Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It started with the milk. 

Leonardo had woken up annoyingly slow. He woke up in a way that turned his dreams into a blurry mesh that messed with his memory and made him uncharacteristically aggravated with himself for not being able to fall back asleep. After a few minutes of battling for slumber, he sat up with a hushed groan. It was late, infuriatingly late for this sort of thing to happen, and with the intensified training they had been doing for the past week, the impromptu wake-up was even more unwelcome than usual. Leo propped up a knee and tried just listening to the ambience of the city echoing through the sewers. The city provided its own brand of white noise. From where Leo sat he could hear the beep of cars and the rush of tires, the fading blares of emergency sires, rushing water from heavy rainfall, even the low boom of spring thunder. He inhaled deeply before releasing a long and sincere sigh. The moment of respite wasn’t enough. As tired as he felt,  as comforting as the ambience was, as warm as he felt wrapped in his sheets, he couldn’t fall back asleep. Leo hopped off his bed and exited his room to head to the kitchen.

He filled Dad’s teapot with water and cranked the stove up to high before shuffling through the cabinets looking for something to drink. There was Dad’s Sencha, Genmaicha, Ulongcha, Mugicha (that’d be good). Then there was Leo’s selection of teas: chamomile, Peppermint, and sleepytime. He pulled the box of sleepytime and got a mug ready with the tea bag. On high heat, the water only took another minute to start boiling. He turned off the stove and poured the boiling water into the mug before setting the kettle to the back of the stove in case he’d need it again (which he might). He didn’t want to brush his teeth again so he opted out on the honey this time. Scalding water in hand, he carefully started back towards his room, making it all the way to the curtain before noticing the faint electrical buzz. He looked towards Donnie’s lab, and the dim white of electric light was cutting through the usual fluorescent purple. Leo covered his mouth as he yawned. What kind of brother would Leo be if he didn’t take this opportunity to bug his beloved sibling.

Leo took his time getting to the next level of their home, tea still in hand as he quietly approached Donnie’s lab. Moving past the janky old door he found that Donnie’s “personal space” was more cluttered than usual. The guts of a car lay piled by the entrance while a vending machine laid on its face with it’s back gapingly ajar as its mechanical parts were haphazardly placed back inside of it. This was all bathed in the synthetic purple from the tubes and LED’s that ran along the walls. Donnie was in the far left corner of the room, perched and hunched over on a vertically laid metal trunk with his back to the door, on the floor behind him was his laptop wide open with some nerdy electric playlist playing quietly, enough as to not echo through the whole sewer. The electric buzzing was coming from him. As Leo observed, small bursts of light would erupt for a few moments before subsiding, bathing Donnie in white light and defining his features. He was Welding. Leonardo wasn’t completely stupid, so he leaned on the edge of the vending machine and waited for the buzzing to stop. 

“Hey Donnie,” Donnie twitched in surprise at the sudden noise, turning towards Leo with a startled look. “What’cha doin?”

“Leo,” Donnie paused, his eyes flickering between Leo and the object hidden in his hands before he regained his composure, “why are you up so late? Scratch that, Why are you up so early?”

Leo took a sip of his tea, it was a little scalding but not so much that he wouldn’t drink it. The taste of Rosehips, lemongrass, and mint were the most prominent, but he could definitely feel the effects of the chamomile and hawthorn. “I should be asking you that.” Leo leaned forward, he teased “what you got there?” 

“None of your business, Leo,” Donnie held the mysterious object closer to himself. “Go back to bed.”

Leo set his tea down on the vending machine and approached him, suddenly feeling a lot less tired. “C’mon,” Leo put his weight on his brother's shoulders, trying to look over Donnie’s body to see what he was hiding, “what is it? Is it for the drill?” It must have been small in order to hide between Donnie’s closed fists.

“No!” He tried shrugging Leo off, “the drill is still in Beta!” He rocked backwards but Leo pushed him back. At this point Leo was standing on the trunk, putting his full body weight on Donnie, trying to peak at what his brother was hiding.

“What is it then?” Leo continued with a smirk, “is it for the turtle tank?”

“No.” 

“The soft serve machine?”

“No.”

“Teleporting Microwave?”

“No!” Donnie attempted to shove Leo with his shoulders,  becoming aggravated when his attempt failed. “None of those, Leo, now get off!”

“Show me!” Leo reached out over Donnie’s shoulders, trying to get some kind of grip on the object. “What is it?” Leo grasped Donnie’s hand trying to pull it off to see what he was working on

Donnie’s panic escalated. “It’s a-” His hand started to give way, he tried shoving back again but it was as much of a success as the first time. “It’s a surprise!”

Leo let go of Donnies hand. “Ooooh! I see,” Leo kept a teasing tone in his voice and kept his weight leaning on Donnie. “Pop’s birthday? Little early don’t you think.” It was early, way too early. Dad’s birthday was in September, and April only just started.

“No, uh…” He paused for a moment, caught off guard and looking for an answer. He looked at his hand, and took another few moments before looking back to Leo. With a smile, he said “it’s for everyone.”

“Okay~” Leo alleviated some of the weight and folded his arms on top of Donnie’s head. There was a pause of silence between them.

Donnie spoke with a deep hum, “which means that it’s a secret.” 

“Uh-huh,” Leo responded.

“To everyone.”

“Uh-huh~”

“Including you.” This came with a bit of a low growl, but it wasn’t as aggressive as before.

“Hm.” Leo drew out the hum and closed his eyes, starting to tune into the soft music still coming from Donnie’s laptop. “Okay.” He could feel Donnie relax a little, although he was definitely still rigid. Leo pulled his weight off of Donnie and stepped off of the trunk. He retrieved his tea from the vending machine and took a sip, it was the perfect temperature now so he took a fuller swallow, letting the herbal fusion coat his tongue. He heard Donnie sigh, relieved with the return of some privacy.

Leo purposefully stayed for another few seconds, the exhaustion was returning. The small tussle with his brother and the familiar fluorescent lights had made him start to relax again. He looked around the room for a moment, at the large glowing table, the screens that lined the walls, the battle shells and other miscellaneous battle equipment on the other end of the room. Even the coffee cup…

“Where did you get chocolate milk?” The pale brown concoction sat behind the trunk, Leo wouldn’t have been able to see it when he had walked in. Dad had stopped buying them chocolate milk years ago after they had refused to stop chugging a gallon a day. If Donnie had some of that, where could he get in on that action.

Donnie grumbled, “it’s not chocolate milk,” with Leo behind him he tucked the object close to his stomach to free a hand. He picked up the mug and took a few swallows before setting it down again with a refreshed sigh, “it’s coffee.”

“Ugh,” Leo groaned as he started walking away, “I was really hoping it'd be chocolate milk.”

“Yeah, well, sorry to disappoint.” Donnie rolled his eyes. “Now go away.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo swallowed the rest of his tea as he exited the door, “goodnight.” The only response he got was the electrical buzz of the welder.

Leo dropped his mug off at the kitchen sink and quickly returned back to his bedroom. After crawling back into his sheets, the pull of sleep was almost immediate and he began to drift back into unconsciousness. The rush of rainwater, the rush of tires, the rush of white noise, it all tugged him back down. He rolled over on his side and tried to think of something that would help him walk into a deep sleep, maybe even a dream. The heat from Dad’s teapot, the taste of mint, the feeling of chamomile on the tongue, purple lights, messing with Donnie, a mystery device, a cup of coffee, coffee that was usually drunk black, but tonight… had milk.

Chapter Text

Leo awoke to the violent clatter of pots and pans. Despite the stiffness, the sleep was still there with him, desperately trying to drag him back into a dream that he couldn’t remember. When another bang sounded, he turned over with a groan and covered his head with his sheets. The movement triggered a soreness in his shoulders, and he very suddenly became aware of the growing crick in his neck. With another quiet growl he turned over again, trying to alleviate some of the unwelcome aches and pains. He stilled, focusing on the warmth of his sheets and the sound of his own breathing. It was still raining. Aside from the noise from the kitchen he could still hear the blurred whir of New York’s spring rainfall.  Leo heard a quiet boom of thunder and he remembered those quiet noises from the night before, although they were definitely more of a distant hush now that the morning was here. With the adjustment of his body and the warmth of his sheets, Leo began drifting off again. It was slow and comfortably heavy as he sank back into a sleep-like state, he felt warm and comfortable, and he slowly began to forget that he was ever awake in the first place.

Leo twitched at the combination of a heavy slam accompanied by a shout. It ripped him into a sitting position and he groaned, forcing himself out of bed and taking his blanket with him.

--

Mikey was already dressed for the day, and by dressed, Leo meant that he was out of pyjamas and wearing his favorite belt. Mikey’s phone was leaning on the cereal box and was plugged into a pair of earphones that trailed into his head. He multitasked eating his cereal while watching a video, swinging his legs cheerily as he giggled on whatever was on screen. He noticed Leo and removed one of his earbuds.

“Good morning, Leo!” He said with a smile. Mikey watched as Leo trudged into the kitchen.

Leo’s voice was a barely coherent mumble, “m’rnin.”

The source of this morning's clammer was found not too far from the door, where Raph had squeezed himself halfway into the bottom cabinet. He was on his knees and surrounded by an explosion of pots, pans, plastic tupperware, and glass and metal bowls. As Leo carefully stepped through the mess, Raph noticed him.

“Oh, hey!” Raph shot up too fast and hit his head on the top of the cabinet with a bang that was even louder than the ones Leo had woken up to. He rubbed his head and excited the cabinet with a glowing smile, “morning Leo.”

Leo replied with a grumble as he walked past him. “What are you looking for?”

“I’m looking for that Lou Jistsu ‘Hot Soup’ bowl that dad was using the other day, y’know, the red and yellow one?” 

Leo yawned, “you mean the really big one or the one the size of a shot glass?”

Raph used his hands to illustrate the size, “the REALLY big one.”

Leo shuffled further into the kitchen, “why do you want that?”

Leo blindly opened the fridge and reached for the juice bottle, he grasped it by the neck but pulled up too hard, sending his hand rocketing into the top of the fridge. Someone had put the empty orange juice bottle back in the fridge. He turned to Mikey who gleefully sipped at the last of it. With a sigh he chucked the empty bottle into the garbage. Dad’s teakettle was still on the un-lit backburner so he shuffled to the stove, slid the kettle forward, and cranked on the heat. 

“Okay,” Raph started, “so I was watching Lou Jitsu’s ‘Lou Jitsu’s Soba Showdown’ and Lou eats that 25 gallon bowl of Soba to gain the trust of the Mafia leader, before doing a double betrayal and defeating the bad guys, remember?”

“I recall,” Leo was feeling peppermint today so with another yawn he popped open the box and took a packet, (he was getting low on the mint, might have to put that on the next grocery list). 

“Right,” Raph’s excitement grows, “so I’m gonna do that.” 

“Meet up with the mafia??”

“No, eat the Soba!”

“25 gallons?” Leo exclaims as he returns to the fridge and takes a lemon from the drawer. “Of Soba?” He cut it open with a knife that was already on the counter and squeezed some juice into the mug.

“Yeah!” Raph dives back into the cabinet and another few bowls slip out onto the floor. “So I need to find that bowl, because it’s the biggest one we’ve got.”

“Wait,” Mikey interjects as he removes one of his earbuds again, “Raph, what are you looking for?”

“The Lou Jitsu bowl!” The set of copper bowls falls from the cabinet with a ringing clang, bummer, those are Dad’s favorites.

“Which one,” Mikey asks, “the really big one, the cereal one, or the one the size of a shot glass?”

Raph sticks his head back out from under the cabinets, “cereal one? We have a Lou Jitsu cereal bowl?”

Mikey takes a bite of his cereal, “yeah!” 

“Where?” Raph asks.

Mikey chews a bit before answering, “I’m using it.”

Leo turns to Mikey as he rotates his bowl, sure enough, white and red flames with a cartoonish picture of Lou adorn the dish.

Raph gasps, “how long have we had that?”

Mikey swallows before taking another mouthful of cereal, after a brief pause he answers with a smile, “a while.”

Leo tuned out of the next part of their conversation when the kettle started whistling behind his shell. He turned and quickly switched the stove off. He carefully poured the boiling water into the prepared mug and set Dad’s kettle back on the backburner of the stove to let sit in case he needed it again.

Raph and Mikey were still talking about bowls as Leo began his walk towards the table. Raph had retreated back into the cabinets to continue his dig so Leo bent down quietly and picked up one of the smaller glass bowls before shuffling over to sit across from Mikey at the breakfast table.

“Why can’t I find this bowl?!” 

“The cereal bowl?”

“No!” Raph shouts from the cabinets, “the really big one! Soba Showdown!”

“Oooooh!” Mikey draws the word out with a mouthful of cereal as Leo starts filling his own bowl with breakfast flakes.

“Raph,” Leo loosened the sheets around his shoulders as he became more comfortable with the temperature of the room. The left-over exhaustion from last night was starting to wear off as he began to wake-up. “Are you sure you’re even looking in the right cabinet?”

‘ “This is the bowl cabinet! Why wouldn’t it be in the bowl cabinet?!” Raph’s frustration was rising.

“I keep this bowl in my room,” Mikey had turned off the screen of his phone at this point. He wrapped up his earbuds and took the cereal from Leo to refill his own bowl. “Maybe Dad has it?”

“No, I asked Pop’s last night and he said it was in the bowl cabinet,” he hit his head on the inside of the cabinet again and growled, “with the bowls!”
“What are you looking for?” Leo turned his head as Donnie walked into the kitchen. He was awake and alert, holding a coffee cup.

“Good morning, Donnie,” Mikey took the milk before Leo could use it, “Raph’s looking for the Lou Jitsu bowl.”

“The shot glass or the big one?” Donnie walked over to the coffee machine and detached the pot to refill his mug.

Mikey, Raph, and Leo all said in unison with varying degrees of energy, “the big one.”

“It’s on top of the fridge.”

Leo, Mikey, and Raph all looked to the top of the fridge, where a massive bowl with red and white flames sat filled with potatoes and onions. Donnie sat at the table next to Mikey and took the milk before Leo could grab it, quietly pouring a little in his coffee. 

Raph took a short stack of the largest bowls from the ground and skipped over to the fridge. When Donnie finally sat the jug down, Leonardo grabbed the milk before anyone else could take it and poured it over his cereal. With the milk finally added, he took a few bites. It was Mikey’s favorite too-sweet, marshmallow and wafer bargain-brand cereal that he always asked Dad for. Leo picked up his tea and took a sip to check the temperature, it was still really hot but not painfully so. The lemon and peppermint came through nicely so he took a deeper sip.

Donnie sat his mug down with a smile and pulled out his phone. Mikey zeroed in on the cup.

“Are you drinking choccy milk?!” Mikey squealed.

“What?” Donnie was caught off guard at the sudden, loud question.

“You’ve got chocolate milk?!” Raph shouted from the fridge, trying to balance the large bowl (still full of potatoes and onions) on his shoulders as he took it down.

“No!” Donnie sighed, “you just saw me pour the milk, Mikey, it’s coffee.”

“Aw~” Mikey sighed and plugged his earbuds back in to continue watching his video.

Leonardo took another bite of his cereal and chewed for a few seconds. Donnie took another swallow from his mug, keeping his eyes on the screen of his phone. The night before was a blur. Leonardo remembered waking up exhausted and really wanting to go back to sleep. Messing with Donnatello was fun for a million reasons, but this morning, as he sat across the table from him, his cereal was sitting uncomfortably in the bottom of his stomach. Leo picked up his tea and took another sip, eyeing Donnie as he did the same with his own drink. “When did you start putting milk in your coffee?”

Donnie's eyes flicked upwards, “hm?”

“You’ve always taken your coffee black,” Leo took another bite of cereal and looked at the mug in Donnie’s hand, it was the same mug as the night before. With the kitchen lights on he could see it was a purple mug with a picture of Atomic Lass on the side. “When did you start adding milk?”

Donatello put down his mug and attempted to focus back in on his phone, “uhh, just…” he started typing something. “I don’t know… recently?” 

Leo smiled, “what happened to ‘I like my coffee to be as black as my soul.’” Leo deepened his voice at the soul coffee line, teasingly chuckling at Donnie who was looking at him now. He looked confused, studying Leo with an expression that Leo couldn’t recognize on his brother’s face.

“When did I say that,” he scoffed, “milk and coffee go great together.” Donnie swallowed audibly as he finished the last of what was in his mug. He set the cup down again and kept typing on his phone. Leo took another bite of his cereal, he was getting close to the bottom of his bowl now, but he wasn’t as hungry as he usually was so he didn’t think he’d be going for a second bowl. Mikey chuckled with a mouthful of cereal and Donnie looked up again, first at Mikey but then back to Leo with furrowed brows. “Why do you care?”

Leo stopped chewing, “I don’t, I just…” he wasn’t done chewing but he swallowed to clear his mouth. It stuck to his throat. “Making conversation?” Leo picked up his tea and swallowed, trying to move the cereal down. Donnie made another face that Leo didn’t recognize, it still had the inquisitive nature but more… suspicious?

Donnie looked hesitant, picking up his mug again to take another sip before he realized his cup was empty, “I mean, it definitely tastes better.” He left the table, breaking eye contact as he walked towards the coffee machine. 

There was suddenly a small stone forming in his stomach, it wasn’t heavy, but it was there. Leo adjusted his shoulders and sat up trying to get comfortable again. ‘Donnie’s a lot more tired than me,’ the little voice in his head rang. That’s right! Donnie was up before and, supposedly, after Leo had woken up last night working on that secret thing. He must have been drinking coffee non-stop and needed a little change to the bitterness. Leonardo’s tea was room temperature now and he greedily swallowed the rest. He sat the cup down with a loud tap just as Donnie sat down.

He didn’t take the milk this time.

Mikey stood abruptly with a satisfied “wew!” He had finished his cereal and his show, and with a quick stretch he left the table. 

Donatello slowly took a mouthful of his coffee, noticeably trying to stifle the grimace that forced itself on his face as he swallowed. Leo stared for a moment, ‘he’s drunk his coffee black since we were 10,’ the small voice, which sounded an awful lot like Raphael whispered, ‘all those fluorescent lights must’ve killed his taste buds’. The reasoning wasn’t as confident.

Leo had to look away when Donnie’s eyes shifted to him with that bitter-coffee-scowl, it wasn’t Donnie’s, ‘you’re annoying me, brat,’ look, it was resentful and reserved, and it caused a density that reached across the table. Leonardo took another bite of his cereal but the weight in his stomach only deepened under his brother's unfamiliar gaze. He wordlessly pushed the milk towards Donnie.

“I got the bowl!” Raph bellowed, appearing behind the table and holding the themed movie bowl above his head. The dense gaze was immediately alleviated as Donnie was pulled away from the stare of his own making. Leo sighed in relief as Donnie took the milk and unscrewed the top.

Mikey put his bowl in the sink, “Raph, why do you need a Lou Jitsu bowl the size of a bathtub anyway?”

“He wants to try and eat 25 gallons of Soba.” Leonardo leaned back in his chair, using his knee to pry away from the table. With the gaze lifted, Leo put on a smile as he directed his information to no-one-in-particular.

Donnie looked up from his mug as he finished filling it to the top with milk, “I’m sorry,” exasperated, “25 gallons?”

“Of Soba,” Leo’s smile widened, “yeah.”

“That’s an awesome idea Raph!” Mikey cheered, “now how do you make Soba?” 

“Uh...:” Raph paused, “I was just gonna, y’know, buy it from somewhere.”

Mikey scoffed, borderline offended, “you were just gonna buy soup?”

“Yeah?” Raph mumbled, his voice starting to sound confused.

“No. No no.” Mikey continued with the tone of refusal in his voice escalating, “no no no no no.” He whipped out his phone in a dramatic fashion and started typing. “This is a Soba. Showdown. Challenge. ” He pulled up an image and Leo had to lean out of his chair to see the LED picture. The image was a human lady sitting at a table surrounded by empty bowls in a restaurant, headlined “Woman eats 300 bowls in 17 minutes.” Mikey showed the image to Raph and then Donnie, who was showing little interest as he dove into his own phone. “We are gonna make our own Soba.”

“Mikey,” Donnie sighed, “you don’t know how to make Soba.”

Leo chimed in, “hey, he can probably figure it out.” There was a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, but it wasn’t full hearted. Mikey was, afterall, a better cook than any of them. Japanese cuisine wasn’t exactly his forté, but he was pretty killer with Italian.  “And he’s right,” Leo added.

“About what?” One of Donnie’s eyebrows rose with the question.

Leo pointed to Raphael, “Raph, is this really a soba eating challenge?”

“Uh,” Raph hesitated for a moment before he answered excitedly, “yeah! Yeah it is!”

“‘Hot Soup’ is our catchphrase,” Leo picked up his bowl and drank the milk from it, setting it down with a loud tap before he finished his sentence with a refreshed sigh, “as much as we talk about soup we should be able to make our own.”
“Yeah!” Mikey shouted, “what he said!” 

“Yeah! Except…” Raph deflated as he set the bowl down on the table between the four of them, Leo had to sit up straighter to see over the bowl, it was ridiculously large. “We don’t even know if we’re going to like Soba.”

“What are you talking about,” the familiar rasp caught Leo by surprise. “You boys love Sansai Soba.” Splinter walked into the kitchen with a hearty yawn as he passed his boys, skipping the breakfast table and walking directly to the fridge. It was unusually early for him to be up, his normal wake up time was closer to noon.

“Sorry pop’s,” Leo chuckled, “but we’ve never had Soba.”

“Yes you have.”

“What’s Sansai Soba?” Mikey inquired, walking over to lean on the counter.

“You’ve had it,” Dad pulls out a leftover Panda Express box, hopping onto the counter close to Mikey with a pair of chopsticks.

“Uh, no Dad,” Donnie looked up from his phone as he brought his mug close to his face, “we haven’t.”

Dad popped open the box, mixing up the contents with his utensils, “yes you have.”

“Yeah,” Donnie muttered under his mug as he took a sip, “pretty sure we’d all remember something like ‘Sansai Soba’.”

“Dad, when did we have it?” Raph questioned.

“Mm,” their Dad hummed thoughtfully, a smile creeping in as he searched through the brain fog to find the answer, “Red, you were about… five years old?”

“Oh, yeah,” a scoff erupted from Leo, “like we’re gonna remember that!”

“Eh,” Splinter remarked.

Mikey repeated himself, still curious, “Dad, what’s sansai soba?”

“Sansai Soba is a soup,” Splinter took a bite of cold noodles, talking with a full mouth. “It’s made with mountain vegetables, buckwheat noodles, and dashi stock.”

“We ate that?” Raph said in disbelief.

“Surprisingly,” Dad swallowed, “yes.”

Mikey crossed one of his legs as he leaned closer, “where’d you get it from?” 

“I made it.”

“You can’t cook.” Donnie said matter-of-factly.

“I can too,” Splinter retorted, rising out of his wake-up haze at Donnie’s comment, “I cook all the time!”

Mikey teasingly chuckled, “putting chips in a bowl doesn’t count, Dad.” All four brothers laughed at that while Dad only scowled with a facefull of noodles. Most of the time Dad didn’t use a bowl, he would just eat an entire bag by himself.

“You know nothing!” Dad spat, “I will show you!”

“You’ll make the Soba?” The wonder in Mikey’s voice was hopeful and full of excitement.

“No,” Dad sat the box on the counter and slid off, “we will be making it.”
Mikey gasped, “yay, family time!”

“Count me out.”

“Yeah i’m good.” Donnie and Leo spoke at the same time, but they weren’t heard over the excitement from Raph and Mikey. Raph had picked his massive bowl back up and both he and Mikey eagerly followed their father out of the room, leaving the pile of bowls forgotten on the kitchen floor.

Leo’s bowl was empty now, and he was out of tea. He leaned back in his seat and looked to Donnie, who quickly looked away from him and back to his phone as he sipped at his coffee… with milk.

“Not eager to put your chef skills to the test?” Leo teased, an awkwardness had resettled now that the two other brothers were gone.

Donnie looked back to Leo and was silent for a moment before smiling with his response, “no more than you.” 

Leo chuckled as he stood, taking his dishes with him to the sink. He loaded his things into the dishwasher (including his cup from the night before) and walked back to grab his blanket.

Leo could hear the taps of Donnie’ finger pads against his phone as he typed. Leo rolled his blanket into a messy ball as the weight in his tummy returned. “Are you okay?”

Donnie stopped typing and looked up, not really moving as his eyes lifted to Leo. There was a wary uncertainty as he answered. “Yeah?” He took a long sip as he stared thoughtfully, “why do you ask?”

Leo didn’t take too long to answer, the pauses were getting monotonous, “just asking.”

He left the kitchen but felt Donnie’s eyes on him as he walked. It was uncomfortable as he felt holes being bored into the back of his neck. When he entered his room Leo threw his blanket on the bed. He could still hear Raph and Mikey talking to their Dad in the living room, but the details of their conversation were obscured by distance and action movie noises. Leo sighed and stretched as he circled his room. The soreness in his neck and shoulders were finally fading into afterthoughts from the movements, he felt a lot better after eating something, but the rock in his stomach from the breakfast table hadn’t left. If anything, it was heavier now, and it grew larger and more uncomfortable the more he thought about the interaction he had with Donnie. There wasn’t anything in particular wrong but it just felt… unfamiliar? ‘Remember,’ the little voice repeated, ‘he must be really tired.’ It didn’t help it’s own case though, because it kept repeating images in his head. The way that Donnie’s face contorted when his tongue touched the black coffee was so unfamiliar, the flickering eye movements were not something that his twin did, the ‘why do you care?’ was too hostile.

With a huff he pushed it all aside, the lack of sleep was just making him paranoid and he knew it. Donnie is tired too, he repeated, Donnie is tired too. Leo stood for a moment, trying to occupy his mind with something else. What did he want to do today?

-

This was Leo’s sixth song, and he was on a roll. He didn’t have a perfect score, but he was high in the ranks of Dance Dance Revolution; and by high, he meant he was back in third place. The tired metal and aged plastic creaked under the furious motion of his feet and he began to break a sweat as his score continued to rise. He hadn’t selected the hardest song in the game, he was planning on working his score up and then he’d choose one of the harder songs for last to see if he could get past Mikey’s score. He wanted to beat Raph’s score, but that was a bit of a pipe dream considering how much Raphael loved this game.

They hadn’t had the dance machine for very long in comparison to some of the other arcade games they had collected. This machine in particular the four brothers had only possessed for about a year, and they hadn’t really found a lot of time to play it with all of the action that had been going on in their lives. Raph had the highest score since he enjoyed the game the most, and towered above them all with a whopping score of 4370, and Mikey was second  with a score of 1993. Leo and Donnie, on the other hand, were always switching between third and fourth place. Donnie had held the better dance score for the first month, but then Leo had swiped it during a competitive ‘Pluto the First’ challenge dance, after that, they had kept switching every time they played, neither of them really getting too much of an upper hand. Leo decided to play this when he found himself in fourth place with a score of 620, and Donnie in third with 659.

As the song approached its finale the number of coordinated moves increased, picking up the pace. Leo needed this, after the exhaustion from this morning and his paranoid awkwardness, the dancing was a fantastic distraction from it all. He just needed to get his mind off of it and get his body moving.With one final tap the song finished and Leo sighed in exertion. He took a step off of the pad and bent down to unscrew his water bottle-

“Wow, great score Leo!”

Leo nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise, nearly dropping his water in the process. Donnie was there and leaning against the rails of the dancing machine with a look of interest. He was wearing his favorite purple hoodie with the hood draping over his shoulders, this morning’s hostile look was gone. Leo shook off the chill in his spine and played it cool, “why thank you,” Leo bowed dramatically. His score was now 780. Leo took a sip of water before re-capping the bottle and setting it back down to the floor. “I am once again in third place,” he stretched and faced Donnie, a few inches taller than him now thanks to the dance pad, “take that,” he snapped his fingers into a finger gun to accompany the words.

Donatello hummed in response as he looked at the screen. His eyes flicked between the screen and Leo, and for a moment they fell on the water bottle on the floor. A playful grin spread on his face as his eyes narrowed. “I don’t think so,” Donnie leaped over the rail and landed on the alternate pad, “2-player challenge.”  He used the buttons below the screen to select the most difficult song in the game: Paranoia Survivor Max. It was short but it was a beater. “Winner takes third.”

Leo chuckled and scrolled down to the start button for him. “You’re on.” He slapped the start button and jumped into place. 

The screen displayed “HERE WE GO” and Leo only had a quick moment to look at the info tab on the bottom right side of the screen - BPM 290; challenge 16. His current score was displayed along with the info. On Donnie’s side of the screen the same information was displayed with his measly score of 659, and Leo was going to keep it that way.

It started quicker than Leo anticipated (as usual) and they were immediately thrown into the fray. Down up down right down up down left up down up down left. This was the most difficult song in Dance Dance Revolution history, and he wasn’t gonna lose to Donnie this time. Donnie usually lost to him, but it was always close, and he had been getting better every time due to his love of dance. Leo winced as he missed a step, but he wasn’t going to let it get to his head, he was going to get into Donnie’s head. A break in the song (literally half a second) was enough time for him to do a spin before landing on the next combination of arrows, he laughed when he hit successfully and added a bit more flare to his movements with some enthusiastic arm choreography.

“Yo, Bootyyyshaker9000.” Down up right up down up left.

“Yeah?” Donnie replied with a pant, Leo could already feel a sting in his ankles as he continued the ridiculously fast paced dance. 

He’d start with a low blow. “How does it feel to rank number 4 in the dance department?” Leo didn’t dare look at Donnie’s side of the screen, he was already missing a few points and he wasn’t going to lose anymore by looking at someone else's arrows.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” their steps were almost in sinc, “last I checked, I was the better dancer.” This morning's pestering weight was dissipating in the activity. This was Donnie! The dance, tech, and Atomic Lass loving dork that had some pretty sweet moves when he wanted to. Leo could hear the smile on his twins face as he was enjoying this too, it had been too long since they had competed like this, they should do it more often. It made him laugh.

“Ha!” Leo did a few key steps, “you call that dancing?” He was going to win this round “You rely too much on a machine, brother, this is dancing!”

Leo began exaggerating his movements, building up kicks and adding a few more spins as he pumped up the energy. Not everyone gets tired when playing DDR, but man, he was starting to feel it. It didn’t matter though, his score was high and he felt good. He did another spin and looked over his shoulder as he did the dance backwards. He heard Donnie emit a sound of frustration as Leo kept up with the movements. Leo laughed and switched back, it was a show-off move but nothing he could do for long.

They were getting close to the end, Leo could tell because he had watched Raph play this song a hundred times (that was an exaggeration, maybe six times, because this song was too crazy to do a hundred times.) He waited for the last move, where he spun again and dabbed at the last step.

Leo let off a sigh of exhaustion and put his hands on his knees as he panted. 442 points! Not marvelous, but perfect in the eyes of DDR. “Take that Don-” 120. Leo did a double take. Donnie’s score was only 120. Donnie was panting but he wasn’t nearly as tired as Leo. Bootyyyshaker9000, the guy who danced with Atomic Lass in times square, who was able to beat Mikey in DDR’s butterfly dance (but no other song and it was only that one time because it was Mikey), who always came close if he didn’t beat Leo in a double challenge, was sitting close to fail in the score system.

Donnie had his hands on his hips, faking exertion. “Wow, you sure beat me-”

“Donnie are you okay?” Leo cut him off. The rock dropped back into his guts as he stood up straight, coming to eye level with Donnie.

“What?” Donatello looked confused.

“If somethings wrong, you can tell me,” Leo continued as he took a step closer to Donnie, “are you feeling sick or something?”

“Uh... No, I'm fine,” he chuckled, albeit a bit uncomfortably, Donnie chuckled.

Leo continued. “Is it insomnia?” He took another step closer, now on Donnie’s side of the pad. He knew that sometimes Donnie experienced insomnia, the family wasn’t sure if it was chronic or just because of how much coffee purple always consumed, but when he did get insomnia, he got it bad. “You were up pretty late last night.”

Donnie scoffed with a wavering smile, “so where you!”

“Yeah, but you stayed up! It’s okay if somethings wrong, Donnie,”  Leo put a hand on his arms, “just tell me.”

Donnie shoved Leo’s hand off, his voice rising. “I’m fine!”

“I don’t think you are!”
“I’m fine, Leo!” Leo took a step back at the shout. Donnie wasn’t looking at him now, but he was glaring uncomfortably as his eyes darted around trying to find something to focus on. Donnie flipped his hood on and straightened with a sigh. That weight was growing uncomfortable in Leo’s stomach, so he picked up his water bottle and took a chug to try and drown the feeling. It didn’t help. 

“Can I have some of your water?” He didn’t know why, but the request put goosebumps on his skin. Donnie hated backwash, he was the guy who would just buy you a drink if you asked for some of his own, and Leo was already halfway through the cheap plastic bottle. Donnie held his hand out expectantly.

With a brief hesitation, Leo put the bottle in his hand wordlessly, stepping off the dance pad as his brother took a few swallows. He didn’t feel like dancing anymore, or maybe he just didn’t want to be in the same room as Purple.

“Thanks, here,” Donnie smiled awkwardly as he reached the water back towards Leo.

“You can have it.” Donnie’s smile dropped into a blank stare and it sent a chill down Leo’s shell, “i’m not thirsty right now.”

Leo left the room, but neither the chill, the goosebumps, or the weight left him as he could feel a stare tracing him as he walked.

Chapter Text

This was worse. This was so much worse.

Maybe it was the echoing boom from a crack of thunder, or maybe it was the cold sweat, either way, Leo woke up with a tight throat and irritated skin. He inhaled sharply with a whine, forcing himself into a seated position as he tapped around blindly for his phone. He felt the cool case under his finger pads and dragged it across the sheets before weakly flipping it over. Leo flinched when the bright screen blinded him, but he blinked out the pain and stared until the numbers on the screen came into view. He groaned. 2:57 am. Leo flipped the phone back over and flung it across the sheets, he didn’t care when he heard it hit the floor. That’s what the case is for. He plopped back onto his shell and took a deep breath. Then he took another. And another. The rain was back in full force this evening. It was a lot louder than it had been the previous night, and although it helped calm his brain down, it did nothing for his body. Pinpricks erupted on his skin, it was too hot and too cold all at the same time. He turned over, but nothing felt right as he tossed and turned on his mattress. He threw the blanket off of himself and he heard it float to the floor. The naked air felt better against his skin and shell, but it wasn’t enough.

After what happened in the game room, Leo spent the rest of the afternoon skateboarding. Mikey and Raph had attached themselves to their father asking about old recipes and making plans, and while he had seen Donnie walk into his lab, he didn’t see him after that. Leo spent the first hour just practicing on the vert-ramp, but once he got tired of that he took to traveling the sewers. The rain had subsided for mid-day, but the damage to the city’s water system had already been done. Leo had nowhere in particular that he wanted to go, so he had skated all the way to Queen’s checking out the flood rooms. The rainfall, along with the city's usual expected water usage, had caused a major amount of flooding, some routes had been completely blocked off by rivers of sewage. The flood rooms were almost filled to capacity, but seemed to be holding fine. Leo had expected for there to be a worse smell, but thanks to the rainfall the smell wasn’t as bad as usual. 

Leo was grateful for the alone time, besides giving him the assurance that his home wasn’t about to be twenty feet under raw sewage, it gave him an opportunity to think. The little voice in his head was giving him less and less reasons to believe that exhaustion was the only reason that Donnie was acting… off. Sure, he was up late, but 120 points. 120 points? He never, ever , dropped below 75% of the score possibility. Leo remembered Donnie remarking about his average score, ‘ my room for error will never exceed past 25% in order for me to achieve a consistent rate of success, ’ whatever that meant. Leo was able to paraphrase that into, ‘I know that my score won’t be perfect, but I’m not a noob to dance.’ Then there was the water bottle, none of the boys were exactly fans of backwash, but Donnie was especially that last person that Leo would expect to just want some of your water. As Leo rolled through the city’s massive pipes, he couldn’t stop going over the whole scene. Donnie’s eager mannerism to dance wan’t off character, but the way his eyes flickered to the water bottle before they even started dancing. Then there was the super low score and the lack of exhaustion after playing DDR’s most difficult song, it’s like he wasn’t even trying in the first place. Then there was that last moment, not just asking for the water, but the way he looked when Leo wouldn’t take it back. The stare was blank, it was hollow, like no-one was home. Leo had returned home right before dinner, where he, Mikey, Raph, and Dad ate the rest of the chinese leftovers. Donnie had made his appearance just as they had finished, but Leo didn’t stick around.

He sighed into his hands, the pressure against his eyes had helped, but not as much as he had hoped. Leo slowly dragged himself out of bed, growling in irritation when he nearly tripped over his fallen blanket.

He knew he might be a little peeved, but he chose Dad’s barley tea this time around. After flicking on the burner and pulling the kettle forward, he zoned out while the water boiled. Leo grasped the teabag loosely as he stared at the blue flames. They waved gently in the dark kitchen, illuminating not only the kettle, but it also created a ghost of the stove. With a sigh, Leo folded his arms and closed his eyes. Warmth radiated from the stove and he just stopped thinking. The blackness and the warmth was enough for him to psychologically melt, so he let it happen. He didn’t feel sleepy anymore, he felt tired. Last night was a joke in comparison to this. His weight pulled his skeleton down to the floor and every breath that Leo took was a full body effort that made him even more exhausted with every intake. He wanted to crawl on top of the table, or maybe slip himself into the oven and rest but he knew that that wouldn’t be any better than his own bed.

The whistling of the kettle brought him back. After switching the heat to low he realized that he didn’t have a mug. Chewing toasted barley kernels and drinking boiling water straight from ‘Old Skully’ didn’t sound fun, so Leo left the bag on the counter to quietly rifle through the cabinets. It was Donnie’s turn to do the dishes tonight, so of course there weren't any clean mugs left. With a grumble, Leo quietly picked a random mug from the dishwasher and turned the sink on to its lowest setting, scrubbing quietly at the inside and rim. ‘At least that hasn’t changed,’ Leo involuntarily laughed at the thought. He was right, Donnie never did the dishes when asked unless it was some new attempt at tech. He cut the laugh short though, he didn’t want to think about Donnie right now.

After a quick rinse he walked the dripping mug back to the stove and dropped the bag in. He poured the (thankfully) still boiling water into the cup and walked to the kitchen table.

Leo sat down with a sigh. The steam from his mug glided over his face and he stared at the small blue flames on the stove. If it wasn’t for the aching exhaustion, Leo might have mistaken this moment for a dream. He stared a bit longer until the chill of the evening brought him back to center. Leo picked his tea up and brought it to his face. The tea was a bit more bitter than he would’ve liked, but the toasted, nutty flavor more than made up for it. Instead of his usual sipping, he swallowed gently, he didn’t want to disturb the moment with noise.

There were gaps that lasted minutes between each swallow. He would drink, stare at the stove, and repeat. Leo didn’t want to think about anything right now, his brain was bouncing between a heavy fog and the start of a headache. When he ran out of tea he would walk back to the stove and do a refill, he used the same bag again the first time, but the tea wasn't as good when he reused the bag so he began changing it every time after that. Yeah. Dad was going to be irritated.

As good as the tea was, and as great as the warmth in his stomach felt, it didn’t relax him. He still felt sore, he still felt tired, and he still felt irritated. He lost track of how much tea he drank. When his hand felt the empty bottom of the mugicha box, he felt a pang of regret that was quickly stifled by his need for more tea. He had to refill the kettle, but after a quick boil he started back on the sleepytime. 

A distant snap pulled him out of his tea frenzy. He froze. When the snap was followed by a clatter he sat his mug down. He flicked off the stove before sneaking into the common room. Leo hesitated when he saw Donnie’s lab illuminated, but when another noise sounded, he knew that it came from deeper in their home.

He stuck to the shadows as he entered the garage. The turtle tank’s lights were on and he could see the bottom hatch ajar, a shadow danced as something was moving on the inside. He didn’t have his sword. With a quick scan he could see an open toolbox by the back tire of the tank. He snuck over quietly, hesitating when another clang (although quieter than the first) struck the floor from the inside, when he heard nothing else Leo took the largest wrench.

He slid beneath the tank and jumped through the hatch, recovering into a standing position and falling into a fight stance. 

Despite his vision being blurred from exhaustion, it wasn’t hard to tell who it was. “Mikey?”

Mikey flinched and turned with the most guilty look on his face. In one hand he grasped a glue stick, and in the other he held the handle of the soft-serve ice cream machine. “Don’t tell Donnie.”

Leo broke out of his fight stance with only a slight stumble and rubbed his temples with a sigh. After a heavy pause, “Mikey, I thought you were a burglar or something…” Leo threw the wrench down with a heavy clang. “What are you doing at-” he looked over his shoulder at the clock in the dashboard and groaned, “4:30 in the morning?”

“I- I wanted some ice cream,” he hesitantly stated with a stutter before breaking into a full ramble. “I woke up a few minutes ago and after talking all day and eating dinner I forgot to have dessert so I woke up and I just really wanted something sweet and I know that donnie just added marshmallow and creamsicle flavor so I thought I’d just come in here real quick and grab some but then the handle wouldn’t go down and I thought “ok I guess i’ll pull a little harder” and then it just SNAPPED in my hands! I got the glue, and it’s my favorite glue stick because it’s worked on everything so far, even dad’s favorite mug,  but now the handle won’t stick and I-” As much as Leo loved Mikey, he had to start tuning his voice out or Leo was going to have to start running. Leo stepped over to the machine and looked over to where the metal had snapped.

He cut Mikey off with a snicker. “You forgot to remove the lock before you pulled the lever, dum-dum.” He took the glue stick from Mikey’s hand and capped it, Leo knew that a measly kiddie glue stick wasn’t going to do anything. 

“Don’t tell Donnie.” Mikey dropped back down to a whisper, “please don’t tell Donnie you know how he gets about his tech!” Leo took the lever out of Mikey’s hand and lined it up with the break, if they lined it up just right and added a bit of silver paint, they might be able to hide the break from Donnie for a while. “Stop laughing Leo!”

Leo tightened his lips trying to stifle his giggles, “why did you keep pulling on it?”

Mikey hugged himself subconsciously and rocked on his heels, “I thought it would work!”

“So you thought pulling harder on a thing that doesn’t want to go down would work?”

“It works for Raph!” Mikey’s voice rose again in a shout.

Leo folded his arms with a scoff, “Raph pulling harder is the reason we don’t have a microwave oven anymore.”

Mikey put his face in his hands and groaned, “Donnie’s going to be so mad!” He began pacing in a tight circle.

“Mikey,” Leo reached for his younger brothers shoulder and pulled him into a loose side-hug, “chillax bro, a little glue, a little time, and a silver sharpie will fix this thing right up.”

“The glue didn’t work,” Mikey whined, dragging his hands down his face and pulling at his eyelids.

“Better glue, Micheal,” He waved the glue stick in front of Mikey before chucking it behind them both. Leo hugged him a little tighter and smiled a little wider, “not your grade school craft glue.”

Mikey whined nervously and looked between Leo and the broken lever that he held in his hands, “you really think we can hide it from Donnie?”

Leo covered his mouth for a quick yawn. “Of course, Mikey,” he said softly, “now let’s find some glue.”

With a few minutes and a quick trip into Raph’s craft box, they had collected a small array of different sticky materials. Mikey set them messily on the counter next to the soft-serve machine.

They tried the white craft glue first, but that just dripped down the sides and wouldn't hold when they let go. The fabric glue was a little more discreet, as it was completely clear, but even after holding it for twenty minutes, the handle fell to the floor with a bang. Next was the glue gun. 

Despite Donnie’s absolute genius he had neglected to put any normal outlets on the turtle tank, so Leo had to skulk back into the dim garage,and quietly dig for a power cord. Leo crawled back through the bottom hatch carrying a daisy chain of six power cords that he had to assemble together. Mikey got the glue-gun ready. 

“Let’s see if this one will work,” Leo smiled, trying to stay positive as he handed Mikey the cord.
“One of these has gotta work,” Mikey plugged the gun in and tapped his foot impatiently as it heated on the counter, “Donnie was so proud of this.”

Leo chuckled as he leaned against the counter, “don’t worry,” he yawned as he spoke teasingly, “worse case scenario, I’ll just grab the duct tape and blame it on Raph.”

Mikey pouted but said nothing as he sat down with a thump. It was quiet again.

“Speaking of Donnie…” should he even be talking to Mikey about this? 

Mikey groaned at the name. He leaned his head against the wall of the turtle tank, “the ice cream maker was his sixth favorite part of the tank, he’s gonna kill me~” he moaned.

“Every part of the tank is Donnie’s favorite part.” Leo chuckled, but the gravity of his question kept it from being sincere. “Have you noticed anything…” Leo rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously, hesitating to finish his question, “off about him lately?”

“Off how?” Mikey scoffed.

“It’s not serious, it’s just… earlier today we played DDR… and he lost.”

Mikey giggled. “He usually loses Leo, we’ve got too much razzmatazz for ‘em.”

“Well of course he lost to me considering that i’m an amazing dancer,” Leo grinned, but he couldn’t keep it as he continued, “but his score was only 120.”

“That’s pretty low, for Donnie”

“I know!”

Mikey hummed with a smile. “Why are you worried about it? Number 3 .”

Leo ignored the tease. “Well, it’s not just that,” he remembered the water bottle, “he drank after me.”

“Ew.”

“Yeah, and at breakfast did you see him drink his coffee?”

“Uh,” Mikey scoffed and leaned his face on his hand as he looked up at Leo, “he has coffee like, every minute of the day?”

“He put milk in it!” Leo rubbed his eyes trying to wipe out some of the drowsiness that was clouding his vision.

“So?”

“This is Donnie! He doesn’t put milk in his coffee!” Leo’s voice rose unintentionally.

“He drinks pumpkin spice Latte’s sometimes.”

“It’s April!” Leo guffawed as he brought his hands up to accentuate his point. Donnie didn't like that they knew about his love affair with fall flavors, but that was the only time he changed his preference. Leo continued to carp, “Donnie’s taken his caffeine black since we were 10, and what. He just starts putting milk in it overnight?”

Mikey speaks softly but firmly, putting his hands up in a defensive position to try and calm Leo down, “calm down Leo, is it really such a big deal that he has a little dairy to go with his beans?”

Leo stopped and snapped his head at Mikey, who flinched at the sudden attention, “so you haven’t noticed anything?”

“I mean…” Mikey hesitated with wide eyes, “Leon… are you ok?”

“I’m fine, just…” Leo repeated quieter, “you haven’t noticed anything?”

There was a pause between them, Mikey sat contemplatively as Leo sighed in frustration, he shouldn’t have said anything.

“I’m sorry Mikey,” Leo stood up straight and took a few uneasy paces before coming back to the counter. He rubbed his face with his hands, the lack of sleep was making him crazy. “I think i’m just tired.”

“It’s okay…” Mikey chuckled. His brows furrowed before he slowly turned his head to look towards Leo. “Donnie just…” He dropped his voice to a nervous mumble, “I mean, there was this one thing but it’s not like the thing he did was anything serious.” 

Leo’s eyes widened and he looked to see the nervous expression on Mikey’s face, “what?” 

Mikey nervously rubbed at the back of his neck.

“Was it the coffee?” Leo asks.

“No, it wasn’t the coffee,” Mikey laughed awkwardly, folding into himself a little more. “It was yesterday.”

“But you were with Dad and Raph all day, right?” Leo contemplated, he had been in the sewers by himself for the majority of that day, what did he miss?

“No, that was today.” Mikey stated, looking confused.

“So you mean the day after yesterday,”

“Whatever, just…” He looked uncomfortable as he started to pick at the flooring.

“What is it?”

“I don’t…” Mikey tapped his fingers against the floor of the turtle tank, avoiding eye contact briefly as he tried to consider his answer. “It really was just this one thing?” He chuckled quietly. “It’s so dumb too, but I haven’t stopped thinking about it.”

“What do you mean?” Leo went down to the floor and scooted close to Mikey.

Mikey hesitated to answer, “he turned off Shelldon.” 

“What?”

“Raph had broken the game cube, so I went to ask Donnie to fix it before dinner. I went in his lab but he wasn’t there, and that’s when I saw Shelly lying in his charging station. I tried talking to him, but he was off. No lights, no eye movement, just… off”

“Like… charging?” Leo asked.

“No.” Mikey answered quickly, still avoiding eye contact as he spoke. “Like off. Off, off.”

“Shelldon can’t turn off,” Donnie had installed multiple processors into Shelldon in order for him to be able to be alert at all times, a ‘security measure’ as he had put it, “He’s got a sleep mode-”

Mikey looked at Leo suddenly, and there was a bead of panic depicted on his face, “he was open and his battery was sitting on the table.”

Leo’s throat tightened. Donnie would never do that. “Woah… that’s…”

“When Donnie came in I asked him about it,” Mikey rubbed the back of his neck again and his voice got even quieter as he continued, “he said he just needed to change the battery in order to… something about his coolant?” His explaining tone of voice didn’t really convey that he believed that. “I didn’t really get it, but he said he’d fix the game cube so I left,” Mikey looked away from Leo and stood. He picked up the glue gun.

Leo was stunned. He turned off Shelldon. Shelldon! Shelldon was the one family member that Donnie could tolerate for more than ten minutes and he just… gutted him on the table? He didn’t remember seeing Shelldon the previous night when he had bothered Donatello, but then again, the lab was pretty messy, he could have missed him among the broken car and vending machine.

“It was just that one thing though,” Mikey cut into his thoughts. Leo stood as Mikey began squeezing the clear sealant on the handles break. Leo picked up the handle that laid on the counter and pushed it against the fracture. “We shouldn’t be talking about him like this.”

“Wha-” Leo was shocked, “you can’t just give me that information and not make me worried about it Mikey,” Leo wiggled the handle until it fit cleanly against the jagged piece, “he turned off Shelldon? His most recent pride and joy turtle robot son?”

“He made Shelldon,” Mikey put the glue gun down and sighed, “he knows more about him than us and updates him like… every week.”

“I think somethings up with him,” Leo whispered, Leo’s fist clenched tighter against the metal handle and his fist paled.

Mikey unplugged the glue gun and his tone turned into a mix of concern and reason, “Shelldon needs a coolant change three times a day,” he set the gun down to let it cool , with a sigh he continued, “is it really so unbelievable to you that Donnie would want to fix that?”

“Something is wrong Mikey,” Leo’s whisper rose and he took a step closer to Mikey. 

Mikey looked nervous as Leo approached. “Stop it Leo,” he warned.

“He’s been acting so weird, with the coffee, dancing, backwash, staring at me!” Leo’s voice was rising. “Are you seriously telling me that he turned off Shelldon and you’re not even a little concerned?” Leo grasped at Mikey’s arm loosely. 

Mikey looked at the hand and then back to Leo, squinting as he studied Leo carefully. After a pause, “Leo, why were you up this late anyway?”

Leo was taken aback by the question. He scoffed and shook his head as he stuttered his response. “We’re not talking about me, here, we’re talking about Donnie.”

“Yeah, but…” Mikey was starting to see the heavy bags under his eyes, “how long have you been awake?”

“Mikey, please, are you concerned or not?”

Mikey’s voice was soft and patient, but it couldn’t blanket the anxiety that was underneath “Is it the Insomnia?”

“Mikey, I am actually getting scared,” there was a shake in Leo’s voice. “He’s been acting like a stranger.”

“How much have you slept?” Mikey continued, “you’re not acting like yourself-”

Leo rose into a frantic shout, “he’s not acting like Donnie!” Mikey stumbled at the rise in his voice, shaken by the sudden hostility he stared at Leo with quivering eyes. 

“I-”

“What are you guys doing?” They both jumped at the sudden voice. Leo looked towards the floor hatch where Donnie was. He was only halfway through, leaning his head in one hand as he watched inquisitively.

“Uh,” Leo started, “we were just-” The handle fell to the floor with a bang. Mikey and Leo looked at the handle and then each other. If they could sweat, Mikey would be sweating bullets. He was painfully nervous, and so was Leo. How much did Donnie hear?

Leo swallowed the knot in his throat, “hey Donnie,” Donnie’s eyes flickered to Leo and took mark of him from top to bottom. Leo swallowed again. “Whatcha doin-”

“I broke the ice cream maker!” The answer burst out of Mikey and he was suddenly ranting again. “I woke up and after talking all day and eating dinner I forgot to have dessert so I woke up and I just really wanted something sweet and I know that you had just added marshmallow and creamsicle flavor so I thought I’d just come in here real quick and grab some but then the handle wouldn’t go down and I thought “ok I guess i’ll pull a little harder” and then it just SNAPPED in my hands! I got my glue stick, and it was my favorite glue stick because it’s worked on everything so far, even dad’s favorite mug,  but then it wouldn’t stick so I-” Leo tuned Mikey out and studied Donnie from the corner of his eye.

Donnie gazed nonchalantly at the handle before he considered the two of them. His eyes shifted between Mikey and Leo, and for a moment he just sat in the floor hatch, listening to Mikey quietly. He looked at Leo again, and as Donnie’s eyes narrowed a weight resettled in Leo's stomach, almost dragging him down to the floor. Donnie smiled, and Leo shivered. Donnie stood up from the floor hatch and placed himself between Leo and Mikey, shell to Leo.

“-and then we tried the hot glue and it was working for a second and then BAM, it fell to the floor and I am so so, So! Sorry Donnie I know how important it was to you and I shouldn’t have even-” Mikey stopped when Donnie pulled him in for a hug.

“It’s okay Micheal,” he spoke softly as he embraced Mikey carefully. “Accidents happen.” 

“Re- really?” Mikey spoke hesitantly, carefully bringing his arms up to hold Donnie back, as carefully as someone would approach an animal that might run away. Donnie never initiated hugs. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course not!” Donnie laughed, “it’s just an ice cream maker, no biggie!”

“But still, I shouldn't have-”

“You know what,” Donnie cut him off. “Why don’t we both have some ice cream together?”

Leo found his voice.“What?”

Donnie looked over his shoulder at Leo with a wide grin before looking back to Mikey “I just finished making a brand new ice cream maker in my lab!”

“Like… right now?” Leo was confused.

“No you dum-dum,” Donnie laughed heartily, “earlier today, right after dinner.”

“You mean yesterday?” Mikey chirped.

“Whatever,” Donnie expressively waved his hand, “do you want some ice cream or not?”

Mickey laughed hesitantly at the offer, squeezing Donnie tightly before letting go with a nervous laugh. “I mean-”

Purple continued, “We could have mango flavor, sprinkles and chocolate, coffee and cream, or even that new one you wanted to try, creamsicle and marshmallow!” He threw an arm over Mikey’s shoulders. “For breakfast!”

“Sure…” In disbelief, Mikey slowly returned to his ecstatic senses, quickly perking up with excitement as Donnie began to lead him towards the door of the tank. “Sure! Yeah, yeah!”

“Great!” Donnie smiled eagerly and Mikey started talking about possible ice cream combinations that he was going to try. Mikey was smiling so happily and Donnie listened fondly as he rambled on a more positive note. He held him closely, hugging him tightly by the shoulder as they approached the passenger seat door. Leo stood still, uncertain with what to do or what to say. Donnie looked back, and his grin widened.

Leo grabbed Mikey’s hand instinctively, addressing Donnie before they could go any farther, “wait!”

Donnie hummed.

Leo’s voice was choked as he tried to find a reason for stopping them. “Isn’t it a little early for ice cream?”

“No.” Mikey and Donnie said in unison, and Donnie laughed before Mikey could, the mischief in Donnie’s eyes twinkled, “want to join us?” 

Leo did not. The rock in his stomach had grown into his legs and he didn’t want to leave, he didn’t want Mikey to go either. Something was wrong while at the same time nothing was wrong. He shouldn’t be worried, nothing bad has happened, so why was he so full of dread. “We’ve still gotta fix the machine in here, right, Mikey?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Donnie scoffed, “I’ll fix it later.” He flicked open the door and Mikey was pulled out of Leo’s hands. Mikey looked back with a smile, but it broke when he saw Leo’s face. ‘Don’t let him go,’ the small voice, Raphael’s voice, whispered desperately. Too late.

Leo watched from the window as they walked towards the door of the garage. Mikey was back to rambling and Donnie held him closely as they exited. Leo yawned so hard it made him dizzy, he stumbled back to the counter and growled as he rubbed his face. What was wrong? What was wrong with Donnie? What was wrong with him? He stayed there for another few minutes, closing his eyes and breathing as he tried to get a grip on himself.

He turned off every light in the turtle tank and closed the floor hatch before locking up the garage for the night. As he walked back into the common room he could see that the lights were still on in the Lab. Mikey’s loud voice was ecstatic as he talked about ice cream and the plans that he and Raph had made with Dad.

Leo dragged open the curtain to his room and closed it behind him just as he heard Raph shouting for them to be quiet. He picked his blanket up off of the floor and flopped onto the bed, curling into a tight ball under the thick sheet trying to drown the noise of Donnie and Mikey’s stifled giggles.

Chapter Text

Leo screamed into his pillow. It was noon and he hadn’t gotten a minute of rest. He had zoned out once or twice, but nothing worthy of the name ‘sleep’ occurred in the 8 hours he had laid there. He had tried everything. Turning, tossing, blanket, no blanket, a trip to the bathroom, sit ups, boring reading, warm milk (he didn’t need anymore tea). Nothing had worked. 

He flipped back over onto his shell and stared at the bottom of the shelves above his bed. Then sighed and pulled his pillow over his face, maybe if he suffocated himself he could catch an hour or two. Maybe he could suffocate himself, and listen to music at the same time, that way he could blink out of consciousness to the sound of Enya. With one hand he started patting around for his phone, when he couldn’t find it blindly he sat up and scanned the room. He checked under his blanket and pillow, and then checked the shelving above his bed. Nothing. Forget music, how was he supposed to get his social media fix if he didn’t have his phone? He considered just leaving his room for a moment but bypassed the thought by selecting a random magazine from his book shelf. With a quick flip he opened it to a random page and started reading an article about the physics associated with throwing ‘the perfect basket’. He was bored within two sentences.

Leo opened the curtain to his room, “Hey! Has anyone seen my phone?” The common space was dim, only the christmas lights above the vert ramp provided any sort of lighting. Leo stepped into the center of the room. He scanned briefly, listening for any indication that his brothers were home. “Raph, Mikey? Dad?” No response. He yawned and stretched, trying to rub some of the irritation out of his eyes. 

Leo checked the living room first, Dad’s projector was off, and his seat was empty (both of these being very rare occurrences.) The only remnants of someone being in the kitchen was the stack of dirty dishes in the sink, the turtle tank was still in the garage, but nobody was in it, and the gaming room was untouched. Leo even mustered up the courage to check the bedrooms. All empty. Leo reentered the common room and dragged his hand across the vert-ramp as he passed it, placing himself back into the center of the room as the disturbing feeling of anxiety crept in. He spoke quietly to himself, “where is everybody?”

“They went to the store.” Leo jumped and whipped around. Donnie was sitting on the ledge of the second floor idly swinging his legs as he watched Leo from above. “They won’t be back for a while.”

Leo’s throat was dry, making his reply sound choked. “Oh.” He looked towards his bedroom, wondering why he even left it in the first place. “They left in the middle of the day?”

“Yeah,” Donnie leaned back in his seat, stretching his back until there was a pop. “Dad said something about this being the best time of the day to shop.”

Leo grimaced at the thought, Dad probably shaved himself again and now Mikey and Raph were stuck with him and his “cool-kid” outfit. There was an awkward beat of silence and Leo looked back to his room. The thought of being alone in the house with Donnie was making him feel a sense of dread in his guts, maybe he could slip out for the day and go skating again, just until Dad and his other two brothers got home, or maybe he could meet up with them? Leo could also just be on the topside long enough for this feeling to go away, ‘nothing like some fresh air,’ he thought. He could always visit Albearto land. They were pretty crowd-free during the mid-day, especially considering the dreary weather,  and they didn’t mind the “costumes”. Leo took a deep breath in and clapped his hands together.  “Well… good to know,” he took a side step back in the direction of his room, he’d just grab his hoodie and his board, he’d forget about the phone for now (god forgive him), and he’d be back before in an hour or two when everybody else was home, “catch ya’ later!”

“Now, hold on,” Donnie jumped down from the second floor, “what particular activities do you have scheduled for today, oh, brother of mine?”

“Ha ha, well…” come on, think of something, “I was gonna hit up Albearto Land for a couple of hours, y’know... just hang out, grab some funnel cake-”

Donnie interjected with an arm around Leo’s shoulder. “I absolutely love funnel cake! Let’s go together. We can take the tank.”

“Aw, you don’t have to do that…” Donnie’s face was too close and not cheery enough to ease the ball that formed in Leo’s intestines, “I know you're super busy, with the surprise and everything.”

“For you, and funnel cake?” Donnie looked away thoughtfully, “it can wait.”

A shudder ripped through him, Leo tried slipping out from under Donnie’s arm, there was a moment where Donnie tightened his grip before letting him go. Leo pushed off and looked back towards his room, he didn’t mean for his eyes to fall on his sword, but they did. Why did he want it in his hands so badly right now? He tore away his gaze and focussed back on Donnie. “No thanks.”

Donnie gave a confused chuckle. “No thanks to what?”

Leo was blunt now, “I don’t really feel like hanging out with you today,” he turned away as he began walking again.

“Why not?” Donnie gave an aggravated huff, “we haven’t hung out enough, just us two.” He put his hands up defensively and circled Leo to get closer. “How did you put it? The “Cool Colors?””

Leo twitched at that. He tried closing the curtain behind him but Donnie ripped it back open,he was in his space now and the discomfort was making Leo’s skin crawl.

“C’mon Leo,” he whined, “we could hit up ‘Run of the Mill’ on our way there, I know you love their pizza.”

Leonardo ignored the quiet grumble in his stomach at the mention of Hueso’s, “I’m not hungry right now,” he pulled his board from the wall and looked back at his sword. Should he take it with him? “Plus, I love all pizza… Donnie.” The name didn’t feel right on his tongue. Leo clipped his belt on and attached his sword, he immediately felt a wash of relief ease his senses when he felt the pressure of it against his shell. Now he just needed to get out of here.

“You’re passing up Run of the Mill?” Donnie chuckled again, “you must really not be feeling good.” Donnie leaned against the door of Leo’s room and tilted his head with concern. “Been getting enough sleep?” There was something smug in his voice and Leonardo fought a scowl.

Leo only grumbled as he finished slipping on his hoodie. “Bye.”

“Wait, what was that about your phone earlier? I could help you find it.”

“I don’t need it.” He bumped shoulders with Donnie on his way out of his room.

“No, no, here,” Donatello whipped out his own phone and quickly typed, “I’ll just call it right now.”

“It’s on vibrate,” Leo growled, “and I said I don’t need it!” It wasn’t about the phone, he just didn’t want to be in the house with Donnie any longer.

Purple grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. “It’s ringing, just hang out for a minute,” he cooed.

Leo wanted to growl, to push him off, or just shout, but then he heard the loud vibration of his cell coming from inside his room.

“Well, whaddya know!” Donnie smiled and let go of Leo. “It’s right there in your room!”

Donnie looked to Leo expectantly. Leo felt the tension rise as neither of them said anything. The sound of Leo’s phone repeated itself and Leonardo glanced towards his room, and then back to Donnie who stood behind him looking coy. ‘Just leave, now.’ The small voice, taking the deeper, responsible personification of his older brother chastised him for still being here, at home, with Donnie. But… If it was right there… why not just grab it and go? The vibrations stopped and Donnie’s expression faltered for a moment.

“Here.” Donnie stretched his phone out to Leo, “find your phone and we’ll head to Albearto’s together, I bet I can beat more of their games than you.” Donatello’s teasing sounded softly sincere, but Blue still frowned.
Leo wanted to argue. He did not want to go anywhere with him. He didn’t want to go to Albearto’s with him, he didn’t want to go to Hueso’s with him, he didn’t want to be in the tank with him, and he didn’t want to be home with him! Leo’s whole body was screaming for him to leave, just ditch the phone, leave it, you don’t need it, just leave it! He took the phone from Donnie’s hand and quickly typed in his own number.

The vibrations started again and Leo tentatively re-entered his room. Leo paused in the doorway. The noise was coming from under his bed. That’s right! He suddenly remembered last night, he remembered tossing his phone across the sheets and hearing it hit the floor. He looked towards Donnie again, who turned away when Leo looked at him, before getting down on his hands and knees. Leo could see that it was near the foot of the bed, vibrating with Donnie’s picture illuminating on the screen. Leo hung up Donnie’s phone and reached, quickly feeling the cool case of his own phone under his finger pads. Leo grasped it and pulled it out, sighing with relief as he slipped it in his hoodie pocket.

Leo jolted when Donnie’s phone went off. A quick check of the screen told him it was April.

He slid the green phone button to the left, “Why hello-”

“Donnie!” April shouted from across the speaker, causing Leo to flinch and pull the receiver away from his ear. “Where are you?”

“Uh, sorry April,” he hesitated as he stumbled up to his feet. “This is Leo.”

“Where. Is. Donnie!” She was obviously furious. Behind her Leo could hear something animal. “I told him about this a week ago!”

Leo stood up in confusion. “What do you mean, April… where are you?”

“I’m in the mystic city,” the sound of something similar to a crowing rooster sounded behind the call, “Mayhem needed to go to the vet and Donnie was supposed to pick me up an hour ago!”

“What?” Leo was confused, “What’s wrong with Mayhem?”

April continued, “Donnie shouldn’t have taken my bike if he was gonna take two weeks to “improve” it! I get it, a simple bike is a little old fashioned but two weeks ?!”

“Where are you in the city?” He heard April muffle the call as she asked someone the exact address, Leo turned to see Donnie standing on the threshold of his room. The center room was dim, but Leo’s room was dimmer. The light behind Donatello painted him into a hauntingly solemn figure as he stood motionless in Leo’s doorway. Leo heard April on the other end but didn’t look away from Donnie. “Sorry, what was that?

She sighed into the receiver, “I said, I’m under Central Park zoo.”

That was a good six miles away from where Leo was now, he suppressed a yawn as he spoke softly into the receiver, “is Sunita available, she’s closer.”

“No!” April shouted across the phone again, “Sunita is the one that got me here and she can’t pick me up because she’s at an event with her Dad, Donnie was supposed to be here! He promised!”

‘Well, that settles it then,’ Leo thought. He replied quickly as he moved to exit his room, “I’ll come get you.”  Donnie’s fists clenched tightly and he stared at the phone in Leo’s hand as he passed. Leo ignored it but quickened his pace.

April sighed audibly. “Fine, but please get here quickly. For a city that’s underground they sure do get a lot of rainfall.”

“K, I’ll be there in a ‘sec.” He heard the line cut and the phone was pulled out of his hand. Leo turned to see Donnie smiling again, motioning towards the garage.

“Ready to go?”

Leo paused, confused. “Go…?”

“Albearto Land, remember?” Donnie laughed and grabbed Leo by the wrist. Leo felt a shiver crawl up his arm as Donnie bagan to pull him.

“Didn’t you hear me on the phone?” Leo shrugged Donnie’s hand off and backed up a step, rubbing the skin where Donnie had touched him trying to get rid of the feeling.“That was April.”

“So?”

So. So? “So… she said that you were supposed to pick her up today?”

Donnie hummed as he positioned his hands on his hips, “y’know… now that you mention it, she did say something about, um…” He hummed again with a smile, “sorry, I don’t remember.”

Leo stood stupefied before turning around. “I’ll see you later Donnie, I’m going to go get April.”
“Wait,” he heard Donnie walk after him, “she’ll be fine, let’s just head out and she can just get a cab or something.” Purple’s voice was getting more impatient the more Leo walked.

“She’ll be fine, Leo, come on.”

Leo’s fists clenched and he felt a heat in his stomach as he walked faster. Flipping his hood on, he growled, “Donnie… shut up.”

Donatello paused and stopped, but only for a moment before he caught back up with Blue to put a hand on his shoulder, “What is wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with me?” Leo scoffed under his breath before he raised into a roar, “what’s wrong with you?!”

“What-”

“You all of a sudden want to spend time with me?” Leo spun around, facing Donnie and quickly closing the distance to point a finger in his chest. “ And you ditched April?! That’s not the Donnie I know! So what’s your game?” He kept going, the weight in his tummy was fuel for the aggression that started pouring out of him, “i’ll admit it, the coffee was no big deal, but the back-wash, the staring, Shelldon ? So what is it Donnie!” He screamed, flattening his hand against Purples chest but resisted pushing him. “What is wrong with you?!”

“Excuse me?” Donnie’s face darkened and Leo shivered under the icy stare. Leo moved to take a step back but Donnie grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie, pulling him back in close. “We’re brothers, right?”

Leo clasped onto Donnie’s wrist but it was set to an iron grip. Leo’s heart rate began to elevate and he could feel his own pulse through his throat. Donnie smiled.

“Brothers spend time together, right?”

“Donnie-” Leo’s hoodie squeezed around his throat as Donnie’s grip tightened.

“I just wanted to spend some time with you, Leo.” Donnie took a step back and Leo stumbled after him, trapped in this oddly strong grip that his twin held him in. “I’m always just shoving you off, and I’m sorry about that. I’m just trying to make it up to you.” He sounded sympathetic but his face was jeered into something menacing and mischievous.

“Let go, Don,” Leo gripped tighter on Donnie’s wrist, desperately trying to back up and pull away. The fire that was in his stomach was just petrified nausea now, screaming at him for not leaving when he had the chance.

Donatello continued, “is that so much to ask for?” Donnie tilted his head as he observed Leo. Leo was panting now, feeling a shake in his whole body as he desperately wanted to get away. Donnie’s expression flatlined, switching over to an expression of exhausted irritation and he sighed. “Ah, who am I kidding... you are the skeptical one of the family.” Donnie reached behind himself with his free hand and Leo’s vision shook as the hand on his Hoodie switched to his neck. “Let’s get this over with.”

Leo’s fist slammed into Donnie’s throat.

Donnie’s grip immediately released and he doubled over, clutching his airway as he backed away. Two black beads clattered to the floor but Leo ignored them for now.

Despite the chills, Leo immediately regretted his action, taking Donie by the shoulders as he began a coughing fit. “Donnie, I’m so sorry-” Donnie began retching. Leo moved behind Donnie, grasping him by the waist as he attempted to drag him to the edge of the common room so he could puke in the exposed water behind the vert ramp. Donnie grasped Leo by the sleeves, digging his heels into the concrete as he puked up liquid the color of tar. 

Donnie slowly looked over his shoulder at Leo, and a long black mass slivered from his mouth over his shoulder.

Leo wasn’t able to process the elbow in his face until after he had staggered backwards. He brought his hands up to his face but  didn’t cover his eyes, watching Donnie as he stood up straight. It was like a snake, or a tentacle, black and dripping with whatever was pooled on the floor. It slowly retracted itself, tracing over Donnie’s cheek as it slid through his teeth. Donatello shut his mouth with an audible ‘click’ and cracked his neck as he turned towards Leo. Donnie hummed, no , It hummed, and Leo finally remembered to breathe. Donnie’s bo expanded in Its hand and It took a step forward, spinning the tool theatrically as It took balanced steps around Leo.

Leo’s hands shook as he unsheathed his sword from under his hoodie, gripping the handle so tight his knuckles cramped. He took a step back for every step that It took towards him. Leo’s voice was shaky, almost as shaky as the pulse that he felt in his head and his heart, “what are you?”

It wasn't painting faces anymore. It’s expression was fixed into something both dark and dreamy as it stared Leo down. With a click of it’s tongue, It gave it’s answer with a wicked smile. “I’m Donnie.” Then It lunged.

Chapter Text

Leonardo rolled off to the side to avoid Donnie - no- ‘Its’ grapple. His quick recovery was met with the mace end of Donnie’s tech-bo brushing the skin between his eyes as it swung past. Leo jumped back to dodge the next strike, and the next, but faltered when the back of his foot snagged on a crack in the floor. ‘It’ takes advantage of Leo’s imbalance and sucker kicks him in the stomach hard enough to make Leo’s vision shudder.

Leo slides back with a cough as the taste of bile rose to his throat, cradling his stomach. He brought his sword back up but a sharp crack to the face with Donnie’s stick was enough to crumble the rest of his balance and Leo met the floor. He hears the blade of his sword hit the floor with a metallic twang but he doesn’t have time to look when a flash of purple takes his attention. His hands come up to meet the broad side of Donnie’s bo and he’s pushed further into the concrete as he fights it from crushing his throat. 

‘Its’ eyes are wide with excitement as it chuckles gruffly. “What’s wrong Leo, can’t hit your brother?”

Donnie was not stronger than Leo. Donnie has never been stronger than Leo. He couldn’t put a dent in the side of a melon on a good day, so why was Leo struggling so hard to keep this thing from pressing against his windpipe? Leo growled as he felt the strain in his arms. “You’re not my brother!” 

“You sure about that?” It whispered as it changed position, “Leo, are you sure?” It pushes harder as it straddles Leo, hovering over him and blocking out the little light there was with a twisted grin.

Leo hears his wrists pop with the pressure. “Stop,” there’s a small chain of cracking as Donnie- or - It’s knuckles pop. It forces more and more weight into the metal stick.

“I think you’re just crazy!” ‘It’ mocks Leo with a laugh.

The staff is inching closer as Leo’s arms are starting to give way. Leonardo is scrambling beneath ‘It’, trying to kick or throw ‘It’ off or something . With a cry Leo instinctively leans his head back to try and make some distance as the bo sarts to close in on his neck. Leo twists his body, flexes his guts, tries shifting his grip, anything to make this stop - and then there’s a digital ‘blip’.

Leo smiled with a grunt. “Maybe I am crazy,” he huffed and groaned as he found the strength to edge the stick away, even just a little. Donnie’s tech-bo beeped and a shower of metal plating shifted under both of their hands, “but you’re about to be over the moon.”

The dual-rocket setting was finalized and a flare of purple flames ignited. Blue could feel the heat from under his hoodie and winced as it started to burn his arm closest to the fire. The start of a word starts to form in ‘It’s’ mouth and Leo can see a flash of inky black behind Donnie’s teeth, he doesn’t stop to stare though, finally slipping one leg out and sending a forceful kick into its chest.

It grunts as it’s pushed back but maintains its grip as It and the bo begin to spin uncontrollably. Leo scans quickly to find his sword and staggers to his feet just as ‘It’ is sent crashing through the vert ramp. Leo picks up his sword and pulls out his phone as he starts running for the exit, speed dialing Raphael and clicking the green button. Leo goes for the exit by the kitchen, stopping at the threshold to the main sewer. The phone is ringing and Leo swings his sword in a familiar circle. The magic flickers and Leo’s shakes worsen, “c’mon, magic portal!” He tries again, swinging a larger, more exact circle as he catches his breath. The phone is ringing its familiar tune but there’s no answer yet, “please, please, please .” The portal shimmers weakly for a moment before forming completely with an electric zap . He takes step forwards with a laugh of success, but it's cut short when his head is ripped back by the tails of his mask.

His wrist is squeezed painfully as ‘It’ presses a thumb into a nerve, making Leo’s hand cramp until his hands stop working and his phone falls to the floor.

“Who are you calling, Leo?” There is so much furry in Its shaky whisper. An arm swings around Leo’s neck and he’s pulled into a choke as he’s dragged backwards. “Raph?” It chuckles darkly, “you think he’ll believe you?” 

Leo’s screen turned colors as a timer appeared.

“Hello?” Raph’s tiny voice emitted from the speaker, Leo screamed Raph’s name but his voice was cut short when the grip around his throat tightened enough for Blue to see spots. “What was that? Leo?” The small echo of Raph’s concern was enough to make Leo cry. Leo tried to say something, anything, Please Raph please come home, please help me , he didn’t have enough air to even gargle. ‘It’ paused, looking down on the phone for a moment before stomping down on it with enough force to shatter the phone in half.

Leo held tightly onto his sword, he wasn’t going to let it fall this time. He ripped his hand out of Its grip and tried prying off the tightening appendage. He got a breath of air and coughed as a single tear soaked his mask. “Let go!”

“He won’t believe you,” It started, pulling Leo back from the portal. “Do you think any of them will believe you? You haven’t slept in days and it’s made you look crazy.” The portal began to slowly shrink as ‘It’ increased the distance between them and the swirling blue.

“Stop it,” Leo kicked and struggled hard , twisting in place as he groaned and cried out trying to escape Its grip.

It laughed into Leo’s ear, brushing up on the side of Leo’s head with its cheek, almost affectionately as it continued. “I’m Donnie,” it sang.

“No you’re not,” he gasped desperately. Leo started to feel the pressure increase again and his vision started to blur. In the mesh of his panicked mind, he thought, ‘where is this strength coming from?’

“I, Donatello , the more humble twin am smart, talented” The portal was getting smaller and smaller as the time achingly passed. Leo dug his heels into the gritty concrete, stopping them for a moment. It hummed, “dependable, funny...” Leo’s hope was shrinking with the portal and ‘It’ knew it, so ‘It’ let them both be stationary as they watched the portal shrink together. “I’m one of the actual favorites in the family.”

Leo knocked his head back at the same time that he elbowed Donnie in the Solar plexus. It hissed as it staggered backwards and Leo swung his sword down, ‘just get him in the battle shell and you’ll have enough time to-’ Leo’s thoughts were cut short when It caught the blade with Its hand. Donnie’s gloves were enough to keep from cutting, so it squeezed it’s fingers as it straightened up to stand to its full height. Leo could see the scrapes and bruises forming on Its skin from where it had crashed into the wooden ramp. Pieces of splintered wood speckled Donnies mask and Leo could see a few large chips stuck between Donnie’s battle shell.

Leo tugged at his sword. “Let go!” Leo looked back over his shoulder, the portal was so small now, he only had seconds before it was too small for him to fit and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to make a second one fast enough.

It chuckled darkly as Leo struggled, shifting ‘Its’ grip to hold the blade even tighter. “Raph hasn’t noticed a thing,” It cocked it’s head to the side and narrowed it’s eyes, “and Splinter wouldn’t believe you even if he did love you.”

There’s a wet shift and the sound of fabric cutting as the sword slipped out of its hand. Oh no . Leo’s breath hitches when bubbles of red grow until they pool and spill onto the floor,  he could see past the thin layer of skin and fat, and then the fleshy pink of muscle and then something white. There was a pause as ‘It’ stared at the gaping slice in Donnie’s hand. It didn’t think that Leo could do it. He had cut from one end of Donnie’s hand to the other. He had cut down to bone. 

Leo tries to say something, but all he comes up with is a shaky swallow and a gasp before he turns. 

‘It’ snaps out of the trance. “No!” ‘It’ races towards the portal, reaching to try and grapple Leo just as he jumps.

Leo is washed in electric blue before the portal fizzes out, leaving ‘It’ gasping for air with a bloody hand and nothing to show for it.

‘It’ stands there for a moment, in the silence. Its groans rise into a roar before slamming Donnie’s bleeding fist into the wall. 

It puts all of its weight into the fist as it slowly leans down until it’s forehead is flush with the wall. It growls as it shuts its eyes, thinking deeply as it searched its brain on what to do next.

‘It’ sighed, taking a few more deep breaths before pulling out Donnie’s phone, which was luckily unbroken considering that it had been thrown along with the body into the vert ramp. It only rang twice before a familiar voice answered.

“Hey, Donnie, what’s up?” There was a cheer in Raphael’s voice, he could be heard crunching on something as he spoke. “I just got a call from Leo but it got cut off, is everything okay?” It’s expression twitched at the thought of Leo.

“Raph, you guys need to get home right now.” ‘It’ played up the shake that was already in Donnie’s breath from the fight, presenting desperate concern with a touch of pain as it spoke through the receiver, “I think Leo’s is sick, or maybe just crazy, but...” It began walking towards the bathroom but stopped, better let it bleed for a bit longer, “he just attacked me.”

Chapter Text

When the woman brought the bell-bird in, April knew it was time to go, screw the rain. April scrolled down to the band’s store on ITunes, finally conceding and purchasing DIGG’s most recent album. She plugged in her earbuds and let the rapid beat of drums replace the screeching call of whatever was happening in the vet clinic as she opened her umbrella and walked out. Without a carrier, April had to carry Mayhem out of the clinic in her arms, not that either of them were complaining. She walked a few paces until she was on the outside of the clinics gate, just on the outskirts of the street.

Looking back, April noted that this place didn’t look anything like a human veterinarian clinic, it was comparable to a theme park . What April had gotten from the pamphlet was that “Squaker’s Creature Clinic” was a 6 acre property that provided care for any exotic creature (everything was exotic down here, April had a hard time telling the difference between pet and owner.) Sunita had been able to get her Dad, Exploding Frankie, to drop April off in front of the clinic a few minutes before the appointment, but April had had no idea what she was getting into. It was easy enough to find a seat, but while she was waiting in the clinic, the clerk had mistaken April for Mayhem’s pet, and had spent the first 10 minutes making baby noises at her. The doctor had made the same mistake, but they were eventually able to get down to business and take care of the appointment.

She tried getting into the beat of the music, closing her eyes for a moment as she tried to ignore the cold that was crawling up her ankle. She started pacing to try and get the blood flowing. When she felt the warm brush of Mayhem’s tongue against her face she reopened her eyes to see his worried expression. “I know buddy, i’m cold too.” She heard a gargling screech come from inside the clinic and cringed, “better out here than in there though, huh?”

April and Mayhem both sighed in tandem. Mayhem curled back up in her arm, breathing gently as he settled in for warmth. “Leo, where are you…” she muttered under her breath. At the thought of Leo she was reminded of Donnie, and with that she felt her blood pressure rise. 

‘Why didn’t he come, he’s never not come.’ The fact that he hasn’t messaged her since last week was one thing, ignoring her six calls was another, and leaving her waiting for an hour was the tipping point. She tried to “zen out” to DIGG, but she kept thinking. 

“Why would he ignore me?!” She looked to Mayhem who was startled by her abrupt start of conversation, “Sure, I kept calling him today before and after your appointment, but that was because we had made plans about this like five days ago …” She should have gotten Mayhem to the clinic sooner but there was such a long wait time. She held Mayhem a little tighter, “I haven’t done anything… right?” when he shook his head ‘no’, April continued: “Yeah! Donnie would have told me if something was up, it’s not like he’s one to mince words .” She scoffed at that and groaned, the cold was crawling back up her legs again. She picked up the pace, bouncing a little with the steps. She landed in a puddle large enough to soak into her socks and she made a noise of disgust.

When April turned a blur of blue rammed into her, knocking the umbrella out of her hand as the form tightly enclosed her. She wanted to shout, but her call was cut off by the guttural sob that bled into her shoulder.

“Leo?” He responded by fixing his grasp to hold onto her tighter. Mayhem chittered in complaint as he was squished between their two bodies, teleporting to the ground behind April to escape Leo’s hold. April wrapped her arms around Leo, feeling him shiver uncontrollably at her touch. “Leo what’s wrong?”

When he didn’t respond April pulled him away from her by his shoulders. She kept him close but now she could see a redness under his eyes. A purple mark was swelling on his left cheek and there was redness forming on his throat. He looked away from her before rubbing his face with both hands. April saw the charred cloth of his sleeve and gasped, “Leo, what-”

He spoke in a low tone of voice that April was not familiar with, it was shaky and it fought back a choke as he uttered, “can I please hang out at your place for a bit?” he removed his hands from his face and looked pleadingly, “please.”

She wanted to ask, now and here, but he didn’t look up for it. He was soaked from head to toe and even at their close proximity April could see that his legs were shaking. 

She hugged him again, putting on a strained smile as she tried to stay calm. “Yeah, Leo… Of course.” 

He broke the hug first and stepped away, rubbing at his eyes before pulling out his Odachi. He stood stationary as he tried to concentrate, taking a deep breath and stabilizing before swinging his sword to form an electric blue portal. Wow. First try. April picked up Mayhem and her umbrella, closing it as she walked up to Leo. 

“It’s going to be okay, Leo,” She felt the cold rain speckle her hair and her cheeks, slowly soaking into her jacket as she put a hand on his arm. “You’re okay.”

-

April’s apartment was (thankfully) empty. Her parents were out and she knew that they wouldn’t be back until late evening, so her and Leo could hang out at least until then.

“How do you feel about a pizza,” April pushed Leo towards the couch as she pulled out her phone, “because I am famished.” She watched as he flopped down onto the sofa, he rubbed his eyes with a stiff sigh. She typed in the familiar number and paced into the kitchen to open the fridge. The number only rang twice before being answered with a familiar voice.

“Run of the Mill, this is Hueso speaking.”

“Hi,” she pushed over the carton of milk to get to the soda’s and juice. “Do you guys deliver?”

“Yes we do, what would you like.”

“Can you do a half cheese, half creepy-special, I got a friend who really likes that kind of stuff.” April squirmed at the thought of the creepy special, it was all of the boys favorite though.

“Brown, blue, or black?”

“Uhhh~” April drew out the sound in confusion, “you mean like… olives?”

“No.”

A chill shot up her spine but she choked it down, “... A- a mix, then?”

“Of course, would you like to add on an order of Garlic knots with that order?”

That sounded more up her human-palette-alley. “You know what, sure.”
“Muy bien, what is your address?”

She relayed her address information and her card number from memory and was given an approximate time of 30 minutes for delivery. With the pizza on the way she shouted from the kitchen, “Leo! What do you want to drink!”

“I’m not thirsty.” This was worse than she thought. She sighed and pushed a hand through her hair, 30 minutes until pizza, what was she going to do for 30 minutes? April usually did this for Donnie (and the occasional Mikey), but the procedure always went like this: A Jupiter Jim movie, weighted blanket, pizza, soda, and then she would ask if Donnie (or Mikey) would want to talk about it. Donnie opening up about something was a good 75%-25%, Mikey was 100% going to talk about it before she even started the movie. Leo though, April had never seen him this upset before.

She walked into her bedroom and grabbed a thick blanket off of the foot of her bed, pulling it off messily before making her way back to the living room.

Leo snapped out of a distant stare when April sat next to him on the couch.

She spoke softly as to not startle him any further. “You wanna get out of that soaked jacket?”

He looked down, as if noticing his wet demeanor for the first time. “Oh, uh…” he put on a grin, “what, don’t like the way I sparkle?”

She rolled her eyes,  “C’mon, Leo,” if he was cracking jokes maybe he was feeling better, “you’re turning my sofa a whole different shade of brown.”

She watched him chuckle as he began to peel the hoodie off of his but he stopped with a jerk. He was frozen as a darkness passed through his eyes.

She reached a hand out to gently rest on his shoulder, “Leo?” 

He snapped, “I need to use your bathroom.” He jumped up from the sofa and stumbled through the hallways before April heard the bathroom door shut with a click.

She had the notion to follow him, but took his place on the couch instead. April looked to Mayhem who likewise looked at her with confusion. She threw the blanket on the chairs arm before getting up again,  going to the cabinet below the TV as she started flipping through her collection of old dvds and (ugh) vcr’s. She heard her phone buzz and pulled it from her pocket, a text notification buzzed with Donnie’s name on the screen. She huffed and threw her phone behind her onto the couch. “You ghost me, I ghost you,” she muttered under her breath as she kept flipping through the video’s. Mayhem came up next to her and looked into the drawer.

April heard her phone vibrate again, “I’m trying to pick a movie to watch with Leo,” She pulled out two, “do you think he would like ‘ Jitsu for Justice, ’, or… ‘ Punch Chowder, Directors cut ’?” She looked to Mayhem who squinted at the weathered disks before pointing to ‘ Jitsu for Justice ’. “Yeah, you’re right,” April tossed Punch Chowder back into the drawer, “only criminals like ‘ Punch Chowder’ .”

She heard her phone vibrate a few more times but ignored it again with a huff. Mayhem teleported onto the sofa where he flipped over the phone to look at the screen, it vibrated again and again and he cringed. April turned on the television and powered up the vcr player, should she let the previews play now or wait until Leo came back into the room. Nah, only Splinter likes the previews. She loaded up the timely tape and let it start playing. Her phone started buzzing again and she groaned in annoyance. April went back to the sofa to snatch up her cell, “ugh, what?”

She opened her messages and was sent the first unchecked message. They kept coming in as she began to read:

Donnie 12:23 pm:

Hey April, did Leo come get you

Donnie 12:28:

Did Leo come get you

Is Leonardo with you

April are you back home safe

Sorry I couldn’t make it something came up.

Txt me back

Have you seen Leonardo

This felt… wrong. April looked to Mayhem who eyed her with mutual discomfort as he watched her from the sofa, she looked back to her messages as she scrolled down farther.

Donnie 12:29

Was Leo able to come get you

Leo’s not at home, have you seen him

Is Leo at your apartment

Text me when you see this

Donnie 12:30

Are you ignoring me

I need to know if Leo’s with you

*we

We need to know if Leo’s with you

We’re really worried pls respond

Donnie 12:32

Text me

Are you mad

April, Something’s up with Leo

Can you call me, Leo’s not picking up his phone

April was pulled out of the trance when she heard the clatter of falling objects and a frantic curse coming from the bathroom. 

The excuse to drop her phone back onto the couch was welcome. She moved out of the living room to the start of the hallway. “Leo?” Silence.

She could hear the sink running as she walked further. “Leo,” she tapped on the bathroom door, “are you okay?”

“I-” A shaky breath bled through the thin wood. There was a pause laced with shaky breaths that April could hear despite the flowing sink. “No.”

Her heart sunk and she gripped the door handle, “can I come in?”

When he didn’t answer, a wave of dread washed over her. Should she go in now? Would breaking into the bathroom startle him? Would it make whatever was happening worse? Was he doing something bad ?

“Yeah.”

April didn’t hesitate. 

Leo stood over the vanity with his arm under the running faucet. She gasped when she saw the pale blistering skin under all the white bubbles. April nearly tripped as her foot kicked a bottle of some beauty product across the bathroom floor, sending it flying into the side of the tub. The cabinet under the sink had been opened and emptied, piles of bottles and scrubs organized frantically in search for something. She barely noticed his hoodie and sword, discarded into a messy pile in the bath. She covered her mouth with one hand while the other went to gently touch the top of his arm. He turned his head away from the sink with a forced smile, “I can’t find your med kit.”

She ran to her room where she slid a small green backpack out from the underside of her bed, a piece of worn and slightly peeling piece of scotch tape with a red sharpied cross adorning its front (she’s known the boys long enough to have one of these). She returned to the bathroom and turned the sink off. She gripped Leonardo firmly as she forced him onto the toilet, she took her place sitting on the side of the tub as she practically ripped open the bag.

“Leo, what did you do?” The burn was on the side of his forearm, starting an inch below the wrist and stretching all the way to his elbow. The skin was a dull and ashy green, distant from his healthy neon shade and covered in small, broken blisters. She reached for the towel hanging on the wall and dabbed at the skin gently to dry the sink water, Leo noticeably flinched at the contact but said nothing. She dived into her bag, retrieving a gauze, a roll of bandages and a burn spray that she sat next to her on the tub ledge. “Leo, what did you do?!” she repeated again. She applied the spray first, an antibiotic burn spray laced with lidocaine, spraying libberaly before applying the gauze loosely to the face of the burn. 

“I- I don’t know.” 

“What do you mean, you don’t know?!” her sudden shout made him flinch, “this is a second degree burn and you don’t know ?!.” She started to loosely apply the bandage, too tight and it would cause more harm than good. Mayhem appeared in the bathroom on top of the sink, curiously looking down on the wound as April applied her first aid. She heard Leo suck a breath in and looked away from his arm to see him holding his face in his hand. 

“I don’t know what he- what to-” Leo rubbed his hand down his face, a few tears falling down his cheeks as he spoke, “I don’t know what to do.” He choked and hiccuped with every word. Mayhem trilled quietly with concern, leaning closer to Leo as he watched the two of them interact.

“Leo...” April switched from restraining his hand to holding it, softening her tone as she looked him in the eyes. “Leo, take a deep breath. Can you breathe with me?” He nodded.

“In-” She inhaled deeply through her nose and he copied her, “out.” She exhaled through her mouth, and although his breathing was ragged he replicated the motion. April repeated this with him until his breathing was calmer. She finished wrapping his arm and hugged him, holding him tightly in the dim lighted bathroom. 

“I’m sorry,” Leo hesitated, sniffling quietly into her shoulder as he considered what to apologize for, “about the mess, about you being left there in the rain, about Donnie not...”

April took a deep breath, “it’s okay, Leo.” She sat on the lip of the bathtub and swept him over with her eyes, “is there any other injury I should know about?”

He did a little shimmy on the toilet seat, “not that I can feel,” he said blankly. “I didn’t…” Leo looked at his bandaged arm, turning it over slightly before feeling the bandages with his other hand, “I didn’t even feel this, the burn.”

April tilted her head in concern and placed her hands awkwardly in her lap, she didn’t know where else to put them right now. “Were you in shock?” With how upset he looked in front of the vet, it wasn’t unlikely, but the boys usually nursed their own injuries together . April could feel her heart rate pick up as her mind started thinking the worst “Leo… Where are your brothers?” 

He straightened and shook his head, “no… No, April they’re fine, this was…” he pulled his arm up to rub at the back of his neck, his hands ghosting over the formed bruise on his throat before moving away again, “Dad, Raph and Mikey are fine, they weren’t even there when it...” Leo paused and his eyes focussed on something distant.

“What about Donnie?” Leo shifted uncomfortably. April took his face in her hands, forcing Leo to make eye contact with her, “Leo, what. About. Donnie.”

“I think he’s… okay?”

“What?” Mayhem hopped onto the back of Leo’s shell, rubbing against his head as Mayhem took a closer look at Leo’s arm, going over the medical work with narrowed eyes. “What is that supposed to mean!”

Leonardo leaned back out of her hands. “April, I don’t even know how to explain it, he-” Leo groaned in frustration and grabbed Mayhem quickly to place him back on the floor, “It. It wasn’t even... It wasn’t even Donnie.”

April felt a wave of confusion roll over her. She balked, “what are you talking about?”

Leo laughed pitifully as he brought his hand up to his face, “ah-ha-ha~” he sputtered out, “I don’t even know where to start…” He rubbed over his eyes and leaned back in defeat on the tank of the toilet. He sighed deeply before quietly saying, almost to himself, “I think I'm going crazy, April.”

April said nothing, examining Leo as he laid back in defeat, not looking at her, not looking at anything really. She finally noticed the dark bags under his slightly bloodshot eyes, he looked utterly exhausted and she wasn’t sure what to do. Keep pushing for an answer? No. No not yet. She sighed and looked away towards Mayhem, who was circling the bathroom floor. Mayhem was still disgruntled from being placed on the floor but walked up to Leo’s leg, sniffing at his ankles and narrowing his eyes.

In the uncomfortable silence April could finally hear the TV going, the previews were coming close to an end. “Leo, do you want to go sit in the living room?” He looked uncertain at the question, looking over April as they both hesitated. She turned to a softer tone. “Go get comfortable on the couch, I’ll clean up here and I’ll be with you in a second.” He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again. “Okay?”

After another moment, Leo simply nodded and stood. Mayhem staggered back from the sudden movement and stumbled backwards as Leo moved out of the bathroom, Mayhem quickly followed, close behind his heels.

April breathed out with a sigh of relief, loosely running her hand through her hair as she leaned over her knees. What was going on? She took a deep breath in and tossed the burn spray back into the bag, zipping it up quickly and placing it on top of the toilet. April took to the floor as she began to place the miscellaneous beauty products back into the bottom of the sink. While looking for her medical kit, Leo had tried to place the cabinets contents in neat rows on the floor and counter, but somewhere along the way something must have fallen, causing a domino collapse and causing the noise that brought April to the door.She finished placing everything back into the cabinet and closed the door quietly before standing and approaching the bathtub. 

Leo’s hoodie was soaked in her hands, would he even still want it with the massive burn on the sleeve? She considered hanging it on the curtains tension-rod to dry but reconsidered. Wouldn’t want to forget it's there and have her mom find it and ask questions. April reopened the med bag and stuffed it in there, she’d hang it up to dry later and ask if Leo would still want it. She bent down and clasped his sword, freezing as she got a closer look at the blade. Along the sharp edge was a thin stretch of red. His sword had blood. Was that normal? It was a sword so blood shouldn’t be unbelievable, but it was blood. Leo had never really cut people before though so what blood- whose blood was this? He was burnt, not cut. It wasn’t his, but it was blood so who…

April’s head ran around in circles. It was blood. On Leo’s sword. April turned the bath’s faucet on and quickly ran over the edge with a hanging washcloth, quickly removing the red and going over it a few more times for good measure. She took the hanging towel and dried it before setting the Odachi on top of the towel rack. Why did she do that? Should she have asked first? Asked what, if he wanted to keep it on it? If he wanted to keep blood on his sword?! April groaned and rubbed her hands over her face. They felt cold from the bathwater, it felt nice against her flushed cheeks.

April inhaled deeply and held it, holding her breath and counting to thirty before releasing it in a long, deep sigh.

“Okay.” She repeated the breath again as she held her hands together in front of her lips, holding for thirty before releasing another long, deep sigh. “Alright, April. You are going to go in there, and you are going to be there for your friend.” She paused and picked up the med bag, starting her trek back to her room where she returned her bag to the bottom of her bed, “he’ll tell you when he’s ready, it’s okay, he’s okay…” She felt calmer from talking to herself, she didn’t do it often, but it helped, and she could feel it helping her now as her nerves subsided, “it’s all going to be okay.”

-

April called from the kitchen, “water or soda?”

He wasn’t thirsty earlier, but he could feel the stripping dryness in his throat now. “Just water, please.” Leo could hear the refrigerator open and close with a clap.

Mayhem returned to Leo’s lap the moment he sat down, curling back into a ball and purring softly as Leo stroked his fur. For the first time in days Leo felt relief wash over him, and he gave a heavy yawn.

Leo snapped his mouth closed, he didn’t want to sleep just yet. April walked into the room carrying a bottle of water and a can of soda. Once she handed the water to Leo she plopped down onto the opposite side of the couch and cracked the can open.

Why did he say all that in the bathroom? Leo was filled with embarrassment and fear, did April think he was crazy now?

Might as well make small talk. “Why did Mayhem need to go to the vet?”

April swallowed the soda with a sigh, “poor little guy wasn’t eating, turns out he had some yucky stuff in his guts and now he’s gotta go on a “delicate tummy” diet and take some pills.”

“Yucky stuff as in…”

April took a sip, pushing out an audible sigh afterwards. “Some intestinal parasite, I think?”

Leo cringed. “Ugh,” it just had to be that. Leo brushed off the chill and sipped at his water, “how was the vet?”

“Oh don’t even get me started,” April sat her can on the coffee table with a hard tap. “I couldn’t get Mayhem to a vet up here for obvious reasons , so I call Sunita about it and she recommended this vet clinic,” her phone vibrates but she ignores it as she starts her tangent, “so I get there and it looks like a prison, I get Mayhem inside and the receptionist doesn’t take me seriously until I show her the appointment on my phone. I end up waiting an hour longer than I need to before the doctor finally sees me and Mayhem bites him!”

“He bit someone?” Leo carefully moves his hand off of Mayhem’s back, eyeing the comfortable yokai cat-dog who grumbles at the loss of the touch. “I thought he reserved that kind of stuff for Raph.” Leo chuckles dryly.

April gives a ‘Ha’, but continues “I know right! Anyway, after he pins Mayhem down with some ‘magic hands,’” April makes jazzy hands at those words, “he prods and pokes mayhem for like twenty minutes before putting like three shots in his tummy.” She leans over and picks Mayhem off of Leo’s lap to set him down on her own, gently petting his head until he was comfortable again. “Mayhem throws up like two times his body weight all over the doc’s shoes and that’s when the guy finally tells me that Mayhem was sick with some weird stuff before shoving me out the door with a bill and a pack of pills.” April huff’s. In hearing April retell his traumatizing tale , Mayhem stands gruffly and hops back off of her lap onto the floor to start licking his fur.

Leo watched Mayhem tentatively and shifted his legs to be a bit farther away from the weird dog. “Sounds… awful.” Mayhem noticed Leo’s movement and started sniffing again, getting closer to his ankles as he inspected.

“Yeah, now he’s gotta take pills for a few days to make sure it all gets out of his system, apparently it’s some super persistent variety.” April sighed and leaned back. “For a doctor, he didn’t talk much and I barely understood anything he was saying when he did .” She moved her eyes to the screen of the T.V.. ‘ Jitsu for Justice ’ was starting now, the opening shot starting with Lou Jitsu (like most of his movies.) “But… I’m glad that it's over. This little guy was acting all kinds of weird, he’s acting way more like himself now.” She sighed.

‘Wish I could feel the same way,’ Leo thought. Leo tried doing the same, staring at the screen as he tried to zone out. He was suddenly aware of the blanket next to him as he pulled it off the arm and wrapped himself in it. A wave of heat shot through his arm up to his shoulder, making him wince just as he settled in for comfort. He ignored it and tried to focus on the screen... The fight with It … A visual of himself on the ground, with Donnie’s body hovering over him settled in his brain like a transparent filter. The rocketsetting on Donnie’s tech bo after he pushed the button. When the purple flames started and he felt the heat on his arm. Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That must have been it. When the rocket setting started and he was so panicked that he hadn’t registered the pain. 

Leo suddenly felt queasy as the burn on his arm visualized in his head. He leaned back until his shell was flush with the sofa, keeping his eyes shut as he took a deep breath. Painful heat went up his arm again. The hand on his neck. The choke hold he was forced into. Calling Raph. Being dragged away by the throat…. Donnie’s hand. His eyes snapped open, but not before the visceral picture of his twins gaping palm flashed through his mind. Oh no oh no nono. It was so deep and there was white. It was bone. Leo lurched forward into his hand. He cut someone. Hurt someone. Donnie. He sucked in a harsh breath. ‘It wasn’t Donnie. It’s not Donnie,’ the small voice - maybe it was Leo’s conscience, which, funny enough, took the form of Raph - tried to reason. Oh but it was a body. Maybe not Donnie’s but maybe it was Donnie’s and he just hurt him. 

“Leo?” He heard April but he didn’t want to respond. He felt like he couldn’t respond without breaking down. He now realized that he still had the water bottle in his hands. Not wanting to crush it with his vice grip , he set it onto the coffee table between them, staring at the water as it quaked.

He exhaled shakily as he tried to get a grip on himself. ‘Don’t do this, not here,’ he tried repeating the words in his head. What if it was Donnie. What if it wasn’t ? If it was? Then his brother is being puppet controlled by a worm the size of a python from the inside out . If it wasn’t, then Donatello might be dead already and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Leo.” A hand on his shoulder snapped him out of it. Her voice was so soft it was almost a whisper. “You’re okay.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it again as the words caught in his throat. He tried again, only a gargle coming out the second time before he snapped it shut again. April moved to hold his hand, patiently looking him in the eyes as she listened. He blinked the tremor out of his vision as he focused on her. “It started two days ago,” Leo started,  “I didn’t think much of it… but then it started getting worse.”

She squeezed his hand when he hesitated and he swallowed. Closing his eyes as everything revisualized at once. He had already started, ‘keep it as “on-track” as you can, man’ the voice in his head - which he now knew was mind Raph - chastised gently. 

“It’s Donnie.” He felt a sting in his throat again but he swallowed it down, “or maybe it was Donnie at some point... but isn’t any more. But I don’t want to think that because that would mean that…” that he’s dead. “I-” that Donnie’s dead. That he’s dead and something did it, and they didn’t stop it, that he didn’t stop it and Donatello, his twin, his brother their brother was dead. Leonardo tilted his head back as he fought tears. “I just knew that something was wrong, nothing was wrong, but…” He should have said something to Raphael, maybe he would have believed him more than Mikey did and none of this would have escalated like it had, but then again, “he wasn’t even acting weird!” April shifted back uncomfortably at the sudden outburst. “And the stupid milk!”

“Slow down Leo,” April kept her hand on his, squeezing it comfortably as she brought her other hand up defensively. “Can you start from the beginning?” She watched as Mayhem jumped onto the sofa and curled up in his lap. Leo looked down in surprise but hummed softly as he started to pet his fur.

He thought he was starting from the beginning. He breathed in and out, picking a better place in the story to start with. “It didn’t start getting odd until breakfast, the other day, when I asked him about why he was putting milk in his coffee, not a big deal.” April nodded, “But then he got uncomfortable with my questioning, so I tried leaving it alone. Then it got weirder… like,” Leonardo looked to April as he hesitated, she was paying attention to him as he spoke, taking in everything as he said it as she tried to understand, “he started trying to spend more time with me. He intentionally lost a game to me, which he would never do, and he didn’t care when Mikey broke the turtle tank!” Leo’s voice had risen again.

“Whoa whoa whoa, wait.” April briefly interrupted with a shocked tone. “Mikey broke the tank?”

“Well, no… just the soft-serve machine.” Leo trailed off, “but he wasn’t even annoyed!"

Mayhem rolled over on Leo’s lap but seemed to be bothered again, hopping up on all fours to jump off the couch.

April hummed, “he didn’t say anything?”

“Nothing! And I-” Leo stumbled over his words, “and I know that that’s so small! It’s like I said, nothing was bad, nothing was wrong . Just… off , and there was no reason for me to be suspicious, no real reason for me to be paranoid. And then, right after you called…” he forced himself to stop when he heard the quiver in his voice.

“It’s okay, Leo,” She took his hand again, rubbing her thumb over the back of his hand as she held it tightly. She gave a small, understanding smile. “It’s okay. Take your time.”

“There’s something inside of him.” Leo’s voice broke. “It crawled back inside of him and it’s not him, I think it’s his body but it’s not him who’s moving and talking,” Leo brought his hands up as he accentuated his words, breaking contact with April’s hand as he continued. “I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that there’s some monster impersonating him, or that nobody knows, or that I have no idea how long he- It has been like that.” Mayhem sniffed at Leo’s ankles again, squinting before poking at Leo’s shin guards (ankle warmers? socks?)

“What do you mean?” April felt unease at what Leo was insinuating, a similar feeling to when she had read those texts.

“It was like… a snake, or a worm, it was black and it came out of his mouth before Donnie- It attacked me.” He has it in his head that it’s not Donnie, but his mouth can't get it right. “It’s like...”

April hesitantly finished for him. “Like… like a parasite?”

Mayhem screeched.

Both Leo and April jumped at the sudden noise and Mayhem ripped off Leo’s shin guard with his (surprisingly strong) tiny hands. Leo jumped back farther into the couch with a yelp at the motion as April tried to grab the little yokai.

“Mayhem, stop!” She tried grabbing him but he dodged April’s hands as he jumped onto the coffee table between them, shaking Leo’s shin guard roughly. 

Something struck the table, sticking stationary to the hard surface with a tap. Mayhem threw the guard over his shoulder - which flew over April’s head - and inspected the small item. He squinted his eyes as he took it between his tiny fingers and sniffed it once before growling. With a huff, mayhem showed it to them both, holding the small bead in the air for Leo and April to see. Mayhem held a black bead the size of a pinky nail between his tiny claws, it shined dully in the light of the T.V. Leo flinched in recognition. It was one of the beads that Donnie had pulled from behind his shell.

“Uh, Mayhem?” April asked, “what’s up buddy?” 

Mayhem reached it towards her and April took it between her fingers, tapping it between her finger pads. “It’s… kinda sticky?” She offered the observation as she handed the bead to Leo, who did the same. Mayhem rolled his eyes as he watched her pass it off to him. It was sticky. As Leo rolled it between his fingers he could feel it’s pull on his skin, it was also kinda squishy under the pressure.

Mayhem pulled Leo’s water bottle over to the center of the table and quickly unscrewed the lid. He hopped onto Leo’s lap, snatching the bead from his fingers before turning back to the table. Popping the bead in quickly, he recapped the bottle before shaking the container vigorously with both hands. Both Leo and April watched silently (although definitely confused) as Mayhem performed the task with shut eyes. After what felt like minutes, Mayhem set the bottle back down with a tired sigh, keeping his tiny hand on the lid to hold it down. The bead was now three times its size.

April looked towards Leo. He was transfixed, his lips pressed tightly together as he stared with wide eyes. He gasped. April snapped her head back towards the coffee table. The bead squirmed and twitched before cracking open. A black, rounded point shot out from the crack, extending and expanding as it breached what they now knew as an egg . The thin tubular worm escaped its egg as it circled its environment, slowly expanding.

“What the-” April gasped. Leo was silent as he watched, unconsciously gripping the arms of the chair until the fabric squeaked. Horrified, they both watched over a span of minutes as the creature grew longer and thicker, soaking up the water until it filled the space of the entire bottle. Even when there was no space to grow, they could still see it slithering around and into itself, turning the water into a murky black.

Mayhem broke the silence with a chirp. Looking expectantly at them both.

“Mayhem, i’m going to assume that you…” April tried her best to avoid looking at the bottle, trying instead to focus on her pet/friend to fight the nausea. “Know what that is?”

Mayhem nodded.

“That’s…” April and Mayhem both looked towards Leo, who forced his words out with bated breath, “that’s the thing.”

Mayhem pushed the bottle to the side, getting back up onto all fours as he looked towards Leo pitifully. April jumped as the bottle shook on it’s own, she felt her skin crawl and shifted in her seat. Looking towards Leo she could see what only could be described as despair and disgust.

“That’s what’s in Donnie.”

The doorbell rang.

Chapter Text

April  tipped the delivery kid and shut the door. After setting the boxes of pizza and garlic knots on the coffee table she flopped down onto the sofa with a breath of relief.

“It was just the delivery kid, Leo,” she shouted. 

A clatter from the kitchen rang through the small apartment before Leo re-entered the living room. With a disgruntled huff, Leo took a seat beside her. “Was it really necessary for you to kick me into the broom closet?”

“Uh,” Now that April thought about it, kicking him into the pantry may have not been as necessary as she felt at the time. “I panicked?” She offered with a shrug.

After a pause, he gave a dry chuckle. “Under the circumstances,” Leo sighed as he sank into the sofa, “you’re forgiven.”

April could feel Leo’s exhaustion. His humor was gone and he was practically deflated against the cushions. Straightening herself to close the gap, she said “I know that a lot is going on right now and it's scary… I’m scared too. Even I’m having a hard time understanding it, but don’t worry,” she placed a comforting hand on his arm and gave a light squeeze, “everything is going to turn out okay.”

Leo looked towards April. Mayhem jumped onto Leo’s lap, rubbing against his chest and licking his face to pull a smile from him. Leo hugged Mayhem, a small smile creeping into him as he pulled him close. “You’re right,” he smiled towards April, “thanks.”

“We’re going to figure this out, but for now,” she popped the box open, “let’s get you to eat something, okay?” The smell of warm cheese and spices flooded the room and April pulled out a cheesy piece for herself. She hesitated to pull a piece from the other half - the squirmy, blinking, vibrantly-colored-tentacle-covered half - but she did it anyway and held it out to Leonardo. “I got your favorite!” 

The slice was tempting. It was his favorite. He and his brothers would share this pizza all the time, but now? The sight of the wriggling slice made him nauseous.

“Actually,” he reached into the pizza box to grab a slice of the cheese, “I think I'll stick with the classics today.”

April looked surprised by his answer but took a bite without a word. As she began to lower the creepy special back into the box Mayhem jumped over the table and snatched it from her hand.

“Mayhem no!” She jumped from her seat, “you can’t eat that!” Leo swore that he saw Mayhem smirk as he ran into the kitchen with April close on his heels. A crash followed by a bang bounced off the walls of the apartment, chased with April’s voice, “you’re on a delicate tummy diet!” 

Leonardo took a bite of his pizza. It was good. Really good . While the crashing (and a few muttered curse words) echoed he began to eat faster than normal, quickly finishing his slice before grabbing another cheesy piece. He finished that too, and after he finished a third of the garlic knots he realized that this was the first time he’d eaten today. Mayhem ran back into the living room and ran across the back of the couch. April slid in before jumping onto the back of the sofa herself in a tackle maneuver and pushing Leo to the side, almost grabbing Mayhem in a hold before he poofed onto the top of the bookshelf, the creepy-special slice still clenched between his fangs. 

“Mayhem not the bookshelf .” It was too late, he finished it in three bites, looking smug from his high place as he did so. April came back and plopped down next to Leo. That’s when he noticed a light dust of flour on her clothes.

Leo snorted, covering his mouth to keep the bready appetizer in. April glared a little, but as she looked up to Mayhem and then back to Leo she sighed with a giggle. “It’s not funny, Leo, he’s not supposed to eat anything but bland chicken and rice!”

“The soup?” He grinned.

“No!” A playful punch sent to his arm made him wince but he laughed along with her. 

April picked up her soda and slice that had been dropped in the mayhem , leaning back with Leo as they tuned back into the TV. They had forgotten that it was on with the delivery boy scare and Mayhem. At forty minutes into “Jitsu for Justice,” Lou was on his seventh fight. Leo mindlessly bit into the garlic knots. The soda in April’s can sloshed quietly as she took a bite of her pizza. They both knew this movie, they had seen it a million times, seen it enough for it to be a comforting family favorite. Mayhem poofed into Leo’s lap, burping -towards April- before circling in his lap and curling into a loose ball. 

‘Hot~,” April mouthed the script along with Lou on the screen, ‘soup!’ She heard a quiet thrumming and looked over towards Leonardo. He was drumming his fingers on the arm of the chair. The usual interest he displayed in the old Lou Jitsu films was gone, replaced with a new, horrific fixation on the bottle on the table. A pang of regret hit April in the chest. She should have moved it before they started eating. How could she forget? 

His expression was tight as he stared at the bottle. The bottle wasn’t shaking as much as it had before, but it still shivered every once and a while under their gaze. So that’s what’s in Donnie? It sounded so sci-fi , but April was friends with mutant turtles and Sunita, so it was kind of ludicrous for her to think that this sort of thing was improbable. “Do you know what it wants?”

“No.” The answer came without hesitation. “I don’t have a single clue, as far as I know It’s just… coexisted until today.” April felt Leo tense next to her. 

“And it's violent?”

There was a quiet pop in Leo’s fist as his hand tightened. “Oh yeah.”

“And It’s in Donnie?”

Leo leaned forward onto his fist, covering his mouth as he shakily whispered, “yup.”

Donnie was under the control of some freakish worm thing, and now Leo got hurt because of it. April picked up her phone from beneath her, opening the search engine and typing in “parasite”. She paraphrased as she skimmed the wiki article. “A parasite is supposed to- a successful parasite is supposed to maintain a balance with its host. So that it can survive and reproduce.” She read through the passage, ignoring the message notifications that sat at the top of her screen.

Leo scoffed, “Yeah, I figured.” He pet Mayhem gently to hide the shake that had returned to his hands.

“So Donnie has a parasite, not... is the parasite?” She cringed at her own grammar but continued. “So we just need to get it out of him.” She sat up straighter as she clicked on an article.

“Yeah.” Leo straightened as well, looking over her shoulder to look through her phone with her. “But how are we supposed to do that?”

“You said it came out of his mouth?”

Leo swallowed uncomfortably at the memory, “yes.” 

“Ok, so it’s probably in his digestive tract,” she scrolled down to skim the article, not finding a lot that she could understand, “like, his stomach.”

He said with a sigh, “I know what the digestive tract is, April.” Leo pushed into April’s shoulder as he read with her, not understanding it very much himself, “if it's in his guts, how is it controlling his body?”

“It's obviously not a normal parasite, maybe it's some mystic parasite?” She offered, running a hand over her scalp. Mayhem’s ears perked. 

“So… maybe if Donnie eats something it’ll come out?” 

She scrolled down further to see if there was anything in the article about diet. “Has Donnie-” April caught herself, “Has It been eating anything weird, or avoiding anything in particular?”

Leo’s eyes darted as he tried to find anything significant in his memory, “It’s only put milk in his coffee, but I haven’t really watched him eat all that much.” Mayhem huffed in Leo’s lap, his ears twitching as he continued to listen.

“Okay…” what else could they do? It’s not like they could take him to a hospital, maybe a hospital in the Mystic city? But they couldn’t just drag Donatello there. “Nobody else has noticed anything? Not even Raph?”

“I didn’t get a chance.” Leo groaned, “I told Mikey, he was the one that saw Shelldon, but…”

“But what?”

“I just made myself look crazy!” Leo jerked forwards and threw his hands up in frustration, scaring Mayhem into a rigid sitting position. “He didn’t believe me at all, and then “Donnie” came in and swept him off his feet with soft-serve!” Leo made air quotations at Donnie’s name. 

“Okay Leo, okay ,” April placed a hand on his arm, Leo held Mayhem in a soft hug as he sank back into the couch, his gaze returning to the bottle on the table. “So definitely a no on anybody else noticing.”

A groan escaped him as Leo sank back into the sofa. As much as he'd been grumbling and groaning, he should be buried in the cushions by now. What was he going to do? His brothers and Dad were still at home with that thing , and he needed to figure out how to save his twin, plus it’s not like he could hide out at April’s for the rest of his life.

‘Enough moping, Leo,’ Raphael’s voice was still quiet, but Leo could hear it clearly as it poked into his thoughts.  ‘You need to save your brothers.’ The image of his oldest brother was comforting. As Leonardo closed his eyes, he tried imagining him in his mind. With a bit of imaginative work he was able to visualize Raph sitting in their home, lifting weights as he spoke.

‘Really, I had planned to leave them to get eaten alive.’ He scoffed at his own sarcasm. After a moment's pause Leo asked, ‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘C’mon, this isn’t a test. The answer’s easy.’ Leo would’ve rolled his eyes if this conversation wasn’t taking place in his head. Mind Raph noticed it anyway, choosing an irritated tone to continue.  ‘What do you do when someones sick?’

Leonardo mused, ‘put them in a giant hamster ball filled with pizza?’

Raphael stopped lifting as the thought struck him. ‘I could actually see that working, but no…’ Raphael let the inner gears of Leo’s head turn as the puzzle pieces fell into place ‘You give them medicine.’ 

“APRIL!”

“Ah!” The sudden noise caught her off guard enough to pull a yelp from her. Mayhem shot up, jumping to April’s lap. “What?!”

“You said the vet gave you something, right?” Leo turned to face her on the sofa, the sudden urgency causing an actual adrenaline rush inside of him.

“Uh yeah, the-” her eyes widened as it clicked. The snapped her fingers into a finger gun at Leo as the thought struck her. “The pills. The pills!” April repeated as she began to furiously rifle through her pockets. A blister pack fell out her pocket and onto the sofa cushion where she picked it up and flipped it over to reveal neat rows of pentagon shaped, white pills. She flipped it over again, to read the back where a paper note was firmly stapled. When her eyes met Leo she said, “this might work.”

A rush of catharsis flooded Leonardo. Speaking almost prompted tears from his eyes, his breath shaky with something other than the hopelessness he was feeling earlier, “if I can give Donnie this, he might- I might be able to get that thing out of him.”

Mayhem took the pills from April’s hand, reading over the instructions himself before handing them over to Leo.

The whole pack added up to about three thousand and six hundred milligrams of Praziquantel. Leonardo wasn’t a pharmacist but that seemed a bit overkill even with his current situation. He took a deep breath. He just needed to give him the pills, no big deal, maybe he could slip it in ‘Donnie’s’ food or maybe just get him alone and somehow trick him into taking them? It was pretty eager to drink after Leo yesterday, maybe he could dilute a few pills in a water bottle and fool him into drinking that. 

“Leo…”

He looked back up to April.

“I’m suddenly hit with the implications of giving Don pills without his knowledge.”

Leonardo opened his mouth to say something but quickly shut it. He took a deep breath before releasing it, forcing himself to relax. “I know, but…” She was right, this was sketchy, and in any other circumstance he’d take a step back and reconsider. Leo took the bottle from the table and held it between them. “This is real.”

Looking at it again made her insides squirm. Donatello was her best friend and if this was real… April tried to remember what the vet had said about the medicine but not much came to mind, what if it was too much, what if it hurt him in a different way. But if this was really happening… With a sigh she took the bottle from his hand, noticing how cold the bottle felt. “I trust you, just-”

A cheery electronic ring interrupted them, prompting April to pull her phone from her pocket. She flipped over her phone to reveal the hippopotamus turtle meme. Raphael.

The ringtone went off once before she slid the green button to activate the call, putting it on speakerphone. “Raph, hey what’s up?”

“April, something happened between Donnie and Leo at the lair.” Leo quietly grimaced. “Leo’s disappeared now and I think he might be hurt because I can’t get a hold of him and I have no idea where he might be.” They could both hear Raphael’s voice crack with that last line. Leo felt a stab to the heart before he was flooded with regret, of course Raphael would be worried. April looked at Leo, who nodded.

“Leo’s at my place, you wanna talk to him?”

“Wh- YES!” 

Leo took the phone from April’s hand. “Hello?”

“Leo, where are you? Are you okay?!” The boom of the sudden audio jerked Leo's head away from the device. Raph panicked across the receiver.

“Yeah, Raph I'm fine, I just…” Leo hesitantly looked towards April.  “I just got to April’s,” he lied. 

“Leo you’ve been gone for hours, no phone call and you expect me to believe that you’re just fine?!” Leo could hear Raph pace from across the phone. “What happened? The lair was a mess when we got back.”

Ah. Right. The skate ramp must be in shambles after Donnie’s Tech bo threw...“Is ‘It’ there?”

“What?”

“Listen, Raph,” Leo stood and walked across the room to face the window, “you need to stay away from Donnie, it’s not Donnie it’s something else. There’s something inside of him controlling him, it attacked me when I figured it out.” The words fell from his mouth in a frantic hysteria the faster he spoke.

“Woah, woah, woah, slow down,” Raph’s tone softened. “I know that you might feel a little frazzled right now but you need to come home.”

Leo scoffed at that. “It’s not Donnie, Raph!” Leo shouted. There was a pause across the line, Leo could practically hear Raphael thinking. A thought struck Leo and his mouth went dry. “Is it… Is it there with you?”

Raph took another moment before he replied, “Donnie is-”

“You guys need to get out of there,” Leo cut him off, “if it’s in the lair you guys need to get out now!”

“No, no... No,” Raph continued to speak gently. His soft tone beginning to calm Leo from over the phone. “Donnie left, okay?”
“Are you sure?”

“Yes Leo.” Leo tried listening from across the phone, trying to find any indication that his brother was lying. But he wasn’t. As he always was, Raphael was telling the truth. “You’re at April’s? I can come pick you up,” he offered.

“No, no it’s fine Raph,” he turned towards April, locking eyes with her as he spoke. “I’ll- I’ll come home.” He was doing this. He was really going to do this. Everything suddenly became overwhelming as he tried to think of what exactly he needed to do and say in order to make this work, how it needed to go so that nobody got hurt, including himself and Donatello. Leonardo released a shaky breath, “are you sure that… thing isn’t there?”

“Yeah, Leo, I’m sure.”

“I just-” he laughed as he rubbed a hand over his head. “I know that I sound crazy but…” there was a hesitation,  “If I started from the beginning I’d just sound more crazy than I already feel.”

Raphael hummed, “It’s okay Leo, we can talk about it when you get home,” well that was a conversation that Leo was now dreading, “are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up?”

Leo closed his eyes. “Yeah,” he forced himself to tense before relaxing again. “I can- I can make it home just fine.” Before Raphael could say anything else he added, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’ll see you soon.” A sigh of relief could be heard from over the phone. “I love you.”

A genuine smile appeared onto Leo’s face, “I love you too.” And then he hung up.

Alright, there’s no time to wait. He went to the bathroom where he reattached his Odachi to his shell, April followed him from behind, abandoning the bottle on the sofa. “Leo, are you sure about this?”

They exited the bathroom to go back to the living room, where Leo retrieved the pills from the couch, “sure about what?”

 “How do you know that those will even work?” An irritated bark snaps them both back to Mayhem as he stares them both from the table, his tail tapping the hardened wood in irritation. April ignores Mayhem, looking back to Leo, “how do you know that the pills will work?”

“I-” He tried to find true conviction, “I don’t.” His hand gripped the door handle, hesitating to turn. “But it’s what we’ve got.”

The silence that ensued was almost painful as April tried to offer any other suggestions. She looked to Mayhem, who only looked with sympathy before nodding.

“I just…” she breathed in before releasing with a heavy sigh, “I just want you to be okay-”

The rapid knocks on the door made them both freeze. Leo held a hand out to April in a stopping motion. The rapping came again and he released the door handle, stepping away quietly.

The knocks came again, louder this time. “April.” Oh no. “It’s Donnie.”

April grabbed Leo by the wrist. He stumbled after her as she dragged him away from the door and around the corner. She opened the door to her room. With a loud whisper, “go out the window.”

“What?” He replicated her volume. The pounding came again. “April, I am not leaving you alone with that thing !” 

“You need to go home.” She opened the window, poking her head out and scanning the alleyway for anything or anyone. “I can handle this.”

“ I can’t leave you. ”

“Don’t worry,” she smiled confidently as she gave him a tight hug. “I got this.” And then she shoved him out the window.

-

The door opened before his fist could hit again. Mid-air and ready to knock. Donatello’s hood was off, odd for someone who kept his hood on even during late night basketball. He was startled by the sudden opening of the door, and he stood frozen, a little confused as he stared at her. 

April straightened, brushing a loose strand out of her eyes as she smiled, trying to fight the pants of air that was leaking out of her lungs. “Donnie! Hey!”

Donatello stared at her, presenting a look of confusion that April didn’t recognize. Her smile faltered as she waited for him to respond. 

In the awkward silence her eyes went up to his fist. There was a bandage around his hand and her eyes narrowed. “What happened there-”

Recognition flashed over his eyes and he smiled. “April,” his curt response didn’t match his expression, “where’s Leo?”

“He, uh” her eyes almost looked over her shoulder but she fought it to keep her eyes on him, “haven’t seen him.”

A knowing smile crept on his face as he looked over her head into the apartment. “Uh huh.” He lowered his fist. Slowly placing it back into his hoodie pocket where his other hand lies.

“Well, I mean I saw him earlier when he came and picked me up , but after that… didn’t really-” a hand firmly pushed her to the side as Donnie entered her apartment. He didn’t look at April as he crossed the threshold, his eyes only flicking from side to side as he scanned the room. She scoffed in disbelief, stumbling back at the unexpected push. “ Okay, ” she laughed angrily, staring him down as he ignored her. “Why not just come in uninvited .”

Mayhem appeared on the sofa briefly before teleporting away again, taking something with him too fast for Donatello to see. His brows furrowed at the spot where Mayhem had been. “So you’re saying that he’s not here.” 

The abrupt nature of his voice caught her off guard. “Yup,” she slammed the door shut before leaning on it and crossing her arms. “Leonardo is not here . Meaning that you can leave .”

“Uh-huh, just want to make sure.” Mayhem appeared back onto the coffee table, a low growl emitting from his chest as he watched the turtle take slow steps further into the apartment. “He hasn’t really been acting like himself lately.” Donnie smiled and approached Mayhem, reaching a gentle hand out as he whispered something that April couldn’t hear.

Mayhem snapped at him, causing Donatello to retract his hand sharply. Mayhem’s hackles raised as he bared his fangs, emitting a harsh growl prompting Donnie to take a step back. Donatello looked to her, sending a cold gaze that quickly died under her piercing stare. She looked from Mayhem to Donnie, “he’s not the only one.

Donatello sighed. “April, it’s very complicated.” He turned towards her, waving his hand dramatically. “It’s mutant stuff, you wouldn’t understand.”

“ Excuse me? ”

He ignores her as he opens the pizza box on the coffee table. “Creepy special?”

She says nothing as she watches him. Mayhem stops growling long enough for him to hop off the sofa and race over to stand by April’s feet.

‘Donnie’ enters the kitchen and she follows. Post and pans cover a majority of the counter and a light layer of flour dusts it all. He considers it for a moment but huffs as he slowly leaves the kitchen.

April kept close behind him. “So what was that other thing ?’”

“Pardon?” He doesn’t look at her as he speaks, only gazing around her apartment carefully as he goes down the hallway.

“Y’know, that thing that came up? The thing that kept you from picking me up? Like you promised ?” She put an emphasis on the last part.

A quiet chuckle escaped him. “Mikey needed my help with something, y’know how he is.” He shrugs, only glancing into the bathroom as he went farther into her home. 

“Oh,” she feigned belief, “and what was that thing?”

Donatello waved a dismissive hand over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

She spoke a little louder. “Well, the thing was so important that you couldn’t pick me up, so it must have been serious.”

He opened the door to her room, “I said don’t worry about it.”

“Why are you acting like this?” She wanted to yank him back by the ponytail. He wouldn’t look at her and now he was in her space . “I was out in the rain for close to half an hour, you said you were going to pick me up, and you didn’t, I’m going to worry about-”

“April,” he half-chuckled-half-shouted as he got near the open window. “Stop talking.”

She heard Mayhem gasp at her feet. Leo was right. This was not Donnie . Any doubts that April had promptly said their goodbyes and threw themselves out the window along with Leo. This was not Donnie and now April knew it for sure.

“Get out of my apartment.”

A response didn’t come from him as he stood stationary. After a moment he slowly moved his hand to shut the window. It fell closed with a click.

“You’ve got until the count of three to get out of my apartment before I-”

The bones in his neck cracked as his head turned with a jeering smirk. “Before what, Ms. O'Neil,” his body turned to face her, his head not moving and his eyes not blinking as he did so, “what will you do if I don’t leave your apartment ?” Aprils skin prickled as the hair on her arms raised. She opened her mouth only for ‘It’ to sharply bend forward to come closer to April’s face. “You’re just a human, and humans are easy inside and out.” She took a step back as it took a step forward. Mayhem’s growls raised in volume as he placed himself between them. “Self absorbed. Unreliable. Cowardly. And weak .” Her back touched the wall and it placed a hand above her head. “So what could you, April O’Neil , possibly do.”

April threw the first punch. A half-fist, to be more precise, right into his throat. It reeled back in shock and she followed up with a left hook before grabbing It by the color of it’s hoodie and dragging it’s stomach into her knee. She flipped onto Its back, immediately applying a rear-naked choke. She’d have to thank Splinter again sometime for teaching her this stuff, after the whole “parasite” situation, that is.

“Y’know, when I first saw you, I almost didn’t believe him.” It leaned forward, picking her up off the ground as it tried to shake her. April wrapped her legs around Its waist. “That smile was perfect. The way that you stood, the way that you composed yourself.” She heard it cough as she increased the pressure “ And then you opened your mouth .” 

Both her arms were gripped as she was slammed into the dresser. She yelped but kept her grip. It repeated it as it stumbled around the room until her head came in contact with the doorframe. Her grip loosened enough for It to pull her over Its shoulder, slamming her into the ground enough to rock her consciousness. 

Mayhem screeched as he lunged forward. ‘It’ pulled something out of Its pocket, and a loud pop cut Mayhem’s cry short. April lifted a leg, sending it square into Its jaw. It reeled back again as April rolled over onto her feet near the bed, swiping her bat from under the bed frame.

“Get out of my apartment!” She swung downwards but it stepped to the side as it gripped her shoulder, harshly pushing her back. It raised its arm and a loud pop sounded again. She felt something hit her chest and a web of sick green folded over her vision. She lost her balance and fell backwards onto a rounded surface. She was inside of a transparent ball.

It straightened and spat something black onto the carpet before rubbing a fist over its mouth. A dry chuckle came with a grimace, “well… I did ask what you would do.” She tried to stand only to slip on the slick surface. The ball was a green akin to the color of a swamp, with purple veins gripping the inside and outside of it. She looked to her right, where Mayhem was trapped in a similar ball. He vanished in a flurry of blue, only for him to appear inside of his prison again.

She banged on the transparent wall, “what is this? Let me out!”

“Oh,” it brushed its sleeve and cracked its neck, “you can hear me, but I can’t hear you.” A dark smile, too big for Donatello’s face stretched across ‘It’. It waved a small metal oval, akin to a dog clicker. “Should’ve minded your business O'Neil.” It took a step towards her only to step on April’s cellphone, which had fallen in the skirmish. It looked down, then back up to her before smirking and reaching down to pick up the device.

It tapped the screen before It began to pace theatrically, announcing every word it typed. ““Hey… Mom .” It glared at April mockingly, ““just letting you know that I’ll be at Sunita’s tonight.””

“No!” April’s bat was with her. There wasn’t enough room to stand, even if she could, but she got up to her knees, bat in hand, and slammed the pommel into her prison wall.

““Love you, ttyl.”” It threw the phone over its shoulder, leering as it took a step towards April. “You humans say that kind of garbage nowadays, right?”

She hit harder, the shock from the bat starting to crawl into her shoulders with the amount of force she was sending into her prison.

“Y’know, I wanted to do this differently. Take my time, enjoy myself, have a little fun, but no~ The blue one just had to screw it all up!” ‘It’ twisted back before planting a punch to the surface of her cage. The force of his punch sent her prison into the wall, where she lost balance and slammed into the side full force. Her head reeled from the impact and she fell to her stomach before she could brace herself. “And now,” the thing gripped one of the many plant-like veins that clutched the sphere and jerked it down, sending her tumbling onto her side. She heard It laugh viciously. She looked up as the lights were switched off, still reeling from the impact. Grey lighting from the rainfall flooded her room and the monster that wasn’t Donnie was transformed into a dark silhouette. It locked her door from the inside as it walked out. Just as the door shut, it finished: “it seems that I’ll just have to speed things up.”

Chapter Text

‘It’ wasn’t home. Once Leo got back to the lair, he could tell Raph about everything, come up with a plan, and they’d be able to fix Donnie before anything else happened. ‘Easy as pie,’ the ever-positive-mental-personification-of-Raph said, after another moment he heard him say, ‘you know how to make pie?’ Leo wanted to chuckle, he really did but he was too stressed to laugh. After landing in a surprisingly soft pile of garbage, Leo had considered scaling back up the fire escape to protect April but reconsidered. He trusted her, especially because there were times where she proved herself to be more capable than them, but his chest still ached and his mind still worried as he left through the alley’s manhole.

Below the surface of the streets the water was still high from the rain. A shallow layer of water covered the brick walkway that soaked his shins as he ran. Leonardo took a sharp left around a corner and he could see a distant light from the lair. He picked up speed and after a moment he could make out the silhouette that stood by the entrance.

Raphael turned to the sound of Leo’s splashing. Alertly, he shouted “Leo!” before running towards his brother.

Leo stumbled as he slowed. “Raph, I-” He was crushed in a hug before he could process the motion. 

The hug was tightened even more as Raphael pulled him closer to his chest. “It’s okay.”

Leo could feel his brother's voice vibrate through him at the close proximity, it felt safe, and it felt familiar. Leo’s arms slowly trained up Raph’s back as he returned the hug. “I was so scared,” Leo’s voice finally cracked and he could feel a sting develop in his throat as he tried to fight the tears that welled in his eyes. “It happened so fast and Donnie- It almost got me.”

Raphael dropped to a whisper. “Leo, you’re fine, you’re safe.”

“I don’t think that I am, I don’t think any of us are.” Leo only had to push a little to get Raph to release the hug. He looked up to his face, his expression strained with anxiety. “Whatever it did to Donnie, it wants to do to me, and I think it wants to do it to all of us.”

“Let’s go sit down and we’ll talk about it.” Raphael placed his hand on Leo’s back as he began to guide him into the lair. The temperature of their home was stark in contrast compared to the cold sewer pipe. Leo felt a wave of warmth wash over him as he went from the dark shadows of the walkways to the painted light from the open ceiling.

They passed by the kitchen and into the central room, where fragments of wood were still scattered on the floor. Looking up, Leo saw a comically turtle-shaped hole in the vert ramp. He would usually laugh at something like that, maybe even take a picture and send it to April, but it only made his stomach quiver with anxiety.

As they passed the ramp, Leo started: “It’s Donnie’s body.” There was only silence in the lair as they walked. “It’s his voice, it’s his face, but It is not Donnie.” He looked to Raph, who listened patiently as they entered the TV room. “It’s taken over him and maybe it’s-” Leo began trying to find a plausible reason, he hadn’t thought about how it had blended so well into their family circle. He flopped down onto his beanbag and raph pushed over his own before sitting down, leaning forward to get close to his brother. Leo sucked in a sharp breath, “maybe it’s, like...downloaded his memories too, that explains why it's been able to replicate him so well.”

“I… see,” The doubt in Raphael's voice hit Leo like a hammer.

“I’m not lying,” he uttered.

Raphael brought his hands up with a calming gesture. “I know, I know you’re not-”
“I’m not joking about this Raph,” Leonardo needed to convince Raph before it was too late, before that thing came home. “Please, this is serious,” he begged.

There was a second of silence as he cocked his head to the side and read Leo’s face. Everything that Leonardo was saying was sincere, but… Raph gave a sigh as he placed his hand on Leo’s shoulder. He made eye contact with Leo as he calmly said: “I know it’s not a prank, but…”

“What?” A prank. A prank . 

Raph shut his eyes for a moment and grimaced before trying again. “Leo, don’t you think that’s a little out there?”

There was a moment of silence brought upon by Leo’s shock before he scoffed. “We’ve fought mutant pigs with tentacles for arms, stinky plant mutants, giant spider ladies, a hypnotist hippopotamus,” a dry laugh escaped him as he continued, “and you’re saying that a body controlling parasite is a little out there ?”

“Hold on, what I mean is-”

Leo cut him off, his voice beginning to rise. “He hasn’t been acting like himself, Raph.”

“I haven’t noticed anything, and when I saw him earlier-”

“That’s the thing!” Leo sprung up, coming up to eye level with his massive brother, “nobody has noticed but me.” He pointed to himself as he continued, “I talked to Mikey about it, and he didn’t notice anything either, but I am telling you-”

“Leo…” Raph tried to interject

“It is not Donatello .”

“Let’s just calm down, okay?”

“Raph, please.” He began to plead, his hand motioning over his heart, “you didn’t see it, he intentionally lost a dance battle to me, Raph,” Leo covered his mouth as he gave a quiet yawn.

Raphael closed his eyes as he sighed. He brought his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose, “Leo…”

Leo continued, his voice cracking under the emotional strain as he tried to make his brother understand, to make him believe him. “He practically recycled Shelldon, didn’t give a second glance when Mikey broke the tank-”

“Mikey broke the tank?”

“That’s not the point!” He shouted, surprising Raphael. “Don’t you realize what a  mix  of that means? Donnie would  never . Ever . Disassemble Shelldon. That project is his pride and joy and for him to just open him up and leave him?” 

“You saw Shelldon taken apart?”

“Well, no.” He stumbled over his own words as he realized what that sounded like,“but Mikey did!”

“Mikey knows about this?” Raph asked.

“Yes! But he didn’t believe me either,” he knew that he sounded frantic, but he continued, “this thing is a master manipulator, and it’s like it already knows everything about us from Donatello.”

“Leo-” Raph tried to interject. 

“These facts have been building on eachother, “And then today he ghosted April, and attacked me!”

“What do you mean he attacked you?” 

“I was trying to leave to go pick up April and he grabbed me, It tried to-” Leo’s voice cracked again. The memory of being pushed to the ground made his throat dry, “It tried to put a parasite in me, but I was able to get away before It did.”

Raphael sat quietly, listening to his younger brother's panicked words. He opened his mouth before shutting it again, trying to think of how he could possibly follow up. “How long has this been going on for?”

“Days Raph, it’s making my skin crawl.” A tear fell down his face and he quickly wiped it away. “I’ve been so- so panicked by all this that I feel like i’m losing my mind, I haven’t slept and I-” Another yawn ripped out of Leo as if on cue, making him stagger backwards as Leo covered his mouth. His brother stood. Raphael pressed the back of his massive hand against Leo’s forehead, effectively cutting him off and obscuring his vision.

After a few seconds, Raphael whispered, “you’re warm…”

Leo exhaled, “I was just running.”

Both of Raphael’s hands grabbed Leo’s face as Raph pulled him in, pressing his beak against his forehead. After a moment he hummed, releasing his smaller brother. “Leo, could you be running a fever?”

“No, I'm not running a fever !”

In an attempt to ease the conversation Raphael lowered his voice. “You don’t have to yell, i’m just making sure that you’re not-”

“ Delusional ?” Leo’s voice strained.

Frustration began to build in Raph’s demeanor as the conversation moved from rational to accusatory. “I’m not saying that.” 

The tone was shifting in a way that Leo didn’t want. He was trying to make Raph  get it , but the concept of this  bad-thing-that-was-happening  just wasn’t forming  in his head. “Donatello” had integrated itself perfectly, it had taken  days for Leo to notice something before he figured it out, so maybe if he took this from a different direction… “I’m sorry, a lot has happened today.” 

Raphael’s expression softened. “It’s okay, look, let’s just talk this out, alright? I’m trying to understand.”

Leo folded his arms as he shifted his stance to something more comfortable. “I’m trying to explain this to you without sounding crazy,” he chuckled.

“Why don’t we start with the skate ramp,” Raph placed a hand on his arm. “What happened there?”

“Okay.” Yes, better. This was good! Leonardo would tell him his side of the story and maybe then Raphael would start to understand what was going on! Leo took a deep breath, he was going to tell Raph everything, from the attack, to April’s apartment, to everything It said and the parasite in the bottle. “I was leaving to pick up April and-” There was the sharp sound of pressurized air and then he felt a pinch strike him, and then Leo began to feel numb. 

Raphael immediately noticed the fog in Leo’s eyes as he trailed off. Leo looked down and Raph followed his vision, spotting the brightly colored yellow dart in his thigh.

“Raph-” Darkness was already closing his vision. He took a step and his legs buckled beneath him. Leonardo tried to grab his brother, to use him to steady himself, only to find that his hands weren’t working anymore. 

-

He couldn’t feel  it, but Raphael caught him before he fell. After another second Leo lost consciousness all together, succumbing to the empty blackness. Raph looked up. On the second level of the lair, standing with a wide stance, Donnatello lowered the tranquilizer gun. 

“Why did you do that?” When there wasn’t a response a familiar anger krept into Raphael’s tone. He repeated himself, “Donnie, why did you do that?!”

Donatello sighed and rolled his eyes in annoyance. “He was clearly showing signs of insanity,” he said matter-of-factly. He set the dart gun down to lean against the wall before he began to approach them. “Our best option would be to treat him for a level two fever before he infects anyone else, just give him to me.”

Leo was fully limp in Raph’s arms now, a few tears escaping from his peaceful expression. Raph didn’t know if that was an effect of the drugs or from the pain, or maybe if it was from the fear he felt right before he went unconscious. “Actually,” he twisted away from Donatello’s reaching arms, “I have a better idea.”

Donatello visibly twitched at Raphael’s response, “Raphael, as the smart one-

“As the leader ,” the emphasis on that word was stronger than Donnie’s,“we’re going to treat him the same way we treat any sickness, Mikey, go get the plastic seals.”

“Roger that!”

“Michael.” Michelangelo stopped in his tracks at the warningly low tone Donnie held in his voice. Looking at Raph with a dark expression, “what’s the big deal? I can just give him something in my lab and we can get this over with.”

“Look, he is terrified,” he held Leo just a bit tighter. “If it is a fever, it’ll pass in a couple of hours like it always does,” they weren’t cruel. 

Through gritted teeth Donatello said, “he’s a danger, not only to himself,” he raised his tightly bandaged hand, practically shoving it in Raph’s face, “but to us as well!”

A pang of guilt and uncertainty pulsed in Raph’s chest, “you’re right Don,” a small smirk appeared on his purple brother's face, “but,” and the smirk disappeared, “He’s sick and he’s scared. We don’t want to make it any worse… and besides, you hate sick people in your lab.”

Donatello’s fist clenched for a moment and Raphael matched his brother's stare with equally narrowed eyes. His face still contorted with frustration, Donnie muttered, “fine.” He turned and left the room towards his lab, ripping the tranquilizer gun from the wall as he went.

The awkward silence that was left made Raphael feel tired. ‘Is this the right choice?’ he thought. His mind flicked over that short argument and he suddenly felt confused, since when did Donnie play the doctor of the family? Sure, he had enough chemicals to analyze stuff, but he had nothing in the medicine department. So why did he want Leo in his lab?

“Hey,” the soft tone pulled Raphael from his thoughts as he turned towards Mikey. Michelangelo put a gentle hand on Raph’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Raph, Leo’s gonna be okay.” And with that Michelangelo turned and left to get the plastic seal they would use on Leo’s door.

Raphael sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face. “I sure hope so.”

Chapter Text

The echoing tear of tape was never his favorite sound, but it seemed to be a necessary evil at the moment. It tore easily in his hand and he ran his fingers over it to make sure it was sealed. Michelangelo was next to him, playfully peppering the plastic screen with Jupiter Jim stickers. He would stop occasionally and place a small sticker on his own plastron or shell, even gifting Raph with a sticker of his own on his forearm. Behind the transparent plastic was Leo’s room, where the second eldest laid motionless on his bed. Raph had done his best to be gentle, he laid him down and covered him with a blanket before they had started sealing the room. Raph looked behind the screen, sighing. Something about this didn’t feel right and he just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Mikey gasped beside him. “Uh…”

“What?”

With a grimace, Mike replied, “I just realized that Leo’s not going to be able to see the pictures from his side of the screen.”

Raph snorted, “well, too late!” He laughed as he handed the duct tape to Mike. Pouting, Mikey placed the roll into his craft box with his other stickers and decorative tape before closing the box with a click.

Silence filled the space before Raphael finally cleared his throat, “yo, Mike?”

“Uh-huh?”

“Have you noticed, uh…” he sighed, “anything… off? About Donnie?”

Michelangelo didn’t look towards him as he stood, patting some invisible dust off of his own knees as he straightened. “Off how? He seemed pretty normal to me.”

“Yeah, but like,” through the plastic Raph could still see Leo, lying motionless on his bed where he had left him, “didn’t he seem a little weird to you, more than usual?”

Mikey hummed as he thought, “well, to be fair, he did get hurt.”

The cut on Don’s hand, right. “Yeah, but,” Raphael leaned on the wall, peeking into the room as he thought (not his specialty). The wound was deep, very deep , so Raph had taken it upon himself to bandage it, but while he was, Donnie didn’t act like a hurt person would. There was some shouting, and Don had gone on and on about how this-is-all-Leo’s-fault-and-somethings-wrong-with-him. But there were moments where he would sit quietly, doing nothing and just staring into space with his eyes glazed over before he would start talking again. “Like, they mess around with each other all the time, it’s never been violently physical.”

A comforting smile spread on Mikey’s face. “You gotta remember, Raph, Leo’s probably going through some crazy fever or something,” he gasped, “do you think he might have rat flu?”
Shaking his head, Raph tried to respond, “I’d be-”

“Quick, do you feel like sneezing or super hot!?”

Raph rolled his eyes. “No, Mike”

“Okay good, BUT IF YOU DO!” Michael lunged backwards as he took a deep step,  “stay as far away as possible from me, i’m not looking to get sick anytime soon.”

Raph chuckled. “Will do, little buddy.”

Mikey playfully stuck his tongue out as he turned to leave.

A memory from the last conversation he had with Leo sparked in Raph’s brain. “Oh, one more thing!”

“Yes~” Michael playfully turned on his heels,  still walking backwards towards his room.

“What happened to Shelldon?”

Mikey stopped. “Uh, come again?”

Raph’s arm came up to rub the back of his neck as he sighed. “Leo had said something about Shelldon, and that you had seen him, like, broken or something?”

An unfamiliar expression flashed across his little brother's face, something empty of the usual wild and heartfelt emotion that he always displayed at every waking moment. His eyes darted across the room a few times as he seemingly attempted to find a response.

“Mike?”

His little brother blew a raspberry in defeat, “sorry, but, I don’t remember.”

“You don’t remember,” Raph said flatly.

“Nope!” He shrugged. “Sorry, but that was a few days ago and it’s been, uh,” he signals towards the hole in the skate ramp, “a bit crazy since then.”

“Yeah…” Raph trailed off.

With a comforting smile, “I wouldn’t worry about it, if I don’t remember it then it probably wasn't anything important.”

Raph blinked before conceding with a nod. “Yeah, I got you. Thanks anyway.”

Michelangelo spun on his heels and entered his room, disappearing from Raph’s sight.

Next to the sealed entrance was Leo’s Odachi, carefully leaning against the wall and out of his reach to prevent another escaped-captain-cuddle-cakes situation. Raph took it, but quickly put it back against the wall, Leo would probably want it as close to him as possible.

Raph took one last look into Leo’s room before leaving for the kitchen.

Mind Raph swirled into existence. ‘What’s up?’

The freezer was stacked with frozen burritos and Raph took one at random before throwing it into the microwave. “Something’s wrong.”

‘Yeah, no kidding. You don’t need your gut or me to tell you that.’

“Well my gut is telling me that, the only problem is that I’m not sure what.” He rubbed a hand over his face as he sighed. It was late in the evening now so he hadn’t bothered to turn on the kitchen lights when he entered, leaving the room to be bathed in the dim glow from the microwave. The soft rotational hum made an odd ambiance for this setting, but it helped him think. “Like, yeah, they fought, Donnie got hurt, and now we’re quarantining Leo to keep him from doing any more damage. But there’s more.”

‘Uh-huh?’

“Leo was frantic, but he wasn’t crazy. Donnie was hurt but he didn’t… Donnie’s a total baby when he gets anything more than a paper cut!” But instead of whining and flinching and putting himself in his own personal hospital bed, he had toughed it out. Then there was Leo. When Mikey had left to get the plastic and tape, and Donatello had finally stalked off into his lab, Raph had taken a thermometer from the bathroom. 

‘98.3°, actually a little low.’ MR cut in with a hum.

No fever. “I don’t think that Leo’s sick.” Because if he was sick, the kind of sick that made him and his family crazy, fever would be the first symptom. The microwave dinged and Raph removed his burrito from the microwave with a quick game of hot-potato. “But “Donnie has a mind/body-controlling-parasite?”” He threw the whole thing in his mouth and swallowed it whole.

‘It does sound kinda… out there.’ 

“I just… it’s wild?!” It was wild to think about, Raph had alot of reasons to think this wasn't likely, it was like something out of a horror novel!

‘We are mutant turtles with mutant rat for a Dad who live above a magic underground city, are we sure its “kinda out there?”’ Mind Raph mused.

Raph stopped at that, his eyes unfocused as he delved into his own mind. Mind Raph was right (as always). It wasn’t impossible, but… “I need to know more.” He sighed.

MR spoke slowly as he drifted in Raph’s brain. ‘I am only a manifestation of your thoughts attempting to become linear-’

“Didn’t understand a single word of that.” Raph took another two burritos from the freezer and threw them in the microwave. He sighed as he leaned on the counter and listened to the hum of the machine as it warmed his food.

‘But, how’s this: why don’t you call April, she was the last one to see him right? Maybe they talked and she has a better idea of what’s going on!’

The microwave finished cooking and dinged just as the lightbulb ignited in Raph’s brain. “That’s a great idea!  I’ll do that, thank you.” He threw another burrito in his mouth with a smile.

‘No problem, but one more thing before I go.’

“Yeah?” 

‘Start taking the plastic off those burritos before you eat them.’ And with that, Mind Raph poofed from existence.

Raph looked at the still wrapped burrito in his hand and shamefully removed the packaging before scarfing it down. Oh well, that would be his stomach’s problem.

He pulled out his phone and sped dialed April as he leaned back onto the counter. It rang, but then it kept ringing. Raph shrugged away the nerves in his gut as he texted:

Hey Girl

Call when you get a chance

And he left it at that.

‘Well, that was a bust,’ he thought. He closed his eyes and tried to think. April was out for now - he guessed that made sense since it was pretty late at night at this point - so maybe there was somebody else he could ask? Deffinetly wasn’t going to ask Donnie, things seemes a bit tense with him right now, couldn’t ask Leo since he was out cold in a sealed room, Raph had already talked to Michelangelo, so that only left...

-

Splinter made it a point to not get involved in Raph and his brothers shenanigans, so this was probably going to be pretty useless.

Sheepishly, he asked, “Hey, Dad?” 

Scorpion Treadmill drowned out his eldest son's voice, but Splinter still turned away from the screen to look at him. He raised an eyebrow at Raphael’s demeanor, unfamiliar with how his son was behaving uncharacteristically hesitant and stand-offish as he stood just outside the room, like he was waiting for permission to enter.

“Red, there is no reason for you to block the doorway,” Splinter chuckled. 

Raph realized that he had been holding his breath. In one steady motion he released the air from his lungs and relaxed his shoulders before he stepped in to sit in the beanbag next to his Dad's chair. He sat there for a moment just watching the projected images with his Dad before the neon blue of Leo’s beanbag caught his eye. “I almost feel silly for asking this, but…” with a sigh, Raph rubbed the back of his head again, “have you noticed Donnie acting… differently? Lately?”

“Purple?” He hummed, “besides all the coffee he keeps trying to make me drink, no.”

“What?”

“I think he wants something, that boy’s been bringing me coffee since yesterday.” Splinter points to the far corner of the room - the space besides the projected image on the wall, where there was only a little light - where a pile of mugs sat stacked high. “I drink tea, and only tea!”

“Huh…”

Splinter moved a bit, settling deeper into his chair to get more comfortable. “You kids and your expensive caffeine these days, tea is better for you.”

Donnie fixed Dad coffee? Raph looked over at the pile. One, two, three, four… seven. Seven full cups of coffee piled in the corner. First of all, Donatello made a point to never cook cause he got too sciency , as Leo had put it, and coffee was put into that category. He had only ever made April a coffee once, and that was just because he was testing for “maximum caffeination” and she had just happened to be having a big upcoming test. Second, they all knew unanimously, even April, that Dad loathed the stuff, he had always been a big tea drinker. He drank tea so much that he had named the teapot! 

“Blue drank all my mugicha yesterday, which tells you that it’s good!” Raph zeroed back in as he realized that Splints was still talking. “Not so good that he drank all of my tea, but, hey! Drink more tea, it will make you feel more energized.”

“Uh, yeah!” 

“On that note,” Splinter leaned over the opposite side of his chair from Raphael, “I am out of tea.” He hopped out of his seat, cup in hand as he walked towards the kitchen, “keep talking to me, Red,” he beckoned and Raph stood as well to follow him to the kitchen.

Splinter removed Skully from the back of the stove to fill it with water before returning it. The fire was lit and he scrambled onto the counter to sort through the cupboards.

Red sat down at the table, looking towards Splinter as he unpacked his mind. “I’m trying to figure something out, but I think…” Raph groaned, “it feels like there’s a lot of reasons why it's not possible? But also there are things happening that make it feel possible, but if I get it wrong something bad could happen in a way where one or the other gets hurt?”

“Red?” His Dad waited until Raph was looking at him to say, “you are being super vague.”

Raph sighed loudly as he rubbed his face in his hands.

“I understand that you kids get into a lot of things all of the time, things that you may not want to tell me,” Splinter filled the seat across from Raph as he slid a steaming mug to his eldest son, “but perhaps this is something you want to speak more in depth about?”

Raph stared at the steaming mug, then to his father, “yeah,” he whispered, “that’d be nice.” He took the mug to sip at it, only to jolt as the scalding liquid touched his lips.

Splinter blew on his tea. “Careful it was just boiling.”

-

The waking process was miserable. It started with Leo barely being able to comprehend his surroundings, with colors blending into each other and swirling around the room in a nauseous fashion, resulting in only thick muck filling his skull as drifted between waking and sleeping. It faded slowly until he was able to roll from his bed and onto the floor where he crawled maybe a short distance across the room before collapsing again. After another eternity of stillness he was able to perceive the fact that he was in his room, and then it was only about ten more minutes before he remembered that Donnie was a parasitic monstrosity and that his family was in terrible danger. Leonardo clenched his jaw, a quiet roar seething from between his teeth as he forced himself onto his feet. He took a step, his knees wobbling from numbness, and then another. One more and his body hit the cool plastic that sealed his room. A hopelessness crashed into him and he fell to the floor. Through foggy eyes he could perceive the main room, but it was empty. He couldn’t cry out, he wasn’t sober enough. With another shaky breath he moved back deeper into his room, crawled back onto the bed, and waited for the rest of the tranquilizer to fade from his system.

Chapter Text

    Getting pulled out of sleep was terrible sure, but fighting to wake up was a whole other thing. Leonardo opened his eyes to a ceiling that shifted from vibrating swirls to familiar geometric shapes, shapes that felt real, and didn’t leave him nauseous. He tried to sit up, groaning from a brief dizziness that almost dragged him back down to his sheets, instead, he stumbled to his feet using his bed to steady himself and waited for the feeling to subside.

    Anxiety clamped around his heart as he remembered the previous day. He remembered what happened with Donnie, April’s apartment, Raph… 

“Okay,” he whispered to himself. Leo let go of his bed to pat around his pockets, stuffing a finger in where he felt the blister pack and found it unharmed. It looks like they took his sword, but he’s glad that nobody had the mind to check his pockets. 

    He popped a pill and swallowed it dry, cringing at the feeling of the pill dissolving into powder in his throat. He quickly shook it off as he slipped the pill pack back into his pocket. There wasn’t a feeling of parasites crawling around in his intestines, but he wasn’t going to take any chances since who knows what “Donnie” did to him while he was sleeping. He walked up to the plastic, first trying to push it off of his room's entrance. When that yielded nothing, he got on his hands and knees to where the zipper met the floor and tried to push it up from his side.

    “Leo?”

    Leonardo looked up to see Mikey peeking over the edge of his doorway, looking surprised to find his brother on his hands and knees. He emerged from the corner into full view, holding a mug in both hands. There was a second as Mikey looked Leo over quizzically, cocking his head to the side before he starfished against the plastic.

    “We were so worried about you!” Mikey whined, his eyes already welling up with tears as emotion seemed to wash over him. “How could you do this to us?! Make us worry, make us sad,” Mikey posed dramatically, facing away from Leo while covering his face with one arm while the other kept a hand on the plastic, “make me cry~”

    Leo rolled his eyes at the dramatics but a smile still appeared at the edges of his mouth. Despite the fact that it was drugs that put him down he noticed that his head was a lot clearer after sleeping. Leo cleared his throat, “lo siento, hermano, I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

    Mikey sniffled and turned back to Leo, his eyes wide with relief, “it’s okay, Leo, we’re just glad that you’re alright.” He wiped away the tears and straightened, “what do you remember?”

    “Uhh,” a quick flash of pain surfaced in his thigh, and looking down he could see a rainbow bandaid where the dart had struck. He remembered swirling colors, muffled voices, and a dreamlike memory of himself on the floor, but everything before all of that was pretty clear. “You know, I vaguely remember you and me having a very detailed conversation about… ice cream?” He made his voice waver at the end to sound unsure, Leo shrugged dismissively, “I don’t know, man, it’s pretty blurry.” 

    Mikey hummed, “well, maybe it's a good thing that you don’t remember, you were spouting some pretty crazy stuff!” 

    “Oh yeah?”

    “Oh yeah, some real Body Snatcher level nightmare stuff.”

    “Body Snatcher.” Leo said flatly, his grin was a bit more plastered than it was before.

    “Well, I mean, you were going on and on about Donnie not being the real Donnie, and you got a little - let’s say - agro about it.”

    “Well~” clearing his throat, Leo shuffled uncomfortably, “glad that’s over then!” He pointed to the zipper at the bottom of the plastic, “Would you mind opening that up, Mike, I am starving for some leftovers.”

Mikey immediately perked up,     “I could get you something! What do you want?”

Leo's smile faltered, but before he could respond, Mikey began speaking again.

“We’ve got leftover pizza, leftover noodles, well, not the Soba that Dad, me, and Raph were supposed to make, we were supposed to make that tonight but after you and Donnie’s emergency - lets call it - we decided that it would be better to hold that off until tomorrow. But besides all of that we’ve still got cereal, ice cream, i could make you some coffee-”

“Eh~” Leo cut him off, “like you said, i’ve made you and everyone else worry today, Mike, so you don’t need to do anything else for me.” Leo’s honeyed voice would usually put Mike at ease, or at least somewhat suspicious, but Mike maintained his calming smile.

“Aw, Leo~” Mike matched his brother's tone, “did I ever tell you that you’re my favoritest second brother ever? You don’t need to worry about me, I just need to be sure that you’re safe and taken care of.” Micheal smiled warmly at Leonardo and took a sip from the mug in his hands.

“Really, it’s fine, I can get what I need by myself.” 

    “Leo, no,” Michelangelo's brow furrowed and he took on a strict tone, “I know that you must be feeling cooped up, but we need you to stay in there until we all know that you are 100% better.”

    “Oh, come on, Mike, you see me, and I’m feeling great, back at top performance!”

    Micheal rolled his eyes, “sure you are, that’s what you would tell me to trick me into letting you out.”

    “Or, i’m perfectly fine and you’re holding me against my will.” Leo crossed his arms with a smirk, doing his best to look confident and tall behind an almost impenetrable plastic barrier for his simple turtle hands, “go get a thermometer or something, I’ll prove that i’m perfect, more than perfect!” 

    “No.”

    “What do you mean no! I’m perfectly healthy!” Leo huffed, “c’mon Mike, what do you want from me, a blood sample? Just let me out!”

    There was a pause. Micheal froze, not looking at anything in particular. Leo swore he saw his eyes glaze over for a moment before Mike shifted back into animation. “Leo, you cut Donnie.”

    Leo’s hands felt grimy and wet. He rubbed the phantom feeling off on his legs, leaving the sensation there to deal with later. 

    Mike continued, “you’re a danger to others,  and  yourself, so i’m not letting you go until I get the say so.

    Leo opened his mouth to respond, but Mike beat him to it.

    “You were talking about a lot of scary stuff, man,” Mikey’s grip tightened on his mug, “you were paranoid and crazy with the idea that Donnie had a parasite that was controlling him from the inside.” Mike began to circle, “you were clinging to any little quirk, detail, or word, thinking that we were all in danger?” Mike chuckled, “and that was gonna be no big deal, but then you went and trashed the skate ramp and you cut Donatello!?” Mike turned away and began to walk out, “yeah, i’m leaving you in there.”

    Leo felt a hot buzz behind his eyes and in his gut, “why don’t any of you believe me?”

    Mikey stopped and groaned, letting his head fall back in annoyance “ugh, this again-”

    “I love Donatello, I would never hurt him!” Leo felt his nails dig into the palms of his hands, “but that  thing  is NOT Donatello, and not ONE of you has stopped to consider that I might be right! Not ONE of you have taken a moment to try and notice the changes, or the quirks, or the intentional suck up attitude! He would never do that!” His breath was heavy as his throat tightened. “Why can’t you at least try to believe me?”

    “Leo…”

    “I’m right.”

    “No, you’re-” Mikey's head turned slightly, towards Leo, not enough for him to see his eyes, but he caught the motion. “If you loved Don, you wouldn’t even have pointed your sword at him. How can you even call him your brother after what you did?” There was a waver in his voice, like he was fighting tears.

    Leo’s heart bled at that. He brought his hand up to his heart, clenching at the spot to try to soften the feeling, but continued. “Even when I get sick, I'm never hostile. Think about it,” Leo pleaded, “me and Donnie fight all the time, but we never really hurt each other and when we do it’s an accident. You know me, you know I would never hurt him, that we would never hurt each other, not unless it wasn’t us- wasn’t him~” Leo was leaning on his hands, putting all his weight against the plastic as he stared at him down.

    “You hurt him first.”

“It was self defense, and I'm glad that I did! I know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t!” Leonardo could see the tension build in Mikey as he continued on, his shoulders raising and head lowering. 

“Leo-”

    The charm and composure from earlier are gone. Leo now stands fully on his own two feet as he shouts. “You want to know what you might’ve come back home to? Either me being a mindless meat puppet or worse, I could’ve been-”

    Michelangelo whips around, blind frustration clear in his eyes as he spits, “We weren't planning on hurting any of you!” 

In one motion, It covers its mouth. Horrified at It’s untimely confession: guilt, regret and fear fill its mask all at once, and Leo is left at a loss for words.

    “I-” It stutters, “I mean-”

    He feels like he’s choking. Leo takes a step back. Then another. He continues until the back of his legs hit his bed and he braces against the frame. He falls to the floor with a dull thump and covers his face with his hands. The air is too heavy. The weight isn’t just on his shoulders, it's on his head, in his lungs, pulsing inside his brain. It’s dragging him down and he can barely breathe.

    “It’s not what it-”

    “When.” The words shudder out and he hugs his knees loosely.

    It pinches the bridge of it’s nose before sighing deeply. It only looks annoyed now, having lost the upper hand. “C’mon Leo, you know when.”

    The other night. Even though he hadn’t said anything, when Leo had held Mikey’s hand, desperately begging him not to go, Mikey still left. Leo let him go. His mouth suddenly tastes acidic. He failed.

    It watches as Leo curls in on himself. From the crack between his arms Leo watches as its head cocks to the side. It stares at him. Without the need to emote, its face is completely blank, its eyes lightless as it observes him. Leo stays like that, trying to control his breathing while simultaneously trying to control his stomach

It must feel the need to comfort Leo, as sick as it is, because it speaks with that comforting tone again. “It’s not that bad. In fact,” it walked back and crouched, coming eye level with Leo as he unfolded. “They don’t feel a thing.”

Leonardo watched as it quirked its head to the side, offering a familiar, comforting smile that made his stomach twist.

“I promise.”

    Another voice enters the conversation. It’s voice is a venomous hiss. “Can’t even leave you alone for a second-” The shell of Donatello comes into view. It harshly grips Mikey’s wrist, turning him around to look at It in the eyes.

    “I just wanted to talk to him-” it tries to be confident but it still stutters as it looks the other in the face.

    “That is not what I told you to do~” It’s seething in its shell, its voice a low whisper as fake-Donnie’s face comes within inches of the other. Despite Donatello not being over a foot taller than Michelangelo, with one standing over the other, it was menacing. A shadow was draped over half of its face, shrouding Mike in gray. It gripped the other's wrist tightly, and an audible creak came from the bones inside of both hand and wrist as pressure continued to be applied.

    The figurine hit the plastic hard enough to crack it in two. It shattered when it fell to the floor. “Why Mikey, he never did anything to you!” This was all its fault.  

    “...” The one in Donnie’s body doesn’t look in his direction, but the one in Mikey’s does. It stares at him quizzically, studying Leo’s face.

    “Answer me!” Leo shouts, not caring is Raph or anybody else heard.

    The frustration is clear but it stands steady.

    Leonardo feels his pulse slow in his chest. The conversation he just had- the last thing the thing in Michelangelo’s body said… “You didn’t want to hurt us.”

    The loud confidence in Leo’s voice makes “Donatello” look towards him. Fake-Mike looks between its obvious leader and Leo with inquisitive eyes, soaking in the interaction between the two.

    “Which means that you need us alive.”

    The face was just a mask, but Leo still got the sense that it was flustered. In a low growl, it curses. The fake Donatello turns to leave, but Micheal’s body stands firmly in place, resisting the tightening grip on his wrist.

    It smiles, almost apologetically, “you shouldn’t worry so much, Leo,” there is a pause as Leonardo doesn’t reply. Instead, Leon turns away, putting all his weight on the bed frame as he stands in silence. With a huff, it blankly says, “I'll get you something to eat, and then we’ll see how you’re feeling in the morning.”

    With that, Leo could hear the sliding of feet as one was dragged away by the other, and he was left in silence.

    When he was sure he was alone, Leonardo moved his bed until he could fit between the mattress and the far wall, where he could stay out of anybody's sight. He wanted to throw up, he wanted to scream and beg for  anybody but he looked crazy enough. Instead he put up with trying to control his breathing before he hyperventilated.

    After what felt like hours, there was a rapid unzipping, followed by a clinking of glass and another zip. Before Leo could sit up the color orange was already rushing out of his limited view. There was a steaming plate of pizza sitting on the floor. He layed back down, groaning in frustration at the lost opportunity.

    ‘Alright, what’s the plan?’ Leo wiped away the water from his eyes. Sitting up, he could see the mental image of a tiny Mind Raphael sitting on the bookshelf across from him.

    “We’re screwed.” Leo whispered.

    ‘That’s not a plan, that’s an outcome.’

    “I don’t have a plan,” Leo groaned, “I’m trapped in my room, hiding behind my bed, trying not to have a panic attack while I talk to my imaginary brother!”

    Mind Raph frowns at that, looking hurt from the remark. Leo watches as he looks away for a second before coming back. ‘C’mon, you usually have some kind of plan,’ he says encouragingly.

    “You’re the leader, and since when do you like plans?!”

    ‘I am the manifestation of your thoughts attempting to become linear.’

    “How do you know those words?” Leo sighs, exasperated. 

    ‘Guess.’ He smirked as he patiently looked at Leo, swinging his legs mindlessly as he waited.  ‘I don’t like plans, but you do, so do what you… do!’

    Leo rubbed his eyes one more time before sitting up, folding his arms across the bed and looking around the room. After a few seconds he buries his head back in his arms.

    ‘C’mon, since when do you give up?’

    Sighing, Leo looks up again.    

This time Mind Raph is sitting criss-crossed on the bed, staring expectantly at Leo. ‘Check out the room, what have you got?’

    “No sword.” He says flatly.

    ‘What else.’

    “Bookshelf, my plants, skateboard, awesome action figures.” Leo didn’t note the one laying in pieces at the door.

    ‘Cool, keep going.’

    “My bed, a plastic sheet on the door, and you.” Leo huffs as he sits himself onto the bed. 

    ‘You’ve done things without your sword before, Leo, c’mon, you can figure this out.’

    Leonardo laid on his back, staring at the ceiling while frustration mounted in his chest. “The vent.”

    Mind Raph briefly looks up before looking back down towards Leo. ‘Think you can fit through that?’

    Leonardo sits up, keeping eye contact with the vent. “One way to find out.” 

    He stands on his bed to reach the vent, his hands gripping the corners of the grille as he examines it. There’s a screw on each corner, sealing it shut. Leo releases the vent to pat down his belt, rifling through the pockets until he finds a loose dime and begins to manually unscrew the vent covering.

    After a bit of loosening, Leo is able to use his hands to remove the screws. He sets the grate in his hiding spot between the bed and the wall. From where he stands, looking up, he might just be able to fit. He quickly loosens his belt and puts the middle strap in his mouth before leaping off of his bed, snugly fitting into the open tubing. His palms catch the ledge of the horizontal ventilation shaft just as he feels the pressure on his shell. With a bit of scrambling and heavy breathing, he makes it onto the horizontal and he takes a moment to breathe. This space is much smaller than the shaft he crawled through in Big Mama’s hotel. There, he had room to wiggle, enough room to lift off of his stomach and rest on his knees a little. In here? His side, back, and stomach were all pressed together by the constrictive, dusty piping. The air was already growing hot as he laid there and the only light was a dim glow in the far distance from another vent opening. With a shuddering breath, he moved a hand forward. The friction of his hands and feet was enough to make the slow movement silent. Dust and dirt from the vent caught in the crevices of his shell and smeared across his arms and face as he crawled forwards. Every time he breathed he resisted the urge to cough by clamping his jaw down tighter against his belt, focusing on moving towards the slitted lights in the tight, tunneled distance.

    As Leo got closer to the grated light he heard whispers that grew into grated mutters.

    “I don’t understand why we don’t just get this over with.” It’s Michelangelo's voice.

    Slowing his approach, Leo carefully reaches the slitted vent where he can see the rigid silhouette of his youngest brother directly beneath him. From the color of the lights, Leo could tell that they were just outside of Donatello’s lab. He couldn’t see Donnie’s body, but from the sound of his voice he knew that the other one wasn’t too far away.

It repeats. “I don’t understand. Why don't we just get this over with?” The one in Mikey's body awkwardly motions with its arms, like its practicing physical expression. “Just put them to sleep and we can take them.”

“You’re new to this, so i’ll explain this once .” “Donatello” comes into view, hands on his hips with a cocky sway in its approach. “Having bodies this nice is rare and immeasurably pleasant. That amour propre narcissist that we call boss thinks these jobs take weeks and i’m not going to start cutting my fun time when I can spend as long as I want in here.”

Thing Two responds quickly. “But Leo knows, more now than ever.”

“And who’s fault is that?” It hisses. “Listen, you’re a baby compared to me. I’m your actual big brother now, so you’re going to do what I say. And I say we have a little fun.”

Michelangelo's hands run up and down his arms for a moment. “Raphael isn’t going to let him stay in that bubble forever.”

“So what? Look, Leo’s been an insomniatic mess for a week, so we’re just going to do what we do best!” Fake-Don bends over and around to curve around the side of Fake-Mike, holding his hands around his back.

Leo starts to crawl away again, making sure to remain silent in his movements. The conversation starts to drift back into whispers as he moves, but he catches the last bit that he needs.

With some reluctance, it says “gaslighting?”

Donnie's voice hums, “I was going to say… psychological persuasion.” There is silence in the air, then with one last hiss, Leo hears Donnie’s voice firmly speak. “Just do what I say and it’ll be fine… After all, we don’t need forever.”

    The sweat is dripping off of Leo’s forehead and arms. He blinks out the sweat, focusing on the stinging sensation in his eyes to try and block out the words bouncing around in his head. He was running out of time.

    He knows he’s where he needs to be when the snoring becomes unbearably loud. With a lot of difficulty Leo turns over on his back and shifts the vent up and to the side. He crawls up and out, coming right underneath Splinter's bed. Leo swiftly slides out and flips to the door. He looks back at his Dad who shakes the shelves with his echoing snore and rolls his eyes with an overdue smile before slipping out.

    The kitchen is completely dark, and Leonardo keeps it that way as he moves into the shadows. He quickly tip-toes over to the sink where he twists on the faucet and scrubbed his face, arms, plastaron, and legs with cold water until the sweat-smeared dust marks were gone. Water splattered on the floor, but he didn’t care. The rooms and lab were too far away from the kitchen to hear anyway.

    Leo groaned into the sink and took in one last deep breath before standing. The belt had gone from his mouth to the stove top so he retrieved it. Pulling out the pills, he found eleven of the original twelve. April had just come from the doctor and hadn’t had an opportunity to give Mayhem any of the medication, but Leo took one of them less than an hour ago when he woke up. Including Dad and himself, that was enough for each of them to have… around six hundred milligrams each. Was that enough?

    Leo swallowed down a block in his throat before ripping off a paper towel and laying it on the counter. He popped the first pill, then the second, then all of them and folded the towel over. The rolling pin was sitting on the drying rack so he grabbed it, gently placing it on top. Leo stopped, what if he needed it? What if this didn’t work? Leonardo lifted the rolling pin and unfolded the towel, taking a single pill and returning it to his pocket. ‘Just in case,’ he thought to himself, ignoring the selfish feeling.

    He winced at the loud crunch that crackled in the silence but kept rolling until the sound became gritty kneading. He shuffled over to the coffee pot where he opened up the top lid. The ground coffee beans were already in the top, ready to be turned on first thing in the morning. Leo lifted the paper towel but stopped. The powder was white. If someone checked the top it would be a dead giveaway and this would be all for nothing. Leo closed the lid and let out an air of defeat. He closed his eyes as he tapped his fingers against the counter. He looks towards the fridge.