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tangledinink · 1 year

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Yayyy, another I'm Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now? sidefic! You guys voted for the Carol POV, so here it is! Read it on ao3 or below the cut!

Carol wasn’t surprised when she felt little hands tapping at her leg-- she had five children in her house right now, after all, all ranging from the ages of six and eight. She was no stranger to the occasional kid grabbing for her attention, (though they were trying to gently encourage them all to use their words…)

She was, however, a bit surprised when she looked down, pausing in her current task of chopping up fruit, to see Donnie staring up at her expectantly. Because, quite frankly, Donnie usually wanted very little to do with her.

She had known these kids for nearly two years now, and she was pretty sure he still basically considered her a stranger. Which was fine. She was nothing if not patient. She was raising April, for god’s sake, she had to be. But she had to admit-- two years was a long time to be patient for.

She could hardly believe that so much time had already passed. She remembered when the Hamatos first moved in next door. It was hard to forget, frankly, as the entire affair had kicked off with April excitedly running to find her, flinging herself up onto the couch and into her lap, quite nearly shattering half her bones in the process.

“April! The living room is not an extreme sports stadium--”

“Mama!” April had gasped, ignoring her entirely. “Mama, there’s people moving into the apartment next door!”

Carol had paused for a moment, blinking in quiet surprise. They had new tenants already? The building had been empty for some time since that house fire back when April was still a baby, and she was aware that someone had bought it-- a new landlord, she assumed-- and had started to do work on the place. But that had only been a month or so ago, if even. Surely they couldn’t be completely done with all the needed repairs and renovations, could they? And had already found new tenants? Who would be desperate enough to rent an apartment that was still under repairs-- and then move in?

“Are you sure they’re not just the construction people, sweetheart?” She had asked, raising a brow, and April shook her head firmly, her lips curving into a pout.

“Nu-uh! They’re moving people! They were moving a couch! I saw them!” She insisted, pointing. “Here! Come look!”

And Carol had sighed, not especially wanting to get up, but she did anyway, following after her daughter to peer out the window of their apartment, and.

Huh.

She supposed she was right. They were movers.

“See? I told you! People are moving in!” April cried, gesturing to the window.

“I stand corrected,” Carol remarked, leaning back and placing a hand on her hips, frowning a bit. Well, that was odd. She wondered if anyone from the apartments upstairs knew anything about this… She’d have to corner Jackalyn the next time she ran into her.

“Well. It looks like we’re getting new neighbors,” she had mused, crossing her arms over her chest, and silently saying a prayer that it wasn’t anyone crazy. And when she asked her husband about it later, in the evening, after April had already been put to bed and they were curled up on the couch watching TV, he had said, “I heard that someone bought up the whole building and is moving in themselves,” and she had raised up a brow and thought, ‘that whole building? All to themselves?’ and then thought ‘oh great, they probably are crazy. Rich and eccentric crazy.’

---

It would take another month before Carol discovered that they were, in fact, crazy. Rich and eccentric crazy. Just not the exact brand that she was expecting.

“August!” She hissed fervently into her cell phone once she was in the safety of her own apartment again, absolutely vibrating.

“Carol? What’s wrong, hun?”

“Our neighbor is Lou Jitsu!”

“... Excuse me?”

“The new neighbor! The person who just moved in next door-- it’s the Lou Jitsu! I just ran into him outside!” She pressed.

“... Lou Jitsu the actor? With the ramen brand?”

“Yes! Him! The Lou Jitsu!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!” Carol insisted. “It’s actually him! I asked! And he admitted it! Lou Jitsu the action film star bought out the entire brownstone next door!”

“... Huh. Well damn. that’s… interesting.”

“And he has four babies.”

“I’m sorry, he what?”

---

It would be a week after that phone call when her April came running into the house, absolutely covered in filth from head-to-toe, (oh god, her hair,) and cheerfully informed her that the kids from next door were her new best friends and that they were very weird, but she liked them a lot.

Well… great. That was fantastic.

Their next-door neighbor was a rich, famous action film star from Hollywood, the literal teenage heartthrob of the 80’s, and he had four little kids that played in the garbage with her kid.

…How... wonderful.

But it made April happy, and she wasn’t the type of parent to try to control who her kid made friends with, (especially when April already had a hard time with it,) so they kept playing together. They were right next door, after all, and April already spent a great deal of time wandering around in the little dead-end alley between the two apartment buildings, with the door propped open so Carol could hear her and keep an eye on her, and it seemed so did Lou Jitsu’s boys, so…

They saw each other, sure. She would catch sight of the actor across the way through the window, watching the kids play, and he would see her, and they would wave. And sometimes they’d go out into the alley at the same time for one reason or another, and they’d say hello and make a bit of small talk, but it would be another week and a half after April’s declaration of friendship before Lou Jitsu the famous action film star from Hollywood and the literal teenage heartthrob of the 80’s invited her and her child over to their house for tea.

“You’ll like them, Mama,” April had excitedly informed her as laced up her sneakers, grinning up at her with big eyes.

“Mmm-hmmm.”

“They’re super weird. One of them has stripes on his face--”

“April, baby, that’s not very nice.”

“But he does! They’re stripes. He says they are.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

“He’s really funny. And annoying. And he has a twin brother, and he doesn’t know how to talk yet, but he makes noises like cheep cheep cheep and they’re funny, and he can build robots! And they have a little helicopter with a remote and he can fly it so good. And then one of them can pick me and Mikey up at the same time! And he can kick a ball so far, Mama, it’s cool!!!”

“I see.”

“And then one of ‘em--”

“April, baby, are you almost done with your shoes?”

“Uh-huh,” April reported, scrambling up to her feet.

“Okay. Let’s go then, okay? Are you ready?”

“Yep!” April confirmed easily, scampering over to her mom’s side to grab onto her hand. Ooh, Carol wished she felt as enthusiastic as she did...

“Alright. Let’s go,” she said, taking in a long, deep breath before letting it out through her nose and making the long, arduous trek to the next-door neighbor’s house, hesitating for just a moment before she rang the doorbell.

“I’LL GET IT! I’LL GET IT!”

“NO, I WANNA DO IT!”

“IT’S MY TURN--”

She could already hear boisterous screams from inside, and she couldn’t resist the tiniest smile. The shrieks of children quickly became clatters and thunks, however, and a moment later, the door swung open, and she was met by three children-- two wrestling with each other viciously in the background, and the third holding open the door, staring up at her with wide eyes.

“Hi.”

“Raph!” April squeaked in delight, wasting no time in throwing herself at the larger child, who beamed in response, scooping her up in a hug and lifting her up off the ground with ease as she giggled. Raph? Didn’t April say they were the same age? Jesus, what is he feeding this kid…

“What did I say about best behavior!? This is not best behavior!” A voice rang through the chaos a moment later, and a somewhat frazzled-looking man stepped into her field of vision, scooping the two wrestling children up off the ground with a sweep of his arms.

“Orange, stop it-- Blue, let go of his hair!” He scolded, separating them. “Or you will not get to play with Miss April!”

“He started it!” One of the children, (who, admittedly, did kind of have stripes over his eyes,) accused.

“Doesn’t matter. Shoo. Go sit in the living room. No more hitting,” he insisted, waving them both off, before he quickly moved to the doorway.

“I am so sorry about that…! Raphael, what did we say about opening the door by ourselves?”

“Uhmmmmmm,” the child stared up at their father, seeming to hesitate for a second. “... To not to?”

“Exactly,” he said, and Carol couldn’t help but smile a tiny bit at the long-suffering tone in his voice. “Go and check your little brothers aren’t still fighting for me real quick, okay?”

“Okay!” Raphael agreed easily, finally letting go of her daughter in order to scamper off, and Lou Jitsu sighed deeply. And he hesitated for a second. And he chuckled sheepishly and moved to the side.

“Sorry about that…! Here-- please. Come in.”

“Oh-- it’s fine!” Carol assured, laughing nervously as she slowly made her way inside. April wasted no time at all, happy to invite herself in and scamper down the hallway. “I know how children are…!”

“Yes, well…! I thought, since the kids are such good friends, it would be a good idea for us to get a chance to… chat!” He said, and Carol was quietly shocked that he seemed nervous. Lou Jitsu, the famous movie film star from Hollywood and literal teenage heartthrob from the 80’s…

Was nervous to talk to her?

… Somehow that made her feel so much more at ease.

And she was shocked by how truly pleasant their chat over tea ended up being.

She supposed she had perhaps come into this with a few preconceived notions, but Yoshi was a lot more down-to-earth than she expected, and the way he talked about his children was, quite frankly, heart-warming. The two of them chatted about the horrors of the administrative side of the New York public school systems, the tribulations of trying to keep their kids from breaking their own necks with their over-enthusiastic acrobatics, and of all the crazy stories that they brought home to them when they went out to play together. And by the time Carol was herding April back out the door, quite a few hours later, to head back home, they already had plans for their next visit the same time next week.

It wasn’t until Carol got back home to their own apartment that she realized she had only seen three boys during their trip.

“April, honey,” she had said, glancing down at the child. “Doesn’t Mr. Hamato have four kids?”

“Yeah,” April had replied with a hum. “But Donnie didn’t wanna play today, Leo said, so he stayed in his room.”

And that had been odd, but Carol had told herself not to think too deeply on it, concluding that he must just be shy, and let it go.

---

It was after four playdates, during which she saw neither hide nor hair of this alleged twin brother that Leo had, that Carol finally, hesitantly, gently brought it up to Yoshi. And he had laughed nervously, looking to the side.

“Ah. Well. Purple doesn’t really like… new things very much,” he had explained slowly. “He’s not shy, exactly, he’s just… particular. I’m worried he might be a little… overwhelmed, I think the move has been hard on him--”

Carol hadn’t realized she was opening up such floodgates. But she listened anyway, suspecting quietly that he had never had a chance to talk about any of this with anyone else before.

She hadn’t expected herself to get so damn attached to a kid who she had literally never met before.

She had already quietly garnered a great deal of private sympathy for Yoshi in the time she had known him. Just April was already plenty for her, thank you very much, and she had August to help her. Yoshi was doing things, it seemed, entirely on his own-- and he had literally four times as many children as she did. Besides that, she wouldn’t sit here and pretend like she hadn’t read any of the news articles about him over the past fifteen years or so... But as Yoshi fret in a hushed tone over how his other three boys seemed to be doing so well but Donnie seemed to be struggling so much, she couldn’t help but feel her heartstrings quiver in response.

Really, she didn’t mind being a sounding board. She didn’t have any more experience or insight than he did that she could pass along, but she got the impression that at least being able to talk about it helped. And so, when their pediatrician suggested testing, and Yoshi worried about whether or not it was the right choice, she had been happy to listen. And when they started school and Yoshi agonized over how Donnie in particular would fare, she listened to that, too. And when Donnie was diagnosed with autism, she listened, and she did some quiet research at home in her own time, just for the sake of knowing. And when Yoshi excitedly showed her the sign language the family had started learning, over the moon that his child was taking to it so well and that he was finally able to communicate with him without being forced to jump through a million hoops first, she had celebrated with him and then started learning the language, too, along with her husband and daughter. And when Yoshi had told her that Donnie had started talking out loud sometimes in the home, tearing up a little as he did so, so had she, even though she still didn’t even know the kid. But she had heard a million stories about him, both from Yoshi and from April, and for a minute there, it had seemed like he was having such a hard time.

But now it seemed like he was making so much progress so fast, and she couldn’t help but be overjoyed on his behalf.

---

The Hamatos had been her next-door neighbors for about four months before she finally did, in fact, meet Donatello.

In fact, he opened the door for her when she rang the doorbell.

April was, of course, completely unphased. She gasped in absolute delight at the sight of the elder Hamato twin, absolutely dancing on the tips of her toes.

“DONNIE! Are you gonna play with us today!?”

He had kept quiet for a moment, glancing up at Carol with narrowed, suspicious eyes, and then he nodded.

“Can we do the robot battle thing?!”

He nodded again, shifting a bit so that they could come inside, and Carol was trying so, so hard not to gape.

It wasn’t like she had never seen Donnie before. She had seen him plenty of times. He and his brothers and April played in the alley outside the house all the time, of course, she had seen him. She had just never seen him… up close. He always made himself scarce any time she went outside to check on April or speak with her or bring her in for the evening, finding the nearest hiding place each time with shocking speed, and he had certainly never acknowledged her in any way before.

She felt stupidly giddy over something as small as a five-year-old glaring at her, and she cleared her throat a little as she stepped into the apartment, carefully toeing her shoes off.

“Do you know where your Dad is, Donnie?”

Donnie had kept quiet for a second, seeming to consider this, before he nodded, pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

“Oh, okay. Thank you.”

And she wasn’t very good at sign language yet, but he had just barely glanced up at her before he put his head back down and signed, ‘you’re welcome,’ and oh my god she could have cried.

---

After that, Donnie would come down to play every time she and April visited. He still hid sometimes when she came out into the alley, but he did it less and less often as time went by, and Carol considered that a success in and of itself.

It was about two weeks after she had properly met him that she finally got up the courage to bring up the sorry state of the poor boy’s hair. And Yoshi had groaned softly, burying his face in his hands.

“I know! I know, it’s awful. I have no idea what I’m doing,” he lamented. “I started bringing the other boys to a hairdresser, but Donnie won’t let anyone else touch him,” he explained wearily. “We tried, and he bit the poor woman! I’m still trying to figure it out, but he just has such little tolerance for it! I can only get him to sit with me and work on it for maybe five or ten minutes at a time before he’s ready to bite me, too…!”

And Carol had pursed her lips, and eventually said,

“Can I help?”

And so, she had started the process of teaching Yoshi how to take care of his sons’ hair properly. And Yoshi really had been trying-- he had done his research, and he wasn’t doing a horrible job or anything, by all accounts, he was just inexperienced. And Donnie was maybe a… difficult case.

Donatello had no interest in letting Carol touch him, which was fine. He had several brothers, one of which had a pretty similar hair texture to his own, that she could use as a stand-in to show Yoshi the ropes. And slowly but surely, they made progress. Donnie still didn’t enjoy the process of having his hair messed with. He deeply resented the experience of any kind of oil or hair product going on his head and touching his scalp, (it broke Carol’s heart the first time she and Yoshi made him cry under her tutelage,) and he’d only allow them to work with him in relatively short bursts before he got overwhelmed and needed a break-- but that was okay! They took it one step at a time, and eventually, over a period of nearly a week and a half, she managed to not only breathe some life back into the poor kid’s hair but to get it all out of the chunky little braids he had had in for the past five months.

And Carol thought to herself that even with it looking far less than its best, Donatello had the most beautiful, coily little black curls.

---

It had been a little under a year when her husband had come home in the evening after work, taking the time to give April about a dozen kisses and talk to her about her day for a bit before he wandered into the kitchen to join her, pecking her lips in greeting.

“Hey, hon.”

“Hey. How was work?”

“It was good, it was good… Hey. So. I was thinking…”

Carol raised a brow, immediately glancing over her shoulder to give August a look. Thinking, was he?

“Don’t gimme those eyes! It’s not bad!” He protested, laughing softly, and she chuckled a bit in response.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I ran into Yoshi the other day, and… what do you think about April going home with him after school?” He questioned.

Carol paused, frowning a bit.

“... You mean, get Yoshi to babysit our kid?” She echoed incredulously. “August, that poor man already has four of his own!”

“I know! I know! But we were talking, and, I mean. He basically suggested it!” August defended. “And you know how much April hates those after-school programs,”

Carol sighed, wrinkling her nose, her shoulders slumping slightly.

“She’s been getting a bit better recently…”

“Yeah. But. Look,” he sighed. “Half of Yoshi’s kids go straight to some sport or class or what-have-you in the afternoon, anyway! And they all go to the same school! So… He just picks April up with the rest of the kids, gets everyone dropped off where they need to go, and brings the leftovers home for the day. And when we get off of work, we just gotta grab her from next door!” He said. “Plus, if Yoshi is already carting kids around, then maybe she could, you know, actually participate in some other things! Maybe enroll in one of those extracurriculars with the Hamato boys instead of just sitting around at the program until five-thirty. You know she’d love that.”

Carol pursed her lips, wrinkling her nose.

She would admit-- she hated that her seven-year-old spent so much time stuck at school. If either August or herself could afford to do so, she’d happily go pick April up from school every day herself and spend the afternoons with her, but they just couldn’t anymore. The nature of August’s job just didn’t allow for it, and Carol had already taken four years off from work to be a stay-at-home mom. And then spent two years after that only working part-time, so she could be flexible enough with her hours that she could do things like take April to and from school, but…

She couldn’t just do that forever. Firstly, because living in New York City and raising a child was expensive, and they both had very good jobs with rather nice salaries, but they also lived in a very nice apartment in a very nice part of the city, and just August’s income alone wasn’t gonna cut it-- especially if they wanted to send April to college one day. And secondly, because…

Quite frankly, Carol loved her job. And she was good at it, too! You don’t just get a job at NBC for nothing. And really, Carol adored her daughter to pieces-- she did. She wouldn’t give her up for the world. And she had zero regrets about taking the time off to stay home with her until she went to preschool. And she didn’t regret being part-time for two years, either. She loved being a mom!

But she loved being a news anchor, too. She really, really did. And she couldn’t just watch her career from the sidelines forever and expect it to still be there when she got back.

They had considered getting an after-school nanny for a while after Carol decided to go back to work, but they were expensive to say the least, and every time they interviewed a potential for the job, April firmly declared that she hated them by the end of it. And when they had pitched the after-school program to her, April had seemed open to it. What is appealing, in theory, however, was not always quite as good in practice. April had only been going to the program for about two weeks before she declared that she hated that, too.

It really wasn’t her fault. April had always been a little bit of an… energetic kid, and while she wasn’t trouble, per se, she had a tendency to get herself into trouble when she was bored. Call it counter-intuitive, but that was half of why Carol tended to be so lax with her daughter and allow her to do things like run around in the alley by herself. April was a clever kid! And sure, she could keep April inside in the apartment with her and only allow her outside when she was right there with her watching her every move and supervising her properly, but… She knew from experience that this would only inevitably lead to April feeling confined and cooped up, growing restless and understimulated, and then somehow bringing about the most unimaginable mayhem possible into their home. And Carol and August just didn’t have enough time in the day to spend every moment sitting outside and watching her.

If April had the freedom to roam and explore a bit, then Carol had found, much to her delight, that she usually made pretty good choices. And when she was allowed to wander the alley on her own, she’d end the days by excitedly showing her parents the massive chalk mural that she had drawn on the walls of the alley, or explaining to them the science experiment she was running after noticing an oil slick on a puddle, or pleading to visit the library so she could get some books on entomology, ‘cause she had seen a really neat bug outside and she wanted to figure out what it was.

… It wasn’t that April didn’t like school! It really wasn’t. She liked learning, and she liked most of her teachers, and she liked the routine and the stimulation. But it was just… it was a long time to ask April not to explore.

Add in the after-school program? That was over nine hours.

Carol sighed, tilting her head back and pursing her lips.

“We can’t just ask him to watch her for free! And this is not me agreeing to this either, I just… Even if he is already going that way, you and I both know April is a bit of a handful…!”

“I know,” August assured, holding his palms out. “I totally agree. That’s actually kind of why Yoshi brought it up…? Uhhh. While we’re on the topic…”

He gave a sort of a lopsided grin.

“How would you feel about watching the Hamato kids a few nights a week and for part of the weekends?”

---

So the Hamatos and the O'Neils worked out their deal.

Yoshi picked April up from school, along with the rest of his children, and would ensure each child got where they needed to go. If April had an after-school activity with one of the boys that day, (and August had been right, she was thrilled to start taking gymnastics classes and sign up for robotics club,) that’s where she’d go, and if not, she’d end up back home with Yoshi and any other child who didn’t have an extracurricular that day. And once August and Carol got home from work, they’d stop by to pick her up. And on the evenings and weekends when Yoshi was attending award show events or appearing on a talk show or managing his dojos, August and Carol would watch the Hamato kids in return.

This had been their arrangement for about a year now. And frankly, it worked out beautifully. Carol had long ago ended up adoring each and each one of the Hamato children, and the two families had grown close, because how could they not? She and August tucked the Hamato kids into bed at least a few times every month. They and their Dad regularly came over for meals or accompanied them on trips to places like the zoo or the aquarium. By now, she knew all their favorite foods and songs, their tells when they were lying, and their favorite hiding places.

She had, at one point, tried to convince the boys that they could just call her “Carol,” but when she had pitched it to the group, April had gasped loudly in offense and said that that was too weird, and if anything, they should just call her ‘mom.’ And then Mikey had declared that they didn’t have a mom. And then Raph had argued that they did have a mom, she was just dead. And then Leo had refuted that they did have a mom, and she wasn’t dead, she just didn’t love any of them. And then Donnie had signed something in ASL, too quick for her to quite catch, and Leo had nodded and quickly corrected himself, clarifying that their mom was probably alive and also existed, but she didn’t love any of them and also wanted their father to die.

She had changed the subject after that, and they still just called her ‘Mrs. O’Neil’ or ‘April’s Mom.’

But still, despite all this, Donnie seemed to hold her at arm’s length. And that was okay...! She knew it would take him a while, and he was no obligation to even like her at all, ever, if he didn’t want to. He tolerated her just fine, even if he still didn’t speak around her or August. Even if he still didn’t allow himself to be touched by either of them, declined to be tucked in or receive good night kisses, only satisfied and willing to consider sleep once he got a phone call and a picture from their dad. Even if he still usually declined to even sign to her directly, instead signing to one of his siblings or April and allowing them to translate.

... But now here he was, standing by her side and staring up at her expectantly through slightly crooked glasses, blinking widely at her.

God, for a second, Carol thought that something must have happened and someone must be hurt because Donnie never came to get her. Even if he needed something or wanted something from her, he’d send a messenger in his wake. He certainly didn’t come up and tap for her attention. A little bit of anxiety rising up in her chest, she quickly dropped what she was doing, crouching down next to the seven-year-old.

“Hey, Donnie. Is something wrong?”

Donnie frowned, wrinkling up his nose for a second before shaking his head.

Carol bit back a sigh of relief.

Which immediately then blossomed into near giddiness, which she also had to hold back. He was here to talk to her, and no one was even dying!?

“Okay. Did you need something?”

He pursed his lips, his frown deepening, sort of flapping his hands for a moment before he reached up, tugging at the twists of his hair. And Carol sort of floundered for a moment, because she wasn’t quite sure what Donnie was trying to tell her.

“Your hair? Do you need--”

And then she kind of paused, blinking for a moment, frowning.

Wait. Why were they doing this?

Donnie could sign. So why wasn’t he signing? Was he still not comfortable talking to her directly…?

And then she thought to herself-- you can sign, too, Carol. Why don’t you try signing?

And she thought to herself, what a good question.

So she did.

‘Is there something the matter with your hair? Or your head?’

And Donnie blinked in surprise, staring at her for a second and looking her up and down as if shocked to see her speaking his language. And Carol sighed inwardly, because okay, look, she knew that her ASL wasn’t the best-- even April easily outpaced her-- but she really could do it!!! He knew that, didn’t he?

(… Didn’t he?)

After a long beat of silence... he signed back to her.

‘Can my hair be puffy like April’s and yours is, please?’

And jesus christ.

She could have cried.

And it was so silly! Because all that had happened was one of the neighbor’s kids had asked her if he could get his hair done.

But he had never signed to her before.

Well aware that she probably looked ridiculous, but absolutely beaming anyway, she nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yeah...! Yeah, of course you can, sweetheart. I’ll let your dad know so when he gets home--’

‘Can you do it now?’

Surely she was in an alternative dimension. Or some sort of dreamscape. Or the children had arranged some sort of convoluted, cruel prank on her.

‘You want me to do it?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Are you sure? You know I’ll have to touch you, right?’

‘Yeah,’ he confirmed again, nodding. ‘I don’t wanna wait. And Mikey said you do it better than Dad can.’

Carol checked her watch quickly, though she was pretty sure that even if she only had another ten minutes until their Dad got home, she’d still agree.

‘Yeah! Sure. Let me just finish this and I’ll come join you in the living room in a minute, okay?’

‘Okay,’ Donnie agreed, before narrowing his eyes. ‘But you have to stop when I tell you to.’

‘Yeah, of course, sweetheart. We can take breaks whenever you want.’

‘Okay,’ he repeated, nodding firmly, turning to head off as if he hadn’t done anything significant at all, while Carol leaned against the counter and took a moment to compose herself.

... He signed at her!

They talked to each other!

And he was going to let her do his hair!?

She was still kind of waiting to see if the rug was gonna be pulled out from under her, and while she was doing that, she heard an exchange take place in the living room, the sound carrying over to her in the kitchen.

“Donnie! Me and Mikey are gonna do a cartwheel contest. Do you wanna come?!”

That was Leo’s voice. She recognized Leo’s voice.

“No. April’s Mom is gonna fix my hair.”

She hadn’t heard that voice before.

“Okay! I’ll tell you who won!” Leo replied easily, running off, and Carol did kind of tear up now, despite herself.

Because he hadn’t spoken to her. Not out loud, anyway. They weren’t there yet, and she was fine with that.

But she had never heard Donnie’s voice before. Not in words.

He was in her home, and she was watching him, and he trusted her enough to let her touch him. He was comfortable enough with her to come to her and sign with her.

He felt safe enough that he could speak out loud to his brother in her home.

She resisted the urge to whip out her phone and call Yoshi right this very moment so she could tearfully and proudly report this to him. She would tell him everything later. But right now, she had a job to do.

She took a deep breath, settling herself. She finished cutting up the fruit she had been working on, leaving them out on a plate on the kitchen table for easy access for anyone who wanted it.

And, so as not to leave Donnie waiting, she made her way into the living room to get to work.