Chapter Text
First rule of living with Big Mama: Don’t ask questions.
There was never a reason to not trust Big Mama, of course, so Venus just saw it as a “just in case” rule. The questions normally asked seemed to just be plain dumb. Questions such as:
“Where do babies come from?”
“Okay but where did we come from?”
“Who’s Draxxy?”
“Why don’t we have a dad?”
“Why are the fighters sad?”
“Why can’t I make friends with that guy?”
And, most importantly, for some reason:
“Why aren’t you married?”
It made Big Mama upset, in ways young Venus didn’t understand. Like, jeez, it’s not like she was telling her mom to get married or something, it was just a question. But anything that was “just a question” caused issues.
In a perfect world, her brother would follow the extremely easy rule like his sister, but noooo. He wanted every single answer to every question possible, clearly. Venus wondered how many slaps on the wrist the red-eared slider needed until he processed rule #1. Did he never learn?
Rule 2 in Big Mama’s book: Do not interact with the outside world.
This wasn’t hard, either. Even for Venus’s dear little brother. He wanted to make friends, he still did, after all these years, but he managed to accept the fact that humans didn’t like him. Leonardo then took to befriending every employee in the Yokai Hotel. It worked… for the most part. At least some people liked him, like Gus and… probably a few others, because they couldn’t just hate their boss’s son. The Nexus competitors definitely hated him, though, and the Japanese pond turtle once again didn’t get why her brother couldn’t understand that he shouldn’t even try with them, as about 90% of them were inferior beings. That’s what Big Mama said, anyway. Read rule 1.
Rule 3 went with that: Don’t even go outside unless you are told to.
To be completely honest, neither turtle yokai liked that rule. Venus would never admit to breaking this rule. She would also never admit that Leo broke this rule. The turtles had the staff promise to never snitch, because they weren’t doing anything bad . They wore their cloaking broaches when outside, didn’t talk to anyone unless absolutely necessary, ignoring adults asking where their parents were, whatever those were, and then tried street pretzels or something small. Nothing that got them caught, at least.
There were times Venus had lost her brother with the stupid, stinky humans, sure, but never for long. It was a big, loud city, but sometimes Leonardo just managed to be louder.
That also went with the young slider’s tendency to break rule 4: be quiet in the hotel and by Big Mama. However, the pond turtle decided that since they weren’t in the hotel, it was okay.
Rule 5: Be nice to your brother. Be nice to your sister.
Yeah, fat chance.
Rule 6, the most important: If you do fight, finish it.
They didn’t think this was a tough rule.
A time where rules three to five were broken, 8-year-old Venus took a 7-year-old Leonardo out for this weird cheesy food called pizza. The female pond turtle had to drag a crabby child all the way back to the hotel.
“Vee, I wanted moreeee!” The boy whined. He was currently wearing a blue, lapis lazuli looking cloaking broach, though it was pinned on a blue tank top that was a bit big for the boy. Instead of green skin, the young boy had dark skin, with patches where his skin were lighter, where his markings usually shone neon red or yellow. His hair was done beautifully in dreadlocks with beads, and at some point it had been in some sort of cute bun style that he somehow managed to totally ruin in the 40 minutes they had. The boy was fighting against his big sister's grip with no avail.
“We can ask Big Mama for it, you butthead!” Venus told him. Her appearance was what their legal (probably) guardian clearly would’ve wanted. She wore a dress picked out by Big Mama, a light blue one covered in pretty clouds, a broach pin where a broach pin was supposed to be, or as she had seen her mama wear it. Also unlike her brother, she had slightly lighter skin, and was more Asian-presenting. Her dark hair was in pigtails. For an 8-year-old, she was very good at dragging her brother through the street, ignoring all concerned or judgemental stares or any other looks that Venus didn’t understand.
“I’ll tell her you called me a butthead.” Leo threatened. “And also she wouldn’t like pizza ‘cause it’s messy and she doesn’t like messy and she hates all things fun!” He went on.
The older one gasped, stopping their journey back to the Yokai Hotel in a way they wouldn’t get caught by their mama.
“You can’t say that!” She scolded. “Mama loves having fun with us, and you know it!”
Leo shook his head dramatically. “She doesn’t like anything I like, so it’s like, all super duper boring.”
The girl rolled her eyes and grunted in annoyance. She then continued dragging the boy, who had stopped trying to kick her, thankfully. Now he just grumpily mumbled to himself, maybe plotting an escape plan? No, he wouldn’t, Venus lied to herself. That would attract attention, and why would Leon want that?
Then, the young human-disguised turtle bit his sister's arm and ran straight to the main entrance of the hotel they lived in, laughing.
Venus yelled a word that she had heard a fighter say when watching the Battle Nexus that Big Mama would not like. She yelled after him in a scolding tone. “LEO -NARDO. ”
He turned around, blew a raspberry at his sister, and then ran through the large doors after some doorman opened it for him. Okay, the female turtle decided to murder her brother that day. She stomped up to the doors, managing to pull it open by herself.
“You’re not an alligator, Leo! That didn’t hurt at all!” The older sister yelled after the blue boy, who had snuck off somewhere in the lobby. It was a bit of a lie, it kinda hurt because she got bitten with genuine force, but she didn’t really care. Alligator? Why would he want to be an alligator? That’s weird .
“I’m telling on youuu!” The slider called in a sing-song voice to his sister from the front desk, behind Venus. Her face lit up in a panicked fashion. She was infuriated. Mama would be infuriated, that was the big problem.
The older turtle ran towards him, almost tripping over the dark red carpet under her feet. She had to stop him. She stared at him for a while, figuring out a plan. The pond turtle then ran at her brother, pulling on his beads as she used the floor to slide, successfully taking him to the ground, screaming.
“OWOWOWOW WHY WOULD YOU— YOU MEANIE! JERK, BUTTFACE!” The younger boy wailed, tears in his eyes. Venus panicked a tiny bit then, feeling guilty for hurting her brother but moreover like she was gonna get in so much trouble for making him cry.
The pond turtle, still disguised, put her head down, pouting. She would apologize and get him distracted enough to stop crying, then Big Mama wouldn’t even know! As long as no desk staff snitched… they wouldn’t. She’d make sure. No one could resist her charm, are you crazy?
“Leo, I’m sorr—ACK!” Her head was jerked back by the right pigtail. She whipped around, making the hair-pulling culprit stumble back. With the expression on the young girl's face, like the was going to explode from anger, a smart person would back off.
A hair tie hit the young girl right next to her eye, making her flinch and scream, clutching her eye to protect herself. The opposing boy gasped, covering his mouth, as if he wasn’t aiming at his sister's eye in the first place.
The oldest stared at the boy, seeming so calm that it was downright terrifying. It went on for a few seconds too long, and Venus noted the fact Leo was leaving himself wide open…
She kicked her younger brother right in the stomach, though technically it would be his plastron. Venus wasn’t sure if it would actually hurt, but it clearly did. The boy in blue stumbled to the ground, curling in on himself in pain, now closer to crying. She then kicked him three times in the back. And maybe, maybe, she hit his face once, though she wasn’t sure at the time. She thought that was enough by then.
It took Venus a second before she remembered that at least 15 Yokai staff were around, plus… a single guest. Uh oh. Not only did she just kinda beat up her little brother, but she also kinda beat him up in front of people . There wasn’t a way in hell Big Mama wouldn’t know now!
“Leo! Hit me back.” This was Venus’s first idea. The now sobbing Leonardo glanced up at her like sure was a psychopath and continued crying. In the corner, she heard a Yokai employee talking into his walkie talkie. She was screwed, gods above, she was so screwed.
“Ah, well, isn’t this a miserable mishap, children!” The high pitched voice of a particular spider-mother came from the elevator. “I think you’d both had enough, wouldn’t you say?” How did she manage to get there so quickly?
“MOMMYYYYYYYY! VEE IS BEING REALLY REALLY MEAN!” Leonardo wailed, getting up and running towards the siblings mom, who was also in human form, hiding his face in her purple skirt. Her lip pouted in pity for the young turtle that was her son, softly lifted his chin to look up at her as he cried. This was also an act to easily unclip the cloaking broach from his shirt that now didn’t exist. He was now just a normal, humanoid red eared slider that was just sobbing nonsense.
With a subtle flick of her other hand, two of Big Mama’s attendants made their way to where Venus was, hoisting the small girl up by her arms. The oldest didn’t struggle as her feet lost contact with the ground. She just looked down in shame, not daring to let herself cry.
“Bring me her broach.” No made-up words existed in that sentence. Oh, was she that upset? No matter, her human form faded, turning back into the green turtle she was with a sigh. There goes her pretty dress.
Once another attendant handed the clip off to Big Mama, she bent down to Leo’s eye level. Venus couldn’t hear her clearly, but her brother's tears stopped falling so rapidly once she started talking. He wiped his eyes, nodded, got his cheeks pinched lovingly, and took the hand of a large owl Yokai in the elevator as his mama exited.
The siblings held eye contact for a second before the doors closed, just a second. If there was a message shared mentally, neither picked up on it. Leo did as he always did when he was in the elevator, he waved to the person outside. The person outside in question being his big sister, or Big Mama. Vee wasn’t sure, but she waved back as much as she could, with her being held by her biceps, and all. Then the elevator doors closed, and the eldest child was left with Big Mama.
With simple eye contact, the Yokai attendants set the young turtle down gently on her three-toed feet. The older woman walked up to her daughter, who never broke pitiful eye contact. The mother-daughter duo stayed like that, until a smile crept up her mother’s face.
“Oh, very good, very good! My little twitily turtle baby is growing up, isn’t she?” The woman picked up her confused daughter in a hug, spinning her around in joy. Venus blinked, but didn’t say anything, not yet.
Big Mama held her 8-year-old turtle-daughter up by her armpits, smiling with the most pride she’d ever seen on her mama’s face since… well, for as long as she could remember. She got a happy feeling in her chest, equally prideful as Big Mama’s face.
“ You’re going to grow up and be my next little chimmery champion, aren’t you?” The woman giggled, but Vee was still confused. She couldn’t mean… no, she wouldn’t…
Big Mama sensed confusion. “Oh, not at this age, of course. Much too young. You may have the fighting spirit, though I suppose beating up your bluebly brother wasn’t that much of a challenge. Training will be needed. But, it could be, say… a sweet sixteen gift, mayhaps?” She paused, setting down her kid. “Oh… I suppose, if you wish. I wouldn’t want my little princess to do something she wouldn’t wimbily want, now would I?”
This was tough. The Battle Nexus was something she had been watching- in person or on screen -with mama and Leo since she was, what, three? She knew everything about it; the names, ages and birthdays of every champion, the social security number of her favorite announcer, the history of the arena… everything an 8-year-old could know, at least. She had gotten over the pukey feeling of watching the ends of matches a while ago, sure, but the idea of finishing a fight stuck in her mind. For a kid, she was very aware of how much death hurt. Again, she and her brother have been watching it broadcasted worldwide for almost their whole life. But to be in that situation of having to kill somebody, or the unlikely chance of being killed in that arena…
But, Mama said she would have her trained. Mama said she would do it at the age of sixteen, or something. She didn’t know what it would be like to be 16, but that was basically an adult, right? She would be fine. Especially if Big Mama was asking. Mother knows best, that was all Venus knew. She wouldn’t question anything her mother said, because she knew exactly what she was talking about. That was rule 1, after all.
“Yes, mama. That would be wonderful.” Venus nodded after a while with her winning smile. The mother smiled gratefully at her oldest child, nodding.
She clasped her hands together. “Oh, look at my little warrior, making big decisions. I will find someone to train you immediately… or, whenever you would like.”
Riding the high of motherly praise, Vee nodded. “I will take that into cons-consiber-consideration.” She repeated a phrase she’d heard many times before in her mom’s office. Big Mama patted her head, nodding and keeping the soft, proud smile.
“Splendiferous, Venus.”
That was, as you can imagine, a bad idea.
“Oh,” Big Mama added. “You’re both grounded, by the way. Going outside? Likely interacting with humans? I can’t have my bimbly babies talking to scary strangers. I know you understand, Flytrap.”
“Gus said he was my therapy dog,” the smaller boy informed his sister the moment she walked into their room— well, Vee’s room. But he liked her toys, dollhouses and dress-up clothes better, and since the pond turtle said she was “too big” for them, Leo happily claimed them as his own. Sure, he could’ve had it all moved to his room, but he liked being around his sister, even if he got beat up by her every once and a while.
Vee just nodded, flopping onto her large bed. Leonardo didn’t get why they needed such big beds, but he decided to use it to make sure all his stuffed animals were tucked in. But his sister only had a few stuffed animals, so it was just space.
“What’s a therapy dog?” He asked. No response.
“I don’t think Gus is very good at being a therapy dog. All we did was completely ruin everything in the hallway. We were playing fetch.” He smiled up at his sister, a winning smile, of course. She turned away from him.
“You’re not listening.” He pointed out flatly. No reply. So, yeah, she wasn’t listening.
He scrunched up his face, (which hurt a little on one side of his face because Venus kicked him there,) thinking. He’d had these types of problems with other Yokai around the hotel, too. Either Big Mama was busy or just plain ignoring him, What would make his big sister give him attention?
Leon knew. He always knew. A simple trick to getting attention in this hotel that he believed only he knew: Be as loud as possible.
With minimal struggle, the red eared slider managed to lift himself all the way up onto Vee’s yellow-and-orange sheeted bed. He then slid next to her, leaned over her, grabbing a pillow…
“VENUS!” He screamed a bit louder than he was allowed to, hitting his sister with the pillow. She screamed as well, but she didn’t say his name. Unless his name was “Shithead.” It worked, though. Her attention was now his.
The eldest stared at the boy with the dumb smile. “Wanna do a tea party?” He asked.
The girl blinked, scowling. She shook her head. “It’s like, after lunchtime. Tea party time is lunchtime, and you know how that went.”
Leonardo groaned dramatically, flopped backwards. “WHY won’t you DO anything with me anymore?” He then proclaimed, “You don’t even love me anymore!”
Venus rolled her eyes. She told him, “I still do, Leo. But I don’t wanna have a tea party with you. Or anyone. No… no tea parties, from now on.” The pond turtle cleared her throat and then switched her voice to a weird, terrible British accent. “I decree, as owner of the room and maker of the rules, there shall be no more tea parties held here!”
The younger boy thought about it hard. “Okay… wanna play, umm… knights?”
She shook her head. “You always say you win the pokey-stabby-horse competition thing.”
“ Because I did.” He kicked his feet up into the air, swinging them around. “Wanna play ninjas, then?”
Venus shrugged. “No, not really. Not in the mood. That’s the same game as knights but with fewer people to save.”
“Nuh uh!” Leo defended. “They’re very different. In knights, we get to run around and save the stuffies. In ninjas, we fight and save the— you aren’t listening, jerkface.”
Venus had, in fact, turned over and laid back down until Leonardo called her out on it, where she attempted (and failed) to act like she was sitting up the whole time. He knew that she didn’t like listening to him, but she could at least try . Leo didn’t understand why the Yokai in this hotel couldn’t find anything he had to say as something worth listening to. Even Gus, sometimes. His plan at the moment was to keep talking until someone heard what they liked, and would finally, finally have a fun and passionate conversation. Just one, that was all.
He used to be able to do that with Venus, but for the last three months… he didn’t know what happened, she just started hating him. Maybe he was overreacting, people said he usually did. Maybe he did something to her, he just couldn’t remember what. But, he still craved attention, so he could be sad after all the attention was on him.
His all-or-nothing idea: “We could play Battle Nexus!” He offered enthusiastically.
This got the reaction he wanted, Venus perked up. Of course, the thing she loved more than anything, especially her brother: the Battle Nexus.
“But mom said no fighting, we’re grounded.” She pointed out. The slider frowned. He hadn’t been aware of that. Why had no one told him that he was grounded? That meant they’d take away his tv, his cloaking broach, his… other stuff? He didn’t know what else this time. But it would be gone for more than two weeks if he kept breaking rules, like the sound limit and the Gus-fetch problem. God, someone needs to tell him stuff!
But the options were either stay out of trouble or hang out with his sister. And Leo loved his sister… and breaking rules.
He clapped his three-fingered hands together. “Alright, we’ll need to sneak through the vents. Vámonos!” Leo fell off the bed as gracefully as possible, pointing towards the vent near the ceiling of Venus’s room.
The pond turtle blinked, a small bit of panic apparent on her face. Leo rolled his eyes. “Well, we’ll try and go through a lower vent, obviously , but—“
“No! This is a horrible plan!” She raised her voice. The red eared slider pulled back and blinked at her with a pout, confused. Vee continued “When we play Battle Nexus, it’s supposed to be imaginary, Leonardo. We can’t just break in so we can play a stupid game.”
The 7-year-old sputtered. “Well, how do you know we weren’t gonna do it in the laundry room? Or… something?”
“Because, why would we take your…weird vent tunnel, thingy, if we were gonna play Battle Nexus in the laundry room? Why would we play Battle Nexus in the laundry room?!”
Leo crossed his eyes, glaring and shaking his head in disappointment. “You’re no fun. Why can’t I play with fun people? Venus, you should be fun people.” He informed her, resting his chin on the bed.
She glanced at him. “It’ll be fine once you learn to follow the rules.”
With a huff, he stomped towards the door, making sure Vee could clearly hear every time his foot hit the wooden floors. When he got to the door, he turned back. Just as he expected, his beloved older sister didn’t seem to give a flying fuck. He wasn’t going to tell her he knew that word because it went against the rules, Leonardo. Dumb-dumb.
“Tell my nice sister to come home, Fake Vee!” He used a scolding tone, the same one his sister used with him. With that, he finally left, slamming the door closed.
“I’m real, you’re just annoying!” She yelled through the door. He didn’t respond. Yeah, show her what it feels like .
Leo had sat outside her door for who knows how long. The small boy didn’t know what he was waiting for. Did he think Vee would come out, apologize and play a game with him, even if it was her dumb game of Sorry! where he knew she was never actually sorry for beating him at. He just sat criss-cross by her door out of anger.
“Hey, kid.” The weird Australian Great-Horned Owl attendant (Leon believed his name was Jonathan or something. He actually had no idea) got his attention. He stared at him. The bigger guy was wheeling a mop bucket towards what Leo assumed was the entrance to the Battle Nexus arena. The elevator to it was down the hallway, after all. “What’s your deal? Your sister’s grounded, shouldn’t you let her be?”
Now the slider was confused. He only said Venus was ground. Did Venus lie?
“Are you gonna take away my shows?” He asked, pushing the sad puppy eyes a tiny bit. The owl just looked confused.
“No? I thought Big Mama only had the girl grounded.” Before he could think, Leo jumped on that lie. Or off another lie. He wasn’t sure. But whatever, he liked Jonathan’s (or whatever-his-name-was’s) idea better.
He stepped into that role. “Oh. I know, but, y’know. Veevee was trying to get in my head. She’s a big liar. Anyways, do you think you could help my mission?”
So anyways, 7-year-old Leo got to run around the empty Battle Nexus arena (while others mopped up bloody stains on the floor) for like, a whole 30 minutes. He had a great time. All thanks to a tiny lie.
Leonardo learned two things that day. 1: Venus is big and strong and powerful and doesn’t like anyone, and 2: Lying gets you out of trouble. He’d be sticking to those rules for a while. At 14, he still understood them. And hey, the worst thing that happened was making Vee mad, and though he didn’t like it, he knew she would just always like that. He decided that he’d rather be with an annoyed person than with no person at all, which he found he often was.
On the other hand, Venus did truly love her brother. But she figured out from listening through that door that day that he would give her up in an instant to get what he wanted. Maybe it was dumb to hold a grudge over something like that. But it kept happening. At 15, she was annoyed by nearly everything her younger brother did, but she couldn’t imagine life without it. She hated that.
But no, ask anyone about the adopted children of Big Mama. They’ll say they’re the perfect kids, well-behaved, mature, smart, all that jazz. Around other rich people, yeah, they could be like that. Honestly, whoever you ask is probably too scared of Big Mama’s wrath for speaking bad about the children.
You can’t speak bad about her turtlely-boo's, after all.