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“Whatcha got here, April?” Mikey asked curiously, slowly opening the box that laid on the table. It revealed a few chocolate cupcakes with candied orange as a topping.
She smiled at him and the two other brothers that came to look with him. “Oh, just a sweet little something I’ve brought for you. They opened a new bakety on the corner of my street, so I thought I’d give it a shot. Leo had already taken some.“
As one, the turtle brothers paused. Splinter, who had been preparing tea for him and April, stilled.
Raphael cleared his throat. “What do you mean, he’d already taken some?”
She frowned, confusion obvious on her face. “That I met him on my way here so I gave him his share. He told me that they taste really good.”
The stares only got more intense. April interwined her fingers into her hair. “Why are you looking at me like that? Guys, what’s wrong?”
Slowly, Mikey let go of the lid. “You gave Leo sugar.” It was both a statement and a question.
“Yes?” April prolonged the word. “Guys?”
When Donatello cursed, April promptly knew that something was really wrong. “Come on!“ she pleaded. “What’s going on?”
“Leo is…” Don hesitated. “He’s really sensitive to sugar. More than anyone. We don’t really know why, I’ve tried loooking into it. From what I’ve found out, it’s because of the mutation. Out of all of us, somehow, he’s the only one affected.”
“He took one for the team,” Mikey chimed in, though his usual cheerfulness was dimmed.
Raph nodded. “Quite literally.”
“LEONARDO!”
The three turtles immediately straightened up, assuming completely still stance, while April squealed in surprise. Splinter’s voice was sharper than any blade. There was a hint of anger, yes, but it was hidded by a much more vehement worry and caution.
April expected that the eldest would appear instantly, just like always. Yet, even after a few seconds of complete silence, nothing happened.
The brothers looked at each other, something like horror slowly drawing in their faces. Splinter hissed.
“Oh no,“ Mikey whispered.
At last, April spoke, sounding rather nervous: “It… Can’t be that bad, can it?”
Don looked at her, eyes wide open. “You have never seen Leo with sugar rush, April.”
Splinter sniffed. “Leonardo!” he called again. “Come to the kitchen.”
There was a distant crash somewhere from the lair, the sound of metallic clanging resounding all the way to the kitchen.
They winced.
“That… Didn’t sound good,“ April peeped.
“You’ve been here when Mikey had one of his hyperactivity attacks, right?” Raphael asked her, not waiting for an answer as they’ve already knew it. “Imagine this, but ten times worse.”
“Raph’s not joking,“ Michelangelo added. “I wish he was.”
April stared at them blanky, face suddenly a shade palet. She remembered more than clearly the time when Mikey had so much energy that he had spent hours by cooking, playing games, painting and just jumping around, preferably everything at the same time, before he calmed down.
She couldn’t imagine something crazier than that day. Especially not with Leonardo, who was always so calm and leveled.
“I’m so sorry,“ she breathed out. “I didn’t know.”
“It is alright, Ms O’Neil,“ Splinter told her, although there was something pained in his voice. “You cannot have known. But it means that you will just have to survive the upcoming catastrophe with us.”
“What catastrophe?” Finally, Leonardo appeared in the kitchen, seemingly emerging out of nowhere. “You called, Sensei?”
It didn’t take April long to understand what they meant. Leo was holding a kunai in hand, twisting and twitching it between fingers.
It was barely five minutes since she’d met him in the living room.
“I did,” Splinter answered slowly, voice low. “Leonardo, what was the crash before?”
“… nothing?”
Leonardo wasn’t one to lie often, but when he did, no one was able to tell that he was lying. But this? This was the kind of a response she would expect from Mikey or Raph.
Raphael tilted his head to one side. “You didn’t run into a wall again, did you?”
Leonardo huffed. “It was one time, Raphie.” He twisted the knife, throwing it in the air and catching it with his other hand.
“Leonardo,” Spliter’s tone didn’t allow disobedience. “What was the crash?”
Leonardo tapped his foot nervously, the kunai’s speed faltering slightly. “I did not run into a wall,” he told them firmly, eyeing his brothers, “but, uh, I might’ve took down the stand for training weapons.” He paused. “Don’t worry, though, I fixed it.”
When he once again threw the kunai in the air, Spliter’s tail bolted and snatched it, hiding it behind the rat’s back. Leonardo frowned, but it was more confused than angry, and pulled out a shuriken that he had had hidden somewhere in his belt.
Donatello facepalmed, Raphael rolled his eyes and Michelangelo snorted. Splinter looked like he wasn’t sure whether he should feel exasperated or amused. And April, well, she was still too shocked to do anything.
“Leonardo.” Master Splinter sighed. “My son, what did we say about sweet food?”
“Not to take it?” Leonardo flicked his eyes to their guest. “But father, it was April. You taught us that rejecting offerings from friends is considered rude.”
Hold up. Was he trying to turn it against her?
Raph snickered. “Are you trying to blame April?”
“I would never!“ he exclaimed instantly. “I’m just saying what, Master Splinter. Come on, I haven’t had anything exactly sweet in years. I’m older, it can’t be that bad now.”
April stared at his fingers, the way they were flickering and moving the sharp shuriken in between them. “Right,“ she muttered.
He was acting totally normal. Definitely.
Leo gave her a look of utter betrayal. April couldn’t help herself but snort.
“Leo,” Don started, “what made you believe that you’d tolerate sugar better with age?”
He shrugged. “Well, I am much more leveled than I used to be. Training, you know?”
Mikey sighed. “If only it worked like this. But it doesn’t. We’ve been through this, Leo. You can’t develop resistance for everything.”
“And we won’t even try it,” Donatello hurried to say. “Leonardo, I thought that you’re smart enough to understand the consequences. Namely the sugar rush.”
The eldest huffed, obviously irritated that no one seemed to take his words into account. “It’s not that bad, really.”
Raph crossed his arms over his plastron. “Is that why you’ve been fidgeting first with the kunai and now with the shuriken? Or why I’ve watched ya spin it so hard that it nearly cut your fingers?”
“What can I say, I’m just skilled with blades.”
“Yeah, but you’re not this kind of a showoff,” April noted. “And, what more, you just don’t fidget. Usually you’re the exact opposite – completely composed.”
“I’m alright,” Leo still protested firmly. Although ‘stubbornly’ would be a better word. “Just wait and you’ll see. Now can I go, please? I was just beginning my practice.”
Leo’s eyes were fixed on his father. The mutant rat was gripping his stick a little too tightly, but he gave a resigned nod. “Go, Leonardo. We will talk about it later. But please,” Splinter’s gaze flickered to the shuriken in his son’s hand, “try not to hurt yourself.”
April blinked. She’d seen how Leo was with weapons. He could rule his katanas blinded and half-asleep. It was near impossible for him to get hurt by his own weapons. Or so she thought, but the looks on his brothers’ faces were sorrow.
“Hai, Sensei!”
And then he was gone.
April took a deep breath. “I think I’m starting to see what you meant,” she admitted slowly.
Mikey smiled at her, something wicked sneaking its way into the undertone. “Oh, trust me, April, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
It didn’t take her a long time to figure it out.
Thirteen more minutes, to be precise.
The mutant family – without Leonardo, obviously – relished on the cupcakes, saying that they need the sugar to soothe their stress. (April believed them; after all, it seemed that they knew what was about to come.)
“Ready?” Raph asked, after a few minutes of sitting in silence, which was probably the longest time April had seen them go without saying anything when the situation wasn’t downright gravy.
“As much as I can be, I guess,” Don muttered.
April threw her hands in the air. “Come on, you must be exaggerating. It cannot be that bad.”
“If you think so,” Master Splinter said silently, sipping his tea, “then you can enter the living room first, Ms O’Neil.”
She huffed, standing from her seat. She knew Leonardo and there was no way his reaction to sugar could be worse than Michelangelo’s occasional sudden rush of energy. “Fine.”
The moment she set her foot ouf of the kitchen and into the open space where she had a better view, the woman froze.
And that one second was enough for her to understand.
A couple of times April had the pleasure to see one of Leo’s craziest workout sessions he’d came up with for either himself or his brothers. They sometimes consisted of obstacle courses even the military would refuse to participate in, or of rather difficult exercice sets. But what he’d came up with now was something April thought could make up only a mad person.
It was an obstacle course, but she had no idea how Leonardo managed to set it up in those fifteen minutes. He’d pulled out a blackboard from Don’s lab and scetched a scheme of the lap. Leonardo himself was in the middle of running the course, jumping from the highest floor of the lair to a makeshift swing attached to the ceiling, swinging himself through the air and on the other side and letting go just in time to land in a marked cicle in the pool in the center of the room. He surfaced on the opposite side, hurling himself onto the bridge and continued running while systematically throwing three kunai at targets on the support beams.
“What the fuck,” April muttered, completely terrified. She turned at the mutant family who followed her, eyes wide open. “What the fuck?” she repeated, not caring a little bit about the language.
It said a lot that not even Mastr Splinter reprimanded her.
Raph grinned at her. “You startin’ to trust us yet?”
“Sensei!” Leonardo landed next to them, stopping in halt. “Father, look. I think that this is the best one I’ve created so far.”
“You mean the worst one?” Mikey chimed in instantly.
But Leonardo was already shaking his head. “We haven’t had an obstacle course in a while. And you’re due for a training exercise.”
Donatello waved his hand towards the obstacles. “I’m not getting on that thing, no way, Leo. I like my limbs ubroken, thank you very much.”
“Don’s right, Fearless,” Raph noted. He squinted at the blackboard. “Ya want us to take it even to the sewers? Leo, really?”
He crossed his hands over his plastron. “Oh, don’t give me that, guys. Are you really protesting because it seems ‘too hard’? Maybe that’s why you should run it.” He turned at Mikey, tilting his head to one side. “Come on, Mikey, don’t tell me that the Battle Nexus Champion is afraid of a little obstacle course.”
The youngest gasped in disbelief. “You’re playing dirty, big bro. Nu-uh. I’m man enough to step down from this.”
Leo turned his gaze on Splinter, eyes pleading. “Master Splinter? What do you think?”
His face was stoic. “Under any other circumstances, I would agree. But today, I will spare your brothers this training. But, as you have already set it up so nicely, you will participate it in.”
Although it was obvious that Leo was far from happy with how things turned out, it didn’t stop him from accepting. “Fine.” He turned and marched to the start of the course.
“Splinter can’t mean it, right?” April whispered to the other turtles. “Leo is distracted and all fidgety, he’ll only hurt himself.”
“He’ll be alright,” Don answered, voice as soft as hers. “It’s the most effective way to get the energy out of his system.”
“Besides,” Raph added, “we’ll be watching him the whole time. We would be able to stop him in time.”
April made a face. “That sounds… reassuringly.”
“In the worst case,” Master Splinter said silently, “we do have some sedatives, and I would be willing to use them for an emergency like this one.” Then, as if him saying this was completely normal, he moved to the blackboard. “Donatello, could you track the time? Leonardo, prepare.”
The genius turtle quickly jogged for a stopwatch, standing by his father and the rest of the family soon joined them. April’s head was spinning just by looking at the scheme on the blackboard, so she focused on the leader himself. The route was complicated, but she had no doubts that Leo had remembered it, even in this state.
“San,” Splinter started counting, “ni, ichi, hajime!”
Leonardo bolted, jumping across a pile of dummies stacked on top of each other, then climbed a ladder to the higher floor of the lair and parkoured through the barries he had placed there. Watching him move with such smoothness was fascinating, even more than usual. There were a few times when the onlookers flinched, ready to step in when it looked like Leo was about to fall, but he always managed to keep himself standing and running.
The first lap took him five minutes and eleven second. And then he kept going and going, the sugar in his bloodstream obviously supplying him with energy. He ran the whole obstacle course twenty one times nonstop before he finally, finally stopped, nearly collapsing onto the ground.
But his brothers were right there, handing him a glass of water and stripping him of the gear, helping him on his legs. They walked with him around the lair for a minute, but the flood of energy was gone.
“Better?” Mikey asked him when they lowered him onto the couch slowly.
“Yes, actually.” Leonardo sighed and then groaned. “Shell, that was a stupid idea. I’m going to be so sore tomorrow.”
Don hummed. “That’s, my dear brother, something we call karma.”
Leonardo swatted at him, but it was weak and he didn’t even reach him. “Just so you know,” he muttered, eyes half-closed, “you’re running this too. Tomorrow.”
The three turtles chuckled. “Sure, Leo,” Raph told him, tone kind but dubious. He fully believed Leonardo won’t make them go through something this crazy once he’s in his right mind. The leader himself didn’t respond for he was already asleep thanks to the adrenalin crash.
April and Splinter watched them from afar. “I think,” she started, “that no matter how long I’ll know you, there will always be something about them that would surprise me.”
Master Splinter rubbed his whiskers. “I agree. One can never get bored with my sons.”
She laughed. “No, that you really cannot.”
But she wouldn’t want it any other way. Although, April would admit, she would gladly avoid repeating today’s events.