#something small i've been working on with my turt friends :)

[theashemarie]

Aftershocks - a ROTTMNT Fic

Chapter 1: Mikey: We’ll Be Fine Eventually

(Art by @katiemonz)

[The Krang invasion is over, but the recovery is going to be long and hard. No one said winning would be easy.

A story of recovery told from five perspectives. Mikey has new mystic powers and a family that refuses to talk about what happened, Donnie has his tech to worry about, Raph is trying to be strong while processing what happened to him, Leo has a concussion and a stubborn refusal to be idle, and April has a family of shattered brothers and one Casey Jones to watch out for.]

Read on AO3.

After they got home, they slept for upwards of sixteen hours. All seven of them: Dad in his chair and the rest on the floor in a huge pile. It was a hard and dreamless sleep, and Mikey woke at one point with Leo’s elbow in his side and Donnie’s foot in his face. Raph was curled around them, and Mikey saw the hole in his shell up close for the first time. He closed his eyes to it and, when he slept again, it was just as dreamless, but, as he was dropping off, he heard cracking.

Before they passed out, there was the customary ribbing. Leo disappeared to take a long, indulgent shower, which had Raph shaking the door with the force of his fists, demanding he hurry up. Donnie scrubbed his face in the kitchen sink and, upon seeing Mikey sitting in the middle of the main room, aching down to his bones, with April already curled up, fast asleep on the hard floor, and Casey muttering with Dad in the corner, waved his hand, insisted he was fine, and took a few steps toward the lab. He didn’t get very far though, just dead dropped right there, as the day caught up with him, as the multiple falls, crashes, almost crushes, and attempted mind controls caught up with him, as his body gave in. He crumpled to the floor, and they left him there until Raph and Mikey had piled all their mattresses and blankets together. Then, Raph lifted April and Donnie into place, he and Mikey settled Leo down with two glares, and they crashed themselves, with Dad already snoring in his chair and Casey lying wide awake on the edge.

Mikey was the last to wake, a full sixteen earth hours later. The world was fuzzy and lit weird, and he realized a bit belatedly that he had the blanket pulled up over his head. When he poked his eyes out, he found everyone except Donnie sitting up around him. Leo and April were looking at their phones, Dad was sitting at the table, staring tersely at the wall with his hands folded in front of him, Casey was standing at an arcade cabinet, not playing but studying the animation of the start screen, and Raph was sitting close, watching the lump that was his youngest brother. When he realized that Mikey was awake, he grinned and called his name, which made everyone perk up and turn to him, large, strained grins crossing their faces.

It was incredibly fake, but Mikey appreciated the effort. He sat up, felt his head twinge, then his arms, then his whole body. Right. He probably shouldn’t move too fast.

Everyone else was hunched in pain, drawing their bodies into large swoops to accommodate the injuries they would no doubt have to take stock of over the coming days. Raph was closest and his eye was red and swollen, his shell jagged and raw above the left shoulder, cuts lacing up his arms and legs, but, other than the obvious, his shell was intact and without injury.

“How are you feeling, bud?” Raph asked, big hand coming out to help Mikey sit fully. He felt something crack in his neck, which sent a lance of pain up behind his eyes, and, for a second, all his saw was his own hands, disintegrating and peeling, as a power he could barely contain surged through him. He blinked once, hard, and came back to himself. His hands were resting in his lap, whole and intact, and he swallowed.

“Fine,” he answered, trying to sound chipper. It didn’t work, but everyone seemed to agree that, in context, fine with a touch of brokenness was as good as they could expect. Leo let out a long, hard breath, and fell back with his arm covering his eyes.

“Where’s Donnie?” Mikey continued when no one spoke.

Five heads turned in the direction of the lab. Just there, if he focused, Mikey realized he could hear the low sound of electronic bass thudding through the floor.

“You know how he gets,” Raph said.

Leo sighed and curled up on his side. He was bruised, with a large, bandaged cut across one arm, and a swollen lip. His shell was in one piece.

They sat in silence, and it occurred to Mikey that they had all been waiting for him. He was the last to wake, and now that he was up, they had no direction, no goal, no anything. All they had was their wounds and each other.

“Now what?” Casey asked, turning to lean backwards on the cabinet. Behind him, Pac-Man chased a few multicolored blobs back and forth.

They looked at each other again, and no one had an answer.

[Read the rest on AO3.]