Chapter Text
The tender moment was interrupted by the sudden bang of a door slamming open behind Cody. It was followed immediately after by a voice shouting, "How the hell did you beat me?! You weren't even in the same dimension!"
Cody's hand dove into the pocket with the taser as he stepped away from Leonardo and whirled to face the intruder.
An angry-looking man with dark, graying hair and a dark indigo suit was stomping toward them, glaring over Cody's head at Leonardo through a pair of thin-framed glasses. Glancing up at the much older turtle beside him, Cody could see an amused smile on his face.
"You seem a bit stressed," Leo said calmly.
The mystery man threw his arms up in frustration. "The building's on lockdown because of all the bullshit—"
"Language!" Leo admonished. "Little ears."
"Sorry, all the BS Dunn's been pulling lately," the man continued with barely a pause, gesturing wildly. "I just spent the past hour talking to building security while they confirmed my credentials and identity!"
"And…who are you?" Cody asked.
The man stopped and turned to him, looking stunned. He blinked a few times, then his eyebrows flew up. "Oh right," he muttered, raising one arm to fiddle with his watch. A second later, his appearance glitched and suddenly in his place was another older-looking turtle, though the glasses and suit remained.
Cody's mouth dropped open as he recognized the shade of green on his scales. "Donnie?!" he said in disbelief.
Spreading his arms and grinning, Donatello replied, "Technically, according to my ID, Don Hamato. …Junior. Son of the co-founder of O'Neil Tech, Don Hamato Senior." He shrugged and added, "Humans didn't live this long back when I originally established the identity, so I had to fake my death before people got suspicious."
"You…what?!"
Don grimaced and slowly explained, "Back when April and I originally started the company, I had to have a human identity." He gestured vaguely at himself. "Because I didn't legally exist before then and people who don't exist can't co-found companies. So I created the human identity of Don Hamato. Once that identity had existed for a normal human lifespan, I faked his death and left everything to his son and my new human identity: Don Hamato Junior."
He tilted his head and smiled wryly. "You never wondered how I founded a company with your great-grandma as a mutant?"
"I never thought of it!" Cody admitted, pressing a hand to his temple as a few things suddenly gained unexpected context. "Mutants and other non-humans are just…normal. I didn't even consider that it would've been different a hundred years ago!"
"I guess I should be glad that society's progressed so much in the past hundred years that being a mutant wouldn't even register as a potential issue."
"Yes, Don, that's a good thing," Leo teased, sounding amused.
Don stuck his tongue out at his brother, like the mature one hundred eighteen-year-old mutant ninja turtle he was.
Chuckling, Leo gave Cody's shoulder a gentle pat and moved closer to Don, looking over his brother and raising an eyebrow. "You okay there, Don?"
Don huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. "You try spending the better part of the past decade fighting Darius effing Dunn for custody of your recently-orphaned great-nephew. I'm living proof that given enough stress, even mutant healing can't prevent ulcers."
"Custody?" Cody asked quietly.
Don and Leo both looked back at him, surprised. "Well…yeah," Don said, as if it were obvious.
Feeling like his entire understanding of the world and how it worked was being tilted on its axis, Cody murmured, "You've been fighting Uncle Darius for custody? Of me?"
Don and Leo exchanged a look, then Don turned back to Cody and stepped closer to him. Rubbing a hand over his bald head, Don sighed deeply and gave him a sad smile. "Your parents' will named me as your legal guardian should anything happen to them, with Serling as an interim guardian while the lawyers sorted things out. I was supposed to take custody after the funeral, but Dunn found a judge who could be bribed into giving 'emergency' custody to a blood relative over a 'family friend' despite your parents' wishes."
"But…where've you been all this time?" Cody asked, hating how whiny the question sounded.
"I've been running the Japanese branch of O'Neil Tech." Don grimaced. "Dunn got a restraining order against me so I couldn't even visit the US branch. This is the first time I've been in the states in years."
Tentatively reaching out to place a hand on Cody's shoulder, Don quietly said, "Kid, I've spent a decade fighting for you." His eyes were wet as he smiled again. "I missed my lab partner." Then a hint of humor crossed his face as he added, "If it wouldn't have caused a paradox, I would've kidnapped you the first chance I got."
Cody huffed a laugh and scrubbed a hand over his eyes. "Guess that one's on me, huh?"
"Only a little," Don said lightly, gently jostling his shoulder and smiling down at him. "The way Dunn neglected you and kept you isolated, I really can't blame you for attempting a little parasocial voyeurism through the space-time continuum."
"Do you have to describe it like that?" Cody groaned.
"I'm your great-uncle, I have years of embarrassing you to make up for," Don told him with a grin and a harder jostle.
Cody didn't even try to pretend he was upset about the promise of future embarrassment, too overwhelmed by the sudden realization that Donatello was his uncle. He had an uncle besides Uncle Darius. One who, if he hadn't changed too much in the past hundred years, liked spending time with him tinkering in the lab.
An uncle who liked him.
"So if you're here, I assume the restraining order has been dropped?" Leo spoke up.
"Oh yeah, I've spent the past couple years building a case against all the judges Dunn bribed," Don said dismissively. "I just had to wait for him to be arrested before I could present it. The restraining order and custody case have been dropped, and the company lawyers are filing for emergency custody as we speak. I should be Cody's legal guardian before anyone even notices Serling's gone missing!"
Leo chuckled. "Good hustle, Don."
Rolling his eyes, Don replied, "I still can't believe you got here first."
Suddenly a raspy chuckle rose up from the direction of the couch and a voice spoke up to tell them, "Actually, neither of you got here first."