#Leo ties bow to keep lil bro's mask tails clean

[pezhead]

Hello!

I have been following your age gap au for a bit and love it so much. Man, if he had hair, Leo’s is gonna be gray by the time he’s ready for the surface, running around after all his brothers. Poor kid needs a bit of a break.

Do you have any drawings/ideas for Donnie and Leo bonding at all? They’re one of my favorite underrated duos in 12.

[imagionationstation]

I would LOVE to hear more about your gender swapped Donnie! (It’s one of my favorite tropes!) I can just imagine her with her mask tails tied back in a big bow so they don’t get in the way while she’s working.

Also, I know you write a lot of de-aged Donnie, have you considered her bros reaction if she was turned into a baby? Would it actually be any different than for normal Donnie?

Thank you! I would LOVE to rant about her!

She WOULD though! Thank you so much for that character inspiration because that is absolutely perfect canon now. Her reasoning is that she wants to keep her mask tails out of the way when she's working with delicate or difficult experiments, but she also just likes having them up in a bow. She often forgets when they're tied like that and Mikey uses it as an excuse to play with them.

Braids don't really work with the minuscule fabric, but neither turtle is particularly worried about it. I can see Donnie propped on the couch working on her laptop and Mikey sitting cross-legged behind her, single-handedly discovering every single way to tie a bow/knot as he watches whatever show is on the tv.

Literally, baby Dee has been on my mind way too often as this AU has been taking shape. GAH. Precious creature. 💜

Hmmm... I think it depends?

If we're talking a Lone Rat And Cubs baby...

Male turtles are very territorial over their females. We add that in with the human male instinct to protect small humans/females. Plus the fact that their sister has gone from a brash teen to a tiny, confused, vulnerable child with a shell that can fit in the palm of their hand-

The first reaction would obviously be panic.

If the change happens in public, big bro instincts are cranked all the way up. White eyes, small huddle, hissing, not letting any being outside the turtle social circle close (sorry Master Splinter). Mikey doesn't know what this new emotion is, but he's about to punch everyone in the near vicinity if they so much as look at her wrong. They'll come around eventually, but only once they find a moment to escape into solitude and actually process what happened to Donnie.

If it happens in private, they're going to be more concerned about the fact that, yk, she a baby. After a completely normal freak-out, there's a lot of nuzzles and cooing and debating if other people should be involved in the fact that she tiny. It's more likely that they'll come around quickly in this instance, but there will be lots of hovering.

There will probably be lots of hovering in any instance.

I like to be silly with the idea that Leo would be overprotective, but I deem each brother an unreasonable, defensive mess.

Other than that...

I think I wouldn't change very much about baby care.

They'd care for Dona in the same way that they'd care for Don. A lot of trying to keep her grabby hands away from explode-y things or large objects so she doesn't die before they can turn her into a teen again. They have to be careful when putting her down because she will take off when they blink and suddenly end up under a bed or splashing in one of the pools around the lair.

The most untrustworthy of bebe turtles.

She also has a bad habit of sticking things in her mouth. Anything. Everything. Doesn't matter if it's humanly possible to fit or not. She will experiment and she will find out for herself.

No one knows how she gets her hands on half the things that she does. She was born in the ways of the ninja snatch.

(I like to imagine that Donnie was downright awful at keeping anything that she ever wore clean. She was consistently staining every outfit that was ever put on her to the point that Splinter stopped trying. It's not like she would be any less modest than her brothers. They had their shells and he left it at that.)

None of them grew up with clothes, so the brothers don't quite understand why April deems it necessary to drag out her old stuff and try to match outfits for the lil' turtle, paired with an absurd number of headbands/bows. She claims that they're only to help keep her warm, but they can't help but notice that she's weirdly invested. And if Karai's around at the time, they're even more baffled that she's all in on the dress-up, with far more 'superior' clothing, usually black or grayed with gothic imagery.

And Donnie's so small that even with the shell, they manage to find adorable, comfortable things that can fit her.

The brothers are left scratching their heads at them being so insistent at using her like a doll. Yeah, sure, she's cute, but she's also cute without them so what's the big deal...?

The girls get snippy when the brothers question it, so they quickly back off. As a baby, Dona has no opinion, content to let it happen.

All of them end up getting pictures.

(Not entirely for blackmail purposes 💜)