Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Splinter was a rat.

A pet, in fact! He had been this little girl's pet for a long time. He had seen her grow and age, and he was so proud of her. She treated him very well, and, honestly, he was a bit fat. That is only because she spoiled him with so many treats! He did not blame himself for being a little chunky.

Then something unexpected happened. The girl who had cared for him so long was the daughter of a ninja, a very large clan of them, as a matter of fact. They were well-known for being both strong and dangerous, as well as gentle. They opened their doors to someone. They allowed the individual to remain there without charge, and the person they allowed to stay there betrayed them.

Splinter had escaped from his cage and was running around, his eyes wide, looking for the little girl. It was blindingly bright from the flames that were devouring everything around them, like a monster that no one could ever hope to control.

The 'kindly' stranger they met and welcomed into their home turned out to be a member of a rival family, and they decided it would be best to eliminate this clan because they were growing too powerful too quickly. 

That night, the air was thick with smoke and the revolting odor of blood. He had to leap out of the way as some splattered onto the ground in front of him, the body falling and landing. After the final blow, a gargled scream was cut off as blood bubbled out of the cut. He turned and ran away, trying not to look at the blurred shapes around him and trying to drown out the screams and shouts.

And to ignore the stench of burning bodies that tried to get into his nose. Friends', loved ones', and family members' bodies.

His little paws came to a halt when he saw something he did not want to see. The young girl was buried beneath the rubble. He dashed over to her, squeaking in an attempt to catch her attention. She opens her eyes and slowly reaches up to pet him, mumbling something that he couldn't quite understand, and before he could even lean into the touch, it fell onto the ground. He frowns the best that he could and nudges his head under her hand, trying to get her to move. She didn’t.

She would never do it again.

"Are you all right, Sensei?" He heard something, which caused him to blink, and then he looked down to see his four boys, all of whom were frowning at him. Leonardo was the one who spoke up to ask the question. They were all sitting on their knees, hands resting on them, as they waited for him to tell them what to do. He had been telling them about the type of training they were going to do before he got lost in thought, he assumed. That is unusual because it has not happened in a long time.

Yes, after that accident, Splinter got mutated into a giant rat man, and after that, he met four little turtles who were also mutated. He came across them after they had mutated. He knew they would not be able to survive without him because they were so small and young, so he adopted them! Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo—he would name them after characters in a book he remembered his owner reading all the time. Humans who excelled in the arts and a few other fields! He hoped that naming them like that would endow them with amazing abilities similar to those of humans. 

"I am fine, Leonardo. I was simply lost in thought... thank you." He clears his throat and goes back to explaining what they were supposed to be doing today. As he spoke, his tail shifted back and forth on the ground.

He has trained his sons in the manner in which ninjas are supposed to be trained. Cold, unfeeling, and powerful! Unlike the ninja family with whom he had grown up, any time they misbehaved, they would be punished. He knew it was necessary—kindness would be the death of you; he knew that firsthand.

Once he had finished telling them what they needed to do, he turned and began to walk out of the room. "Do not let me down today, boys," he said as he walked out of the room to his own. He needed to figure out a few things before returning to ensure they were following his instructions.

Leonardo was the oldest and, according to Splinter, the second best. He was smooth, intelligent, and skilled; unfortunately, he still had a lot to learn, and Splinter would gladly teach him. From a young age, Leonardo allowed what he saw to scare him and make him worry, so Splinter took that chance away from him. Leonardo's mask, which Splinter had given him, had no holes for his eyes, so he had to rely on his other senses rather than his sight! Splinter knew that removing the mask would allow him to do so much more when he was more used to fighting with the mask on. Take one sense away, and the others will become stronger. Leonardo used to let his mind wander and his thoughts work against him when he was younger. Conjuring imaginary threats, or a wandering mind creating visions of grandeur. Each, an unforgiven distraction. He was better now, and Splinter was pleased with himself for assisting his son. He remembered how he used to jump at almost every sound and how he was frequently seen fiddling with his mask tails. After Splinter kept smacking his hand with his own tail, it slowly stopped.

The next one was Donatello. The weakest in body is, ironically, the most powerful in mind. He made quite a few things for them, and Splinter was proud of him; however, he could do more, and he often tells Donatello that. He needs more training; he needs to create more to cover up the fact that he was the weakest out of the four. Splinter was irritated because he had recently lost one of his arms in an accident, and his training had to change as a result. If he had prioritized his training over his creations, he might not have lost his arm! When he told Donatello this, the purple turtle tensed, then agreed and apologized—not enough, it seems, because he still did things in his lab. It appeared to be even more than before! Also, Donatello would not always accept the food Splinter prepared for him, which irritated Splinter because he spent so much time preparing it! He openly admitted that Donatello was his least favorite child.

The third youngest was Raphael. He was the most obnoxious of the kids, frequently lashing out, and Splinter often had to send him to his room without eating. If he did not respect him enough to listen, then why should he eat the food that Splinter made? Splinter was only trying to help him, he needed to understand. He listened more now that he was older, and he frequently bit his tongue before responding. Splinter did not see him speak much, and he seemed to be mostly focused on training, which Splinter admired. When he was younger, he got into an accident and ran away, returning with a few wounds and a broken shell. Of course Splinter told him that it was his own fault for running off, and he gave him bandages, telling him that he got himself into this mess, so now he could figure out how to help himself. One of the wounds, the one on his cheek, was scarred. After that, he began to wear pants, which Splinter thought was strange; however, he never asked about it. Now that he thought about it, none of them knew what happened to him when he ran away.

And the youngest, and the one that Splinter had the most hope for, was Michelangelo. He had two distinct eye colors, and his mask was orange. For a long time, he was one of the most annoying of the four, as he kept trying to play instead of train. He remembered locking him in his room and telling him he could come out when he stopped behaving like a child and began behaving like a ninja. He was devoting a lot of his time to training them, and if Michelangelo does not respect him enough to listen, then he does not deserve the attention that Splinter was giving him. Even though Michelangelo did not always listen and focus, when he did, he was incredibly strong, and he even knocked Splinter down once! His eyes glowed with delight. That being said, he might… have had a few different emotions mixed in there? A strange coldness that Splinter could not be certain if he saw or not. He just got up that day, patted Michelangelo on the top of his head, and went to focus on the others.

All in all, he was training them to be better than the ninja family that he grew up with, and he knew that they were going to be better because of it. The phantom heat of fire and singed fur was a constant reminder of why he did these things. 

He was removing their negative characteristics. He was stopping Donatello from allowing his body to fade just because he enjoys working on his electronics—that he still never understood himself. He kept Michelangelo from squandering his natural abilities simply because he wanted to play. He stopped Leonardo from using his mind against him, and Raphael's anger issues vanished! He was very proud of himself for helping his sons; even if he had to be a little tough on them, they would thank him later.

After he left the training room, the four turtles continued their training as they were told. Donatello was striking at the dummy with his staff, Michelangelo was standing on top of a pole, one of his legs crossed over the other, his eyes shut as he tried to focus on balancing, and Raphael and Leonardo were training against each other.

After the accident that happened to Michelangelo to give him all the scars that he had, his leg was wobbly, and Splinter knew that, so he often put him up onto the pole to try to fix his balance. It always made Michelangelo's heart pound in his chest, even if he had to hide it. He was terrified of falling and injuring himself! Plus, keeping his eyes shut made him unable to tell exactly.

Splinter said that they had to be unfeeling, and any emotion shown that he didn't agree with would be punished. They were either sent to bed without eating, smacked on the wrist or hands, or, worst case scenario, forced to sleep in the sewers for the night… something Raphael has experienced more than he would like to admit.

He always hated that punishment the most.

Speaking of Raphael, the whacks that he was giving to Leonardo were being blocked or dodged, and he was starting to lose his temper, so he presses forward quickly and strikes at him fast. The pain from the sai striking his plastron shoots through Leonardo's muscles like fire, and he hisses through his teeth, tightening his grip on his own weapon. 

"Raph, what are you doing?" He tried to keep his voice steady, even calm, but it was difficult. Raphael just kept trying to land the hit against his brother, "shut up!" He snarls. He was sick and tired of it! He was tired of all of this crap! Why did this stupid rat have to find them? Why were they forced to deal with this? They were only teenagers! He raises his sai again, except before he can do anything, his wrist is grabbed, causing his blood to turn cold. Slowly, he raised his eyes to see Splinter staring down at him.

"Raphael… What are you doing? I told you two to train rather than attack." His voice was cold, and the others soon fell silent, only watching. They did not know what to do; should they continue training? Should they stop? What was going to happen? "I…" Raphael opens his mouth, but ultimately he quickly closes it, unsure what he was supposed to say. He let his temper get the best of him once more, and he injured his brother, even if it was only a minor scratch. His throat felt so tight and dry, "I didn't…" He was feeling awful right now.

Splinter narrows his eyes and tightens his grip, his sharp nails digging into the green skin of his student. "You have a mouth; do not do things if you cannot speak about your own failures."

Raphael shut his eyes tight as the pain shot through his wrist, and he snarled at him, snapping, "Is that why you never talk to us? You just tell us what to do for training! I am ti-" he came to a halt when he heard a loud smack sound. His eyes widen, and he reaches up to touch his cheek, which has already started to go a light red from the force of the smack. "Bite your tongue! I am your teacher; I am not your friend! I feed you, I house you, and I clothe you. You should be respectful of me." Splinter spat the words as if they were acid on his tongue: "If you cannot do something as simple as that, how can you ever hope to be a ninja? If you keep acting out, you might end up killing yourself or your brothers one day. Is that what you are after? Do you want to kill them?"

Raphael lowered his head and muttered, "No, Sensei, I am sorry… This will not happen again. I swear." Splinter huffs softly and shakes his head, letting Raphael's hand go, and turns to leave the room again, "Don't let it happen again. Return to your training. I don't want to have to come back in here to solve issues." And then he was gone, leaving the four behind. Michelangelo leaps down and rushes over to hug his brother, who hugs back just as quickly, his face hidden behind Michelangelo's shoulder.

Sometimes he wished that he did get killed; then he wouldn't have to deal with this stuff anymore. None of them could ever be good enough! Michelangelo was the one who almost always comforted Raphael; he was the only one that he would allow to do that. Donatello tried occasionally, though sadly, he almost always failed.

Leonardo moves to cross his arms over his chest, feeling the necklace he wore shift across his skin. He wasn't too upset at Raphael for attacking him like that; it didn't even hurt too bad, and he knew that Raphael had a lot of stuff going on in his mind. He lashed out, and Leonardo didn't blame him for what happened. "Hey, why don't… we go topside for a little while?" he suggested, catching the others' attention. "We need to get out of here for a bit, I think."

"Won't we get in trouble?" Donatello asks, his voice soft and trembling. "Sensei told us that we needed to train; if he comes back and we're not here, what is he going to do to us?" He brings his mask tail up to his mouth to chew on it, his stomach churning. Eating was becoming more difficult for him every day, either because he did something to get into trouble and Splinter took the chance away from him or because he said something and Donatello felt bad about eating, so he didn't, except then Splinter would sometimes tell him how bad of a child he was… it was difficult to win.

No, it is not difficult; it is impossible. With his sensei, it was impossible to win.

Leonardo remained silent for a few seconds, his mind racing with different ideas, before sighing slowly and shaking his head before responding, "I will handle it. I came up with the idea." then turns and starts to walk towards the exit, listening for anything around him. The other turtles exchanged glances before following, and before they knew it, they were on top! It was late at night, with the city lights shining brightly and the stars sparkling like gemstones in the night sky.

Michelangelo leans over the edge of the building, surveying the traffic below. "Whoooaaa… guys, do you see all of these lights? They're so pretty!" He allowed his lips to go up in a grin; however, he paused and shook his head, standing up straight. no, no, smiling wasn't allowed! He looks around, fiddling with his fingers and wearing a deep frown on his face that he couldn’t help but have. If Splinter had seen that… Donatello looks at him, gets his own tiny smile, and reaches over to pat the top of Michelangelo's head, telling him, "You're allowed to smile; sensei isn't here." He looks around, as if he needed to double-check.

"Plus, I don't think Leo can see the glow, can you?" Raphael swings his arm around Leonardo's shoulders, pulling him down to his height. Raphael was the shortest out of them, standing at 4'10, while Michelangelo was at 5’ and Leonardo was 5'4. Donatello was the tallest, standing at 5'7! He liked to brag about his height on occasion, mostly to tease his brothers… Raphael. He did it to tease Raphael. Michelangelo snorts and begins to laugh, covering his mouth to avoid offending his older brother. He was still laughing, though.

Leonardo rolls his eyes behind the cloth and lightly nips at Raphael's arm, who jolted and pushed his face away, snapping—not exactly in anger, just shock that he got bit. "Did you bite me just now?!" That made Michelangelo bust out laughing with his arms around his stomach, and Donatello put his hand over his mouth. Oh, that is ridiculous. Leonardo then nips at Raphael's hand, and Raphael squints, reaching up to pull and push at Leonardo's cheeks, huffing, "Stop biting me, you damn weirdo." Leonardo reaches up and places his hands on top of Raphael's, attempting to pull them away from his cheeks. "Ow, ow, ow!"

Not his cheeks!

They were relieved to be able to escape the sewers for a short while and relax in this manner. They were all trying to be playful and joke around, but they were all scared to be like this; there was no way they could do this too much. Donatello was concerned about Leonardo right now as well, wondering what their sensei would do to him. If Raphael got smacked just for talking back and snapping, then what was going to happen to Leonardo because they left? Leonardo disobeyed a strict rule! And he knew that he could say it wasn't just Leonardo's idea, but… Donatello was nervous. His mind racing with different thoughts, he slowly stopped laughing and wrapped his arm around himself, turning his head down. The fleeting joy drifted from his body like streamers billowing in the wind. Man…

The others were too focused on their own games to notice where his thoughts were; in any case, they all froze when a voice shouted, "Quiet down! People are trying to sleep!" It was a girl's voice that shouted.

Michelangelo bites the inside of his cheek, his gaze drawn away from the others, before leaning over and shouting back, "hey! I'm sorry, we're not used to being allowed out!" And Raphael reaches over to smack the back of his head, asking him in a harsh tone, "don't say that! What is the matter with you?" Michelangelo holds onto his head, letting out a sound of shock, and he looks over, frowning. That is not right, man! What was the point of hitting him?

"Raph, don't hit Mikey." Leonardo told him, and Raphael snapped, "Why not? He's talking to some random person! Sensei would do so much more than that." Leonardo squints behind his mask and responds fast, "Then you have to be better than him; don't compare yourself to him." They continue to argue, Donatello moving his hand up to try to cover his ears; annoyingly, he couldn't since he only had one hand.

Michelangelo tried his best to get them to stop arguing by saying that it was fine and that it didn't hurt too bad. He didn't like hearing how angry Raphael was or how… monotone Leonardo was. He didn't even sound upset! Just blank, and that made Michelangelo uncomfortable because that's how Splinter was trying to raise them.

Ultimately, once more, they froze when the door slammed open and they looked over. The door had been locked! What? There was a girl standing there, putting a bobby pin back into her pocket, then pausing when she saw them. She looks between the four of them, "Oh, huh, you guys are… wow." She rubs the side of her head, confused since this is not what she was expecting! What the heck were these guys doing up here?

It was a girl wearing a long white nightgown that had some lace on it. Her eyes were a bright green, standing out against her darkish skin. Her hair was darker and wavy; some was pulled forward into poofy balls hanging over her shoulders. Her eyes shot between the four of them, and the four turtles were still standing, frozen. Donatello whispers, "Maybe if we don't move, she won't see us?" Raphael looks at him in a silent way of saying, 'are you that stupid?' she's a human, not a dino! What the hell, Donatello?

"Uh, no, no, I can… I can see you." She slowly walks closer, looking them over, "what's with the whole, I dunno, get up? I mean, I've heard furries before, but isn't this a bit much? You guys like… scalies? Or something?" She reaches up, closest to Michelangelo, so she cups his cheeks, gently squishing them, "Wow, they're so life-like too; where do you guys get it from? Why are you doing it up here in the middle of the night?"

Michelangelo bites the inside of his cheek, trying not to laugh, and he averts his eyes while Raphael reaches over and pushes her hands away from Michelangelo's face, telling her, "Don't touch my brother; what is wrong with you?" he hugs Michelangelo close to his chest, glaring at her. He blinks at the random hugging since… didn't he just get hit a bit ago? He just shrugs and hugs back, his tail wagging happily.

She blinks, holding up her hands, "Whoa, hey, I was just… wait-" she looks down at her hands and at them, and her eyes widen. She then points, waving her arm, "You guys aren't in suits!?" She shouted her question.

Donatello panics and reaches up to quickly cover her mouth with his hand, shaking his head, "Wait, wait, please don't shout. People can't see us. If they see us, people could freak out. We aren’t bad or dangerous, I promise." She smacks his hand away, about to say something, when Leonardo moves in front of her and blows a thick white powder into her face. She starts to cough, wiping her hands over her face to try to wipe it away, then she stumbles and falls forward, where Leonardo catches her in his arms.

"What was that?" Donatello asks quickly, "Why did you use the sleeping powder on her? How did you even get that? Do you just carry that with you? What are we going to do with her? We can't just leave her up here! Is she dead? Oh my god, she's dead; we killed her! We're criminals." He holds the side of his head with his hand, eyes wide. He was going to have a panic attack. "I'm gonna throw up; someone give me a bag; I'm going to be sick."

Michelangelo walks over and rubs Donatello's shell after pulling away from Raphael, and he looks over, deciding to ask a question while looking at the now sleeping human. "What are we going to do with her? We don't know which room she came from, and I don't think we can take her with us?" Also, he really didn't think that she was dead; that was just Donatello being easily worried because he was… well… he was him.

"I didn't plan for that… she was shouting, so I did what was needed." He stands up straight, moving to hold her bridal style. She wasn't too heavy, so he didn't mind doing that at all. Come on, guys, he panicked!

Raphael starts to laugh, and he shakes his head, muttering under his breath. He looks around, thinking about what to do, then looks over and points over his shoulder, suggesting, "She probably has a key for her room; we could see the number on the key and take her to that room? D, you can hack stuff, right?"

"Yeah? I mean… yeah." Donatello mumbles, nodding to show his approval. The rubbing helped him calm down at least a little, so he was happy about that.

And with that, Donatello went to hack into the cameras so they would start to glitch out or stop recording for a little while as his brothers went to take the human to her bedroom. Michelangelo walked beside Leonardo, studying her, and smiled, "She's pretty." He really liked her hair! It had a nice style.

Raphael looks down at the key that they found, reading the number, and looks over his shoulder at them, then goes ‘ tsh’ and shakes his head, "Not really; she's just some weird human. Ain't anything special." Leonardo wasn't going to add anything since he couldn't agree or disagree; he hadn't been able to see what she looked like yet.

They get to the room number that was on the key, and Raphael unlocks the door. They walk in, and Leonardo moves her slightly in his arms, asking, "Where is her bed?" none of them answered since they were busy looking around. There were a lot of papers on the walls, with strings connecting a few of them together. Some of them were newspaper clippings or stuff that she may have printed off the computer. "Guys?" Leonardo continued, frowning when his siblings didn't respond to him.

"Shut up, Blue; this is creepy." Raphael hisses through his teeth, making Leonardo shut his mouth in a tight line and let out a soft hum. Come on, man, why do you have to be so mean? Raphael walks over to one of the papers and reads it. There was a story about a clan getting slaughtered during the night, and the homes were burned. There was only one survivor, a little boy. As Raphael read, he noticed that a lot of the papers were talking about either that village or crimes that have been happening, a lot of which the turtles solved themselves and some that he hadn't heard about before. There's a lot of stuff to do with the Foot Clan. There were blurry pictures that she probably took herself, and he reaches up to take one down, seeing that it looked similar to someone that he's seen before. He squints and pulls his arm into his shell to keep the picture, then walks over and says, "Alright, give me her; I'll go put her into the bed." and he took April from Leonardo, walking over to the bed.

Michelangelo was looking in the fridge, and Leonardo reaches up to move his mask a little, squinting at the bright light, then looks over and sighs, calling over to his youngest brother, "Mikey, stop looking in her fridge. We're leaving right after Raph sets her in bed." Michelangelo whines and steps away, saying, "But I'm hungry! Plus, Donnie hasn't eaten today, so we should get him something?" The squint he got from Leo made him sigh, and he shut the door, mumbling to himself. Rude…

The three turtles look around the room one last time before they leave, locking the door behind them. What they didn't see was the door to the room cracked open just a little, with cat-like eyes watching as they left.

When they got back to the sewers, they were all putting their masks—not the fabric ones—back on. Leonardo was focused on walking down the familiar paths, his mind rushing with different thoughts, wondering exactly what their sensei was going to do to him. He breathes out slowly and puts his hand to his chest, then turns his head to his brothers, telling them, "You guys should go to your rooms. If I don't come to tell you dinner is done, then I might have gotten in more trouble than I thought; if so, I want you three to get something." He looks forward, going into the main room.

Raphael and Michelangelo look at each other, with Donatello just nodding and turning his head down as he walks in to head to his room. They saw Leonardo going into Splinter's place.

The red brother sighs, shakes his head, and goes to his bedroom, muttering to himself, and Michelangelo quickly follows after Donatello. He didn't really want to be alone right now, and he didn't want to listen to the way Splinter would probably yell at Leonardo. The idea made him really nervous! Donatello gave him headphones; he wore some himself, and they started to listen to music with their eyes shut.

They had to be careful of what they had on their phones or anything like that since Splinter would often come and check on them to see if they were doing anything he thought was against their ninja ways… It's really weird.

When Raphael got to his bedroom and fell back onto his bed, he pulled out the picture to study it. The picture seemed to be of a guy with a spikey helmet and sharp eyes; bear in mind that it was really blurry, so it was hard to tell exactly what was going on. He had a weird feeling he knew who this was; sure enough, he couldn't place his finger on it because of the blurriness, and that was sort of pissing him off.

He sighs, resting his arm across his shell, shutting his eyes, and getting lost in his thoughts. This all sucked. Sometimes he wished that he never got mutated, or at least he never had to meet this stupid rat! He could handle himself! He could take his weapons right now and leave if he wanted to; obviously, then he would be leaving his brothers behind, and he couldn't bring himself to do that.

So he guessed that he was stuck here until they decided they wanted to leave with him. He hoped that was soon, because he didn't want to leave his brothers behind, but he also didn't want to be hurt anymore. He looks down at himself, then makes a soft sound of disgust, and he pulls his blanket up, turning to lay on his side, shutting his eyes. Yeah, he was just going to sleep to try to get his mind off this stuff. He didn't want to think about the fact that his older brother was probably being beaten right now; he didn't want to think of his other older brother starving himself.

If helping people and being a hero meant that they were hurt like this, he didn't want to be a hero anymore…

The next day went as normal.

Splinter woke them all up and told them to go outside the home and run around the sewers. Once they got back, he would give them breakfast, and then they would do their training. Leonardo had bandages over his fingers, and his legs shook as he ran. Strangely enough, he didn't answer what happened that night.

"Leo, are you okay?" Michelangelo asks, looking at his oldest sibling with a deep frown on his face. Worry was bubbling up in his stomach, and Splinter wasn't here to be mad at him for showing his worry. Raphael and Donatello both show their worry by looking over.

Leonardo gulps softly and shakes his head, keeping his gaze forward, maybe? It was hard to tell exactly. "I'm fine. I did something wrong by not following his rules, so I got the punishment I needed. Let's get this finished so we can go get breakfast." And with that, he starts to jog faster.

That causes the others to sigh, and they run with Leonardo. Donatello's stomach rolled at the idea of eating anything, but he knew that he needed to eat. He gulps, shutting his eyes, trying to calm down. Right now, he felt like he was going to throw up, and he hated the feeling.

If he ate, Splinter might say something; if he didn't, Splinter would tell him he was a bad child for not accepting the kindness he was given.

Right now, he feels really dizzy.

Michelangelo didn't like that response; however, instead of saying anything, he bit his tongue to keep his silence and only nodded. Leonardo believed what Splinter said, and that was never the best thing for them all! How do you change someone's mind like that, though?

Raphael once more thought about leaving, his mind rushing with different ideas. What would life be like if their sensei was good? He wasn't that bad of a teacher; he was just a bad caretaker and way too aggressive with what he did. If a single thing was incorrect, then they would get punished, and honestly, even if everything was perfect, if it took too long, they’d still get in trouble. It was more annoying than anything else; he was too used to it nowadays.

Nothing they would do could ever be correct enough for their sensei. They’d have too much emotion, not enough thought, take too long, or a lot of other things, and he was so done with it! The thought made him clench his teeth then he shakes his head to try to calm himself down. There was no reason for him to get upset; it wouldn't do anything but probably cause issues… His face hurts at the memory of getting smacked before, so he reaches up and rubs his cheek, shutting his eyes and letting out a soft sigh. Annoying…

"Hey guys? I don't… I don't feel good." Donatello said this from where he stood, moving his arm around himself with his eyes squeezed shut. His voice was a little slurred. When the others heard that, they looked over quickly, and Leonardo walked over to cup his brother's cheek, asking, "What's wrong?"

When he touched Donatello's cheek, his skin felt cold—well, colder than normal—and clammy. "I feel like I'm gonna throw up. For real this time." and his stomach kept moving, like it wanted out of him. Plus, his eyes were working against him! They were really blurry, and blinking wouldn't make that stop.

"No, no, no, don't throw up!" Michelangelo waves his arms, panicking, and he looks at Leonardo, asking, "what should we do?" If Donatello got sick this far from home and passed out, then that would be really bad. Leonardo didn't respond at first, putting his hands together. There were way too many things they could do.

"Oh my god." Raphael steps closer and scoops Donatello up in his arms, telling them, "You guys are worthless." He starts to run, with Donatello's eyes widening, and he puts his arm around Raphael's neck, worrying, "Don't drop me!" "Stop squirming, and I won't drop you!" they argue as he runs, and Donatello squeezes his eyes shut tight, making soft sounds. Ugh, his stomach hurt.

Michelangelo laughs a bit from nerves and starts to chase afterwards, with Leonardo biting the inside of his cheek and then chasing after. Aw man… after a few seconds of running, he reaches up to pull his mask off, ignoring the way his eyes hurt from even the smallest amount of light. "Let's get him home and get him something to eat. Donnie, I know you don't like eating, but you have to right now." Donatello makes a sound at that, even if he agrees this time. He didn't want to agree.

As Raphael ran, he saw a cat-like eye looking at him from the darkness around the corner; oddly enough, as he looked again, it was gone, making him shake his head and look forward. When they got back to the entrance of their home, Raphael set Donatello down, who stumbled, and Leonardo put his arm around Donatello's waist to stop him from falling.

"We got back so much faster than normal." Michelangelo breathes in and out slowly, then hurries into the sewer hideout, shouting, "Dad! Donnie's not feeling good. Is breakfast ready yet?" Raphael and Leonardo bring Donatello in, who was making soft mrr sounds since… he didn't want Splinter to know that he wasn't feeling well! He was going to say mean things. Leonardo looks around the strangely unfamiliar place and sighs, reaching up to fix his mask over his eyes again.

He didn't want Splinter to get upset at him for not having the mask on.

Splinter looks over from the stove, squints, then nods in approval slowly, "You four got here faster than I expected… good job. Go sit, and I will bring breakfast." He starts to set the four plates, and Michelangelo nods, lowering his head in a way of saying thank you, and they head to the table to sit down. Donatello rests his head down on the table, and Leonardo reaches over to rub his shell, lightly scratching it. Raphael sat down as well, holding his hands together.

"I can do the dishes, sensei!" Michelangelo continued to shout over to him, looking over his shoulder. He just got a sound of approval rather than anything else, which made him sigh, and he shut his eyes. Raphael shuts his eyes, trying to think about the eye that he saw… Maybe he'll go and try to find out who was looking at him; the size didn't look like a real cat? It could be a mutant? Didn’t look right, though, and that was… annoying.

After they ate, Splinter told Donatello that he could sit out training today; however, he would have to do something to catch up later. Donatello nodded his head in a silent way of saying thank you, then mumbled it under his breath, "thank you, Sensei. I will… be sure to do that. I'm sorry I started to feel bad."

Splinter sighs, rubbing the side of his head, and he shakes his head, responding, "I am sure that there is a reason for it… everyone knows how unhealthy it is to stay up for who knows how long that you do every night." Donatello sank down as he spoke, biting the inside of his cheek, and the others just kept eating to, hopefully, not get pulled into this.

Then they went to train while Donatello went to his bedroom to lay down. He ate, and sure enough, he still felt sick, and he was very unhappy about that! Guess it was his own fault all the same.

Raphael was distracted during training, thinking about that eye that he saw on the way home. Who did that belong to? He squints and stands up straight, looking at his brothers. "Guys, on the way here, I saw eyes… I dunno who I saw, but I'm gonna go and check it out."

Of course that made Michaelangelo and Leonardo look at him, both confused… well Michelangelo looked at him! Haha. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" The youngest asked, "what if something happens?"

"Nothing is gonna happen; I just want to check it out. Cover for me." He grabs his sai, puts them into the belt, and starts to walk out, while making sure not to be seen by Splinter. He'll just go walk around the sewers to see if he can find the person again. If there was someone there, it could be dangerous for him or his brothers! He didn't want that to happen.

The ground was cold and slightly wet under his feet. It felt strange yet familiar. He had a small hideout set up in the sewers, because, I mean, you can only be sent out so many times before you start making a place to sleep a bit easier. There were just pillows and blankets; it was still really not comfortable—at least Splinter didn't know about that.

That's all that matters.

As he walked through the sewers, he started to feel that familiar feeling that something was wrong—and not in the normal way, either! So he kept walking, shutting his eyes to listen for anything that seemed out of the norm in the area around him. When he heard a faint step, he turned fast and threw his sai, which stabbed into the wall, sticking the guy's shirt to it.

The guy’s eye widens, and he yelps, then looks over, "What the hell!?" it was a guy with really curly hair; one of his eyes was covered, and the other was that familiar cat-like color.

"I should be the one asking you that; what're you doing following me around?" he snaps back, holding up the other sai, "are you here to hurt us or something?"

The guy, whose shirt said Casey, so maybe that was his name, reached up and pulled the sai out of the wall—and his shirt—then held it in front of him. "I saw you four coming out of April's room, so I decided to go and check it out. I couldn't get in, and I decided to follow you guys down here. Duh… uh, is the… purple one okay? He seemed kinda fucked."

What was he supposed to say to that? After a few seconds, he walks over and grabs his sai, muttering under his breath, "He's fine, just going to have to sleep for a while. Sensei is going to make him train later after he gets some extra rest." he looks at him, then his eyes shoot away. He was trying to stay calm and collected, like his sensei told him to do; admittedly, that was kind of hard for him.

Who the heck even was this guy? Saw them taking the 'April' girl into her room and decided to follow them?

"So you guys are, like, turtles? How long have you been living in the sewers?" he walks closer, and Raphael takes a few steps backward, squinting at him but quickly calming himself. He breathes out, and Casey snorts at him, "What? Cats got your tongue or something?"

"Ugh," Raphael rolls his eyes and holds up his hand in a fist, snapping, "Shut up! I was thinking of how I wanted to answer that stupid question." he huffs and crosses his arms over his chest. "Of course I'm a turtle; what other animal would I be?" Okay, so there was just a human down here who wasn't freaking out about being in the sewers or about the fact that there are mutants living underground.

Casey's lips went up in a smirk, and he put his hands on his hips and said, "I dunno, I think you look like a little bitch." look, normally? He wouldn't do that—nah, nevermind, he would totally do that to pretty much anyone! This was a way to mess around and maybe lighten some nerves.

Raphael narrows his eyes at Casey and jumps at him, causing him to let out a loud shout.

Michelangelo and Leonardo were lightly training, hitting at each other or dodging out of the way. They were both worried about Raphael and Donatello, both trying not to think about it too much. Leonardo blocks the punch that Michelangelo threw, feeling the air, then he sighs and shakes his head, "I wonder how Raph is…"

"I'm hoping that he's alright… he said that he saw eyes; do you think he said that just to get out of training?"

"I don't think so; he normally likes training." Leonardo responds, looking off to the side. He sighs, shaking his head. Man, he was worried. He hated feeling worried. He gets back into stance and holds up his hands, saying, “Alright, try to hit me.”

Michelangelo nods and rushes forward, throwing a punch that Leonardo blocks; evidently, that's exactly what Michelangelo wanted to happen, because once his arm is blocked and grabbed, he drops down, which makes Leonardo lose his balance, and he swipes his leg, causing the blue turtle to fall onto the ground with an oof sound.

The orange turtle laughs a bit and sits up on his knees, reaching over to move his brothers mask a little to look him in the eyes. "Was that okay?" he asks with a big grin on his face.

Leonardo breathes out through his nose and reaches up to push on Michelangelo's face, a bit amused as he replies, "Yeah, that was okay... that was a good move." it was always so weird when he saw his brothers, even more when he saw them smile. It had been way too long since he was able to take off his mask without the reason being for them to go to bed.

He likes seeing them smile. It made him really happy.

Seeing them happy always made him happy, too. Scared sometimes, though, if he will admit. Happiness was a good emotion to have; however, to their teacher, it might be what would get you killed, and Leonardo didn’t want to see his brothers getting yelled at again.

After that, we cut back to Raphael and the human, Casey.

They were sitting in Raphael’s little secret area, wrapping up the bruises or cuts that they had given each other during their skirmish. “You’re… better than I was expecting you to be.” Raphael told the guy, looking at him out of the corner of his eyes. If you want him to be truthful? He did feel better! Just a little. Maybe.

Casey snorts with laughter and looks at him, responding in an amused tone, "Wow, thanks; you're pretty good yourself. So, uh, is this where you live or something?" He reaches over to mess with one of the blankets. "Whoa, wait, is that a teddy bear?" He starts to laugh, picking it up and holding it above his head.

It was, in fact, a teddy bear! One of the arms was gone, and its eye was gone as well; only strings were left behind. It seemed like it was really loved, with how faded the colors seemed to be.

The red turtle's eyes widened, and he quickly grabbed the plush and hugged it to his chest, narrowing his eyes at the human. “Shut up! Yeah, it is, so what?” he looks down, messing with the arm of the teddy bear, embarrassed. “It helps me sleep,” he mumbles.

"Then why is it out here and not where you normally sleep? Since that purple one isn't here, I'm guessing this isn't where you stay normally." Casey had no idea why he was so curious? This guy was just so weird! I mean, a giant turtle living in the sewers? Anyone would be confused! When he realized that Raphael was looking away, tightening his grip on the bear, he sighs and leans over to bump his arm against Raph's. "Hey, no bigs, dude. You don't have to answer," he says, pushing himself to stand up. "Anyway, I should get home. Come visit me if you ever have to sleep out here again." he holds out his hand in a fist, grinning.

Raphael looks up at him, silent for a few seconds, then smiles just a little and reaches over to fist bump him. "Yeah, thanks… I'll keep that in mind." and then Casey stuffs his hands into his pockets and heads out.

He watched him leave and looked down at the teddy bear, giving it a soft squeeze. He… guessed that having a human friend wouldn't be the worst thing. Ugh, he would have to go home soon. You know? No, he was going to stay here for the night, and Splinter could cry about it! He would have been sent out here anyway for leaving during training.

The training was stupid anyway. I mean, he liked doing hands-on fighting more than normal training. Maybe he and Casey could work together and help fight crime! I mean, there were so many people trying to break the law; helping with that is what a hero should do, right?

The thoughts rushing through his mind made him laugh, and he lays back on his back, holding up the teddy bear, smiling, “We’re gonna beat some ass,” and he was so excited about it.

Chapter Text

Things continued in the same pattern for the next few days. Getting up, running around the sewers, eating breakfast, and then training. They were all trying their best to follow the rules set in place, and they all knew that they felt like they were walking on eggshells around their sensei. Unfortunately, that is the most common occurrence in their lives.

It had been like that since they were young.

Michelangelo got in trouble for laughing when an egg fell off the counter—he couldn’t cover his mouth fast enough, sadly. Even though he apologized, he had to clean it up and go outside to run around the sewers again before he could have breakfast. Splinter mistook the laugh for a sign of disrespect. The others bit their tongues to not say anything, even if Raphael thought that was pretty fucked up. They sadly knew that saying anything would make things worse.

After they ate breakfast, Splinter asked the boys what their plans were. Donatello, really excited about this and not thinking clearly because of that, started to explain something that he made while waving his hand around: “I made a tracker that I could shoot out of my staff. Anything or anyone that it attaches to, I could track where they go, and it would tell me where they most likely are going to end up.” He raises his sleeve to look at the screen attached to the band around his wrist, which illuminates to display the blueprints he created for the tracker. "It would allow us to track down any of the bad guys and try to figure out where their hiding places are, allowing us to better plan our fight against them, and..." When he realized the noises had stopped, he came to a halt. His eyes shot up to see Splinter just staring at him, as were the rest of his siblings. He bites the inside of his cheek and turns his head down, moving his sleeve back down to hide the screen, mumbling, “I’ve been training with my staff as well. I can balance on it very well now, Sensei.”

"Excellent, Donatello. I am glad you are prioritizing your training over other things. Your staff will always be a far superior weapon to anything else you can make; after all, it is an extension of yourself. You are very intelligent, but keep in mind the training I gave you. It might be the best thing that you will ever have." He reaches over and pats the top of Donatello’s head, who squeezes his eyes shut, trying not to flinch away. At that touch, he felt like he wanted to throw up.

Michelangelo bites the inside of his cheek and opens his mouth to say something, but Raphael puts his hand on his arm and shakes his head silently, telling him to remain silent. It would not help to disagree with Splinter right now; in fact, it might make things worse. Michelangelo frowned but sighed and turned his head down, closing his mouth.

Leonardo had been sitting quietly, his gaze perhaps fixed on the table. He was fiddling with his fingers beneath it, knowing he had to keep his hands hidden or Splinter would smack them as he always did. When Splinter was around, they all knew not to move too much—no bouncing their legs, waving their hands, or flapping their hands. Donatello told them it was called stimming. Stimming was short for self-stimulatory behavior! Stimming is the repetitive performance of certain physical movements or vocalizations, as a form of behavior by persons with autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions; it is self-stimulation, you see? This behavior is thought to serve a variety of functions, such as calming and the expression of feelings. When Donatello rambled to explain that, they figured that it did help a lot whenever they were able to do it.

They weren’t able to do it too much, of course.

Splinter saw it as a flaw—or perhaps he just found it annoying; who knows?

After breakfast was over and they were told what training they would be doing, they went to the room to do so. Raphael was in a good mood, able to simply switch off his brain and stretch before striking the air. His mind couldn’t work against him if he didn’t have it going! Splinter advised him to do so in order to remember his strikes, and Michelangelo was throwing ninja stars at Leonardo, who was told to dodge.

Donatello was whacking at the dummy, trying to keep himself calm.

Resentment and revulsion were coursing through his veins like venom, burning him from within. A rage yearning to be able to express itself, to hurt the person who had caused him to feel such anger. Donatello was furious! Of course he was! Splinter was always complaining about how bad his work was, but do you remember the stove? What about the fridge? The TV that the stupid rat has no idea how to use? Or the phones that they all had? He was the one who fixed it! Donatello fixed the things after somebody found them and brought them back. He built the phones himself so he could stay in touch with his brothers in case something went wrong.

Donatello has, of course, created other things as well! Like, uh, he has made smoke bombs for them! Something Splinter appeared to be proud of. He upgraded and built his own computer, complete with a plethora of lovely lights! It is also quite powerful and fast. It was helpful that the screen was quite large. Another thing that he made were things that he attached to his brothers shells while they were, admittedly, asleep. It would monitor their heartbeats, alerting him if they were going too fast or too slow, and informing him if they were hurt or losing too much blood.

There were also electro-bombs! If he threw it and it hit someone, it would deliver a powerful shock that would knock them out or stun them! Depending. He, uh, did not use it much after testing it because it was extremely powerful and he did not want to accidentally, you know, kill anyone. Heh. That would be… unfortunate.

There were many things Donatello wanted to make but could not because either Splinter would bother him while he was thinking about how to make them or Donatello himself could not make them because he did not have the necessary materials. He required numerous power sources and resources. Some of the things he wanted to create? Bikes! Or weapons, upgrades for him and his brothers… maybe the false arm?

He did make another item, but it was only for the house. Heaters for them for when it got cold, and tubes that they could put into their mouths for when they needed to hide underwater for too long and their lungs couldn’t handle it. Despite the fact that they were turtles, they could not breathe underwater. Or, at least, not forever.

He knew that he shouldn't allow his anger to cloud his judgment, but he did . He raises his staff, bites onto the end, and pulls it off with his teeth, revealing the knife that was previously hidden. As he struck the dummy with the sharpened blade, his heart pounded in his chest. Everything was a disaster!

The others looked at him, mostly Raphael and Michelangelo, before Michelangelo bit the inside of his cheek and asked, "Hey, Donnie, are you okay?" "Yeah, D, you're acting pretty weird right now." Raphael was quick to add—though he thought it was pretty cool to see him like that.

Come on, Donnie, where was that rage when they had to fight against the bad guys? He’d love to see Donatello slice the wings off that annoying fly dude. Bebop and Rocksteady, maybe? Was that their names? Yeah, that’s what he thought their names were. Raphael wished he could beat them up himself! They had the worst taste in music, and one of them once smacked him with a guitar.

Can you imagine being hit with a guitar? What kind of insult is that?

They also had to deal with a slew of other villains. The 'Foot' clan, and these two obnoxious assholes who kept attacking them in order to steal their shells! They were known as Groundchuck and Dirtbag. They often had to fight those dudes to prevent them from stealing from banks and places containing valuable jewels such as rubies and emeralds. The two idiots did not seem to realize that the turtle shells were attached to them and that they could not simply remove them!

They would accuse the turtles of being selfish? For whatever reason? Yeah, Raphael did not think that made sense either, but as he previously stated, they were stupid. Raphael didn’t think that they were the masterminds behind their work, but he’s never quite asked either. Sometimes they would talk about their ‘teammate’ named Alopex—he caught wind of them saying, “Why does she never want to hang out with us? She’s always hanging out with Mona, so not fair.” and that always made him snort when he thought back. Maybe she didn’t want to hang out with you guys because you’re both idiots, huh? He wanted to meet this Alopex girl one day.

Others were simple criminals that they stopped because the cops in New York are idiots and never wanted to do their job! It's easy to guess that there are others; however, he didn’t feel the need to bring them up right now.

"No! No, I'm not." He spat after getting the stick out of his mouth and held up his hand, the staff still in it. "I put so much work into the trackers, and then he doesn't even care . I want to make a new arm, but he tells me that I shouldn't because then I would get used to having it? Of course I would get used to having it! I would have two arms, just like you are supposed to if you are going to use this stupid stick!" He throws the bo staff to the ground and covers his face with his hand.

The other brothers look at him, and Raphael walks over, putting his arm around his brother's shoulders and giving him a soft squeeze after having to pull him down to his height—that asshole was too tall. "Hey," he started, "Why don't you go for a walk? If Sensei asks, we'll cover for you. You seem stressed."

"It might be best for you to calm down before Sensei sees you." Leonardo adds, and Michelangelo nods in agreement. Donatello frowns at them before sighing and shaking his head.

He felt like an idiot. How could he have reacted so violently? What if Sensei overheard it? "That might be a good idea," he mumbles as he bites the inside of his cheek. With that thought in mind, he walks out the door, taking care to be as stealthy as possible. Raphael reaches down and picks up both parts, hiding the knife once more, knowing that leaving it open would be dangerous. He was aware that Donatello was nearing his limit, and he was not looking forward to what would happen when that limit was finally reached.

A little break might do good.

They would soon realize what a bad idea that was.

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Michelangelo watches his almost-eldest brother leave and turns his head down to look at the ground. He felt bad for not saying anything when Splinter was telling him about the trackers! Like he knew that he thought it was amazing! The trackers would be extremely useful, but Michelangelo knew Donatello would not want to hear that from him.

He wanted to hear it from their Sensei—their father.

Leonardo claps his hands together, getting the attention of the others, as he says, “Alright, let’s keep going. With one person missing, we must train even harder... Mikey, keep throwing things at me, and Raph, keep up with your training.” Raphael made a gag sound at his brother but went back to work as he was told to without question. Michelangelo also nodded and began to throw the stars once more.

They had the potential to seriously injure Leonardo, but Splinter stated that if he was hit, it was his own fault. People in battle are frequently injured, and you must be prepared for that.

Even though they all agreed, they did not like the way he phrased it. Raphael decided to attack the now-damaged—well, really damaged—dummy with punches and kicks. They would have to get a new one sooner or later, which he thought would be annoying to have to tell Splinter. Eh, oh well, they needed a new one anyway.

Michelangelo's thoughts wandered as he tossed the stars, watching his brother jump or duck to avoid being hit. He wondered what he could do to help Donatello feel better. Is there anything that he could do? I mean, he could try to get Splinter to focus on him instead of Donatello whenever he was upset? Splinter was often kinder to him because he was the youngest and "favorite." When they were younger, this resulted in a fight.

His heart ached just thinking about it.

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"How come Mikey always gets more than me?" Donatello asked their sensei when they were much younger, looking up at him with a big frown on his face. His plate had the fewest items on it, which puzzled him because... should they not all have the same amount? If not the same amount, then shouldn't he have the most as he was the largest? He was the tallest of himself and his siblings. Michelangelo was already eating but stopped realizing that, hey, yeah, he did have more! Much, much more.

"Because he did better in training today than you, Donatello," he was told, "and if you want more, you will have to show that you deserve it. Don't ask me such a question again." The voice sounded cold and harsh, something that they weren't exactly used to yet.

Raphael laughed while Leonardo sat, kicking his legs slowly and scanning the room with his yellow eyes. He wanted to argue and say that that wasn't fair, but he knew better than to do that by now. Donatello felt the same way; however, he decided to give it a shot. "Wouldn't it be better for me to have more so I could-" When Splinter reached down and grabbed the plate, he came to a halt. "If you want to argue with me, you can have none. Now go to the table." Donatello blinks, his mouth opening a little bit, then frowns and shakes his head, quickly saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to argue. Could I... could I have my plate back, please?"

Raphael's laughter had long since died away, and they were no longer eating. What was going on? Why was Donatello's meal being taken from him? They knew that Splinter liked to be in control of things, but isn't that a bit much? Donatello needed to eat just like the rest of them! Plus, he did really well in training! Sure, he might not be the strongest, but he was still trying, and isn't that good enough?

The large rat man looks down at him and squints in light annoyance. "I said no, and to go to the table. Are you speaking back?" he questions. Donatello gulps and starts to say that no, he wasn't, but before he could even get a single sound out Splinter sighs, shakes his head, grabs Donatello's arm, and begins dragging him over to the small refrigerator that Slinter purchased. "You boys never listen. I went out of my way to make dinner for you, yet you don't even care about that. Not everyone would be kind enough to give you four boys a home! I went out of my way to do it and protect you while I am training you four. You respond with an argument." He got out the bright red bottle filled with a red liquid and dragged Donatello to the next room.

Raphael looks around, then jumps up and rushes over to get a plastic baggy from the box beside the fridge and begins gathering some of the food to give to Donatello later when they are alone. Then they heard shouting and cries from the other room, which caused him to freeze and look over with wide eyes. What was going on? Michelangelo reaches over to hug onto Leonardo, squeezing his eyes shut. Aw man.

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Michelangelo couldn't exactly remember what was said; he had a feeling that he blocked it out, but he remembered hearing Donatello's shouts and cries. It turned out that Splinter had pretty much poured hot sauce into his mouth, and he covered his mouth with his hand to stop him from spitting it out. A punishment that did not leave bruises or marks, but rather a message.

One that they all discovered in their own unique way.

Do not argue, do not fight, and do not talk back.

Donatello came back not too long after that and sat with tears in his eyes while the rest of them were forced to finish their meals. Donatello avoided eye contact with the others, didn’t answer anything that the brothers wanted to ask, and even pushed Michelangelo away when he tried to hug his brother before fleeing to his bedroom to hide. He had a feeling that that was the day their relationship took a big hit, and Michelangelo felt like he was a bit to blame. He could have said something; he could have told their sensei to stop, but he didn't. Raphael gave Donatello the food that he stole, but he didn't even finish it before he said that he wasn't hungry.

That night, his eyes were completely empty.

“Mikey!” He heard a shout, causing him to yelp, and he looked over quickly to see Raphael and Leonardo—maybe—looking at him, and it was Raphael that raised his voice, “What’s up? Why’re you just standing there?”

“I…” He looks down at the star in his hand, seeing his reflection in the gleaming metal, then shakes his head and looks over, slowly responding, "I am not... really sure. I think I got lost in thought. Sorry.” He swallows hard and raises his hand. “Should we get back to it?” Leonardo was breathing a bit heavier, but he nodded anyway, and they went back to their training.

Splinter came to check on them while they were training, and either he didn't notice, care, or mind that Donatello wasn't in there anymore. He told them, "Good job," but to keep going and for Leonardo and Michelangelo to switch places. He did question the dummy, though, and asked why it was all torn up.

He appeared to be bothered.

Fortunately, they were able to concoct a lie to cover for Donatello's idiotic decision to attack the dummy with his blade. They were not sure if Splinter truly believed it, but he did not question it, so that was a win for them!

Later that night, as Michelangelo lay in bed, unable to sleep, his thoughts returned to the human girl they had met a few days earlier. Her hands had been so warm... he reached up to put his hand on his cheek, smiling at the memory. Heh, he could feel his tail beginning to wag at the idea of her. How embarrassing. He was worried about her well-being. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to go and see her? Just to be sure! They did, after all, use sleeping powder on her!

What could possibly go wrong?

With that thought in mind, Michelangelo nodded to himself and got up to sneak out of the familiar and unfamiliar home. Normally, he would never do something like this! He knew better than to try to sneak out because if he got caught, he'd get into so much trouble, but he was kind of excited to go and see the human.

He froze when both he and Raphael got to the ladders that would allow them to get out of the sewers. He stares at his older brother, his eyes wide. "uhhh-" he goes, mumbling under his breath. What was Raphael doing here? Why was he sneaking out of the sewers? Where would he be going?

Raphael stares back, looking shocked, then squints at him and points, saying in a light, tired voice, "You didn't see anything." He starts to climb the ladder, continuing, "I didn't see you either." He was wearing a baggy brownish-colored hoodie as well as his normal pants. He wore the pants normally, but the hoodie was a new thing!

"Uh, ha, okay!" He looks up, watching as Raphael climbs up. He was confused and curious as to why Raphael was leaving the sewers? Why was he sneaking out while they were supposed to be sleeping? I mean, he guessed that he couldn't ask because then he would have to explain himself, and, honestly, he didn't want to do that! So he was just going to let his brother go off and do stuff.

It took a while and him being sneaky, but he finally made his way to the woman's building, and he got to her window. He looks around, then down, and lifts the window open, then climbs in. Did he know what he was going to do? No, not really, but he wanted to talk to her to see if she was okay! I mean, they did knock her out on accident—er, okay, it wasn't by accident, but he didn't think it was his fault.

When he got in, his two-toned eyes scanned around to see if maybe the girl was here. When he saw that she wasn't, he gulped and stood up straight slowly, "Uh, excuse me? Are you here? I'm, um, you know, I'm sorry for what happened last time we were around." ugh, why the heck was he so awkward sounding?

He looked around the room, and before he knew what was happening, he felt a stinging pain in his head, and there was a loud thud sound! He puts his hands on his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "Ow!" he shouts, then he turns his head to see the girl with a pan in her hands.

This time, she was dressed in a large, baggy yellow hoodie, a black skirt, black leggings, and rainbow-colored socks. There were some cuts and tears in the leggings.

She glares at him and holds it up again: "What are you doing in my room!?" Was it anger that caused her to snap, or was it fear? He didn't know, and he felt kind of bad for making her go through that...

Quickly, Michelangelo holds up his hands, shaking them slightly, and says, "No, no, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to scare you or anything! I wanted to come and check on you to make sure that you were okay." His head had a ringing in it, like he was a bell. This was absolutely ridiculous! Why would she hit him? He got why she hit him, but he didn't want to be hit anymore! Dang it!

The two of them stare at each other until she slowly sighs and puts the pan down, muttering mostly to herself. "Of course you decided to come back.” She sighs again and looks at him. “Why did you come back again?"

"Well..." he looks down at the ground, poking his fingers together. Why did he feel so nervous? I mean... he was just talking to a normal person! But could that be the reason? She was a human, and she was a girl! He could not think of anything to say to them. How the heck should he know how to talk to them? "I wanted to check up on you and make sure that you were okay? I'm sorry that my brother used the sleep powder on you. He did it because, well, you can probably guess, huh?" He makes an up-and-down motion with his hands. He was a huge, weird-looking turtle!

She gives him a brief glance before sighing and placing her hands on her hips. She appeared to be irritated... "I guess I was a little freaked out... so I can not be too upset that your brother panicked about that." She grumbles and shakes her head before pointing at him and saying loudly, "You best not do that again! I'll throw hands with a giant turtle if I have to."

Michelangelo laughs at that, perks, then bites the inside of his cheek, averting his eyes, and shakes his head, responding, “No, never, I promise. I don't carry that stuff with me; they don't trust me with it.” He returns his stare to her again, attempting to maintain a blank expression. His head was still a little sore, but he was used to people hitting him by this point, so he was not too bothered by it!

“Why did you do that?” she asks, narrowing her eyes at him. When he turned his head to the side to show light confusion, she pointed at him and continued, “You laughed, but then you looked nervous. How come?”

Oh, wow, okay, yeah, that's not a thing that he wanted to explain... he bites the inside of his cheek and waves his hands to try to brush the thought away. “It isn't anything too big; I mean, I just got a bit nervous? Ha, you know how it is, right? I-I mean, I am talking to a human, and you're the first human that I've ever really spoken to because my sensei doesn't really like humans all that much.” He reaches up to fiddle with the bow of his mask, being careful due to all the tears in it. “So he would be pretty mad if he found out that I came here during the night...” Why was he still talking? Why the hell was he still talking? Michelangelo, shut up! Why couldn't he shut up? What the hell?! Fuck. He needed to stop talking.

And now she was staring at him...

He was having to stop himself from shifting and squirming under the gaze; his body was starting to feel hotter, and his stomach was rolling and shifting inside him. Why was she staring at him? What was staring at him going to solve? He makes a soft whine sound and moves his arms in front of his face, quickly telling her, “Can you stop staring at me like that?”

Staring was something that he knew Splinter did whenever he got upset or was waiting for them to reword something that they said. What did he do wrong that time, though? He didn't think he had done anything wrong! He was trying his best here, man.

“Oh! Uh, yeah, sorry, I was just... thinking.” She mumbles and reaches over to put her hand on his shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze. “Hey, why don't I make us something to snack on, and you could answer a few questions I have? You could go and sit at the table.” He looks down at the hand on his shoulder and leans into the touch. Maybe he liked how warm she was because her hands sort of reminded him of Splinter's.

They used to be so kind...

Slowly, Michelangelo nodded and went to sit at the table, patting his hands on the wood. He watched her go into the kitchen area, and he heard banging coming from the room beside hers. “What's that?” he asked, looking at the wall.

“That's just Casey. He lives next door; he's been making a lot more noise than normal lately... his friend has been coming over. It's some short dude with these weird pants.” she laughs, “You know, the symbol on his pants are... a lot... like the one on your scarf.” She slowly stopped talking, and Michelangelo's eyes widened as he looked over at the wall, then he started to laugh, not being able to stop himself. So that's where Raphael was going! Going and seeing his boyfriend~! He crosses his arms on the table and hides his face in his arms, trying to stop his laughter. Crap, he would get into so much trouble for laughing like this! He just couldn't believe that his brother was sneaking out to meet a human! Guess it was good that he wasn't the only one sneaking out.

After a little while, April came back into the room and set a plate in front of him. On it was a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. "I, uh, don't know if you guys eat meat or not; if not, I'll make you something else." His eyes shoot up to look at her, and he shakes his head, saying, "No, no, this is great. Thank you." he picks it up, takes a big bite from it, and she sits down across from him.

Once again, she looked at him, resting her head down against her fist. He looks back at her and turns his head to the side, making a soft hm sound to show that he was waiting for her first question.

"When you guys used the powder on me, you took me back to my room. How'd you know which one was mine?" she figured she'd ask the question that had been bugging her since then. Her eyes scanned around to look at all of the pictures and stuff that she had put up, as well as the news clippings, and back at him.

Quickly, he swallowed what was in his mouth so he could explain, "That's an easy question. We found the keys in your pocket, and my brother Leo carried you back, and my other brother, Raph, put you in the bed since Leo couldn't see where your bed was... I liked the teddy bears! Dad doesn't let us have them." He takes another bite, shifting slightly where he sits. Man, this tasted good!

It was weirdly calming here... He looked over his shoulder to see the window that he made sure to close once he got in—it was cloudy from what he could tell... he wondered if it would start to rain? Oh! He hoped it would start to snow; he loved it whenever it snowed.

Confusion seemed clear on her face, then she hummed, "Why wouldn't he let you have teddy bears?" She asked. She was a little embarrassed that three guys were in her bedroom... her mom would ask way too many questions.

Once again, this was something that Michelangelo wasn't 100% sure how to answer. "He... might see it as a weakness. Attachments are something that you would get killed for, and he says that it is a sign of weak-minded and weak-willed people."

"That is so bullshit!" She slams her hands down on the table, making a loud bang sound. It caused his eyes to widen, and then he shut them tight, sinking down. "Having attachments doesn't make you weak! If anything, I think that they would make you stronger. Your dad seems like a total idiot." She was going to keep going, but she noticed the way that he had his eyes shut, and she frowned, her eyes shooting down to look at the table. Oops... "Uh, I could... give you one of mine if you want?"

"Really?" he opens his eyes to look at her, a little shocked but excited! I mean... he knew that it might not be the best idea, knowing that if it was found out, he would get in trouble, but it sounded kind of nice.

She smiled, nodded, and went to look for one of the stuffed animals, calling out more questions as she went, and he stood to follow, answering happily.

So far, this has been enjoyable! He didn't like getting hit on the head by the pan, though it wasn't the worst thing that he ever had to deal with, so he wasn't too bothered. It really didn't even hurt him all that bad! Plus, she was giving him a stuffed animal! He was so excited about it!

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Raphael fixed the hood of his hoodie as he walked, wondering where his brother would be going this late at night. He was never the type to sneak out of places, so Raphael thought it was pretty weird... oh well, he wasn't going to be thinking of that right now! He figured that Michelangelo would be fine, and if not then... he'd handle that later.

He breathes in, then out, and walks over to the door, reaching up to knock on it while his eyes scan around. Alright, there was a chance that he could still be attacked; New York was an annoying place; and lately, a few of the villains have been keeping mostly to themselves. It confused him and annoyed him at the same time! He used beating people up as a way to get out his anger and energy! Professor Feline, luckily, has been somewhere else.

Ugh, he hated cats... he was allergic to them. They made his nose feel all tight, and then he started sniffling and sneezing, and ugh! He hated it whenever they had to fight Professor Feline. A cat turtle? Can you believe that? See, Professor Feline fused himself with his cat to give himself the same abilities, and he wants to do that for everyone because he thinks it is the 'best' thing for the human race? Raphael thinks the best thing for the human race is if that guy takes a swan dive, but noooo, he's not allowed to say that.

Yeah, whatever.

He starts to shift between his feet, glaring at the door. What the hell? Where was this guy? He reaches up, knocking again, harder this time: “Casey! Get the dang door!” he shouted. Come on, Casey, he didn't want to be out here for this long! People might see him and try to talk to him! He didn't want to talk to any cute little old grandmas!

He might say something that would hurt their feelings!

Finally, honestly, not even that long later, the door opened, and Casey squinted at him in confusion, then got a grin on his face, “Dude! Hey,” He reaches out and grabs Raphael's sleeve, tugging him in and shutting the door behind them. “Dang, you took longer than I thought to get here. What's with the whole get up?”

Raphael grunted when he got pulled into the room, stopping himself from trying to pull away, and he ignored the panic that shot through his body. Crap, he hated it whenever that happened. He looked down, rubbing at his wrist, then paused and looked at him with narrowed eyes. “What’re you talking about get up? I can’t exactly just go out however I want.” he holds up his arms. “The first time I left the sewers and let a human see me, they attacked me because they thought I was some sewer monster!” Plus, uh, a lot of stuff happened that he didn’t want to bring up or mention. There's no harm in keeping some secrets.

“You still look like a neeerrrdddd.” Casey held out, teasing him, and swung his arm around Raphael’s shoulders, giving him a squeeze. “Anyway,” he started again, “thanks for coming to visit me. I was feeling kinda bored, and hey, I thought that maybe it could be good for you to get outta that sewer for a while... You wanna get high? Relax some?“

”Like... drugs?“ He asks, looking down at the arm that was wrapped around him, and he leans into the touch, slowly starting to relax into it. Sure, Raphael knew what drugs were and how to get high, but he'd never done it before, and he never thought that he ever would! Why would he? His sensei was very against the idea of it and always told them that if he found out that they were doing it, he would disown them and they would have to leave the sewer made home. Raphael didn’t think it was that bad of an idea—leaving the house. As he said before, I mean.

Casey snorts and nods in approval before responding, ”Yeah, like drugs. I have some gummies that I use. They’re not the strongest, though that could be a good thing seeing as you’re a noob with it.“ Ugh, who says noob anymore? Raphael squints a bit at him, and Casey moves his arm from around the short turtle before running over to his room to grab the gummies. Raphael heard a loud thud, causing him to snort, and he walked over, peeking in before looking around the room.

There were fairy lights spread out around, giving the room a nice glow; there were a few posters here and there; and the bed was unmade. There were a few hockey sticks around, leaning on the wall or against the ground. One was broken on the ground, and prizes were on a shelf as well as some ribbons. Huh? What were the awards for, he wondered? There was a nice carpet, too.

He liked carpets...

Casey looks over at him and holds up the little container of gummies, shaking it. ”They’re supposed to taste like green apples; that’s my favorite.“ He walks over and holds out one of the gummies after taking it out of the container. ”Here, make sure to chew it all, then swallow. It might take a while to start up, but I think you’ll like it. You seem like you get pretty stressed, and hey, it might help more than you might think.“ Raphael nods slowly and mumbles, taking the gummy. He mumbled thank you before popping it into his mouth and starting to chew, feeling a sharp shiver go down his spine. Ugh, that tasted good but was kind of gross? What the heck? Of course Casey popped one into his own mouth and started to chew on it, humming happily under his breath.

Once Raphael figured that he had chewed it enough, he swallowed and stuck out his tongue slightly, muttering, ”That tastes like Mikey’s cooking.“ gross. That made Casey snort, and he reached over, pushing on Raphael’s cheek, and said, ”Ey, shut up, it’s not that bad. You get used to it after a while.“ It really isn’t all that bad.

They both made their way to sit in the ’living room’ part of the apartment, with Casey falling back into his beanbag chair. His hair was a mess, and not bothering to have brushed it before Raphael came over, he figured… it didn’t look bad. Speaking of Raphael, he reaches up to take off his hoodie and drapes it onto the couch arm, sitting down beside it before continuing, ”and, I was thinking about what you said earlier, and that hoodie is yours. Your fashion choices are weird.“ He sticks his tongue out at Casey.

“Oh haha, I’ll tell you that my fashion choices are the best. I go for comfort rather than looks... do you like fashion and clothes like that? I mean, you wear pants.” he reaches over and tugs lightly at the fabric. Raphael lightly kicks at his hand. Not in a mean or aggressive way, more just a nudge in a silent way of saying to not mess with his pants.

Did he like clothes? I mean... yeah, he thought that they were pretty cool? He turns his head down, then at Casey, and nods slightly. “Yeah, I think so? I’ve thought about making clothes before... I’m the one who normally patches up the things for my brothers and I whenever they get torn up. Mostly blankets.” he reaches up to mess with his mask tails, “I like drawing.”

“Whoaa really? You gotta show me some of your drawings later. If you ever wanna make some stuff, I can get you the needed stuff?”

Needed stuff? What kinda needed stuff? Probably fabric and stuff like that? He smiles but has to avert his eyes to try to hide the fact that that made him pretty happy. “Yeah, maybe... I’ll keep that in mind.” he leans back on the couch, watching the TV turn on.

What were they going to watch? Probably just some dumb movie; he hoped not a horror one, that would ruin the high. Instead, Casey put on a cartoon, causing him to blink, and he looked over at the human, who held up his hand and explained, “When we start feeling it, you’ll not really be able to focus on anything. A cartoon is the best idea... plus, who doesn’t love the samurai snakes?”

“You watch that dumb show? It doesn’t make sense. How would they be able to hold the swords without arms?”

“It’s fun!” Casey holds up his arms, raising his voice, which made Raphael start to laugh, and he shakes his head, looking at the TV. He did like the show; he just thought it was fun to mess around.

It took a while, but Raphael started to blink, and his eyelids felt weirdly heavy. His eyes started to blur in and out, and he reached up to rub at them. Casey looks at him and lets out a soft laugh. “Oooo~” he starts, “You’re starting to feel it, right?”

Raphael starts to laugh, rests his head back against the couch pillows, and shuts his eyes. “Y...Yeah, I think so.” He puts his hands over his eyes, giggling. Why was he laughing? Nothing funny was even said! He holds up his hands above his head, looking up at them. Huh?

Casey turns his head to rest on the bean bag, watching what Raphael was doing. “What’re you doing there, buddy?”

"I only have three fingers," he mumbles as he opens and closes his hands. Casey burst out laughing, his eyes squeezing shut tightly. He falls off the beanbag chair as a result of his laughter, and they exchange glances before continuing to laugh. This was incredible.

They were having such a good time! He was pretty happy himself... even if he felt a little weird.

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Donatello stood in the dim light, inspecting the metals, wires, fancy power sources, and other items he had been given before turning to face the masked figure. "Are you sure I could make whatever I wanted?" When he got a nod, a pat on the head, and then a gentle push on his shell to lightly push him forward, he smiled and stepped forward to get to work, his tail wagging slowly.

But... that is a story for the next chapter.

Chapter Text

As Leonardo lay in his bed, he knew that something was wrong. There was a feeling in the air that told him that something was out of place and that something was wrong. It was making him jittery and preventing him from sleeping! What was wrong, though? It didn’t feel right. He taps his fingers on his plastron while lying on his back, trying to calm his breathing. He had his eyes closed for the time being because that usually helped him fall asleep, but when he realized he couldn't, he sighed, opened them, and looked around his room.

It was mostly empty.

There was a dresser and a few cabinets. His swords were on the wall in the proper holders, and there was a painting on the wall as well that he asked for when he was younger. They found it in the trash yard, and Splinter agreed to let him keep it. His mask was resting on the cabinet that was beside his bed, right beside the Okiagari Koboshi Dolls that he had gotten as well. Splinter once told him to be like the dolls. When they are pushed down, they immediately rise back up.

They were all given one at a very young age.

Michelangelo enjoyed pushing his over and watching it swing back up—he used to kiss it when it did this until Splinter told him it was bizarre and told him to stop doing that. Michelangelo did listen at the time; be that as it may, Leonardo occasionally caught him doing it anyway. He never told anyone because he liked how happy it made his younger brother… even if he did agree with his dad that he thought it was a tad odd.

Donatello also had a special possession that was all his own: a Bonsai tree. Splinter gave it to him, explaining that he must learn how to keep living things alive and deal with living things rather than the non-living creations he had grown accustomed to. Plus, the symbolism of the Bonsai tree signifies a strong relationship between man and nature! Balance and stability, and wealth and abundance. Donatello adored his little tree, which was thriving—in fact, it was probably healthier than him! Ironic, right?

Recently, though, it had been strange; the leaves had been dropping, and there was no reason for it! Donatello was so upset because he knew that he was taking very good care of his little tree, and he didn’t know why they were falling.

Leonardo exhales and shuts his eyes once more, allowing his mind to roam. He knew his bedroom like the back of his hand, even without being able to see it right now. As the darkness returned to his vision, he began to imagine his room. Everything inside, every inch of the walls and floor, and every single thing around him. The small crack in the wall by the door, the spiderweb in the corner that had begun to collect dust since the spider had long since disappeared—maybe killed? He was not completely sure. He would not say it aloud because all life was supposed to have significance and purpose, all things considered; however, he was relieved that the spider was gone; they freaked him out.

His room was one of the few locations in this residence that he knew very well. It was because he didn’t have to wear his mask while he was in there; he was free to see and to think. His sensei would sometimes come in and ask a few questions, and during that time he would have to wear the mask. Other than that? He could keep it off.

Gradually, his thoughts shifted away from the room and towards his brothers. He visualized them all hanging out in his room, smiling and cheerfully chattering amongst themselves. Raphael's eyes were not as dark or cold as they occasionally are; Donatello appeared relaxed and happy, maybe a little plumper than he was right now; and Michelangelo simply beamed, laughing at something Leonardo said. They were all at ease.

No matter how cheerful those thoughts were, he had to force his eyes open to stop them from filling his mind faster. They made his heart hurt! He would love it if his brothers were like that, but it can’t be. They can’t be… not with Splinter as their sensei.

His eyes burned, and he reached up to wipe them, then looked at his hand to see that it was wet. He was... huh, he had been crying? Immediately, he sits up and wipes his eyes fast, trying to ignore the way he wanted to break down. He wanted to sob, and he hated that. There was nothing he could have done, sadly.

After a few seconds of thought, he stands up and pokes his head out of his bedroom, his eyes scanning around. Once he was sure it was just him there, he scurried over to Michelangelo’s room, whispering as he walked in, “Hey Mikey, are you awake?” When he reached out to touch the blanket, he hesitated, realizing that the bed was empty. What the? Where was Michelangelo? He pulls the blanket off and frowns when he doesn’t see his brother. “Mikey?” he murmurs and glances around the messy room, then drops the blanket back onto the bed and heads over to Raphael’s, poking his head in, and once again, the room is empty. Raphael's sai were still in the wall holders, and when he ran over to Donatello's room, it was also empty! What happened to his brothers? Where did they go? Why weren’t they in their beds?

His heart began to pound, and his mind raced through the worst-case scenarios. What if someone kidnapped his brothers? What if they were in trouble? Dead even?

What would be the best course of action for him right now? Is he supposed to tell Splinter? Should he go to bed and see if they come back in the morning? If they were fine and went out without him, they could get into trouble, and then they would be mad at him! If not, however, they could end up getting killed. He closes his eyes tightly and runs back to his room, jumping into his bed and pulling the blanket over his head. He needed to get some rest. He had to calm down. 

Don’t panic; you know that Splinter would be mad at you.

He could do better than this! He had to be better than this.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

What happened to Donatello? He had been going around the sewers at first, trying to calm himself down; unfortunately, when that didn’t help, he figured that maybe he just needed to breathe. He needed to get some fresh air.

As a result, he decided to leave the sewers.

A cold and fresh breeze was blowing through the empty park as he stood there, feeling the dew from the grass on his legs and toes as he drank in the cold and fresh air. After he proceeded to sit down, he placed his hand over his face, his mind rushing with different thoughts. What made life so hard? Why couldn’t they be... why couldn’t they be normal? He wanted a normal life where they didn’t have to worry.

If he had to remain a mutant turtle, it wouldn't bother him in the least! Honestly, he wouldn't mind at all! He simply didn’t want to deal with his sensei any longer. A part of him hated to feel as if he couldn't say what he wanted or be himself because he wasn’t allowed to. Their sensei had molds that he wanted them to be in, and Donatello felt like he would never fit in it

Nothing was fair.

As he sat there, he heard a noise that caused his eyes to open, and he rolled back onto his back, only to have an enormous frame land on the ground where he had been sitting. It appeared to be another turtle—strangely enough, not one he was familiar with! Their sharp claws were digging into the ground as they looked at him with their head turned in his direction. Donatello looked around for a moment, his eyes wide, before rising to his feet. "Who are you?" The other turtle, annoyingly, did not reply and instead lunged at him, forcing him to dodge once more. They knocked into a tree that he was near and fell back onto the ground, letting out piercing sounds while holding their head. The tree tilted, showing the amount of force that was behind that thud… They were also considerably larger than him. He frowns as he looks at them, wondering why they are howling so loudly. Did it really hurt that badly? "A...Are you okay?" he asks, taking a step closer. Before he could get too close, another mutant jumped in front of him, snarling with his lips pulled back, showing the sharp teeth of a predator.

They had gray fur and were bigger than the turtle!

Saliva dripped from his mouth, causing Donatello’s heart to drop, and he took a short step back, hearing the pounding in his chest and the blood rushing through him. Crap, he didn’t have his Bo staff! He forgot to bring it with him! Crap, crap, crap. He squeezes his eyes shut. At the very least, the world would not be losing anything crucial; it was only him.

"Teishi!" yelled a blaring voice, and he heard the wolf yelp as well as the turtle—he thought they were a snapping turtle... fascinating. He opened his eyes slowly and looked at the two mutants, then at where they were looking. There was a towering man—at least 6', perhaps taller. He wore a helmet over his head that had three sharp points on it and a face mask that covered the lower half of his face. The only thing that Donatello could see from this distance were his almost silver eyes. On his arms were gloves that had sharp-looking spines that went down to claws that were longer than his hands, and a long purple cape was wrapped around his shoulders. He wore what looked like armor.

He had shouted stop at the two mutants, so possibly he knew them? That was Japanese...

The two mutants jumped to their feet and rushed over to him, one on either side of the tall human. What the hell is going on? What the heck, what the heck, what the heck?

“I...” He opened his mouth, shut it again, and turned his head down. What is the best course of action for him? It isn’t like he could get away that quickly, and he doesn’t have any weapons with him right now. The only thing he had was a smoke bomb, and he didn’t know how much that would help?

He should have stayed at home.

"Are you okay?" he heard, which caused him to blink. He lifts his head, then steps back barely because the man is now directly in front of him. What the heck? How did he move so fast and silently?! He swallowed, his mouth unexpectedly feeling very dry, but he nodded to show that he was fine. "Hontoni Moshiwakenai," the guy voices, lowering his head and placing his hand on his chest. “I did not realize that they had left my home until it was too late. I should have kept a better eye on them.” He casts a glance behind him at the two mutants, who are giggling. They appeared to be amused, which made Donatello feel strangely embarrassed. "They were not going to attack you; Tokka has an odd way of making friends, and I assume they were excited because you are also a turtle." Donatello noticed that the other person's eyes were scanning him up and down.

He strangely felt... judged? These are the eyes of a beast, a predator looking at his next meal. Donatello had too many emotions racing through his mind right now. Was this guy being nice merely to be nice, or was he truly dangerous? It seemed like he was being nice, so why did Donatello feel so nervous? He blamed it on his sensei.

“It’s alright,” he mutters, lowering his head as well. “I just wasn’t expecting someone to come out of nowhere like that... Um, Tokka, you said that was their name? They hit their head on the tree; are they alright?“ He looks over at the two of them again. Yeah, the turtle and wolf seemed to be okay; they were playing.

The other male, the human, chuckled before nodding. ”They can tolerate more than that... their names are Tokka and Rahzar. What is yours? I am Oroku Saki,“ he said, resting his hand on his chest and waiting for a response.

Why did that name sound so familiar? Slowly, ever so slowly, Donatello started to relax while talking to the armor-wearing man. ”I...I’m Donatello, but everyone just calls me Donnie.“ He reaches his hand up, messing with his mask tails.

The masked man, now known as Oroku Saki, began to ask a few questions, wondering exactly what he was doing out so late. Donatello answered a few of his questions until, ultimately, there was a loud growl, and Donatello perked up, then shut his mouth in a tight line, his face growing warm as blood pooled there. Crap, did his stomach just growl? Really? That’s so embarrassing!

Tokka and Rahzar appeared to have heard the sound as well, since they started to laugh, and Tokka, realizing that Donatello was probably a real friend now, grabbed his arm, hugging it. ”Food! Food, food, food, food!“ Rahzar laughs, nodding his head along, and rocks his hands in fists, adding, ”Food!“

”I-I’m fine; I’m not really hungry; that was just... um, I-I already ate today.“ He turned his head down, trying to hide the humiliation that was filling him faster than liquid. The man held up his hand, causing the others to stop, although Rahzar did add food one more time before he crouched down slightly and looked Donatello in the eyes, asking, ”If you are hungry, I can get you something. I may have to get something for these two as well, anyway.“ The voice was soft, even kind; admittedly, his eyes still held a sharpness.

Like the edge of a blade shimmering in the light before it slices down to finalize the job it was made for.

Donatello’s heart was pounding. What should he say? What should he do? Should he agree? Disagree? His mouth decided to answer before his brain decided 100% on what he wanted to do. “I’m... I’d be okay with that,” he mumbles, causing the other two to cheer, and they look at the masked man, waiting for him to say what to do.

His eyes crinkled, showing that maybe he was smiling? It was hard to tell with the metal mask that Donatello could see himself in. He saw the imperfections on his own face, the scars, and how dull his eyes were. He had always been envious of Michelangelo for his lovely eyes—and of Leonardo! They were such a beautiful and vibrant yellow. Donatello felt like his eyes were boring—so pale.

“Then let’s go and get something for everyone.” He stands up, turns, and starts to walk with his cape blowing in the wind, and Donatello gradually walks after him without even thinking about it. The frame, even though this man's eyes scared him, for some reason made him feel safe.

He felt like he was meant to be here.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

It didn’t take too long for them to get to wherever Saki was going to take them. It felt weird for the young turtle to just walk normally like this. Splinter had constantly told them to never be seen by humans as they were dangerous, hideous, and cruel. This human, though? He didn’t look that ugly from what Donatello could see—dangerous, yeah, maybe, but evil? He didn’t look evil either! He was being kind and giving Donatello food even though he wasn’t even all that hungry! He... did eat, right? Did he eat today? He couldn’t even remember anymore.

“I’m Tokka,” Tokka spoke, their voice light with a delighted manner. “And that’s Rahzar; he’s a wolf, and I’m a turtle. You’re a turtle too, but not as spiky. That’s fun. What are you going to get, you think? I like the ramen, and you should get the ramen too. How old are you? I’m three.” They waved their free hand as they spoke. “Mama says that we’re not very smart, but we’re strong. I fell off a building once.” Rahzar starts to laugh, nodding to show that, yeah, that absolutely happened.

That was a lot to listen to... “Um, that’s pretty cool; I’m fifteen—the same as my brothers; I’m the second oldest, though. I've never been tossed off a building before, and I don’t know what I’m going to get. Ramen does sound pretty good.” He mumbles the last part, thinking about it.

“Do you have a mom?” Rahzar asks, his tail swaying as he leans a bit too close for Donatello’s liking, “What about a dad?” he continues. His teeth were too sharp and too close.

He really had no idea how to respond to this, so he dragged his tongue across his lips to try to wet them, hoping it would calm him down at least a little—it didn’t. Before he could answer, Saki lifted his hand and snapped his fingers, causing Tokka and Rahzar to look over quickly, then they walked closer to him. “sorry Mama...” they both said, and Saki turns to look over his shoulder, “We’re here.” Donatello looks up to see that it was, in fact, a ramen shop that they were in front of. Before he could object, Saki and the other two were already walking in, so he hurried afterwards. Saki sat down at one of the tables, with both of the others sitting too, and Saki held up his hand and said, “Sit, be comfortable.” Tokka and Rahzar started to chat with each other, both seeming happy and relaxed. How are they able to just walk around like this? Humans could see them! Then what? He looks down and sits hesitatingly. 

Saki rests his head against his fist, tapping his finger against the metal over his lower face, then he hums, "You seem very nervous," he started. "If you want to leave, you may; I won’t stop you. Obviously, I hope you know that I do not plan on hurting you or allowing these two to do so, either." Donatello yelps softly at the voice and shakes his head fast, trying to wave his hands. He knew that he was moving the nub where his arm used to be. Man, that’s so embarrassing! He hated that. “No, no, I’m okay! I’m just... I’m not used to walking around topside like this.” He mumbles, turning his head down, embarrassed.

“Nothing will happen to you while you are here with me. The person who works here knows who I am and knows better than to act out.” Yeah, that didn’t make Donatello feel any better. What would happen to the worker if they did ‘act out’?

Before long, the worker walks out, holding a few menus, and lowers their head in greeting, “Welcome back. Would you two like your usual things?” They asked Tokka and Rahzar first, who both nodded quickly, and Saki put in his order; consequently, now all eyes were on Donatello, so he bit the inside of his cheek and said, "Um, j...just the ramen, please. Uh-” his eyes shoot between everyone, then he turns his head down and finishes putting in his order, murmuring. The worker nodded and walked off to put in the order. He felt like he was going to be ill, and he didn’t like it. He hated how panic always made him feel so sick.

After a second, he felt a pat on his head and when he lifted it, he saw Saki looking at him, and he said, “You did good… You’re safe, though. Nobody will know that you’re here.” Donatello stares at him since... the voice sounded so kind. Why was this random guy so kind? Gradually, the first tear slipped from his eyes, rolling down his cheek, and the others quickly started to follow behind. He turns his head down, attempting to cover his eyes with his arm, sniffling. Why was he crying? Why the heck was he crying? He shouldn't be crying! Tokka looks at him, turning their head to the side. "Are you okay?" They asked, frowning. They were completely confused! Donatello let out a soft laugh and nodded, mumbling, "I'm fine, just… I'm just really happy."

Saki let out a faint laugh at that, shaking his head and leaning back in the chair, closing his eyes. Donatello couldn’t exactly tell what he was thinking, and honestly, he wasn’t sure that he wanted to. Right now, he wanted to be happy. He’ll deal with whatever happens tomorrow when tomorrow comes.

When the food finally came, as did the drinks, Donatello started to eat slowly, his eyes scanning around to look at the shop. The windows were blacked out, the lights were kind of dark, and there were some fabrics hanging down that had a certain symbol on them. He would remember what that symbol was and try to look it up later. Rahzar was scooping up the meat from the bowl and shoveling it into his mouth. He then started to wave his hand at his mouth while sticking out his tongue, breathing fast since it was really hot. Tokka points at him, laughing.

Saki sighs, rubbing his temples, and shakes his head at these two idiots. Donatello watches them, smiling and chuckling, looking off to the side. At least this was a bit relaxing.

“So,” Saki started, ignoring those two, causing Donatello to perk up, and he looked at the other, listening closely, “What are a few things that you like to do? I am curious that there is another turtle mutant in this area that I haven’t seen or heard of.” 

Haven’t heard of? That’s... strange? He figured that the mutants would probably talk about the annoying turtles that stopped them from being able to finish their ’jobs’. Or did this guy not know the other mutants who committed the crimes? Donatello’s eyes shot down to look at the table, thinking about it. “Well...” He looks off to the side, wondering if he should really explain. “I... I like to create things? I’ve been making things and making blueprints of items that I could make later on whenever I get the chance to.” He raises his arm so his sleeve would fall down to show the band around his arm. “Blueprint 154A,” and the screen with the tracker blueprints showed up in front of him. It was a type of hologram. “This is one of the items that I was able to create; I need some extra resources to really make a lot of what I want, but that would have to be a later thing. My, um, my dad doesn’t really like that I create stuff like this. He... he says that I should focus on stuff that really matters.” 

“Tell me about it.” Saki told him. He blinks once, twice, then looks at him with big eyes, looking shocked. When the human nods, lacing his fingers together and resting his head on them, Donatello gets a big smile on his face and starts to ramble, looking at the blueprints that he made. “Well, when you look at the screen, I made trackers. You could send them out and attach them to people, animals, cars, and anything else that could end up somewhere, and then you could figure out where it goes. I thought it would be good for animals. If you have pets or kids, you could always find out where they are.” He wasn’t going to bring up the fact that it could be used to track villains. “They are very light-weight, and I have a few ideas on how to make it almost impossible to see where it is. Cloaking covering, kind of like a chameleon! It would change the color to match anything that it is on.” As he spoke, his tail was wagging fast, glad to be able to ramble. “Once again, that is something I would have to figure out later. I have so many ideas for other creations as well, though! Like a teleporter for food that would shoot it right into you so you don’t have to eat if you don’t want to or can’t, and I was thinking of gummies that could give you all the hydration that you need because, I will admit, I have had some issues with that myself. It would also be good for older people who couldn’t drink, and it could make it fun because who doesn’t love gummies? Of course the ones that I would rather focus on are creations such as bikes, or I once thought about a tank that could drive, then the bikes could come out of it. I could even make them blend into the street with the same cloaking covering that I mentioned before!”

“If I gave you the resources you needed, would you allow me to see what you created with them?” Saki waved his free hand as he spoke, his voice sounding unbothered and calm. “I have many plans, and your creations might help with them. Of course I would allow you to use them for whatever; I am more interested in seeing what you can do.” 

That seemed a bit too good to be true. “What would you get out of it?” he asked, and he got a response from the masked figure: “I get the chance to see what you could do with my help. I always get interested in seeing what mutants can do.” Donatello’s eyes shoot over to look at Tokka and Rahzar, thinking about it. Did he want to do this? I mean, the idea of being able to create anything he wanted? It made him so happy. At least someone seemed proud of what he could do, and this guy hadn’t even seen it yet! Slowly, he nodded to show he agreed. This might be... this might be a good thing.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

After deciding to stay with Saki and the others for the night, the very first thing that Donatello decided to start making was the false arm. He knew just how nice it would be to have that, and the parts that Saki gave him? Yeah, it was amazing! He had so many new power sources and things that he could use to make his stuff! Ahhh! He’s never been so excited! His mind was too busy to think about the weirdness that was going on. Just some random dude, a random human, with mutant ’friends’ found Donatello and offered for him to come and use very expensive things just because? Yeah, he let his excitement cloud his judgment, and... maybe he wanted someone to care for him.

Before he knew it, it had been a few days.

While he worked, the others would bring him food—mostly this fox girl—and she would sit and chat with him sometimes. Her name was Alopex! She was a very small fox mutant, and oddly enough, her tail was really big and floofy. About the size of her whole body, honestly! Donatello wanted to play with it; if he had to be truthful… it looked really soft and comfortable. She had red fur around her eyes—maybe dyed? He wasn’t sure. Her eyes, though, were a nice blue color. Ice blue.

Today she came in, carrying a plate, and set it beside him on the table. “Here you go, boss. You feeling alright, little shell?” Donatello nods, reaches up to push his goggles up, and looks at her, smiling faintly. “I am. I’m excited to finally be able to test if all of these blueprints would work,” he tells her, “and thank you.” He moves the plate over and starts to eat slowly. The arm had been coming along very nicely, and he was adding a few things. A blacklight, a heartbeat sensor, and a place where he could charge his phone. Plus a little flashlight in the finger and a lighter in the pinkie! Why? He had no idea, but he wanted to be able to control fire.

She shakes her head and pulls herself to sit up on the table, swaying her paws slowly. “Eh, it ain’t no problem... so don’t you, I dunno, got a family to go home to? You know you’ve been here for, like, three days now, right?” She knew that he fell asleep; at any rate, she wasn’t sure how much he'd slept so far. 

His eyes widened when he heard that, and he sat up fast and started to cough hard. The food he had been swallowing went down the wrong pipe. Her eyes widen, and she reaches over, patting her hand against his shell to help. He gets up and waves his hand, saying, “I have to get home! Sensei is going to kill me; that’s three days without training. I never went three days without training! I even left my staff, a-and he’s going to be so mad at me. How did I not realize that it was three days? I got so lost in the motions! No, no, no, no.” Oh god, what was he going to do? He puts his hand over his mouth, his mind rushing with different ideas of how Splinter was going to react. He didn’t want to tell them that he was hanging out with a human and other mutants, cause Splinter might get mad at that! He felt like he was going to have a panic attack; his breathing was getting harder to do, and he heard a loud ringing in his ears. His body was feeling hot, and his chest was so tight! 

“Hey, hey, calm down; take a breath. You’re okay.” He heard, causing his eyes to shoot up, and he saw Alopex, who was breathing in, then out slowly, and waving her hands in a silent way of saying to copy her. He started to try to copy her breathing, and once he was calmed down enough, she smiled and bumped her hip against his. “There you go. Now head on home; I’m sure it’ll be alright. You can come back whenever you want, and I’m sure the boss will let you come back without any issues, lil shell.”

Boss? Also, she had no idea what his dad was like. Donatello bit his tongue to not say anything, nodded, and decided to leave to head home anyway. He was excited to see what his arm would be like once it was finished! It has been very good so far.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

Of course the boys have noticed that Donatello wasn’t there! And they were so worried about him. They remembered telling him to go for a walk, and that was the last time that they had seen him. Splinter asked about it, and the boys covered for him, saying that he had gotten sick, like really sick, and was throwing up, so he had to go lay down in his room. Splinter just sighed, shook his head, and said, "That boy gets sick too often... thank you for telling me." They made sure to add the throwing up part because Splinter would rather them go to their rooms when they were sick than try to continue training and throw up on the training grounds.

They were in the middle of training in the room, with Leonardo kicking and punching at the—new—dummy that they got, and Michelangelo and Raphael were fighting. No weapons this time, as Splinter said they had to be prepared to fight without them. He told them that he was leaving for a while because he needed to go and get food from the store. The boys agreed and watched him leave. They knew that they didn’t have to train right now since he wasn’t there, but Leonardo said that they probably should. Just in case he came home and asked them why they weren't training anymore when he didn't tell them that they could stop.

Raphael hated that he was probably right.

Donatello races into the room, huffing and puffing as he rests his hand on his knee, hunched over slightly. "G-Guys, I... I’m so sorry, I didn’t-" before he could say anything else, he got tackled by Michelangelo, who cried, "Donnie! Where have you been!?" he hugs onto Donatello, both lying on the floor after Michelangelo knocked him over. He nuzzles their cheeks together, distress apparent on his face.

Duh, he was worried! He had no idea where his brother had run off to for three whole days! He had been almost unable to sleep due to the worry of something happening to Donatello.

"Yeah! What the hell? How could you disappear without telling us you were going somewhere? We stuck our necks out for you." Raphael snaps, and Leonardo stops hitting the dummy, ’looking’ over. Raphael didn’t mean to snap like he was angry; he had been panicked as well. Seeing that his slightly older brother was okay allowed him to be able to get mad now.

Donatello lets out a soft groan because Michelangelo was heavier than he might think he was. “I lost track of time... I-Is sensei here?” he asks, his eyes shooting over to look at the entrance to the room.

“No,” Leonardo strides over, arms crossed over his chest, “He went to the store. Donnie, leaving without telling us that you were going somewhere for that long wasn’t a good idea; sensei asked about you, and we had to lie to him.”

Donatello frowns and glances down, hugging Michelangelo the best that he could with his arm, and shuts his eyes, answering, “I know, I know, but... I met someone who is helping me with my work. I lost track of time while working on it. I’m going to be able to get a new arm.” That seemed to catch their attention. Raphael and Leonardo, I mean. Somebody was helping Donatello with his work? Who? And what works exactly? How would he end up getting a new arm, and who was trying to help him?

Ever so slowly, Raphael makes a soft huh sound, nods just a little, and asks, “Are they... are they a nice person? Why are they helping you with that?”

Donatello smiles, nodding fast, and he replies in a very excited tone, “Yeah! He seems really nice. He has a few mutant friends, so I don’t think he’s bad or anything.” Sure, a few of the mutants were kind of weird, but the ones that he met seemed nice! He really liked the wolf and the turtle, and Alopex was nice... the name did sound familiar, though. He asked Saki if he had other mutant friends, and he said yes, though they would have to meet later on. “I’m going to go and see him again tonight, so I can keep working. The arm is almost done, and I’m curious to see exactly what it can do once I’m done.”

Michelangelo grins, clapping his hands together, about to say that that sounded fantastic! But Leonardo butted in before he could say anything, “No, and you won’t.” that caused them to blink, looking at Leonardo, all frowning. Raphael thought it sounded kind of weird too, honestly. “You’re going to go to your room tonight, and you’re going to sleep. You disappeared for three days without telling us where you were going or where you were, which made us worry. So you're grounded until further notice.”

“Wha-Leo, what the heck? You can’t ground me.” Donatello replies fast, with a deep frown on his face as he stands up, “We go outside all the time; why is it different that I’m going out to meet someone?” He didn't get it! He had been with the person for three days now; he slept there! If Saki wanted to do something against him, he would have presumably done it already, right? So why be so overprotective?

“Because I don’t know who this ‘someone’ is, and they might do something against you. You may think that they are nice, but a lot of the time, people can fake it, and you'll just end up getting hurt. You know what sensei tells us all the time: no humans." Donatello opens his mouth, starting to argue, ultimately Leonardo raises his voice to snap at him before he could. "Don't argue with me! Hasn't he shown you that arguing with someone only ends up with bad things happening to you? Don't you learn anything?"

And that caused everyone to get tense. Raphael stares at Leonardo with large eyes, while Michaelangelo turns his head down, clamming up. It seemed like he was trying to make himself look smaller than he already was. Something he always did whenever Splinter shouted at them. "Leo... what the hell?" Raphael asks.

That was too far, even for him!

"No, no, he's right. I should know better." Donatello mutters, turning his head down to the ground, his hand tightening into a tight fist. "No, wait, Donnie, I didn't mean to snap-" Leonardo reaches out to touch his brother's shoulder, but his hand gets smacked away as Donatello shouts, his voice harsh and full of panic. "don't touch me! You're just like him, and I hate you!" He turns, storming out of the room. Big, fat tears starting to roll down his cheeks. Part of him never expected Leonardo, of all of them, to snap at him like that.

"Donnie!" Michelangelo frowns, chasing after his brother, and Raphael sighs, shaking his head at Leonardo, telling him, "I get that you're nervous about him, but Lee, that wasn't good to do. What were you thinking?"

"I lashed out... and knock it off, Raph, I already know." He grumbles and shakes his head, letting out a sigh. He already understood that he messed up, and he should have gone about that differently! It's just... why would Donnie want to go and talk to a human? He simply didn't get it! Sensei always told them that humans were bad and told so many stories about why they were bad. He was only trying to protect his brother. Maybe the idea of his brothers making new friends scared him? What if, when they made friends, they all started drifting away? He didn't want to be left alone. They were family, and together they were strong, and they were safe with each other. Bringing other people into the family would only invite trouble and sorrow.

Donatello was lying in his bed, curled up and sniffling. Of course he felt bad for lashing out at his older brother and saying he hated him, but he didn't get why Leonardo would say that to him? He had been so excited, and then he didn't even seem proud of him.

Even if Leonardo didn't agree, he wasn't going to stop going.

This was something for him and only him. He wouldn’t leave his brothers behind; nonetheless, if he had to keep getting into trouble to do this, then so be it.

"Don-Don?" He heard, causing him to turn his head slightly to see Michelangelo poking his head in, "can I come in?" As expected, he nodded to show the youngest that he could. No matter how upset or angry he gets, he can never take it out on him. Not after that time that he pushed Michelangelo away when they were younger—he had felt so guilty afterwards.

Michelangelo smiles and walks in, heading over to sit beside him on the bed, and reaches out before he starts to scratch at Donatello's shell. It was something that they all loved, and everyone knew that Donatello loved it! "I wouldn't be too bothered by Leo... he's been really stressed lately, and sadly, he took it out on you. I think you should keep going to your friend; it might be good for you." He looks around, then back at him, and smiles, whispering, "I have a human friend too... it's that girl that we met a while ago. Her name is April. I really like her, and she gave me a stuffed animal."

"the one Leo used sleeping powder on?" When Michelangelo nodded, Donatello couldn't help a little smile, mumbling in a soft tone. "That's such a bad meeting..." They spoke together for a while, with Michelangelo trying his best to make his brother feel better and Donatello asking questions about April. Michelangelo seemed weirdly enthusiastic to talk about her, and Donatello had a feeling that he saw him blushing! Did Michelangelo have a crush on the human? That would be so strange!

When Splinter got home, he came in and saw his four boys training together. Leonardo and Donatello were throwing punches or kicks; Michelangelo is up on the stick, balancing and holding his hands together; and Raphael is attacking the dummy. His eyes scanned over them, and then he nodded to show that they were doing satisfactorily. "Boys. Take a break; dinner will be done soon." With that, he turned and walked out to the kitchen. By then, Donatello and Leonardo had already spoken it out. Leonardo said he was sorry for snapping at him like that, and Donatello said that he was sorry for saying that he hated him. They then hugged, and Raphael faked a gagging sound. Michelangelo laughed.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

Donatello reasoned that maybe it would be a good idea for him to stay the night this time at his own house. Just in case one of the others came to check on him, he didn't think that Splinter would; admittedly, though, there is always a chance. Michelangelo and Raphael, though? Yeah, they decided that they wanted to sneak out and go to see their friends!

This time, Raphael snuck out first while Michelangelo was cuddling with the stuffed animal that April gave him. He made sure to hide it whenever he left his room, hiding it between his mattress and bedpost. 

When Raphael got to the familiar building, he looked over at April's door, then the next-door one, and he stepped over and knocked on the door once, twice, then three times, and frowned. Why wasn't Casey answering? He purses his lips, squinting at the door, then looks over his shoulder at the other doors. He wondered what the other people were like... he looked forward and knocked again.

This time, just like the last time, he was wearing Casey's hoodie. He liked how warm it was, and he had his sketchbook as well! Mostly to show off the drawings that he did of clothes that he could make later on. He had some ideas and was pretty excited.

He had many ideas for clothing that could be exceptionally comfortable. Girls' clothes with pockets, ones that would last a long time, and nice fabrics that don't cause soreness! He was pretty good at sewing.

It was something that he learned when he was younger, mostly to fix the teddy bear that he had and the other stuff that they had that could end up getting torn. Maybe one day he could use that to help if they ever got hurt, but, you know, he didn't want to do that!

The idea of being the medic on the team made him panic, and blood grossed him out. He was better at causing issues and wounds than curing them.

"Casseeyyy!" He shouts, knocking on the door again, "I told you that I was coming to see you today!" he didn't care if he irritated people who lived around Casey; he was annoyed himself! He had already told Casey that he was coming over today, so he was confused about why he wasn't opening the door.

Luckily, finally, the door gets opened, and he gets pulled into the room. Casey laughs at him, saying, "Dude, you're like a dog that got locked out of a room. Why're you screaming so much?" he asks. He was wearing a black tank top crop top mix, and jeans with a belt. Oh, hey, he had a belly button piercing; that's pretty cool. It was red.

Raphael narrowed his eyes at the other and tugged his arm away, snapping at him, "I told you to stop pulling me in like that!" He huffs and puffs, then lowers his arms and sighs, "And because you weren't answering... are you ready to get out of here to go and beat up some assholes?"

"Eh, not yet; let me go and get dressed. I gotta get my mask and shit." He turns, walking over to his bedroom. He didn't even seem to care that Raphael snapped at him like that, which made him pretty happy—not that he would admit it out loud! He follows after him like a puppy would. Ha!

Casey was moving stuff around, most likely looking for his mask. After a few minutes of looking, he pulled it out and held it up, "ah-ha!" He reaches up and puts it over his face, then turns to look at him, "What do you think?"

Raphael looks Casey up and down, turns his head away to cross his arms over his chest, and replies, "I think you need to put on a shirt. You're gonna freeze." Casey laughs and grabs his hoodie, pulling it up over his head, then starts to put on the other stuff. "I was thinking we should go downtown; there are always freaky people down there." and he wanted to punch weirdos. It's been too long since he was able to fight against any real villains. 

"Yeah, that sounds good to me," was the reply that he got from the human who stood up straight and grabbed one of his hockey sticks, putting it over his shoulder. "Let's get out of here and fuck some shit up!" Raphael nods in approval with a big grin on his face, and they walk out of the room after Casey locks the door behind them. Was this taking the law into their own hands? Yeah, of course it was! They would take care of the crimes so people wouldn't get hurt because cops weren't going to do anything but go after people that they thought were the bad guys. Crime had gotten out of control, and a lot of it was being ignored.

People either paid their way out of retribution for their crimes, or they would whine and complain about how "it isn't fair!" yeah, tell that to the family of the person you killed. Tell that to the homeless people who have to suffer because so many people decide to hoard their money like dragons, and a lot of rich assholes decided to take out benches or put spikes on things to stop the homeless from sleeping there. Tell that to the kids who lost their parents, their brothers, or their sisters! 

Drunk drivers were the ones that Raphael hated the most. Hearing their stories always made him furious.

As they ran and jumped across the roofs of buildings, they were both listening for anything that seemed out of the norm. Casey cheered as he jumped to the next building and laughed, looking over at him, "Dude, this is gonna be awesome. I haven't gone out of my house like this in forever." Raphael snorts at the excited tone. "Dude, shut up; we're supposed to be going out to find crime; people won't do crime if they hear your voice shouting."

"Oh boy, howdy, don't I just love crime! Hey guys, do you wanna do a crime? I'd like to buy one crack, please." Casey lands down on the building they were near and puts his hands on his hips as he speaks. Raphael stops beside him and starts to laugh, not being able to help himself, and reaches over, pushing on his arm, saying, "Oh my god, shut up." Casey steps away and pushes on Raphael's arm with his hockey stick to get away from him, continuing, "I won't ever shut up; I'm Mr. Crime, and I'm gonna do some jaywalking while wearing slippers in public after 10:00 pm! Plus, letting go of more than 25 helium-filled balloons at a time!" he held up his arms, doing his best evil laugh. (Yes, those are real crimes in New York City; I looked it up, and I'm confused too.)

"Casey!" Raphael pushes the hockey stick down, reaching out to try to cover his mouth even though he was wearing a mask. "Shut the hell up! Someone might hear you." His face kind of hurt from grinning... He wasn't used to smiling so much.

After that, they went back to exploring.

Raphael thought it was kind of nice for Casey to mess around like that and help them both calm down. Then he heard something. He stops where he was, eyes shooting around, then looks at Casey, asking him, "Hey, do you hear that?" he lands as well, then shakes his head, so Raphael shuts his eyes, listening closely.

Quickly, he started to run towards where he heard the sounds coming from and looked over the edge to see a woman that was pressed against the wall. There were two guys; one of the guys had a knife, and the guy holding the knife snapped at her, "Are you that stupid? We told you to give us your money!" 

"I don't have any money!" the girl cries back in her hysteria, holding her arms up. Raphael narrows his eyes and looks over at Casey, nodding his head at him, and Casey returns the nod.

They both jumped down, and Raphael, while the dude was stunned by their sudden appearance, kicked his leg out, kicking the guy in the side. He wasn't going to really hurt the dude; just knock him back, and he turned his head to look at the girl while Casey, of course, handled the other one, "Get out of here; we'll handle these guys." The girl nods quickly, running away, and he looks back, just to dodge out of the way of the dude slashing the blade at him.

He pulls out one of his sai and knocks their blades together as the guy spat at him, "You're getting yourself into stuff you shouldn't, kid! Why help some random lady?" 

"Because I hate criminals more than I hate talking to normal people." He replies and blocks another hit, able to lock the blade between the hooks, twisting it fast so it would turn the guy's arm in an uncomfortable way, almost hearing a crack. He, as hoped, let the blade go as it clattered to the ground, and Raphael spun the other sai in his hand to hit the guy in the side of his head with the handle before he could do anything to try to attack him again.

The unknown dude crumbled. Luckily, he just passed out, and he turned his head to look over at Casey to see him prodding at the other dude with the hockey stick handle. "Heh, this went pretty well, huh?" He looks over, giving a thumbs up. He did have a cut on his arm, but despite that, he didn't think it was that bad, so he didn't care. "It seems like these guys were just using their sizes to be more threatening. The dude wasn't even holding the knife right."

"Right enough to cut you." He walks over and looks at the cut, frowning. "When we get back, you should wrap that up... maybe clean it; these guys look gross." He looks between the two of them, squinting. Casey snorted and was about to reply, but before he could, they heard a bird call, and they both looked up to see a single crow staring down at them, then spreading its wings and flying off. 

"Huh... well, that's ominous," Casey grumbles, moving his hand to cover the wound on his arm. The pain was shooting through his arm, even though he was trying his best to ignore it. "We should get out of here before the cops get here; they'd probably call us the bad guys somehow." Raphael makes a tsh sound, sighs, and nods, then grabs Casey's hoodie sleeve, starting to pull him away fast.

They'll keep going for a while, and yeah, he didn't care about leaving two passed-out dudes there. Hopefully, they freeze .

He would probably ask Casey if he could spend the night. It was really cold, and he wanted to make sure that Casey took care of the cut and not just wrapped it up without cleaning it. He might hate the idea of being the medic—he hated the idea of his friend hurting even more.

.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇.ෆ˟̑**̑˟̑ෆ.₊̣̇

Michelangelo felt like he waited long enough to get going to see his buddy! Sure, she might be a bit shocked that he would just appear... he thought she would be fine with it, though! So after hiding his teddy bear in the normal hiding spot, he walked out, looked around, and then headed out, holding his arms by his sides as he ran through the sewers.

Ever since he met April and started talking to her, he had been more comfortable. He felt like he could smile now, and he wasn't being held down or squeezed anymore.

It felt like he could finally breathe.

Though every day a sinking feeling filled his body. His brothers seemed to be getting better, so why did he feel such a sense of sadness all around him? Occasionally, when he first wakes up and goes out with his brothers, he sees a dark cloud all around them; the cloud was mostly around Splinter, though.

It worried him.

At the time, however, Michelangelo shook his head to get his mind off of that. He didn't want to think about all of that bad stuff happening! Right now, he wanted to be cheerful. He wanted to forget everything.

It took him a little while to get to April's place, and on the way there, he picked a flower that he saw! He figured that she would appreciate it. When he gets to her bedrooms window again, this time he knocks while looking over his shoulder. This was a long way up...

When he heard the window open, he looked forward, and his eyes widened at how close their faces were. She smiled at him and let out a soft laugh. "Hey there, buddy," she said to him. 

"I... heh h-hey April, um, what's up?" He responds, letting out a soft laugh and reaching up to mess with his mask tails, embarrassed. Oh geez, they were so close! He nibbles his bottom lip, averts his eyes, then looks back at her.

April couldn't help but have a loud laugh at that and shook her head, saying, "Mikey, you idiot, get in here. It’s cold out there, and you’re letting in all the cold air." she stepped away so he could climb in. He was blushing so hard right now, he figured, so he climbed in and turned to close the window, then turned to face her and held out the flower, turning his head down to look at the ground and mumbling, "I got you a flower." Part of him was really worried. What if she didn't like the flower? What if she got mad at him? Would she yell at him? He didn't want her to yell at him! I mean, he wouldn't be upset at her; he would probably deserve it, but that didn't mean he wanted it.

Instead of getting hit, shouted at, or ignored, he felt the flower get taken gently from his hand, "Aw, thank you, Mikey. That's really sweet of you." He lifted his head to see her putting it behind her ear, and she smiled at him, turning her head to the side. "What do you think?" she asked.

"I think you look precious," He said, before realizing that that was what his brain wanted to say. Aw, geez, come on, Mikey, what is wrong with you? He had to stop himself from looking away. She blinks, then lets out a soft laugh, looking away. "Geez... you know how to flatter a girl." she walks closer and puts her arm around his shoulders, continuing, "Come on, let's stop chatting over here. You wanna watch a movie?" He gets a small smile and nods in approval.

April leads Michelangelo over to the couch, and pushes on his arms to get him to sit down. "Sit," she starts. "You can pick out the movie, and I'll go make the snacks. You can pick whatever you wanna pick, just nothing that I have to pay for... or that dumb samurai snake show; Casey makes me watch that with him all the time cause his dad made it." She walks over to the kitchen, stretching her arms above her head and yawning.

That causes Michelangelo to perk up, and he looks over at where she went off to, "Casey's dad is Kirby King?" He knew a little bit about Casey since April spoke about her next-door neighbor sometimes. "That's so cool!" he holds up his arms, grinning. "I've seen a lot of his designs before he got popular; sometimes I feel like the drawings will come right off the paper." He reaches over and picks up the remote, starting to flip through the channels to try to find something for them to watch.

He enjoyed drawing, but his true passion was photography! He enjoyed walking around and taking photographs. He normally kept a lot of them in his room in a box... that's why he thought April's room was creepy but kind of cool.

He found something that he thought sounded nice. Child's Play? He didn't know what kind of movie that would be, despite that, he thought it sounded kind of cute! So he clicks on it, "I found something!" He calls out to her, "It seems to be a movie about this doll?"

"What kind of doll?" she calls back, watching the popcorn bag unhurriedly expand in the microwave. "And do you want some orange soda? I'm gonna grab a blanket too." 

Michelangelo giggles a bit since heh, orange soda for the orange turtle... he looks at the TV watching as it starts, "Yes, please! But, uh, the doll has red hair and colorful sleeves? Overalls too! It's called Child's Play? I think it'll be cute!" He heard the noises in the kitchen stop, then she ran in and grabbed the remote, turning it to something else quickly. "Nope! Nope, nope, nope, you're not watching that." She turned on some other movie while Michelangelo was confused because, weh? What the heck? Why not? He looks at her, and she shakes her head, going back to the kitchen. He switched back to the other movie as soon as she left. He was definitely going to watch this...

Chapter Text

Donatello was not in a good mood at the moment. As you may know, his tree was dying, and he had no idea why! He had been doing everything in his power to keep it alive. He made certain that it was properly watered—no overwatering or underwatering—and that it was healthy. Now that it was dying, he was nervous and confused.

Was he doing something wrong? Did he kill it by doing something stupid? Even Splinter seemed annoyed when he saw the tree! "I gave you a gift, and you are allowing it to die? I warned you to keep an eye on it! Do you not appreciate my gifts? Are you even trying to take care of it?" Splinter scolded him, and he sank down, biting his tongue to stop himself from saying that he was doing everything that he was told to do.

He knew that if he said something, their sensei would get mad at him for "talking back," and if he didn't say anything, he would get upset because "I asked you a question! When I speak to you, respond!" It was so aggravating! There was nothing he could do to make his sensei happy, and that made him so sad.

Currently, he and his siblings are gathered in his room, spending time together. Splinter excused his students from training for the day because he had something to attend to and could not keep an eye on them as closely as he would have liked to. He did, however, tell them to clean the area and that he would test it when he got home—whatever that meant. The boys had already finished cleaning since they would always clean up after themselves! They did not want Splinter to have any reason to yell at them.

Donatello had his head resting on his arm, staring at his tree with a small frown tugging on his lips. He adored his tree; everyone knew how much he loved his tree, so the fact that it was dying hurt him. Maybe he should stick to non-living things because they are easier for him. He sighs, lowering his head into his arm and muttering under his breath.

"Are you really that upset that your tree is dying?" Raphael questions, reaching over to rest his hand on his brother's shell, who lifts his head just enough to nod, then drops his head down again. "Have you looked up reasons why it could be dying? It ain't like you haven't been taking care of it." As he spoke, he looked over at the tree with slightly bitter eyes. It was, without a doubt, dying.

It appeared to be on its last legs.

Yes, Raphael was upset with a tree for upsetting his brother. Screw off! He was allowed to be overly protective of his brother, even if this brother was older than him.

Being overprotective was his thing.

Michelangelo was quick to butt in, holding up one of his arms, "Why don't you try to take it out of the pot? Maybe it doesn't like that one anymore?" he proposes. He knew that he hated being in the same space for too long; that's why he often walks around the sewer home.

Leonardo appeared to be lost in thought during their conversation, thinking about things his brothers were unaware of. Donatello thought about what Michelangelo said, then nodded slowly and sat up, picking up the tree to look at it. "There is a chance for that? It could be that it doesn't like the soil?" He murmurs as he sits the pot on his lap, lightly tracing his finger across the leaves. There were only a few of them left.

Man...

He felt like crying.

Their sensei gave him a gift, and he was too stupid to take care of it. How could he possibly have failed at this? It was a plant! He begins to blink rapidly, squeezing his eyes shut afterward. Why did he find it so easy to cry? If their sensei saw him cry, he would probably say, "Why are you crying? There is no reason for you to cry. I have bestowed so many blessings on you, and yet you cry? What more do you want from me?" It always made Donatello feel so guilty. It made him feel selfish.

Before his mind could go too far into the darkness of his thoughts, Leonardo finally started to speak by asking a question: "Hey guys, have you been sneaking out the last few days? Donnie, I already know you have; what about you two?" He turned to face Raphael and Michelangelo, his sun-like eyes boring into them as he awaited their response. Donatello blinks and looks over too, wondering where that question came from.

"Yeah? What does it matter?" Raphael responds with his own question. "Sensei has been teaching us how to be ninjas our whole lives, so I use that by going out and protecting people who can't protect themselves or... some fancy shit like that." He waves his hand, looking off to the side. Michelangelo snorts, putting his hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

Raphael didn't think it was a big deal for them to go out and about.

"Well... why haven't you been telling anyone before you go? What if something happens to you while you're out there again? We would have no way of knowing if you were in danger." Leonardo reminds, holding up one of his hands, "Plus, you know, I think we would do better if we were all together. What if you met someone that you couldn't beat? Or a large group of people?" Donatello knew that was wrong because he would be able to tell. However, they were still unaware of the whole, uh, hidden tracker that he had placed on them. They never found out, so he was going to keep that to himself until it was needed. Sometimes, when he couldn’t sleep, he liked to look at the vitals and see their hearts beating.

Was it weird? He didn't think so.

"Pst, whatever, Lee. I could handle most of the assholes in New York... I'm not some kid anymore," he spat out, turning his head away and crossing his arms over his chest. "We can handle it." He grumbled, frustration seeping through his words. He hated it whenever Leonardo acted like he was a stupid little kid who needed to hide behind his older brother. That is no longer the case. That has not happened in a long time.

Not since Leonardo pushed him away to suck up to their sensei.

Before Leonardo could reply and tell him that that wasn't what he meant, Michelangelo grinned and leaned closer. "Oooo? Who are we?~ " he said it in a teasing voice, which caused Raphael's cheeks to warm, and he huffed, reaching over to push Michelangelo's face away from his own, snapping at him. "None of your business! And nobody! Shut up." Michelangelo starts to laugh and holds up his arms to stop Raphael from hitting him. "Nooo! Leo, help!"

While they were doing that, Donatello stood up and walked out of his own room, carrying his potted tree. He wanted to go and figure out what was causing the issues if he could... plus, honestly, he wanted to get away from that before there was too much yelling.

As he walked down the pathway to the kitchen, he remembered the symbol that he wanted to look up a few days ago. "Oh! Right!" He had completely forgotten about it! He hurried over to the kitchen to set the plant down and ran off to grab his phone—he had left it out here by accident. He had been listening to music while cleaning earlier. Raphael was in charge of sweeping, Donatello was in charge of collecting trash and holding the dustpan, and Michelangelo was in charge of mopping while Leonardo did the dishes, wiped down the counters, and dusted. Donatello normally helps with the wiping down.

All cleaning together made it go by faster, luckily.

He leant against the counter after he walked back to the kitchen, having typed in the noodle place into Google, then paused when he realized that nothing about it came up. Only different ramen restaurants, not the one he had typed in. "Huh?" he mumbles under his breath, double-checking that he spelled the name correctly. That was the name, right? Did he misremember it? No, he knew that that was the name... strange. He squinted a bit, then shook his head to get his mind off that, and he typed out the symbol, hoping he could find that at least.

He could kind of hear his brothers yelling from the kitchen, and he turned his head to look over at where he came from. He could already imagine what was going on inside. Michelangelo began bugging Raphael about the 'we' error, and Raphael became embarrassed and attempted to hit him or cover his mouth. Leonardo was probably trying to stop them before they broke something in Donatello's room... he really hoped that they didn't break anything in there! Sure, he didn't have much; he did have a few things, however.

Once again, nothing exactly showed up for the symbol that he wrote other than people posting pictures of the same symbol and asking what it was. It appeared to be mostly in New York—he noticed a few people in Japan posting similar images. That is really creepy! He bites the inside of his cheek and shakes his head again, hoping that that would stop him from feeling so nervous. He puts his phone down onto the counter, breathing out. He will just... check with Saki later! Maybe he'll know. I mean, he has to know, right? He went there!

He was planning on seeing him tonight again.

Donatello begins to carefully dig up the dirt in order to remove the Bonsai tree without damaging the roots in any way. When he finally got it out, his eyes widened as he noticed something writhing around in the dirt, and he yelled, jumping back. He lost his balance, however, and landed with a loud thud on the ground. He squeezes his eyes shut because, ouch , he hit his head pretty hard there.

The shouting from the other room came to a halt, and Leonardo dashed in, quickly asking, "Donnie! Are you alright? Can you tell me what happened? Did you hit your head?" He crouches down, putting his hand on the back of Donatello's head to check if he hurt himself too badly. There would undoubtedly be a bump right there… ouch.

"There's something in there!" Donatello ignored the pain that was shooting through his head and pointed at where his tree had been, shouting. What the hell was in his pot?! Intruder !

"Huh?" Michelangelo leans over to look into the pot, and his eyes widen then he yelps and runs to hide behind Leonardo, latching onto him, "Nope, nope, nope. Ugh! I hate bugs!" he hides his face into Leonardo's shell, who looks over his shoulder and frowns. Come on, Michelangelo; he's taking care of Donatello right now... he sighs and turns slightly to bring the youngest around into a loose hug, petting the top of his head.

Raphael looks at them and rolls his eyes, then leans over to look into the pot and lifts a beetle out of the dirt. He shivers, seeing the legs squirming and looks over, holding it up. "I think we found what was killing it—this armored bastard." Donatello stares at the bug with wide eyes. He had been taking care of the aphids that normally messed with the leaves, but he hadn't even thought to check for one in the roots! Attacking in a place where no one would think to look, or at least not him.

Going for the 'weakest' point.

"Kill it!" Michaelangelo yelled. Bugs terrified him! Bugs of all kinds. No matter how pretty some of them were, he never liked being around them. Raphael makes a tsh sound and crushes it in his hand, then turns to wash them in the sink. He hated that he did that… he bet it looked so cool, though.

Luckily, he could wash his hands right away.

Leonardo looks at Donatello while Michelangelo starts to shout and complain about how gross that was! Raphael starts to hold his hands out at Michelangelo, smirking while he was shouting to stop. Leonardo reaches over and places his hand on Donatello's head, asking, "You want some ice?" Donatello nods slowly, mumbling a soft yes, please.

He already felt like he was going to have a headache.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Now we go back to Michelangelo! After that whole... bug accident, he felt like he needed to get out of the sewers, and you know where he wanted to go? To see his buddy! April told him that she had to go to school that day, and you know what? He's seen enough people breaking into schools on TV to think that he shouldn't do it.

...

He did it.

Michelangelo walked through the corridors with his hands in his pockets, looking around at all the people around him. He was dressed casually in an orange hoodie, baggy pants, and boots. The boots were a little uncomfortable, though he could handle them! His regular cloth was wrapped around his neck.

He always wore it, no matter what.

They all wore the family symbol! It connected them as a family.

As he walked down the hallway, he had to step out of the way of a few people, saying sorry as he did and keeping looking for April. Where was she? He knew that this was the school that she went to; she said that! He was certain because he had written it down on his phone.

Wait... is that creepy? Is that a strange thing to do? No, he was just visiting a friend; it was not creepy at all! He's not stalking her, since she'll know he's here when he finds her.

And find her he did!

She was chattering to this human with cat-like eyes, and it sounded like she was complaining about something. He didn't pay too much attention to it because he didn't want to eavesdrop. That would be rude. "April!" he exclaimed, sprinting over to her and wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug.

Today she was wearing a leather jacket over a light yellow dress and black leggings. Boots too, which were making her a tiny bit taller.

The other human was wearing a pale green turtleneck sweater and torn jeans. Red sneakers. He had sparkly red earrings hanging from his ears.

He felt April tense and jump in his arms, and she turned to look over her shoulder at him, about to snap and ask what the hell this random person thought that they were doing. Then the voice clicked in her mind: "Mikey? What're you doing here?" she asks, completely confused.

"I decided to come and see you!" he chirps in a happy tone. "Some stuff happened at the house, and I didn't want to be there, and I knew that you would be here." He hums happily as he nuzzles against her arm. The leather felt cold against his skin. Of course he was a bit embarrassed about being so close to her like this, but he was going to act like he wasn't so she wouldn't realize anything... he really hoped that she didn't realize anything! He had no idea what would happen if she found out that he had a crush on her.

He had a feeling he had done a good job of keeping it hidden.

April laughed softly and reached up to pat the top of his head. "You cute dork..." she sighed and shook her head, though she was smiling since she wasn't upset. She thought it was amusing. Michelangelo sticks out his tongue.

"Soooo, who's this dude?" Casey smiles, resting his hands on his hips. He appeared to be quite interested. "Must be a friend if you're letting him hold you like that. Orrrr, is it more than that?" he wiggles his eyebrows, amused. He liked teasing April. He helped her pay for the room that she was living in, since they’ve been friends since they were teeny tiny kids.

Well, his dad helped her pay for her room; it was Casey's idea for it!

Michelangelo felt April hug his head to her chest, squinting at Casey as she replied, fast, "Don't you make it weird ! He's my little buddy." She presses a smooch to the top of his head. Casey starts to laugh, putting his arms around his stomach. If he laughed too hard without doing that, his stomach would hurt like a gun. He could not help but find it amusing!

The turtle, on the other hand, was embarrassed! He just got hugged and smooched? He turns his head down, his cheeks feeling so hot that he was sure he could burn something by accident. "Um... April, you're squeezing me," he mumbles. Honestly? He could handle it! Just embarrassed.

Quickly, she let his head go and took a few steps back, holding up her arms. "Geez, heh, sorry, Mikey, I didn't even think about that... you okay?" He nods and reaches up to fix his hood. He was glad that she couldn't hear his heart pounding in his chest. He knew that he could hear and feel it! Crap, what was he supposed to do about this? To him, she was a crush; unfortunately,  to her, he might just be... he might just be a little buddy. A good friend. He enjoyed having friends! He really did! He felt embarrassed about it too, however.

It is time to switch topics!

"You're Casey, right?" Michelangelo asks Casey, who nods, and he gets a small mischievous grin on his face. "Then do you know my brother? Raph? He wears pants with the same symbol." He motions with his finger to the cloth that was wrapped around his neck.

April snorts, putting her hand over her mouth, and Casey perks up, then points at April and shouts. "The turtles are my friends!" that made April start to giggle, and she pointed back at him, shouting back, "They were my friends first! I met them first!" "No, I did!" "I did!" They kept going back and forth while people were walking by. Some gave them strange looks or ignored them completely. What the heck are these two? "How long have you known them?" Casey asks, and when April says the date that they met, Casey puts his hands over his face, grumbling, "Aw man..."

Not fair.

Michelangelo couldn't help but start to giggle, shaking his head at their weirdness. They were so honest about their feelings! He could hear their happiness and see the way that it made their eyes light up. "You two are incredible." When they both looked at him, puzzled, he smiled and raised his hands, saying, "Your emotions. I can see how happy you two are in your eyes; they're really bright." He clasps his hands together and places them against his cheek. "They're stunning ."

What he didn't see, because his eyes were closed, April perks up and looks away, seemingly flustered. Casey looks at her and smirks, whispering, " Oooo ~" April reaches over and punches his arm in a silent way of saying to shut up! There was nothing going on between them. She clears her throat and looks at Michelangelo, responding in a slow voice, "Thanks, Mikey... that's sweet. What do you mean, though?"

"I can tell if someone is faking stuff pretty easily." He shrugs his shoulders as he answers the question, opening his eyes to look at them. "My... dad wasn't very good and dislikes too strong emotions because of how he raised us. As a result, I have learned to notice even the smallest detail and try to figure out what it means. It's pretty fascinating to see how people act when they lie." He puts his finger to his cheek and casts a sidelong glance. "My brother, Raph, usually looks off to the side; strangely enough, when he is really trying to hide something, he closes his left eye slightly more than the right. It's something that he can't seem to control. My other brother, Donnie, normally shifts between his feet when he does something bad or something that he thinks would get him in trouble-" he would have kept going, but he realized that they were staring at him, so he sinks down a bit into his hoodie and mumbles, "I spoke too much, didn't I?" He knew that Splinter would find it weird that he did that, so he's kept it mostly a secret.

Ahhhh! How embarrassing.

April shakes her head fast, smiles, grabs his hands, and says, "No! That's amazing. You would come in handy so much with questioning people. I've been trying to find some leads on this weird dude, and maybe you could help me with that?" she starts to ramble about her plans while Michelangelo smiles, listening. He had no idea if he would be able to help her, but he didn't mind trying! Casey, on the other hand, was thinking about what he said, his mind rushing to try to remember anything that Raphael told him about where he did that stuff...

No, he could not come up with anything. Huh, that made him feel pretty good about himself. He smiled at the thought, and while these two were geeking out, he took out his phone and texted Raphael, 'Hey, hey, hey. My favorite red turtle' 'hey' 'we should go out for ice cream later after we deal with the folks' 'you wanna?' he didn't feel weird sending so many messages since he knew that they would all be read.

The response he got back was 'sure :)' 'I'd like that' he punches up into the air. Hell yeah! Friendship!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

That night, after their sensei got home and checked out the house for anything that seemed 'out of place' he hummed and gave his approval, saying, "You four did better than I was expecting. Good job." And he patted each of their heads. Donatello accepted it while closing his eyes. Leonardo leaned into the pat because he loved their sensei's approval. Michelangelo got a tiny smile on his face and thanked him, while Raphael just received his own, eyes open and staring up at their taller teacher.

More often than they could count, their sensei used that height against them. Showing that he was better, stronger, and older. They could never hope to survive without him... stretching like a shadow that would always be there. Even in the back of their minds.

"Donatello, has your tree gotten any better? I honestly expected more from you, given your intelligence." Splinter moved to cross his arms over his chest, looking down at the tallest of his children. "If you need me to take it back, I will." it might sound kind, but they all knew that that was a threat. A threat to take away something that brought Donatello so much happiness.

Donatello perks up at that and shakes his head fast. "No, no, sensei, I can take care of it. We found out that a beetle was taking the water that I gave it. I'm hoping now that we've got the beetle out, it'll start to heal." He seemed pleased when he said, "It already appears to be doing better," and the others nodded in agreement. It did appear to be doing better already.

Splinter hums, looking across his four boys, nods slowly, and puts his hands together. "What do we say before going to your rooms?"

With the exception of Donatello, they all clasped their hands together, lowered their heads, and closed their eyes. "Sprinter, watashi tachi no sensei de iya te kure te arigatou ." 1

And with that, they were free to go. Splinter was very pleased! His students appear to be behaving better. They were following the rules and doing as he instructed. Even Donatello seemed to be doing better; he looked a bit healthier as well, which seemed to catch his attention. Perhaps he should stay and see what they do for training the next day. Maybe even hold a small competition? He would have to think about that while getting ready for bed. Splinter had been away from the house for the last few days, doing a few... meetings.

Donatello lay in his bed, his mind rushing with different thoughts. He was planning on showing his false arm to Saki and asking about the symbol; maybe he could even ask Saki to train him a little? There was no way that man didn't know how to fight! After perhaps an hour or two, he crept out of his bed and out of the sewers, this time armed with his Bo staff!

It took a while for him to get there—mostly because he got lost—eventually he did get there, with his eyes shooting around. He remembered this building, and as he walked in, he heard faint sounds: "Excuse me? Uh, I'm back!" He called out, hoping for a response. What he didn't expect was a shooting pain to tear through his arm, and there was a loud bang from behind him. Donatello's eyes widened, and he quickly jumped out of the way as there was another deafening bang. He looked down at his arm, seeing blood flowing out of the cut—it was dribbling down his arm, staining his armband and sleeve. Crap, he couldn't even try to stop the bleeding by covering the wound.

That was a lot of blood, so fast.

"Whooo! You got it!" he heard a familiar voice laugh, and he looked over to see Groundchuck punching up into the air with a cheer while Dirtbag was holding his familiar gun. "Ya picked the wrong place to get inta, turt," Dirtbag said and aimed again.

What were they doing here? They had no business being here! They were criminals. Why would they be here? He came to see Saki, not get into a fight.

He would fight, though!

Groundchuck took a running start at him, and he held his stance until he could jump out of the way, knocking his bo staff against the ground to swing over, and he landed back down on the ground. Groundchuck slammed into the wall, ripping a hole through it easily. His eyes darted over to look at Dirtbag, and he had to duck to avoid being hit again.

Alright, those things that he shot weren't like real bullets. They were razor-sharp and extremely dangerous.

Donatello would have to steer clear of them.

Should he run? Should he make an attempt to flee? He could beat them if given the chance; they weren't very smart. In any case, he hated the fact that they got the drop on him! How could he have been so stupid as to allow that to happen? He let his guard down.

God damn it! He was a complete moron.

He was prepared to have to dodge again when Dirtbag's gun got knocked out of his hand by a shiny ninja star, and as Groundchuck ran at him again, a caped figure landed in front of him, grabbed his horns, and flipped him onto the ground with a loud, sickening thud . Donatello was sure that he heard a crack. "You two are going to stop right now!" A rage-filled voice shouted.

It was Saki!

"B-But he-" Dirtbag tried to explain, only for Saki to storm up to him and hiss through clenched teeth, "Is a guest, you idiotic waste of a mutant! If I didn't want him here, he wouldn't be here." He sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Alopex! Take Donatello to the medic! I need to talk to these two."

While that was happening, Donatello stared with large eyes and sank down as far as he could without going into his shell completely. His arm hurt from the wound that was still bleeding, and seeing Saki like that... It frightened him.

Alopex leaps from the top, runs over to him, and gently takes his hand in hers, saying to him, "Come on, little shell, they are just going to get a talking to. Don't worry about them." She starts to lead him away since he wasn't even exactly paying attention to what was going on around him. What were they doing here? Those two were the bad guys! He was certain of it because they fought so frequently. Why would Saki be housing two villains? Even more than those two? He swore they were involved in an illegal animal trafficking ring!

They wanted to steal his and his brother's shells to sell them.

"Hey, hey, you okay? I mean, I know you ain't, cause you're bleedin' pretty bad... damn, worse than I thought," she mumbles, reaching over to cover the wound and pressing down to put pressure. As the pain shoots through him, he hisses through his teeth, clenching his eyes shut tight. "Aw, don't worry, you'll feel better soon..." she coos to him. The kindness in her voice helped a bit, though he was still thinking about those two.

Trying to ignore the pain was helping a bit. Heh, he couldn't believe he almost felt bad that she was getting his blood on her fur.

She led him to a different room and shouted out, "Mona! Someone got injured, might need stitches." He shuddered at the thought of stitches, biting his bottom lip hard. His heart was pounding in his chest, and he was worried that he was going to get into trouble with Saki. Should he not have come? Should he have waited for someone to come and get him? That does not make any sense.

A giant lizard mutant came walking into the room. She was mostly black in color, but with many blue scales that made them look like they were almost glowing. They were so bright in color! Her eyes were pitch-black, giving her a kind of scary look. She was at least 7 feet tall. 

"Why does it seem you only ever come to see me when someone hurt?" she asks in a playful tone. She spoke with a thick accent that he could not place. But, my goodness! She was stunning.

So dang pretty.

Her outfit was a black crop top with a red foot symbol on her chest, black pants, and a long white lab coat. She wasn't wearing shoes.

"Oh shush you." Alopex walked over, leaning up to nudge her nose against Mona's cheek, which made her have to lean down since she was so much taller than Alopex. "I come to see ya whenever I get the chance, ya big old baby." Her big, floofy tail was wagging happily. Were they dating?

Donatello didn't want to interrupt; however, he was still bleeding right now... and, you know, he was starting to feel kind of dizzy. From losing blood or panicking? He didn't know. "Um, I-I'm sorry to, uh, butt in, but can we..." He looks down, feeling awkward. He couldn't believe that he was being awkward while literally bleeding so much.

"Ah! Yes, yes, sorry." Mona clears her throat and motions him over to the table to take a seat. "I will fix now, something for pain," she says, holding up a tube and getting some of the goop onto her fingers to put over the cut. "You'll lose feeling, but for best." She nods as if that would make him feel any better. 

It didn't.

Alopex carefully turned his head away and told him, "Why don't you tell me about what you've been workin' on? Best to not look at the stuff while she's workin'" She had a strong feeling he would panic, and she didn't want him to, I don't know, throw up or something like that. Donatello inhales, exhales, and nods, beginning to ramble about the arm and all of the things that he decided to add to it. He could feel the needle going through his skin, even if he couldn't really feel the pain from it. Each time, his throat tightened. God, he really did feel like he was going to be sick. 

"A-Are... Are the guys um... are the guys going to get in trouble?" He didn't really care too much if those guys got in trouble; he'd think that they earned it by hurting him!

Alopex and Mona exchange glances, then Alopex snorts softly and nods, "Probably... most likely, yeah. The boss seems to really like you already, little shell." She reaches up to gently pinch his cheek, tugging on it. He squeezes his eyes shut tight, laughing at the pinch. "Aw, look at ya, startin' to get meat on them bones. You're gonna be such a strong new member." Donatello was strangely embarrassed.

At least in a positive way...

Was he putting on weight? I mean, he might have been; it could make a bit of sense. They were feeding him well.

"Aaaannnnnddd... finished." Mona pulls her hands away, grabs a rag to wipe her hands off, then grabs a cleaning wipe to clean the blood from his arm. "You might need to take cloth off; it needs washing."

Aw man... he liked that cloth. It had his family's sign on it! He mumbles under his breath, then nods, watching as she takes it off. He looks down at the bandages wrapped around his arm, blocking the wound from the fresh air, and rolls his shoulder. "How long do you think it'll take to heal?" he asks.

Mona hums, considering it, then shrugs her shoulders and replies, "Eh, let's say around four weeks? Maybe more. Depends but I'd give four weeks." She pats the top of his head and goes off to throw the sleeve into the wash.

He was receiving a lot of pats and attention.

He enjoyed it.

"Wait here, I'll go get the boss," Alopex tells him, and then turns, dashing out of the room fast. He watches her go and looks down at the bandages wrapped around his arm. What were the others going to say about that? Leonardo might try to ban him from coming back here again. He bites the inside of his cheek and closes his eyes, attempting to calm himself. He had to stop his mind from working against him so often! He was safe here, wasn’t he? Other than getting attacked this time, everything went really well.

While lost in thought, he lost track of time, and the door opened as Saki walked in. His silent steps made him appear ghostly as he moved. Donatello perks up and gets off the table, bowing quickly. "I'm so sorry that I got in the way. I didn't mean to get them worked up. I-Is there anything I can do to pay you back? I-" He was about to continue speaking when Saki raised his hand to stop him. Donatello clenches his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut.

This was it.

"They should have known better than to attack someone in that manner, and I punished them accordingly. This is something even Tokka and Rahzar are aware of. You are not at fault." He walked over while speaking, and Donatello had to stop himself from pulling into his shell. He was so happy here, he didn't want to ruin it! "Are you all right?" he asked, looking at the bandages.

The voice was calm, though Donatello could kind of hear an edge to it. Like he was angry.

Should Donatello lie? Tell the truth? Was he even okay? He looks at Saki, then turns his head away and nods. "I'm alright... I've been through worse." He swallows and clears his throat. "I was going to ask if you could have taught me some stuff, but this might have ruined that, huh?" He tries to relax by laughing a little. Saki hums at that, crossing his arms over his chest and shutting his eyes. It seemed as though he was thinking. "I suppose that I could teach you a few things... as payment for my workers attacking you. I can teach you an old family trick." He finally responds, opening his eyes.

Donatello perks up at that, and then he gets a big grin. Okay, fantastic! That's exactly what he was hoping would happen. "But first," Saki starts again, making him turn his head to the side in confusion. "Let's get you something to wear. I know you must not have your armband on now because it got dirty, so I will give you something to wear for the time being." He turns and starts to walk out of the room. Donatello perks up, wondering if he should follow or not? He takes a quick glance around the room before following. "Yes, sir, I'm right behind you."

As they walked, Donatello trailed slightly behind him. 

He didn't know if Saki would want him to walk beside him or not, so he decided not to. He looks down at the bandages wrapped around his arm, wondering how often he should change them... he'll talk to her before he leaves. "Can I ask what you're going to give me to wear?" he looks up at Saki, waiting for a response. 

"I have something special for you. It will have a marking that makes it so people know you are under my protection." Under his protection? Aw man, Donatello didn't need to be protected! He might only have one arm, but that did not mean he could not defend himself. He was doing well against those two dudes before.

Saki led him to another room and opened a box, revealing a purple cloak that was folded with a shiny golden clip on top of it. The clip was shaped like a snake with purple gem eyes. It wasn't Donatello's purple; it was more similar to Saki's own cloak. Huh, that's... so cool! He mumbles, " Whoaaaa ..." and reaches out to touch the fabric. It was incredibly soft. "Are you sure you want to give me this?" He asks, shocked, honestly. It looked so well taken care of and expensive!

"It is better to be used than to stay in the box forever. You may wear it as long as you take care of it."

All of this was confusing to him. It was nice; they were all nice, but... why? Why him? What was so special about him? This didn't make sense to him!

Slowly, he took the cloak and wrapped it around his shoulders, then did up the clip to keep it together, and looked up, "How do I look?" He smiled as he asked, sounding hopeful. His little tail was wagging, even though it was hidden now.

"Exactly as I expected you to," he received as a response. He noticed Saki's eyes seemed far away, as if deep in a distant memory. Strange… They remained silent until Saki cleared his throat and turned to resume walking. "Now follow me. I'll teach you a special ability that my family used to use in the olden times. Will you want to put on your arm?" Donatello perks up, nods, and excuses himself to run to the room where he had been working. It was not finished completely, but it was close, and he was eager to learn whatever Saki had to teach him!

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Alright boys," Was the way that Splinter decided to get his student's attention after collecting them all. They were sitting in front of him on the ground, as they always did. They were sitting on their knees, their hands resting on their legs. Of course he had already noticed Donatello's false arm, and as bizarre as he thought it was, he bit his tongue. Perhaps it would make him more useful, even if only slightly. "Today we will be trying something new. Everything is permitted. I want you all to fight against each other one-on-one, and I'm interested to see who will win between you four."

He saw his students look at each other, then they all nodded at him, and Leonardo said in a questioning tone, "Will we start now, or will we have time to plan for it, sensei?" He told them that they could have an hour to prepare.

Splinter considered himself to be a kind teacher. He permitted them to eat whenever they did well—even if they did badly, honestly! He simply wished for the respect he had long earned. If they didn't, then they didn't deserve the kindness that he had given them.

Plus, they are old enough to get their own food, if he had to be honest.

As they went off to get ready, Splinter watched them go and went to sit down, his eyes shut as he thought. They had been getting stronger every day, and he had a feeling that he was reaching the end of his rope. He lowers his head to look at his hand, his fingers trembling and his eyes narrowing as he clenches his fist tightly.

Damn it! There was still so much that they needed to learn! They've been acting out less, yes, but have they really been learning? They were aware that humans were dangerous and that they should avoid them, but did they? Were they strong enough to survive without him? He sighed out gradually, shaking his head. His clan would be so disappointed with them... or would they be disappointed with him?

Splinter did not want to think about it because he knew that they would, but it did not matter! Their kindness was what got them killed; he was being harsh and mean to his students because if he didn't, they would get themselves killed—that's what he's been telling himself his whole life with them.

If they did not realize that, he had failed them.

After a while, he called the boys back in, knowing it was time to start. Donatello appeared to be excited about something, so he hummed before crossing his arms over his chest and beginning to speak, "Donatello, would you like to go first? You appear to be very enthusiastic about this." They still sometimes had issues with controlling their emotions; it was troublesome.

Donatello perks up at the question, looks over, then looks down at his arm and reaches up, messing with it carefully. "Ah- yes, I would, but please allow me a moment to double-check that everything is in working order. My arm is still a work in progress, and I don't want anything to go wrong." Splinter lets out a soft hum as he chooses Leonardo to go up against him.

Then Raphael and Michelangelo would face off against each other, and whoever won would face off again.

"While you are doing that, Michelangelo and Raphael will go against each other. You two get up here and remember, anything can go." Splinter held up his hand, then stepped to the side to give them more room. Raphael and Michelangelo looked at each other, nodded, and stood up to go and get started on that. 

Splinter has greatly aided them in their learning. He was guiding them through the process of becoming experts in running, jumping, swimming, climbing walls, long-distance hiking, and throwing! They were to learn Kendo, Kyudo, and Naginata-do. He made certain that they were experts not only in their own weapons but also in others such as the sword, bow and arrow, spear, and tonki. Bows and arrows were more difficult to obtain because they were underground in New York City.

Ninjas must also learn and be capable of walking 350 miles in three days! That was one of the reasons he sent them out into the sewers so frequently. If they could walk that far, he knew they could do it any day. He remembered taking them to the park's frozen lake when they were younger. He made them wear wooden sandals and walk on the ice to achieve perfect waist balance and silent treading... remembering how frequently they used to fall was almost amusing to the rat teacher.

Michelangelo got stuck on his shell that one time. Very silly.

Ninjas must be strong in both mind and body, so he made them concentrate on their thoughts and ideals as well. A ninja must keep their wits about them at all times and be able to solve complex problems on the spot! Michelangelo had always been the worst at it, his mind racing with too many ideas and thoughts at once, making it difficult for him to focus on those that were truly necessary—he would admit right there that Donatello was probably the best.

And! To help them get better, he made them avoid quite a few different foods. They could not possibly be ninjas if they were too heavy. Rice was the best option for them, though he did occasionally give them treats.

Apples, lettuce, blueberries, and, on rare occasions, turtle pellets for them. They adored the pellets.

Ninjas had various 'walking styles' that they used frequently. Five defined skills. Shinobi-ashi, Uki-Ashi, Inubashiri, Kitsune-Bashiri, and Shinsou Usagi-aruki. His four sons were all better at one of the walking styles than the others.

However heavy they were, he made them hold the bags of rice at the same weight so they would be able to hold themselves for as long as they could. He did finger-strengthening exercises!

Everything he did was for their benefit!

Splinter exhales and returns his attention to the match, his hands on his walking stick and his claws lightly tapping against it. He knew that it made a light sound, which could be distracting. At any rate, if they allowed themselves to be distracted, it would be their death they were welcoming.

Before they began the training fight, Michelangelo and Raphael both bowed to each other. Raphael ran in first, throwing a hit that Michelangelo quickly blocked and swerved around. He had to duck as the red turtle kicked out his leg, narrowly missing. Michelangelo's leg was bent out, lowering him to the ground and allowing him to avoid the hit. Raphael flips back onto his feet, landing and holding up his hands in fists.

They went back and forth like that for a while, both trying to land their own hits and dodging out of the way. Raphael landed a few, as did Michelangelo. Michelangelo did do one, which ended with Raphael smacking himself in the face somehow.

Their breaths came in soft puffs as they stood there until Raphael reached down, drew out one of his sai, and took a running start at Michelangelo, letting out a loud yell. Did he lose his temper? Maybe just a shred. Come on! Anyone would be mad at being hit in the face! Michelangelo's eyes widen, and he yelps, then jumps to avoid being hit. He felt pain shoot through his leg, but he slid against Raphael's shell and kicked his good leg back, knocking Raphael back onto the ground. He lands with a loud thud, and Michelangelo falls too, putting his hand over his leg where there was a cut.

It was not anything serious, just a scratch that drew a small amount of blood.

Splinter smiled slightly as he watched. Yes, they weren't doing their best, admittedly, they were doing well. He taps his walking stick on the ground, drawing their attention, and begins, "You two did satisfactory. Raphael, you need to improve your self-control and your actions. Shouting while fighting your opponent will draw attention to you and will do nothing to help you... Dodging is a good strategy most of the time, Michelangelo; however, you must draw your weapon. Ninjas, as you know, do not often have to fight; at any rate, when they do, you must be prepared. If you did that, you might not have been hurt."

Michelangelo gulped and nodded slowly, responding, "Y...Yes sir." The cut on his leg, no matter how minor, forced him to recall a slew of unpleasant memories. Raphael stood and helped him get up and over to where they were supposed to sit. Splinter noticed Raphael whispering something, which caused him to squint slightly. What exactly was being said?

After a brief moment, he hummed, shook his head, and turned to face the others, saying to them, "Now it is your turn. Donatello, I hope you are done with your arm?"

"Hai!" Donatello gets to his feet and walks over to where his brothers were just a few seconds ago. Throughout the fight, he had been watching and observing their movements. Splinter noticed that, and he was impressed. It was always good to watch how certain people moved during fights. Leonardo stood and walked over as well, both bowing to each other.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Donatello was so excited! He was going to show his sensei a few of the things that Saki told him and showed him how to do. Ten no hebi no touch was one of them that Saki seemed most eager to show him. It translated into the touch of the heavenly snake! The other was something that he showed him that was very similar—ultimately, he told him that that was a very damaging attack.

The ten no hebi no touch would disrupt the pressure points, preventing the user from moving their arms or doing whatever you hit the pressure point for. Saki said that most would go for the arms, so the others couldn't use weapons; Saki also told him that the other one was mostly aimed for the chest, as that would cause issues with the heart and make them unable to move almost at all for at least 30 seconds... though more, depending on what you hit. He was warned that it was extremely dangerous and could result in the person's death as it could stop their hearts. As a result, it should only be used as a last resort. Donatello decided that he was going to try to use the ten no hebi no touch today to see how his sensei would react to it.

He was anxious...

Saki appeared to be impressed with him, which was enough for him.

Leonardo raised his sword, his grip loose but ready to strike. "Thank you for agreeing to be my partner for this, Donnie. I'm prepared for you to show off your new technique." His voice was light as he told his slightly younger brother. Splinter really didn't know how old they were; he just said their ages were the same, so they were all 15.

Splinter's attention was drawn to the new technique; Donatello noticed his ears raising and gulped, now feeling tense. What if he makes a mistake? He knew that he wouldn't hurt Leonardo since he was going to avoid doing it to his chest. Consequently, if he messed up, then what? Splinter would be so disappointed!

To calm himself, he takes a shaky breath and raises his bo staff. The bandages were still wrapped around his arm, and he was not wearing the cloak Saki had given him because he was afraid his brothers would question the mark, and he wanted that to remain a secret for the time being. He didn’t want his dad to see it, mostly.

They stood in silence, both waiting for the first movement, while Splinter tapped his claw against his walking cane until Leonardo charged forward at Donatello. His pupils dilate, and he bites the inside of his cheek, raising his staff to deflect the blow. He felt the force of the hit push the bo staff down.

He spun the staff in his hands, either blocking the hits or attempting to land his own. Each hit produced a loud thud as the weapons made contact. Ultimately, he was able to push the staff against Leonardo's chest, forcing him back hard. He landed on his back with a light thud, then rolled back onto his feet and ran forward again. Donatello knew that Leonardo was using the back of his sword so the blade wouldn't cut him—he thought it was nice.

As they were fighting, Raphael and Michelangelo were watching, both pretty excited to see their older brothers fighting. Raphael knew that Donatello was doing better than he normally did because he had the two arms that could help him now... he felt kind of upset that he lost so easily because he let his body work before his mind. Ugh.

It took a few moments; however, in any event, Donatello spotted an opportunity! He blocks another hit from Leonardo and twists the bo staff so it hits his brother's leg, then reaches forward quickly, hitting the spots Saki instructed him to. Leonardo grunts as the blade clatters to the ground. He crouchs down on one knee and turns his head down to 'look' at his arm. Even though you could not see his eyes, it was clear that he was shocked.

Donatello beams with delight, having never previously beaten his older brother! He turned to look at Splinter to see how their sensei reacted.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Splinter watched with wide eyes, his mouth open a little. As he stood there watching Donatello, his heart was pounding in his chest. How the... how did he…? Now those eyes were on him. The paleness that Splinter had almost never paid attention to now sent almost a shiver down his spine. "How did... you learn how to do that?" He all but whispered. His voice nearly died on his tongue before he could even speak.

Splinter only learned this from watching his owner train with her father! He had not seen it in action since they would have been alive... that was something only his clan knew, so how did Donatello know about it?

He should not!

He narrows his eyes and moves closer, grabbing Donatello's arm as his eyes widen, and snaps at the now terrified looking turtle, "Do not ever do something like that in front of me again! That attack is forbidden." He was well aware that the attack was both powerful and dangerous. What else could he possibly know? Is there... he has no way of knowing about the Sato oshi strike. That attack died with the clan, as Splinter would never teach anyone something like that. It was far too powerful and unstable! It concentrated all of the attacker's energy into a single strike that could be as lethal for the attacker as it was for the victim. It has the potential to break ribs! Arms, anything!

When Donatello nodded quickly, he slowly let go of his arm and turned to leave the room, telling them, "We are done for the day. You four take care of your dinner; I must do something." And with that, he left his boys.

He had never been scared of them before... he had a feeling that Donatello noticed the look in his eyes. He really hoped not, though.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Of course Donatello was confused! What did he do wrong? Splinter told them that anything goes in a fight, and he appeared to be interested, so what was wrong with what he did? He crouches down and repeats the process to reactivate Leonardo's arm. "Donnie, what was that?" He asked, rubbing at his arm.

"Yeah! That was awesome." Raphael told him as he approached. He didn't even seem to care that Splinter got mad at Donatello! Michaelangelo followed suit.

"Well..." he started, looking between the others, "it was something that my friend told me about... I thought it would be a good non-lethal attack to have." He lowers his gaze and fiddles with one of the metal fingers. "I am not sure what made him so upset." He mumbles.

Yes, he had noticed how Splinter's eyes reacted. They made him look... terrified. He looked like an animal that was in danger of being eaten or hurt. Donatello kind of... he kind of liked seeing that look in his sensei's eyes. The surge of power he felt made him a little scared.

"Forget about that; Splinter hates it when we do stuff that he can't control. Hey, can you teach that to me?" Raphael points to himself with a small smile on his face. They always knew that Raphael liked fighting and learning different fighting styles. Leonardo makes a soft mrr sound, mumbling under his breath, "Sensei says that we shouldn't..." even if he was pretty interested as well.

Donatello looks at Leonardo, then at Raphael, and gets a small smile on his face, nodding in agreement as he says, "I don't mind teaching you too; I think Saki would be fine with it." he starts to explain to Raphael where you were supposed to hit and tells him to avoid the chest, as that could be really dangerous.

Michelangelo seemed a little confused about the name. Why did that sound familiar? He hums, shakes his head, and walks over to listen since he was curious.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Casey and Raphael were traveling through the alleyways of New York. It was pretty late at night, and Casey was yawning with his hand over his mouth to try to soften the sound. They had been wandering around for a while already, and Raphael said that they needed to go for a bit longer. As much as Casey hated it, he agreed to keep going.

"So," Casey starts, looking at his shorter turtle friend, "I met your brother, the orange one. He's pretty cool. I think he totally has a crush on my other friend, April. You guys already know about her, though, right?" He smiles, putting his hands in his pockets. His hockey stick was attached to his back, and his mask was over his face.

Raphael blinks at that and looks over, quickly asking, "You met Mikey?" He then paused and let out a laugh. "He has a crush on that girl? God damn, I know he said she was pretty when they first met; definitely I didn't think he'd get a crush like that." What a nerd! Crushes were stupid. Raphael would never get a crush on anyone.

"Hey, hey, don't bully him," Casey tells him, reaching over to push on Raphael's arm while laughing. The red-mask-wearing turtle pushed him back and laughed. They were going on like that back and forth until they heard a loud blast.

They jolted and looked at each other, then they both ran toward where the noises were coming from. There was a building that had a big hole in it, with some parts still falling down. What the hell? Was there an explosion? What happened?

Raphael narrows his eyes and runs forward to go through the hole, his eyes shooting around. There were three people—mutants. Their heights went from little to tall to massive! A lizard, a fox, and an alligator. The alligator was the largest of them, holding a big tube that had a glowing green and purple liquid in it.

They looked over as Raphael and Casey ran in, and the fox let out a soft tsh sound, moving to stand up straight. "I told you blastin' our way in here was a stupid idea, leather." The alligator turned its head to look at the fox, snapping its jaws. The fox growls at it.

"What're you guys doing with that?" Casey asks, pointing his hockey stick over at them, "Stealing isn't cool." Raphael gave him a look and whispered, "What are you? A 90s PSA?" Casey turned his head to look at him and squinted, whispering back, "I don't see you saying anything. These are your kind, aren't they?" "that is so racist. Just because I'm a mutant doesn't mean that I know every other mutant." "That's not what I meant!" Casey all but shouted back. Don't use the R-word on him!

The three of them were just watching them go back and forth, Leatherhead looking over at the others in a silent way of asking, hey, what the hell is this? Mona steps forward, cracks her knuckles, and says with a smirk on her face, "Let's get this over with, runts ."

Raphael looked back at them, feeling his heart jump in his chest, except... he didn't feel all that frightened? Why was his heart beating so hard? He pulls out his sai and grins, "Let's." he runs forward, twirling the sai in his hands so the blades would be in the correct direction. He figured that he would take these two, and Casey could handle the alligator.

There were bright red lights flashing and an alarm blaring.

She didn't have a weapon, which he found a little strange, and the fox girl moved to lean against the wall, evidently unbothered.

Each strike that he tried to land showed him something. Her scales were more tough than he thought that they would be, and slicing through them wasn't as easy as he thought it was going to be. Crap. He twirled the sai in his hand, catching her attention with it, and then he tried to throw a kick at her side. He didn't care that she was taller than him! He could win this fight!

Instead, his leg got grabbed by her tail, causing his eyes to widen, and he ducked his head down into his shell to avoid the punch that she threw at his head. He pokes it out again, letting out a loud ha! Just to feel pain shoot through his face, and he got thrown away by her tail, hitting against the wall with a loud thud.

His hood wasn't on his head anymore from him going into his shell and then popping out again. Annoyingly, he couldn’t stay in his shell for a long time. Small, tight places always made him feel panicked. His shell included.

Landing down on the ground, he coughs, then breathes in fast, trying to catch his breath, and he rolls out of the way of her stomp. Crap, crap, crap! He reaches up and wipes over his nose, then looks at his hand, seeing blood. Crap . His eyes shoot up to see the lizard standing over him, her tail swishing behind her, and the fox was smiling from where she stood. His heart was pounding hard in his chest. 

He turned his head to see Casey having to hold the alligator's mouth away from him, using his hockey stick and his foot on the alligator's stomach/chest to keep it back from him the best that he could. Raphael could see his arms were shaking though.

"Alright!" He stands up, "I'm calling this!" He grabbed one of the smoke bombs that Donatello made and tossed it down onto the ground, filling the room with thick black smoke. "Vanish!" he grabs the cloth from his pocket, puts it over his mouth, and runs over to the alligator. He had to drive his sai as deep into its side as he could, then grab Casey's arm and drag him out of the hole that had been formed earlier. He heard a loud shout from the alligator, probably from the pain of being stabbed in the side? Yeah, anyone would shout at that.

Casey was coughing hard, and Raphael dragged him away from the building, murmuring under his breath, "Shit, shit, shit!" He couldn't believe this! They stopped in an alleyway, where they both sat down.

Raphael had to keep wiping the blood away from his nose using the cloth that normally was used to stop himself from breathing in the smoke. He hated having to use that stuff; it always made his chest hurt.

"Heh... well, that was... that was something." Casey finally spoke, making Raphael snort. "Dude, that was! I can't believe we got our asses beat like that... what do you think they were going to use that liquid for?" He rubs at his chest, breathing in and out slowly to calm his heartbeat. Everything was hurting; he knew that he had a pretty nasty cut on his arm again, and it hurt to breathe too deeply.

Raphael's wasn't going any slower. Thinking about those two made his heart pound, and he wanted to say that it was from rage, but... wow. What a woman. She was so strong, he could feel it in her tail and that punch! Crap. He felt his cheeks heat up, so he growled and grumbled, "Who cares?"

Course the human was going to respond, though he paused, realizing something. Staring at Raphael for a few seconds, he starts to laugh and points at him, saying, "You have a crush!" his voice came out loud, and of course he didn't care too much.

He knew that he was going to have some bruises from getting thrown around. The annoying crocodile grabbed his face! Could you believe that? Why would it grab his face? I mean, his mask stopped him from getting cut—it was still upsetting! He could feel pain in his side, so he probably had some bruises.

"Eh?!" Raphael looks over, eyes wide, and he pushes on Casey's arm, snapping at him, "You shut the hell up! I don't know who they are; I don't have a crush on them."

"Crush, crush, crush!" Casey starts to chant, rocking his arms. Raphael narrows his eyes and reaches over to poke Casey in the side, causing him to yelp, and he wraps his arms around himself, "Rude! Dude!" Raphael starts to laugh at him. Look, he... he'd be honest, he was upset. He was really damn upset right now! How the hell could he have lost that fight so fast?

Then his phone started to ring. He blinks, looks down, and pulls it out to answer, "He-" He got interrupted by Donatello, who started to talk fast, "Raph! What's wrong? Your heartbeat was beating fast, and it gave me an alert that you got hurt. What's wrong? What happened? Do you need help? Should I tell Leo, and we can come and check on you? You weren't in your bed or anywhere in the area where we live! Are you somewhere in the sewers?" He heard a few soft gags: "Oh god, I'm gonna throw up."

Raphael paused, squinting in puzzlement. What the hell? He sticks his tongue out barely. "Ugh, Donnie, stop it. I'm alright... I just was—how the hell do you know that I got hurt?" he pulled the phone away and put it on speaker. Casey looks at it and starts to giggle, putting his hand over his mouth and mumbling, "Why is it shaped like a shell?" Raphael puts his finger to his lips in a silent way of saying to shut up. It was something that his brother did.

"Oh- uh-" was what Donatello started with, which didn’t make Raphael feel all that good. "Um... w-well..." Raphael narrows his eyes at the phone, letting out a soft growl, " DONNIE ." He heard Donatello groan, and he started to talk, "Fine, fine, alright, well, you see, I... might have... put a tracker on you? Well, not just you, but with everyone. It sends me alarms if anyone gets hurt too badly or if the heartbeat is too fast. I maybe... put it on you while you were asleep." As he spoke, his voice was getting softer, sounding nervous.

"Donnie!" He sits up straight, asking fast, "Why the hell would you put a tracker on me while I was asleep?!" Casey starts to laugh, holding his arms around his stomach and leaning against the wall behind him. Raphael didn’t think that it was funny! That was so weird!

"Because I worry about you guys! Who are you with?" was the fast response that he got. He knew that Donatello was trying to change the subject.

"Don't change the subject! You put a tracker on me while I was asleep! Where is it?"

"Stop yelling at me!" he got shouted at and he heard a faint sniffle, causing him to pause, "I thought you were hurt..." Donatello continued to say, his voice cracking a bit, "and I wanted to make sure that you were okay." 

"oooo, you hurt his feelings~" Casey whispered to him in that teasing tone, so he punched his fist out, hitting Casey on the arm, and he leaned away, rubbing where he was hit. Ugh, now Raphael felt guilty, but he didn't think he was in the wrong for being annoyed at this... he breathed in and out and scratched his cheek. "Look, it's alright... thanks for telling me, I guess, but maybe don't do stuff to me like that when I'm sleeping... I'm with Casey. We got into a fight with these three mutants. They were stealing some weird green and purple liquid. I got thrown against the wall and got a bloody nose. Casey, you okay?" He looks over.

Casey thought about it: "I dunno, I think I'd be good after getting some ice cream and some ice packs, I’d guess. I have a feeling I'm gonna get some pretty nasty bruises..." he said, lifting his hoodie to look down at his stomach and side, "ugh, ouch."

"I hope you feel better, Casey," Donatello says, "I'll keep that in mind. What were the mutants like?"

Before Raphael could respond, Casey reached over and took the phone to say to Donatello, "Thanks, hey, so you're one of Raph's brothers, huh? Younger or older? You like guys? Cause hey, I don’t mind swinging with some turtles, if you know what I mean.”

"Eh?" was the response that Donatello said at first, and Raphael quickly grabbed the phone back, shouting, "Don't flirt with my brother!" He hung up, putting his phone away, "What is wrong with you?"

"Nothing; I just know you have a crush on that girl now; Mikey has a crush on April, and I was feeling a little left out." When Casey sees Raphael's glare, he gets a grin, hops up, and starts to run while holding his hand over his side. "Ice cream time!" "Get back here!" Raphael shouts, running afterward holding out his arms. He'd give this stupid human a few new bruises!

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

After Raphael chased the human for a while in an attempt to hit him, they went to the ice cream parlor, ordered their ice creams, then sat together in a booth and began chatting. Casey said that he might take a week or so to heal up from the bruises and to try to focus on his schooling, then he would keep going out with Raphael!

So far, he's been having a lot of fun going out with him like they have. Plus, he was going to get even with that crocodile for hurting him! Even if it was only a bruise, he knew that if given the chance, that guy would have done much more. Those teeth wanted a piece of him.

Shame on him for not paying extra for it.

“It was an alligator, not a crocodile, you racist.”

“Raph, oh my god , knock it off.” was the response that the red turtle got, which made him snicker, turning his head away with a grin on his face.

Oh, yeah, he loved messing with Casey. It was a lot of fun.

Plus, you know, Casey deserved it.

They said their farewells and parted ways to return home after finishing their ice cream—Casey got vanilla and Raphael got rocky road. Yum! Raphael was eager to return to the lair, and when he did, he did not go to his own bedroom. No, he went to Michelangelo's room because he did not feel at ease being alone right then.

Look, he knew that Donatello put the tracker on him for his own safety, and it might come in handy later. Having said that, right now? He had a strange feeling about it! Someone doing something to him while he was sleeping made him feel nauseous.

It made him feel scared, and he hated that!

He did not want to be afraid of his brother…

He and Michelangelo lay in his bed, chatting about anything and everything because, thankfully, Michelangelo was also awake. According to the orange turtle, getting their older brothers to meet their human friends would be a good idea! Then Leonardo would see that they were nice and that the two younger siblings weren't in danger by talking to them! Unfortunately, Leonardo agreed with Splinter when he said that humans were dangerous and only brought death with them. It was something Splinter had said their entire lives.

Pfft! Yeah right.

Raphael was against the idea at first; however, listening to Michelangelo's reasons helped him agree, and he said that they could suggest it, though he did not expect Leonardo to agree to come because he didn’t like humans and did not like the idea of them either. Donatello would probably agree, despite the fact that he hates meeting new people. Michelangelo got a smirk on his face and said not to worry about that, as he had a plan... Raphael was not fond of that look.

Leonardo agreed to meet April and Casey for reasons Raphael didn't exactly understand. Donatello seemed unsure and uneasy at first, so Raphael glared at him and whispered, “You put a tracker on me.” That made Donatello purse his lips tightly, then grumble, “I’ll tag along.”

And that’s why they were now in Casey’s apartment room. April sat on the ground in front of Michelangelo, who was messing with her hair, and Raphael lent against Casey with his arms crossed over his chest, seeing Leonardo and Donatello on the other couch.

Raphael could tell Leonardo had his teeth clenched. His jaw was tightly closed, and his hands were clenched in his lap. Donatello was also sitting with his hands in his lap, and Raphael could see that they were trembling, his gaze darting around the room except for the two humans in front of him. He appeared to be terrified.

At that, he makes a tsh sound, shakes his head, and sits up, telling them in a slightly irritated tone. “You two are acting like I dragged you to hang out with a villain or something; they’re April and Casey. Calm the hell down.”

"Sensei tells us that we should not talk to humans, and you two broke one of his rules so easily... of course I am nervous about this." Donatello looks away as Leonardo responds, knowing that he, too, has broken that rule.

“If sensei told you to jump off a building, would you? Oh wait !” He squints at Leonardo, letting out a soft growl. He could not see Leonardo's eyes, but he could tell they were rolling. This asshole didn’t listen to all of Splinter’s rules either, so he wasn’t allowed to bring it up now.

You weren't allowed to pick and choose which you wanted to follow.

Raphael was about to sass Leonardo when he opened his mouth to make a response; thankfully, before either of them could say anything, Casey got up and walked over to sit beside Donatello, which caused Raphael to pause and sigh, closing his eyes.

This boy had better not try to flirt with his brother again. He was still upset with Donatello for the tracker! He would probably get over it eventually; in this case, for the time being, he did not see himself as the bad guy for being uneasy.

Casey wraps his arm around Donatello's shoulders, smoothly pulling him closer, and begins to speak in a light, playful tone. "So, you’re Donatello, huh? Do you mind if I call you Donnie? Did you think about what I asked last night?” He wiggles his eyebrows, waiting for a response. Admittedly? Yeah, he thought Donatello was pretty cute—he mostly liked Raphael's reactions to things, anyhow.

And react he did! "Stop flirting with my brother, Casey!" Raphael exclaims, making a fist with his hand, which causes Michelangelo and April to laugh or cackle. Donatello's cheeks were flushed, and his eyes were wide and shocked. He, too, did not respond. “You’re gonna make him throw up or something.”

"Do you really think I would be that bad of a boyfriend? I’m hurt, Raphie.” Casey responds by putting his hand on his chest and looking at his friend with a small pout that pulls his lips down. 

"No, when Donnie gets too panicked, he throws up sometimes. It has been a while since that happened, so I would not be... too nervous?" Leonardo clears his throat after talking. Raphael thought it was amusing how unsure he sounded about that. During their conversation, he snorted as he noticed Donatello slowly retreating into his shell. Okay, yeah, he had to admit that was sort of funny.

April looks over at them and shakes her head at their antics before resting her head back against Michelangelo’s thighs, looking up at him with a mischievous smile on her lips. “Boys, am I right?” she asked. It was nice to rest her head on his thighs; they were soft and comfortable pillows. He was sort of cold.

Michelangelo looks down at her and starts laughing, nodding in agreement. "Boys..." he pulls his hands back and looks over at Raphael. "Hey Raph, or... Raphie-" he starts, beginning to giggle again at that nickname because it was so silly! He loved that nickname. He was going to make full use of it. "I told April you wanted to make clothes and stuff, and she said she could be the model if you ever needed one."

“I did?” "She did?" they both asked at the same time, then looked at each other, Raphael squinting as he considered. In all sincerity? She would probably be a good fit.

“Yeah! You could get April to model them for you online, then sell the clothes and give her a cut of the profits. I could pay for the stuff cause I wanna see what you’d do.” Casey jumps up from the couch where Donatello was still hiding in his shell and falls back onto the other couch, bumping into Raphael in the process. "You get to put your clothes out there; April might get some; and you get some extra spending money. R and C, makin' the munz!" Casey sounded thrilled.

Raphael remained silent for a few seconds, clearly thinking about it, before nodding in agreement. It could be a pretty good idea to try it out! “I guess if she wanted to, I wouldn’t be against it. It would give me a reason to start making clothes instead of just drawing them, I guess." Michelangelo grins and raises his hand, slightly shaking it as he shouts excitedly. "I could help take the pictures!" He liked taking pictures, so he thought it would be perfect. "Raph's clothes and April's beauty would make my photos incredible!" Oh, yes, this was so exciting!

April quickly puts her arms around her head and starts to speak, fast, “What are you guys talking about? I am not cut out for modeling! I’m not tall enough or pretty enough.” She looked mostly flustered. Most likely in response to Michelangelo's compliment.

If you wanted her to be completely sincere—no lies at all—she would say, well, she was a little insecure. She was extremely self-conscious! She was not particularly tall, attractive, or thin. No ifs ands or buts about it; she is a bit chunky. The thought of people seeing her like that? It frightened her. 

Leonardo turned his head to the side, frowning, while Michelangelo did too, and Raphael went tsh. He hated it when people argued against nice things… Shut up and accept the damned compliment. “What are you talking about?” The oldest spoke in question: “The first time that we met, Michelangelo said that you were pretty.” Michelangelo looked over at Leonardo with big eyes, his cheeks flushed, and whispered, "Leo, what the heck?"

That is so unfair! Don't expose him like that!

“You did?” April asks, looking up at Michelangelo, whose turn it was to be flustered. "Um..." he turned away, fiddling with his mask tails, as Raphael began to laugh at him. Come on, Mikey, flaunt your crush even more! God damn.

If April couldn't tell that he had a crush on her by now, she was blind.

Casey began to laugh as well, and Donatello smiled, putting his hand over his mouth. Leonardo probably didn’t realize what he said was bad. Ah, Raphael would say to read the room, but he couldn’t!

When Donatello's phone began to ring, Michelangelo waved his arms and said fast, "Donnie! Are you going to answer that?” He was probably hoping that by doing so, he would be able to avoid the teasing of the others because their attention would be off of him.

It did not work.

Donatello looks down at his phone, puzzled. “Uh... y...yeah I’ll get it.” He gets up from his seat and pulls out his phone, telling everyone, "I’ll be right back," before hurrying over to the bathroom to take the call.

Raphael had, by then, already noticed that he was no longer wearing the armband with the family symbol on it. Instead, he was wearing bandages, and Raphael was curious as to why he needed to remove the arm band and why he was wearing bandages. Was he hurt? Or is it solely to look cool? He squints at the thought and then shakes his head, figuring that he would ask about it later. Donatello was free to do whatever he wanted.

"So..." Leonardo began, again clasping his hands in his lap and tapping his thumbs together. He appeared to be a tad uneasy, which nobody exactly blamed him for. “How exactly did you two meet? Uh, Raph and Casey, I mean, since I already know how we met April.”

“How did you guys meet April? I mean, I remember you bringing her back to her room; what’s up with that?” Casey chose to ask a question rather than respond to the question posed to him.

Leonardo closes his mouth in a tight line, and April smirks slightly as she begins to talk. "I think I can answer that fairly easily. I went up there to check on them because they were shouting on the roof, and when I found out they were real turtle mutants, I panicked a little! Then he-" She gestures to Leonardo, "blew sleeping powder into my face!" She raised her voice as she spoke the last part.

“You were panicking and most likely drawing attention to us. I did what had to be done at the time." Leonardo turns away, his face flushed. April squints at him, so Michelangelo giggles and pats her on the head. “Don’t mind him; he’s bad at this," he told her, his voice amused. “He panicked.”

Casey begins to laugh and points to Leonardo. “You panicked and used sleeping powder on her?” he asks, “What’s wrong with you, dude?” Leonardo sunk a bit deeper into his shell, making a soft mrrr sound and closing his eyes behind his mask, even though the others could not see.

Ah…

There are a lot of things wrong with him; obviously, that didn't mean he liked it when people asked !

Raphael loved it when people lightly bullied his oldest sibling. It was always a source of joy for him. Leonardo puts his hands over his face, letting out a soft groan, and quickly replies, “Can we change the subject? You still didn’t tell me how you two met.”

"Better than you and April meeting," Raphael teased, letting out a snort of laughter before sitting up straight and waving his hand. “I went out cause I had a feeling that someone was following us. He was trying to, and we had a small fight, then we sat and spoke for a while afterwards. Simple as that.”

Michelangelo lets out a soft laugh at that and shakes his head. “Of course you meet someone in a fight!” He starts to play with April’s hair again, wishing that he could put beads into her hair. Wouldn’t that be so pretty? “Hey April, can I put beads in your hair at one point? Or try to braid it?” When he gets a shrug from her, he grins and starts to work on the braid. Oooo! Excited.

He would have to look up different types of styles he could do to her hair. Wouldn’t that be really fun? He knew that she would make anything look pretty cause she was pretty.

It was about ten minutes later, with them all chatting and Casey ordering food for them, that Leonardo said, “Donnie has been gone for a while; do you guys think he’s okay?” he turned his head towards where he thought his slightly younger brother had run off to take his call. Who called him in the first place?

“I’m sure he’s fine, maybe talking to his friend on the phone.” Michelangelo responds, finishing up the braids that he put in April’s hair. “I mean, I think it’s good that he has a friend. You guys know how Donnie is," even if something about it rubbed him the wrong way. He couldn’t place his finger on why, however.

“Well he better hurry up! The food is going to get here soon, and I don’t want to have to wait.” Casey cheers it with a laugh in his voice. Raphael looks over his shoulder and leans over the back of the couch to shout towards the bathroom, “Donnie! Hurry up.”

The door opens, and Donatello walks back out. He had a nervous expression on his face, then looked over and raised his metal hand, slightly waving. “Hey guys... um, sorry about that. I-I’m back.” He walks back over to where he sat before, sits down, and puts his hands together, slightly squeezing them.

“Are you okay?” April asks, frowning too. Regardless, Donatello nods, and before anyone else could say anything, there was knocking on the front door. “Oh! It’s the food. I’ll get it.” Casey hops up and runs over to get the food. Oh hell yeah, he was so excited. When was the last time he had a legitimate reason to order Chinese food?

Leonardo and Michelangelo were concerned about Donatello! That reaction was bad, yet they knew better than to keep asking. There was no way that he would tell them if he wasn’t ready to tell them.

They shared the food that Casey ordered, and he put chopsticks in his lips to make them look like long teeth. “Bleeeeehhhhh, I’m a vampire! I'm gonna suck your bloooooodddd~" He holds up his hands like they were claws, leaning closer to Raphael, who snorted, pushing him away gently and telling him to knock it off. 

Leonardo listened, a small smile tugging at his lips. Hearing his brothers' happiness made him... happy. They were comfortable.

Donatello even started eating! Donatello seemed to be getting healthier, which Leonardo noticed quickly. His eyes were not as dull, and he did not shake as much as he used to. Probably the friend that he was hanging out with got him food to eat.

“Alright guys,” He finally started, and he was sure that they were all looking at him since the sounds stopped. “I’m... I’m glad that you guys have friends. I guess you’re right that the humans aren’t too bad; Splinter was wrong.”

The three turtle brothers look at each other, and Raphael starts to laugh while Michelangelo claps his hands together and says, “I never thought I would live to see the day!” Casey and April started to laugh and giggle between themselves while Leonardo rolled his eyes. Oh haha! Whatever, guys. He was trying to be nice here.

|××××××|××××××|××××××|

After they finished the food and hung out for a while, the turtles had to go home because it was getting late, and Splinter would probably check on them in the morning. April and Casey both said that that was lame; however, they agreed, and the turtles headed home.

Aside from Donatello.

He stopped and told his brothers that he wanted to go and hang out with his friend for a short while, since they called to talk to him about something and told him that they had a thing that they wanted to show him. Leonardo asked if he was sure that was a good idea; be that as it may, he didn’t argue and allowed him to go. He figured it would not be fair if they went to see Raphael and Michelangelo’s friends and didn’t allow Donatello to go and see his, even though Leonardo felt really uncomfortable with the idea for some reason.

Donatello said goodbye to his brothers for the time being and ran off to go see his friend. He was excited! He was going to go home to get his cloak before going to see him. Admittedly, he knew it would take a bit longer, but he wanted Saki to see that he was wearing the cloak, and maybe he’d give Donatello some praise!

The thought made him laugh, jumping between his feet before running and holding his arms out by his sides, feeling his cloak blowing in the wind behind him. He did pull his hood up. Genuinely, this was the happiest he had been in... man, he had no idea.

The people in this place were so nice to him, and he had a feeling that his brothers would love them too. Raphael would probably like how strong Mona and Alopex were, and Leonardo would like Saki for training.

Splinter was strange for not liking the attack that he learned, and he had no idea why; unfortunately, he figured it was probably because it was something that he didn’t teach him himself. Splinter was so annoying, acting like him learning from someone else was the worst thing in the world.

The attack that he learned was good and not dangerous for him or the other person! As long as he didn’t aim for the chest, he meant.

It took a brief while for him to get there, and when he finally did, he peeked in with his eyes scanning around. He did not want to risk being attacked by one of the people again. He was curious as to what had happened to those two? Saki seemed really annoyed with them. Donatello knew it should not have happened, in spite of that thought, hearing someone so concerned about his safety made him very happy.

When he realized no one was around, he walked in and fixed the hood of his cloak before beginning to walk, looking around. Alright, Saki told him to come to his lab to see what he found. He beams, flapping his arms, overjoyed to have a place to call his lab. That blew his mind! It was fantastic.

“Saki! I’m here; I’m so sorry for the wait!” he said, hurrying into his lab, “I had to go home to get the cloak because my brothers-” He came to a halt when he noticed a large tube of bright green and purple liquid with a faint glow to it. Saki was standing nearby, talking with a massive alligator mutant. They both stopped talking and turned their heads to look at him when he came into the room. His eyes shoot between the two of them, and he sinks down a little. "Um, d...did I interrupt?” he asks nervously.

“No,” Saki tells him, holding up one of his hands in a wave. “You came at the perfect time. This is Leatherhead. Leatherhead, this is the turtle that I was telling you about.”

Leatherhead looks at Donatello for a few seconds before breaking into a grin, its teeth gleaming in the light, and beginning to walk closer. Donatello lets out a soft squeak, sinking down again. So big. Way too big. He squeezed his eyes shut when Leatherhead reached out to him; consequently, it put its hand on his head and said, “Such a cute tiny creature.” The accent was heavy and difficult to understand. Was that Australian? Maybe?

He opens his eyes, blinks a few times, and looks up at the tall gator. Cute? Tiny? “I-I’m... I’m not that tiny.” Leatherhead laughs at the way his voice was so soft and weak, then picks him up, holding him up. “You are tiny, so tiny. Can fit in my hand.” Donatello yelps at being picked up and starts to squirm, embarrassed.

This isn’t fair!

“Put him down,” Saki told it in a light, stern voice. "You are going to scare him." Leatherhead glanced over at Saki, then set Donatello down, who was flusteredly fiddling with the cloak. Was he really that small? He was the tallest of his brothers! He wasn’t small; Leatherhead was big!

He huffs and puffs when he was set down, then sighs and looks over at Saki, asking to try to get his mind off what happened. "Is that what you wanted to show me?" He points at the large tube, continuing to talk, "What is it exactly?" He wasn't mad at Leatherhead; he was mostly embarrassed about being called small and cute.

Nobody has ever exactly done that before.

Saki rests his hand on the glass, looking at Donatello with the sharp eyes that still made him feel nervous. He had no idea why! It was so unsettling… Saki has done nothing to hurt him; if anything, he's been really nice! So he didn't get why he was nervous. "This liquid is part of a plan that I've come up with to help everyone . Humans are strange creatures and show distrust toward mutants or fear. Sometimes even destruction, and with this, I could help them all—with your genius, of course. Would you help me, Donatello?" Saki asked, his head turned to the side.

Something that would help humans and mutants? He looks at the tube, not saying anything for a few seconds. What exactly did Saki mean by that? How would it help? "What-” He paused for a moment, then continued, “What would I need to do?" He asks, his voice sounding a bit nervous. He didn't want Saki to get mad at him for not agreeing right away.

Instead, he had a feeling that Saki smiled at him. "I would need you to make something that would allow us to shoot the liquid out. If it gets onto someone or is injected, it would turn a human into a mutant. Then they could see what it is like to be one. They would return into a human after a full 24 hours only." 

"Only... only 24 hours?" Donatello questions once more, and when Saki nods, Donatello starts to think. 

Would that be a good idea? I mean, it would be nice for mutants to not have to hide anymore. The idea of being a normal person made him happy, and maybe his brothers would be happy too. He looks down, twirling his fingers together, his stomach flipping and flopping, before he nods and looks at Saki, saying to him, "I'll do it. I'll make something special for you."

"I know you will," Saki told him, patting the top of his head. "I'm counting on you, Donatello. Now, why don't you get to work, and I'll check on you later? Leatherhead, come with me." And with that, he heads towards the doors.

Leatherhead looked at Donatello and smiled, patting him on the head too, mumbling, "tiny creature." And followed after Saki. Ugh, he wasn't tiny! Not fair.

Once they left, Donatello watched them go, then looked at the tube and pressed his fingers against it. The glass felt pleasantly warm. He breathes out slowly and goes to get to work. The green and purple didn't combine, and it kind of reminded him of a lava lamp.

Those were so cool !

Maybe a gun that could shoot it out? Saki said that it merely had to get onto them, not be injected, so he could make something sort of like a paintball gun! He liked paintball guns; he thought they were cool.

He would love to go play that!

Ooo, what if he made it into a sort of smoke bomb? It could take the liquid and turn it into a smoke-like substance! That would be great, wouldn't it? He had so many different ideas.

Saki was going to be so proud of him!

He was so happy to have all of this stuff to use to make things. He made his arm, and he sort of wanted to make a type of truck or something else to ride around in. Didn't that sound radical?

Donatello shakes his head and pats his hands on his cheeks. No! He needed to work on what Saki asked him to do before he started to work on his own fun stuff.

And maybe he should go home soon too. Should he stay here or go home? Man, he hated choosing things. There were pros and cons to both of those ideas.

He'd probably stay here to work, then go home before way too long. Unless he lost track of time again… he could see that happening, sadly. Getting lost in his work was something he often did, mostly because he liked working! It was a lot of fun. You know, when it's something that he wanted to work on.

Otherwise, he didn't want to do it. Sort of like how he didn't really like to train with his sensei, but he didn't think that he was in the wrong for that! His sensei would always be upset with him for some reason. 

Either saying that he didn't try hard enough or how his brothers are doing so much better than he was. It was always so saddening .

Why was he treated badly? Wouldn't it be better to focus more on him if he was messing up? Then you could help him learn! In spite of the fact, no, Donatello never said that, knowing better.

Talking back to their sensei wouldn't do anything but make him upset.

And Donatello didn't want that.

As he worked, he heard the door open after maybe three or four hours—he lost track of time… oops. He yawns, covering his mouth with his hand, and looks over, rubbing one of his eyes. It was Saki! He looks at Donatello and lowers his head in greeting before saying, "Hello, Donatello. How is it coming along?"

Oh, hey, he didn't have on his cloak. How weird.

"It's, uh, it's coming along nicely, I think?" He yawns again, tired. Despite the fact that he was, he wanted to keep working, as he didn't know when the next time he'd be able to come over would be! "I decided to make it sort of like a paintball gun, where you shoot out small balls of the liquid... but also smoke bombs where you put the liquid in, and it would turn it into a type of mist?" He looks over and pats his hands together, slightly nervous. "I-I hope it's okay if I did that. I can, um, change it if… you want."

He is always insecure about using his own ideas. Worried that he'd get in trouble or get spoken down to.

Saki walks closer to look over what he has already finished. Mostly the blueprints. He was thinking of all the materials that he would need to make these items that were asked of him. Saki lets out a hum then shakes his head, responding, "Yes. That sounds like a very smart idea. Then more people could be affected by it. Good job." Donatello gets a big grin on his face at the praise and turns away, putting his hands over his face. He had to try to hide how happy that made him. "But-" Saki continued, making him perk up, "it's getting late. You should head home and get some rest. Once you are well rested and back, you may continue working."

Aw man, he didn't want to go and sleep! That's not fair. He purses his lips, eyes shooting down, then nods and lowers his head. "Alright, I'll do that. Thank you again for allowing me to do this." Saki nodded, and Donatello left to get home.

It was so late!

He would probably fall asleep with his cloak on him like a blanket. It was strangely comfortable.

|××××××|××××××|××××××|

Of course the next few days went as per normal. Splinter would wake his students up and tell them to go and run around the sewers. Be that as it may, something strange did happen…

He started to treat them a bit better.

Raphael didn't get snapped at as often, Leonardo was praised for his leadership and was allowed to take off his mask for a while, and Donatello even got extra breakfast foods! It was confusing?

Why was he acting like that?

The four boys were now out and about, going to explore to make sure nobody was breaking the law like they used to. They were prepared to fight if they had to. "Have you guys noticed that sensei is acting weird?" Michelangelo asks, looking around the roof, then back at his brothers.

"The fact you say he's acting weird when he's acting like a teacher should is really sad." Raphael says, leaning over the edge to look around for anything out of place. He was excited to fight again.

It had been way too long since he last fought. The last time he fought was against that girl, the giant lizard. For some reason, thinking back to it made his heart flutter, so he shook his head, trying to ignore those thoughts.

This was fine.

Totally fine.

Leonardo hums and turns his head, directed at his brothers. He couldn't see them because of his mask, but he knew where they were. "I'm not sure exactly what's going on with him; however, we should keep an eye on him to see what exactly he's planning... maybe this is a test?"

"Tsh, yeah, whatever. Let's go." Raphael jumps down, causing the others to follow after fast. Leonardo was a bit annoyed that they'd listen to him so easily! He was the leader, not Raphael. Donatello didn't say anything because, well, he had no idea.

Why has their sensei been so kind lately? It was very strange.

As a matter of fact, Donatello and Raphael were both uncertain and disturbed about it. Pretty uncomfortable, frankly. Michelangelo wanted to believe he was doing it because he loved them; nonetheless, even he was confused about it.

Why would Splinter suddenly start caring for and loving them? It didn't make sense.

They were running through the shadows, listening for anything that seemed out of place. They wanted to help anyone who was hurt, as well as stop any crimes! There had been word of theft and important things getting stolen over the last few weeks. Many machines and special ores.

Power sources as well… dangerous things that would do a lot of harm if it fell into the wrong hands.

One thing that got stolen was Troatium! When Donatello heard that, he freaked out! "What do you mean?!" He even shouted. Troatium was one of the strongest and hardest metals. It was very rare, but very strong and powerful. Virtually indestructible! And it was really heavy, so hearing that someone was able to steal it shocked him.

Man, if he has some of that, he could make so much amazing stuff! A tank that could take a shot and be able to brush it off like nothing.

Someone stealing Troatium and the power sources together? Yeah, that scared him. Xesluysten was what some people called the power source that got stolen. It was something that could power SO much! But it was dangerous, as it could grow unstable very quickly. Xesluysten was a man-made material, and how it was made was kept under strict lock and key.

Speaking truthfully, the only reason that he knew was because he might have hacked into a few things… he liked hacking stuff.

Nobody could judge him.

The Echoing Asteroids was also going to happen soon. The first time in over 500 years! Donatello already brought it up to his brothers and asked if they could watch it. It wouldn't happen again for another 500 years, and they agreed to watch it with him.

"Hello turtles! You ever slow learners. I am here to stop you!" A voice suddenly spoke from behind them; however, when they all turned after pulling out their weapons, Raphael groaned in annoyance at what he saw. "Ughhh! Not this guy." Even Michelangelo was a bit annoyed already.

By who?

Mr. Rhyme ... duh duh duhnnnnn

He was their most annoying villain.

They met a long time ago, one time when the turtles stopped a bigger villain, and he got mad because "it was my job, you cheater! How could you go and beat her?" then he swore that he would get them arrested.

In all sincerity, he was more annoying than scary.

Mr. Rhyme points at them and says in a loud tone, his voice carrying far as he was very noisy. "One by one, I'll tell you this line: you'll never beat me, not this time!" He laughs, holding up his arms as he continues, the turtles standing and waiting for him to be finished. "This fight will be a legend today, and I'll remind you that I'll never go away! For the crime of stealing, I'll make you see an enemy you should have never made me ."

"I'm already getting a headache... Mikey, you wanna deal with the freak this time?" Raphael asks, looking over at the youngest, who frowns, "Aw, what?" He shakes his head. "I had to do it last time!" Michelangelo waved his arms as he whined.

"Well, I don't want to deal with him!" Was the fast response. They started to argue back and forth, both not wanting to have to deal with this annoying villain. Normally Michelangelo would do whatever his older brother said, but he had to draw the line somewhere.

Donatello watches them, then looks at Mr. Rhyme and sticks out his tongue slightly, "you're so cringe..." he murmurs, mostly to himself. Leonardo let out a little snort of laughter at that and looked at Donatello, nudging him, "Don't be mean; he's trying his best." That made Donatello giggle. Oops, he didn't think anyone would hear him!

"You four are weaker than a flea; don't you dare try to bully me!" Mr. Rhyme snapped, holding his hand up in a fist, "It would be a blunder to treat me badly, as I will send you asunder! If you keep this up, my anger will be stronger than any thunder."

Mr. Rhyme was a slightly tall man with long, messy, light brown hair. He had dark brown skin and shifty, golden colored eyes. He wore mostly green and black clothing. To be truthful, the outfit looked like he grabbed it out of his closet. Sometimes Donatello felt bad when they beat him, but also not.

The dude did want to send them to jail after all, and frankly, he didn't think they'd only go to jail.

They were giant mutant turtles! They'd do tests on them, probably, and yes, as much as Donatello liked science and such, that didn’t mean he wanted anyone to do a test on him!

"Alright, alright," Leonardo says, holding up his hands. "I'll handle him this time, guys. You three, go ahead, and I'll catch up." Donatello shuts his mouth in a tight line, thinking, then shakes his head and butts in, "I'll do it. I have a few things I want to test with my new arm." They looked at him, then each other, and shrugged.

They went ahead, leaving Donatello with Mr. Rhyme. He looks back at the human and smiles, cracking his knuckles. Alright, this was going to be interesting! Maybe, you know, this one could be the first person that Saki would like to test that liquid on? A human that tries to mess with mutants! It would make so much sense.

|××××××|××××××|××××××|

It seemed that Saki agreed with him and said that he would send some of the others to collect Mr. Rhyme. Donatello asked Saki to ensure that Mr. Rhyme was safe, and Saki assured him that he would not be harmed by any of them. It made him feel better, and he went to sleep that night without too much thought.

It would be so nice to not have to deal with Mr. Rhyme anymore! Maybe they could even make him a friend when he gets back to normal? Donatello did wonder what kind of mutant he would be? Maybe a penguin! Saki told him that the transformation wasn't painful either, so he didn't feel too apprehensive about that.

He woke up that night because Michelangelo came to wake him up, asking if he’d like to join in on their sleepover! He  couldn’t sleep, and that’s why he decided to go and grab his brothers. Of course Donatello agreed, and they walked off to the main room where the others were waiting. Donatello decided not to wear his false arm. Better to not wear it all the time.

Raphael looks over and waves, saying, “Hey guys...” He was sleepy-looking, and hey, not wearing his pants! Leonardo wasn’t wearing his mask either, but he did wear his leg warmers—Donatello didn’t know what else to call them. It seemed the youngest was the only one still wearing the family symbol right now.

Donatello would get his arm band back later. He just kept forgetting.

Michelangelo runs over and jumps at Leonardo, whose eyes widen, and he catches him, knocking them both back on the ground. “Ouch, Mikey!” Michelangelo starts to laugh, nuzzling into his brother’s neck and humming happily.

His dumb teeny-weeny tail was wagging fast.

The only reason they could be this loud was because Splinter left earlier. He said that he would be home in a few days, but he needed to go and collect a few things. What? They didn’t know; they didn’t bother to ask (plus, they knew that Splinter might get annoyed if they asked too many questions.)

Donatello walks over and sits beside Raphael, who looks at him out of the corner of his eyes, then he sighs and leans over to rest against him, shutting his eyes. “How was it handling the rhyme weirdo?” he questioned in a mumbling tone.

They both knew that Raphael still felt upset about Donatello putting the tracker in him; however, he was trying to get better and forgive him, which Donatello thought was nice.

He looks down at his younger brother and smiles, resting his head against his, responding, “It wasn’t too hard with my new arm. I don’t think he’s going to be bothering us much after this.” and he was so excited to see what Saki would think. He would have to go and make those machines soon.

“That made it sound like you killed him,” Raphael said with a snort, making Donatello laugh, and he shook his head. “I don’t think that I would ever be able to kill someone... don’t be silly," he quickly corrected.

"Guys, Donnie’s a murderer." Raphael starts to poke at Donatello’s side as he spoke, “totally killed someone. We’re housing a murderer; how could we have fallen so far?” He was being overly dramatic on purpose.

“Oh my god, stop it.” Donatello was trying not to laugh or smile to approve of this, but he couldn’t help himself. He pushes at Raphael, who falls to his side, laughing, and Michelangelo starts to giggle too. The idea of Donatello going out of his way to hurt someone? No, there was no way! Donatello would have a hard time hurting a fly.

He would know.

There was one time that he asked Donatello to kill a fly, and he wouldn’t. Raphael had to do it for him.

It was very amusing.

The four turtles started to chat amongst themselves, all laid out and cuddled up in their blankets and such. They knew that Splinter wouldn’t come back too soon, so they weren’t too nervous about this. They asked each other some questions, lightly bullied and teased each other, and Leonardo even asked Michelangelo when he was going to confess to April! That made both Raphael and Donatello laugh, while Michelangelo’s cheeks flushed hard. “H-Hey!” he shouted.

It totally made the others laugh harder.

They all felt... happy.

Donatello brought up The Echoing Asteroids again, making sure that his brothers would really be okay with going up and watching them? They all agreed, saying that it sounded fun! Raphael called him a nerd… that was normal, at least.

Chapter Text

Michelangelo and April were spending time together today!

It was April's idea to invite him over, and he happily accepted because he enjoyed spending time with her. If he had to be completely honest, he thought she was one of his favorite people. He did notice her odd behavior and turned to face her. "Hey, April, are you all right?" he asks, worriedly turning his head to the side.

Was there a problem?

She hadn’t exactly looked at him, and whenever he looked at her and caught her eye, she looked away fast. Looking… dare he say? Flustered? She jumps and looks at him, her eyes wide, before shaking her head quickly. "No, no, I am perfectly fine! Don’t worry about it.” As she told him, she laughed, looked away, and rubbed her neck.

She seemed really tense.

The orange turtle, ever the genius, narrowed his eyes in response. He was too smart to believe that, so he cupped her cheek, turned her head to look at him, and asked, "Are you sure? You know you can tell me anything, right?” He made sure to keep his voice calm to not scare or make her nervous.

She leans into the touch, rests her hand over his, and nods slightly. “I know…” she breathed out shakily then let out a weak laugh. “Look, I… I need to tell you something. I like you. I really like you.” Hearing that, he smiles and rubs his thumb across her cheek. “I know.” he leans forward, as does she-

"Mikey!" exploded a voice, causing him to yelp and wave his arms as panic shot through him. Crap, crap, crap! His cheeks flushed with heat, and he hastily began to delete what he had already written. “G-Give me a second!” he shouts back. “I’m, uh, naked!” he facepalms at himself for that comment.

Idiot.

“We’re turtles, you dunderhead! What are you doing with my computer?" Raphael snaps through the door in his heated annoyance. Yes, he started writing some stories—sue him. Is it creepy? Maybe a little bit… on the other hand, it helped him calm down with stuff. It’s not like this could ever really happen in real life, so the fanfics help him get it out of his mind. Don’t tease him!

The second-youngest opened the door and walked over to close the laptop. Michelangelo had to quickly pull his hands back to avoid getting them caught in it, and he looked up at Raphael, his cheeks puffing out as he said, "Leo told me that I could use it." Raphael picks up his computer and points at him, responding in an irked tone of voice. “I don’t care what Eyeless said—this is my computer. If you want to use it, you have to ask me. I bought it with my own money. Buy it on your own if you want something you can use whenever you want."

Splinter was not fond of electronic devices. Computers are normally banned from being brought into the lair. The only reason that they could have phones was so Splinter could call them if they were out too long or he was worried about them—you could guess that it’s normally the first thing. Donatello figured out how to connect to the internet and other things like that, and Splinter let him. He didn’t allow TV’s or laptops like that, though, so Raphael bought it with his money. He kept it hidden and mostly used it to draw his clothing designs (experimenting with different colors and such).

Donatello was allowed to keep his computer and all of his belongings as long as Splinter could inspect them to ensure that he was not doing anything 'strange' or 'bad' while he was supposed to be working. The others had a feeling the only reason Donatello was allowed to keep them was because then Splinter would have to deal with him… ha… sad.

“Just because you’re the youngest doesn’t mean you get everything that you want,” Raphael continues to rant to him, holding up one of his hands. “What if you broke it or something? Everyone knows you’re stupid enough to drop it!” Michelangelo tightens his lips, lowers his head, and fidgets with the fabric around his neck. He hated it whenever Raphael spoke to him like that…

He, however, didn’t blame Raphael for it. It was how Splinter spoke to them sometimes, so he was plainly pushing the hurt that he got away and onto someone else by lashing out. It was understandable because it was something they had to deal with.

Something that he’s had to deal with himself.

After Raphael was finished lashing out, probably waiting for a response, he stared at the orange brother, then sighed and grumbled, “Why do I even bother? Just don’t touch my stuff, Mikey.” He turns and walks out, slamming the door behind him.

Yeah, that was 100% needed, Raphael. Thanks .

Even if Michelangelo didn’t blame him, it still upsets him greatly to be called stupid and lashed out at! Raphael wasn’t the only one going through the bad stuff, and at the same time, it seemed that he always picked Michelangelo to lash out at! Probably because he was the youngest and the ‘easiest’ to get mad at. Splinter also treated Michelangelo slightly better than the others… at least in their eyes.

Was it due to the fact that he was the youngest? Or because Splinter had the most hope in him? Yeah, well, it wasn’t always that awesome! They didn’t realize that when he and Splinter ‘spent time together’ it wasn’t for fun, it was for extra training, and Splinter was harder on him during this training because “I expect better from you" was something that he often heard.

“You’re going to have to cover up for your brother's mistakes, Michelangelo. Don’t make me realize that I’ve made the wrong choice.” Or “You’re going to get yourself and your brothers killed if you’re this weak against the enemy.” as well as "Do you want to fail? Is that why you’re not even trying?”

He clenches the fabric of his blanket in his fists, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. He wasn’t allowed to cry; he wasn’t allowed to tear up. Any weakness was to be forgotten and left behind. If you’re too weak, you'll get killed or drag the others down with you.

He owed it to himself to be better than this.

His sensei thought that he was better, so that meant that he needed to be.

Then he got a message on his phone! Luckily, it came before he got too deep into his own thoughts; he could already feel his fingers itching and wanting to grab something that he knew would only ever hurt him. Quickly, he sniffled to calm himself down, and he grabbed his phone, seeing that it was a message from April! It read, ‘Orange baby! Hey’ ‘do you want to come over? I have something I wanna show you and I think it’ll be rad :D’

He had to let out a little laugh when he read that. What kind of person uses rad anymore?

'Of course, dudette! I will be there quicker than you can say cowabunga chimichanga!’ He gets out of bed and wipes his eyes to get rid of any stray tears. He’ll make it later… probably—eh, most likely not.

To tell you the truth, he needed to get out of this place right now. His brothers were great, and he adored Donatello—go B team—albeit right now, he needed to leave. Raphael, in particular, was completely bogus.

And yes, even if he had a reason to lash out, that didn’t mean that he had to forgive him for lashing out. Reasons don’t approve of actions.

He exited the sewers without alerting anyone and turned off his phone, shoving it away into his usual hiding place. Today was a day for him and April, and he’d deal with whatever came next when it happened.

They could be angry at him as much as they wanted. What’s the worst that could happen? He gets yelled at? Ha, yeah, whatever. It would have happened regardless. Hit him too—it wouldn’t be the first time, nor the last.

He swung and flipped across the roofs as he made his way to where he usually meets April! Her house! Or, well, you know, her room. He had to come to a stop, in any case, because he heard some strange noises coming from one of the alleyways nearby. He swung, wrapped his legs around a hanging bar nearby, and looked down to see what was going on below him.

If it is something serious, he would contact his brothers; if it is not, he was confident he could handle it! He was tough.

There was a human, and... was that a mutant? Whoa, huge alligator! Dude! That’s awesome... wait, why did it have a gun? What kind of alligator needs a gun ? His eyes widen, and he quickly thinks over his options before deciding to simply let go, falling quickly and withdrawing into his shell. He heard a thunderous bang and then came into contact with something rock-hard.

A deafening shout could be heard, and he popped out of his shell, holding up one of his nunchaku with narrowed eyes. “What are you doing!?” He snapped in question, but his eyes widened.

Wait a minute... he knew this alligator.

“L...Leatherhead?” His voice shakes as he whispers.

The gator shakes its head and snarls at him, then it pauses as well, staring at him and asking, “Orange one? You’re alive?” It sounded very surprised. 

They first met when Michelangelo was much younger. Leatherhead was a small and young gator that Michelangelo tried to help out. He brought him food and stuff while he was stuck in a trap that Michelangelo couldn’t figure out how to open... Leatherhead was able to escape at one point and accidentally hurt him before disappearing into the water.

That was how Michelangelo’s leg got damaged. He had to get his brother's help, and he would never tell them what happened because, well, he didn’t want them to go and hurt the friend that he made. Even if Leatherhead had hurt him, he knew it was not on purpose! It was scared and ran away. Now? Now Michelangelo didn’t know what was going on with his old friend.

“W...What are you... what are you doing?” He turns his head to look at the person who was now on the ground, causing his eyes to widen, and he runs over, crouching beside them. “Hey, hey, are you conscious?” He asked and looked down for blood, but all he found was... a bright green and purple liquid? It faded, sinking into the fabric and skin where it had been resting.

The person was a guy with deep brown hair that looked thick and slightly wavy, big glasses covering his eyes, and freckles coating his cheeks like snow. He had a tanned complexion. Mexican, maybe? Michelangelo had a difficult time telling. His clothing appeared to be quite simple. A long white coat, a white button-up shirt, and black dress pants. Notebooks were strewn about him.

Michelangelo reaches down and checks the man's pulse before turning his head to look over at Leatherhead, who is no longer there. His eyes shoot around, confused about where his old friend had disappeared so fast. He shakes his head and looks down again, waiting for the pulse. He felt it start to go really fast, and the guy started to shriek.

The sounds were terrifying.

Screams of pure agony.

Michelangelo didn’t know what he was supposed to do with this! If people came to check on the person screaming, they would see a mutant with a hurt human, and that would be bad . Having said that, he couldn’t just leave him! What if something else found him? Michelangelo could not bear the thought of abandoning someone to die.

Then the noises stopped, causing him to blink, and he looked down to see him lying... motionless. Gulping down his nerves, he reached down and checked the pulse again. Oh, okay, the dude was still alive; he was simply passed out. So, what should he do now? After a few moments of thinking everything over, he sighs and picks the dude up, moving him to rest on his back, and starts to head to April’s house again.

They’ll see who he is when he wakes up, and he’ll ask the dude why he thought he got targeted. Why would Leatherhead shoot him with some strange liquid? And what did that liquid do to him?

Was it just to cause pain? Michelangelo could tell that he wasn’t dead—he passed out. Most likely as a result of the pain. Was Leatherhead trying to knock the person out to take him somewhere? Why would it do that, though? Nothing made sense! 

When he got to April’s building, he knocked against her glass quickly, looking over his shoulder at the guy to make sure that he was still there… stupidly. “April! April!” The dude was still on his back and was pretty heavy. Of course he could handle it; he could handle a lot more weight, but this was still a lot. Emotional weight, you know?

This was a lot to deal with all at once. First, his brother was mean to him, then he met his old friend, who was now a bad guy? He guessed? And there was a human on his back that was passed out? What was he supposed to do with this?!

After opening the window, April looks out at him, her smile gone, replaced by a frown that pulls her lips down as she asks, sounding worried. "Mikey, who is that? What happened?” He climbs in fast and moves the person to lay on his back again on the ground. He knew that he could have answered first; however, right now, this guy was more important than being kind and thoughtful.

“I don’t know. I found him being attacked by another mutant. He was hit by something... I don’t know what it was, either.” He lifts his head to look up at her and asks, "Can you get me a hot, wet towel?" He knew that this was probably a lot to drop on her too, and then again, she did allow some weird mutant turtles to come into her house. She should have expected some crazy stuff to happen.

She nodded quickly and turned to run out of the room to get that. Michelangelo pulls out his phone to look up what he should do when someone passes out like that. It explained to raise the person's legs above their heart level if possible. Loosen belts, collars, and other restrictive clothing... he looks down and reaches down to unbutton the dude's shirt, murmuring under his breath, "You're a doctor now, Mikey. Go you; most people have to go to school. You only need to deal with a dude." He felt like he was going to puke right now.

Crap.

He was pulling a Donatello! Ugh !

Once he got the shirt and stuff undone, he sprang up and ran out to grab books to raise the guy's legs. If he didn't wake up soon, Michelangelo had a feeling that they were going to have to call 911. He really did not want to have to do that! And now he was wondering what Leatherhead was doing.

Why was it a bad guy now? What happened to it to lead it to this point? It isn’t like Michelangelo could have helped it more than he already did… right? What led it to getting mutated? Was it alright? Was there anything he could do to help it get back onto the right track? Would it even want the help? Running like this brought back memories of the pain in his leg and how it almost buckled so often. It happened when he tried to run too fast.

Even if he tried to not blame Leatherhead for the impairment, it was still something that it did to him back then. And it scared him.

April sees him carrying books and nods, telling him, "That's a good idea. So you said that you met him because another mutant was attacking him? I can’t believe that I’m getting pulled into this stuff after meeting you guys… here I used to complain about my life being boring." Michelangelo quickly nodded, laughing at the last part, and they walked back into the room together, both frozen by what they saw on the inside.

The human was sitting up and rubbing the side of his head, his back to them... he didn't have the hair anymore or the tan skin that Michelangelo brought up earlier. Instead, it was now dark with bright orange and pink markings, and he had a long tail. God damn, he was a lizard now! It had the appearance of a Gila monster. Michelangelo had previously seen one in a book! The… now mutant was also bigger than he was before.

"What the hell?" April asks. She was so puzzled! This dude wasn't a mutant before! The guy turned his head and looked at them, then turned his head down to look at his hands and gulped. "I... I don’t know what happened," he explained, his voice fearful and trembling.

Michelangelo sets the books down and rushes over to the now mutant, cupping his cheeks and inspecting him. The liquid turned him into a mutant? That explains so much! "Hey, hey, it's alright; you're in a safe place. Do you remember what happened?" he asked. The guy flinched away at first, squeezing his eyes shut tightly. Michelangelo pulls his hands back and holds them up, mostly to show that he didn't mean any harm. "Sorry, sorry, I won't hurt you. I was the one who brought you here after you were attacked."

"I... I know." The other mutant responds, rubbing at his neck and clearing his throat, "I remember hearing your voice, and... I don't know what happened. I was just going home to study, and I heard a loud noise, so I went to check it out, and there was a big gator! I heard shouting, then your voice, and I felt a lot of pain." He looks down and touches his tail, tracing his new claws across it. "I can't believe that... I have a tail now." It seemed he was going to use a different string of words, but he decided to use that one.

"I have a tail too." Michelangelo voices and turns his head to look at April, pointing at her. "That's April, and I'm Michelangelo, though most people call me Mikey. She was going to help you too before you got... mutated."

The unnamed guy looks at April, who waves, then sighs slowly and turns his head down to look at the ground. This was clearly too much for him to handle all at once. "I'm... I'm Macario Gecho." He looked down at his unbuttoned shirt and tried to pull it together, but annoyingly, it was too small now. "Ironic that I got turned into a type of lizard," he grumbles, his voice all but dripping in irritation.

"Macario, you say?" April asks, then hums, rubbing her chin, "That last name seems familiar... aren't you the son of a pretty well-known doctor? He helped figure out how to help heal some disabilities, right?"

"He did not heal them, but he helped them to get better." was the fast retort. "And I don't want to hear anything about my dad right after I got turned into a mutant, please!" He held up his arms, still speaking, and clearly panicked. "My clothes don't even fit me anymore! I don't know what I'm going to do. I can't go home like this, and I can't go back to school like this either. I'm... I look gross and weird!" He lowers his head and crosses his arms across his chest. He was probably embarrassed about being shirtless and freaked out about being transformed into a mutant.

Michelangelo looks at him with a small wince, then sits down beside him, and April sits on the other side. He reaches out and rests his hand on Macario's knee, telling him in a soft and kind voice, "I don't think you look gross... I'm a mutant too. If that means anything, I think you look really cool."

Macario looks over at him, then exhales and pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his head on them, getting lost in thought, and utters under his breath, "I more just want clothes to wear." His tail was shifting and moving leisurely behind him. "And I don't even feel like I should use the name Macario anymore. My father told me that he wanted me to become a doctor like him; I've been working so hard to get there. Now that I'm this, I don't feel like I could anymore." His voice sounded so miserable and exhausted.

"Aw, hey, no, I think you totally could! You know what they say: people can be whatever they want!" April cheers, patting her hands on Macario's arm repeatedly. He looks over at her, then down, as if considering something. They both knew that those words were sweet but meaningless. No human would accept a mutant to work on them as a doctor. Let alone one like… this.

Michelangelo bites the inside of his cheek and nudges him lightly, telling him in a soft, compassionate voice, "Hey, you know, you don't have to be a doctor if you don't want to anymore. You are a mutant now, after all. It isn't like you have to follow their rules anymore. Heck! You can even change your name if you wanna, like... Mondo Gecko? Isn't that a cool name?"

"Mondo Gecko?" April asks, then rubs her chin, looking off to the side. "Huh, yeah, that does sound pretty cool." She smiles and turns to face Michelangelo. "Good job, but hey, your brother said he wanted to make clothes, right? What if he could make some for him?" She nodded her head at Mondo, as she suggested, who was listening to them. The idea of not being a doctor was... perplexing to him? His whole life, that's what his father wanted him to do. What else could he possibly do? I mean... he did always want to skateboard, and hey, maybe he could wear clothes that aren't like this? He looks down and smiles a little, messing with the fabric around his arms.

These two are a lot of fun.

Michelangelo grinned and clapped his hands together, squeaking with delight. That was such a good idea! "You're a genius! April, I could kiss you right now." He jumps to his feet and dashes off to get his phone and turn it on. He might be mad at his brother right now, though at the moment, his feelings didn't matter. A person needed help, and he could help them. He wasn’t going to let his stupid emotions get in the way of that.

Mondo watches him run away, then turns his head to look at April and nudges her lightly with his tail, guessing, "So... are you two dating?" He figured because, well, he said that he wanted to kiss her right there. April's eyes widen, and she quickly shakes her head, waving her arms as she denies fast, "No! Obviously not. We are buddies. He... tells jokes like that all the time. No biggie, and jokes!"

Mondo gave her a look, then did not say anything because he assumed she would know best.

⚛》》》◆《《《⚛

Leonardo and Raphael argued about the computer accident, then Raphael told him to screw off and left! It troubled him, since what's the big deal? Michelangelo allowed Raphael to use his camera, and he often took it without asking first! What's the difference with Michelangelo borrowing his computer?

Nothing—that's it! So aggravating...

Leonardo breathes out, holding his hands together and balancing on top of the nail bed. It was something that they often used to do to make sure that they could perfectly balance themselves. No weight is out of order, as it allows them to sneak around better, as well as other things.

He wondered where Raphael had gone—would he be okay? Probably went to see Casey... or would he stay and hang out with Donatello instead? Leonardo kind of hoped that he would stay and hang out with Donatello. It isn't that he didn't trust Casey; more just, man, he didn't know. Casey gave him strange feelings. Maybe it was because he was the second human that they’ve met that hasn’t tried to fight them.

After a while of his training, trying to calm himself down, he breathes out and grabs his phone, then reaches up to move his mask off slightly to look at the screen. He squints at the brightness and mumbles under his breath, "This is so bothersome..." he types a message to Casey, sending it. 'Has Raph messaged you?' 'we had a small argument and I am not sure if he went to you or to Donatello' If he didn't go to Casey, he'll check with Donatello.

He had a strong feeling he would go to Donatello. Raphael often went to the second oldest to rant and rave about Leonardo because he knew that Donatello would keep it to himself. Yeah, you’re not very good at keeping it a secret, Raphael! You little butt.

It took a little bit more time than he would have liked, but he got a response. 'whoa dude' 'how are you messaging me? Did Donnie make you a special phone so you could type while being blind or something?'

'I'm not blind, Casey' 'now about my brother?' He puffs his cheek out slightly as he types, waiting for a response again. Come on, he knew that he seemed blind, but he wasn't!

'Huh, I thought you were blind' 'yeh' 'no, he isn't here, but hey, if u wanna come over you can and we can hang out'

Leonardo was confused. Why would he want to go see Casey? Maybe giving Raphael some space would be a good idea, though? That's the only thing he could think of. He thought for a few seconds, then hummed and typed, 'I'll come over I guess. Thank you for the offer.'

He got a message back saying for him to come on over, and he put his phone away. Was this a good idea? He didn't know, but it was too late to go back now. It took him a little while to get to Casey’s place, having to go off memory and checking every so often. He knew better than to take off his mask, knowing that he had been doing that too often lately.

Once he got there, he knocked against Casey’s door and fixed the hoodie that he totally stole from the tallest of the siblings. He knew that Donatello wouldn’t mind him borrowing it to go and see Casey.

And yes, Raphael was with Donatello, and when Leonardo went to get the hoodie, he stuck out his tongue at him and moved to hide behind Donatello, who laughed at his brother's silliness.

What is wrong with them?

The door opened, and he heard a snort from the other side as Casey talked to him. “You know that if you wanna blend in, not wearing your mask might help with that. Right now, you look like some weirdo with a kink.”

“I’m not exactly sure what you mean by that. Do you mind if I come in before we start talking?” He crosses his arms over his chest, “I don’t know where Michelangelo is, but I know that Raphael is mad at me for our little argument earlier… and he’s spending time with Donatello.”

“Pfft, yay, last resort!” Casey cheers and throws his arm around Leonardo’s shoulders, pulling him into the room with him and probably shutting the door behind him with his foot. “I was thinking we could watch some TV shows, huh? Your brother told me your old man didn’t like TVs and stuff.”

Leonardo wasn’t exactly sure how to react to that, so he hummed and turned his head down, shrugging his shoulders. Splinter did dislike TVs and such, and they all had a feeling it was because he couldn’t figure out how to work the stuff no matter how many times Donatello or the others tried to show him. He was way too stubborn—not that Leonardo would ever say it! That would be so disrespectful to their sensei!

After all of the gifts that he had given them, how could he bring himself to disrespect his teacher?

Honestly, his being here is very disrespectful as well! Splinter has told them many many times that humans are dangerous and would only cause issues and danger. Why did he allow himself to come here? He shouldn’t be here! Crap, crap, crap. He knew that he should have stayed home and trained more.

His legs were shaking…

“Hey, why don’t you pick out what we watch, and I’ll go make some popcorn?” he heard the footsteps drifting away from him, knocking him out of his thoughts, and he breathed in the much-needed air that he didn’t realize he was forgetting about. He looked around, or at least tried to, then gulped, remembering his mask. Right… how could he forget about that? Idiot.

He nods, not realizing that Casey probably wouldn’t be able to see him either, and walks over to the couch to sit down. He lifts his mask a little to see what was going on around him. The room was fairly clean, a little messy with some clothes here and there, and some empty soda cans. At least he hoped that they were empty? Otherwise, it would be a little gross to just have half-empty soda cans around.

It would probably attract ants.

Ah, there was the remote!

He reaches over and picks it up, turns on the TV, and starts to flip through the channels, slowly removing his mask the rest of the way. He figured that since he was already breaking some rules, he'd break this one too. It's not like he would be able to watch much of anything without doing this.

As he flipped through the channels, one caught his attention. Huh, a show called Final Space? What could that possibly be?  He squints as he clicks on it to read about it. Because he kept his eyes covered all the time, they became blurry at times. The show was about an Earthling who had to flee because of 'crimes' he was accused of by the Shadow Syndicate, and he went out into space to explore and escape. While he was out, he made many new friends along the way. This one spoke about how Be’vodzad was going to help Caleb get away from the Zoltar aliens.

Who were the Zoltar aliens, and why were they trying to get Caleb? And how would Be’vodzad help him? Leonardo clicks on that and places his hands on his lap, his gaze fixed on the screen. He felt the fabric that normally covered his legs brush against each other as he swung his legs slightly. He only wore them because he liked them! They were comfortable. As were the shoes that he wore.

Alright, so it seemed that Be’vodzad was an alien from the Usnoll species. Occurn, the planet from which his kind originated, was a visiting planet. Many different kinds of aliens would come and be cared for—sort of like a spa? It was quite lovely... Caleb appeared and asked for help, and he and Be'vodzad became friends (it was telling them what happened in the previous episode!)

But now he was curious? What was going to happen to make the Zoltar appear? Who even is the Zoltar? Is Caleb a good person or a bad person? He was unable to tell.

Occurn picturesque and exotic planet located in a remote corner of the galaxy. Known for its serene beauty and therapeutic landscapes, Occurn has earned its reputation as a spa-like haven for relaxation and rejuvenation. The planet boasts a variety of unique natural features and attractions that draw visitors from all corners of the universe. It is also a safe haven where no fighting of any kind is permitted.

Occurn is well-known for its crystal-clear pools, which are dotted throughout the lush, lavender forests. These pools are filled with blush pink waters infused with healing minerals that are believed to have restorative properties for both the body and the mind. Visitors frequently submerge themselves in these pools, floating weightlessly and basking in the peaceful atmosphere. 

Occurn's flora includes bioluminescent plants that emit soft, soothing light at night. The gardens come to life with a soft glow, creating an enchanting setting for evening strolls and meditation.  The planet also has breathtaking celestial canyons, where towering rock formations meet sparkling waterfalls.  The canyons offer breathtaking views, and the sound of cascading water is thought to be therapeutic by those seeking solace in nature.

Heh, the first few minutes of the show appeared to be an advertisement for the planet Occurn. That was entertaining; Leonardo enjoyed it. Yeah, he was going to have so much fun watching this show; he had a feeling. The main character already seemed really cool!

⚛》》》◆《《《⚛

Casey had to stop for a while to take the call from his dad. He asked him how he was doing and gave praise for Casey’s rise in grades! The praise made him laugh and comment that he had a friend who’s been helping him out. While on the phone, he heard the TV get turned on, so at least Leonardo listened to him suggesting they watch something. He walks over to get the popcorn set up while talking to his dad.

He asked how work has been, if anything cool has happened, and when he was planning on getting a new girlfriend. That made his dad laugh and respond, "Ah, the same time you do, son."

Ouch, getting a burn from his dad? What is he? A prince? Heh, reference…

Once the bag stopped popping and he saw that it was done, they said their goodbyes, with his dad saying he'd come for a visit soon. Yeah, that's what he said last week, but, eh, oh well, Casey didn't mind too much. He knew that his dad did a lot of work.

"Popcorns done!" He called out to the turtle, "I'm gonna just go ahead and put it into one bowl cause it doesn't really matter." I mean, they're sitting right beside each other, so why not? He walks in and looks at what was on the TV, making him snort. "Final Space, really?" He looked at Leonardo, about to tease, but had to pause as his heart skipped a beat.

What the heck?

As Leonardo looked up at him and smiled, starting to talk about the show, excitedly, he didn’t even really hear the words. Why was… why was he so pretty? His eyes were bright, glowing like the sun, and the same color as it. A bright, enchanting yellow that made him unable to pull his own eyes away. You know, he never really noticed how pretty Leonardo was before this.

He was a nice pale green with white freckles covering his body, and the yellow eyes really stood out with how bright they were.

They seemed really bright because he seemed excited about the TV show. The one that Casey, himself, didn’t really care too much about. And damn, he was still rambling about it. Casey lets out a little laugh and nods, “Yeah, yeah, that sounds cool.” He mumbles and sits down beside him, setting the bowl in his lap.

"I think since we didn't start in the beginning, there are a few things that we won't get the answers to, but I think I kind of get it." Leonardo starts by exclaiming, starting to wave his hands as he spoke since he was excited. "This show seems so fun! I love space; it has always been such a pretty thing to me. The stars sparkling in the night sky, and aliens! Wouldn't aliens be such an interesting thing?" Casey looked at him while he was talking, getting a small smile on his face, and snorted in amusement. Come on, it was silly.

Leonardo looked at him when he did the snort, then turned his head down, frowning slightly, and messed with the necklace around his neck, mumbling. "I'm sorry."

Casey perks up and looks at him, confused, and nudges him lightly. "Hey, what are you saying you're sorry for?"

"I was speaking a lot. I should have kept them to myself." He clears his throat, turning his head away, and reaches up to mess with his mask tails, knowing he would have to put it on later again. "So I'm sorry for speaking out of order." 

Huh... alright, damn, that isn't what he was expecting. He stares at Leonardo for a few seconds, then lets out a tsh sound, and he swings his arms around Leonardo's shoulders, pulling him flush against himself. "Hey, why don't you tell me what I was missing while I was in the kitchen getting the popcorn? The show seems pretty cool." Leonardo looks up at him, then gets a small smile on his face and looks at the TV, starting to explain again.

Look, he might not care for the show himself, but he could tell that Leonardo liked it, and telling someone who liked something not to talk about it is an asshole move.

He'll deal with hearing about it to see that excitement on his face again... and, you know, to stop himself from thinking of how close they were. Ha, how hard his heart was beating felt kind of strange. He never exactly had a crush like this before, and did it even count as a crush? Eh, probably not. He just thought that Leonardo was pretty! Nothing out of order or weird… and even if it was, it didn’t matter.

Hopefully, it'll pass.

If not, it was going to be very very awkward for him to tell Raphael that he had a crush on his brother. Even more so since it seemed that these two often argued and had disagreements with each other. Casey didn’t have any siblings, so he didn’t exactly get it, if he had to be honest.

“I already have a few ideas of how this is going to go. I think that the Zoltar aliens were hired by the Shadow Syndicate to go and collect Caleb so they could say they found him and have him locked up for the crimes that he committed. People would probably believe them more than him because he’s a criminal in their eyes… They’re going to have to undoubtedly try to prove his innocence and take them down.” He crosses his arms over his chest, shutting his eyes. “I hate people who do such things. Accusing others of crimes that they didn’t commit. If someone does something like that, I think that they should be charged with the same level of crime that they falsely accused the other person of.”

Casey looks at him and snickers, giving him a soft squish. “Damn Leo, you don’t gotta think that much. It’s not that deep.” Even if he agreed with that! There had been way too many people coming up with crimes that didn’t happen and then getting out of it without getting in trouble. Plus, rich people! They commit crimes, then pay to get out of it—like they could get someone killed, then people complain and claim, “they didn’t mean to!” or something stupid like that. It didn’t matter if they didn’t mean to.

They still killed someone.

But he wasn’t going to think about that too much. He looks at the TV, clicking his tongue. “Anyway,” he begins to speak, feeling Leonardo perk in his arm, which made him have to smile. God, that’s adorable… “How come you wear your mask over your eyes all the time? They're awfully pretty." He reaches over to put his finger under Leonardo's chin, tilting his head up to look at his eyes again. Leonardo's eyes shoot down to look at the hand under his chin, then up at Casey's face. Look, he was trying to embarrass Leonardo a little to make himself feel better, but seeing those eyes looking up at him made his heart start to pound again.

Haha!

fuck .

Leonardo reaches up to take his hand away from his face, confusion clear on his face. "My sensei has told me that I allowed my mind to cloud my judgment too often. If I can't see, I have to think about my plans, and I can't let what I see distract me... keeping my mask on is something that he has told me to do." he looks down and shuts his eyes. "But thank you." for the compliment, Casey figured.

Okay... alright...

Yeah, okay, that's... wow.

He shuts his mouth in a tight line and shakes his head as he disagrees. "Sometimes seeing stuff can be bad, but taking that away from you is stupid." god! He was starting to not like this Splinter dude. He noticed that Leonardo seemed uncomfortable, so he sighs and shakes his head, then looks at the TV and points, "Let's just watch the show, huh?" Leonardo nods and looks at the TV again as well. Casey could tell that he was distressed, so he figured that he would stop right there.

But as of now, Casey doesn't like their sensei. That ass needs to get off his high horse and realize that they were teens! They weren’t made to be ninjas; they were made to be… turtles and he’s trying to raise them as ninjas. Blugh, whatever, Casey figured he shouldn’t argue when he didn’t know the full story.

He could, however, still say that Splinter was a dickbutt.

⚛》》》◆《《《⚛

Raphael watched as Leonardo left and stuck out his tongue at the back of his brother's head once more. He rests his head against Donatello's shell, shutting his eyes. Did he feel bad for yelling at Michelangelo and Leonardo? A little bit! They needed to learn not to mess with his stuff, though! It's annoying to go to try to find something, and then it isn't where you left it.

He heard Donatello let out a little laugh and felt the vibration in the shell where his head was resting. “Are you comfortable?” he got questioned, making him snort.

“Yeah, you’re the best pillow.” He grumbles and slips his arms around his slightly older brother, shutting his eyes. He always came to Donatello whenever Leonardo pissed him off, and he knew that sometimes it made them argue. It just... it pissed him off to no ends whenever Leonardo would choose Michelangelo over him. He knew that it was because he was the youngest! It’s always because he’s the youngest.

Michelangelo could do no wrong!

Ugh.

Whatever...

They were silent as Donatello was drawing up whatever he was drawing, and Raphael was resting against him. It was a nice silence until Donatello decided to break it. “Are you mad at Mikey?”

“Yeah...” he mumbles, tightening his grip a little.

“Why?”

He grumbles, letting out soft huffs of breath, then sits up and looks at him. “Why are you asking so many questions? Why should it matter? And it’s easy to tell why I’m mad at him! He stole my stuff.”

Donatello breathes out and sets his stuff down, then turns and pulls him into a hug. “Raph, you’re not in the wrong for being upset, but I think you should say you’re sorry to Mikey for lashing out at him. I’ll talk to Leo to say he’s sorry to you too.” He gives him a little nuzzle, “You’re allowed to have your emotions.”

Raphael tensed up at the hug, his heart jumping in his chest. Ugh! He didn’t want to deal with this stuff. Why did his throat hurt? Why did his eyes burn? He sniffles and hugs back, grumbling, “Shut up, you stupid smartass.” That made Donatello let out a soft laugh, and he started to lightly scratch at Raphael’s shell.

“Would you like to see what I’m planning on making?” Donatello asks. Raphael relaxes at the scratches and moves to lay across his brother's legs—mostly to be annoying—and nods, looking down at the papers to study them. Truth be told? He had no damn idea what all of this was, but he knew that Donatello liked to ramble sometimes, so he figured why the hell not? He’ll talk to Michelangelo and say that he’s sorry for lashing out… maybe he’d make him something to eat, or some special clothes or something.

He didn’t know…

Chapter Text

Yeah.

Yeah, Raphael was not expecting Donatello to be talking for so long, but he was still talking about stuff!

Raphael was, of course, still taking in his brother's banter. Just wow— so much more than he was expecting or prepared for. He was stretched out across his brother's legs, his eyes closed, feeling the rise and fall of his shell with every breath. It was nice that Donatello kept scratching at his shell while they were speaking. Donatello was pointing to the documents and explaining how each component of the creation he planned to make worked and why it was so important. Was Raphael really focusing that much? Not at all, in fact.

There was a part of him that was happy he made this decision. Maybe it would help him not think about the fact that he was so mean to his other brothers before. He had no idea why he lashed out at them both so often; it didn’t make sense to him! I mean, he didn’t want to do it. Definitely not! He hated seeing them upset, so lashing out was something that made him feel guilty.

Eh, whatever. He would give Michelangelo an apology later.

At the moment, he did not want to think about it.

Then Donatello stops talking. For what reason? Because Raphael’s phone started to ring with a familiar ring tone. In a lighthearted tone, Donatello looks at him and says, “You should get that. I’ll stop talking while you’re on the phone.” Raphael rolls his eyes and murmurs thanks since, yeah, he had no idea that he was supposed to answer the phone! Come on, Donatello, he knows what to do! He takes it out and answers, “Hello?”

If it was someone that he didn’t know, he’d hang up. He would be the first to admit that not many people knew his phone number. Well, except for his brothers, there was only Casey. Splinter too, although Raphael didn’t think that Splinter would call him out of nowhere like that.

“Hey Raphie! It’s Mikey. I, uh, need some help with something. It’s important! Like, really important.” The voice on the other end was that of his younger brother! The voice was clear and easy to understand. It was always Michelangelo's voice that Raphael could most easily identify and differentiate, to be honest. Maybe because he spoke the most out of him and his siblings.

Ironic, given the fact that Raphael had been sitting here for such a long time listening to Donatello talk.

Raphael was half tempted to hang up again.

It isn’t that he hated his brother; it would, on the other hand, be kind of funny to do that. He didn’t really know what he was supposed to do here! He knew that he said he could do something for Michelangelo as a way of saying sorry for lashing out before, although he didn’t think it would happen so soon! “If it’s so important, why don’t you come in here to talk? I’m in Donnie’s room. We’re hanging out.” His gaze darted to Donatello, who was smiling at him with that smile.

That smile that made Raphael know he wanted him to say that he was sorry, so he covered the mouth part and hissed at him. “You stop smiling at me like that, handyman. I will not apologize to him over the phone. I refuse." Donatello held up his hands and shook his head.

Rude.

There was nothing he was going to say! 

“Heh, I’m not really, um, in the sewers anymore?” With a laugh that hinted at nervousness, Michelangelo said it. “I went to April’s! And-“

"You left without telling anyone you were leaving?" he asked, cutting off his younger brother. “What the hell, Mikes? What if something happened to you while you were out?” He couldn’t help the annoyance in his voice, and when he heard Michelangelo mumble something, he narrowed his eyes and raised it to snap. “Don’t mumble at me!”

Look, he knew that he might be reacting badly; be that as it may, he didn’t know what could happen to his brother! In case he got hurt, what would happen? Or if he was killed? Or kidnapped? That’s why they always tell each other that they’re leaving before they leave. He was aware of the potential consequences of going out by themselves.

He had personal experience with it.

Then he received a fast response, the voice holding its own anger from Michelangelo, "Don’t yell at me then! Look, the person here needs help with something, and his clothes don’t fit him anymore. You need to stop saying I want to make clothes and do it already. If you’re going to come, then come; if not, tell me. I’ll see you when you get here.” And he gets hung up on.

What?

He looks down at the phone, squints, shakes it, and turns to shout, "He hung up on me!" to Donatello. “That asshole hung up on me. Can you believe it? He didn’t even let me respond!” With a chuckle, Donatello covers his mouth with his hand. In all honesty? He didn’t blame Michelangelo for hanging up on him. “You know what?” With his gaze downcast, Raphael begins to narrow his eyes and push a few buttons.

“What are you going to do?” Donatello asks, leaning over to look at the phone.

Raphael does not respond, then the phone rings until Michelangelo answers, “Raph?” Raphael then presses the hang-up button, causing Donatello to burst into laughter. “You called him back to hang up on him?”

“He started it!” With a laugh in his voice, Raphael answers. He could not help himself, even though he knew that was ridiculous.

This was the moment when they decided to part ways. Raphael said that he should go and check on what Michelangelo wanted, and Donatello said that he would go to hang out with his friend! In addition to seeing his little turtle friend, he wanted to keep working. That caught Raphael’s attention—be that as it may, he bit his tongue and just left.

The noise on the streets of New York City was deafening. Many people were wandering around, some going about their business by themselves and others going out of their way to start a conversation. Either way, a lot of people—including Raphael—kept to themselves. He had everything he needed to start making things, including the bag of cloth and needles. Michelangelo's words were still on his mind.

He figured that he did sometimes say he wanted to do something, then he didn't do it. Often coming up with excuses—even for himself. Why? There were a lot of different reasons.

One of which was that he didn't know if it would be something he really liked.

What would happen if he got into it and found he was not having fun? Then he would have been wasting a ton of time. He knew perfectly well how ridiculous that idea was.

That being said, it would be a waste if he never made use of the items Casey bought him.

Raphael wanted to know who needed help with clothes?

The red-coded turtle had no trouble getting to April's building before that long. He did have to ignore a few people, and he did give money to one person who was homeless. It seemed like the person needed some help.

People like that were not meant for this world. 

Raphael never thought that the world would accept them because of this, among other reasons. They did not even accept each other for crying out loud! People with different skin tones, different genders, and all that crap? Yeah, they were hated, so how could the turtles ever hope to be loved?

Not even their own sensei loved them.

As he made his way to her room, he considered swinging by Casey's place for a quick hello but decided against it for the time being. He ought to first find out what Michelangelo wanted.

Saying, "Okay, I am here; what the hell is going on?" He opens the door and enters the room. He was going to keep going if it were not for the fact that he saw something strange going on inside the room. Beside this other mutant—a big lizard—April and Michelangelo were seated on the ground. His clothes were a little ripped and stretched, and there was a hole in his pants where his tail was shifting. Okay, so that explains Michelangelo's claim that he needed help with some clothing.

"Are you guys unaware of how to knock?" April asks with her cheeks puffed out. She was, in all likelihood, annoyed that he would randomly come in.

“You guys know that I was coming already.” He paused for a few seconds, then continued, “Who the heck is this?” He points at the big lizard guy, who waves slowly. He seemed uncomfortable, which Raphael decided he would ignore.

Michelangelo raises his arms, beaming broadly. “This is Mondo! He is new to both mutants and as a friend. It’s a, um, long story, but do you think you could do something to help him out? He was in need of some new clothes. It seems like the others didn’t like the new form.”

“Unless you can’t, then it’s okay.” Mondo says, holding up his hands.

He probably thought that he was being nice, aside from the fact that Michelangelo and Raphael knew better. Raphael would take that as a challenge! Raphael huffs, sets down his bag, and shakes his head. "I can do it," he starts. "Just get your lizard butt up so I can measure you. You’re gonna have to tell me what kind of clothes you want to wear." He took off his hood as he spoke.

Why did lizards seem to be everywhere? First the girl lizard, then this one… did the alligator count as a lizard? No, not really; he didn't think so, at least.

Mondo gets up from where he was sitting, and Raphael walks over to start the measuring to make sure the clothes that he would make would fit. He guessed that it was true; being a mutant makes you bigger. Mondo got to talking about the kind of clothes he wanted made for him by Raphael. Perhaps a beanie—something cozy, stylish, and skater-like? With a tsh sound and a rolling of his eyes, Raphael listened. A skater dude, really? Naturally, Michelangelo befriends the skateboarder dude.

He could hear the other two start to talk to each other, Michelangelo saying, "Isn't my brother the best?" Blurgh. Raphael was not going to give that any thought. He is going to put his work first and deal with his stupid brother later. Besides, he had a million questions! Like, how in the world was that possible? How did Michelangelo find a new mutant? And what did he mean, a new mutant? When did he become mutated? It seemed like just a little while ago, and it confused Raphael.

Who was mutating people?

That’s a really big and very important question! Something might be wrong if someone is mutating people all over the place.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Donatello used to never think about sneaking out of the sewers. He was well aware that getting caught would land him in serious trouble, and he was also aware of that even now, conversely, he didn’t care.

Not at all.

Not anymore.

Going to meet his friends was worth it! He would do anything to be with them because they brought him such happiness.

Part of him thought about maybe telling his brothers about them, then Saki told him that it would be best to keep it to himself, as well as the fact that Donatello sort of wanted to keep it to himself anyway. He felt like this was his second home. It was a place where he felt secure and free to work without interruptions.

Once his cloak's hood is fixed, he leaps down from the edge with a running start, grabbing onto a hanging bar with his metal arm before it bends and launches him back up onto the edge of another building. He waves his arms to balance himself and breathes out happily.

Alright, nearly there.

He walks to the edge of the building and peers over to look down to the ground to see what’s going on down there. He saw some people in the alleyway around a trash can that was on fire. Most likely without a place to live and attempting to stay warm.

It was bitterly cold outside. Like the blood inside your veins had long since frozen. Frankly, just seeing them made him shiver.

Slowly but surely, he resumed his movement and soon arrived at the building where he and Saki usually met. As he walked to get into the building again, he heard, "Baba!" and then he got tackled down to the ground with a loud thud.

Ouch.

He grunted when he hit the ground with the weight over him, and he looked up to see a lot of fur blocking his vision—a lot of gray fur. "Rahzar, you're heavy." He told him, trying to come across as a little irritated, which would have worked if he had not had to laugh. He could handle it.

He’s been through a lot more weight.

Rahzar sits up, holds him in a tight hug, and nuzzles their faces together. "I missed you! Gone for too long." With a broad smile, Tokka rushes over as well and sits on his knees next to them. It showed off the sharp teeth. "missed you too." Both of them had wagging tails, and he was still being hugged by Rahzar.

The grip was very tight, making it almost hard to breathe.

Donatello reaches up and pets the top of Rahzar's head—the best that he could because he was big and it was hard to reach that far. "I missed you two as well, even so, that doesn't mean you should tackle me like that. I am much smaller than both of you. It could be dangerous to knock me down." Rahzar begins to lick his cheek and nuzzle him once more, giving the impression that they were not even paying attention to what he said.

Ugh.

Gross.

The fur, at least, was surprisingly soft and warm. "Did you call me Baba?" he asks, looking between the two of them, and they both nod. "We have Mama, now Baba." said one of them. Like brother? Aw, that's cute.

"Do you guys mind if you bring me inside? You don't have to let me go, but I need to get started on what Saki asked me to make him… It would, um, make him really sad if I didn't finish it, you know? So I have to get started on it as soon as possible." That did not seem like a lie to him at all. Saki would be upset if he didn't get the chance to finish what he wanted to work on.

Rahzar and Tokka murmur and whisper to one another before nodding. Raising to his feet, Rahzar hugs Donatello to his chest, and the two of them enter together. Donatello sure was happy that these two were on their side! Plus, you know, he needed to ask about Mr. Rhyme. He was curious about the outcome of the mutating.

Strangely enough, now that he thinks about it, he has not heard anything new about Mr. Rhyme in a long time. Maybe he was finally getting the help that he needed? Really, there were definitely some negative thoughts running through his head.

Maybe he was getting help to stop thinking those thoughts now that he knew mutants were not all that horrible! At the very least, that was Donatello's hope.

Rahzar and Tokka were talking to each other as they went down the hallways. They were chatting about their brothers and sisters as well as things that Mama had done the last few days.

Mona and Leatherhead walked by carrying boxes—each carrying at least five of them—and Alopex hurried after them, holding a clipboard. She waved back at the three of them, talking to him in an excited tone. "Hey, Lil Shell! We're taking some boxes to keep track of everything. Glad to see you're back. I was starting to worry you weren't gonna come back." Mona nods her head at him in greeting, while Leatherhead seemed to be lost in thought—it looked weirdly sad.

It seemed not to even notice him.

Donatello, somewhat concealed by Rahzar's fur, waves back with a smile. "Hey Alopex, sorry for taking so long to come back… I'm going to my lab to get started on work. A few of the things are almost done, and I’m hoping to finish them before too soon."

"That's great!" She hurries after Mona and Leatherhead, waving over her shoulder at them. "Talk to you guys later! We need to return to our own work. We’re planning a lot of stuff, and we can’t use up too much time chatting. We can finally begin stage four after you have finished with your items."

After being brought to his lab, Rahzar placed him down. After reaching up to unclip and hang his cloak from the hook, he turns to face them and asks, "Would you two like to help me out?" It seemed only fair to give it a shot. They seemed to be the type to like being useful to people; they both smiled, nodding in approval. Okay, great; this should work out well. "Then can one of you go and get me that box of wires over there?" He gestures toward the box.

They must have brought in new boxes with useful items because there were a few more in there than the last time he was here! How considerate of them. Once he was done making these, he wanted to get back to work on his own stuff. He agreed to come here, after all, in part, for that reason! Helping them with their own things was a thanks for allowing him this option.

"Tokka will get it!" He hurries over to pick up the box, his big tail wagging and knocking over a different box… dang it. He walks over and sets the box down where Donatello pointed. Rahzar steps closer and points to himself. "What can I do?" he asks.

What could he do?

Donatello's eyes shoot away, he thinks about what to do, and he puts his hands together, telling him in a happy tone. "Would you mind getting me a bottle of water? It is a really important job because I have to stay hydrated while working; otherwise, I risk getting sick."

Rahzar didn't seem all that interested in the job at first—anyhow, the more Donatello spoke, the more he smiled, and he nodded. "Important mission!" he turns, running out of the room with Tokka chasing after him.

They were too big and way too loud.

And there were loud crashes and voices shouting, so he had a feeling that they bumped into people—not his fault.

Donatello walks over and picks up the box to move it back into place, mumbling under his breath. "These weirdos… alright, let's get to work." He cracks his knuckles and goes to work with the metal and stuff that they gave him! He was excited and, on the other side of the coin, very nervous.

He knew that Saki would be proud of it, though.

Tokka and Rahzar came back to give him his water, then they sat and watched him work for a while.

They got bored after a while and left, for which he didn’t blame them.

And, to be really honest? Indeed, he felt somewhat relieved when they went. They were noisy, and he had to concentrate on his work! This stuff was almost done. He walks over to the large tube, which has some liquid already gone, and he fills the bomb with it. It was time for some experimentation!

Testing should have been completed before informing them that it was finished. For what reason? So he would make sure it worked! If he didn’t do that and it didn’t work, he would feel like such an idiot.

Donatello goes to sit at his table, spinning in the chair, and twists the top of the smoke bomb, hearing a faint hissing sound. He hums and reaches over to write that down and sets it down, mumbling under his breath, "Seems like it'll work." He breathes out and leans back, staring at the bomb.

You know, he was starting to wonder... how did they end up getting this liquid anyway? How did they know that it would turn people into mutants, and how did they know it would turn them back after a while? He purses his lips; however, before he could get too far into his thoughts, he heard knocking on the door, which caused him to yelp and he turned his head quickly to look at the doors. "Oh, um, w...who is it?"

Instead of answering who it was, the door opens to show Saki. He was wearing his cloak and helmet, as he always did. Donatello saw himself in the shiny metal even from this distance, and the eyes seemed colder than normal.

He seemed irritated, and it made Donatello's heart pound before he started to talk. "Alopex told me that you're almost done. Is she right?" The voice was the same as it always was. Did Donatello imagine the anger in his eyes? The coldness? He had to be imagining it! He was stressed.

Tired.

Donatello moves to put his hands together, squeezing them slightly. He knew that this place was safe! Safe for him, safe for him to be himself. He was just used to feeling scared because of his sensei.

It had to be.

He wanted to let his guard down! He wanted to feel like he belonged somewhere that wasn't only with his brothers. Michelangelo had April, Raphael had Casey, and Leonardo had their sensei on his side. Donatello didn't have anyone.

He was finally enough for someone.

"Yes, she's right. It's ready." He stands up and picks up the water gun/paintball like gun that he created, holding it up for Saki to see. "Alright, so what you do with this one is you put the liquid in this area right here, and then you can shoot it out. Either as a stream, or you could press this button and pull the little stick back, and it would make balls of the liquid that burst on impact. Since I made the first one, I could make these a lot faster now that I have the blueprints. The other thing I made was the smoke bomb. It takes the liquid and turns it into smoke, which you can breathe in."

Saki walks over and takes the gun from him as he speaks, looking at the stick that would need to be pulled back and smiling, nodding in approval, "Good job," he said to him. "You did this much faster than I expected. I should have known you would be better than I thought." He reaches up and pats Donatello on the top of his head, making him laugh and shut his eyes. "How long do you think it would take you to make more?"

"Well... it depends on how many you would need, but I-I can work fast! Just tell me how many you need, and I can make them for you." Donatello added the last part quickly, not wanting to upset him at all. He wanted more praise, and if he had to overwork to get it, then he'd do it!

Saki told him how many he needed made, told him that he could get the parts needed, and was about to leave, except Donatello reaches out and carefully grabs the cape. "Before you leave..." he starts, seeing Saki turn his head to look at him. "What ever happened to Mr. Rhyme? Is he okay?"

The two of them stared at each other, one waiting for the response while the other stared. Donatello had no idea what thoughts were going through Saki's head. The look in his eyes wasn't exactly what Donatello was expecting, either. A look of... disdain? Was he mad at him for grabbing his cloak? It seemed to only appear for a moment, so maybe Donatello was imagining it? Maybe.

"Mr. Rhyme? Oh, yes, the human you brought in—yes, he did very well." Saki turns to face him again, the cloak getting pulled out of Donatello's grip at the movement. "Why do you want to know?"

Donatello puts his hands together, squeezing them slightly as he thinks about how to respond. His words needed to be carefully chosen for this exact reason! He needed to make sure that Saki didn't get angry with him. "Well," he starts, "I haven't seen him in a while... Normally, he would come to my brothers and I at least once a week or so, a-and I wanted to make sure that he was fine. He was one of our villains, but one of the least troublesome."

"Donatello," the taller human said, causing him to stand up straight at attention, and Saki rested his hand on Donatello's shoulder, giving it a soft squeeze. "You trust us, don't you? I promise that Mr. Rhyme is fine. He's living a better life than he was before, and soon everyone will be. Mutants and humans will live together without anyone being treated like a freak. That is what you wanted as well, right?"

A place where humans and mutants could live together. Where they could be accepted... he smiled and nodded slowly, mumbling, "Yes, sir..."

"Then you have to trust me . Now, please, get back to work. The sooner those things are finished, the sooner everything will work out. Stage four will start soon, and you're a very important part of that." Saki pulled his hands away and turned, walking out of the room, leaving Donatello in his lab.

His skin was tingling. Was he excited? Nervous? He didn't know; all he knew was that he needed to work, so he turned and started to look at the blueprints, picking up his pen to chew on the tip.

He needed to work. He was a very important part of this! And it was nice to feel needed .

As his mind filled with all the thoughts of the items and parts needed to be made, he didn't even hear his phone going off with the messages from his brothers and sensei.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

At first, Casey didn't expect Leonardo to like the show so much, except that after a few hours, they were still watching it. Casey looked it up, and they started to watch other episodes on TV. Mostly because, when the episode was over, Leonardo seemed so sad.

His expression was pretty obvious when it came to disappointment.

While Casey, to be honest, felt the character designs were cheesy and unreal, Leonardo babbled on and seemed to really enjoy them. With his brilliant golden eyes gleaming like the real treasure you could find, Leonardo described the theories that he had already come up with for the show.

And boy, Casey was happy that the blue-masked turtle was distracted, cause damn.

He would not be able to focus to save his life right there. The only thing he could focus on was the turtle himself.

Every time he would try to focus on the show, he would look at Leonardo again to see his reactions and lose it all over again. This was so strange !

What was going on?

Annoying…

They were on an episode titled Shadows of Deception . At the beginning of the episode, Caleb and his companions were still working to uncover the Shadow Syndicate's evil schemes. Their investigation led them to a seemingly peaceful and picturesque planet on the outskirts of the galaxy, which was called Lumara.

It kind of reminded one of them of their home planet—the spa one—and Leonardo seemed very excited about that, smacking at his arm. They traveled there in response to clues suggesting the existence of the Shadow Syndicate on the world. When they got there, they met the welcoming and seemingly innocent Lumarians. They later find out that the Shadow Syndicate were manipulating the Lumarians, exploiting their talents for nefarious purposes!

Using their talents to spread propaganda and misinformation throughout the galaxy, affecting various planetary systems. The group faced many problems after finding that out.

Yeah, the only reason he knew all of that was because Leonardo kept rambling about it. Casey really thought that this was a bit too deep for a kids show!

He peeks at Leonardo one more time, seeing him still watching the screen and leaning against him. He never did pull away after Casey pulled him close before. Heh, that was a little silly to him. At least it’s sort of comfortable.

"Hey, if you're gonna be here for so long, should I order us something to eat?" He asks, tapping his fingers against Leonardo’s arm, where his hand was resting.

It was a good idea, in his opinion. Food tasted good. Besides, it would be a good excuse to get up and stretch his tired and tingly legs.

Leonardo perks up at the voice and looks at him, blinking a few times as if he was startled by the voice. "Huh?" He glances down and then back up. "How long have I been here?" At the response, Casey snorts. That’s stupid.

"A few hours, I would say. So yeah, I'm gonna order food. You want a pizza?"

With a slight frown on his face, the turtle scratches at his cheek and replies, "Sensei says we should not eat food like that. He has a very selective diet for us to make sure our weights are correct." He waved his hand slightly as he spoke, "and that wouldn't be good for us. We stay away from dairy products, some meats, and anything that has too much grease."

Ugggghhhh !

Really?

God Damn.

That's stupid. Why would he say no to that? Why does their weight need to be watched anyway? Casey clicks his tongue, then pinches Leonardo's cheek, tugging on it carefully as he replies, "He doesn't have to know. You're already breaking some rules, Mr.; now stop worrying." And with that thought, he grabs his phone to order a pizza.

What kind should he get? Maybe a cheese one, simple and easy. He stands up and points down at Leonardo, telling him, “Wait here.” He walks to the kitchen, shaking his leg to try to wake it up. Bleh, he hated it whenever his legs fell asleep. Nothing was good about the tingling sensation!

Casey found the concept of this somewhat amusing. Like, he was not very popular before, and now? He has a couple now! And they were turtles! That was pretty funny. And no, he didn't think that he had a crush on Leonardo. He merely found the blue turtle to be attractive! Nothing more or less. Casey Jones Jr. didn't do crushes! Never have, never will.

After placing the pizza order and making a few quick checks, he gets a bottle of soda and two cups and heads back into the living room. "Alright," he starts, "I got the pizza ordered, and here's our drinks. I’m spoiling you tonight. Do you have any prior soda experience? Leonardo shook his head, so he made a tsh sound. Ugh, how many firsts are gonna happen today? Stupid. He fills the cups after setting them down. "Well, you'll like it, I bet."

"I'll try it…" Leonardo mumbles, looking at the bubbly brown liquid that had fizz and soft bubbles coming from it. He seemed a little unsure and even a bit grossed out. "I normally just drink tea and water.”

“Drinking tea or water is boring. The real deal is Coke. This one is my favorite, though I think you might like Sprite too. It’s clear and really bubbly." After responding and passing him the cup, Casey sits down and takes a sip from his own. 

Leonardo looks at him to see his reaction, probably, then looks down, and he picks up his cup, drinking slowly from it. Casey saw his muscles tense, and he started to cough, putting his hand over his mouth to stop himself from coughing up the drink. Casey perks up at that and reaches out to rub his back. Feeling the shell under his finger tips was kind of weird—not exactly what he was expecting it to feel like. "Whoa, what's up, dude? Is it really that bad?"

He did not anticipate that, holy hell! He supposed that, considering Leonardo's lack of experience with soda, he ought to have expected it. He takes the cup, sets it down on the table, and rubs at his shell to try to calm him down. Leonardo shakes his head and rubs at his throat, saying to him, “Not really? I just didn’t expect it to be so bubbly. It made my nose feel weird," he shakes his head while scrunching up his snout. 

What the hell, man, why is that so cute? He hated it! He squints and reaches over to push Leonardo's cheek, saying to him, "You're so weird." Why was that his first reaction? He didn’t know, nor did he care too much.

It was the reaction that his body decided on, and he didn’t regret it.

Leonardo shuts his eye on that side and leans away, asking in a confused tone. "What did I do?" Of course Casey didn't respond; he just kept pushing on his face. Leonardo leans back from the touch, at least trying to, but loses his balance and falls back onto the couch with an oof sound. Expectedly, given that this is supposedly a stupid ship, Casey also falls forward, bringing them dangerously close together. Casey's cheeks flush a light pink as his eye opens wide. Leonardo stares up at him too, looking stunned. "Ah… What… was that for?"

Ughhhh! That stupid look of confusion. Stupid cute turtle dude! This is insulting. He quickly pulls back and shakes his head. "I was not trying to!" He responds and waves his arms as he keeps talking. "You're the one that lost your balance, and I fell on you. Don't make it weird!" He turns away, crossing his arms over his chest, huffing and puffing.

Casey Jones didn't do crushes! That would be stupid. I mean… right? Yeah, no, no crushes. In no way. Besides, he would crush on a girl if he did! Not that he had anything against guys dating guys.

It was silent between the two of them until there was a knock on the door, so Casey stood up and walked over to get the food, muttering, "I'll be right back." He was going to push the ideas that were racing through his mind aside.

The food did arrive at a convenient time, at least.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Leonardo sits up, shakes his head, and rubs the side of his head, confused about what was going on with Casey. You know, that response was a little odd. As Casey was getting the food, he glances over and takes the cup, drinking from it. Now that he knew what it was like, he didn't think it would make him throw up or anything! In contrast to what he was used to, however, it was extremely thick and sticky.

Kind of gross.

It was obviously not something he would be particularly interested in. He might stick to his tea and water… It would be preferred by Michelangelo or Raphael! That was easily guessable by him. They seemed to like sweeter things.

He perks up when he hears a bling of his phone, so he looks down and pulls it out to see who was messaging him, just for his eyes to widen. It was Splinter. It was a message from him. ‘Boys, where are you?’ in the group chat. Oh God. He knew that he had been here for too long! How could he have lost track of time like that? To come and break so many rules was a foolish decision on his part.

His heart began to race, his hands gripping the glass tighter, and he quickly set it down to answer. ‘We went out to patrol. Do you need us to come home?’ then Raphael typed, ‘we can come home right away, sensei.’ He hated having to lie to their sensei, though he knew that if they told the truth, Splinter would be so mad at them!

‘Yes. We must speak.’ and with that, Splinter went offline. Leonardo’s stomach was flipping, and he felt a pressure pushing him down, which made his eyes almost burn. He was tired before and relaxed, now though? Now he felt scared .

What did Splinter need to talk to them about? Snatching up his mask, he stands up quickly and turns to face Casey when he returns. “Sensei told us that we needed to come home. I…I don’t know where my brothers are; I need to go.” He saw the look of confusion on Casey’s face, then sighed, nodding in approval. “Guess I’ll see you guys next time you come over?” Leonardo nods and fixes his mask over his eyes, then goes to climb out the window.

Despite his guilt, he had no choice but to leave. If he didn’t, he would get into so much trouble, or Splinter would take the rage out on his brothers, and he didn’t want that. He hoped that if anyone was going to get into trouble, it would be him. If he could spare his brothers from suffering, he would accept any punishment.

He was afraid just thinking about it.

Raphael responded, so he would be there. Leonardo hoped that Michelangelo and Donatello saw the message and would come as well.

It would all work out fine.

Everything had to be fine.

Chapter Text

The turtles felt the freezing air against their very bones. Although the temperature was the same as it had been earlier, they could feel it much more now. It felt as though knives were piercing them and the devil was shaking their very bones.

It appears as though snow decided to start falling while they were heading home. The familiar streets started to be hidden by the faint whiteness that was already starting to pile up.

Thank goodness Leonardo ran into his brothers on the way home! With a big smile, Michelangelo ran over to him, waving and shouting, "Leo!" His voice sounded strangely pleased or excited, and that made Leonardo feel a tiny bit better about all of this.

Raphael trailed behind. “Where have you been?” Raphael asked, putting his hands in his pockets and cocking his head slightly to one side. Something felt a little off about him. Maybe because of the cold? He never did like it when it snowed. It caused his bones to hurt, he said.

Donatello contemplated and suggested that it might be because joints experience sensations due to variations in the barometric pressure, which occur when weather systems shift. Less air pressure around the body can cause the tissues surrounding the joints, including tendons and muscles, to swell! He said all of that, and Raphael called him a nerd. Even though he knew that he should not have, Michelangelo couldn’t help the laugh at that. Leonardo remained silent, though he smiled.

“I was spending time with someone.” His stomach felt a little funny after drinking that beverage with all of the bubbles. It brought back memories of their bubble bath experience! It was nice; this feeling wasn’t as nice as those memories, if he had to be truthful. “Now we should get home. We run the risk of upsetting sensei if we take too long to return to him. I hope Donatello has already arrived there." He didn’t want to come up with a reason on why Donatello wouldn’t be with them!

Nodding to one another, the group headed back toward the sewers that they had become so accustomed to calling home. The snowfall was both a blessing and a curse at the moment. It made the air crisp, cold, and a little difficult to breathe, although it also made it less likely that people would venture outside. Unless they wanted to play in the snow, that is.

Leonardo did not believe that would happen, though, at this hour of the night.

After walking for a short while, they, at long last, arrived back at their hiding place! Yay? He guessed? This place was so familiar yet so wrong at the same time. He remembered growing up here and being safe here, after all that now he knew that he had not been safe at all.

And he was questioning everything, and he didn’t like that.

He hated being confused—being unsure. Such behavior is not appropriate for a leader!

They all took off their hoodies when they got home, put them into their rooms, and went to the training grounds, where Splinter looked over at them from where he sat on a pillow. He gave them a brief glance before asking with slightly confused, narrowed eyes. “Where is your brother?”

Crap.

Hating that he could not see anything at the moment, he swallows down his nerves. This mask was stupid! Not being able to see stuff didn’t help him! It hurts him and his ability to do things. It wasn’t like he was in a cartoon or a video game where he lost his eyes and now he could do magical things. This was real life. He crouches down to the ground, sits on his knees, and shuts his eyes behind his mask while lowering his head. “We got separated from each other while we were traveling back here. Sensei, I am confident he will arrive as soon as possible." He heard faint movement, so the others were probably copying his movements and sitting on their own knees.

His sensei let out a sigh, followed by shuffling sounds and the sound of fabric moving. Leonardo had thoughts rushing through his mind, wondering exactly what their sensei called them for. It must have been important if he called them like this, right? It had to be!

"I would like to know what the four of you have been up to since I have been away for the past few days doing specific things." With a hand on Leonardo's shoulder, Splinter poses the question. Leonardo could feel his tension rising as Splinter tapped his finger against his shoulder. “Gathering food, essential blankets, and supplies for when it got particularly cold were just a few of the many things I have been taking care of while I was away from home. There are things that you four need, and it is hard for me to gather them easily. I hope you four have been at least training in my abstance? If not, I would be very disappointed.”

God, he made them all feel bad for doing things that a parent should! Having made the decision to take them home with him and to keep them, he ought to have been prepared to look after them without making them feel guilt-ridden about it.

“Yes Sensei! We have been. I have been practicing both quick reflexes and balance. That is something Leonardo has been really helpful with." In a slightly joyful voice, Michelangelo says, and Leonardo would have believed it if he had not already known it was a lie. How was it that Michelangelo was able to lie so well?

That is concerning.

“Raphael, how about you? I hope you have been working on your own reaction time as well as your anger issues. Instead of aiding in the solution of problems, they create a great deal more of them.” Whoa, thanks, sensei; you could have only added the first part. With his eyes tightly closed behind his mask, Leonardo sincerely hopes Raphael will not lash out. Splinter was saying things to get a reaction.

He was, wasn’t he? It’s not fair. Why did Splinter try to get Raphael to react so he could get mad? Isn’t it supposed to be the opposite? Wasn’t a teacher supposed to help them be better instead of trying to make them worse?

It was silent for a few seconds until Raphael starts, “Yes, sensei, I have been working on it… thank you for giving me a chance to do that.” They could all hear the tension in his voice, but luckily Splinter didn’t react to it.

Everything about this was awful! Why didn't Donatello come? Was something wrong? Was he okay? Ugh , he was probably with his friend! Leonardo knew that that guy was a bad influence on his brother. Going out late into the night and not returning home for a few days? What the heck, Donatello?

You were going to cause problems for all of them.

Splinter lets out a hum and crosses his arms over his chest—the only reason Leonardo knew was because of the familiar sound and he knew his sensei too well… or, at least, he thought that he knew his sensei? He used to see him in such a good light! Now he wasn’t sure. "You three are going to have to cover for Donatello's absence. He is the weakest out of you four, and because of that, I need to know you three can cover for him. Michelangelo, you are to stay behind after we are done with our training today. There will be more training than before because I want to see exactly what you three do. Leonardo, you need to practice your balance and go meditate in your room. Perhaps try the rice bag; your bags might need more rice added to them. You're gaining weight." Raphael makes a soft tsh sound.

Despite his strong desire to respond angrily, Leonardo refrained. All he did was mumble and bow his head. "Of course, sensei. Thank you for the directions; I will do it as soon as possible."

And they got started on their training.

As annoyed as Leonardo was at his brother for skipping out on their training, he was also worried. It was possible that Donatello had actually begun his journey home, but then he had stopped due to the cold and ended up dozing off in the snow. Though unlikely, it was not completely ruled out! And he hated that. He heard Michelangelo and Raphael sparring with each other as he leaped up and kicked at the training dummy. He then fell back down and began to throw more blows. Swift pokes, directed at areas he was certain would cause actual pain to a human.

This time, however, they were training in silence. For what reason? Because Splinter was watching them.

Even though Leonardo couldn't see, he could feel the eyes on them. He felt like he was prey—something dangerous was waiting for one little mistake to use against him.

"Leonardo." He heard, causing him to freeze, holding his hands up in fists. Crap, crap, crap... He breathes in and out slowly. No, he couldn't let all of this taint his mind. Splinter has hurt them in the past, yes, but it was all for their own good! He did everything he could to help them get stronger and better. He drags his tongue across his lips to wet them before responding, hoping that his voice wouldn't crack. "yes, sensei?"

He could do this.

He had to do this.

The others were still fighting; he could hear them, and then he felt hands on his arms, moving them slowly into a different place. Into the correct way. "You're better than this, Leonardo. Remember where to hold your hands and how to do the correct hits. You're in your own mind again—working against yourself—what is wrong?"

His heart started to pound in his chest, and his skin felt hot, even though he knew that he was cold. He couldn't answer that in truth! He couldn't say that a human was making him question things. He couldn't say that he lied about his brother! Hell, he still didn't know where Donatello WAS ! What kind of older brother is he if he doesn’t know where his younger brother is and if he was even safe?

If he was even still alive?

Donatello could be out there dead or hurt, for all he knew, and he didn’t know because he was an idiot and selfish. Spending that time with Casey was stupid—even though he had so much fun with it. It… it was the happiest he had been for such a long time.

Did he even deserve it, though? Did he deserve to be happy? Did he earn it yet?

What should he say? How could he lie to his sensei after he's done so much for them? He clenches his fists, taking a shaky breath. "I-I'm alright, sensei. I'm just tired from the cold." He felt the sharp nails of his sensei slightly tighten on his wrist, like tiny daggers waiting to cut, except before he could say anything, there was a loud thud.

"I'm okay! I lost my balance." Michelangelo said. Leonardo felt Splinter's hand let go and movement away.

He didn't think that Michelangelo really lost his balance at that point...

"you okay?" He heard Raphael ask in a whispered voice, causing him to nod. "Good, we noticed you were having some issues over here." Raphael probably blamed Donatello for this, and Leonardo didn't exactly blame him. They were brothers, and they should all be there for each other, no matter what.

Soon enough, their training was done, and Michelangelo left with Splinter to do whatever they did whenever they were alone together. Raphael reaches over and takes Leonardo’s hand into his own, leading him down the pathway. “Come on, let’s go to our room and wait for Mikey... he’ll probably be tired by the time he comes back.”

He always was.

Leonardo knew that Splinter took Michelangelo to the backrooms for special one-on-one training, and Michelangelo never spoke about what happened back there. Honestly, he used to be jealous, though now? Now he felt bad about it.

He didn’t want to think about what was happening to the youngest back there.

“So... when we first saw each other today, Leo, who were you coming back from seeing? You said you were seeing someone, but you don’t have friends.” Raphael started to talk by asking.

That made him pause. Didn’t have... he turns his head to where he knew his brother was and pouts slightly, responding, “You didn’t have to add that last part. I could have friends. ” He knew that his brother was giving him a look, so he sighs and shakes his head before saying, “I don’t want to talk about it... what were you and Mikey doing?”

They went to Michelangelo’s room, sitting on his bed, and Leonardo reached up to take off his mask, rubbing his eyes. He knew that he was taking it off more than normal, and he kind of liked that he was. When he looked at Raphael, he was giving him a pointed look, so he turned his head to the side. “What’s wrong?” He asks. What was that look for?

“Oh, no, no, nothing. Just, Mr. don’t go and talk to humans or anyone that could be a danger going and talking to someone and won’t tell me who it is.” Raphael replies, puffing his cheek out.

How was he supposed to respond to that? He knew that talking to Raphael about what happened would be a bad idea! Casey was Raphael’s friend... He breathes in, then out, and shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter... Forget that it happened, alright? Now, what were you two doing?”

They started to talk about a few things. Raphael spoke about how there was this new mutant that needed clothes, and Raphael got everything he needed to make it, so he was going to try to make the clothes for the mutant. His name was Mondo now... Leonardo was sort of worried about that. A new mutant? What the hell? How was there a new mutant? Raphael said that he had no idea, except for the fact that it was worrying him too.

They spoke until the door opened and Michelangelo came in. He saw them on his bed, so he walks over and falls onto it beside them, then rests his head on Leonardo’s thighs, mumbling, “Hey guys.”

Leonardo looks down at his two eye colored brother and gets a small smile on his face. “Hey Mikey...” he mumbles back and starts to pet the top of his head. “How’re you feeling?” Michelangelo didn’t respond; instead, he turned to lay on his side, shutting his eyes. Leonardo hums at that and reaches up to undo his mask. “Let’s get this off of you, buddy...” 

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Change of POV!

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Raphael sighs and reaches down to take Michelangelo’s sock things and glove off, mumbling under his breath.

He hated their sensei.

He hated him so much more than he could ever admit out loud. He knew that Leonardo saw their sensei as good, in spite of that, Raphael could never see it.

All he has ever done was hurt them, and worse, he’s done it while saying it was ’helping’ them. Yeah, Raphael didn’t think that it was helping them at all. He... he didn’t want to be hurt anymore.

God, his throat felt all tight now.

He breathes in, then out, and looks at his brothers. “Gimmie his mask; I’ll put it away.” Leonardo nods, handing him the slightly torn fabric, and Raphael stands up to go and put the stuff away. He hated seeing how tired his youngest looked... He had little bags under his eyes, and he didn’t think it was from having too many good dreams.

“Think we should leave him in here to go and do the training that sensei told us to do?” He asks Leonardo, and he sees his eyes widen, then he clears his throat and replies, “Normally I would say yes, but he is... trapping my legs. So, sadly, I can’t.” that made Michelangelo start to laugh, shaking his head.

Yeah, even Raphael could tell that that was a joke.

Hopefully.

Raphael walks over and sits beside Leonardo, then leans against him, shutting his eyes. It was nice to be kind of warmed up by being together this close.

It would be better if Donatello was here... His sensei might have said he did stuff to keep them warm, only Donatello was really the one who did it. He made the heaters and the light that they stayed under whenever their sensei was gone. It was something that they kept to themselves because Donatello didn’t want their sensei to know about it.

He wondered where their missing brother was? If he had to be honest, he was pretty pissed that Donatello didn’t come with them! I mean, what if their sensei decided to take it out on them? They would have gotten hurt because he decided to stay out later.

Ugh.

Knowing Donatello, he probably didn’t even realize that he didn’t hear the ringing go off. What an idiot...

In... a nice way, he meant.

He felt Leonardo wrap an arm around him, pulling him a tiny bit closer, and he allowed himself to relax slowly. He’ll wonder about his younger brother later, mostly if Donatello hadn’t appeared in the morning. If not, then maybe they should go and search for him. There’s a chance he could be with his friend, but something was rubbing Raphael the wrong way, and it worried him.

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Change of POV!

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Yeah, Casey wasn’t sure how to feel about all of this stuff happening. After Leonardo left suddenly, Casey turned off the TV and went to clean the dishes that were used. Guess he should be happy that Leonardo liked that show so much, even though he wasn’t really expecting it! That show was pretty lame, in his opinion.

The moment he got the notification on his phone, he showed signs of discomfort and worry. Casey couldn't help to feel a wave of nervousness wash over him, as he was wondering what exactly happened there? They all had a strange energy to them—a strange, heavy feeling that was really foreboding.

It worried him.

Raphael and Leonardo were already pretty important to him—and no! He didn’t mean it in a crush way for Leonardo; shut up!

He sits on the edge of his bed, staring out the window and seeing the snow falling down. It was piling up, which meant he knew that some kids would be out there playing. He felt bad for the people who were homeless or unable to heat their houses. With a sigh, he falls back into the bed and stares up at the roof with both eyes this time! The other got uncovered by his movement.

It always felt weird to be able to see with both eyes, even if the one that he kept covered was damaged a long time ago. It wasn't caused by anything fancy or dramatic in his past; it was because only one of his eyes worked at 100%. It was one reason why he kept it covered.

You'd expect his eyes to be fixed because of how much money he and his dad had, but nooooo. Go on, Casey, keep having one of your eyes covered while I work pretty much every day! Pfft , yeah, whatever... pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into hell, huh?

Okay, this is getting pretty heavy!

Instead, he starts to kick his legs in the air, laying on his back still. He liked his socks; they were themed off the samurai snakes! They have a special mouse ninja who comes sometimes, and they were shipped with the cyan-colored snake... He only ever appears sometimes.

And wow, ain't that a weird ship.

He hoped that Leonardo and Raphael were okay, he mostly worried about Raphael... something about the way his eyes looked sometimes really made Casey worried. Slowly, he sighs, moving his arm over his eyes, and mumbles, "Keep your fire burning, Raph." He turns and climbs under his blanket, then under his pillow.

Time to sleep.

He needed to be prepared for school tomorrow, then he was going to go out and start searching again since he was feeling a tiny bit better from earlier. He wanted to throw hands with that alligator again! And, you know, he wanted to mess with Raphael about that lizard girl.

He seemed like the kind of guy who would crush on a girl much stronger than him.

As he laid in his bed, his mind was rushing with way too many thoughts. Man, he hated it whenever he got too stressed to sleep... He didn't want to be stressed about this stuff. There was nothing that he could do about it!

Really! He's sure that they were both okay, even if Leonardo seemed nervous. It was because he was breaking some rules, and that's all. Casey's sure of it. With that thought in mind, he allowed himself to slowly drift off to sleep, his breathing calming.

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Change of POV!

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April was left with Mondo, as both Raphael and Michelangelo left. Michelangelo gave her a smooch on the cheek before saying, "we'll see you later, April, and Mondo, don't worry! My brother will make your clothes for you as soon as he can. We have to go and check on our sensei." and with that, they both left. April rubs her cheek and looks over at Mondo, who was still sitting on the ground and messing with his tail, so she sighs out slowly. "Alright..." she starts. "You can stay the night here if you want. Long as you don't, I don't know, try to kill me or something."

"Oh! Oh no, never. I would never do something like that." Mondo shakes his head while holding up his hands, a small frown on his face. "I, honestly, still have no idea what to do with this body. I feel... bigger than normal, and it's strange."  

“Well,” she started, “this is your new normal, so you aught to get used to it, huh?” she told him, and seeing him frown, she frowns herself, then sighs and moves to sit down beside him, pulling her knees up to her chest. “If… it makes you feel any better, I think you look pretty cool.”

“It doesn’t, but thank you for trying.” He tells her, which makes her start to laugh, shaking her head. She, frankly, didn’t expect him to be so truthful with that. Her laughter made him smile, and he started to laugh a little himself. 

After they spoke for a few minutes more, April stood up while resting her hands on her knees. “Alright,” she says, which makes Mondo look at her. “I’m gonna get you some blankets, and you could sleep on the couch. You must be pretty cold by now, being cold-blooded and all, so I’ll get you some extra ones. Sound good, huh?"

Mondo seemed to perk up at that, as if he hadn't realized that until now. He nods slowly and mumbles a soft thank you, seeming confused. She smiles and stands up to go and grab the blankets for him. Looking out the window, she saw the snow falling, and she wondered how her turtle buddies were.

She really hoped that they were alright since they would probably be pretty cold as of right now.

Hopefully they had somewhere to go that was safe and warm.

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Change of POV!

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While everyone else was getting themselves ready for bed or falling asleep, Donatello wasn't. No, instead, he was working. He is still working on the weapons that he was asked for by Saki.

Working helped him ignore the faint chill that was trying to shoot through him... he could hear the faint buzzing of the heater going from behind him; one of the others came in to turn it on earlier.

He couldn't quite remember who , however.

Donatello yawns, moving his hand up to cover his mouth. Man, he kind of wanted to go home and see his brothers... it has been a bit. Heh, he didn't want to see their sensei, that's for sure! He sits up straight and stretches his arms above his head, hearing his real arm crack. He was feeling sore.

And his head hurt, too.

Overworking himself wasn't good; he knew that, despite the fact that sadly, he also knew that he had to do this. Saki would be proud of him once he finished it, right? Saki would show him praise! And he... he needed it. He really needed it right now.

God damn it, he wouldn’t need to do this if their sensei gave them praise when they did something good! But no, he’s always wanting more and more, no matter what they do for him. Donatello made them weapons, made them heaters, and other things that helped out around the house? “I don’t know how you made this, though Donatello, you need to focus on your body more than your brain. You’re weak. You’re the weakest of the team, and if you don’t fix that, you could cause issues for the rest of the team.” and blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, well, Saki liked that he created things! He liked that he was smart... Saki liked that he was him.

Donatello knew that he was the weakest between him and his brothers, paying no attention to what he created, however with that, it helped him with it, and he had a feeling that that made him stronger in a few different ways. Also, you know, he would be stronger if he was given food! Enough food, good food. Once again, no, their sensei says that he needs to earn it and often takes away the food as punishment. It was stupid. So stupid.

He shuts his mouth in a tight line, staring down at the metal that he was given to work with, then drops his head down onto the table, resting his hands on top of his head with a sigh. God damn it...

He was so tired .

The door opened with a soft creak, and he heard footsteps coming, at the the same time, he didn’t lift his head. He was curious to see what would happen if they thought he was asleep, which was maybe a bit strange. There was slow movement, then the table let out a soft creak as weight was added to it. “Ah... poor little shell.” he heard, then felt a hand rubbing against his shell, light scratches from claws.

Was that Alopex? She was the only one who ever called him little shell like that—why was she calling him poor? What was wrong? All he was doing was working! He tries not to relax at the scratching, but it felt kind of nice.

He couldn’t exactly remember the last time he got attention like this, now that he thought about it. “Once this is all over, you’ll have a nice place in the special world that Shredder is planning for us. A place where we can all be safe.” She sounded so happy while talking.

A place where they were all safe?

That... that sounds nice.

Slowly, as her soft voice and the nice scratching continued, it lured him into the sleep that he had been acting like before. He guessed that he would have to keep working in the morning when he woke up, and he was feeling less sleepy. As of right now, he couldn’t bring himself to stay awake! Even though he really wanted to.

And Shredder was most likely what Saki called himself; how weird that he never used that name while he was around Donatello—he wondered why? Is there a reason?

Oh well!

He would have to think about that later when he woke up... if he remembered, at least.