Chapter Text
He pulls the lever and the small baby turtles start mutating. He breaks out of the binds. He escapes but at what cost? Losing three of the turtles. This- "dad?" is- "daaad." all- "Daddy?" his- "Old man." fault.
"DAD!!!"
The small turtle jumps on top of his father and tugs at his whiskers. The rat jolts awake. "Blue!?" He sits up. That nightmare is always the same. It always gives him a headache. "Dad, you promised that today we would go out! Today is today!" The small red eared slider bounces excitedly on the bed. "Yes Blue I remember. Go get ready and I'll be ready in a bit." He smiles softly at his son, he pats him on the head. "Okay papa!" The small turtle tot jumps of off the bed and runs off to a different room. Splinter gets up and stretches. He gets his bag and goes to the living room, if you could really call it that since they live in the sewers.
"Let's go already!" The red eared slider stomps on the ground and the rat man sighs. *Alright let's go son." He takes his little boys hand and they go to the surface. Splinter checks their surroundings. No humans nearby, he pulls himself up and helps his son up too. He starts scavenging the streets, Leo right behind him, following him carefully everywhere while looking around. He's seeing the streets of New York City for the first time. While Splinter is rummaging through some things that were thrown away Leo wanders a bit further and peeks out of the alleyway. He freezes. He can hear someone crying nearby. The curiousity takes the best of him and be quickly follows the sound.
He gets into another alleyway and there's a shivering blanket on the floor behind a dumpster. The small red eared slider approaches it slowly and carefully. He reaches his hand out but decides against touching it. He swallows on air and sighs. "Hey- are you okay?" A small face pops out of the blanket. A turtle tot just like him, well a different species and probably younger but a turtle either way. He sits down near the small turtle. "Are you okay? What's wrong?" Leo tilts his head to the side slightly. The small turtle is clearly thinking. He hiccups and finally speaks. "Are-Are you my brother?" This question confused Leo. Is he his brother? No that's ridiculous. "What happened? Why are you here alone? Where are your parents?" Leo comes a bit closer to the small turtle, the blanket covered turtle wipes his eyes. "Alone.... no parents." He sobs. He's been abandoned surely.
An idea pops into Leo's mind. "Come with me. I know someone that could help!" He offers him his hand and the small turtle takes it. He walks with Leo, the blanket still thrown over him. Leo leads him back to Splinter who's frantically looking around. "Dad!" Leo rubs up to the rat man and he clearly relaxes when he sees his son. "Blue! I told you to stay close. I was worried sick when I couldn't find you!" He couldn't afford losing the last one of them. If he did he would go crazy. The small red eared slider hugs the smaller turtle tot close to him. "Can we keep him??? Can he be my baby brother???" Leo's eyes were gleaming with joy and light. The other turtle was clearly tired and hungry probably too. He looked very scared.
Splinter freezes. He didn't lose them all.
He smiles shakily and taking the smaller turtle into his arms. He didn't lose all three of them. "He is your brother Leonardo." He smiles softly at both of them. Leo tilts his head in confusion. "You'll understand when you're older. Both of you. let's go home."
He takes his son's hand while he holds his younger son in his other arm. He goes back to the lair with them and suddenly the quilt about that day that he failed is not as crushing of a memory anymore.