Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

*Gold*

There comes a time in everyone's lives where change happens. It can be good, like getting a promotion you've worked hard for, or finally perfected that project that's been hovering in your mind. Of course life wouldn't be realistic if bad things never happened. The universe just loves to throw curveballs at your plans. You found out that show you loved got cancelled mid season? Awesome. Your car just had to break down? Super. In the end, as awful as life can be, the true test is how you deal with what comes to you. 

That, is the true test of character.

BEEP BEEP BEEP

*SMACK*

That’s better. The alarm clock beeped its last boop for the morning. Oh, to only get a couple more Zzzz’s in, but alas, the shop needs its one employee to function. 7:00 am, the usual morning lineup begins. Crawling out of the sweet place, the bed, chores must be done. The early morning rays of Autumn peak through the curtains, casting a warm glow to the tiny bedroom. It’s been cooling down outside; time to pull out the giant sweaters. That got a pep in my step while getting ready for the day. A big fluffy sweater, some comfy pants, and a steaming cup of coffee? That's where its at. I put on some music to jam to while getting the laundry started and danced around with the broom to sweep up the floors. When that was all done, I headed down to start up the coffee and tea for customers and warm up the ovens.

The spiral stairwell that leads into the shop creaks as I hop down the steps. Looking through the store, everything appears to be the same as it ever was. A small baking/plant shop that also housed refreshments for those who liked to stick around, it was a little slice of NYC that usually went unnoticed. Doodles and paintings line almost all of the walls, thanks to whenever paper wasn't enough to sate my creative needs. Grammy didn’t mind. She said it added more character to the shop. Plants of many types, from basic houseplants, flower pots, to herbs lined the shelves further in, with the bakery right across from the entrance. Nothing too special… up top, that is.

Continuing down the stairs to the lower level, I can hear my Grammy rummaging through the shelves as she gets the bottom store ready for our other customers. See, growing up, I didn’t know that yokai was something “special.” How could it be when they were literally downstairs looking for mystic herbs to cure ailments? My grammy took care of the bottom part of the store while I was made foreman of the “human” side. Anytime I stuck around down there for too long or tried to go out into the Hidden City, she would freak out and ban me from going down for a while. Grammy would go on and on about how it was dangerous and that I could get hurt going to the city. My curiosity dimmed a little after the 10th grounding, but the temptation is always there. Not much I can do about it anyhow; she had eyes and ears like a hawk, no matter how old she’s gotten. I peeked my head around the doorframe.

“Need any help down here?” 

Grammy shifted a box from the shelf onto her hip as she turned to look at me.

“Got it all under control down here, I’m sure Herbert and Hortense will be coming soon for their daily coffee and muffins, though, so you should hurry back up. I’m getting that poultice ready for the little bat yokai, so I will be busy for a while.” She turned and gave me a quick smile before dashing to the table, setting up the herbs she needed. 

“Alright, I got everything ready upstairs so… I’ll just do my thing, I guess.” Grammy gave an affirmative hum and I sulked back up the stairs. Another day, another time of not really doing much of anything. The hours passed, Hortense gossiping up a storm and demanding to know for the 4th time if I was seeing anyone. What I wanted to say was, “How could I when all I do is talk to you?” buuuut I’m not that cruel… yet.

“Oh Hortense you minx, I can’t be giving away all of my secrets now, can I?” She gave her little old lady snortle.

"You just let me know and I'll invite my grandson to come with me on my next visit. He's such a charmer!" I turned around to hide my disgusted expression before facing her again.

"I, appreciate the offer but maybe some other time."

Truly, the performance of a lifetime.

She laughed it off and thankfully moved on to her next hottest topic, the daily gossip from her reading group. Sounds like one of them is canoodling around with her gardener. As I tuned her out to help out the newest customer, I couldn't help but think that my life was on pause. I haven't done much of anything worth noting other than run this store. Homeschool was as boring as ever, and I had few friends other than the regulars that showed up. Will there ever be a turning point that shows me that there's more out there for me? 

Little did I know that the universe was listening and apparently had enough of my moping. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yes, I got the list of ingredients for dinner and I’m on my way to the store right now, don’t worry I’ll be back before you know it. Yes, I have my scarf on. Yes I know to follow the laws of foot traffic this is literally New York. Grammy I’ve been doing this since I was 10 I think I know what to do, thank you I love you too buh bye!” *BOOP*.

Gotta love the absolute choking experience of grandmotherly love. A puff of mist is visible on exhale while walking outside in the evening atmosphere. People from all walks of life wander the streets of NYC, enjoying the neon lights and signs blasting music in the city skyline. Going on occasional chore runs was about the only thing I was allowed to do alone, so I relished the little taste of freedom when I could. Getting to the store, I grabbed the necessary items for making garlic bread soup and brie sandwiches for dinner, the thought alone making my mouth water. The ding of the exit door plays softly behind me as the cold air rushes to hit my face. I’m glad I got this new scarf, it really helps with the cold winds. The light green checkered scarf brushes against my cheeks, the wind cutting right through my leggings… BRR. 

Halfway home, I passed by an alley that is usually quiet but instead, I heard loud crashes and shouts coming from inside. Worried this was someone getting mugged, I carefully pulled out my keys that had a self-defense device attached. It was New York, who didn’t have one? Slowly stepping into the shadowed walkway, I could hear fighting coming from the rooftop and below, meaning this wasn’t a normal snatch-and-grab deal. Instinct told me to stay behind the dumpster nearby before rushing in. Thankfully my instincts were almost always right because in the next instance someone got chucked through the air right where I was originally standing. I turned to look at the victim, noticing he had giant pincers for hands. Ah, so a yokai incident. Not really the best place for that… but ok? I turned my head back around as the one who threw Mr. Pincers was tussling with a similar Yokai. This one was at least seven feet tall, with a spiky carapace attached to its back. Getting a little closer I could see that he had a red bandana covering his face, with a mad gleam in his eyes as he punched the crab man in the chest, putting him out of commission. 

“Aha, and take that ya crab man! That’s how we mad dogs do it in NYC!” the turtle yokai looked up to see someone falling off the roof. The one below rushed forward to catch them before landing. It looked like another turtle, this one much smaller and had an orange bandana across his face. I could see two other turtles hop down from the roof, crowding the big one as they looked at the small one. 

“What happened up there?! Why is Mikey knocked out? And what happened to Meat Sweats?!” The big one had panic in his eyes as he looked between the three. The one in purple starts waving his hands frantically.

“Mikey went all fanboy at Meat Sweats and didn’t move in time to dodge his giant meat tenderizer!!” He moved just enough for me to spot the trail of blood sluggishly making its way down the small one. Before I knew what I was doing, my feet dashed forward, making the three quickly look up to see me running toward them. The one in blue sidestepped in front of big red.

“WHOA whoa whoa who’s this? Oh, it's a huma– I mean, yes! Another fellow human being how’s it goin-”

“He’s bleeding! He needs help!” I pushed past blue and attempted to place my hands on little orange. Big red takes a small step back, holding orange tighter in his arms.

“Hey uh, while I appreciate the effort we got this, Leo grab some of your bandages.” Blue- presumably Leo, takes his satchel and reaches to grab supplies but I was firm in my grasp.

“Please, I know you don’t know me but trust me, I can help. Look, he has a serious head injury that could cause swelling quickly and we really don’t want that. Here, purple hold these bags for me. Red, kneel down for a sec.” The two looked at each other in bafflement but unbeknownst to me, Leo looked at them behind me and gave a short nod. Red kneeled down while purple grabbed my groceries.

“The name’s actually Donatello, but whatever…” I glanced at him for a second before putting my attention back on orange.

“My apologies, I was just going by the attire but after this, I’ll expect proper introductions. Now, just give me a second please.” My hands take both sides of orange’s face as I close my eyes and listen to the sounds of my breathing and the rhythm of my heart. Slowly, the gentle warmth I was searching for brims to the surface, casting a yellow glow from my hands.

~~

*Blue*

The random lady that appears from nowhere touches Mikey’s face and I nearly stop it until she speaks. She doesn’t seem scared of our ‘whole situation,’ and has at least a general knowledge about medical stuff. As much as I wanted to argue and say that I could handle it, Mikey’s condition called for immediate action. If a hematoma isn’t taken care of quickly, the swelling to the brain could cause irreversible damage. Whatever she was going to do, it had to be better than the alternative. I noticed Donnie and Raph look to me of all people for the final say, so I gave them a nod and they let her do… whatever she was going to do. That’s when I noticed the glow coming from her hands. Donnie and Raph notice it too and stop their movements as she begins to… sing?

"Flower, gleam, and glow…” The light slowly grew stronger as she went. "Let, your power shine…” I crept up to her left side and noticed her gentle smile as she continued. "Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine…” The yellow glow encompassed her whole body now and gently wrapped around Mikey’s frame. I couldn’t help but feel in awe of what was happening. A human with magic? That wasn’t supposed to be a thing. Was that a thing? Pops really needs to explain some things. 

“Heal what has been hurt… change the fate’s design… Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine… what once was mine…” As she stopped, I noticed that Mikey’s head was no longer bleeding, and his eyes slowly opened.

“Wha… did we get the recipe for the pork risotto?” Cheers erupted from Raph and Donnie, while I was still in a dumbfounded state staring at the lady. She opened her eyes and had a heartfelt smile on her face as she looked at my little brother. Something warm made its way into my chest, and I couldn’t help but be grateful for her smile.

“Looks like you took a little tumble, but I’m guessing your brothers took care of things.” Mikey noticed the girl speak and had a confused look cross his features.

“Umm guys? Who’s the lady? And why are you holding my face?” Raph and Donnie stop their tearful hurrahs and look at the lady who started giggling at Mikey's babbling. 

“Oh right, I guess we forgot on account of you being hurt and all. SO… mysterious person who has magical powers, do you have a point of origin?” Donnie points to the mysterious person in question while typing away at his wrist monitor. 

“Ah aha yeah, I guess that’s fair, seems you’ve never been to the shop then.” She gave us her name but my curiosity hasn’t been sated yet.

“Interesting… I’m gonna go off on a limb and say that you know what mutants are. You don’t seem too scared of us.” I pointed out. She gave a little head tilt that for some reason put a smile on my face.

“Mutants? I’ve been told you go by Yokai but hey, your business is yours. My grammy and I run a plant and bakery store in town that caters to both species. Speaking of, do you guys want to come over and rest for a little while? I’m making dinner soon and we would love the company.” Mikey jumped out of Raph’s arms and had sparkles in his eyes.

“Oooh really?! What are you making? I’d love to help, especially after you helped us!” Y/N blinked in surprise at the sudden energy but seemed excited to share.

“Soup and sandwiches! Trust me, you won’t want to miss out on this. It's a family recipe that brings people from all walks of life together!” Raph scratched the back of his head at the offer.

“Well, if you’re one hundred percent sure that it's ok, we’d love to join you! I’m Raphael, but you can call me Raph, the one you saved is Mikey, you’ve already gotten acquainted with Donnie, and our brother in blue is Leo! Nice to meet you.” She observed each one of us, ending at yours truly. She gave me another warm smile towards me.

“It's always nice to meet new people, I can’t tell you how boring my days can get! Let’s go then, come on!” She grabbed my hand and led us out of the alley. 

“Vamonos hermanos! The soup waits for no one!” 

It's funny how a few trips above the surface can change so much of how our days go now. First we learn more about how we were created by some crazy scientist in a giant underground city, and now we've come across a human who supposedly knows about yokai and has powers of her own.

The universe is weird.

Chapter Text

*Blue*

"ZZZZZZzzz..."

Maybe he'll roll over and stop.

"ZZZZZZZZ!!!"

Oh goody, another night of missing my beauty sleep. It’s looking like another night of blueberry tea and Jupiter Jim comics. I left the sweet embrace of my bed to head over to the kitchen. The lair was quiet, with the soft sound of water rushing through the sewers and the gentle hum of Donnie's tech being the only things audible. After years of late nights, I've gotten used to being the only one up, besides the nights Donnie spends working in his lab. So color me intrigued when I notice the delectable aroma of chocolate wafting from the room. Curious...

I peeked my head in to see no one around. I stepped closer to the center island to find that someone had left a tray of recently baked brownies. I know Mikey didn’t make any before going to bed, and they are still warm, so someone had to have made this fairly recently. Squinting at the clock on the stove, it's currently 3:14 am. Who’s baking this late at night? Well, either Mikey’s sleep-baking or Y/N made a late-night drop-off in the lair. Considering all the options, it would stand to reason that these brownies are completely safe to eat. I mean...they're just sitting there, all ooey gooey and delicious… It couldn’t hurt right? I grabbed a knife and got a corner slice. I had to blow on it a bit before chomping down. The instant the chocolate met my tongue I was hit with a delectable wave of sweetness and a side of mellow bitter that make an addictive combination. Was that coffee I tasted?   

Aaaaaand OOHHH they’ve even got chocolate chips mixed in! This late-night insomnia episode didn’t turn out so bad after all. But the question still remained, who made them?

~~~

The outside of Y/N's bakery emanated warmth and comfort, inviting you to come inside and sit down with a cup of coffee and blueberry muffin. I smiled when I spotted Y/N at the counter and made my way inside. After our first encounter Y/N welcomed us to the shop whenever we wanted. Of course Raph brought up concerns of humans seeing us during the day, but Y/N came up with a workaround. She proudly placed a “Cosplayers Welcome!” sign in the front window and said that should ease any concerns. Surprisingly, no one seemed to care. In fact, I've had a couple humans compliment me on, and I quote, "Such a rad impression of karate lizards". An unexpected result of the sign was an influx of people coming dressed in famous characters. Her favorite one so far was a guy dressed as the Witcher. She loves that game for some reason. 

The front door chimes as I open it, the welcoming smell of apple and cinnamon hitting my senses. Y/N looks up from the counter where she was writing something, probably more doodles. I noticed she does that a lot when she’s bored. It’s a lot of fun when she and Mikey get into their artistic fevers and end up painting everyone’s shells, sometimes even Donnie’s battle shell when he feels like it. The evidence of her artistic side is written all over the walls, literally. Swirls of colors and drawings coat nearly all of the walls and shelves of the store. 

“Hey Leo, what’s going on? Did you want some apple strudel?” She pointed behind her to the oven racks. “Fresh out of the oven! I tried out some different measurements to see if I could get the texture more the way I wanted it.” 

“Ooooh man, you know I love trying out your recipes and I’ll definitely get some on the way out, but I actually came to ask you something.” She tilted her head with a raised brow.

“Well, shoot! I just hope it doesn’t have to do with spiders. Please, no spiders.” 

“No spiders, I was just wondering if you have dropped off any brownies to the lair recently. I found some last night and Mikey said he didn’t make them, so I was kinda confused as to what’s going on. Not sure if this is some random mutant trying to kill us with diabetes or you are just being super sneaky and friendly. I’d prefer the latter to the former.” Y/N squinted her eyes at me.

“You mean it's not-” She stopped mid-sentence like someone put her on pause. She looked slightly panicked. “Um… well I mean it could be me. Maybe I slept walked all the way to your place and baked you guys brownies? Yeah, that’s the most likely cause. Sorry about that hahaha…” 

“Uh-huh. You slept-walked all the way out into town, down into our lair into our kitchen to bake brownies, when you have your own ovens here at home?” If this was an anime, I would’ve seen a sweat droplet on her forehead. 

“Ummm, well you know how sleepwalkers are, very random and spontaneous! Why would sleep me use one of my ovens when I could hang out at your place instead? Aha ha ha…” She scratched the back of her head and tried to look anywhere but at me.

“Well… I guess we’re going to have to make sure you don’t wander off in your sleep again. Might end up baking a cake for Meat Sweats.” 

“Aha yep, gonna need to get something to keep me in my room! Anyways, since we solved that, did you need anything else?” 

“I… guess not. I will be taking some strudel though. Thanks.” She quickly grabs a paper bag and stuffs some inside before handing it to me. She has a great big smile on her face as she escorts me out of the store.

“Great seeing you Leo, I’ll stop by later for pizza ok? Alright bye bye!” The door slams shut behind me.

What. Was. That. 

~~~

*Gold*

Phew, that was close. I let go of the door handle and turn around.

“Donnie, you can come out now, Leo’s gone.” Donnie peeked his head over the counter, his chin sitting on top. “Don, I’m confused. Why do you not want Leo to know that I’m teaching you to bake? I don’t really think he’d care. Plus, you owe me an apology for pinching my knee.” He jumped to a standing position and walked around the counter.

“First off, if he knew, he’d constantly ask me to bake him stuff. Second off, it was the only way I could stop you from saying it was me who made the brownies.” 

“I really don’t see the issue, but I won’t say anything to him unless you say so first." I sighed before retying my apron. "Did you want to keep learning how to make cinnamon rolls?” I watched Donnie’s eyes light up with stars.

“OOOH yes, please! I think I’ve calculated the perfect ratio of cinnamon to cream cheese!” Alrighty then. These goofballs…

~~~

*Yawn*

“Goodnight Grammy, love you.” I walked away from the living area and headed up to my bedroom.

“Goodnight sweetie, tell Leonardo I said hello.” I stopped midway up the stairs, peeking my head down to look at Grammy as she had already walked away to her room.

“Umm, ok? Sometimes I don’t understand her. What am I kidding, I never understand her.” Closing my door behind me, I went to the bathroom connected to my room and got ready for sleepy time. With my freshly brushed teeth and cozy pj’s, I hopped into bed and turned off my lamp. Mmm, snuggly warmth here I co-

“Hey, I was reading over here, mind turning the light back on?”

“YYYAAA OHHOHO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE LEO?!” I nearly jumped straight out of my bed at his voice. He seemed completely unbothered by my outburst. In fact, I could see him smirking from here.

“Oh, I just thought I’d keep an eye on you while you slept, since you’ve been wandering out into the night to do some sleep-baking.” I noticed he had a Jupiter Jim comic with him, his odachi resting on the armchair he was currently occupying.

“Uh, ok? While that is charming and borderline stalker behavior, I must decline your offer. I think I’ll be fine.” He flipped a page with a fluid flick of a finger.

“Hmmm, nope. I think I’ll stay right here. Your room is super cozy, and I just got to the part where Jupiter Jim saves the cat!” Ok, I can see where he is going with this. I cross my arms over my chest with a pout.

“Alright Leo I get it, clearly my acting skills need work. However, I can’t tell you the truth.” He sat up from his slouching position and closed the comic.

“Aww come on, why not? The whole thing doesn’t make any sense. If you didn’t do it, and Mikey didn’t do it, who could it have been?" He's standing now, pacing a little back and forth in front of the lounge chair.  "I know Meat Sweats isn’t capable of being nice, and Raph can only make sandwiches. Pops doesn’t bake, and-” He stops mid-step and his eyes grow wide. “Wait wait wait. Are you telling me, Donnie bakes? ” Oh no. Evasive maneuvers! 

“Now hold on, I didn’t say anything! Why would you think it was Donnie?” He gives me a raised eyebrow and an unimpressed look in response.

“It’s the only possibility left! Why didn’t he say anything? Both you and Mikey cook stuff all the time! Why would it matter that he does?” Oh boy, Donnie’s gonna be mad at me, but technically I didn’t tell Leo, he just happened to figure it out himself. The others don’t notice it but Leo can be super observant, he just tends to cover that up with his sarcasm.

“Alright listen. Donnie came to me a week ago asking to help teach him to bake stuff. I think it was a way for him to destress away from his tech when it gives him trouble. Honestly, he really enjoys it and he’s been getting pretty good at it. I’m not totally sure why he didn’t want you to know. He said that you would bug him to bake stuff for you but I think that was just a deflection. If you want to know more, you’ll have to ask him yourself. Just, please don’t tell him you figured it out through me, he’ll get upset that I couldn’t keep his secret.” It took a minute for Leo to process all of this. He wandered over and sat next to me on the bed. His confused look didn’t give me much insight into what he was thinking. 

“I know that we rag on him sometimes, but I hope he knows that when it comes down to it we all care about him. I already get enough delicious treats from you, so I wouldn’t bug him about brownies. Does he think us knowing would be embarrassing?” I grabbed his hand and after a moment he squeezed it back.

“The others are so lucky to have you as a brother. I think you telling him that would go a long way toward alleviating his fears.” He looked up at me in surprise.

“You think I’m a good brother?” The way he said that made it sound like it was the first time someone has told him that. Maybe it was. I squeezed his hand a bit more.

“Leo, by now you should know two things about me. One, I never break my promises. Two, I’m a terrible liar. I have seen the way you take care of them in your own way. Raph may be the oldest but I see how you protect Mikey and let him have his independence. Like the time you guys went to the Stock n’ Shop. Or how Donnie trusts you to make decisions, or when Raph isn’t around you take charge to keep them safe. I can keep going if you want.” I gave him a smile that I hoped would make him believe me. I think it might have worked because he suddenly gave me a bone-crushing hug to hide the tears in his eyes.

“If you think this gets you out of baking those pizza rolls for me for next week’s skateboard marathon you are sorely mistaken *Sniff*."

“Darn, you saw right through me.” The two of us laughed, his a tad bit wetter than mine. Slowly, he calmed down and eased up on the hug. “Don’t forget what I told you. I believe in you.” I noticed he had some warmth on his face as he looked away.

“I won’t.”

“Good. Now, let’s go to bed, I’m exhausted. Donnie gets a tad bit excited when it comes to spice ratios.” I started dragging Leo down to bed when he jerked me back.

“Wait, what? I thought you wanted me to leave?” I shrugged in response and rolled my eyes.

“Nardo, don’t think I haven’t noticed your insomnia. You need sleep, and I’ll know you’ll actually get some rest if you are here tonight. Now come on, I require snuggles to sleep.” He gave a slight chuckle before conceding to my pulls.

“Okay okay, you win. Dibs on the little spoon!” I laugh as I pull the covers over us and squish myself against his shell. I lightly scratch the parts that I know instantly relax him into the bed. 

~~~

*small switch to blue*

“By the way, that apple strudel was delicious, good job on that.” I could feel her shake in laughter behind me.

“Aww, you really know the way to my heart Leon!” Unbeknownst to Y/N, my face began to burn up at that comment. That wasn’t my initial plan but now that I think about it, that doesn’t sound too bad. 

“Well, I guess I’ll have to keep eating your food then.” She stops scratching my shell for a second, then continues again. Quietly, she says,

“You better.” 

“Goodnight Y/N.”

“Night Leo.”

~~~

*Blue*

“Tello, can I talk to you for a minute?” I peeked into Donnie’s lab to see him standing at his desk looking at a hologram SHELLDON was projecting.

“Yeah yeah sure come in, just watch the sparks, the tech is having hardware issues we’re trying to correct, and it's frustrating me.” Y/N’s words pop into my head with what he said. I stepped into the lab, careful to sidestep the tech laying on the desk. Donnie is leaning over the desk with his goggles over his face.

“Don, don’t panic on me, but I know that you are the one who’s been baking at night.” He instantly stills, flipping his goggles up so I could see his eyes, which were wide with shock before smoothing out into something aloof. 

“I’m not sure what you are talking about. I saw Mikey last night wandering around, seems more likely to be him than me of all people.” 

“Truly, you need to make it to rehearsals, your acting is terrible.”

“Scoff, this isn’t acting because that would imply I’m lying, which I’m clearly not…” Ok, this was getting us nowhere.

“Listen, I just wanted to tell you that… the brownies you made were delicious and I wouldn’t mind if you made more sometime.” Donnie looks surprised, like what I said wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. “If you want to keep it a secret from the others then that’s your prerogative, I won’t say anything. The thing is, I don’t think it’s something you need to hide. No one would care if baking is how you deal with your stress. If anything, Mikey and Y/N would love to have someone else to test new recipes out with. That, and you know Raph can’t get enough of his sweets.” 

Silence.

“Uhh, Donnie? Don-tron?”

“How do you feel about dark chocolate? I read that chopping it up and putting it in sweeter batches helps to even the flavors out.” A small smile was on his face. It was practically an explosion of emotion for him. 

“That sounds great buddy, maybe we could even do a batch with walnuts! So long as we let Raph know so he doesn’t try them. Do you need help with your project?” Donnie looked back at the hardware, then back at me. 

“No, it should just be a matter of resetting the programming, but thank you.”

I knew what he really meant. Thank you for understanding. 

“No problem dude.”

Chapter Text

*Blue*

"I shouldn't even enter this year, I know it's gonna be pointless in the end." She walks to the right.

"BUUUT what if this year things are different? Maybe she won't even sign-up?" She walks to the left.

"No that's crazy talk, of course she's going to apply! She's gonna do it till she dies." She turns to walk right again.

"But what if-" Ok, this has gone on far enough.

"Umm Y/N? You know I love hearing you talk as much as the next person, but I'm gonna need some context. What's going on in that mind of yours?" I stopped her in her tracks and straightened to face me. She stood behind her bakery's counter as I sat on the barstool, not noticing she was starting to leave burn marks on the floor from her back-and-forth pacing.

"Sorry, my bad. I was just debating on whether I should enter the baking competition this year. I love doing it, but there's only one problem... Ethel." She made a face that spoke of dark times.

"Umm, who's Ethel?" She spins around to reach the shelf that showcases a binder. She grabs it and turns back to me, opening its contents. Inside are pictures of her from the time she was 10, up until last year, 5 years of 2nd place ribbons. 

“Only my greatest foe! Every single year I’ve been in the competition, she wins 1st place! It’s insane! No matter the type of food she manages to pull through! Cookies, tarts, you name it! I think she has the judges under her mind control, it’s the only plausible theory.” She had a mad look in her eyes that hinted at evil thoughts.

“Alright, now you’re starting to sound like Donnie. I think he’s a bad influence on you. Also, how old is this lady?”

“Not sure, 80? 5,000? Who knows! I know it’s about time someone knocks her off her pastry throne. Every year they send out letters that have the competition’s category to make, and I just got mine. I was gonna open it when I started to panic.”

“Do you want me to open it for you?” She looked to the side in contemplation, then gave me a nod. The envelope sat on the counter in front of me. As I reached for it, I watched as she began fidgeting with her hands. “I don’t think there are any spiders in the letter Y/N, you can relax.” 

“Har Har. Just open it, please!” 

“Alright alright! Hold your horses, I got it.” The seal broke easily and I flipped the paper open. “Dear Y/N, we are excited to invite you to the annual baking competition of New York. Attached you will find this year’s category for the baked good you will need to create. We hope to see you there, and good luck!" I glanced down to the bottom of the paper and read the final piece. "It looks like the category is…” I looked up at Y/N to see she had covered her face with her hands. She noticed I stopped talking and split her fingers so she could peek at me with one eye.

“Just say it! What is it?!” I stifle a laugh before responding.

“It’s… cheesecake.” Her hands slammed down onto the counter, causing me to jump in surprise. 

“NO WAY!”

“Wait what? What’s that mean??” She expression morphed into downright devastation with tears in her eyes.

“Now I don’t even stand a lick of a chance! Any New Yorker worth their salt can make a decent cheesecake. With how much experience Ethel has, I won’t be able to hold a candle to whatever she makes!" She crosses her arms in defeat and glares at the ground. "That’s it, I’m not doing it.” I hop off the stool and rush around the counter to stand in front of her. Seeing her look so distraught made my fight-or-flight instincts kick in, wanting to stop whatever was bothering her so much.

“Whoa whoa whoa, that doesn’t sound like the Y/N I know. The one I know practically ~sparkles~ in positivity, and never backs down from a challenge, no matter the opposition!” I brushed a hand under her left eye as a tear trailed down her cheek. She sniffles and glances away.

“I’m not as confident as you, I just don’t think I can win.” I gently nudged her face with my hand until she was staring back at me.

“I believe in you. You can do this.” She took a second to collect herself, then gave me a small smile. 

“You really think so?” I move so that I was grabbing onto her shoulders to lightly shake her form.

“I know so. And if it helps, I can be your taste tester! I have a gourmet sense of taste you know.” She has a small laugh at that.

“Yes, because your extensive knowledge of pizza toppings qualifies as ‘gourmet taste’ huh?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that whether it be Hawaiian, shredded coconut and sweet pickle, or whatever, I know it’s good.” Her laugh has her normal warmth back to it, warming my core with her smile.

“Okay, okay, you can be my official taste tester. Man, I already have so many ideas about what kind to make, I don’t know how I’ll decide!” She starts going off into her baking speech mode, which is honestly infinitely better to listen to than Donnie’s FAB rant any day.

~~~~~~~~~

* Gold *

“Hope you guys are prepared. Get ready for a little trip to what I call, FlavorTown! ” I whip out slices of multiple types of cheesecakes I baked as testers for my favorite turtles and April. Various oohs and awws are verbalized as I point out each one. “First off, we have the classic New York style, with fresh strawberries and cream on top. Next is the triple chocolate, over here is cookies and cream, blueberry, and finally pumpkin for the fall vibes. I need you guys to decide which one I’ll take to the competition. Are you ready?” Donnie looks up from the spread laid out before all of them.

“Literally, the greatest question I’ve ever been asked.” Mikey summons a fork from seemingly out of nowhere, and practically has stars in his eyes as he assesses the different slices.

“Oooh, you know Imma bout to absolutely crush this taste test baby!” Each of them cut a piece, and with salivating mouths, take a bite.

“MMMMMmmm!”

“This is possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten.”

“Y/N, your mystic energy has to have some effect on your baking, because my soul is being healed right this second.” 

“Girl, you have absolutely got this in the bag! Anyone who says otherwise needs to step to me.”

“The flavors! My mind cannot comprehend the complexity! Truly, a master of the craft!” My face is on fire with all of the compliments being thrown by everyone. They each take turns having a bite of the different flavors, with more compliments and sounds of happiness bouncing off the kitchen walls of the lair. 

“Aww, you guys… It’s really sweet of all of you to help me with this.” Leo looks at me as he takes another bite of the blueberry cheesecake. Of course blueberry would be his favorite, he loves all things blue.

“It’s honestly the least we could do! Besides, how could we say no to your delicious culinary talents? An absolute class A act if I’ve ever seen one.” Out of everyone here throwing nice words my way, hearing Leo say such things always set butterflies off in my stomach. For once, I begin to feel more confident in my ability to actually win the competition.

“So out of all of them, which would you guys say is the best?” Apparently, that was the worst thing I could have said, because an all-out war began between the five of them trying to decide which one deserves the title of number one. Raph points to the triple chocolate.

“Obviously it should be this one! The decadence of the three chocolates blends in perfect harmony!” April throws back a laugh before gesturing to the strawberry.

“Raph my boy, you cannot be serious! You’d look at a perfect example of a classic NYC cheesecake and dare say it’s not the bomb??” Donnie cuts her off with a wave of his hand to the cookies and cream.

“Gasp, how dare you say that this is not deserving of the ultimate spot of epic flavor? Clearly, you all do not understand the intricacies of baking.” Donnie and April begin a staring match that could melt walls with the amount of heat it had to it.

Oh boy.

“Guys, there’s no reason why we can’t calmly go through each flavor-” I get cut off as they start up the arguing again. I look on, helpless, as all of them continue to go back and forth. I look to Leo for help, but it seems he’s enjoying the show while finishing off the rest of the cheesecake. We watch as Mikey begins a heated debate with Raph over the difference between the pumpkin and chocolate, while April and Donnie look about ready to have a physical altercation over the whole thing. I heave a great big sigh and look over each cheesecake. Each one has its own charms, they could easily do well, but something was missing. I couldn’t really place it, but none of them had that oomph that I was going for. I could sense Leo was watching me, so I glanced back up to meet his stare.

“Something on your mind? You have your thinking face on.” Well, that was surprising. I didn't think Leon had paid enough attention to my expressions to know when I was deep in thought. Speaking of, 

“I have a thinking face?” I rub my forehead as he smiles.

“Yes, you kinda squint your eyes and your tongue pokes out to the side, it’s adorable.” I can feel my cheeks warm up at his compliment.

“Oh, if you can read me so easily, do you know what I’m thinking too?” He tilted his head, and that’s when I noticed he has a thinking face too. He puts his hand up to his chin and narrows his eyes as he scans my eyes.

“You’re thinking these flavors aren’t what you are looking for.”

“Wow, now I’m gonna start thinking you can read minds as well as make portals.”

“Well, I am a turtle of many talents.” 

...Wait a minute.

“Turtle…” Leo looked confused at my statement.

“Umm, Y/N? You lost me.” All at once, an idea sprouts in my mind, and I jolt in place.

“OH MI GOSH, I’VE GOT IT.” Everyone stopped their bickering at my outburst. April looks around frantically.

“What is it?! You got what?!”

“Everyone, I know what I’m doing! Leo, I need you to make me a portal to my house now please, I have no time to waste!” Leo hastily grabs his odachi and cuts out a portal in midair.

“Ok, thank you everyone for your input, I love you all very much goodbye and see you tomorrow!!”

Aaaaaand, she’s gone.

…

“Soooo, which one did she decide on making?” Mikey looked completely confused as he stared at the space that Y/N recently occupied.

“I guess we’ll find out tomorrow at the competition…” April slapped a hand to her forehead.

~~~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*  

“Welcome everyone, to the annual NYC baking competition! The judges will be going around to each individual’s booth to get a taste of your delicious cheesecakes! Good luck and have fun!” The host this year was a cheerful little man that looked suspiciously like Todd. While the weather was still fairly warm, the contest was being held outside in the park. With the warm tones of the leaves in the trees and the smells of baked goods in the air, the fall vibes were in full swing. Glancing around at the nearby tables, I could feel my whole body was tense with nerves.

“Y/N, you need to calm down, your leg is shaking the entire booth.” Raph pats a ginormous hand on my shoulder and I notice my left leg is indeed tapping at a rapid rate. I stop moving as the rest of the gang notices my ever-increasing anxiety. Donnie is monitoring the judge’s progress with his goggles as Mikey is wandering around admiring the other entries' baked goods.

“Yeah girl, relax, I know you got this. I mean, I don’t know what flavor you went with, but I know it’s gonna be good.” I looked down at the covered cheesecake I made, trying to take April’s words to heart.

“I know, I wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, but now I’m having second thoughts. I didn’t have any of you taste test it, what if I got the flavors wrong? Oh mi gosh, what if I added salt instead of sugar?? Yep, that’s it, we need to leave right no-” Again, Raph’s hand comes down on my left shoulder, keeping me glued to my seat. Leo turns from his seat on my right to look at me.

“You have nothing to worry about, you did great, I know you did.” I was about to respond when a familiar figure stepped in front of the table.

“Oh my dear Y/N, is that you? How wonderful to see you again! And with friends this time? Delightful!” 

Oh no.

I slowly crane my neck upwards to see the devil herself… Ethel.

“Ooh, hello Ethel, it’s… nice to see you too. Glad you were able to compete again!” Everyone looks at Ethel as she smiles at me. They all heard the tales from Y/N to know exactly who she was.

“But of course my dear, you know I’d never miss it! Can’t wait to see what you came up with, I’m sure it’ll wow the judges!" She turned her attention to the group surrounding me and smiles. "You have some strapping young men with you this time around, are they new friends?”

“Yes! They helped me a lot this year with my entry. I wouldn’t be here if not for them!” Ethel looks over the boys as they nervously stand behind me, keeping their faces as tucked into their hoods as they could. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. I best be going now, don’t want to keep the judges waiting. Do save me a slice of your cheesecake though, I’d love to try some! Ta ta!” She hobbles away to her own booth, and Mikey glances at me with a confused expression.

"That was Ethel? The way you made her sound was a lot more... threatening." Donnie shakes his head in rebuttal.

"No no, I agree with Y/N. That woman had some very threatening undertones." They began to have a debate on what qualified as 'threatening', when I noticed the judges were getting super close to our booth. Oh man, here comes the bounding heart rate. I could feel my hands shake when a hand grabbed mine. I look back to see Leo smiling at me.

“Don’t worry, you got this.” His words put some steel into my spine, perfect time really, cause the judges are right here. The one in the middle looks down at his clipboard as he introduces himself and his fellow judges.

“Miss, Y/N. Pleased to see you again! Let’s see your entry now.” I nervously smile up at them as I lift the lid from the container, holding my dessert.

“Yes sir, I have here a turtle cheesecake. My inspiration comes from some very special people in my life that have made every day more memorable than the last. I hope you can taste the incredible amount of love poured into the whole cake!” I hope that wasn’t overkill. I can’t tell the guy’s reactions without turning around, but I heard a tiny “Oh mi gosh,” from Mikey so for my sanity, I’m going to assume they liked the idea. 

The judges each take a fork and try a bite. I had to force myself to breathe as I watched for their reactions. The tension in the air was palpable. I was pretty sure I could hear Mikey quietly hyperventilating behind me. Raph audibly gulps in air, while Donnie and Leo are holding each other. April is the only one looking moderately calm as she holds Mikey up from passing out, rolling her eyes at the dramatics.

“That is simply remarkable! Did you make the caramel yourself? And the pecans were divine! Candied as well as lightly dusted in sea salt? Delightful! Well done young Y/N, well done indeed!” The judges give a round of applause as my face broke into a huge smile.

“Th-thank you, sir! It makes me so happy to hear that you like it so much!” One of the other judges takes my hand and gives it a hearty squeeze.

“Sugar, you best take that recipe to your grave 'cause that is some damn fine work you just did there. Thank you for your hard work, and don’t forget to thank your friends for the wonderful inspiration they had on this dish!” The rest of the judges shook my hand and then left to go to the next person’s booth. I was about ready to melt into my chair with relief. Then I remembered everyone was still here, so I slowly turn to face the others.

“I think that went well…” April lets go of Mikey and makes a dash to my side. 

“WELL?? That was amazing!! Girl, I am so proud of you, I’m gonna hug ya till stuffing comes out!” She indeed squeezes me hard enough to where if I had stuffing it would have probably burst out of me. The others gathered around for a group hug, and Raph lifts everyone into the air with his burly arms. 

“Y/N, that was so sweet of you! You were makin’ me cry!” Mikey said as he was still crying what I assumed to be tears of joy. 

“I’m glad you think so, I was honest when I said you guys were my inspiration! I also happened to make another cheesecake so that we could all share!” A round of cheers erupts from everyone as Raph drops all of us back to the ground. I grab the extra container I had and hand out slices to everyone. More praises and exclamations of yumminess were exchanged with me as they all quickly scarfed down their portions.

“This has got to become a weekly thing. NO, daily. I don’t know if I could survive longer without more of this delicious sweet!” Leo says and Donnie taps their forks together in agreement.

“Haha, I’ll see what I can do. Now we just have to wait for the judges to finish with the other entries, and then they’ll make their announcement.” 

We spend the rest of the event going through the others booths and getting some hot chocolate as the air got a little brisk. I noticed while walking around that Leo was lost in thought, not really looking at anything in particular. I gently nudge his arm with my elbow and he jerks back into reality.

“Hey, penny for your thoughts?” Leo patted the hat on his head as he looked at me.

“Oh nothing, I was just thinking about what the judge had said.” I raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“About what?” 

“The one who called you sugar, I think it’s a nice nickname. Honestly a little jealous I didn’t come up with it myself.” My face grew aflame as I tried to look anywhere but at him.

“Aha aha, really? I’ve actually never had a nickname before.”

“Then I’ll start calling you that.”

“Huh?” 

We stopped walking. The rest were up ahead looking at someone’s display. If there's something to be said about Leo, is that he always manages to surprise me.

“I… guess I wouldn’t mind, but only if you called me that.”

 If I didn’t know any better I would think that Leo’s face is actually blushing! Was this for real?! He was just about to respond when Mikey came running back to us.

“Y/N! The judges are about to announce the winner! We gotta hurry!!” 

Aaaand there’s that bundle of nerves back. We reached the main stage where the judges were standing in wait to announce the results. The host stood at the center with his microphone in hand.

“Now comes the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Without further ado, here are the top three winners!” The announcer receives a note from the main judge. He unfolds the paper and raises the microphone to his lips.

“In third place, we have Camilla Vantreef with her mixed berry cheesecake!” Cheers erupted from the crowd. I can barely focus on what’s going on with how loud my heart is beating in my ears. 

“In second place… we have…” My heart is about ready to pop, stop delaying small man!!

“Ethel Blakely and her chocolate peanut butter cheesecake!” A loud gasp is heard and I turn to see Ethel herself, looking positively shocked, yet somehow not totally surprised by the outcome. That’s new. 

“And finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… The ultimate first-place winner of this year’s baking competition is…” Leo’s hand tightly squeezes mine. I squeeze back.

“Y/N, and her turtle cheesecake!!”

Wait. WHAT??

"What!?"

Loud cheers and squealing explode around me as Leo swings me around in his arms. Everyone quickly wraps me up in another group hug as I try to contemplate what just happened.

“You did it! I knew you could do it you’re so awesome!!” 

“Way to go! We knew you had it in you!”

They let me go shortly after so that I could go up and grab my first-place ribbon. I hold onto it in a daze as I step back down to the others.

“I… I won?”

“YES!” All of them scream at me and at once the reality of it sunk in. Tears sprung to my eyes before I could stop them.

“You guys… thank you so-so much!” I jump into their waiting arms as we again hug it out. So we’re a physical group, sue us.

“I’m so proud of you girlie, I had a feeling you’d win this year.” I gasped in shock as I turned to see Ethel herself standing behind us.

“You actually thought I would win? Why? You always win first place!” She gives me a wrinkled smirk.

“Ah, you know how it is, I’m getting up there in my old age and I’ve been trying to get someone to pass the torch onto. You seemed like the best candidate, and you passed with flying colors.” 

Ah, old people. Always making turns you don’t expect.

“Thank you, Ethel. I’ll hold the title in honor of you.” She gives an affirmative hum and waddles back to where she came from. 

“Huh. So that happened.” April comes and wraps her arm around my shoulders.

“Alrighty, guys! It’s time to celebrate, so you know what to do!”

“PIZZA! PIZZA!” The boys start chanting away and the sight of them makes me tear up in laughter. We make our way to Hueso’s, and in honor of my winning they let me pick the toppings (for which April is thankful for. No need for the creepy supreme tonight). As we eat away Leo sidles up to me, chewing on a slice.

“See? What did I tell ya? I had total faith in you!” He gives me a wink and I can’t help but grin as he says that with a mouthful of pizza.

“Thanks for believing in me Leo, I really appreciate it.”

“Anytime... Sugar.”

Chapter Text

*Gold* 

I'm not sure how we got to this current situation, but here we are. All I wanted to do was spend an evening strolling through the park with everyone, but it seems that these turtles are a magnet for trouble.

It all started out with Mikey wanting to go out and view the trees since the fall colors are at their absolute height of beauty. 

“Guys let’s go! I need inspiration for the new sketch I’m working on and the colors are just what I need to get the juices flowing!” I jumped out of the bean bag I was situated in and grabbed my coat and scarf.

“That sounds lovely Mikey, I’ve been meaning to take a walk in Central Park. You gotta absorb the fall weather before winter strikes. How about the rest of you? Up for a late-night excursion?” The others perked their heads up from their slouched positions. Raph is the first to speak up.

“Yeah, that sounds nice. Beats lazying around the lair all night. Come on guys, let’s get going! Don’t forget your jackets, it’s getting cold and I don’t want to have to drag any of you home from going into hibernation.” Donnie snags his hoodie from the ground next to him as he stands up.

“Raphie, my dear brother, may I need to remind you that we would be susceptible to brumation, not hibernation? There’s a difference.” Leo runs to his room to grab his blue hoodie and basketball jersey.

“Oooh, we can probably get a couple of rounds of C.O.W.A.B.U.N.G.A in too!” I searched around the lair and spotted their basketball lying next to their skateboard ramp. I hop over and grab it off the ground, passing it to Leo. He winks at me as he catches the ball. “Thanks, Sugar, alright guys let’s get moving!” Moving past that (calm down face, keep it together), we head up to the surface.

~~

“Mikey look over there! It’s like a kaleidoscope of colors in the trees!” I point over to our left as we sat near the basketball court. Mikey was busy sketching the scenery, while Donnie and Raph attempted to beat Leo (it was a fool’s errand but hey, props for the effort). Mikey squealed in delight at the sight and pulled out a couple of paints from his hoodie pocket.

“This is great! I’ll get the main colors down, and then later flesh out the rest of the portrait. Thanks again for coming!” I smile, and pull him into a side hug.

“Ahh, it’s all good. We don’t open the shop on Sundays, so I can afford to stay up late with you guys tonight. Just wish it was a little warmer out, I think I saw a snowflake fall on our way over.” Mikey huddled a little closer and pulled his hoodie closer up his chin.

“I love the snow and all activities included, but we have to be careful to keep warm. Leo has it the worst, being the most susceptible, and he doesn’t keep his coat closed half the time.”

“Hey, last time that happened you stuffed snow down the back of my coat!” Leo shouted across the court. He always has the ears of an elephant when it comes to himself. Raph darts past him towards the hoops.

“Better pay attention little brother, or else you’re gonna lose the battle!” Just as he goes to score, a flash and the ball gets knocked out of his hand.

“Ha! If you think that’ll knock me off my groove you’ve got another thing coming!” Leo races to the other end of the court and slam dunks the basketball into the basket. I notice Donnie off to the side, pretending to be playing but really just typing away on his phone. Well, at least he’s out on the court. I peek at Mikey’s sketches and they already look fantastic. I wonder if he’s going to use a canvas or paint one of the walls in the lair? After a while, I notice my bottom was starting to get numb from the cold bench we were sitting on, so I stand up to walk toward the others.

“We should probably head in soon, something warm to eat sounds good. Maybe we can stop and grab some pizza from Run of the Mill on our way back?” Cheers erupt from everyone at the suggestion.

“Sounds great! Donnie call ahead so we can pick them up!”

“Already on it Raph. How about a meaty supreme?”

“I’m already salivating at the idea.”

“OOh, I’ll make us a batch of hot cocoa too! Sleepover with Y/N baby!” Mikey cheers and Leo joins in. We all start to head out of the park when I notice a weird sound coming from behind us.

“Umm guys? Did you hear tha-” The air gets knocked out of me before I could finish my sentence. I feel my feet get lifted off the ground as a giant vine smacked me against a nearby tree.

Ouch.

“Y/N!!” I could barely hear the others shouting after me over the sound of blood was rushing in my ears. I strained to lift my head off the ground, and noticed the others were facing off against Baron Draxum, who stood between us.

“Look at my pathetic turtles. Such a waste, standing around playing games when you could be accomplishing so much more. And hanging out with this disgusting human? Deplorable.” I can see the boys’ anger rising as they form up around each other.

“How could you say that about humans? Especially Y/N of all people! I for one am glad we weren’t raised by you! Talk about a dodged bullet.” Leo retorts, holding the basketball with both hands. If it was anything of weaker material I think it would have popped by how aggressively he was squeezing it. I was slowly able to get back on my feet, using the tree as support. That’s when I noticed Baron had something in his hands. Clear orbs that had a dark purple cloud swirling in each of them. Something about them raised alarms in my head, especially at the fact that he looked to be aiming them at the turtles.

“Oh don’t worry. I may have failed in my first attempts with you four but when I’m done here, I’ll be able to start over and try again.” That’s all the warning he gave before he started attacking. Multiple purple vines erupted from the ground, scattering the boys as they scrambled to dodge them. While Baron was busy I managed to sneak around to try and get back to the others. I spotted a flash of orange amongst the chaos and saw that Mikey had been grabbed by one of the vines by his ankle. He was then strung up upside down in the middle of the fight and brought over to Draxum. Raph was busy punching a vine away from Donnie and Leo was running around trying to get the upper hand. I heard Mikey shout and my blood went cold.

“Mikey no!” I rushed forward and with my limited tools on hand, I did the only thing I could think of. 

Now, for a crash course on my abilities. Grammy told me in the past that my ability to heal others came from within, what she called, “a swirling pool of energy that can only be replenished with time. When you heal someone, it means that you use your own energy to guide them into a restorative state much faster than normal.” One time when I was 6, I went against her orders and healed a yokai’s broken arm, and I ended up stuck in bed for a week because it used an incredible amount of energy that I had very little of at the time. “Something cannot come from nothing. Whenever you heal someone, you are using your own energy.” I’ve had to train to know my limits and increase my constitution so that I could heal more and have fewer side effects. This energy also has a way of manifesting itself as a pretty big source of light. When I am not, ‘targeting’ someone to heal, it mostly just swirls around me, not really going anywhere.

In the past, I’ve asked Grammy why I have this ability while she didn’t. Those conversations were usually shut down quickly. Something about telling me was too difficult, so I stopped asking. 

Anyways, bla bla bla, boring lecture over. The most important part at this moment, is that when I want to, I can become a fuckin' supernova of light.

“AAGH! What is this?” Draxum shouts as he is practically blinded. I snatch Mikey out of the vine that had loosened from our enemy’s lapse in concentration. I nearly drop him from the sudden weight increase. Gosh, he’s heavier than he looks.

“Mikey, can you stand up? You’re really heavy!” 

“Can’t really do that when I can barely see what I’m doing!”

“Sorry!” We both are lifted off our feet as Raph swoops in and grabs us to get the heck outta dodge.

“Okay Y/N, you can turn the light show off now! Leo, Donnie, let’s get movin'!” I see both of them in front of us and we start booking it, only for us to get walled off by a giant vine again. Leo waves his hands above his head as he turns around.

“Oh come on! Do you always have to be so difficult Barry?!” 

“SILENCE!” Draxum is back on his feet? Hooves? Doesn’t matter I guess. We ended up pinned down, with the vines behind us and Sheep-face in front.

“Your pathetic tricks are over. Now, time to finish what I started.” I saw the purple cloud orbs in his hands again as he throws them forward. Donnie and Leo push me back so that I wasn’t in the blast radius, and a burst of smoke smacks them in the face. All four of them are hit, gasping for air as the smoke clouds around them.

“Guys! Are you ok? We need to get away!” I desperately look around to see if anything in our surroundings can help. I notice that in our struggle we managed to move into the street. Just at my feet is a manhole! What a convenient turn of events! I quickly reach for the cover and create an opening for us to get out of there.

“Quick! Jump down!” I blindly grab for hands and make a jump for it.

~~~~

“AAAAHHHHH! OOOF!” Ow ow ow, that’s gonna sting for a while. I lifted my head up to see that thankfully in our escape the cover flipped back over the hole, covering our escape. It’s pitch black inside the tunnel, and I can hear tiny groans coming from the others.

“Is everyone ok? Hold on, let me get some light going.” I stretch a hand out and create a delicate light so as not to hurt anyone’s eyes. 

“Donnie do you have your specs of the tunnels? I’m not sure where we are… Umm… guys?” In my haste for us to escape, I didn’t notice our new predicament. Four turtles, much smaller than ten seconds prior are peering up at me, their clothes barely hanging off their frames. I am assuming based on the basketball jersey and blue bandana to still be Leo, points a tiny hand at me.

“Look guys, it's a sparkly lady! How is your hand glowing? Is it magic??” 

Huh?

“Wait. Leo, don’t you recognize me? It’s Y/N.” He gives me a curious head tilt and hums.

“Um, I don’t think so. Do you guys know the lady?” Leo turns around to his brothers. I look at each one and begin to realize the extent of this mess. All of them are turtle tots! This had to be the effect of the smoke Draxum used. Thinking back on his words, “I’ll be able to start over and try again,” this must have been what he meant. By turning them back into kids that don’t remember anything, he could’ve taken them and turned them into his ‘pet warriors’. Not on my watch. 

“Ok kids, I know you don’t know me but I’m here to help! Donnie, could I please see that watch on your arm?” Donnie gives me a wary glance and looks at his brothers. Mikey is crouched behind Raph as he stands in front of his younger brothers in opposition to me. Leo seems the least concerned about me as he jumps to grab Donnie by the hand.

“It’s ok twinnie! This lady is literally glowing! She seems nice!” After a moment of contemplation, Donnie carefully hands over his wristwatch to me.

“Thank you Donnie, I promise to be careful with it.” He gives me a tiny nod, and shies into Leo’s side. “Okay… so looking at your tracker system, home should beeeee that way!” I point in the direction behind them and they turn to look that way. “I don’t want you guys to trip in your clothes, so let me hold onto them on the way back. Can I fix your masks too?” They all nod and begin undressing. I giggle a little as Mikey trips trying to take his shorts off. All of their arm and leg bands fell off during the fall so I pick them up along with their clothes. After retying their masks (Leo insisted his be tied like a headband), we start our trek back to the lair. “Everybody please hold hands, I don’t want anyone getting lost.” Surprisingly, Mikey tugs on my sleeve.

“Can I please have a piggie-back ride?” He gives me the biggest puppy eyes I’ve ever seen him pull off, and I have to restrain myself from both bursting into tears and squeezing the ever-living daylights out of him.

“Of course little man. Here, be careful now.” I kneel down so that he can climb onto my back. He settles on my shoulders and lightly pats my head. “Ok everyone, hold hands now!" Raph grabs onto my hand, then grabs Leo’s hand who then takes Donnies, forming a baby turtle chain. So started the journey back home.

~~~~

By the time we get back to the lair, everyone was exhausted. Mikey fell asleep on my shoulders, and the rest quickly collapsed as soon as we made it to the living room. I carefully set Mikey into Raph’s waiting arms.

“I’ll be right back, I’m just going to see where Master Splinter is.” They barely acknowledge me as they lay in the bean bags, so I set out to find their dad. I check the kitchen, the other’s rooms, even Donnie’s lab… nothing. 

Oh boy.

I knock on his bedroom door and after a minute of nothing, I carefully peek into his room. Again, nowhere to be found. I did notice a flyer on his desk though.

“Come visit the Hidden City’s weekend extravaganza at the bubbling hot springs… Oh, dear.” I reached into my pocket for my phone to fish out his number. I punched the call button and listened to the dialing tone. That’s when I noticed a vibration coming from under the bed. Don’t tell me… and yep, he left his phone here. What kind of father leaves without telling anyone?? Ugh fine, I guess I’ll call April.

Wait.

I quickly scrolled through our recent messages about her leaving for a school field trip to Boston for the weekend. There’s no way she could come back so soon!

“Alright… let’s keep calm. You are alone, with four toddler-ized turtles, and have no clue how to get them back to normal. ~Cool coo cool~. As long as I don’t start punching walls and scream, then I’m doing better than Raph’s panic moments.” Speaking of, I hear tiny footsteps behind me and I look to see the little man at the bedroom door.

“Y/N, everyone is getting really hungry. Can we make something to eat?”

“Of course Raphie! Let’s head over to the kitchen and see what we can whip up.” I smile down at Raph, who now only reaches my waist, and take his tiny hand. It’s so cute I could cry! We head back to the living room and notice the others are sitting around coloring when they spot us and all jump to stand with us. Leo grabs my free hand and tugs me toward the kitchen.

“Come on sparkly lady I’m sooo hungry! Donnie too, I can tell!” Donnie moves quickly into the kitchen.

“I can see that buddy. Let’s see what we got.” We all make it to the kitchen and the boys rush to open the cupboards.

“Oooh, we should bake a cake! Or what about ice cream? Both sound good!” Tiny Mikey (he’s only the height of my knees, it’s so frickin adorable) babbles as he grabs random ingredients out of the cupboards.

“Hmm, we were going to get pizza but I don’t want to leave you guys to go get it, and it’s too far to take you guys with me. How about I make a pizza here? Does that sound ok?” Four sets of eyes light up in unison. “Ok, I’ll take that as a yes. Mikey, do you want to help me make the dough?” He shakes his head enthusiastically. A loud gasp scares me, and when I turn to find the source I see Leo with his arms crossed, appearing absolutely devastated.

“Wait, I want to help too! How come only Mikey gets a job?” I was quick to rub the top of his head in reassurance.

“Oh Leo it’s ok, I have a super important job for you three. While Mikey and I make dinner, I need you guys to go and bring your pillows and blankets into the living room. We’re gonna make a turtle pile!” His eyes light up again, and he and the others rush out of the kitchen to get their things. I start the oven up to preheat it, then pick Mikey up to sit on the counter. 

“Alright buddy, let’s get started. I’ll pour the ingredients into the bowl while you stir. You got the spoon?” He snatches the wooden spoon from the holder and showcases it to me. “Great job! Here we go!”

I can hear the others giggling in joy as Mikey and I work on the pizza. This quiet moment allows me to think about the situation. This could’ve gone south, fast. I can’t begin to imagine what Draxum would’ve done to these precious turtles if he actually got his hands on them. I look over at Mikey and see he’s got his tongue poking out of his mouth in concentration as he stirs the dough. As adorable as they are right now, they need to get back to normal. Right now, I’m all they got. I boop Mikey on the snout, leaving a spot of flour. He giggles at my antics and reciprocates my movements.

After we get the finished product in the oven to bake, I carry Mikey out into the living room to see the other’s progress. It looks like a mountain of pillows and blankets has been set up in the center of the room, the gentle rippling lights of the water below adding to the overall comforting atmosphere. Leo, Donnie, and Raph are placing the last of the pillows into the pile when they see us coming in. 

“The pizza will be done in a little bit. Do you guys want to watch a movie while we wait?” They all squeal in delight and I desperately wish that I had recorded that. A good reminder to pull out the phone later for some much-needed pictures. Leo runs over to me and jumps up and down in place.

“Can we watch Jupiter Jim? Please please please??” I laugh at his excited energy.

“Sure thing bud, let me pull the projector up.”

We all pile into the blankets as the movie starts up. The four practically wrap themselves around me and each other, creating a big mess of arms and legs. Mikey sits in my lap, while Leo sits between my legs. Raph and Donnie are squashed on either side of me. I don’t think I’ve ever been cuddled so hard in my life. It was amazing. The four would talk animatedly throughout parts of the movie. Leo quoted Jupiter Jim while Donnie pretended to be the alien opposing him, shooting invisible lasers out of their finger guns. Raph for the most part was quiet, watching the movie and his brothers while leaning into my side. Even as a toddler, he was careful with his shell, only using his arm and plastron to lean on me. Mikey would jump at some of the scenes with spookier-looking aliens and would snuggle closer into my lap. 

*Ding*

Everyone perked up at the sound of the oven going off.

“Are you guys ready for this? It’s time for dinner!” four sets of arms and legs scramble to get to the kitchen first. They each sit down at the table, and look at me eagerly as I reach into the oven and pull out the steaming pie. They start chanting, 

“Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!” I grab the pizza cutter out of the drawer and get to slicing the pizza.

“Now, we need to give it a minute to cool down, we don’t want anyone burning their tongues. That means you too Leo.” I gently push his hand away as he was actively reaching for a piece. He gives me a pout as he crosses his arms.

“Pouting will get you nowhere kiddo, safety is important. You as the team’s medic should know this.” 

“What’s a medic?” He does another head tilt and it brings a smile to my lips.

“A medic is someone who takes care of others when they are hurt. You do that a lot for your brothers. It’s a very important job, that I think you do well.” I poke his snout with my pointer finger and he giggles.

“Really? That sounds awesome! Ok, I’m the medic, and I say that the pizza is safe to eat now!” His brothers shake their heads in agreement and I sigh (lovingly).

“Okay, okay, I think it is too. I’ll pass out the slices.”

Dinner goes as well as can be expected with four toddlers. It’s so interesting to see how they interact with each other like this, as opposed to their teenage selves. For the most part, they are the same, with Donnie and Leo practically sharing a chair as they sit near each other. Raph makes sure Mikey doesn’t choke on the cheese as he tells him to slow down. Mikey is bouncing in his seat with a happy smile on his face as he devours his slice. They seem to enjoy my company too for not being able to remember me, which gives me hope that somewhere, even subconsciously, my boys are still there.

~~~

“But I’m not tiiiiired,” Leo says while yawning. I pull the blankets up to his chin as he settles down next to Donnie. Said turtle is already tucked into his brother’s side, dozing off but trying to stay awake while the others struggled to settle. Raph has Mikey sleeping on his plastron, the baby brother already passed out after dinner.

“Your yawning says otherwise. I’ll be sleeping right here with you, and we can leave the nightlight on. Tomorrow, we can go to my house and look at some cool stuff. Sound good?” As per Leo, he gives me a skeptical look, but his exhaustion eventually wins out and he nods back down into his pillow. Donnie shuffles a little closer and hugs Leo’s shell as he brings his blanket closer to him. As I settle down on Leo’s other side, he scoots closer and grabs my arm.

“Can you sing us a song?” 

“Oh. Um, sure. I can do that. Hmm…” I think of a good song, and one from an old movie pops into my head.

“You and me together we’ll be, forever you’ll see,”  

I notice Raph has shuffled closer with Mikey still on his chest as they listen to me sing.

“We two can be good company, you and me,” 

Leo and Donnie have their eyes closed as sleep is starting to take over.

“Yes, together we two, together, that’s you”

“Forever with me, we’ll always be good company, you and me. Yes, together we’ll be”

As the four curl around me, I realize that no matter what happens, we’re gonna be ok.

“You and me together, we’ll be. Forever, you’ll see”

“We’ll always be good company, you and me”

Because we’re a family, and family sticks together through whatever hits us.

“Just wait, and, see”

We fall asleep, all together in one big turtle pile.

“Goodnight boys.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

Okay, so step one of my plan: get the boys to my house without anyone suspecting they are, in fact, baby turtles. Raph helps me get the boys dressed in their winter gear, thankfully finding some in Splinter’s storage boxes from when they were originally little. After getting their hats, gloves, and scarves on, they now just looked like human kids out for a cold day. I also remembered to pull out my phone.

“Okay, everyone get together and say, pizza!”

“PIZZA!” 

“Oh man, I gotta make sure Donnie can’t find these pictures. He’ll try to wipe them off the face of the Earth.”

“What was that?”

“Ah nothing Donnie, we should get going!” 

And so began part two of the plan: getting to the house. Fortunately, the tunnels stop pretty close to my house, only needing to go aboveground for a couple of blocks. The way there is pretty fun. The boys insist I sing them more songs on the way, and we end up having a sing-along together, Mikey and Leo dancing around us as we walk. I would be lying if I said I didn’t sneak my phone out for some well-needed footage. 

If I could attest to anything, it’s that they had a near-limitless amount of energy. We finally get inside the store, silently grateful that it was a Sunday. The boys run into the store, looking at everything with wide eyes beneath their scarves. I locked the door and helped the boys out of their gear. After freeing them of their heavy coats and hats they scrambled around the counter to get at the goods inside.

“Wait, hold on! If you guys sit at the counter I’ll pick out some muffins for you, okay?” Getting the message, they rush to take their seats and look up at me expectantly.

“You guys are lucky you’re so cute.” That’s probably how they got away with so many things. After they scarfed down their food, I ushered them upstairs to my room. “Okay I’ll be right back, here are some coloring supplies and music to listen to while I go ask my Grammy some questions. Raph, you’re in charge.” Raph gives me a salute and I head downstairs.

Her room is attached to the kitchen in our living space above the shop. Hopefully, she is here instead of making her daily trip to the Hidden City. Why she gets to go there but I don’t, I’ll probably never get the answer. It’s not like I’m forbidden to be around Leo and the others, she met them for crying out loud, so it can’t be because I shouldn’t be around other yokai, right?

A problem for another time.

*Knock knock*

“Grammy? It’s Y/N, I need your help with something.” A second goes by, then thankfully I hear footsteps and the door opens. 

“What’s going on? Hopefully the ovens haven’t blown up again.” I jokingly roll my eyes while she smirks up at me.

“Har har. Not this time. Actually, I could use some help with a mystic issue. See, the boys may, or may not, have been turned back into toddlers by an evil yokai bent on destroying the human race. He wanted to turn them back into kids so that he could raise them into bloodthirsty warriors, or something- but we managed to get away. Any ideas on how to turn them back?” If there’s one thing about Grammy, it’s that she’s not normally surprised by things. Case in point:

“Hmm, if it was what I think it was, I have a book on remedies for stuff like this. One moment.” I blink at her as she turns around.

“Wait, you’re not going to question any of this? You’re just gonna jump right to solving the problem?” She gives me a shrug and starts going through her shelves.

“Darling, at this point, there isn’t much in my life that surprises me, thanks to your influence.” She laughs as I look on, confusion plastered on my face.

“I’ll take that as a compliment…” She continues to rummage for a little while, then spots what she’s looking for. She hums with an affirmative, and paces back to me.

“Aha! Here we go, ‘The Big Book of Reversals’, just what we’re looking for! Don’t ask me why I have this book, and I won’t ask you any questions. Deal?” She hands me the book.

“Deal.”

I race back up the stairs when I notice some really loud singing coming from my room. I slow my pace a bit and peek in, to see what I could only describe as both the funniest and most adorable scene I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness.

“Dream on! Dream on! Dream on!”  

Leo is currently singing his heart out along with the song playing to his brothers, using my hairbrush as a microphone. I quickly pull out my phone, and physically force myself from bursting into laughter.

“Dream on! Dream on! Dream on!”

He takes a deep breath, and then,

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” 

I see the other three quickly grab the sides of their heads as Leo bellows out the screaming chant.

“Sing with me, sing for the year!”

“Pfffft, AHAA haha! I can’t take it anymore! Get over here Leo, it’s cuddle time!” I burst into the room (after saving the video to my phone) and tackle Leo into a hug. I blow a raspberry to his neck and he squeals in surprised laughter.

“Ah! Y/N stop, that tickles! Big bro help, I’m being attacked!” 

A devious smile grew on his brother’s faces, and together we teamed up to tickle Leo into tears. The others start laughing too, and together we all end up in a big pile of giggling limbs. 

“Leo, I loved your singing! Even as a kid you know how to light up a room with your melodies!” His face practically glows at the compliment.

“Really?! Thank you! I’ll sing some more when we’re big again! Did you find your sowu- solution?” 

Ah, right!

“As a matter of fact, I did! Here, let’s look at this book shall we?” I pull up the book that I left on the floor amidst our battle. Donnie scrambles to sit next to me while the other three are less thrilled to see a book. They still come closer, grabbing their coloring pencils to draw while Donnie and I look into its contents.

“Let’s see... table of content. We have here some mystic herbal remedies to reverse curses, spells, and charms. Huh. What do you think Donnie?” He seems to have appreciated my efforts to include him. His expression practically sparkles in excitement.

“I love learning new things! Can I borrow this book when we are done?” 

“Of course buddy!” We set out looking through its pages, stumbling upon our answer after only three frickin hours. During that time we had two snack breaks and one semi-awkward bathroom break. I have more information about their, ahem, biological functions after Mikey needed some help. Let’s hope he doesn’t remember that part.

“AHA! This sounds exactly like what you all were hit with! Now I just have to whip up the antidote and we’ll be kosher!”

“What’s kosher?”

“Oh uh, it basically means we should be good to go! Okay boys, who’s ready to help me with some plants?” The best thing about toddlers is that it’s pretty easy to get them excited about seemingly boring things. They race each other down the stairs and I hasten to catch up to them.

“Guys be careful! I don’t want anyone falling down the stairs!” 

Aaaaand there goes Raph tumbling down. I race down and see him on his shell with his legs above his head. Thankfully he looks unharmed. I step down and help him to stand up.

“Gah! What did I just say? Raph, you need to be more careful! Just because you are the big brother and can take hits doesn’t mean you can be reckless! You have your little brothers who need you here.” 

Raph glanced down at the ground for a minute, before he looked back up at me.

“I’ll try to be more careful from now on.” I give him a warm head pat that he accepts with a smile.

After that, we quickly get to work. I designate the boys to be my plant gatherers, while I followed the directions and ground the herbs into a fine powder.

“Ok, after this one we are going to need three of those blue-growing mushrooms, thank you, Leo. Next are two sprigs of diamond leaf, and lastly, we need…” I do a double take at the book and notice the last ingredient.

“OH gross!” The boys look up at me in surprise. “Ah, what I mean is, grossly AWESOME! Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

“You lie as good as Donnie! Hahaha!” Leo laughs at me as I try not to fold. 

“I’m gonna grab the last ingredient. You guys need to stand over there because if this works, then I don’t want anyone getting knocking stuff over by the sudden increase in size. Also, you might want to take off the bandanas so they don’t constrict your heads.” Thankfully, they obey and stand in the center of the room. I quickly snatched the last item and get the dust ready. As I suspected, it smells awful.

“Okay, fingers crossed. A one, twoo, threeee,” I blow the dust out and into their waiting faces. A burst of light flashes and I have to cover my face to shield my eyes.

“GAH! Ok, now I know how that feels.” 

Silence.

“Umm, guys? Please tell me I didn’t accidentally disintegrate you or something, because that would really su- AUGH!” A giant, I’m assuming Raph, swoops me up into a hug. The dust settles and after the spinning resolves he sets me down and I see my handiwork.

Four teenage turtles who are mutant ninjas stand in the middle of my shop.

“Oh thank god! I was so worried! How do you all feel? Any weird tingling or numbness?” They look down at themselves and notice that they are currently wearing none of their gear. Mikey is the first to speak.

“I think I feel ok? Just confused. Weren’t we at the basketball court? And why are we practically naked?” He reaches down to pick up his bandana and ties it back around his head.

“Yeah, it feels like I have Raph brain.” Donnie says. *Hey I’m right here!* Raph says behind me.

“Y/N are you ok? You look like you’re about to cry.” Leo points at me, beautiful blue mask back (over his eyes this time). I reach forward and grapple the three into a hug.

“I’m just so happy you guys are back to my big dumb-dumbs instead of little dumb-dumbs.”

“Hey that’s my line- wait a sec. Little? What happened?” They truly look lost. I cave and pull out my phone.

“Everyone: behold my greatest masterpiece!” I press play and watch as all four of them have a transformation of delight and dawning horror on their faces as they watch Leo belt out to the song.

“Wait wait wait. That was real?? I thought I was having a weird dream where you were in our childhood!” Donnie drags both hands down his face as Leo’s face burns, ripe red like a tomato. Mikey is pointing at the phone laughing while Raph is silently screaming in agony.

“Hey if it’s any consolation… I have more footage.”

“I am wiping your phone’s entire memory.”

“Oh no, you don’t Donald!”

“Gimme! Hiyyah!” Donnie tries to grab my phone but I sidestep and dodge his futile attack. Mikey stops laughing and looks confused.

“Wait, I remember now! Y/N, what was the last ingredient? You said it was gross.”

“For your peace of mind, I suggest you don’t make me answer that.” Leo’s whole body shivers.

“Point taken.”

~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

"This is so unfair! I had to go off on a boring history trip, while you got to play with baby turtles! Let me see the selfie of the turtle pile again, it's gonna be my new background." I eagerly pull out my phone to show April the pictures I took, and hear Donnie sighing somewhere in the lair.

"Y/N, I swear to the pizza supreme in the sky, those images WILL be gone." 

"Not to worry my dear Donatello, I already printed copies and have them hidden in my house. They're never going away."

"AAAAAHHHH!"

"Ooh, now you're starting to sound like Leo did while singing!" April laughs at my jokes as we can hear Donnie grumbling away. Leo pops into the room we are in.

"Hey Y/N, can I talk to you for a sec?" He points behind him and I stand up from my sitting position to follow him. We end up in his room, all of his knick-knacks lining the shelves behind his bed. He gestures for me to sit on his bed so I comply. After a moment of contemplation, he sits down next to me.

"What's up Leon? You know you can tell me anything." He smiles a little at my words and looks back down at his hands, which he has strung together tightly.

"What you said, about being a medic... You think I do a good job? I mean, that's kinda your thing. Healing people and all."

Oh, I see where this is going. I gently grasp one of his hands into my own.

"Leo, just because I can mend wounds with mystic arts, doesn't mean your job is pointless. You know more about the intricacies of medical stuff better than I do, and It's not like I can raise people from death! My job is to save you guys from life-threatening injuries, and apparently toddler-ism," He snorts at my attempt at his level of humor. "I could never take your role away from you. Besides, that's not all you do for the team! I can't fight like you or jump around all super ninja-ee. I honestly contribute less to the team than you do." I turn my eyes away from him and peer at our intertwined hands. He squeezes mine and I look back up to see him upset of all things.

"Don't you dare say that! We need you just as much as you need us! That's what families do! What would have happened if you weren't there when Draxum tried to 'kid'-nap us??" His wordplay does not go unnoticed and I giggle a little at that. He beams a smile at me. "There we go, that's my girl. Thank you for taking care of us, the pizza was delicious, and the turtle pile was amazing." He jumps to stand, and an exciting look springs on his face. "In fact!! We should do another one tonight! Whaddaya say Sugar, ready for another night with the boys?" He reaches a hand out to me and I accept it, letting him pull me up to stand.

"How could I say no to that?"

"You can't."

Chapter Text

*Gold*

"Are you sure you won’t be able to come over for snow day stuff? We’re gonna build a huge Jupiter Jim figure out of snow! I even made his famous hot chocolate recipe!” Mikey pleaded with me as his brothers and April stood in my store, Mayhem sitting on her shoulders. Even he looked disappointed. They had stopped on their way to the park for their snow day outing and had been trying to get me to go with them. As I was opening up the oven, a blast of steam burst into the store as I pulled out a tray of biscuits.

“I’m really sorry Mikey, I wish I could. Unfortunately, this time of year I get a huge influx of customers who don’t want to bake for themselves, and I need to keep up with the orders. If it were any other day I could probably go but it’s too busy right now.”

I placed the biscuits on the cooling tray nearby and came back to face a group of dejected turtles. Seeing Mikey with tears in his eyes tore at my heartstrings. I quickly walked around the counter and pulled him into a hug.

“I promise I’ll be there for the next one Angelo. For now, take these cookies I made as a ‘please forgive me’ treat and go have some fun!” 

I let go of him and pass the cookies off, still moderately warm from being made earlier in the morning. He looks down at the bag and back up to me, and a small smile graces his adorable face. 

“Okay, but take some of the cocoa. If you can’t be there, at least enjoy some of that while you’re here!” I grab a coffee cup from the shelves and he pours some inside, the delicious aroma of chocolatey goodness wafting in the air. 

“Thanks, buddy! Now go enjoy yourselves guys! The weatherman said this morning that the snow is perfect for snowball fights!” I gave a wicked grin to the boys and their faces began to mirror mine. 

“Alright, we’ll see you later, hope the holiday rush slows down soon!” Mikey says as he turns to open the door. 

“I’ll send you pictures of our snowman when it’s done! We even brought our Jupiter Jim fish bowl space ranger helmet to place on its head!” Donnie pulls out said helmet to show, and I clap in excitement.

“Can’t wait to get them!” Leo gives me a quick hug on his way out.

"We'll see you at dinner tonight. Can't wait to have whatever you're making." I smile at him and nudge his shoulder.

"You better, now get going! The snow's gonna melt by the time you get out there!" He laughs and exits the store.

The others slowly filter outside, saying their goodbyes to me. April is the last one out. Just as she passes through the door, she looks at me over her shoulder.

*Wink*  

I smile and wink back at her.

Alright. Operation: Christmas was a go.

~~~

It took multiple bribes, promises of taking care of both storefronts on my own for a week, and begging, but I had convinced my Grammy to run the store for me so that I could run my errands. After consulting with April, she agreed to help me keep the boys out of the lair long enough for me to prepare my surprise. We were all planning to eat together and open presents before April left with her loved ones to be with her extended family for Christmas day. The holiday was quickly arriving, and I can distinctly remember the turtles animatedly talking about how excited they were this year about Christmas. Mikey had been prepping for the family dinner, and Leo and Raph were excitedly throwing decorations around the lair. Donnie had scrounged up a plastic tree and together with Splinter they had put the lights all around it. The lair had never felt homier, and my job was to make it even better. 

*Flashback*

“Man, I love the jingle bells and the ho ho ho’s, but I still wish that it wasn’t so cold all the time!” Leo groaned as he spoke below his mountain of blankets. The space heater near him wasn’t enough apparently. 

“Leon, you’re gonna set your blankets on fire if you sit too close to the heater.” Donnie pointed out, as though he wasn’t already doing something similar with his pile.

“It does get pretty chilly down here, and you guys have dealt with this every year?” I was bundled up in my winter coat and gear when I stopped by to drop off some groceries for Mikey. Said turtle was in the kitchen, keeping a little too close to the oven. Raph was barely doing any better. It was only thanks to his size and love of working out into a sweat that had kept him from joining his brothers in the pile.

“Yeah, it was bad for a while. Splinter didn’t have as much stuff back when we were little and Donnie hadn’t set up the lair with heaters so it could get a little touch-and-go for a while.”

“Well, it doesn’t help that you guys have a giant hole in your roof that lets a draft in.” I pointed up to said hole in the middle of their lair.

“Yeah… we kinda missed the obvious part huh?” Raph rubbed the back of his head. 

“You goofballs.”

*Flashback over*

It just so happened that on my way back home from their visit that I came upon something. It was, what I hoped, would be the perfect Christmas gift for all of them. I raced into the store and with my dwindling funds (rest in peace Mr. Piggybank), got the last one available. It was also a huge stroke of luck that one of our yokai customers had traded a mystic cube the size of my fist that could hold items in it for some banana bread. He told me that it was to make packing for travel easier. I offered more but he thought I was already giving him enough. Guess bananas are a hot commodity in the Hidden City? The only problem left was that it was way too big to set up without anyone noticing right away, so thank goodness for April O’Neill! (Mind April gives you a fist bump)

Now, it’s just a matter of setting it up and hopefully, they’ll enjoy it. I really hope so anyways. The lair has been decorated in accordance with the holly jolly feels: tons of colored string lights cover the ceiling and walls, festive candles creating a whimsical aroma in the lair, and a Christmas tree in the living room all lit up with presents waiting to be opened underneath it.

“Hello Y/N, what are you doing here while everyone else is away?” I turned around to see Splinter leaving the kitchen with a snack in hand.

“Hiya Splints! I was coming down to leave something as a surprise for tonight. I won’t be long!” 

“Oh that is nice, I’m sure the boys will love it! Did you bring something for dessert tonight?” I nod enthusiastically.

“Don’t you worry, I’ve got a plan. It’s going to be great!” He starts walking away back to his projector.

“Good good. Now don’t be too loud, Scorpion Treadmill is having a holiday special and I don’t want to miss a second of it!” 

“Roger that!” I give him a short salute and he snorts before wandering off to his recliner.

Time to get to work.

~~~~~~~

“Yeah so, we have a bit of a situation. Ghostbear is here, for some reason, and is trying to destroy our Jupiter Jim snowman which obviously can’t happen.” Donnie spoke to me over the phone, just as I was making the finishing touches on my surprise.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound good. Are you guys ok?” I can hear some scuffling in the background as Donnie answers.

“Not if he ruins our tribute! Anyways, Micheal asked me to call you so that if you could do him the favor of starting up the appetizers for dinner,” I think I caught Mikey yelling thanks in the background but I couldn’t be too sure. “We know you’ve been busy at the store this whole time so we didn’t want to bug you but if you would, he would greatly appreciate it.”

“It’s no biggie! I’ll head over right now and get things warmed up for when you guys get back. Don’t worry about it.” It sounded like he was about to answer when he got cut off, so I’m going to assume Ghostbear got him tied up. 

I may, or may not have evilly laughed as I was already in their kitchen prepping for dinner. This was gonna be the best Christmas those boys have ever seen! 

...Hopefully.

The spread Mikey has prepared would make any chef cry with tears of joy. A glistening turkey finished in the oven while I grabbed the rest out of the fridge to get ready. There was homemade stuffing, loaded baked potato salad, gravy made from the turkey bones, and golden mashed potatoes... It was a gorgeous sight to behold. 

I got everything warmed up and ready to go, as well as starting a pot of hot chocolate for the brave soldiers, as well as a kettle for tea. I snagged Leo’s stash of blueberry tea and placed a bag in his favorite mug for later.

Dessert was on me to make and I didn’t let them down. Pumpkin and apple pies were ready and waiting in their containers to be scarfed down, as well as cream cheese croissants topped with powdered sugar. The pièce de résistance though, was my handmade croquembouche tower, designed to look like a Christmas tree that loomed over the rest of the spread. I couldn’t wait to see the look on their faces when they came home.

*CRASH*

Speaking of which.

I stepped out of the kitchen to see my friends, covered head-to-toe in snow.

“What happened? Did the Ghostbear throw all of you into a snowbank?” I noticed Leo had tears in his eyes at my statement.

“Please, let’s not talk about the trauma so soon after it happens.”

“Oh jeez, I’m really sorry. Well, I hope you at least gave him a good thrashing!” Donnie started to peel off his coat and hat as he responded.

“Oh, Raph gave him a good thrashing alright, after he took about 20 selfies with him.” Raph threw his wet hat in Donnie’s face.

“Hey! You know Raph is Ghostbear’s number-one fan!” 

The rest have finished undressing and placing their wet clothes along the drying rack. Before they make their way to the kitchen, I quickly stop everyone.

“Whoa there. None of you are appropriately dressed for the occasion. I have already prepared each of you an ugly Christmas sweater in your rooms. You’re welcome in advance.” Mikey squeals in delight and dashes into his room. The others quickly follow suit and soon they are rushing back wearing their new sweaters.

“Y/N, these are awesome! You got my life colors right and everything!” Mikey does a little spin to show his off his sweater to his brothers and April. She nods in approval.

“That was sweet of you Y/N, I hope they didn’t cost too much.” I shake my head at the suggestion.

“Nah it’s no big deal, I love doing this kind of stuff for other people! I hope you guys are hungry, cause dinner is about done!” I point back to the kitchen. Raph looks away from Donnie’s sweater (which had purple robots with snowmen and reindeer, it took forever to find one that specific).

“I’ll go grab Splinter, you guys go on ahead.” He marches off to the living room while the others head into the kitchen. Leo gives a good sniff of the air before gasping.

“Ohohoho, Mikey and Y/N you have outdone yourselves, everything smells delicious! And is that a tower of pastries?! Class A!” He smiles at me and I have to resist looking away. 

“Thank you Leo, I hope you guys like it.”

Splinter and Raph wander into the kitchen, beginning the controlled chaos of a family dining together. Raph sat on one end of the table, facing Splinter as he sat on the other end. Donnie and April sat across from Mikey, me, and Leo. As Leo sat down he clinked mugs with mine.

“Thanks for setting up my tea, how’d you know I’d want some?” I took a sip of my hot chocolate before answering.

“I’m proud of how well I’ve gotten to know you guys.” I smirked at him as he seemed to process my answer. 

“Huh. Yeah, I guess you-” Mikey butted in for a second.

“Leo, can you pass the salt?”

“Here you go." *Thanks Leo*

"As I was saying, it’s nice to have someone around who wants to get to know us.” I rest my chin on my hand and smile.

“Well, you guys certainly don’t lack interesting things to learn about, you especially.” He leans forward slightly and grins back.

“Hmm, I’ll keep that in mind.”

Unbeknownst to either of them, Donnie and April side-eyed their conversation, noting Y/N’s warm face and Leon’s gentle smirk, and began to whisper to each other.

“Do you think-?” 

“Oh definitely. We’re gonna have to start making bets on how long it’ll take.”

“I’ll set up the betting pool.”

“Sounds like a plan. Actually, I have another one in mind.” April subtly points to the top of the kitchen and then to the two people in question. It takes only a moment for Donnie to understand what she was suggesting but when he did, a devilish smirk grew on his face. 

~~~~~~~~~

“Dinner was amazing! I couldn’t eat another bite!” Raph says as he indeed takes another bite of his turkey leg. He and everyone else began stepping out of the kitchen as I cleaned the dishes. I started washing up the plates, the soapy water filling the sink quickly. I went to place the plate on the drying rack when a hand grabbed it out of mine.

“Here, I’ll dry if you wash.” Leon stood to my right as he grabbed a rag to dry the dish with. We worked well through all of the dishes, me washing with him drying. It was sweetly domestic and I couldn’t help but love it. Christmas music was softly playing in the living room, giving me a beat to hum and sway to. Leo noticed this and gently bumped his hip into mine. We laughed and started doing little dances as we finished cleaning up. He grabbed my hand and gave me a little twirl and I gave him one back in return. A song from A White Christmas came on and we began to do a silly version of a slow dance to it.

“The best things happen while you're dancing,” 

We go into a little spin around the kitchen table, holding each other’s hands.

“Things you would not do at home, come naturally on the floor”

Leo starts singing to the tune, surprising me for knowing it.

“For dancing soon becomes romancing”

He whips me out, then pulls me back into his arms.

“When you hold a girl in your arms, That you've never held before”

I giggled at his moves and he gives me a bold smile.

“Even guys with two left feet, Come out alright if the girl is sweet”

He lets go of me for a moment to do a silly little jig to that part of the song, and my giggling gets ever louder. He comes back to me and we spin around some more.

“If by chance their cheeks should meet while dancing”

Leo pulls me close for just a moment, allowing me to look deep into his eyes.

“Proving that the best things happen while you dance”

We begin to laugh together and gently pull away, finishing the last of the dishes.

“Looks like I’m still learning more about you Leon, those were some smooth moves.” He gives a little snort at my comment.

“What do you think all of that training I’ve been doing with our dancing game has been going towards? I’ve always wanted to sweep a girl off her feet and I took my shot.” I noticed his face looked slightly warmer at that. 

“That’s sweet, I’m glad I got to be that girl.” Leo smiled at that and put the drying rag away.

“Looks like we’re ready to go join the others, let’s go.” I nod and walk in step with him. We just make it to the doorway when he jerks me to a stop. 

“Leo, what’s the matter? Oh.” I look up at what he’s pointing at and see it.

Mistletoe.

Both our faces instantly turn three shades warmer. 

“Was that there earlier?? I don’t think it was.” 

“No, and I swear it wasn’t me! Well you know it’s just for decoration, we don’t actually have to do anything.” He rubs the back of his head and begins to laugh awkwardly.

With a rush of courage, I get up on my tiptoes and swiftly place a kiss on his left cheek. 

He instantly stops laughing, as well as breathing. I get back down on my heels and fidget with my hands, desperate for some kind of reaction from him. It looked like his brain had shut down and needed a reboot.

“I’m- I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that without asking, that wasn’t very nice of me-” Leo quickly stops me with a kiss on my own cheek. Now it was my turn to look flabbergasted.

“Don’t be sorry. I liked it.” 

My word. This boy was gonna be the death of me. Both of us looked at each other with warm smiles, before we heard the rest of the family urging us to join them at the tree. We stepped into the living area where everyone was sitting around waiting to open presents. I took my seat next to Donnie and Leo sat on my other side. As I made small talk with the others April and Donnie gave each other a look.

*Mission accomplished*

“Alright, everyone! Time to open presents before April leaves! Let’s get started.” Raph starts bringing everyone their presents. I had left my presents for them here so that they could open them as well. For Donnie, I had gotten him a new velvet purple jacket, much to his surprise and immediate joy. He quickly put it on and turned to April to show off, and she just gave him a look. For April I had gotten her a bracelet that would match mine and she shrieked in happiness.

“Ahh girl you know the way to my heart, I love it!” 

For Mikey, I had gotten him one of Rupert Swaggert’s cookbooks that he had made before his mutation. He gasped in amazement and began flipping through the pages. Raph received a thick blanket that the employee at the store promised would be tear resistant. He wrapped the blanket around his person and thanked me for the generosity. Splinter got a new cushion for his recliner and he thanked me as well. And finally for Leo...

“I hope you like it, I wasn’t quite sure if you would but I really hope you do!” I squirmed in nerves as he quickly tore through the wrapping paper.

“Y/N I’m sure I’m gonna love it, even if you wrapped up an avocado.” I laughed at his old vine reference as he unrolled the poster. It took some time, but I managed to get him a signed Jupiter Jim poster from Leo’s favorite movie. As he unrolled it to its full length his face grew in shock.

“This is…”

He looked from the poster to me and back again, the shock on his face slowly growing into a giant smile.

“I love it! Thank you so much!” He gently put the poster down and swooped me up into a bone-crushing hug. 

“Aww it was nothing, your reaction was worth it.” He pulled back and grabbed a present and put it into my hands.

“Okay, now you gotta open up this one next. It’s from me unless you hate it, then it’s from Donnie.”

“I’m right here.”

I start to unwrap the box when I notice from the corner of my eye that he looks just as nervous as I felt earlier. I open the box to find a delicate gold chain, the end of it holding a tiny turtle with a sapphire on its shell. I gaped at the necklace as the others oohed and awwed at it. I look at Leo and see he was practically sweating with anxiety.

“Is that shock of joy or disgust? I can’t tell…” 

“I… love it so much. It’s beautiful! Thank you, Leo.” April nudges my shoulder and I turn to look at her grinning.

“I helped him pick it out. You should’ve seen how anxious he was ordering it, you’d think he’d just signed his death warrant.” I laughed while Leo gave an offended gasp.

“Hey! I thought we agreed not to mention it! Worst sister ever.” April tackled him into a headlock while the others just watched in tired acceptance. She lets him go eventually, and he moves to sit back next to me. Raph sighs and looks around at the confetti of wrapping paper.

“Looks like that’s all of the presents, what’s say we empty out the stockings huh?” I give a loud gasp that shocks everyone.

“Wait! I actually have one more present for the four of you.” Said four looking at me in excitement. “Okay, it’s over in the other room. Everyone close your eyes, no peeking! I’m lookin at you, Mikey.” They dutifully cover their eyes as April and I lead them over to the room I set the surprise in. We get them into position and I step closer to the present.

“You can open your eyes now!” 

As one, they open their eyes. Mikey is the first to speak.

“OMIGOSH, YOU GOT US A HOT TUB??!” 

Placed in the center of the room, it was prepped and ready for use. Earlier I had set up all of the tubes needed to get the water pumping into it, making the room slightly warm and steamy. It was big enough to fit all of them, albeit a little snug with Raph included. It took a while to set it all up, but the effort was worth it.

“Haha, yeah… I did. I wanted to get you guys something for when it’s cold! I know you guys miss swimming when the sewer water is freezing, so I thought this was the next best thing. What do you guys think??” I looked over each of their expressions and note their shock and what I hope is amazement. Donnie speaks next with slight disbelief in his tone.

“How did you get it in here?” They get closer to the hot tub and balk at the warm water inside.

“A little tool I got from a Yokai customer. I snuck it in while you guys were out with April.” She walks over and we fistbump. Raph looks between the tub and us.

“Y/N, I don’t know what to say. This is too much!” 

“I’ll stop you right there buddy. I wanted to do something for all of you, this was the least I could do for all you have given me.” They just continue to stare at me and the tub.

I think I’ve managed to break all four of them.

“This is awesome! I can’t wait to try it out!” Mikey hops from one foot to the other in excitement and that seems to break their paralysis. The others quickly pull me into a hug and I fully embrace them. Leon speaks to me from the huddle.

“We love it so much, thank you!” 

“I gotta get out my board shorts, this is gonna be amazing!”

“Merry Christmas guys!”

“Merry Christmas Y/N!”

Chapter Text

*Gold*

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to your homecoming? It sounds like fun, I’ve never been to one. Ya know, being homeschooled an’ all.” 

April has been munching on some zucchini bread I made while complaining about her school’s upcoming event. I’ve spent the last hour going back and forth with her while working in the shop. I have almost finished a whole batch of croissants by the time she came to a decision.

“Hey! Why don’t you come with me? It would make it so much more bearable to have someone there that actually likes to hang out with me!”

“Wait, how many friends do you have April?”

“That’s not important. What is though, is getting us some kickass outfits for tomorrow! When you get done with work we gotta go shopping!”

“Really? You actually want me to go with you?”

“Of course! You’re my best friend besides Donnie and he doesn’t pull off dresses as well as you, so what do you say? Will you be my plus one? I’ll even get you a corsage .”

“Like you even need to ask. Let’s do it!”

As soon as the store closed, April and I headed out to the nearest Macy’s and started the hunt for the perfect outfits. Stepping inside we were instantly assaulted by salespeople, one of them spraying perfume right into my face. As I gagged for fresh air, April helped to drag me away to the formal wear.

“Aagh! You’d think they’d know how to aim a little lower! Jeez, now my mouth is gonna taste like “The Perfect Man,” forever!” 

“Sorry Y/N but on the upside we made it! Here, let's try these on first!” She throws a few outfits into my arms and we quickly shuffle off to the fitting rooms. We come out at the same time wearing matching tuxedos.

“Hmm, not gonna lie, we look pretty fly. Not quite sure if this is for me though.” I smooth the creases down on my blazer. It does look nice but it’s not quite like what I’m looking for.

“Ok, let’s look at some other options then. How do you feel about emerald green velvet? Or, oooh maybe we could go for something sequined? Or maybe-” April continues on as she peruses through the aisles. I wander in the other direction looking at some other items, listening to her go through the different dresses and suits she was finding. Glitter, velvet, and lace galore are to be found in all different shapes and colors. My mind starts to wander as my hands feel the many fabrics when all thoughts stopped to a halt.

“What about this one?” 

April stops talking and looks over to the one I had grabbed. Stars burst in her eyes as she rushed over to me.

“Oh, that is perfect! You HAVE to try that on girl! Go on, I’ll wait!” She practically shoved me into the fitting room as I giggled at her enthusiasm. I had gotten the dress on but I couldn’t get the back tied up by myself.

“April can you tie this for me? I can’t reach it.” I stuck my back out so she could get it.

“Yeah, sure one sec. Okay… done! Now come out girlie I want to see it!” I stepped out from behind the curtain. She gave a small gasp as she covered her mouth with her hands.

“Well?” I rubbed my arm behind my back as she continued to stare at me.

“I. Love. It! You’re gonna blow everyone away!” She grabbed my hands and spun us around in a circle. In April’s mind, she had a feeling that Y/N’s certain design choice had to be influenced by a certain turtle but that was neither here nor there. She’ll have to get pictures to send to him later to swoon over.

We laughed together but had to stop when an employee hushed us from across the room. We whispered our apologies and decided to keep looking for something for April to wear. I stepped out of the dress and put it back on the hook to purchase later. We found the perfect yellow chiffon dress for her to wear and I couldn’t wait to see her in it dancing the night away!

“Now it’s just a matter of the right shoes and accessories and we are golden! Thanks again for coming with me, this has been a lot of fun! It’s nice to have a normal girl’s day once in a while.”

“You mean the days where we aren’t being thrown into the chaos that is the Hamato brothers? Yeah, I can see that. Though, my life would be a lot duller without you guys in it. Seeing all of you acting like a family is something I adore! I don’t have any siblings, so I never knew what it was like before meeting the boys. It’s nice.” 

“You’re a part of the family now too! It’s refreshing to have another girl to hang around with and I know they love being with you too. Come on, we have a party to plan for!” We exit the store with our prizes, eager to make our way to the dance floor.

~~~~~~

“April please, we’ve been over this! Everything will be fine! Right Mayhem?” The yokai looked at me and nodded, poofing away to snatch April and teleport her back to face me.

“Y/N you don’t understand! Everyone sees me as a freak show, they wouldn’t want to be near me! I don’t even know why the most popular girl in the school, Taylor, invited me to this thing, it must be a trap or something!” 

Again, Mayhem needed to poof April back from running away. I grab her by the shoulders and square up to her.

“Listen. I don’t care what anyone else thinks of you. April O’Neil, in my expert opinion, is one of the greatest people I know. Whoever thinks you’re a freak show is just denying your awesomeness. So let’s go be awesome!” 

April looks up at me and I notice a couple of tears shining in her eyes before she steels herself and takes my hand.

“Thanks for the pep talk. I’m ready now. Mayhem you gotta jet, don’t want the others seeing you.” Mayhem gives us a salute and poofs away. Together we walk onto campus. There were a lot of students in the courtyard, all of them glued to their phones. No one even looked up to notice us. I looked over and noticed a giant hippo head float.

“Is your school’s mascot a red hippo?”

“No, it’s actually a-”

Before April can answer me someone shouts across campus to get her attention.

“Hey, April!”

“Dale!” April quickly slaps her hand to her face and I have to stop myself from laughing. “Oh no.”

“My favorite person. And who’s this? A new friend of yours?” He eagerly shakes my hand, jostling my shoulder (and my whole body) in the process.

“Uhh hi? My name’s Y/N, I’m a friend of April’s. She invited me to your shin-dig. Nice tie.” 

“I usually wouldn’t really go to one of these, “dances,” She puts up air quotation marks at that. “But I actually got invited by Taylor Martin to sit at the cool kid's table, that and I brought Y/N here to enjoy some dancin’ with. So…” She starts to steer us towards the entrance away from Dale when he grabs his phone from his pocket and points to it.

“She invited me too!”

“Oh, I thought she just invited me, but I guess you got invited too. That’s cool. Cool…” 

I don’t think she actually finds that very cool. Anyways.

We head inside and see… everyone on their phones. I look up to see the ceiling covered in balloons, and a sign saying, “Have a Magical Time” strung up. To me though, it doesn’t look like much of a ‘magical time’. No one’s even dancing to the music! There's a cake over at the concessions table that was of… a man in a top hat sawed in half? Another one is already sliced into with a white bunny as decoration. So this was a magician-themed dance? Interesting…

April points over to a girl in a pink dress with a lighter pink bow, her blonde hair tied up in a bun. This must be Taylor.

“April, Dale! So glad you came. And who’s this? I’ve never seen her at school before and I know everyone that’s important!” April pushes me up front to show me off.

“This here is my best friend, Y/N. I invited her here for her first dance! She’s super cool.” I blush at the praise. A boy walked past with an impressive mullet and an iguana on his shoulders. April shudders as he walks past and whispers,

“Lizard boy.” Taylor grabs us by the shoulders and shoves us down into chairs at the table behind her. Everyone is typing away on their phones. I know the whole stereotypical, “Kids these days are always on their phone,” crap but this is a little excessive.

“Sit! We were all just talking about the most amazing new game, Hippo Crush!”

At that everyone at the table simultaneously looked up at us and said,

“So fun.”

Weird…

Taylor gets up into April’s face.

“Have you played it yet?” 

“Uh, I’ve been meaning to download it.”

“How are we gonna be besties if you don’t have the game?”

“You base your relationships on who plays certain games?” Taylor ignores my question completely and just keeps staring at April. 

“Got it!” Dale shows off his phone to us and waves the app screen in our faces. April pulls out her phone.

“Oh– Okay.” Taylor now swerves to look me dead in the eyes.

“You too! We can be besties!” I reluctantly pull out my phone from my dress pocket.

“Um, alright I guess.” I go to the app store and go to download it when a pop-up of Donnie waving his finger and saying,

“Donnie says no no no!” Over and over again. I hear the same thing coming from April’s phone as well. 

“What! Excuse us for a second.” April pulls us out of the gymnasium and quickly calls who I’m assuming is Donnie. She puts him on speakerphone so I could hear as well.

“You are conversing with Donatello.”

“What is a Donnie Blocker? Y/N and I just got it on our phones!” April screeches into her phone. I can hear puppies barking in the background. I vaguely remember Mikey sending me a selfie of him with a bunch of dogs so that must be where they are still.

“I put it on your phones so you wouldn’t get hacked or download anything with malware because I know how much you’re into fantasy–” He gets cut off by April.

“The only thing Donnie’s blocking is April from being cool!” She hangs up the phone. Right after Mayhem decides to poof in for a visit. 

“What are you doing here? I told you to go! Cool kids don’t bring their pets to school. Do you want people to pick on me?” I feel bad for him as his face falls into sadness. This must be really important to April to be seen as a ‘cool kid’. Just then the gym doors burst open behind us and a line of kids start shuffling out. Dale follows them along in the line.

“Is the dance already over?” He ignores April in favor of his phone and continues to follow the person in front of him. April begins to follow him and I hurry to catch up to them. “Dale, what’s going on? Hey! Did Taylor tell us to go somewhere? Cool, cool, cool. We’re coming!” He finally looks over at her and that’s when I notice his eyes have turned pink.

“Did you get the game April? We could play together.” She grabs her phone.

“Not yet. Someone installed a–”

“April, Y/N!” Taylor spooks both of us as she grabs our shoulders from behind. “Did you get the game?”

“We… totally got it?”

“Can I see it?” April quickly snags my phone from my hand and tosses it along with hers.

“Hey!” *hush Y/N*

“Oh, darn, our phones. But the game is SO fun! All the hippos and stuff.” Taylor ushers us to follow the rest of the group and we start to make our way to the auditorium. I thought I heard the chimes of Mayhem’s teleport behind us but I wasn’t able to turn and look because someone pushed us into the doors ahead.

~~~~~

*Blue*

Raph and I were getting into the middle schooler’s magic piece when out of nowhere Mayhem poofs in front of us onto the laptop. 

“What is it, boy?” Mayhem howls and begins to run in a circle. He stops and points ahead. 

“I think someone’s in trouble. Is it us? Are you from the future?” 

“Really Raph?” I was about to make a smart remark but Mayhem quickly sent us through a portal.

~~~~~~

*Gold*

“April, is this how all your dances go? Something doesn’t seem right…” We sit in the crowded auditorium with Dale and Taylor on either side of us. At this point, I can’t help but notice everyone has glowing pink eyes. Either everyone at once got a nasty bug or…

“Everyone! Give it up for the master magician, and inventor of Hippo Crush…” A poof of smoke on the stage appears. “Ta-da! Hypno-Potamus!” April and I gasp.

“Mutant hippo?”

“Oh no, I think I remember Leo telling me about this one. He’s a magician that was turned into a mutant by those ‘oozesquitos’.” Everyone around us all chants,

“Hypno is great.” Over and over.

“Forget that hack Noah Sheck, I’m telling you, tonight I’m gonna make this whole high school disappear! Starting with this mascot!” A guy in what looks like a purple lizard? Dinosaur? Is dangling by some rope. Hypno throws out a top hat under him.

“Oh, this is not good. We need to get out of here!” April quickly nods and we sneak off to the exit doors. We were just about out when the stupid door made a bunch of loud rattling sounds.

“Wait, wait a minute. Something’s not quite right.” 

A beam of light flashes onto us. We were caught.

“Where do you two think you are going?” April stands in a mock zombie pose.

“I want to serve you. Ah forget it, that’s whack.” She grabs my arm and we speed out of the doors. 

“April these heels were NOT made for running!” We rush into a room and push a table up against the door. Not two seconds later a foot kicks down the door, and Taylor comes waltzing in.

“April, it’s your BFF Taylor, I just wanna hang.” She reaches for the skeleton we dressed up and we quickly rush to the door and slam it shut. We start running down the hall and I turn to see the three kids busted down the door.

“Are all of your classmates that freakishly strong?? This is insane!” 

“Quick! Get in these lockers!” She ushers me to the nearby locker stand and we close the doors. Taylor and two boys run past. April started to open her door when a hat fell onto the floor. It looked like one of Hypno’s hats with an hourglass inside of it.

“What’s this do?” She gets her answer when it starts to glow purple.

“April look out!” I throw her and I out of the way as purple electricity ripples through the lockers and sucks them into the hat! April sits up and gasps.

“He’s gonna make us all disappear, permanently!”

“We gotta do something! Maybe we can–” Before I can finish we hear the clicking of heels behind us.

Taylor and the others were back. Time to run again! We kept getting blocked by groups of teens and eventually we are surrounded. They keep chanting,

“Hypno is great.” Dale begins to walk closer to us.

“Join us. Play the game. Be cool. I love you .” 

“Umm, April? I think you have an unrequited lover here.”

“Dale, you’re so hypnotized you’d say anything!”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s the issue.”

We try to back up further but there’s nowhere left to go. They keep getting closer, their phone screens getting brighter and brighter. I can see April’s eyes beginning to turn pink when Mayhem makes his grand appearance and poofs us away!

“Mayhem, you came back! I’m so sorry about what I–” Mayhem points behind us and we see that he didn’t poof us as far away as we hoped.

“Yeah, nope. Run!” 

“At least I’m getting my cardio in today after all!” 

“Mayhem! Now would be a good time to poof us out of here!” 

Again we become surrounded by the hypnotized crowd. Mayhem tries to go for another teleport but seems too weak to do it.

“Look at you. You’re exhausted. You must be out of poof juice. Not to worry, I’ve got this. They will listen to me. I’m April O’Neil!” 

“Who?” “Huh?”

I sigh dramatically.

“Really people? She’s not that invisible!” 

“Uh, we’re in trouble.” Just as we think it is the end, a huge crash happens above us and the giant hippo float comes smashing through the wall.

“Tally Ho!” 

Is that?

“Oh, is this A.P. Bio?” Yep. It’s them. Leo and Raph peel the golf cart toward us. April and I quickly hop on.

“Drive!” Raph sends the golf cart screeching down the hall as we make our escape.

“Where’s the exit?” April turns to Raph.

“No, we can’t leave! Hypno’s gonna make the school disappear.” Leo is hanging off the golf cart on my right as we speed down the hall, a basketball in hand.

“ Another school is gonna disappear? These magicians are out of control.” 

“You can say that again.” 

“That mutant hippo’s got doom hats hidden all over the school, but it’s gonna be fine. I’ve gotta plan.” Raph pulls to a stop at the auditorium. He and Leo hop off and April takes the wheel. “You gotta break Hypno’s spell and free my friends…” We all stare at her blankly. “Okay, acquaintances. Just free everybody!” We skirt away and the boys go inside.

“Okay Y/N and Mayhem, you grab the hats off the lockers while I drive!”

“I’m game! As the boys say,” we chant together.

“Cowabunga!” 

We make quick work of grabbing the hats but on our way out a couple of boys stand in the way of the exit.

“Move outta the way!” The lights begin to glow behind us. “We gotta do something!” That something was Mayhem poofing all of the hats away. We make our way outside to see Hypno has gathered all of the kids to witness him disappear in his own hats, courtesy of Mayhem. The spell quickly breaks, as does the golf cart. Taylor grabs her hair and growls at us.

“Augh! You guys and your ugly cat destroyed my float, O’Neil!” Taylor and the others walk away, while Dale sticks around.

“So April, if you, uh, you know, don’t have a date for the next shindig, I–” 

“Not now Dale. No.” 

~~~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

“Well, that was a complete bust. I look even weirder to my classmates now!” Raph and I had just left April’s school with her and Y/N and had to listen to her complaining. When we were crashing through the school I didn’t get a good chance to see what was going on but now that we have a moment, I look to see them wearing some nice-looking outfits. April had on her usual yellow, albeit a fancier dress. While Y/N… 

“It’s alright, you’re still cool in my eyes April. Plus, despite everything, I still had fun! Kinda wish I could’ve gotten to dance though…” 

“Aww, I’m sorry Y/N, we’ll have to go out again some other time to get our groove on.” She quickly makes eye contact with Raph who gets the idea real quick.

“Hey, April I’ll walk you and Mayhem home! Leo, why don’t you take Y/N home? Ok sounds good see ya back at the lair!” Those three could’ve won an Olympic race with how fast they ran off. 

“Uh, ok? Guess it’s just you and me now Leo, haha.” 

“So it is… are you ready for your escort, mi Princesa?” He holds one arm behind his back as he leans forward with a hand out to me. She holds one hand to her forehead and delicately takes my hand.

“Why of course good sir! Please, guide me home.” We both stop and giggle at our little act. She still holds my hand though as we start walking, and I don’t feel like letting go either. 

The journey back is peaceful. We don’t talk much but that’s ok. It’s nice to just enjoy each other’s presence on the way home. Life in New York doesn’t slow down much at night. The street lights and neon signs lit up the buildings and roads, creating a colorful vibe to the evening.

“I love how the city feels at night. It almost feels more alive, in a way.” I looked out at the view she was talking about.

“For the most part, this is how I normally see New York. Hard to go out during the day on account of all this.” I gesture to myself.

“It is a shame, too few people get to see the beauty that is Leonardo.”

“I know! The world is lesser for its loss.” 

“Pfft, well at least I get to see you. The world should be jealous.” I laugh at that, hopefully covering up the growing warmth on my face. A thought jumps to the forefront of my mind.

“Wait Y/N, you said that you guys didn’t get to dance?” She hums in the affirmative, looking a little lost at the sudden change in conversation. I pull her into my arms and I have to stop myself from doing anything as she instantly wraps her arms around me. Y/N looks up to me in silent question.

“Do you trust me?” She stares for a moment, then whispers,

“With my life.” The amount of faith she has in me sends a shock of warmth to my core. 

“Hold on tight.” I gather her up into my arms and she wraps hers around my neck. We take to the rooftops and I can hear her gasp in delight as we go jumping over the alleys to where I had in mind. After a moment I spot what I was looking for. “Y/N, close your eyes for a minute.” 

“Alright but I’m counting down! 60, 59, 58…”

“Whoa ok, hold on!” I put her down and walk her to the center.

“You can open your eyes now.”

*Gasp*

We were in a rooftop gazebo, ivy climbing the posts and fairy lights twinkling in the ceiling. We had a view of the city below us, the background sounds of NYC quieter from this high up. Y/N took a moment to scan our new environment which gave me an opportunity to look at her more closely. 

She had on a baby blue satin gown that practically glowed in the fairy lights. She reminded me of a fairytale, a real-life princess. 

“This is gorgeous! How did you know this was here?” She finally turns back to me.

“Spotted it on one of our outings. Though, it's not as gorgeous as you look tonight.” Her eyes grow wide and I can see her blushing from here. She picks at her dress with her hands.

“Well, when I got it, I may have been thinking of someone specific…”

“Oh?” She smirks up at me.

“Yeah, Mikey. I’m sure he would’ve loved the blue.” I bark out a surprised laugh and give her a gentle shove.

“Oh stop it you tease. I have to say though,” I take her hand in mine. “Blue looks good on you.” She gives me a delicate smile. 

“Right back at ya.” I reach into my shorts pockets and pull out my phone. I find what I’m looking for and place it on one of the gazebo’s rails. Gentle music begins to play and I see Y/N’s face grow in surprise.

“What? Raph went through a whole Disney princess phase and had us watch all the movies together. Your outfit made me think of it. I believe someone said they missed their chance at a dance tonight. Well, allow me to oblige you.” I took her hand and placed my other above her waist. She placed her’s on mine and we began a gentle waltz to the music.

“So this is love, mmm, So this is love”

“Oh man, you’re a real romantic aren’t you?”

“So this is what makes life divine”

“You caught me, secret’s out.” 

“I'm all aglow, mmm”

I spin her around and she begins to sing along to the song. May as well join in on the fun.

“And now I know (and now I know)”

“The key to all heaven is mine”

Her smile was near blinding but I wouldn’t take the chance to look away for anything.

“My heart has wings, mmm”

“And I can fly”

At that line, I pick her up and swing her in the air, her surprised laughter like music to my ears.

“I'll touch every star in the sky”

“So this is the miracle, That I've been dreaming of”

I place her back down on the ground, throwing out a playful smirk that she then mirrors.

“Mmm, mmm”

We start to slow, swaying back and forth on our feet. We finish the last part of the song together.

“So this is love”

Y/N’s eyes were filled with warmth as she looked at me as if I deserved to be in her presence in the first place. The glow of her healing arts didn’t hold a candle to the light of her whole being and I was helpless in the face of it.

“Leo I–”

“Can I kiss you?” 

Whatever she was about to say died on her tongue, her whole body stiffening at my question. Her eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape. I nearly panicked and started backtracking when her next words stopped me.

“Please.”

Well, how could I refuse that?

I quickly glanced at her lips and back to her eyes, and she nodded with a smile and I took my shot. I watched her close her eyes as she leaned forward, ending up meeting me halfway.

Her lips felt impossibly soft. Instinctually I cradled the side of her head, her locks smooth in my calloused hand. The other I stroked down her arm, smiling into our kiss when I could feel goosebumps. She had grasped my basketball jersey in her hands, reaching up to her tiptoes to gain better leverage. How adorable. I don’t think either of us wanted to part but alas, humans and turtle mutants needed air to survive. As we quietly gasped for air we locked eyes.

“Can we do that again please?” I barked out a short laugh and she giggled at the sound.

“I knew it. Girls only want one thing! Not even you are the exception I see.” She gave me a mocked offended expression, her brows meeting inward as she gasped.

“Good sir, I am a lady, how dare you speak such vulgar! You wound me.” She places a hand on her heart in pain. 

“It is you who hath wounded me, dear princess, for I am only seen as a slab of meat! Truly, a dastardly offense.” We make eye contact again and burst into laughter over the charade. After we calm down a bit and just smile at one another. She quietly takes my hand and peers at the two combined, three to five fingers. She blinks back up at me when I begin to speak.

“Y/N? I know I come off as super confident and superbly amazing, but the truth is that I’m honestly terrified of admitting this. I really like you. Like, butterflies in my ribcage, I want to take you out on cliché dates and everything kind of like. Do… do you feel the same?” If I didn’t know any better I’d say her cheeks had been turned into tomatoes with how red they got. What shocked me the most though, was when she started shedding tears. “Hey, what’s wrong?” I put my hand to her face to sweep the tears from her face. She leans into my touch as she smiles.

“You really feel that way? About me?”

“You are Y/N, right? You didn’t suddenly get replaced by some random person that I just spilled my feelings to?” She gave me a short teary laugh as she rubs one of her eyes.

“I just can’t believe you feel the same way that I do.” Well, that does it, I’m completely flabbergasted.

“I’ll say it as many times as I have to for you to believe it. I like you Y/N, I like you I like you I–” She stops me by wrapping me in a bone-crushing hug. “I’ll scream it to the world if I have to. I, Leonardo Hamato, like Y/N Y/L/N so much that everyone needs to know!” I rub her back as she begins to calm down. She slowly eases her hold on me and I lean down to touch my forehead to hers. “There, do you believe me now? I thought you said you trusted me. Well, trust me when I say this.” She leans into the touch and we stand there, just reveling in each other’s presence.

“I really like you too Leo. So much so that I feel like some days I can barely contain it! I always want to be around you, I swear I can’t stop smiling when I’m with you. This is the happiest I’ve ever felt!” I kiss her on the forehead and she smiles up at me.

“The happiest you’ve been so far. I’d be a terrible boyfriend if I didn’t aim to exceed your expectations.” 

“Oh, we’re up to boyfriend already?” 

“Well uh, I mean–”

“You doofus. I’d be a terrible girlfriend if I didn’t tease you every now and then.” 

My heart soars at her words and I pick Y/N up to spin her in the air. Our laughter echoes over the rooftop, the night seemingly happy with the outcome.

~~~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

After dropping Y/N off at her house I made my way back to the lair. Just as I step back in I can hear the others arguing near the skateboard ramps.

“It’s gonna happen tonight, I KNOW it. Face it, brothers, I’ve won the bet.”

I snuck in as quietly as I could, to both snoop listen in and be able to avoid a fight just in case.

“Yeah cause you CHEATED! Nardo just had to wait just two more weeks and I would've gotten all that sweet moola.” 

Wait for what?

“Donnie, you know I love you BUT let’s face it, the way Y/N looked tonight, he couldn’t possibly ignore the obvious anymore.”

Oh, Raph was gonna get it tonight. Although, I might also have to thank him later.

"Guys relax, I know Leon's got it in the bag!"

Ah, good 'ol Mikey, always being the ray of optimism.

"Hate to break it to you DonTon, but I guess Raph's won this bet of yours, which I expect an explanation for."

"Leo! Uhh, what bet? I don't know what you're talking about! BT-dubs did you happen to spend some time with a certain person tonight?" 

"As a matter of fact, I did." Immediately they all huddled around me to find out more.

"What did you do? Where did you go?? How did she react??? GIVE US THE DETAILS!" They bombarded me with questions that I floundered to comprehend. I have a feeling this is going to go on for a while before they're satisfied. I wonder if April is questioning Y/N right now.

~~~

*Gold*

"So... how did it go?" 

"We kissed and became a couple."

"Nice."

Chapter Text

*Gold*

“I can’t believe you guys did that. Did you see how scared he was? That wasn’t funny.” The others took my scolding with different expressions. Mikey and April had the right idea to look like kicked puppies, Donnie and Leo, not so much. Don typed away on his phone and Leo had the audacity to be laughing at my frustration. 

“Y/N relax, it was just a prank! Did you see how far he jumped into the wall? Hilarious!” I puffed out air and raised an eyebrow.

“Seriously? Do you think it’s funny to pick on someone’s fears? What’s next? You’re gonna hide a tarantula in my bed?” At that, he at least started to look slightly regretful. 

“Of course not. It’s just harmless fun, no one got hurt… much.” 

“Uh-huh. Well, you guys go enjoy your ‘fun’, I’m going to grab a snack.” I push past Leo and head to the kitchen. 

“Smooth, Leo.” 

*SMACK*

“Oh shut it D’. Mikey, let’s go to the arcade.”

“If you say so, Leo.” They turn and head to the game room, April in tow.

“You guys have fun, I’ll be in my lab not thinking about our life choices.”

I step into the kitchen and spot a half-made sandwich on the island. I guess Raph didn’t want to eat after that whole fiasco after all. I don’t blame him. I’m all up for a good prank too but I don’t think it’s very nice to target someone’s phobias like that. 

I open up the fridge and grab a pudding cup. I just have to calm down and let it go, like grammy taught me. One deep breath in, one out-

“Oooh pudding, my favorite!” 

“Who’s that? I swear to god, Leo if you want some I’ll shove some up your nose!” 

“Down here silly!” 

What?

I peer down to see little Mrs. Cuddles herself… Alive.

“Huh.”

“You don’t find me scary?”

“Mmm, not really? Do you think you’re the scariest thing I’ve seen come to life? Trust me, when you see a coconut cream pie come chasing after you with a wooden rolling pin, then we can talk scary.” Looks like their little prank just got a lot stranger. I close the fridge door and grab a spoon to eat my pudding with.

“Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

“Really? Well, I better go get some of my friends so they can see it too. Hold on one sec.” I turn around and head to the door but the sound of metal scraping the ground halts me. I spin around to see what she’s doing but one moment I’m standing, and the next I’ve been smacked down to the ground, hard. 

“Oh, we can’t have that! If I can’t get you to scream for me, then I’ll just have to hide you away so the others will scream forever!” 

I try to stand up but my head is throbbing. My thoughts clouded in pain and my eyesight was impaired. Not good.

“L- Leo…” Darkness envelops me and I see no more.

~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

“She’s overreacting, right? It wasn’t that bad.”

“Leo, stop talking or you’ll dig yourself into a bigger hole than you already are with Y/N,” April said as she watched our table hockey game. Mikey got another puck into my goal and I groaned at the loss. Just after that, Raph lands on the table with a scream.

“I can’t find Mrs. Cuddles!” April stands up in a panic.

“You lost… the puppet? Oh man, I am so fired. I’ll check the kitchen.” April bolts out of the room and Raph shouts after her.

“If you’re gonna go, take a bat! Or the turtle tank! Hey, and DON’T SCREAM!!” Raph runs off toward Donnie’s lab, so Mikey and I get back to playing our game. 

“Maybe you should apologize to Y/N.” 

“Why would I even need to apologize? It’s not like I was the only one that pranked Raph, we were all in on it!” 

“Yeah, but you were the only one who laughed at her as she berated us. I’m pretty sure she’s madder at that than the prank at this point. She hasn’t even come back to see us.”

“Ugh, maybe you’re right. I guess– Hey! No, n–gah!” Mikey shoots off another point right as Raph comes back, with Mrs. Cuddles in tow. He throws it into the nearby locker.

“Now to lock you up till I figure out how to shrink you and get you back in your trunk.” Raph then goes and grabs any solid/heavy thing he can pick up and puts it all against the locker. Muttering,

“She must be strong enough to hold King Kong. No! No, no, way stronger. She’d demolish Kong.”

“Whoa, we really broke this poor guy.” I look over to Mikey. “Wanna skateboard?”

After a few trips on the ramp, I take a minute to look around. Now that Mikey had said it, it is weird that Y/N hasn’t returned from her trip to the kitchen. Was she really that upset? Didn’t April head that way too? Maybe they were talking it out somewhere.

“Ha-ha – AAAH!” Mikey screams at the top of the ramp and I watch as he slides down to the bottom. I turn around where he’s looking and see a frickin 10-foot-tall Mrs. Cuddles!

“You’re real?!” Her creepy smile tilts to the right.

“I hope you guys actually scream, unlike Y/N.”

“Wait what?! What did you do to her?” I don’t know if she was going to answer because Mikey decided to scream at the top of his fucking lungs right in my ear. He jumps into my arms and we watch (Mikey screams) as she grows even taller and grabs us with a giant paw.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mikey and I join Donnie and April in their rope-tied cuddle sesh.

“Now off to find the red one!” Mrs. Cuddles giggles as she hops away. We were in Dad’s room, stuck together.

“So when she kept growing, that wasn’t a clue to stop screaming?” 

“Sorry, but hopefully Raph heard me.” 

“Astronauts heard you.”  

“Guys no time for arguing, Y/N’s hurt!” 

“WHAT!” 

April points with her foot and with a little jerking I can see Y/N lying near us, passed out… with blood dripping down her forehead.

When I first saw little 6-year-old Mikey with scraped and bloody knees after he took a tumble, I knew that I never wanted to see my family injured if I could help it. It was the main reason I became the medic of the team. That, and Donnie had too big of an aversion to gross, slimy things. I dedicated as much time as I could learning how to patch people up and I had plenty of practice thanks to my family’s tendencies for being reckless, myself included. I hated seeing my brothers hurt, it only spurred me on to want to do better, to be able to protect them from anything that could harm them.

To see Y/N with blood running down her face, made mine begin to boil.

 “Y/N!! Can you hear us? Wake up, please! I swear to pizza supreme in the sky I’m gonna rip those floppy ears right off her bunny head!” I thrash around trying to get the ropes loose, to no avail.

“Yeah, nice one Nardo but we’ve already tried that. From what I can see it looks like she sustained a head injury, thus the lack of consciousness.”

“Uh, doi, I gathered that. We need to get untied, muy rápido. I need to get to her!” We all tried again to get the ropes free but it still wasn't working. 

“Why can’t we just scream for help now?” April asks and I give her a side glance. “Oh, right. We scream, she grows. Not smart, got it.” Mikey raises his head to look at the ceiling.

“I’m starting to think Y/N was right, this prank was a bad idea.”

~~~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

This… was odd.

I wasn’t awake, that much I knew. So how did I know the guys were near me right now? It felt like I was trudging through a dark fog, it’s denseness making it hard to get through. The odd part though was that I could almost sense the others. A fierce blue lit up my senses, with purple, orange, and yellow colors flickering nearby. Obviously, the color coding made who it was easy but why could I feel them in the first place?

“Your healing arts are intimately tied to your aura, your emotions. One day you will become more in tune with this. That is why you must train and meditate with me Y/N, or else darkness will befall you.”

Some of what grammy was saying is starting to make sense. So, while I may not be conscious, my spirit is able to make sense of the people around me and their emotions. Well, by the brightness of blue, I’d say he’s relatively upset. It’s about the only thing I can tell though and it becomes extremely frustrating. I don’t know how much time has passed but eventually, my senses begin to come back to me, pain first and foremost. 

“...Think she’s waking up.”

“Y/N? Hey, I need you to look at me.” 

“... Leo?” The lights of the lair blink into focus above me. I turn my head toward the sounds of Leo’s voice and he gently takes my hand.

“Yes, that’s right querida it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Like a fluffy bunny smacked me upside the head with Mikey’s cast iron skillet.”

“Well, at least her personality’s still intact.” Donnie gets smacked for that comment by Raph. I slowly sit up, wincing in pain and grabbing my temple.

“Let me see your eyes.” Leo shines a penlight over my face. “Ok, good. Your pupils are much more equal and reactive this time around.” 

“This time? I don’t remember waking up earlier…” Mikey leaned forward opposite Leo.

“Yeah, you seemed pretty out of it the first time you woke up. Leo said that was pretty normal for someone with a concussion.” He gave me a toothy grin and I couldn’t help but mirror the sentiment, albeit a little less eagerly. 

“I’m glad you guys are ok. I was worried something was going on while I was out.” Raph gave me a confused look that Leo shared.

“What do you mean? How did you know something was happening while you were unconscious?” 

“Ah. Yeah… It’s something I guess I was able to sense with my abilities. It’s kinda hard to explain right now since I don’t really understand it all myself. Suffice it to say, I could tell Leo was pissed while I was knocked out.” That drew surprised glances from everyone. “If it’s alright with you guys, I’d like to go home for a while. I need some time to think.”

“We’ll drive you back in the tank, you’re in no shape to go walking too far right now.”

“Thanks, Raph.”

Leo helps me to stand while the others wander ahead to the garage. I noticed he was still holding my hand but had a pained look on his face.

“Alright mi Cielito, what’s got your bandana in a knot?” He slows down our pace and looks away for a moment.

“This was my fault.”

“Come again?”

“You getting hurt! It was my fault for suggesting the prank in the first place. I laughed at your feelings and you got injured because of me.”

“Leo… none of this was your fault. I appreciate your remorse about the laughing but how could you have predicted that a stuffed bunny would turn out to be a sadistic demon? Hmm?? You couldn’t. So, it wasn’t on you or anyone for that matter. I’ll be ok, you saw to that, my little medic boy you.” I finally got a smile out of him and I gently nuzzled my head under his chin. He gave me a little hum in return and together we walked to the garage.

~~~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

The day after all of the shenanigans happened I stopped by the shop to check on Y/N. Surprisingly, I wasn’t the only one to visit.

“Donnie? What are you doing here?” Said brother flips his goggles up to peer at me with an unimpressed glance.

“You aren’t the only one that comes around. Y/N gave me permission to sample their plants for some of my botany experiments. Plus, she gives me free rein over the expresso machine.” 

“Why am I not surprised… Is she around?”

“She’s upstairs, little turtle.” I turn to face the counter and see Y/N’s grandmother leaning against the frame. “We had a little chat. Heard about the business you all got into.” She gave me a look that glued me to where I was standing. I was just starting to apologize when she pointed her finger in a stopping motion. “No need for any of that. None of that was your fault so don’t go crying to me. Before you go up, I have something for you.” She passes me a book that reads, ‘The Omniscient Source of Medical Knowledge on Yokai’. “Y/N tells me you do a lot of the mending in your family. I’m sure you could use a reference like that.”

“I- uh, thanks, Y/N’s grandma.”

“Call me grammy, little turtle.”

“Right.”

I scooted up the stairs as fast as I could and knocked on Y/N’s bedroom door. I waited for a minute but she didn’t answer.

“Uhh, Y/N? Is it okay for me to come in?” Still no answer. I carefully opened the door to see that she was sitting outside on her balcony. She had on a grey tank top and blue shorts, her hair tied up into a messy bun. My eyes lingered a little too long at the exposed nape of her neck before I noticed she was using her powers. Lights danced around her like silly little sprites. As I stepped closer one of the lights fluttered over to me, spinning around me in an impish manner before flying back over to her.

“Hey there Leon, whatchu up to?” She spoke while still turned away from me.

“How’d you know it was me? I thought you couldn’t hear me from outside.” I came up to her left side and sat down next to her. She began to open her eyes as she smiled at me.

“Something I’ve been working on. I talked with my grammy about yesterday, I’m assuming she spoke to you too.” I gave her a small nod.

“Yeah, nearly scared the shell off my back. Didn’t realize she could be so intimidating.” 

“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” We both shuddered at that. “Anyways, after talking with her and doing some meditation, I realized that my abilities are growing, to an extent. My emotions have always had a factor in how powerful my magic can be, but I didn’t realize it could also work as a ‘sensor’, in a way. See, when I tap into my power to heal someone, I’m essentially connecting to their spirit first, then directing the flow of energy through that to where they are injured. No spirit, no healing. Well, the spirit of someone is also where their emotions are mainly held. So by that logic, I can sense a person’s soul and ‘see’ their emotions. That’s the best way I’ve figured out how to explain it. I have noticed that it’s easier to sense people’s spirit when it’s someone I know well. For instance, I knew when you arrived downstairs and that Donnie’s still analyzing the cape sundew we keep. I think he’s trying to come up with a trap like that for the lair’s defenses.” 

“Wow… that’s insanely cool! How did you figure all that out?”

“Grammy taught me to meditate to focus on my inner energy as a form of training since I was little. It helped me to realize this. Do you maybe want to try meditating with me?”

“I don’t know… Splinter had us try it out when we were kids but it never really stuck.” She pats the mat in front of her, a warm smile on her face.

“How about you try with me? If you don’t like it we can stop and do something else instead. Here, I’ll help guide you through it.” She could probably see the conflict on my face but she kept the patient aura going, eventually winning me over.

“Ok, but don’t get your hopes up.” She just shakes her head and I scoot over so that we are sitting facing one another. 

“Take a moment to focus on your surroundings, your breathing, and your heart rate. Listen to the sounds of my voice and the streets below us. Find that center in your mind where you can completely zone in.”

“What’s that supposed to be?”

“Hmm, think of those times when you get so zoned in that all distractions are ignorable. Playing a difficult boss level in a game, or doing a tricky maneuver in battle. Or when you make a portal. When you’re doing something that you are into and it takes you to that special place, that’s what you’re looking for.”

“Okay…” 

“Try it, I know you can do it.”

“You underestimate my power.”

“Pfft, come on now, close your eyes.” I eventually do and look for this ‘center’. It takes a moment but I think I understand what she was talking about. My mind dwindled into that deep expanse that helped me tune out other stimuli. It was actually… pretty nice. It was almost like giving my mindset a reboot.

We sat like that together for some time. Slowly, I noticed a presence enter my headspace. Normally I would have quickly recoiled from such a bizarre experience but oddly enough I knew who it was. Y/N’s aura gently uncurled into focus, like when you come inside where it’s cold out and feel the first burst of warm air hit your face. I reached back and within a split second something had clicked into place.

*Gasp*

I quickly withdrew from myself to see what caught her attention.

“What? Did you feel something?” She looked dazed in a way and alarm bells went off in my head.

“It’s ok, I’m alright. Don’t panic, it's kind of overwhelming me.” 

“Oh, sorry. What was that? I thought I felt you for a second.” She got her bearings and looked back up at me.

“That was… incredible! It was more of an instinctual thing that I did but when you reciprocated it was like, WOOSH! And suddenly I could feel your aura so much clearer! It was honestly beautiful.”

“Oh ho ho, so even my spirit is beautiful huh? I truly am the whole package.” She lightly nudges my shoulder and we share a laugh.

“You doofus, of course, you are! Beauty and a sense of humor? What more could a person ask for?” 

“Aww shucks, do go on though.” 

“Well, there is something else. I think I’ve realized something. Looking at your soul, I can see mystic energy thrumming inside of you.” 

“Huh, really?”

“Yes. I don’t think your power comes from your weapons. More like, the weapons have allowed you guys to tap into your innate power and channel it to use as you have been. Think of it like you are a house with electricity, but without anything to use that power, you’ve just been a house. With this analogy, your sword is like a television. Plugging it in uses that power and lets you watch shows, like how you are able to use your odachi to make portals. It’s amazing!” 

“Wow… you got all that from examining my spirit?” She nodded eagerly and grabbed my two hands.

“I have no doubts that it’s the same case as your brothers. Maybe one day you guys could tap into your powers on your own. Imagine the possibilities!” 

“Wow, you sure seem excited about all this.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?? You guys are so cool!” Her energy was infectious and I tackled her into an aggressive cuddle. She started laughing uncontrollably as I began to tickle her relentlessly.

“Ahh! Leo stop, I’m gonna pee my pants!” I focused my onslaught on the sides of her ribcage where I knew she was the most sensitive.

“I’m sorry what? I can’t hear you.” She kept laughing while trying to figure out how to stop my attacks. She must have gotten an idea because she grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me into a quick kiss. 

Oooh, smart thinking chiqui.

I start kissing her back, dragging my palm up her stomach, accidentally riding up her tank top.

“Ah, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to–”

“It’s ok– I mean, if you want to, that is, touch me there.” She covered her face with her hands. “Sorry, I don’t mean to be so awkward, it’s just… that’s the first time someone’s touched me like that.” I lightly take her hands and pull them away from her eyes.

“It’s ok, it’s a first for me too– touching someone, that is.” Her pupils dilated and she had a nervous smile.

“How about we tell each other where we like and disliked being touched and work from there?” I take a gulp of air in and nod my head slowly.

“That… sounds like a good plan. I don’t like my tail being touched. It feels weird. I like it when you hold my face in your hands.”

“I don’t like it when people touch the area around my shoulder blades. It's nice when you play with my hair.”

We both smile at our confessions and continue this game of touch and tell. It works out surprisingly well, the mood actually is better with this kind of clear communication. We both sit up and I end up on my knees between her legs. I thread my fingers through her hair and she gives me a hum of satisfaction, moving to kiss the underside of my jaw. It’s light enough to where it tickles me a little, something that I think she did as a spat of revenge. 

“Hey there, let’s not get any ideas now.”

“Who, me? I would never .”

“Uh-huh.” She giggles a little and I give her a crooked smile. She wraps her arms behind me and pulls me towards her for a hug.

“Hmm, I love your hugs. I feel so protected.”

“Probably from the built-in armor of my shell.”

“No silly, more from just you. You have a very loving, protective nature about you. I see it every day in how you act with me and the others.” She lightly strokes her hands up and down my shell, occasionally tapping away. I had my arms wrapped around her lower back, my chin sitting atop her head. It felt so nice to feel her warmth against my plastron.

“I love hugging you. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you have the softest skin. It’s like I’m hugging a cloud.” 

“Aww thanks, I don’t even moisturize!”

“Well, now you’re just bragging.” 

“If it makes you feel any better, you’re scales are really smooth. Do you exfoliate?”

“Of course, it takes work to look this good.”

“Har har.”

“Y/N?”

“Yeah?”

“Can we do this more often? The meditating and cuddling, I mean.”

“I’d like that.” She tilts her head up and I meet her for a sweet kiss.

Maybe this whole meditation thing isn’t so bad after all.

Chapter Text

*Blue*  

Donnie and I were holed up in his lab, listening to him tinker over his latest invention while I was skimming through the medical textbook Y/N’s grammy lent me. It had so much helpful information, it had me all giddy with excitement. There was always something calming about being near Donnie while he worked. Adversely to Raph, I didn’t mind his “ear-bleeding sounds” of music. He normally only listened to that when he was either dancing or sleeping, oddly enough. 

I felt my phone vibrate on the couch and reached over to grab it. I saw a text notification on my screen and unlocked it.

‘Hey, I know that we made plans last week to go out tonight but I’m gonna have to cancel. I’m really sorry 😭.”

Well, that was odd. Y/N wasn’t one to cancel plans.

‘Are you ok? 🤨 ’

‘Yeah, I’m fine, just having a bad life. It’ll be over eventually if I stay absolutely still in my bed, with my heat pad.’

Oof, not even an emoji at the end. This must be serious.

‘Anything I can do to help?’

‘I appreciate it but it’s just really bad cramps. I’ll live… I think’

After a minute of staring at my phone I sent her a thumbs-up emoji… and then instantly panicked.

“DONNIE!!” A thunderous crash echoed through the room as Donnie knocked over his box of tools off the desk at my shouting.

“I love you Nardo but I swear, if this isn’t extremely important news–” I stood up from the couch and all but threw my phone into his face.

“Look! See?!” He spent a second peering over our conversation then looked at me with one eyebrow raised in question.

“Yea?? So she can’t make it to Hueso’s? That’s a shame I guess but why the screaming? That upset over your girlfriend not coming?” 

“Well duh, that’s one thing but you’re missing the important part! She’s got her thing April gets!”

“What? menstrual cramps?” 

“Yes yes yes, that thing! I need to go over and help her.”

“Ok? Then go over.”

“But what should I do?”

“ Why would you ask me ?”

“I don’t know, I thought maybe you’d have some knowledge on the subject.” Tello begins to push me out of his lab.

“As much as I’d like to say I know everything, which I almost do, I have no insider information to help. Why don’t you ask April?” 

“Ooh, great idea Don! I’ll text her right now.” I typed away my queries to April and she took a few moments to respond.

‘Oh yeah, she told me that she has extremely painful cramps the first couple of days. Aunt Flo kicks ass. I recommend getting her favorite snacks, pizza, and plenty of chocolate. Also, look at this video I’m sending about pressure points to help with back pain. I’m proud of ya for helping her out, you da man! 😎’

‘ Thx sis, I’ll let you know how it goes’

‘You better. I’m invested in this ship’

‘Uh huh’

Ok. Operation: Kick Aunt Flo’s Ass is in full swing.

~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

I buried myself further into my comforter as reruns of *M.A.S.H* played on my T.V. The heat pad  currently running on the warmest setting wasn’t doing much for the pain and the ibuprofen I took only put a small dent to it. Earlier, I had spent a good 30 minutes in the bathroom begging for mercy from mother nature as she made me regret existing in the first place. Truly, a fun time all around. I just hope Leo isn’t too upset at me for not being able to hang out. Thinking about it brought more tears to my eyes and I furiously wipe them away. Stupid hormones.

*Woosh*

The unmistakable sounds of a portal opening in my room had me peeking my head out from under the covers. A blue circle faced my bed and I watched in shocked amazement as Leo steps out, multiple bags in hand with a pizza box under them. 

“Leo? What are you doing here?” He looks at me in confusion.

“Why else? I’m here to take care of my girl. Here, check this out.” He plops down next to me in the bed and empties the contents of the bag out on display. All my favorite candy bars, chips, and a pint of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream layed out in front of me. I look up from the goods to see Leo had also stopped at Hueso’s and got me a pizza with old-fashioned pepperoni and extra mushrooms. He even wore my favorite hoodie of his to cuddle with! 

Forget hormones, this boy is literally pulling at my heartstrings. Here come the waterworks.

“You got all this for me? How can I thank you enough?” He smirks down at me and pulls out a slice from the box.

“For starters, you could help me finish this pizza. Then we can dig into the ice cream while we watch a movie. Sound good?” He brushes a tear off my cheek. “Hey, only the best for you. I can’t begin to understand the pain you’re dealing with. The least I can do is be here for you.” I pull him into a fierce hug that he wholeheartedly reciprocates. 

“I’m so happy you’re here, thank you.”

“Anything for you, Mi amada. Now come on, the pizza’s getting cold and the ice creams melting!” I laugh at his antics and we settle down to watch some movies. He insisted on having me pick the film so I put on The Mummy. I curl up closer to Leon and he pulls me to lie on his chest. 

“I love this movie. It’s self-aware enough to be funny without being overly tacky and the way they write Rick is so cute in the way he acts towards Evelyn.”

“I do love the number of chaotic antics they get into. Plus the way he screams back at the mummy is hilarious!” 

“Haha yeah, it’s one of those movies you can pull up and enjoy the cheesy ’90s feels it has.”

We continue to watch the movie while snacking on pizza and ice cream. I snuggle into Leo’s chest, admiring the clean smell of the detergent on his hoodie. He tightens his arms around me and lays his cheek on top of my head.

“I noticed the last time I was here but forgot to mention it. That poster you have above your dresser, what is it from?”

“Oh, that’s from the New York City Ballet dance company’s performance of the Nutcracker. It’s one of my favorites, that and Swan Lake.”

“We never really got into ballet as a form of dance, I don’t think there’s a video game for that.” I snickered at him before moving on.

“Grammy took me to my first show when I was 8. Seeing the dancers move so gracefully inspired me to dance too. I don’t practice as often as I did but every now and then I’ll do a little routine.” He hummed to let me know he was paying attention. “You know, watching you guys fight sometimes reminds me of the ballet. Your spins and kicks could be used in a combat-style performance.”

“We’ll have to keep that in mind.” We laughed a little bit, then refocused back on the movie. It was calming to hear Leo’s heartbeat under my ears, I nearly fell asleep before Leo spoke up.  

“How’s the pain?” 

“Hmm, it comes and goes. I think the pain meds I took are finally kicking in. It actually feels better now that you’re here, oddly enough.”

“I tend to have that effect on people. If you want, I could give you a little massage, if you’re up to that?” I sat up a little so he could see my surprise.

“You know how to give massages?”

“To be honest, April gave me some tips that she said could help with your pain.” 

“If you’re offering, I’d love it!” He scooted a little bit behind me and rested his hands against my lower spine.

“Okay, let me know if I’m hurting you.” An advantage to his larger fingers was being able to apply pressure in a wider area. He pushed into my back and I felt immediate relief.

“Wow ok, now I see why people pay to have this done. You’re really good at this.” 

“You forget my darling, I’m a turtle of many talents.” I give a hum of satisfaction and he keeps going. The pain melts away with each finger press.

“Thank you for this but you really don’t need to keep going.”

“Oh, does it hurt?”

“No, it’s just, you’ve already done so much for me, I feel like I’m abusing your kindness.” Leo’s fingers stilled on my back. He lays his head on my left shoulder and I turn my neck to look at him.

“Do you know how soft your skin is? Or how nice it feels when you cuddle with me? Or how your hair smells like strawberries and sunshine?” My face grows flustered at the barrage of compliments. “Being with you is a treat, one that I never knew I’d get. So offering to help relieve your pain for a little while? That’s small time compared to what you do for me… WHY ARE YOU CRYING??” My face had turned into Niagra Falls with how many tears my eyes were putting out.

“You– you can’t just say that kind of stuff while I’m bleeding my guts out!” *sniff* He reached over and handed me a tissue which I was thankful for. There was a big HONK as I blew my nose which we both laughed at.

“Well if I knew I was gonna get that reaction… I’d still say it.” He said with a smug look. I gently shoved him away.

“Argh stop! If I knew you were going to be like this I would’ve–” His face was just a hairsbreadth away from mine and my words died in my mouth.

“Oh? What would you have done?”

“Hmm, this!” I spin around and push Leo back into the bed, hitting him with a barrage of kisses all over his face.

“Ah, haha! Oh no, this is pure torture! Whatever shall I do?” I give a peck to his snout and he smirks up at me.

“Maybe… you could torture me back?”

“Oh ho ho, I might just have to now.” 

~~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

Since her first day dealing with unfathomable pain, Y/N had been doing a lot better. I checked in on her when I wasn’t able to stay over and she’d send me memes and TikToks she knew would make me laugh. I still wanted to take her somewhere but it turns out that this week all of the villains we knew decided it was time to come out of the woodwork. That and Raph decided that it would be a good ‘team building’ exercise by gluing the four of us together. I sent Y/N a selfie of our predicament and her reaction didn’t disappoint.

‘I feel like it would have made more sense for Raph to have one leg out instead of Mikey. That’s a lot of weight for tiny Mikey to hold up. Also, lovin’ the dad bod 😂’

‘Trust me, the feeling’s mutual. We fell over almost a dozen times before the whole thing broke! And be glad I don’t have that physique, I’d scare you away! 😜’

‘I don’t think you need to worry about that. Glad you guys had fun!’

I smiled at the screen and I knew the first chance I had we would do something she’d enjoy.

It was a few days later that an idea popped into my head. I had made a trip down to the Hidden City with Mikey one time and he mentioned that there was a store nearby that catered to cooking enthusiasts. I let him blabber on about how they had knives that could cut things themselves and how he wanted to get one for a new recipe and I wasn’t really interested at that point. I know someone though, who might just be.

“I don’t know Leo, I’m not allowed to go down to the Hidden City. Grammy has a weird rule with me about that.”

“Aww, it’s at the very edge of town, no one will even know you were there! Scout’s honor!”

“I doubt you were a scout.”

“It’ll be fine. We’ll be in and out, no problems.” I could see her wavering and I went in for the kill.

“Mikey said they have mystic cookware…” 

*Gasp*

Bingo.

“No way! Okay, We can go down, but only for a little while.”

“Yes!” I shared her excitement and gave a fist bump in the air. One of the entrances to the city was close to our destination so I lead her out of the lair to get to it. 

“Do you guys go to the Hidden City often? I’ve never been there before.”

“Ehh, not usually. Just a couple of trips for some stuff for Donnie’s tech or if Mikey wants some trippy paints to try out. Sometimes I’ll end up there while I’m practicing with my portals.” The entry was around the corner, behind a store that had Teo’s Grocery written in big blue and red font plastered on the front of the building. I made a gesture at the brick wall and it separated in front of us, opening the way to the city below.

“Okay, it’s a bit of a drop, so hold on to me.” She does as I asked but has a quizzical look on her face.

“How are you going to land then?” I make our jump and she shouts in protest.

“We’ll see! Here we go!!” 

“LEOOOOOOO!” 

We go jumping into the entry, lights flashing all around us as the portal takes us down. In a split second, we see the bottom and prepare for dropping down.

“Aaaaaand land safely!” Y/N lets go of me and I help her get her footing.

“Next time, do you think we could try an elevator? Or stairs?” 

“Where’s the fun in that? Come on, the shop’s right down here.” 

I wasn’t lying when I said the store was on the outskirts. The main sprawl of the Hidden City was visible down the floating ground the store was placed on. It was a solitary building away from prying eyes, perfect for someone who technically wasn’t supposed to be here. The storefront was covered in purple glowing plants similar to ivy, the stones in different shades of browns and greys. Glittery smoke was coming from the roof’s chimney, and the smell of burning wood and baked goods waft in the air. Y/N was quick to hurry to the door, eyes all aglow at the scenery we could see inside from the windows. I opened the door for her and she hopped from one foot to the other before practically skipping inside. All at once the heavy aroma of bread and spices welcomed our noses. The main room was their storefront, shelves upon shelves of cookware and other items such as books and candles. Y/N was bouncing around the aisles like a kid in a candy shop, which was pretty on-brand for her. Being here wasn’t exactly my version of a good time but seeing her so excited made the trip worth it. I took a minute to browse as well, coming upon something that caught my interest. 

“Oh mi gosh, Leo! They have yeast that’s over 3,000 years old! We HAVE to try some of their bread, I can’t imagine the flavors that could come from that!” She spoke from the other side of the room, no doubt getting a peek into their baking section. I hurried over to the cashier before she could notice me. Thankfully, she was pretty engrossed with their fudge pot.

“Um… sure, I’m game.” “Hi, I’ll take one of these please.”

“This is the biggest copper pot I’ve ever seen! Imagine how much fudge or caramel they could make in that?! I’m gonna have to get some for the others to try. Oh my lord, they have mini copper pot trinkets?? That’s going in the basket! Oooh and look over there!” I tucked my purchased items into my pouch and headed over to where I could hear Y/N continuing her enthusiastic monologuing. I spotted her peering at their glass display with mini cupcakes inside.

“Leo! These baby cupcakes are soooo cute! The owner Eko and his partner Haven said they make them special for some mice yokai that come by often. They trade blackberries for them! It’s so precious I’m gonna die!” 

“That is truly adorable. I’m glad you are having so much…fun?” In the middle of talking Y/N reached up on her tiptoes and pecked me on the cheek.

“I am having so. much. fun!! Thank you for bringing me here!” 

There she goes, being super cute and shit. How dare she.

“Uh here, this is for you.” I hand her a rolled piece of leather. She unrolls it to see multiple spoons, spatulas, and knives, all glowing and sparkling in different shades of blue.

“I thought you might need it for your baking sprees or for when you’re uh– yeah.”

Her eyes grow as big as saucers as she gently lays a hand on the kitchenware.

“Leo… these are amazing! Thank you! I can’t wait to try them out!” She grabs my hand and drags us out of the store. The doorbell chimes and we hear the owners tell us goodbye as we leave. She keeps leading us down the hill and I have to control myself from saying something while she keeps going. 

“Let’s go home right now, I’ll make dinner tonight. How about stuffed pizza biscuits and chocolate molten lava mini cakes?” 

“Hey, Y/N?”

“I can ask Mikey to make some garlic knots too! Oh, this is going to be so fun!”

We reach the edge of the floating rock, floating stones leading to who knows where.

“Donnie can pull up some movies and we can paint your shells, and then– oh.” 

At this point we have almost reached the end, thankfully stopping before she took a step over the edge. Not that I would have let her. She turns back to me slowly, getting a good look at the large smirk on my face.

“Umm, how do we get home from here?” Finally, I burst into laughter and she quickly joins in. 

“Never change Y/N.”

Chapter Text

*Purple*

“If this hasn’t pissed Big Mama off, I don’t know what will.” Leo, Mikey, Raph, and I had just left Bullhop as he danced away into the streets. Raph was currently carrying a passed-out Mikey in his arms, none of which was anyone’s fault. It has been a long seventeen days with the chaotic hurricane known as Bullhop being around the lair, thankfully it was all over. And hey, he did get us a pitcher of web goo. 

“Now that the bull in the china shop’s gone, I’m gonna have Shelldon deep clean the whole lair. Maybe we can finally get that wet cattle smell out of the cushions.” Leo walked a little ways ahead of me and turned to talk to me.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. Y/N came by once and didn’t stay because of how messy things have gotten. It’ll be nice to have her back over.” Raph nudges his shoulder, making Leo stumble to the side for a moment.

“Aww, missin’ your girlfriend already? It hasn’t been that long since you last saw her.” Leo attempts to shove him back, ending up nearly falling on his face instead.

“Hey! I know you miss her too! Don’t think I didn’t see you sulking with your blog about not having your knitting partner around.” Raph shrugged which resulted in him needing to reposition Mikey in his arms.

“We’ve been working on making a blanket together! It would be nice to finish it before it gets cold again.”

Leo and Raph continue this line of conversation the whole way home. I, however, was working on more productive things, like trying to figure out how we can stretch one pitcher’s worth of goo to capture all the oozequitos. As of now, that’s not likely, but maybe with more time, I can use some samples to make an artificial version of Big Mama’s web goo. I tapped a few keys on my wrist to jot down some notes and gave Shelldon the go-ahead to clean up the lair.

“I’ll text April and Y/N to see if they want to come over. We could pick up Hueso’s on the way back.” Raph looks back at me and has an excited gleam in his eyes. 

“That sounds good to me. Alright,  Mad Dogz, let’s get Sleepyhead home.” I could tell Leo was attempting to text Y/N but I beat him to the punch, so he was a little huffy. 

"Well, ok, but only if we get some Hawaiian too.”

“Ugh gross.”

“Says you.”

~~~~~~

*Gold*

From Donstantinople in Human Friends group chat:

‘Bullhop is finally out of our bald hairs, we’re getting some pizza if you guys want to hop on over.’

The Slugger sent:

‘Sounds good D’, I’ll be a little while but I’ll come over as soon as I can! 👍’

‘I’ll bring over some leftover cupcakes I made today! Be there soon! 😀 🧁’

I sit up from my armchair and pull the first thing out of my closet to throw on. Coincidentally, it is one of Leo’s hoodies, his dark blue one. I hopped down the stairs, grabbed my house keys, and slung my backpack over my shoulders. I can hear Grammy down in the kitchen as I reach the main living area.

“Grammy I’ll be back late, the boys are getting pizza!” She looks up from the book she was reading and raises one eyebrow.

“So long as you call me when you get there and when you are coming back. Be safe.” I give her a kiss on the cheek and snag the container of cupcakes on the counter.

“Ah, you know me. Safety, is my middle name.” 

“Mhmm.”

I make my way down and out of the store, making sure to lock the door before continuing on. There weren’t a ton of others wandering around the area, a few people heading out to parties or coming back from a late night at work. When I was little I’d watch people walk past the windows of the store and come up with stories about where they were going. Grammy would laugh at my funny acting and tell me that everyone had something going on in their lives. 

I smushed my face into the crewneck of the hoodie, taking note of the detergent and an earthly smell that was Leo. It made me excited to finally be able to come over without having to be on guard for the next Bullhop in a China shop incident. I turn a corner and head to the manhole cover I’ve gotten very familiar with at this point when I sense a presence behind me. It’s been a challenge to train myself to control my senses without becoming overwhelmed by the massive crowds of New York. Over time, it became a sort of background noise that I have learned to tune out. Sometimes, like in this case, certain souls are much louder and are more easily noticed. I quickly turned around and saw an empty street. 

“Great, this is the part where I turn around and the person is standing right behind me.”

“You got that right, missy.” I drop the cupcake holder (sorry Raph) and try to back up as fast as I can, reaching into my hoodie pocket for the taser I keep on hand. I swipe forward, but a giant furry hand quickly grabs me.

“Lookey here, the little lady has some sass to her! Good , I thought this would be boring.” I crane my neck up and see giant fangs and angry green eyes.

“Aha, you um– wouldn’t happen to be a yokai named Gus, would you?” 

“Feisty and smart. Figures the turtles would know someone like you.” My blood ran cold and his eyes took a mad gleam. I should have known the moment he grabbed me it was all over. 

“Why would you think I’m friends with some turtles?” He leans in close and gives a good sniff.

“I can smell them all over you. I thought I lost the trail at first, but then I caught it again on you. If I can’t find the turtles, then I guess you’ll have to tell me where they are.” 

I try to pull out of his grip but he tightens it to the point where I grimace in pain. I fight as best as I can to make it difficult for him to grab me but unfortunately, strength is not one of my main attributes. Gus easily hauls me up, tying my hands up behind my back. I go to scream for help but he quickly gags me with another piece of rope. 

“Ah ah ah, can’t have you goin’ and makin noise now. It’s time we go see Big Mama for a little… conversation .

This… wasn’t good.

~~~~~~~~~

*Yellow*

It took longer than I expected to head out to see everyone, with Mayhem trying to escape bath time. I arrived at the usual manhole cover but stopped as I saw one of Y/N’s containers spilled on the ground, cupcakes flipped over and destroyed. 

“That’s odd, maybe she dropped them on accident while trying to go down the ladder.” My theory was quickly squashed though, for when I got to the lair, Y/N was nowhere to be seen. Donnie makes an appearance by popping his head out of the kitchen.

“ Finally, someone’s arrived. I thought you guys would be quicker than that.”

“Wait, you mean Y/N’s not down here already?” He has an unimpressed look on his face, his drawn-on brows raised for dramatic effect.

“Unfortunately no, which now that I think about it is odd considering she should have arrived before you.” I head into the kitchen to see everyone chowing down on pizza, Mikey sitting on top of Raph’s shoulders while Leo sat in the nearby chair, humming a tune as he chews on a slice. The others quickly notice me and direct me to get some food. I hesitate though.

“Are you sure? When I was making my way over, I saw a container of Y/N’s cupcakes spilled all over the street. I just assumed she dropped them on the way here but if she’s not…” Raph and Leo sit up straighter. Donnie crosses his arms over his chest.

“Now that’s odd. Y/N wouldn’t normally drop her cupcakes, she’d rather sacrifice herself to save her creations.” Mikey hops off of Raph’s shoulders.

“Do you think something might have happened? Maybe we should call her.” Leo quickly pulls up his phone and dials her number. The phone immediately goes to voicemail.

“This is weird, Y/N almost always answers her phone. I think something’s wrong. Donnie, can you pull up the security cameras?”  

“One-moment dear brothers. And… done! Oh, this isn’t good.” Leo jumps out of his chair and tries to grab at Donnie’s wrist.

“What happened? Donnie, let me see!” He pulls up a hologram of the security camera’s footage, and we all watch as Y/N gets tied up by Gus and dragged away.

“It looks like Y/N was taken away by Big Mama’s dog guard.” Mikey gasps in shock.

“Oh mi gosh! Wait, why did Gus take Y/N?”

“He might have been sent to find us after we trashed Big Mama’s social. He uses scent to find people, he must have smelled us on her.”

“Are you kidding me?! *Huff* This is all Bullhop’s fault! If he hadn’t screwed up our mission—” I stopped Leo mid-rant.

"Leo, stop. It doesn’t matter right now; we need to focus on helping Y/N.” Raph places a hand on Leo’s shoulder and looks at Donnie.

“Don, can you track their movements to find out where they went?” Different camera angles pop up for a few moments before growling in frustration.

“I lost their trail! All I can tell is that he didn’t go in the direction of Big Mama’s hotel. Strange.” I crossed my arms and thought for a minute.

“If he didn’t take her there, where could he have gone? The hidden city maybe?” We all turned to look at Raph who put a hand to his chin.

“We’re gonna have to check multiple places. Donnie, stay here and see if you can narrow down the search area, the rest of us will go out and search. Mikey and I will check out the hidden city. Leo and April, you look topside. Let’s go Mad Dogz!” 

~~~~~~~

*Gold*

I’m getting real tired of being tied up. 

“Hey, how long is this going to take? I’m missing out on some quality pizza right now.” I heard growling behind me and the sack they placed on my face was ripped off. 

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lighting. We were in some sort of storage room, with giant boxes and crates surrounding the area. I couldn’t see any windows, so we might be underground. Whether we were in New York or the hidden city was still to be determined. I couldn’t sense anyone I knew, so they had to be too far away. Just at the edge of my vision, I can see my bag laying on a table nearby. If I can get to it…

“Will you be quiet??”  Gus smacked the side of my head, jostling my vision. “You better cooperate when Big Mama gets here, or else she won’t be as nice as me.”

Big Mama? If I remember correctly, the guys told me that she ran the yokai hotel and battle nexus. Oh, this is really really bad. Somehow, I gotta get a message to the others without becoming this guy’s next chew toy. Besides Gus, there was more yokai making patrols. This just keeps getting better and better. 

“Oh Gus!”  

I see the dog yokai smile and I feel my luck slipping further away. A small woman with an entourage of yokai follows her inside the warehouse. She makes her way over to us, glasses on the edge of her nose. She looks down at me, a small smirk teasing me. 

“Look what we have here! You must be one of the turtlely-boo’s accomplices! How perfectly wondiferous!” I tilt my head in question.

"Do you realize half of what you said isn't real words?" Her smile widens, and she looks over to Gus.”

“It’s a shame you couldn’t find the turtles that stole my wizzy webs, but with her, I think we’ll manage. Now…”

Watching a small lady transform into one of your greatest fears really makes a person regret being around to witness it. My heart dropped into my stomach, my veins pounding. My hands instantly felt clammy, and all feelings in my limbs left me in shock. If the massive size, numerous red eyes and legs weren't enough, the sharp pincers were.

“Oh? Does my form insult you? Why don’t you have a closer look…”

She gets right up to my face, no doubt noticing the tears in my eyes as I desperately try to not hyperventilate.

“The poor child has a fear of arachnids, hmm? How splendiferously fasmagoric! Now, I might be willing to ease your discomfort if you tell me where your turtely friends are!”

It took me a moment to collect myself. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She narrowed her various eyes at me.

“Oh! It seems you still have a bit of a spark. I wonder how long it’ll take before I can… snuff it out .”

I took a deep breath and looked her right in the face. “I may be scared of you, but this spark isn’t as helpless as you may think. Queue the lights special!”

*FLASH*

“Augh! What’s happening, I can’t see!” 

I hear the rest fall into pandemonium, and I use that to my advantage. As best as I could with my hands tied behind my back, I raced over and snagged my bag, making a run for it. Just as I make it through a doorway, I can hear shouting from Big Mama.

“Find her! Don’t let her leave the building!” 

I keep going, and through my frantic escape, I spot a stairwell. I’ve never run up a flight of stairs faster in my life. The next floor seems to be a bunch of different offices. I hurry into one and shut the door. There’s a desk near a window and I throw my bag onto it. Turning around I reach for the zipper and pull out my phone. Thankfully, I keep the boy’s numbers on speed dial and I frantically press the screen hoping one of them answers.

~~~~~~~

*Yellow*

It’s been an hour since we started the search and I could feel the tension building on Leo’s shoulders the longer time passes. We’ve been riding on one of the shell hogs to search the streets, Donnie keeping us updated on any leads he’s found. It’s been a while since the last time he found anything. Leo stops us at the head of a bridge, the engine loudly rumbling.

“Why’d you stop? Did you see something?” He stops the engine and jumps off with a frustrated frown on his face. 

“This is insane! Everyone has been looking, yet we still haven’t found anything! I feel like we’re just running around with our tails cut off!” With a shout, he rips his helmet off and throws it at the ground.

“Hey, what’s goin on, big guy?” Leo stops and takes a few deep breaths before looking down at the ground.

“I just… It’s hard to explain. I’m not sure how, but I can feel Y/N’s fear. It's as if she's right here, but also so far away. I don’t understand it.” 

Something pops into my mind. A conversation I had with Y/N a while ago. She was trying to talk through some problems she had and mentioned something like this.

“Ever since that day I was meditating with Leo–”

“Uh-huh, sure.”

“We were! Anyways, since then, I’ve been able to sense people’s emotions much easier. It’s been overwhelming though, and It’s taken a lot of practice to keep it under control; otherwise, I get a really bad headache. When I meditated with Leo, I could feel his emotions as clear as day. I wonder if he could feel mine?”

Maybe this is what she was talking about. I place a gentle hand on Leo’s shoulder, and he hesitantly looks back at me.

“We’re gonna find her. I know she’s waiting for us, so we can’t disappoint her. Let me call Donnie, maybe he found something–”

Just then, my phone rang in my hand, and we looked down to see Y/N’s icon blaring at us. As fast as my fingers could move, I answered and put her on speaker. We screamed at her simultaneously. 

“Y/N! Y/N, where are you?!”

“Guys! Guys I have to be quick, they could find me any second now. I’m not sure, there’s a window in here. I can see a river, maybe the Hudson? A lot of big cargo boxes, a crane… We might be at some kind of dockside warehouse. 

She pauses for a moment and we can hear her take a shaky breath in.

“Leo… I’m scared.” He looks up at at me and I give him an encouraging nod.

“I know sugar. It’s gonna be ok, we’re on our way.”

“Don’t worry girl, we got your back.”

“I’ll be waiting. Be careful. There’s around 10 yokai here along with Gus–”

She stops and we hear a big crash. There’s some scuffling, and we hear some furniture being thrown.

“Big Mama’s here, and she’s looking for– GET OFF ME! Leo!”

“Oh no no no my dear, you’re gonna regret running off on Big Mama.”  

The call cuts out.

 I slowly lowered the phone. I took a glimpse at Leo and saw something I don’t think I’ve rarely, if ever, seen on his face: pure rage. Sure, he gets upset, annoyed, or frustrated, but genuinely angry? That’s not how Leo rolls.

“Leo–” He goes to pick up his helmet, slamming it back on his head and storms over to the shell hog. 

“Guys, meet April and I at the docks; Y/N’s in a warehouse over there.” The others pick up on the comms and I hear the others respond through my helmet. Donnie responds first.

“How did you figure that out?”

“Y/N managed to call us before she got recaptured. Big Mama’s got her somewhere and we gotta get her back. Check the cameras there and see if you can spot them.” Leo revs up the bike and we speed across the bridge. 

“Leo, make sure you wait for the rest of us. Don’t charge in on your own.” 

“Raph, don’t act like you haven’t done that a thousand times.” I bonk helmets with Leo.

“Don’t worry guys, I’ll keep Leo in line. You just need to get there fast, I don’t know how much longer she has.” The line goes silent for a moment before they all respond with affirmatives. 

“Let’s roll.”

~~~~~~~

*Orange*

Hearing Leo on edge makes me want to wring my hands together in anxiety but I’m currently steering the shell hog. 

“Raph, do you think Y/N’s going to be okay? Big Mama’s not exactly the friendliest…”

“She’ll be fine, especially once the Mad Dogz come and kick Gus’s furry hide!”

We speed past a crowd of yokai walking down the street. Multiple complaints holler behind us.

“Sorry, in a rush!” 

“We’re really far out from a way back up; It’s gonna take too long to meet up with the others!” 

“Here Mikey, let me take the wheel. There’s no need to take the main roads, I know a shortcut.” Raph then swerves the cycle in the direct path of a forest of giant mushrooms.

“RAPH!!!”

“COWABUNGA!” 

We crash through the mushrooms, dust and spores kicking up everywhere. At one point I think I saw a cluster of fairies. Before I knew it, we were out on the other side, exit in sight.

“See, there we are.”

“Raph, from now on… I DRIVE.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

“Come now my dear, you’d make this much more simple if you merely cooperated.”

Big Mama now had me tied to a chair; what an upgrade. We were in the center of a circle made up of her henchmen, Gus chewing on a bone in the corner of the room. 

“I can give you my recipe for chocolate banana cupcakes. First, you need 4 cups of flour, then–”

“Enough. I see more… drastic measures are required.”

Big Mama snaps her fingers, and someone steps in. A hooded figure with a white mask that had giant red eyes zeroed in on me before he reached into his cloak and pulled out a small box. He holds out his hand, the palm holding the box up to my face. Faintly, I could hear little taps coming from the inside.

“Well, I’d like to say that I’m sorry the quick and easy option didn’t work, but I’d also be lying. Now.” *Clap clap*

The henchmen lifts the lid on the box, and to my horror, multiple spiders crawl out and land in my lap. My stomach felt like it dropped 10 feet out of the sky. Instantly I could see their eyes, giant black cesspools eager to devour. Some climb up, others go down. 

“Oh god, no, no no NO!” 

My breath quickens as my skin instantly pales. I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, feel the multiple legs skittering across my chest and legs.

“Please, stop this!” Big Mama looks over, uninterested in my pleas.

“My dear, you only need to tell me what I know, and I will cease your suffering. Is that so difficult?”

God, it’s like I can feel them all over my skin even though they haven’t gotten under my clothes… yet. I can’t help the tears that begin to pour down my face, and it brings both anger and shame as Big Mama laughs at my distress. I shake in anger, wanting desperately to punch her in the face. 

I felt like this nightmare was never going to end. I closed my eyes to block the spiders out of sight, but it only ended up enhancing the sensation of their pattering legs. Just as I was about to scream out in fear, a spark of hope lit a fire in my soul.

Leo!

~~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

This knot in my chest seems to get tighter and tighter the closer we get to the docks. Since that brief phone call, all I could think about was getting there as soon as possible. I don’t think my heart’s pounded this hard, not even compared to the first time going to the surface. April continues giving me encouraging words but for the most part they fall on deaf ears. 

We speed through the streets but not going nearly as fast as I’d like. Finally, we see a glimpse of the river and we turn to the entrance of the docking warehouse. Several buildings littered the water's edge, lit only by streetlights and passing cars. 

“Donnie, have you found anything that gets us closer to Y/N?”

“I was able to get a location by tracing the call she made to you guys. Unfortunately, it is not as precise because of how short it was. Best I can tell you is that she’s on the north side of the warehouses.”

“Got it.”

We moved out, heading up north. This side had bigger warehouses and more containers on the docks. It looked like what Y/N had described, but how were we gonna narrow down exactly which building she’s in?

Leo!

I slammed the brakes and nearly threw us off the bike. April rammed into my shell, cursing me out.

“Leo, what the hell! You trying to get us killed?!” 

“I’m sorry, but I swear I heard Y/N just now.”

“Really? I didn’t hear anything.” I sighed in frustration and looked around. There were shipping containers stacked high, with a crane lever nearby. The river lazily lapped at the docks, accompanied by the sound of honking cars behind us. I was sure I heard something…

No, more like I felt it. I closed my eyes and focused. Just as I was ready to give up, I could sense something familiar. It reminded me of when Y/N and I meditated together (Yes, I actually meditated, mind Raph). There! A light at the edge of my mind, as warm as Y/N’s presence. 

“Got her. Let’s move.” I hop off the bike, and April hurries to follow.

“Wait what? How do you got her? Leo!”

“Trust me April, I know she’s this way.” 

We run over to one of the many warehouses surrounding the area. Turning a corner, we spot a couple of yokai patrolling the outside, and I drag April behind a crate. 

“Alright, call the others. I’m sure Donnie’s already tracked our position and Raph’s taken some shortcuts so they should be here soon. I’m gonna go scope out the building.” Just as I was about to step forward April jerks me back.

“Hold up. How do I know that you’re not just gonna charge in there on your own? The others specifically said–” 

“April, I promise I won’t get into anymore trouble than I normally do, scout’s honor!”

“Uh-huh. You were never a scout. We need to stay here and wait for the others.”

“I can’t! *sigh* Look, how can I just stand here twiddling my thumbs when Y/N is right in there! She’s terrified, I know it!” April must see how distressed I feel because her expression softens.

“I get it, but do you really think busting in without backup is going to help her? We need your rational mind here to come up with a plan, or else this could south, fast.” 

I hate it when she’s right. 

“Ugh fine! But I still think it would be a good idea to canvas the area. We need to know what we’re up against.” April nods her head and smiles.

“As long as I go with you. That way we can get it done twice as fast.” 

~~~~~~~

Thankfully it didn’t take long for the others to get here. Mikey and Raph peel in from the road and we watch Donnie fly down from the rooftops. 

“Now that we’re all here, this is what our plan is. Mikey and Donnie, head up to the roof and find a way in. April, Raph, and I will take out the guards and sneak through the side gate. Sound good?”

“Hey, I thought I was the one who made the plans around here.”

“Raph, your plans usually consist of making loud noises and smashing things. We gotta go stealth. You know, like ninjas ?” Raph growls briefly before conceding my point. The others nod, and together we move out.

~~~~~~~~~

The inside of the warehouse was dark and stifling. Only one light was on further in. The five of us kept to the shadows, Mikey and Donnie up in the rails, the rest of us hopping from crate to crate.

“Come now, we don’t need to continue this. Just tell me where the turtles are, and this could all be over.”

“AHH! No, I won’t tell you anything!”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to continue.”

The screams of Y/N set my blood boiling, and my vision went red. Raph and I make eye contact, nodding in sync. He picked up a crate and threw it right at Big Mama.

*CRASH*

“ *HISS*, what was that? Gus, get them!”

Just as Gus was about to launch at Raph, a chain descended from above and lifted him in the air. 

"Raph, I've got a piñata for you!" Donnie flew down and smashed Gus out a window with the hammer function on his staff. “Or not. Nice one Donnie!”  

“Come on guys let’s move!” Chaos broke out between the five of us versus Big Mama’s goons. I used it as a distraction to get close to Y/N. To my horror, she was covered in spiders crawling all over her. No wonder she was screaming in fear. I quickly swept the spiders off of Y/N and cut the ropes tying her to the chair. 

“Y/N, we’re here, are you ok? Are you hurt?” Heaving a sob, she jumped out of the chair into my side. Her entire body shook so violently that I could feel it in my arms.. I cradled her closer, rage coursing through my veins. I look up to see Big Mama attempting to move out of the container debris. I unsheathed my odachi and prepared to strike when Raph stopped me.

“Come on Leo, let’s get out of here while we got an opening.”

“No! Not until she pays.” Raph grabs me by the shoulder yanking me back.

“There’s no time! We need to get Y/N out of here.” That jerks my mind back into focus. I look down and see Y/N has buried herself to my plastron, quietly whimpering in distress. I growled in anger before swinging my odachi down, forming a portal.

“Everybody in!” The others get the message. Quickly, the others rush in. April puts a hand on Y/N’s shoulder as she passes by, a look of sympathy on her face.

“Let’s get our girl home.” 

~~~~~~~~~~

It had taken two hours of cuddling to get Y/N’s tremors to stop. We all sat in the living room, Y/N and I curled up on the couch. The others had gathered around us, Mikey providing plenty of snacks. Raph had put on some comfort movies while Donnie had lent his weighted blanket to Y/N. The weight of both her and the blanket on top of me provided a comforting warmth, a welcome change compared to the near crippling anxiety I’ve been feeling all night.

I gently stroked her hair as a way of asking how she was doing. Y/N slowly tipped her head up off my chest to look at me. Her eyes were red from crying, her nose still stuffy sounding.

“I– I’m sorry.”

“What could you possibly be sorry for?” She looked away in shame.

“I wasn’t strong enough to fight back; I was so scared . It’s stupid.” April patted Y/N’s side from the ground next to us.

“Hey, that’s no way to talk about yourself. Phobias are real, you couldn’t help but be scared of those spiders. I know I sure would have been nervous with a bunch of ‘em crawling on me.” At that, Y/N shivered again, and I sent a small glare toward April. She smiled sheepishly back. “Ah, yeah, probably not the best time for that.”

“Y/N!!” We heard a shout from the atrium, Y/N sitting up at the sound of her name.

“Grammy?” We watched as she came running into the room. Quickly she spotted Y/N and ran to stand over us. “Grammy, I’m sorry I didn’t call, there was–” She stopped what Y/N was trying to say by frantically yanking Y/N’s hands toward her face. She searched her palms and fingertips but whatever she was looking for apparently wasn’t there. Her grammy sighed in relief while the rest of us were confused.

“Umm, Grammy? My hands are fine, I’m ok.” She looked back at Y/N, then slowly smiled.

“I know, Master Splinter filled me in. I’m glad the others got you back in time.” Raph sat up and held his hands together.

“Y/N’s Grammy, we’re really sorry that she got kidnapped because of us. It will never happen again.” Donnie briefly looked at us before he began typing away on his phone.

“Of course, I’ve already come up with several ideas and have made a wrist-watch communicator for Y/N so that she can contact us with an SOS beacon.” I sat up to look her in the eyes.

“I’m going to make sure she’ll be safe from now on, you have my word.” Her Grammy slowly looked over all of us before coming back to Y/N.

"It appears that you've made some good friends, Y/N. Do you want to stay here tonight? I can open the shop in the morning.” She thinks for a moment, then nods her head. “Alright, get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.” Her grammy kisses her on the forehead, then heads out the door. Y/N sighs and lays back down on top of me.

“I feel like I could sleep for an eternity and a half. Adrenaline dumps are a bitch.” I laughed a little at her comment, watching her head bounce off my chest.

“You’re telling me, we go through some of the most insane stuff way too often.” Raph lets out a huge yawn, his snaggletooth on full display.

“I’m gonna get my retainer, it’s time for all the little turtles to get their beauty sleep.” 

The others left to get their PJs on, April stepping out because she had class in the morning. Soon it was just Y/N and I on the couch until the others came back, the projector casting a glow on the room. We laid chest to plastron, just listening to each other’s breathing for a moment. 

“Leo?”

“Hmm?”

“Even though I was terrified, a part of me held out because I knew you and the others would come, even before I was able to call you.”

“How’s that?” She sat up with her arms outstretched so that she could look at me.

“It’s a little embarrassing, but I just had this feeling. I knew that no matter what, you’d come and save me.” I gently nudged her until our foreheads were touching. 

“I’ll always be there for you, never doubt that.” She closed her eyes and smiled. "Y/N, I honestly think that you were extremely brave. You never gave Big Mama what she wanted, even though you were afraid. That proves that no matter how frightened you were, in the end your bravery shined through. I'm proud of you." He smile widened.

“I would never give you guys up, no matter what she would have tried." I snuggled her close, elated when she giggled in my ear. 

"Can I stay with you tonight? I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“As if you had to ask. Come on, let’s get you all settled in.”

“Thank you Leo.”

“Anything for you, Mi amada.”

~~~~~~~~~

*Gold*

Besides wanting to stay with the others last night, I had another reason. I gently knocked on the door that led to Splinter’s room.

“Come in.” I pulled open the door, quietly stepping inside. It looked like Splinter was looking over some things on his shelves before I came in. He ushered me to the middle of the room.

“Ah Y/N, come sit, please.”  We sat on the floor, facing each other. He folded his hands in his lap, looking at my in question. “Was there something you wanted to talk about?”

“Master Splinter, could you teach me how to defend myself? I don’t like the idea of hurting people, but I’m tired of being weak. I’ll just worry everyone, and I don’t want that.” His eyebrows lifted in surprise and he stroked his chin in contemplation.

“I can help you with this, but you should know that being weak or strong is not determined by your potential to throw a punch. Strength can be defined in multiple ways, whether it be character, skill traits, or knowledge. You are not weak by any means.” Despite the fact that I could sense the truth in his words, the memories of being dragged around helpless to do anything sting in my mind.

“I understand. I still ask that you teach me. Knowing your sons, this probably won’t be the last time I get dragged into a fight.” He contemplated that a moment before responding.

“Knowing that, you still want to associate with us? Wouldn’t you rather want to stay away from the dangers of our existence?” I spent a minute collecting my thoughts, Splinter waiting patiently.

“You could say the same of April. She has known you guys much longer than I have, yet she’s still here. There's danger in just existing. Besides, knowing this family has made my life so much more enjoyable. They bring such happiness and laughter I’ve never had before. So yes, I would risk the dangers to be here.” He smiled at my answer and stood up to stand in front of me.

“It brings me much happiness to know my sons have good friends like you. Yes, I will train you.”

“Thank you Splinter.” He steps around me to head out of the room.

“Now, let’s get to it. First, pull up the first Lou Jitsu movie!”

“Wait, what?”

Chapter Text

*Gold*

What’s the most romantic thing someone could do? If you look at the millennia of culture, books, and movies, there’s a lot to choose from. Everyone has an opinion on the subject. It makes it really difficult to figure out what to do on one specific day.

“You know this is just a made up holiday for big corporations to rake in extra cash selling Hallmark cards, right?”

“D’, I’m really gonna need you to stop right there.”

Currently, I have invited April, Donnie, and Raph over to the store to talk with them about important business. To celebrate the holiday, I had covered the shelves and window display with plenty of hearts and baby cupids. I also stocked the displays with romantic sweets, pink and red cupcakes, and cookies in the shape of kisses. To say that we’ve had an influx of partners buying sweets for their loved ones would be an understatement.

“I think it’s sweet! I love all of the pink and purple decorations you’ve put up Y/N.”

“Thank you Raph! Now, back on topic please. I asked you all here so that you could help me with my surprise for Leo.” April raised a hand. “Yes, April?” She puts her hand back to her lap.

“I get why you asked Raph and I but where’s Mikey?” Donnie rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Scoff; obviously we needed Mikey to distract Leo so he wouldn’t come sniffing out Y/N’s plan. You know he’s the best at being able to fish out lies.” Raph nods his head in defeat.

“True. So, Y/N, what’s this game plan you’re so eager to explain?” I jumped off the stool I sat on and pulled out a giant corkboard from behind the shelves. 

“Alright friends, as you are all aware, Valentine’s day is quickly approaching. You are also aware that this is the first one that Leo and I have been together for; therefore, I want to surprise him with wait for it… an elaborate scavenger hunt!”

The others looked on in mild surprise as they took in all of the pink strings and red hearts decorating the board. Bolded on the top was the title,

OPERATION: CUPID’S ARROW 

There were various cut out pictures of different locations in New York and little notes written on post-it stickers. One of them read,

‘Fireworks? Explosions? TBD’

“Say, if you’re looking for explosions–” Raph quickly slapped a hand to cover Donnie’s mouth.

“Nope, not doing that.” Raph whipped his hand away from Donnie and shook it in the air. “DID YOU JUST LICK MY HAND?!” 

“Alright enough guys! Y/N, please continue.” April gestured to me to explain more.

“So here’s my plan. I’m gonna leave notes scattered around areas of New York for Leo to discover that will lead him to his final destination: me!” Raph viewed the board in interest while Donnie turned to me with one eyebrow raised.

“So why do you need us?”

“I was hoping you guys could help me with hiding the clues so that I will have time to finish my ultimate surprise that will be at the end of the hunt. Please?” He didn’t look too convinced. “Plus I’ll buy you as much pizza and flavorless juice as you want.”

I knew the last one would really get them, and my prediction was correct.

“Wow Y/N, you really like Leo, huh?” April’s question set my face aflame and I desperately tried to cool it back down.

"Well—you know I, um, you know he's, ahaha, it's hot in here, huh guys?" Raph smiles before opening his big fat mouth.

“Aww, you could even say she lo–” Now it was Donnie’s turn to slap his face over Raph’s mouth.

“Watch it mister! We’re not up to that chapter yet.”

“What was that Don?” Donnie casually shrugs and lifts his hand away.

“Oh nothing. Well Y/N, I say we have a deal. Fill us in on the details.” Two of his mechanical hands reach out to hold a pen and notepad.

“Ok, this is a multi-step plan involving multiple facets. First, does anyone know where I can get some white doves?”

~~~~~~~~

*Blue*

“Come on Leo, show me that trick again, I think I almost got it!”

I knew Mikey was keeping me occupied, but the reason was still eluding me. For the past two hours he’s been glued to my side playing in the arcade, reading comics, and now we’ve moved on to skateboarding.

“I’ve done it six times already!” I reach the top of the ramp opposite of Mikey and kick up my skateboard. “Why are we sticking around the lair anyway? Where are Raph and Donnie, I haven’t seen them in a while.” Mikey scrambled to get over to the other side when he noticed me beginning to walk away.

“Wha– Hey! Hold on a sec, why do you need to know where they are? Is my company not good enough for you?!” He grabs ahold of my shoulders and puts on his best-looking offended expression he can muster.

“Mikester, you know I love hanging out with you, it’s just suspicious how quiet those two have been. What if they got into trouble?” 

“Nah, I wouldn’t worry about that, it’s Donnie and Raph we’re talking about, what kind of trouble could they get into?” I gave him a blank look. “Okay, so maybe they get into messes, but I’m sure they’re fine! Why don’t we go to the kitchen and I can whip us up a snack? I've got a new arepa recipe we could try!" I hold a hand to my chin and look away in thought.

So, my options are: keep letting Mikey ‘distract’ me and provide food, or trying to figure out what they are up to.

Like that’s a hard choice to make.

“Okay, lead the way hermanos.”

~~~~~~~~

*Red*

If someone were to ask me how I felt about Leo having a relationship, Raph would say it is both stressful and relieving. Why the conflicting feelings? Well, being the oldest means you have to keep tabs on all of your siblings and how they are doing. Leo’s taking his first steps into romance, of course it would be concerning; however, both of them have surprised Raph with their easygoing nature. Sure, Leo can be, well, Leo at times but Y/N seems to take it in stride. They seem to bring out the best in each other, and for that, Raph is grateful to her.

“Aaaaand then we wrap it up watching the fireworks!” I put my pointer stick away. “Any questions?”

…

Three hands raise.

“April, you first.” She puts her hand down and sheepishly smiles.

“Okay… I’m going to try and say this in the nicest way possible. Do you think that maybe, just maybe , you’re doing a little too much?” Y/N tilts her head and glance back at the corkboard.

“Uhh, no? What’s too much?” Donnie shakes his head and throws his hands out.

“How about everything! Y/N, there is no need for a mariachi band or kidnapping a professional basketball team! Although I do appreciate that you are ok with that for future reference.” I sigh in exasperation.

“Y/N look. I love your enthusiasm for my brother, we all do.”

“I don’t get it then. What’s wrong with my ideas?” I smile fondly as April sighs with endearment.

“The problem I’m seeing is that almost every idea you have is aimed at Leo’s interests.” 

“That’s a problem?” Y/N crosses her arms and leans on one foot in frustration.

"Yes, because what’s important is doing things you both enjoy."  

I think it finally dawned on her what we were trying to say.

“I guess I didn’t see it that way. It makes me feel good seeing Leo happy, so I just thought…” She began to look distraught and April and I were quick to reassure her.

“We get that! It feels nice to do something for others but this day is supposed to be for the two of you. What if we come up with some ideas that you like to do together!” Donnie stood up and flipped the corkboard over so the blank side was facing us.

“Okay if we start out with the basics, I’ve compiled data of repetitive actions and/or activities they partake in. For instance, I have counted at least 711 instances where Leon has instigated physical contact in the way of hand holding, shoulder nudges, or hugs. 400 of those being before you two began a relationship, which helped calculate the perfect bet to win the betting pool.”

“Wait what betting pool–” 

“Both of you frequent places such as here, Run of the Mill, and our home, which suggests that you gravitate toward safe and familiar places. There are outliers, but that would make sense given Leo’s need for adventure and your willingness to accompany him. Some hobbies I’ve noticed include dancing, singing, playing video games, and, unfortunately, finding jokes and one-liners amusing.” 

Y/N slowly sat down in Donnie’s seat as April and I watched Donnie with growing amusement.

“Wow D, I didn’t realize you paid such close attention to this stuff.” Donnie continues to write notes with a mechanical hand as he answers.

“I always make extensive observations when it comes to my twin. Makes it easier to goad him into stuff. Anyways, thinking back based off of my points noted, would you say there would be somewhere special the two of you could go that would satisfy the requirements for this made up holiday?” He looks back with a raised eyebrow. Y/N mulls over her thoughts, then raises her eyes with a jolt.

“I think I do. Thank you Donnie, you’re a genius!”

“I thought that was obvious.”

~~~~~~

Voices coming from the kitchen drew us closer. Donnie and I peeked our snouts in to see Mikey and Leo conversing at the table. Looks like the distraction worked out well enough. 

“Sup guys? Mikey, did you make lunch?” Mikey and Leo pop their heads up at my words. Leo smiles but Mikey has a small look of panic on his face.

“Hey, glad you guys finally showed up. I was just talking to Mikey about Valentine’s Day.”

Oh, that explains Mikey’s expression.

“Really? Why?”

“Uh, duh, I want to do something for Y/N. Problem is, I can’t decide what she’d like to do most. I was looking up some stuff and there’s gonna be a gallery of her favorite ballet performances. I could also take her to the botanical gardens. Or what about–”

Donnie and I slowly look at each other and have the exact same thought. Donnie beats me to the punch.

“These two dum-dums are made for each other.” Leo tilted his head.

“Huh? What’re you guys talking about?”

“Nothing big man. Here, how about you try doing something like this...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days later…

*Blue*

Growing up, the four of us had seen all kinds of movies, shows, and other media that portrayed romance. When you’re a little kid, that kind of stuff flies over your head. The first time one of us mentioned it to Pops it was Mikey. He had asked,

“Daddy, will I ever fall in love with someone?”

Splinter then realized he needed to have a talk with us about it.

“My sons, as you grow older, you may one day meet someone special, someone who makes you happy. What is most important is that they love you for who you are, not what they want you to be. If you can find someone like that, then I believe you will have a lasting bond with them.” I remember Raph asking him,

"How are we going to know if we've found the right person?"

He took a moment to answer. Finally, he patted the tops of our heads and said, "When you feel comfortable being yourself around them, and they feel the same.” 

After that, we moved on from the topic and went back to watching Lou Jitsu movies on the projector, but over the years that conversation stuck in the back of my head. How were we supposed to find someone if no one looked like us? The humans would have run in terror before striking up a conversation. April was different, but she was our sister. It was natural to be ourselves around her. Finding the Hidden City helped to make us feel slightly less alone in the world, but it wasn’t until we met Y/N that my concerns came back. 

After extensive note-taking and strategic planning, the day has finally arrived. I took a moment to double-check the outfit April helped to pick out. A black and grey hoodie jacket with a simple white t-shirt underneath, along with ripped jeans and black running shoes completed the look. I threw a wink and shot finger guns at the mirror. That’s when I noticed a red envelope on my bed.

“Where did this come from?” I opened it up to see a note covered in pink glitter.

‘Welcome to your first Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt! Here is your first clue that will lead you to your ultimate prize! Think you’ll beat the competition? Just kidding, you’re the only one participating haha. Anywho, your first clue (hey look I rhymed!):

You’re sweeter than 3.14’

…

Huh.

Okay, slight change of plans. Finish this as quickly as I can, find Y/N, then take her to the surprise. Easy.

So, first clue… I appreciate the puns used but it’s supposed to lead me to the next step. 3.14 sounds familiar…

“Donnie!”

I bolted out of my room and broke down Donnie’s door to his lab. He looked to be in the middle of some welding before I interrupted him. 

“Groan, would it kill you to knock?”

“Even when I do, you still don’t let me in.”

“...True. Well dear brother, to what do I owe the unwelcome pleasure?” I shoved the note under his goggled face and he jerked his head back to read it.

“That one show you make Dad watch when he’s in trouble, the Memorizing Pi Channel? That’s the whole 3.14 that never ends right?” Donnie quickly looks over the note and lightly nods.

“Huh, I thought you’d take longer to figure that one out. Guess I owe Y/N five bucks now so thanks Leo, you made me lose money.” 

“Wha– Hey!” He ignores me and one of his mechanical arms reaches over and drops a piece of paper into my hand.

“Here dum-dum, the next clue. Now shoo, this combustion manifold isn’t going to weld itself.” He turns on his blowtorch and gets back to work. I sigh and turn to leave when the sound of the torch going out stops me. “She makes you happy huh?” 

“Yeah, she does.”

“Good.” I smile and step out of the lab, the sound of the blowtorch bursting back on. I unfold the note and take a look at it’s content.

‘Way to go Leo, you’re that much closer to the end and your prize! Here’s clue two for you!,

You’re my cup of tea <3’

Tea huh? Well, she knows my favorite is blueberry; maybe she left something in my stash?

Mikey’s humming echoed out of the kitchen as he prepped for dinner. Peeking my head in, I could see him dancing along to a song playing as he stirred the stock pot.

“Watcha making Miguel?” 

“Some pasta e fagioli, wanna bite?” I wandered over to the cupboards and peered over at the pot. Italian sausage, noodles and beans simmered in a hearty broth over the stove and my mouth instinctively watered at the sight.

“Save me some for later, I’ve got a scavenger hunt to solve.” I peeked into the cupboard to find my stash of tea next to my plain white mug I usually use. Interestingly enough, the mug now had a blue heart painted on one side. I pulled the mug out and found the next clue inside. Unbeknownst to me, Mikey had a smile plastered on his face as he watched his older brother.

‘Wow, you are stellar Neon Leon! I bet you’re on the edge of your seat wondering where your next clue will be! Well, allow me to oblige:

You've stolen a pizza my heart’

Oh, now she’s going easy on me. Probably wants to make sure I arrive on time.

“Looks like I’m heading out, I’ll see you later Mikey!” I give him a quick pat on the shoulder on the way out and head up to the surface. As I walked through the main area of the lair, Raph glances over from where he’s lifting weights at me.

“You going out now? Tell Y/N I said hi!” I give a two finger salute and head up the ladder. 

Donnie and Mikey step out and look at Raph.

“Let’s hope he finds the rest of them, I believe in Leo but some of them are kinda tricky.”

“Ehh he’ll be fine, we made sure Y/N didn’t make them too hard, despite someone’s attempts.” They both pointed their gazes at Donnie, who faked innocence.

“Pssh, figuring out a mathematical algorithm to lead him to geographical coordinates shouldn’t be considered difficult ,” he added with air quotes. They both rolled their eyes at him and glanced back at the ladder. 

“Soup’s done when you guys are ready.”

“Oh good, Raph is starving!”

“Raph, you’re always hungry.”

~~~~~~~~~

Senor Hueso was his usual charming self.

"Pepino, normally I would tolerate your presence, but tonight I have a lot of couples to take orders from."

I could see what he was talking about. The place was more packed than usual, with couples of all shapes and sizes sharing pizza. The band was playing gentle music, the guitar strumming a romantic tune. Hueso even went to the trouble of shaping the pizzas like hearts. 

“Please bug me another time, preferably never.” He tried pushing me out the door but I stood my ground.

“Relax Boneman! I just came by to see if Y/N had left something for me. Most likely a piece of paper?” He stares for a moment before reaching over and grabbing some papers.

“Ah yes, she came by earlier today with this. Her persistent good nature is almost as annoying as your personality.” I snatched the note from his hand and smirked.

“I’ll take that as a compliment. Thanks Hueso!” He grumbled something as he left to go take some new customer’s orders.

I unfolded the note and read its contents.

‘This is so exciting! You’re nearly at the end of your journey! Just three more clues to go!’

Oooh boy.

~~~~~~

*Gold*

I tugged my sleeves down as I prepped for tonight. April was gracious enough to help me pick out an outfit. She pulled out one of my jackets, a dark burgundy bomber jacket with a grey v-neck t-shirt. I also had on a pair of dark blue jeans with black boots to complete the ensemble. 

“April I really appreciate the help, but you didn’t have to go to all this trouble!” She set down the hair curler and smiled.

“Y/N, let me tell you something. I’ve known those goofballs since I was eleven, and in that time I’ve gotten to know them pretty well. Leo likes to hide behind his cool attitude and indifference, but the truth is he has a lot of insecurities. Seeing you two together brings out his self-confidence. I happen to be rooting for that.”

Her confession surprised me. I stared at her through the mirror as I tried to figure out what to say.

“You really think so?”

“Of course I do! Now, we need to hurry up, I’m sure he’s getting through those clues at this point.” Right on queue, I get a text from Donnie.

Donstantinople:

‘The blue pond is splashing’

“I’m guessing that means he’s out of the lair?” I stand up and grab my purse hanging off the chair. 

“Yeah that’s the code. I better head out then. How do I look?” April pushes her glasses down and gives me a once over, then swipes the non-existent dust off my shoulders.

“Girl, if you were up for it I’d ask you out myself! Get going!” 

“Do you think the lipstick is a bit much?” 

“Trust me, he’s gonna love it.” She winks and I laugh at her expression.

“Thanks again for covering my shift, I’ll pay you back.”

“All you gotta do is spill all the details when you come back! Maybe skip any private stuff though, he is my brother. Although, a check would still be nice.” 

“Haha, of course.”

~~~~~~

*Blue*

After the third destination, I started to get nervous that I wasn’t going to make it to wherever Y/N was leading me. Thankfully, the last note was simple.

‘Will you be my player 2?’

Under the line, an address was listed. I look it up on my phone and realize it’s just a couple blocks over. I really had to give it to her, Y/N did an awesome job on this, and I’m not just saying that because of her amazing use of puns. I turned the corner and saw my prize.

Y/N stood in front of a lit up arcade, the neon signs casting a purple glow on her curled hair. She stood with her back to me, making it the perfect opportunity to use some ninja skills.

*Blue & Gold*

Ok, just like we practiced. Act scared when he tries to spook me. Any second now…

“Boo!” His shout didn’t shock me but grabbing me from behind to twirl us around did.

“Ahh! Leo, you made it!” He puts me down and I turn to look at him. I smiled then felt my brain shut down as I realized…

He was wearing a really hot outfit.

“Ohhhh my god.” Leo had similar thoughts as he got a good look at Y/N. 

She had red lipstick on that was the same shade as the markings on his face. Why was that so attractive?!

“Wow, you look amazing Y/N!” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and smiled.

“Thank you! So, did you like the scavenger hunt?” 

“Dude I loved it! How did you even come up with that?” Y/N grabbed my hand and lead me to the entrance.

“I’ll tell you about it later. For now, we have some high scores to break.”

She opens the door and I gape at the sight. The main lights were off, letting the bright video game screens cast multiple colors into the room. Surprisingly, there were only a few people in the arcade.

“Where is everyone?” I ask Y/N as she buys a couple gaming bands at the front desk. She turns to look at the room, then back at me.

“Well, this isn’t the most common site for a Valentine’s date. I thought we’d have fun though because there’s games in here that you haven’t played yet.”

“Oh? Now you definitely have my attention.” She raises an eyebrow and smirks, bringing my attention back to her beautiful red lips. She didn't miss how he subconsciously licked his lips which warmed her core at the sight.

“Glad I have it. Here, look at this one!” She pulls me over to a game that is pumping out some funky beats. There were a couple of headsets and hand controllers resting on their stands with a floor mat similar to the one on our dance machine. 

“What is this?” She grabs a headset and situates it over my eyes. I feel her place the controllers in my hand and I laugh at her antics. “You’re all about surprises tonight huh?” She giggles and I can sense her stand to my right.

“Trust me, you’re gonna love this.”

As if I wouldn’t trust her with my life already.

The game starts up and I read the title.

“Bop Saber? Sounds fun.” 

“It combines two of our favorite things, music and sword swinging!” The game starts up and she picks a song. “The goal is to slash the boxes that come at you in the directions the arrows are pointing. You also have to move around the big red boxes or else you lose points. Let’s do it!” I look down at my hands to see two light sabers, one red the other blue. The space in front of me was lit up with blue beams stretching across the scene. Then like Y/N said, red and blue boxes started coming at me. I started slicing away and watched the score rack up.

“Wow, this song is sick! Donnie would love listening to this until his ears bled.” 

Y/N laughed as she watched the scene. Little did Leo know, she was really enjoying watching him play. He didn’t know this, but Y/N found it mesmerizing to witness his sword fighting. He looked like he was dancing when he was fighting and it shone through while he played. Leo sliced through the obstacles like he had been playing this game for weeks. She slowly lifted her phone to record him swinging and dancing to the beat. 

“Nice you just got another multiplier! A little more and you’ll beat the record!” He did a little spin and danced on his toes.

“This is great, we gotta get one of these for the lair! I missed fighting with two swords. It always felt more natural for some reason.” 

The last blocks were cut in half and the song faded away. Explosions went off as we saw the new high score. He lifts the goggles up, a huge smile on his face.

“Let’s see if anyone can top that!” I smile back and grab the headset.

“I don’t know if I can beat that, but I bet I’ll look as cool as you did.” Y/N didn’t see the way Leo’s face lit up at her praise, but she could sense how happy he felt and it made her smile.

We continued like that for a few more hours, hopping one one game to the next. We fought against a zombie apocalypse, raced motorcycles, and dance battled each other until we had tears in our eyes from laughing so much. As it reached the later hours of the evening, Leo looks at his phone to see a text. 

From: #1 Twin

‘The package is outside. You owe me a pizza W/O pineapple.’

He puts his phone away and looks at Y/N who just finished her turn at foosball. 

“Man I almost had it! Guess we’re not getting that stuffed panda for Raph after all.” I laugh and pull her aside.

“It’s my turn to surprise you.” 

“Oooh, what do you have planned?” He snorts and brought us outside. 

“It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you Y/N.” I turn the corner and see what Donnie dropped off.

“Hey, did you leave your sword here this whole time?” I grab it by the handle and weigh it in my hand.

“Give me some credit Y/N, I wouldn’t just leave my sword here for anyone to nab.” She blows a raspberry in my direction and I swat her away.

‘Portal don’t fail me know. If you do, we’re both gonna look dumb.’

I swung my sword in a circle and thank the Pizza Supreme in the sky a portal appeared.

Now if it just went to the right spot.

“M’lady, if you would.” I extended my hand invitingly and she obliged me. “Close your eyes for me.”

“Ok, but please don’t throw another pizza slice at my face, that would kill the vibe.”

“Not this time mi amada. Just you wait.” I pull her through the portal and I carefully move her to where I wanted her to look. “Aaaand, now!” She opens her eyes and hear her gasp in delight.

“Are we– is this? We’re in the torch of Lady Liberty?!” 

“Ding ding ding! Ladies and Gentlemen we have a winner!” She laughs in disbelief and takes another look around. That’s when she notices the blanket and basket laying nearby.

“Oh my god, you set up a picnic on the torch? This is– wow, Leo, I can’t believe you did this!” Leo pulls her down to sit on the blanket. 

“Why wouldn’t I? I had to figure out some way to top whatever you had planned, and I figured this might work. Though I must say, your plan was much more intricate than mine.” She playfully pouts and lightly shoves my shoulder.

“Shut up you goof, this is awesome!” She leans closer and pecks my cheek. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

Did he?

Those doubts crept back into his mind. Did she really like it, or was she just saying that to make him feel better? He’s never done something like this before, being with someone. He had no prior experiences to fall back on, and his brothers didn’t know anymore than he did. Splinter was no help in this department either. What if I don’t meet her expectations, will she just drop him off the face of the Earth and find someone better? Leo’s mind spiraled until his vision focused on something he hadn’t noticed before.

Right at the bottom of her v-neck was the blue sapphire turtle necklace.

“You’re wearing the necklace I got you.” She gently touched the chain.

“Of course, it’s very important to me! You’re very important to me.” Leo silently gaped at her confession. Y/N looked up at him and could sense the shift in his emotions. She gently nudged and could feel doubt and fear cloud his thoughts. She crinkled her brows and frowned. “Leo, is something wrong? You feel…upset."

Ah, he forgot she could do that. Guess there’s no getting out of this one.

“It’s just… sometimes I think, ‘maybe she could find someone closer to home than some mutant turtle guy’, you know? It’s kind of hard to explain in words…” 

The talk Y/N had with April rang in her ears. She had to fix this.

Y/N gently laid a hand on his cheek. Leo noticed her eyes had taken on a sheen as she held back her tears. Slowly, he could sense her spirit touching his, carefully wrapping herself around his. It felt so warm, so like her. But I guess that would make sense.

“This is kinda embarrassing, but do you know how much googling I’ve been doing on red-eared sliders and turtles in general? Now I’ve got an influx of ads on my computer for pet supplies.” He laughed in surprise.

“What? Why were you googling that?” Y/N took his face in her hands.

“I wanted to learn more about that kind of stuff because I care about you. It’s silly, but I thought it would be good to know, for the future.” Leo took in a sharp gasp of air.

She was thinking of their future. Not just for now, but for later too.

“I want you to understand something. It never mattered to me what you looked like. If I’m being honest, what drew me to you in the first place was your spirit. I could sense your undying loyalty to your family, your humor, kindness, and ability to lift others up. Remember that conversation we had about how you were a good brother? Well, that quadruples for being my partner. Please don’t ever think you aren’t good enough or that I’d prefer someone ‘closer to home’ because to me, you are my home.”

To her surprise, fat tears began to roll down Leo’s face. His smile scrunched up his snout as he pushed the side of his face into her hands.

“You mean my good looks had nothing to do with it, like at all?” 

“Well, that was another factor. I mean, look at this face, you are cute here,” Y/N pecked the middle of his forehead. “Here,” she kissed the tip of his snout. “And here, oh here too, and also here!” She continued to pepper his face with kisses until his laughter dried his tears up. Y/N leaned back to watch him laugh for a moment. He opened his eyes to look down at her.

“I’m glad you’re with me Y/N.” Her smile widened and she leaned in for a hug which he gladly reciprocated. 

“Me too.”

~~~~~~~~~~

After spending the rest of the evening talking, laughing, and ahem… other things, we headed back home. I successfully portaled Y/N back to her balcony connected to her room. Before she went inside, she stood up on her tiptoes to give me a goodnight kiss. As she leaned back, I went to say something, but her giggles made me pause.

“Something funny?” She tried to stop laughing and was clearly failing.

“Pffft, nope! I’m just so happy I can’t contain my joy, that’s all.” I raised one eyebrow under my mask and decided to let it go. 

“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed your night my lady. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Y/N stopped laughing and smiled.

“Count on it.” I reached forward and gave her one last kiss before she headed into her room for the night.

Thankfully my sword seemed to be giving me some slack tonight, as it portaled me back to the lair unharmed… this time. I could hear excited shouting coming from the gaming room and I wandered in that direction.

“Come on Raph! This time I know you can do this!” 

“As long as Pops doesn’t come down with another flu I think he’s got this.”

Oh, this is going to be fun. 

Quietly, I stepped closer behind the three and watched for a moment as Raph was reaching the climax of the song he was dancing to. Just one moment more and he’d beat the record.

We can’t have that.

“HOLA MIS HERMANOS!” All three jumped in surprise, then groaned as they watched the game over flash on screen.

“LEO! Come on man, he almost had it–” Mikey stopped mid speech to stare at Leo’s face.

“Too bad for Raph, Leo had to swoop and steal his victory…” Donnie also quieted down as he faced his twin. Raph had been silent the whole time, and now all three were making the same weird expression.

“What?” They quickly schooled their expressions and attempted to look anywhere other than at me. 

“Oh nothing, we’re just glad you guys had a good time!” Raph noted before Mikey spoke up.

“I’m so glad all that planning worked out, you guys had no idea how stressed I was!”

“Mikey, I’m pretty sure you were more nervous than Leo!”

“O….kay, despite those weird reactions, yes, we had a good time.”

“Yeah, that much was obvious.”

“Again, what are you talking about?” The others just ignored my question and decided to move on from the topic.

I shook my head and left to go enter my room. Just as I went to remove my jacket, I glanced at the mirror and nearly snapped my neck with how hard I whipped it back around. My entire face was covered in bright red kiss marks left over from Y/N’s lipstick. There was even some smeared on my mask.

“Ohohoho, that girl is good .”

Chapter Text

*Blue*

What are you supposed to do after being told that your family is supposedly destined to keep a demon warrior from coming back to Earth and destroying all of humanity? You tell your partner, of course. That was a fun phone call.

“Wow. Let me double-check this. So, you come from a line of ninja warriors that kept this armor from getting into the hands of evil, and Splinter just kinda neglected to mention anything until now?” I shuffled around the bed and laid a hand behind my head.

“I know, right?! What other secrets is he keeping? If this is as bad as he says it is, why didn’t he train us for it? Me and the others are still pretty miffed at him.” I could hear her hum over the line in contemplation.

“By no means do I have a normal relationship with my Grammy, and I don’t even know who my father is, but maybe he didn’t tell you guys because he wanted to protect you from that life. If he did train you guys to be some intense warriors, I don’t think you would’ve had much of a childhood.”

I mulled over her words for a moment. She has a point, but it still would have been nice to know about this. 

“Maybe. I guess there’s no point in thinking about it right now. Well, other than my problems, what’s going on with you?” The sounds of the sink running clued me in that she was in her bathroom.

“Well, I have that appointment at the dentist tomorrow. Finally getting my wisdom teeth taken out. They’ve become a real problem lately, so it’s time for them to go. Just gonna brush my teeth so that they’re extra clean.” I snorted a laugh as I could hear her gurgling water.

“That’s right, I forgot about that. I’ll bring you a milkshake when you get home. Sound good?”

“Aww, you know how to make something as terrifying as someone poking around in my mouth a little more bearable.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“Bye Leo.”

The call ends and I heave a sigh. Maybe after all the craziness of the night, Splints would be out of commission for a while.

*SNOREEEE*

Or not.

Guess tonight was going to be another one without sleep. With a groan, I lumbered out to start the kettle and join Donnie in the lab. We sat together as he typed away furiously on his keyboard while I played Animal Crossing on the switch. After a while, the hum of machinery and Donnie’s humming convinced my brain to finally shut down.

By late afternoon, I had gotten a relatively good amount of sleep. I was lounging in one of the bean bags while reading up a little on wisdom teeth removal when I got a phone call from an unknown number. Probably one of those scams about how my car warranty was about to expire.

“Yello?”

“I’m assuming this is Leonardo? It’s Eliza.”

“Y/N’s Grammy? I didn’t know you had my number.”

“She gave it to me in case of emergencies.” I sat up at the word ‘emergency’. “I’m sorry to be so short notice, but I just got an urgent order from a client so I can’t go pick up Y/N from the dentist. Something about their child getting the case of mad mushroom disease. Would you boys be able to pick her up?” I quickly relaxed as I went to stand up.

“Uh sure, we’ll head out right now.” She says her thanks and hangs up.

“Alright boys, I just got the news that we need to go pick up Y/N from the dentist. Donnie, start up the tank.” 

A small grumble from the softshell indicated that he heard me before I could hear the rumble of the engine starting up. Raph and Mikey made their way over to the garage while I stepped into my room. 

I snag my leather jacket and blue scarf from the drawers and hoist up a pair of jeans before smashing a beanie over my head. In my rush to leave, I scramble to pull my boots on as I hop out past the curtain and nearly fall on my face. Good thing the others were already in the tank. I jog up the ramp and hear it close behind me.

“Today’s mission, rescue Y/N from the dentist!”

“Raph, it’s not a mission.” He glares from his chair at Donnie.

“It is if I say so, which I did; Therefore, it’s a mission. Mad Dogz, ahoy!”

~~~~~

“Did you leave a costume party mid-way through or something?” 

The receptionist gave me an uninterested look as I explained my reasoning for being there. She pulled a nurse aside and asked her to bring Y/N out. Oddly enough, the nurse looked really bummed by that. As she walked away, I could barely hear her mumble, “Only the fun patients get discharged.” I waved off the receptionist and put on my face-man skills to use.

“Ha, oh yeah, totally! Of course, I came from a costume party, mid-day, in the middle of March. They’re all the rage nowadays.” She rolled her eyes and went back to looking over her computer. She printed off a form and handed it over.

“Here’s some information about Miss Y/N’s procedure. She was given general anesthesia, so she will need to be monitored for the next few hours while it wears off. Just be aware, people can react differently to the nitrous oxide we use for surgeries. Miss Y/N has been–” Suddenly the nurse brings out Y/N who takes a moment to stare before rushing toward me.

“LEO! Man, it’s so good to see you! I haven’t seen you in fifty years!” She had a slight lisp to her tone as she spoke, and I could see the hint of gauze in the back of her mouth. I hold her by the arms as she slightly sways. The nurse behind her struggled to contain her laughter.

“Y/N it’s only been one day.” She tries to blow a raspberry but only succeeds in drooling spit and blood all over her chin. “Oookay I think it’s time we get you home now. Come on, the ‘car’ is this way.” The receptionist was kind enough to spare some tissues for Y/N’s face and I thanked her as we stepped outside. Y/N squinted her eyes at me and grabbed my face with both hands.

“You look kind of weird, but you’re cute!” I blink at her while she continues. “Wow, you look so good in this jacket; never take it off!” She keeps staring in wonder as I try to process what she said.

“They sure gave you the good stuff, huh?”

“Dr. Noe has the best drugs!” Y/N glances behind me and sees the turtle tank parked. She lets go of my face and stands in front of it.

“It looks like a giant turtle… That’s so cute!” 

“If Don hears you call his precious child cute he might have a stroke.” I gently led her up the opening ramp, her gaze flitting about as she absorbed everything in her laughing gas haze. The others had waited inside and turned around when they heard us coming in. Y/N slowly stepped to Raph, her eyes as big as saucers. Raph started to sweat from her intense stare and laughed nervously.

“Hey Y/N? How you feeling?” She suddenly reached up and grabbed him by the face, pulling his right down to hers.

“MY LORD! Raph, you’re a snapping turtle!” Donnie choked on air as Mikey nearly fell out of his chair in surprise. 

“Uhh, yep, always have been!” She stared in awe as she turned to look at the others.

“AH! You guys all look so cool! Man, I have the most awesome pals!” Mikey was now rolling on the floor with tears in his eyes as I moved to place Y/N in his chair.

“Pfft– here, sit down while we get going. I can grab you some ice cream to snack on.” I make a small cup of soft serve from the nearby machine and hand it over to Y/N, who looks like I just placed a unicorn in her lap.

“This is for me?! Leo, you’re so sweet, like this ice cream! Ha! See what I just did there?” She scoops a heaping full with her spoon before turning to look behind me. “Here, Mikey, have some!” She then proceeded to throw a spoonful in Mikey’s direction, splatting it on his face before he licked it off. He smiled with glee as the others pouted.

“What about Raph, the cool snapping turtle?” 

“Whoa there, as a softshell turtle, I think I am way more interesting.” She giggles, the gauze still making her sound a little stuffy, before throwing more ice cream around. I sigh and give a pointed look to Raph, who takes notice and starts up the tank to leave. 

“Alright, alright, mission accomplished! Time to get patient zero home!” Y/N sways as the tank turns to leave and she lifts her arms up in a squeal. 

“You guys drive in this all the time?! We’re so big and tall! I know!” Y/N looks over to Don who raises a brow in question. “Let’s go run over some cars! Or better yet, blow up a building! Just run right through the whole thing!!” She then began to laugh like one of those comical villains, successfully scaring the bejeezus out of Raph and bringing out the mad genius in Donnie. 

“I didn’t realize you had such a secret love for destruction and violence! Got any more hidden interests?” She thinks for a second, looks around like she’s about to tell a secret, then attempts to whisper to Donnie.

“Sometimes… I sing to my bread while it’s baking, so that it’ll taste better. I swear, it works!” Mikey and I make eye contact, and he can barely contain his amusement.

“Is this how everyone reacts to laughing gas? No wonder it’s called that. Everyone who’s on it makes everyone else laugh!” Mikey says as he watches Y/N poke at Donnie’s markings on his arms. As much as I was enjoying Y/N’s newfound goofiness, I was still slightly concerned about how her mouth was doing. Raph turned a corner and I used the momentum to lean out of my seat to get a better look. Y/N noticed me staring and got closer to my face.

“Are we having a staring contest? Jokes on you, I rule at these!” She scoots closer to me and widens her stare. 

“Ok, we can do that later; for now I want to take a peek at your gums.” 

“Oh, yeah! There’s this stuff back there that’s been bugging me, hang on I’ll grab it–” I stop her as she tries to stick her hand in her mouth.

“Hold on! Don’t do that, you need to keep the gauze in your mouth, it’s stopping you from bleeding everywhere from where they took out your wisdom teeth.” For some reason, this deeply upset Y/N, who started tearing up and sniffling.

“They took my teeth away?! Now I’m gonna need dentures! Don’t look at me, I’m hideous!” She sobs and turns away from us. Mikey tries to console her while Donnie looks at me in amusement.

“Now look what you did Nardo, she’s crying over teeth.”

“Wha– It wasn’t my intention! I was just trying to make sure her sutures were still holding up!” Mikey is patting her back and talking her down from worrying about old people's dentures.

“Y/N you didn’t lose all your teeth, it’s ok.” She looks up at him, her teary eyes sending a stab of guilt through me.

“Now Leo’s never gonna want to date me! Who’d want to date a toothless hag?!” Mikey snorts before turning to me, who no doubt saw the confusion on my face. I kneel down in front of Y/N and place my hands on her knees.

“Hey, there’s no need to worry about that, we’re already dating.” She gasps in shock.

“Really? But you’re so awesome and nice and pretty!” Raph is filled with awe as Mikey clasps his hands above his heart. Donnie made a gagging noise and hurried up the ladder to the taxi car.

“Pfft, you think I’m pretty?” That apparently opens a floodgate, with Y/N counting off on her fingers everything she likes about me. 

“Well duh! Your facial markings are super cool, I love when you do that little smirk when you are right about something, ooh and you look so good in human clothes! You guys should dress up more often! And of course–”

My face grows warmer at each praise, and I hasten to stop her before she really starts to embarrass herself. Lucky for her, I didn’t need to because Raph jerked the tank to a stop, throwing Mikey into the windshield. 

*SPLAT*

The annoyed sound of Donnie pops up over comms.

“Oh Raphela, was there a reason to pump the brakes?!” 

“Yeah, look at that!” Raph points to the windshield not blocked by Mikey’s plastered frame, and I turn to see what he’s looking at. 

Outside, we can see foot soldiers sneaking into the Lincoln Center. The front courtyard had been set up for what appeared to be a massive dance party. The perfect distraction.

“Oh boy. Guys, I think we’ve got a situation on our hands.” Mikey slowly drops off of the windshield and jumps to stand.

“You think they’re looking for a piece of the dark armor pops talked about??” Raph stands and makes a hero pose.

“We can’t let that happen. Come on, let’s go bust some heads.” Everyone scrambles to the exit but stops when they notice an extra body among them. They all look at Y/N who has an impressively serious expression.

“Ready for battle, captain!” She gives a salute to Raph who sighs with exasperation.

“Yeah… no. We can’t take you with us Y/N.” She gave the biggest pout I’ve ever seen, rivaling Mikey’s.

“Aww, come on, you know how much I love to dance!”

“That’s not exactly why we’re leaving…” He takes Y/N by the shoulders and carries her over back to her seat. “You stay here and guard the tank, it’s a really important job we can only trust to you, ok?” Y/N’s eyes light up and nod to Raph.

“You got it, big guy! Leave it to me!”

It’s incredible how fast we can divert her attention.

“Stay here, we’ll be right back.” I turn to head down the ramp where Mikey and Donnie are already waiting when I feel Y/N tug on my sleeve.

“Wait wait wait! I need to give you a kiss for luck!” She gets up on her tiptoes and leans forward.

“Okay, but just one.” I lean forward to give her a peck.

As I kissed her, I noticed she lifted her arms straight into the air. I snorted a laugh and backed away.

“What are you doing, Y/N?” She opens her eyes and smiles.

“My heart was beating so fast, I felt like I was on a roller coaster! What do you do when you ride one? You lift your arms in the air and scream!” She laughs, then hops back over to the front and takes her position ‘on guard duty’. 

We watch as the ramp closes and Y/N frantically waves us goodbye.

“Well, let’s hope everything goes okay while she’s on her own.”

“Not to worry, dear brother, the tank is near impenetrable! Nothing can get in, and I locked it so she can’t get out.”

“I’m both relieved and slightly concerned.”

Using the loud music and dancers to our advantage, we ninja stealth our way into the side amphitheater that the foot went into. The opera house they snuck into was gigantic. It looked like you could fit hundreds of humans in here and there would still be leg room! On the main floor were pew-like seats facing the stage, with more private seating on the higher-up floors. The ceiling looked like a giant flower, with a giant circular light in the center. 

The four of us spread out to find the foot soldiers, Mikey and Donnie climbing up to the next floor while Raph and I headed to the stage. 

“I can’t believe these stupid opera singers have been using the dark armor’s kneecap as a headpiece!”

“Hey!” *SMACK* , “Don’t disrespect the honorable arts! I came to a showing last week, and it brought me to tears!”

“Dude, you cry over anything relatively emotional.”

“Stuff it.”

For a group of evil ninjas, they’re not very good at being stealthy.

“HAH! Looks like we found ‘em boys!”

… Neither was Raph.

~~~~

*Gold*

Ughhhhhhhhh.

This was so boring! I’ve already pressed all of the buttons, and nothing fun happened. Aside from a small fire, which the tank seemed to put out on its own… That was a little fun. There was a big party going on outside, and no one bothered to invite me! The others went to go dance with the foot guys, leaving me in the giant turtle.

Hey… What’s this manhole cover doing in the tank? 

Looks like there’s a keypad attached to it. Hmm…

*beep beep boop beep boop*

The delightful tune of the tank tone alerts me to the hatch opening.

AHA! An escape route. Donnie was very clever in using his birthday as the passcode!

~~~~

*Blue*

Well… this wasn’t going exactly as planned.

“Donnie! See if you can get Mikey untangled from the ceiling!” 

“I’m on it, he said confidently.”

With an overabundance of paper ninjas, it was difficult getting to the foot lieutenant that held the armor piece. Raph and I were currently back-to-back, trying to stand our ground. “Hot soup!!” Raph roared and sent a giant mystic fist through a line of soldiers who poofed into paper viscera. Over all the shouting and fighting, I could hear the low bass beating from outside. At least the party hadn’t been spoiled. Donnie flew overhead with Mikey trailing behind with his kusari-fundo, whipping through multiple enemies. 

“Nice one, Mike!” He high-fived me as he and Donnie flew past, continuing to light up the paper ninjas into ash. It seemed like we were turning the tables.

Then the big foot guy decided it would be a great idea to throw a pew right into me. The force of it knocked my sword out of my hands and the wind out of my lungs as I landed, making it difficult to recover.

“Leo!” I could hear Raph shout for me across the room but he was unable to reach me due to the ferocity of the foot recruit’s attacks. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the smaller foot face making a break for it with the armor piece, but I was in no condition to point it out to the others. Donnie and Mikey were stuck in a swarm of paper ninjas who were appearing faster than they could destroy. Things didn’t seem to be going well.

“Hey guys!” We still in shock and slowly turned to face the one person who really shouldn’t be here. 

~~~~~

*Gold*

Wow, the inside of this place was even crazier than the party outside! They were so nice to give me a bunch of glow stick necklaces. I made sure to grab a bunch for the others too. Speaking of, I could hear them all running around inside, making really loud noises. How dare they have fun without me? 

I opened the double doors to look inside and saw a bunch of masked guys turning into little bits. The sight caused my stomach to turn, and I held my hand over my mouth to contain the ice cream. I felt something wet and looked down at my hands to see some red. I don’t remember having red ice cream…

Hey! What was that over there? I peeked over the railing to see a hint of silver.

Huh, was that Leo’s sword? I should get that back to him; he’d love that!

*Blue*

So picture this:

Y/N, about the same tiny size as Mikey, hefting a giant sword above her head, with blood dripping down from her mouth, and giggling like a madman.

To say the foot soldiers were scared, was an understatement. Even Raph looked nervous.

“Leo, you dropped this!” She proceeds to chuck my sword over her head, and it swings end over end above our heads, finishing its arc by stabbing right into the heart of the nearest paper ninja next to me.

“WOO! Touchdown!” She jumps up mid-cheer while everyone still gawks at her in silence. The foot recruit recovers first and throws out a flabbergasted expression.

“When did you guys find such a badass?”

…

“I’m a badass? Leo! Why didn’t you tell me??”

The brief distraction was all we needed to turn the tides in our favor; unfortunately, they got away with the armor piece, but they were sporting a few new bruises for their troubles. When the dust finally settled, Y/N poked her head above the chair she was hiding behind.

“So… How’d it go?” She holds out her arms so we can see multiple glowstick rings dangling from them. "I got you guys some presents from the dance party."

~~~

The ride back was quieter, on account of Raph’s frustrated silence and Y/N beginning to crash from the meds. I had to replace the gauze in her mouth and clean up her face again, thankful that she was getting too tired to exacerbate her mouth further. She dozed in my lap as we pulled into the garage. Donnie floated down from the taxi compartment using his shell and petered down the ramp. 

“Well… that was a fun waste of our time. Guess we’re not getting gold stars for that run.” Mikey hops down the ramp after Donnie with a pout.

“Aww don’t say that D’, I’m sure we’ll get them next time. Besides, it was just one knee cap. What could they do with that?” Raph turned around and had quite the angry glare. Oh boy, here comes the lecture portion of the evening.

“You guys don’t seem to get it! We can’t let the foot bring back the Shredder! You heard Pops, he nearly wiped out humanity the last time. It’s up to us to stop that from happening again!” I held Y/N in my arms at the top of the ramp, watching as Donnie and Mikey looked down to the ground in frustration. Everyone was silent. Even being as drowsy as she was, Y/N seemed to understand Raph was being serious. 

“Raph, I’m really sorry my dancing skills didn’t help this time.” The fact that she spoke with such a forlorn look took some wind out of Raph’s sails. I held her just a little tighter and gently tapped her noggin with mine.

“Y/N, it wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. We’ll just need to do better next time. Right guys?” The others looked at us with small smiles. I stepped forward to brush past them. “Now come on, sleepyhead needs her rest. Find Splinter, it’s movie time.” Mikey  wanders off to Dad’s room while the rest of us head to the living room. We put on a Disney movie to wind down to and hauled Splinter into his recliner to join in. Y/N and I rest on the couch, letting her lay her head in my lap while she naps. At the end of the film, we had built up enough courage to fill Pops in on the foot’s activities. Unsurprisingly, a lecture ensued.

“We must be more vigilant, my sons. Humanity is at stake. We cannot afford any more mistakes.” I felt Y/N move and looked down to see that she had woken up and was looking at Splinter. For some reason, she looked excited about everything. 

“Splinter! I didn’t know you were pregnant, congrats!”

…

The ensuing choking and sputtering of Splinter broke the tension in the room, and everyone burst into laughter. Y/N looked around, confused at the sudden chaos and turned to me.

“What? Was it something I said?” As she looked at me, I realized that she was no longer under the loopy effects of general anesthesia. I smiled at her, subtly mouthed "thank you,” and she gave me a wink back. 

“You ready to head home? I’m sure you’d enjoy sleeping in your own bed.” She gave a big yawn and nodded.

“That sounds fantastic! Does that offer include a cuddle session?”

I pick her up and draw a portal before walking through to her room. 

“That’s pretty much guaranteed with me.” I wink at her and settle her down on the mattress. “Can you see if your Grammy is back? She had to leave for an emergency, that’s why we picked you up from the dentist.” She sits back for a moment with her eyes closed before looking back at me.

“She must still be gone cause I can’t sense her here.” She stops speaking like she was put on pause, then puts her face in her hands and groans.

“What’s wrong? Do your teeth hurt?” She continues to hide her face but muffles a reply.

“Thso barrsing.” I step closer and put a hand up to my head.

“I’m sorry, what? I didn’t catch that.” She lifts her hands to reveal her burning face.

“Ugh I said this was so embarrassing! I was such a weirdo in front of you guys! All those things I said… Blegh! Just let me find a hole to live out the rest of my days.” She falls back onto the bed with a huff and proceeds to bury herself under the covers completely. I fail at keeping my laughter contained and this results in her groaning under the sheets in shame.

“Y/N you’re fine! It’s not like you could stop yourself while all loopy. If it makes you feel any better, we all thought it was very cute.” Silence from the lump under the covers. “Come on, don’t make me come after you…” She tries to scoot away from me in a rush. “Ah ah ah, you can’t escape!” I jump onto the bed and throw the covers open to reveal a curled up Y/N. She squeaks in surprise and I quickly tackle her, blowing a raspberry on her neck.

“AH! Leo stop, I’m gonna wet my pants!” I let up on my attack and held her while she calmed down. After a moment, Y/N scootched closer till her nose brushes against my shoulder and squeezes me tight. “I hope I didn’t embarrass you.” 

“How could you embarrass me? Saying nice things about me and throwing ice cream at my brothers is not embarrassing. It was pretty funny when you threw my sword around though.” She groans again and throws the covers back over herself. 

“Hey, there’s something I almost forgot.”

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t get to say all the things I like about you.” 

“You like me?” I playfully scoffed and poked her form under the covers.

“I think we’ve already established this. Hmm, let’s see.” I looked around her room as I thought about it.

“I like your eyes… the way you blush whenever I get you flustered. I like the fact that you enjoy my sense of humor… But the thing that I like most about you…” I took note of a framed picture of Y/N with all of us, a giant smile on her face. I smile at the image.  “Would have to be your never-ending compassion for others. I mean, the first time we met, you were ready to take me on so that you could heal Mikey.” I peeked back to see she had uncovered her face and was looking at me with stars in her eyes. 

“Wow, and I thought my rambling was embarrassing.” I sputter as she giggles at my outburst, that gorgeous smile back on her face.

“Wha– Hey, I was trying to make you feel better, not get verbally attacked!” She continued to laugh. “Alright, that’s it!” I launch at Y/N and tackle her to the bed, assaulting her with hugs and kisses. She half-heartedly tries to push against me but I could tell she was enjoying this. “You’re lucky you’re still recovering, otherwise I’d be tickling you to death right now.”

“Is that a threat? I’ll have you know my boyfriend is a super-ultra rad ninja. He doesn’t take kindly to threats.” I hum against her neck and I could feel her shiver at the sensation.

“Well, from the sounds of it, I should be scared of this supposed ninja.” She leans and pecks me on the snout.

“Trust me, he’s super scary and handsome. You don’t stand a chance.” I huff and kiss her back.

“Sounds like I need to prove myself. I can think of a few ways…”

“Please do.” 

Chapter Text

  *Gold*

“Nom, nom, nom, nom … Eat us we are delicious!”

“So Donnie, you hate Hawaiian pizza, but you like this?”

"Yeah, I’m with Y/N, couldn’t we just order cheese?”

“What? You mean not get the Super Creepy Supreme?” Donnie picks up a slice, Leo looking just as confused as his brother. April sighed and sat her chin in her hand.

“I wish, just once! We could go to a normal pizza spot.” 

“Hate to break it to you Apes, but this is their normal. I mean, look at them!” I motioned to the boys, Leo being gracious enough to be mock offended.

“Hey, you know we can’t go into human places with this whole situation going on.” He gestures to his face. “Embrace it, you two; you’re a magnet for weirdness.” He shrugged with a smile, and I glanced over at April.

“I can’t tell if he meant that as an offense or not.”

“ *Sigh*, Sometimes a girl just needs normal– ugh!” Donnie and Leo have stuffed their mouths full of the squirming worm things and April looks at them in disgust. 

“April, weren’t you the one who got all excited about getting a torn worm arm from your favorite reporter for your birthday? If I’d have known that, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of baking you your favorite cake.”

“Hey, just because I love the craziness, doesn’t mean I don’t want normal stuff too.” I was going to respond when loud shouting came from across the room.

“Okay, birthday boy! Get ready to…” Donnie and Leo quickly pick up their menus in front of their faces. I raised a brow in confusion until I saw what they were looking at, and quickly scooted down below the table.

“PAR-TAY!”

*SPLATTER*

When I lifted my head above the table, I noticed April was covered in Exploding Frankie.

“Hah. Aw, Exploding Frankie never gets old.” Donnie and Leo put their menus back down to grab another slice.

“Sorry, didn’t have time to warn you.” She looks at me in disappointment before she wipes off Frankie and scoots out of the booth.

“I’m going to class.” April leaves us, and I sigh in exhaustion. 

“See what you did? Nice.”

“What the honk did I do?”

~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later

The last customer of the night waved goodbye as I closed the door and flipped the open sign over. I shut down the register and headed to the kitchen to prep the dough for tomorrow when I got a text from April.

Slugger :

‘Hey, I was just wondering if you’d want to come hang out with me and a new friend of mine! Her name’s Sunita, I met her at school today.’

‘Of course! Where are we meeting?’

‘Over at the park, next to the giant rock birds like to sit on.’

‘Sounds good, I’ll be there in a few minutes!’ 

‘ 👍 ’

I headed up the stairs to grab a jacket from my room and saw Grammy in the living room. "Grammy, I'm going to the park to meet April. I'll be right back!" She looked back at me and narrowed her eyes.

“Do you have your wristwatch?” I lifted my right arm to show Donnie’s communicator. She nodded. “Good. Have fun, and do try to avoid angry mutants.” 

“Will do!” Just as I was leaving, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and grabbed it to see a text from Leo.

Mi Cielito:

‘Hey, no biggie if I can’t, but would it be cool if I used some of your makeup?’

I stopped in my tracks in front of the door and reread the message.

‘Umm, sure? It’s in my bathroom. Is there something going on or are you just in the mood to look awesome?’

‘Would you believe me if I said yes to the second one?’

‘Well when you put it like that… no.’

‘Don’t worry nothing’s going on. Donnie and I just want to dress up to go out on the town 😉 ’

‘If you say so… have at it! 🤗 ’

‘💖’

~~~~~

*Blue*

“Are we good?”

“Yeah, now hold still; your eyebrow’s smeared a bit.”

Donnie sat on the lip of Y/N’s bathtub while I grabbed one of her sharpies from the desk. We had her bag of makeup strewn over the sink, her eyeshadow palette ready to go.

“Audible gasp! Hortense can’t have that.” Donnie leans forward so I can reach his bandana while he grabs the eyeshadow palette and brush. “Operation: Normal is about to commence. Leo, how do you feel about pink?”

“Fire away bro.”

~~~

*Gold*

Going out to the park in the evening can be such a lovely time. It’s made even better with friends, especially new ones.

“Thanks for showing me around. New York is a-mazing! They took all of the charm of the sidewalk and made it higher! SO COOL!”

“Hah! You should’ve been up here when we were fighting Meat Sweats.” I stand behind Sunita while making an X with my arms.

“X-nay on the eat-smetz nay!” April looks at me in panic and tries to backtrack.

“I… mean, um, fighting the sweats I get when I eat too much pork!” I smack my hand against my forehead. “That’s not any better, is it?” I jump in to try and salvage the conversation.

“Hey Sunita, where did you get those boots? They’re so cool!” 

April sends me a hidden thumbs-up as Sunita mentions a store that sells different shoes. From behind us, I could hear some yelling in the crowd. I go to turn my head to see what the commotion is when the sound of a screaming bird surprises us. April and Sunita pointed out a pigeon that fell off of the giant rock nearby. We shrug and turn back when Sunita notices something and grabs April.

“OMG, what is that?” April scrambles in her arms while I look around frantically for any rampaging mutants.

“What is it?!” Sunita points and we look to see…

“Oh, a pretzel cart?” April relaxes on Sunita’s shoulder (dang this girl is strong). I slowly lower my arms from their defensive position and breathe a sigh of relief. “Have you never had a genuine New York street pretzel?” Sunita puts April back down on the ground.

“No, but can I now? Please, please, please, please?”

“You can’t deny her now, April.” She smirks, and they start to walk over to the stall.

“Oh, it is on!”

I move to go with them when I sense an all too familiar presence nearby. Subtly, so as not to worry the others, I flit my gaze around and spot the telltale flash of a blue portal opening and closing in a cluster of bushes. 

…Huh.

“Hey April, did you see–”

“Get your pretzels! Dip em’ in yellow or —ah, dark yellow!” 

I turn to see Leo, dressed up in an old lady outfit, running the pretzel cart. I don’t know whether to be concerned or amused. April immediately realizes who we are looking at (how many old ladies go around wearing a ninja bandana?) and I can see her physically having to hold her annoyance at bay.

“What are you doing here?” 

“Oh, what a cute old lady! Are you guys friends?” April’s horrified expression nearly broke my composure, but I kept it together long enough for her to turn Sunita away from Leo.

“No! That’d be weird.” She starts to push Sunita away from the stand. “My grammy’s an old lady. Let’s go get pizza. Come on,Y/N!”  

“Just a sec, I wanted a pretzel.” She gave me a pleading look, and I waved her off with a reassuring smile before I turned to Leo. “So, I’m guessing this is why you asked about my makeup? Nice use of the eyeshadow; it really goes with your mask.” He flips the ends of his bandana over his shoulder and gives an over the top smolder.

“I know right? Totally goes with my eyes. Don’t tell April, but I’m trying to help her have a normal night out. Hey,” He points over to April and Sunita, who are quickly leaving the park. “You might want to catch up with them if you want to enjoy April’s ‘normal night’.” He says it in air quotes.

“Ookay. So everyone is trying to be normal tonight? I can vibe with that.” I waved him goodbye and jogged over to the girls. If I heard any commotion coming from behind me, I elected to ignore it.

~~~

“Hah, this is more like it. Just a group of normal gals, eating normal pizza, in a normal pizza restaurant.” I covered one side of my face so Sunita couldn’t see me talk.

“I think you’re putting a little too much emphasis on ‘normal’, Apes.” She lightly shoves me back and I laugh at her.

“Par-tay!” April gasps and scrambles to put her menu up to her face. I look over and see a group of people celebrating a little girl’s birthday. I glance back at April. This girl has been seriously traumatized, maybe she really does need some normal.

“Everything ok?” Sunita asks, looking at April with a worried expression.

“Yeah, just a bad birthday experience.” The waiter comes by and begins to take our order. 

“Waiter, these New Yorkers would like your New Yorkiest pizza!” 

As April ordered us some water, I noticed a weird presence. Something akin to a mixture of violent urges and excitement. I confusedly glanced around the room, but no one looked ready to stab anyone. Maybe it was outside–

“Would you care for any lemon?”

*SMACK*

I jump in surprise and look out the window to see Leo’s smushed face against the glass.

“NO!” April shouts as she sees Leo too. How Sunita didn’t notice raises some questions, but whatever.

“Yep, yep. Lemon does anger a lot of people.” April and I share a worried look, and she gives me a signal and points to Sunita. I nod my head and give a thumbs up.

“Um, I’ll be right back.” April jumps out of the booth and gives a menu to Sunita and I. “You two look for a dessert.” She dashes out the door, and Sunita takes a look at the menu before gasping.

“I will not let you down! Y/N, what about the double hot fudge brownie supreme!” 

I carefully glanced out the window to see all hell’s breaking loose. Donnie (I’m assuming from the outfit he’s been hanging with Leo tonight) was fighting it out with the big foot guy, while Leo was thrown into a wall by the Foot Recruit. I quietly winced in sympathy, and turned back to Sunita when I saw April walk up to him.

“So, Sunita, are you enjoying New York so far? Where did you live before you traveled here?” I got a flash of panic from her before her emotions settled again.

“Oh, you know, out on some islands. My family traveled to a lot of different places! How about you? Have you always been a New Yorker?” I was about to say yes but my mind paused.

“Islands… that seems familiar for some reason…” I didn’t notice Sunita giving me a confused look or that the pizza arrived. Why was this bothering me so much? Every time I tried to think about it, it felt like my thoughts slipped away on a pane of glass. 

As Sunita stabbed a slice of pizza with a fork to put on her plate, I was brought back to reality by April swooping back into the store.

“Pizza’s so last week. Let’s go. Out the back.” Sunita was grabbed by April and began to drag her out of the restaurant.

“Hey, let’s at least get a to-go box!”

~~~

The room we used to prepare our chest piece and weapons was dark with brightly lit neon carpet. The Lazerdome was a high end lazer tag battleground that went all out, including the optional black outfits to go with the armor. April and I opted in on them, hers sporting horizontal stripes down the thighs and knee pads, while mine had similar stripes down the arms. Sunita declined the offer and simply donned the normal gear. I pulled April aside to speak with her.

“So, what were Leo and Donnie doing fighting the Foot outside?” April rolled her eyes.

“Apparently they just happened to be fighting them near us. A little too coincidental, but Leo promised to try and stay away for tonight. Now we can just enjoy our relaxing game of laser tag.”

Right. Relaxing.

Inside, the arena was lit with black lights, making the battleground look super science-fictiony with the green neon decals. We could hear other contestants inside shooting their guns and laughing screams. I watched April and Sunita do the splits in mid-air, firing extremely accurate shots at the other team.

“Wow, I am supremely impressed and slightly jealous right now.” We all huddled together against one of the walls.

“Now this is what I’m talking about!” April shouts as she fires off another round.

“I didn’t know laser tag could be so much fun! We’ve almost racked up enough points to win one of the big prizes!” Sunita moves to stand.

“Yeah, laser tag was a great idea!” She begins to move away to head up to the ramps above. “Cover me!” April and I stay behind to shoot anyone coming after her when I sense that same violent presence, as well as Leo. It doesn’t take much longer to visually confirm it either. I watch as they roll by, punching and kicking all the way. April sees this and heaves a massive sigh. 

“Really?” We moved to investigate.

Sliding to the next opening, we see Leo on top of the Foot Recruit, grappling each other with one of his fingers stuck in her nose.

Gross.

“Ugh, again? Come on, Leo.” He turns to sheepishly smile at us. April is not amused. “Ruining my normal day and laser tag?” She gives one of the meanest glares I’ve seen. “Laser tag, is sacred.” Oddly enough, the Foot Recruit agrees.

“Beyond sacred. How could you?!” She growls, Leo’s thumb still in her nostril. Leo pushes back and tries to appease April.

“We’ve been trying to help you have a normal day, but these foot bozos keep following you.” 

“That’s what you think we’re doing? Pfft, ha!” She then tackles and flips Leo into the air, crashing into April. They skidded to the ground next to my feet.

“You know, I’m thinking you just can’t escape the abnormal.” They groaned and stood up. April pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation.

“Okay, look. We’re gonna help you kick their butts, and then you two, got to go .” She grabs Leo’s sweater and drags his face to hers. “Deal?” She holds out her hand to us, with a smile on her face. Leo smiles back, and together we fist bump. 

Glancing down, I’m reminded of how much larger Leo’s hands are than ours. Just one of his fingers would easily wrap around the entirety of my palm. It was an odd thought to have, because Leo’s held my hand on multiple occasions. Why was I only thinking about this now? Slowly, the implications had me struggling to keep my face from heating up. I looked up and was surprised to see him watching me with an odd, almost curious expression on his face. I knew he couldn’t read minds, but it almost felt like he had caught my train of thought. After a second, he looked back at April and smirked.

“Deal. Operation Normal is about to get un-normal, and then go back to normal.” The two rush forward and face off against the Foot Recruit. I watched as April went to swing her gun at the Foot Recruit while Leo went in for a swinging kick.

“Umm, I’ll just… go find where Sunita went. And maybe see if Donnie’s okay.” I’m assuming they heard me as I turned around and headed back to where we last saw our new friend. She was going up the stairs to the ramps above…

Ah.

Up above, I can see Donnie being thrown about by the big Foot Lieutenant, then watched as Sunita kicks him and smashes him through the ramp’s rails. She stands on top of his chest, almost like he was a surfboard, before he crashes to the ground. I look back up to see Donnie peering over the edge.

“Uh, was that Sunita? She’s got a little pepper.” He smiles in approval, and I shrug my shoulders.

“If I’d of told you that was the weirdest thing I’ve seen tonight, I’d be lying.” He floats down to me using his battle shell.

“I’m assuming April is with Leo?” I look him over and see multiple bruises cropping up.

“Yeah, they’re working on it. Here, let me patch you up a bit.” He sighs in appreciation as his pain melts away.

“We need to see if you can bottle this up to save for later. That would be extremely useful.” 

“Ha, we’ll do some testing. For now, let’s get back to the action.” We fistbump and race back to the others. Sunita had caught up with April, who in turn looked absolutely panicked.

“April!”

“Sunita!”

“What’s, um,” April smacks her lips in thought. ”New?” Sunita darts her eyes around in silent panic.

“You know, stuff.” I groan and smack my hand to my forehead.

“For crying out loud…” Then of course, chaos ensues. The Foot Recruit and Lieutenant come at us from both sides, before we hear the sounds of our ‘saviors’.

“Oh no you don’t; Grandma’s here!” Donnie and Leo crash into the two, and once again the fight continues.

April yanked me back, and we were now crouched behind a barricade together with Sunita.

“Is that a flying turtle in an old purple dress?”

“Pfft, you noticed Donnie but not Leo at the pretzel cart?” April simply rolls her eyes and tells the truth.

“Um, yep! Look, Sunita, you’re way cool, and this has been a blast, but there’s some super dangerous guys after me, and I’ll text you later. Maybe we can get some ice cream?” She has that look on her face, and suddenly it all makes sense.

Was I seriously third-wheeling it right now?

“After you? No, they’re after me!” Well, now we're all confused.

“What? Why would the Foot Clan be after you?” 

“Ugh, they’ve been following me for days. That’s why I went undercover as a human. I just wanted to have a normal day!” She taps the brooch on her shirt, and bright green shimmers around her to reveal herself. April gasps in shock.

“You’re a Yokai?!” 

“A googlycshmootz. You had some on your shoulder earlier.” I spent a second looking between April and Sunita, thinking about her words. I grabbed April by the shoulder.

“Pot, meet kettle.” She gave me an exasperated look why Sunita seemed confused by the saying. Looking over the barricade, we could see the fight had taken a less than stellar turn for our two grannies.

Donnie was being stomped on by Foot Recruit while the Lieutenant was stretching Leo across his shoulders. I sigh in exhaustion. These two were clearly in for some healing later.

“Hey, Sunita. Isn’t today, your birthday?” She shakes her head.

“Today isn’t my birthda– Oh, good thinking.” Together, April swings Sunita toward the fight, and I watch in amusement as Sunita explodes, green goop going absolutely everywhere. Leo and Donnie had barely escaped the blast, confused as to what was going on.

“Where’s Sunita?” I hold a hand to my mouth to stifle a laugh while April gestures to the mess. They were horrified by what she was implying.

“AH! She’s in puddles! April, it is not, ‘normal’, to liquefy your friends!” Leo looks at me in shock.

“Why didn’t you stop her Y/N? You know April has no self-control!” I can’t contain my laughter any longer and April simply points to the ground.

“Yeah.” Sunita reforms herself and taps the brooch to activate her human form again. The boys go from horrified to ecstatic.

“Hohoho, she’s like Exploding Frankie! It never gets old, I love it!” Donnie smirked and had that, “I told you so,” expression.

“Hah, so I guess you never stopped being a weirdo magnet after all, huh, April?” I scoff good-naturedly and lean on April’s shoulder.

“I could of told you that. April, if this is your version of a normal day, I’d hate to see a non-normal one.”

“You know what? I don’t need to be normal. For me, weird is normal,” She pulls Sunita and I into her arms. “And I am so cool with that.” Sunita smiles at us.

“As a fellow weirdo, I concur.” She glances at Leo. “Hey, fake pearls! You’re standing on my toe schmootz. I need that to fully reform– Hey, where are my boots?” We glanced down to see her feet were bare. A thought popped into my mind.

“Hey Sunita, you said the Foot had been following you for days before you went out in disguise. If they had only been following you while you were in your Yokai form, how could they have known that you were you?” She looked at me, then her feet again.

“You think they were after my shoes? Why?” Dawning anxiety creeps up, and it’s not coming from only me. I look over and see growing concern on Leo and Donnie’s faces.

“Your boots were probably in actuality pieces of a dark armor they have been trying to reassemble. Great, another piece in their hands.” Sunita didn’t understand, but the rest of us looked down at the ground with a mixture of frustration and shame.

How many more times can they afford to slip up? How close are they to bringing back the Shredder?

They didn’t know.

Chapter Text

So, let me ask this,

‘Y/N, why were you dangling from a chandelier at a crime boss's banquet, with dozens of dangerous Yokai down below ready to tear out your insides?’  

We’ll get to that.

~~~

“Camping, camping, camping, camping!”

The boys all cheered in excitement, holding aloft their marshmallow roasting sticks, when Master Splinter, wearing what looked to be a military helmet and uniform, poked his head out of the turtle tank’s window.

“Boys, we leave for intense survival training in exactly one minute!” At that announcement, the boys collectively groaned in irritation. Mikey, in his adorable bucket hat, sags his shoulders in defeat.

“Survival training? I thought we were going camping.” Splinter blinks at him before waving his concerns away.

“It’s just like camping, only you learn which bugs are the yummiest and how to drink your own sweat!” I frown and point to the container in my hand.

“What about the treats I made you guys? They’re s'mores cookies!” Splinter rubs his chin in thought.

“Well, since you went to the effort… fine.” I smile and pass them off to Leo, pecking him on the cheek. He smiles and rubs his snout against my nose. 

“Thanks for holding down the fort guys. We’ll miss you while we’re gone for what we originally thought was going to be a fun weekend.” He sighs and walks up the ramp. Donnie slides over to us and gestures to Shelldon.

“Now, don’t forget to change Shelldon’s coolant thrice daily; that means three times,” He begins to point to various spots on Shelldon. “And give him a little skritch behind the ears, here, here, here, and here.” Sunita leans against the tank's ginormous tire and smiles reassuringly.

“Don’t worry. We got you covered.” 

“Boys, in the Tank!” In a single file line, the boys head up the ramp. It closes behind them, leaving the lair silent.

“Girl’s night!”

~~~

Inside the main living area, Sunita had picked an… interesting show to kick off our girl’s night.

“Sauce that hog! Sauce that hog!” 

April sat across Splinter’s chair, while Sunita sat infront of her. I was over at the booth and table, working on a knitting project. 

“Seriously, the Barbecue Channel? This is not what I had in mind for girls' night.” 

“April, shh! They’re about to sauce the pig.” Sunita chanted along with them, shaking her fists in excitement. I observed from where I sat and glanced over at April.

“It’s not quite what I had in mind either, but I can roll with it.” She rolls her eyes at me, then looks at her phone after hearing a message alert.

“Nice!” She jumps up and shows her phone to Sunita. “DIGG’s doing a secret concert downtown. We are going!” April looks excited, while Sunita appears a little downcast.

“You don’t wanna see this? It took these mountain men six months to craft that sauce.” I put my knitting needles down on the table and sighed.

“Sunita, I love you, but we need to help broaden your scope of television shows.” April nods in agreement and lightly elbows Sunita.

“You need more than barbecue TV in your life, girl. Grab your cloaking brooch and let’s go!” Sunita clips on her brooch and winks at us.

“Let us rock and roll!” As we make our way out, I pop over to Donnie’s lab where Shelldon is currently jamming out to some of his creator’s playlists.

“Shelldon, we’re heading out, so hold the fort down while we’re gone. Message us if you need something.” He salutes me with a wing, and with that, we make our way to the surface.

~~ 

At the House of Rock, the display out front said in glowing letters, ‘DIGG TONIGHT’. Even from outside, we could hear the loud music playing. Glancing at each other excitedly, we went inside.

‘Pizza pit! Pizza pit! Munch munch munch in the pizza pit!’  

The loud rock music and overcrowded room of people cheering inside felt a little overwhelming (I had to close off my soul sensing to avoid a mental overload), but having Sunita and April nearby helped me feel more comfortable. Speaking of, I watched in growing amusement as they floated past, riding the crowd like a wave.

“I’m floating on a sea of fingers!” I could barely hear Sunita speaking amidst the chaos, but I laughed at her antics and enjoyed the show. 

Of course, nothing could be too simple, even for a night out with the gals.

“SUNITA! Your cloaking brooch!” I spin around to see Sunita’s googly form coating the people she was originally on top of. I muttered a curse while April and I rushed to get her covered up and outside. We hid in the alley between buildings, Sunita crouched on the ground with April’s jacket overtop of her.

“My cloaking brooch! That was a gift from my Grand-Googly!” I could feel Sunita’s sadness and frustration, making it really hard to hold myself back from punching a hole through the wall.

“Sunita, I promise, we’ll get your brooch back.” April nods her head in agreement, fire brimming behind her glasses.

“We gotta hunt down that jerk who stole it.” I thought for a moment, then snapped my fingers.

“I have an idea! Leo told me that Senor Hueso has a lot of knowledge about the underworld dealings that goes on. Maybe he would know where we can start looking.” Sunita looks up at me and smiles with hope.

“That’s a great idea! Hueso will help, I know it!” 

April pulls up her bike, and Sunita sits in the basket while I precariously stand on the bike’s rods while holding onto April. 

“You know, it would’ve been nice to have kept one of the shell hogs while the boys were gone.” April grunted as she struggled to pedal.

“We’ll make a note of it for next time.”

~~

The inside of Run of the Mill was as busy as ever, with plenty of Yokai customers seated for their meals. I noticed on our way there was a bulletin board with multiple postings pinned to it. I glanced over it as we passed and took note of a few missing person’s posters. Sunita ushered us to the back where Senor Hueso’s office was. She flew the door open, and inside Hueso sat at his desk, attempting to salvage a broken replica of a boat. He raised a non-existent eyebrow at us and sighed.

“And here I thought I would get a night free of shenanigans from you lot. Where is Pepino? I’m sure he’s around somewhere.” Sunita pushes us into the room, closes the door, and rushes to the front of his desk.

“Not today; he’s actually out on a camping trip with his family. That’s not important right now. We need your help finding whoever might’ve stolen Sunita’s brooch from her.” Hueso had the decency to look mildly concerned about our situation.

“Fine, but let’s not make this a habit. I have a contact down in the Hidden City who deals in… situations like this. Here,” He writes down on a sticky note and passes it to Sunita. “Take these directions. When you get there, the front doorman will ask you for the passcode. The answer is, ‘a secret,’.” Sunita takes the note. April stares at Hueso in confusion.

“What kind of password is a secret?” Hueso turns back to his project and waves us off.

“You should be grateful I gave you the passphrase at all. Now go on; you don’t have all night!” We hurry out of his office and make our way to the exit.

“So, Sunita, do you know where this place is?” She studied the note for a moment.

“I know the area; we’ll have to use a nearby entrance to the Hidden City to get there.” She leads us over to a nearby wall, but I hesitate. They notice me lagging behind and raise their concerns.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” 

I’ve really been pushing it lately with trips to the Hidden City. Grammy hasn’t noticed yet, but if she does, I can forget ever leaving the house altogether. I glance down at my hands.

‘No, you made a promise. You can’t let them down.’ I steel my resolve and step forward.

“I’m great; let’s get moving.”

~~~

“Hey, quick question; are there any entrances to the Hidden City that don’t involve falling from crazy heights?!” Thankfully, April and I were spared from death by Sunita cushioning our fall. I caught a flash of April feeling flustered before brushing it off. 

They’ll get there.

“Okay, this area is one of the shadier neighborhoods, so keep a low profile.” We nod and begin our trek through the streets. Feeling grateful for picking out a hoodie to wear this morning, I flip the hood up and do my best to avoid staring at anyone passing by. 

I’ve seen plenty of Yokai over the years, but it still amazes me just how many different types there are. What also interested me was that the Yokai’s souls, well, they ‘felt’ different compared to human souls. They had this vibrant mark to them that they all shared, which raised my curiosity. I didn’t have long to dwell on it, though; Sunita had signaled to us that we had arrived.

Peeking over her shoulder, I could see we were at a giant rock formation. Standing guard was a tall Yokai, made of what looked like thick tree roots and vines, its head adorned with glowing succulents. It looked down at us as we approached, its eyes glowing a dim green.

“If I have it, I shouldn't share it, because if I share it, I won't have it. What is it?” We glanced at each other for a moment before I whispered to Sunita,

“This must be what Boneman was talking about. Tell them the password.” She nods and turns to the guard.

“A secret.” 

“...Enter.” The Yokai places its hand on the wall, and the roots from it branch out and form an archway that opens to reveal the entrance. April glanced at me, and I took a moment to analyze the Yokai’s aura. I couldn’t sense anything other than slight boredom and indifference, so I gave April a nod, and we walked through the arch.

The walls were covered in bioluminescent mushrooms, the only things providing a source of light as we began to walk down the stairs carved into the cave. The further down we went, the more I began to notice a rhythmic beat that was so strong, I could feel the ground vibrating beneath our feet. It almost sounded like… music?

We reached the end of the stairs and stood before the entrance into what we quickly realized was…

A nightclub?

“This is where Senor Hueso’s contact is? I don’t know whether to be impressed or deeply concerned.” 

The inside of the club was dark and loud, with the bass of the music pulsating in our ears. Strobe lights illuminated Yokai dancing and laughing, with dozens of them wandering around. A shimmer above caught my eye, and I looked up in awe to see multiple couples dancing above us in mid-air. My best guess was that they were using some sort of gravity-defying mystics to liven things up. April whistles in appreciation.

“Donnie would absolutely love this place.” 

As we wandered further in, I began to notice a few people making side-eyed comments about our presence. Even with all of the different characters here, two humans following a Yokai wasn’t the most common sight. We had just passed the bar when someone stopped us.

“Ey, you three. Boss wants to see ya.” The Yokai was about a head shorter than Raph, with dark red fur covering him from head-to-toe. He glared down at us with bright blue eyes, the pupils shaped like a cat’s.

“Well, that’s perfect, cause we wanna see them too.” He scoffs at my comment and turns around for us to follow. He takes us up some stairs, climbing up until we are looking down on most of the club. We stop at a door where another bouncer is stationed. He gives us a look, then knocks on the door. With a swoosh, the door slides open, and we step through.

Seated in front of us was a reptile-looking Yokai, their legs crossed as they stared us down. Their scales shimmered purple from the head down, then faded into a bright blue that we could see from their exposed tail and feet. They wore a silver satin button-up; the shirt opened at mid-chest level. The shirt was tucked loosely into black pants, and I noticed they had jewelry attached to the base of their tail and right ankle. All together, they emanated power. We needed to tread carefully. 

“So, these are the los jovenes looking for me, huh?” We glanced at each other in surprise. “My name is Kaylik Pesalis, and you are inside my organization, Incubae.” April was the one to respond.

“How did you know we were looking for you?” They tilt their head to the side, a growing smile on their lips.

“I know everything there is to know about the Hidden City. It helps to have eyes and ears everywhere. Speaking of,” They lean forward, holding their hands in their lap, “They’ve told me quite a bit about your little gang of troublemakers. For so-called ‘ninjas,’ your lot isn’t exactly subtle.” I give a knowing glance to April, who rolls her eyes in response.

“Yeah, try telling that to them. Enough about that. We need your help. Our friend here had her cloaking brooch stolen from her, and we want to get it back.”

Kaylik glances at Sunita, then slowly trails her eyes to mine. They kept eye contact for what felt like an eternity before finally responding.

“Hmm, what you describe sounds familiar. There’s a Yokai mob boss that deals in stolen artifacts, dealing them out to the highest bidder.” Kaylik stands, their long tail brushing along the floor. They turned their back to us to stare down through the window, observing the nightclub from above. “He enslaves what he refers to as, ‘lesser yokai,’ to do his dirty work, then uses them until they break.” They turn back to glance at our reactions. 

Hearing that someone would have the mindset that someone is lower than them… it’s disgusting. I can see it in my friends' expressions that this bothers them as well. Sunita looks to be taking it the worst.

“I’ve heard about this. That’s why stuff like cloaking brooches are rare among us. The only ones who do are the top dogs like Big Mama, who can dish those out to her servants.” At the mention of her name, I could sense a flash of rage in Kaylik. I flick my gaze over to them and see they are staring at me again.

“You should be careful down here, little light; there are quite a few that would love to use that power of yours.” April and Sunita glanced at me in concern, while I kept my focus on Kaylik. 

“What?” 

“It’s just a little talent of mine, being able to see what others can’t. It’s saved my life more times than I’d care to admit.” They flick their tail and step closer to stand in front of me. “I’ll help you find your friend’s brooch.” They raised a hand, and the red Yokai from earlier stepped forward. “Garbon will lead you to where the boss keeps his stolen goods.”

Sunita looks relieved, but I could sense apprehension from April.

“What’s the catch?” Kalyik takes a moment to study each one of us before turning back around to sit in their chair once more.

“I’m well-known for dealing in trades of knowledge and favors. In exchange for this information, I’ll require a favor.” April and I glance at each other before she answers.

“What sort of favor are you looking for?” Kaylik’s smile widens.

“For now, nothing. That’s the beauty of favors. Even if I don’t need anything right now, I’ll know I can get it by asking the right person later.” They glance over to Garbon and motion him forward.

“Now, on you go! Brooches to reclaim and all that. Be sure to give my regards to Hueso next time you see him; he makes an amazing Italian supreme.” They snap their fingers, and we are swiftly removed from the nightclub.

I wish I would have just asked to return the favor right there and then.

~~~~~

Oddly enough, Garbon led us back up to the surface. I believe we ended up on the upper east side, with the view of Central Park visible from the roof we stood on.

“So, what are we looking at?” 

Garbon brought us to what appeared to be a large mansion painted in silvers and grays. Giant windows glowed brightly from the lights inside, and we could hear music and people even from outside.

“You’re lookin’ at Barvan’s Palace, his personal den of scum and villainy. Likes to throw little parties with some of his clients, whether they be yokai or human.” I glanced at him in surprise.

“There are humans who buy Yokai artifacts?” 

“Quite a few.” He nods and stands from his crouch. “Word of advice? Watch the claws.” Sunita shook her head at him.

“Thanks for the cryptic information.”

Garbon gives us a final wave as he walks away. April watches him leave with a raised brow.

We observed the outside for a few minutes, then I faced the others.

“What’s the plan?” April thinks for a moment, glancing through the windows.

“I’m seeing a mixture of yokai and humans, if they’re not just yokai wearing brooches. Maybe we can sneak in and get to his vault?” Sunita hums and leans back on the roof.

“We’re going to need someone to play distraction, keep people from seeing the one getting into the vault.” I snapped my fingers.

“We need Shelldon here to run reconnaissance and help with unlocking the vault. April, can you call him over?” 

“On it.” 

We spent the time waiting for Shelldon to fly over from the lair to observe the guests inside. It was quite the soiree, with many people wandering around with bubbling drinks in hand, talking in groups, or dancing in the center to the live band playing. I took a minute to stretch out my awareness and get a reading on the people inside. Most of them had a similar aura—jubilant with a side of mischief. One struck out in particular, and I honed in on their soul for a closer inspection. This one had an almost similar aura to Kaylik; powerful and authoritative. Where it differed was in its core nature. The easiest way to describe it was that they were… hungry. Always craving more, wanting everything they could have. 

“Reporting for duty, dudettes!” Shelldon zoomed up to us and saluted April. 

“Great, now that everyone is here, let’s go over the plan. Shelldon, can you run a scan on the building and its security?”

“On it!” Shelldon zooms over to the building and begins his scans. 

“Y/N, what did you get on the people inside?” 

“A big crowd, only a few guards from the suspicious auras they’re emitting. I didn’t sense anything overly malicious, but it’s difficult to differentiate with so many people.” April nodded and looked over as Shelldon came back. He projected a purple framework of the building.

“Scans show that behind the main gala room, there is a back storage area that leads to an underground section, most likely where he’s keeping his stash.” The section he was talking about lit up and zoomed in on a small room. “Something is blocking me from scanning beyond that area, so your hidden vault might be there.” 

We spent a moment longer talking out the specifics of the plan, then split into our teams.

~~~

“Alright Shelldon, just you and me, squeezing through air ducts. Super fun.” 

“Don’t look at me; you volunteered to get into the vault.”

Below us was the main event area, where all the guests were mingling. Shelldon and I were making our way from there to the back room, where we hoped to find the hidden entrance. A tiny crackle, and Sunita’s voice echoed in my ear.

“Doin’ alright up there? It’s a good thing you’re not claustrophobic like me.” 

“Heh, you enjoying the fancy food down there? I think I spied a French macaron tower earlier.” I could hear nervous laughter on the other end before April spoke up.

“Don’t worry Sunita, we got this! Just gotta keep the crowd distracted so Y/N and Shelldon can sneak in.” 

At least, that was the plan. 

“Ladies and gentle beings, I’d like to make a toast!” 

Shelldon and I stopped at the booming voice. A vent closer ahead gave us a view of the crowd below. 

In front of the crowd stood a tall and lean yokai wearing a deep green suit. From our viewpoint, he stood facing sideways, so I was able to get a look at his face. I could see a light-silvery shade to the dark brown fur on his face, with a pale buff stripe running laterally down his neck into his suit. His paw raised a glass that engulfed the entire thing. With a slight shiver, I noted his long and sharp claws that glinted under the chandelier lighting.

“I’d like to dedicate this banquet to each and every one of you. Those that do what is necessary to keep the lowlifes at bay. Without you, chaos would surely ensue.”  

Roaring applause erupted from the crowd, many with smiles on their faces cheering for Barvan. 

It made me sick.

“Shelldon, remind me later to ask Donnie to fry their tech.”

“You got it.” 

I continued my crawl to the end Shelldon said the storage room was, only for the panel below me to groan and collapse under the pressure.

Shit.

My saving grace was the fact that a chandelier was dangling nearby, allowing me to desperately grab hold of it to stop my rapid descent to the crowd below. I could hear the jangling of jewels around me from where they hung on the light fixture, as well as strangled gasps from my comrades.

“Y/N!”

“Oh no.”

“Can they see me??” As the chandelier spun me around, I could barely get a glimpse of a rapidly moving green blur below.

“Not yet, but with the way you’re spinning about, someone sure will!” I heard a crackle and April’s voice.

“Shelldon, stop the chandelier from spinning so Y/N can get back up. Sunita, cause a distraction.”

“Like what?! Oh wait a second.” I spotted Shelldon lowering down to push against the other side of the lights, stopping it and keeping me from losing my lunch.

“Thanks Shelly.” 

“No prob bob.”

“Any chance you can fly me back up to the vent?” He shakes his head and I groan. “Okay, okay. Don’t panic. What would Leo do?” 

*Zoom in on the inside of the turtle tank*

“AAAHCHOO!” Leo sniffles as he recovers from his sneeze. 

“Leo’s sick! He’s going to infect us all!!” 

“Mikey calm down, I’m not sick! Donnie, you didn’t think to make an override on the 24 hour lockdown??” Donnie doesn’t even look back as he wildly types with his multiple mechanical arms.

“That defeats the purpose of a lockdown Nardo.” They can all tell though, that he is regretting not making some form of a shutdown function.

*Back to the action*

I looked below to see that Sunita had gathered a group around the band and had kept most of them occupied with her antics. April was below me, glancing around to make sure no one was too close. I looked back up to where the ducts were and noticed that near the chandelier’s chain attaching it to the ceiling were the joists going across the room in a sort of honeycomb pattern. 

“I’m gonna make my way up to the top. Really wishing I had more practice in rope climbing right now.” I heard a short exhale from April and I glanced down to see her give me a thumbs up.

“Don’t worry, you got this! If you make it up, I promise to not tell Leo what you said earlier.” My face instantly warmed up and I could tell without looking down she had an evil smile on her face. 

“I’ll hold you to that.” With a grunt, I hauled myself up as carefully as I could and began to climb the chain. 

“It’s only a few feet up, just don’t look down.” 

“You’re— oof, not helping Apes.” 

“Wasn’t trying to.” 

Shelldon floated nearby, slowly rising the higher up I got. I could feel the beads of sweat running down my back as I climbed, praying that my hands wouldn’t get slippery. 

“You’re doing great Y/N! You should think about climbing professionally.” 

“Sunita, please, don’t make me laugh right now.”

“Oops, sorry.” 

With one last heave, I pulled myself onto the nearby beam. I spent a second catching my breath, then reached a fist out to Shelldon for him to bump.

“Come on, the entry is just up ahead.” He gestures forward with a wing and I can see the access panel. I took another glance below, then crawled forward to open the hatch and hop inside.

“Blegh! This room smells like rotten potatoes. Shelldon, can you shine a light in here?” He turns on the flashlights in his eyes, bathing the room in a bright purple glow. Carefully, we moved forward through the room to investigate. “Are you able to scan the room now that we’re closer?” He takes a moment to scan the perimeter, then hones in on one wall. 

“There’s a mechanism inside the bookshelf. Pull the 3rd book from the right.” I do so and a panel opens up, revealing a door with a complicated lock in the center.

“Ooh boy, okay Shelldon, time to put your creator’s skills to use and crack this puppy open.” He attaches himself to the door and a loading bar begins to fill on his back.

“April, we’re almost inside. What’s the situation out there?” 

“Well, somehow Sunita convinced a majority of the crowd into a karaoke battle. It’s keeping everyone’s attention at least. I’m watching over Barvan. He’s been talking to some pretty shady characters.” I hum in thought as I watched the loading bar fill completely. Shelldon dings with a successful chime and the door swings open. “We’re in. Keep us posted.” 

“Roger.”

Shelldon and I make our way inside. It was a long narrow hallway with dim red lights along the ground guiding our way. At the end was another door, this one with less tech and more mystic vibes goin’ on. I reach forward and touch the doorknob.

It swings open to reveal the treasure within, and I gasp in shock.

Inside was definitely what we were looking for. Artifacts, books, a lot of gold with pink unicorns resting on the piles. What I wasn’t expecting though, was a group of chained up Yokai.

“What the hell? Guys, they have people trapped down here.” A garbled crackle was the only response I got. “April? Sunita? Shelldon, I think comms are being blocked by some sort of mystic energy.” I glanced back at the entrance with worry, but pushed on to crouch near the group of people. “Is anyone hurt? I can help free you.” One of the individuals looked up to me and I felt sorrow seep from them. She had similar markings as a spotted gecko, and with a start I realized I recognized her from one of the missing person’s posters inside Run of the Mill.

“Are you here to take us away?” The others glanced at me with wary looks, distrust plastered on their expressions. I noticed the gecko Yokai had a small cut above where the cuffs lay on her wrists and carefully covered it with my hands. With a gentle murmur, her arm lit up with mystic warmth, and her cut was gone. She looked from her recovered wrist to my face with growing awe.

“I’m here to help. Let’s get these cuffs off. Shelldon, can you see if there are any other exits we can use?” 

“On it.”

I knew that Barvan wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave a key lying around, so I looked for the next best thing. There was a stockpile of mystic weapons here, one of which being a dagger that was a little longer than my hand. As I held it in my hand, it slightly shook and split into two identical blades.

“Huh.” I took one and placed it in my hoodie pocket. The other one I drew out of its scabbard and observed the prismatic sheen, as well as an engraving along the blade that read,

‘When one splits two, the two will always become one again’

With that mystery to mull over later, I strike against the metal cuffs and note the satisfying clang that came with the material breaking. As I released more, they began to stand and glance around. One of them pointed over to the pile of gold.

“Well, since he left it there so invitingly…” They began to stuff what they could into their pockets. I gave them a smirk of approval and freed the final prisoner. The gecko Yokai rubbed her wrists as she stepped closer.

“How can we ever thank you?” I projected my movements so that she wouldn’t get spooked by me, and rested a hand on her shoulder.

“Do you know why you were taken?” She looks down in frustration.

“Not sure. Overheard something about needing us for ‘testing’, but that was it.” I frown in thought but brush it off for now.

“Take care of yourselves. That’s all I need from you.” I finally got a small smile out of her. 

“Y/N, come check this out!” Shelldon shouted at me from the other side of the room. I patted her on her shoulder once more before moving to find him. On the way I spotted something and stowed it away for later. 

“What’s up Shelly-baby? Got an exit?” He rolls his eyes at the nickname and scoots over to see what he was talking about. There was a small emergency hatch that went below the building. 

“This must be in case Barvan needs to make a quick escape. Nice going buddy!” We high-five then get the others over to make their way out. After the last person, I start my descent down.

~~~

“Y/N? Girl you better answer right now or I swear—”

“April? Hey don’t kill me, the vault was messing with comms! We’re alright.” I could hear her sigh in relief. “Are you guys alright? Where’s Sunita?” I snuck back into the party, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible to get back to the others. There was loud cheering and singing going on, so my best guess was that Sunita still had karaoke running.

When I got to the main room I saw Sunita and April make their way over to me.

“Ready to get out of here, did you get the brooch?” 

I was just about to answer when I caught a flash of nauseating dark energy coming from the other side of the room. I glanced over to see a man hovering in the corner, his eyes hidden by the tinted shades he wore. Human, from the brief look I got, but something about him screamed ‘ danger ’. Even though I couldn’t see his eyes, I knew he was staring right at me.

“Y/N, we gotta go now!”  

“R-Right. I’m coming–”

“Nobody outplays Barvan.”

Garbon was right. I should have watched for the claws.

“Y/N!!” 

Funny, I thought the feeling of my skin being torn open in my back would have been instant, but there was a moment where I felt nothing but shock staring at April’s horrified face. As I fell to the ground, the ruptures finally screamed out, the pain causing me to fall to the ground in agony.

They say pain is blinding. I’d have to agree, seeing as how I can’t remember how we got out of there. I could hear shouting from April and Sunita, someone hoisting me up into their arms, and being carried out of there. The rest was an adrenaline filled blur until we were back down in the sewers. Sounds started processing through my brain again, and I could finally respond to my friend's growing distress. Sunita and April were crouched in front of me, Shelldon hovering anxiously behind them.

“How… How did we get away? Barvan—”

“Oh don’t worry, he got his fair share tonight.” April glanced away and I could sense the fury brimming underneath her irritated expression.

“Y/N! Are you alright?!” I winced in pain but managed to smile at Sunita.

“I’ll be fine. Here, I have something of yours.” I reached into my hoodie pocket, and placed the object in her hand.

“You got my brooch back!”

“I made a promise. I always keep my promises.”

As carefully as they could, April and Sunita each took an arm and hoisted me up between them. To say the walk back to the lair was slow would be the understatement of the year.

“Sooo, we gonna watch the rest of Sauce that Hog?” April barks a laugh.

“You know what? That actually sounds pretty damn good right about now.”

~~~

“Careful, take it slow.” April helps me sit down on the gurney the boys have set up in the med room. The faint smell of cleaning supplies was a constant here. Sunita was behind me looking over my wounds.

“Looks like this hoodie is ruined, sorry Y/N. I don’t understand though, shouldn’t you be able to heal yourself?” She gently lifted the hoodie over my head and I had to bite down to keep from crying out. April had an extra shirt ready so that I could hold it in front of myself. 

“Heh, I wish. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that. Grammy once described it as, ‘using a pitcher’s own water to fill itself up’. I heal relatively quickly, but any attempts to actively heal myself just won’t work.” 

As Sunita was just about to clean my back, I could sense the prickling of others nearby. “I think the boys are back—” The sudden shouts coming from the garage set our nerves alight again, and April stepped out to see what the ruckus was.

“What the— boys, what is goin’ on?” Donnie rushed forward and gripped April’s arms.

“Our absolute buffoon of a brother set off the 24 hour lockdown on the tank! We’ve been stuck in the garage this whole time!” He points accusingly over to Raph, who still had tears in his eyes. He seemed too relieved to make any sort of comebacks. 

“Jeez, why didn’t you just message Shelldon?” As one, Donnie’s brothers and Splinter surrounded him with absolute fire in their eyes.

“You could’ve WHAT?!” As arguing began, April pulled Leo aside.

“HEY— glad to see you two but I need to rag on Donnie some more!” April keeps pulling him away from the chaos.

“You need to get to the med bay. Y/N needs help.” His expression instantly turned serious, and took the lead to the room.

“And then there was this pile of pink unicorns—” I was interrupted by the swooshing of the doors opening, and saw Leo staring at me with an expression that worried me. “Oh, heyyyy Leo! What a coincidence, I was just talking to Sunita here about—”

“Sunita, can you give Y/N and I a minute?” She glanced at him then back to me, and I gave her a nod. She stepped out, and the doors closed behind her. I waited for Leo to say something, but he just stood there, a combination of feelings that left me feeling a little woozy.

“Leo, I’m okay, really. We were just…” His expression hardens and he steps forward, stopping me mid-sentence. His gaze flicked around my frame, then honed in on my open back. He moves faster than I can track and takes a sharp breath in at the view of the wounds. 

“Tell me what happened.”

~~~

And now we’re caught up to the present.

…”Wow.”

“I know, we were so awesome.”

“That’s one word for it.” 

He sat behind me, stitching up the claw marks after using a local anesthetic to numb the skin. He used a mirror so that I could see the damage. Three lacerations ran down from the right shoulder down to the tip of the scapula. The bright red was disconcerting, but thankfully the injuries didn’t dig into the muscle. Leo had just finished the stitches, but it still wasn’t pretty.

“Leo, I know it was reckless, but I made a promise to Sunita! We weren’t about to leave her high and dry like that!.” He hummed at that, and I couldn’t tell if it was in approval or not. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I would have done the same thing.” That just made me more confused. I could feel him place bandages over top of the stitches. 

“Ouch! Easy on the wrapping, Leon.” He leaned forward so that we made eye contact.

“Aww, do you want me to kiss it to make it feel better?” I pout at his shit-eating grin. It slowly fades though, and I can sense his frustration. He places a hand on my cheek. That was usually my move, but I waited to see what was really bugging him.

“All that time, we were just stuck going crazy in the tank. If I could have been there, maybe you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.” His other hand gently touches the bandages.

“I would like to say that was the last time we’ll be in trouble, but we both know that would be a lie.” Leo sighs, and his hand falls from my face. He paces back around so that he is standing in front of me.

“I know, but I still can’t help but be worried about you. If you haven’t noticed, I kinda care about you.” He says with a grin.

“Oh? Only kind of? Guess you won’t want this then.” I reach over to my destroyed hoodie and pull out the dagger from the pocket. “Snatched it from Barvan’s vault. It’s got this neat thing— watch.” The dagger splits again and I watch Leo’s face shift in surprise.

“Oooh, got yourself a mystic weapon, huh? Sweet.” He notes the inscription. “Huh, what’s that mean?” I shake my head.

“Not quite sure, but I thought that you could have one. That way, we each have two halves of a whole. I know you already have your odachi, but…” He takes the dagger and attaches it to his utility belt.

Didn’t you know? I was on the lookout for another weapon. You just saved me the trouble of scrolling through amazon.” That gets a laugh out of me and he smiles.

“There we go. That’s the first time I’ve seen you smile tonight.” Leo leans forward until his forehead is pressed against mine. I close my eyes and can sense his happiness. “Just know that whatever happens, I’ll be there for you. Promise.” 

“I know. There is something I have to ask though.” I open my eyes and he leans back in question. “I want to keep this hidden from my Grammy.” He looks conflicted but allows me to go on. “If she found out, I’m worried she’s going to connect it to the Hidden City, and then she might forbid me from seeing you guys again. I don’t want that. I already talked to the girls, and they agreed to stay quiet about it.”

“If that’s what you want, I won’t say anything. But knowing your Grammy, she’s going to figure it out eventually. She’s scary that way.” 

“I know, but I’m hoping by then that she won’t be as upset about it. I can’t imagine living my life without all of you Leo.” His smile widens, and he moves to gently pull me off the gurney to stand.

“Come on, other than your cookies we didn’t have anything to eat for 24 hours. It would be nice to eat something with you.”

“After the night I’ve had, I’ll eat just about anything.”

“Well with Mikey going crazy in the kitchen, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of options.”

Chapter Text

• Activities – What are their favorite things to do with you? How do you spend your free time?
• He’s usually up for anything, but his favorite activity is dancing with you. She’s mostly shy about other people seeing her dance, so it makes him feel special knowing he gets to see that side of her. 

• Boo! – How do they feel about surprises, giving and receiving?
• Leo loves surprises, especially giving because he’ll do anything to see the astonished look on your face. He enjoys the amount of thought you put into surprising him, but you’re not the best at hiding your excitement to surprise him. So most of the time, it’s not, but he doesn’t mind.

• Comfort – How do they comfort you when you’re upset? When the tables turn, do they come to you, or try to handle it themselves?
• He knows that your love language is physical touch and gifts. So if you’re having a bad day, he’ll gladly cuddle it out on the couch with some pizza from Hueso’s. As much as Leo tries to hide it from everyone else, having the ability to sense people’s emotions makes it pretty much impossible to deny it to you. You know that Leo loves to receive affection and praise, so when he’s having a difficult time, you do your best to cheer him up by encouraging and complimenting him. He’d never admit it, but those are the times that he thanks the Pizza Supreme in the sky the most that you are his.

• Dance – Do they like to dance with you? How good of a dancer are they?
• As mentioned earlier, Leo loves to dance with you, especially because it gives him a chance to show off his sweet moves in front of someone other than his siblings. 
• Excitement – How do they act when they’re excited? What excites them?
• Leo when excited is like watching a kid in a candy store that runs around on all fours. You’ve seen it firsthand when he invited you to a comic-con with his brothers. It was a miracle security wasn’t called by how crazy he went seeing an exhibit from Jupiter Jim. It’s insanely adorable.

• Future – What are their plans for the future? Do they see themselves getting married, having kids?
• Whoa whoa whoa, Leo’s only 15 right now! You think he’s had time to pick out the venue to propose, or think of what his son’s names are gonna be, or if they are going to have Y/N’s eyes? …Wait a minute.

• Gifts – What do they give you as presents? How often do they get you gifts?
• Leo adores giving you little presents all the time. He’s really good at remembering small things you mention, like wanting the imprinted rolling pin you saw in a catalog, or your favorite snack from the grocery store. It’s the little things that always get you to blush the hardest.

• Hold – How do they hold you? Cuddling, sleeping, holding hands…
• If Leo could, he’d hold you 24/7. He loves how soft you feel, gently squeezing your squishiness like you’re his giant teddy bear. He also loves it when you hold him, because you always do it like it might be the last time you ever do. He always savors your touches. 

• Ideal – What’s their ideal date like?
• One day, Leo envisions portaling the two of you to a hidden beach, where he can spend the entire day out in the sun, watching the water splash your frame. Then, as it got darker, you could cuddle on a blanket under the stars.

• Jealousy – Do they get jealous easily? How do they handle it?
• Leo knows you would never entertain the idea of others, but he on the other hand is surprisingly territorial over you. He’s talked with Donnie about updating your bakery’s security cameras so that it would alert him if anyone dared to make a move on you.

• Kisses – How do they like to kiss you? How frequently do you kiss?
• Leo always thought about what it would be like to kiss someone, but he didn’t realize how much he’d love kissing you. It’s not just on the mouth either; forehead kisses, pecks on the cheek, that spot above your clavicle… Wow, it suddenly got really hot in here.

• Love – How do they show you that they love you?
• He shows affection by making you feel like the most special person in the world. He showers you with attention, bringing you gifts or going out of his way to spend time with you. He would do anything for you.

• Melt – What do you do that absolutely makes them melt?
• Watching as you get on your tiptoes to give him a kiss? Instant game over. Or when he teases you and your face gets all red? Makes his day.

• Nicknames – What do they call you, and what are their favorite things to be called?
• The first one was sugar (thanks mr. judge) but nowadays he often calls you by mi amada (my beloved). His bones instantly turn to jelly when you call him by almost any nickname, but his favorite? Mi cielito (my sweetheart or my darling).

• Obvious – How obvious do they make it that they like you?
• His family knew after like, day three of you knowing them. It took a little longer for Y/N to figure it out, but Leo’s not that subtle.

• Pets – Do they have pets? Do they want them?
• Unless you count having to make Donnie eat or sleep when he’s engrossed in a project/game? Then no. Pops forbid them to have any pets otherwise.

• Quiet – How are the calm, quiet moments with them?
• As much as Leo enjoys the crazy nature of his siblings, he also enjoys moments of peace. It’s nice to be able to watch and listen to you bake while reading a comic.

• Romance – How romantic are they? What are their go-to ways of being romantic?
• Leo’s more of a casual romantic when you’re around other people, but when it’s just the two of you? He’ll make it his goal to get you swooning over his antics. Most of the time it works, other times… he looks more like a goof. But you’ll still blush over it.

• Safe – What makes them feel safe and comfortable around you?
• The amount of trust you have in him. Despite voicing his fears and insecurities, you’re still here by his side. When he begins to have doubts you’ll gently hold his hand or touch his shell and Leo knows, you’ll always have his back.

• Tend – How do they act when you’re hurt or sick, and vice versa?
• Leo is the king of taking care of people. He makes it a mission to see how fast he can get someone to recover. While he can still be obnoxious at times, you know that he’s just using that to cover his anxieties over your wellbeing. 
• If Leo is sick, he’ll deny it so that he won’t worry anyone. You don’t let it slide though; his punishment for that is bedtime and his favorite soup. He secretly (not so secretly) enjoys the attention you give him.

• Unique – What’s an unusual thing about them that’s oddly charming?
• That slow smirk he makes when he’s right or has the upper hand. Something about it sets off those butterflies in your stomach.

• Variety – Do they prefer to keep things the same, or spice it up?
• Leo’s always up for trying new things but never pushes you if you’re feeling uncomfortable. That’s the last thing he ever makes you want to feel.

• Wash – What’s it like taking a bath with them, or helping them wash up after a fight?
• There have been a couple of times Y/N was around when Leo needed to clean up after a battle. The most recent one, however, was when Mikey and Leo went to help Ser Hueso and both ended up covered in trash and grime from their "competition." It took forever for Y/N to finally stop laughing.

• XO – How do they show you affection? How much PDA are they willing to show?
• Leo appreciates you all day, everyday. He wants to make sure anyone who sees knows you are his. Don’t mess with his girl.

• Yearn – What do they do when they miss you?
• Leo does his best to distract himself from how much he misses you, but it’s obvious to his brothers as he gets increasingly mopey and vocal about your lack of presence. Sometimes, they find it more relieving than Leo when you two are finally back together.

• Zzz – How do they act when they get sleepy? How are they sleeping in the same bed?
• Leo is a cuddler when tired. He latches onto the first person within arm’s reach. Even when sleeping, he unconsciously wraps his arms around your frame.

Chapter Text

“It’s too bad I’m running late for my seminar on mystic taxes; otherwise, I would give you a quick lecture. Oh well, thank you for the bagel.”

“Of course Mr. Tollbane, I hope your seminar has a big turnout!” I wave to him as he leaves the store, then slump forward in exhaustion.

I haven’t exactly been doing my best in terms of self-care these past couple of days. No matter what I’ve done, I can’t seem to get much sleep. It was getting to the point where everything ached and my mind felt foggy. The only positive thing I could think of was that the wounds from last week healed nicely, and Grammy was none the wiser. It was fine—a few gallons of caffeine, and I was acting like a normal person. At least, I’m pretty sure I am…

*BZZT BZZT*  

I reach into my pocket and see a text from April. It was a selfie of her wearing Foot Clan regalia inside what looked like a vent.

‘The mission’s goin well but the boys are missin. Can you go see what their hold up is?’  

I lightly snort at the picture, as I can see Splinter trying to squeeze into the duct ahead of her.

‘Sure, but u know things would go faster if I went along too 😜 ’

‘Yea but Splints wants u as backup if things get dicey.’

‘I know I know, fine. I’m goin to the lair. Keep ur panic buttons on’

‘ 👍🏿 ’

I sighed before flipping the sign on the door to closed. I hollered downstairs to where Grammy was closing up shop.

“Heading out, see you later!” I heard a hum of confirmation and nearly went out the door before I stopped myself. I went behind the counter to grab the dagger I had, acquired , from Barvan. 

Never hurts to be prepared, right?

~~~

An explosion echoed from the living room, and I went into kill-or-be-killed mode. I slipped my dagger into my hand and carefully made my way closer. I arrived in time to see Leo being rocketed from Splinter’s chair into the ceiling, making a sizable crater in the concrete. I gasped in shock and rushed to him on the ground. I took a brief glimpse around to see Raph stuck in a wall , Mikey laying in a pile of pizza boxes, and Donnie crouched on the grating near Leo.

“What the hell is going on?! Who’s attacking you guys??” 

“--And victory. That, gentlemen, is why I’m the king of–” Donnie subsequently gets squished by Raph falling out of the wall and landing on top of his brother.”

Leo, for some reason, looks confused by my on-guard presence while I help him stand.

“Y/N, what are you doing here? Can’t you see we’re in the middle of a pranking battle?” I stood there for a moment, trying to process what he just said. 

“A prank—do you realize what today is?” Mikey reveals himself from inside the pile of empty boxes.

“Friday?” Leo rolls his eyes.

“No, it’s not; it’s Thursday.” 

… He did not just say that.

“You did not just say that. It’s Friday. Do you guys know what’s going on today?” I raise my hands as they all look confused at me. Raph goes to reach for a calendar teddy bear.

“Wait. If today’s Friday…then…” Leo raises his arms above his head as he tries to stop him.

“Wait–don’t touch that!” I watch as another explosion goes off, sending Raph to collide with the wall. The others watch in mild amusement, while I can only stare in pure disbelief.

“I cannot believe this… I’m texting April.” A blinking light catches our attention, and we can all see Raph’s panic button has been activated. 

“No need; they’ll be here shortly.” Donnie says. The boys glanced at each other, then scrambled to hide behind Splinter’s (now broken) chair. 

“Nose goes on who tells Pops!” Leo shouts, and everyone but Mikey touches their nose.

“Aww man, I never win at nose goes!” I study the boys' faces, and they shrink back in fear.

“I’m not going to do Splinter’s job for him, but you guys should know he was really counting on your support. You can all deal with him when he gets back; I’m going to wait in the atrium.” I give them one last look, taking note of their guilty faces. 

Not five minutes later, Splinter comes dashing in from above. He sees me sitting by the skate ramp and practically flies over.

“My sons– what has happened?!” I sigh before pointing to the living room. He looks slightly confused before taking off in that direction.

I readjusted into a lotus position to dive into some meditation. It would stave off a bit of the exhaustion I was experiencing, and I felt I would need all the energy I could spare soon. 

Thanks to my deep trance, I didn’t panic over the next explosion going off in what I guessed was Splinter’s room.

Audible sigh.

I sensed the others slowly making their way to me, and I honestly felt bad for their overwhelming collective aura of shame. 

“Y/N? You disappointed with us too?” Mikey asked, but I didn’t feel that I needed to answer. My silence was enough of an answer. The aura of shame increased. I wanted to comfort them so badly, but I knew that wasn’t what they needed right then. Although my irritation began to surface when I could hear the wheels of Leo’s skateboard run down the ramp.

“You know, I’m not too worried about it. I mean, what’s the punishment for missing a life-threatening earth-saving mission anyway? It’s gotta be pretty lenient.” 

Remain calm, just listen to the sounds of your breathing—

“Listen, everyone has a calendar mixup now and then.” Leo says.

I am calm, I am relaxed–

“Yeah! We’ll just say sorry, I’ll give him my puppy dog eyes, and–”

I was nearly about to throttle all of them when Raph saved them.

“Puppy dog eyes won’t cut it. Dad isn’t mad; he’s disappointed.” The shame in the room is near suffocating, and I have to leave my meditation to deal with this.

*Sigh* “What do you guys think you should do to make it right?” Raph stood up with his shell to us.

“We need to make it up to him, guys. Big time.” My lack of sleep must be getting to me because I was nearly overwhelmed by this intense vertigo.

“Whoa!” The boys looked over in surprise as I shouted and nearly fell over. Leo ran over to stabilize me.

“What’s the matter?” I shook my head in an attempt to clear it with my eyes squinted shut.

“This is really strange. It’s like a hundred souls centuries-old just appeared out of nowhere.” Mikey jumped up and down in excitement.

“You mean ghosts are real?? See? Told you, Leon.” Leo gave his little brother a small glare.

“For the last time, ghosts aren’t real. Y/N, can you tell where they’re coming from?” I point in the direction of Splinter’s room. Raph snaps his fingers.

“Maybe Pops is doing some mystic Hamato Ninja thing! What if he’s talking to our ancestors right now?” 

“So what should we do?” Donnie asks. The boys look at each other and have something of the same idea. As abrupt as their appearance was, the spirits left just as quickly. The vertigo subsided, and Leo helped me sit down.

“Y/N, you stay here; we need to go talk to dad.” Raph said. I nodded as I yawned.

“Go on, I’m going to try and meditate some more.” 

The boys left, and I was in the atrium alone. I walked up the ramp, so I was sitting on the upper catwalk, and settled back down into a meditative trance. It wasn’t a few moments later that I was scared witless by Mikey's screaming coming down below. I scrambled up to see what had happened, and I saw Mikey holding one of his stickers in his hand that was usually attached to his shell.

“Uh, do I need to know what’s going on?” 

“Master Splinter is going to train us to become the ultimate ninjas.” Donnie said. Splinter stood before them, hands folded behind his back.

“A great challenge lies before us. Come, we begin training now.”

“Shouldn’t we see where April is?” They completely missed what I heard as they made their way back to the atrium. “Okay, I guess I’ll go see where April is. You guys have fun!” I texted April and she sent me a selfie of her in what looked like a cave with The Foot.

The Slugger:

‘Sounds like they’re moving the dark armor to its final location. Imma follow them and see where they’re taking it’ I contemplated whether that was really the best idea, but I knew April wasn’t one to be persuaded.

‘Text me where you’re going and I’ll meet you.’

‘Where are the boys?’ 

‘Ig Splinter is going to do some last minute training w them. Send me the location’

‘Roger that’

April pings me her location. Before I left, I wanted to check in on the boys. Peeking in, I saw a quick flash of Splinter across the room before the boys all fell to the ground in a heap. 

It looked like training was going well.

~~~

“I might need an energy drink to get through the night.”

I was outside looking through one of the windows at the train station where April was inside. Foot soldiers were crawling all over the place with a bunch of cardboard boxes in hand. I glimpsed to the side and saw none other than Baron Draxum talking to Big Mama. Of course, giant spider train, giant spider lady. I had one of those uncontrollable tremors you get at random times and had to look away before I started to panic. It gave me the opportunity I needed to spot April standing in line to board the train.

What was she thinking?! I tried to flag her down, but she was distracted by the Foot Recruit yelling at her for holding up the line. I watched as she stepped into the train, followed by the doors slamming shut and the engine roaring to life. 

Okay… don’t panic; let’s just call the boys and let them know where we are. I pinged the SOS beacon on my wristwatch and hoped they were paying attention to their comms.

‘THANK YOU FOR PRESSING THE PANIC BUTTON, YOUR PANIC IS IMPORTANT TO US’

Jesus Christ on a cracker! I slammed my hand over the button, and thankfully it muted the blaring alert. I frantically glanced around to see if anyone noticed and sighed in relief.

That relief quickly turned to shock when I felt my feet fall out from under me. I was caught in the air by Leo, and I realized he had teleported me into the turtle tank.

“Y/N, you pressed your panic button; are you alright? I tried to portal April, but it didn’t work.” He sets me down, and I go to answer, but my response gets caught in my mouth. The boys were all garbed in red and black ninja outfits, their faces completely devoid of their usual personalities. 

But more importantly, the bright lights I have come to find comfort in have somehow…dimmed?

It was eerily silent in the tank. Usually everyone would be making noise of some kind—Mikey humming a tune, Donnie tapping away at the keys, something. Their silence was extremely weird. 

“Uh, yeah… I saw April going into a mystic train with the Foot Clan. They left before I could do something.” 

I wanted Leo to turn around, flash me his signature smirk, and reassure me, but he continued to stare resolutely out the window. For some reason, it irritated me that I couldn’t see his red stipes on his face like they were usually displayed. It’s like the red of his mask was taking over his natural markings.

“Sensei, we need to track down April’s location. Let’s move.” Splinter nods and kicks the tank into gear with his giant (aquarium?) sandals.

“Am I just too tired, or is something off about you guys?” Mikey is the one to answer me.

“We’ve become the ultimate models of the Hamato Clan.”

…Okay. Now I know I need an energy drink.

Splinter drove the tank to a bridge that overlooks the water. Donnie points out the window to where we could see something moving fast across the surface.

“According to April’s communication information, she should be right there.” Splinter snagged his goggles from his head and used them to look.

“A mystic train, hidden behind some sort of shimmer.”

“Yes, I saw Big Mama at the train station with Baron Draxum.” That got their attention. I could sense a huge flash of anger from Leo at her name while the others became more focused.

“Of course, that’s how they’re moving the dark armor. I worry about what they had to do to get Big Mama’s help, but that’s a concern for later.” Leo turned to Master Splinter.

“Let me portal us, Sensei.” Splinter shakes his head.

“No. The shimmer blocks all mystic powers. You’ll have to use your training to save April and get to the dark armor. Now get to the roof and prepare to jump on my command, Raph.”

“Please Sensei, call me Raphael.” Splinter had to hold back a proud sob as Raph patted him on the shoulder. I wondered how Splinter knew that when my thoughts were interrupted by Leo grabbing my shoulder.

“You need to stay here with Master Splinter. It’s too dangerous for you on the train.” I place a hand on top of his and give him the sweetest smile I can muster.

“Leon, when you guys come back, we’re gonna have some words about how you define, ‘too dangerous for me’.” His serious expression cracks, and I can sense the apprehension he is emitting.

“I can’t keep you safe while we are in there without our mystic powers. I need to know you’re safe.” 

“So do I, dum dum.” He finally smiles before kissing the top of my head before he jumps up to the roof.

Oooh, that was frustratingly smooth.

I took up a position next to Splinter while we watched outside. We could hear Raph talking over the comms.

“How are we supposed to get on a train that we can’t see?” 

“Trust me. Go on my command!” As one, the boys responded from up top.

“Yes, Sensei!” Splinter slams on the gas, and I had to quickly grab onto the seat before I got knocked back from the speed. He flips Donnie’s goggles down so he can see the train.

“Now!” I can hear the thuds of the boys kicking off the roof, and I can spy them flying toward the water before they disappear within the shimmer. I watched for a moment longer, contemplating whether I should say something or not.

“Umm, Master Splinter?” 

“Hm?” 

“You said that the shimmer blocks all mystic powers.”

“Yes, why?”

“Well, I can still sense the boys.” He snaps his gaze away from the window and toward me.

“Are you sure?” I keep my gaze outside and track their souls.

“It’s really faint, but yes, they’re right about there.” I pointed out the lake, where I could feel Leo’s presence. “I don’t know if it’ll help or not, but if you keep us moving, I should be able to track them if I meditate.” Splinter studies my face for a second, then nods. 

“Alright, I will follow your directions.” I sit down in the chair Leo was in and close my eyes. What I really wanted to do was interrogate Splinter about why the boys were suddenly being so spartan-like, but I had a feeling that now wasn’t the time. I think Splinter was right that the shimmer blocks mystic powers, but if I focused hard enough, I could get a faint flicker of their lights. It was exhausting to keep the connection, but I needed to be useful to the team.

“Head East.” I could feel the turning of the tank as Splinter heeded my words. As I focused, I could sense the boys and then the faintest glimmer of April. They found her. “It’s hard to tell from here, but they don’t seem to be in serious distress, so I think April is okay.” I could sense Splinter’s relief. The feeling was mutual. 

The night goes on like this, pushing my limits to direct Splinter and keeping a connection to the others. We get to a spot near some dock shacks when he stops the tank.

“This is as far as we can go. I fear they have made it to their destination.” 

“But I can still sense them–”

A shockwave of fear crashed on top of me. I screamed out in terror and collapsed to my knees. Splinter jumps out of his seat, laying a supporting hand on my back.

“Y/N?! What is wrong?” It takes me a minute to respond. It was nearly impossible to push down the combined emotions of the boys and April.

“It—ah, something’s wrong! The others are emitting so much fear, it’s almost suffocating.” Splinter could feel how she trembled from the feedback of the emotions the others were experiencing. A pool of dread filled his belly, but he quickly pushed it down so that it would not add to Y/N’s strain. Splinter could just barely make out something Y/N whispered.

“You can’t let fear control you.” She took a deep breath, and slowly the tremors stopped.

“Are you alright now?” Y/N nodded and picked herself up off the tank’s floor. With her strained connection, they must be truly terrified for her to feel such a potent response. “Let’s get you outside; the fresh air will help.” Splinter takes my hand and gently leads me down the ramp. The evening sky was out, and we could see the dots of stars above us. I leaned against the tank’s front grill as Splinter began to pace back and forth.

“No word. No contact. Where are my kids?” I thought it was adorable that he considered April one of his kids, but he continued to rant. “If only I had a clue as to where they are.” I noticed a purple light to our left, and the force of April’s spirit on my senses kept me from speaking aloud. “Someone, send me a clue!” I rushed over to see April on the ground, covered in some kind of plant. Her mouth was covered in the same stuff, so she could only make muffled sounds at me and Splinter, who was still turned away from us.

“Umm, Splinter?”

“Anything! A hint, a whisper, a well-timed crash?” April and I looked at each other. She rolled her eyes and landed to the side to make the loud sign Splinter oh-so wished for.

“April!” I helped place her against the nearby building. “Don’t worry April, I will free you with my helping toe.” He lifts his foot, and I have to hold back a gag at the sight. April gives me a pleading gaze, and I push him aside so I can cut her free with my dagger. She takes a deep breath and sighs.

“Ok, first off, ew. Second, we’re doomed! Draxum captured the guys!” Splinter and I both gasp in shock. “He says we have to give him the last piece of the dark armor, or else! And he says you have it!” 

“What?!” 

~ Meanwhile in Draxum’s prison cages~

*Blue*

Well, this just sucks.

Right as we were feeling pretty good about ourselves, we had to mess it all up by not noticing Baron Draxum of all people right behind us. 

“How did we get captured? We did exactly what Pop taught us!” Raph said. Mikey lay next to me with his hands behind his head.

“Maybe this is exactly what Dad wanted. Maybe this is our destiny!” He holds his hands out in a picture frame pose, and I roll my eyes.

“Locked in a cage, failed in our mission, held ransom by the Foot, and none of us gave him grandchildren?” I rolled over to the side. “Somehow I think he wanted more from us.” I can hear Donnie sit up from behind me.

“I mean, at this point, it seems like you would be the most likely to provide him grandchildren with Y/N.” I choked on my spit before I could come up with a good comeback. Raph and Mikey snickered at my reaction, which did not help at all. 

“Yeah well, that won’t happen cause we’re still stuck in this cage!” Mikey glanced away in thought.

“Wouldn’t Shelldon technically be his grandchild since you made him Donnie?”

“Huh, I never thought of it like that. Did you hear that, Leo? I beat you to the race already.” I glared at Donnie from over my shoulder while Raph began yelling at us.

“Guys focus! Maybe we didn’t stay true to the Hamato ways. Dad taught us the wisdom is within us. We just need to focus, meditate deeply, and our path will be revealed.” We get into a meditative position and try to do as Raph says.

“Oooooohms laaaaaaw…” We all turn to glare at Donnie.

“Oh, you guys could hear that?”

~back to the other chaos brewing~

Splinter had some tea brewing on the kettle while April ran around throwing stuff around the kitchen in her hunt.

“They think I have a piece of the dark armor?”

“The Foot Lieutnenant said it’s in the possession of Hamato Yoshi, last descendant of the Hamato Clan, AKA Lou Jitsu, AKA you .” I glanced around but didn’t spot anything necessarily evil armor-like. The fairy lights, open 24 hours sign, and kitchenware were obvious no’s. 

“Oh sure! I bet it’s just lying around the house somewhere.” 

I hope the others are okay. What they experienced before they disappeared…

“Maybe it is this bacon press! Or this trivet, or my number one huggy pillow??” 

I should talk to April about it later too; she seems fine, but that was most likely pretty traumatic for her.

Wait… did he say he had a huggy pillow?

The tea kettle started to squeal, letting us know the water was ready, but the sound had April curious.

“Hey Splints, what about this freaky tea kettle?”

“You mean ol’ Skully? No, he’s been a delightful member of our family for generations!” I could not be more disappointed in Splinter at this moment.

“Huh, that sounds exactly like what we are looking for.” He turns the kettle around, and we watch as the skull face on the back screams, lights up, and blows purple steam at us.

“Hoo, boy.”

“This whole time, you never noticed that??” He grabs the teapot from the stove.

“I cannot give them the teapot; it will doom humanity!” April looks panicked as she spreads her arms wide.

“But they have your sons!”

“You’re right; my family must come first. I will give them the teapot.”

“But that will doom humanity!” Splinter and I both groan and yell at April at the same time.

“You’re not helping April!” She moves to sit on the ground in frustration.

“Well, this is a tough one! Maybe there’s an answer in those dusty old scrolls of yours!” Splinter jumps on top of April.

“That is it! The scrolls will solve my dilemma! And whatever they tell us to do is not our fault!”

“...I am this close to smacking you.” Splinter grimaces and hops off of April to grab the scrolls. He takes one to the living room, and April and I bow behind him as he opens it on the floor.

I gasp as a sea of souls floods my mind. I look up to see multiple figures cloaked in green appear before us.

“Oh, so that’s what I felt earlier.” April glances at me before looking back at the ghosts. The lead soul stares at me.

“You have a Mender amongst you. Good, that will aid you greatly.”

“Wait, what did you call me?” He ignores me and continues his monologue. Rude.

“Hamato Yoshi, you are blessed with a glorious honor. You alone can keep the world safe from the dark armor. Your task is simple. Guard the final piece by remaining hidden for all time. Isolated, alone, a complete hermit, in joyous service to your clan!”

Is it possible to attack a ghost?

“Can I at least go out for froyo?”

Well, I know it's at least possible to smack a rat.

“No!” The ghost smacks the froyo (where did he get that?) out of Splinter’s hand.

“Okay, ok. But... what about my sons?” 

“They will be fine!” We all visibly relaxed at this.

“Oh, thank goodness!”

“The finest martyrs in the history of our clan! Destroyed by the Foot Clan, their sacrifice will never be forgotten.” Splinter spews his drink (that he got from who knows where) and April moves to stand, pushing her sleeves up.

“That’s it, Imma see if this ghost can feel pain.” 

“What! Stupid scrolls, why did I listen to you in the first place?” Splinter grabs the scroll and puts it through the paper shredder. 

Ha, shredder. I appreciate the irony.

“We are not giving them the evil teapot, we are going to save my beloved sons!” April and I cheer and I brush a tear away. “We will need to assemble a well-oiled team of commandos.” 

“I have just the guys!” April says.

That’s how we ended up outside with Bullhop, Frankenfoot, Todd, and Shelldon. I texted Grammy before we left that I was spending the night with the boys. Splinter went all out and put on one of his retro jumpsuits for the occasion. He draws the symbol along the wall to open a portal to the Hidden City. 

She’s gonna kill me.

Outside of an impressively evil-looking tower was our group, ready for battle.

“Okay B-team. Here is the plan to get my sons.” Splinter goes on to describe what is most likely a stellar plan, but I’m too preoccupied to listen.

The boys were in there. Leo was in there. I pushed out as far as I could. Right at the edge of my conscience was that connection I’d been missing. I nearly cried at the relief I felt. I felt a hand on my shoulder and opened my eyes to see April with sympathy in her eyes. 

“We’re gonna get them back.” I brush myself off as I move to stand.

“There’s no question about it. Uhm, where are the others?” April points up, and I crane my neck up to see that everyone we brought is currently trapped in a net. “...Figures.”

“New plan. We each take out 300 ninjas.” With that inspiring order, Splinter walks away.

“We’ll be back for you guys!” April walks away too.

“…Couldn’t we just free them? No? Okay, let’s go!”

We could see streaks of purple lightning striking at the top of the tower. April and I side-eyed each other. 

Dramatic climax indeed.

The climb up to the top was not without its challenges. Multiple paper ninjas and a few undertrained recruits stood between us and our goal.

“Kinda ironic that the Shredder’s main forces are made out of paper.” I said as I sliced through a ninja. April slugs one in the head, causing it to explode into confetti.

“Why’s that?” Splinter zips above, and I watch as he kicks through multiple paper ninjas at once.

“You know, because what do we do with paper? We shred it!” I make an arc with my arm and cut the head off the ninja, the paper viscera floating down to my feet.

“Oh, that makes more sense.”

We reach the top of the tower to see the Foot Lieutenant, his macho companion, and a whole lotta paper ninjas. 

“Get them!” The Lieutenant points at us, causing the paper ninjas to all jump after us. April holds her bat aloft, and I prepare my dagger in a reverse grip.

“There’s too many of ‘em, man!!” April shouts.

“Let us see how they fare against my patented–” Splinter jumps to face the ninja. “Macho Gazpacho Fury Kick!” In an instant, Splinter dashes too quickly to track and destroys all of the ninja in an explosion of paper. The Foot crew looks on in awe before they are subsequently kicked in the face by Splinter.

“Whoa, you go man!” April cheers. With those two taken out of the picture, all that was left was…

“Ah, the great Lou Jitsu. I guess the camera adds five feet.” Baron Draxum sat on a stone throne with the dark armor looming behind him. His minions Hugin and Munin sit on the armrests, snickering at Draxum’s dig.

“I am here for my sons! You will release them to me immediately!”

“That won’t be happening, unless you’re here to give me what I want.” Splinter kicks up two halves of a broken staff and leaps toward his enemy.

So began an absolutely epic showdown between Splinter and Draxum. April and I watched on in awe from the back.

“Y/N, can you sense the boys from here?”

“Hold on, cover me.” She nods and takes up a stance in front of me. I closed my eyes and focused. Gosh I was tired, ‘cause I would have definitely noticed the boys being this close if I had gotten some damn sleep. “They’re right below us!” A giant crash above and April and I see Splinter punch Draxum into his throne. He holds a hand up to his chest where he was hit, and laughs.

“Very impressive. I see you still have that warrior spirit.” This is one of those times where I wish I knew more about Master Splinter’s backstory. From the little that Leo had told me, he has some sort of history with Draxum. “Too bad I can’t say the same for your sons.” 

“No more games.” Splinter says. The absolute glee I can see in Draxum’s aura has my blood boiling.

“They must be so frightened. Trapped, alone, in a place where you’ll never find them.” I scoff and make my presence known, much to the disapproval of April.

“Okay, first off, goat man , they’re not alone. Second, I’ve already found them. They’re right under us.” I smirk at Draxum’s irritated expression but grow confused as he slowly smiles.

“Y/N, behind you!” I turn around and see April try to swing her bat to push a vine away but gets swept off her feet. A second vine grabs me from behind and wraps around my throat. It lifts me off the ground, and I have to hold onto it around my neck to keep from choking. I’m held aloft in front of Splinter and see a pile of the boy's weapons at his feet. I can hear Draxum to my right.

“Looks like you’re my only loose end then. Now, we can do this one of two ways. Either you give me the final piece now, or I kill this human and torture your sons until they tell me where it is.”

“Make your choice.”

My heart thuds in my ears as I desperately try to speak.

“D-don’t–” The vine tightens, and my vision turns black and blue.

“Silence vermin.”

“Y/N!!” I can barely hear April’s screams above the ringing. I claw at the vine with all my strength but fail to dislodge it from my neck. With my last breath, I could just barely feel the flicker of blue light.

A release and the sweet sensation of air entered my lungs. I was dropped onto the ground near Splinter and saw the last piece of the dark armor in his hands. I held a hand over my throat as I coughed uncontrollably. I tried to say something, but by the grace of the Pizza Supreme in the sky, the boys did it for me. I glanced down and saw their beautiful faces below April.

“Dad?”

“My boys!” We look up to see Draxum about to place the final piece. “No!” Splinter bounds forward to stop him. A brush on my shoulder, and I glanced over to see April had come up to help me. Good thing too, because the sudden explosion of mystic energy had such a force that it blew all of us off the upper platform. 

The boys ran up to join us. Leo kneeled beside me, and I could see in his eyes that he spotted the quickly blossoming bruises on my neck.

 Now he was pissed.

We all watched as Draxum began to put the armor on. If I could speak, I would have said something about how it felt like watching a magical girl transformation, sans the cute sound effects and glitter.

“At last, I can end the human threat once and for all!”

“Not if we have anything to say about it!” Raph launched himself at Draxum, but was quite literally flicked away with a finger. He landed on top of us, and we all groaned in pain. Glancing up, we could see Draxum slicing the stone pillars in half and begins to spin them around.

“Okay, question. Was he always strong enough to do that?!” We can see it the moment Draxum decides to attack. Everyone ducks for cover as he launches the pillars like missiles, and chaos ensues. Leo shoves me down and throws his body over mine.

I can’t see much of anything, but I can hear debris falling all around us and Leo’s harsh breaths above me. As the dust finally settles, I feel like I am able to make sounds again.

“Are you okay?” Leo slowly lifts his head from where it lies next to me, his eyes opening from being squinted shut.

“I should be—agh, asking you that.” He moves to sit up and reaches down to pick me up.

“Everybody ok?” We can hear Raph shout somewhere to our right. We peeked our heads over to see everyone was relatively okay—just scuffed up. We hear a pained groan across the way, and we all rush over. Raph strains to lift a boulder, and underneath is a very squished-looking version of Splinter.

“My sons…” Everyone rightfully panics.

“Dad!”

“Dad, are you hurt?” I almost laughed at that, but thankfully I controlled myself. Splinter, however, does not see the humor in that statement.

“Of course I am hurt!” Before I could move to begin healing him, Donnie shovels (where did he find a shovel?) a pile of dirt on his father’s head.

“We shall miss you, father!” Splinter wipes the dirt away.

“I’m not rest-in-peace hurt; I’m rest-on-the-couch hurt.” I sit next to his left and reach my hands out.

“Here, let me help.” I start my incantation when Raph speaks.

“Dad, we got to apologize. We tried to follow the way of the Hamato clan, but it just didn’t work for us.” I’ll mention it later how the ‘Hamato clan’ are a bunch of pompous, overzealous jerks.

“No, no. It is I who should apologize to you. The scrolls were wrong.” Leo, Mikey, and Donnie lean closer to listen. “And I was wrong to make you follow them.” Sweet Mikey still looks concerned.

“So you’re not mad at us?” 

“No. It is not training, or rules of tradition that makes you special. It is being yourselves.” Oh no, here comes the waterworks. Control yourself tears, I can’t cry while singing. “If I’d had faith in how special you each are…none of this would’ve happened.” Oh, that’s it; the tears were here, and I wasn’t the only one.

“I don’t normally feel things but that one got through.” The boys, against their better judgment, tackle Splinter into a group hug.

“OW! I just had my spine crushed!” They let go, and I frantically looked him over for new injuries when he reached into his pocket to pull out some familiar bands of cloth. “Here, I brought you something.

In perfect synchronization, the boys tear off their ninja robes to reveal their normal attire (or lack thereof) underneath. Like the clothes themselves were smothering them, their bright lights began to shine once again.

“That’s better. Blue is your best color.” April sits near me and Splinter as we admire our favorite boys.

“Now go! And be your awesome selves!” With impeccable timing, Mayhem decides to make an appearance and poofs into April’s arms.

“Mayhem, great!” He purrs affectionately when I scratch him behind the ears. “You guys go stop the Baron; we’ll take care of Splinty! Bam!”

Donnie tapped a button on his wrist and his drill erupted from the ground.

“Whoa!”

“All right! Time to finally see what this baby can do!” Donnie sighs and stands next to the drill.

“Again, the drill is in beta. But it does contain the backup copies of all my tech.” Another button press, and the drill opens like a flower, revealing Donnie’s purple tech inside. We watched as they rocketed up through the giant hole Draxum made to the surface.

“Mayhem, can you poof me up to where the Foot went? They might know something about what’s going on.” Mayhem nods and poofs them away. As I started my incantation back up, Splinter placed a hand on my arm.

“Are you alright, Y/N? I was very worried for you.” I place a hand on top of his and smile.

“I appreciate your concern, I’ll be okay. Let me help patch you up.” He still looks at me with worry, but lets me continue. He closes his eyes to the sound of the melody, his pain slowly melting away. Before we even have a minute of peace, Mayhem is back and poofing us directly into The Foot Clan. We must be in a baseball stadium because we were inside the announcer’s room.

“HOT SOUP!” Splinter pulls out some sick ninjutsu for an injured rat and beats the crap out of The Foot. He groans in pain and holds his back.

“Ooh, that is not a good back feel. Get us out of here, doggy thingy!” Mayhem poofs us out of the announcer's room and into one of the dugouts. Splinter was laid out on a bench, and I could smell the aroma of leather gloves and spot sunflower seeds littering the ground. I looked across the field and saw that the boys were being flung around by metallic snakes controlled by Draxum.

Up above the big screen had something written on it.

‘GUYS, IT’S APRIL {*^3^}/❤️’

‘THE ARMOR HAS A FL’

Ah, so that’s why April was in the press box. That’s probably what she’s talking about to them out in the field right now. 

“I was trying to tell you that the armor has a flaw!” 

“Oh, that makes more sense.” Mikey and Raph are swung by April.

“So there’s a flaw? But what?” They get whipped away, and Donnie gets thrown into the ground in front of April.

“Hey, do you guys remember the time…” He goes on to bring up a childhood memory involving using the teapot as a sports ball and subsequently shattering it to pieces. Mikey had used a Jupiter Jim action figure to plug up the hole.

“Our Jupiter Jim action figure is the flaw!” Splinter sat up at this epiphany.

“Oh, so that’s why my tea always tasted of plastic and evil.”

“Master Splinter, you really need to be more observant with these things.”

“So if we can hit it, we could destroy the whole armor?” I watched as Leo avoided being smashed into a stadium wall.

“Well, that’s how it works in all your favorite sci-fi movies.” 

What a convenient turn of events!

As the boys grouped up to face Shredder Draxum, I paid attention to Splinter’s wounds. I had finished with the majority of his spine. Thanks to his mutant ooze running through his system, it kept him from becoming permanently injured. I pushed through a yawn to keep singing, but Splinter noticed anyways.

“Take a break Y/N, you are tired. I will be fine.” I shook my head and kept going. He huffed in annoyance, but let me continue. I glanced up to see how the battle was going. The flaw in the armor was causing his body to spasm. I noted with interest that whenever he spasmed, I could sense a flash of energy. It was like the energy was contained in the armor but was unstable due to the Jupiter Jim action figure.

“There’s something that’s been bugging me.” Splinter looks up at me in question and hums. “The Foot Clan only recognizes The Shredder as their leader, right?” Splinter nods.

“Yes, what of it?”

“Then why would they allow Baron Draxum, of all people, to wear his armor? I feel like there’s something missing here…” He looks back to the fight, thinking about what I said. In the meantime, we watched as the boys took off towards him using Donnie’s rocket-propelled staff. Even from here, I could see their wild smiles. At least they’re having a good time. Donnie kept Draxum busy with an impressive display of his bo staff skills, while the others prepared a bigger attack. Raph and Mikey destroyed the stadium chairs and baseballs to create an improvised attack, with Leo creating multiple portals to aim the destruction at Draxum. If this were a normal opponent, I would say that would be effective.

“Oh, do the children wish to play?”

But this wasn’t normal.

The boys were each snatched up by a metallic snake. I watched as Leo tracked his odachi flying over his head, and in an epic fashion, grabbed it by the teeth.

“Oooh, my god.”

“Y/N, please, you’re drooling on me.” I choked on said spit as Leo swung (damn, those neck muscles— "stop oogling after my son for one moment, Y/N," oops, sorry Splinter) and created a small portal with which a singular baseball whipped out. I tracked its trajectory as it bounced off of Draxum’s head and saw April lined up to bat.

“April O’Neil…”

“BAM!” She swings, and nails the figure right through the helmet, forcing Draxum out. A gigantic explosion of purple energy whips the air around us, and we see Draxum being spit out of the armor.

“What’s going on? I feel weak. Like… power… being…drained…” Glancing over, I could see Draxum collapsed on the ground, looking absolutely pitiful. He looked like a literal shell of his formal self.

“You’re out!” April shouts. With my hands cupped around my mouth, I shout out to her.

“April, you are the coolest person I’ve ever met!” She turns around and smirks at me.

“I know; tell me about it later.”

The group celebrates, and I see Donnie will be next up in my queue to patch up. It was finally over. Everyone was finally taking a breather from the fight, glad to have their toy back. 

Of course, it would be too easy.

“Oh, no.” The wind picked up, and I looked up to the night sky to see lightning crackling. Purple lightning struck the ground, and we watched in shock as the Shredder armor came to life. The Foot Lieutenant and brute appeared out of nowhere and began to praise the return of their master.

“Yes, it’s happening! It has taken that fool’s life force, just as was foretold!” They bow before him. “The Shredder lives!”

“Long live the Shredder!”

Chapter Text

*Gold*

The night sky was shrouded in dark purple and pink clouds, with lightning striking across the horizon. The wind inside the stadium whipped around from the storm, raising dust from the ground. However, it did not inhibit us from observing one of the scariest beings I’ve seen.

The Shredder.

“Stand strong! the Shredder will show no mercy.” Bowing before the Shredder were the two Foot soldiers, with a weakened Draxum laying behind them.

“You betrayed me? I thought we were partners.” I could have told him that aligning with an evil organization was a bad idea, but he didn’t seem to want to have a chat with humans. The Foot Lieutenant laughs at him.

“Ha! That’s what we wanted you to think. After we assembled the dark armor, we needed a being of great mystic power to energize it, and bring the Shredder to life. The dark armor consumed your life force. And now it will consume your body!” Ah, so that’s why they let him don the armor. 

In between us and the Foot appeared a pink portal, and out came the foot recruit. 

“Senseis! My fury is unbridled and ready for–” She gasped in offense. “You resurrected Shredder without me?!” Using the sudden opportunity, Draxum just barely created a baby vine that was strong enough to carry him through the portal, and it winked out of existence as he escaped.

I’m sure that’ll be an issue for another day. For now, we had a screaming set of armor coming for us. 

“I wanna say I feel prepared, but my chattering teeth won’t let me.” Donnie says as his entire body shakes.

The idiotic trio of the Foot Clan begin to chant at the Shredder and he turns to watch them.

“Shred, shred, shred!” In a surprising turn of events, he begins to attack them.

“Don’t shred, don’t shred!” We all stood on the defensive as we witnessed the Shredder attacking his own people, feeling confused at his actions.

“Such blind rage. And going after his own. This makes no sense.” Splinter says. 

“Thanks for doing the dirty work for us! Big ups, Shreddy!” Leo says with a smile. 

“Not now, Blue!” Glad Splinter’s taking this a little seriously.

“What? I thought a nickname might give us a nice rapport”

“Leo, darling, I appreciate the attempt, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He rubs the back of his head. His brothers decide to jump into the attack, but are quickly and brutally repelled. Splinter and April form up to cover them while I checked them over.

“Back off! You don’t scare me…much.” She wasn’t lying. Leo jumped over to stand in front of them, odachi at the ready. The Shredder came at us on all fours, roaring and absolutely scaring the pants off us. He jumps in the air and launches toward us. I wanted to scream at Leo because he was seemingly stuck in place, right as the Shredder reached out to strike right at him. Before I could, however, a bolt of lightning struck down, causing the Shredder to disappear. The Foot fools brushed themselves off while the Lieutenant rubbed the top of his head.

“So…that was unexpected.” I stood up and stomped over to them.

“You guys are absolute IDIOTS! You unleash a demonic entity and just expect everything to be rainbows and puppies?? Who raised you, because I have half a mind to go find them and– HEY! let go of me Leo– agh!!” I kick my legs out to try and get him to put me down but he isn’t even bothered by it. Splinter looks at me for a second, then back to the Foot.

“I was gonna call you fools, but I think Y/N took care of that. You have doomed all of humanity!”

“Have we?” The brute asks the question, and I can feel my blood boiling in my head. I make another attempt at them, but Leo keeps me in his arms. “No, seriously, tell me. This has all been very confusing.”

“We must find out what went wrong. Back to the Foot Shack!” The Lieutenant opens another portal and they all slip inside.

“Oooh, if I ever see them again, I swear–” Leo finally puts me down, and I huff in annoyance.

The walk out of the stadium was, rough, to be honest.

“Okay, what just happened there? I thought Shredder was an evil samurai dude, not some ragin' animal!” April said. I paced next to Mikey on his right and watched him shake in his shell. 

“Is he coming back? I vote never.” I pat him reassuringly on the shoulder. 

“I do not know if he is coming back, whatever he or it was. That was not the Shredder I have heard tales of.” Splinter says with a shake of his head.

Donnie and Leo walked ahead of us, holding their respective weapons. 

“I’m not sure we can handle that guy.” Leo rolled his eyes at his twin.

“What are you guys talking about? We did great!” Raph stops walking and crosses his arms over his chest.

“What fight were you just in?”

“The one where we made scrap metal run home to its toaster mommy.” He pauses in thought. “Wait, we gotta commemorate this.” He takes a shirt from a nearby stall and writes on it with sharpie. When he pulls the shirt on, we can see he crossed out the baseball teams and instead wrote,

‘Mad Dogs 1, Shredder 0’

“You declare victory too easily, Blue. Humanity has never seen anything so destructive, and you're are making T-shirts?” Splinter smacks Leo upside the head with his tail, and he falls onto the ground. Donnie gets an alert on his wrist watch and raises it to read.

“Wow, one season later and I still got full battery. Nice! And segway, my police feed is going totally berserk; something major seems to be going down.”

That something was the Shredder appearing in the Albeartos restaurant. Reading the sign reminded me of something.

“Hey April, didn’t you used to work here?”

“Let’s not talk about that right now Y/N.”

Leo busts open the doors to the restaurant. 

“Oh, my muffins!” Donnie shouts as we watch as good ‘ol Shreddy destroying the animatronics inside. Frustratingly, Leo laughs, turns his back to the enemy, and appears for all the world to be perfectly relaxed.

“Gonna need to make a ‘2 and 0’ T-shirt after this.” 

“Look out!” Splinter thankfully pushes Leo to the side to avoid being mauled by Shredder. Donnie and Raph attempt to fight the demon but slashes them away with energy embedded claws. 

Throughout this whole craziness, I neglected to actually focus on the damn armor and ascertain what was going on. A few seconds concentration and I come upon a confusing conclusion.

“Guys, there’s something–” I get cut off as Mikey is thrown across the room into one of the arcade games. I run over to help and see April getting the kids that were inside to safety by singing a song. 

“Mikey? Mikey hold on, we gotta get you out of this basketball hoop.” I pull down and struggle to get him out. I can hear Raph arguing with Leo behind me. It reminded me that as much as Leo was trying to be nonchalant about all of this, I can sense something stronger from him.

Leo was scared. Of course, he’s mentioned before that he uses humor as a coping mechanism. His family only sees this as him not caring as much as he should. Granted, this was not the best time to make jokes, but that was how he was dealing with the situation. I had just gotten Mikey free when I heard a crash and saw Raph sprawled on the ground, with the Shredder coming for April next.

“April!” Splinter jumped in front of her.

“I will not allow you to harm humans if it is the last thing I do.” The Shredder lifts his right arm to attack, and is subsequently zapped away by pink lightning. Splinter collapses on the ground in a huff. “I really want my last thing to be eating rainbow sherbet.” Those words…

Now it makes sense; Leo’s always wanted to be like his father. The avoidance of responsibility, humor in distressing situations—all of it. Master Splinter is at least beginning to act more serious, but still has his moments. Now he just needs to talk to Leo about how to balance that so he doesn’t tick off everyone. 

“Is he gone for good now?” Raph says. Ah, right. The current dilemma. Mikey presses his fingers to his forehead and squeezes his eyes shut in concentration.

“Based on his two zip-zaps, I predict that baddie’s gonna be back in fifteen minutes.” Donnie didn’t seem to appreciate his little brother’s hypothesis.

“Two data points? You’re hypothesizing with two data points? Scoff!” 

Fifteen minutes later…

After this brutal takedown at the museum, I was ready to believe Mikey.

 “Whoa, 15 minutes. Scoff retracted.” 

“This could be the end, fellas!” Mikey says as he pops into his shell. I feel the need to agree, but I can’t seem to get any words out.

“I wish I had spent more time with my TV. Aaand maybe paid more attention to my grandpa’s stories about how to defeat the Shredder.” Whoever designed this armor knew what they were doing. Just the sight of it was terrifying enough, having it come at you with a blood-curdling scream? I was ready for my next life to start. We all screamed as it came at us, but once again, he disappeared with the lightning. We all breathed a sigh of relief, but Mikey hadn’t seen what happened.

“I can’t look. Did we make it? No one’s responding, I’m the only one that made it.” I carefully pat his shell, and he comes out with a pop. “Oh good, I didn’t want to be the last one.” I smile at him before standing. 

“Guys, I needed to tell you, something is off for sure. This is gonna sound weird, but I couldn’t sense anything coming from the Shredder. No soul, just echoes of blind rage.” Splinter rubbed his chin in thought.

“Perhaps he was not fully freed, merely the armor itself.”

“So we have a demonic set of armor, with no one behind the wheels, just tearing through New York at random intervals and destinations? Perfect.” Leo says. Raph sighs and puts a hand to his head.

“Nothing we throw at Shredder is working.” Donnie uses a hankie from his tech bo to wipe his forehead.

“I don’t know how much longer we can keep this up. He is crushing us.” I silently agreed. What was this, day two and a half of constant fighting? I haven’t been able to stop my hands from shaking due to a lack of energy, but I kept it to myself. Now wasn’t the time for a nap.

“Really? ‘Cause I thought my overall ninjosity was working.” Raph deadpanned.

“It wasn’t.” 

“I’m pretty sure it was about to…” Raph ignores this.

“Okay, what do we got?” Mikey raises a hand. “Good ideas first.” Mikey lowers his hand. Splinter rubs his chin in thought.

“There may be one person who can help. She is known for reigning in raging beasts. Big Mama.” Mikey looks at his dad in shock.

“What?! She’ll never help us.” Surprisingly, Leo thinks differently.

“She’ll help me; I’m the face man! People love me.” Donnie looked doubtful.

“Last time you saw her she tried to kill you.” Leo stands up from his crouch.

“Who hasn’t? Dad’s idea is great. I’ll go in there, turn up the Leo and she’ll be beggin' to help us!”

“Now’s not the time for schmoozing, Leo, or for splitting up the Mad Dogs. This is Shredder. We need all hands on deck.” Mikey and Donnie nodded in agreement with Raph’s statement. April and I sat back and glanced at each other. After losing our silent argument, I sighed and turned to Raph.

“It’s worth a try. We can’t just keep getting our butts kicked as Shredder zip-zaps around the place. If anyone knows what to do, it’s Big Mama.” I could see Leo in my peripheral vision with a growing smile on his face. He opens up a portal behind him and Splinter.

“If Dad thinks that Big Mama can help us, we gotta try.” At that, Splinter’s eyes widen in surprise.

“What? I need some time to think about…” Leo kicks him into the portal before he can escape. 

“You can totally handle Shreddy on your own. Trust me, you guys got this!” He steps through the portal, and we’re left facing the demon with two men down. 

I said this was a good idea, right?

~~~

*Blue*

Well, I’m glad at least someone thought I had a good idea. Besides, Pops was the one who brought up Big Mama in the first place! Speaking of, I had portaled us onto a roof near The Grand Nexus Hotel. Even from here, I had to reign in my anger at the thought of that stupid spider in there.

Well, enemy of my enemy and all that.

“So, you knew Big Mama back in the day?” I thought that would be an okay question, but Pops nearly breaks my eardrums with his response.

“We were just friends! I mean…uh…it will all be fine.” He moves to face his back to me. “Just rat up and see her. How bad could it be? Okay, super awful, but come on. Tuck in your tail and let’s go.” Yeah…They were just friends alright.

The inside of the hotel was the same as always, with a fox yokai standing guard at the elevator.

“Two to see Big Mama, we’re totally on her schedule. Sweet whisker mustache, BTW. Makes you look young–or old, whichever you’re going for.” Nailed it. The guard raises his walkie talkie to his face.

“Two tattered-up mutants here for you, mum. A rat and one of them bleedin’ Turtles.” He gets a response and puts his walkie talkie away. “She says to, quote, ‘shove off’.” As I was thinking of a way past her security, Splinter begins to speak.

“Ugh, fine. Tell her, her snuggle muffin beefcake is here.” The fox yokai relays his words while I stand there in bewilderment.

…Huh?

“Uh…how do you know Big Mama again?” I shouldn’t have asked that. He pulls me aside and whispers in my ear (or where my ears would be I guess).

“In addition to being a crime-boss, Big Mama is also, kind of…my ex.”

.

..

...

“WHAAAAAT?” 

“Believe me, I rue the day those eight legs walked into my life.” 

Dad began to regale me with tales of his life with Big Mama, but I could barely absorb it. Meeting Big Mama couldn’t have been just a coincidence; why would she be one of his teamsters if not to get close to Lou Jitsu? She was a crime lord, not some movie star’s driver. Some pieces were finally starting to fit together. Splinter gets kidnapped by Big Mama to fight in her Battle Nexus, and that’s how Draxum was able to pick Lou Jitsu out for his crazy experiments that led to our mutation. 

So, what? Big Mama was technically our estranged insane mother??

“In hindsight, I may have missed a few clues.” He sighed in thought. “I do miss our pre-kidnapping times. I mean, how could anyone stay mad at those eyes, that smile, and those…” And he wonders how he missed so many red flags.

 “No, no, no, no more lovey and or dovey talk!” The fox yokai interrupted our absolutely riveting conversation.

“Hey rat, Big Mama’s got a message for you two.” He grabs a couple of coin-looking objects from the inside of his jacket.

“Probably her long overdue apology.” He threw the coins at our heads and they quickly lit up and sucked us into a portal. It was a lot different from my own portals. For one thing, it whipped us around like crazy, making it really disorienting when we landed.

When we saw the inside of the Battle Nexus from the projected images in the hotel’s viewing room forever ago, it did not do the real thing justice. Down below us was what looked like a giant kraken throwing its wholly unprepared challengers around with its tentacles.

Those were going to be a problem.

I thought there would be a lot more people in the stadium cheering, but it seemed like there was little interest in the battle. I mean, the poor guys were getting slaughtered by the kraken, how would that be interesting to watch?

Anyways...

“The Battle Nexus? Okay, no biggie. We got this, trust me.”

“I DO NOT!” Well that was a little rude. “You don’t know Big Mama like I do. She’s ruthless!” I hope I never get to know her like he did. Just then, the elevator dinged behind us and the doors slid open to reveal the devil herself.

“Snuggle muffin beefcake?” Oh right, that awful nickname. Makes sense that Big Mama picked that one. To her left was one of her henchmen, the one wearing the white mask with the big red eyes. Something about them caught my interest, but that would have to wait till later. “Where did you hear that naughty little nickname, Rat Man?” 

Splinter grabbed Big Mama by the arm and spun her into a dance pose with her dipping him. “From you, as we tangoed the night away, my sassy sugar badger.” Okay, yep, I’m going to be sick. Big Mama gasped in surprise.

“It is you, and more fetching than ever, my fuzzy Cuddleupagus.” Splinter looked away in annoyance.

“I did not come for the trip down kidnapping lane. The Shredder beast is about to lay waste to New York!” She pulls out one of those purple mirror devices.

“Well let’s have a looksie…Ooh, what a brutey behemoth. By the look of it, his quantum energy is in flux. If I had to guess, I would say your raging beast is not tethered to this dimension. In other words, he’s flizzy-flopping back and forth, my huggie poo.” I even caught Splinter blushing at that one!

“I assume you have something to contain him?” 

“I do have a splendiferic mystic bauble that you can have…for a price.” The henchman used a purple crystal in their palm to project an image of what looked like a creepy collar. Perfect!

“Of course, there always has to be something in it for her.”

“Prickly Petey losing his charm?” Whoa, I had to stop that before we took a bad turn.

“Hey, hey, hey. Water under the bridge. Big Mama, bubby, let’s talk Shredder. He’s bad for us, bad for New York, bad for your Yokai business in New York, SO. If you got a solution, let’s make a deal.”

“Blue, don’t! Nobody ever outsmarts her.” Oh yee of little faith.

“Relax, I got this.” If there’s anything I’ve learned having dealt with Big Mama, it’s that she is a businesswoman. And business people don’t really like when said businesses aren’t running well.

“You know, I don’t hear a lot of cheering. Business is not booming. What you need is a headliner. Someone to put butts in seats. Someone to take on your new champ. Someone like your old champ in new form… ” 

“Rat Jitsu!” 

“What?!” Now to hang out the bait…

“Okay, fine, let me sweeten the deal.” 

“But she didn’t even say no to your first deal yet!” She won’t say yes until she thinks she’s got the better end of the deal.

“Aaand Rat Jitsu is gonna be fighting with no weapons.”

“But that beast has rat crushing tentacles!” Ooh, way to sell it Pops!

 “We have a deal.”

“What? No!” Add in a little dash of fake naivety…  

“Yes! Uh, I’m not sure how this works. Which hand do I shake?” I shake her upper hand, and go to reassure Splinty. “Trust me, pops. You got this.” 

“I knew I should have brought purple.”

~~~

*Red*

Everyone was exhausted. The only reason anyone was still standing after three nights of battle was because of Y/N’s energy boosts, which were quickly depleting with each spawning of the Shredder. I hated having to rely on her to keep everyone afloat, but I didn’t see an alternative. It’s not like I could’ve stopped her anyway; she shares that same stubbornness as Leo.

“Draxum and Big Mama were at the station together? I thought they were enemies.”

“Looks like they’ve formed some sort of truce or business transaction.”

“Did you hear what they were talking about?”

“I was too far away, but I saw that Baron Draxum gave her this glowing orb thingy. It looked like they made a deal together.”

“Kinda makes me wonder how well they know each other.”

“No time for idle chit-chat; he’s coming through again!”

April and Y/N were holding up in one of the dock’s crane machines when I yelled from below. We could see through the cloudy sky that the Shredder was about to cause more trouble. He came through and crashed into me as I could hear April shouting from above. I land between Mikey and Donnie in a heap.

“Man, I don’t know how many more of Shredder’s phasing-in’s I can take.” I feel the same way and frustrated at our lack of progress.

“I can’t believe we trusted Leo to get back here quickly. All right, here’s the new plan.” I made a quick sketch on the ground of Shreddy. Mikey was trying to pay attention while Donnie tapped away on his phone. “Everyone, punch at a different place! Maybe we’ll find a weak spot!” I guess Shredder wanted to be in on the plan too. 

“Uhh…” He destroys my well drawn out plan, and we rush to attack.

“Punch it out, Mad Dogs!” We each start hitting different spots, and Mikey karate chops him behind the knee. Shredder’s reaction spooks all of us and I grab Mikey as he pops into his shell and make a dash for it. To what out surprise, he starts laughing. Mikey’s head pops out of his shell.

“We found a tickle spot!”

“Yes! Mad Dogs, tickle!” Turns out one of our greatest villains is ticklish. Go figure. 

“It’s immobilizing him!”

“Keep it up until Leo and Pops get back!”

~~~

*Blue*

“I cannot believe what you have gotten me into…”

“What? This is one of my all-time great ideas.” Splinter was currently getting fitted for the fight, and I got to finally enjoy some tea. A shame they didn’t have blueberry… “You go out there, you wallop the champ, and we get what we need to defeat Shreddy.”

“You have thrown me into the lion’s den!” Silly pops.

“I think it’s more of a kraken’s den.” Big Mama surprised us with her appearance.

“You in that outfit…that takes me back. All those scrumptious victories.” She uses her cloaking brooch to appear human. Maybe it was for Dad’s benefit. “But this time, you will lose .” Of course she’d look happy at the thought. She probably pitted him against the worst of enemies in an effort to see the great Lou Jitsu crushed. She’s about to be disappointed again.

“Are you kidding me? This is Lou Rat Jitsu we’re talking about. He could beat anybody!” Splinter attempts to warn Leo.

“Leonardo.” 

“In fact, he could beat tons of anybodies at once.” His father tries again.

“Stop talking.”  

“Like your champ and those six guys.”

“Will you shush it already!” Oh, dear Papa, you are blind to my genius.

“In fact, we don’t want this over too quickly. You should armor up the rookies. The whole shebang. Especially with these pointy helmets.”

“We have a deal.” I shake on it with Mama while Pops groans in defeat.

“Oh, why did I ever trust you to handle this? My other sons would have taken this seriously!”

~~~

Back at the docks

*Gold*

“He likes it, Shredder likes it!”

The boys had been keeping Shreddy occupied for a suprising amount of time tickling him. It gave us a tiny break that I used to get a 5 minute power nap in the crane with April. Those sweet blessed minutes flew by though. The booming of fireworks was what jerked me awake, then April grabbed me by the shoulder.

“Shredder’s goin after the people shooting off fireworks!” I scramble up and look out the window to see the boys chasing after the Shredder. April used the crane to prepare a crate while I watched in amazement as Mikey was single handedly throwing a freighter at the Shredder.

“Holy…” April must be watching too cause I could hear her whistle in appreciation. The crates on the ship were creating a small distraction as the whole thing landed right on top of him. April and I cheered Mikey on and he took a bow.

Our celebration was short-lived.

With a boom, Shredder bursts through the ship and made another attempt to attack the people.

“Where do you think you’re goin?” Raph shouted as he created a massive form of his mystic self, his left arm tripling in size to punch Shredder into the docks. “Power punches ahoy!” Unfortunately, Shreddy didn’t really care. He threw Raph through several crates, his mystic form dissolving into the water. When he landed, he didn’t get up.

“RAPH! April, stay here; I’m going down to help.” I didn’t give her a chance to argue before I leapt down the ladder. My breath had grown ragged by the time I made it over to Raph. He was surrounded by crushed metal and out like a light. A quick assessment showed he didn’t have too many injuries. He most likely just got the wind knocked out of him and passed out. Back over to where the Shredder was, I could hear Donnie and the whir of hundreds of his flying inventions.

“All of my tech is standing by. And I mean, all of my tech.” Purple tech galore, I even spotted some I had never seen before. He set his creations after the Shredder, and we watched as he quite literally walked right through all of it.

“Sad face emoji!!” Donnie tried to fly out of the way but was too slow. Shreddy tore through Donnie’s battle shell and I screamed in anguish as I could see blood splatter the ground. 

Ever the thinker, Donnie managed to distract Shredder with a hankie long enough for April to use the crane to knock Shredder out of the way. I ran over as fast as I could to Donnie’s trembling form on the ground. His eyes were slammed shut as he grunted in pain.

“Oh my god, Donnie! Donnie, we need to get your battle shell off so I can mend the wounds, okay? Nod once for yes.” He quickly nodded and I hit the release on the seals. With a hiss, the shell detached and as carefully as I could, I removed the majority of the shell. I gasped when I saw that this was the shell that Shelldon resided in.

“Oh no, Shelldon! Donnie, I’m so sorry–” Now was not the time, Donnie was still in pain. I shuttered a breath and continued to remove pieces of his shell. It was heartbreaking to see four deep gouges ranging from the top left to the bottom right of his shell. The soft skin was torn open, and dark red blood poured from the wounds. I placed a hand one Donnie’s shoulder and he whimpered.

‘Pain pain pain pain shame fear anger pain pain pain’

The colossal wave of emotions Donnie was exuding broke me, but I had to stay strong for him.

“Donnie, I’m going to patch you up now, you’re gonna be just fine.” He gave a tiny nod, and I quickly began to sing. The power flowed through my fingertips to his soul and out to the wounds. Something that Leo had mentioned before popped into my head.

“Interesting thing about turtles, our lungs and some other organs are back in our shells.” 

Worried that he may have a punctured lung, I spent a good amount of time cataloging his injuries. I focused on the nearby blood vessels first to stop the bleeding, then began to weave the energy further. I felt a small amount of relief when I could not find anything wrong with his lungs and finished my song. Donnie emitted so much relief from the lack of pain that I could hear him sighing. I huffed a breath and sat on my haunches next to him.  

“Donnie, I managed to seal the gashes in your shell, but don’t ever, ever , do that again. You hear me?” He quickly sat up and had his normal irritated expression on, like he hadn’t just been lying on the ground bleeding out just minutes before.

“Scoff, I threw a white flag in surrender at him; what else was I supposed to do?? That, and he destroyed all of my tech . It was all useless in the end!” He huffed and crossed his arms. I could tell it wasn’t just anger; he was devastated. Shelldon’s head lay just a few feet away, and I stood up to grab it.

“Don’t say that! Yeah, it sucks that all of it got busted up, but that just means now you know how to make them even better, right?” 

“I guess.” I hand over the piece to Donnie.

“Is…he gonna be okay?” He nods his head.

“He has a backup body back at home. If he ever gets destroyed on the field, his A.I. systems get automatically uploaded to the new body.” 

“Well, at least that’s a small comfort in all this.” I extend a hand, and Donnie takes it. “Come on, let’s see how everyone else is doing.” 

The docks was in shambles. The crates surrounding us were crumpled and destroyed, and I’m pretty sure the freighter Mikey threw wasn’t going to be sea-worthy for some time. It’ll be interesting to see what they say about this in the news tomorrow. I glanced up and saw April climbing down the ladder. Dear Mikey was sitting on the ground scuffed up, his kusari fundo sitting on top of his head with a frowny fire face. 

“What is taking Dad and Leo so long.” Raph was climbing out of the crate he was thrown into. He was holding his side, so I stepped over to see what was wrong.

“I knew splitting up the Mad Dogs was a bonehead idea. Leo probably talked his way straight into Big Mama’s dungeon.” 

Now, I’m going to write off my next action as my sleep-deprived brain losing its last darn to give. I reasoned with myself that I’d apologize for it later.

*SMACK*

The others gasped in shock as they watched my hand collide with Raph’s face. He stood still, the surprise on his face evident to everyone. 

“What is wrong with you? Have you forgotten something? Leo cares so much about his family. Yeah, he might be a goofball, but he is a lot smarter than you give him credit for!” I heard a small scoff from Donnie, and I aimed my glare at him. He shrinks back at my burning gaze. ”Leo never gives up, so you shouldn’t give up on him!”

…

“She’s right.” We all turned to Mikey, who was stringing his hands together. “Let’s not count them out yet. Leo always pulls through, and besides, Pops is with him! If anyone can get us through this, it’s them.” Everyone mulled that over in silence as the fireworks began to go off again. We looked up at the sky, and I noticed it’s been getting colder.

Was that…rain?  

~~~

Blue

“Ooh, the arena has never been this woozy-faddled.” Whatever that means. I do have to say, it was a much larger crowd than before. Looks like my amazing working plan is going better than I intended.

‘And now, entering the arena, the all-time winning-est Battle Nexus Champion, back and even hairier…

Rat Jitsu!’  

The crowd erupted in cheers as they saw Pops in his snazzy new jumpsuit. 

“Dad! Dad, Daddy! Up here!” He turned his head so that he could see me.

“Could someone tell my son, I am not talking to him!”  

“You got this Pops! I love you.” I sent down a floating heart, which he swatted away.

"No!"

Rude. Well, back to the schmoozing.

“Remember, a deal’s a deal.”

“Of course, Big Mama never goes back on a deal.” Wait for it… “She does, however, alter the terms at the very last second.” Aaand there it is. I at least thought I’d be able to enjoy my last cup of tea before I was brutally hauled to the floor by her minions.

“Not my odachi!” Big Mama’s crew snatched my blade from the ground while Big Mama transformed to her big uglier version.

“One last wrinkly-doo. You’ll be fighting alongside your Papa. But! You still get my bauble if you win.

“An out-of-nowhere betrayal!” A trap door opens under me, and I fall down the hole to a waiting portal. “No!” I land with a thud next to Dad, who looks on in an unimpressed manner.

“Oh, the old last second trap-door betrayal?” I stood up and brushed the dirt off my butt.

“Please, this was my plan all along.”

“Just admit it already, son. You were played!” I really should get paid for acting so well; my own Pops believed it! Still hurts, though.

“How come nobody trusts me? None of you guys have any faith in me, why?” 

“Uh…maybe…” He grabs me by the face and points in the direction of our adversaries. “This whole situation?!”

“This whole situation was my plan all along. If it wasn’t, then why’d I ask your tailor to make me this outfit?” Ignoring the hope of seeing Y/N’s reaction to it…

“So we could both perish looking super fly?” I reach into my shirt.

“Or, so I could sneak this baby in…” Pull out a portal coin and make one in the air. I reach in, grab my sword, (along with tipping over that lackey’s tea, nice one) and reveal my magnum opus. “To sneak this baby in! My deal was no weapons for you, not me.” 

Time to start the party!

“Oh, ho, boy!” 

I swing my odachi across the ground, kicking up dirt to reduce visibility. The electricity of my portals crackled across the blade, and I could feel the excitement in my blood as the battle played out exactly the way I planned. Swing and spin, keep the enemies disoriented. I could see in my minds eye exactly where I wanted my portals and aligned the evil six gorillas to fall right into each one of them. By the end, their weapons lay on the ground, and the helmets were up for grabs.

“If you would do the honors, Papa.” I sent him through a portal and watched in amusement as he took out the remaining enemies with his tail.

“Hot soup!” With the evil six out, it was time for the final part of my plan.

“Now grab the helmets, Daddy-o.” 

“Oh, is this one of those moments I’m supposed to trust you?” I portaled next to him to grab the helmet from him.

“Bingo!” I sent the helmets through two portals to get their speed crankin’. That time in Draxum’s lair was a well learned lesson. “Time to get Kraken.” Faster than you could track, I dodged the Kraken’s tentacles, and used the helmets to pin them down. “Superhero landing!” I stabbed the ground and prepared Papa. “One more helmet.”

“Wait, what?” I sent him through, and the crowd watched as Rat Jitsu cannonballed into the Kraken’s head, ending the champion’s reign.

Cheers burst from the crowd, so we basked in the glory.

“They love ya Pops!”

“It was all you, my son!” The look on Dad’s face was so worth it.

“Silence.” I turned around to face Big Mama.

“Just the spider I was coming to gloat to.” She got a little too close for comfort (that breath, yeesh ).

“I am not one to be outmaneuvered, my Turtley-Boo. Well done.” She reached behind, and pulled out what we’ve been waiting for. “And now, a deal is a deal. And as a sign of respect, I shall return the Shredder beast to his prison dimension, if you catch him.”

“Sweet! Come on, Pops. let’s jet.” We had people to see and demonic armor to imprison.

~~~

I portaled us to where the rest of the squad was. When we walked through, I could immediately feel the fat drops of rain pouring from the sky, and the lightning was still striking above. 

“You love us, you missed us. We’re back, baby!” I showed off our prize to the others. “Rat Jitsu and Blue saving the day!” 

What I was expecting didn’t quite match up with my assumptions. Mikey was hiding in his shell, Raph and April stood in a defensive stance, Y/N didn’t even look aware of our sudden presence, and Donnie…

“Donnie where did you get a headstone of all things??” I didn’t get an answer before Raph started one of his patented lectures.

“It’s about time! We’ve been getting our butts kicked after you left us high and dry.” Dry being figuratively, as they were literally soaking wet.

“High and dry? Come on dudes, when I said, ‘You got this.’ I meant that. Look,” I gestured to Donnie. “I bet the only reason we’re here right now is ‘cause Donnie inputted coordinates of blah, blah, blah, blah,” I then pointed to Mikey, who looked about ready to have a panic attack. “Mikey razzed his tazz.”

April looked unamused as I glanced at her next. “April finally used her crane license,” She snapped a finger and gave me a wink. “Y/N kept you all alive and well.” She seemed to notice us finally and gave me the barest of smiles. I felt a spark of worry as I noticed she was shivering. It must have been raining for a while.

Y/N didn’t react the way I thought she would, even to the jumpsuit. In fact, I don’t even think she really noticed it. Not that I could exactly blame her, it’s been a loooong three nights.

“And you, Raph, are gonna put it all together in a plan to defeat that lead-head with this mystic collar.” 

“Wow, Leo, that’s remarkably accurate.” Of course it is, dear brother, I thought of everything.

Lightning crackled. Pink lightning.

“He’s back.” Shredder began to spawn in front of us. “Prepare for Operation Fire-Hanky-Tickle-Collar!” Mikey and Donnie bounded forth and I went to follow when Raph pulled me to a stop. “Leo, sure you can get that on him?”

“Trust me.” He smiles at me.

“I do.” Huh, I think that’s the first time I’ve heard that tonight. Raph begins shouting orders at Mikey.

“Lure him in, Mikey. Flame on!” Mikey looks absolutely terrified, but does as he’s told. He whips out his kusari-fundo, using the gremlin flame ball to get Shreddy’s attention. “Okay, Donnie, the hanky!” 

“Donnie’s on it!” Donnie stands in front of Mikey facing the Shredder, shaking uncontrollably.

“One small step for turtle kind!” He presses a button and his tech bo whips a hanky over Shredder’s eyes. This causes him to miss his shot and rolls over Donnie and Mikey while trying to get the hanky off his eyes. Raph snaps into action, creating a duplicate of his hands using his mystic arts.

“Power Tickle Jitsu!” I’m gonna have to talk to Raph later about his naming strategies. “Leo, now!” I hop on top of Shreddy and whip that collar on.

There was a huge explosion of mystic energy, and when the dust finally settled, the Shredder lied defeated.

Pops pulled me into a choke-hold hug as everyone cheered. “My sons, they will write scrolls about this one day.”

“Oh, I’m sure they will.” Right on time, curious. Big Mama and her goons lined up behind us, her red portal casting a light behind her. “Perfectly fasmagoric. You turtles are not to be trifled with.” I hated even the thought of Big Mama being within ten feet of Y/N, so I was hoping to keep this short.

“One tamed, no longer phasing, scrap metal psycho ready for your disposal.”

“You did your part, so I will do mine.” Her masked goon appeared holding a skull shaped trinket, and threw it against the Shredder’s armor (just barely missing my head, b.t. dubs). The big guy was subsequently hauled up into a green portal, and the sky was once again clear.

“Bam! Back into his prison dimension, never to be heard from again.” Raph said, and we all posed in celebration.

“Whoo! What an epic three days of non-stop fighting!” April cheered, right before she and the rest of us passed out in a heap.

“Oh, stop being so dramatic, my children, let’s go.” We all groan as we shove each other through the nearby manhole, and we descend into the dark as the cover flips close.  

~~~

12:30 am

As everyone made the long trek back to the lair, Splinter made a quiet recounting of events that happened on our end, while Raph filled him and I in on what went on with Shreddy. The rest were mostly silent, with Mikey, April, and Donnie shivering from the cold. Y/N trailed behind the others, her eyes drooping. Oddly enough, she was no longer shivering. I chalked that up to her finally warming up.

“I can’t believe Leo got the best of Big Mama. She’s like, the ultimate conman!” Splinter smirked.

“Yes, Blue pleasantly surprised me, right after he used me as a missile against Mama’s kraken.” They lightly laughed while I went on to defend my brilliant plan and point out that it all worked out. Behind us, Mikey noticed Y/N was lagging behind and stopped to check on her.

“Y/N, are you okay back there? You look exhausted.” She slowly looked up at the others, her face devoid of color.  

"Hey, guys, did I mention I haven’t slept in four days-" That was the last thing she said before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and collapsed. Thank the pizza supreme in the sky, Mikey was fast enough to catch her before she fell to the ground.

Everybody scrambled to Y/N’s collapsed form. Mikey passed her over to me, and I quickly picked her up and placed her in my lap. Donnie crouched on our other side and used his wrist comm to scan her.

“Oh, this is definitely not good. Y/N’s core temperature reads 31 degrees Celsius, which is 88 degrees Fahrenheit. That is indicative of moderate to severe hypothermia. We need to get her warmed up yesterday.” I stood up and practically sprinted down the tunnel. The others followed at a similar pace.

‘How could I have been so stupid? How did I not notice she wasn’t doing well? She’s freezing; of course she’d take care of everyone else before herself. Stupid, stupid, stupid.’ I continued this mental angry mantra until we burst into the lair. Donnie was right behind me, continuing his info dump. I couldn’t decide if it was comforting or irritating.

“Fatigue and sleep deprivation are also associated with the development of hypothermia. Heat loss of 2% is normal but increases with exposure. Wet clothing accelerates heat loss, and immersion in cold water increases heat loss by 25%.” Mikey hurries to his side, grabbing onto Donnie’s arm.

“So should we put her in a bath? I can get one started–” My brain raced as I mentally went through everything I had been reading. One page stood out in my mind, and I stopped moving.

“No.” 

Everyone looked away from Donnie to Leo holding Y/N. His grip tightened around her frame, gritting his teeth at her condition. “Raph, I’m going to need you to bring your electric blanket to the medical room. Mikey, go heat up some compresses. We don’t have an IV warmer, so we’ll have to make do.” I looked over at April. “Can you grab some clothes from my room? She needs to get out of these wet ones.” She nods and rushes over to my room. The others scattered to their tasks, with Donnie following me to the med bay. The green sliding doors opened at our arrival, and I welcomed the smell of cleaning supplies.

“I will prepare something to eat for everyone.” Splinter says and makes haste to the kitchen.

Y/N was gently placed on the nearby bed. Donnie began placing an SpO2 monitor on her finger as well as ECG lines and a blood pressure cuff. The monitor above sparked to life and began to display Y/N’s heart rhythm and vital signs.

“Pulse is low but steady at 58, blood oxygen at 90%, and blood pressure 92/65. Respiratory rate is slower than normal. What are you thinkin', Nardo?” Donnie looked over at Leo, who had been setting up the IV pole and was now analyzing the monitor.  

“Okay, we need to cover our ABC’s first. She can breathe fine, but her O2’s low, so we need to place her on some oxygen.” Donnie grabs a nearby nasal cannula and hooks it up to the oxygen tank attached to the wall. “Humans need to maintain a temperature around 37 C, so the most important intervention we can do is stabilize her and slowly raise her temperature. We have to be careful because her peripheral blood will be more acidic and anaerobic, so we don’t want to massage her arms and legs.” April jogged in with a pile of clothes and a towel in her arms. 

“I grabbed some joggers and a t-shirt; hopefully they don’t swallow her up.” April moved to her side and unfolded the clothing.

“The warmer the better. Come on, Donnie, April needs to redress her.” Donnie nodded in understanding.

“I’ll check on Mikey’s progress.” He quickly passes and exits the room. I go to follow, but a pull on my bandana tails jerks me back.

“Wha–”

“Hold on mister, I can’t lift her up by myself.” She leads me back to the stretcher, then slides my bandana across until I can't see anything. “There, you can help while keeping her modesty.” 

“I’ve seen you lift boulder sized ice blocks before, Apes; you’re not foolin’ anyone.” She scoffed before pushing me closer to the bed.

“I won’t be able to hold her and get the clothes on at the same time. Just get over here.” She pulls me so that I can feel the bed against my hips, and directs my hands to Y/N’s shoulders.

Normally, her skin felt so warm at the slightest touch, but right now it was practically freezing. My fingertips grazed the scars on her back from Barvan, and that hint of anger came back. I could hear April slightly wrestling with the wet clothing to peel it off of her.

“I tell you what, getting a wet bra off is like trying to herd cats.” 

“I wouldn’t know.” She huffed in annoyance and directed me to help with her pants next.

“Just lift her hips for me so I can slip the joggers on.” I nodded for her benefit and did as I was told. This was the first time I held her hips like this. This wasn’t how the first time was supposed to go, her passed out and barely clinging to life–

“OW! What was that for??” I rubbed my arm where April had smacked it. 

“I could practically hear your brooding from here.” I scoff and cross my arms.

“I don’t brood; this face is too pretty for brooding.” 

“You keep telling yourself that.” April lightly pats my arm she hit. “She’s going to be okay. She’s too stubborn to be out of the game for too long, and you know it.” Before I could answer, Mikey burst into the room and said,

“--I got the compresses ready– OH MI GOSH I’M SO SORRY!” April struggles to hold in a snicker while I groan with a blush.

“Angelo, I was trying to tell you, they were changing her clothes!” Donnie says as he enters too, thankfully keeping a hand over his eyes.

“I’m sure she’ll forgive you, Mikey. Thank you for bringing those in.” April says, and she moves to lift the bandana from my eyes. Y/N was now swimming in my shirt and pants, and the sight would have been humorous if it weren’t for the medical equipment. I turned over to where I heard the others and saw Mikey’s face as red as my stripes with his hands slapped over his eyes. I huffed a laugh and reached for the compresses he left on the table.

“Thank you, Mikester.” He mumbled a welcome, and I patted the top of his head. “Why don’t you go help Dad with the food? I’m sure everyone could use a warm meal. Also, you can uncover your eyes, bud.” He very carefully lowered his hands and glanced at Y/N. His expression went from somber to determined.

“I’m going to make the best soup everyone’s ever tasted.”

"Thanks, little bro.” He left with purpose in his steps while I went over to prepare the IV fluids. Raph stepped in a moment later, holding his electric blanket. 

“Here, I’ll plug this in and get it on her. How’s she doing?” It was harder to keep a straight face with Raph, but I did my best.

“We’re getting her warmed up slowly. It’s going to take some time…” He tucked the blanket up to her chin and smoothed it down. 

“Is there anything else we can do right now? Why hasn’t she woken up yet?” I shook my head and checked to make sure the intravenous fluid was dripping at the right rate.

“She’s exhausted; she probably didn’t sleep much even before this whole mess. I wouldn’t be surprised if she slept for a while. All we can do now is wait.” Raph hums in thought, pulling up a chair to sit by her right.

“I’ll take first shift; why don’t you go get out of that jumpsuit and clean up?” I stop for a second to process that.

“What? No, I’m going to take first shift. I have to keep an eye on her vitals; you don’t know how to do it.”

“Leo–”

“NO!” He fell silent at my sudden outburst. The quiet beeping of the monitors filled the tense air. “I have to know she’s alright before I do anything else.” Raph studied my face for a moment, then heaved a sigh and motioned for the chair.

“I get it, but at least sit while you do. I know you’re just as tired as everyone else.” I stall, but Raph seems determined. 

“...Fine.” I huff and plant myself down.

And so the waiting began.

~~~

1:45 am

Everyone had taken their turns cleaning up in the bathroom, while April had threatened convinced me to replace the jumpsuit with some comfortable sweatpants and a hoodie. Dad had passed out the ramen he usually makes when we are sick, and the bowl of soup helped to soothe our bodies. We ate together in the med bay around Y/N, speaking softly and checking in on each other. Donnie informed us about what had happened to his shell and how Y/N had healed it. My twin sense was tingling and I could tell he was struggling with what happened. We’d have to talk about that when it was just us. 

I had grabbed one of my medical textbooks I kept in the med bay to double and triple check everything we needed to do. I quickly glanced away at the part where urban hypothermia has a high mortality rate and instead focused on measurements and interventions.

Heh, listen to me, knowing big fancy words. 

Mikey stepped into the med bay with a pack of cards in hand with a worried stare.

“Are you sure you don’t want a break? You need rest.”

That was about the fifth time someone’s asked me that. 

“Let’s make this easier on all of us that when I say I’m staying, that means I’m staying.” Mikey gave me a glare, and I began to fear that Dr. Delicate Touch was about to show up.

“Fine. Then that means I’m staying with you for my shift. Let’s play some Uno.” He pulls out the deck of cards, and I have a PTSD moment from the last time I tried playing with him.

“Oh, no thanks; I think I’d rather have a concrete bath than let you beat the crap out of me again. I learned my lesson.” He huffs in annoyance and takes a seat opposite me, on the other side of Y/N’s bed. He spent a moment just observing her, the way her chest rose and fell with each breath. I’ve been doing that since we got here. Mikey’s face takes on a guilty expression, and I furrow my brow in concern.

“What’s wrong Mikey?” He takes a second to gather his thoughts, then speaks.

“It’s just that– thinking back, there were a lot of times where I should’ve noticed something was wrong. How many times she had to sit down or hid her shaking hands. I’m the therapist of this insane family, why didn’t I say something?” As hypocritical as it was for me to tell him it wasn’t his fault, I had to try.

“You can’t blame yourself, Mike; there was so much going on. We were all tired from fighting for so long; no one could have known.” His posture relaxes, and he gives me a small smile.

“Yeah. I’m just grateful it’s all over. It was terrifying! He kept popping up to attack everything in sight. I don’t think I’ve hidden in my shell more times than that night!” I reach over the bed to pat Mikey on the shoulder. 

“I’m sorry I left you guys. I wanted to be there, but at the same time, we needed to find a solution. It was all we could do.”

“I know that. Pops wouldn’t have suggested it if there was any other option.” He glanced from me to Y/N. “Do you think Y/N would mind if I laid with her?” I gently smiled at him.

“Of course not buddy. Besides, you give the warmest hugs! She could use that right now.” He beams at me before carefully settling on Y/N’s left side. It was probably my imagination, but I could have sworn I saw her smile.

I must have dozed off at some point, because one minute Mikey was there, the next he was gone. I perked up at the sound of the IV beeping. It was time to change the bags. I checked the monitor to see how her vitals were progressing. Heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen were climbing steadily back up to normal ranges. Her temperature was slower to change, though, only increasing to about 91 F. At least that puts her out of the danger zone, for now. 

I checked and rechecked the monitoring devices and her skin. Thankfully, the electric blanket was doing a good job of warming her arms and legs. Forcing myself to settle down, I sat back in the chair, and smoothed back some of Y/N’s hair. 

She looked so peaceful, like she was just taking a nap. A memory from the night surfaced:

“This could be the end, fellas!” 

“I wish I had spent more time with my TV. Aaand maybe paid more attention to my grandpa’s stories about how to defeat the Shredder.”  

At sixteen we were saying our goodbyes, and I couldn’t say anything. I remember taking a look at everyone’s faces, trying to memorize them in my mind before the inevitable. I wanted to say something admirable, maybe even touching, but the words just wouldn’t come.

And now she might never get to hear them. 

“When you wake up, we’re going to have a serious talk about your sleeping habits. I know, I know, pot meet kettle; but you should have at least said something!” I stopped for a moment, trying to gauge if she could hear me. “Who am I kidding? Even if we did know something was off, you still would have helped; that’s what you do.” It felt like something was burning in my chest as I kept talking. 

“There was so little time to actually talk, we kept getting pulled into fights– I should have checked on you before leaving, I should’ve said—” A choked sob keeps me from speaking, so I grab one of her hands and hold it to my forehead. “Please, please be okay. I have so much I want to tell you, so many things I want to do with you.” Her quiet breathing was her only response. I sat there for what felt like an eternity, just holding her pulse point like a life line.

“You know, she never gave up hope on you.” Raph’s sudden entrance and words shocked me out of my spiral.

“W–what?” He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. Raph sighed and paced over to stand next to Y/N’s bed.

“Throughout the entire fight, we kept saying how it was such a bad idea of yours to go talk to Big Mama. We didn’t trust you, but she did.” I couldn’t speak, so Raph kept going. “She even smacked me upside the head! She said, ‘Leo never gives up, so you shouldn’t give up on him!’ It really surprised me that she trusted you that much.” Raph laid a hand over my shell. “She’s going to be alright. Don’t give up on her, because she never gave up on you.” I couldn’t stop the tears from escaping, so I threw my arms around Raph and quietly sobbed into his shoulder. He rubbed my shell and murmured comforting words to me, like we were little kids again.

“You really think so, Raphie?”

“I know so.”

~~~

4:00 am

After my talk with Raph, he left to go have a chat with Donnie. He made me promise to get some rest, so I laid my head down on the bed near Y/N. Within a minute, I was out like a light. It must have been at least a few hours later, because I felt marginally better, and someone was gently stroking the top of my head. 

...

Wait.

“This mattress is really uncomfortable.”

I jolted straight up to see Y/N gently smiling at me.

“...I’ll get a feather down mattress for the next bed.” Her smile grew and I reached for her quicker than I thought possible.

“Hah, easy Leon, I’m not going anywhere.” I press my face into her shoulder and I can feel her arms snake around my shell. 

“If you even try I will chain you to this bed, on god.” She lightly giggles and I can finally feel a piece of myself coming back. 

“Oh mi gosh, GUYS! Y/N’s awake!” Mikey shouts and that was the only warning we got before he tackled the both of us in a choking hug.

“Aww Miguel, I’m so happy to see you.” Y/N says as she maneuvers him to her other side. The others quickly funneled in, creating a massive turtle-human-rat pile with Y/N in the center. Everyone was talking at once, saying things like they were so relieved, happy to see her awake, and other praises that muddled together. We stayed like that for a while, until Splinter began to complain of a sore back. 

“Y/N, you must be starving! I will go warm up some soup.” I swear I could see her drooling.

“That honestly sounds amazing right now.” Pleased, Splinter gave her one more pat on the shoulder before pacing out the door. The rest of us formed a semi-circle around Y/N, with Mikey sitting on her right and me on her left. April, Donnie, and Raph sat around the foot of the bed.

“I’m so glad everyone is alright. Donnie, is your shell okay? And Leo, did you get any wounds from dealing with Big Mama?” Donnie and I shared a look.

“She’s back and already worrying more about others than herself. Careful Y/N, you’ll be Dr. Delicate Touch’s next patient.”  She ignores this and instead looks at Raph. To my surprise, tears well up in her eyes and her lip wobbled.

“Raph, I’m so sorry for slapping you. Being tired wasn’t an excuse and I feel terrible–” Raph tries in a frantic manner to stop her from continuing and lays a massive hand on her shoulder.

“You don’t have to apologize; in fact, that slap helped to wake me up! So really, I should be thanking you.” Y/N looked stunned at his words, before quickly wrapping her arms around his neck in a hug. Raph rubbed her back as he soothed her from sobbing so hard. “Aww, it’s alright now; we’re all okay.” We made eye contact, and he smiled at me. 

We gave Y/N some time to breathe when Splinter came back with soup. She listened as everyone updated her on how things were going with everyone and what happened toward the end. 

“I don’t remember much after we got to the alley.” Her eyes lit up with a thought, and she spoke to Donnie. “Is Shelldon alright? I know you said he had another shell but–” He raised a hand and Shelldon came whirring in.

“Y/N! I’m stoked to see you doing better!” She smiled and beckoned him close so she could give him a pat on the head. 

“I’m so happy to see you too Shelly!” Donnie smirked at the sight.

"He hasn't stopped asking to see you since he booted up." Y/N smiled and snuggled Shelldon close. She was about to keep talking when she let out a giant yawn. I stood up and began to usher everyone out. 

“All right everybody, my patient needs her rest; you can talk to her some more later.” She tried to argue, but the others agreed and stepped out. April gives her one last hug and murmurs something in her ear, which makes Y/N lightly laugh. She gives me a wink on the way out, leaving Y/N and me alone in the med bay. 

It was clear that she wanted to say something but couldn’t quite get the words out. I sat down next to her and waited patiently. She smiled at me before looking away.

“It feels like so much happened all at once. A raging demon armor, Draxum, Big Mama…” She glanced back at me. “And you guys going through your family stuff. I wanted to talk with you so badly, and now that we have the time? I can’t remember anything I wanted to.” She reached over to grab my hand. “The thought of any of you sacrificing who you are for the sake of responsibility or getting hurt trying to save the entirety of humanity that will never know that scared me so much.” I could see a tear trail down her face, and I moved to brush it away.

“When you were…asleep, I kept trying to think of all the things I hadn’t said to you. The possibility that you would never get to hear them terrified me.” She searched my face, and I moved a little closer. “Don’t try to use your abilities right now; you’re exhausted. I’ll make it easy and just say what I feel.” 

“I love you.” 

Her eyes grew wide as she sharply inhaled. “I always held my tongue because I wanted it to be ‘the right moment,’ but then I realized there won’t be a perfect time. Why wait when I could just tell you?” Her lips trembled and I held her face in my hand. “I have loved you from the moment you first healed Mikey in that dark alley. There hasn’t been a moment where my soul stopped loving you. I love you so much–” She interrupted my beautiful speech by crashing her lips against mine. She held my face desperately, her fingers warm to the touch. We kissed with a fervor that we had never done before, and I was desperate for more. Y/N pulled away with a gasp and huffed a laugh when I tried to follow her. 

“Leo, you hold my heart in your hands. I am so in love with you that not being near you hurts. You have shown me more than the past fifteen years of my life has and I will never be able to thank you enough.” 

“I–you really love me?” 

“My silly Leon, you really have to ask?” She pulls me in for another kiss, and I can feel our souls sigh in contentment. “Plus, you looked so hot in that jumpsuit.” 

“Ah, and the lady shows her true colors.” We both laughed and enjoyed the peaceful moment together.

It was an enormous relief to hear her laugh, compared to a heart monitor. 

A few minutes pass, and I notice that Y/N started to fidget in bed. 

“What’s wrong? Do you need something?”

Y/N looked like a toddler caught with her hand in the cookie jar. She looked down at the sheets and was silent for longer than usual while fidgeting in bed.

“I– it’s nothing; don’t worry about it.”

As much of a mystic empath as she was, I had my own ways of determining what she was thinking.

“If you’re trying to lie about being uncomfortable, it won’t work on me. Now come on, what’s the matter?” She attempted to avoid my eyes, her gaze snapping to her hands.

“It’s stupid compared to everything else. It can wait.” I move to argue, but she puts a hand up to stop me. “I know you won’t leave it alone. I’m just... feeling really gross and could use a shower, that’s all.”

“...Oh.”

Now normally, this would be my queue to leave so she could take care of things. This was definitely not normal. 

“If you want me to go grab April for you–”

“No! I mean– I wouldn’t mind if you would like to help… I’m sorry. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything.” Her face was burning as she continued to glare at the blankets. Can’t say my face is doing any better.

“It’s not an issue if it’s not for you.” I lean over and place my hand over hers. She stares at our hands for a moment, then slowly glances up at me. Very quietly, as if she talked any louder it would make me run away, she says,

“Ok.” 

Carefully, I move to cradle her in my arms and make our way over to the bathroom.

I helped her sit on the lip of the tub as I turned on the water. Y/N had grabbed a towel on the nearby shelf, and I turned around as she took off her clothes. I felt my heart pounding in my chest as I could hear her moving around—no stop, you’re here to help; don’t be one of those guys.

“Um, I’m ready. So… how are we going to do this? I can’t really stand on my own for too long.”

“Hmm, let’s run a bath. Then, when you’re all cleaned up, we can shower to rinse off. That way, we minimize the time to stand.” I go to turn around, but pause when an idea comes to mind.

“Here.” I turned my headband around like April had done before so that my eyes were covered. “That better?” She reaches a hand out, so I know where she is.

“Mhmm.” I maneuvered myself into the tub so that I was facing the faucet, and Y/N slowly sat down in front of me. With the blindfold on, all my other senses felt heightened. I could hear the sound of her breathing in front of me, feel the warm water on my skin, and her smell… It was intoxicating. 

“Is the water warm enough? If you’re still feeling cold…” She carefully leans back so that her back was resting on my plastron. Everywhere she touched felt on fire; was it suddenly getting too hot? 

“It’s nice, thank you.” The sounds of the water splashing against the tub echoed as Y/N began to scrub herself down. I reached over to where I knew the bars of soap were and lathered it up in my hands.

 “Would you mind if I washed your back?” 

“Oh, you don’t have to…”

“I want to.” I could practically hear the smile on her lips as she answered.

“Okay.” 

I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted to. I loved how soft her skin was compared to mine and my brothers. It felt relaxing to solely focus on touch, memorizing the small bumps or marks on her back. My fingertips grazed the claw scars, and she shivered at the feeling. 

“I’m–I’m ready to rinse off now.” Carefully, so as not to slip, we move to stand. I can hear her turning the knobs and feel the sudden spray of the showerhead. I could sense her struggling to stay upright, so I tried to balance her, only for her body to become pressed against mine.

“Sweet pepperoni…” She practically squeaked in my arms as her hands pressed against my chest. 

In an effort to remain casual, Y/N tried to lighten the mood.

“Why is it normal for you guys to run around basically naked?” I choked out a laugh, and enjoyed the sound of her laughing too. 

“Fair point. But we also don’t have what I would call beautiful, voluptuous, gorgeous curves that would get anyone’s attention.” Y/N struggled to stay calm but was failing miserably. I chuckled a little but stopped when I noticed she went silent again. “I’m sorry, were you unaware of this? ‘Cause I can assure you, it’s all true.” She doesn’t speak for a minute, but eventually says in a quiet tone,

“Is it?” I sputter, trying to make an argument, but she interrupts me. “I just– Ugh I know this is stupid to say out loud, but I don’t want you to be… disappointed.” I wanted to fight back, but first I wanted to hear why she would think that.

“Why would I ever be disappointed?” She scoffs.

“Because! I’m not perfect– and I know perfection is pretty much impossible but I have scars and skin marks and– and–” She stops when I place my hands on her shoulders. 

“Y/N, I hate to break it to ya, but you’re dating a giant mutant turtle. Nothing will ever be perfect about me, so why do you think I would have the expectations for you to be?” I cradle her hand in mine. “I love you; that includes every aspect of you.”

Slowly, oh so slowly, Y/N lifted her arms and carefully lowered the blindfold so that it hung around my neck. I kept my eyes closed until she said something. She smoothed her thumb over the stripes on my face.

“It’s alright; you can open them.”

And so I did. 

She had an arm wrapped around her chest, but other than that, her whole form was on display.

“You know how you said it’s normal for me to run around naked? I think it should be normal for you too… wow.” Her face was burning a bright cherry red, and I tried my best to calm her anxiety. I put a hand up to cup her face. “Hey, it's just me.” That seemed to help ease her discomfort somewhat. I watched as the water droplets slowly trailed down through the space between her breasts. I trailed my gaze back up to see she was watching me. “Absolutely gorgeous.” Y/N worked up the courage to reciprocate, taking a full look up and down.

“You’re not so bad yourself, handsome.” 

“Oh ho ho, if you’re trying to soften me up, it’s working.” She burst into laughter, and I pressed my lips to hers. She giggled through our kiss before sighing at my touch, slowly trailing up from her hips to her chest. “Can I?” She lightly nodded, and I used both hands to lightly press into the deliciously soft flesh.

“Oh, Y/N, may I pause on this occasion to express a few thoughts?” She looks slightly incredulous at my sudden outburst.

“Leo, you are literally holding my boobs; must we express our thoughts?”

"Well, if I had to pick one, it would be magnificent.”

“Leo!” She puffs up her cheeks but fails miserably at trying to emulate irritation. She continues to let me have my way, though, so I may as well do a little…experiment. 

I swiped a thumb over her left nipple, feeling the skin there rise to attention at the sensation. She lightly gasps, and I glance back up to see her face warm.

“Does that—do you like that?” She nods quickly, and it spurs me on to put just a tad bit more pressure. The resulting sound coming from her lips was so decadent that, for the first time in my life, I felt a deep churr in the back of my throat. Y/N looked up in surprise, and I felt my face heat up.

“That was new,” She sports a wicked grin; “I like it.” 

“Oh, well, I’m glad you do.” She gets on her tiptoes and pulls me into a sweet kiss. The kiss would have lasted longer if it weren’t for someone pounding on the door that had us jump in surprise.

“Hey, love birds! If you don’t let me use the bathroom soon, I’m gonna have to use your Jupiter Jim comics as toilet paper!” April shouts. Y/N chortled as I yelled back.

“You do that, and I’m canceling our Hulu account! Don’t think I won’t.” We continue this back and forth, Y/N’s laughter warming me up even as she turns the shower off. I help her step out, and we both take a moment to just enjoy each other’s presence as we dry off.

“Thank you for helping me.” I tilt her chin up to peck her on the lips.

“Oh, you can call on me anytime you need it. Especially for showers.” I smiled at her warming face. 

“Come on, if we don’t get out soon, April might do something like kick the door down.”

“That is a definite possibility.”

~~~

Freshly cleaned, warmed, and snug in my bed, it didn’t take long before Y/N conked out for the rest of the night (morning? Eh, doesn’t matter). I went the kitchen to make some tea when I realized we were going to need to buy a new kettle. 

“Do not worry, I have asked Purple to order a new one.” I turned around to see Splinter was sitting at the table, his hands cupping a mug. “In the meantime, I boiled some water on the stove if you want some.” 

“Thanks Pops.” I grab my mug and a blueberry bag, then settle down to sit opposite of him. We spend some time enjoying the peace, slowly drinking our tea.

“I am glad that Y/N is alright; you did good, my son.” I stopped mid-sip as I absorbed that.

“I’m sorry, you’re gonna need to repeat that.” He sighs deeply, stirring the tea in his cup.

“I have not told you as often as I should have, but I am proud of you, Leonardo. You did exceptionally well, despite our lack of faith.” I was honestly and completely taken aback by Splinter’s abrupt honesty. “Perhaps you underestimate your capabilities, Blue. You could do more for the team than your so-called role as the ‘Face-Man’.” 

“But with a face this gorgeous, who else could do it?” 

“Well, it was definitely helpful when dealing with Big Mama.” We both shivered at the name. He carefully smiles and scoots out of his chair to pad over to my side. “However, your ability to think quickly and your level-headedness in a crisis are what really saved the day.”

“Pops…” Master Splinter smirks up at me as he walks back to his room.

Huh, that was something. I quickly finished my tea and rinsed the mug in the sink before pacing back to my room. Y/N was curled up in bed, quietly snoring in her sleep. I carefully crawled into bed, but she still managed to notice me.

“Mmm, Leo?”

“Shh, go back to sleep.” She raises an arm.

“Cuddle?” I lightly snorted and scooted into her embrace. She draped her arm over my side and curled up into me.

“I love you, Leo.” I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of her saying that.

“I love you too.”