaxed into the reclining chair. Lights began flashing as the machinery around him began to glow in a sickly neon green.

“LET ME GO!!!”

Raph’s spirit froze at the sound of the new voice screeching at the doorway. It was a voice he could never forget; A voice of someone who drove him crazy, and pushed him to always do his best in everything he ever did. A scratchy tone that would sometimes pop into a high-pitched crack, leaving him dying laughing on the floor and dodging random office supplies being hurled at him.

His best friend.

“I SAID LET ME GO!!! WHERE’S MY BROTHER?” Don snarled as he was dragged into the room by two hulking jerks, twisting and yanking at the freckled mutant’s chains. He winced as they threw him into the similar chair positioned beside Raph.

NO!! PLEASE NO!!!

Raph’s pleads and screams never left his body’s lips. He could only watch as his twin was forced down into the chair, the two men not being gentle in the slightest as they tugged Don’s limbs through the cuffs with a loud *CLANG*.

“RAPH!!” Don yelled to the hollow husk of his twin in both concern and relief at the same time,”RAPH WAKE UP!! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!!!”

The fiery brother couldn’t look away as Don’s face fell when his twin didn’t even acknowledge his existence, nevermind his words.

“...R-Raph?... What did they do to you?!- WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!!!” Don ignited in a furious explosion of raw, protective instincts as masked doctors began filling the room.

Even with Don’s kicking and screaming, clawing and biting, and choice vocabulary that would send his father into a coma, the doctors still swiftly worked around him, preparing the machine that menacingly hovered above the two twins. Nurses began attaching small, metal nodes onto the sides of the brothers’ temples; Don’s on the left, and Raph’s on the right. The freckled brother didn’t stop squirming and fighting for one second, using all his energy to somehow escape his binds. But Raph remained still, his mind fully possessed by the siren that dwelled inside.

With a small *click* the machine began to operate. Raph watched as his twin began to scream, not in protest, but in pain. His body twisted and jolted as if he were being impaled by a lightning bolt. 

NO! 

Raphael’s spirit began to burn. 

NO…

His anger blazed in an uncontrollable pyre.

I… WILL NOT… 

His body’s hand twitched.

..LET…

His placid face began to sneer and snarl.

YOU…

His eyes burst open.

HURT HIM!!!!!

His spirit lunged through its prison, disintegrating the coils of control the siren once possessed. The chords of his identity and soul found their purchase in the core of his mind, planting themselves deeply, and never allowing such intrusion again. With the fury of a lion and the love of a protector he screamed,

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

Electricity sparked and stuttered through him in an instant, coursing through every muscle and fiber. It pulled his limbs taut, causing a deep ache to ignite in his bones. His skull rang with loud static, and his body twitched uncontrollably.

His body.

He fought against his binds, shattering the metal into pieces.

The lights on the machine flashed and popped, spraying the surrounding doctors with shards of glass. The panels of the contraption began to shake, as the device rapidly began to overload. 

The room was swallowed by the following explosion, bathed in an iridescent, blinding white.

Raphael and Donatello gasped simultaneously as they shot up, flinging their blankets off their chests.

Sweat beads trickled down Raph’s face as he shuddered and snatched onto his blanket. His fingers pressed deeply into the fibers, cushioning his nails instead of allowing them to penetrate skin. The thick, warm feel of the fabric pulled him back from fantasy, and planted him firmly in reality.

I’m home…

I’m safe…

I’m okay…

He chanted these words over and over in his mind until a cool, slurring voice broke his concentration.

“Raph?... You a’right, man?” Leo groggily whispered from his place on the spare mattress in the middle of the room. In the darkness the eldest’s frosty irises glowed as they locked onto Raph. 

Before the fiery brother could turn away from his sibling’s concerned gaze, Leo was already pulling away his sheets and blanket, tidily folding them over the edge of his bed, before silently crossing the room to Raph’s bedside.

CRUD CRUD CRUD-

NO- SHOO- GO AWAY- NOT NOW-

Raph immediately turned over, flopping to face the wall of his nook away from Leo.

“-I-I’m fine, Leo. Go back ta bed.” He subtly hissed through his fangs, hoping and praying that he was not about to get a big ol’ talk about feelings from the oldest. 

“Yeahhh, I’m not gonna buy that.” Leo yawned as he sat down on the floor beside Raph’s mattress. “A fighter you are. An actor you’re not. Now what’s going on?”

“I said I’m fine.” Raph curtly mumbled into his blanket.

“Still don’t believe you, try again.” Leo sighed as he rubbed at his eyes.

“I SAID I’M FINE.” Raph finally snapped a little too loudly, twisting his body to face his oldest brother. 

Leo winced at the volume of his brother’s expected outburst, then simply shook his head with an unimpressed frown. But before he could say another word, his expression changed as he noticed something about his fiery brother’s face. His mouth parted minisculely as he reached out his hand. 

Raph’s temper and pride demanded he swat it away, but his curiosity and love for his brother won out against his stubbornness. He remained still as Leo’s hand softly landed on the side of Raphael’s face, rubbing something wet off it.

Oh crap I’m crying.

DANG IT NOW HE’S NEVER GONNA LEAVE…

The concern over Leo’s face softened slightly, as he asked again, in a firmer “I am the oldest but I’m also your leader” tone, 

“What’s going on?”

Once again, Raph was completely trapped. Not by a psycho scientist, or by some evil, government organization, but by his perfectionistic, calm, and deeply concerned oldest brother.

There was no way he was going to get out of this one…

And that's it for this chapter! :) You all have been begging to see more of what happened to Don and Raph at the labs, so I present to you a nightmare~. This chapter was certainly tricky to figure out at first- with so many different scenes compiled together, it was hard to keep a steady flow for my reader, but I'm really happy with how it turned out! :) AAAAnd yes, I did say that I would only draw one panel for each chapter, but I COULDN'T HELP ITTTTTT!!!

Feel free to reblog and share this!

BIG THANK YOU to @poetique823 for helping me and encouraging me through this chapter!

@writer-in-wonder, @allyheart707, @oddartistl3, @risebabyx2, @joyjoygorl, @carrots-bear, @howtotrainyourdragonprince, @jasminegazer, @indieyuugure

If you want to be tagged in the next chapter, please comment down below! :)

To God be the glory!

~ Melissa

(CW- Nightmares, past medical trauma, being held down, and mind control!!)

MASTERPOST <- PRIOR CHAPTER NEXT CHAPTER ->

[yumeyumeappleo]

donnie i drew idk

[robiinurheart33]

CHAPTER 22 SPOILERS FOR THE NEON VOID‼️‼️

Haha wdym no I didn’t read the chapter almost one month after it came out wdym that’s crazy haha

ANYWAYS NEON VOID BRAINROT ANYONE?? As usual a magnificent read what can I say @sugarpasteltmnt is SO SO talented after I read this chapter I stared off into space for like a solid minute before laughing hysterically like Leo because MY GOD the adrenaline rush is so real. What compliment can I say that hasn’t been said about this fic. It gives me such goosebumps and the action sequences are just. Muah. Breathtaking. I cannot wait to read the next chapter and keep up the good work!! /lh /all pos

(Clicks for Palestine!!!)

[superfruitland]

mfw i enter the "favourite brother"-competition and my opponent is michelangelo

[yzafre]

I've decideeeed to do a "draw fast" experiment this week. Basically: given a sketch I already have on hand, I have to get to "finish" (new line art, flats, & shading) in under two hours - the closer to 1hr, the better.

The idea with this is that, like... trying to get a fast time will keep me from sitting and overthinking things, then fidgeting with it. I just gotta get stuff on the page. Don't know how, if at all, it'll help my art, but I think it'll be fun.

I figured my "three iteration" sketches I did last week were good ones to use, so have some Leo's for today. This one was at 1hr 32min.

[lemonandtheart]

[novastar-creations]

IM LIKE PILLED ON @ghostlychaosfoil’s STAINED AU ATM I HAD TO DRAW HERRRR AND IT CAME PUT A LIL JANK BC IT WAS IN MY SKETCHBOOK BUT YK WHAT? BEST KINDA ART :]

[glitter-alienz]

have some oop baxter & bishop doodles 👍🏾

Doing twists. with mama!! ^^

was tryna figure out bishop's fucked up hair out in these

he's normal 👍🏾

u can tell the baxter on thee left is old cuz i used to draw the feet huge like in 2012 tmnt

[hitwiththefandomz]

HEYYYY-OOOO!!! I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MICHELANGELO (tmnt: shadows of the escaped) FROM CABIN 12. HERE TO ANNOUNCE THAT YOUVE JUST BEEN PRANKED!! ENJOY YOUR NEW CABIN VIEW :3

(Cabin 12) @tmnt-fandom-family-reunion

We had some relocating but the new view is still amazing!

@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion @actuallynobutwhynot

Cabin #7 (7Wonders of the Turtleverse)

[princessjadyn15]

I feel like this needs to be said

[bagels-and-cream-cheese333]

Finished I hope you like it!

I AM FREAKING OUT GUYS OMMFFGFGGF WIWKWMEJENENWOOSWMWOIEMD D LOOK GUYS. SICK FANART ALERRRTTTTTT GUYS POSITION YOUR EYES ONTO THIS BEAUTIFUL CANVAS OF ART I AM BEGGING YOU. LOOOOOOK

[desterea]

DTIYS for @rufwoof! congrats on 2K!!!!!!

[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.