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Mikey wasn’t sure what woke him. The night was silent as ever, and Raph remained his soul source of warmth. Casey slept on the other side of Raph, the best fighter friends leaning into each other. It almost made Mikey wish Woody were here, but sleeping in a van with five other people in the middle of nowhere wasn’t exactly Woody’s style.
Across from the three boys, Splinter and Donnie slept back to back, one of the group’s two non-damaged blankets thrown messily over Splinter to keep their elderly father warm. Outside, April slept in the tent, separate from the rest of them.
Mikey raised his head carefully, taking in more of the van sleepily. He considered it pure luck - not ninja training, as none of the rest of his family had stirred - that he had awoken in that moment, not to mention had taken the extra moment to glance around.
Regardless, Mikey had woken up, and he had looked about. It was certainly luck that he had spotted the gleam of metal in the moonlight and saw the silhouette standing over his father’s body. In those precious milliseconds, Mikey saw, and he knew.
“ LEO! ”
Mikey’s sudden surge forward startled awake Raph, who took a quarter second to read the situation before letting out a “oh sh-“ before leaping to his feet as well.
Mikey made contact with Leo’s body at the same time that Casey lost contact with Raph and, as a result, woke up as a result of his cheek slamming into the cold fan floor. The human yelped out in surprise at the same time that Mikey slammed Leo against the van’s wall, his older brother letting out a roar of rage at being caught, and losing his grip with his katana. Leo wriggled as best as he could to face Mikey, instead of being captured on his side, his leg finding Mikey’s stomach and kicking him off, lurching him across the van.
Donnie and Master Splinter startled awake as one when Leo’s shell had smacked into the van’s wall, the echo arousing them. They didn’t get any chance to react before Raph was already upon Leo, smacking Loe’s hand away from his fallen katana. As Raph bent over to kick the sword towards the front of the van, Donnie leapfrogged over Raph and dealt a solid roundhouse kick to the side of Leo’s head, driving him further back into the rear of the van as he tumbled onto his shell, staring up at the ceiling, agape.
“Leo, stop!” Raph snapped, bracing his hands into tight fists as he lifted them in a defensive pose in front of his chin. “What the shell do you think you’re doing?!”
Leo recovered quickly, spinning to his feet again rapidly, flexing his left wrist. When his Shredder gauntlet didn’t spurn into action, Leonardo stared at his empty forearm in shock. His mental gears twisted, and his eyes drifted back up to his cautiously waiting brothers. “Where…” Leo whispered softly, eyes wide in alarm. “Where did you put my claws?”
“Leon…” Donnie offered, brow narrowing in worry. “We didn’t take them-“
“Liar!” Leonardo snapped, flipping his throwing stars out, launching them at Donnie immediately. Mikey dove forward to shove Donnie out of the way, the projectiles harmlessly deflecting off the glass at the front of the van. A growl bit its way out of Leo’s throat at the failed assassination, and he yanked his wakizashi out of its sheath, lowering himself into a battle stance. “Move! Can’t you see that you’re just Yoshi’s pathetic excuse at canon fodder?”
“Leo, com’n, man, what’d we discuss about sounding like Shredder?” Raph sighed, shaking his head in exasperation at the oldest. “You’re drivin’ me crazy.”
“Leonard, if you could cool your jets for about two seconds...” Casey lamented, tossing Raph the sais that the turtle had neglected to grab. Raph caught them without looking, immediately implementing them into his battle position.
“Please.” Leo spat, briefly eyeing the four of them, but let his gaze rest on Splinter. “You naive pawns are not the target.”
“And neither am I.” Splinter shot back, his legs twitching with the want to get up and fight, but his broken leg making it impossible to do so. “My son, you have seen past Saki’s lies once… do not let yourself stumble again.”
Leo did not answer, but his cold stare once again raked across the interior of the van, taking in those before him and his immobile surroundings, but no recognition of his companions came to him.
Leo was a good warrior and an even better leader. He was amazing at not underestimating his adversaries, and could spot an opening in the defense of a hundred men within ten seconds.
Leo knew. And Leo acted.
Leo dropped to a crouch, his moments precise, and as one, his brothers moved to counteract it. Leo, however, did not remain close to the ground. He moved upwards, hands shoving against the ceiling, and shoved himself over their heads, every part of his mind screaming at him to eliminate Yoshi where he lay.
Leo hadn’t realized one thing.
He had grown up with these men. They knew when he was faking left, right, up, or down.
And they still knew.
So when he went down, they went down, too, and waited for him to make the true move up. As Leonardo swung himself forward, Raph stepped in from behind, tugging Leo into a headlock, using his free arm to capture Leo’s fighting arm. Mikey instantly recognized the move as a tactic Splinter used on Raph himself to neutralize him as quickly and gently as possible.
Leo, however, was not like Raph, blinded by pure rage, and tossed his wakizashi to the other hand, kicking his legs forward to launch his body up, and then used the resulting propulsion to smack his heels hard into Raph’s kneecaps. Raph stumbled backwards, but managed to remain upright. Most importantly, Raph kept his grip on Leo, despite his shaking balance.
Raph’s back met the rear wall of the van, and Casey launched forward, grabbing Leo’s legs. He yanked them straight down, hugging them between Casey’s chest and Raph’s legs.
Leo howled, raising his wakizashi to stab Casey’s back, but Donnie slammed Leo’s hand back with his Bo-staff, Leonardo’s final weapon clattering uselessly to the floor. Leo quickly balled his hand into a fist, but Donnie gripped his arm firmly and pinned it to the van’s back wall, all three boys rendering Leonardo useless together.
Leo’s scream of anger broke through the van, the already disturbed atmosphere completely shattering from the agony behind his cry. Tears dribbled down his cheeks, a sob lurching itself from his throat, and he wailed in defeat. His hands clenched and unclenched desperately, searching and searching for something unknown. “Let me go!” He begged, pleading, his gaze never leaving Master Splinter’s. “You-you all don’t understand! He-he killed-! He- MOTHER! MOTHER !”
Mikey took that as his cue, stepping forward. The youngest seized Leo’s hands between his palms, tilting his brother’s face forward so that Leo could only see Mikey, and held him there. “Shhh, it’s okay, Leo. She’s not here right now. Just us, okay? It’s me! Mikey! See? I’m right here!”
Leo let out a rough sob, for the first time making eye-contact with Mikey and seeming to actually see him. “M-mike?” He inhaled sharply, choking out another seized-up breath. “B-but- you’re…”
“Not dead, big guy. Just me.”
“ Mother …?”
“Not now, Leo.” Mikey chose to leave out the fact that she was still dead, and definitely had not come back to life. “Look, bro, Raph and Don are here, too! Raph’s behind ya, so you probably can’t see him, Don’s to your right, and Casey’s below you. See ‘em?”
“Don… nie?” Leo’s gaze flickered to the side, taking in his second brother, a rush of relief flooding his features. He looked down, he and Casey meeting eyes, and a hard tremor released from Leo. “You… you’re all here! What… What happened? How…?”
Cautiously, Donnie and Casey released him, stepping back to allow Raph room enough to safely set Leo down.
“Hey, Leo.” Donnie greeted kindly, keeping a hand firmly gripped around Leo’s wrist. “We lost you for a bit there.”
“I-I don’t…” Leo choked out, reaching out to cradle Mikey’s nape. Gently, Donnie and Mikey lowered Leonardo down to his knees, the two of them hugging him tightly. Raph regained his breath and joined them on the floor. “Where…” Leo gasped, “where’s Master…?”
“Father’s behind us.” Mikey shifted to indicate Splinter behind them, realizing too late that Leonardo was referring to a completely different master.
Leo reached for his sword with surprising speed, but Donnie had caught on before Mikey had, managing to shove the blade out of Leo’s reach.
“Shredder’s not here, Leon.” Donnie stated, but it sounded more like a scold, shifting to hide the sword from sight as Mikey moved back to conceal Splinter. “We’re here, your brothers, and we’re alive. See? Can’t you feel my pulse?”
Leo seized Donnie’s arm, refusing to let go for a long time, but he nodded falteringly within a few seconds. “Your… heartbeat… it’s there… I… I don’t know…”
“It’s ‘kay bro.” Mikey comforted, mimicking Leo’s grip on him right back on his big brother, keeping his cheerful smile on his face. “You’re safe, now. With us! The Foot Clan can’t hurt you.”
Leo nodded stiffly, burying his face into the crook of Raph’s neck, sweat and tears alike dripping off his face and against Raph’s skin. “…sorry… didn’t mean to…”
“We know, man.” Raphael comforted, wrapping his arms tightly around Leo, shrugging him as close as he could, dragging Leonardo’s legs to press against his own. At Leo’s hiccuped sob, he squeezed him gently, cooing softly under his breath. “It’s all good, it’s okay.”
Mikey dove forward, wrestling his head underneath Leo’s chin and nuzzling his way in between what little space was between his two oldest brothers. Donatello, on the opposite side of Raph, gave up on trying to get Leo to release his arm, settling for slinging his free arm over Leo’s shell, resting his forehead against Leo’s head on the opposite side of Raph.
As Leo drifted off to sleep, weak muffled cries pressing out between his lips to their mother and sniffled apologies to them, the remaining brothers checked up on one another. Casey confirmed Splinter’s safety, to their father’s eternal chagrin. April checked up on them, having heard the commotion from her tent, and made them all some tea with her camping stove. Casey even hid Leo’s swords and throwing stars underneath the van seats so that Leonardo couldn’t find them immediately if he awoke.
As the excitement died down and everyone got ready to follow Leo’s example and knock out again for the night, exhaustion weighing down heavily on them all, Mikey couldn’t help but voice “why do I feel like this is gonna be a normal thing?”
Everyone’s silence told him that they were worried over the same thing.