Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Five years had passed since the invasion, twenty-one years since Hamato Yoshi - aka Lou Jitsu - escaped his confines at the hands of an evil warrior scientist with his four infant sons.

He had spent that time raising a family he didn't ask for in a sewer home he didn't want to hide his mutant rat appearance he despised (and his four mutant turtle sons) from the humans, raising them on his movie star action hero life's savings, as well as royalties and the income trickling in from being the behind-the-scenes owner of the last remaining Lou Jitsu dojo in town.

But now his savings were dwindling, he could no longer rely on it as a means of caring for a large family of five, and it seemed as though he would never be able to marry off his sons.

Mikey occasionally enjoyed the flashy nightclub life - he only ever dated casually for the fun of it.

Raph had gone out with one girl but got in too heavy too fast and ended up getting his heart broken, so he swore off dating all together for the past two years and that didn't show any signs of changing anytime soon.

Although Donnie had the occasional passing crush and tried the dating scene once or twice he was figuratively married to his 'Baby' - his online tech store and the pursuit of outdoing himself time and again with the latest new piece of sic tech - so that he really only ever left home when he went out with his family on patrol or to hang out. (He would consider dating again if the right girl came along, but she would have to be something special to catch his eye and take his time away from his 'Baby'.)

And Leo never really had any interest whatsoever with the whole 'dating/forming romantic bonds with someone' scene.

Quite frankly he didn't see the appeal of it.

• Invite another person into his life?

He already had his family.

• Share his most intimate secrets with them?

His Tío Hueso took on a fatherly role in his life - even moreso since the krang invasion - and he felt comfortable sharing anything that was on his mind with him, even things he didn't share with his siblings.

• Share a room with them?

He liked his room just the way it was thank you very much - a place for everything and everything in its place. No place for changes, no desire for subtractions to make room for someone else's additions.

• Share a bed with them?

The thought sent a chill up his spine. It was not something he could ever see himself wanting to do, especially not after what the krang had done to him. The thought of being touched by another in an intimate manner always reminded him of Krang Prime's tendrils covering his shell in the prison dimension; as well as when they were slithering across his body, poking under his mask, and squeezing in behind his eyes when Krang tried to assimilate him and his brothers - so he could only ever see it as another intrusive, unwanted sensation.

Sure when he was younger there was some sort of faint attraction from time to time, but that turned out to be a phase that lasted no more than a couple of years and then faded away like his memories of the krang invasion (that were traumatic at the time but didn't affect his life so much anymore).

Mikey had once told him there was a word for how he felt but he couldn't quite remember what it was.

Aromantic?

Maybe.

But they weren't one for labels, so it didn't really matter.

So anyway, since he was stuck with his sons for the next forseeable future, Splinter demanded they all get jobs to provide for themselves.

Donnie was already set with a wildly profitable online Genius Build Apparel™ store that Shelldon (who he refurbished after the Shredder attack) mostly managed - giving him ample time to focus on creating and building his new inventions.

There was room for more in his growing business, so Mikey joined him and was given the task of putting his artistic skills to use maintaining and updating the website including all graphic designs (and even getting a little space for himself to sell his Razz-Matazz art), while Raph put his strength to good use by being the one who boxed up and shipped all the orders - whether big or small, light or heavy. And Leo...

Well Donnie approached to discuss the opportunity of opening a physical store in the Hidden City - not so much that he really needed or wanted a physical location considering how successful his online store was but because he wanted to give his twin brother an opportunity to join his team by doing one of the things he did best:

by being the store's faceman.

He had seen firsthand how time and time again Leo was very adept at talking himself out of (or putting himself in to if he so desired) difficult situations - even to the point that about a year before the krang invasion when he portalled them to an arctic yokai settlement - because they apparently had a little mom-and-pop cafe that made the best espresso in the world so Donnie insisted on trying it out - he somehow managed to sell sea ice to a penguin yokai for a little cash to buy a BLÅHAJ the next time they visited the yokai version of Ikea in the Hidden City (because Raph's was getting old and worn so he wouldn't share it anymore).

But Leo wasn't interested in that, he wanted to strike out on his own - to find a way to remind himself that although his family played a big role in shaping who he was he was still more than the sum of his parts. So since their New York hero vigilante work kept them up all hours of the night most weekends he found the perfect part-time job working as a ninjitsu assistant at a night time dojo in the Hidden City that catered to yokai who were naturally nocturnal.

So in this way the mutant family settled into a new norm with the events of the earth-shattering invasion fading into the back of their minds.

Sure Raph's eye still itched on occasion from his double mutation and Mikey's hands sometimes trembled from opening the portal if he pushed himself too hard; Donnie sometimes squirmed under his battle shell and had to leave his soft shell exposed to the air from the memories of being ripped from the technodrome, and Leo still woke up from time to time with nightmares of being in the prison dimension and his shell still bothered him on cold days from the remnants of cracks that had healed from Krang Prime's attack; but overall things were peaceful and quiet for the family who decided to stick together - with a healthy dose of excitement thrown in over the years from fighting villains that were ordinary and of the 'super' variety with their hero vigilante work.

Until one day...

The light sound of fingers clicking on keys was only broken occasionally by the slurping of coffee as Donnie was sitting at his computer desk, working on a new project, with his lab door open behind him as a way to let his brothers know they were welcome to come in and hang out whenever they wanted.

Breakfast was over for everyone except Leo - who slept in - and Donnie casually sipped some more coffee as the sound of snapping turtle feet reached his ears. But instead of joining him in his lab, Donnie listened as Raph walked past - heading to Leo's bedroom.

The light sound of clicking continued with background noise adding to the ambiance.

knock, knock, knock

"Hey buddy, you awake?"

There was the sound of a door squeaking on its hinges and then the noise cut out, indicating Raph must have gone into Leo's room, until...

"You're my brother, not my dad so stop trying to act like one!" Leo yelled.

Donnie stopped his typing to listen in.

Leo and Raph hadn't had a single heated argument ever since the krang invasion five years prior - when Leo started taking his hero/leader role seriously - and it was uncharacteristic for his twin to fly off the handle like that - especially in connection to their big brother filling in the void and providing a sense of stability and comfort by taking on a fatherly role in their lives in place of their emotionally absent dad, which was something they all appreciated and never really had any qualms with.

The sound of angry shouting grew in volume because Leo left his room and was taking the one-sided argument out into the hallway where a loud turtle voice was broken in between a quieter one.

"And dad doesn't care that I was out!" Leo continued in his exasperated tone of voice. "I told him when I came home and all he did was roll over and fall back asleep, so BACK OFF!!!"

"I only asked if you were out Le...did you get hurt? You're walking kinda funny."

"Yes I was out late, I needed to clear my head after work!"

The voices got louder as Leo stormed down the hall, but he spun around on his heels outside Donnie's lab door to glare at Raph (who still wasn't raising his voice) with his concerned big brother repeating his previous unanswered question by asking: "Are you hurt bro?"

Leo readjusted the back of his hoodie he was wearing - pulling down on the bottom - glanced at Donnie (who was not hiding the fact that he was listening in to this curious interaction) rubbed at an old wound Krang Prime gave to him on his plastron when he split his shell from his chest all the way down to the bottom, and lowered his voice while retaining his tense body language when he said (lied): "My shell's still sore from the cold night air is all."

The worried tension in Raph's voice left and was replaced with loving tenderness from Leo's statement, and he kindly offered: "You want me to get that shell ointment and..." "No, I don't want you TOUCHING me!!!" Leo unexpectedly screamed at his caring big brother, tensing his body more than it already was and clenching his fists all over again with spit flying out of his mouth from the ferocity of the words he spewed out at him.

Ok that was really weird. Next to Mikey Leo was the most huggy-feely of the bunch - usually seeking out someone to hug or cuddle with before starting his daily routine.

The lair fell silent and the air seemed to still for just a moment as Raph was left speechless and Leo just glared at him before tugging at various parts of his hoodie - as though he was physically uncomfortable - before glancing at Donnie and spinning around on his heels to storm away.

And that was the beginning of a day marking a confusing change in their red-eared slider brother that no one could explain.