#He's almost as the same height as Leo

[kyuutekyu]

Time flies.... 🥺

[hoodiedmenace]

One day I'm gonna kiss the character designers for rise of the tmnt.

Yeah shape theory and all that, it's super neat but IT GOES SO MUCH DEEPER.

Since the beginning of tmnt, the turtles have always been hard to distinguish from each other. Especially in the 1987 show, but all the way up to 2007 movie, the one thing the turtles have really had to distinguish themselves is their color of their masks, their weapons, and usually some minor design changes like the letter on their belts, height, and skin tone. But even those have been subtle.

The 2012 series is really the first tmnt iteration to change up the turtles in a significant way. Not only is their skin different shades of green, but their heights are a more significant difference. Donnie towers of the other turtles, and Mikey's height really solidifies him as the youngest brother.

That isn't where the differences end, though. Raph has a crack in his plastron, Mikey has freckles, and Donnie is much lankier and skinny than the others. The main problem with this though, is that they are still fairly subtle. From behind and without their masks on, it's impossible to tell whether its Mikey, Leo, or Raph on screen. Not to mention, Leo is sort of treated as a 'base', and the other three turtles are just alterations made to his design.

Rise, on the other hand, said "hold my beer."

Not only do rise turtles have the different heights, skin tones, and masks, they have different body types.

And not only are these differing body types useful in telling the turtles apart, they have genuine meanings. So I'm gonna infect your brains with my brainrot.

Starting with Mikey.

Mikey has always been the silliest of the group, the party dude, if you will. Rise uses shape theory to give this playful, young vibe to him. Not only are his markings circles, but so is his head and shell. His design is very rounded overall.

The other thing about rise, is that all their fighting types are different. Their weapons influence these styles along with their personality. Mikey's style of fighting is very acrobatic, very showy. He is very in touch with his sense of balance and the space around him.

It can't be a coincidence that Mikey's body type is also very similar to an acrobat or gymnastic athlete. His muscles are small but compact, and rounded like the rest of him. His limbs are small, but clearly strong and well maintained. Acrobats often have these types of hidden muscles, where they almost disappear when not in use because of the function of them. They aren't using the muscles for heavy lifting or grueling tasks. Acrobats use their muscles for balance and manipulating their own body.

Next is Leo. Unlike 2012 where Leo is used as a baseline for the other character designs, he most definitely has his own unique look. Overall, he's very sharp. His crescent moon markings on his face and limbs, his swords, and his overall stylized body shape leans into this pointed, sharp look.

Leo attacks quick in the series. He is often one of the first to strike, and thinks well ahead in battle to preserve his energy. His battle moves tend to also continue throughout the fight with a large blow in the beginning and end, with smaller strikes in between.

Leo is also the leanest of the turtles, with a small waist and the lithest of the turtles' limbs. All of this points his character design towards a long distance runner. They often start and end races with bursts of energy, and then pace themselves throughout the rest of the race. They have to think and consider their speed. Long distance runners also have very lean muscles. It has to do with the actual proteins in the muscle that make them thinner but perfect for pacing and persevering throughout long lengths of time.

Similar to Leo is Donnie. The disaster twins, as the fandom has named them for being the same age, are the most physically similar. They are nearly the same height and, when Donnie had his battle shell on, their shells are very similar in shape. However, they are still very different. Donnie has a rectangular build with his purple pixel-like markings and big ass forehead. Him and Raph also are the only turtles in rise with full head coverings, and they are also both square shaped.

Donnie tends to put all of his energy into one, well timed blow. Usually using his tech to discombobulate the enemy and then backing off quickly. (The only time this doesn't hold true is when he's fighting with April, where it's only the two of them. However, he still does tend to attack and then back away.) His muscles are the second most defined of the turtles, being thick and bigger than both Leo and Mikey.

For this reason, Donnie I believe is built off of a sprinter. A short distance runner. The perfect match to Leo (the twins ever bro)

Sprinters have to save up all of their energy in order to use it all in one short length of time, often just a few seconds. Exactly how Donnie attacks. Sprinters also have much larger, more defined muscles than long distance runners. I think it has something to do with storing energy and oxygen to be used all at once.

Finally, there's Raph. Raph is big and bulky in the show, with the biggest muscles and is *physically the strongest. He lifts giant boulders and can carry all three of his brothers, April, and Splinter with ease. His shape is a square, with his head and chest being large and boxy. His fighting style is the least ninja-y out of the four, being more related to actually just throwing hands with someone. He fights physically and often times without his weapons, preferring to attack with his body. He gets in the enemy's space and uses his larger size to overpower them. His ability to make himself bigger with his mystic powers furthers this idea. He attacks hard and doesn't let up, not allowing his weaknesses to be exploited by keeping the enemy from never getting a hit in.

I believe Raph is based off of a wrestler or boxer. They fight physically and roughly, preferring to never allow their opponent get a hit in if it allows. Their act of defense is also similar, as boxers generally use their weapon as defense instead of offense. (Raph does this in the train battle and the shredder fight pre-karai death.) Even some of Raph's moves are essentially boxing moves. It also makes sense why, in the show, Raph loves wrestling so much. It may not be boxing, but it's a very similar sport.

Boxers also have large, bulky figures similar to Raph. Their entire body is muscular as opposed to just their legs or arms because of how physical their sport is.

*Mikey throws a lot of super heavy stuff like the top of a sky scraper, a loaded cargo ship, and a semi-truck, but he does it with the help of his mystic weapon.

Hahaha I'm so. Normal.

[yorshie]

hi sweetheart!

how do you think the turtles would feel with a really petite reader? I mean, we are all small for them, but what if the reader is below average even by human standards like 5.0 f. t? will it bring something animalistic in them?

(I want to hear that reader will be carried on their hands 👏constantly👏 and treated like doll, I crave for that kind of comfort ty and sorry for my poor english 😭✋)

Whelp. I wanna start this by saying nonnie I’m so sorry, I plugged that height into a comparison generator with my head canons heights and I’m a little cursed by the image so someone else has to see it.

Like. Damn. I’d run from Donnie. Straight up yeeerrrrm like *thats a runner* probably run from raph too like. Yikes. Tiddie height to him is terrifying.

Literally everyone but Mikey is terrified that they’ll accidentally bump you and break something. They all get onto Mikey even more for swinging you around or grabbing you to toss up into the air.

Raph carries you anytime he can get away with it. In his mind, your legs are so short, they must get so tired, he’s really doing you a favor. Hope you don’t get too mad over being carried like the short stack you are, because he absolutely cannot get it through his thick skull that you would rather hurt your neck craning to look up at him than be carried

Leo so badly wants to teach you self defense, but he finds it so comical when you try to hit him while only coming up to his pec that he struggles to breathe. Yes he knows this is serious yes he’s trying but the poor turtle is also dying inside cut him some slack and maybe squish his cheeks when he dramatically leans over to talk to you.

Donnie sometimes feels like he should sit down when talking to you. He definitely has a spot in his lab that is your spot so he knows where you are at all times so he doesn’t accidentally hit you with his shell.

Cuddling them is super easy now at least. Normally they don’t even strain to lift someone but with you it’s more like they forget they’re holding you. They get hyper aware of where you are exactly in relation to them when it comes to turtle piles or relaxing no the couch though. It only took one almost squishing accident to bring them all on the same page of no rough housing when you’re around.

Mikey sometimes puts you on his shoulders while running around the lair, or scoops you up in his arms while doing parkour stunts just to get you to squeal in surprised delight/terror. It drives Leo up the wall.

They are all four hella protective, to the point that if you don’t catch on and tell them to stop, they’ll shadow you every time you head to/from the lair, if they can’t convince you to let one of them give you a lift.

If you told them you could “take care of yourself” I’m sorry but they are bro dudes they would straight up laugh like maybe Donnie would be self aware enough to try and hide it at first but if the other three break he’s gonna giggle too.

At the end of the day I just imagine it getting obnoxious like I’m pretty sure I’d kick them in the knees repeatedly, but as long as you like being treated like you’re fine china you’ll be heaven lol.

[goodlucktai]

Are you still taking prompts? If so, could I ask for some rise!Raph and Mikey? Their brotherly relationship really intrigues me and I wish we could have seen more of it develop in the show, and I just know you would do it justice :D thanks

set pre-movie, canon divergence, in which i simply toss mikey at a problem to fix it

read on ao3

x

This same time last year, Mikey couldn’t wait to grow up. 

Because sometimes—only sometimes—he felt like he had something he needed to prove. 

It’s not that his family doesn’t believe in him. If anything, he thinks, from the lofty heights and newly acquired maturity of fourteen years old, they believe in him a little too much. Whatever he says he can accomplish, they give him room for—and if he can’t pull it off, they help him out and still afford him full credit. Mikey knows it’s just another way they spoil him, but it’s the least egregious manner in which they do, so he lets it slide. 

And it’s definitely not that he ever feels left out or left behind. Michelangelo and his brothers operate on a fulcrum that turns four ways as naturally as the needle on a compass, guided by gravity and the poles of the planet and something even more intrinsic and fundamental than all of that. 

Even when they’re fighting, when Mikey can’t be in the same room as Donnie without the Cain Instinct taking over or Leo goes full Mean Girls and has the cattiest-sounding Facetime with April about whichever one of them ticked him off, purposefully taking his call in the living room where they all could hear it, none of that ever lasts longer than a day. They burn bright and loud and hot, but they burn fast. Gravity keeps everything together. 

Come on, gravity, Mikey thinks, holding onto his temper very carefully. Do your thing. 

“I am not,” he says, for the billionth time in his life, “a baby.”

Raph looks a little nervous, which almost makes Mikey feel bad. But then he says, “That ankle’s sprained, big man. You shouldn’t walk on it.”

“Leo wrapped it up super well! I’ll be careful!” 

Their resident medic is smiling a little to himself, packing everything up again to his own meticulous organizational standards. (Only Donnie truly has his system figured out, but Mikey thinks that’s because they share a brain or soul or whatever.) It’s the full kit, too, Leo didn’t bother with the emergency supplies in his belt-bag and instead opened up a little dinner-plate-sized portal that he reached through to ransack their infirmary back home. 

Mikey wants to roll around on his shell in annoyance. It wasn’t even that bad!

“Sprains can be worse than breaks sometimes,” Leo remarks neutrally, as if he’s commenting on the weather. “Would you rather be careful now or laid up for a couple extra weeks?”

Raph seems grateful for the input, even though he doesn’t look at Leo and Leo doesn’t look up from his kit.

Ugh. “Ugh!” Mikey says out loud for good measure. “Then I can just walk on my hands!” 

It summons a wider smile from Leonardo, one of those crooked, pleasantly surprised ones. He’s so clever and thinks in circles around everyone else—not to be mean or tricky, just because his brain is as fast as Donnie’s and eats up seconds like a racecar around a Formula 1 track—that it’s fun to catch him off-guard with something totally out-of-pocket and watch that smile show up. 

“The whole way back to the Tank?” Raph says skeptically.

“You bet!” Mikey has warmed up to the idea now.

“This I have to see,” Donnie says, putting his phone away and folding his arms on Leo’s carapace. 

“I’ll have you know, Donald, that I walked on my hands for like two days once.” 

“Believe me, Michael, I remember. I was there.”

“You tried to make spaghetti for dinner with your feet,” Leo pipes up, and giggles when Donnie makes a gagging noise above him. He’s done packing his stuff up but he’s still sitting, probably because he likes the weight of his lazy twin leaning against his shell. 

Sensing no further help from that quarter, Raph says, “Mike—” but Mikey has already capitalized on his moment of indecision and flipped forward into a handstand. His foot actually does hurt a lot and his center of balance is a tiny bit skewed, but honestly he could do this for hours. He books it for the edge of the roof, putting something like a skip into his step just to make the twins laugh. There’s a shuffle and a cut-off noise that means the big worry-wart didn’t like it but puh-lease. Mikey’s safe as houses. 

It’s when he clambers up onto the parapet that he remembers the fire escape on this building is the kind with the rolling ladders, not the stairs. 

No one says anything behind him, letting him come to his own conclusion. Mikey would appreciate that except they’re only doing it because he’s the baby and they don’t want to upset him. 

Spinning around, the concrete scraping against his palms, Mikey aims an explosively unhappy frown at all three of them from upside-down.

“I could have done it,” he insists. 

“Of course you could have,” Raph is the first to say. “There’s not a doubt in my mind you could have walked to the moon on your hands if you wanted to. But you don’t have to walk while you’re hurt when Raph is here to carry you.”

He’s so earnest and sweet. It goes a long way in making Mikey forget why he was even annoyed to begin with. His brothers are lucky they’re so loveable! 

With a groan he tucks his head and shoulders and rolls forward, shell bumping playfully against the edge of the parapet, and comes right-side-up sitting criss-cross-applesauce.

“Fine,” he capitulates. “But only because Raphie thinks I could hand-walk to the moon.”

“And back,” Raph says, smiling down at him. Mikey lifts his arms to be scooped up and settled in his usual spot on Raph’s shoulder. 

If this was a year ago, Leo would have been right next to him, perched on Raph’s opposite shoulder and making silly jokes to make Mikey feel better. Leo loves to be carried. It was the one little brother thing his cool guy persona could never eclipse. The one thing Mikey was certain he wouldn’t outgrow no matter how old he got.

But instead of crossing the roof at a run to leap into Raph’s arms, always trusting the process, knowing they would open in time to catch him, Leo stays put. Maybe because Donnie is still resting his weight on him. But his expression is so transparently wistful and lonely for a split-second, even though his brothers are all right there, that it causes a pang of upset in Mikey’s heart. 

“Hey, Lee, room for one more,” he says, patting Raphie’s shoulder. 

Raph scoffs under his breath, which makes Mikey’s stomach do a surprised, uncomfy flip. Leo hears it, and his expression shutters so fast it’s almost unnatural, everything replaced by a wide, plastic smile. 

“Gotta get my steps in, Miguel,” he says, shoving his kit back through a portal and wiggling his shoulders so Donnie knows he’s about to stand up. “This figure doesn’t come free, you know.” 

He adds an imaginary hair-toss. Raph looks like he didn’t expect anything else. Mikey thinks he must not have seen that expression on Leo’s face. 

But it’s all Mikey can think about the entire drive home. That gulf between fourteen and fifteen where apparently everything changes. 

——

Something has been wrong for awhile now, ever since Pops made Leo the leader and turned their team inside out, but Mikey figured they were due for an adjustment period. Raph had a hard time letting go of responsibility and Leo had a hard time picking it up, but once they found their way back onto the same page everything would be okay. Gravity would keep them together. They didn’t know any other way to be. 

Except it’s been weeks and the arguing is only getting worse and it’s not even really that much fun to patrol anymore in the first place. Mikey usually loves going out at night with his brothers, finding bad guys to beat up and getting those ninja endorphins, but he’s sort of starting to feel about it the way kids in daytime television feel about homework. He just wants to get it over with.  

Tonight Leo is being a little silly. Flubbing jumps and slow to catch his cues. Once he even missed a sixteenth-story ledge and would have fallen—which was not funny at all and a bad joke to make—but Donnie’s arm shot out and caught him so smoothly that it had to have been planned. Like a trust fall! Or maybe twin telepathy actually is a thing and Donnie was just tricking them with all those printouts he handed around that one time to prove Leo wrong. Either way, Leo wasn’t actually in danger. 

Mikey loves silly Leo, and played right along into his antics, but maybe he shouldn’t have. Raph was ticked off and, by the time Leo missed that ledge, fed-up. He cut the evening short and told Leo to just portal them home. 

That’s when the wary little thing in the back of Mikey’s brain pokes its head up out of the ground. That’s when he realizes something was Wrong wrong. Capital wrong. 

Because Leo says, “Your wish is my command, my liege,” with the right amount of theater kid gusto, and that’s normal. He summons a pretty spinning blue portal as tall as Raph stood at the shoulder and hops through first, leaving Raph to make a hissing noise against his teeth and duck his head to follow, and that’s normal. Mikey glances over at Donnie, who doesn’t look up from where his snout is buried in his phone to wave Mikey ahead of him, and that’s normal, too.

It’s easy to take for granted how amazing Leo’s portals are. With two steps, Mikey walks off a cool rooftop in Brooklyn and into their warmly lit living room. He can hear Pops’ telenovelas from the projector room and smell the beef burgundy he’d left to simmer on the stove for dinner. 

And distracted as he is, listening to the familiar rising and falling cadence of Raph’s worn-out lecture about responsibility and watching the pretend-listening bob of Leo’s head, Mikey still sees it when the portal wobbles as Don steps through. 

Maybe it wouldn’t have seemed like a big deal, except Leo’s face goes white and his whole body stills, and the coloring of his stripes starts to tinge toward neon like his ninpo is about to light up. 

And that’s not normal at all. 

It was just a split-second of destabilization, and Donnie moves through it just fine, but Leo holds his breath and keeps the portal open until his twin is right beside him. 

“This is literally what I’m talking about,” Raph says, that worried wrinkle in his brow deeper than ever. “Leo please listen when I talk just this once. If you’re not paying attention someone could get hurt. What if the portal just then had—”

“Woah, did you hear that?” Leo says right over him, cupping a hand at the side of his head as if to listen for something. “There’s another super riveting lecture about everything I do wrong happening in my room. I’m gonna catch that one instead. Thanks for this, though.”

He slips away as easily as if he was part eel instead of turtle and books it out of the living room in a way that manages to look like a casual saunter instead of the full-steam retreat it actually is. 

Raph looks stunned at the blatant dismissal, and then hurt, and then it all boils together into something furious. He’s never actually angry with them. It’s just that he cares so, so much and sometimes he has nowhere to put it. Sometimes it becomes something too big for him to hold. 

Right in that moment, he seems ready to grab Leo and rattle him until he ran out of nonsense and had no choice but to listen. 

“I’ll handle this one, Raphala,” Donnie says abruptly. “I’m the one who almost got spliced, so I’m the one who gets to have the first opinion about it.”

Since the twins’ whole schtick is getting each other into and out of trouble with very little regard for anything else, Raph looks reasonably skeptical of him ‘handling’ it. But Don is already following Leo out of the room, and the potential of another argument is removed neatly by his exit. 

Raph deflates a little bit. He’s the biggest strongest person Mikey knows, but suddenly he looks small. 

“Hey, Raphie, wanna help me dish up dinner?” Mikey says, smiling up at him. Anxious to banish that uncharacteristic smallness with the full force of his own personality if that’s what it takes. “You take dad his plate and I’ll wrangle Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Lee.”

Raph smiles back at him, at least, and carefully carries two big servings of stew served over garlic mashed potatoes to the projector room. Pops will probably rope him into watching his shows and maybe Raph will actually take a minute to relax when it’s just him and dad and hearty comfort food and bad TV. 

Mikey ladles up two more bowls and takes a couple of individually-wrapped Gansito snack cakes out of his stash for good measure. It’s a sweet treat kind of night, he thinks. He’ll have to remember to get one for Raphie, too. 

Leo’s room is empty, and so is Donnie’s. Since Mikey doesn’t know where any of Leo’s secret hiding places are in their new lair, he only hesitates for a second before checking the lab. 

Oh, Mikey thinks, holding the tray in numb hands. Something is Wrong. 

The twins are both on the sofa that got shoved into the corner of the room as a compromise to Don’s occasional all-nighters, turtle-piled under a weighted blanket. Leo’s wearing noise-canceling headphones, using Don’s leathery carapace as a pillow. His mask is dangling from one sleep-loose hand, so the big dark circles under his eyes stand out on his pale face. 

Donnie’s still awake, tapping away on his phone. He doesn’t look up at the doorway that Mikey is standing in, but he does use one hand to sign a subtle, silent “no.” No talking? No company? Probably both. 

Swallowing hard, Mikey lifts the tray he’s holding up a little higher. That does get Don to look at him, and his second-oldest brother softens at whatever Mikey’s face must look like. He nods toward the desk, and signs, “Thanks, M. We’ll eat before it gets cold.” 

The only thing Mikey wants in the entire world at this moment is to crawl onto the sofa with them. He would probably get away with it, he doesn’t think there’s ever been a time in his entire life he wasn’t truly welcome in a turtle pile. But Donnie said no. And Leo looks so tired. 

He puts the tray on the desk, ninja-quiet, and leaves again without a whisper. 

His phone chimes in his pocket once he’s out the door, and he pulls it out to find a text from Don that says He’ll be okay, Angelo. He just needs to get some sleep. 

Leo’s relationship with sleep has always been hot-and-cold. Usually he’s pretty honest about it when it gets bad, in the sense that he lets them see how exhausted he is instead of hiding it behind a goofy, cocky exterior. 

Remembering that missed ledge from earlier tonight causes ice to form in Mikey’s stomach. That wasn’t a trust fall at all, was it?

Biting his lip, Mikey sends back, Would a visit from Dr. Feelings help?

The typing dots appear, but only for a second. The reply comes swiftly: Not this time. 

——

That night Mikey tosses and turns for an hour before finally pulling a move he hasn’t in ages and slinking over to Raph’s room. He lingers uncertainly in the open door, because he doesn’t know how little you have to be to be allowed to crawl into Raphie’s nest and let him hug the world all better. Mikey had thought that was a forever thing, but he can’t get Leo’s face on the rooftop out of his head. 

Raph is still awake, playing on his Switch, and notices the shadow that passes in front of the doorway instantly. He sets his game down and lifts one arm in automatic welcome and Mikey crosses the room at a run and slams into the embrace as if it’s an offer that might expire. 

And it might. Mikey had never really thought it would before. 

“Hey, big man,” Raph says, his voice a comforting rumble that rights all wrongs. “Couldn’t sleep?”

Mikey nods, and picks at a loose thread in the pink comforter, and then says, “Will you still carry me when I’m fifteen?”

“What? Of course I will.”

“What about sixteen?”

“You’re never gonna be too big for Raph to carry, Mike. I’ll always be the biggest, big enough to haul you bozos around whether you like it or not.”

Some frightened little creature inside Mikey’s chest loosens the grip it has on his heart with its teeth. But it doesn’t fully let go. And Mikey can’t help but ask, “What if we argue a lot and stop being friends?”

The idea of not being friends with his brother is enough on its own to make him want to burst into tears. He has no idea how Leo isn’t just constantly bawling. Then he remembers the circles under Leo’s eyes that don’t show when he’s wearing his mask and the way Donnie always follows him out of the room now. And he thinks it’s silly of him to forget that pain shows itself differently from one person to the next. 

Hurt chases understanding across Raph’s expression, and he squeezes Mikey a little tighter to his plastron. 

“I’ll love you no matter what, Angie. You and Leo and Don are forever for me, okay? If the world ends tomorrow, I’ll still be somewhere, loving my little brothers. It’s too big to just disappear.”

Mikey is fourteen years old and too old to be coddled anymore but not too old that he doesn’t trust in Raphael with his entire heart and then some. If Raph believes Mikey could walk to the moon and back, Mikey believes his biggest brother could lift up the whole sky and hold it for as long as he wanted to, if he wanted to.

Laying there under the warm pink blanket, with Raph’s twinkling nightlight in the corner and the sound of dad’s TV down the hall, Mikey thinks about things that last forever, things you can never outgrow—inside jokes between siblings, skilled hands wrapping sprained ankles, a door standing open in the dark in case you couldn’t sleep. 

Then he thinks about those looks on Raph’s and Leo’s faces when they thought no one was watching. How lonely they’ve both been without their best friend on their team. 

“Can you do me a favor tomorrow?” he asks before he can think better of it. “Scoop Leo.”

“Mikey…” Raph sighs, not wanting to say what Mikey already knows he’s thinking. That Leo would hate it, that it would cause another argument, that he doesn’t want to fight first thing tomorrow morning. He doesn’t want to fight at all. 

“Don’t—don’t do it like you’re mad,” Mikey adds quickly, heart thumping. “Like you caught him sneaking out or you need to keep him in one place so dad can check his stitches but he keeps slipping away like a buttered noodle. Do it like—like you missed him. Pretend he’s been gone for a long time and he just got home. And you’re happy to see him.”

Once Leo went away with April to an overnight camp. It was a nerd camp, he’d said gleefully, bright eyes scanning the brochure, and there was a chess league! April’s mom was a volunteer organizer and promised Splinter that it was a relatively small, local event, and that Leo would be safe. 

It was the longest the brothers had ever been apart before. Even though they texted and video called near-constantly, by the end of the week it had felt like they’d misplaced a limb somewhere. When Leo finally swanned into the lair he had bags of souvenirs for all of them and a hundred stories to tell and the first thing he did was drop everything and run straight into Raph’s open arms. The way he always does. The first thing he always does. 

Raph is looking at Mikey in the semi-dark with unreadable eyes. It takes a minute, seconds crawling by so slowly Mikey starts to worry Raph will say no. He builds up all these new fears, a subdivision development springing up where problems will live in rows of cookie-cutter houses and pay outrageous mortgages and never truly go away again. 

But then Raphie says, “Alright, Ange. But you’re dealing with the fallout.”

He sounds very tired, and a little like he’s just humoring someone who doesn’t know better, but a win is a win. 

The next day, when Leo is the last to wander into the kitchen even though he was probably the first one awake, and does that thing where he manages to not look a single person in the eye while otherwise acting totally normal, Raph frowns at him. 

Mikey can tell it’s concern. He thinks Leo expects it to be something else, and manages to find whatever he’s looking for even if it’s not really there.

But then Raphael glances over at Mikey, and Mikey holds out his arms and mimes a big scoop. Setting his jaw as though he’s about to go head-to-head with the Shredder again, Raph scoots his chair back from the table, rounds it, and then lifts Leo clean off his feet. 

Leo’s eyes are huge and he squirms like a hooked fish, but then Raph says, all bright and charming, “Look what the goat-man dragged in! How’d you sleep, champ?”

“Fine,” the slider says cautiously, slowing his escape attempts, but still looking like he half-expects this to be a trap. When Raph hums and nothing else happens, some little piece of his guard goes down and he adds, “Good. Slept, um, right through my alarm actually. Was worried I was gonna miss Chef Miguel’s magic.”

“Yeah? If you’re still feeling tired after breakfast, you should catch another nap. You know Raph worries.”

They’re each braced for the other to hurt their feelings. But being inside Raph’s arms when he wants to hold you is the best place in the whole world to be. Nothing bad exists and nothing has the power to make you feel small or ugly or scared. It’s just you and this big guy who loves you, who loves to carry you. 

For the first time in weeks, Leo’s plastic smile wobbles and slips. He blinks and his eyes get wet and he reaches up to sling his arms around his big brother’s neck. The way to get inside Leo’s head, past all the anxieties, past that constant guard, is to hold him and sound happy to see him. He wants so badly to be wanted. Mikey can’t understand how someone as smart as Leo doesn’t know that he already is. 

“I know,” Leo chokes out, “I’m sorry.”

Raph couldn’t have looked more stunned if someone had taken this moment to dump a bucket of ice water on his head. But in true Raph fashion, his arms tighten around his little brother automatically, readjusting their hold so that Leo is more secure. The shape of it transforms from quick hug into steadfast embrace. 

Mikey’s biggest brother, who could hold up the whole sky, will stand there and hold Leo together until the heat death of the universe, or until Leo lets go. 

“Hey,” Raph says gently, “how about we hit the arcade later, just the two of us? We’re overdue a jam session and I’ll bet there’s a karaoke machine with our names on it.” 

“As long as you promise not to attempt Mariah Carey, I’m down for anything, big guy.” Because Leo would follow Raph anywhere, has followed Raph everywhere, and they both seem to be remembering that in real time. 

It really must have thrown Leo’s world out of orbit to be the one pushed out in front and expected to lead, with no prior warning or discussion. A jam session is exactly what the two of them need.

“I’ll make French toast for breakfast, but only if we can agree on toppings,” Mikey pipes up from the kitchen, as casually as if his whole heart isn’t a painful, hopeful thing lodged in his throat.

“Raspberry jam,” Leo muffles from somewhere between Raph’s shell and shoulder, “or I’m rioting.”

Raspberry jam and cream cheese stuffed French toast is Raphael’s well-known, all-time favorite breakfast food. Raph shouldn’t be surprised that Leo knows that, so the surprise must come from somewhere else. The last couple of weeks of stress and hurt and frustration go sliding off his spiky shell like water, all replaced by relief. The worry and confusion are still there, but those weigh practically nothing in comparison. He smacks a noisy kiss on the top of Leo’s head, grinning brightly when Leo whines and starts half-heartedly trying to noodle away. 

“What’d I tell you?” Donnie says, from his sleepy stake-out in front of the Keurig. “Dr. Feelings is a smart guy, but he doesn’t hold a candle to the smartest guy I know. A Mikey makes everything better.”

Mikey beams at him, the kitchen warm and full and lively, Raph and Leo squabbling playfully by the table, his morning playlist belting out something folky and upbeat, gravity pulling everything back to where it belongs.  

Fifteen doesn’t feel so scary anymore. But maybe Mikey’s okay with taking the long way there, after all. 

[scarredwoods]

As we all know, the 2003 turtles are around 5 feet tall, and since they're 15 at the start, they'll definitely start growing taller. But when do they stop growing?

A headcanon I've had is that the turtles from certain iterations don't stop growing until they're much older because of their mutation. Like around mid to late 20s. And because of that, they end up growing very tall (Not Bayverse tall, definitely a little shorter than that).

And you might be asking, "Woods, what made you come up with this very simple headcanon?"

And to that, I say, I think it would be very funny if Casey and April, who obviously don't know a lot about mutants, just based them off of regular human growth and ended up being wrong. They'd probably think that they stop growing around 16-18 years old, the same that humans do. So since they're 5 foot at the start of 15, they most likely believed that they're still going to be either around the same height as April or a little shorter by the time they stop growing. Only to find out that they became taller than April by 18. But that's fine. They just had a big growth spurt before they finally stopped. After all, that's normal amongst humans, too.

But they didn't stop. They kept growing. And now Casey's starting to get worried. He's the tallest amongst them and if Raph ends up getting taller than him, then he's never going to hear the end of it. It's gonna be short stack jokes for the rest of eternity. And that's exactly what happens. Granted, he's not a GIANT compared to Casey, maybe a few inches or half a foot taller than him.

By the time they were 22, Casey started getting worried about their height and even started questioning to April if the turtles would ever stop growing and if they're going to turn into four giant godzillas, or something. April thought it was a ridiculous idea, of course, but after a while, she almost started questioning that too. Plus, she was getting tired of cranking her neck up to look at everyone. Now she knows how the turtles felt all those years ago. Thankfully, they stopped growing by the time they were 26, which was a relief for everyone. They most likely had to find ways to extend their beds a couple of times to fit in them. Even Raph had to get a bigger hammock since his last one could no longer support his weight.

Also, imagine the thought of Usagi being a lot shorter than Leo since he most likely stopped growing once he reached around 5'5. Just the thought of Leo having to look down at Usagi and stop his urge from picking him up like a limp cat. Or lifting him up to see the top of a fridge or a cabinet for the first time.

Plus, there's Mikey who would makes jokes about since he's taller, Usagi should listen to him, while Usagi's down there responding about he's older and Mikey should listen to HIM. And it all just ends up with back and forth sibling banter. (This is specifically inspired by me and my little brother, who grew taller than me and ends up telling people he's the oldest. Shout out to all the other older siblings who ended up shorter than their younger siblings)

[mesopelagos]

thought abt that actor au a little more. i just think theyre neat

some fun facts below the cut

raph’s real eye gets a contact lens while the “krang eye” ie the one in the goop is CG. the eyepiece can be removed separate from the actual makeup to allow him to not have to wear it between takes and also so it can be cleaned easier

both donnies prescription lenses and raph’s fashion ones give them headaches. some days its worse than others

casey jr can, in fact, cry on command

jokes about mikey and leo dying are near constants on set

sometimes krang prime will do other peoples lines in his Evil Voice (tm). his favorite ones are mikey’s cause of how generally positive they tend to be, so the tonal dissonance is really funny

originally casey Sr was gonna have the Casey part in the film, but she got busy with another project, so her nephew took the role instead. they ended up rewriting a bit of the script around that

“future leo”‘s height difference was achieved mostly by having leo stand on  a box whenever he and casey jr were in the same shot, although for the few shots where both their full bodies were visible it was a mix of editing and some carefully placed camera angles (think like the lord of the rings movies)

krang prime tends to not wear the armor when he’s just out and about (he considers it “chafing”) but he can’t leave it unattended for too long or one of the turtles will try to steal it. donnie almost succeeded and leo did. mikey was too short to actually fit it well enough to move it. 

[hanasnx]

SMUT ALPHABET " A-B " — darth vader, anakin skywalker, leo campo, jacob.

MINORS DNI 18+ NOTES: this was stuck in my drafts and i wanna get it out | source. WARNINGS: f!reader | sexual content | aftercare | body part

A = Aftercare — what they’re like after sex:

DARTH VADER can't help that he's very cold. It stretches past intimacy. During the heat of the moment, at the height of passion, you'll find he's a rare breed. Aftercare would look different on him compared to traditions. There are times where he does not offer aftercare, simply using you as you sought and returning to normalcy. As if he's embarrassed to have shown such weakness. At his best, he'll stroke your hair. Call you sweet, but troublesome. Watch you as you drift to sleep. He's not fond of being touched, or reminded of his vulnerability so aftercare would be an uncomfortable experience if you tried to give him some.

ANAKIN SKYWALKER will clean you up thoroughly with a warm and damp cloth. If he was particularly rough with you, he'll help you bathe and get the cum out of your hair. Water breaks and maybe a snack to "keep up your strength." Talk to you to keep you from falling asleep on him. He needs to be held, he needs to be reassured, so it would bleed into your aftercare as well. You'd receive the treatment he craves, in other words. He'd assume that's what everyone wants. Additionally, he gets very moody if you must leave him to attend to other matters. He much prefers when you set aside time for him, especially if it's to spend the night sleeping in his bed.

LEO CAMPO has a standard routine for it. He'll ask you the same questions. "Can I get you anything?" being his main first. He likes to wind down afterwards with a shower together. Massages are always appreciated, whether he's giving one or receiving one. The two of you worked hard, might as well soothe those sore muscles about it. He'll make you both dinner, pick out a random movie, and sit quietly with you. Your company is valuable, and aftercare comes in many different forms.

JACOB has spent a lot of his time on the run. Whether its from his origins, from his demons, or from the Black Guard, it makes him uncomfortable to stay still. Aftercare might not be his highest priority, and he might— inadvertently, albeit— make you feel like a discarded escort. He rushes through leaving the bed, getting dressed, and moving on to his next task. After he's broken the habit, he'd force himself to remain laying with you. To talk about the encounter, lead himself to be vulnerable.

B = Body part — their favorite, and second favorite body part of their partner’s:

DARTH VADER and ANAKIN SKYWALKER share a common interest in biting your ear to remind you of his existence. With a mask it is delayed until he's able, but it's genuinely his favorite to kiss and to bite. All your other parts deserve recognition, but none of them have him leaning over to latch his teeth onto to slowly drag out. An impulse he cannot shake. Your chest is a close second favorite. He can't think of anything he wouldn't do to your tits. Clamps on your nipples, or biting and sucking on them. Fucking the space between them, or cumming all over them. He doesn't discriminate.

LEO CAMPO wishes he had a more romantic answer. He's almost ashamed to admit it's your ass. Almost. Followed closely by your lips. He finds any excuse to get his hands on your ass. Pinching, swatting, patting, stroking, squeezing. He loves watching it bounce on him when he's fucking you from behind. Your lips are kissed constantly, bitten and tugged on. He also superbly enjoys kissing the corner of them. Not to mention how soft they feel and supple they look wrapped around his cock.

JACOB is very drawn to your eyes. He used to largely avoid eye contact, reminds him of when he was too intense. Additionally, no one's earned the respect of his eye contact. All he wants to do now is gaze into yours. He gets lost in them, and he'll turn you to look at him with his hand on your chin when you're talking to him or vice versa. Your waist is his second favorite. Palms slide up your torso, tracing its outlines, using it as a handle when you're riding him and you need some extra help.

[luckycharms1701]

Headcanons on flirting styles for the rise boys? Fave pick-up lines? Do they even use those? How often to they ignore their dad’s advice lol

okay anon-chan. you deserve better than this tbh. but i have been staring at this shit for over 12 hours now. this is as good as it's gonna get right now. sorry.

Raph:

This poor boy. He tries so hard. But for some reason he can’t understand, he only ever gets numbers when he’s not trying to flirt. (It’s because when he’s genuinely himself, he’s super attractive, but when he flirts… well.) He’d be a natural if he didn’t try so, so hard. But then he wouldn’t be himself, so it’s an eternal catch-22 for him.

He becomes super aware of his size when he approaches someone, and tends to hunch in on himself. This can sometimes come across as condescending, especially if whomever he approaches is sensitive about their height. Never ends well.

If you flirt with him, he’s probably going to look over his shoulder to make sure you’re talking to him and not someone else. He’s going to get shy, probably rub the back of his neck, and blush a lot. It’s going to be absolutely adorable.

He wants to listen to what Splinter tells them about flirting. Unfortunately he doesn’t have the same confidence, and it shows. He uses the right words, but they come across wrong because of tone, body language, or vibe.

Raph would never touch a pick-up line. He’s too straightforward. He will pick his moments to set the mood instead. Waits for a particular song to come on in the club. Makes sure to bump into you in the park while you’re admiring the scenery. It definitely helps sometimes, especially when he remembers to be genuine.

Leo:

So. Leo. He thinks he’s so smooth. I hate to say it, but he can be. He’s managed to score his fair share of numbers. But for every four numbers he gets, he leans on the counter, slips, and falls flat on his face. He gets better as he ages though. He uhhhh gets a lot better as he ages. Smooth like butter even.

He has this way of smoldering at you that either makes you swoon or laugh your ass off. There is no in between. A lot of his flirting relies on his body, because he knows he looks good. He is the face man, after all. So he is incredibly careful with his body language. He also gets this burr in his voice that his brothers make fun of him incessantly for, but really, really does it for whomever he approaches.

If you flirt with him, it’s going to surprise him, but only for a moment. Then that smirk will grace his face and he’ll turn on the charm. It’s going to be hard to tell who approached who after a while.

Lives and dies by Splinter’s flirting advice. Leo of all his brothers is in the best position to follow said advice, and he knows it. It works pretty well for him. He is especially good at the ‘lowering glasses and winking’ trick.

Pick-up line king! It takes a lot of trial and error and workshopping. He is a quick study when it comes to people though so he manages to figure out when and what kind of pick-up line to use. Once that happens he is devastatingly effective with them.

Donnie:

Donnie almost never flirts. He has more important things on his mind. He is covered in bitches (gender neutral) anyway. Does not understand. Usually he gets rid of them with his bluntness, but that makes it worse with some of them? Needless to say he doesn’t go out much.

When he does flirt though? He takes a page from Leo’s book. Or tries to. Clearly he must have the body too, or people wouldn’t flock to him. Unfortunately, his sense of drama is different from Leo’s, so the same tactics don’t work. He doesn’t realize that it’s not necessarily his looks that attract people (they definitely help though).

If you flirt with him, prepare to be at it for a long time. You need to be diligent to get anywhere with him. It’s much easier if you’re cute but mean though, that gets his attention really fast.

Donnie doesn’t even know that Splinter gives them flirting advice.

He tried a pick-up line once. Once. He might outlive the restraining order if he stays healthy.

Mikey:

Mikey is a cutie pie youngest child and he knows it. He can and will use it to his advantage. Unfortunately the type of people that tends to attract- well, they’re not the ones he’s hoping for. Can and will do little tricks with his mystic powers to try and impress the flirtee, much to Draxum’s chagrin.

He studies how Leo flirts a lot, and it helps him attract people who are more his type. He uses cutesy nicknames for people, and he finds that helps too. When he can make them look at him differently with a spicy look or comment, that’s when he knows he’s got their number in his pocket.

If you flirt with him, prepare for the cuteness to be turned up to 10. He’s gonna try and emphasize whatever he thinks brought you to him. You will absolutely fluster the fuck out of him if you call him ‘handsome’.

He listens to Splinter sometimes, and he’s tried a few of the tricks with mixed results. He needs to adapt them in order to match his own personality before they do much for him.

He LOVES cheesy pick-up lines, and uses them liberally. There’s no way he’s interested in someone who doesn’t like cheesy pick-up lines. Although, if they protest but hide a smile, he’s going to try and see what he can do to get them to break. He’s a handful.

[cider-est]

The full lineup is almost done!! (just needs some touch ups and a Chunsik design👍) FEEDBACK IS GREATLY APRECIATED!!

Design process under here (whole lot of yapping)

General thoughts: Ive given them in my previous design sheet (you can find it in my blog)(tldr: designs match characters but still childish, 8-12 years old). Only thing different here, is that these eggs were eggs who I had less of a clear idea of what I wanted to do with them (though I still really liked where I ended up!!)

Empanada: Didnt want to go for the full sweet lolita route, mostly because I thought it'd take away the "little kidness" of it all, but something that still resembles the aesthetic. She's wearing "carneirinhos" (idk the name in english) which is very cute little girl to me, and shes also a demon! Her tail resembles a frying pan!! Though I might change her fringe (it was supposed to be baby hairs but now that I think about it, her type of hair probably wouldnt have them) and put some argyle pattern in her sweater vest. I just forgor💀 to do that...I also wish I had made her shorter, but unfortunetely I drew this before the eggs did the height check (YES ITS BEEN THAT LONG).

Sunny: My beautiful baby girl. She means the world to me. I love this minecraft egg with all my heart. Shes wearing Light up sketchers and some fairy wings like Pomme, and shes actually wearing a swimsuit, she just put a tutu over it. The diamonds they're always holding are rings, they have a "terere" in their hair (idk name in english😭😭) and the beads were inspired by an artist on twt (@\BLUETOMATOSODA). Also if you are wondering why her hair looks like tentacles, its because I had originally made it puffy, but changed my mind after doing the lineart, so i had to get creative with me covering it up. Just pretend she has a fan, shes a star after all!

Pepito: Basically, he is very smoll. Chiquito even. He has strawberry hair and MASSIVE glasses that take up his entire face. Hes wearing a swimsuit aswell (dont ask how it works idk either), and has floaties since he cant swim. Hes got crocs, since flip flops hurt his toes, with a spider man charm on them! Also hes got a sunhat, mostly cause I wanted some other accessorie but didnt want to go with gas mask since it'd kinda kill the whole swimming vibe (since his model is wearing a swimsuit). sorry if its not too accurate to his character. Side note: Him, Em and Sunny all have freckles! Him and Sunny all over their bodies while Em just has on her cheeks.

Leo: Cute sporty vibe, love her shorty spiky hair. Wanted to try to make her face spiky aswell, for the whole shark dad thing. Shes got a necklace with a shark tooth (I guess she got it from Foolish??). He changes tshirts randomly, and opens and closes his attack on titan hoodie depending on the tshirt's expression (basically my version of Leo changing her player heads constantly). His trainers have dragon wings and also: whealies!!

Dapper: Im gonna be honest: did not expect to like his design THIS much. The colouring really elevated, with the long blue hair (the same colour as the ghosties!). Wanted to make them, y'know, dapper, so I had to sacrifice some of the "little kid vibes" unfortunetely, but I think it fits her still. The hat has part of the helmet that they used to wear a lot, demon horn to match Pomme, and a suit that is VERY inspired by Death the Kid from Soul Eater (very fitting for a reaper in training imo). Might be my favourite design!

Ramon: Jesus fuck you'd think designing your fav egg would be easy BUT NO. I struggled long and hard. Again, he doesnt have that much "little kid" vibe whatever man😭😭 Im just happy that I even managed to make SOMETHING. Hes got Create googles, his meathead is a massive hat that completely hides his hair. Very simple, very Ramon, though I will probably end up making a version with an ugly sweater just like he likes instead😔. I still like it but. man...

ANYWAYS IF YOU READ ALL THAT MWAH, YOURE A REAL ONE, THANKS FOR ENTERTAINING MY THOUGHTS🫶🫶🫶

[faetaiity]

my brain somehow decided that I need to use the rest of my active braincells to do this, Hyperfixations are wild when you write, man. I also feel like I need to explain this because I overthink

Basically, what's about to go down in this post: Adult! Platonic/Familial Yandere! 1987, 2003, 2012, Bayverse and Last ronin! TMNT x Male! ROTTMNT! Reader (With slight Familial Yandere! from them for the Rise! Turtles)

the ages are mostly bullshit/made up in this ig except for Ronin! Michelangelo because he's canonically 31 or older

Reader is the same age as ROTTMNT! Michelangelo (Birthyear: 2005)

This is set during 2020, a few months after the Kraang Invasion. (The ROTTMNT ages are color-coded: 17, 16, 16, 15 and 15. every other iteration of the TMNT are implied to be 20-26, with an exception for Ronin! Michelangelo)

Why did I explain the premise? Because I want to make sure you guys understand. THIS. IS. NOT. ROMANTIC. and If I see anyone who adds more to this story or makes jokes about the OLDER turtles being attracted to the reader (Illegal due to Reader being a Minor.) or the ROTTMNT turtles (Illegal due to the Rise! Turtles being minors and being related to them.), you're getting blocked. no questions.

Minor Notes: While this is platonic, I understand if someone misinterprets some of the HC's due to the fact that each family is different with affection, some (like mine) make me feel guilty if I don't cuddle/hug them, some of this is inspired by my own family, Familial yandere writers (or at least me lol) tend to make stories relate to their own experiences with their family, If you read this and complain that it has 'romantic' aspects (which, affection isn't even exclusively romantic what??), I'm going to get a little mad since this is my experience with family, lol.

TW/CW: minor(?) Spoilers for The Last Ronin, Kidnapping, Abuse (Physically and mentally from 'Punishments'), manipulation, guilt tripping, possible gaslighting(?), Implied Murder, Infantilization, Stalking, Mentions of Panic attacks, stress tics (scratching/clawing at the skin), Yandere Behavior, Obsessive/Possessive Behavior, Extreme Overprotective behavior, OOC Older TMNT Iterations (Specifically 1987! and Bayverse!), Forced Affection, Surprise Adoption from the older versions of your best friends, mentions of Scars, missing limbs and Trauma from Rise! Shredder and Rise! Kraang (reader is mentioned to have scars and a missing eye) (Yeah that's long as shit because this post is probably gonna be long as shit)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a scale from 1 to 10 my friends, you're FUCKED /ref

Now I'm gonna start off with you meeting them a specific way and branch out to more options down the line.

Donnie ended up making a machine that COULD send someone or an object across to a separate universe if he was correct.

Unfortunately, you ended up getting sucked up into the Machine-Made portal due to being close to it

To make this easier on my brain, let's say the other iterations of the turtles are already together, through a similar device that was used by the Kraang/Utroms

And your dumbass landed right in the middle of a huge argument between Ronin! Michelangelo and 2003! Raphael

Everyone freezes, including you, they LOOK like your best friends but are clearly not, there's differences between them and your friends, height is a big noticeable difference that tips you off.

Weapons are drawn almost instantaneously, multiple different sets of Katanas, Nun chucks, and Sai's are pointed at you

And oddly, just as quickly as they raised their weapons, they put them back down

In their minds, they quickly draw together than you're unarmed and a lot younger than they are

You get up on your legs, unsure of how to respond to them, you remember the photos of you and your turtles on your phone

You slowly pull out your phone, knowing they could mistake it for a weapon, you scroll through your phone until you find the photo of you, Donnie and Leo in Run of the Mill Pizza, they calm down at the sight of it

They sheathed their weapons, studying your body warily, you feel weirded out at the fact that they haven't said anything; you could understand that behavior from Donnie or Raph, but not the other two

You swallow your nervousness and shakily say "I'm [Y/N]"

You notice one of the Michelangelo's runs right up to you, clearly excited at the Idea of someone from another universe that isn't in theirs

He noticed your eyepatch as soon as he gets up to your face and winces "Jeez, what happened to your eye?" he blurts out, Surprisingly, Leo smacks upside the head, Mikey mutters out a small apology, you laugh softly, not taking offense to it

They all introduce themselves with the year they're from and their age, you immediately notice all of them are adults

They're already wincing at your scars from life-threatening injuries and clearly injured or missing eye, but they just kind of.... freeze when you say "Wow! You guys are a lot older than My versions of y'all!"

They stay quiet for a second before you embarrassedly mumble out: "Oh... I'm sorry, that was rude of me" you avert your eyes

2012! Leo is the first one to speak "No... Offense taken; we were just caught off guard.... how old are you and your versions of us?" "Oh! Well Raph's 17, Leo and Donnie are 16, Me and Mikey are 15"

Silence, before Bayverse! Raphael bursts out laughing "I'M THE OLDEST?!" clearly, he's happy at that, and so are the other Raphs, apparently, since you can see their smirks at their respective Leos, who frown

You nod nervously, his volume scaring you slightly, He noticed you flinching and quiets down

Your age kind of takes a minute for them to process, considering your scars made them assume you're a little older, they end up asking you when you got the scars

"Oh! The giant scar is from the Shredder, the missing eye and the other smaller scars are from the kraang!" you breathed out for a few seconds, calming yourself down from remembering those unhappy situations "I got the big one when I was 13, everything else happened a few months ago."

They all.... look at you in a weird manner, it was a mix of pure anger, pity, and.... self-loathing, oddly enough? "Ah, I'm sorry if I reminded you guys of any..... unhappy situations..." you shyly said, they stayed quiet, feeling uncomfortable with the stares, you changed the subject "I need to be able to get back home! Donnie's probably freaking the absolute fuck out by now"

Ronin! Michelangelo takes initiative to tell you that you are welcome here as long as it takes, the others nod, you thank them all profusely

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It scares all of them over the next few weeks when you'd tell them stories about your adventures, they've come to understand that, well, in a blunt way, you and their younger counterparts clearly aren't able to take care of yourselves

And they've actually come to loathe Rise! Splinter, they've come to understand that their dad wasn't the best, but it makes their blood boil at how badly it can be for you and the Rise! Turtles.

Even they didn't fight the Shredder at that age!

However, they do feel a little better knowing you five defeated him, but not by much considering how close you all were to dying

especially you.

I'm gonna be honest, there is three ways it can go when your friends come to bring you back to your Universe

1: The other iterations come back with you guys, being delusional in the fact that you guys can't take care of yourselves

2: They don't let you go back with them, and they tell the Rise! Turtles to leave (This would be most likely if you share unfavorable stories of the Turtles, while forgetting to add where you guys talk it out or the reason why it happened, they become very attached to you specifically in the few weeks they've known you!)

3: (This is the one we will be explaining in this Post) They keep all of you in the Universe that you fell into. (This is the one most likely to occur due to ROTTMNT! Reader and Turtles are injured severely from the Kraang Invasion)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is not a good time for the first few weeks, You and your best friends fight tooth and nail at every point through them keeping you guys

They're beyond delusional, chalking it up to teenage rebellion and the nature of the Rise! Turtles

You five end up being locked up in a room, a few hidden cameras being placed in there

y'all aren't allowed out usually (and NEVER out of the lair) since to the Older! Turtles, you five are ungrateful brats who can't think for themselves

You and Mikey are babied, you two are the youngest and have been through so much!

It's suffocating

They always want to be near you, because in their words "You're the one who needs protection the most"

Donnie is allowed keep his battle shell due to the nature of his species (Also because they don't know about all the weaponry in it)

There isn't much room for escape, almost none, actually

17 Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles guarding the lair, at least 2 home at all times?

yeah, good luck, even Rise! Donnie is stumped.

In order of Importance (Most to Least) It's You and Mikey, Leo, Donnie and then Raph

Donnie and Raph are mostly ignored because they suffered the least number of injuries, and they're the oldest.

Previous Leos don't approve of yours, saying he's not Mature or Serious enough, often taking him for training/sparring

Don't let that fool you, your Leo has come back in worse shape than he was to begin with, often coming back trying to hide his tears, you guys stopped letting him go with them once it was found that his shell was starting to crack more. I wonder why

Donnie comes up with a plan to escape with Raph to regroup and find out how to get back home

and, to their credit, they manage to leave the lair, about 15 minutes later, Ronin! Mikey comes in, once he sees they're gone, he starts breaking objects in the room and yells at You, Mikey and Leo.

The others quickly come in and try to pull Ronin! Mikey away, which he resists until he sees you having a panic attack, Rise! Mikey trying to console you and Rise! Leo in a defensive position, around you

He leaves the room and announces that he's going to find them, some of the other turtles try to get near you to comfort you but Leo isn't letting it happen, he actually tries to attack one of them, making them back off

Oh, Raph and Donnie are fucked, by the way.

Now, Lemme tell you WHY you never want a Yandere! Ronin! Mikey hunting you down

He's the oldest, the most skilled and canonically in the books, the mutagen that is still in his system makes him stronger, bigger and more durable, plus the trauma of losing his brothers has made this situation strike a nerve with him.

he could probably break Rise! Raph's leg

Which he does.

About an hour or two later, he comes back with them, they're both knocked out, Raph's leg is bent unnaturally, and Donnie's Battle shell is ripped to shreds and he has bruises all over him.

Ronin! Mikey comes in and throws them back into the room, Donnie's battle shell in his hands "Found out the main reason why he wanted that damn thing to stay on his back." he stated bluntly, pointing at the drone wings and the spider-like claws, giving it to 2003! Donnie, who marvels at it

You're picked up by one of them, Rise! Leo starts freaking out and trying to get you away from them, until someone else enters the room and keeps him away until you're out

You're placed in a separate room, fearing that they're going to hurt you, you try to cover your head, curling into a fetal position, separation anxiety already kicking in due to the circumstances.

You feel someone rub your back reassuringly, making you cry and hyperventilate more.

"Hey, hey, you're okay, nobody's going to do anything to you" you whimper as you hear 1987! Raph attempt to calm you down

he tells you that you being taken away is the Rise! Turtles' punishment, and that nothing is going to happen to you

"What about My friends?" you sob out, he doesn't respond, he just pulls you close to him and hugs you; you try to pull away only to hear him say "I'm trying to make you feel BETTER, stop resisting! don't you know how much effort we're putting in to help you five out?! To take care of you guys?!" his yelling makes you stiffen, allowing him to pull you back closer to him.

I'm gonna be honest, you get the least severe punishments compared to your turtle friends, you're weak, regardless of if you're human or mutated (Mostly because the mutagen hasn't improved your strength as much as it did theirs yet.), you're WEAK.

They could, especially Ronin! Mikey, end up KILLING you if they gave you the same punishments.

Very few mutations would even get the harsher punishments anyways, all of them being Reptilian or large Mammalians.

Humans, Insect mutants, Bird Mutants and other mutants that could get hurt easier due to their physiology get special treatment.

At worst your punishments leave you with shallow claw marks, maybe a fractured bone or two (This one was unintentional, though, just a testament to how much stronger they are compared to you.), bruises and panic attacks from separation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Awfully enough, they try to separate you from your friends on a regular basis

Saying your Raph might get a rage fit and hurt you, or your Mikey accidentally getting too excited and hurting you

Any excuse they can pull out of their ass to keep you away from them

They don't tell them where they keep you, of course

It's mostly in Donnie's lab though, where you spend time with them

Rise! Donnie isn't allowed in there because that's where they keep the Rise! Turtles' mystic weapons (Mainly studying them)

The only reason why you're never permanently kept from the Rise! Turtles is because you have panic attacks from being away from them, the Turtles also get hyper confrontational, even more so than usual when you're gone.

You always get returned by the end of the day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, let's go onto say that you guys ACTUALLY managed to escape back to your universe through a sheer stroke of luck.

Staying that way is gonna be hard.

Donnie immediately destroys the portal, but that doesn't mean the others can't build their own

Depending on if you move to another part of the sewer again, is how likely you are to stay uncaptured

If you guys stay at the same spot, they'll find y'all in another few months

if y'all move maybe they won't find you guys.

Staying? They're going to find you guys in as little as a few weeks, but they won't immediately grab you guys

They stalk you five, they're delusional and try to rationalize why you five left.

Staying might be the initial response, you five come back down, hoping to see Splinter, but you just see those 17 figures, some covered in blood

"What did you do, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" your Leo would sob out, assuming the worst

All you five get back are cold stares

Instead of taking you back to the other universe, they stay here and keep you locked in your own home.

But they make sure that y'all can't leave for a while.

The turtles get broken bones, and you get a shock collar

If you think they were bad before, you haven't seen shit

They're always around you five now, never letting any of you out of their sight.

It's hell.

It's pure torture.

and they're never letting you guys go.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't go into as much detail as I would've liked, maybe this will be like a series idk??

[lowkeyrobin]

HII ‼️ begging on my hands and knees for an aris fic where they meet at the wckd facility and when they get out reader and him start developing a crush on each other on the way to the right arm. even better if gets angsty and includes aris being taken by wckd at the end. :D 👍

OH MY GOD YES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!! ; finally an aris request LMAO ; and thank you for the ppl who sent maze runner reqs for me, the drive has been insane considering I started two whole fics on my wattpad (not published yet) for aris & brenda (character x oc) over it is insane 💀 but anyways! ; thanks for requesting, hope you enjoy! ; also damn this is a long one LMAO ; also red wine supernova inspired this a lot and idrk how

ARIS ; through the scorch we go

summary ; as you trudge through the sandy scorch with aris, you realize you're growing weird feelings

warnings ; language, violence, guns, drugging (the club for cranks or whatever)

disclaimers ; reader is described to be roughly the same height as aris

word count ; 2.6k

masterlist

You'd strayed from your friends long ago, after the maze and after they'd all been taken to the safe place. Your friends Edith, Percy, Leo, and Rosa had all been called by Mr. Janson to leave to go to the safe place to be free from WCKD forever over the past two weeks. You'd been welcoming in the last of the mazes, having learned they'd gone A-Z somehow.

The only boy from the new addition, Maze B, had caught your eye rather quickly. He was quiet, usually using his dark, striped hoodie to hide himself from others. He sat alone at his own little table, in the middle on the far right side.

As you spent your days investigating, he rarely ate, inspecting his cornbread when you obviously looked over at him after catching him looking at you. You noted the dark bags under his eyes, almost red like he never slept either, in the back of your mind. You couldn't help but almost feel worried for him, like he wasn't adapting outside his maze very well.

On top of losing his friends as well, whether being killed or taken to the safe place, or by the Right Arm, it would've broken you to also know that he actually wasn't eating or sleeping. Just knowing he never talked to anyone on top of that hurt your heart.

So, one day, a day prior to Maze A's arrival, you decide to sit with him, having been alone after your last friends were taken. You were tired of being alone and were sure he felt the same way, probably just needing a friend here. Who knows how long it would be til either of you would be called to go to the safe place?

You sit down across from him at the beginning of dinner, giving him a little smile as your tray lightly slaps down on the metal table.

"Hi, I'm Y/n"

He blinks a few times, kind of surprised you'd one, sat with him, and two, introduced yourself. Maybe he wasn't used to kindness.

"I'm Aris," He mumbles, setting his cup of water down as he'd held it in his hand before he spoke.

"My friends all got sent to the safe place too" You comment, "We can be friends if you want? I know you've been lonely over here, inspecting your cornbread everyday"

He smiles, appreciating your kindness towards him. "Yeah, that'd be cool. Thanks, Y/n"

A few days after making friends with Aris, just as you were about to fall asleep, you hear a loud thud and clattering noise under your bed, scaring you awake. You instantly sit up, and cautiously begin to peer over the side of your bed to see what had caused the noise. Before you can even place your hands on the rim of the metal bed frame, Aris' hands beat yours there, his face emerging from the darkness.

He holds a panicked, awkward smile on his face, the gap in his tooth shining brightly into your tired eyes. "Come on, we aren't free from WCKD. Everyone who's been getting called to go to the safe place, they're being used as lab rats, hooked up to machines and stuff."

You blink a few times with a puzzled look, silently begging for more information.

"We need to go, we're escaping with the guys from Maze A, right now." One hand leaves the edge of the bedframe to move around in his hoodie pocket. It rises back up to show you a key card. He flips it back and forth to show you it was legit. "We need to go, please!"

You nod, quickly scrambling out from your bed to get down on your hands and knees to crawl through the vents with him. You follow his lanky frame, his eyes looking more alive than ever as he directs you through the ceiling of the lab.

You end up on the other side of the door toward the outside world, awaiting the boys arrival. As Aris quickly informed you in the vents, there were five of them, plus a girl that they were going to find.

Their introductions are quick and action-packed, with Thomas just making it under the closing door before it closed by sliding. Aris quickly uses a brick, which had been laying around due to construction, to beat the key card reader so Janson and the WCKD gaurds assisting him couldn't use it and just chase after them.

You look to Aris, eyes wide as you look between him and the other teens before sprinting toward the exit. As the large doors open, sand flies into your eyes, blinding you for a moment before you all run into the cold desert, needing to run as far as you could before they tracked you all down again.

After hiding, getting away, and discussing a plan, you get familiar with the other teenager's names while searching for resources. There was Thomas, their leader, Teresa, Newt, Minho, Winston, and Frypan. You hang tight to Aris, being the only one you trusted at the moment.

"Damn, who are you gonna kill with that thing?" You joke, looking at the shy boy as he holds a metal baseball bat in hand.

"Cranks, probably"

Your second night, after losing Winston, was awful. All of his friends were clearly upset after having to leave their friend for dead, meanwhile you and Aris didn't really know how to comfort them, deciding to gather sticks for a fire to try and leave them be for a moment. Once you returned, they were clearly lacking any spirit, barely keeping it together before falling asleep.

It was much colder than it was the past night, leaving you freezing and shivering beside the dead fire. The hard, dead dirt didn't suffice as much of a mattress either.

You attempted to hold yourself to warm up, but it didn't help much. Between your sweatpants and t-shirt, there wasn't any warmth to be created. You would've picked some clothes up while you were gathering resources, but there ended up being nothing left in whatever sizes would fit you.

Aris asked if you'd be okay, which you responded too with a positive nod and smile.

Christ, you wish you took him up on that offer to look around more that other night.

Aris must've awoken due to your frantic shivering and slightly loud attempts to blow warm air into your hands. He sits up, eyes immediately directing to you, trying to warm up any way possible.

"Oh, sorry" You whisper, "Didn't mean to wake you"

He shakes his head, assuring that your apology wasn't needed. He pulls off his jacket and then his hoodie, handing it to you, leaving him in the white WCKD t-shirt you'd all been given on your first day. You look at the hoodie, then him, then the hoodie, then him again, almost confused.

He nods, holding it out for you to take.

You graciously accept the hoodie, quickly pulling it over your head while he slides his tan jacket back on.

As you pull the sleeves down over your wrists and adjust the hood before pulling it over your head, you quickly catch the smell of sweat and, somehow, cologne. You didn't know how or why this kid and his laundry smelled so good out in the desert where you'd spent days sweating with no hygiene set in place, but you weren't complaining.

You breathe in the musky, almost comforting scent one more time before looking back at Aris, who was already looking at you. You give him a smile to tell him thank you, appreciating his sacrifice for you.

But sadly, he was now cold without his extra layer, and you were still a little cold as well. You didn't understand how the Gladers were sleeping through the night like babies, but at least they were getting rest.

The both of you, shivering, quietly laugh as you notice, now seeing that you were both and still miserable.

"You wanna like, cuddle? To bounce off each other's body heat?" You suggest, getting a little risky with your moves, not even catching your own words and what they could've meant to him.

He nods after a moment, opening his arms for you to join him in his little patch of dirt. You scoot over, falling into his arms, your head buried in his chest while his head rests on top of yours. You're roughly the same height as him, but you decide to use him as your pillow, not needing him to see your tired face anyway. That could wait til morning, at least.

As you trail around the club, looking for your new friends, you hang on tightly to Aris. You took a drink of some random substance from a red cup to get in, probably having been drugged with how you were feeling after one sip. You had to take one for the team, though. Your team consisted of you and Aris, you didn't know who you were kidding.

You hang onto his hand tightly, your own hands clammy. You feel your head pound viciously behind the loud, thumping music, your vision becoming swirly and colorful.

As you stand still for a moment within the crowd, Aris catches you as you fall into his arms sideways as you're practically unable to walk. Your speech is slurred, complaining of your body hurting, your pupils dilated like no one's business.

"'ris, mmm... eyes hurt, please..." You hide your face in his shoulder, hiding from the light. "Make 't stop..."

"I know, I'm sorry," He replies, his voice raspy from the lack of water he'd been ingesting out in the scorch. "We need to find Thomas, okay?"

You nod, pulling your head up from his shoulder to look at him. You lightly place your fingers on his cheeks, admiring his pretty face.

Between the music, being drugged, and the shining lights all around you, you felt like you were actually having a brain aneurysm or something. After convincing yourself that you were dying, you quickly pressed a chaste kiss to his lips, unable to speak the words you were thinking to him.

The sun peers through a large window nearby, hitting him in the eye, causing him to give you an almost disgusted and cringed type of look. Through the miscommunication, you take it as disapproval for your actions.

He moves you a bit, needing to get his eyes away from the blaring sun. "C'mon, you're drunk out of your mind. Let's find the others, 'kay?"

In a state of panic and worry, he quickly pulls you into a side room, just having randomly found the others, plus your new companions Jorge and Brenda. They stand around Jorge, beating answers out of some dude for the location of the Right Arm.

Newt, Teresa, and Thomas quickly run to your aid as Aris asks for help, then you'd fell to the floor, complaining of being dizzy just before. The four pick you up and help you onto a cushioned chair just beside you, allowing Aris and Teresa to look over you. Thomas, Newt, Minho, and Frypan turn their attention back to Jorge and Brenda, still trying to beat answers out of the random dude you didn't know.

"How long have they been like this?" Teresa asks the boy.

"Since we got here, like fifteen minutes or so. They took a drink of something to get us in, I guess it was spiked," He quickly explains, looking at you with worry in his eyes.

"Shit," the raven haired girl mutters. She places her hands all around your face, checking your temp, trying to get you to follow her fingers. She was like a natural doctor.

You close your eyes, covering them as well due to the sensitivity to the light you were facing.

"They should be okay, it doesn't seem life threatening"

"Okay..."

Aris pulls you up from the chair, much to your dismay, to follow Jorge who just announced that he finally got the answers he needed. Aris essentially carries you on his back, allowing Thomas to walk behind him to catch you if you fell at all.

By the time you'd reached the car, you were already knocked out cold. He and Thomas lift you into the back, letting you rest your head on his lap and have the rest of the back seats for your sprawled out legs. The other boys plus Teresa sit in the trunk while Brenda joins Jorge in the front.

Aris can't help but softly run his fingers over your hair, admiring your peaceful, sleepy look.

Thomas, Fry, and Minho all giggle and look up at Aris from the back, joking about how smitten he was for you.

"True love" Minho laughs.

"We've known each other for like a week!"

As you settle into the Right Arm, you sit beside a little campfire with Aris, meeting his two friends Sonya and Harriet. They seemed really cool so far, you'd love to be friends with them.

"I think Y/n is one of the funniest people I've ever met" Aris smiles, knowing you couldn't hear him upon the cliff where you were offering food to the Gladers.

Sonya playfully rolls her eyes as Harriet speaks. "Sounds like you have a crush, the way you look at them is insane"

He shrugs, not even really hearing her as he stares up at you.

"Hey, Aris!" Fry exclaims, waving down to him.

"Hey guys!" Aris waves back, having been dragged from his daydreams.

You walk back down to the Maze B survivors, joining them once again while Thomas climbs up a bit higher on the clifftop to talk to Teresa.

"What're we talking about?" You ask, sitting back down next to the familiar brunette boy.

"Making plans for the Safe Haven" Sonya replies, "I call dibs on being the Keeper for the scavengers"

"I'm not working under you," Harriet jokingly fights.

"Well, you are!"

You and Aris laugh as you listen to the two girls, enjoying the peace you'd waited so long for.

He looks over at you as they leave, going to retrieve s'mores ingredients for themselves. He smiles, looking at you a little too long before speaking.

"They're nice, right?"

You nod with a smile to match his, a quick realization putting a pit in your stomach as you look at him.

"You okay?" He asks, seeing your smile quickly falter.

You nod, "Yeah, I'm good"

His eyebrows furrow, silently asking if you're sure. You nod in response.

A loud explosion catches you off gaurd, causing you to jump into his arms as heat waves over your bodies. Screams and gunshots fill your ears. You're paralyzed in fear as you try to process what's happening.

Aris quickly pulls you up, dragging you away by the wrist, trying to look for Sonya and Harriet.

Within the dramatics, explosions, and gunfire, you lose him.

It's not until you're by Thomas' side that you realize WCKD has him and that Teresa was working with the enemy. You're unable to hear as Thomas, Teresa, and Ava Paige speak, only able to hopelessly look over at Aris, his arms held behind his back by a WCKD member in uniform.

He's eventually dragged away and shoved up into the Berg, his eyes resting on your worried expression until he couldn't look at you over his shoulder anymore.

Minho and Sonya are taken as well, so are a bunch of other teens who had found safety with the Right Arm.

You solemnly watch as the Berg flies away, leaving the destroyed camp burning and smoking. You're speechless, unable to form thoughts as Newt tries to ask if you're okay.

You only nod, unable to verbally answer him.

"It's okay, we'll get them back. We aren't leaving without them"

[thatunusualwriter]

𝙳𝙽𝙰 𝙸𝚜 𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚛 𝚃����𝚊𝚗 𝚆𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛 (𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎)

Character pairing: (TMNT FF) Dark Leonardo/Leon x GN!Reader

Summary: If you had seen TMNT 2003, season 6 ep 23 and thought that some flavor was missing in it then we are on the same boat. Let me welcome you to a fan-made rewrite of that episode additioning a Reader as a savior of this story, enjoy your stay!

Warnings: hurt/comfort, injury

.⋆｡⋆˚｡⋆｡˚｡⋆.⛓💙🍊🗡️⛓.⋆｡⋆˚｡⋆｡˚｡⋆.

It becomes less shocking when Cody Jones becomes a center of a strife for the umpteenth time over a period of time when you get to know him, and his terrapin friends weren't really the start of Cody's magnetic misfortune that always finds him.

But before the turtles appeared and became caretakers who put the red-haired teen out of trouble there were other people, Serling, Starlee Hambrath and Y/N L/N, his 'supportive' uncle doesn't really count.

And when Cody's family friend, Y/N, happens to be around when on vacation, then they came to terms that as a second adult in Cody's life and as a friend they hold a certain responcibility that comes with involvement in Cody's troubles. After the fiasco on the Moon he and the turtles executed when Y/N wasn't around for a moment, they became extra sharp at observing so nothing would get past them again.

When Serling contacted Y/N there's a rule that had to be made not to bring them to the highest stress levels; first, make it clear that no one is hurt if that is the case, and then explain the situation. Y/N was just out shopping when the loyal robot caretaker made a call about a shooting and an ambush at the penthouse and they have a 'guest' who needs some painkillers that was out of stock at home, it took thirty minutes to get to the drug store and back to the O'Neil Penthouse but the ride up the elevator felt like it took an eternity while Y/N paced back and forth with the bags still hanging from their forearms.

The elevator's ring was almost deafening and Y/N barged through the metal door once it was open sufficiently.

A medbay isn't that far away, it has a straight hallway to be saved from trouble of getting through many doors and rooms to reach it. It wasn't long until Y/N could easily recognize the voices through the open, ring-shaped doorframe.

Even though they were ready to see who the guest is, someone Donatello described in awe briefly that Y/N's ears picked up on, they didn't expect to see this big, blue terrapin almost at the same height and size of Serling himself.

"— There's barely half-a-dozen minor differences between Leo's and that thing's DNA sequences."

Y/N almost missed what Donatello said as they kept staring at the unconscious guest on a medical bed that monitored the health, and judging by the force field around the blue terrapin it quite enough told them that they should be cautious.

"But Leo's Leo, and that's a mess." Raphael retorted soon after his brother's finished sentence, sounding grouchy.

With a deep breath, Y/N pushed themself off the frame and began to descend down the three stairs, waving at their friends. "Hey guys, I got the meds." after everyone greeted back in their own way, they went over to the turtle in purple. "So, how's he hanging?"

Donatello offered a brief polite smile their way before looking back at the red screen in front of him, resuming his attention at the medical and DNA reports with Y/N also looking at the text over his shoulder. "The Auto-docs will mend his wounds as best they can, then he'll need rest."

"What?! A fifth turtle?!" Serling's nonchalant posture broke down, his optics nearly popping out, with tiredness as he began to hold his metal head. "Oh.. I need to sit down..." as soon as he was squatted Cody tried not to snicker at the robot's silly gloominess.

Raphael had something on his mind to say about that, and was quite ready to hurl himself bodily at their injured guest. "That thing can't stay here! He just tried to off us! Again!!"

The older terrapin in blue stopped him before he could make two steps forward, hand at Raphael's plastron. "What are we going to do? Drop him off at the hospital and tell everyone to watch their fingers and toes?"

"He's in a portable force field that the Hovershell would have a tough time busting through." Donatello took Leonardo's side when trying to reason with their hotheaded brother, who means well but sometimes lacks empathy. "We can keep him here safely until he's stable enough to move."

"And after he gets betta', then what?" Raphael grunted, staring daggers at his brother's doppleganger.

Awkwardly enough, everyone fell silent and avoided eye contact after sparing a glance Raphael's way.

"... Don't everyone answer all at once." Michelangelo butted in with his comedic wit, and Raphael might have hit his little brother like he almost always does if Y/N wouldn't be there.

The turtle in red got a slap on the head back every time he did it to Michelangelo and Y/N witnessed it, over the short stay in the future Raphael learned to watch his three-fingered hands in their presence.

Y/N let out a short laugh, trying to keep the mood tense-less. "Well, you could always let the guy go? Also, I think I need explanation on how this guy came to be- like, what's his name?"

"Isn't freak good enough name fo' this thing?" Raphael scoffed snarkily and didn't notice the not-so-subtle side-eye from Y/N.

Donatello took it upon himself to properly answer so their friend wouldn't be in the dark about this whole situation. Cody was most excited to tell Y/N about the part where he was saved by the blue turtle. His childish astonishment always makes them smile, it's good to see him being a kid that he is even with all that responcibility over O'Neil Tech.

Y/N kept their eyes on the unnamed turtle, a clone, the one who with other three clones ambushed the turtles for the third time and then he risked his life for Cody in one day, in a spawn of twenty-thirty minutes. It was suspicious, to say the least, but they should show some gratefullness towards the injured guest nonetheless. That's how Y/N feels.

The more they stared at the one-eyed terrapin, he began to look less like Leonardo in their eyes. He may be a clone, with some little differency of his DNA from the blue-masked turtle, but Y/N can see that this turtle is his own person(?) and shouldn't be treated no differently. Although Y/N can understand the incredulous caution that is controlled by fear from the others, they decided to try see for themself who this blue terrapin really is.

When Cody was sent to bed by Serling, Y/N walked to Donatello who is still by the Force Shield as an excuse to have a better look at the giant turtle.

He is, for the lack of better words, not that scary-looking as the others portrayed him to be. They wonders if he's blind on the left eye, a round metal device is in it's place instead. The mini doc bots scatter around the bulk of his body, that may indeed look intimidating to some, especially given his height. Noticing that his breathing is shallow and slow, and a lot of bandages are over his body and arms, the laser he was hit with must have been quite a sucker-punch of pain. The thought alone made Y/N slightly grimace and the turtle in purple noticed, of course.

"Nasty wounds." Y/N commented with affinity and Donatello hummed as an agreement. "I guess you guys will need all help there is with this guy, I will put my hand to the work, no problem."

Donatello blinked in genuine suprise, turning to face them. "But you don't have to, you're here on vacation to enjoy Cody before going back to the Moon."

Smiling back, Y/N gives his forearm a gentle pat. "I know."

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Time flew by and day passed by day, until day fifth since their guest was hospitalized there arrived. When night coated upon New York, and the time approached at midnight, the blue turtle woke up with a startled gasp and immediately sat up, examining his hands.

"Hey, uh, guy?" Donatello called from the side uncertainly, waiting for him to look his way before continuing. He, his brothers and Y/N has been waiting for him to wake up for five days, many took shifts of keeping a watch over night until morning to feel more secure when having a clone of Leonardo over. They all were about to discuss who's up for a night shift until their guest finally regained consciousness, which was so sudden it slightly startled everyone.

"You've been unconscious for almost a week. How do you feel?" Donatello tried to sound genuine, even leaning in closer to the force field.

As expected, once their guest had a look around the unfamiliar enviroment and remembered the situation he's in, his perkiness turned into sour grumpiness. With crossed arms he made himself comfortable half-sitting on the bed and looking straight ahead, ignoring Donatello and his question with a light grunt.

Y/N looked over at Michelangelo that just came over with a tray that has food, medicine, and water. Leonardo at Michelangelo's left side had a remote ready.

"Here, um..." Leonardo slightly trailed off as he pressed and rotated some buttons until the tray began to levitate over to their imprisoned guest. "The force field is calibrated to accept that tray. Understand?"

"You're talking to him as if he's a pet..." Y/N sighed softly with a wry smile at the turtle in blue who only rubbed at his nape sheeplishly.

And, of course, Michelangelo couldn't help himself once more as soon as that tray entered the caged space; "Yum-yum's go innie, you, no come outy."

"Shut up!" the blue turtle growled, his raspy voice was dry and no doubt it was burning the inside of his throat. He was beyond agitated to be talked to like he's an idiot, and rightfully so. But he still caitiously leaned to the floating try, taking few, quick snifs while he scowled and glared at whatever his golden eye looked at.

"What's in it? Poison?"

"Poison? You think we'd save your life so we could feed you a ransid ham sandwich?" Leonardo almost sounded offended that his own clone would come to that conclusion when he should know him better than everyone.

"My brothers would." the blue turtle grunted and before anyone could pursue him into taking a bite he lifted his right arm, swapping the tray like a fly into the force shield that didn't let it pass through this time and everything fell to the floor. "Go stick it!"

Michelangelo covered his mouth with his hands and Y/N whinced at the sound of a broken plate.

"Oh, this is gonna be swell." Raphael rubbed at his head as he said it with utmost sarcasm.

And while Donatello tried to clean the mess with Michelangelo's help and Raphael observed like a hawk, Y/N walked to Leonardo and lightly brushed his hand to get his attention.

"I think you guys make him anxious." Y/N glanced over at the blue turtle that decided to turn his back on them all.

They looked back at the older turtle brother, who is still very much a teen kid to them.

"Let me handle it." they offered and Leonardo frowned slightly at the proposal. "I'll be careful. It's just food and medicine."

"I don't think this is- well... Safe."

With a sigh, Leonardo looked over at his unresponcive clone and at his brothers before looking back at his human friend, who has given him a little frowny expression instead of words that were not needed. He knows they'd keep asking with persuation until he'd have to give in. And he's certainly not ready to argue about anything today when he didn't get a wink of sleep from yesterday's night watch.

"Okay... Okay, go for it. But, really, be careful and don't get close." Leonardo rubbed at his tired eyes through his iconic blue mask, groaning with defeat.

Y/N beamed at him with a toothy smile and patted his shoulder. "Get some sleep, kiddo."

Nodding, the turtle in blue called his brothers and they followed after him with uncertainity but obeyed nonetheless.

Y/N was grateful for the silence after Michelangelo was pryed off of them when he tried to prolong their hug on his way out. Shaking their head and stiffling a giggle, and walking out of the Medbay to get some things.

The clone was left alone in the lighten room, the buzzing device of the force field was the only thing that broke the silence. And although he's glad to have shaken off the four turtles and the unfamiliar human, he indeed is thirsty and hungry and began to regret he didn't take that damned sandwich.

As some minutes passed, his beaten body began to ache all over that it was impossible to find the right laying position. He grunted and growled in frustration from the pain but as soon as he heard approaching footsteps he bit down on his tongue and stilled on his back. To be caught wiggling like a whiney street dog would be too embarrassing, it's bad enough he has to be locked up by his sworn enemies.

The blue turtle, however, didn't expect the human to be the one to come back, he rather expected it to be the red-haired boy.

He greeted them with a snarl, and observed them with squinted eye, when they looked at him.

Y/N expected nothing less, rather that they'd get yelled at, and although the tension began to make them more self-conscious about every movement they made because they were watched closely, they put on a brave face by smiling softly back at the terrapin.

"Sorry about those four, they can be... perky." apologetically chuckling from the sudden nervousness, Y/N re-arranged the things in their arms they got from the kitchen. They made their way to a table in medbay, that's right in front of the hospitalized terrapin where they put down the bread, butter, water bottle, a glass cup, and ham with an extra plate.

Registering that he's not answering, but still glaring while burning holes through them from all that staring, they understood that he may not be in the mood and they didn't want to push his buttons but when feeling a little awkward it's best to keep a conversation - even if one-sided - going. And Y/N is one of those who do just that instead of keeping their mouth shut.

"So— I don't know how you like your sandwich but I'll put more ham in it. Unless you do mind that, uh, hm..." their brows lightly furrowed as they mulled over something that invaded their mind in the middle of swapping some butter on the bread.

The blue turtle smelled a little fear from the human, and it was somewhat satisfying to know that, he watched now sat on the bed as they were making food that's apparently for him unless it's just a cruel taunting. But he saw nor smelled nothing fishy that could have poison.

"Say, I realized that I don't know your name, what are you called?" humming, Y/N finished the layer of butter on four bread slices and began to open the packs with ham.

Because Y/N didn't look this time they didn't notice the confused stupor the terrapin froze in.

A name? He is called many things, nasty names, but never have been given a name. Neither his brothers have names. Truthfully they never thought about getting one. They just call each other names like everyone does since their creation, they just went with that.

For once, that question made him feel... at unease.

"... I don't want to call out to you as; "hey, guy!" or "hey, man!" when speaking to you. It's just... not right. It's almost as if you're not a creature, but a thing." Y/N bit down on their lip as they perfectly placed four big slices on two breads before placing the untouched two slices at each bread, then they cut the two sandwiches in triangle shapes.

"Or if you just don't want me to know I can understand—"

"I have no name." the reply came out sharply.

Y/N was startled, still not used to the gruffness of his voice that always cut through the air with it's growling tone, that it almost made them spill the water over the glass. They were expecting to have just one-sided conversation because he looked uncomfortable with them there, this caught them off guard.

When they looked up at him, blinking, he just leaned back with crossed arms and glared down at them with disdain. "Monster or freak will suffice, or go ahead for something more creative, human."

Given the impression that he'd likey claw at them, if not worse, the idea if there wouldn't be the force field had Y/N shooketh. Oh, they had no doubt about that if he could, he would. This terrapin made it clear he's one hatefull fella and when someone feels cornered and/maybe injured they can become lethal and hostile, and sain person would rather keep their distance, this is no wild sewer kitten.

Y/N's question currently on their mind: is there a reason behind the spite? Normally, people, monsters and aliens alike have a reason caused by trauma or the way you're raised to be like this.

They did understood what their turtle friends had told them about the 'evil' clones and didn't took it lightly, but that's just one perspective to judge from, Y/N rather likes to have their own point of view on this from a first-hand experience when there's an opportunity. This blue turtle had yet to be scary to look frightening, so far he's rather intimidating and Y/N can't yet tell what exactly makes him tick so they would avoid that and avoid a tantrum — to put it lightheartedly.

With furrowed brows, they shook their head as if saying that what he said was silly and he returned that with his own frown. After Y/N filled the glass with water they put it on the tray next to the sandwich before roaming through the small packages to get his painkillers.

"Why would I do that?" they eventually asked and the turtle returned his gaze on their face, he couldn't respond because he had yet to come up with an answer. "You assumed that because I'm a human?" it may have, in honestly, made them sound a little offended.

Y/N put in some vitamin pills with the painkillers next to the glass of water before meeting his slightly distracted gaze. "Or is it because you were always treated like this and learned to accepted it?"

It was like a punch to the gut for the blue terrapin so he growled gutterly and turned his head to the side, refusing to respond and they didn't force him either.

"Sorry, sorry!" Y/N almost stuttered, they might have went too far. Perhaps it was unsensitive. "I didn't mean for it to sound so rude..... Sorry."

When it was silence that replyed to them, they picked up the tray and looked at the remote to the force field and immediately it dawned on them that they have no slightest clue about how it works. And Donatello might be asleep by now, Y/N would feel so bad and dumb to wake him up for such small inconvinience.

After spending a too much time figuring out which colorful button it is Y/N just pressed the one in the corner but instead of making the tray float and make the force field accept it instead the translucent, electric barriere dropped.

The futuristic technology isn't their strongest suit, they admitted they prefer things simple and almost retro, the only time they're hundred percent on Raphael's side is when he's on a hateful rampage about the tech...

Y/N paled when they first thought that they may have broke it and would have to wake up Donatello after all. But when the 'cage' activated once pressing the same button, weight fell from their chest and they confidently approached the blue turtle after the force field was deactivated once again.

He was a little weirded out by what they were doing the whole time that he couldn't help but stare and thought about calling them dumb.

And here they are. Face to face with no physical wall between them.

It's a little daunting that this creature is still towering over them even when hunched and sitting, and staring down at them. Y/N comes across very tall aliens every day so this is nothing unordinary. But this feels different. Somehow...

Ah, right, it's because they were told to keep their distance! But then again, they didn't actually promise Leonardo they'd do as he said but a part of Y/N still feels guilty, knowing how overprotective he can get.

Quirking their lips for the corners to lightly lift, Y/N presented him the tray proudly. As far as they know, they're an excellent cook and excells at home baking.

"Okay, Lee, you gotta get your pills first." when it was a heated growl that huffed into their face, they grounded their feet the best they can as they forced to lock gazes with him. "You'll feel better. It takes away the pain for some hours, you'll get a proper sleep. Also, no one will be in your personal bubble until you wake up." they went for the coddle tactic, it always works.

The blue terrapin, somewhat persued, took the medicine into his big right palm that has a darker pigment than the rest of his body, before registering their words.

Y/N was lifting the glass of water towards him before noticing he was looking at them with a frown that was far from sharp. "What?"

"Lee?"

With a soft flush in cheeks, they tried to fumble for sane words of an apology. They thought they offended him or something. "It just came out—!"

With a slight furrow of his bare brows and tilted head, he asked: "Why did you call me that?" it was almost chilling how calm and calculated he was now.

"I- uh! No... No reason, really... Just because." they muttered before hurriedly giving him the glass, and he understood the assignment.

After he drowned them down they put the trail on his lap and he began to gobble the bread like a starved man — which, starved, he probably was.

"Jesus, calm down! I'm not gonna steal it from ya." they couldn't help but laugh a little after the face he threw at them with a little rumbly growl, but surprisingly enough he ate slower.

After Y/N took another risk of leaving his side to drain the rest of the water bottle into the glass, they returned to exactly how they left him and he took the water greedily.

"Did you mind that?" Y/N gave him some time of quiet while he ate, but eventually asked right after swallowing the last bit of his third sandwich. "The nickname?"

"... Nickname?" he grunted with a mouthfull and watched with suprise as they sat down at the edge of the bed.

"Well, that's instead of a name..." Y/N hummed back, looking at their dangling feet and thought of how to keep a conversation going.

"I'll come up with other nicknames for you. Wanna hear them?"

The rumbly growl would have been a no but the slight nod that Y/N registered said otherwise. They took a mental note that he's one growl-y creature.

"Lee was one of those... Then I was going for Blue." when he said nothing but ate and grunted, Y/N continued. "There's also Leon... It's short for Leonid. It has a Russian origin, as far as I know." they looked back at him once noticing the way he perked up.

"But that's also a name they gave to a meteor shower, but it's called Leonids, it's around the Leo constellation. It happens around November, I think. And it's really, really pretty from the pictures and videos I have seen. But, sadly, they're also very rare."

"How rare?" the blue turtle wanted to kick himself to be this sincerely invested, and looked away from Y/N with a scoff.

He should be proud of himself to be showing interest that isn't forced, given what he has yet to do, but somehow this human had him hooked with the wonder of nature. Something you can barely spot in NYC, and especially when you live under cover you can't just go outside however you please, even though creatures and aliens are already walking among humans on earth for some years now.

Y/N watched him from his profile silently, smiling, before taking pity on him and stood up as they reached for the empty tray but they didn't register how stiff he became at their closeness. "They appear year but you need to have a good spot like somewhere far away from civilization to see it clearly in total darkness and, who knows, maybe we'll be able to see it this Autumn if we're lucky. I heard of some good spots in Europe where people go to watch the meteors nowdays."

The funny little plural pronoun they used in this sentence did such odd mess in the pit of his stomach, maybe something close to throwing up?

This unfamiliarity began to irk him.

Scoffing, and throwing the full piece of the sandwich, he nearly forgot about, into his mouth he made a lazy gutural growl. "I have no interest for such dumb things, travel especially!" he made himself comfortable on the bed and realized that no part of his broken body was aching. What a bliss.

Y/N looked at him knowingly over their shoulder, but said nothing.

When they walked back to the table to pick up the remote, they weren't feeling burning holes at the back of their skull for once, and it was nice. They turned the force field back on but when facing the blue terrapin they were met by the back of his dark shell. He fell asleep on his stomach, arms folded under his chin and softly snoring. After a good meal and comfy bed, he's out like a light. He looked almost too innocent now with how slightly curled up he is there.

"Like a baby..." Y/N chuckled to themself, turned off the lights and left the Medbay to clean the dirty dishes, they still can't let Serling do all the work around here, that poor, neat freak robot works himself up over the smallest things.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

"Morning, Leon!"

The big blue turtle, who had to look through the gap of his forearms that guarded his face from the sun, threw back a frown of confusion at the human who had joined them on the rooftop balcony. It's extra hot outside today.

"Y/N-san, it's almost past noon, you slept through the whole morning." an old rat softly chided Y/N without looking over at them, instead he continued to take care of his bonsai.

"Oh, yeah, heh! It happens sometimes... Are the plants doing well mr. Splinter?" they asked politely and passed by their injured guest over to the wise mutant rodent, observing the careful snips of scissors on the little tree branches and leaves with curiosity.

Splinter offered a small, quick smile. "Yes, and the garden looks way better than when we first came here. Some of these plants grow surprisingly quickly."

Y/N hummed, agreeing and looked towards the small but greener-than-before garden. "Let me help you." they walked over to the rest of the pots with bonsai trees before the humanoid rat could protest.

With a sigh, Splinter navigated them which pot they should pick up.

"Why do I have to be here?!" the blue terrapin made himself known to them once more, after being quiet all morning he decided to voice his irritation towards the blinding sun. He growled at the rat, quite sharp teeth bared, and used his palm to cast a shadow over his face.

"The air will do you well," Splinter replied with calmness, returning to care for his bonsai. "Not to mention the healing powers of nature."

"It stinks out here! Too bright!" he continued to complain, covering himself with his arms when trying to lay down on the side but the sun rays were everywhere. "Why didn't you let me rot?" he aggressively asked, springing back to sit up and glare at the rodent. "Too weak to stomach it when things get rough?!"

It sounded like he wanted to provoke a reaction, but he tried it on the wrong creature.

"Weak?" Splinter parroted, speaking just as calmly as before, as he made a perfected snip of an unruly branch before setting the gardening scissors down. "It requires no strength at all to destroy but creation, healing, that takes true might." he looked at him over before facing him with the little bonsai in his hands. "Would you prefered that we left you to perish?"

These questions are seriously getting on his nerves, it always hits a weak spot he didn't know he had.

Turning away from Splinter, who went to place the pot where it should be, he was rather met with a sight of Y/N who carried quite a big pot with its bonsai and it looked quite heavy. Although they sweated and had quite reddened cheeks, they showed no struggle as they carried it on the table where Splinter works on his plants one by one.

Y/N straightened their favorite shirt, and cleaned it from some dust and dirt at their chest, before looking up at their hospitalized guest that kept on trying to cover from the sun. With a slight jump in the step, they walked close to him until stopped by the translucent wall of a shield.

"So, how are you enjoying today, so far?" chuckling, they looked at him rolling about like a rowdy child ever-so-innocently, hands interwined behind them.

A growl bellowed from under the cover of muscular, blue arms with a tint of annoyment as he settled laying on his belly. And they couldn't help but take pity on him.

"... You thirsty, Leonid? It is too hot today, the sun may be good for your bones but it's important you drink plenty of water. I'll go grab a glass for ya."

"Hm?" he rumbled back but when he was about to look at them from under one of his arms, they weren't there. With a grunt, he covered the back of his head and nape with his big palm. Although the sun was fine at first on his skin, because he's not used to daylight, it began to burn on his scale-y skin. The big robot Serling was supposed to get him water, but something must have distract the robot nanny when he hadn't came back for quite a while.

But at last he had time to think, plot and schieme. But the name he was called again made his heart beat all funny.

A name that would belong to him, to make him feel a little more whole. A fallen meteor out of many from around a constellation which they were tributed to be named slightly similar after. An irony of what he really is; a clone of the real deal, a fraud that has been predestined to be impure.

Leonid... He does like how it sounds, especially the shorter version of it.

He, Leonid, among many other newfound feelings he still needs to decipher, finally felt like somebody.

* 6:30 pm *

Day had yet to come to an end, be replaced by the night and Y/N didn't mind they had to prepare dinner to their guest along with some meds for the second time. It's probably for the best, Leonid can barely stand the sight of Donatello playing a doctor at him and the longer all four stick in the same room as him that he can't leave there's a risk of a raging tantrum.

Leonid can't stand Raphael and his belittling and offencive remarks, but he feels the same towards Leonardo. At last Michelangelo and Donatello can approach just fine, if Mikey wouldn't talk all the time and Don wouldn't keep muttering his coded science discussion with himself. Y/N would take full care of Leonid would they know what to do when it came to broken bones and fractured spine and shell. But beggers can't be choosers, so he had to let Donatello be in his personal bubble.

Cody was about to get some snacks that his close friend, almost like an older sibling, sneaked in behind Serling's back the day they came over at the start of their vacation — two weeks ago.

Speak of the devil...

Young Cody Jones has yet to master his ninja stealth, when taking out some dorito chips from a lower cabinet Y/N suddenly appeared few feet away by his side, that wasn't hidden by the cabinet door.

Busted, red-haired thief grinned as innocently as possible when he stood up with the bag of chips behind his back. "Y/N! Hey, I thought you're still on the balcony with master Splinter and Leo's clone?"

Y/N looked away from Cody's hidden, folded arms and opened the fridge they stood next to. "Stealing my snacks again, little Jones?" they cooed tauntingly as they pulled a pot with leftover soup out of the fridge and onto the kitchen island.

"And I just came from there, I wanted to get Leon sunscreen but Serling and guys came to take him back to the Medbay. I decided to prepare Leon dinner, at last."

Cody seated himself at the other end of the kitchen desk, opened the doritos and watched them prepare the remaining soup and adding more flavor so it would taste better and not like old shoes. "He has a name?" he asked with curiosity.

Y/N with a ladle scooped every bit of the soup, bits of mushrooms, potatoes and meat included into a smaller pot. They smiled a little bashfully to themself and were glad that Cody was rather paying attention to the chips.

"Oh, yeah. It's Leonid, actually." at last they hoped he took the name, he actually didn't tell them not to call him that and he is one of those that voices something they don't like. If he won't own the name then Y/N will call him that as long as he'll be here, they refuse to call him 'a thing that's cloned from Leonardo' like others do.

"Oh, that's cool!" Cody enthusiastically chimed before stuffing his mouth.

"Did you thank him yet?"

Cody paused mid-chow before swallowing. "No... The guys don't want me to go near him."

Y/N faced Cody with a frown right after putting the pot on the stove to warm up the soup. "I see where guys are coming from— but he took a hit for you and almost died. He may be 'evil', as everyone keeps reminding us both, but that's no excuse to be ungreatful. Everyone deserves gratitude, even some bad guys — Darius doesn't count."

Cody hummed and looked up from staring inside the chips bag for a bit too long, cracking a little smile at the last humorous remark. "Even when he and his brothers attacked us?"

"Cody, just like I taught you, you are not forgiving him. You are thanking him for his willing aid, and sure - you let him in and it would be a good enough 'thank you', but there's no wrong in being humble and thank the fella directly."

As they looked at one another, holding their gazes, Y/N knew that they managed to get at last the thought that counts into his thick skull. Cody nodded, taking it to account and received a wide smile from Y/N and they walked up to him to pat the top of his crown.

"Remember, when you feel what you should do is right then don't be afraid to do it even if everyone would disagree."

Cody chuckled and leaned into the caressing. "I would like to be free-spirited just like you... But I feel like if there won't be someone to guide me, I would do something wrong."

Y/N's heart crumbled for the kid, their family. "You have to make mistakes to learn from them, how else can you progress further in life? You can't be afraid of making them, you'd just be stuck on the spot, and not always will be someone there to pick you up." sighing, they took Cody into their arms and he welcomed the embrace quickly.

"And there is no problem that my amazing, lil' Jones can't solve on his own." they cooed gently into his red locks and Cody smiled against their shoulder.

"Thanks...." he muttered before Y/N had to return to the pot and hummed a reply back at him, Cody left with his snack all the while thinking things through. His turtle friends - family - want the best for him and protect him, but Cody needs to become independent because, as Y/N said, they won't be here forever.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

* FOUR DAYS LATER, 12:03 pm *

It was quite late to be wandering about the Penthouse when everyone is asleep but Cody could hardly get a wink of peaceful slumber when he was bothered by his conscience, if he wouldn't do something about it he would end up without sleep that day.

But he took everything into consideration, to still be skeptical, while trying to the truth behind the heroic action Leonid pulled. He thought this all through for some time.

Raphael is the most cynical and Cody really wanted to dig more, not that he doesn't believe his family, and make his own opinion about their guest. Despite being told and coaxed into letting 'this thing' to be handled by his four terrapin friends.

He can't forever be told what to do! Doing this investigating made him feel a little more mature.

Y/N always taught him to be open minded and not to make hasty prejudices until knowing the whole context of a book — figuratively speaking.

The Medbay was almost empty, their injured guest seems to be fast asleep but from all that hrunting and squirming as he payed on his still healing shell Cody knew he's quite wide awake.

He knew that he shouldn't feel fear to go closer to Leon when the barrier is there to keep him in and the outside out, but he still had to muster up all courage he has to actually approach and talk.

Cody swallowed dryly and took a deep breath before he began to walk over to the force field to ask what has been bugging ever since the incident and only one creature in this Penthouse know the answer. "Why did you save me, I mean, you could have just not, you know?"

Leon, although awake, prerended he's unconscious. It was clear by the pointed silence that he intended to ignore the kid, pretend he isn't there, but he also knew the stalled chat was long overdue and he has to make some progress after being kept here for so long.

"Okay, forget it." Cody was ready to turn on his heel and return to his bedroom with defeat, and his head hung low.

"My fight isn't with you, it's with the four shellheads, then you went an' got in the way." Leon quickly blurted out before the boy could have left, but he refused to look at him as he grumbled and his hand flapped exaggeratedly high up while talking. And he didn't need to see to know that Cody didn't move an inch, neither left at all, but Leon could tell he was holding his breath to listen, and by smell he knew the kid was somewhat anxious.

Perhaps whatever Leon answers will be the key of the final decision, and if he were to answer right he could get closer to what he came for. Better play his cards right.

With a tired sigh, Leon opened his eye to stare down at his lap as his limb went limp by his side again. To be honest - which he hardly is - these questions about him are starting to be exhausting because he doesn't know the answer to them, but questioning his actions, that is easier to answer. Kind of like an answer he expected from day one and he studied the right answer. But every day it's something new, unexpected, new questions about whatever.

It just edges him more.

Being here actually made a mess of his brain, although he was prepared for whatever they got and was aware he can't crack under pressure, somehow they always poked under his shell even without intention.

"Look, I don't know, it just didn't seem right... Why I got asked so many questions!" Leon almost growled too loudly as he felt the need to be defensive and hide how confused he is himself and turned his shell at the boy to have the final say, which he achieved.

Cody, puzzled, went back to his room with a little more clearer mind and an idea.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Morning couldn't come sooner, everyone except Splinter and Serling - like any other morning - gathered in the big, open living room to discuss today's agenda that also regards their absent blue terrapin guest.

"It's been weeks!" Raphael began, jumping in on the chance of free space to discuss a matter important to him after all the ordeal of training schedule and whatnot. "We better start charging Mr. Happy rent if we're runnin' a hotel here."

Not one day passed that Raphael didn't bring this up, but it seemed that today he was extra pushy.

Donatello unintentionally mimicked Raphael's crossed arms while being next to him, and he sighed softly before adding: "His bandages come off tomorrow- a few tests and then he's outta here."

"Have you guys noticed...?" before Raphael could nudge further the matter of getting rid of Leo's clone, Cody stepped in a little closer after a brief glance at Y/N that sat between Michelangelo and Leonardo on the cough as if to gather some courage spiritually. "It's like... He seems to be struggling with something."

He looked at them all, arms open to get a sign if he may speak from his mind further and Leonardo did just that and lifted his chin towards his red-haired friend, even though Raphael wasn't happy with the way Cody started but said nothing.

"What are you getting at, Cody?" Leonardo asked eventually and leaned his elbows further into his lap, showing he's all ears.

"Well he did save my life," Cody, rubbing his head, began to feel a little shy considering what he's about to say may sound naive, but he finally gets a say in this matter. "I'm just wondering if we could help him not be so bad... in theory." he humbly smiled and lowered his head, keeping his gaze locked with the leader in blue.

And Donatello wasn't really opposed to the idea, on the contrary, he's glad someone brought it up. "Technically, Dark Leo does share significant genetic traits with our Leo. And the nature versus nurture debate raises some interesting possibilities."

Cody smiled at Donatello, as if thanking him for a slight support before looking at the others again beamingly. "Yeah! What if we stopped treating him like a monster and more like a regular guy, just like Y/N?"

Raphael looked startled and looked at every person in the room, back and forth before facing Leonardo completely and crouched down to seize his pointed gaze at the floor. "Okay.. When did this bus take a left into Crazy Town!? Leo, c'mon, you're not buyin' this are ya?!"

But by the silent and distant look from Leonardo, everyone knew his mind had already decided through Raphael's protests. Hook, line, and sinker...

Y/N smiled up at Cody and he mirrored it like a silent communication between the two, they couldn't be more proud of him.

That very same morning Leonid was brought to the dining room to have breakfast with them, but he had to promise he'd cause no trouble... which he did agreed to instead of behaving - by having table manners, which soon everyone dumbly realized that he has none. At last Y/N could say they aren't so put-off by it, but they were also the only one trying to teach some manners like one would to a toddler, like any patient parent and the guys enjoyed to watch that while Cody could almost say: "I been there and had my share of it, I know the routine, enjoy it buddy", with all the fond childhood memories.

Suprisingly, today Y/N also swapped seats with Michelangelo from the usual spot of being between him and Raphael to be at the edge and conveniently right next to Leonid. If Raphael noticed this and was rather unpleased then he kept it to himself. He and Y/N weren't the best of friends, he was usually scolded by them like some brat but he really didn't dislike them either. It was a bit complicated to put into words. But usually when they all dined together Raphael found their presence next to him... comforting(?).

Leonid wolfed down his food, almost taking a bite of the plate as well as it was held to his face. Cutlery be damned. Everyone knows pancakes are good but his enthusiasm by eating them made the pancakes look double delicious, maybe the messy eating of his can put people out of mood for food which is understandable.

Serling walks over to the table, setting down another portion of pancakes and fresh, hot biscuits along with a whipped cream tube and cocoa for Y/N.

Leonardo barely could get one slice of a warm pancake before it was snatched fight in front of him, no pancake was left, and the turtle in blue could only watch Leonid by his left side as he put the whole stack into his mouth.

The blue terrapin chewed just few, hasty times before swallowing and moving forward to the maple syrup that Michelangelo was just using, the movement almost costed Y/N nose because they are sitting between the two. Leonid squeezed the 'life' out of the bottle and used up every drop of the syrup before tossing the used bottle over the table where it bounced at lead two times, nearly bumped into Cody and everyone watched it fly. The other full plate of food was next, Raphael barely touched the crusty bread when all of it was snatched from the plate.

"An' t'ere go the biscuits..." the terrapin in red mask emphasized with repressed growl, staring right at their 'guest'.

"Have one of mine," Michelangelo exhaled into his palm, passing his one biscuit onto his brother's plate. "all of a sudden food doesn't have it's usual appeal..."

Leonid couldn't not hear that last part even through all his munching, shocked and even felt close to be offended by such words. How can one say that about food?! Something he and his brothers can't afford. It's so bad that they sometimes have to go great, morbid lengths to get something into their mouths and they're just glad that digesting raw meat causes no trouble.

"Where I live, you fight for food, eat what you can, when you can—" he suddenly towered over the youngest of the four green terrapins and his olive-coloured plastron made contact with Y/N's brow before they could lean back, it didn't hurt but it startled them. "Or you starve!" he exclaimed and then threw the last little bread into his mouth as he glared at poor Michelangelo like he was a kid that didn't know any better because he has a different, better life. The terrapin in orange mask leaned back in his seat as far as he could but also was too scared to move a muscle.

Being one of those few that always came to the youngest's aid, Y/N didn't sat by doing nothing this day either. Also it would calm the other three brothers and the rat father from feeling like Michelangelo is being threatened.

Minding the bandages, their spread palm placed gently on Leonid's upper chest, close where the edge of his plastron is (it would have been inappropriate to push a man's boobs, covered or not, they are not close friends - same goes to touching one's stomach if it can be avoided). Y/N was only afraid to push, not to cause him any pain and they were glad to hear his muffled gasp was far from pained. Leonid would have obliged by sitting back down but staring Michelangelo down felt like primal challenge of intimidation that has always been in him since his creation, not really a genetic perk from being made by Sh'Okanabo.

"Riiiiight..." Michelangelo weakly chuckled when holding Leonid's gaze without knowing the intention behind it or what is he trying to prove as he grasped the courage he has regained when his savior interfered between them, and slightly swapping the crumbs from his plastron.

"Well, here, looking out for one another is pretty much what we do." he grinned toothily, it was far from mocking or belittling, he was just proud to share the way his family is and the positivity thrown in Leonid's face made him befuddled and he backed off. "You know the golden rule- karma."

Although he was thinking things through, Leonid subconsciously noticed the warmth that left his chest and he didn't have time to be weirded out by it now. Blinking, his scoff was almost as if dismissing whatever Michelangelo said was nonesence so he decided to voice that opinion: "You're the dumb one, right. 'Cuz that's the stupidest thing I ever heard." he snatched another plate of food and didn't think one would reply as he began to wolf down the eggs and beacon.

Leonardo was the one who proved him otherwise, not letting the conversation to end there, pointing at him first to grasp his attention in the middle of eating. "And yet you're here in a posh New York penthouse enjoying a hot breakfast, because of something you did—" he gave Leonid another reality check to think about, something new that Leonardo noticed his clone doesn't like. He smiled knowingly, and leaned back with crossed arm behind his head as he played more on the strings of emotions. "Saving Cody. Still sounds stupid?"

The boy lifted his head from his plate where he was cutting his food just a second ago, he looked directly at the blue terrapin with a genuine smile.

He is being thanked? By his enemies? By the nice kid whose sadistic uncle is now an owner of his and his brothers?

Leonid was cornered now by his own emotions that had instantly bloomed when Cody's kind eyes of emerald color landed on him. The food in his mouth began to taste bile, but not necesarrily because of the food itself, it even smells poison-free and he has an excelent nose at scents.

This gratefulness doesn't seem right. He shouldn't be thanked and feel this way. Everything was going according to plan, the only thing that's rauining it is him and his inner turmoil.

Is this... Is this guilt?

For a moment he wondered what he should do. What is expected from him to do.

Frankly, nothing should be expected from him, he had already done enough to save a life. Everything is fine, Leonid is aware of the situation he put himself into, but perhaps his will wasn't strong enough to jump into lion's den.

When the four brothers that are binded to him with DNA shown barely any compassion, it were these two humans that shown kindness and patience with the likes of him. It actually made Leonid believe he deserves any of this.

A hope he would be freed...

But subconsciously remembering his three brothers and the last bitter imagine of Darius Dun coiled at his heart like a barbed wire.

Finally grasping a grip over the cruel reality check after staring at the fried egg long enough, Leonid spat out the unchewed beacon back at the plate before sliding all of it over to Leonardo's plate.

"How's this?" Leonid ever-so-innocently grinned, it's not like he tried to put effort into practicing what Michelangelo tried to enlighten him about. But at last he'd get a kick of seeing his clone grossed out.

"... Thanks." although shocked and disgusted, Leonardo didn't have it in him to be anything but polite.

While everyone looked away from repulsion, Michelangelo silently made fun of his oldest brother and Leonid relieved his stomach by the loudest belch that echoed in the room after he was finished. Y/N was glad they had enough pancakes to eat before the blue terrapin was invading everyone's plates.

Leonid had made a mess all over the table and all over his mouth as well, taking out a paper napkin from the pocket, Y/N stood up to reach the big turtle and wipe his face. Y/N considered having a ladder at hand for once if they'd ever need to reach this mountain of a male again, but their laziness didn't agree with that thought - would have been easier if he laid down, no? Hah! As if this big, blue terrapin would allow himself to be this mellow for them.

Y/N, while in their own little head space, didn't even bother to took into consideration Leonid could attack them for being in his personal space, truth be told they forgot he's dangerous because these few days they felt that he was anything but threatening. He was acting 'savage' at times yet he wasn't hurting anybody, and he had opportunities to do so, something this minor was overlooked by the four brothers because they might have felt secure that the blue turtle is intimidated enough not to try anything. They also immensely ignored any disagreements the four brothers had been having against the way they didn't keep safe distance, even if there always was the translucent shield between them.

Leonid was quick to school his body into stillness, over his stay and interaction with Y/N he noticed they became more bold with subtle touches such as this. The first time was when they checked if he has fever and they were very careful about it, also asking him first before touching his forehead. This whole thing was so odd but... not unwelcome. The gestures always made him feel that damn tickling in his stomach that he soon didn't mind much. Leonid actually looked forward to being touched now, and he was content when it was something quick and sweet, nothing too lingering that would be troublesome to his sensations.

Raphael scoffed at the baby-ing that's happening right now in front of them all, he earned a soft kick from Donatello to his shin because he was mumbling things under his breath without realizing.

The plates and cups were cleaned first by Serling along with wiping the crumbs and drops on the table away, Y/N battled with the sticky syrup on Leonids cheeks and nose in the mean time while giggling at the dismorphed faces they made his face pull and although annoyed he let them enjoy it all the while grunting with low growls. Only this once he'll allow it.

When Y/N finished wiping Leonid's face, both finally but also sadly for him, Serling took him back to the Medbay where he would rest before getting checked up on again. Everyone watched from in front of the open dining room as Leonid was being escorted with handcuffs that were for safety measures. Y/N at the meeting in the morning demanded he wouldn't have them during breakfast but couldn't talk them out of it when he was being taken back even though he was inside the force field.

Leonardo, from in front of the group, faced his brothers when his clone was out of sight. "Well?"

"Too early to say." Donatello was quick to reply.

"He's a lot less... scary than I thought he'd be." Michelangelo shared his oppinion, shrugging nonchalantly.

"Guys!" Raphael barked, irritated as he stepped forward from the back. "Reality check— he's evil. Give this guy an inch, he'll take a spleen! I ain’t buyin' it!!" he yelled loud enough, making sure it echoes and is well heard to the big terrapin.

"Well, he maybe wouldn't be evil if folks would treat him like he's no different!" Y/N raised their voice enough to startle the turtle in the red mask. Huffing, and shaking their head with disappointment souring their face, Y/N turned on their heel to walk off. "We, unlike you, are just being grateful, Raph, it's not like we're giving him the penthouse."

"Oh, really?! With th'a way yer motherin' him I'd beg to differ!" for Raphael's chastising Y/N would be quick to be twice as mean but decided it's not worth it with this knuckle-head.

"Whoa, dude, chill." Michelangelo rested his three-fingered-hand on his agitated brother's shoulder. "It's not like we weren't the victims of this treatment from momma Y/N either. That's just how they are—"

"Yeah, well that thing doesn't deserve it! We let him live, that's good enough of a payback after everything he and those other freaks put us through!" tearing his shoulder from his brother's touch as if burned, he left as well, having the last word.

* LATER *

When lunch time was over that day, Cody wraped up his training fast and with Michelangelo they went to collect Y/N from the rooftop garden for the purpose to lift their spirits after this morning. They proposed a card game, the rummy, under the condition that the turtle in orange can use a calculator for the adding of numbers. But Y/N had another idea that took a little persuation on Michelangelo from both them and Cody.

"If you want to use the calculator for the game, then he can play." is what they said.

Pure, mean chantage. But Michelangelo really wanted an upper hand with the calculator if he is to play against the gambling fanatic Y/N — and Cody must have been infected from them too, because the two are eager to win and Cody isn't usually contestant. Michelangelo just tagged along because he can't stand boredom.

They went to get Leonid into their little group, behind the other terrapin brother's backs and with Serling's help to transport him to the lower floors where is a room mix of a library and gaming place, not big amd open but not small either. It used to be Cody's bedroom.

Leonid wasn't told what they're going to do other than saying they're going to the fun room and didn't want him to be all alone, as Cody said. But Michelangelo joked that he'd like to have someone close to his kin by his side when he's about to play with the beasts. But Leonid wasn't about to be forced to play with them or anything, if he wished he could just take a nap on the sofa in there, they promised him snacks and will give him different drinks Leonid hadn't tried yet. The last bit was what had him perked, he can't say no to food!

"Games?" Leonid rumbled as he sat down on the sofa with a window behind it, the only source that allowed natural light in the room. He didn't question the fact they let him out of the force field and the sarcastic robot left, but he was cuffed.

Michelangelo moved a coffee table closer to the sofa and sat cross-legged at a pillow on the rug floor, opposite Leonid. "We agreed on a card game for now, who knows, maybe we'll try other games."

"If you'd like to join the game then we'd be more than happy if you did." Cody chirped with excitement and bravely sat down next to the blue turtle.

Y/N grinned while shuffling the cards and sat on a pillow on the ground as well, on the other side of Leonid, maybe a bit too close by his feet. "You can watch or rest, Serling will bring the snacks soon."

"I'll just... watch." Leonid grunted and paid attention to the complicated shuffling of a card deck, when from the split pile of cards Michelangelo searched for a joker card but got none, Y/N began to give them each twelve cards.

Cody cringed as he was putting his cards together in hand. "No luck for me today, I guess..."

"Don't lose hope, junior. There are good cards in the pack, you just gotta get to them." Y/N hummed, although looking very pleased with their cards.

Michelangelo wasn't shy to share the information of his fortunate cards he's about to play with. "I can't relate, guys, my card deck is looking pretty good I might just close the game in your face right now."

"Which is why we're not gonna let you win." Y/N scoffed at the young turtle but it wasn't heated but playful, something Leonid had realized after Michelangelo replyed with his own playfulness.

"Hah! Bold of you guys to assume I'd let any of you win!" Cody grinned at them and leaned back to be sure none of these would peak at his cards, Michelangelo likes to cheat when it comes to these games.

"You saying that with that God-awful card deck? I'll make you eat those words up, chump." giggling impishly, Y/N watched what kind of cards the two are throwing out and Cody's would have been enough for them to get rid of some cards. "Ah, what's the count?"

"Forty-two, like always?" Cody hummed.

"Nope, let's go fifty-one this time!" Michelangelo grinned from behind his deck.

"That confident, Mikey?" the boy snorted softly.

"Awe, just let him. That way his fall will be greatly amusing." Y/N smirked getting rid of a Queen card, a high card, and Michelangelo's snarky surface cracked a little.

Leonid was greatly confused because these three were just threatening and insulting each other but differently. Very different from how he and his brothers attack each other, verbally and physically. The threatening didn't feel threatening. But why? Everyone wants to be the winner, then why not go great lengths to win? For the life of him, he can't understand them sometimes.

After five minutes, when Serling gave them the - mostly healthy - snacks and drinks, and left them be for the rest of the day only because he has chores to finish, the game went on and they all had yet to reach the right number to start getting rid of the cards. Leonid had caught up with most of how the game goes but has yet to understand the goal.

Comfortably laying on his side while munching on some chips with paprika taste, he observed as Michelangelo did a double take on the calculator, counting, but with frustration he gave up one card.

As soon as Y/N took a card from the deck, their eyes looked almost like shining stars as they meaned at their cards, Cody immediately registered the slight shift of change on their face and groaned longly: "Noooo..."

"Huh?! Huh?!! No! Don't you dare!" Michelangelo belowed and leaned to Y/N, thinking the 'intimidation' would stop them.

With a wide, toothy grin, Y/N began laying some pairs of cards. High cards and one pair with a joker, the smaller pair was of small numbers but they reached a little over fifty-one in count. And two cards were left in their hand.

"A-HA!! We're finally getting somewhere!" Y/N cheered and reordered the remaining cards in hand before getting rid of one. They basked in the small, sadistic victory of getting their opponents withered for being the first one to lay down some good sets of cards.

"Man, I guess I won't get a win this week." Cody sighed at his cards after pulling a card from the deck and dispossed of it just as quickly, but still tried to smile not to damper his friends' spirits.

"Give it time..." Y/N reached over Leon's face, almost bumping his muzzle, to pat Cody's knee to keep the boy enthusiastic.

Michelangelo, after picking the card from the dispossed deck and double checking on the calculator, began to lay down some sets of his own but still had five cards left after. "Yeah, take as much time you need, so I can win!" he used his 'evil' laugh while wiggling on his spot with excitement, fist pumping in the air.

Y/N retreated their hand, but not fully until stealing some chips from Leonid's bowl. The blue terrapin was ready to growl, to guard his food, but Y/N forced the chip against his gritted, slightly sharper teeth. Leonid, startled, relaxed his lips around the treat before accepting it into his mouth. His growl was just a rumbly hum and watched Y/N take another chip for themself, he hadn't the time to react defensively and let it slide. Cody took the chance of their guest paying attention to Y/N to steal some chips for himself too, and grabbed a handfull.

"Do you like the chips... Leon?" Cody asked before stuffing his mouth. He tried not to be too obvious with how he's getting the hang of the new way the blue terrapin is called. The boy feels ashamed that it's a bit of a struggle, being used to call him either a clone or a thing had became a terrible habbit he hopes to get rid of.

Leonid chewed slowly, trying to map and memorize the taste and texture that he now knows he isn't so fond of, before he swallowed so he could answer. "I don't mind it..."

"Dude!" Michelangelo gasped, looking up from his cards as he nearly let go of them. "The chips are, like, one of the best snacks in the world! How can you not like it?"

"It's too dry." the blue turtle shrugged and briefly wondered why the orange-masked turtle made a big deal out of it. "But has good crunch."

"You don't have to eat it if you don't like it." Y/N chuckled softly and looked up at Leonid, just now realizing how close his head is to them, the poor terrapin barely fit on the sofa and almost his whole upper body hanged over the mattress' edge, with one elbow on the floor helped him with balance.

Refuse food? Not eat when you have the chance? Not take a bite of an edible thing when having it at grasp felt like irreverence against food. Even if the edable thing would taste horrendously neither he or his brothers couldn't afford not to eat when finally getting their hands on something. And what if it's the only food he will have today? They all simply could let him starve till tomorrow and then hand him over to the Beast Keepers. It could be the his last meal. Leonid doesn't trust them enough to be certain they wouldn't let him starve, but maybe the humans wouldn't allow it...

"Serling also brought tangerines, it's a sweet fruit, try that." handing Leonid a plate of the little orange, half-moon fruit slices and handing the bowl to Michelangelo, Y/N waited for their guest to take a slice to know if it is to his liking.

Leonid sniffed the fruit slice before putting it into his mouth, as soon as his fangs popped it a sweet juice rushed all over his mouth and the tangerine wasn't that hard to chow or swallow. After the sugary breakfast he's now certain that it's sweets he's more fond of and chewy things are second favorite.

He grunted and took more tangerine slices and Y/N pleased by their fulfillment of having their guest pleased finally continued the rummy.

When Cody was hanging on a slimmer of hope was when the luck finally came to him. He got a joker and was able to finally let out some sets from his hand and reach the right count even with those 'garbage' sets. Now he's the only one with one card in hand and it gave him a higher chance at winning. The boy was exhilarated by the turn of events.

Michelangelo added a king into Cody's set but that's as far as he could go, after getting rid of a card he looked at Y/N as if expecting them to end and win the game.

It was the opposite, actually. After a lot of thinking when drawing a new card and looking over the sets of others laid on the table, Y/N kept the card and got rid of a different one. Still having two cards at hand.

The boys eyed them with suspicion when all they did was twitch a corner of their mouth into a tiny smirk, but they didn't know Y/N faked that smugness.

Leonid became intruiged by the way they're against each other during the game, the switch of theirs to disconnected from preoccupying when something outside the game has to be addressed had left him impressed. Their attitudes change from win-obsessed to normal individuals without much difficulty, with Michelangelo it's a bit questionable but he was somewhat 'tame' when they had a small pause because of the chips.

Cody took a card from the deck, by sheer luck, and got an ace of diamonds that one of Y/N's sets needed. He wasted no time adding the card with suffocated excitement and the card at hand was slapped picture-down on the disposable deck.

"YES!! I WON!!" Cody cheered, jumping up to his feet to zoom around the room while Michelangelo drowned in his lost but Y/N applaused for the boy's win.

"Ugh, let's play Racing and Betting instead, yea?" pouting, the turtle in the orange mask stood up and went to look for the board game somewhere on the shelfs next to the door, Cody went to help him with the search.

The two cards that Y/N held before adding them on the card piles to start cleaning up didn't escape Leonid's sharp eyes, he leaned closer to them before interrogating: "You gave up your win. Why?"

Y/N was a bit startled of the whispery, growl right next to their ear as they were putting the whole card deck away into its box. They blinked at him owlishly, not prepared for their guest's interest. Also, they didn't took into consideration that he might not know of these small, silly sacrifices one does for the other.

"It made Cody happy, didn't it?" they asked as if pointing out the most obvious thing, their brow arched up.

Leonid tilted his head with a sigh that blew hot breath into their face, not understanding where they're going with that. "But you aren't, 'cause you lost."

Oh... Oh, now they understand. Y/N smiled slightly. "Joy is not permanent when you do something for yourself, but for others."

"That's....." licking his lips, his gaze casted down as he tried to remember the right word to use.

"Stupid?"

"Hrmm... Weird. Yer weird."

Leonid met Y/N's gaze again when their lashes fluttered almost as if suprised. Then Y/N huffed a chuckle.

"I hear that often..." they grin toothily, around their eyes was a little wrinkle from the squinting.

Leonid thought it's a bit odd that they're amused instead of being offended and his stomach did a weird flip feeling, but it's actually nice not to deal with a miffy human.

Michelangelo slammed onto the clear table a green box with a cover of horse racers for the dramatic effect of disturbing those two, he was satisfied by seeing those two startled, before finally letting Cody to prepare the game. This play was a little longer and time-killing, Leonid ended up either napping or watching while snacking before they ended it with the last horse bought and with no hurry they all ate the dinner there. Leonid was taken to his 'bed' right after that.

Some might say that in the blue terrapin's position they wouldn't be bored and he might not argue but there were some moments that were.... nice. It was also peaceful. Falling asleep that night was without pain, no meds required, and he was content even with what will come tomorrow noon.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

At eight a.m. Leonid was woken up by Donatello, the purple-masked terrapin, for an early check-up and getting rid of his bandages for good after nearly a month. Leonid was still too sleepy to put up any trouble for the small turtle who was more than happy by that coincidence, they were done before Leonid could rub off the little bit of sleep left in his eye.

A light breakfast was served per Donatello's orders, Y/N put together a toast, fried eggs and a glass full of lemonade. It is light enough for the big test, right?

Michelangelo joined them with his bread and jam he stole from the kitchen while Serling was preparing the usual Tuesday breakfast for everyone. Leaning onto Y/N's side, folded, green arm at their shoulder he watched midst finishing his breakfast how his older brother played a doctor at their guest while he himself tried to eat without interruptions. Donatello only wanted to prepare Leonid for the upcoming challenge which would determine if his health got better or worse, also as any doctor would, the turtle in purple gave him further warnings of how and about what he should be careful in the future since Leonid barely made it out alive a month back.

Leonid's answers were a series of grunts, huffs, and almost unnoticable growls but Donatello became hardly bothered when such a thing was replaying every time, since day one. He accepted that this is perhaps how Leo's clone is telling him that he doesn't want him near, Donatello's presence could make him uncomfortable and the small terrapin didn't wish to push his luck of walking off bruise-less. What he did notice is that the clone was more cooperative and less aggressive when Y/N was near, which is why despite others' disagreements he kept Y/N near whenever he was caring for their guest.

"Dude, aren't you excided? You're gonna be able to kick our shells again!" Michelangelo grinned widely, mouth full and nothing but crumbs on his cheeks was left.

"Don't tempt him." Y/N tsked softly, head shaking and Donatello at his table in the corner did the same with a sigh.

Snorting uncharmingly, the terrapin in orange walked up to the small table next to the medical bed and with a graceful jump he sat atop of it. "I'm just sharing his thoughts outloud, he's very shy~"

Leonid spared him a side-eye, chowing on his egg that he put on the last toast.

"Keep it up, and you may end up on top of the hit list, Mikey." Donatello retorted his chirp from his spot. Like any other morning, he worked on his stuff with his morning coffee. Michelangelo gasped, his hand flew up to hold his heart for his brother's cruel words crushed it.

A little smile betrayed the frown Y/N tried to keep on their lips, the back of their hand hid their mouth and let out a soft giggle.

"Okay, you diva, clean up Lee's plate, it might just save your life. If only for a few minutes." Y/N smirked playfully and walked over to sit by Leonid's feet, their legs swaying back and forth over the edge. Enjoying the moment without that annoying force field that was always between them.

After more of Michelangelo's dramatic antics, he did took the plate and the empty glass and walked off to clean it in the kitchen. Donatello was deep in concentration of his work, whatever it is he's working on.

"So..." Y/N began, open palms squished in between their thighs. They waited for Leonid to get comfortable, laying on his side and facing them with a folded hand under a pillow he laid his head on. "Are you? Excited, I mean."

Leonid was silent for a minute, thinking and his gaze travelled all around their face. He grunted with a shrug of his shoulder. "I'd be an idiot to think they would let me go with a wave an' a smile... They're gonna throw me to Peacekeepers. Can't let a freak roam free out there." his answer was bitter, he looked away to get away from their saddened expression.

"I'm sure they will do the right thing. You have a family to go to." Y/N tried to coax him into a positive space.

"Family? Why would that be the reason?" Leonid looked back at them with a frown.

"Your brothers— family is important in your life, they are the number one on the list of responsibilities." they answered just as quickly. "They need you, I'm sure you need them just as much. It has been a month, I take you haven't been apart for this long? They must be worried."

Leonid bit down with his fang on his blue lip before his gaze distanced. "They don't need me." he sharply hissed.

This was quite a weak spot they decided to poke.

Y/N didn't take that for an answer. "You can't know that for sure."

"Neither do you!" Leonid growled back at them immediately, nearly sitting up. Seeing he had them startled and (surely) afraid he settled down again, refusing to speak another word and Y/N understood he closed himself off again and they felt bad for being the cause of that when they were doing so well with opening up.

Y/N opened and closed their mouth for a few times, thinking of ways how to apologize with the presence of Donatello's awareness weighting them.

"It was wrong of me to assume." they finally said with their gaze casted down. "I just remembered something similar to your case... The last time my mom was at a hospital for a long damn time, it was very serious, I was freaking out. I was studying abroad and couldn't just up and go. When I got to the hospital I was nearly walking through walls to find her... Scared some poor half to death souls too because I was fuming." they let out a weak chuckle at the recalled memory. "I may have selfishly projected my own experience onto you. I'm sorry."

When Y/N looked back at Leonid to find him giving them full attention. "... Why were you angry?" he finally asked, the silence persuade him to want to know more.

Y/N looked ahead them, staring at the wall as they thought of a right answer as their tights squeezed at their folded hands. "I was angry, sad, worried... Everyone does that when they feel helpless, that they can't help those we love even with the slightest bit of pain they're in because you want to protect them the more you care about them. And I, like so many others, took my frustration on those who were around me.. doesn't justify what I'd done and said to those people, though, it wasn't their fault."

Leonid stared at them with the slightest frown of both ambivalence but also a bit of understandment. He got what Y/N tried to explain through their story, yet he can't recall if he ever felt such anger.

Sure, he is angry almost all the time, and he witnessed his brothers getting beat many of times by many foes, but did he even once felt such anger? Perhaps, when Darius Dun was taking his anger out on them, that dark and twisted feeling inside of him might have been just that kind of rage...

A warm, small hand landed on his, barely covering all three of his knuckles. It grounded him.

Y/N scooted closer to his upper body to reach his arm and hold it. The gesture of comfort was still an oddity to him. "Leonid..."

He met their eyes and bravely held his ground not to look away, not when their tone was laced with shyness. But why the diffidence? Did they want to ask something?

"Did you..." enjoyed your stay here? And my company? I think you look happier, are you?

No, no, Y/N couldn't bring themself to ask that. Although the curiosity is eating at them and tomorrow morning Leonid will surely be released from this bed and this Penthouse, and they will never see each other again, they also feared the answer. It's a simple question of a host but her words didn't want to articulate. How embarrassing!

"D-did you enjoy your breakfast? I made it, but I still don't know your tastes so— was it okay?"

If Leonid detected that there was more than that, he chose not to point it out.

He thought it over, again aware of the taste left in his mouth. It really was delicious but maybe it would have been his yellow little brother that would absolutely love it.

"Yeah." he eventually nodded idly. "Was just fine to me. It's food, that's good enough."

Y/N exhaled a dry chuckle at that, smiling. "I asked about your preffered taste in food. So I can do your last breakfast the way you'd like."

For some reason, he did not want to hear that, something in his stomach flipped. Leonid can't wait to get his time in custody over with, but...

Enormous, blue hand gripped gently back at the small fingers in his palm almost instinctively. "... Sweeter food. I think I like that kind." his answer was reluctant with a huff.

It was enough for Y/N and they smiled beamingly, one of those smiles that had his ribcage tighten and made it harder to breathe.

It was noon when Leonardo showed up, no words were needed to let them know why he's there. Donatello, expecting him anytime soon, already put the force field up and Y/N had to sat on a chair next to it to keep talking with Leonid. Y/N stood beside the two green, terrapin brothers while Donatello programmed the field to be mobile around their guest's movements to a certain extend. Leonid stretched his muscular arms above his head, joints popped, and he was ready to go.

All four of them walked through the hallways and took an elevator to one of the lowest floors. The Holo dojo. A turtle shell-like room built for the turtles to have their battle practice in, it provides a realistic battle simulation. This is where they held their health test for the clone and everyone else waited for them there already.

The metal machine looked like it belong to a gym, it was one of those where you sat and push at the bar above to workout your back muscles and arms, but in this case Leonid will be pushing it up above his head as far as he can.

"All right, here we are." Donatello annanounced as soon as the big metal doors hissed open, allowing them to enter, they stopped not that far from the machine. "Last stop before a clean bill of health. Your wounds are almost completely healed, I just want to test a few vitals and then—"

"Out of your cage and in to the Peacekeepers'." Leonid cut in almost a little too aggressively, he glared daggers at the two small turtles in front of him.

It left Donatello a little speachless, unsure how to answer even though he was there when his brother's clone and Y/N held a discussion about it not that long ago.

"Um... Let's just get through the test." Leonardo didn't want any awkward silence to stall them, and clearly avoided answering what is quite a very important to-be-fate of their guest. He and Donatello lead Leonid a little closer to the machine and Y/N joined Cody by their right side and far from Raphael who was leaning against the wall, they still hadn't talked since that one breakfast fiasco.

Although the slightest of Y/N's departure had left Leonid at unease he didn't let it show, and it's not like they were leaving, Y/N promised to stay until the very end of this test.

Donatello stood beside the machine, a remote in hand. "Push on the bar as hard as you can, but if anything really hurts just stop."

"Yeah, then we'll draw yous a nice bubble bath and get you a massage." Raphael drew out with dry sarcasm, his hand made a squeezing gesture like that of a shoulder massage.

Although Leonid shouldn't expect anything different from the turtle in the red mask, his prodding was not what he thought he'd do. He reciprocated Raphael's mocking with a scowl over his wide shoulder.

Y/N spared the terrapin in red a frown, Cody was just unsure how to react but he too thought it was a little odd. What irked Y/N the most that even the brothers or master Splinter, although confused, hadn't said a word back. Something like "shut up, Raph" would just be enough and it's not that hard to say. But Y/N knew that if they were the one to say that then the two would end up arguing, and then would be asked to leave which is something they can't allow to happen.

"Okay, so," Donatello cleared his throat and got Leonid's attention again. "You'll sit here but I have to drop the force field, can I do that?" he asked, and deep down he knew for certain that Leo's clone wouldn't try anything.

Leonid nodded without hesitation with a soft humph, as odd as it may be an attack is not on his mind right now and if his brothers were there they might think of him as a fool.

Leonardo was already ready and on alert, hand gripping at the hilt of one of his swords at his shell.

The force field went offline and it was clear in the air that only very few were worried now that he was free and in full health.

For a second he lifted his giant arms to look at his hands. Pushing the bar is easy as cake, but he's subconsciously aware that his ribs may till hurt like hell.

Here goes nothing...

With gritted teeth and a growled grunt Leonid sat down inside the machine, gripped the metal bar above his head and began to push.

The sudden weight his lazied muscles had to lift was uncomfortable, it burned from the inside a bit as he tried to stretch straight up his arms midst pushing, and his lower ribs on the right side were aching but it wasn't painful yet.

At any other time this would have been a piece of cake, but now Leonid's breaking a little sweat. It agitated him to look so weak in front of his enemies, his clone, the boy, and Y/N...

Donatello watched the raising numbers on the remote's screen, Michelangelo sneaking up closer behind him to have a look because he was curious to a fault. The turtle in purple rubbed one of his three fingers over his chin as he calculated inside his brain, thinking the situation over.

"By this time I expect more muscle strength." Donatello looked from his screen at Leonid to observe closely. "The mass is there but we may have to hold him a few more weeks just to make sure."

"Maybe we should change his diapers too." Raphael's snide remark was so sudden and unexpected that it brought back Leonid from his thoughts, he looked over with a startling gasp at the smaller terrapin that approached and he could feel his elbows momentarily buckle. "And how about a bottle while we're at it?"

Cody immediately grasped onto Y/N's arm with a slight tug as he watched the scene unravel, a silent plea for them to do something because he didn't like where this is going, that feeling was mutual on Y/N's side too.

Raphael went past his younger brother and his twin, right over to the machine and the blue turtle that is inside it, as if suddenly charged up with the pent-up emotions he had been bottling under his shell this whole time.

As soon as Michelangelo slowly backed up to Cody it was Y/N who took his empty spot by Donatello. Ready to interfere if no one else will, it just seemed like everyone was curious where this will lead to and what is Raphael's intent.

"SHUT UP!" Leonid growled as he snapped his desperate order as soon as Raphael got too close to his liking, he had to look away and squeeze his eye shut.

This made Raphael want to poke even deeper. "I mean, how old are you anyway? Just a few weeks out of the test tube? Then we shouldn't push the widdle guy so hard!" he gesgured at the clone and looked back at others, as if wanting allies on his side.

No matter how much Leonid wanted his brain to focus on the heavy weights to lift the small terrapin's mocking voice kept drilling into his ear, the helplessness and vulnerability he was cornered into felt unfair, making the rage slowly bubble up to the surface. The machine slowly and unnoticingly at first began to creak and groan.

And to mention his creation out of everything, something he tries to forcefully forget every night when falling asleep, to forget the pain and how afraid he felt.

But here is Raphael, spitting that into his face again, he doesn't even know what he's talking about! He wasn't there! He wasn't a damn lab rat to be made into a slave, nor his brothers!

Leonid didn't ask to be made! He didn't ask to be cloned!

Y/N finally snapped, having enough of him trying to ridicule their guest, this was down right cruel. "Raphael!"

"Raph! What are you doing?!" Leonardo shook off his stunned expression, although it still held some puzzlement under that strict frown.

A guttural, almost animalistic roar along with creaking metal shocked everyone. With groans and growls that wavered because of the struggle, Leonid began to push the bar harder, higher, and past it's limit quite quickly as he tried to let out his anger that began to pressure his shoulders and squeeze at his lungs — begging for it to be let out. It blinded him and with no care that the machine began to break down in a series of creaks and cracks and whipped electricity that buzzed and nipped down the bones of his hands, he kept pushing.

Donatello didn't like the sound of the alarm on his remote and he quickly pressed few buttons, to foresee the damage and see the health results. "He's definitely feeling better...!" he sounded alarmed, anxiety crawling up at his lungs for he didn't know what to do with that giant of a turtle that ignored his surroundings and really wouldn't listen to reason but the machine is not going to hold much longer if he keeps this up.

"Hah!" Raphael shouted with triumph, pointing at the clone with accusation before turning it into a pumping fist. "I knew you were fakin'! Playing possum so you can jump as later!"

Y/N inhaled sharply, trying to get every last bit of courage in their lungs as they stalked towards Raphael, grabbed him by his muscular shoulder with no care if their nails dug into the skin or the armor and turned him around, yelling into his face. "Enough! Stop it! You're worse than—"

They couldn't even finish their sentence when with Leonid's last cry of anger the machine blew up in a thick black smoke, whipping both Y/N and Raphael away onto the ground while others ducked down to avoid such fate.

Although it knocked the air out of their lungs, Y/N was alerted enough to see a metal, ripped piece of the machine incoming at abnormal speed. They quickly pushed at Raphael's chest by repelling from their kneeling by their toes to quickly close the gap, he fell onto his shell.

A burning, sharp pain ripped across Y/N's upper back and it felt like as if their bones were tingling. In their heroic attempt, they put themselves in danger and took the hit. But it was better than Raphael being headless!

Y/N yelled with bursting tears in their eyes, body curling forward and their forehead hit harshly against the cold floor once they fell.

They couldn't notice the falling metal collum of the machine, detaching from the whole thing, right at their curled and trembling form. But Leonid did. And in just a nick of time, with something squeezing painfully at his heart and his guts in a twist but the general pain as if numbed, he jumped onto his feet and in one wide jump closer he punched the heavy metal away with his left forearm that was supported by the grip of his right hand for a better strong-arm.

The threat was effectively disposed of and Y/N was partly unharmed. Leonid couldn't understand it but such sight in front of him made him feel..... so many things he couldn't name but knew were very negative, but there was also this strange relief.

Without a thought he fell on his knee and leaned to Y/N's curled body, their soft sniffles had his heart hurting. The back of their shirt stared to get soaked with their own blood. The metal panel wasn't that sharp to leave behind a clean cut.

He wanted to put his hand on their shoulder, comfort them the same way they did once when he was in pain and the meds hadn't yet kicked off.

But his hesitancy stopped him.

Maybe he would have done bigger damage than help.

The familiar anger surged through him again and he aimed it at the turtle by his left. Leonid, wouldn't he had a second for recollection, would have tackled Raphael while he was still down on the ground but he just towered over him with a rumbling, teeth-baring growl full of hate until the force field surrounded him again and Raphael was shielded from his wrath. And Leonid was grateful, he would have thorn the small turtle to pieces.

When Leonid pushed himself to stand, glaring down at Raphael with resentment, from the corner of his peripheral he saw Y/N being treated by Donatello with Cody by their other side as they tried to kneel up. And Leonid was really... really glad that they're alive. But he wasn't done with Raphael yet, and his other two brothers by his side aren't going to stop him.

"Think you're pretty smart. Think you figured me out." Leonid spat as he leaned just an inch over the sitting turtle, his wide and pent up shoulders casting a shadow over Raphael and he was clearly uncomfortable even though he tried to hide it behind his glare. "You don't understand anything about me!"

Raphael couldn't move a muscle, his brain didn't will it as he stared up at the blue clone that just saved his friend's life without hesitation and now he felt like he must be gaslit into thinking he's the bad guy here, he didn't like it but he had no words on his dry tongue to grasp.

"But it doesn't matter," Leonid's tone was a manifestation of defeat itself, his deep and growelly voice turned ever-so-slightly softer. "I'm just a monster." looking away, with his last words he walked back to the broken machine, just enough away from them to have a room to breathe without raising a suspicion that he's trying to escape.

Leonid just can't understand what came over him. It was none of his business if their human friend would've ended up squashed but his body acted faster than he expected. He could have wrung Raphael's neck before the shield came back online, but he couldn’t make himself to do it. Why? Had the month that he spent here made him go soft? Especially towards his enemies? He has a purpose being here and it would have been "two birds by one stone" situation. Perhaps it's better he didn't took the opportunity or he would have been way far away from the goal he's nearing.

But is Y/N really okay?

Closed fist collided against the already-broken-enough machine with a repressed growl in his throat. The tense pressure didn't go away. In fact, it got worse.

"Stupid human!" Leonid growelled those words with no spite and as silently as he could.

Y/N got themself hurt and now they're paying for the foolishness. But maybe if he hadn't lost his self-control in the first place...

Thinking of them in pain, curled up and bleeding had him more on edge. And why?! He's a sadist at heart! He should be laughing at their agony! Why is it just making him angry instead?! Is it because deep down, no matter how much he tried to deny that feeling, his consciousness had him in a turmoil of guilt?

There was always someone to blame.

He is to blame.

That's how he feels and thinks it's the most logical explanation.

It's his fault that Y/N ended up wounded. That his naive foolishness of letting them close enough to have his emotions affected like this, that he cares, now he has to deal with this blame of himself.

He hates it! He doesn't want to feel this way! Life was much simpler before he came here, before he met Y/N!

It's his own fault that he got himself into this, he detests—

A sudden approaching presence had Leonid look over his shoulder, startled. The turtle from whom's DNA he was cloned from stood behind him with an unreadable expression, but his katanas weren't drawn. But the clone didn't know what to expect now, he'd quite messed up.

Leonardo, with a simple order to his clone, took him back to the medbay and fortunately Leonid didn't had to see Raphael's face on the way back since everyone left before those two did.

Donatello and Cody were in the Medbay already, backs to the entrance, but the only thing that grabbed Leonid's attention like a stop sign was a long, open gash over Y/N's shoulder blades. The terrapin in purple already had it cleaned and was beginning to stitch it up, Cody held onto a little tray with doctor's instruments and the other hand was gripped by Y/N's trembling hand.

"You coming?"

Leonardo's voice grounded Leonid once again. He didn't even notice he stood like a statue at the open door and stared a little too long at Y/N's bare back, his clone patiently waited for him.

With a gruff grunt he descended down the stairs and automatically walked over to his bed to sit down while facing the big window, keeping his gaze at his two-toed feet. Leonardo used the remote to keep the force field in place so he wouldn't be able to roam around again before he joined the three, wanting to inspect the damage himself to have some sort of piece at heart, he was worried sick.

"Will you be alright?" the older turtle brother asked as soon as he walked over the desk to be face to face with his friend, hand gently placed at their knee.

Y/N was squeezing onti their shirt they held by one hand to cover their front for decency, avoiding being naked as a wee baby, fingers ticking at every prickle of the needle. They were grateful that Donatello went slow. Looking up at the blue masked terrapin, tugging on a lopsided smile was a failed attempt to soothe his worry. "Other than sleeping on my stomach for some time, and not to mention it will be itching like hell soon enough, I'll live."

Everyone actually appreciated that silly attempt of a joke, but it didn't sweeten Leonardo's distress that much. "Y/N..."

"I'm the one getting needled through, let me ease up or it will take the whole house to restrain me." they sighed with a little distress and discomfort, wiggling on the spot for a bit.

Leonardo's grip slightly tightened before his big thumb rubbed gently over their knee. "Alright, alright. But if it gets worse we will drop you off at a hospital, whether you like it or not."

"RogeEEEE—!!?" Y/N nearly jumped from their skin as the next stab of the needle was a bit too painful for them, their grip on Cody's hand tightened roughly and Leonardo put both hands on each of their knees to hold them down. "Ow! Ow! Ow...!" their yell became a whimper.

"Almost done." Donatello muttered, concentrated on his work.

"You're doing great, Y/N!" Cody tried to encourage them, voice slightly pitched for his hand still throbbed with slight stinging pain from Y/N's hold.

Although trying to keep good on his silent promise to himself, Leonid had to look over, Y/N's distress put him on edge and he felt... helpless.

And it made him all the more angrier.

It proved all the more that he became pathetically soft for worrying so much, but because of Y/N's personal story from earlier he at last had a clue about those emotions he's feeling and, partly, why.

Leonid looked out the window stubbornly, even had to force his muscles into obedience to turn his shell on them again.

"Ahh, tell me it was the last stab?" Y/N whined.

"You're making Donnie sound like a murderer." Cody chuckled wholeheartedly, rubbing his thumb over their knuckles, and it made Leonardo break into a soft smile.

"Oh, come on you guys, I'm not that twisted." Donatello tutted playfully, grinning slightly.

"Not yet anywa-AUCH!! Damn!!" Y/N yelped, little tears stinging the corner of their eyes. Thankfully, it was the last stitch, they registered it by the snap of the thread being cut.

"Sorry," Donatello murmured softly, placing the needle and scissors back on the tray Cody held. "I will have to bandage you to make sure you won't move, rip, or irritate the stitching. I think you two should leave, I can do this by myself."

"Right." Leonardo curtly nodded and patted Y/N's crown affectionately. "Come on Cody, let's check on others."

And by others, he meant Raphael.

After they left and it was certain they wouldn't return, Donatello picked out a roll of bandages from the small kit and Y/N already waited with their shirt on their lap and lifted arms from their sides.

Donatello tried to make it quick for their sake, but wasn't any less effective with his work.

"Man, was it always this cold in here?" Y/N weakly chuckled, watching goosebumps awaken and little hairs stand on their arms.

"Hmm, there's an open window in the hallway, the cold air could be coming from there." Donatello answered casually, the cold didn't really bother him since it wasn't freezing but perhaps this was a hint that Y/N wanted to have some privacy with Leonid for the last time. He didn't question it.

When Y/N's back was bandaged and some painkillers were handed over to them, Donatello left and they put their shirt back on carefully, any straining movement pulled at the stitching and was near painful. With an inhale of bravery, Y/N walked over to their quest, facing his dark-blue shell that has four sharp spikes growing from the edge of it, two each by the sides of his head. They added a certain charm to his look, Y/N did not stare at them all the time — nope. Not at all wondering if a minimal contact with the pointed end is sharp enough to make one bleed, noooo....

"Heya, Lee, thanks for that quick save. You didn't get hurt too, did you?" Y/N interwined their fingers, hands resting against their lower navel.

Leonid debated with himself what is the better option; talk or be silent. If he were to chose latter option it wouldn't make them leave, he's sure of that. But what is he to make out of their chirpful tone? He just saw that painful wound. That flesh-thorn, raw, nasty wound that was fatefully inflicted because of his temper.

But a human can't take such an injury this well, they're too fragile... That's the impression he got since the day he held one by their throat. Y/N may yet change another one of his views on life, a different perspective he hadn't experienced in his quick-birthed life with twisted views from the very origin of Sh'Okanabo's DNA.

"Why did you take th' hit?" Leonid forced himself to ask, teeth bared and rumbly voice low.

The question got Y/N slightly confused. Didn't they just talk about it this morning? But the fact he began talking back they didn't want to stall with an answer. "Raph can be a jerk at times but he's family. I'd risk my life even if it was someone else in his place."

Something twisted and flipped his gut. He did not like that answer. Y/N is way too kind, especially to those like Raphael, and it is why they get hurt the most!

"You could've been the headless one!" finally looking over his shoulder at them, voice raised a notch as his brows pinched into a frown lines on his forehead.

Without a bat of an eye, they answered; "I know. But it didn't happen."

Leonid was on his feet within seconds, irked, wide shoulders squared up and almost hitting into the force field that is in his way, preventing him from touching Y/N — not that he was about to hurt them but automatically he wanted to put his hands on their shoulder and kneel down to stare at them eye-to-eyes.

"You're so stupid!" he growled down at them but there was no heat of resentment behind those words. It was worry.

Y/N smiled sardonically for a second. Then they nodded before meeting his gaze just as sharply, yet gently at the same time while they came up with another creative comeback. "Yeah, maybe even insane, but I would do it again... Even for you."

Taken aback, Leonid straightened with a strangled inhale, golden eye wide open as he was fighting his speachlessness. "... Tch! Oh, please...!"

Y/N jumped into his retort before he could continue. "You saved me. And I owe you one! Besides, it's the least I can do for a friend. If you'd ever need help with something, feel welcome to ask me anytime."

"No... No, I won't! Because we. will. never. meet again after this. We are not friends! Freaks and humans don't do the pitiable bonding thing." Leonid argued back stubbornly with an echoing growl, hitting lightly the side of his fist against the transparent shield not to cause an alarm and leaned against that forearm.

Y/N watched his frown twist deeper, taut mouth exposing a half of front fangs. They took a step closer to the shield instead backing away like any other logical person would. "Why do you say that—"

"Look at me! You ain't blind not to see what's wrong with all- all this!!" Leonid leashed out, the raw rumble of his growl must have vibrated through the ground because Y/N could feel it their bones. It was a very odd tingling in a sense that it didn't made them feel any close to uncomfortable, quite the opposite. But the blue terrapin, unfocused on things around him as he kept on ranting, didn't even notice the slightest change of their demeanor.

Y/N watched his big hand gestues, flapping up and down by his plastron's chest of unnatural color close to a lime's peel, it was quite a contrast against the blue of his skin, the purple armor and the small pop of red here and there but it complimented his honey-colored eye.

"The only reason I helped was 'cuz I didn't wanna take th' damn blame, those small runts would have thrown it at me, but it looks like I'm still at fault even after saving your necks!— Guess where I'll be going? To jail! For the rest of my life, like any other freak! So, yea, you are welcome, Y/N!"

It felt like he has a baggage of emotions he had no clue what to do with, they could tell that he needs to let it out. Leonid was always the one who did the listening, now it was Y/N's turn.

"I-I don't care about you one bit! Because if I would— I would be the stupid, insane fool just like ya are for wanting to befriend a monster itself!!" there was something that wavered his tone, it wasn't anger, no matter how furious he tried to look.

Y/N gave him all the room he needed, they to each and every word his heavy heart spilled. Once he caught a breather after letting out out, Leonid was suprised with himself and hopelessly stared at Y/N as if he would have the confirmation that he either went insane or them confessing to not paying attention, a part of him didn't mind if it would be the second option.

But by the look of it they hang onto every world. "Shit."

Letting the silence settle for a little longer, Y/N swept their observant gaze over his face, maybe waiting if he would wish to continue amd what is it he fears to hear.

Leonid's attention dropped onto Y/N's lips that opened ever-so-slightly and with a gentle inhale the air filled their lungs and it felt like a preparation for another word that would punch out his own breath, leave him dizzy, and his heart will yearn to understand another new thing that he'd learned.

It makes him feel like a fool.

"Well... Well, I guess, it's a good thing you're no monster. They aren't capable of feeling, or just barely have one or two emotions." Y/N susurrated, trying to put them in a more lighthearted mood while not dismissing his feelings. They lifted their right hand and placed their palm on the transparent shield.

Leonid's face softened at the slight droop of sadness in their voice but looking at the welcoming openess of their hand had his limp left arm rise and his own three-fingered was invited to be placed over Y/N's. Although the force field was cold, and had an odd buzz sensation to the touch, he could feel the heat of their human skin that spread through him. He wished he felt that warmth the first thing he was let out of the lab tube, and for the rest of his days.

"... I wasn't born, I was made. So how can ya say I'm nothing close to a freak?" Leonid exhaled a little defeatedly, his forehead made a contact against the shield, bringing him that much close to them.

Without noticing, Y/N was a step closer to the force field too, staring at their hands and the contrast of how his is thrice the size. "You are still a living being before anything else. You deserve to be treated like anyone else, same goes to your family and I feel ashamed I can't do much with how others treat you with caution..."

There was a pang at his heart because of her genuineness, exhaling though his bared fangs and half-open lips softly created a fog puffle right in front of him.

Leonid blinked to consciousness from the staring before using his forearm to rest his forehead on instead on the harsh surface.

He opened his mouth, prepared to tell them they don't have to feel that way, that it didn't matter to him, that he didn't care but it would have only been half of a truth.

Y/N beat him to ask their question that had plagued their thoughts right after that accident at the Holo Dojo. "Why do you hate yourself so much...?"

Leonid didn't know how to answer that, nor if he should answer at all. "I just do" answer doesn't feel enough of a reason now that he had it on the tip of his tongue. He has so many reasons but it's hard for him to word, he didn't know how, and if Y/N takes everything to heart wouldn't it burden them unnecessarily?

Y/N watched him close his eye tightly, a deep frown pinched between his brows, his thin blue lips pinched is and they worried Leonid is forcing himself to answer when he doesn't want to.

"Don't- don't answer if you don't wanna. No one has the answer right away either, don't worry about it." Y/N softly tried to reassure him, tilting their chin just an inch away from the cold force field but subconsciousness denyed its presence there for a second. "And you still have time to learn about yourself, don't forget that." they offered him a smile.

Leonid looked back at them, holding in breath without realizing as he let the words sink in before he slowly exhaled, tension leaving his body and suddenly he felt a little tired. Their words were somewhat comforting.

Y/N took the time to discreetly jawn into their palm. The painkillers seem to have finally kicked in.

"Go rest..." Leonid gravelly voice had a softer tone, it was pleasing to listen to.

They stared at him before eventually nodding. "Alright, but right back at ya. I will prepare you the breakfast I promised, tomorrow." Y/N's smile was big and reached their tired eyes.

Leonid let out a small, throaty chuckle at which Y/N's eyes sparkled with glee once registering that sound. His responce was a nod with a rumbly hum. Their refreshing kindness always left him wonderstruck.

Forcing themself to push away from the force field but Y/N kept on looking up at Leonid with a graceful, yet a little silly, toothy smile. It was... the most adorable look he'd ever recieved in his life.

Y/N waved one last time by the doorway and Leonid watched them disappear into the hallway, straining his ears until he couldn't hear the sound of their feet on the polished stone floor then letting out a long sigh before sitting back down on his temporary bed and looked forward for another home-made, warm breakfast.

Leonid just didn't know that fate that night had other plans for him and he'd have to leave with his brothers' help without a proper goodbye to Y/N and the food they'd work hard on to make just for him.

Perhaps in the distant future, he would be able to visit the O'niel Penthouse with his brothers as guests and not enemies but not now when he still has to deal with Darius Dun's abuse. But not for long, he had enough to be treated like trash and witness his brothers getting bruised by that disgusting human male that like a coward uses a big metal suit to dominate over them. Soon that man won't even know what hit him and then Leonid and his brothers would be free.

[nickkcha]

Is Leo and Usagi the same height or is one taller than the other?

Almost the same height!! I like to think they're both too competitive about everything, when Usagi realized he was 5 cm taller he did never stop making bad jokes about it

They're so in love🚬

[cryinginmyroomsposts]

Be My Valentine | Ch- 1 "No"

pairing: Vernon x reader

genre: fluff, angst, slight crack, friends to lovers, non-idol!au, college au

summary: College was hard enough and the thought of spending Valentine’s Day alone and sad was not your style. And the best solution was to go on a platonic date with your best friend Vernon. It goes so well that it becomes a tradition until it gets messy… nothing ever goes wrong by pretend-dating your best friend right?

status: ongoing

a/n: first time trying something like this cuz I saw too many edits on Vernon’s Fire verse! Please tell me your feedback!

pictures from Pinterest!

As if the sheer cold of the dying February winter was not enough to make life miserable, it also had to be dubbed the month of love. You weren’t a cynic but you knew enough to understand that Valentine’s Day and the gala around it is all nothing but a big capitalistic scheme. As the happy couples invest in the meaningless gifts and expressions of their extravagant love, the lonely saps drown their sorrows in the name of self-love. But your biggest complaint against this whole bonanza is the forced self-hate, even though it usually felt perfectly normal to be single and you even enjoyed it, this time of the year it always felt worse.

Maybe you were just another miserable single sap.

This year was going to be different. You were determined. But also you didn’t want to go through the painful process of pretending to be interested in a guy who, like all the other ones, would either turn out to be misogynist, homophobe or a transphobe- which constitutes 90% of the available population in your uni.

Hence why you find yourself walking with purpose toward the university library with the sole motive of hunting down you’re too smart for his own good best friend of a year and a half, Vernon.

You still remember meeting that shy little boy on the first day of your undergrad, looking lost in the crowd of the class and hoping you would let him sit with you. All it took was an awkward introduction for both of you to build your solid friendship. It was a perfect match- him, a hardworking genius with very minimal social skills and you, an almost genius with the concentration skills of a goldfish.

Vernon might be top of the class, a computer nerd with the face of a young Leo DiCaprio but even he was prone to the February blues and having seen how miserable he was during the previous year Valentines Day, especially as he watched his high school ex go gallivanting about with his then-roommate, you were determined to make this year a good memory for both you.

Also, he is the only guy in the university that you trust and is capable of handling you at the height of your drunkenness.

Looking at your watch you realise that only 10 minutes are left before he leaves his sanctuary at the library and goes to his Virtual Reality class. Of course, you knew his schedule, and he knew yours. He also knew that you hated being left on read and yet chose to do the exact same thing when you had texted the previous night about your genius plan.

Wheezing you finally reach the third floor of the big library that hosted all varieties of nerds and unfortunately, couples (they're everywhere this month, ugh). Walking across rows of shelves interspersed with group tables filled with students seeking refuge from the harsh winter cold or simply biding time, you finally reach the semi-private cabins.

Counting down five from the cabin to your right, you march toward the one you knew Vernon would be in. And surely enough, when you peek your head through the partition separating the hooded figure on the chair, with headphones and his laptop, from the rest of the library.

His head is bent as if he was peering into the laptop through the screen and as you move closer to his chair to reprimand him you realise he is sleeping. Gently moving inside the cabin, standing near the table, facing him, you can see that he had slept while coding. It doesn’t even surprise you anymore.

“Hey douchebag”, you say as you tap lightly on his shoulders. He jerks awake and blinks a couple of times before you see the understanding of reality dawn on his face. Removing his headphones, he moves his chair lightly behind and ruffles his fluffy hair.

“What do YOU want?” He sounds like his usual annoyed self. If you didn’t know he truly did like you as a friend you'd be offended.

But you don’t mind the grumpiness one bit as you settle down on the little space on the table smiling lazily as he gets more annoyed by the disturbance to his ecosystem of peace.

“I want a lot of things, for instance, I want a big mansion on top of a hill just to relax in the summer. I want to know why dolphins were made to be sea creatures if they can’t even breathe in water. I want to know why my skin breaks out in hives due to stress ONLY on my left side. I want to know why I get horny when-“ “Please shut the fuck up.”

He cuts you off with his palms reaching up to cover your mouth mid-sentence. You try mumbling against his palm for a second before which he grips tighter effectively stopping any attempt on your side.

He slowly lifts his eyebrows to warn you against trying to babble again and you nod in affirmative to the same. His eyes thin as he considers your sincerity of shutting up and seemingly convinced releases his grip on your face.

“Why do you talk so much all the time!” He growls as he rubs his eyes while settling back on his chair and lets out a yawn. He looks so much like the freshman kid you met and less like the overworked junior that he is.

You shrug nonchalantly (or so you hope).

“Someone needs to balance your entire lack of energy.” He sighs and slumps back on his chair. “Yeah yeah, I’m not arguing with you anymore… I’ve learned it’s best to just agree with you.” You give him a sarcastic smile as you say, “They don’t call you smart without a reason.”

He responds with an incoherent dismissive grunt and after a moment begins to lean forward as he tilts his chair towards you with both his palms placed on either side of your thigh.

Oh.

“No.” That’s all he says, his brown eyes twinkling, mouth pressed into a straight line looking right at your eye. You're sitting on the inclination of the table and he's on the chair looking up at you, yet he looks so intimidating. Not that you are going to let him bother you.

Two can play this game.

You lean forward and meet his face, a good few inches apart, bring out the good old puppy dog eyes and whisper, “What is the ‘no’ for Hansol”. You purposefully use his Korean name knowing he gets annoyed when you say it (Not sure what that is about till now).

You can see him grinding his teeth beneath that calmness and a smirk naturally plays up your face.

“Quit it, y/n. I saw the text and I’m not going to do it. Get lost.” The words fall out of his mouth in a hurry as he continues to grit his teeth together and not lose eye contact.

“Oh, so you did leave me on read by purpose.” You fake a heartache with your left palm pressed on your chest and your right palm on your forehead. He sees you dramatically pretending to have a heart attack and headache at the same time for a good minute before he decides to end this charade. Just as he moves to get up from the chair you hold him down with your hands on his which were at the side of your thighs.

“Pleaseee”, this time the puppy dog eyes come out naturally. He looks at you for a second before sighing.

“Ugh! You’re impossible but alright.”

“Wait really?!” You squeal a little too loud in excitement and earn a dozen “shh”s in response from the general crowd in the library. Looking around apologetically and back at Vernon, you hold his hands in yours (they’re somehow always warm even in the depths of winter).

“Is that a yes?” Cue more puppy eyes. Another sigh. “I don’t have a choice do I!” Grinning wide, you say “Not really.”

Vernon looks to the side as if to consider something important before turning to you, looking down at your still-connected hands, and then your face.

“I’ll do it but it’s gotta be strictly platonic-“ you’re violently shaking your head in positive because of course that doesn’t need to be said.

“-andddd….”, he’s got a mischievous glint in his eyes which stinks of trouble for you. This is the same glint he had when you ended up eating a pizza with ice cream AND a steak.

“And?” You prod, curiosity up to the brim of your head. “I want you to formally ask me… now.” The grin has turned into an almost full bright smile. “What does formally mean?”

“I’ll leave the details to you…” he shrugs and removes his hands from yours and pushes the chair all the way back to the wall and folds his hand.

“I can wait all day”, he sounds way too proud, sitting there in his hoodie and that smirk(I swear he looks like an actual young Leo).

“No, you can’t. You have a class in-“, you make an ordeal of checking your watch, ”-exactly 9 mins.” He shrugs, “This is worth missing it.”

This bitch.

"Are you really cashing in your bet right now?" You ask referring to the advantage he got after you lost your bet in a UNO game six months back.

He just nods casually and stretches on the chair before settling in a lazy and proud position, again.

You groan knowing he won't give up and get down from the table and get on one knee facing him.

“Chwe Hansol Ve-“ “Nope. Redo.”

This actual bitch.

Giving him your best glare you adjust on your knee, clearing your throat, you try again.

“Vernon…”, you look at him for approval and he nods. Ugh.

“… will you be m-“

“Louder, I can’t hear you.” His grin has transformed into one of his signature all-teeth-visible smiles and his entire face is lit up in amusement and joy.

Clearing your throat a little too loudly, you try… for the third time. Humiliation and anger heat up your entire face.

“Vernon, will you be my platonic Valentine?”

Your voice echoes in the near-silent library halls and the minute you’re done at least another 20 “shhs” are once again thrown your way.

People are assholes.

Vernon looks positively thrilled. He is full-on laughing, shoulders jerking, all 32 of his teeth in display and eyes disappearing behind the light of his smile.

If only he didn’t look so wholesome and adorable when he humiliates you.

He straightens up after a couple seconds and rubs his index finger against in chin, in fake thought.

“Hmmmm...”

Oh god, he is planning something... shit

"No."

[correctproseka]

get rarepaird. akinene + mizushiho

Tbf the first things i get are usually rarepairs

Also im sorry akinene's is not as good as my usual hcs bc. Honestly im not as familiar with how their relationship would be

Who said “I love you” first

Akinene: Akito. He says it on such a win and he's the one to nearly die as soon as he realizes what he said

Mizushiho: Shiho, despite having the fame of being grumpy, Shiho also is more open to her feelings thanks to leo/need, Mizuki is cheerful but really closed off, so they'd never say it, but they're so fucking thankful that Shiho reciprocates it.

Who would have the other’s picture as their phone background

Akinene: hands down Akito, Nene probably has the default one tbh

Mizushiho: Mizuki. My girl's a simp and has a selfie of them together. Shiho says its cringy but smiles whenever she sees it.

Who leaves notes written in fog on the bathroom mirror

Akinene: tbf i dont think either would, but Akito draws on it for himself and Nene always comments that she liked it

Mizushiho: Mizuki again, she draws cat ears at Shiho's height so when Shiho leaves the shower she sees herself with drawn on cat ears on the mirror

Who buys the other cheesy gifts

Akinene: Probably both. Akito likes to give her flowers, Nene makes him chocolate

Mizushiho: Mizuki primarily, but Shiho likes to reciprocate with the sappiest shit she can think of and Mizuki always melts

Who initiated the first kiss

Akinene: Nene, after Akito confessed and they went on a date, she had to go on her tip toes though

Mizushiho: Shiho, i feel like Mizuki just annoyed her (lightheartedly) sm that Shiho kabedonned Mizuki and kissed them (also on her tip toes)

Who kisses the other awake in the morning

Akinene: Nene goes to sleep at the time Akito's waking up so she kisses him awake before passing out asleep at like 5am.

Mizushiho: both, depends on who wakes up earlier

Who starts tickle fights

Akinene: Akito, he lives with a sister he can't live without tickle fights anymore. Nene is used to it due to Emu but she's not strong enough to ever win one

Mizushiho: Mizuki. Shiho always ends up pinning them down and tickling (and kissing) them senseless tho

Who asks who if they can join the other in the shower

Akinene: Nene, but i feel like they both like a time for themselves where they can relax with just them yknow, Nene usually brings it up though

Mizushiho: Shiho, Mizuki is afraid Shiho will think they're disgusting despite Shiho knowing the secret already, slowly Mizuki starts asking more tho because they like to ramble about things and talk about their day

Who surprises the other in the middle of the day at work with lunch

Akinene: Akito doesn't have set work time but Nene usually does, so he tends to bring her lunch more often, she does the same when she has lunch time free

Mizushiho: Shiho, a similar reason as above, Shiho's work is practice and as they have Honami they rarely ever skip lunch, Honami always remembers the others, so Shiho ends up bringing Mizuki lunch during leo/needs break time because Mizuki 9 times out of 10 will be hyperfocusing and forgetting to eat

Who was nervous and shy on the first date

Akinene: both. Nene almost threw up before it. Akito made a bigger front and pretended he was confident though

Mizushiho: both, Shiho's panic was more subdue and she kept picking on her sleeves. Mizuki was screaming about which outfits to wear for three hours with Ena

Who kills/takes out the spiders

Akinene: Akito kills them

Mizushiho: Shiho takes them out

Who loudly proclaims their love when they’re drunk

Akinene: possibly Akito he's the loudest generally

Mizushiho: Mizuki would do it sober AND drunk dont underestimate them

[imagionationstation]

I expanded a bit on the separated au with Shinigami. Here’s extra if you care. I’d love to have your help in expanding this more…if you want to help. No pressure

But here’s basic stuff from my notes app

All turtles are 16 y/o. Leo, and Mikey are raised by Splinter. Raph is raised by Casey’s family. Donnie is raised by Shredder, than later “kidnapped” and raised by Shinigami. 

While exploring the sewers together, Raph and Donatello were swept up by a flood or something and were separated. Raph is found by Casey’s family after they thought it was hurt and lost child. Donnie is found by Shredder.

Shredder over works Donnie, with both his tech stuff as well as training. He’s also juts an asshole. Shinigami becomes Karai’s friend and sees how Shredder is treating Donnie and sneaks him home with her. Karai is distraught and betrayed that her friend took her brother. But Donnie left willingly and is doing great with Shinigami’s family. He’s even taught Magic by them.

After learning about the (idk) Donnie and Shinigami return to NYC where they meet Splinter, Leo, Mikey, April, Casey and Raph (who has already been told what happened and all that). 

Donnie begins staying with Splinter and everyone though he does visit Shinigami (‘s family) quite often or at least he video calls. 

He helps them fight Shredder, but tends to struggle when fighting karai (as he still typically sees her as his sister, though estrange). 

B-days and zodiac: (I chose random dates. Idk remember when their actual b-day is)

Leo - February 10th - Aquarius

Raph - April 2nd - Aries

Donnie - August 13th - Leo 

Mikey - October 11th - Libra

Turtle Species:

Leo - Red-Bellied Cooter

Raph - Red-Eared Slider

Donnie - Red-Eared Slider

Mikey - Golden Thread Turtle

Heights:

Leo - 5’4

Raph - 5’4

Donnie - 5’7

Mikey - 5’2

“Donnie begins staying with Splinter” How dare you split up the family. They raised him like their own and Shini made him her familiar and this is the thanks they get? His brothers can be the ones to do videos calls, you monster. /playful /joking

I imagine Shini stays in New York when he does. So she basically just enters the series earlier and makes herself a part of the family. Then Karai sees both of them and is like, “Leo, we cannot be friends until Shini gives him back” and Leo’s just “This is between you two, m’kay, I will do a lot for you but I have no control over that one.”

I love imagining that Donnie can do some of the stuff Shini can do (but she has the natural talent, obvi) like appearing out of nowhere and acting like he’s been standing in the room the whole time (the brothers can’t decide if he transports, is invisible, or something else entirely) and it always catches his brothers off guard.

How on earth did Splinter manage to adopt three different turtle species of the exact same age. Did he do that on purpose? Interrogate the pet store about all their ages to pick-and-choose possible pets? I mean, I know this is an unnecessary line of thought but I’m thinking it anyway.

Casey and Shini tolerate each other. The “my little brother evidently has an extended family that we had no idea about and I’m okay with that as long as the other family remembers that he was mine first” vibes are shared between them and it leads to rooftop conversations and bonding. Shini still won’t teach him magic, tho.

Donnie would die for that cat.

Headcanon lore: He actually almost does.

Other headcanon: Raph has the hardest time getting Donnie to like him until he gets cat toys. She had a hard time adapting to new surroundings and she relaxes for the first time in weeks.

Donnie instantly has a favorite brother.

Donnie: This is my only friend. I love her more than life itself.

Mikey: Oh, neat! Mine tastes better.

Donnie: What.