Chapter Text
Six chimes of the church bells rang in the distance as Mikey crunched up the sidewalk in the darkness of early Christmas morning, passing the dozens of snow sculptures from the couple days before. Not even the birds were awake yet, the icy trees silent under their frosty exteriors. Despite all the nerves that were twisted under Mikey’s skin, there was something unspeakably pretty about the winter that stood beautifully around him. No one else could see this other than him, since, well, no one was out here.
Correction - no one except me and Woody, Mikey thought, perking up at someone in the distance.
Under a still glowing streetlight, there was a Eastman Community Park bench that had a very Woody-shaped lump on it.
“Hi,” Mikey chirped when he was in front of his friend.
“Morning.” Woody’s eyebrows lifted curiously, disappearing behind his brown bangs. “I didn’t think you’d be on time. Did you have to sneak out?”
“I told Leo. Technically.”
“He was cool with letting you come here alone?”
Mikey coughed. Okay, so maybe what really happened was that he’d sent Leo a single text message explaining the whole plan, and how he’d be back soon. He just hadn’t woken Leo up. Or any of his brothers, for that matter.
“Woody,” Mikey said very seriously, sitting down on the bench next to him. He put his gloved hand on the other boy’s shoulder and met his eyes. “These are not the important questions right now.”
Woody’s mouth twitched, then actually laughed.
Mikey stared in surprise, feeling giddy and proud. “I don’t think I’ve ever made you laugh before,” he observed.
Woody squinted at him, having not heard him. “What?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Mikey said, grinning widely.
Then the sound of wheels crunching over snow made both of them look up to see a blond girl in snow gear on a bicycle fitted with snow tires.
“Hi guys!” Renet called in a whisper, her cheeks dimpling as she rolled up to them, hopping off her bike. “Merry Christmas!”
“You too!” Mikey greeted, slapping her mittened palm.
“I could barely sleep last night,” Renet told them. She turned to Woody. “Did you bring it?”
Woody rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket to pull out the half mask Kitsune had given them. Even in the dim light of the street lamp, it gleamed any magical object should gleam. “Duh.”
They all fell into a hush as they looked at the fox mask. Half of a fox, white and red, stared back up at them. Mikey shivered, thinking about what Kitsune had told them the day before. Once upon a time, this mask had been made to help a human see yokai so they could be friends. It sounded really sweet, actually. And now they were here, decades later, the original friendship and purpose gone, and a trio of barely-out-of-middle-schoolers caught in between nasty power dynamics instead.
The sooner we get rid of this mask, Mikey thought, the happier I’ll be.
So they’d come up with the plan with Kitsune yesterday. They’d meet up with Simon and do the trade to get Klunk back. And then, hopefully, take the mask back before he did any damage with it.
Mikey, Renet, and Woody all settled onto the bench together with little conversation, with Woody tucking the mask away. They were all nervous, Mikey could tell. It wasn’t just him. His nerves only spiked when a black car rolled up on the street across from them.
And then his stomach went cold when Simon stepped out from the driver’s side.
The door slammed shut, and Simon, dressed in a long black jacket and a turtleneck peeking out from underneath, walked up to them. His fancy black leather shoes crunched the snow. Mikey stared at the points of them, trying to distract himself from freaking out.
Finally Simon stopped right in front of them.
“Hello, children. I trust you have the mask?”
“I trust you have Klunk, unharmed?” Renet asked before Mikey or Woody could say anything. She glared daggers at Simon.
Simon sighed, eyes lingering on her with something close to remorse. “Renet, dear, you can’t think I’m the enemy here. We’re all on the same side.”
“She’ll think whatever she wants to think,” Woody snarled back.
Moving on like Woody wasn’t there, Simon looked at Mikey. “Well? Do you have it?”
“Yeah,” Mikey said. When Simon smiled thinly, expectant, Mikey blinked. “Oh, well, not me.” He tilted his head back in Woody’s direction.
Simon’s nose wrinkled as he moved his gaze to Woody’s. He didn’t look pleased in the slightest to be asking him for anything.
“Do you have something for me?” he asked bitingly.
Woody rolled his eyes and pulled out the mask from his jacket. Simon’s eyes grew to saucers upon seeing it.
“You really did it,” he said slowly. His smile began to grow into something that looked very uncontrollable and greedy, sending uncomfortable shivers down Mikey’s spine. “I knew Renet and Michelangelo would be able to get it when every other attempt I made failed. Such clever children.”
Simon made a move to reach for it, but Woody held it back. Simon growled, but then Mikey and Renet stepped in front of Woody, shielding him.
“Not so fast,” Mikey warned. “We had a deal, right? Mask for Klunk.”
“Right. You have to give him back,” Renet said.
Simon’s eyes sparked in a flicker of annoyance, but it was gone as fast as it came. Then he was snapping his fingers, and shining silver thread pooled around his hand.
And suddenly, Klunk was there, tangled in silver thread and hovering in the air as if he’d been plucked from there. Relief pooled in Mikey’s entire chest to see his eyes were wide and open. He was unharmed! He was okay! Klunk was okay!
Then Klunk yowled in irritation, fighting against Simon’s magical hold on him. But instead of breaking free, even more threads wound around Klunk’s body. His wings clamped up. He couldn’t even move his paws.
No! Mikey’s brain screamed, urging him to do something, anything. But he could only stare in horror as Klunk whimpered, trapped.
“Klunk!” Renet cried out, reaching out with her arms.
“Uh-uh-uh,” Simon declined, holding his arm back. Klunk was moved backwards in the air with the shifting of the threads Simon was controlling. “First, the mask.”
“That’s not fair,” Woody protested. “You took Klunk. That’s wrong. You’re a crook.”
Simon ignored him. “The mask,” he repeated, staring him down.
Woody’s eyes met Mikey’s, wide and worried. It was like he was saying, This wasn’t the plan. He’s supposed to give us the cat back, fair and square.
I know, dude! Mikey thought, looking between Simon and Klunk and Renet and Woody. Would it be smarter to refuse to hand over the mask? It was risky, but… Mikey could tell that was exactly what Woody was thinking of doing. He was never one to give up the edge.
But then Woody seemed to come to a different conclusion.
Maybe it was from their experience with Kitsune, but Woody stepped up towards Simon In a motion that felt like a leap of faith, held out the mask.
Simon took it greedily. “Finally you prove to be useful.”
Woody’s face didn’t change at the stinging statement.
Simon is a bully, Mikey thought. No adult should speak to a kid, or anyone, like that.
He frowned, glaring at Simon as he admired the mask.
“Now give us back Klunk,” Renet demanded.
A pause met her words. A breeze blew through the trees, clinking the icicles together. Then in an awful turn of events, Simon looked at them over the mask and said, “Hm. No, actually. I rather like this supernatural.”
Mikey’s eyes widened, yanking his attention from Klunk under all the silver threads to Simon’s cheating, untrustworthy face.
“What?” he exclaimed.
“I’ve never had a supernatural with teleportation abilities,” Simon explained with disinterest as he examined the mask. As if sensing the horrible churning in everyone’s stomachs, he looked at them with a patronizing expression. “I can take it apart and pull the power out and put it back together and give the shell to you. I promise it would still be a cat. Er, mostly.”
Woody hissed, as if he’d been expecting as much and hated that he was right. Renet began to jump more aggressively to get Klunk out of captivity, her arms reaching up in futile attempts.
“But — ! That’s not fair! You promised,” Mikey said, not understanding. A tug of anger spiked through him. They’d been cheated! All that for nothing. Simon had never once been serious about keeping his end of the deal.
But then he took a step back, noticing something else. Holy bean burritos.
In Simon’s hands, the mask was glowing.
It was an ever so slight glow, as if the mask was slowly awakening from a sleep it had been in. One that Mikey wouldn’t have noticed if he wasn’t looking for it. One that Simon clearly hadn’t seen himself. Their last step of the plan they’d made with Kitsune.
Their deal with her that stated if Simon didn’t cooperate with them, Kitsune would be taking matters into her own hands.
“Promises pale to nothing in the face of power,” Simon replied easily.
Then he lifted his hands, and slipped the mask on. Everything around them seemed to fall silent, including the wind.
“Game over, old man,” Woody whispered.
Simon looked at him in confusion, eyebrows furrowing.
“What do you mea—”
And then Simon’s entire face glazed over. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, irises disappearing. A whisper-thin groan squeaked out of him, like someone had plucked his brain out and put it in a freezer.
Mikey, Woody, and Renet all watched in horrified silence as whatever power Simon had been hoping to harness through the mask reversed onto him. He dropped to his knees, his eyes rolled back into view, and then he flopped face-first into the snow in front of them.
Smush!
The sound of Simon’s fall was so anticlimatic, like a little kid tripping in the snow, that Mikey didn’t even notice the silver magic threads disappearing until Renet was gasping, arms out. Klunk fell out of the sky, into her arms. Renet buckled her knees to give him a soft landing. Mikey dashed towards her and Klunk, who lay motionless.
“Is he —?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Renet chanted, breathless.
But then the cat-yokai mewed softly, and raised his head to look at them from his belly-up position in Renet’s arms. He purred happily, looking at them like, What’s up, guys?
Mikey squealed in excitement, letting Renet’s head crash onto his shoulder, melting with relief.
“You’re back, dude!” he cried, dropping his head down to kiss Klunk on his adorable face. Klunk licked his chin. Then he wiggled out of Renet’s arms to fly back and pounce on them both, making a sequence of pleased cat noises over their relieved laughter. Adorable. Clearly he’d missed them just as much as they’d missed him. Woody laughed in the distance.
Renet was in the middle of kissing Klunk silly when they heard Simon groan, coming to. Woody strode up to the semi-unconscious man before Mikey and Renet could, and leaned over him to pluck the mask off. He hid it in his jacket as Simon groaned again, slowly sitting up.
Mikey and Renet quickly exchanged glances, and sat in front of Klunk, hiding the cat-yokai out of sight.
“What…?” Simon struggled to blink his eyes completely open, as if he’d been in a hundred-year-long sleep or something. “What am I doing here?”
He scanned blankly over Mikey and Renet. And then the last words anyone expected to hear came out.
“Do I know you?”
Mikey’s jaw dropped open. He doesn’t remember?
Woody swooped in. “Does the word ‘simultaneous’ mean anything to you?”
Simon blinked, then frowned at him. “Should it?”
Klunk rubbed his head against Mikey’s back, and Mikey tensed up. Not now, Klunk! We don’t want you to get double-kidnapped if the dude’s faking!
Before Mikey or Renet could do anything, Klunk’s head poked out from between their shoulders, hissing at Simon. Mikey’s heart stopped. No! What was Klunk doing? Simon would see and then —!
But Simon didn’t even flinch. His eyes moved between Mikey and Renet, then to Woody, as if… as if Klunk wasn’t even there. He could have been pretending, like he had once before, but…
He just looked so confused.
“Are you… okay?” Mikey asked, feeling bad for the man.
Simon shook his head, raising his eyebrows and blinking a few times. “I… I don’t know. I must have hit my head. I can’t seem to remember why I’m here.” He looked around, frowning. “Why am I here? I don’t even like parks.”
“Do you know my mom? Rose?” Renet asked.
Simon glanced down at her. There was no softness of familiarity in his features as he scrunched up his long sharp nose. “Rose? No? Who is Rose?”
“Oh.” Renet seemed to take that in. “Oh.”
“What about your son?” Woody tried.
Simon’s eyes lit up with alarm. “My son! Romero! I remember telling him I’d be going out for a drive early Christmas Day. I must have slipped here when walking.”
Renet said something in agreement, and Mikey numbly nodded along.
Woody seemed to push into his jacket even further, as if not wanting to trigger any memories. None of them wanted to see Simon suddenly lunge at him for the mask. But he didn’t. Simon looked so different from the intimidating adult that had been looming over them moments ago.
“You should get back to your son,” Woody said gruffly. “I bet he’s lonely without his dad on Christmas.”
Simon looked at him blankly, taking in his words. Slowly, he nodded. “Yes. Yes, I should go. My son is waiting for me. It’s Christmas.”
And as he stumbled across the snow towards the street to his car, his foot passed right through Klunk. Klunk looked unaffected, licking his butt.
“We all just saw that, didn’t we?” Mikey asked as Simon was out of earshot.
“He can’t sense yokai anymore,” Renet breathed. “And he’s forgotten that he ever could.”
Woody pulled out the mask. “Seems like we owe someone a thank-you.”
The mask glowed and then something was whirling out of the mask — in a gust of mist and snow, a nine-tailed fox woman stood before them on the sidewalk. She looked down at the four of them, including Klunk, then at Simon as he drove off in the distance.
“It’s done,” Kitsune said, bending down to pet Klunk behind the horns and ears. “I told you hiding in the mask was a good plan.”
“What exactly did you do to him?” Renet asked in awe.
“Fogged up his mind,” the fox-yokai replied with a smile. “Clearly, he only becomes a danger when tempted with power. Perhaps rather than turning him to wood, which would have probably upset you, all we needed to do was to take away the power he abused so much. And since knowledge is power, I wiped the slate clean. He’s a regular human now, with only a son to take care of.”
“Thank you,” Mikey told her sincerely. “For everything.”
Renet and Woody echoed the sentiment, and Kitsune bowed her head. “I’m glad I finally got the chance.”
Silence fell upon them. It was a weird feeling, Mikey guessed, to spend Christmas morning amnesia’ing an evil man who tortured yokai just for fun. But it was finally over.
Woody slowly sank down in the snow to rest his head between his knees. “So I guess Lord Simultaneous is really gone.”
“Gone,” Kitsune repeated.
“Gone,” Mikey and Renet echoed.
Mikey sat down next to Woody, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You good, dude?”
“Yeah,” Woody said. His voice trembled at first, but then grew stronger. “Yeah, I am. I’m happy he doesn’t remember.”
“He was pretty scary, huh?” Renet said quietly, sitting down on Woody’s other side.
Woody nodded. “Scary. That’s a good word for it. I never thought about it like that, but you’re right. He was scary.”
“He’s never been mean to my mom,” Renet admitted slowly. “But when he took Klunk and demanded we get the mask, I was scared of him, too. I’m glad he and my mom won’t be together anymore. I don’t know how I’ll break the news to her, though.”
Mikey turned to look at her in surprise. “You’re finally going to tell her the truth?”
Renet lifted both shoulders before dropping them, a half-confident shrug. “If she’s going to be heartbroken either way, I’d rather her know the truth. I mean, I’d want to know if my boyfriend was evil.”
Woody snickered. “There’s no way your boyfriend would turn evil,” he said.
Then he not-so-casually nudged Mikey, which was totally uncalled for and lame and Mikey’s face felt warm.
But Woody was laughing now, so that probably meant he was feeling a little better. It couldn’t have been easy — to find a figure to rely on in hopes of learning more about yokai hunting, only to be scorned, and then forgotten entirely.
They all fell into a comfortable silence, as Klunk, seeming to catch on that his cuddles were needed, sprawled out across all their laps, snuggling into everyone. Woody grumbled something about a smelly cat, but Mikey caught a glimpse of his smile before burying his head in Klunk’s feathery wings.
From a distance, Kitsune observed them, her expression solemn and quiet. Mikey caught her eye and she tilted her head ever so slightly, a motion that reminded Mikey of something between queenly indifference and motherly concern.
But then it was all gone, as she put on her full fox mask and tucked the broken magic one away in her dress robes. “Well, humans, if this experience has shown me anything, it’s that you are mere pups who know nothing of avoiding danger. It’s actually quite depressing to look at you, so I will be taking my leave now. The birds will be keeping an eye out for your sake. Do try to keep yourselves out of trouble, will you.” It didn’t sound like a question, but a queenly order. “Rest assured the birds will know if you don’t.”
“How does that assure my rest?” Woody asked, weirded out.
“She’s offering us help, in her own way,” Renet explained in a hush. “It’s called being nice.”
“Sounds like stalking.”
Mikey laughed. Kitsune clicked her tongue disapprovingly.
“Pups,” she said again, and then with a final bow and flourish, she disappeared from view, leaving them in the park alone.
“Unbelievable,” was what Leo said when Mikey slipped back through the apartment door, Klunk on his heels.
Look, Mikey had been trying to be quiet. Really, he had. But there Leo stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, his fingers clenched around his cell phone so tight Mikey was surprised it wasn’t crushed.
“Merry… Christmas?” Mikey tried, suddenly feeling very sweaty. Did jazz hands.
That did not seem to quell Leo’s rage as he looked at him, eyebrows furrowed.
Right. Abort jazz hands, Mikey thought, snapping his arms down. Klunk purred at Mikey’s feet, rubbing at his shins before hopping away through the apartment, ditching him. Traitor.
“You thought leaving this was good enough?” Leo flipped his phone around to push Mikey’s single text message at him. It was a block of words and heart emojis, but Mikey winced. “This? Imagine being me, Mikey. I had to wake up to a random text that you’d gone out to deal with some creepy man by yourself.”
“Sorry,” Mikey mumbled, feeling his cheeks flush, and he meant it. He didn’t try to argue that he hadn’t been by himself. He ducked his head, not wanting to meet Leo’s eyes. “I should have woken you up.”
“No kidding.”
He could feel Leo staring him down for a few more moments. Then it eased. A withering sigh let Mikey know he was safe to look up again. Anger gone, Leo was now scanning Mikey over for injuries.
Apparently Mikey passed the initial examination, because Leo was then sighing, bringing his hand up to push some winter-hat-mussed blond curls out of Mikey’s eyes.
“Are you okay?” Leo asked.
Mikey nodded. He opened his mouth to tell him everything, but he paused. He wasn’t sure how exactly to phrase that they’d played Frankenstein on Simon Savanti’s memories.
Instead, for now, he settled on, “We got Klunk back.”
He and Renet had gotten into a fight about who would get to take Klunk home (“You need the cuddles more!” “No, you!”) and Woody had made them play rock-paper-scissors for it. When Renet won, she’d thrust a happy Klunk into Mikey’s face. Mikey had been overjoyed to have Klunk back, but he’d frowned because Renet wouldn’t get the cuddles tonight, then behind the shield of Klunk’s wings so Woody wouldn’t see, Renet had pecked him quick on the cheek, effectively making Mikey’s brain sizzle out any further arguments.
Leo beamed. “That’s great news!”
“Yeah,” Mikey said, hoping he wasn’t blushing. He cleared his throat. “So, speaking of good news, can we open presents?”
The corners of Leo’s lips turned up mischievously. “Yes. But as punishment for sneaking out, you have to wake up Raph.”
Mikey groaned and took off after Leo down the hallway.
After nearly getting tackled into the wall by a not-a-morning-person-at-all, very grumpy Raph, they all opened presents in the living room. Chaos followed.
Leo had received a bunch of Space Heroes comics from Raph, a set of journals from Donnie, and a homemade card with a coupon for spa day from Mikey — and by the end of opening his gifts, he had tears in his eyes and pulled them all in for intense hugs that could have been a martial arts move if Leo squeezed any harder.
Raph had gotten a set of brushes from Leo to trick out his bike (to which he’d tried to hide his excitement with a grunt they could all see through), a book on ‘How To Be Emotionally Available’ from Donnie (to which Leo had laughed so abruptly he’d choked on his mug of hot cocoa), and a baby animal themed calendar for the new year from Mikey (which Raph openly made fun of, but everyone knew he was a big softie for baby animals).
Donnie had scowled at the older Hamato brothers’ gifts — a robot-shaped desk gadget that chirped out alarms for when it was time to eat or sleep or wake up from Leo and a giant soft blanket from Raph — but he’d especially enjoyed the coffee mug that Mikey had given him that said ‘BROTHER’, with the words ‘BEST’ and ‘EVER’ in invisible ink on either side of it.
Mikey preened at his own gifts — an electric hand mixer for his baking projects from Leo, a new set of skateboard wheels from Raph, and chocolates cookies and cake pops from Donnie — and then they settled in for a movie marathon as a family in the living room.
Leo disappeared in the kitchen to answer his phone as Donnie set up the Marvel movie they were going to watch. Mikey wrestled Donnie for the remote, and ended up failing, gasping and laughing after a few too many tickles in his sides.
“I’m reconsidering the mug,” Mikey joked from the ground.
“The mug is final. It can’t be changed,” Donnie told him gleefully.
“Leo, get your butt in here,” Raph called, taking his seat on the couch.
Leo came out of the kitchen with a slow look of incredulity, like someone had just hit him in the face with a snowball and now he was somewhere between processing it and tumbling with laughter. Mikey stared up at him from where he was lying on the floor.
“It’s weird. Guess who I was on the phone with just now?” Leo asked.
“Who?” Mikey asked, sitting up.
“Mr. Chandra. He called to wish a Merry Christmas.”
“Oh, that’s nice of him.”
“Yeah, and get this — his family’s had a Christmas miracle, or something like that. You know how he’d lost his son in an accident years ago?” At everyone’s nods, Leo revealed with wide eyes, “His son came back last night. Just like, showed up at his front door out of nowhere. They’re overjoyed.”
Raph raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” Leo said. “And guess what his name is?” A meaningful pause. “Leatherhead.”
“Huh,” Donnie said with a frown, and cast Mikey a calculating glance. “Your Leatherhead?”
Mikey nodded, and his brothers stared at him, which wasn’t particularly a new thing. Mikey was getting used to causing upheavals of his brothers’ general knowledge.
“Apparently he’s been a Chandra his whole life,” Mikey said.
Leo’s eyes twinkled with pride. Donnie let out a low whistle, ruffling Mikey’s hair. Raph shook his head in disbelief. “So you get the Chandras a Christmas miracle, and you get me, your own flesh and blood, a calendar?”
The movie began as everyone’s laughter died down, and as Mikey crashed on the couch with Klunk, getting cozy and comfortable, his phone lit up with a notification. He quickly picked it up and saw that it was a text.
Wait, a text from Lita.
It wasn’t in the group chat with him and Woody and Renet. It was just to him, a whole block of text. And as Mikey saw it, his eyes widened in surprise.
Hey, Mikey? A lot of stuff has happened at my house, Lita’s text read. My parents don’t know the nitty gritty of it, and honestly, neither do I, but… Leatherhead’s told me some major parts. And how you basically convinced him to come back. And something… supernatural?
Three dots flashed at the bottom of Mikey’s screen, as if Lita was struggling with the wording of her next text. And hey, Mikey couldn’t blame her for not knowing what to say. He wondered what exactly Leatherhead had told her. And if Lita believed him about everything. Mikey couldn’t imagine being in her shoes. Was she going to go ballistic?
Leo tucked him in tight under the blankets, head coming besides his. Mikey could tell Leo was reading over his shoulder, but Mikey didn’t particularly mind. The thing was, if Lita was going to get mad at him, he could use the support.
Finally, the flashing dots were replaced with another text.
I think I have some questions. A lot of questions. For you. And Renet and Woody, too. When you’re free, could we talk?
A gif of Chris Pratt popped up underneath her text, with the caption ‘MIND BLOWN’.
Shoulders sagging in relief that she wasn’t mad, Mikey smiled as he texted back.
Sure, Lita. It’s going to sound crazy, but when we all get together, I’ll totally tell you how I spent my Christmas.