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The first time Mikey retreats all the way into his shell, Leo is six and he doesn’t understand why his brother won’t just come back out.
Splinter is gone, off finding supplies for the upcoming winter, and maybe that’s why it took Mikey so long to do a full shell retreat in the first place—looking back, Leo can connect Mikey being scared with Mikey also being in Splinter’s arms, safe and warm and untouchable. It makes Leo’s heart hurt, to imagine that he and Donnie and Raph aren’t enough for Mikey, that they can’t protect him. That Mikey thinks they can’t protect him.
Sometime when they’re older, Mikey will try to explain it, to talk about the difference between fur and their own leathery skin, or father versus brothers, or even how, before Raph got big, it was as simple as “Splinter is big enough to protect, but you’re the same size.”
But at this moment, as Leo watches his younger brother’s shell quiver against the ground, all he can think about is how much it aches, and how much he wants Mikey to not be scared.
They’d just been telling stories, trying to pass the time until Splinter got back, and Leo thought a ghost story would be fun. And it was, until their single light went out and startled them all so bad they screamed. By the time Donnie replaced the bulb, Mikey was a single shell on the hard ground, limbs tucked away and hidden.
“Mikey?” Raph says. “Come on, the light’s back on, it’s okay to come out.”
“No,” Mikey replies, voice high but stubborn.
“No why?” Donnie asks. He’s sitting criss cross applesauce, looking almost nonchalant, like he could care but doesn’t, or he could not care but reluctantly does, but Leo knows from experience that that’s just Donnie.
Mikey’s eyes gleam from inside his shell. “Cause ‘m scared.”
“But the light’s back on,” Leo says again, just in case Mikey missed it the first time.
“So?” Mikey says, and Leo blinks, at a loss as to how he should answer.
“So,” Raph starts, then stops, frowning.
“So,” Leo says, also frowning, before he sits up straight with a wide smile. “I’ll give you a hug if you come out! And then you won’t be scared anymore!”
Mikey’s shell rocks a little, like he’s thinking about it, and then he huffs. “But what ‘bout the between?”
“The between?” Leo asks. He looks at Raph and Donnie, but his brothers look just as confused as him.
“Yeah,” Mikey sniffs. “Like, I’m me now, and then there’ll be me when you hug me, but what’s gonna happen to the me between them?”
Leo doesn’t even need to think about how to solve this problem. Instead he grabs for his only younger brother, tugs his shell into his lap, and gives it the biggest hug he can manage. Raph’s face lights up, and next thing Leo knows his other brothers have joined the hug.
Mikey giggles, his laughter echoing a bit, but then he pops back out and Leo’s holding all of his brother and not just the shell, and Leo squeezes him even more, just happy that Mikey trusts them enough to protect him.