Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They were standing on the rooftop of one of the apartment buildings overlooking the streets of New York.

Leo looked around, it was their first time being out, and he couldn’t help the creeping nervousness that was slowly flooding his veins, drowning out any excitement that he had for the adventure.

“Alright, guys, it’s getting late, we probably should head back home,” Leo stated, followed by a chorus of groans and ‘lames.’

But, still, as Leo turned to start walking, his brothers mostly followed, he couldn’t help but feel grateful that, they’d been ignoring him, again.

But then, Donnie gasps, “Guys, look at that!” He asked, pointing down towards the road under them.

They all turned around to see what Donnie was talking about.

Down on the street, there was a girl, who from her young face looked to be in her teens, and an older man walking beside her, who Leo guessed to be her father.

She had fiery red hair that was the opposite of her calm expression, which was only hanced by her piercing blue eyes, she had a yellow headband which the color matched her t-shirt, and her hair was in a shirt ponytail that bobbed when she walked, and blue jean shorts, along with long black socks and sneakers, making it look like she was wearing long boots.

Donnie’s heart flattered at the sight of her, she was nothing like he’s seen in the media that they watch or any of the comic books he’s read. A form of giddiness flowed through him.

“She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen,” Donnie stated, basically drooling.

Leo made a confused face and looked at Donnie.

Share, the girl was pretty, and most likely conventionally attractive, but Leo wouldn’t go as far as to call her the ‘most beautiful,’ let alone drool over her.

Honestly?

Leo had never understood when his brothers pointed out girls in any of the cartoons they’d watched, he didn’t understand why they fought over who was the hottest, sure, most of the girls pointed out were pretty, but Leo didn’t understand how his brothers could outright have these feelings that, to Leo at least, seemed as though they were right out of a some… Movie?

So as you can see, none of the girls caught his eye, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t see why his brothers liked them.

He tried paying more attention to the girls his brothers pointed out, trying to see if there was anything Leo could point out and understand why his brothers liked them, and he couldn’t.

However from time to time, some of the male presenting characters caught his eye, but none of his brothers talked about them so he pushed those thoughts aside in hopes of not seeming weird.

And so he went along with it. Whenever his brothers wanted him to be the tiebreaker, he would side with one of them and use the same arguments that they used to like the character, although it felt wrong to choose someone when he didn’t like any of them.

He normally sided with Donnie, since most of the ones Donnie chose were the closest to being attractive to Leo. He didn’t think about it too much, but some of the ones Donnie chose were women who could be mistaken for men, he wondered if Donnie felt the same way he felt towards some of the characters that Raph and Mickey liked, but he never really asked.

There was another guy next to the girl, an older dude with balding red hair, a beard, and the same blue eyes, he was wearing a blue shirt with a dark gray jacket on, and cacy pants with dress shoes.

“Isn’t she the only girl you’ve ever seen?” Raph's question snapped both Leo and Donnie out of their thoughts.

Donnie looked over at Raph, who was beside Leo, who was beside him.

Raph side-eyed both Donnie and Leo suspiciously.

Donnie closed his eyes and looked away from Rpah, “My point still stands,” he stated, sass trailing through his voice.

That was when the sound of tier screeches could be heard, and looking down the turtles looked down and saw a van stop right next to the daughter and father.

A skinny dude with an old tank top, jeans, and brown boots hopped out of the driveway. His hair was brown, greasy, and long, he was sketchy, to say the least.

Then, out of the back of the van, four dudes who looked the same popped out. They looked over to where the family was and then started walking toward them.

“What is this?” The dad asked, the girl starting to shrink and hide behind her father.

Leo narrowed his eyes at the scene, shivering slightly because of how… Strange the four men were.

They were pale white, with brown eyes, they had a black pin-striped suit as well, and short, black hair that was flat against their head.

They all started slowly raising their hands out to grab the family, causing a panicked look to spread across the girl’s face.

Donnie gasped at the sight, and Leo felt dread pool in him.

“We gotta save ‘em!” Donnie stated, leaning forward, about to jump.

Leo grabbed his younger brother by the shoulder, his stomach twisting in fear.

“Splinter’s instructions were very clear,” He stated, trying to ignore the stress rising through his blood, “We’re supposed to stay away from people,” he mentioned, before shivering a bit and bringing his hands close to his chest, “And bathrooms.”

Raph, who was crouched on the ledge of the roof looked over at Leo, frustrated concern tracing his face, “I thought you wanted to be a hero, since when do heroes ask for permission?” He asked.

Leo huffed, he did say that, “They don’t, but–”

“Well, I’m going!” Donnie stated, before jumping down to the streets below, this was followed by the other two, leaving Leo on the rooftop alone.

Leo felt his nerves spike, unease filling him.

He sighed, and then jumped down to join his brothers, and just prayed that they would be okay.

The attack was a fail, the kidnappers got away, with the family in hand, they had failed, and Mikey wasn’t making it easier when he went off about alien robots.

They had just let someone get kidnapped, so they could use a break from the jokes for a second.

Leo was still trying to process it all.

Not only had he disobeyed Splinter, which he was sure would come with consequences.

But he had stabbed Raph.

Sure, it was an accident, and it was in the shell, but what if he had missed the shell and hit Raph in a place where the damage could be lethal?

To say Leo’s head was spinning would be an understatement.

One of his main concerns was how they could break the news to Splinter.

The dojo had mats across the floors, two of the four walls were the blueish-gray stone of the sewers, and at the back, the opposite side of the dojo where Sensei’s room was, there was a giant oak tree that reached out toward the slim sun that poured through the sewer grate.

The four turtles sat in front of their sensei, nerves racking all of their brains as they listened to his lecture.

“And so your inability to work together allowed them all to get away,” Sensei stated, his voice frustrated with who or what? Leo couldn’t exactly tell you. It was difficult to tell if Sensei was mad at them, or just the situation as a whole.

Leo noticed Raph glowering at him out of the corner of his eye, “Well maybe if I didn’t have to waste time arguing with hero boy, I could’ve saved them,” Raph stated, Leo’s eyes bolted to where Raph was, a mixture of guilt and surprise flooding him.

How was this his fault?

“Hey, if you hadn’t gotten in my way–” Leo pointed at Raph, not noticing how Splinter’s eyes furrowed, “I could have done it!”

Leo then turned to Donnie, his feelings still contorting in confusion and fear, “And you went flying off on your own!” He pointed out. He was mad at Donnie for doing that. He was upset that Donnie had not only risked his own life but the rest of Leo’s younger siblings' lives just because of some girl.

What was up with that?

“How smart was that?” Leo asked, internally cringing when the words left his mouth. He saw as Donnie’s eyes narrowed, face contorting in a glare. He knew it was a low blow, being the ‘smart one’ of the group was something Donnie always had pride in, and he decided to go for it.

But seriously, it’s a girl they haven’t even met. Sure, they needed to save her, even Leo will admit that now, but he just couldn’t understand or see the logic in jumping in and just saving her with no explanation of who she was or why those dudes wanted her.

Maybe she was a bad person to them, maybe it was all a play or whatever, but the point is that they had no clue who this girl was or who her father was, and Donnie just jumped into something that could’ve ended badly.

“Well, it would’ve worked out great if somebody –” Donnie turned to Mikey, “Hadn’t hit me in the head with their nunchucks!” He shouted, Leo winced as Mikey’s face grew bitter.

What were they doing?

It was everyone's fault that this happened. Why are they trying so hard to pin the blame on each other?

“Well– none of this would’ve happened if…” Mikey turned to his side, looking for someone to blame, his eyes widened when he realized that there was no one there.

Leo felt his stomach flip, it was a subtle thing that sometimes happens when he knows something bad is about to happen.

Mikey then turned to where Sensei was, “Somebody hadn’t trusted us to go up there in the first place!”

They all gasped and stiffened at Mikey’s comment, heads whipping over to where Sensei was.

Leo felt anxiety boiling up in him, he got queasy, and he felt like his throat was closing up on him.

Mikey had just insulted Sensei.

Leo watched as Sensei at first stiffened, his hand balled into a fist, an action that he was sure none of his brothers noticed.

“Oh, geez,” Mikey whimpered, maybe he did see the action? “Sensei, I didn’t mean to–”

“No, Michelangelo,” Sensei looked over his shoulder, and Leo fought back a wince at the look in his eyes.

“You are right,” he admitted, his voice sounding calm, and collected, as though the comment just watched over him.

“I am?” Mikey asked, “He is?” The other said in unison, looking over at the youngest with the same confusion on their face.

While Leo was aware that the others were shocked at the premise of Mikey being right, he was shocked for a different reason.

He knew his brother wasn’t as dumb as he portrayed himself to be, but Leo normally had private training with Sensei, so, he could read their father better than his brothers.

And he could tell from the way Sensei stiffened, and his hands balled that he wasn’t pleased in the slightest at the youngest’s words, but chose to brush them off for now.

Maybe Leo should talk to Mikey about not saying the first that comes to mind from time to time.

“You were not fully prepared for what was up there,” Sensei stated as he started to walk, Leo tried to shake off the feeling that Sensei was angry, he knew his father was just mad that he couldn’t protect them.

“I trained you to fight as individuals, not as a team,” they all looked down in shame.

“And as your teacher, your father,” he hesitated on the words, looking away from the turtles, Leo couldn’t quite explain why, “The responsibility for that is mine.”

“Perhaps, in another year we can try again,” he reasoned.

That got Donnie’s attention.

Donnie sputtered a bit, “Another year?” He asked, then he scoffed, “Has everybody forgotten that people were kidnapped ?” He asked, his voice rising in fear, “They don’t have a year! Sensei, we have to do something now!”

Sensei walked toward Donnie, his eyes narrowing as he did so.

Donnie still looked Sensei straight in the eyes, the younger held no fear of his father, why would he?“You weren’t there, Sensei, you didn’t see the way that girl looked into my eyes,” he reasoned, thinking back on the glace that the two shared, and feeling the same bit of helplessness he did in that very moment.

“She was scared, and she was counting on me–” The others gave him funny looks, “Us–” He corrected himself, “To save her!” He looked back at Sensei, pleading with him to listen.

Sensei got a considering look on his face.

Leo watched as Sensei turned his back to them, and looked at the photo he had of his previous family, and Leo felt a pain grow in his heart.

He knew how badly losing his family affected his father, it got to the point where sometimes when they were kids, he would lock himself in his room for a moment.

Leo always tried to help out then, wanting to give his father some space to grieve.

He could never imagine losing one of his brothers, so, although he had nothing to compare to the pain of losing a wife and a child too, he wanted to make it so Sensei had less of a load to bare.

After a few moments, Sensei spoke again,

“Yes.”

“You must save her,” he turned around and looked at them, and Leo felt a mix of relief, and dread.

“I agree, Sensei,” he started, everyone's attention turning to him, “But in that fight, we weren’t exactly a well-oiled machine,” he reasoned.

“Like that robot with the brain thingy,” Mikey pipped up, the others looked at him, “Give it a rest!” Raph somewhat begged, somewhat exhaustedly ordered.

That was when Mikey turned to look at Raph, who was on Leo’s right, allowing the blue turtle to see the younger's face.

Mikey looked hurt. Scared, even.

Something uneased Leo. Mikey normally had tells whenever he was pulling a prank on them.

But the older saw none of them.

Not the ghost of a cheeky smile.

Not the mischievous twinkle in his eyes.

Not the excited tapping on his fingers on his thigh.

Not the higher pitch of voice he got when he was excited.

Nothing.

It was almost as though he was being serious.

But he couldn’t be.

Right?

That would mean that there are alien robots.

Things that Leo had no clue in how to defeat.

Things that could hurt his brothers.

Things that he has heard vague stories of whenever Sensei talks about how he had to keep them all safe.

Things he chalked up to stories that you would tell children if you wanted them to behave.

Things that he couldn’t control.

Leo balled up his fist and looked to the floor, trying his hardest to calm his heavy breathing.

No. No way were there such things as alien robots. Nope. Not at all. He doesn’t believe it. He doesn’t want to believe it.

Everything is fine.

His brothers are fine.

His father is fine.

Those people will be fine.

Everything is fine.

Sensei then made a hum of acknowledgment, and all eyes turned to him.

He stroked his beard in deep thought, his eyes were closed.

He then opened his eyes and looked at all of them, “If you are to fight more effectively as a unit, you are going to need a leader,” he stated.

Leo felt his heart grow heavy.

He put on a smile and raised his hand.

“Can I be the leader?” He asked, his smile wobbled for a moment. He kinda didn’t want to do this. But then again, it’s something that could keep his brothers safe, and he was already the eldest, the one who gave orders when Sensei was away, the one who had the responsibility to keep his brothers in line, and, by that logic, the most responsible one here.

There was also something telling him, from the way Sensei’s eyes lingered a bit too long on him, that Sensei felt the same.

Besides, he would get to be like Captain Ryan! So it couldn’t be too bad.

Right?

Once Leo gave his answer, Sensei started walking away.

“Why should you be the leader?” Raph asked the two looked at each other, and Leo felt a sense of dread once more pile in him. This was going to end in another argument, wasn’t it? “I kicked your butt, I should be the leader,” Raph punched his hand into his palm.

“Hey, I’m smarter than all you guys put together, it should be me!” Donnie reasoned Leo looked over at his other younger brother, of course, he would try and join in, Leo already had a difficult time getting any of them to talk to him, now they were talking, and were about to get into an argument over who was to be leader.

Great.

Just perfect.

“No way! It should be me!” Mikey suddenly stated.

They all looked at him, expressions of shock and confusion at the youngest thoughts.

“I don’t really have a reason, I just think it would be neat,” he stated.

Leo thought it over for a moment.

Raph was fiercely protective of his family, and Leo could trust that Raph would never be willing but them in danger, he wore his heart on his sleeve and faced his problems head-on. But the backlash of that was the anger that blinded him, it made him reckless and inapproachable.

Unless you were aware that he was a complete softy when no one was looking.

And Leo had no leg to stand on when commenting on Raph’s anger, they were nicknamed the ‘Tempter Twins,’ at one point for a reason. One of them was always angry. But it was never both at the same time.

Heck, it was even why they, out of all of them, because technically they were all quadruplets, got the actual name of ‘twins.’ They both seem to know exactly what to do for the other.

Sure, over the years, Raph’s outbursts became more and more noticeable, and Leo got better at hiding his, but Leo likes to think that he and Raph still had some sort of connection.

Leo was fortunate enough to be able to use Sensei’s advice, he now just mediates to store his anger away. His twin on the other hand? Not so lucky, and Leo felt terribly guilty for it.

And he was sure that his brother was hurt by it. There was a reason why whenever he and Raph got into a fight, Raph would later just refer to him as ‘older brother’ outright.

Raph must know how badly that hurts. But Leo just couldn’t explain why.

Donnie was smart, there was doubt about it, give the turtle some junk, and he’ll make a brand new weapon in a day, he admired his brother’s skills. But that also came with drawbacks, as he overthought stuff daily, and it got to the point where he might be worse than Leo with it.

Mikey was the heart of the family, the one that always kept them moving, the one that stayed and loved no matter what.

And the one Leo envied the most.

Mikey didn’t have it easy, Leo knew that, but he didn’t know that, it was hard to not be jealous of how much free time Mikey seemed to have on his hands, and how to carefree his youngest brother was.

And it was the reason that Mikey couldn’t be the leader.

Sure, Mikey knew when to stricken up, but he was too impulsive even when he was serious. And it was pure joy that came with the impulsive nature that made Leo never want Mikey to change.

He loved seeing his younger siblings happy.

That, and he would never let his baby brother be the leader for the fact that Leo is not going to let the baby of the family take on that responsibility.

Splinter finally got to the door of his room, and slid the door open, “This is a difficult decision,” he stated as he entered his room, and turned to the turtles, “I will meditate on it,” he then closed his door.

After only a second, he opened it back up, “It’s Leonardo,” and he closed the door once again.

Leo felt a mixture of pride, relief, and hurt at the statement.

He was proud of the fact that Sensei trusted him enough to become the leader of his brothers and that he would be able to lead his brothers in the first place. The relief came out of nowhere and left him questioning what he was so worried about.

Could it be he was worried about not becoming the leader?

The hurt came with the door closing right after Sensei dropped that bombshell on them.

Leaving them alone to deal with his words.

Leo took a deep breath in and looked over at Raph, who had a sour look on his face. He and Raph had not been getting along for the past years, and this was just more fuel to add to the fire.

“No hard feelings, Raph?” Leo asked, trying to not show how worried he was.

Raph groaned, and got up, turning his back to them and walking away, “Stick it in your shell,” Raph snarled, bitterness and venom seeping into his voice.

Leo closed his eyes and turned his head toward the floor, not baring to look at his twin.

He could already feel the other's eyes on him.

He didn’t know if they could ever put this fire out.

Leo had a plan, believe it or not, but he did.

Leo noticed that one of the buildings had the same logo as the van that took the family, so they were going to wait until one of the kidnappers showed their faces and forced said kidnapper to tell them where they took the family, then maybe Donnie would stop worrying.

Eventually, the guy with the van showed up.

But not after Raph had complained about Leo’s plan.

Leo won’t lie, he was starting to get a bit upset with his brother, he wanted Raph to be quiet. There were so many thoughts running through his mind, and the ground beneath him was starting to feel as though it was stabbing into his feet.

He would’ve just told Raph to be quiet, he couldn’t hurt his brother even if he wanted to, no matter if it was physically or emotionally.

He had already reconfirmed that he slapped Mikey when trying to calm him down, like how Captain Ryan does it, Leo just ended up feeling terrible, he’ll have to get his little brother some extra pizza once they figure out how to get it.

And the guy with the van showing up just caused Raph to say that he should have complained two hours ago, which Leo found funny.

After a little scuffle with the man, mainly achieved with Donnie asking him what is he going to do, and then the man pulls a gun on them and drives away, causing Leo to crash the van by popping the tires with throwing stars, they finally him where they wanted him.

They all approached the van, sneaking as they tried their hardest to have the element of surprise to their advantage.

When they got behind the van, Raph went up to the back door, and opened the one-closed door, causing… Something to fall out of it.

“Huh?” Raph made a confused noise as the thing rolled across the street.

The item stopped at Mikey’s feet, causing the youngest to look down at the object, and see that it was conaster with green glowing goo inside.

It took a few moments for Mikey to register how familiar the canister was.

But then he realized what it was instant.

“Mom?”

Chapter Text

“Mom?” Mikey asked, feeling confusion swirl in him.

Donnie walked up and picked up the canister, holding it gently in his hands, the others came up next to him.

They all crowded around the canister, a, “Whoa,” escaping all of them in unison.

“So, that’s the–” “Mutagen that turned us all into what we are now,” Donnie cut Leo off.

Leo eyed the canister, suspicious.

“Let’s drink some!” Mikey suddenly said they all looked at the youngest, completely baffled by his suggestion.

Donnie shielded the canister from Mikey, and Raph walked around Donnie, “What?” He sputtered, now facing the youngest, with Donnie in the center, trying to block both of his brothers from the mutagen, not trusting that the canister would contain the thing.

“Why would you do that?” Raph asked, his anger already high, but Mikey just had his arms crossed and a proud look on his face, “Cause if you mutate a mutant, you get a super mutant!” Mikey gestured with his arms, saying it as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Or a pile of goo on the sidewalk,” Donnie pointed out the flaw in Mikey’s reasoning, “Either way, it’s an improvement,” Raph retorted.

Leo shook his head before piping up, “Guys, this is huge,” he stated, “Whoever kidnapped those people are somehow connected to what happened to us fifteen years ago.”

Raph looked at Leo, a snarl on his face.

He couldn’t help but be angry. Leo always got what he wanted. He wanted to have private training with Sensei? He got it. He got into a fight with one of his brothers? Sensei would take his side. He wanted them to ‘pack up early’ and go to bed on his timing? Sensei would tell them to listen to Mr. Perfect.

He wanted to be the leader? He got it.

Raph didn’t know what to think, he defeated Leo, he could keep them safer than Leo ever could, who was he to act as though he had any clue how to lead when he just hid behind their father all of their lives?

But there was a part of Raph that told him he was angry for another reason. And he was trying his damn hardest to ignore it.

Donnie wondered how those people could be connected to what happened to them, causing Mikey to respond with “With alien robots, anything is possible.” “Stop it, there is no such thing as alien robots!” Donnie fired back, “Okay then how do you explain this?” Mikey retorted while walking over to the man who fell out of the van.

Mikey grabbed the man and tried to pull his face off, as though it was some kind of mask, when that didn’t work, he simply stated, “Okay, but those other guys were alien robots.”

Once all that was dealt with, Raph threw the man over to Donnie and Mikey, who held him back, while Raph decided he wanted to play a game called “Mutation Roulet.”

After threatening to mutate the dude and ‘make him look like Mikey,’ which Leo found pretty rude, and was a tad bit upset with the look of hurt Mikey had on his face, they figured out that the guy's name was Snake, and the so-called “alien robots” were called the Kraang, they were kidnapping scientist around the city.

For what reason?

The guy didn’t know, meaning they didn’t know, but Raph was able to get the information on where they were keeping them, and that they were taking them out of the city tonight, meaning they had to work fast if they wanted to get the family out of there.

Although, it was a little weird that they were going after the family and only the family, that was weird, right?

They were scoping out the building when Mikey got distracted and let Snake go.

Raph and Leo eventually realized he was in the Alleyway, and made it so he thought they would show up in the van, it was a little too easy to trick him into believing that.

Leo hoped it would be good enough for their plan to work when they had one.

Once they got back to the Lair Leo started working on said plan, he started working out the issues, and making some backup strategies.

Once he was finally satisfied with the plan, he piped up, “I think this plan is going to work” he stated, feeling proud of himself.

“No plan has ever survived contact with the enemy, it is how you react to the unexpected that will determine if your brothers succeed,” he heard his father respond, Leo stiffened at the sound of his Sensei’s voice.

Leo stood and turned to his father, feeling as nervous coursed through his body, god, he was stressed. And it was just this one mission.

To be fair, this mission had not only the lives of his brothers on the line but two other people and they were up against an organization that they knew nothing about and–

“Sensei, do you think I’m ready for this?” Leo asked, he wanted to stop the racing thoughts in his head, the ones that said that he wasn’t, in fact, ready for this, that he was going to fail miserably, and lose everyone he loved and–

His father put a hand on his shoulder, the action made Leo flinch a bit. He must be really worked up if a simple act could cause the reaction, huh? Sensei’s eyes narrowed at him.

The hand on his shoulder squeezed an uncomfortable amount, “Leonardo, I made you leader for a reason,” Sensei stated, his voice mixing between reassuring, and a warning.

“What is that reason?” Leo asked, trying to find something to hold on to, he didn’t want to fall because he was too wrapped up in his own head, he needed something on the outside.

“That is for you to discover on your own,” Sensei said dismissively, Leo felt his hope that this conversation was going to go well go down slightly, “There’s so much riding on this…” Leo pointed out.

And there was. There were the lives of his brothers. The lives of the two people. His brothers trust in him. So many things could go wrong, and he knows that his brothers and Sensei wouldn’t forgive him if he messed up.

“What if something goes wrong?” He asked, looking to the floor.

He heard Sensei let out a harsh sigh, “Failure is a possibility that you have to face, Leonardo,” he stated, Leo cringed a bit, “It is something I had to face in Japan, during my final battle with my enemy, the Shredder.”

Leo internally sighs a bit, he has heard this story countless times.

“Years ago, Oroku Saki, as Shredder was called then, had been my friend, but the love of a woman came between us.”

Again with the love thing? Really? Was Leo the weird one here?

“He could not accept it. And his jealousy turned outward in a vengeful attack. And while he could not defeat me that day, my world fell and crumbled around me as the battle took the life of my beloved Tang Shen, and I lost my baby daughter, Miwa.”

Sensei had his back turned to Leo, his hand the tree that he had grown in the dojo.

Leo felt a mixture of feelings at the story.

He was saddened that his father had taken on such heartbreak.

That the story was the reason he had those times when he wouldn’t come out of his room.

But Leo couldn’t help but feel some form of bitterness.

He shook off the feeling and approached his father.

“But that’s my point, Sensei. You lost everything,” Leo pointed out, trying to see how the story could make him feel any less anxious.

Sensei turned to him, a weird look on his face, “I did lose everything that day.” He stated, his voice a whisper, Leo felt panic rise in him.

“But I gained many things as well, like your brothers,” he said, Leo smiled and nodded, glad that his father at least saw some positivity in his life.

Splinter’s eyes then grew serious, “Leonardo, as the oldest brother, it is your job to protect them, you can’t let anything happen to the younger three, no matter what,” he stated, Leo nodded once more, he was already planning on it.

“Don’t worry. I can handle this,” he stated, feeling a new will to make sure his family stayed safe.

That was when Mikey came running through the Dojo screaming with a pot on his head, and Raph shouting, “Get back here!” As he chased Mikey with a spoon.

Leo defleated with a disappointed, but amused sigh, and he heard Sensei hum beside him.

“You should take care of that,” his father commented, Leo only nodded.

“Yeah, I’ll handle them,” Leo agreed before going off to make sure Raph and Mikey weren’t going to destroy the place.

The fear of failure was still creeping through him.

They made it.

The plan worked perfectly.

Sure, Mikey didn’t understand it, or at least acted like it, but if he wanted to understand how the plan worked, Leo would talk with him when they weren’t in an enemy Lair.

Something Raph and Donnie didn’t seem to understand as they fought, which would’ve drawn the enemy to them if Leo hadn’t stepped in and shut them up.

Leo and his team sneak around for a little until they stumble upon some more Kraang, but…

Without their skin.

That is a disturbing thought to have. And a disturbing image of actual humans taking off their skin invaded Leo’s mind when he saw them.

But it revealed that they were, in fact, alien robots.

Mikey was right.

The thought that there were alien robots was terrifying.

But it showed that Leo should listen to his brothers more often.

When Donnie said, “Alien robots,” Mikey responds by yelling “Alien robots huh? Wonder where I’ve heard that before? Oh right, I’ve been saying it for HOURS.” causing said robots to turn to them and attack, Leo couldn’t blame him, after all, he had been saying it for hours, and they didn’t listen to him.

Eventually, after Mikey had set off an alarm(Leo still didn’t blame Mikey for that, they got him worked up, and he wasn’t thinking straight) they found the family in a cell, and so he had Donnie pick the lock, they took care of the onslaught of Kraang Droids that were coming towards them.

Although he had to remind Donnie a bit later to get on the lock because Donnie got distracted by the girl, who they now know as April, Leo couldn’t understand why Donnie got so distracted by this girl, and at this point, he has assigned himself to ever understanding his brothers.

Or his father.

Or the Shredder, which might be for the better.

Or any of the people on TV.

Or– You know what? Leo was just weird. Let’s just establish that.

They ended up just barely being able to save the girl, while Leo, Raph, and Mikey fought the newly mutated and named “Snake Weed” (Originated by Mikey) Donnie went after the helicopter that was taking the girl and her dad out of the city.

Honestly, Leo felt bad, he felt bad for the girl and her father, whose lives were being turned upside down because they failed to save them the first time, and he felt kinda bad for Snake Weed, who they accidentally mutated.

Leo should’ve known there would be more mutagen in the truck.

Now they were fighting against him, and he was a lot stronger than before because of their mistake, it also might be because of the Kraang droids that were firing at them as they tried to fight him which made him so difficult to defeat.

Eventually, Raph and Mikey were able to lure him over to the power generator, then Leo taunted the Kraang droids to destroy the power generator, causing Snake Weed to get electrocuted, which resulted in an explosion that allowed us to get away from the Kraang, with the girl in tow.

They got April to her Aunt's place where she could stay for as long as she wanted, seeing that they saved her, but not her father, thanks to the fact that Donnie had to save April from falling to her death. And so they promised April that they would not rest until her father was safe, and Leo, Donnie, and Mikey were planning on sticking with that plan.

Raph needed a bit of convincing, aka Leo knocking him with his elbow.

Later on that night- day? When the humans are walking about and the turtles are supposed to be asleep, Leo was lying in bed.

It was all such a close call, what if they didn’t get out in time?

What if the Krang track them down?

What if the humans started tracking them down?

What was the point of turning people into monsters?

What was the point in trashing people’s lives?

Leo kept going between what-ifs and why’s, trying to make sense of it all, it made no sense, why would the Kraang do that? What was the point? Why did they have mutagen? Did they make it? How did it work? God he was starting to sound like Donnie.

Against Leo’s… Better judgment, and Sensei's orders, he decided that he needed to go out for a walk and clear his head, he wouldn’t go out to the surface, just walk around in the sewers. He wouldn’t be caught, and the walk would be short.

So, he got up from his bed and quietly snuck out of his room, careful to not alert his brothers, or his sensei to his plans, at least he hoped his sensei didn’t know his plan. Master Splinter always seemed to know just when they were doing something stupid. Especially if it was Leo.

He creeped out of the bedroom area and slowly made his way towards the Lair entrance, making sure to check for Splinter around every turn, so he didn’t get caught. Luckily Splinter seemed to be sleeping tonight.

After making his way out of the Lair through the entrance, he snuck around the tunnels of the sewer, making sure to get to a place that humans don’t normally venture in, before he finally relaxed and started walking normally, without the threat of jumping at the slightest noise.

Leo walked through the abandoned parts of the sewers, just thinking to himself, trying to get his thoughts in line, then he heard something.

Something was walking around in the sewers, not crawling like rats or bugs, but walking like…

A human.

Leo quickly hid inside the shadows, because once he figured out that it was a human, he also figured out that the footsteps were getting closer to him.

He peaked around the tunnel he was currently hiding in to see… Something… It was humanoid in shape, but it had on long black cloth that looked like a cloak, making the human thing hard to make out. It was carrying something, it looked like… Mutagen? What do these things want with mutagen?

A part of Leo wanted to run and get back up, to tell the guys.

Another part of him said that that would be a bad idea.

Making sure to stay in the shadows and out of sight, Leo followed the creature, as it was still unknown if it was a human or a mutant, eventually, it met up with other creatures, each of things cloaked with the same cloth that covered their appearance, making it so none of them looked human.

Leo kept following the creatures until they finally found what they seemed to be looking for.

A wide open area in a part of the sewer that Leo had never seen before, Leo looked around to see there was evidence of them having lived for a lot longer than Leo could ever expect, there were mounts of books, bones, and vials of strange liquids lying around the place, chalk, and scrolls were all out on display.

Leo narrowed his eyes as he tried to map out a path in his mind. Whatever these things were doing, it wasn’t good, and he needed an escape plan, and a plan to stop it if he could even take three of these things on his own.

Leo kept to the shadows, his confusion growing as the three things started chanting, whilst the one in front started pulling out and opening up a book that it kept hidden in its robes.

The second one pulled out the chalk and walked over to the opened book, inspecting the page that they were on carefully, Leo narrowed his eyes, squinting to try to make out the page, before realizing oh, that looks like a demon ritual.

A beat went by before he thought. Oh. That’s a demon ritual.

His eyes widened with this, as he stared at the cultist, he couldn’t tell who or what they worshiped, but Leo knew that this could only end badly.

As he was realizing how bad this situation was, the cultist had finished drawing the circle, now they were pouring out strange liquid on the circle, the liquids were glowing, which was strange, to say the least.

Leo decided that he couldn’t let this continue, not when one of the cultists had just slit his wrist and they were chanting, clearly ready to summon whatever being they were worshiping. The circle started to glow.

He had to do something, and so he did, he jumped out of the shadows.

“Hult villain.” He shouted, the cultist turned to face his direction, the circle was still glowing, but it was dimming a bit. “What are you?” the front cultist asked, he was the leader of this whole operation.

“Your worst nightmare” Leo responded “Our only nightmare is a world without our god.” the cultist responded, “Well you're going to be living in your nightmare.” Was the only thing Leo could respond with before the other two cultists attacked.

Leo dodged out of the way before and swung back at the cultist, who was determined to get a few hits in.

Leo used the shadows around him to his advantage, slashing at his attackers swiftly and silently. Although that didn’t mean he was winning, the cultists were fast, too fast for Leo to keep up with.

Leo looked over at the leader cultist, seeing that the circle had stopped glowing, which caught the attention of the leader, who realized the same thing, he needed to get them away from here, he started planning out how he would lure them out of the room. He leaped towards the now distracted leader, he swung his sword, hitting him, but not enough to kill him, but it did knock off his hood.

Under the creature's hood was a human man, bald with eye tattoos all over his head, it was clear that he hadn’t slept in days. Yikes, he needs a nap . Leo smirked to himself. Before taking another swing at the man, which he blocked with his hand.

“You insufferable pest,” The man hissed, Leo, flinched at his voice, before snarling back “You’re not any better yourself.” He needed the man angry.

The man took his other hand and used it to break Leo's sword in half, Leo took this opportunity to run across the circle, and dart to the exit at the other end of the room, looking behind him, Leo saw that all three of the cultist were following him, he smiled as the cultist fell right into his plan.

Leo ran through the tunnels, trying his hardest to keep out of cultist reach.

His eyes darted around for something he could use to trap the cultist, now really wishing he was brought back up.

Leo continued to run through the tunnels, now feeling like he was running in circles.

Until one of the cultists finally caught up to him and jumped on him, pinning him to the ground, punching, and scratching at him, Leo let out a hiss as a sharps pain went through and down his arm, looking over to the cultists cutting into him with a dagger.

Leo whipped his body around, using the sword he still had to shove the cultist off and push him off of the ground without too much of a hassle,

But the cultist leader used this to his advantage and punched Leo squire in the jaw, sending the turtle flying backward, and so the other two used this chance to pummel Leo, pushing him backward, Leo tried to fight them off, but, for humans, they were strong.

Strong enough to knock the wind out of Leo, even with his patron, at least.

As the fight went on, Leo realized they were, in fact, going in circles, and Leo was getting backed into a ledge that was in the room.

It was high up, and Leo didn’t know if he could survive that large of a fall downwards.

That was when Leo saw the circle light up again, it was dimmer than before, but it was still glowing.

But getting distracted was Leo’s mistake, the cultist leader used this to push Leo off the edge, using enough force to make it so he could justify calling it a throw.

Leo was falling off the ledge.

Air whipped by him, cold nipped his skin, and panic whirled through him.

He looked towards the ground, seeing that he was heading straight towards the circle.

Leo covered his head with his arms, hoping to lighten the blow to his head, or any other important part of his body before he finally hit the ground.

Pain.

That was one of the things that Leo felt. A crushing pain that left him gasping for air as his ribs tightened, and his lungs refused to get air in.

Confused by the concussion that he might have had, Leo opened his eyes to see that one of his hands had slammed against the circle, causing the circle to glow a bright blue, brighter than the glow that the cultist had made.

His fingers were also starting to have cracks form in them. White cracks that had a rainbow aura before the colors settled on a royal blue, and the cracks crept up his hand.

‘Oh, great,’ was the last thing Leo thought before his vision went black.

The world writhed and squirmed around him.

A void of grays wiggled and floated.

The thing put his arm up to shield its eyes, a bright white circle was above it, and it was being brought to it.

It vaguely remembered transforming into something else, before a figure was caught in its vision.

A short one, with the light around it making it look like it had a halo.

It closed its eyes to shield them from the light.

When Leo regained his vision, what looked to be a few minutes later, to see…

A human boy?

He had tan-white skin, and gold-blonde, curly hair, that looked fluffy, one of his eyes held a glistened to them that made it look like they were shifting between ruby red, amethyst, and a shining blue, and the other was a hazel color.

Leo found that a bit weird, but he wasn’t human, so who was he to say that human eyes don’t change color? Maybe it was just the lightning.

He was wearing a white T-shirt, and blue jeans and he had black gloves on, as well as navy blue shoes, the kid looked laid back, to say the least, not wanting to put too much trouble into his appearance.

The boy looked down at Leo, he couldn’t be any older than Leo, he was at least around Leo's age, and then smiled, showing off teeth that looked like they’d been bleached white.

Leo’s jaw hung open at the sight of the boy, he felt his heart hammering in his chest, his face heated, and his mind went numb.

“Well, well, what do we have here, I wasn’t expecting a kame to use this circle,” the boy spoke, his voice was somehow goofy and unserious, and yet smooth and caring.

Leo’s eyes widened, and he immediately jumped to his feet “Uh, hello?” Leo said. The boy’s smile grew, “Hello, why have you brought me here?” the boy asked, Leo was confused, brought him here? He didn’t bring him here? Unless… Did the cultist bring him here to sacrifice him?

Sounds were coming from behind the boy, they both looked back to see what was going on, and Leo saw the shadows of the three cultists.

“We’ve gotta go.” Leo stated, and the boy looked back at him with a frown “What do you-” Leo grabbed the boy's hand and his sword in the other and took off down the other tunnel, he had to get the boy out of there.

“W-wait, what is going on?” He heard the boy ask, confusion clear in his voice. “Those guys were cultists.” Leo responded, not looking back, “They were trying to summon something, I don’t know what they wanted with you, but I know we have to get out of here,” he continued, before stopping around the corner to take a break.

The boy couldn’t believe what he was hearing, so many questions were wrapping in his mind, “So, wait, you weren’t the one who activated the summoning circle” he asked, the kame turned to him, “I think I was, but I didn’t do it on purpose, they pushed me off the ledge and my hand slammed down on it, causing it to turn blue.”

The boy blinked before shaking his head, “So wait, you have no clue who I am, have no clue how powerful those cultists are, have no clue who those cultists were worshiping, and survived a fall, and you jumped in too, not only try to stop them but to save me, a total stranger?” The boy asked “...Yes” The turtle responded.

Leo could feel his face heat up in embarrassment. Wasn’t he just getting annoyed at Donnie for doing this? What was wrong with him?

The human looked at the turtle closely, now seeing some details he failed to notice before, like the about of bruises he had blooming on his body, the scratches on his plastron, the scratch on his arm, he had been sliced in the fight, and his beautiful sapphire eyes the glistened to like like a moonstone from his dimension.

Leo studied the boy, who he realized was studying him, the boy had weird markings on his arms, that linked to the ones on his face, it was clear that the boy was around the same age as him, but older by a few months.

He looked strong, he was also taller than Leo, around 5’10-ish, maybe taller? No, definitely taller, probably six foot or something, but he was tall compared to how Leo stood at 5’2.

How could the hell could Leo drag this guy around?

As Leo looked him over, he felt his heart quicken, the boy was so close to him, and Leo could feel heat radiating from the other, and then his heart really ramped up when he remembered he was still holding the guy's hand.

Leo quickly let go before turning away, “We should get moving,” Leo said at the pain of his drying throat, and breaking the silence between them.

“The cultist may not be too far from here, and your family has to be looking for you.” he continued, “What is your name?” the boy asked suddenly, Leo turned, surprised by the question.

“Um, L-Leonardo.” Did he stutter, why? He didn’t know, something about the boy made him so… Strangely beautiful… Leo’s heart quickened again, and he could feel the heat in his face beginning to rise.

“You can call me Leo, w- what's yours?” He said, over the lump in his throat, he stumbled through his words, the guy's hazel eyes piercing through him.

The boy smiled at Leo, a feeling blooming in his chest, the turtle was… Cute. It was adorable how the shorter one stumbled over his words. “My friends call me Damian,” Damian stated a goofy grin on his face. “Well, Damian, it was nice meeting you, but we have to get you home before the cultist shows up,” Leo responded.

Damian blinked again, Leo was holding out his hand, and his cheeks had a tint of light, misty blue on them now, Damian assumed that was a form of blush, Leo held a hand back to him, as though nothing could bother him at the moment, and starring into those moonstone eyes, Damian nearly believed him.

Damian took the kame’s hand, “Of course.”

Leo didn’t even realize that his hand was out until Damian took it, he could feel his brain give out, before Leo took his wrist more so than his hand, basically dragging Damian out of there, making sure the boy was okay, but now was different.

“O-okay, let us go.” Leo managed to stammer out before turning and leading the way out of the sewers, why was it so hard to act normal around Damian?

Once they were out of the sewers, Leo was prepared to say goodbye to Damian, and never see this human boy again, after all, Damian wasn’t even meant to know that he existed, let alone befriend him.

And so when Damian asked “So, is there anywhere I can find you again?” Leo’s heart skipped a beat, he wanted to see Damian again but didn’t know how to approach it, so he was thankful Damian brought it up first.

“Well, I and my brothers go on nightly patrols, if you can see if you can find us then?” Leo offered, not wanting his brothers to know about Damian just yet, Damian simply nodded “I’ll be sure to look.” He stated, Damian, let go of Leo's hand, both of them just realizing that they were still holding hands, again.

“I’ll see you next time, Sapphire,” Damian said with a wink before walking away, and that damn near killed Leo.

Leo walked back to the Lair, now really realizing the blush in his cheeks, which was odd, because it wasn’t too warm in the sewers, his mind wondered as he continued to walk.

He didn’t pay attention to sneaking in this time around, which was most likely what led to him having harder training in the morning, as Master Splinter tried his hardest to get Leo to confess where he went off to.

He didn’t understand why he let his mind get clouded like that, after all, he had trained to make sure his emotions couldn’t get in the way, how do you think he keeps his anger in check?

Leo didn’t care. He didn’t care about the harsher training, the disappointed and somewhat angry look in Splinter’s eyes, or the way his brothers snickered at him because they realized that he was in trouble.

All he could think about was the next time he would get to see his new friend.

Leo didn’t know why he was thinking about this new human, who he just met, and had no connections.

He couldn’t understand, he was vulnerable like this, why was he feeling like this? He didn’t understand what he was feeling.

He was sure he never understood it, after all, he couldn’t even understand how his brothers felt.

So how could he understand the warmth he felt when he thought of Damian?

Or why he felt a buzz when he remembered the feeling of the boy's hand in his.

In short?

He couldn’t.

Chapter Text

It had been a few days since Leo met Damian. Leo had not been able to stop thinking about him, which was weird because not only had they not talked since that day, showing that he was likely not interested in talking with Leo, but he was a human, and there was no way a human be friends with a mutant freak like him. 

And so here he was, focusing on looking at the lab he and his brothers were studying, waiting for a break-in to happen.

“See anything?” he asked Donnie, who was currently looking through the telescope, “nothing yet,” Donnie said, and he took the telescope away from his eye.

A childish giggle ran through the air.

Mikey laughed while he messed with Raph, who, in turn, slapped his hand away before deciding to grab his finger and crack it, making Mikey let out an “Ow.”

Leo huffed at the noise, he didn’t like hearing his younger brother hurt. “Guys, when ninjas are on surveillance, they are supposed to be silent!” He snapped. He was frustrated, not at them, well, kinda at them, but most of all he was frustrated with his mind for wondering to thoughts about Damian.

While he was supposed to be on a mission.

Figuring out what the Krang were up to.

Getting April’s dad back.

And making sure his brothers didn’t get hurt–

As you can see, he had too much on his plate and didn’t need to be thinking about so guy.

“Sorry Leo, I’ll scream quieter,” Mikey responded, before going back to poking Raph. Leo internally groaned, it was bad when his brothers ignored him, and worse when they acknowledged he was there, and just went against his orders.

And, also, Leo didn’t want his younger brother to scream in pain period.

Much like Leo, Raph had decided that he finally had enough of Mikey’s games.

Why Mikey decided to ignore Leo and bug Raph, Leo will never know, but if he was asked about the situation, he would’ve said that he tried to warn Mikey.

Raph flipped Mikey over into an arm lock. “Say it,” Ralph demanded.

 “Raph! Be quiet!” Leo snapped, now fully upset with Raph and Mikey, who kept goofing off. “Not until Mikey says it,” Raph simply responded, a bite to his voice. They’ve gone through this routine multiple times, it’s starting to get on Leo’s nerves, no, it’s GOTTEN on Leo’s nerves, it’s just starting to get on his last one.

He also hated seeing his youngest brother getting hurt.

“Not till Mikey says it!” Raph reponsed. Leo was starting to get on his nerves, and it was happening more often ever since Hero Boy became the leader. Leo always had this sort of mentality that everything had to be his way, they had to be in bed by a certain time, they had to do certain chores, and they had to eat something that had, ‘some sort of protein in it.’

He was a complete health nut, and he forced onto all of them. So now that he’s leader, it’s all, ‘We’ve gotta be quiet,’ ‘Quit messing around,’ and, ‘You’ve gotta focus.’

It was driving Raph up the wall, who does Leo think he is? Their mom?

Well, they have a parent, and their father has tried his best.

Even though the few weeks that he took breaks from them, they were still taken care of.

Raph hated those weeks though. They were when Leo was the bossyish, and always got on his nerves.

Mikey huffed, “Rapheal is all-wise and powerful,” he said, Raph smirked. He released the hold he put Mikey in, just to put one hand on the top of the youngest’s head and one on his chin.

“And?” He pushed.

“And he’s better than me in every possible way,” Mikey continued, grabbing onto Raph’s arms.

Raph backed off, and Mikey gasped, trying to get some air.

That was when Raph tackled him one more and forced him to the ground, “And?” The older asked. “And I’m a lowly worm beneath his feet, who isn’t fit to live on the same planet as him because he’s so amazing and I’m a dirt clod,” Mikey continued.

Leo winced at the scene, he saw how Mikey rolled his eyes at Raph as he said these things, acting like he didn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth for a second.

But Leo couldn’t help but worry otherwise, he hated this little ‘game’ that Raph played. And he could see as clear as day that it hurt Mikey, at least physically.

Now, the brothers were no strangers to roughhousing, Leo and Raph had gotten into multiple fights within a month, Leo and Mikey normally play wrestled over something, normally instigated by Mikey, and Donnie kept to himself, but wasn’t afraid to run after any of them.

But this game felt… Different. Meaner, in a way.

And it wasn’t as though Raph did this because he wanted to hurt Mikey. Leo knew more than anyone that Raph loved his brothers to the moon and back but just didn’t show it.

So there was something deeper to this whole thing.

Around the part where Raph squished Mikey’s head harder, licked his finger, and then put it above where Mikey was, Leo cracked.

“Okay, enough!” He snapped, his tone admittedly harsh.

Raph Let out a scoff before getting up and letting Mikey go in the process.

“This is pointless! The Kraang aren't going to show up!” Raph complained, Leo understood where Raph of coming from. They were basing their logic on something they were only told and had no proof of.

They were cold and uncomfortable, along with that, but they didn’t know if they would even get anything done.

He didn’t like it either. Trust him on the fact that he would rather be at the lair instead of in the painfully cold air.

Or just not have to deal with the cold, never-ending tunnels of the sewer.

And he would rather verify this information more concretely.

But if the Kraang were going to break into that lab, then they needed to stop them. It just sucks to be left in the dark.

“Trust me guys, the Kraang are going to break into that lab tonight, I have reliable intel,” Donnie stated. He was trying to be reassuring. they all knew what that meant by ‘Intel.’

They decided to zone in on that.

Raph was the first one who dared to say it.

“Intel? You mean, April, told you?” Raph snorted, a cheeky smile going across his face, “You mean your gggggirrlll ffffrrrieennd?” Mikey teased. He extended the words, just to make Donnie surfer.

The genius’s eye twitched, “She’s not my girlfriend, Mikey!” Donnie argued, stomping his foot and lowkey yelling at the youngest, “She's a girl, whose a friend, whose dad got kidnapped by the same aliens who are going to break into that lab, and we’re going to stop ‘em.”

Leo smiled and glanced at Raph, who smiled back, both of them knowingly enjoying their younger brother’s misery.

Sure, there was no way this relationship was going to work, afterall, April’s a human, and Donnie’s a mutant, something is going to happen, and it won’t end pretty.

A part of Leo envied Donnie for being able to relate to his brothers.

But he did find it cute how easily Don freaked out over the slightest.

“Or we’ll just sit on a cold roof at night for no reason,” Raph rolled his eyes as he said this, sarcasm dripping into his voice.

“What the heck is going on up here!” A voice called out, the four brothers turned to see a greasy middle-aged man in a tank top too small for him and jeans in the doorway that led to the inside of the apartment, he was balding, and had an ugly snare on his face, it was clear he may have never seen another human in years, and the world was better off for it.

Leo felt his heart race, they had been spotted, and by a human no less.

“What’re ya, playing dress up?” Okay, at least he wasn’t a scientist.

Leo took in a breath, trying to make sure his nerves didn’t get out of wack, before speaking, “No sir, we were just-”

“Which one of you slimy green ham shanks busted my satellite dish!” He demanded.

“HAM SHANKS!” Raph shouted back, he was clearly in shock by what the man just said, and anger was strained into his voice, although that was normal for Raph.

Leo’s eyes twitched, and could feel his blood boil. His smile, the one he had thrown on to appear intimating, strained in irritation to the point where his smile looked uncanny and downright psychotic.

He might be the calm one of the group, but that was from months of training, and about 10 years of repressed rage, and here this guy was, someone who knew nothing about them and not only insulted him, but insulted his brothers, and he expects not to get thrown off the roof?

But he couldn’t do that. It wouldn’t be right. This old man was all talk and no bite, he was no real threat to them, so Leo shouldn’t be a threat to him.

“I don’t even know what that means…” Donnie said, scratching his head, confusion riddled in his voice. “Me either, but I don’t like it–” Leo grabbed Raph’s wrist, seeing that his twin was going for his sai. They already had one murder-happy rage ball, they do not need another.

Not yet.

“Let's just go.” Leo said, Raph sneered at the ‘leader.’ Was Leo seriously saying that they should just leave? What kind of Leader would just back away like that?

Raph wanted to argue, but something about the look in Leo’s eyes stopped him.

Leo was eyeing the old man, and it was clear that Mr. Calm and Collected was about to lose his temper right along with Raph.

So he allowed himself to be led away from the man.

“That’s ya spineless cream puff! listen to your mommy!” 

Raph felt his face go hot red, a mixture of embrassment and anger flooded him.

Raph turned around and got out his Sai, pointing them at the man, “Hey! Watch it, buddy!”

“Oh no, I didn’t know you had salad tongs,” the old wart teased.

Leo internally sighed, he knew this was going to end badly.

“SALAD TONGS!” Raph bocked, absolutely offended. 

He rushed at the man, causing Leo to have to grab and pull him back, which allowed the younger ones to also grab Raph.

this was going to be a long night.

Damian was taking a stroll around New York City, it was peaceful at night, even for the city that never sleeps.

Damian never really liked to be quiet. But he hated overwhelming noise more.

Sure, Damian could easily go somewhere else, maybe the quiet of the countryside, but something kept him here.

Or more importantly, someone kept him here.

Sure the cultists were important, ‘humans should not have access to such rituals because it will upset the balance–’ Or whatever his brother was saying, he zoned halfway through, it was just another lecture that he had to deal with.

He’s been getting a lot of those recently. His family needs to get off his back, it’s not like they cared before.

Besides, he didn’t care much about the cultist, not when he had meant someone whom he thought about actively, unlike all of the other ‘relationships’ he’s had where it was basically, ‘let’s throw a relationship together and see if it sticks.’

Spoiler alter: They never did.

Not with him, at least.

Sure, people may like having a relationship where someone is just presented, they go on dates to see if it’ll work out, and if it does, they continue it, meaning that they don’t have to go out and find someone.

But…

“Why do you have such a short tempter.”

“What’s with you and dark spaces?”

“Why do you act like this…”

Yeah… Damian had issues. He’ll admit to that.

He never hurt anyone of his past ‘partners’ but that didn’t mean he wasn’t angry. It didn’t mean he didn’t snap one time too many. It didn’t mean he didn’t throw another man into a wall when he tried to pull a prank by shoving Damian into a closet, right in front of the girl he was dating at the time.

He’s gotten… Better? He’s been better. He’s still angry. But he’s better.

So, yeah, he’s had a few partners.

But he never thought about them, sure he had dated a few, but he never actively spent his free time thinking of them.

Unlike Leonardo.

The turtle had been running his mind ever since he last saw him.

Not that he wasn’t seeing the turtle, Damian had seen both Aoi and his brothers very few nights, he didn’t see Leo as much as he would like, and sure he had to ‘stop the cultist’ bluh, bluh, bluh, but they could wait.

So he took to watching the city, avoided his family, and chose to not do anything about crime, just kinda watching how people reacted, and one of his favorite things to watch was Leonardo and his team.

Leonardo, aka Leo, Aoi, or Sapphire, mentioned that he had brothers, but he didn’t mention that he had three, they looked younger than lil’ Sapphire (Quite literally little, he was 5’2, it was adorable, he was adorable) but they all seemed to be the same age as Leo, who looked to be the same age as Damian, he was pretty sure Leo was only a few months younger than him.

But still, he didn’t understand why he kept thinking about Leo.

Okay, that was a lie, he knew why he had a crush, but he didn’t understand how he gained the crush.

Could it be from the breviary and selfless from the first time they meant? How did his hold on his wrist easily pull someone who was towered above him? How he could think straight enough to keep Damian safe, even when he was shy? Was it the moonstone colors in his eyes? Or the fact that he is adorably short?

…

Okay, maybe he understood where the crush came from. That doesn’t make it any less confusing, but it still makes Damian sure that a crush was what he was feeling, even after they had only met for two minutes, still, he enjoyed holding Leo’s hand.

Something happened, there was something strange going on.

Damian could sense it.

Well, to be fair, he heard it before he sensed it. There was yelling, Damian picked up speed as he started toward the sound, it was coming from a rooftop, and he knew who was yelling.

He could recognize Raph’s anger from a mile away. It was equal parts impressive and slightly terrifying.

Damian looked up to see the four turtles on the roof, as well as an older human, whom Raph was yelling at, while Purple, Orange, and Sapphire tried desperately to hold him back, to be fair the only reason Damian knew Raph’s name was because he would be told to quiet down after yelling at his brothers.

Then, a shot.

It was purple and glowing, not like anything Damian had ever seen before. Unless you count some of the weapons he has seen that definitely should not be here. Still, he can tell you damn well that a blast like that can not be created by a human.

Luckily Raph was able to be pulled out of the way before the bullet hit him square in the head. Then, more… humans? showed up, they had their guns in their heads, ready to fire at the turtles.

At Leo.

Damian gritted his teeth and clenched his fist shut.

Who were these creeps? And how much of a coward must someone be to take on four teenagers, who are clearly in the middle of something that doesn’t involve you-

Damian’s eyes widened, a thought coming to him, and leaving a slithering, hot rage all through his body.

Was the older man working with these people?

He didn’t have much time to think about it before he heard Leo shout, “Kraang droids!”

… Droids?

It… Made sense, honestly, the men didn’t look really… Human.

“Way to blow our position, Raph,'' He heard Leo say, sarcasm dripping through the turtle’s voice, Damian chuckled at the remark,

It was clear as day that Leo loved his brothers, no matter how often they got on his nerves. It was also clear that Leo was more of a parent to them at times, and a fierce protectiveness came from that.

The idea of a child being forced into the role of a parent to their siblings brought a sour taste to Damian’s mouth, but he figured that some families were just like that.

Then the fight came, the turtles facing off against these ‘Krang droids’ and the older dude from before running to safety.

Damian decided that if the dude was working with these guys, he would’ve stayed and, at the very least, watched everything go down.

Coward.

The sour look on his face then turned to a sly grin.

Damian decided that he would make a surprise visit to his Aoi.

Raph had blown their cover.

Leo was angry, he was upset that he was angry, but he just was. Raph’s tempter had gotten them into trouble, and Leo knew it was hard to control a tempter, and that was why he was angry that he was angry.

Leo is lucky to have gotten a hold of his tempter. As much as he got upset over the training back then, he knows that it was for his own good, and it wasn’t even that bad.

This was the reason why this whole situation with Damian was so… Frustrating!

He had trained for so long to not have his emotions get in the way of battles, then here comes this random guy , and completely strips away years of training, why couldn’t he get him out of his head? And, more importantly, why was Leo thinking about Damian in the middle of the fight?

This was the issue with these types of feelings, they make him vulnerable, and that is something he can’t afford in the middle of a fight,

In the middle of the day when they were resting and Mikey had a bad dream? Sure, he could come straight to Leo’s room, Leo didn’t bat an eye at this, just letting Miky know that it was okay and that he was safe.

When they get back from their first mission and Donnie is stressed about April's dad? He could come to Leo if need be, and Leo would help him. No matter if things got emotional, talking about losing a parental figure is never easy, and it was clear Donnie was breaking down over the thought of losing his father.

When Raph would get worked up and angry because he felt as though he couldn’t protect his brothers? Leo knew how that felt, and Raph could easily come to him, once he was ready to open up to him, until then, Leo could wait.

But in the middle of a fight, they could’ve easily had the element of surprise if one of them hadn’t gotten emotional. Especially over some human guy that he met a few days back? No, not the time or the place, not here, not now, not ever.

Leo huffed in annoyance when he sliced the Krang droid, this was all so frustrating. What was wrong with him? Why was he doing this? He was turning into a hypocrite, he kept wondering why Donnie would jump in to save a girl they’d just met when he was here thinking about some random guy.

At least Donnie’s issue is clear as day, he’s in love, Leo doesn’t get it, but Donnie likes April.

So what is going on this Leo?

There was a thud right next to him, and he didn’t even need to look over to know who it was.

Leo looked over, letting out another huff as he laid eyes on the human who had been on his mind.

Damian was leaning to the side, one leg sticking out as he did so, back leaned to the side, and he had his arms crossed with that goofy smile plastered across his face. He seemed so carefree, as though they weren’t in a battle at the moment.

With one look into those hazel eyes, Leo felt his frustrations melt away, leaving nothing more than pure joy, giddiness, and the want to do nothing more than run toward his new friend. All of this was displayed in a joyful grin that slowly spread across Leo's face, this only left more frustrations that quickly melted away just as quickly as they popped up.

He couldn’t stop smiling at the human, and it was driving him up a wall.

Damian's eyes quickly landed on the turtle he wanted to see, he locked eyes with Leo right as the turtle looked over at him.

For the brief moment that Leo wasn’t looking at Damian, he could see the frustration in the turtle's body language, but it quickly melted away into a bright smile that rivaled the shine he had in his moonstone eyes, his cheeks first darkened, then tinted blue.

Damian couldn’t help but chuckle at the turtle, although there were some worries about him worming into his mind, thoughts of why his Aoi looked so upset before. He would be willing to bet that it wasn’t just because of Raph.

But he couldn’t focus on that right now, Leo needed to get back into the fight.

“Please Pay attention, hun,” Damian said, his voice was sweet, but also teasing as his goofy smile widened.

‘Please Pay attention, hun ’, those were the words that slipped out of Damian's mouth, in a voice that was both slickly sweet to the point where Leo wanted to melt and teasing in a way that made Leo’s face burn hot.

Why was Damian trying to be distracting when he was telling Leo not to be distracted?

AND WHY WAS HE HERE?

The next thing Leo knew, the goofball was gone, leaving Leo to focus on taking out the Kraang.

The fight ended up with the Kraang bots backed up against the wall, Leo and his brothers were about to finish them off, when all of a sudden, “Keep going Kung Fu frogs!” came from somewhere behind them, the turtles turned to see the old dude from before. With his phone out.

Leo’s eyes widened as he realized what this meant.

“This is pure gold!” he stated.

“We’re not frogs, you idiot!” Raph yelled back, it was clear his twin's nerves were basically fried, “And it’s not Kung Fu! It’s an ancient Japanese battle art!” Donnie joined in.

 “Guys! He got us on video!” Leo stated, his face rippled with worry.

Raph didn’t even have to look at his brother to know that Leo was worried, “Not for long he won’t,” he stated before running at the man at full speed.

The old man shut the door, causing Raph to slam head-first into the door, which only made Leo’s eyes widen, and he felt a weird feeling of anger come up in him that he quickly shoved back down.

“I’m gonna make a fortune off of this!” Was the last thing they heard from the old hag.

Sirens

“Fire trucks on the route, 30 seconds!” Donnie called out, his eyes were wide with fear and shock, a need to hurry rushed through all of them.

“Let’s go!” Leo ordered.

Raph got up from where he fell, a mixture of feelings whirling in him.

He was so angry and humiliated. How dare this old asshole slam the damn door on him, he wanted a fight, and the coward just ran.

If anything, the jerk was just proving that Leo was right.

“Wait, we need to find that guy and break his phone, and his face!” Raph stated, clenching his hands as he looked at his sai. He was pissed. And that was an understatement.

He looked up, and realized that everyone had followed Mr. “Fearless leader.”

That only made his blood boil further. Why weren’t they listening to him? They needed to get that man’s phone, and Leo just ran.

Another emotion welled up in him too.

Guilt.

He was the reason his brothers were now on video.

He threw both of his sai to the ground, trying to relieve some of the anger that he felt.

He messed up, didn’t he?

That guy…

Vic.

He got them on camera.

He got the turtles on camera.

He got Leo on camera.

Damian might be clueless at times, but he could at least figure out that the turtles couldn’t be spotted.

And that guy decided to make it his mission to sell the video he had of the turtles to someone for…

a fortune …

Damian had always that such a funny word.

It can be changed so easily, depending on who, or what you're talking to, it can be so easily changed.

And yet, if a fortune can be so easily misidentified, or can be identified in a way different to yours, is it worth risking your life in?

If this Vic truly wanted to find out, all he had to do was continue with what he was doing, then, he learn the true meaning of hell.

“So not only did Raphael alert the Krang, but you got caught… ON  VIDEO,” Sensei exclaimed, they were back in the lair now, sitting on their knees in a straight line, Sensei walked in front of them, Leo could see the anger carved into his face, and winced a bit, he was currently lecturing them on how badly they failed that mission.

Leo was upset.

Everything was going to be fine. All they had to do was wait.

And then Raph had to pipe up, talking about the missing being pointless, leading to them getting caught.

And then his twin just had to start a fight.

Did he understand? Of course, he would’ve done the same if wasn’t for the years of training to handle his emotions better.

Which didn’t come unprompted, by the way, he was messed up in the head, and Raph’s anger is nothing compared to how Leo used to act, when away from his brothers at least.

“Sensei, you should’ve heard the insults he was throwing at us, they were so… Insulting!” Raph said, trying to defend his actions, and failing miserably. Leo had to swallow down a chuckle at his little brother's poor description of the insults, and a poor attempt to defend how he behaved,

But who was Leo to judge? Back then, he had no right to be as angry as he was. Most of the time it was over those ‘private training’ sessions he had with Sensei, which were meant to help him with his anger.

“Oh, I did not realize he said mean things, of course, you had no choice but to JEAPORTIZE YOUR MISSION!” Sensei responded.

“Burn~,” Mikey said, in a teasing voice, Raph simply growled at this.

Leo resisted the grudge to facepalm.

“You are ninjas, you work in the shadows, this becomes difficult when there is proof of your existence, in high definition,” Sprinter spat out, Leo balled his hand into a fist.

“Look we know where this guy lives, all we need to do is find him, then shake him till the tape pops out.” Raph defended.

“Oh, there’s no tape.” Donnie stated, as a matter of fact, “Video Phones use flash memory and-” Donnie was cut off when Raph glared at him.

“Anger is self-destructive” Splinter stated,

And Leo silently agreed.

“I always thought it was others destructive,” Raph said.

Leo agreed silently again.

“Raphael!” Leo flinched a bit as Splinter snapped.

“Stand up,” the order came out in a cold voice, Leo could feel himself wanting to shrink as he looked up at his twin, who was currently looking at the ground.

Leo felt pity for Raph.

They were in the dojo now, Raph was in the middle while Leo, Donnie, and Mikey circled him, bows and arrows with suction cups on the end, in hand.

“Evade the arrows.” Sensei ordered, “No problem.” Raph stated simply,

Leo’s eyes narrowed at his Sensei. What was he trying to pull here? Leo knew that Sensei had some tough way of training, but even he couldn’t see the logic in this

 But they all shot at him nonetheless, and Rapheal avoided the arrows with ease.

Leo was proud of his brother, sure, it wasn’t anything too serious, but still, he was doing well in avoiding the arrows, and that was exactly what he was meant to do.

“YA ME!” Sensei shouted, catching an arrow in his hand,  “Again, but this time, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo… Insult Raphael.” Sensei stated simply.

Leo’s face fell from the proud gaze it was before, he looked from his brother over to where his father was.

“Wait, insult him?” Donnie asked, “Yes,” Sensei stated.

“And he can’t fight back,” Donnie added, causing Raph to raise a non-existent eyebrow. “No” Sensei confirmed.

“Ha, I’m starting to feel good about this plan.” Donnie chuckled while turning his head towards Leo.

Leo wasn’t feeling good about this plan. He had to insult his brother. Sure, their brothers, they call each other names all the time, and he and Raph aren’t exactly known for keeping their thoughts to themselves, leading to more fights.

But he didn’t see the reasoning behind the hand

But… It’s Sensei’s orders. And their father knew best, so…

“You move like a bloated buffalo.” Mikey shouted, shooting an arrow while he did so, “I do not!” Raph defended while dodging.

“And you're always whining, ‘Poor me, nobody understands me’” Leo stated, Raph had his back to his brother, and he felt his face burn with embarrassment and shame, “That’s because you don’t understand- ack ” Raph was cut off by Leo’s Arrows hitting his shell.

Raph wasn’t able to see the wince that his brother gained.

“And… Oh! You don’t keep your back straight while doing Omote Kote Gyaku,” Donnie said, shooting the arrow he had charged up, “And you're ugly,” he added.

Leo felt as though it was a bit harsh. But Mikey just laughed, “And gasy!” The youngest called out.

The rest of the “training” Went like this.

Raph was shot at while his brothers threw insults and were the ones shooting at him.

Leo couldn’t see the reason behind this. And he honestly just wanted to get it over with.

The training finally ended when Raph got shot in the forehead and fell over.

Mikey commented that he, “Wished this meant could last forever.”

Raph felt anger take over him, but it was watered down. He was humiliated for, what? The second or third time today. He felt his throat tighten as he got up.

“You know what? Forget this!” He said, throwing his sai to the ground. He hated this. What was this even about? His anger made him the best fighter they have. And Sensei would just see that if he let him fight back.

But Noo. He has to be like Mr. Perfect. All calm and shit.

“This is stupid!” Raph audibly complained he kept his eyes trained on the floor. The voices of his brothers echoed through his head.

He heard Mikey groan, “It didn’t!” He heard the youngest complain.

Stupid Mikey. Stupid Donnie. Stupid training. Stupid fearless. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

Raph walked towards Master Splinter, who simply said, “Niiniky Seishin is the ability to endure insults with patience and humility.”

Oh. That’s what this is. Leo felt a bitter taste intrude in his mouth. He couldn’t quite place why. The training was effective.

“You can not be a true ninja until you master it,” Master Splinter added on, after which the two arrows on the side of Raph’s head popped off, which Mike laughed at.

Raph held his fist up at him while growling, clearly about to hit Mikey.

“Understood?” Sense questioned, his voice loud, and tone strict.

“Hai, Sensei,” Raph responded, his body straightening and his voice going monotone.

“You must get that video back, using reason, not force,” Sensei ordered.

Leo just kept staring at his brother, a frown taking hold of his face.

Something was gnawing at him, but he just couldn’t figure out what

Chapter Text

Before the mission, Leo decided that he needed a plan to get them to reason with the mam.

He had an… Idea of who should be the one to reason with the man. But he needed to figure out whether it was going to be a train wreck right off the bat or turn into one later in the conversation.

Leo made no attempts to be quiet about his arrival in Raph’s room. He didn’t want to sneak up on his brother, who would no doubt already not be in a mood to talk.

He knocked on the door, “Raph?” Leo asked in the most gentle voice he could muster, “Can I come in?” He questioned.

There were a few beats of silence before a forced, “Fine.” was shot out from the room, and Raph’s voice was laced with venom and spite. He clearly didn’t want to talk.

Leo opened the door and slipped inside, he scanned the room a bit. Raph’s room had his bed to the left of Leo up against the wall in that back corner, his drum set right next to it. The room was a bit messy, but not the worst thing in the world, the blueish gray sewer walls weren’t pained, and nor were the floors, but the colors messed well with Raph’s black bedsheets that had a rock band leader printed on them.

He also had a small bookshelf above where his bed was, comic books that he’d collected over the years sat proudly on it.

Leo cleared his throat.

“So-” “I don’t need another lecture if that’s what you're here for,” Raph said with a growl, he cut Leo off. Raph wasn’t facing Leo, but he could hear the snarl Raph had on his face.

“I was already humiliated, I don’t need you talking down to me,” Raph added to his previous statement. He was currently on his knees, trying to read one of his favorite comic books in an attempt to calm down.

There was a part of him that wanted to snap. He wanted to scream at Leo for daring to even ask to come into his room after what just happened. Leo always thought he was better than the rest of them, and it was clear as day.

He really should yell. He should scream. He should tear Leo apart with his ‘words’ just like Sensei told him he should do. Just like they did to him . Hey. Maybe it would even get Raph some browny points that he listened to Sensei. Though, probably not. As he would be insulting Splint Jr.

Raph felt his chest swell with breath, he knew he was about to leash out. He could feel the heat rising in his blood, he blinked away the strange tears that were forming as he recounted what went down in the dojo.

Leo didn’t even insult him much. Maybe twice? It was mainly the younger two.

What? Was he too below Leo to even be insulted? Was he nothing more than a waste of breath in Leo’s eyes?

“I wasn’t going to lecture you.”

Raph’s rant died on his tongue, and the only thing he could get out was an “Ah–” Before the words caught him off guard.

The tone was gentle. Calm. Understanding.

“I came here because I wanted three things,” he heard Leo continue, his voice still keeping calm.

Turning to face him, Raph was about to say something, but then Leo cut him off, “First, I wanted to apologize.”

Raph blinked for a second. He had to take time to register what was going on.

“What?” He asked, dumbly.

“I wanted to apologize because of what was said in training today, the insults at the end were a little harsh and I just wanted to say I was sorry,” Leo answered, Raph still had a confused look on his face, but it was slowly turning to understanding.

“Now, just because I apologize doesn’t mean you should throw out that lesson, which would have me continue to the next thing,” Leo stated, gesturing a bit with his hands, “do you understand why Sensei did that?”

Raph’s face turned into a snarl, “Of course, I understand, I’m not clueless,” he bit back.

Leo thought for a moment, “I’m not saying you are, I wanted to make sure you understood the lesson, as it was not only important, but it was hard to understand.” Leo clarified.

Raph was beyond confused now. What was Leo trying to pull here? Apologizing. And now talking to him about the training?

Raph couldn’t tell if this was a power trip or something. He wanted to believe that this was a power trip. A way for Leo to show that he was better than Raph because he understood why Raph was shot at, and insulted.

He didn’t know why that was the only rational thing he could think Leo was doing.

But something told him that it wasn’t that.

“Now, do you understand?” Leo questioned “I-” Raph’s sentence died on his tongue, no, it was a no, he didn’t understand, but he could never admit that.

But… Leo looked so calm. He looked understanding. He looked like he was willing to understand.

Raph didn’t have the heart to just throw his brother out of his room.

Leo understood nonetheless, he knew that it was hard to admit that you needed help. And he knew that the anger made it ten times harder. He knew that most likely before he came in Raph was beating himself up about not understanding.

“He was trying to show you how your anger can be used against you,” Leo stated.

Raph just looked at him, a blank star on his face.

“If someone noticed how angry you react during the battle they can use that to their advantage, this could lead to failure on missions… Or worse,” Leo stated, his voice becoming grim with the final two words.

“Like what?” Raph’s question came out with more venom than he wanted, but he wasn’t just going to let Leo talk down to him like this-

“What if those were real arrows?”

Raph’s argument that he was building up once again died on his tongue.

Leo, meanwhile, looked completely calm. Neutral to the whole situation.

But Raph knew him better than that.

There was a reason that Leo and Raph were often referred to as ‘twins.’

Raph knew that Leo was hurting, just by saying that one sentence alone.

“Three of those arrows hit your head, the others would have left damage that would have could have been permanent, if not lethal on your shell,” Leo continued, he was no longer looking Raph in the eyes, instead choosing to look at the walls and fidgeted with his hands. Something Raph notices he does when he’s stressed.

Raph watched as Leo took a deep breath, and looked at him.

His expression softened, and his voice went back into something more understanding.

“I understand that it’s hard to control your anger, I understand that you would want to do nothing more than prove someone who insulted you wrong, prove to not only them and everyone around you, but yourself as well that they're wrong, I get it,” Leo said “but you need to learn how to let insults wash over you. Like a river over stone.”

“I understand that it’ll be hard to do so, but in the end, do petty insults from people who we won’t even remember, if everything goes correctly, even matter?” Leo asked, Raph shook his head.

How could Leo understand? How could the one person who he has pushed away the most, understand him better than his own father? How?

“That leads me to my next point, I want you to be the one who confronts the man,” Leo said, which jolted Raph out of his thoughts. “What! Why?” Raph asked his voice a mixture of panic and frustration.

“Because you were the one that got into an insult fight with him, it would make more sense for you to do it, and you need to work on your temper,” Leo ordered “Besides, the rest of us will be there, if you start losing control of your anger, then one of us will step in, we’ll get you through this, okay?” Leo said in a calm voice.

“And what if I mess up?” Raph asked suddenly. “What if I lose control of my temper? Huh? What then?” His tone was accusatory. He wanted to be angry. It was ironic how desperately he wanted to be angry when his brother was trying to help him stop being angry all the time.

He just… He didn’t know. He hated this feeling. He hated how Leo could see right through him.

“Then we figure out where it went wrong, and try again next time,” Leo responded to his question as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, “Raph, listen, it’s not going to take just a night for you to be able to control your anger. Heck, it might take years for that to happen.”

“But what’s important is that you try. You try to find ways to calm yourself down. And you try to not allow it to harm the people you love, and if it does? You apologize, and see how to make yourself better.”

“You’re not broken, Raph. You wear your emotions on your ‘sleeve,’ and have an issue not letting them get out of hand. That doesn’t mean you're broken or need fixing.”

Raph was getting more and more surprised by the moment. Leo, little Mr. Perfect, for all his and Sensei’s talk about Raph being too prone to anger, didn’t want to change Raph.

He wasn’t looking to make Raph less angry him him feel like a monster because of it. He was just… Here. Here to help Raph if he needed it.

“You need to learn how to harness your anger, okay?” Leo asked, his voice was soft.

Raph was dumbfounded, he had so many questions that he wanted to ask. Why was this happening? Why couldn’t he process that Leo wanted to help? How did Leo overcome his anger?

How had he never noticed?

The only Raph could do at that moment was agree.

“We’re not gonna hurt you.”

That was what Raph had said at the beginning of the mission.

When they jumped down from the rooftops in front of the man who had filmed them. The man looked roughed up already. Limping out of a dark alley, and rubbing his throat, a bewildered look was on his face.

The man also seemed… More hesitant to insult them. He looked like he was tempted to just give up the film, even, at first, saying a million dollars, before putting it down to 750 million dollars.

But that didn’t last long.

And Raph got mad.

Then he decided to hold the man to the ground and threatened to, “Kick your hair butt, all the way to New Jersey.” in the middle of the GOD DANG ROAD.

As Raph was threatening to punch the old man, the Krang decided to pull up in their van (Which was not something Leo expected).

Leo cried out to his brother as the van started driving toward the two, but Leo quickly realized that the two weren’t moving out of the way.

So they weren’t moving out of the way.

With a van coming toward them.

At full speed.

It's safe to say Leo panicked a bit before running out and pushing the two out of the road(He only pushed the old man out of the road because they still needed to destroy the tape).

When both Leo and Raph got up, Leo noticed that Raph had a look on his face that we between confused and angry.

He chose to ignore his brother and looked over at the van that the krang was driving.

Leo looked back at Raph, “Let's not let this one get away,” he ordered.

Raph’s face twisted into a snarl a bit, because, yes, he did let the other Krang group get away, but Leo didn’t have to keep bringing it up.

Still, he followed his brother's orders and threw a barrel of… Something at the Kraang van, making them lose control of the van and crash into the building.

The brothers got behind the van, Leo and Mikey got into a fight stance, while Raph just crossed his arms and smirked.

“Well, that was easy,” he commented, he decided to throw something at the van in a split second. He was getting better at his.

And then the back door of the van opened, causing Krang droids to spill out of the back.

The droids started shooting at them, pink lasers rained and forced them to dodge.

Raph looked at the lazers, “Ooh-Kay,” he responded, before he started moving, Donnie’s scream echoed through the air.

They all charged at the Krang, taking out their weapons and dodging the lasers that were being shot at them.

Raph jumped out onto the garage door of a building, and then leaped toward two krangs and kicked them both down.

He then moved to another one, he disarmed the Krang by knocking the droid’s gun out of its hand and then kicking it down.

He then ran over to a fourth krang, he dodged the first few attacks of the droid before hitting its face with the handle of his sai, grabbing its hands with his back to it, and throwing it over his shoulder, causing it to land near the old man.

Donnie, meanwhile, came out on one of the Krangs, knocked the droid gun out of its hand with his bo staff, and then spun the staff before pinning it around, knocking the Krang down in the process, letting out shouts as he did so.

Mikey spun his nunchucks and then charged at the Krang that was shouting at him, he then hit both the Krang and its weapon, causing the Krang to go down and knock the weapon out of the Krang’s hand.

Raph and Leo were taking on two Krang droids, the twos were working well together, and Raph couldn’t help but smile at the opportunity to knock some heads off of some Krang.

That was when he looked over to see the old dude in the back of the Krang’s van, looking at his phone.

Raph felt his blood boil, he gripped his sai tighter and turned to the man, “Oh, no, you don’t!” He shouted as he marched over to where the van was.

Leo heard his brother’s words from behind, and he used his sword to block the saw of a Krang droid’s gun.

He looked over his shoulder, his heart pounding as he did so. “Raph, what are you doing?” He asked, “Get back here!” He ordered, watching as his brother ignored him, and instead went after the old man.

Leo pushed the Krang droid away from him and then slashed the bot.

He was so focused on just getting to Raph that he didn’t notice the second droid coming up behind him until it kicked him down.

He landed with a grunt, trying to get his thoughts in order.

But the Krang droid kicked him down, sending him to the ground completely.

Then more joined in, three more, to be exact.

They all surrounded him, stomping and kicking him, pain erupted in his entire body, and he tried to fight back the tears that were forming in his eyes because of it.

He curled into the fetal position, closing his eyes and protecting his head as he did so, trying to make sure he didn’t get a concussion.

He opened his eyes and watched as Raph got closer to the van, and further from him. He reached out for his brother, “Raph!” He called out, trying to get Raph to just stop , to turn around, and look at him.

But Raph just ignored him.

He squeezed his eyes shut once more and brought his hand back to protect him, giving up on relying on his brother to come and help him.

He tried to block out the pain. He tried to get over it. He tried to get up and fight .

Crash

Shing

Bang

The sounds rang out in Leo's ears. Grating and loud. He felt the pain that was beating on him suddenly disappear.

 He slowly opened his eyes to see the three Kraang droids that were beating him were… Gone?

Leo looked around, more confused than anything. He was sure that the Krang won’t just… Give up, and what was with the noises?

Then… He saw… Him …

He looked at the pile of Kraang droids and looked at the top of the pile. Diaman sitting on top of it.

He felt hate grow in his chest. He hated how his heart suddenly sped up. He hated how he was more out of breath than before. He hated how he wanted nothing more than to hug the boy. He hated how his face grew hot.

He hated that Damian was seeing him like this. And he hated how instead of just choosing to ignore Leo, Damian jumped into the middle of a fight to save him.

He hated how the thought of Damian caring enough to save made him feel faint, giddy, and just overcome by emotions… The only real word he had to describe it would be ‘Swoon?’

But there was no way he was ‘swooning’ over Damian. Because that would mean that you love the person. Damian was just a friend. Leo loved him like and friend and highly admired him.

Yeah. That was it.

You good, Aoi?” Damian questioned, his voice calm, and caring, Leo wished he could let himself melt into the caring look in Damian’s eyes.

“Yeah, Yeah, I’m good,” Leo confirmed while getting up. He was still out of breath, he wanted to convince himself that it was just the beating that he just got making him out of breath.

Damian looked over to where the van was, and frowned, “You might want to go check on your brother.” he stated and jabbed a finger at the van.

Leo turned to see that the Van was getting away.

With Raph in it.

Leo bounced to his feet and ran to meet up with his other brothers, nervousness flooding his veins.

“Raph’s in the van!” He shouted and then gestured for the two of them to follow.

Neither of the younger two noticed the human boy was sitting on the pile of Krang parts, who disappeared moments after Leo turned his back on him.

The three ran for Raph, trying to catch up to the van that held their brother.

Donnie was the first to get an idea, He got his Bo staff out of its holster and pointed at the back of the van, where Raph was close.

“Raph!” Donnie shouted, causing the red-banded turtle to turn around, a sneer clear on his face, “Got out of there!” Donnie shouted once more, pleading for his older brother to do as he said.

But Raph’s face only faltered for a moment, and Leo felt a sickening feeling of dread as he realized what Raph was thinking.

He had something to prove.

So it didn’t come as much shock to Leo when Raph turned around and stomped toward the man. It only made the leader feel more dread as he realized the Krang droids were starting to power up.

“Listen– Idot– Frogs– Not lizard– We’re not frogs!” That was all Leo could make out before the Krang grabbed hold of his brother.

And threw him out of the van.

Raph came crashing into them, sending them all to the ground with an ‘Oof’ as pain rippled through their bodies.

Leo was the first to crawl out from under Raph’s body, he was on his hands and knees, trying to breathe through the pain, and the pounding that had infected his head.

Raph had left them in the middle of a fight.

Raph had gotten into the van of the enemy.

Raph had been driven away from them in the van of the enemy to god knows where.

Raph being thrown out of the van, and onto the street, injuring not only himself but their other brothers in the process was the last straw for Leo.

He could feel his breath grow heavy as he retraced what had happened that night. He got up and was quickly followed by his other brothers.

His eyes bore into Raph until the red-banded turtle finally looked up at him.

“Raph.” Leo tried to keep his voice calm. “What was that?”

“What!” Raph snapped back, his voice accusatory and hurt, “You left the three of us in of the fight to yell at somebody,” Leo said, barely raising his voice.

His eyes were burning into Raph’s. He didn’t even notice that Donnie had moved.

“Look! Guys! The trucks leaky!” Leo’s head whipped around to look at what Donnie was talking about and smiled at the sight of an oil trail.

“Alright!” he exclaimed, “We can follow the trail and find their hideout,” he couldn’t help but smile at the idea that they might actually be able to pull this off.

Raph looked at Leo, and then smalled as well, “Yeah! And then we bash some bots!” He added to the conversation, excited to finally get his hands on the man that he’d been wanting to kill for a hot minute by now.

Until he Received a look from Leo.

“What?” Raph questioned, a puzzled clear on his face. Leo didn’t seem angry beforehand, so what was the deal now?

“We are going to bash some bots, you’re going home,” Leo responded, his arms crossed, and his voice strict, but calm.

The words were a shock to Raph’s system, “What? Why!” He almost shouted, wasn’t Leo the one who convinced him to follow through with this plan in the first place?

He watched as Leo sighed, the leader looked exhausted, but Raph couldn’t care less. Who was Leo to drag him out here, and then just– What? Throw him out when everything doesn’t go his way?

“You’re still letting your anger affect the missions, and although you have every right to be angry at the man, this can’t keep happening,” Leo said, his voice almost pleading at some points, but Raph was too blind-sided to see that.

“You were the one that said that you understood!” Raph argued he felt… Oddly hurt by the situation. He should’ve known better. He knows Leo tends to power trip, Sensei has even confirmed this.

Sure, he’s never really seen Leo go off on one, but he’s sure this was it.

“Raph, please, go home,” the leader asked, Raph missed the pleading in his voice as he asked, “Cool down, we can talk later.”

Raph gritted his teeth at the leader's request, “No! Why should I be punished over a mistake this small!” He shouted, throwing his hands about wildly, “I can’t believe that you would power trip over this !”

As soon as the words left his mouth, he immediately regretted it as he watched Leo’s face go from sympathetic, to hurt, and then to pure stone.

Raph went to say something, but Leo cut him off.

“What if they didn’t throw you out of that truck? Do you really think you would be able to fight them off for long?”

The question stung, and Raph was left there with his mouth opening and closing, trying to find words to retaliate against his brother.

“Do you think that we would be able to find you if the truck wasn’t leaky? And even if it was leaky, who’s to say that they wouldn’t just take you to who knows where in another truck,” Raph didn’t know how to respond to that statement, guilt bubbled up inside of him, and he just wanted to shrink away, and never reappear.

Raph stared into Leo’s eyes. Normally when he did this, there were only three things that could look back at him. Sympathy, care, or just pure stone.

Now they give way to a strong amount of pain and worry.

Raph hated that look in Leo’s eyes.

“You gotta control your temper,” Leo stated, “Until then… We just can’t trust you.”

With that, they all turned and walked away from the red turtle.

It was the truth, back when Leo had a bad temper, the blue-banded turtle didn’t even trust himself.

Raph looked to the ground, barely registering the apology that Mikey sent out over his shoulder.

He threw his sai to the ground, guilt swelling up in him as he tried to remain calm.

Raph was currently in the kitchen, he was pacing the table’s length.

The kitchen was small, with three of the walls being taken up with counters and cooking space, the final wall being the curtain door, and then in the middle was a counter that they turned into a table.

He was between the table and the counter and was absolutely fuming.

“Who does Leo think he is?” Raph asked, he was currently talking to his pet turtle, Spike, who was sitting on the table, and eating a leaf.

“So what if I got a temper? I’m still the best fighter we’ve got,” he established, “In fact, if anything, my anger makes me a better fighter!” He argued to himself, trying to justify his actions.

He sat at the table, and looked to Spike, “You understand me, don’t ya Spike?” He asked, “Chew on your leaf if you understand me.”

And just like that, the turtle took a bite out of his leaf.

“Yeah, I thought so,” Raph said with a smile, feeling as though he had someone to listen to him.

“I understand you too,” “Oh!” Raph yelped at the sudden voice, he looked up and saw Sensei walk into the kitchen.

Raph huffed, “Seriously, you gotta knock or something,” he stated, he wondered if they needed to put a bell on their father that way they wouldn’t jump out of their skins each time he wanted to speak to them.

Raph couldn’t help the bitter feeling that was rising in his gut.

Sensei narrowed his eyes for a moment, before his expression turned back to calm, “Rapheal, let me tell you a story,” his father asked, Raph sighed.

“Sensei, I’m not in the mood for a story,” he admitted, and he really wasn’t.

That was when Sensei looked over to the turtle on the table, “Spike, chew on your leaf if you're in the mood for a story,” he requested.

And Spike took a bite out of his leaf.

Raph gave Spike a hurt look. Cause, like, what the hell man?

“Every well,” Sensei started, Raph just put his head down in his arms, sighing to himself.

“When I was a young man, I fell in love with a woman–” “Oh, hey…” Raph cut Sensei off, looking at his pretend watch and getting up, “Is it that Late–” “Sit.”

With a sigh, Raph sat back in his seat.

“Her name was Tang Shen, and I was not the only one who loved her.”

“There was another man competing for her attention–”

“Oroku Saki.”

“Shredder…” Raph whispered as Sensei told his story.

“One day, he insulted me in front of her. He called me many things.”

“I felt I could not let those insults go unanswered.”

“I lost my temper. And over time, our rivalry featured into hatred…”

“Until Shredder sought to finish me.”

“And I lost my beloved Tang Shen.”

Raph stared at his father, pain swirling in his chest, his dad had his back to him.

“But– But, it wasn’t your fault,” Raph tried to help his father, “Shredder insult you– You had no choice!” He argued.

“No choice?” Sensei asked, he then turned to Raph.

“I could’ve chosen to ignore him, I could have chosen to let his words wash over me,” Sensei stated, “Like a river over stone.” Raph watched as Sensei made a gesture with his hands, the words he spoke clicking into a memory of a conversation he just had.

“But I let him anger me, it was I who turned his words into weapons,” Sensei stated, he then walked up to Raph.

“That’s the choice I made.” He put a hand on Raph’s shoulder, “What choice will you make?”

Raph thought for a moment before he chuckled slightly.

“Leo said the exact same thing, guess I should really start listening to him, huh?” He asked, a bitter tone added to his voice. He felt guilt worm its way inside of him. He hated that he was angry at Leo for something that, he now realized, was not Leo’s fault to begin with.

“Oh? So you had a conversation with your brother?” Sensei questioned, Raph nodded in response, trying to figure out how on earth he was going to make all of this right.

Emotions spun in him, trying to force themselves out. He wanted to scream. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to be mad that he had done all of this. But he also realized that being angry or mad or screaming would help no one.

“He told me that it was okay that I was angry, but that the anger shouldn’t affect the mission, or my relationship with my brothers,” he stated, he wanted to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but it was still there. Leo was always right. He always had to be right.

Sensei let out a hum, “Just remember what I taught you, Raphael,” he stated, and then he walked out of the room.

Leaving Raph with one too many emotions whirling in him.

The sound. Oh god, the sound.

The turtles had alerted the Kraang to their presence after they snuck into the warehouse a trail from the leaky van went to. 

hey got into a fight and one of the Kraangs blasters shot out a glass pipe that was flowing with the mutagen.

Which then spilled directly onto the guy that they were trying to save/break his phone.

And the sound from his mutation was horrid.

Leo didn’t like the guy, but the pain and fear in his yell can stick with you.

Especially when it’s your fault he got mutated.

Raph had shown up just in time to save the day. Breaking his phone and chasing Spider Bytes off, they were finally able to call it a day.

They were now up on the rooftops, looking over the city as they finally could take a breather.

Leo came out next to Raph, a calm smile on his face, “Nice work Raph, I just wanna say–” “You don’t have to apologize.” Raph cut Leo off. Leo was actually going to apologize, and thank him for coming, but he settled on a lie.

“I wasn’t going to,” he set on, causing Raph to do a double take, “Oh... good,” his twin responded, and Leo smiled at him in return.

Raph shuffled on his feet a bit, he felt tense. And guilty. He honestly wanted to apologize to Leo for snapping at him earlier, but the words weren’t coming out.

Leo sighed as he watched his brothers, Mikey chose to annoy Raph, causing Raph to start up the whole spile of holding Mikey in an arm look and making him say the chant, but Leo sensed no real hostility from the red brother.

He honestly wanted this whole day to be over with. He was hestated.

Maybe he can see Diaman again-

Shut up.

…

Those thoughts are going to be the death of him.

Chapter Text

The four turtles ran and jumped across the rooftops before the second youngest decided to kick off a jumping competition by shouting, “Check it out!” And doing a flip across the buildings, quickly followed by the youngest the orange turtle as he did a few more flips than the other.

Donnie clapped his hands as Mikey stood, striking a pose and laughing as the two oldest came to the ledge that the two younger ones had jumped across. “Top that, turtle chumps!” Mikey shouted from the building across. Normally, Leo would yell at them for messing around when they were this high up, and he was still upset about it, but he realized that yelling got him nowhere.

And if you can’t beat them, join them.

“Alright guys,” Leo said, backing up from the ledge. “Check this out!” the oldest stated as he did a cartwheel across the rooftops, leaving Mikey dumbfounded at the leader joining in on their shenanigans.

“Cute, kiddies!” Raph called out before back, then deciding to, instead of flips, ram straight into his brothers, who screamed but didn’t move, as he jumped across the roof, leaving all of them in a pull Donnie asked, “Hey what was that? You didn’t do any flips!” “Oops!” The red turtle excused, laughing at his brothers.

Crash

The four brothers looked towards the area where the sound had come from, they got up and hid behind a wall that sheltered them from whatever had caused a crash, expecting the worst, Leo pulled out his katanas, which was quickly followed by the rest of the team pulling out the weapons, prepared to take out whoever had caused the ruckus.

The team jumped out from behind, prepared for anything that could come from the alleyway to the side of the building they were on, and-

“Meow”

It was a cat?

The cat was black and white and looked like it was wearing a tux with little white paws.

Leo lowered his sword, feeling embarrassed, “Don’t give up Leo, you might actually win this fight!” Raph teased, putting a hand on the eldest should, Leo was embarrassed and a tad bit mad at the younger.

“Aw! It’s a little kitty!” Mikey said, picking up the cat and petting the creature, “And its name is…” He trailed off as he looked at the collar tag that the cat had on it.

“Mittens!” Someone called out, Leo’s head snapped towards the place that the voice came from, confused as to who was calling out for the kitten. “Good guess!” Mikey exclaimed as he looked up from the tag, “Wait, who said that?” the youngest asked, finally processing that the human was calling for the cat.

Now all four of the turtles were looking at where the sound came from. “Mittens?” The dude cried out again, Leo could tell the dude was stressed out about losing the cat.

“I think that’s the owner.” Donnie pointed, and with that, Mikey got up, “What are you doing!” Doing questioned, followed by, “Whoa, hey!” from Leo and a “Mikey, wait” from Raph. Mikey turned, one foot on the ledge as he held the cat, about to jump down. “What? I’m returning Mittens to her owner!” Mikey said, not seeing a flaw in her reason.

“Are you an idiot?” Raph asked, Leo tensed at the tone the hot head had, “Wait- Let me rephrase that.” Leo found himself turning to look at the hot head, wanting to see if his tone would truly change “You're an idiot!” and there it was… Maybe Leo should talk with Raph about that later, but right now he was mainly concerned with not having his little brother go off exposing himself to a human.

“You can’t show yourself to a human!” Donnie responded, trying to get Mikey to think this through, “Why not?” The youngest turtle asked, was he trying to give Leo a stroke? “Because they’ll freak the heck out, that’s ‘why not’ “ Donnie said, getting frustrated with his little brother's antics.

“No, he won’t…” Mikey said nonchalantly, “You’re a giant green mutant, armed with ninja weapons.” Raph pointed out, it was a fair point to make, even if it was a bit rude. “Look, this guy is going to see, that I’m just a fun, cat-loving dude like him! This is going to be awesome!” The youngest said as he jumped down to the fire escape. “No!” “Mikey, Wait” “Whoa!” was heard as the turtle started talking to the human.

Donnie and Raph went to the ledge to look at what was going on, but Leo was frozen in place, he knew that Mikey would be fine, but that didn’t help the thoughts that came flooding into his mind that he failed, he had failed as a leader and-

“Ah! Ugly green mutant freak!” he heard the man shout over the voices in his head.

Now Leo was just pissed, you don’t insult his brothers.

Leo sensed something appear, he looked to the side to see Damian next to him, the turtle had a shocked expression on his face, when did the human get there?

Damian caught Leo looking at him as the interesting human turned to meet the turtle's eyes “You might wanna check that out.” he pointed out, bringing Leo out of his shock as he heard a crash coming from the alleyway.

Leo sprinted forward and jumped down, beating his other two brothers to where the youngest stood.

“Is someone going to help me with this?” Mikey asked sheepishly as he turned to show the cat clawing up his shell. “No” the others responded in unison.

Mikey pulled the cat off his back and threw it, letting out a huff through the noise as he refused eye contact with his brothers. Leo’s eyes softened as he looked at the younger turtle, all he wanted was a friend, and yet he was punished for something he couldn’t control, he couldn’t help but pity the smaller turtle.

“Face it, Mikey, humans will never understand you.” Raph said, crossing his arms, “Heck we don’t even understand you!”

Okay, that was a bit harsh.

Leo thought to himself as he gave Raph a warning look, the red turtle didn’t seem to catch it. Ya…” Mikey agreed in a huffed whisper, it saddened Leo to see his brother this defeated.

But then Mikey looked up with a gasp, “But I bet that guy would!” He called out pointing towards a billboard that was up on a rooftop.

“Chirs Bradford, the material arts superstar, with a chain of dojos across the country, he’s your soulmate,” Leo asked with a bite in his voice. It wasn’t towards Mikey, but towards the man, something about him just set Leo the wrong way.

“We have so much in common!” Mikey said, posing in a form that was similar to the one that Chris Bradford was in, holding his fist out while he put one of the sides of his nun chucks under his arm. But Leo couldn’t hear anything after that. Leo caught his head in his hand as a massive headache came on right after staring at the image.

The oldest turtle looked back up at the billboard, he couldn’t help but sneer at it.

Something just felt… Wrong.

His head started pounding, and he gripped it, and he grabbed it, trying to make the pain end.

Only to see flashes of a man with a black helmet on, red armor, and spikes punching him.

Leo flinched back trying to keep himself stead.

Another image came on, it showed a giant mutated dog and fish reaching out toward him…

No.

It was something- someone standing in front of him.

The next was of the same mutant dog towering over him.

Above the turtles, in the shadows, a human figure sat on a ledge and stared at the four, noticing the blue one's distress as the turtle clutched his head.

Damian's eyes narrowed in confusion.

He had an idea of what might be going on. But he had no clue as to how it could be happening to Leo.

Still, he wanted to go down there, be with him, comfort him. 

If he was correct in his guess, he knew that when you get images flashing in your head it’s quick to assume you're going crazy, and the human had some knowledge as to how bad it can hurt.

He wanted to comfort the turtle so badly, but he couldn’t be spotted, not yet, and he knew Leo had to figure it out on his own, he just hoped his Aoi could handle it for just a little bit longer.

The human noticed something and looked a bit up from where the turtles were, now seeing the group of ninjas and their leader stalking the turtles, Damian growled at this. Who did these guys think they were? Attacking someone like this. Damian started getting up, he didn’t know if Aoi would recover enough to have a fair chance at winning against these guys.

The Raph looked up from where he was standing and noticed movement on the rooftops, the next thing he knew they were surrounded by ninjas.

“Ninjas? In New York? Other than us?” Donnie questioned, Raph examined the soldiers, they were completely black with a foot emblem on their red bandana, Raph glanced towards Leo, looking for instructions to fight when he had to do a double take on the leader.

Leo looked completely out of it, he was pale and looked sick, and he had seemingly zoned out. Raph reached a handout and placed it on the leader's shoulder, causing Leo to jump a bit and stare at Raph like a deer in headlights for a second, before shaking his head and nodding a smile towards the red turtle.

Raph was a tab bit concerned for his older brother but decided to focus on the fight that they were in now.

Damian was still up on the roof, watching as the fight went on, they were holding up well against the other ninjas, and Damian smiled at the whole reason for Leo being happy was that he finally got a chance to beat up people, and although “freaky cultist” was left unsaid from the blue turtle, it was heard by the boy who he saved from them.

Damian was sure he could’ve gotten out of that situation on his own, but he was still in awe about how quickly the turtle would put his life on the line for someone he’d never met.

However, things quickly changed when the leader of the group decided to join in, he was a tall ninja, who wore a black helmet and red armor. Leonardo and Raphael both looked at the human, wondering who he was when the ninja sent a punch that knocked Aoi into the wall, Domain Growl at the action, what was this man's problem?

Leo was able to get his brothers away from the man by cutting the youngest chain that was connecting him and the man, the sirens from police from the far being their ticket to escape from the man and his ninjas.

Damian stared at where the man had run off to, his anger was getting the better of him.

The ninja walked into one of his dojos, took off his helmet, and turned to face the man he had been assigned to capture Splinter and his pupils.

“So, found anything yet?” Xever asked with a sly voice that didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

“Yes, four mutant turtles with weapons of the Hamato clan.” Bradford paned, Xever laughed, only to look at his partner to see that he wasn’t joking. That only made him laugh more. “So, we have four turtles running around, what is your plan, rich boy?” Xever asked, still chuckling about the whole turtle thing.

“What we should do is-”
“Leave them alone and never bother them again?”

A voice from the shadows cut Bradford off, “What was that?” Bradford asked.

The lights flickered off, leaving the two men completely in the dark, Bradford drew his sword and Xever drew his knife, they both looked towards the entrance of the dojo. Not noticing the shadowy figure just appeared from behind until the figure grabbed them by the side of their heads, crushed the two together, and threw them over the shadow's shoulder.

The two men were dazed… Bradford looked up, the figure in the dark was tall, with some form of strips lining its body, “Who… Who are you?” Bradford asked, dazed and unable to focus on the person in front of him.

“Someone who had come to warn you.” The voice hummed out, sounding sickly sweet and threatening at the same time. “If you dare to hurt my Aoi, or any of his brothers again…” The figure was still covered in shadows when his eyes started to brighten, revealing a raging red glow.

The figure bent down, reaching out a sharpened claw towards Bradford's neck that could easily rip through the man's skin. “I will not hesitate to rip open that throat of yours… Understood?” The figure stated, keeping the sweetened voice as he pressed the claw further against the man's neck.

“U-Understood.” Bradford stuttered, trying to back away from the knife-sharp claw that was against his neck. The claw turned into a human finger and was pulled away from his neck, he was finally allowed to breathe for what felt like the first time in hours. “Good.” The figure stated, even though it knew Bradford was lying through his damn teeth.

The shadow disappeared, one moment it was there, the next moment it wasn’t, and the lights came flickering back on at the disappearance.

The shadow left no trace that it was ever there.

Leo walked out of the kitchen, he had just had a conversation with Sensei about fairness in a fight, and although Leo was still upset about the fight, he could see where his Sensei was coming from.

Leo glanced around, Raph was doing push-ups, April was reading, and Donnie was on his computer.

1. 2. 3…

“Where’s Mikey?” Leo questioned aloud, he wanted to talk to the youngest about his behavior. He was worried for his younger brother, and he didn’t want anything to happen to him that could cause him to get hurt.

“Eh, he went to meet up with a human he sent a friend request to,” Raph stated, not daring to look at the leader, who was surely about to freak out.

He was right about the freak-out part, Leo’s eyes widened.

“What!” He practically shouted, “And you just let him go! Who is he meeting up with!”

Raph stopped his push-ups and looked at the leader, tiredness in his eyes. “Look, he went to meet up with Chris Bradford.” Leo’s stomach dropped. “We tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t listen to anything we had to say. He needs to learn somehow.”

Leo put his head in his hand and sighed.

He was planning on going out and getting some fresh air (And definitely not going because he couldn’t stop thinking about Damian, of course not), but of course, now he had to stay home just in case Mikey returned.

Of course, Leo was considering going after him, it was the middle of the day for crying out loud! Leo did not trust that Bradford guy one bit, and of course, it was crazy for him just to believe something because of a bunch of images flashing in his head.

But he saw the leader punch him before Leo even knew he was there. And he was looking at the billboard while he was doing so!

Leo knew that this was crazy, but there was something deep down in his gut that was just screaming at him to not trust the guy. And it was the same guy he was just supposed to… Trust? With his little brother?

Na ah.

No way.

Leo knew that Mikey wouldn’t listen to a scolding, and he knew Raph’s logic had some sound.

But god damn it, he just didn’t trust the guy.

He just hoped Mikey would come to his senses before anything bad happened to the youngest.

Mikey had come back a little bit ago, Leo was going to lecture him on talking to strangers when the youngest had started going on and on about the guy he had met, apparently, the guy was calm with a giant turtle just showing at his doorstep and obsessing over him.

Leo didn’t want to ruin Mikey’s mood… But something just felt off about this man.

They were now on the rooftop that they had gotten attacked from, Leo was analyzing the vantage point with Donnie before saying, “This must have been where they were watching us from.” while standing up straight.

“Perfect place to stage an ambush.” Leo pointed out, that the guy had to be skilled, “That wasn’t very fair was it?” Donnie asked, turning towards the blue leader.

Leo’s eyes softened on his brother, “It’s not about fairness, it’s about victory, but it’s fine to be upset about the situation, we just need to learn from the past,” He explained nudging his younger brother, who chuckled “I’m going to guess Sensei taught you that?” Donnie asked, but his question was interrupted by Mikey.

“And then, Chris Bradford, put on his hakama, man that guy can rock a hakama!” the youngest stated, putting his two hands together.

Raph was the one that Mikey was talking to, he was sitting on the rooftop, and clearly done with the other's nonsense, “Maybe he’ll wear it again when he takes you to the prom.”

Leo let out a growl, it was low and near silent, and Donnie almost didn’t hear it.

But he did, and it caused him to turn to his older brother, a shocked expression on his face.

It quickly wore off though as he looked at Leo. Donnie understood why Leo was so upset, he didn’t trust the man either, but he was glad to see Mikey happy.

Leo, however, was the opposite of glad. He was pissed, his blood was boiling. Who did this guy think he is? Leo didn’t trust this guy at all , and here was his youngest brother, all happy and naive about making a new friend.

Leo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. In and out. He couldn’t let his anger get the better of him. Maybe he was overreacting, he should just be happy that Mikey finally had a friend, that was all Mikey wanted. Someone he could talk to.

That thought made Leo happy, sad, and angry all at the same time, he was happy for his younger brother, but it was sad that maybe Mikey felt alone and Leo had been completely ignoring it, what type of older brother does that?

And if that man dared to harm his little brother for just wanting a friend, Leo was going to rip him apart.

“And he-” “Oh, enough already!” Raph got off Mikey’s speel before his head exploded, “Ooh~ Someone’s Jealous, you just can’t admit that you were the R-word!” THAT brought Leo straight out of his thoughts and back to reality as he stared at the youngest.

The baby. Who the hell-

“Mikey,” Leo said calmly. Mikey turned to Leo, “What do you think that means?” He asked, trying to keep the calmness in his voice, he didn’t know if he was going to laugh or scream. “Wrong?” Mikey answered, as though it was common knowledge. Both Donnie and Leo groaned at the youngest words, Leo was just thankful he didn’t have to kill anyone yet.

“Ha! I’m not wrong!” Raph retorted, ignoring the situation that had just occurred. “Oh ya? Well if you don’t wanna talk about my friend.” Mikey backflipped to where both Leo and Donnie were, putting his arms around both of them.

“I’ve got two other brothers who do.” Mikey stated, “I actually, would rather talk about anything else, like the silent W perhaps?” Donnie asked, Mikey’s face fell at that.

Leo looked at Mikey with a soft smile, “Maybe I can listen to your stories later Mikey, but are you sure we can really trust this guy?” Leo asked.

Mikey looked at Leo in shock, “What! Of course, we can trust him! He’s Chris Bradford, yo!” he said in offense, Leo just shrugged, “I’m just saying, a guy that is just fine with a giant turtle coming up to him in broad daylight is that someone I would consider sane.”

Mikey took his arms off of the other two turtles, “Fine, then I’m going to talk about Chris Bradford to someone who likes talking about Chris Bradford more than anyone else, Chris Bradford.” Mikey said, walking away and pointing towards the group.

“Be careful,” Leo warned, biting the inside of his cheek.

Once Mikey was out of view, Leo’s concerned face grew into a nasty scowl, “I don’t trust that guy.” he declared.

“eh, what’re you gonna do about it, mom?” Raph asked jokingly, Leo turned towards the red turtle, deciding to ignore the comment, “Hope that he isn’t as bad as he seems, and pray for his sake that he doesn’t hurt Mikey,” Leo said, in a low voice that was unlike him, a shadow fell across the leader's face but quickly retracted back to whatever hole Leo kept it in.

Donnie and Raph exchanged worried glances at each other.

“And then he kicks! Twists! And… Sweeps the leg!” Mikey declared ending off the move that he was showing to the rest of the turtles, apparently, Chris Bradford had shown Mikey his secret Kata, “The death dragon” Mikey declared, Leo couldn’t help but be proud of his little brother for learning such a complex move.

“That was amazing!” Leo declared Mikey’s face brightened at the compliment from the leader, “Ya, it’s significantly effective and complex” Donnie analyzed, “And yet even Mikey could learn it.” Leave it to Raph to break up the mood.

“Thank you,” Mikey said, not processing Raph’s sentence until… “Hey!” there it is.

You know, maybe Leo was overreacting, Chris seems like a good guy, I mean, he taught his secret move to Mikey, and you wouldn’t normally teach your most deadly move to someone you're going to betray.

…Right?

There was a ding coming from the computer.

“It’s Rad-Brad!” Mikey declared, sliding over to the device and typing in something, “That’s my little name for him.” Mikey answered to no one, “He wants to get together for a little B-ball.” Mikey typed in his reply, “I can’t wait to find out what the B stands for!” Mikey hit send and got up to start walking toward the door.

“You're going now?” Leo asked, he had just come back, shouldn’t they hang out for a bit?

“Sorry dudes, human friend stuff, you know how it is.” Mikey said, slinking away before coming back, “Oh wait. No. You don’t” and with that, the youngest walked away laughing.

Leo was crushed by the guilt he had under the realization.

Mikey didn’t have to risk being seen by someone dangerous to have another human friend.

Not when Leo knew of a human that seemed pretty chill with the supernatural, being captured by a cult and all.

Leo’s shoulders sagged, “I’m… Going to go get some fresh air.” Leo said in a low voice.

Raph and Donnie looked at each other, something that Mikey had said got to the leader, but none of them could figure out what, or at least what could’ve been said made sense.

“Um… Okay, be careful.” Donnie said as he watched the leader leave the dojo to go topside, he looked to his older brother, who simply shrugged.

Leo walked for a good few minutes in the sewers, he didn’t really have a destination in mind or at least one that he was aware of.

This is why it came as both a shock and frustration when the leader stopped at the same manhole cover that he and Damian used to escape the sewers.

Leo groaned, he had to admit, Damian had been on his mind all day, and it was starting to get more and more frustrating, each time Leo saw the human, which was mainly just a moment when the group was running on the roofs, and the human just appears out of nowhere.

Each time Leo thinks that it’ll help the feeling that he needs to see him and that it will be the last time Leo thinks of the human outside of them interacting.

Each time he is proven wrong by a long shot, as the feeling comes back stronger than before.

It’s frustrating for the leader to have these thoughts toward him. It shows that he is so focused on something that he is forgetting what matters in the first place, the battle or patrol their on.

It shows something he a vulnerable about.

It shows weakness.

Something he has learned from his Sensei that he can not afford in the placement of team leader.

So what’s the point of coming back here?

…

Leo slid open the manhole cover and pulled himself up into the alleyway he and Damian went their separate ways. Making sure to check for people and close the cover behind him.

Leo climbed up onto the rooftops using the fire escape the apartment buildings had and looked around.

He sighed, there was no one, what did he expect? Did he seriously think that Damian, the human boy who had something better to do than to visit a freak like him, would be here? Leo didn’t even say that this was where they were meeting. And why did it matter to him so much?

“Someone seems disappointed.”

Leo turned to the voice he had heard, only to let out a relieved sigh to see that it was the human he had hoped thought to see here.

“Did you really miss me that much?” Damian wondered out loud with a teasing smile.

Leo could feel his frustrations towards his feelings and thoughts towards Damian melt away as a smile appeared on the turtle's face. The worries he had before about Bradford, Mikey, Raph, Donnie, just everything, disappeared along with them.

That was why Leo kept coming back.

“You’re hard to get rid of,” Leo stated as he put a hand on his hip and titled his head, the human chuckled at his remark.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Damian said as he looked at the turtle.

“Take it as you will” Leo offered, rolling his eyes.

All of a sudden his expression softened into something serious, and full of concern, Leo was taken aback at the sudden sight.

“Are you okay?” Damian asked.

The question rang out in Leo’s head, was he okay? He felt hot in the face, and he felt like he floating. But other than that, which was how he normally got around Damian, he was fine. Right?

He could put up a front, mask the pain and worry he was feeling, and just tell Damian to ‘not worry about him’ or that he’s ‘fine’ that’s what he normally did, around Sensei, April, and especially his brothers. He just said that he was fine or that he needed to think, even when it got bad and his mind won’t stop racing.

And that was what he always did, that was what he trained himself to do…

“Well…”

But god damn it, if it wasn’t near impossible to lie to Damian about it.

“I’m… I’m just worried.” Leo stated. Damian raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t push.

He hopped down from the halfway he was on, and sat up against it, patting the spot to the side of him as an offering for Leo to sit down.

Leo took the offering and sat with him for a bit, trying to get his thoughts in line.

There were so many other things that were weighing on him. The consent doubt about him being leader, the way he needed to remain strong when all he felt like doing was breaking, the way he felt as though if he wasn’t of use as a leader, that they would all leave him for someone, and they would be in the right to do so.

But here, sitting next to a guy he admired (and it’s definitely just adoration for a friend ), who was not tied to Leo at all, who had every opportunity to leave the turtle, but still chose to remain.

Leo chooses to take it one step at a time.

“I’m worried about Mikey.” he finally said, Damian looked over at him, giving the turtle his full undivided attention, Leo’s heart quickened a bit, “He just seems so… Trusting… I’m afraid it’s going to get him hurt.” Leo said, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of him, even if it was only one, and one of the smallest, it was still a weight gone.

Damian took note of this. “It’s good to trust people.” Damian said, but before Leo could argue, he continued, “Of course, you want to be careful with the people you trust, but you can’t bottle yourself up and choose to not even try to trust others, you just need to know when to realize that your trust has been miss placed or not, and then if it is, you want to know where to turn to in order to heal from that hurt.”

Loe hummed at the human, “And that way, once you’ve healed, instead of not being able to open up again, you can learn from your mistakes and choose to place your trust in better people,” Damian finished, but he could tell that it wasn’t the only thing bothering the leader.

He also couldn’t tell if what he was saying made any sense.

“I just… I don’t understand how they do it… Trust people so easily, I mean… Like, April and Donnie, Donnie just rushed in to save a girl and gave her full trust right off the bat, I still don’t trust April fully, and then Mikey… Is just a ball of sunshine and trust. I don’t get it,” Leo felt like a hypocrite saying that. He knew Damian for a second, and here he was.

Damian hummed a bit, “Well, you trust me, don’t you? And we’ve just met, like what, five days ago?” Damian asked, a smile forming on his face.

Leo chuckled, “I know, it’s weird. But with you… I can kinda understand, you were kidnapped by an evil cultist, it’s clear to me that I may not be the weirdest thing you’ve seen, heck, I may not even be the ugliest thing you’ve seen,” he was trying to make a joke.

Damian did chuckle a bit, “You’re right in a part where I have seen weirder, but it’s hard to not see something uglier than you, comparing something to you would be like comparing a type of insect to a puppy, completing unfair to the other things, heck, it would be unfair to puppies!”

Leo felt his face heat up, did Damian just compliment him?

Damian sighed, “But I’m glad you trust me.” “It’s not like me to trust.” Leo responded, and Damian nodded in return, “And that’s okay, to be careful with your trust, it’s a scary thing to open up, I’m just glad that I was given that chance,” he gave a small smile as he said this.

“Should I be more trusting?” Leo asked, his voice smaller now. He hated it. “Maybe, you do need to have people you trust, people you can rely on, but it’s okay to be slow with it.”

Damian looked at the turtle, he smiled, he really meant what he said about him making it hard for things to be cuter than him when he was the cutest thing Damian had seen.

“But one thing you need to do is trust your team, and your instincts, trust your team to take care of themselves and you, but don’t ignore your instincts when they're screaming at you that something is off,” he finished, the smile on his face was softer, not like the goofy one that he often wore, but it was kind and understanding.

Leo loved that smile.

“I guess I can be paranoid, hu?” Leo asked, smiling back at Damian before his expression shifted back to a solum one, “I still don’t trust Mikey’s new friend.” Leo said.

There’s the root of the problem.

“And whose that?”

“Some guy named Chris Bradford.”

Damian lost his smile.

“And like… The reasoning for it is stupid!” Leo wasn’t looking at the human now.

“Oh ya? Why’s that?” Damian asked, his voice was a higher pitch now, and he shuffled awkwardly on his feet.

Leo looked the boy up and down before he continued, “When… When we were in the alleyway I was looking at the billboard that had Bradford on it, and all of a sudden I get flashes of images in my head!” He complained, “I know it sounds like I’m crazy, but I swear! I say the ninja in the black mask punches me before I even knew he was there! And-”

“I believe you.” Damian, his normally goofy tone is now neutral. Leo looked back at the human, analyzing his now cooled face, had Leo said something?

“Damian is… Something wrong?” He asked. He was getting worried, “Not much, why?” Damian answered, he was clearly thinking about something, and Leo frowned.

“Did I say something…?” Leo asked, Damian's eyes widened in surprise.

“No! No.” Damian answered frantically, he was so caught up in his thoughts that his on-a-dime action must have made Leo think he did something wrong.

“I just think… Maybe, those images might mean something?” Damian said, hoping to push Leo in a direction.

He wasn’t even sure that it was the right direction, but from what he’s seen as the turtle, he was around 80% sure he knew what was going on.

Leo chuckled, “If I were to think those images meant something then I would’ve thought that Chris Bradford was the guy with the mask,” he shook his head and closed his eyes before looking back at Damian, who had an eyebrow raised.

Leo’s face turned to stone. Damian knew something.

“What do you know?” He asked it was a whisper of fear, he already felt the need to run.

“You already know.”

Leo took off running.

Leo was able to get to where the Dojo was in record time.

Leo was able to look inside the Dojo through the glass roof that it had, only for his blood to once again start boiling at what he saw.

There was Mikey, his little brother, tied up and scared.

Leo was about to break the glass and just go in, katanas at the ready when he sensed someone behind him. He turned to see his two other brothers, Raph and Donnie, heading his way,

“Leo? How did you know to come here?” Donnie asked, Raph shifted where he was standing, “Not important, what is going on here?” Leo hissed out, Donnie was taken aback at the leader's tone, but Raph, remembering the conversation he and Leo had, stepped up, “Bradford is a student of the Shredder, he was using Mikey to get to Sensei.” Raph said, bitterness clear in his voice.

“Okay, so it’s obviously a trap.” Leo stated, “Donnie, pop this window open.” Leo ordered.

Donnie nodded, taking out the gun he had been chewing, placing it at the end of the pencil that was attached to some knife in the form of a protractor, and cutting a circle into the window.

Donnie was able to open up the roof from there and allow them to get inside, take out the two foot guards that were next to Mikey, and hop down to where their little brother was.

“Dudes! That was sporadic!” Mikey loudly declared, the three hushed him while Donnie stated, “That’s not what that means!”

Leo pulled out a knife he kept, and caught the ropes that bound Mikey, Leo felt a ping of sadness in his heart as he realized just how tight the ropes were. He petted Mikey’s head as the turtle rubbed his wrist.

They got out of the building and started heading toward the sewers, “Dudes, this is a bad idea, they're going to follow us!” Mikey squeaked out in a whisper, Leo placed a hand on the youngest shoulder, “I know, Mikey. It’s going to be okay, just follow my lead.” Leo presented a comforting smile to the youngest, who seemed to relax a bit.

They slipped into the sewers through the manhole cover they came out of, Leo was the last one to go through. He stopped for a moment, sensing someone watching him, he looked over his shoulder slightly to see two figures, one scrawny and the other had some muscle on him. He growled at the two, but his attention shifted to somewhere else, another figure was there, watching the other.

The figure's stance was dangerous, although to some it would have just appeared to be standing.

Leo could guess as to who that is.

Damian stared at the two, his body shaking in rage.

Oh, how he wanted to show them just how badly they fucked up.

How badly he wanted to show them that there is no kidding when it comes to hurting Leo and his team.

How badly he wanted to show them that the person they work for is not the scariest thing in the world.

Not even close.

But he didn’t.

He wanted to let Aoi have at them.

Damian smiled at the thought.

They wouldn’t be getting away too easily when a pissed-off mama bear gets to decide what happens to them.

He watched as the last turtle disappeared into the sewers, followed by the rest of the clan.

This was going to be fun.

They did it. They defeated them.

The group took out each foot soldier one by one until it was just Bradford and the other guy, Mikey was able to use his new move to take out the two until they were able to get them into one spot, where Leo and Donnie used a valve to unleash the sewer water and push the two down into the depths below.

It wasn’t very fair. But hey, they were unfair at first.

Of course, if it was up to Leo, he would have had his way with them a little bit longer, but they were running out of time, and Leo needed to make sure they were taken care of.

Now they were on the couch, Master Splinter had just gone on about how it’s his worst fear that the Shredder knows about their existence. Leo could feel dread of what was to come to build in him.

he was in deep thought, he wanted to do multiple different things at once, he wanted to make sure his family was safe, and he wanted to reassure Sensei that it would be alright.

Leo looked over to where Mikey was, surprised to see that Raph had already gotten there first, he knew it was wrong, but he listened in on the conversation the two were having. Leo smiled a little at how Raph comforted Mikey, proud that he was showing that he actually did care about them, Leo knew how hard that had to be.

Later on, Leo came into Mikey’s room searching for the turtle.

“Hey, Mikey,” Leo said leaning on the door frame and looking at the orange turtle, Mikey turned towards Leo and smiled, “Hey, Leo what’s up?” Mikey asked, chipper as always.

“Are you okay?” Leo asked quietly, it was a question that stunned Mikey for a moment, well, not the question itself, just how the leader said it, it was quiet, reassuring, filled with concern and comfort at the same time.

“Ya… Ya… I think I’ll be fine, look, Leo, I’m really sorry-” he was cut off when Leo raised his hand, “You have nothing to apologize for Mikey, I know that it can be a hard hit to have your trust betrayed like that.” Mikey looked at the leader's eyes, which he had been avoiding, hoping to not see the condescending look Mikey thought Leo would have on, only to see the blue turtle's eyes were softened, and concerned.

“I think I’ll be okay, Raph talked to me early, I’m pretty sure you saw, so I think I’m fine.” Mikey had a lot more that he wanted to say, but right now, he was comfortable just saying that.

Leo realized that the youngest had a lot on his mind, but he didn’t want to push Mikey if he wasn’t comfortable with talking just yet. “Okay, just making sure, and you know that you can always come to us when something is up, right?” Leo asked, starting to push away from the doorframe, Mikey nodded with a hum.

“Okay, good. And Mikey?” Leo got his attention, “I really admire the faith you have in people, you know? Don’t ever think it’s a bad thing to try and see the good in someone, even when some people do end up being psycho-killing machines.”

And with that, Leo left, leaving a stunned Mikey behind in his room. Mikey’s jaw was open, that was actually one of the things he was thinking about, about how his naivety had gotten his whole family in danger.

And then here comes Leo, offering support, a shoulder to cry on if need be, and praising Mikey for just… Being himself.

Mikey smiled, Leo may have thought otherwise, but he heard a snip of the three’s conversation on the roof before he went to meet Chris Bradford a second time, the one where he was talking everyone’s ear off about the guy.

Raph’s ‘mom’ joke made a lot more sense than he originally realized.

Chapter Text

“Guys! Guys! Get in your spots!” Mikey ordered around to the other two younger turtles, who were being roped into the situation, and annoyed by it.

Leo sighed as he looked at his siblings, they had created a skateboarding ramp using scrape wood that they had found, Leo was personally against this idea, but there were no convenience turtles who already had what they were planning on doing in mind.

Leo had decided for himself that he had had enough fun for one day, he had eaten too much cheese, so his stomach was starting to cramp up.

He also felt a little nauseous.

That won’t come back to bite him later.

He was now cleaning up the lair, there were pizza boxes everywhere, and he knew that Sensei was starting to get into his mediation.

“I can’t believe he talked us into this,” Raph stated, in leapfrog position next to Donnie in front of the ramp that Mikey was about to skate down and jump over them.

Leo smiled at them, “If you guys are still alive, you're helping me clean right after you're done.” he stated, Raph groaned and he easily imagined his immediate younger sibling's eye roll, “Ya, how about you tell us to clean our rooms while you're at it, mom.” he teased.

Leo rolled his eyes and scoffed, “Keep talking like that and I’ll send you to your room.” Donnie and Mikey chuckled, while Raph groaned at the Leader's antics. “And the kid goes for the world record!” Mikey shouted, Leo shook his head.

“He is going to jump two! Maybe three… Mutant turtles!” Mikwy side-eyed the leader, “I can’t believe he talked us into this!” Raph repeated.

“Booyakasha!” Mikey shouted as he skated down the ramp.

They heard the dojo door slam open. “What is going on in here!” Sensei shouted.

“Sensei!” Leo shouted, alarmed, as Donnie and Raph stood up, “Ahhhh!” Mikey screamed as he continued skating down the makeshift ramp, the others turned towards the youngest and screamed as Mikey ran into the other two.

The three youngest were in a turtle pile as Leo walked over to all of the siblings, smirking with his arms crossed, “You guys alive?” Leo asked, receiving a groan from the dazed pile of limbs.

Leo looked back over at his father, smiling at the nonsense his brothers were getting up to.

His smile immediately dropped and he winced at the death stare that he was getting from Sensei.

“How many times have I told you not to skateboard in the lair?” Sensei asked, “None Sensei” Mikey responded, “I shouldn’t have to tell you!” Splinter shouted at the turtles.

The younger three shifted in their place, not really knowing what to say under the gaze of an angry Splinter. “You’re right Sensei.” Leo responded, he tried to turn his face into something calmer, and not so downright terrified, “We definitely should know better.”

The younger turtles looked at Leo in shock as the oldest stood in between them and their Sensei, willing to take the fall with the younger siblings “And we deserve to be Punished,” Leo said, shutting his eyes before opening up one “Eh, some,” Sensei leaned down, getting at Leo’s eye level.

“And what do you think would be a fitting punishment.” Leo looked back at his brothers, who were pretending to be busy doing something. “We should… Clean up our mess?” Leo said, although it sounded more like a question, Sansei stood at full height, “and think about what we did.” Leo finished, followed by a chorus of agreements from his brothers.

“How about being grounded for a week?” Sensei asked “Oh, I don’t think we need that” “Ya, that’s not necessary,” “Maybe next time.”

“You're grounded for a week!” Sensei ordered, the brothers groaned at this as the skate ramp collapsed behind them. They stiffened at the sound.

Raph paced around the pit’s floor, groaning has walked back and further, Leo sat on the couch, head between his hands. He hoped to get Damian's update about the cultist today, but being grounded ruined that. And he was starting to get annoyed by Raph’s constant groaning.

“Ga! This bites!” Raph complained, Leo looked towards his brother, who had snapped him out of zoning out. “I can’t believe we’re stuck down here for a whole week!” Leo sighed at his brother's words “We were stuck down here for 15 years, you can handle being stuck down here for seven days.” Leo said, he hated getting snippy with his brothers, but today was bad.

He just felt so tired all of a sudden, it took a lot out of him to just move, and all he wanted to do was to curl up in his bed and sleep.

“Guys! Guys! Wanna see what I made” Donnie asked, Leo, looked over at his brother, the purple’s turtles face was lit up like a Christmas tree, and his smile overtook most of his face. Leo smiled back at the turtle, finding the energy he needed to be happy for the genius turtle.

“Sure don, what’s up?” Leo asked, Donnie’s already glowing face beamed as he began “Okay, okay! So do you remember, the other day, when I was scrounging around in that military junkyard?” Donnie asked, both Mikey and Raph responded with a “No”, but the leader answered with a tired “Yes” as he gave Donnie the stink eye.

The purple turtle had snuck out of the lair without telling anybody and almost gave the leader a heart attack.

“Well, I found an incredibly advanced A.I. microchip made from–” He chuckled to himself, “Get this! Self-Assembled Chain-Linked Copolymers!” the purple turtle shouted out, leaning forward in excitement.

“That’s my favorite kind of copolymer!” Mikey said before going back to reading his comic, “Mine too!” Donnie shouted, bringing everyone's attention back to him, “And I used it to make this!” Donnie said before bringing out a melt pod with a blue center and what looked like a bunch of shapes resembling a person inside it. It was actually a pause, fast forward, and go back button when Leo looked at it closer.

The three other brothers gathered around it, “The most advanced music player in the world!” Donnie introduced, “So who wants to try it!” He asked as he looked around, his voice loud and excited, “I do! Toss me the T-Pod!” Mikey said.

“The… T-Pod?” Donnie questioned, handing over the piece of technology, “Turtle? Pod? T-Pod?” Mikey scoffed as he took the device, “I’m so good at naming stuff,” he said as he took out the earbuds that the pod had.

“You're really going to plug an advanced piece of military technology into Mikey’s head? What if it melts his brain!” Dang it, Raph, you don’t have to add to the list of things Leo was worried about in this situation. “It won’t,” Well, okay, at least Donnie said- “And besides even if it does, who would tell the differences.” Donnie… He loves his brothers, but they have got to just stop .

The group watched on as Mikey slowly went to press play on the pod to play some of the music that Donnie had already installed, and then…

Mikey screamed.

“What! What’s wrong!” Donnie shouted.

Leo was ready to tackle Mikey and get the pod away from him.

“It’s polka! Make it stop! Make it stop!” Mikey cried on his knees as Donnie just walked over and pressed one button, “Thanks!” Mikey responded to Donnie’s actions.

 He then gained a shocked look on his face and got up to dance to the music that was now playing.

“That’s it, I gotta get out of here!” Raph declared before walking over to the Lair entrance.

 “Where are you going!” Leo asked as he followed Raph, “We’re grounded,” he reminded his younger twin.

“I don’t care, I gotta do something or I’m going go nuts!!” Raph complained as he picked up his skateboard, “Let’s find a Skate Spot!” He declared, “Skate Spot! I’m totally in!” Mikey basically shouted.

“What’s Splinter going to say?” Leo asked, hesitant to anger the rat any further.

He knew it was about time for him to be reprimanded for not watching his brothers, so he didn’t want to make that punishment worse.

“I don’t know what’s going on, because they snuck out while I was asleep!” Raph mimicked, “Really mature.” Leo stated, rolling his eyes.

He narrowed his eyes at his younger brothers in front of him. He looked over at Raph, then sighed.

“You're not going to give this up, are you?” He asked, Raph smirked at him “Nope.” Leo sighed, he knew that those two were going to be the first out of– What, a hundred tonight.

“It’ll have to be quick, and I don’t want any fights along the way, got that?” Leo pointed a finger towards Raph, “Eh, don’t get so worked up about this type of stuff o we actually might start calling you mom.” Raph said, pushing Leo’s hand away.

And with that, all of the turtles grabbed their skateboards and left the Lair.

Leo tried his hardest to squash the bubbling feeling of excitement that he felt.

And it was definitely not because there was a chance to see Damian again.

No. Nope. No way.

Four turtles were running through the rooftops as sirens sounded in the background, Skateboards strapped to their, Mikey was listening to some new music he had apparently found and it was blasting loud enough for the rest to hear.

He was also the only one who was skateboarding.

“Hey, Donnie! Thanks for all the new songs!” Mikey shouted out.

“Wait- What new songs?” Donnie questioned, “Keep it down, guys!” Leo hissed out, Donnie leaped over to where Mikey was and performed a handstand on the youngest shoulders, “It’s got thousands of new songs, and it keeps downloading new ones every second!” Donnie analyzed, his voice a gasp.

“So?” Raph asked, “So? I didn’t make it do that!” Donnie snapped, it took a moment for Donnie to talk again, but he did.

“It’s that chip,” He realized, “Whatever it is… It’s awesome!” Mikey shouted at the top of his lungs and jumped across the roof.

“Guys! We’re ninjas, remember?” Leo whispered, “We’re supposed to move swiftly and, here’s the important part, silently-”

“WoAH,” He was hushing the other two when all of a sudden he lost his footing and fell.

He crashed through the roof of a greenhouse, stumbling on the planters, he tried to look down to regain his balance, but that only caused more issues when he looked up.

“Beehive!” Leo shouts in a panic, here’s the thing his brothers don’t know about him.

He had a stinger bug allergy.

He figured it out one day when he was wandering the sewers and a mission Sensei sent him on to find food when he was younger.

He found a bee that had somehow gotten into the sewers. He survived, but it wasn’t pretty.

He crashed straight through the beehive and the glass wall behind it, the glass from the wall ripped through his skin as the thousands of bees he angered attacked his body, he was falling now as well.

He crushed through the fire escape, making a ton of noise along the way before he was at the point where it stopped.

But this fire escape wasn’t done yet

And the apartment that was still under construction was taller than normal.

He would’ve survived either way.

But he was thankful when he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, pushing him from the straight line he had been falling.

The person that was holding onto Leo hopped from building to building, allowing the two to make a safe landing in the alleyway between the apartments, the figure set Leo down. Leo looked up, his vision was fuzzy, but he was able to make out the silhouette of his favorite human.

Damian was crouched in front of the turtle, “Lee? You there?” He asked.

Leo simply nodded, the turtle wanted to say something to the human, but his throat was already tightening, he could already tell that this would be the worst allergic reaction he had ever had.

Most likely due to the number of bees that stung him.

And he had forgotten to bring the EpiPen he had stolen from that store.

Awesome.

Damian examined the turtle, it was clear he was out of it, but he was struggling to figure out what was going on, Leo tried speaking, but something stopped him. Then Damian looked at the stung areas, and his eyes widened.

There were hives and swelling forming in places where the bees seemed to miss, redness and flushing appeared on his face, and he was wheezing, struggling to get a single breath in.

Damian knew how to look out for allergic reactions, being in a family where peanut allergies were common, and knowing how to spot one was a giving, it had luckily skipped Damian though.

But that did not mean that they weren’t careful.

Leo followed Damian's hand and saw that he was digging into what seemed to be a bag that he was carrying around, Dmamain was whispering something to Leo like, “It’ll be okay” and, “I’ve got something.”

“Not very quiet huh, Leo?”

Both Leo and Damian froze, there was another fire escape shielding them from his brothers, but they would get worried soon, and Damian had to go.

Leo didn’t know why. Damian was just a human. Sure, a new human. But he was a human that knew him . Damian wouldn’t hurt his brothers. And he doubts his brothers would hurt Damian.

But something nagged at Leo– No, it was screaming at him. Something so primal that Leo couldn’t silence it screeched at him.

Damian couldn’t be seen.

Leo was about to try and say something to Damian when the human's gaze sharpened, “Don’t you even try to get me to leave you here without giving you something to get this cleared up.” he ordered, Leo snapped his jaw shut.

“Leo?” He heard Mikey call out, things were starting to get tight. And not just the situation. Leo started feeling nauseous, and his abdomen decided that it wanted to curl up in on itself.

“Leo, man, quite messing around!” Raph ordered, but Leo could hear the underlying concern in his voice. Leo looked at Damian and was about to try again to get him to go when the human's hand snapped out of his bag and he whispered, “Got it!” Leo looked up to see that Damian had gotten an EpiPen out of his bag.

The sound of people rushing on metal appeared, and Damian's face drained of color. He looked at where the noise was coming from, back to Leo, then to the noise.

He was about to say ‘fuck it’ and just help Leo and not care whether or not his brothers saw him, but the turtle snatched the EpiPen out of Damian's hand, Damian looked towards Leo “Can you apply it yourself?” He asked in a soft voice, Leo nodded before making a ‘shoo’ motion, and Damian nodded, he really didn’t want to leave Leo here, but he trusted that Leo had it covered.

And with that, he sprinted off into the shadows.

Raph was sliding down the ladder on the fire escape, he was ahead of the rest of his brothers, but he could excuse that as being the oldest in action and wanting to know what was ahead.

But he was only concerned about his oldest brother at the moment, Raph slid down the ladder on the fire escape before he was able to catch a glimpse of green, Raph stared at Leo’s side with a slight huff, from this point of view he looked perfectly fine, Leo was most likely being over dramatic.

“See! I told you guys! He’s fine!” Raph stated causing the younger two to slow down in relief.

Raph hopped to the ground and started approaching the leader, “What was that all about man? Are you trying to scare Mikey and Donnie?” Raph asked, catching Leo’s attention. Raph paused in his tracks the moment the leader was facing him.

His face was swollen, and he had red spots and hives everywhere.

“Oh, shit…” He muttered, it was loud enough for at least Leo to hear, so when the leader didn’t say anything and slumped forward a bit, Raph knew something was definitely wrong, “Oh shit! Donnie get down here!” Raph shouted as he ran towards Leo. He grabbed the blue turtle by his shoulders and forced him to look at Raph, now that the red turtle was closer he could hear his brother wheezing .

“Leo… What happened man?” Raph asked him, Leo tried to speak, but his tongue felt numb and, again, his throat was tight, the pain in his stomach was increasing and he felt so dizzy, Leo was barely conscious, but he was able to look over and slowly lift his arm.

Raph looked down at his brother's left hand to see an… EpiPen?

Then it clicked for Raph.

“Donnie!” Raph shouted.

Donnie came rushing over, followed by Mikey, “What! What’s wrong!” Donnie cried, Raph grabbed the EpiPen out of Leo's hand.

‘Rude.’ The blue brother thought he could have applied it himself, he was the second most trusted with medical stuff, but Raph ran towards the purple brother.

 “Do you know how to administer an EpiPen?” Raph cried out, Donnie pushed, confused, “W-Well, ya, why?” Donnie answered, Raph shoved the pen into Donnie’s hands and shouted “Then do it!” While shoving him toward Leo.

Donnie took one look at his older brother to realize what exactly Raph meant. He opened up the pen and tugged his brother's arm forward before being able to administer the shot.

As soon as Donnie was done with the shout, Leo wheezed and gasped, lurching forward, trying to catch up on the amount of air he had lost. His hives started swelling down almost instantly. Leo was shaking as he tried to breathe, Donnie put his hand on Leo’s shell.

“Deep breaths, Leo,” Donnie ordered as he saw how the leader was taking quick breaths instead of performing any breathing exercises to try and get some air in.

Leo took Donnie's instructions, but he did end up gagging a bit from the overwhelming nausea that was still there.

He then looked up, seeing that he was now surrounded by his younger brothers, the only thing he could do was put on a sheepish smile and say, “Hey.”

Raph didn’t like that.

His face, once showing a rare concern, twisted into a glare “What the heck was that!” Raph shouted at Leo, who simply looked down in shame.

“When were you going to tell us that you had an allergy, huh? And don’t even try to say that you didn’t know Leonardo, you wouldn’t have had an EpiPen with you if you didn’t”! Raph was pissed, Donnie had taught them when they were younger how to look out for allergies, and when they can be severe.

“I’m with Raph on this one Leo, Your body seemed dangerously close to going into shock,” Donnie said with a bite in his voice, Leo was still on the ground trying to regain his composer, but he couldn’t stop himself from sinking into his shell a bit from Donnie’s words.

His throat still felt an itch, but he could manage, everything else had completely gone away now. “I’m sorry…” Leo managed to say when he was finally able to spare a breath, “It hadn’t been this bad before, normally it’s just a really bad bug bite, although it was getting worse…” he trailed off, he still wasn’t looking at the guys, he felt embarrassed they figured out in the first place.

He heard Donnie sigh, “Leo, I’ve told you time and time again about what happens during allergic reactions, heck, back when we were trying to make sure we could eat the food I rambled on, to you specifically, about what can happen if your body goes into shock,” Donnie got in front of Leo and crouched to his level, Leo could now see the way his eyes were narrowed.

“So I’m going to ask you this once, and only once Leonardo, and I don’t care how embarrassing it is for you, but, what the hell happened?”

Leo gulped a bit, most of the time it was him who had to be the overly protective one, he forgot that his brothers could be just as protective as him. “I… I ran into a beehive.” Leo squeaked out, “You what, ” Raph growled out, he was expecting Raph to laugh, and maybe the red turtle would’ve been in a different situation.

“I ran into a beehive.” Leo sighed, he raised one knee and put a hand on it before using it to pull himself up. But Donnie Grabbed his shoulder before he could make it up completely, “So let me get this straight, you had a stinger bug allergy, you told no one, and then you ran into a beehive,” The purple turtle stated.

Leo pushed the turtle's hand off of his shoulder, he was starting to get irritated, “Yes. That is actually what happened, okay? Laugh it up or something.” Leo bit back at the scientist.

“Leo this is serious!” Donnie exclaimed, getting up himself, “What if you didn’t have the EpiPen, which I’m still curious as to how you had it in the first place, what if you had actually gone into shock, Leo? You could’ve died!” Donnie pointed an accusatory finger at the blue leader.

Leo was starting to get angry, he could take care of himself, he didn’t need to be told what would’ve happened if things had gone for the worst, he already knew, why was Donnie telling him something so obvious? Did Donnie really think he was that dumb?

Leo closed his eyes. Breathe in and out.

Leo looked at Donnie, blue eyes now soft and calm, he placed his hand on the others, which was still pointing a finger toward him. “I understand that, Donnie. I just didn’t want to make you guys worry,” Leo tried in the calmest voice he could muster, Donnie huffed through his nose, but backed off, removing the finger he was pointing at Leo.

“We would’ve been really worried if you’re heart had stopped beating.” Donnie accused.

Leo smiled at the turtle, “I know, I know that it was dumb of me to hide it from you guys, and I’m sorry for that.” and with that, any anger that Donnie was planning on taking out on the leader subsided, “Okay, just don’t do that again, you worried me.” Donnie bit out.

“I know.”

“Ah, alright, enough talk, let's go find a skate spot,” Raph ordered, moving to get back to the rooftops.

Donnie’s eyes widened, “Is that really a good idea?” He asked, but followed Raph, Raph waved his hand back at him, “What, are you concerned about Splinter to now?” Raph asked, Donnie shook his head “Leo just had a severe allergic reaction, he should be resting-”

Leo put a hand on his brother's shoulder, “Hey, I’m okay now, alright? You did what you had to do, and I’m better now. Thanks for that.” Donnie looked at the blue turtle, he was in disbelief, how can someone who had just gone through that be fine?

He sighed, he knew that the only reason Leo was going was because he didn’t want to leave Raph alone. “Alright, but you need to take it easier, you hear!” Donnie ordered.

Leo laughed at his brother, “Loud and clear.”

Off in the distance, there stood a shadowy figure with a set of horns that resembled that of a ram, and a long, spikey tail, his skin was blue as though it was frost-bitten, with cyan speckles that littered his body, and the skin turned to a frost-like texture when it reached the knife sharp claws he had for hands. The figure was wearing a long blue and white kimono and had long white hair, his eyes were an icy blue as he examined the four figures.

“Very interesting,” He hummed to himself, his voice staying as neutral as his face, even as he went through the portal.

Frost traced his path as he went.

Chapter Text

The turtles had decided to continue with their night after everything calmed down with Leo’s stinger bug allergy, and the scolding from Donnie, of course, the team was still side-eyeing the leader and moving at a slower pace than before.

Donnie still wasn’t happy about this decision, but hey, Leo didn’t want to come out here in the first place.

“Check that out!” Raph said as the four turtles came to jump at the ledge of a roof that overlooked a high school entrance. The school had stairs with some railings on them.

“Let’s grind it!” Mikey demanded as he played with his T-Pod. There was no way they were getting that back. Donnie heard something to the side, and looked over his shoulder into an alleyway down below, “Who the heck is that guy?” The purple turtle asked.

The rest looked over to see what he was talking about, now noticing the pink-shirted, jeaned, battle armor? Wearing guy that was walking in the alleyway right next to him.

“I don’t know. But he needs a beat down.” Raph said, Leo glanced at the turtle, he really did not want to get into a fight, he was still tired from being denied breathing rights before. “Hold on Raph, we don’t know that he’s going to do anything wrong, he could be on his way to… Church? ” Leo stated, hoping to avoid a fight.

“Wearing powered battle armor? What kind of church is that?” Raph asked, not seeing the leader's reasoning on this one, “A really awesome one!” The youngest replied, Leo facepalmed.

“Look, it’s my call. I decided who needs a beat down.” Leo said, looking back down at the man who was now using some kind of fire to open a garage door. “That guy needs a beat down,” Leo concluded, the four turtles jumped down.

On the rooftop above the garage where the guy was lasering, Damian sat in the shadows, the amusement he had when the turtles failed to notice him was showing through a sly smile on the human’s face as he watched them get ready to fight.

He had a cold feeling wash over him.

He hoped it meant nothing.

The turtles landed behind the guy, who was busy trying to open up the garage door with the laser, which masked them coming down enough for the guy to not notice the four. The laser ended up dying out though.

“Are you kidding me? Aww, come one!” He groaned, trying to pull the door open himself while muttering “Stupid Shatter” under his breath. “It’s just kinda sad.” Donnie whispered, “Ya, I don’t know if we should beat him up or buy him an ice cream cone.”

Leo rolled his eyes, catching something on the top of the roof. He looked back up, surprised to see Damian sitting there, the turtle smiled at his friend.

Leo pulled out his two swords, “Hult, villain.” Leo stated, gaining the guy's attention “Hult? Villain?” He questioned, “When did we start talking like that?” Leo felt embarrassed, “We’re heroes…  That’s- That’s how heroes talk.” he doesn’t know where that came from, okay?

“You will feel the furry of my powered battle- Holy cow, you guys are turtles!” The guy realized just as he was going to go on his evil villain monolog. “That’s right, we’re the turtles of justice!” “Wow, just… Wow,” Raph stated, embarrassed for the brother in blue.

Meanwhile, Leo was only looking up at the rooftops, seeing that the human that was sitting on the ledge was trying his hardest to not laugh, Leo smiled at his completed mission

The dude they were fighting charged at them, and Donnie, Raph, and Leo charged back, ready to get a fight in when they weren’t even supposed to be out. “Wait!” Mikey yelled out, the two sides froze, looking at the youngest turtles, who hummed a song and put away the T-Pod. “Okay. Hyah!” He shouted as he knocked the dude in the head with his nunchucks.

Damian watched as the fight continued on, trying to distract himself from the growing temperature drop that he was feeling, he knew that it had to mean something, and from the way the turtles were starting to shiver, they felt it too.

Something was off.

The turtles were busy tearing the dude's armor apart, using their skateboards to do so, they didn’t notice how cold it was until Mikey stated “Hey, is it cold for anyone else?” The four turtles looked at each other, landing near a dumpster after Leo had his turn to destroy the man's creation.

The guy on the other hand almost went straight into the glass that would’ve triggered an alarm but was luckily able to move away from it.

“Ya, now that you mention it, it is getting really cold,” Donnie stated, rubbing his arm. “Oh, it’s just temperature, you big babies, we have a guy to beat up!” Raph said, deflecting the conversation even though he was also shivering.

Leo, who was leaning on the dumpster, put his full weight on his feet when suddenly, there was a rumble in the ground.

The ground beneath them shook in an earthquake-like matter, “Earthquake!” Leo squeaked out, steadying himself on the dumpster once more, “In New York?” Raph asked, also trying to steady himself.

A light appeared near the turtles, all of them in the alley looked over to where the light had can from, only to see the building the guy was breaking into was flooded with an icy white light with a tint of blue. The temperature drops severely.

Leo tried to get a hold of himself, but no matter how hard he tried to stand, the ground said ‘no’ he looked over at the guy they were beating up, there was a funny feeling in his head as he looked around before he finally saw the guy, who was just as confused.

Then Leo’s vision with black for a second before blue-tinted images popped into his head, one of the guys wearing some kind of mega suit, then of the guy with some type of collar on with mutagen vials on it, then of some… Fly mutant with the dude's clothes on.

When his vision finally cleared, he was being held up by Raph, the red brother had a rare look of worry on his face.

Leo looked to the top of the building and sighed with relief to see Damian backing away from the edge, surprised, but unharmed.

Raph was about to say something when the light retracted for a second, before exploding into on direct stream of white light out the garage door, knocking it off its hinges and causing a shadowy figure to fly out of the building.

The turtles looked up to see something flying above them, but it was covered by the darkness so all the turtles could make out was the silhouette of a human-like figure, with wings and a spiked tail.

The alarm in the building started to sound, causing everyone to look away from the figure, but for that split second, the figure disappeared into the night.

Leo’s face twisted into a panicked expression before Raph caught the other's attention, opened the dumpster, and pointed inside, the others knew what he was suggesting.

They picked up the guy they were fighting before, and through him in the dumpster, “You’re not the first to ever throw me in a dumpster, but swear, that you will be the last-” He was caught off by the dumpster door slamming shut.

The police sirens started around this time, and the turtles quickly slipped through the manhole cover, Leo was the last one in, he caught another look at where that thing had come from, now noticing the frost that had suddenly appeared on the sides of the garage, he followed his brothers down into the sewers.

Behind them, that same shadowy figure was standing, watching as the four retreated, his white hair blowing in the wind and his ice-blue eyes narrowed at the four. Not in an angry way, but more trying to figure out just what, or who those creatures were.

And why were they being targeted by his brother?

The four turtles snuck the lair through the water's entrance, shaking off the water that had cumulated on them, “Alright! Home and dry! And without having to fight off a giant winged monster!” Raph stated, walking towards the couch “Sh! It’s two a.m.!” Leo hushed, trying to keep their entrance a secret.

“And Splinters is still asleep, this is epic!” Mikey declared quietly, the blue leader turned towards the turtle, noting the clear absence of the T-pod, but hoping Mikey had just put it somewhere else, “It was not epic! It was a really bad idea!” Leo scolded, trying to make sure to not be a bad influence on the youngest brother.

“Well, we got out there, stopped a sleazeball, and, we saw an awesome mutant that we know of now, so, what’s the problem?” Raph asked, he was now sitting on the couch. “I’ll tell you what the problem is.” Donnie suddenly spoke up, Leo and Raph turned to where the purple turtle was, and Leo noted how Mikey was standing, clearly stressing about something.

“What?” Raph asked, puzzled. Donnie had a frustrated look on his face as he marched over to Leo, the blue leader could already take a spin as to what this was about. “You, almost dying on us tonight, come on,” Donnie snapped, the bite in his voice back, as he grabbed the leader by the arm and started dragging him towards the lab.

“We’re making sure you don’t have any other secret medical issues that we need to know about, and we’re doing a full body check-up!” Donnie ordered, Leo shifted in Donnie's hold, being able to remove the scientist's hand and face the direction they were walking in. Donnie hesitated for a second before grabbing at Leo’s arm again.

“Okay Don, if that’s what you think is necessary,” Leo stated, smiling at the purple turtle, trying to be reassuring. Donnie simply looked away from the leader.

Mikey and Raph watched on as the two disappeared behind the metal, soundproof doors of Donnie's lab. Mikey flopped down next to Raph on the couch.

“I’m worried about Leo.” Mikey side, solemnly, Raph waved him off, “Eh, he’ll be fine, he just needs to not get bored to death being scolded by Donnie.” Raph stated, Mikey gave the older turtle a look.

“ What? ” Raph asked, Mikey, looked away, fidgeting with his hands, “That’s not what I meant.” The youngest said. The red turtle rolled his eyes “Then what did you mean?”.

Mikey bit his lip, “Well… Leo has always been the one to help, he’s the one that’s there when we have nightmares, he’s the one that’s there for fevers, and he’s the one that’s been there for injuries. But…” Mikey trailed off a bit, and Raph motioned for him to keep going.

“We never really paid attention as to… What was going on with Leo.” Mikey motioned towards the door “This is a perfect example, he has admitted to getting stung before, and we just… Never noticed. We were just going about our day like it was nothing while he was in pain.” Mikey's shoulders slouched.

“It just… Makes me wonder, ya know? Just how much is he hiding from us? And, if he’s just hiding it because… We never did anything about it then, so why should he tell us now.” Mikey finished off his statement, looking at the floor.

Raph was busy staring holes into the door of the lab. He knew what Mikey was talking about. Leo had been acting weird lately, and this new revelation of something that they should have known about years ago, makes Raph wonder.

What else is Leo hiding from them? And how much of it might land him in danger because he always had to be the responsible one for them?

The next day in training was a disaster.

Leo yawned as he did a handstand, barely able to keep himself up, “Knees higher, Leonardo!” the blue turtle ended up coming down on his head. “Extend, Michelangelo!” Splinter ordered, he was using their full names in a way that in any normal family, it would sound like a parent using your full name when they're really angry.

“Raphael, you call that a Koho Tenkai? Because I do not!” Splinter ordered, followed by Donnie shouting as he came down from whatever exercise he was doing. “Ya-Me!”

The four turtles knelt in front of their master as he paced in front of them “Is there something you wish to tell me?” Splinter asked them, Leo stiffened at the question, he should’ve known that Sensei knew, Sensei always knew.

“Anything we wanna tell you, ye, nope.” Mikey sassed, and Leo tossed a glance at Mikey, the youngest turtle was stressed out about something that happened, and it wasn’t being caught by Master Splinter. “You all seem… Tired?” Splinter seems to be asking a question and observing.

“We’re not!” “Wide awake! “Fresh of daisies!” The three older turtles tried to convince their father. But the youngest yawned and collapsed onto the floor just undid even the little bit of convincing that they had.

“So, you would not object to a little… Randori?” Splinter asked, Mikey gulped and Leo stiffened, this was going to hurt.

Once that was done, Master Splinter simply stated “I hope you’ve learned, turtles, that truth isn’t the only thing that hurts.”

The turtles groaned as they started to get up, the rat master looked over his sons with a sigh, he knew something was up with them, they were hurt when they woke up and more tired than normal.

His eyes slowly drifted toward the turtle he was the most concerned about.

His eldest son, Leonardo, seemed to have been hurt the most out of the four of them.

His son had scars on his face, they were a tint of green, as though they were trying to be covered by some sort of paint or makeup.

Splinter knew that his son had some sort of green paint in his room, but he never really questioned just what he used it for until now, seeing as though the only reason that the rat had known that his some was hurt more than the others was that the leader was tired and got sloppy while covering the scares up.

Splinter could not help but feel miffed about the idea that Leonardo was hiding something from him.

Later in the day, Sensei was walking to the kitchen when he heard some sort of commotion going on in the small room, the rat peered into the kitchen to see what was going on, noticing that Donatello seemed to be scolding Leonardo about something.

Splinter was about to step in to see what was going on when he heard something that made him wait.

“You have the EpiPen on you, right?” Donnie asked, Splinter decided to listen in for a little longer, this was something new, something he most likely should have been notified of a long time ago.

“Yes Don, you can get off my shell about keeping it with me, okay? I learned my lesson with the beehive.” He heard his oldest son state in a sigh, Splinter’s whiskers twitch, what was this about a bee hive?

Donnie sighed, “Leo, please, I’m just trying to make sure we don’t have another incident again.” Splinter was starting to get upset, what had his sons been keeping from him? “I know Donnie, thank you for worrying,” Leo stated simply.

Splinter decided that he had enough of listening in on that conversation, he’d get it out of Leonardo later on one way or another. He left the two turtles in the kitchen, Donnie was standing in front of the fridge as the leader in blue was leaning against the table, being scolded by his purple brother.

Leo smiled sympathetically at his brother, he truly was sorry, not that he hid it, but for how they had to find out about this weakness. He didn’t like the idea of his team finding him barely conscious and not knowing what to do.

Donnie pinched the bridge of his nose, “You shouldn’t have to say ‘thank’ Leo, that’s my issue.” Donnie sighed as his hands dropped down to his sides, Leo had a confused look on his face “In a family, it should be a given that you know when someone is injured, you take care of each other.”

“But we ended up going for 15 years under the same roofs as each other, and none of us had the slightest clue that you had an allergic reaction, and when we finally do figure it out, it’s when you're in the alleyway, struggling to breathe with your body almost in shock.”

Donnie took a seat down, next to his older brother “I know you, not as well as I thought, but I do, I know you were never planning on telling us about that allergy until it killed you, and it almost did!” Donnie continued, flapping his arms around at the end, he sighed.

“You really scared us Leo, and don’t think I don’t know about the green paint that you're using to hide the scares. You did a sloppy job this time around, and I know you're going out on your own more and more, you're not the only one awake at ungodly hours.”

Leo remained silent through the talk, but was panicking slightly, “So that just brings up the question, what else are you hiding from us? What else have we been ignoring in favor of being taken care of by someone when we were younger? How often do you actually get hurt.”

Donnie had finished his talk, Leo was still in deep thought as he placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, Donnie looked at him, “There are… Many things, that I have yet to share, but I can assure you, that it was not your fault, you are not responsible for my choice to hide, but I cannot say that I’m comfortable revealing some of the information so soon.” Leo stated, trying to comfort his brother.

Donnie sighed, “You shouldn’t have to hide.” he simply stated, “But I choose to, it’s what makes me feel better, I want to open up to you guys, but I’m not ready yet.” Leo stated he could see the unshed tears in Donnie's eyes.

“Can… Can I ask you something?” Donnie asked his brother, Leo nodded, “That… Thing, that we saw, the thing with the wings? That was below freezing? You… Know what it was, don’t you?” Donnie said, Leo, sucked in a breath, trying to think “I know what it might be attached to, as for what it was, I can not tell you, I’m… I’m still trying to figure that out myself.” The leader answered Donnie nodded.

Mikey was pacing around the hallway the bedrooms were in, trying to think about how to explain this to his family.

He fucked up. He knew that. He knew that he left something that Donnie had treasured in the hands of the enemy. And he knew that they were not going to be happy with him.

The orange turtle was on the verge of tears as his mind raced, finding the worst outcomes possible for the way that this could go. This was why he didn’t think about these things, his mind just started racing and made him believe that some of the worst things possible could happen if he dared to mess up.

“Mikey,” A gentle voice from behind startled the turtle as he jumped to see the leader he had purposely been avoiding.

“O-Oh, hey Leo…” Mikey greeted, hoping he could fool the leader into thinking that he was just being ‘typical ol’ Mikey’ or something that Raph would say.

The rise of the non-existent eyebrow told him that he wasn’t very convincing.

“Your pacing, fidgeting, and something is clearly going on in your head.” The leader pointed out before his eyes softened, nothing degrading, nothing mocking, just open, and pure willingness to understand and help, “I can tell you’re not feeling okay, you can talk to me, what’s going on?”

Mikey stiffened as he tried to keep the tears from falling, damn it… Why did Leo have to do this when the thoughts were bad? Miky would be able to handle this at any other point, not when the thoughts racing through his mind were nothing other than how his brothers would hate him for the rest of their lives, or how they might kick him out, or- or-

An arm wrapped around him as he was beginning to spiral, he didn’t even realize that he had started crying when he tried so hard not to. He wrapped himself around his big brother and buried his face into the Leo’s, allowing the leader to rub his shell in a circle that grounded him enough to be more comforting than anything else.

“It’s okay, everything is going to be just fine, your safe.” Leo comforted the younger turtle who was sobbing into him. After a while, Mikey calmed down enough to pull away from the leader, but Leo didn’t let him pull away completely, knowing how badly Mikey needed physical contact to be comforted, he held onto the turtle's arms, and the other didn’t try pulling out of the grip that he could easily get away from if it became to much.

Leo made eye contact with Mikey as he sniffed away the last of the tears, “Mikey, can I ask what’s wrong?” Leo asked, waiting for his younger brother to respond, he wasn’t pushing, he didn’t want to force it out.

Mikey sniffled, the orange turtle was surprised by this, he knew that the leader knew what was wrong, but why the turtle wasn’t getting straight to the point, Mikey couldn’t tell you.

Mikey sniffed and took a deep breath in, then out, here it goes.

“I lost the T-pod during the fight,” Mikey said, before shutting his eyes tight and breathing in, waiting for any form of mocker or being yelled at, or just anything.

Leo looked at the stance his little brother had taken on, and sighed “Mikey, why didn’t you say anything?” Leo asked, watching as his brother untensed.

“I just… I don’t want you to be mad at me, and-, and… Well…” He started to trail off, “You were just opening up, or at least it felt like you were, I didn’t want you to shut down to help me.” ‘Like you’ve done before’ was left unsaid, Leo sighed at his brother.

“Mikey, sure, I’m upset, but more so at the fact that you didn’t tell us, mistakes happen. And whether or not you learn from it and grow from this incident, is all that matters in the long run.” Leo paused before he continued, trying to find the right words, “And yes, there are some things that I have yet to tell you guys, but, that is not your fault, please do not think that it is.”

Mikey took a deep breath before he let the rest of his tension fade away.

Leo smiled at Mikey, and the orange one knew what was coming next, “Now, how about we give the others a heads-up before we see some guy in a mega-suite terrorizing an office building or something, can we do that?” Mikey chuckled, “Okay, thanks, Leo.”

Mikey and Leo walked into the living room, the younger of the two hiding behind the older.

Donnie looked over to the two, a confused expression clear as day on his face, “Um, is everything okay there?” Donnie asked, but right as Leo started was about to say something, The breaking news came on, and everybody's head snapped to what was going on at the TCRI office building.

“We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news” The news reporter introduced, Leo frowned, he had heard the space heroes show going on, but he listened on “We’ve received shocking footage of an assault on the TCRI office complex in Brooklyn.” Leo looked at Mikey, “You called it, bro.” Mikey stated with a grimace.

“At last! I will have my revenge!” A robotic voice called out, Leo squinted at it before his eyes went wide as he realized that the guy was the same as before, but with the mega suit that Leo had seen in his mind. How was this possible, first Bradford, now this? What was going on?

“Who– Who are you?” A voice off-screen asked, “You’ll never know, I’m the thing that haunts your nightmares! I’m the nameless shadow who-” “Baxter?” The voice cut off the man's monolog “No.” “Baxter Stockman?” “No!” “Hey everybody! It’s Baxter Stockman!”

“I think his name is Baxter Stockman.” Raph pointed out, and Leo chuckled a bit at the insanity of this.

“Is this because I fired you?” A gruff voice asked, “That copy machine was already broken when I– – I mean.” He cut himself off this time,  “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“How did he upgrade his armor so fast?” Donnie asked, putting a hand on his chin. The man lunged at the camera, revealing a circle pattern in his chest, confirming Leo’s fears. Leo widened his stance on where Mikey was hiding, putting more of a shield between the youngest and the other two, “He has the T-Pod,” Leo confirmed.

Donnie whipped around to where the leader and the youngest were, “He has the T-Pod!” Donnie repeated, “Oh… Um, I kinda dropped that during the fight…” Mikey confirmed, ducking further behind the leader.

“You… Dropped it during the fight! Nice going, Mikey!” Donnie shouted in the direction of the youngest, meaning he only really was shouting at the leader in blue, who was still putting up a shield to protect his youngest brother.

“Donatello.” Leo snapped, making the purple genius realize he was only getting up in Leo's face and not his targetted turtle’s. “I have already spoken to him about this. What matters is that we get that T-Pod back,” Leo stated. Donnie, nodded, taking a moment to calm himself.

“So the A.I chip is upgrading his armor the same way it upgraded the T-Pod?” Leo asked, trying to get the conversation moving on how to stop the guy, “And if it keeps going there’s no telling how powerful he’ll get.” Donnie answered, facing away and putting a hand to his chin.

“This has gone way too far! We have to tell Splinter about this!” Leo responded it was more so that he would tell Splinter about this, but he didn’t mention that he could just hope his father would understand. A part of him crawled at the idea of having to face Sensei.

“What? That we turned some nut Job into a supervillain? Do you know what he’ll do to us for that? I mean, he pounded us into the ground just for being sleepy!” Raph bit back at the leader.

“Look, we beat Stockman once we can beat him again,” Donnie decided, gaining the other's attention once more “We track him down, Grab the T-Pod then get back here before Splinter knows anything.” “If my opinion counts for anything, Donnies right!” Mikey agreed, Donnie smiled at the youngest “Hey, thanks Mikey, but it doesn’t” Leo shot Donnie a glare, and Mikey put down the comic book that he had somehow gotten “Didn’t think so.”

The figure stood alone on the roof, its blue kimono blowing in the wind as the frost around it thickened, he watched as four turtles entered the building of the man that attacked that office building. The figure smiled as he felt the temperature rise.

“It took you long enough.”

The figure turned, keeping his voice low, and ungiving towards any emotion that he might feel.

“Brother.”

The figure that stood before the one in blue was a being that was shorter than the blue, who was eight feet tall compared to the other, who was seven feet tall, his skin as a scorching red, with brown hair that seemed to be more of a burned blonde than anything else, his eyes were an orange that seemed to glint hazel at times, and his hair was curly.

The being wasn’t full in his first form. He was somewhere in between his human and his first form, making him shorter and making some of the marks on his body look faded.

“What do you want, Blue Moon?” the red figure bit out, “Is it so wrong to assume that I just want to visit my twin, Blood?” he asked, not using the full name of his brother.

Blood let out a low growl at his brother's antics, crossing his arms in the process, Blues face fell, “Now, let us get to what I’m really here for,” Blue stated, his eyes narrowing a bit, showing something that resembled hate, “Why are you here.”

Blood ruled his eyes, unimpressed, “Ugh, why must you always get on my tail? You always were the stuck-up one.” he insulted, Blue stance shifted “You're not supposed to be here.” he stated, “You're not supposed to be here either, but look where we are, the perfect child finally rebelling?” Blood asked, small flames appearing on the bone of his wings.

“I was forced to be here through a summoning,” Blue said the temperature was fluctuating between the two brothers, each trying to outpower the other temperature and creating something that could be seen as a physical tension between the two.

Blood’s hands balled up into fists, “ I was forced to be here as well, don’t think your the only one with cultists.” he snapped at his brother. “But you came back.” “So did you.” Blood defended himself.

Blues had shifted into an icy claw, it was only a threat, an attempt to dare his brother to break the peace first.

Blood looked down at Blue’s hand, eyes widening before laughing, “Oh, you wanna fight, ha?” he asked, Summoning a sythe, “Bring it!”

The two charged at each other, Blue Moon summoning a hammer to help strike against the other.

When the two weapons collided a burst of energy was created as they used their powers to summon the weapons forms, a sythe with a flaming blade, and a hammer with the ice of the moon.

One is designed to be deadly, the other is designed to be destructive.

They clashed, forming into nothing more than blue and red energy pulses that came about and then collided together.

But in the end, Blue was able to catch Blood by surprise and strike the demon from behind, before pinning the red demon to the ground with the handle of his hammer on top of Blood as he groaned in pain.

“You're not even at your full first form yet, and I have the power of the Blue Moon on my side.” he gestured towards the sky which held the moon that he had wrapped in his control to gain himself power, “It was over before it began Blood Moon,” he growled.

His brother growled at him, “I would rather go down fighting you than allow you to remain in a world that has enough problems.” Blood growled at his brother before he increased the temperature in his hands and grabbed Blues, who was holding onto the handle that was keeping him down.

Blue yelped in pain, backing away from the other, allowing Blood to leap against his brother, knocking the hammer out of Blue’s hands and using his arm to keep the other pinned down by the neck.

“You don’t belong here either you know.” Blue bit back at his brother. Blood hissed, “I don’t know what you’re planning to do, but you need to go back to the icy tundra you came from.”

Blue narrowed his eyes “I won’t let you hurt them,” he stated.

Blood backed up a bit, a confused expression on his face, “Hurt who?” he asked, “You're not one to follow people without plans to cause bodily harm to them.” Blue stated, Blood rolled his eyes.

He heated his elbow and pressed it further against his brother's neck “Listen.” he said lowly “If you dare hurt what’s mine I will make sure your body is never found.” he threatened, the shocked face on Blue quickly riveted back to nothing.

“You actually care about him do you?” the ice asked “What?” “You really do care.” Blood’s eyes narrowed, “Don’t you go bringing them into this any more than you already have, this stays between you and me.” Blood demanded.

“I’m just saying…” Blue stated, “If you cared about him so much, maybe you should pay attention to your senses more.”

Blood’s eyes widened “What…-” He was cut off by a loud crash, he got off of Blue and rushed to the ledge where it came from, on the opposite side of the street, there was a guy in a giant robot suit, holding a ball of green that just busted through the wall.

The man threw the ball of green into a dumpster next to him, Blood squinted, before realizing that it wasn’t a ball, it was four different figures that he bunched into one hand, and just threw away.

Four figures of orange, blue, red, and purple.

Blue.

His Blue.

Blood Moon started breathing heavily as his eyes looked like they were going to burst out of his head from rage, he turned back towards Blue, who was messaging his neck, but quickly put his hands up, “The giant robot is not mine, and they choose to after him.”

Blood huffed, his hands balling into fists as he squatted his legs, before propelling himself up into the air with a quick flap of his wings.

The four turtles looked up at the guy that had just thrown them into the dumpster, they were hurt, badly, and now the guy was towering over them, laughing, ready to finish them off.

“Foolish Turtles! Did you really think you can defeat me?” Baxter asked, “Well, yeah.” Mikey answered, there was a pot on his head.

“All of my life people have laughed at me, the other kids at school, coworkers, the lady that fixes the coffee machine! How was I supposed to know you don’t pour toner in the top? But when they behold the power of this suit, they won’t be laughing anymore! They’ll tremble in terror- “

Stockman screamed and his suit started to glow a piercing red, it expanded and shifted and the melt changed.

“What’s happening?” Leo questioned, “Stockman and the T-Pod their… Merging… They’re becoming on sign entity.” Donnie concluded the thing that was once Stockman stopped screaming a bit ago, but now it was shining a spotlight directly on the turtles.

“The Stockman Pod,” Mikey concluded.

As the T-Pod was transforming Stockman, it left the perfect opening for the turtles to barely slip past the giant machine and run.

They screamed out as they rounded the corner, the giant's red glow right on top of them. “The Stockmanpod’s right on top of us!” Mikey screamed, “Quiet calling him that, it’s a stupid name!” Raph yelled back at Mikey, he was stressed, and Leo could hear it in his voice.

“Split up, he can’t follow us all!” Leo ordered, to make it easier for them to give the robot the slip if it was only one of them that he was after, “No way! He’s gonna follow me!” Mikey yelped, “Why would he follow you!” “They always follow me!” Well, that’s a fair point to make, “Mikey, please, just do it!” Leo ordered, hoping that they would be able to make it out of this alive.

They split off in their own directions, Leo being the last to leave Mikey’s side as he went down an alleyway, just barely hearing Mikey screaming “I told ya he was going to follow me!” Leo’s heart ached, he hated this, he wanted to go back and destroy that guy for threatening his younger brother or at least get the robot away from his family.

He was considering doing so, stopping for a brief moment and turning back to where he had entered the alleyway from, then he heard someone land behind him.

Leo jumped at the sound, already on edge because of the Stockmanpod, the quick motion turned him to see a human that he thought would be in bed by now.

“Damian? What are you doing here!” Leo asked in a hushed voice, he didn’t want his friend to get caught up in the mistake that he had made.

Damian stared at the turtle for a few seconds, his normal smile had been whipped clean off his face, replaced with a straight line for a frown, and two cold, dead eyes that seemed to bore their way into Leo, as though he could see right through him.

“...Day?” Leo asked, concern growing for his friend.

This was not normal, even he knew that.

Suddenly, Damian started walking toward the turtle. The moment was quick, but not quick enough so that Leo’s brain didn’t have time to panic about something clearly being terribly wrong with the human.

Leo tried to back up, he didn’t know why, he knew Damian wouldn’t hurt him, it was just… Scary. Damian came to a stop right in front of Leo, he tried backing up again, but then Damian's hands cuffed his face and the human stared directly into the turtle's eyes.

Leo calmed down a bit in Damian's hold. It wasn’t something strong, that he could easily get away if needed, and the human was careful about the bruises on his face, applying light pressure that was more caring than anything else.

Speaking of bruises, that seemed to be what Damian's eyes were wandering over, all of the blacken marks that the Stockmanpod had given him. He seemed to be assessing the damage done to Leo’s body, and from the way, the human’s eyes narrowed and face twisted into a grimace, he wasn’t too happy about it.

Damian's eyes went back up to Leo’s giving the human a sense of order.

“ Leave ” He hissed out, Leo was shocked at how much hatred was left in the human's voice, “What?” he asked, “Leave. Run. Go. Don’t look back.” Damian stated, his hand on Leo’s face beginning to lose more, Leo narrowed his eyes, “What about the Stockmanpod? Mikey? We can’t just let this go run around town!” He tried to reason with his friend.

“You can, and you will . You are far too injured to go after him. Let someone else take care of it.” Damian said, Leo, opened his mouth to argue more, when Damian pulled him into a hug, “You need to go, Mikey will be safe. And the Stockmanpod will be taken care of, okay? You have my word.” Leo bit his lip. He didn’t want to leave, he wanted to fight, and not allow the robot he helped in making harm any more people.

But he couldn’t. They couldn’t defeat the Stockmanpod before, when they were at their full strength, what says they can beat him now? When they're all beaten and bruised.

Leo nodded into Damian's shoulder, the human pulled away from the hug. “You’ll be okay, everything will be okay,” Damian promised, Leo nodded, slinking around the human and making his way toward the manhole cover.

Leo lifted the heavy circle, crawling into the hole, but stopping for a brief moment, looking at his friend, worry in his eyes, “It’ll be okay.” Damian repeated, Leo nodded, going into the sewers completely.

Damian turned to the alleyway entrances, shoulders squared up and ready to fight, a dangerous look within his eyes which glowed of a flaming light.

“I’ll make sure of it.” the being promised as he walked away from the manhole cover.

The turtles hushed each other as they made their way into the Lair, trying their hardest to not wake up Sensei, but Leo took note of how dark the lair had gotten compared to when they had left, someone had turned off the lights.

The lights flicked to light, and there was their father, standing on the ledge of where the Dojo overlooked the water entrance. Leo was glad they didn’t take that way in again.

“Aah! Sensei!” Leo greeted, he could see it coming, but it was still surprising. He felt his nerves hit the roof. “And where have you been?” Sensei asked, “Nowhere?” Raph responded, Leo, suppressed an eye roll, “How did you get so hurt?” you really can’t tell if it’s concerned or shaming with this man.

So both. Let’s just go with both.

“Oh! That!” Leo said, as though he had forgotten about something he had just scolded on by another person a few moments ago “Um, well, we were – Um…” Leo started “Hit?” “By a–” “Bus?” Mikey ended their string of thought. They shared one brain cell, didn’t they?

Splinter raised an eyebrow, Mikey smiled, and Splinter's eyes narrowed, he was hurt beyond belief. “Hit by a bus?” Donnie asked, “Well what was I supposed to say? Meteor? Cow? Flying Building?” The tension between the two youngest grew.

“Enough!” Splinter ordered, hitting his cane on the ground to receive the turtle's attention, “Tell me what happened,” He demanded, Leo felt dizzy.

Baxter Stockman hopped from roof to roof, he had never had so much power before, it was incredible! And once he got rid of those turtles, nothing would stand in his way of taking over the world and getting revenge on all those who wronged him and-

“Oi!” someone shouted out, Baxter turned, he was beginning to sweat a bit, there was an increase in temperature that didn’t seem… Normal.

When Baxter turned he saw a seven-foot-tall figure, his skin was red, his eyes glowed a flaming orange, his hair brown, and he had wings, horns, and a tail.

“What are you? Another freak?” Baxter asked, reading his weapons.

“Oh. There are so many things that I am, but right now, you can take me as a warning.” The demon offered, summoning a flaming scythe that was already at its full power, the demon spun it in front of him like how the purple turtle did before putting it in one hand and using it to lean on as he stood.

“Never hurt what is mine again,” The demon ordered before the two charged at each other.

“And then I threw hot cheese in his face and ran away,” Mikey said, concluding the little adventure that they’ve had so far, Splinter was frustrated with the four turtles.

“Very resourceful Michelangelo.” Their father noted, “But I’m still highly disappointed in you. The first rule of being a ninja is ‘Do no harm’. Unless you mean to do harm, then you do lots of harm.” he scolded. “You’re right Sensei, I guess we did make a mess of things.” Leo agreed, he ignored the glares that he was receiving from his brothers, they were obviously not happy with Leo’s decision to leave out the bee hive incident.

“So, what do you think is a fitting punishment?” Splinter asked, eyes narrowing at the leader in blue, he was hoping for his son to come clean about whatever allergy he had. Clearly, he wasn’t planning on it despite his brother's protest.

“We need to clean up our mess.” Leo concluded he was trying his hardest to ignore Splinter's glare and play it off as their father being made about the Stockmanpod, “Yes, you must stop this… Stockmanpod.” Splinter responded, “But, Sensei, that guy has already kicked our shells, and now he’s even more powerful… How are we going to stop him?” Donnie asked, fear in his voice.

“I know! I’ll hit him really hard!” Raph stated, he was bitter about the loss, Leo could tell. “Brute force is not the answer, you will need to rely on your ninja training.” “Excuse me, Sensei? But, ninjas never had to go up against guys in armor.” Mikey, said, fully confident in himself.

Splinter's face twisted into one of confusion, Mikey looked just past their father, now seeing the painting on the wall of a ninja fighting a samurai, “Ooh… I mean, ninjas always had to go up against guys in armor.” Mikey said, embarrassed, and placing a hand on his head, chuckling a bit “Nice save.” Raph stated.

“Sensei, what was their secret?” Leo asked, knowing that Mikey, and most likely the rest of them, were confused. “They understood that you do not fight the armor, you fight the man inside,” Sensei stated, using his hand to show the figures Mikey had seen.

The turtles looked at each other, three of them understanding what they had to do, “Why are we all looking at each other?” One did not understand, Leo sighed, he knew what had to be done, but he didn’t want to do it.

“Are you sure this is gonna work?” Donnie asked, skeptical of the leader's plan. “Like Sensei said, don’t fight the armor, fight the guy inside, and one thing we know about bad guys? They love chasing Mikey.” Leo stated he grimaced a bit, he hated the thought of using his brothers as bait, but it was the only way, he would have to let Mikey pick what they watch tonight, wouldn’t he?

“Umm… G- guys?” A timid voice came from the side, the others looked over to see Mikey, who was paler and looked like he had just seen a ghost. “Mikey!” Raph shouted, the others went over to the youngest, thinking something horrible had happened.

“What happened are you hurt? Where is he? Are you okay?” Leo said he was in a panic, he knew he shouldn’t have used his brother for this plan, now he was hurt, and it was all his fault and– and—

Mikey shook his head, “No, no, I’m fine, it’s just…” Mikey trailed off, biting his lower lip and glancing in the direction he had come from. “You guys might wanna see this.” The youngest turtle stated, gesturing for the rest to follow.

It took a bit to get there, but eventually, Mikey stopped at an empty rooftop, and was at the ledge, looking back at the others.

“Mikey… What’s this about?” Leo asked, concern growing. “Well… That.” Mikey said, before pointing at the rooftop just below where they were standing.

The overs went over to where the youngest was pointing, and a soft “Woah” escaped Leo as they looked at what had happened.

There was Stockman’s suite, but it was destroyed, giant claw marks ripped holes bigger than any animal they’d ever seen through the suite, one hole almost ripped the armor in half, the turtles jumped down to get a closer look.

They started surrounding the suite, weapons out, but not ready. The suite didn’t seem to be active. “How is this possible…?” Donnie muttered to himself, closing in on the biggest hole and running his hand along the suite.

“Who… Whatever did this, had to have been nearly as big or bigger than the suit itself… And- And these bits of metal that seemed to be… Dripping? Whatever slashed through must have had some serious heat to it!” Donnie concluded Mikey was walking at a distance, he was starting to get closer to the suit when he heard a crack .

He winced in pain as he looked down and lifted his foot, the others had drawn their attention to him. Under his foot revealed a very broken circle disc. The T-Pod had been destroyed, smashed into bits so tiny that it was impossible to even recognize them.

“Sorry…” Mikey mumbled, hopping on one foot to try and get a look at the other, “Don’t be, from the looks of it, it was long broken before you stepped on it. Are you okay?” Leo stated, concerned for his brother.

Donnie walked over to where Mikey was, now noticing that there was some blood dripping onto the ground. “Here, have a seat, let’s get a look at that,” Donnie said, grabbing onto Mikey’s arm and gadding him to a ledge to sit on.

Leo looked to where Raph was standing, the red turtle was on the lookout, making sure that they weren’t stopped by anyone. Leo sighed, jumping onto the giant suit.

There was still one question ringing out in his mind.

Leo walked up to where the giant suit had displayed the face of Stockman.

He froze when he finally got to the hole that led to where the human had piloted the suit.

Raph looked up from where he was keeping watch and towards his older brother, he was alerted to something going on based on the pause of footsteps that banged on the suit.

Leo was pale, his eyes were wide with horror and he looked to be shaking a bit, he was frozen in place.

“Leo?” Raph called out, the older turtle looked at Raph, his mouth hung open slightly, and he looked like he was going to be sick. Leo gulped, trying to get the dryness out of his throat, “We should go.” he stated.

Raph narrowed his eyes at the leader, he had seen something. “Why?” Raph questioned, trying to push his brother to talk, Leo shook his head, “It’s clear this mission had been done for us, now let’s go.”

Raph opened his mouth to argue back but was cut off by a sharp “ now ” from Leo.

Raph nodded and started following Mikey and Donnie, who had taken Leo’s orders the first time.

Leo watched as his brother left in the direction they had just come in. He wanted to find the person who had done this, make sure that they were on their side, and that they weren’t a threat to them.

But still…

Leo’s eyes flickered back to where the place Stockman once was.

He didn’t want his younger brothers to see the mess of red that stained and covered the entire section.

Leo shook his head, then went to catch up with his brothers.

Chapter Text

Five days after the Stockmanpod

The door slammed shut, shaking the walls and all the objects on the shelves. Blood stomped across the hallway, fixated on going to his room and staying there for the rest of the week, flames sprouted where he stepped.

He heard the door creak open, then shut again, gentler than how he did it, but still showed some anger.

“You know this is for the best.” He heard the voice of Blue say from behind him. Blood stopped in his tracks, throwing his arms to his sides, “Oh~ Of course, it’s ‘for the best’, you just know everything , don’t you!” Blood yelled sarcastically as he turned to face his brother.

Blue stood in front of the door, his balled-up fist was the only emotion that he dared to show. “You always do this, you're a suck-up!” Blood accused, pointing towards his brother, “I was trying to-” “To what! Keep me safe? Or are you just using that as an excuse because you believe that I can’t handle it!” Blood cut if brother off.

“Your powers are dangerous, and if they get into the wrong hands-” “I know! Okay! I know that my powers are made to destroy, I know that the cultists are a threat! But the issue is that you're using that as an excuse because you think I would destroy the world the first chance I get!” Blood argued, seething with rage.

Blue’s eyes widened “No! That’s not what I think at all-” “Don’t fucking lie to me Blue! That was always what you believed! Here! It’s what our parents believe!” Blood through his hands up, turning away from his brother, “You guys think I’m some angry monster , with no control of his emotions, and will kill anything he gets his hands on!”

“Blood-” “Don’t! Just shut up!” Blood snapped his head towards his brother, “Just go! Leave! Go to that frozen tundra you hide yourself in! Go to that place where you don’t see me! Cause lords know that’s all you want to do!”

Blue stood there, his mind had completely shut off, and he didn’t know how to respond to what Blood was saying. He watched as his brother stomped off to his room, he wanted to call out and explain himself, but his mind wouldn’t let him.

He didn’t want to hurt his brother, truly. He just told their parents because he felt that if they didn’t know, and something bad happened between Blood and the cultist, they wouldn’t be able to help in time. Sure, it got his brother grounded, but he didn’t expect this reaction to come out of him.

Blue looked down, he didn’t know what to do, heck, he couldn’t even remember how it got this bad. He pulled out a shining blue stone from his Kimino and summoned a portal, he needed to go to the tundra, it was safe there, a place where he could get his thoughts in order.

Hopefully, this can be solved.

Seven days later

Leo walked through the sewer tunnels, it had been Seven days since they’d defeated the Stockman pod, four since Leo’s grounding had subsided after Splinter had found out Leo had an allergy that had almost killed him, and two since the incident with metal head, and today his brothers had just taken care of the Monkey, Dr. Rockwell.

Seven days since he had last seen Damian.

That last part, for reasons Leo still couldn’t understand, hurt. He could go days without seeing someone like April, and yet he didn’t feel a thing during those days. But with Damian, not being with him seemed to hurt Leo.

Damian was his friend, so he guessed that made a little bit of sense, but still didn’t explain why he didn’t feel the same hurt with April.

Leo sighed as he exited the sewers, he didn’t expect to see the human there, but there was a part of him, the part that he really wished he could squash, or burry deep down to a place where it couldn’t affect him, that was screaming at him to at least check.

He had gone out looking for the human more and more, going out multiple times a night to look. One trip a night was already one too many trips to his liking. It annoyed him, how much he thought of the human.

How much he wished he could bring the human home and just have him around so that he could see him, how much he wanted to just sit on the couch and watch TV with him, how much he wanted the human to hug him like how he did back at the alleyway when they were fighting the Stockman pod.

He was showing weakness, he was showing that he cared about someone outside of his team, and it was distracting him. He couldn’t have that, he needed to be strong, and he needed to not let these emotions get the better of him.

But here he was, lifting the manhole, and crawling out of it near the brink of day, looking for the very thing he hated the thought of.

He had entered the same alleyway where he and the human had gone their separate ways. Leo climbed up the fire escape and made his way onto the rooftops, looking out and watching for something.

He walked to the middle of the roof sighing, of course, he wouldn’t be able to find Damian, he hadn’t even told the human where they could meet up, and why would Damian even want to meet up with him in the first place?

“Miss me?”

Leo turned around, back to the place he had just come from.

Leo felt himself smile, happiness quickly engulfed any negative thought he had about this meeting and left him having to suppress the urge to bounce in place and the urge to through himself around the human in a tight hug.

Damian returned Leo’s smile with one of his own, one that should relief, alongside care, and happiness, and it was a tad bit smug as well.

“I didn’t know my presence would be so highly missed,” Damian remarked, hoping down from the half wall that surrounded the roof's edge. Leo rolled his eyes, walking over to where his friend was, “Hey, well, that’s what happens when you perform a disappearing act,” Leo nudged Damian with his shoulder, and the human chuckled.

Leo placed his arms on the half wall of the building, it was higher up than most ledges and allowed Leo and Damian to relax their arms.

“Where have you been for the past week?” Leo asked, Damian, shrugged, “I got grounded, sneaking out at night doesn’t sit too well with parents.” Leo frowned, “I’m sorry about that,” “Don’t be, I kinda deserved it for worrying them.” Damian concluded he didn’t want Leo to feel as though it was his fault.

Leo looked down, “Ya’Know, you don’t have to come out here if you're going to get in trouble.” Damian stared at the turtle, “But I want to come out here, it’s always worth it in the end, anyway.” Leo looked back at Damian, whose smile seemed dreamy, Leo’s face heated up, he was worth getting in trouble to Damian?

“Well, what’s been going on with you?” Damian offered, breaking the silence that had enclosed them, “Um, well, Sensei found out about my allergy and then grounded me for three days, then Donnie made a robot called ‘Metal Head’, it got possessed by a Krang, and attacked us.” Damian raised an eyebrow at both statements.

“Two things, first, but exactly is a ‘Krang’?” Damian asked, “Well, they're these robots with alien brains inside of them, they are the reason for mutagen and like to transform people into monsters, we don’t know much else about them.” Leo explained, Damian nodded.

“Alright, here’s the other thing, what do you mean ‘found out about your allergy’ ” Damian asked, Leo, blushed, embarrassed, and put his hand on his neck, “Well, you see… I kind of… Kept it a secret,” Damian's eyes narrowed, “What.”

Leo waved his hands in front of him, “Look! It was dumb! I know! I was already scolded by Donnie, Mikey, Raph, and Sensei for it, okay! I know I should have told them.” Leo blurted out, trying to defend himself, Damian sighed, “Okay, I won’t scold you since it seems like you were already put through the wringer by the rest of your family, for good reason, by the way.”

Leo breathed out a breath of relief, “But! I will say this, you can not hide stuff like that from people, okay? I know it might seem silly, and it might seem like a weakness for you, but you need to tell them,” Damian said, Leo sighed, “I know, I know… It’s just… Hard, okay? I’m the leader, I’m not supposed to have weaknesses, yet a stupid beehive can kill me.” Leo stated.

Damian put a hand on Leo’s shoulder, “Hey, just because you're the leader, doesn’t mean you can’t have weaknesses, everyone does, sometimes it’s a blind spot, personality trait, or, heck, even someone else, but that’s okay, it’s okay to have weaknesses, especially when it comes to people you care for,”

“You have three awesome brothers that care about you and will cover for you if you get hurt, so just, make sure you allow them to care for you, alright?” Leo nodded at Damian's words, thinking about them.

Leo was deep in thought, trying to process what he had just heard when he noticed something moving in the shadows of the Alleyway below.

“Hey, what’s that?” Leo whispered pointing in the direction he saw movement, Damian looked over, squinting his eyes as he saw three figures come out of the shadows, they each had on a familiar black cloak that now had a blue flame on the back.

“Those are the cultists, aren’t they?” Damian stated in a whisper. He never actually got a good look at the humans, “Yeah, what are they doing?” Leo answered, watching as the cultist lifted the manhole cover and crawled in, “I don’t know, wanna find out?” Damian offered, looking at the turtle.

Leo looked back at Damian, heart starting to pound, Damian wanted to go on a mission with him? Why? Shouldn’t Damian want to leave this behind? “Um, yeah, let’s do that.” Leo stammered out, he felt happy, maybe from going on a mission with someone he admires?

Yep, definitely that, nothing else.

After the last cultist entered the sewers, they waited a bit before jumping down and following them through the hole they had just gone through.

Leo was the first to jump down, a splash following his landing, he moved out of the way towards where he had seen the cultist turn down, hearing another splash from Damian landing behind him, “This way,” Leo stated, creeping towards the tunnel they had turned down.

They followed the cultist for a bit, poking their heads around corners to make sure that the three didn’t notice them, eventually, Leo started recognizing the tunnels, and confusion hit.

“The tunnels they're going down, don’t make any sense, they're going straight into a dead end at this point,” Leo stated, his voice low so that he didn’t alert the three that they were following, “Maybe that’s where they want to be,” Damian stated, a grimace on his face, Leo didn’t have time to question him before they had to move once more.

Eventually, the cultist came to a dead end, Damian and Leo stayed behind, this time around they were looking over the corner of the sewer walls to see what was going on, they were close, Damian put his hands on Leo's shoulders to keep Leo from falling and to steady himself, and Leo tried to keep his heart from exploding out of his chest.

One of the cultists put their hand on the wall, “What are they…” Leo mumbled out loud, the cultist said something under his breath before the sewer wall started to glow, and a circle of glowing, dark purple light appeared.

“Woah…” Leo breathed out in disbelief, then, the tunnel started to shake, Leo was about to fall forward when Damian put his arms around the turtle and pulled him back behind the wall. When the shaking stopped the two looked over to see that the wall had been split in half, revealing a large, circular room.

The cultist entered, all through going to the left side of the room. “Come, let’s go,” Damian said, taking Leo by the hand and pulling him through the opening. He ignored the blush on both his and the turtle's faces.

They made their way into the room, Damian looked to where the cultist had gone, then to the right, “Let’s split up.” Leo said suddenly, Damian looked down at him, shocked, “What! Are you crazy?” He asked, “Listen, this is a stealth mission only, let’s look around, then get out, we’ll be gone before they even know we’re here.” Leo stated, eyeing the left side.

“Fine, but I’m taking the left side, you go right.” Damian ordered, pointing towards the right “I’m the one with the swords!” Leo whispered, “And have an extra foot on ya, shorty, now go!” Damian bit back, Leo mocked offense, “This is why short people live longer!” He stated, but as he turned down his path, he could hear the turtle muffle a chuckle.

Damian chuckled a bit at Leo’s remark as he went down his path.

Leo snuck around his end of the circle, the place was dusty, but it was clear they had been here a lot if it wasn’t clear from the books that were strung across the floor and overflowing bookcases that they had here.

Leo took a glance at the latest bookcase that he had come across, nothing too special, just some dusty old books, some of which were in a pile on the floor, Leo was about to leave when something caught his eye.

He looked back, and right next to the pile was a book, opened and facing cover side up, the title read:

“Spells and Hex: Learning for New Comers” Under the titles, it read “Volume 1”, Leo hesitated for a moment, looking around to make sure no one was coming. He walked over to where the book lay, picked it up, and flipped one of the pages near the beginning.

He skimmed through the page, it held another one of those circles, but this one looked to be smaller, it had one larger circle around a smiler one that held the flame-like image from before, above the image it read:

“Control: Light”

Leo looked to the page next to it, which had another image of the flame circle, with arrows pointing to it, along with Roman numerals. On top of the image were Roman numerals that seemed to be describing what was seen in the image, but the page instead of words the only thing on the page were strange symbols and drawings like someone took the English alphabet and put images to it.

Leo was so entranced in trying to decipher the page, he failed to notice three pairs of glowing eyes approaching from behind.

Damian crept along the path he was set to go on, he hadn’t seen any of the cultists so far, which was both a good and a bad thing.

The hallway he went down wasn’t anything all that, just some bookcases, tables, and papers that backed up to the wall. It had some sort of laboratory feel to it.

Something on one of the tables caught his eye, most of the pieces of paper just had symbols on them, and this one looked to have lines and images.

Damian walked over a picked up the sheet of paper, examining it closely, there were images of three figures, they looked to have hoodies on, and then there was an arrow pointing to the net image which was that of the three figures with an arrow showing them going into a hole, with a blue colored figure above.

The next image shows the three figures going through a tunnel, with the blue one hanging behind them, and then there is a circle that shows a room.

Damian's eyes widened as he looked at the next images, they showed the four going into the room, the three figures disappearing, then surrounding the blue figure.

It was a trap.

Damian whipped around, they weren’t after him.

But when he turned he was met with three cloaked figures, hands extending out, Damian spun around, tripping the three and making them land on each other, Damian turned back down the way he had come and ran.

“Ugh! Let me go!” Leo demanded as he tried to fight off the three figures that had snuck up on them. One was at his back trying to pull him down, the other two were at his front when was trying to get his legs to stop kicking, and the other was trying to grab a hold of his wrist.

Eventually, the one grabbing at his wrist got him, and the grip was strong, Leo tried to struggle against it, but sharp nails dug into his skin, keeping him anchored there. Leo stopped moving, trying to focus on getting his hand out of the cultist's grip.

The one trying to stop his kicking took this moment of stillness to grab onto his other wrist, the combined pain and pressure applied to his wrist caused him to drop his swords. The third cultist let go of his torso and allowed the ones that had a hold on his wrist to move him into a t-pose.

Leo thrashed in their grip, but he wasn’t able to get out of their hold.

“Well, well, well.” A voice boomed in a condescending tone, Leo looked up and was met with the face of the leader he had encountered the time he had saved Damian. The day his life changed completely.

“If it isn’t the little pest that ruined our plans,” the leader said through gritted teeth. “Let me go!” Leo demanded, the cultist just laughed, it was a wicked, vile sound that made Leo feel his bones.

“Or what? You’re outnumbered, and that little friend of yours most likely isn’t coming” Leo’s eyes narrowed, “What did you do to him?” Leo hissed, and the man hummed, “Not much, just gave him a good scare, he realized that it was a trap, and he went running towards the exit the moment he realized that he wasn’t affected by the situation.”

Leo’s eyes widened “What…?” Leo questioned, “We have nothing against him. We just need you.” the man stated, “I’m not giving you anything!” Leo quipped, “Oh, you don’t have to, we’ll just take it by force.” Leo shivered at the man's words.

“And there’s no one here to help you.” Leo shot the man a look, “Damian will come for me, and then he’ll kick you to next week!” he quipped, the man sighed, “You really have so much faith in people, but, unfortunately for you, the moment the human realized that he wasn’t what we were after, he ran towards the exit.”

Leo sucked in a breath, did Damian leave him here? “No! No, you’re wrong!” Leo yelped. The man walked closer to him. “Oh? And why would I be? Why would he stick around a freak like you once he realized that he didn’t need to worry about us?” The man leaned down to meet Leo’s eyes.

“Why would anyone ever come for you?”

Leo looked down, eyes wide, he was breathing heavily. The man straightened, smirking, backing up a bit. “Now, I must thank you for your contributions to our work,” he held up his hands, palms facing toward Leo, “What…?”

“Don’t worry your sacrifice will at least be thanked by us, it’s not like anyone would miss you,” the man's hands started to glow purple as he used his hands to make a circle that turned into one of those symbols.

The man’s hands returned to the position they were held in before, held in front of his chest. But the symbol and the creaks were still there.

As the man used the position he was in to touch the symbols, strings came out of his fingers and connected with Leo’s body.

Leo’s eyes widened as he screamed, tears emerging from his eyes as his vision went white from the burning pain that erupted from the places where the strings were attached. Heat took over his body.

The strings were attached to his wrist, for arms, legs, face, and sides. A white glowing crack like the cracks on the man's hands came from the strings.

The man laughed, then started chanting something as a purple glow went down the white lines, Leo Screamed as the purple came into contact with his body.

The cultist had let go of Leo’s arms, but he couldn’t move, he couldn’t control his own body, something else was in control, and that thing wanted him to stay put.

“Booyakasha!” A pissed-off scream erupted from behind the man as a bookshelf came crashing into him, who let out an off “oof” as he went colliding to the ground. The symbol and white strings that were on Leo’s body disappeared as the guy lost focus on what he was doing.

Once the cracks on Leo’s skin shrunk back to their origins and disappeared, Leo fell to his knees and limped forward as he tried to breathe. His vision was swimming, and everything seemed to move.

He felt as though he was still crying, but the tears felt… Wrong, too thick, too sticky, Leo whipped his face with his hand, really taking a look at it when he pulled away from his face.

Leo gasped at the sight, his hand all the way up to his wrist was covered with blood, some of which seemed to have come from his face. He looked down, now seeing he was sitting in a puddle of his own blood as the cracks that were once a glowing white bleed the red, sticky substance.

“Leo!” He heard a voice cry out, he up and almost cried out in relief as he saw Damian rushing to his side, from where the bookshelf had come from.

“Are you okay?” He asked, Leo, looked him dead in the eyes, “Oh yeah, I’m bleeding just for kicks,” He said, sass embedded into his tone, Damian huffed, “Hey!” a voice called from behind them.

Damian perked his head up to look above Leo’s head and growled at the voice that had spoken. Leo tried to turn to see who the voice had come from, but Damian grabbed him and pulled the turtle to his chest, and used the arm with the sythe to shield Leo.

Leo’s face heated as Damian shielded him, and he couldn’t tell if it was from the embarrassment, giddiness, or the body heat that Damian had, but Leo was starting to question a few things.

Damian had overheard what the cultist had been saying to Aoi, and the protective beast inside of him was bursting with rage, his blood boiled as he held what was his to his chest, ready to defend at all cost

Damian watched as the cultist rushed to where their leader had been crushed and lifted the piece of furniture that had covered the man.

Damian turned to where the exit was and then looked down at Leo, he was barely able to stand due to the pain he was in, there was no way he would be able to make a break for it. Damian looked back at the cultists, who were now lifting the bookshelves to free their leader, then down at the ground when a plan came to mind.

Some of the papers stuffed into the books had flown out, and right under Damian’s feet was a page with a few symbols on it

Damian huffed, looking back at the cult leader who now was slowly standing, the followers right next to him, ready to attack.

Damian shifted, and Leo let out a yelp as he was dragged a bit to the side, still in Damian’s hold. But now to the side.

Damian stomped on the piece of paper, lifting his foot a bit, the symbol glowed, and out from underneath the human's foot, ice lunched towards where the cultist was, blocking the way to them.

“Woah!” Leo breathed out as he inspected the small, spiky glacier in front of him. Did Damian just do that? How did he do that? What was going on!

“Come on, we need to go.” Damian ordered, “Okay- Ay-” Damian adjusted his hold on the turtle, switching him to his other arm, before picking him up bridal style and bolting towards the direction of the exit, not bothering to put out the fire that had sprung up from underneath his feet.

Leo held on to Damian's neck as he was carried through the room they had been trapped in, a million thoughts running through his head as he fully took in what was going on around him.

First, magic was real, there was no denying that anymore.

Second, the cultists were after him now, so that’s fun.

Third, Damian could fight.

And fourth, Damian, temperature-wise, was hot, like, there is no way Leo should be feeling as though he might get burned from just touching the human’s skin.

Damian came to a skidding turn as he rounded the hallway that led towards the exit, sighing in relief as the cultist clearly thought they had them and there was no need to close the door, sprinting out of the room he could hear the angry shouts coming from behind. His anger grew more at the realization that they would not back down, not until they got Leo, not until they hurt him.

Damian practically threw the manhole cover as the two finally got to the location they had entered the sewers from, Leo was still in Damian's arms. How the human had such a good hold on him to the point where they ran miles, climbed a ladder, and opened a manhole cover and he still had Leo in his arms? Leo had no clue.

Damian didn’t bother to put the manhole cover back on after he got out, continuing to walk to where the two had met, content on holding the turtle, making sure that he wouldn’t disappear or be taken away from him.

“U-um… I can walk?” Leo said, questioning why he was still being carried, and his own words. He wasn’t really sure if he could walk. “Can you?” Damian asked, his voice cold, Leo shivered, “I don’t know.” He admitted he was happy to stay in the warmth though.

Once they made their way up to the rooftop, Damian set Leo down, shell against the half wall of the roof, the human sitting down next to his friend, both of them breathing through what just happened.

“So… Magic exists?” Leo finally said, voice narrow. “Yep,” Damian answered, “Do you think this book has anything?” Leo asked, Damian, looked at the turtle, who had just a book from… Somewhere?

Damian squinted before his eyes widened “Spells and Hexs: Learning for New Comers” Was the title, “Um… Maybe?” Damian said, “But be careful with it, you don’t know what you're getting into.” he added on.

Leo nodded, facing forward and humming slightly, “I really don’t,” he admitted biting his lip a bit, he turned back to his friend. He went through all the events that just happened in his mind, how Damian helped him, shielded him with a scythe that was now gone, how Damian looked wielding the scythe, how Damian held him and was able to carry him away from the people who had hurt Leo.

Leo’s face heated up, and his heart raced.

He looked down at the concrete rooftop. He went through how giddy he gets when Damian’s around, how addicting his presence is, how it hurts Leo when he doesn’t see him for seven days, how happy it makes him feel to be around Damian, and he why always looks for the human, even when everything else in his mind screamed at him not to.

“So… Anything else from your adventures?” Damian asked, breaking Leo out of his spiral. He didn’t like the humans. Well, Damian was his friend, of course, he would like him, but he didn’t… Like like him, right?

“Umm… Well…” Leo stuttered, suddenly forgetting everything he had done for the past two years or so, “Umm… Oh! We fought a mutant monkey that turned out to be Dr. Rockwell and a lab experiment for Victorfalco, and Donnie made us phones!” Leo finally found the words to talk, grabbing his T-Phone out of his belt and showing it off to the human.

Damian smiled, “Sweet!” He answered he was truly happy for Leo, then, an idea came to mind, and his smile turned sly.

Leo squinted at the human, “What are you planning?” he asked, “What can you do with it?” Damian asked. Leo blinked, “Um, well, we can download games, and call people, Donnie has a system where if he patches in a number we all get it, but he has shown us how to get numbers just for our personal contacts, we each have a phone number,” he stated, it may seem little, but to him, it was big to have this.

“Really?” Damian asked, smiling bigger, Leo squinted, “Really.” “Can you show me?” “What?” Leo asked, confused, “How do you guys input private numbers, I want to see if it’s any different from regular phones.” Leo blinked, confused at Damian's reasoning.

“Um, okay, well…” Leo proceeded to go through the steps Donnie showed him to have private messages on his phone, where he had to add on all of his brothers to make sure they had to keep in contact with each other.

“And this is where you input the number, then you click the pulse button and you can send a message.” Leo ended off, “Cool,” The human stated, he wasn’t really paying too much attention, but he had what he needed.

Damian swiped the phone from Leo. “Hey!” Leo yelped, “One moment, please,” Leo pouted. He huffed and then faced forward, getting lost in his own thoughts once more.

“Hey, Day?” Leo asked, using the nickname he had come up with, Damian raised an eyebrow, “Day is it now?” Damian asked with a teasing tone, Leo huffed, elbowing his friend, “You’ve given me like… Five nicknames, it’s only fair that I give you one as well,” Leo defended, Damian chuckled.

“Okay, okay, that’s fair,” Damian stated, “Besides, it sounds cute when you say it.” Leo sucked in a breath, he was blushing again .

He just admired Damian. Nothing more. There is nothing to it. Not at all. There was nothing .

“The bleeding has stopped, the injuries also look like they're gone,” Damian observed, going into the bag he always kept on him and pulling out a towel and some wipes he had for Leo to clean himself up. “Yeah…” Leo said, his voice low and unfocused as he cleaned off the blood, the creaks were now completely gone, and Damian had never been more thankful for his mother’s pestering him to bring a first-aid.

Well, other than when Aoi had that allergic reaction.

Damian never wanted to see his friend like that ever again.

“Why are you still here?” Leo asked, Damian, looked at the turtle in shock, “What? Do you want me to go?” Damian sputtered out, worried he did something to offend the turtle, “No! No! Not at all!” Leo turned his full body to the human, waving his hands in front of him, “It’s just…” Leo dropped his posture, huffing.

“The cultists aren’t after you, you aren’t obligated to stay with me because I saved you… You can have a normal life! And yet…” Leo trailed off, pushing his back to the half wall once more, he didn’t want to have this conversation, to make Damian realize that there was no point in sticking around him, he wanted to keep the wool over the human's eyes, just so he could have him in his life for even just a tiny bit longer.

Leo wanted him to stay. He wanted the human with him. He wanted to take the human home and introduce him to his family. That way Damian could stay and hang out around the lair like April does. Just so Leo could be near him.

But that’s selfish. Damian needed to see that he could have a normal life, nothing was keeping him with Leo. And when Damian chooses to leave, so be it.

Leo will be fine. He will.

There just friends after all…

“You continue to stay with me. You can leave, Ya’know, you can have a normal life, I wouldn’t blame you for it,” Leo finished, it hurt, but he could deal with it, he could hide it, he just wanted Damian to be happy.

Damian’s eyes softened, “Oh Leo…” He started, voice Leo and comforting, he knew where this was coming from, a life full of chances, abandonment, a life where he had to be the parent when the adult was more of a teacher.

A life where people, places, and things that mattered left.

A life where if you weren’t good enough, you feared the chance of getting left as well.

Damian placed his hand on Leo’s, the turtle looked at him, confusion written on his face, “I came back because I want to come back, I come back because you're my friend, I come back because you mean something to me,” Damian said, ignoring the blush spreading on Leo’s face, that same blueish, pink speckled, rainbow moon-stone like color, that has been going on and off since Damian had picked the turtle up.

“I want to be with you. Not because you saved me, not because of your skills, I want to be with you ,” Damian finished, Leo was damn near about to cry. It didn’t matter that he messed up, to Damian at least, he was staying, he would be with Leo, and he wouldn’t leave just because Leo wasn’t enough.

“Damian I…”

…

“Thank you,” Leo said softly, Damian nodded.

The two continued to stare into each other's eyes, each waiting for one to say something. Neither knew what the other wanted them to say, but they both knew what they wanted to hear.

They didn’t know that the other would ever say it, but they both wanted to hear the same thing.

Damian cleared his throat, “Well, I better get going.” He said, backing away from the turtle, “Oh… Oh, yeah! I, um, need to go as well!” Leo stated, Stumbling to his, Damian following, “Oh! And um, here’s your phone back.” Damian said, Handing Leo his T-phone.

“Oh, thank you! Donnie would kill me if I lost it already!” Leo said, his voice a bit stumbled and weak, Damian nodded, waiting for something with a sly smile.

Leo looked down at his screen, he was in the contacts list, Leo squinted at the top, now seeing a number that wasn’t there before.

The name read “Day”.

Leo’s eyes widened, “Did you…” He looked up at the human, who was now standing on the ledge of the roof, “Sorry, but I had to use your phone as notes to remember my number, it looks better in there, anyway,” Damian winked, and Leo gulped, his blush still hadn’t calmed down.

“Welp, say ya moonstone,” Damian offered, Jumping to the fire escape and heading back down the alleyway.

Leo watched as Damian put the manhole cover back where it belonged and left the alley, going back to his house.

The only thing Leo could do was stare as the human left.

…

‘I Love you’ was on the tip of Leo’s tongue.

He liked Damian.

‘God damn it.’

Chapter Text

The three younger turtles stood in the kitchen, Mikey stood at the stove cooking up something for breakfast, Raph was leaning on the small table reading his comics, and Donnie was at his computer, typing away as he continued his ongoing research.

Raph looked up, glancing around the small room before finally asking, “Where the heck is Leo?” with gritted teeth. Donnie looked up from his work, “I think he’s still in his room.” the genius answered, worry in his tone and facial expression.

“He’s been doing that a lot.” The youngest mentioned, getting to a resting point in his cooking and plopping down next to the purple brother. “Hanging out in his room, I mean, he’s been like this ever since Donnie got us the T-Phone.” The youngest analyzed, sticking his tongue out and spinning in his seat as he tried to not kick his brother.

“Yeah, not to mention all the times he’s snuck out.” Donnie’s words halted Mikey his movement and had Raph’s head whip towards him, slamming his palms on the table. “ He what? ” Raph snarled, Donnie gulped, shrinking back a bit, a scared expression morphed with the concern he had, “Umm… Yeah? I thought your guys knew…” He fidgeted with his fingers a bit.

Raph rolled his eyes, taking his hands off the table and going into a more relaxed pose, “Ha! Would you look at that, Mr. Perfect is rebelling for once in his life! I wonder how Splinter would feel.” his tone held sarcasm with a strong bit to it.

In truth? He was worried for his brother. This wasn’t like Leo to sneak out like that, there was something off, and Leo being Leo, he wasn’t going to tell them a damn thing until he was on his deathbed because of it.

Raph was seething at the thought, comparing it to how he had found his older brother on the line of death all because he was too arrogant to stay inside the lair.

“I mean, who does Leo think he is? He gets on our backs, tell us that we ‘shouldn’t go against Sensei orders’ or that ‘sneaking out is irresponsible’ “ Raph mocked, shaking his head with an eye roll and making air quotes around his words, “But then he goes out, gets himself in trouble with a beehive, then fucks off when we’re not looking!” Raph barked out.

“We can’t force him to tell us anything, Raph, he’ll just close himself off even more, the best thing to do is let him come to us, bro,” Mikey said in a low voice, trying to calm his big brother, he knew Raph was just worried, he was as well, but they couldn’t go in and interrogate Leo, he’ll just close off!

Raph gritted his teeth as squared his shoulders, furry in his eyes, “Like hell we can’t, the dude likes to act so perfect, he just doesn’t get it! He thinks he’s better than us! That’s why he’s not coming out of his goddamn room!” Raph barked out, Mikey and Donnie looked at each other.

“Or he just wants to be alone and you're overreacting.” Donnie rolled his eyes going back to his computer, he could understand why Leo would want to be alone at this moment.

Raph threw his hands up, scoffing before he dropped them to his sides and stomped out of the room “You just don’t get it!” Raph was absolutely seething the rage he had been trying to quell boiling over, he needed space, maybe that was all that Leo needed?

But the last time Raph had dared to ignore Leo when he needed space, it ended in the leader needing an EpiPen and almost Dying as he fell off the roof from the trip Raph had insisted that they go on.

They don’t get it! They need to confront Leo before they have another beehive incident, or something even worse.

As he stomped his way to his bedroom he glanced at the door right across from his, it was Leo’s room, and Raph had half a mind to go in there, drag his ass out, and force him to spend time with them, to just talk to them, let them help whatever phase he’s going through.

It didn’t help that he was sneaking out, most likely getting himself into trouble along with it.

But Raph knew otherwise, he knew Mikey was right about letting Leo come to them, Raph knew that if he were to confront the leader, his big brother would deflect, get defensive, and argue back, before finally shutting off completely and ruining any of the progress that they had made in getting Leo to open up.

As Raph turned to face his door, yanking the poor thing open before slamming it so hard that the Cyombls on his drum set shook a bit, he prayed that whatever the leader had gotten himself into, he would come to them before it killed him.

Leo flinched at the sound of a slamming door, he had sensed that Raph was near his room, he was expecting his immediate youngest to come in thought, not slam the door to his room and lock himself away in there.

Leo was lying in his bed, on his plastron head on the pillow, phone in hand, his room had gray walls that he never got to paint, the stone flooring was slick and shining, and it was almost empty aside from the bed pushed up against the wall to the right of his door, a bedside table with a lamp and the book he had found, weapon holders, and a poster of captain Ryan.

Leo sighed, looking at his phone, before glancing towards the book, he had been trying to do some research on the book, but the only things that were close to matching were magic-themed not books, fantasy books, and lore books for TV shows.

He hadn’t opened the book ever since the time he got it, he was hoping to find something that could help him not get cursed so he could safely open the book without hurting anyone in his family.

He huffed, reaching towards the book, better late than never after all, and then his phone dinged with a notification.

Day-TheCultBoi: :)

Leo chuckled, he had changed Damian’s contact name in his phone, a warm feeling growing across his face as his smile grew, he felt dreamy at the human’s attempt to contact him first.

Leo shook his head, biting the inside of his cheek as he shoved his face into his pillow, trying to push away the feeling. He liked Damian. He had let that set in, and he handled it well when he realized it the first time.

The first time:

“AAAHHHHHHHH”

…

Ish.

He wasn’t good with emotions, okay? Besides, this was something he was completely unprepared for.

Sensei had stories of Tang Shen (That name felt bitter in Leo’s mouth), Space heroes had male and female relations all the time, and his brothers for Christ's sake argued over who was hotter in their respective shows.

And Leo? Well, this was completely uncalled for on his part, I mean, sure, he had never expressed strong emotions towards any of the family characters that his brothers showed and often wanted to argue that the male characters looked better than the female ones, but that’s completely normal in someone that likes girls, right?

Right?

He looked to where the poster of Captain Ryan was, finally releasing the breath he had refused to let go of. He should have seen this coming sooner.

But, why was something like this never brought up, how would Damian feel if he knew Leo had feelings for him? How would his brothers feel? Heck, how would Sensei feel? His father had always been a stickler for tradition.

Leo looked back to his phone, it would be for the best to let Damian go, to ghost him, to ignore him, to let Damian be away from this madness and allow the human to go be with someone good for him, that would make him truly happy, it would be a rude awakening, but a welcomed one by Damian to see that Leo was only going to mess up his life.

It would be better for Damian to never see Leo again, right? It would be better for his family for Leo to get past the phase he’s in because that’s what it was… Right? Something that would blow over, something that was wrong and needed to be fixed over time.

He should let Damian go…

…

But…

He clicked on the messages app and went through all of the past conversions they’d had since the day Leo got Damian’s number (Or Damian forced his number into Leo’s contacts), they had texted every day, hours on end, just talking about each other's day and learning.

Damian had never been to the big city before he had moved here, and so he was excited to learn about a bunch of things that the city had to offer, Leo was happy to recommend and read Damian going on a 30-minute-long paragraph rant about birds.

Ding

Day-TheCultBoi: You good Lee?

Leo smiled

Moonstone: :)

When did Damian change his name?

Day-TheCultBoi: :)

Day-TheCultBoi: Like your new name btw? ;)

Leo snorted, rolling his eyes.

Moonstone: Personally I think Leo-der was clever.

Moonstone: What is your obsession with giving me 50 thousand nickname names?

Day-TheCultBoi: You will never know

Moonstone: 🙄 Okay country boy.

Leo’s face hurt from smiling so much, he wanted to squeal, no matter how girly or cheesy that sounded, he was giddy and had to stop himself from kicking his feet.

It was nice to be a bit girly, okay?

Day-TheCultBoi: Whatever, sewer kid.

Day-TheCultBoi: Anyway, what happened today? Or tonight? Your schedule is confusing.

Leo let out a laugh at that, slapping his hand over his mouth so the others wouldn’t hear.

Moonstone: Well, we had to save a noodle shop owner from the purple dragons.

Day-TheCultBoi: Who are the Purple Dragons? And did the shop owner spot you?

Moonstone: The shop owner is blind, but he was able to tell we were giant turtles, he didn’t care though, he was more grateful that we had saved his life and gave us some food to go along with it! ^.^

Moonstone: The Purple Dragons are a gang that thinks they own the streets of New York, mainly near Chinatown.

Day-TheCultBoi: I’m glad the noodle shop owner was accepting, and it sounds like those PD nerds are a hand full.

Moonstone: Yeah, they teamed up with Xever and Bradford too, so that was interesting.

Leo waited a few seconds, Damian took longer to respond than normal

Day-TheCultBoi: Oh did they

Moonstone: Yep, but we were helped out by one of the Purple Dragons speared from a beating, so we won in the end.

Day-TheCultBoi: Question, can you return to the noodle place?

Moonstone: Yep! As long as we pay.

Day-TheCultBoi: Cool, let’s go out.

Leo’s brain paused for a second.

Moonstone: What?

Day-TheCultBoi: I wanna see it, let’s go there, I’ll pay for it and we can take the food back to my place.

Moonstone: What about your parents?

Day-TheCultBoi: Their on a business trip, it should only be you and me.

Moonstone: And you're alright with paying?

Day-TheCultBoi: I’m the one asking you out, I don’t see why I wouldn’t be, does tonight sound good?

Did he just say ‘asking you out’? Like on a date!?

Moonstone: Yeah, tonight is great, actually, it’s a light training day.

Day-TheCultBoi: Cool, I’ll see you there, Saphire.

Saphire: Did you change my name again?

Day-TheCultBoi: :P

Leo muffled his laughter at the human's antics, brain still trying to process what the hell just happened, surely Damian wasn’t asking him on a date, it was just a normal hang out with a friend! That’s all! Completely normal hang out, no need to be crazy about it.

He thought as he muffled the near-silent scream into his pillow.

Damian held his phone in his hands as he sat on the edge of his two-person bed, the room he was in had a red paint job with white framing, a bookshelf on the right of the bed, a bedside table on the left, and there was another, strange looking dark-oak table with green cloth in front of the window, and his desk with the PC he had was across where his bed was, to the right of that there was a dark wood door with an image of a volcano painted onto it.

The room had plenty of posters that had some form of fire, game, or band on them, and his chair was black and red, the air conditioning always ran on cold in this room, however much Damian liked the heat, he could risk overheating here.

He never liked the cold.

He stared at his phone, hand shaking in rage as he went back over the conversation that he had just had with Leo.

Those two guys. Bradford and Xever. They didn’t get the hint, did they? Leave Aoi alone and they won’t be harmed? Did he not make that clear?

He gritted his teeth, trying to calm himself down, he knew that those guys were tough, they that they had hurt Aoi, and maybe that was why he made the split-of-the-moment decision to invite Leo out, get him something to eat, that’s what Damian did most of the time when one of his friends got hurt, he got them something they liked.

Food, a game, a pretty stone, a book, the head of the person who wronged them, name it and he’ll get it for you, just to make you happy. He wasn’t good at comforting , but he could give, he could give advice, a gift, or food, he could give you anything!

Damian breathed in and out, unclenching his phone from a grip that was about to break, and unclenching his jaw so that his dentist wouldn’t smack him in the head.

He really needs to buy Avery something, that girl deserves something nice for having to deal with the ‘troubled’ patients, basically, the kids that no other dentist will take that grow into adults and stay with her due to medical history.

That and the fact that Damian has seen her put a dude in an armlock once or twice.

All while sounding sweet as pie.

She’s also won bar fights against 5 other people.

Okay, terrifying country girl aside, he needs to make sure Leo is okay, he’ll pay for Leo’s meal, they’ll go to his apartment, eat, Damian can give some advice, and the turtle should be good to go.

Damian thought for a moment, putting his hand on his chin before smiling.

Leo jumped to the rooftop just above the alleyway he was planning on going in, it was right next to the noodle shop, and the same one he had jumped into the second time going to see Mr. Murakami.

He was perched like a cat, the book he found in one hand, he just decided to bring it along so both he and Damian could get a look at it, and he looked back and forth down the alley, then smiled to himself. No humans, he was ready to go.

He just barely made his way out of the Lair without being caught by anyone, he knew that he might have to face the wrath of Master Splinter’s passive-aggressive targeting until you confused method, but so be it.

He hopped down into the alleyway, creeping up to the corner of the wall, looking back and forth before, he slowly crept up to the window and looked inside, it was late, like, really late, so he was surprised that Murakami was even opened.

But because it was late, there were no humans in the shop, meaning that he and Damian were in the clear.

Well, he was in the clear, Damian could go anywhere he wanted, he was human after all.

Leo reached for the door handle, pushing it open with a ding as he stopped for a moment, making 100 percent sure that there was no one around to see him before he finally allowed himself to enter the shop.

The floors were an orange wood, there was a square counter in the middle where Mr. Murakami and his cooking appliances were, the white cushioned stools lined the front and back of this area, with booths lining the walls, making a perfect little square where Murakami could work and serve everyone.

“Mr. Murakami-san?” Leo said in a hesitant, questioning tone. “Ah! Leonardo-san,” Murakami greeted, Leo smiled a bit as he walked towards the man, “I hope I’m not bothering you, it’s really late,” Murakami smiled, “It’s fine Leonardo, the city never sleeps, so I have my restaurant open at all hours for people to come in.”

Leonardo took a seat at one of the middle stools, arms crossing over the book which he laid on the counter, “Umm… Where are your brothers? I only heard you walk in, am I correct?” Murakami questioned, Leo, and laughed sheepishly, “Yeah, they're not here, I’m meeting up with someone… A friend.” Leo offered, Murakami smiled a bit at that.

“That’s actually why I came here, I wanted to ask you something,” Leo said, his voice was smaller than Murakami had ever heard it, even after knowing Leonardo for only a day or two, it was clear that he naturally held a strong and demanding voice, but he seemed small and embarrassed.

“What do you need?” Murakami asked, “Can you… Not tell my brothers, or April, or just… Anyone about this, please?” Leo asked, his voice more high-pitched, “They don’t actually… Know about him… Yet… And I would rather tell them on my own time…” Murakami thought to himself, humming and nodding a bit.

“I promise I will not tell anyone until you’re ready,” The elder offered, he could hear the young turtle’s sigh of relief, but that sigh only made Murikamai question more.

The door opened with another ‘ding’, Leo quickly turned to face whoever had entered, ready to move just in case.

He relax when he saw the cocky smile.

“hey, Aoi!” Damian greeted as he walked up to the counter, “Damian! I’m glad you made it,” Leo greeted back, a giggle strung along in his words, Murikamai smiled in the direction he heard the footsteps approaching from.

“Ah, greetings, my friend!” Murakami continued the string of greetings that were being passed around, “Hello there, you must be Mr. Murakami, correct?” Damian offered, sitting next to Leo, “That is correct, yes, and you’re Damian?” Murakami set down the cutting board that he was using.

“That is correct,” Damian responded, smiling at the older man, “Umm, you’re human.” Murakami muttered a bit, but it was loud enough for Damian to hear, he shifted uncomfortably, “Yes, that I am.” Damian stated, he wasn’t aggressive with his wording, but he was strict, and there was no room for arguing.

Murakami chuckled, “When I heard Leonardo had a friend, I half expected a giant alligator to come through my door,” he joked, but something about the words gave Leo a zooming-out feeling, a sense of Deja vu hit.

Flashes of images appeared once more, one of a giant shadow lit up by purple, then one of this… Big alligator guy shaking Donnie by the head, then a claw drawing a Krang symbol, but this time something clicked in Leo’s brain that screamed that he had seen it before, then it was of the alligator dragging something into a ball of purple.

Leo swayed a bit once the images came to a stop, a disorienting, nauseous feeling coming over him as he leaned away from Damian and put his right hand on the table to steady himself, “Woah, Aoi, you okay?” Damian offered, extending one hand near Leo’s arm and the other near his shell, ready to catch him if need be.

“Yeah, Yeah I should be good, um… I guess we should order hu?” Leo offered in response, turning to see the worried face of his friend, Murakami hummed slightly, “Very well then, I assume Pizza Gyōza for you, Leonardo?” Murakami asked, Damian raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that’ll do just fine.” Leo answered, Damian, hummed, “Get me some too, I don’t really know much about Japanese dishes, but if Aoi likes them, they can’t be all bad,” Leo snorted at Damian's remark, “What?” the human asked, “Of course, you wouldn’t, country boy.” Leo said, mocking his friend a bit.

Damian scoffed, “Excuse me, but I’m the one paying for your food, and so what that I’ve never been out of the countryside? Sewer kid. ” Damian teased back, Leo mocked offense, gasping with his hand to his plastron “How dare tho!” He said.

The two just stared at each other for a few seconds, but dissolving into a chuckle fits as the two nudged each other slightly.

Leo let himself smile brightly, ignoring the nagging voice in the back of his head that yelled at him that he wasn’t enough for Damian, that he didn’t deserve this, that the human would be better off without him. He took that voice and shoved it deep down, focusing on the bubbling happiness that came with being with Damian.

The way his stomach twisted itself into knots, the way everything seemed brighter around him, the way Damian made him smile.

He wanted to stay like this forever.

Two boys were so focused on trying to calm down their giggle feast, that they forgot to look out for each other's head, only noticing how close they were when they were staring into each other's eyes, faces inches away.

Damian's face grew into a burning red and Leo’s went into a moonstone blue as they pulled their faces away, Leo looking off in the opposite direction of Damian, while Damian focused forward, whistling a tune to himself.

Leo laughed, awkwardly, “So! Umm, What did- Umm- You-” “You brought the book?” Leo rubbed the back of his head, chuckling a bit while turning to face Damian, thankful the human had found a topic that they could discuss, “Yeah! I… I haven’t opened it at all since the day we found it, and so… I thought maybe, we could open it together? We found it together, might as well open it.” Leo offered.

Damian snickered a bit “What? Need the brave country boy to pull you out of trouble?” Damian asked, his tone was playful and mocking, Leo huffed, “I’m just saying, if it’s cursed or something, at least I won’t be the only one.” “Ha! If it was cursed it would’ve put it on you the first time you opened it.” Damian stated, his elbow on the counter, he moved his chin to his hand.

“Besides, bring a cursed book on our date? Bit low.” Damian teased, sticking his tongue out, Leo felt his face heat up, “Who- Who said this was a date!” He yelped out, waving his hands in front of himself.

Damian laughed at the turtle's face, the blue blush had morphed into a normal red, and now his face just looked like a tomato or a strawberry… Strawberries are sweet. It was cute seeing him like this.

Then a few boxes slid across the counter, each to their respective person as Murakami announced “Pizza Gyōza!” In an excited tone, “Oh- Wow! Thanks Murakami-san!” Leo responded to the man, taking his food, “You both are welcome” Murakami said with a smile.

“How much would that be?” Damian asked the man, “450 yen each,” Leo was about to chime in with the converted numbers that were on the board when Damian, who wasn’t looking at the board at all, spat out “So, 6 dollars and 90 cents?” He asked, Murakami, nodded, Leo, looked at Damian, confusion on his face.

Damian pulled out his wallet and glanced towards Leo, simply shrugging, “I studied Japan for a bit, I don’t know much about the foods and stuff, but I know Gyōza is popular and that it normally ranges from 300 to 600 yen, I looked further into for morbid curiosity to and saw that 300 yen is 2 dollars and 30 cents, and that 600 yen is 4 dollars and 61 cents, meaning that 450 is about 3.455 based on the mid-point system, take away the last five and you got 3 dollars and 45 cents.”

Leo was baffled, “3.45 pulse 3.45 is 6.9” Leo had a blank stare on his face, trying to figure out just how badly he underestimated Damian, “That or, I’m bullshitting you with stuff that just popped into my head when trying to find a cool explanation and I just looked at the menu when I first came in.” Damian stated with a shit-eating grin, “Oh- pfft- Your dork.” Leo said, punching Damian's arm slightly.

Damian chuckled as he slipped Murakami the money, the man had been over at his station, pretending to look busy, but was listening in, fondly, to the two boys' conversation.

“Is that enough, sir?” Damian asked as Murakami took the money, “I don’t know, Leonardo?” Murakami said, Leo, chuckled a bit before stating, “One five dollar bill, a one dollar bill, three quarters, a nickel, and a dime, that should be it.” Leo confirmed, and Murakami nodded.

Damian stood, collecting his food, “Well, we should get going, don’t want to hold up space,” Damian concluded, gesturing for Leo to follow him, Murakami frowned, “Where are you going to go?” He asked, “But to my place!” Damian said in his chipper voice, Murakami raised an eyebrow, a stern look on the older man's face.

Leo looked between Murakami and Damian, confused at first, eyes widening as it dawned on him how the situation looked.

A 15-year-old, telling you to not tell his family about his friend because they don’t know about him, goes off with said man to an unknown location, which the man had prompted the two to go towards.

Bad. The situation looked bad.

“Alright Damian, let’s head back to your place, you want to open the book there?” Leo asked. He wanted to try and make the situation not look bad, but Damian snickered, “Unless you wanna chance of blowing the restaurant up with some freaky cultist stuff, then yes, let’s open it at my place.”

Leo let out a huffed laugh, “And your parents won’t mind?” Leo said, “Ha! My parents know about me being kidnapped by cultists now, I’m sure blowing up the apartment is expected!” Damian responded, Murakami seemed to settle down at the light demeanor.

“Leonardo, can you stay behind a bit? I would like to talk with you?” Murakami asked, Leo, gulped, “Yeah! Of course, Damian, you can wait outside for me, alright?” Leo asked, gesturing towards the door, Damian shrugged, “Alright, be quick about it.” before the human left, he tossed one last glance at Leo and something seemed to catch his eyes, he stared Leo down for a bit narrowing his eyes, and tossing a dangerous glance at Murakami, “Alright…” He muttered as he left the building.

With the closing ding of the door, Leo turned fully to Murakami, who was now crossing his arms, Leo sighed, “I know this looks bad.” He started off, with Murakami’s eyebrows furrowed “Are you okay?” He asked, Leo, sighed, “Yeah, I’m fine, Damian’s a good guy, really! I know the whole ‘don’t tell my family’ seems bad but trust me on this! Damian’s good, I just don’t want my family to know about him yet.” Leo explained, hoping to convey how much of a non-threat Damian was.

Murakami sighed, “If he hurts you in any way I will notify your brothers in an instant.” the older man offered, Leo smiled at him, “I know, I know he won’t, but I know you’ve got my shell if the impossible happens.” Leo offered, Murakami nodded, “Well, thanks for the food, bye, Murakami-san!” Leo waved as he went out the door, the ding altering Murakami to his exit.

Leo rounded the door to exit the shop when he was met face-to-face with Damian, “Woah!” Leo yelped in surprise, having to strengthen his grip on his food, he looked into the human’s eyes, they were cold, dead, there was something… Extremely protective about them.

“What did he say?” Damian bit out in the same voice that he used when the Stockmanpod was running around, Leo waved him off, “Eh, you know, just seeing how my days been, that’s all.” Leo said he didn’t understand what Damian was on.

“You were nervous.” “What?” “When I left, you were nervous.” Damian stated, narrowing his eyes, Leo chuckled, “Oh! That! I just realized how bad it looked to tell Murakami not to tell my family about you, and then you mentioned bringing me to your place, where he had no clue where to find you.” Leo offered.

Damian backed his head up a bit, eyes widened “Oh…” He mumbled, and then the realization finally struck him, and he started laughing, “Oh! Yeah, um, that looks… Bad ” Damian said, Leo chuckled a bit as well, “Well, that’s Murakami got up in my grill, why are you doing the same?” Leo questioned.

Damian chuckled some more, “Well when you were nervous, it didn’t really click that it was me that you were nervous for, so I thought Murakami was about to be on the ‘do not trust’ list like he was working with the Purple Dragon’s or something.” Damian offered, and Leo chuckled.

“So you both were worried about each other, hu?” He asked, starting to walk, Damian followed his lead but quickly got a tad bit in front, not enough that they couldn’t talk though, “Yep!” Leo stopped for a second, looking at the human,

Damian tilted his head, confused as to what Leo was doing, “Are you going to show me the way, or do I have to guess?” Leo stated, Damian drew back and awkwardly chuckled a bit, “Right! Right! Ummm… Right, this way!” Damian offered, leading the walk.

He noticed when Leo slipped in and out of the shadows, he knew that the turtle needed to stay hidden, so he didn’t mind feeling as though he was being watched all the time by something in the shadows.

He didn’t account for two cold, blue eyes to be watching them from somewhere else in the distance.

Chapter Text

Damian walked up to the door of his home, and opened it slowly, checking the street for humans, and checking the house for anyone, he didn’t know when someone might appear, but he hoped that this could be just a night for him and Aoi.

“All clear!” He ordered as he went through the door and into the main living room of the home, Leo slinked in behind him, looking around the place he saw a couch in the middle of the room facing the right to where the TV hung on top of a fireplace, a coffee table in front of it.

“Welp, how about we go to the kitchen and start eating?” Damian offered, gesturing towards an arch in the back of the room, Leo smiled, “I would like that, yes,” He hadn’t eaten much today, his stomach just couldn’t handle Mikey’s cooking.

He would never say that to the youngest’s face though.

They made their way to the kitchen, which had a rounded table with four chairs to the right side of them, following the table further away from the arch there were countertops with marble surfacing, the cabinets under the marble were dark oak, there was a black fridge and black stone. Leo took a seat in the chair, and Damian took a seat next to him, they both opened their boxes of food, and grabbing the chopsticks inside the box, Leo went dug straight into the food.

Damian examined the food a bit, hesitant, he looked up to see the turtle eating, his eyes were closed to look like arrows pointing upward, with a happy expression, Damian couldn’t help but stare at the turtle as his friend continued just to look so damn… Happy.

He was starting to find the turtle cuter with each passing day.

Leo looked over, trying to make up what Damian’s reaction was to the food, but to his surprise, he saw his human friend with one arm on the table, supporting his face, a dreamy gaze in his eyes as he stared at Leo.

Leo’s eating slowed, at first he was concerned for his friend, but he then recognized the face as the one Donnie makes whenever he thinks of April, Leo’s stomach curled. “You okay?” Leo said, breaking Damian out of his trance, the human shook his head “Oh! Yeah, I’m fine.” he offered, going back to staring at the food.

“What do you think?” Leo asked, Damian, shrugged, “Haven’t tried it yet,” he stated, picking up the chopsticks that he had set down and reading himself to go for the food, “Too busy thinking?” Leo asked, Damian, picked up the Pizza Gyōza, bringing it close to his mouth, “Yeah, I would say so.” he responded, then he plopped the food in his mouth.

Damian's eyes lit up “Umm! This is really good!” He exclaimed, covering his mouth while he chewed, “I know right!” Leo cheered, excited that his friend enjoyed the meal before the unsetting pit of doubt returned to his stomach.

“So… How’s everything? I’m sure you go to school… Correct?” Leo asked Damian had been guarded about his life so far, but Leo really wanted to get to know him better… Even if that meant finding something that he didn’t want to find.

“Yeah, in a sense.” Damian stated, and Leo nodded, “How are the others there, or are you homeschooled?” Damian thought for a moment, “Not homeschooled, the kids at my school are… Interesting, not bad, just, interesting.” Leo thought of another question, “What were you thinking of just now?” who were you thinking of, was the question Leo really wanted an answer to.

Damian raised an eyebrow, Leo fidgetted in his seat, “You zoned out, but were you thinking about?” he clarified, Damian made an ‘o’ with his mouth, “A special friend of mine,” Damian said in a teasing tone.

Leo let out a soft “oh” as he went back to eating, an uncomfortable silence fell between the two as they continued eating, Leo processing what had just happened.

Damian liked somebody, but it was clear that he wouldn’t be telling Leo just who he liked, Leo smiled sadly, there really was no hope for his feelings for Damian to become a reality, oh well, he’ll just stick to the sidelines, he can help Damian with this other girl, maybe it’ll help Leo sort himself out and get it in his head that this phase needs to die sooner or later.

It’ll be fine, Leo loves helping people! And Damian deserves to be happy! Heck, he deserves the world in Leo’s eyes!

But a world that Leo can not give…

Damian looked towards the turtle, a frown spread on his face, he had finished his food, but Leo still had a few more left and was staring at them, slowly eating with a long, faraway look and a sad smile.

Damian had meant to flirt with Leo and imply that he was thinking about his Aoi, but it looked like that hadn’t landed as well as he hoped.

As he watched Leo finish off his last Gyōza, Damian put a hand on the turtle's lower arm, breaking him out of his trance with a flinch, it broke the human’s heart to see, “Are you done?” Damian asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of the issue, but he couldn’t do that if Leo was still hungry.

Leo smiled at him, titling his head a bit, “Yeah, I’m done.” His eyes looked sad and far. Damian nodded, “Do you want to deal with the book now, or do you want a break?” the human asked, Leo, pressed his lips together in a thin line, “I want to deal with the book now.” he answered, Damian, smiled at him, “As you wish.”

God damn it, why did Damian have to make this so hard? Why can’t Leo just let go of Damian in peace without him pulling him back into this fantasy that he has? Why can’t Leo just let go of this weakness? Was he not strong enough to do so?

Leo looked down at the book. “Spells and Hex: Learning for New Comers”, maybe this was how those cultists cast magic… Maybe… He can do magic as well? It might help him become stronger, and be able to protect his team, his family, and his friends.

It might help him prove that he’s not a complete failure.

Leo grabbed the two boxes, and put one inside of the other, before placing them off to the side in favor of pulling the book in between Damian and himself, keeping a hand on the cover of the book, ready to open it when the time comes.

Leo slowly breathed in and out, trying to calm himself, Damian slid closer to Leo, elbow on the table and holding his chin, “Nervous~” he teased, Leo looked over at his, eyes round in surprise, “I mean… We’re opening a book to god knows what- Why wouldn’t I be?” He questioned.

Leo sighed, closing his eyes, “Here goes nothing,” he muttered and flipped open the book cover, he opened one eye, trying to see what the heck happened, only to see that the book looked… Normal.

It was the front of a normal chapter book.

Leo flipped through the few useless pages at the beginning before finally coming to a stop at one with words.

It read “Table of Contents” as a header, with a list of words with numbers alongside them.

The first three read:

“
1. Magic Forms and You, begin your adventure!
2. Learn the Language

3. Fire Fiery

“

Leo raised an eyebrow before flipping through the next two pages of contents, finally making it to the first chapter of the book. Leo skimmed through some of the contents of the paragraph before finally finding this:

“There are four known five known forms of magic: Mana, Control, Emotions, Logic, and Imagination: Mana is the basic form and substance for all magic to take place, it can be found in objects with special connections to nature, or objects with the enhancement spell on them. It is illegal to make artificial Mana.”

“Okay, so, no making artificial Mana, got that?” Damian spoke out once he was done reading the passage, Leo nodded, “Sounds dangerous.” he mentioned to the human, who nodded in agreement, ‘Very dangerous.’ Damian thought to himself.

The text continued.

“Control is one of four forms of magic that Spell users can achieve, Control magic comes from the hands as it shows a complete hands-on approach to magic where the user can manipulate the Mana source to do whatever they please, it is mainly found in individuals who have a strong handle on their emotions and don’t let them take over.

Control magic is short-range as the user needs to stay near the source of the Mana, it is an easier way of manipulation compared to logic and imagination and can end up being more powerful than the other forms if given the correct care to grow at times.

This form of magic can backfire, as the amount of power and control over the world the user gains can leave them corrupted. This magic conflicts with Emotional.”

Okay, so Control magic is limited but gains you more use out of your magic because you don’t have to go through the loops of perfecting it.

“Emotional is the second form of Spell user magic, it comes from the abdomen as a show of self and center, it can show a strong need to defend others where the user can cannel raw emotions into powerful outbursts of spells, this is mainly found in users who have a strong connection with their emotions, and choose to show them as a form of love, defense, or control.

Emotional magic is short-range as it is the most powerful near the source, which tends to be the individual, it is a powerful form of magic, capable of summoning spells far more powerful than any of the other magics all around, and can be seen reaching full potential the most out of the four, but these spells are wild and unfocused, leading to injuries to both the user and those around them.

This form of Magic can get completely out of hand fast and cause the user to self-destruct if not careful. Conclifts with Control,”

Emotional magic is the strongest, but most difficult to control, leading to injuries and other forms of magic overpowering it.

“Logic is the third version of user-controlled magic, it was the first to ever be discovered, it comes from the head as a show of smarts, and wit, and can be used by channeling the thoughts and ideas of the user that are connected to the way the earth works in some way, whether that be Mana flow, sea currents, rock formation, or the shifting of the earth’s plates.

It is mainly found in individuals who can take an equation and turn it into reality, it is far-ranged as the magic invents the object and allows the object to go off and do what it was planned to do. This leads to the user having their brains fried or going blind from the damages resulting from overexertion when the power is misused or the limit of the user is not counted for. Conflicts with imagination”

Logic allows you to create things from the forces around you that seem like they could fit, but it can fry your brain or leave you blind.

“Imagination is the last and most unknown of user-controlled magic, it comes from the legs s a show of energy, adventure, and willingness to explore one's innermost thoughts, it can cannel the ideas of the user that make no logical sense, such as a world that is made of candy to show an illusion to actually turn people into caramel, it is a long-range power because just like logic it can make something then have it do what the user decides it should do.

You have no limitation when creating things using Imagination, but there is a setback in some of the creatures or objects you make having a chance of turning on you when they get the chance. Without you, they would be free. Conflicts with Logic.”

You can make whatever you want, no matter how impossible it seems, but the creation has a high chance of turning on you.

Leo looked at Damian, he had been shifting uncomfortably when they got to the Emotional form, “So, magics real.” Leo concluded he didn’t know what he had expected, but it wasn’t a deep dive into the base forms of something he considered impossible.

Damian put his hand on Leo’s, “Maybe… That’s enough for today? Don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” Damian explained, Leo smiled at his friend.

The door swung open with a loud squeaking noise, Leo turned to the archway door that connected the kitchen to the Dining room, hearing loud footsteps coming straight towards the two.

Leo quickly jumped up from his chair, planning on hiding, Damian followed, trying to see who the hell had just entered his place.

Leo looked towards Damian hoping to get some answers, only to see a confused face on the human quickly morph into one of realization and anger.

“ Damian. ” A stern voice called out from behind.

Leo whipped his head around, eyes meeting with another male human. He stood just as tall as Damian, being six feet tall, his hair was long and white, and the back of it seemed to reach down his back, he had icy blue eyes, and extremely white skin, as though not a single ray of sun had touched him in a long time, he was a blue kimono with snow cap mountains and tree branch on it.

There was a white swirl on each of his cheeks, and there seemed to be a few more bigger swirls poking out from the sleeves of the kimono from his arms, the top of his hands also held these swirls, the seemed to be a replacement for Damian’s strips.

The swirls were fantasy-like and calming, Damian’s were sharp and warrior-like.

Leo would prefer Damian's marking to be fair.

His mouth was in a straight line that was slightly frowned upon, his eyes were cold, but showed a glimmer of anger in them, Leo shivered at the sudden temperature drop.

“Explain,” The man stated, he looked to be no older than Damian, but he seemed to be more mature in some way, Damian crossed his arms with a huff, “If you don’t like him you can leave,” Damian stated. The man's eyebrows knotted, “You know what I’m talking about,” he stated.

“Actually, I don’t,” Damian growled, and the guy rolled his eyes, “First off, this is my house too–” “Only by extension,” Damian mumbled, “And second .” the guy continued, and Leo shifted uncomfortably, “What is he doing here?” the man questioned, Leo was about to say that he could go, “Because I want him here,” Damian stated.

“Where were you,” the man demanded to now, Damian rolled his eyes, “Wouldn’t you like to know, what? Are you going to get me in trouble for going out, I was good the first time I was grounded,” Damian stated.

“ You said that you were going to be in your room. I looked in your room and you were gone.” “What does it matter to you?” Damian pointed out.

“Okay… What’s going on?” Leo asked, still confused, the guy huffed, “It seems my twin has a track record of going on adventures without warning.” he stated, Damian rolled his eyes, “And my brother is a stuck-up asshole.” he hissed out, “language.” Leo scolded.

“I’m just trying to make sure I know where you are.” Damian’s brother stated, Damian, rolled his eyes, “Please, Deven, when did you care about anything other than pleasing Mom and Dad?” he asked, Deven balled his hands up into a fist.

“I’m trying to-” “I can take care of myself, I’ve done it for a while now, I don’t need you to step up now.” Damian scolded, “Not when you were so willing to leave before.” Deven backed up a bit, eyes widening and mouth left in an ‘o’, he looked like Damian physically struck him.

But the expression quickly shifted into one that was neutral and emotionless, the only sign of emotion was the shine of sadness that was left in his eyes.

There was clearly some long-standing resentment between Damian and his brother, but they each took it the opposite way.

Hot resentment, cold regret.

Fitting.

“Come on, Leo,” Damian stated, grabbing the two boxes and throwing them on the way to the hallway on the opposite side of the room. He didn’t want to cause a fight in front of the turtle. Leo followed his friend into the hallway.

Leo entered the room first, Damian holding the door open, but he slammed it and went to his bed, hands behind his head, “Who does he think he is! He just walks around like he owned the damn place, believing he’s better than everyone else! Thinking he is perfect and can do no wrong! Fuck that!”

Leo wanted to correct Damian's language, but he let the human vent instead, Leo looked to his right, now noticing something on Damian's desk.

“You guys…” Leo started, walking towards the object and picking it up, “Are complete opposites? Fight a lot? Are completely different in every way?” Damian asked facing away from Leo.

“Used to be close,” Leo stated, Damian whipped around towards the turtle, and Leo looked up at Damian, showing the object in his hand. It was a picture framed in gold-painted wood, words glued on that said ‘Twins forever.’

The picture showed a small child, age seven, his skin was tan but lighter than Damians, and he had black stripes that ended near his neck, and face, next to him, holding his hand, was another that looked like the same age, he had tanner skin then Deven, but his skin was still fair, he had white swirls on his face.

They were holding hands, smiling together, showing off the swirled child’s gap tooth.

They were oh so happy there, laying on the grass, without a care in the world, confident that they would always be together, stay together, fight together.

“It’s…” Leo started as Damian walked over to him, “Me and Deven when we were kids…” Damian stated, sadly, taking the picture.

Where did it all go wrong?

He shifted the picture in his hands, remembering that day in the grass, the first time they snuck out…

“Come on Deven! We gotta go!” Damian cheered out, “Wait up!” Deven called, trying to catch up with his overly excited brother.

Damian came to a stop, they had ended up in the clearing, it was daytime, and the green grass shimmered as the trees surrounded the area, completely shielding it from the outside world.

Damian let out a soft “Woah” at the sight, Deven catching up, he was facing down, trying to catch his breath, and a stunned look on his face appeared when he looked up.

“This is it?” Deven asked, “Yeah…” Damian agreed, he looked towards his brother, a sly smile appearing.

He quickly placed a hand on his twin's shoulder, “Tag! You’re it!” He shouted, running out into the clearing, “Hey! That’s not fair!” Deven shouted, chasing after his brother.

The two ran from each other, neither wanting to give up on this competitive game, each enjoying the simplicity of just running around and smacking each other.

Eventually, Damian talked Deven to the ground, the two boys laughed as one rolled off of the other, content to stay with the other on the ground. Damian took out his camera and snapped a picture of the two of them together.

“Mom and Dad are going to kill us when they find out,” Deven concluded in between fits of giggles, Damia scoffed, “They won’t find out!” He said in a cocky tone, Deven raised an eyebrow.

“And if they do?” Deven asked, Damian, rolled his eyes, “Then I’ll protect you!” Deven laughed, “It should be me protecting you! I’m older!” “Na uh” Ya uh” “Na uh!” “Ya uh!” “We’re the same age!” “I’m still older!” “By ten minutes!” “Best ten minutes of my life.”

The brothers laughed together, but Damian fell unnaturally silent. “Damian? What’s wrong? Deven asked, concerned for his twin.

“I overheard Mom and Dad talking…” Damian started “Damian!” Deven gasped, “You know Mom and Dad talk about confidential stuff!” he whined, Damian sighed, “I know! I know! I just wanted to know and…” Damian fidgeted with his hands. “They were talking about… A camp?” Damian said.

Deven's eyes lit up, “Like that Summer Camp we always go to?” he asked, Damian, shook his head, “No… They mentioned something about… You going away?” Damian said, “They claimed it was to help with your education but…” Damian's eyes started watering, “I don’t want you to go away! I want you to stay here!” he whined.

Devens eyes softened, “I’m sure you would come with me! Besides, I would only be gone for a few months! I would come back!”

Damian stared into his brother's eyes “What if you like it there?” Damian asked, the voice then turning into a whisper, “What if you don’t wanna leave?” Deven smiled at Damian.

“I would never leave you!”

“Promise?”

“Pinky promise!”

Damian didn’t even know his eyes were watering when he came back from the memory of him and his brother. “Hey…” Leo said in a calm voice, placing a hand on Damian's shoulder.

“He left.”

“What…?”

“He said he’d never leave. He said he wouldn’t go.”

Damian's breathing started to quicken, his grip tightened on the photo, Leo saw what was coming and moved to the side.

“He fucking left!”

Damian screamed as he threw the photo across the room at full force, a loud ‘thud’ and ‘crush’ sound followed as the Photo collided, smashing the picture out of the carefully crafted frame.

Damian’s breath was still quick, his arms squared and eyes glowing with anger. He wanted to lash out, scream, cry, hit something , yell about how it wasn’t fair how he got to be left alone, only to have the person he cried the most for come back completely changed.

And wanting nothing to do with him.

But he knew better, he knew that lashing out only would worsen the problem in this situation, it would only damage more things, and hurt more memories.

Damian’s eyes flickered to the side.

He would hurt Leo by doing it.

Damian collapsed to his knees, hugging himself, trying to give him some form of comfort and a way to control himself, resisting the need to lash out.

He felt a hand on his arm and looked up to see Leo, the only thing that was in his eyes was concern and worry for Damian.

Worry for a creature that didn’t deserver it.

“It’s going to be okay… Can you tell me what happened?” Leo pressed, trying to figure out just what exactly had happened to the two’s relationship.

“He promised… He promised he wouldn’t leave me… It was only meant to be a month….” Damian could feel the streams of tears starting to form on his face, “Five years. Five fucking years. He left me there. Our parents were always busy, I hardly ever saw them, my sister was out to college or work, never saw her, and our little brother was staying with someone else to help him with his education.”

Damian whimpered, “They left me… They all did, they left me with caretakers, most of whom were untrustworthy or mean, they ignored me most of the time, and one even locked me in the basement while she stole from the house… It took hours for my sister to come home and find me,” Damian chuckled, “And I could never tell anyone because they were never fucking there.”

“Oh, Damian…” Leo breathed out, feeling sympathy for his friend, along with a boiling rage against the people who have wronged him, “It wasn’t their fault, Mom and Dad had jobs that they physically couldn’t step away from, and stuff was going wrong,” Damian explained the tears had stopped coming.

“And, now that things had fixed themselves up, they’re better now, they’re present, they have been for the last five years, they had a long way to go, but they fixed up their act…” Damian stated, trailing off, “But that doesn’t mean it got easier when they started getting back to normal, it took around three years for things to shimmer down… I just…”

“I wish he was there…”

Leo sighed, rubbing Damian's arm, “And- and then when he came back, he was completely different, he didn’t tell me where he went, we hardly spoke, he just locked himself in his room all the time and refused to come out and-... I just… Wanted my twin back, not the guy who locks himself in his room and avoids me all day, even when I just want to not be alone again…”

“Have you told him that?” Leo asked, Damian, chuckled, “I’ve tried, but he avoids me when he gets the chance, he’s such a prick now, always sucking up to Mom and Dad, he was the one that snitched on me and got me in trouble,” Damian said, voice now grim.

“He thinks I’m just some explosive asshole who has no sense of control, I have control, I do! But… Over the five years, with no one around me, I started to become more… Emotional. I started lashing out more, I hurt and betrayed the caretakers because it got my parents to come home,”  Damian’s voice grew shaky, Leo could tell he held regret in his tone.

“I felt bad about it but… I had something …”

Leo continued to rub up and down Damian's arm, “Why did he tell your parents about you sneaking out? Did you get an answer from him?” Leo asked Damian’s grip on his legs tightened, “He calmed it was to ‘protect me,’ I don’t know what he’s on,” Leo sighed, “How about this, I’ll go get you some water, and we can figure it out from there?” Leo asked, Damian, nodded into his arms.

Leo got up, slowly rising as he turned towards the door.

He noticed the shuffling on the other side of the door a long time ago, he was a ninja for a reason.

Leo entered the kitchen, surprised to see Deven sitting at the table holding a mug, he was surprised to see the human here after eavesdropping.

He was sipping a steaming cup, and from his smell, Leo could guess it was coffee, he scrunched up his nose at the scent of the caffeinated drink.

Deven chuckled, noticing Leo’s face, “What? Don’t like coffee?” he asked, Leo shook his head, “Shouldn’t you be asleep?” the turtle asked, crossing his arms, Deven only hummed in response, “You knew I was there,” he concluded, Leo scrunched up his face, “It’s a bit rude to eavesdrop on a private conversation, ya know?” Leo stated.

Deven sighed, “I heard the sound of glass shattering, I came to see if everything was okay, but when I heard him start talking I… I thought it could help me get him to open up…” Leo frowned, face softening a bit, “If you want him to open, why don’t you ask?” he questioned, Deven sighed, “There are times when I get overwhelmed where my brain just shuts down and it refuses to let me talk.” he went on to explain.

“I’m not good with emotions, I tend to hide them, and when they get too much I lock myself away, to shut down so I don’t let them get the best of me…” Deven trailed off a bit, “But I always thought of it as giving the other person space, I never realized it was affecting him like that…”

“What happened in those five years?” Leo asked, Deven bit his lip, “I got… Stuck… I- I couldn’t return home… Something was going on, and… I couldn’t get home for three years then- then they kept me there for another two… I wanted to return home so badly… But they wouldn’t let me… They claimed that ‘my education needed more progress’, but I honestly think they hoped they could convince me to stay there… But I couldn’t leave my twin… Not for any longer, anyway.”

Leo walked over to the cabinet and opened it, scanning through it, “Cups are to your right.” Deven stated, Leo nodded, pulling open the next cabinet, “Thank you,” he said, grabbing the cup and looking around, “Drinking water is the dent in the fridge,” Deven stated, Leo nodded once more.

“If you want to get into contact with Damian again, why don’t you tell him?” Leo asked, moving towards the fridge, Deven grimaced, “He doesn’t listen, I… I don’t know what our caretakers told him, but something tells him that I do the things I do because I think he’s a monster, I don’t! But he won’t listen to me…” Leo nodded, pressing the button to dispense water.

“How about I play referee?” Leo asked, Deven looked at him, confused, “What?” “It’s clear you guys aren’t talking to each other well, I can play referee, make sure everyone gets in what they have to say and go from there.” Leo offered, Deven bit his lip, “You don’t have to…” “Listen,” Leo said in a stern voice.

“Damian needs you, he needs to not be alone. He needs you to talk to him, and I can tell that you need him as well.” Deven nodded, and Leo turned towards the hallway. “Damian!” he shouted out, “You guys need to talk!”

Leo heard quick footsteps coming towards the kitchen, followed by Damian catching himself on the wall with his hand, and swinging his body around.

Leo smiled at him, and Deven shifted, “Leo… What’s wrong?” Damian asked Leo, handing him the water, before backing up and leaning up against the counter, “I’m playing family therapist, you guys need to talk. Plain and simple.”

Damian was breathing heavily, clenching his jaw, a dangerous glare in his eyes, he didn’t blame his brother. But…

“Deven? How about you tell Damian what you told me?” Leo asked, Deven gulped, stepping forward slightly.

“Damian… You.” Deven sputtered, Damian’s grip tightened on the doorway, “You deserve an explanation.” Deven concluded, Damian ripped his grip off of the doorway and stomped forward, “You think !” He scolded.

“Damian.” Leo warned the human who shot him a glare, but Leo stood calm, “I know… I know I’ve been… Distant. Over the years.” Deven stated, “That’s a fucking understatement! Why should I listen to him? You left ! You left and had no intention of returning, didn’t you! All you want to do is run! Shut yourself it and never see me again! You want to act like you're better than me! You think I’m some monster !”

Deven’s eyes widened “No! I-” “That’s Bullshi-” “Quiet!” Leo screamed, overpowering both of the brothers, whose gaze quickly turned to them, “As much as I would love to have you guys vent so you can spill out the issue at him, it’s clear that fighting won’t help! It won’t help, it hasn’t helped, and it will never help!” Leo scolded, and Damian started back down from his original stance.

Leo sighed, “Now, Deven, I feel like you should be the one who goes first because you’re the one with the most information and Damian, don’t you dare interrupt him, now speak.” Leo stated in a stern voice. Damian crossed his arms and looked at the man who calls himself his brother.

“Damian I-” Deven choked his throat tightening, “I never thought of you as a monster.” Deven stated, “Yes you did.” Damian gritted out, “No! I didn’t” Deven stated, stepping towards his brother. He was never good with emotions.

Deven sighed, “I didn’t shut you out because I didn’t want to be with you, I… I shut myself away because… I was scared. I was afraid of my emotions and I didn’t want to hurt you, I never saw you as a monster.” Deven said, Damian, stiffened, “Then why don’t you trust me? Why don’t you talk to me!” Damian stated, his voice raising, before quieting down once more, “Why do you leave me?”

“I didn’t talk to you because I couldn’t… I… My brain shut down… I can’t put it into words, but it just doesn’t work to produce words…” Deven stated, “And I do trust you-” “Then why did you go to mom and dad? Why did you stop me with our parents instead of talking to me? Why do you think you need to protect others from me?”

Deven bit his lip, “I went to Mom and Dad because-” “You're a stuck-up prick that can’t admit the fact that you're in the wrong for once in your life, I get it.- “ “I was scared.” Damian raised his eyebrow, “What?” “I was scared that something was going to happen to you, and I would be powerless to help, just like the five years.” Deven offered Damian's eyes narrowed.

“It was supposed to be for the summer, nothing more, but then, you know what happened, and… All travel routes were either cut off or too dangerous to take. I was stuck there for three years because of that.” “But you came back in five?” “They kept me there, didn’t allow me to go home, they kept saying that I just needed a bit more help… But…” “They wanted to keep you there for good?” Damian asked, Deven nodded, “And you refused…” Damian concluded.

“I’ve left you for long enough and I… I just needed to see you again.” Deven offered, a silence had overtaken the room, both of the brothers digesting the knowledge that they now had. “I knew you were hurting, I just didn’t know how much, I knew you were hurting and I was powerless to help you. I wasn’t there then… I want to be there now.” Deven stated.

“We really need to talk about our feelings more.” Damian concluded, “Feelings can do die in a hole.” Deven said, Damian chuckled.

“Leo.” “Um?” Leo responded to Damian, “Thank you, but we need some time alone, the book is still in my room.” Damian, offered, “I understand.” Leo said, making his way to gather the book.

“You're letting him walk free with the book?” Deven asked, Damian, nodded, “He’s a good person, we can trust him.” Deven thought to himself, “I never liked your ex.” he mentioned, Damian snickered, “Which one? And where did that come from?” he asked, Deven thought, “The one that you went back to? Stalker-ish?” Deven stated, Damian thought for a bit, “I had both girlfriends and boyfriends who I went back to and are ‘stalker-ish’, a little bit more.”

“Female? The most recent one? Still trying to get with you?” “Oh! Lavender! Yeah, I hate that bitch too, motherfucker stole my bank info and now thinks she’s entitled to be with me again.” Damian bit out, he loved Lavender, truly, he couldn’t have gone out with her if he didn’t. But once her true personality was revealed, the betrayal was all the more painful.

“But why do you bring this up?” Damian asked, “Just making sure, I was hoping you won’t get back with her.” he offered out, “Not when there’s someone better for you right in front of you.” Deven casually stated that Damian, who was drinking the water that had been handed to him (And surprisingly didn’t spill) choked on his drink and covered his mouth.

“I’m back~” Leo sang out, coming out from the hallway and into the kitchen, book in his arm, he looked between the two guys, “Well it looks like you didn’t try to kill each other, progress.” Leo commented, and Deven and Damian chuckled, “Yeah thanks again, Lee, it might take a bit for things to clear up, but, it’s the first step we’ve made in a long time.” Deven offered.

Leo waved him off, “Eh, it’s no problem, I didn’t really do much, anyways, but next time, you both need to talk to each other before I dog walk both of you!” Leo threatened, pointing at the twins, Deven chuckled and Damian muffled his laughter.

Leo’s ‘scolding face’ really did not work, he just looked like an angry kitty.

“Alright, well I’m going to head out before it gets to the point where my brothers will bite my head off, see you both next time!” Leo waved, exiting the kitchen and through the living room, leaving with a click of the door.

Damian looked towards his brother twin, he still held resentment towards him, but at least he could understand him.

He could heal from what happened in those years. He wasn’t alone anymore.

Damian leaned towards Deven, “So~ Was that before you hinted that I should get with Leo?” he questioned, Deven smirked, knowing the fight that he was about to start.

“Big brother approves.”

Damian deadpaned, “We’re twins.”

“I’m still older” Deven defended.

“Na uh.”

“Ya uh.”

Chapter Text

“Sensei, in the past few months, we’ve taken down giant spiders, plant creatures, Alien robots, and an army of ninjas, maybe we’re not overconfident, maybe we’re just that good.”

Those are the words that Leo had told his father before he and the gang left to help April deal with a pigeon man, whose name ended up being Pete, he had a message from April's father, which ended up being vague, something about a terrible thing happening in the city.

April insisted that she was not going to leave her dad, Leo didn’t blame her, so they went to the Kraang facility they were holding him in, Donnie and Mikey figured out that the ‘something bad’ was a mutagen bomb that they had planted downtown, which planned to spread ooze over half the city, but the Kraang kidnapped Mr. O’ Neil once more.

They followed the coronets Donnie had gotten to the place where the mutant bomb was, they were able to take out the Kraang with no problems, but issues arose once Bradford and Xever entered, they had to cover for Donnie, fighting the two ninjas off, while the purple banded brother disabled the bomb.

All the while, visions of a giant dog and fish became more and more vivid in Leo’s mind.

But, they were able to do it, Mikey suggested cutting the green wire, and Donnie took this suggestion, and it ended up being correct, he was able to disable the bomb, then join his brothers in taking the Shredder's two henchmen.

They won, Shredders henchmen were cornered and choose to go down in a stream of mutagen, the turtles were walking away, celebrating their victory, when a booming voice stopped them dead in their tracks.

“Your skills are impressive.” The turtles turned to a shadow of a man who jumped down into the light, revealing himself to be dressed in metal, razor blade armor, and wearing an iron helmet that looked all too familiar to Leo.

He saw it once, in a vision, and he thought nothing of it.

“But they will not save you!” The man declared, and the turtles stared at him, wide-eyed, “Oh man… Do you think that’s… They Shredder?” Donnie asked, fear in his voice.

“Well, it’s definitely a Shredder!” Raph declared, Leo squinted at his brother’s words, and the man came to full height and started walking towards the four brothers, “There is undoubtedly a fascinating story, in how my old nemesis came to teach Ninjutsu to four mutant turtles.” Shredder declared, and Leo and the rest of the gang readied their weapons.

“Perhaps I will let one of you live long enough to tell it!” Shredder bit out, and Leo grimaced, he didn’t like that, he didn’t want any harm to come to his brothers, and he wouldn’t let any harm come to them.

“You're going to have to catch us first! Mikey!” Leo called out, counting on his youngest to have some of those ninja smoke bombs at the go, “So long sucker!” Mikey yelled out, throwing a bomb, that turned out to be an egg, Leo squinted at his youngest, “Whoops, okay, that one’s on me…”

Leo really needed to teach this guy responsibility.

Shouldn’t that be Sensei’s job? Eh, whatever.

The shredder extended his weapons, two steel claws, and rushed at the turtles.

The fight started, but it felt as though it was over before it had even begun, they all took massive hits, it was like the Shredder was everywhere at once, Raph got through into the lightened-up letters of the Wolf Hotel, getting electrocuted, Leo was punched to the ground and kicked to the side.

He could feel the temperature rising.

Donnie had his own stuff used against him and was punched in the face, Mikey tried to retrain the Shredder, but ended up getting kicked in the face, he threw throwing stars as he bounced off the roof.

Leo came up from behind the Shredder when he went to go see if Mikey was dead, Donnie followed after, being able to land a hit on a distracted Shredder.

Leo tried to get Shredder from above, but he was thrown off, the steel claws and metal blades tinged as they collided together.

Deep down, Leo was waiting for something, he knew it wouldn’t end here, he just needed to hold on for a little bit longer.

The temperature continued to rise.

The Shredder blocked Donnie’s attack, a splintering sound coming from his Bo staff, he picked Donnie up by the head and threw him at Leo.

He was standing over them, ready to finish them off when Raph came from above and landed on the Shredder, stabbing the man over and over again with his Sai. Shredder threw him off, Shredders claw was about to come down on him when Mikey used his chains to restrain the hand and pull Shredder up by his wrist to the top of the letters.

MIkay jumped down safely as the Shredder screamed in pain, but he cut one of the letters, making Mikey get crashed by the object. Mikey screamed as he was hit.

“Mikey!” The other three yelled, running over to the letter that was crushing their little brother, lifting it off of the orange turtle so he could crawl out from under it.

Shredder was in front of them now… Waiting. Watching.

They were beaten and bloodied, this was probably the worst they’d ever been beaten before, but Leo refused to give up. He was careless and got them into this situation. He was going to get them out.

He glanced down at the bruises on his body, unable to keep eye contact, the marks reminded him of when they were fighting the Stockmanpod. He remembered how Damian held him, making sure that he was safe, how he looked on in protective anger at the marks the Stockmanpod had done.

The temperature raised.

Leo sniffed the air, scrunching up his nose… It smelled like…

Smoke?

They charged at the Shredder, but it was useless, the Shredder was easily able to take them down, slashing through their attacks, he was just so fast.

The Shredder grabbed him by the throat, pinning him against a wall and extending his steel claws to Leo’s throat.

“Tell me where Splinter is and I promise your demise will be swift.” Shredded threatened Leo’s pupils dilated as the blade came near his face.

Whoosh Whoosh

There was the sound of… Something coming near.

A thud came from behind the Shredder, who turned to see what was going on, Leo gasped.

A giant fish reached out towards Shredder, “ Help… Me… ” The giant fish… No… Xever pleaded, “What is this!” Shredder demeaned, his grip loosened, it seemed like he might let go, but then it tightened again in a rage, Leo gasped for air.

Then, a giant shiba inu dog followed, reaching his hand out as well, “Xever… Bradford!” Shredder’s grip tightened once more.

Leo tried to struggle out of it, but there was no use, he at least hoped his brothers took this opportunity to run.

Whoosh Whoosh

The sounds were getting louder, and closer, the smell of something burning became stronger, and the temperature rose. Leo could now tell that the sounds were of wings flapping, but what type of bird was this?

“You!” Shredder yelled turning to Leo, who was starting to lose consciousness from lack of air, “You did this!” he yelled bringing back his free claw in order to strike, “Now, you shall pay!”.

The rest looked on in horror at the sight, two of Shredder's henchmen were now mutants, and Shredder held their big brother by the throat.

“Leo!” Raph called out, “Run!” Leo yelped out as he stared at Shredder, whose rage overpowered the will to care if the others escaped, “Get out of here, now!” Leo ordered hoping for one in his life Raph could just listen .

He didn’t want to die here, but he couldn’t let his younger brothers see him die.

“Goodbye, turtle.” Shredder hissed out, preparing to strike.

Leo closed his eyes preparing for the impact of the blade as Shredder rushed his blade forward, prepared to slit his throat open.

“He’s Mine!”

The Shredder was ripped off of him, causing Leo to fall to the ground, as a giant shadow slammed into the man in armor, causing both of them to wrestle with each other in the shadows.

Leo fell to the ground, laying on his side and holding his throat. That voice. That voice! He knows that voice! He looked up to see who had saved him.

The Shredder slashed at the giant figure on top of him, but the thing wasn’t moving, Leo could make out the shadows of wings, horns, and a thick tail.

The figure was finally able to get fully on top of Shredder, strangling the man as he slashed, but the blades seemed to do nothing to the creature as he punch Shredder in the face, over and over and over again, denting the helmet he wore, the Shredder cried out in pain.

Leo watched on, too afraid to do anything, a few seconds after the scream the smell of burning flesh hit his nose, and he took a closer look at the hand holding Shredder down, reeling back at the realization that he had smoke coming from it.

“Leo!” his brothers cried out, they looked ready to run towards him, putting them in the crossfires of the fight that was happening, “Get out! Now! I’ll be right behind you!” Leo called out, Donnie and Mikey nodded before disappearing into the shadows.

Raph hesitated though, unwilling to move, “Raph go!” Leo ordered, slowly getting to his feet, “Not without you!” Raph stated, “I’ll be right behind you, just go !” Leo called out, starting to go around the fight.

Raph gritted his teeth, nodding, and then ran after Donnie and Mikey.

Leo got to the place Raph once was, but stopped for a moment, turning back.

“He’s mine” those words echoed through his head as he stared at the fight happening.

Then the figure stood, towering over Shredder, who laid motionless on the rooftop, the figure had to be eight feet at least .

They turned towards Leo, which added with the new height, and better lighting to the figure, Leo could now see the scorching red skin that the creature had, along with fiery hazel or orange eyes, and curly, fluffy brown hair.

He also noticed the marks that ran along the creature.

Black stripes that ended in a point near the neck and face.

He knows those marks.

Those were his marks.

Damian’s marks.

“Day…?” Leo said, voice quivering, the creature glared at him, but it wasn’t mean, it was protective.

Damian was a mutant now? How? Bradford and Xever had spilled some of the mutagen, and Leo had tried to stop them, did that cause this?

Did he cause this?

“ Leave .” The creature… No, Damian hissed ou, Leo sputtered at his words, taking a step back.

“I’m sorry…” Was all he could whimper out before disappearing into the shadows, tears building up in his eyes.

Leo lay in his bed, curled in the fetal position, they had just gone over everything that had happened with Master Splinter, who had declared that they were at war, so now all he could do his lay there, and wait.

He didn’t know what he was waiting for. But he was waiting. He didn’t know if he was waiting for a sign from Damian that shows that he is still sane, or if he was waiting for someone to put him out of goddamn misery.

He looked at the book, he hadn’t read anything else since the night with Damian, he was hoping they could read it together…

He sat on his bed and reached for the book, which was on his bedside table. It was his fault this happened, it was his fault that they got into a fight with the Shredder, he shouldn’t have been overconfident, he should have listened to Master Splinter, and he should have kept some ninja smoke bombs to himself.

It was his fault that they got into that fight, it was his fault they lost, it was his fault he almost died.

It was his fault for Damian's mutation.

The only person Leo could talk to, the only person who understood him, now probably never wanted to speak to him again.

…

He rubbed the cover of the book, opening the leather-bound chapter book.

He needed to do better. By better.

Maybe magic can help him do it?

He flipped through the gades and came across a paragraph.

“For magic users to cast spells, the user needs to heighten the strength of the mana in the location where the symbol is placed for it to work, advanced spell casters can summon more mana to a location, but newer spell casters can use mana paper to cast spells first.

Mana paper is paper combined with heightened mana from each raw mana power which is fire, nature, and ice.

Nature is a mixture of plant and rock powers.

To get the mana power, the user must cast the enhancement spell on a surface, this surface will be granted mana energy, the most common surface to use is a table, the table will heal from the spells carved onto it, but will take damage else whereas the mana runs out before transforming back into an ordinary table.

You will need to carve the enhancement spell on the table, which looks like this:

You will have to put the fire, nature, and ice mana crystals into each of the three circles with the ‘M’ in the center.”

Mana crystals? What the heck were mana crystals? Leo bit his lip and looked up, he was going to have to do a lot more than what he had expected, first off was where to get mana crystals…

Maybe the cultists had some?

That would mean that he would have to steal from one of their bases, alone, and with a target on his shell. He glanced back down at the picture. He could carve into wood, he had knives. He looked at his bedside table. He could use that, it’s close and no one would dare to enter his room without his permission.

He just needed those crystals.

He flipped the page on the book, which showed three more images that seemed to be the crystals.

Leo had never seen these crystals before, and he couldn’t ask Donnie for help, he knew that much.

Leo sighed, closing the book and putting it back on his bedside table, before resting his elbows on his legs and putting his hands in a ball near his face.

He needed to become stronger, he needed to protect his family. But this was dangerous. And stupid. He would have the most luck going back to the place where he first found Damian, but he ran the risk of being captured.

He was scared. He wanted to pick up his phone and ask Damian, the only person he knew to ask, for help. But he couldn’t, he already was a negative impact on Damian’s life as it is, and now Leo went and got him mutated, Damian would probably never speak to him again…

Leo felt tears prick up in his eyes, this was for the better.

He took his phone out to check the time, two a.m, they normally try to go to bed at like one so…

He opened his door a crack and peeked out, if someone caught him he would just say that he needed some air. He open the door fully and slipped out of his room, shutting his door silently.

He crept through the lair, trying to keep up a confident facade while trying to sneak his way out. He got to the stairs that lead out of the lair.

“Leonardo.” Leo jumped and turned at his father’s voice, he stared wide-eyed at his father who was very clearly displeased, “Care to explain?” Sensei asked, “I just needed to go get some air, Sensei.” Leo stammered out.

“Um. Why can’t you do that when you’ve awakened? You should be resting.” His father pointed out, and Leo shrugged, “I tried to sleep, I’ve tried meditating, I can’t get myself to rest, so I just decided that I would give into what I have an itch for.” Leo concluded, trying, and failing to make eye contact.

Sensei sighed, “Go then, but be back before four.” Splinter ordered before turning and walking away, Leo sighed in relief before making his way out of the lair, he was thankful that his father wasn’t mad at him.

(Splinter, was in fact, very mad.)

Leo made his way through the tunnels of the sewer, before finally coming across the wide open room where he had first fought the cultist in, it was relatively the same, a sphere room, the giant circle still in the middle, candles surrounding it, books shelves lined the walls as best as they could, and books were piled everywhere.

Leo looked to the sides… ‘Uh, that’s new’ there were tables that went along the walls as well, they may not have been new because Leo was busy running from and fighting the cultists, but it was new to him.

Leo stuck to the walls, there were no cultists around, but with how they seemed to pop up out of nowhere, he didn’t want to take any chances.

The first table he got to seemed to be some sort of drawing table, there were plane pieces of paper that were folded into squares, it had pencils, the wood was dark, and it seemed to be a bit damaged in some places, but there was nothing to strange about it.

The next table had a pile of books, a reading table? Can’t you do that at any table? Anyways, he picked up the first book, “Potions and You.” it read, no thanks, he put it to the side, the next had four figures positioned to be in a diamond on the cover, one of a human with horns, wings, and a tail, another to the opposite was a human with wolf ears and a tail drawn above with an arrow pointing from the figure to a wolf, there was the bottom figure which seemed to be a mermaid of some sorts, and…

There was one in the back, supposed to be in the top vertex of the diamond, it was…

The only way to describe it would be a dragon.

He put that one under his arm.

He took a look at the next cover, another potion book, ew, he was banned from the kitchen anyways. There was the fourth and final book… It had a flower on the cover and read “Advancements in Nature Magic: Apprentice Level.” could be useful once he got passed the beginning stages.

He moved onto the next table, the two books under his arm, the table was made of light wood and had cabinets on it, some type of storage, but the table seemed damaged.

He slides his hand across the table, but immediately retracted it to help with the splitting headache that followed.

He could’ve sworn he heard- Nevermind.

He leaned down to look at the cabinets, the had labels on them.

“Nature Crystal, Fire Crystal, Icy Crystal.”

Bingo.

He opened the nature crystal drawer slowly, careful of anything being set off, but nothing happened, he peeked inside, and there they were, the crystals that the book had shown, he reached in and pulled one out, his skin tingling.

The crystal was able to fit in the palm of his hand, but the drawers were bigger than he thought, he looked down at his utility belt and opened his packets, biting his lip, he could fit… Maybe two? In each pocket, and he didn’t have many, only two pockets, he looked towards the books he had gotten.

He had a book on nature magic, maybe he should get two nature magic crystals and one fire and icy magic? He didn’t even know what the benefits two each were, he should have read that stupid book-

“You there!”

Uh oh.

Leo quickly pulled out another crystal and stuffed both of those into one of the utility pockets before pulling open the other two cabinets, which were also filled with their respective crystal.

“Stop that!” the voice hissed, Leo was aware of the footsteps quickly approaching him as he yanked one crystal from each drawer and stuffed them both into his belt.

He turned to the opposite way of the exit and kicked the approaching cultist square in the chest.

The chest landed on the floor with a thud, Leo looked up to where the human had come from, only to see more coming out of the tunnel he had run into before, the one that was connected to the ledge overhead.

“Intruder!” one shouted, pointing at Leo.

Leo made the brief decision to make a break for it.

He could hear Raph complaining inside his head.

God he really was pathic, he can’t even face normal humans, how the hell is he supposed to be a good leader?

He zigzagged through the tunnels, he had to lose them, it was his only chance at surviving this mess, he tried to make turns that wouldn’t lead him to dead ends, but still would confuse the cultists.

But they were fast, inhumanly fast, every time he rounded a corner they seemed to be catching up to him.

He kept running, he had gone passed the lair at this point, but he still couldn’t turn back, the pattering of footsteps continued to chase after him even as he thought he lost them.

“Get back here!” He heard one of the screech. He didn’t have a choice, he had to face them.

He put his books to the said and turned to face the cultist, he reached for his swords but realized that he had forgotten them.

He stood, waiting for them to get closer.

“Give that back-”

He rushed forward, nailing the one that was leading this pack straight in the stomach with his fist.

He turned to the right, grabbing the other’s face and smashing it against his knee, the other to his left was approaching as well.

Leo grabbed the one he just took care of by the arms and swung it around, making his slam into the other guy.

Leo sighed with relief, he turned to where he left his books.

Only to be pulled back by his mask.

He was yanked into the crushing grip of a cultist that he didn’t see, the hooded face of the human came into few, over his shoulder and facing him, his claws drilling into Leo’s skin.

“Well, well… Look what we have here~” It hummed out in a male voice, then it shoved Leo down and pinned him against the sewer water. “The turtle that we keep hearing about, boss is really angry with you, I could get a lot of lead way if I just turned you in”

The man’s fingernails dug into Leo’s skin, Leo refused to let out a sound, even as one slowly dragged down one of his arms cutting into the skin, the other hand moving to restrain both hands at once, the cultist made sure some of the filthy water seeped through the wounds.

“But… I have a friend who’s always looking for a new pet, and would be will pay a large sum.” the man hummed, removing the claw that had wounded Leo’s arm and putting it on his face, thinking, “What to do…”

Leo had enough, he gritted his teeth together and started to turn, he kicked the cultist’s feet away from his own and propelled his body to turn to the side, successfully kicking the cultists off of his body.

Leo lifted himself with his arms, getting to a standing stance before the cultist, who he promptly kicked in the face and sent flying backward.

“How about go to hell” Leo stated to the cultist’s early question, surprising himself at the bite in his voice and the words that came out of his mouth.

He looked back to where he left his books, smiling, he knew these tunnels, he wouldn’t have to pass through the pile of cultists to get back to the lair.

He ran passed the two he took out early, grabbing his books and shoving them under his arm, then looked towards the tunnel next to him.

It’s home and dry.

He looked at the marks the cultist had left on his arm.

‘Ish’ he thought to himself before heading down the tunnel.

Leo shut the door to his room, he sat on the floor and pulled out the two books that he had gotten. He stared at the cover of the nature magic book, he couldn’t use it right now, he set the book under neat his bed.

The next one was the book with four figures, he was still dawn to the dragon on the cover, he read the title in his mind, “Creatures of The Underworld” well that’s not ominous, he set that one under his bead as well.

Leo opened his utility pockets, pulling out the four crystals he had gotten, luckily they didn’t break, he places those on his bed and reached up and pulled down the book from his bedside table, flipping it to the pages that he was at before, he flipped past the images and found a new passage.

“When the user is trying to make an enhanced mana location to cast spells in, you need to perform the enhancement spell, using these following steps:

1: find your location, for a new spell caster, is it recommended that you get a spell table (mana-enhanced table) first so locate a table of any kind

2: Draw the enhancement spell seen before.

3: break off a fragment of a mana crystal

3: Break that fragment into a shard

4: Place one mana shard in each of the circles with an ‘m’ inside, all of the circles must hold either a nature, fire, or ice crystal, and no two circles can have the same shard

4: Cast the spell by touching the innermost circle

“

Leo got up and put the open book on his bed, flipping to where the enhancement spell was, he grabbed his lamp and moved it off of his bedside table, and placed it next to the book.

He pulled out the small knife that he and his brothers sometime use, and started carving the symbol in the wood of the bedside table.

He flipped his book to the pages with the crystals, looking closer at the page to see that the drawing was illustrated with where he needed to break.

He broke off each of the fragments, before breaking those into twos and setting one down on one of the ‘m’s’ and the other back down the bed.

He was too busy to care for the wound that was still bleeding on his arm.

Once he had everything set up, shards where their suppose to be, the symbol ready, everything he took one last glance at the instructions. He felt stupid. Was this really how it was meant to go?

He reached his hand out towards the center circle, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath in and out as he placed two of his fingers on the small circle, he tried to focus on his breathing.

He didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t know if this would even work.

Then he felt the static feeling in his hand.

He opened his eyes and gasped, but didn’t pull away, his hand had glowing cracks in it, and the circle was now glowing the same piercing white, and the three shards glowed their respective colors.

Leo watched on as the shards lifted into the air before a circle of light surrounded them and started mimicking the pattern of the symbol, they started at a steady pace, but the lines started connecting slower and slower.

Something told Leo that if those lines connected then everything would be good.

The cracks that slowly started to retract back down to his fingers also told him that he was losing power.

Leo shut his eyes and focused on his breathing once more, before he had only tried it because that’s what he did while meditating, and it seemed to work then.

He tried to put himself in a meditative trance, now feeling the static reach farther up his arm than before, the crack was starting to heat up.

He hissed in pain as the cracks ner his fingers started to sting.

He opened his eyes just in time to see the glowing symbol completed, the three shards came together and glowed, morphing into blobs of light and mixing with each other, the bold turned white when the symbol collapsed in on it, creating a bright flash.

Leo shielded his eyes from the flash, taking his hand away from the symbol.

When he looked but he was relieved to see the bold still there, it started floating to the table, spreading itself out and covering the entirety of the piece of furniture, before disappearing into it.

Leo let out a soft “Woah” at the events that just took place. His bedside table, once a light wooded color, was now a dark oak, it seemed to glisten a light blue as well.

Leo went up to the table, the symbol was gone. He smiled to himself, he did it! He actually did it! He rushed over to the book, taking it in his hands and sitting on the bed as he eagerly went to learn more.

There was a red drop on the page he was reading, and he quickly went to clean it, fearing that it may damage the book, only once one hand only smeared the blood the other wiped it off before he considered where the hell the blood came from.

He looked down at the hand he used to perform the spell, his right one, and gasped, dropping the book into his lap.

The cracks that the spell had created had run up his entire arm to his elbow, but the cracks on his hand and a bit on his wrist were the only ones that left a mark, he was bleeding, and he felt a little woozy, which is what reminded him that there was a giant claw mark on his left arm.

Oh boy.

Leo looked down at the book, now noticing a passage that he forgot to read.

“Warning: Any spell that involves control mana itself is a control mana spell, a spell that works a lot like control magic, but it will always have a white hue, any form of magic that the caster uses will have cracks that form from the origin of the magic (Hands, legs, head, torso) if the user overuses their power these cracks will start to form in the skin, leading to bleeding, and if too much energy is used, it could lead to the user's death.”

Leo’s breath was heavy, he looked at his hands, the cracks seemed to have just started, and weren’t too big or seemed too deep.

Could he have died doing this?

Leo shook his head and closed the book, setting it down on the bed as he got up, he knelt on the floor and pulled out a first aid kit from under his bed, he normally uses it for small cuts that he doesn’t want to worry his brothers about.

He opened the first aid and took out disinfectants, bandage wraps, and some medical tape, he didn’t have a lot for bigger injuries, he never thought he would have to hide those, so he didn’t have too much to work with.

He started to disinfect the giant wound on his arm, trying to keep quiet so that he didn’t wake anyone, he moved to disinfect his hand and wrist as well. After that was done he wrapped each of the wounds up, he had to do it loosely so that he would have enough to cover them.

He was able to wrap up all of his wounds with no bandages to spare, he put the empty roll, disinfectants, and medical tape back into the kit and slid it under the bed once more.

He looked at his bedside table, it still had a drawer, Leo got up and opened it, it seemed to be normal enough, he picked up all the crystals from off of his bed and placed them inside, closing the drawer he also grabbed his lamp and set it down on the table.

He took the book he had been reading and placed it back under his bed with the rest of the books.

He scratched and yawned, feeling tiredness wash over him, he climb into his bed and lay on his side facing the wall. He had never been this tired, normally it was a struggle to get to bed for him.

But now, laying here as the bandages he wrapped started turning red, all he could think to do is sleep and hope that he didn’t bleed out.

Chapter Text

Leo woke up to his alarm at 6:30 pm, still tired from last night's altercations, he groaned and pried his eyelids open, moving onto his shell and lifting his arms up to stretch with a yawn. He felt dead to the world and didn’t have the energy to move, but he forced himself out of the bed.

His face felt scratchy and when he went to feel it he realized that he had forgotten to take his mask and… everything else off. He slept in his gear. Leo sighed as he sat back down on his bed, then checked his hand.

The bandage was stained red and his arm wasn’t doing much better, it was sore and he had a bit of a difficult time moving it due to the pain, and there seemed to be some redness around the edge of the badges.

Leo got up, his muscles were sore and he felt weaker than normal as he walked across his room to pick his swords up from their weapon rack, and placed them in the holders strapped to his shell, then exited the room. He walked through the halls and towards the kitchen where most of the medical stuff was.

He walked up to the curtain that separated the kitchen from the rest of the lair, swinging open the curtain and going straight to the rightmost cabinet, Donnie had med kits everywhere, and the kitchen had three of them, one of them being in the cabinet.

He opened the drawer and was able to see the bright red box right away, he grabbed it by the handle and got up, leaving the door to the cabinet open for when he went to put it back. He went to the table and placed the box down before opening it.

He replaced the bandage on his hand first, the wounds were healing fine but were still bleeding, Leo through out the bloody bandages and started unwrapping the one on his arm, revealing the wounds underneath.

Leo gagged at the sight of the claw marks, he didn’t even realize that he could lose any more of his appetite, the marks themself were a bulging red, and the lining of them was puffy with a yellow crust as puss leaked out of them, and a red streak seemed to be coming out of the area where he was scratched.

Leo quickly threw out the bandages and rushed to appeal new ones, he hissed in pain as he appealed pressure, the wound hurt a lot more than it did yesterday.

He finished wrapping his arm with a butterfly bow and stored the first-aid back into the spot that Donnie had set it first. He walked over to the tea kettle and filled it up with water, wanting to boil it on the stove to make tea.

No one had to find out about this.

“Come on!” Raph shouted, grabbing his Sai, despite Leo’s protest about them still being injured (He was feeling a little under the weather, he was shivering and sweating a bit, but will never admit that), but Raph insisted that they go on their evening patrol. “Where are you going.” Splinter's voice rang out, Leo turned to their father, guarding the arm with the scratch.

“We’re heading out for our evening patrol.” Leo confirmed, “There will be no patrol.” Splinter stated, Leo was taken aback by this sudden approach, “Sensei…?” Leo questioned, freaking out that his little adventure last night may have something to do with this.

“Last time you fought the Shredder, you barely escape with your lives, only living thanks to a manic mutant.” Splinter stated, Leo felt a twinge of guilt in his chest, “But Sensei, next time we’ll be ready.” Raph stated, Splinter narrowed his eyes and Leo knew that it was the wrong thing to say.

“Yes.” Splinter grabbed Raphs arms and held him back, Leo winced, he knew that position was painful, you don’t become a good(ish) leader without… ‘Corrections’. Especially with anger issues that you had to learn to keep way deep down, where they couldn’t hurt anybody.

“Because you will stay down here until you are ready. No patrol. No games. No rest. Only training.” Splinter let go of Raph and the turtle immediately fell forward trying to get away, Leo grabbed Raph by the arms and pulled him closer, eyes narrowing at Sensei.

“Starting now!” He declared turning away from them and marching towards the dojo.

Donnie and Mikey followed first, but Leo looked down at Raph, who was still loosely being held by Leo and rubbing his arms, “Are you okay?” Leo questioned, Raph didn’t look at him he let his eyes wander and nodded, “Yeah, Yeah, I think I’ll be-” He cut himself off, looking wide-eyed at something.

“Raph…?” Leo questioned, moving his left arm towards his brother.

Raph immediately grabbed hold of his brother's arm, pulling completely forward, anger bubbling up. He examined the new bandage that was on Leo’s arm, Raph knew that the bandage wasn’t from the Shredder, but that begs the question, where did it come from?

The bandage was hastily wrapped, so it clearly wasn’t Donnies work, and he just realized that Leo had been attempting to hide this arm, he knew something was wrong with it. The wounded also seemed to be inflamed due to the redness that outlined the wrapping.

‘Shit, shit, shit, shit’ Leo thought to himself as he stared at Raph.

“Raph?” Leo questioned, Raph looked at Leo, narrowing his eyes, his brother had paled a bit, clearly knowing what Raph was looking at, “Where did you get this?” Raph hissed, “Get what?” Leo asked, but it was mumbled.

Raph’s grip tightened, “You know what.” he declared, “Let’s follow Sensei.” Leo stated, yanking his arm away and moving to where the rest of the family had disappeared off to. “ Leo ” Raph warned, Leo waved him off, “We’ll talk later.” the leader said.

Raph highly doubted that Leo meant that. But Raph was going to hold him to his promise.

The turtles were exiting the dojo, Splinter huffed in irritation. They had just been training for the night, there was no intention in their strikes, they would be dead by now if the Shredder ever got a hold of them again.

Splinter looked down, he shouldn’t have let them go out so soon, now the Shredder knew of their existence and are hunting them down-

Something caught his eye.

Leonardo was at the back of the line leaving the dojo, Splinter went forward and caught his Son by the arm.

There was a new bandage on his arm that wasn’t there before.

Leonardo yelped, whether it be in pain or surprise, Splinter couldn’t tell, he stared wide-eyed at Splinter, fear on his face. “Um, yes Sensei?” Leo asked, Splinter let go of his son's arm and looked him straight in the eyes.

“What happened to your arm.” It wasn’t there due to the Shredder, he didn’t have it…

Before Splinter let him walk around the sewers. Without his swords.

Leonardo looked at his arm and shrugged, “I woke up with it, think I reopened some wounds in my sleep.” He said simply, but he was looking everywhere but Splinter’s eyes, Splinter’s eyes narrowed at his ears twitched, “Is that so?”

He would give one last chance for his son to admit to what happened.

“I…”

…

Leo could say it.

…

“Yes, Sensei, that’s what happened,” Leo stated, making sure to look into his father's eyes, even if it hurt a bit.

Splinter stood there, waiting for Leonardo to crack, but it was clear that the turtle wasn’t going to back down.

“Very well,” Splinter stated, turning his back to his son and walking away from him, he heard Leonardo sigh in relief as he walked out of the dojo.

He would let Leonardo come to him on his own.

He hoped he made the correct choice.

Leo walked passed the living room and straight into the hallway that the bedrooms were in, he heard what sounded like an episode of Space heroes, and even though he would love to sit down and watch, he couldn’t.

Master Splinter was right, they weren’t ready to take down the Shredder, so Leo had to make himself ready. Even if the tiredness weighed down on his trying to bring him to the ground, even though the coldness in his bones made him shiver even if he was sweating, even though the flashes of heat and the pain in his arm refused to go away.

Leo reached his hand towards his door, getting a grip on the doorknob, before being yanked away by the mask.

He got a quick flash to when the cultists had grabbed him and started flailing and struggling against the hold.

“H-hey!” Leo yelped as he was dragged back toward the opposite side of the hallway. “You said later, it’s later.” He heard Raph say through gritted teeth. “Raph?” Leo said shocked, Raph let go of his mask and Leo immediately turned to face his brother. Raph reached towards the doorknob to his room.

“Raph, what are you doing?” Leo hissed out, Raph swung open his door, then the red-banded turtle grabbed Leo by the front strap of his katana holder, and used it to pull and shove him into Raph’s room.

Leo stumbled forward, Raph’s room wasn’t as empty as hit, the bed was to the left wall with his bedside table, to the right of his bed was the drum set that Donnie had fixed up for him, and the back wall had shelves that held figurines on it.

He heard the door behind him shut with the ‘click’ of a lock. “You always come to us, telling us that to ‘talk out our problems’ or some shit.” “Language.” Leo scold, Raph waved him off, “Yeah, yeah, well now it’s your turn to talk, bozo, what’s going with you?” Raph asked pressing his finger to Leo’s plastron.

Leo went to say something, but the words got caught in his throat. Raph huffed, “What? Cat got your tongue?” “More like a dog.” Leo tried to joke, but Raph just growled and pushed him back, “You always do this!” Raph bit out.

“Do what?” Leo questioned in an offended tone, “You always go off on your own! And then you get hurt and pretend that everything is fine!” “That’s because it is fine!” Leo stated, grabbing his bandage and hiding it a bit from Raph.

Raph’s eyes widened before narrowing again, angrier than before, “This is what I fucking mean, Leonardo.” Raph stated, grabbing Leo’s wrist and examining his hand.

Leo had forgotten that there was a bandage on that hand as well.

“You didn’t have this when we fought the Shredder! What, did you go on your own little stealth mission? Do you think you’re better than us or something?” Raph yelled, Leo was frozen. He didn’t know how to react, all he could do was stare down at the cracks in Raph’s floor.

“It’s fine Raph-” “No it’s not!” Raph shouted, Leo, flinched back, trying to pull his hand away, “What’s happening with you man?” Raph asked, “Ever since the first day that we left the lair, you’ve been different.” Raph’s grip loosened on Leo’s wrist.

“And you’ve just noticed or something?” Leo sassed, Raph growled, “No, I have noticed, I just thought you were nervous, but it’s been months now, and your only getting worst, your…” Raph let go of Leo’s wrist, the blue turtle rubbed the area where his brother grabbed it.

“You’re secretive, you’re sneaking out, you’re giddy at times, then sad others, you hide your phone, and you always go out of the lair, like, I get not like being cooped up in here, but what’s your deal?” 

“And since when did you care?” Leo asked, Raph gritted his teeth. Fuck. He looked real angry now, “Since when- You know what, I’m not going to go over this with a stuck up, teacher’s pet, know-it-all that can’t even lead his god damn team-” Raph slapped a hand over his mouth and stepped back.

Leo’s face wet into a blank stare, he wasn’t really focused on what the hell was going on around him, he could hear Raph saying something, an apology, maybe? But it was muffled by the static that ran through his ears followed by those words.

“I’m going to my room.” Leo declared, shoving passed Raph, “Leo, wait,” Raph said in a reluctant voice, trying to grab onto the leader's shoulder, but it was shoved off by the blue turtle. “I’m going to my room, goodbye, Raph.” Leo hissed out, unlocking Raph’s door, “Leo…” Raph pleaded, “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to-” “Goodbye. Raphael.” Leo stated, walking out of the room and closing the door.

Leo walked to his room, he felt like he was floating as he opened the door, went inside, and closed it, but he could only lean up against the door and let gravity slid him down as he went over what had just happened.

Why did he do that? Raph only wanted to help. And besides, he was right, what type of leader was he? He couldn’t protect his friend from getting mutated from his stupid arrogance, let alone lead his team into a battle like that. He was a failure.

Raph’s words echoed through his head, he had always tried to not show much emotion, deeming it a weakness, but he didn’t realize how much it affected his brothers.

He also didn’t notice when they started caring either…

Leo glanced under his bed from the sitting position he was in, then looked back at his right hand, the hand that he used to cast the spell originally.

He knew that he needed rest, if the shivering and a clear rise in temperature he was feeling weren’t enough, the marks on his hand and wrist still haven’t fully healed yet. Leo bit his lip. And he may have a bit of an infection on his arm.

But he needed to get stronger, he needed to be there for his team, and he needed to show that he wasn’t going to screw up like this ever again.

The warning of death escaped him at the time.

Back in his room, Raph sat down on his bed, elbows on his knees and head in his hands, he fucked up. He knew that. He had just gone after something that Leo was clearly self-conscious about.

He just got so… Angry, angry with Leo for not caring for his health, angry at himself for not noticing, angry at the others for holding him back, making him not talk to Leo sooner, someone needed to talk to Leo, the bastard was clearly uneasy.

Raph sat there, just thinking, he could try to talk to Leo again, but it wouldn’t end well, he didn’t even know where he would begin in that situation, so, he laid on his bed, shell against the mattress, and just tried to enjoy the small break that Splinter had given them.

Leo was able to sneak past the others and grab everything that was needed to refill his med kit, he knew that this was going to get sticky, but he needed to do this.

He opened up the book, barely reading the warnings that stated he should wait three days before performing another spell. He finally got to the page with another spell symbol.

“The next step in any spell caster's journey is going to be getting the mana paper needed to have a transportable mana spot for spell casting. This time around you are going to need to modify the mana enhancement spell like this:

You can carve this symbol on the mana table, this book will go over refilling the table later on.

In the empty slot pot a paper that has been folded into a square, and in each of the ‘m’s’ put a different mana crystal shard into each one.”

Leo looked up from the page and breathed out heavily, he felt weak, maybe because of the training? He put the book to the side, keeping it open, he went on the floor and reached under his bed, and pulled out a scratch book.

It was an 8.5in * 11in size book, meaning that it should be good enough for the spell, he ripped a page out of the book, making sure to be quiet about it, and he folded the paper into a square with four different squares.

He pulled out the same razor he used before and picked up the lamp that was sitting on the table, placing it down on the bed. He also pulled out the drawer and took out all of the mana crystals, just in case it would affect the spell if the crystals were inside, he didn’t need this thing exploding on him.

He started carving the wood, making sure that he doubled check the spell symbol in the book, once he had the symbol down, looked back down at the book.

“In each of the ‘m’s’ put a different mana crystal shard in each one” he read back, grabbing the leftover halves from last night and placing them each into the three mana spots, the fire and ice crystals were the closest to the empty spot. He then grabbed the paper and placed it in the empty circle. He took a deep breath in and placed his two right fingers on the innermost circle.

It was still breathtaking, every time the cracks lit up his hand and spread to his elbow, the power was back to just being static, but it was starting to heat up a bit earlier than last night, but he closed his eyes and breathed through it. Allowing the cracks to heat more and more, the shards were floating in the air again, but this time followed by the paper, the three shards made their light trace around the symbol, making their own in the air.

The blue and red light from the fire and ice crystal reached over to the paper and combined them together. The cracks were starting to sting and Leo hissed in pain. The paper glowed white and the symbol in the air was slowly turning white, the crystals turned back into blobs of color.

That’s when the pain started, Leo’s breath hitched as it began, at first a slight sting to his already injured hand, then turning into a pain that resembled a knife being run through his hand. He could feel the sticky liquid coming out of the cracks already, and he held his breath to try and hold back the tears of pain that threaten to emerge from his eyes, a small sob barely escaping his lips, but he tried his hardest to muffle it.

This was good. This was progress.

The red, green, and blue colors came together and separated, now there were four blobs of red, green, blue, and white colors. The blobs went from spheres. To spreading out into four rectangles that were the same size as the paper before it.

The colored paper flashes a color of white before turning into a brownish tan and falling back onto the table.

Leo felt like he could finally breathe as he lurched forward and ripped his hand away from the table bringing his left hand to his mouth to muffle the heavy breathing, and bringing his right hand to eye level so he could examine it. The bandage was completely burned off, the old cracks were opened and now they were bigger, deeper, and extended from his hand to midway on his forearm.

Leo’s breath hitched as he let the silent tears escape him. God, he was pathic. He couldn’t even do this for his team, what type of leader was he?

Leo’s hand shook as he lowered it, now staging at the paper. He didn’t know what to do now, to be honest, he could try looking in the next chapter? “Fire Fiery” it was called? One of the mana crystals was named the “fire” mana crystal, so maybe…

He picked up the book he had set on his bed, flipping to the third chapter of the book, after skimming through a few paragraphs he finally found what he was looking for.

“When a spell caster is performing a spell, it must be noted that there are multiple spells that one can create using the mana from around them, fire mana, for example, can be found in the purest version of spell known as ignite, the purest form of a spell from mana is normally the most basic, so we’ll start with that.

In order to perform ignite, draw this symbol on mana paper:

It must be noted that all pure-form spells will be weak when your first start out, the spell you are trying to perform calls on the prime form of mana, in this case, fire, but when one’s mana and control on the spell is weak, it can turn to the subform, in this case, it’s light.”

Okay, so the first spell he is going to be learning is a spell that will most likely set something on fire, blow something, or create a light, which is… Fine, he’ll have to figure out a different place to do this, but it’s fine, he can manage, even if he has no experience with these spells, maybe this book is meant for people with adult supervision or something?

Leo looked back at the paragraphs before the one he has just read, there was information on the spell, apparently, this was a control spell, so he would have to use his already messed up hands, the spell can burn if you’re not careful, which is just great, and you can power up the spell with the fire mana crystal, even though Leo will most likely not use the crystals until he has more of a supply of them.

Leo closed the book then kneeling returned it back to the place under his bed before putting the crystals and the three pieces of paper back into the drawer on the table he used He then sat down on the bed and put his hands together, elbows on his knees.

He wasn’t stupid if he tried to perform the spell now his family will definitely know that something is up, he can wait.

Even if he doesn’t deserve the break, even if he needs to get stronger, and even if his family needs him to do this.

He was weak, he felt weak, he had no desire to eat, his vision was fuzzy, and the shivers were only getting worse, but his skin was boiling to the touch.

He got up from his bed and grabbed the med kit, opening the full red box and started rewrapping his hands, making sure to cover all of the new wounds he had gotten, the injured hand trembled as he slowly wrapped, the pain his left arm making it known that it did not like the movement he was doing.

Once he was done, he closed the kit and put it back under his bed, then laid back into bed, he might as well try to get some sleep while Splinter wasn’t on him, he needed to rest anyway, he looked to his phone, he leaves his phone on his shelves now.

He wanted to pick up, text Damian, tell him everything that has been going on, and complain to him about the amount of pain he was in, but he couldn’t, it would be better if he left Damian alone, Leo had already caused enough damage to Damian as it is, Damian didn’t need to be bugged by him anymore.

(Meanwhile, a grounded Damian is pacing around his room, concerned for his friend.)

The next day (Night? When the turtles are going to bed)

Leo had just barely been able to sneak out of the lair, it was clear that Sensei was on high alert, but Leo can be sneaky, he’s been doing this for months down, back when he used to visit Damian…

Leo shook his head, he couldn’t think about that right now, he needed to focus.

He took out the four pieces of paper that he created out of his pocket, he placed one on the ground and put the others back before taking out a pencil that he had brought along with him, one his knees he used one of his hands to steady himself, closing his eyes and trying to remember the symbol, once he got it he opened his eyes and started drawing.

He was able to match the symbol, putting away his pencil as he took a deep breath, then placed his left hand, the hand that was unharmed but had the deep gash wounds that still seemed infected, and closed his eyes.

He was able to feel the static even before he closed his eyes, so he immediately opened them again, looking down at the cracks that formed, this time they were red with a blue tint instead of the white that they were before.

The symbol was quickly able to form in light, then the paper crumbled up, causing Leo to back off of it, as the paper turned into a little ball of light. Leo took this light in his hands, he was upset that it was almost like the subform that the book talked about, but progress was progress.

A week after the first day

Raph walked around his room, anxiety creeping up through his skin, and fueling the anger he had. He had seen the hand that Leo had tried to hide, the bandage, once just on his hand, was now up to his forearm.

Leo was clearly in pain yesterday and he was tired, now it was clear that he was in agony, and that he was dead on his feet. His wounds, his condition, was getting worse, and Raph can’t bring himself to confront the leader.

Donnie has noticed, he tries to grab at Leo’s bandages and asks Leo if he could change the bandages, Leo denies Donnie and sneaks off to change them himself.

Raph knows Mikey isn’t stupid, it’s clear that he’s noticed as well, Mikey has been trying to find time to have Leo enjoy his favorite things, find time to talk to Leo privately, and time to have Leo feel comfortable, but every time Leo has brushed Mikey off or has been too busy.

Sensei noticed it as well, his father had tried to hide his concern, but with the way, Leo’s mandatory training was lighter (Even if Leo went above what his sibling was doing), or the way Splinter would sometimes pull his tough love approach to get Leo to talk, it all showed that Sensei knew something was wrong with Leo, but not even he could get it out of the leader.

And Raph’s too scared to confront Leo after how the lost confrontation went. He knew that he should probably make his way to the dojo so Sensei doesn’t get mad at him, but he can’t stand the thought of being in the same room as Leo while he was hurting and not being able to do anything about it.

The burn marks that started showing up on his arms and legs, and the new bandage on his left hand were the final straw for Raph though. He was going to go to Leo and force the answers out of the leader, even if he had to use force to do so.

Leo walked out of Donnie’s lab, he had been able to convince Sensei to give them a break, then he went to check up on Donnie who was making a petrol buggy, then Mikey threw a water balloon at the purple turtle and ran off, being chased by Donnie.

He was able to get the spell to make fire on the second try! But, he put all of his strength into it and now he was completely out of it, and the fires were bigger than he expected, meaning that the flames had burned some of his skin.

He was slow as he walked, there was exhaustion in his bones that made him barely able to get out of bed, walking past the TV that had space heroes playing, he had lost interest in the cartoon a bit ago, maybe when the training started? He needed to focus on that anyway.

He clutched his head with a groan, it was pounding, it may have been from the little amount of food that he had eaten, but he wasn’t too fond of eating right now, he couldn’t stomach it.

He was aware that Raph had exited the lab right behind the leader, but as Leo walked to his room he thought Raph had gone elsewhere.

Until he was grabbed by his mask and pulled to the corner that meets the archway separating the bedroom and the main room. Raph had his hands on Leo’s shoulders and Leo’s back was up against the archway. His brother had a deep scowl on his face that made it clear Leo wasn’t getting out of this.

“Raph.” Leo hissed out, it wasn’t an angry hiss, but Raph had a firm grip on his shoulders, the left one was still sensitive due to the infection, and the right one had a new burn on it that still stung under pressure.

Raph seemed to catch onto this as he loosened his grip. “Your hurt.” Raph concluded, Leo scowled at his brother, “What makes you say that?” he mimicked irritated by his brother’s actions, Raph rolled his eyes, “Look, Leo, I don’t know what has gotten into you, but it needs to stop.” Raph stated, taking his hands off Leo fully and flapping them as if trying to cool them down, a confused look spread across his still scowling face.

“Holy shit, I just realized that you are burning up as well.” Raph mentioned as he reached for Leo’s forehead, Leo slapped his brother's hand away, “I’m fine.” He wasn’t. He really wasn’t, he was shivering and sweating in his sleep, when he got any, his head pounded in pain, he had a ringing in his ears at times, rooms spun and blurred, and he had no appetite to eat but he could feel the hunger weighing on his bones.

It was a fight to get any sleep for him, more than normal that is, he couldn’t find happiness in the little stuff he enjoyed anymore, he was either annoyed by it or felt empty.

Raph looked his brother over, it was clear, no matter how many times Leo denied it, he wasn’t fine, he was easier to get angry, his arms had thinned out, he was clearly tired, and his skin seemed a bit flakey.

“No your not, your not getting out of this one Leo, I know you better than- “ “Guys!” they heard the voice of their female friend, April call out, Leo and Raph looked in the direction the voice had come from, then back to each other, Raph growled at Leo, jabbing a finger into his plastron, “We’re talking later.” he declared before making his way towards April, Leo followed, thankful for the save.

“We’re meeting Shredder tonight.” The radio-distorted voice of Fong, leader of the purple dragons, came out of the red phone that April had, “He’s got a plan to destroy the turtles,” Leo stiffened at the words, squinting his eyes, he tried his best to concentrate “How? He doesn’t even know where they are.” the voice of sid came through the phone.

“He says they’re in the sewers somewhere, and that’s all he needs to know to wipe them out.” Fong said before the recording stopped, “Our home is no longer safe.” The voice of master Splinter stated, the turtles looked up to see their father approaching.

“The Shredder must be stopped.” He declared, Leo felt the fear boil under his skin, “How can we stop a plan we don’t even know?” Leo asked his father, well aware of the water balloon his youngest brother was holding as he threw a knife at it before his brother could hit him.

“We need to go top side to find out what they’re planning!” Raph declared, Leaning forward a bit, ready to defend his argument, “Raph’s right, there’s no other way.” Leo stated, turning to his immediate younger brother and crossing his arms, Raph followed the action, staring at the leader, a scowl appearing on his face.

Raph wanted to argue that Leo should stay behind, the guy could barely stand on his feet, but he knows his brother, he knows that Leo can be sneaky, and he knows that no matter of guarding can separate his older brother from them.

So Raph lets it be as they make their way to the surface.

Blue moon jumps from rooftop to rooftop, he was in his first demon form, even though he did shrink it down a bit, and he was aware that he could fly, but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

His blue kimono flew in the wind alongside his long white hair that he had forgotten to put up, but that didn’t matter, he basically flew without the help of his wings across the rooftops, he could understand that he needed to be in a hurry.

A scent that belongs to a specific group. Think about the lemon scent, lemons belong to the citrus group, but if you're trying to be specific about the smell, you would call it a lemon instead of an orange or something.

The scent was that of a magic user, one that was training in control make to be specific.

And other than him, he only knew of one other being that was a control user in this world.

A blue-banded turtle that he had been looking for a week straight now.

He had caught onto the scent a few times but was too slow to be able to reach him, but now, he was ready, he was near, and he could do this.

Both Leo and his brother needed him to do this.

What concerned him was the two times he had smelt him, both of the times he was practicing magic.

And both times a scent of blood followed, the second time the smell of something burning was there as well.

He really hoped the turtle wasn’t doing anything stupid.

“Bradford?” “Rad-Brad!”

The turtles looked on in amazement and fear at the newly mutated Bradford that had just found them sneaking into the alleyway right outside of Shredder’s lair. “Look what I’ve found, four soon-to-be ex-turtles.” Bradford declared.

“I’m sure glad it’s okay to be scared.” Mikey mentioned, backing up, “You and me both,” Donnie responded backing away with the youngest, “This is no time to panic!” Leo declared, ignoring the overwhelming anxiety that flooded through his veins, the dizziness that was running ramped, the aching in his left arm, and the chill in his bones.

Bradford rose to full height, towering over the turtles, Leo looked back to see that they were in faceted trapped, “Okay maybe a little,” Leo muttered to himself, he had both of his swords out and the rest of his brothers follow through with their weapons, preparing for the fight.

Leo was distantly aware of two eyes watching him from the rooftops, but he could barely concentrate on Bradford, let alone some random feeling.

Bradford was slowly getting closer to them, his spiked hand drugging across the concrete“He keeps getting taller!” Mikey declared in a frightened tone, it broke Leo’s heart to hear his little brother like that, but it also set up a protective fire that was now about to go out before the threat was taken care of.

“Then I’ll cut him down to size!” Leo declared, Leo ran to the side before jumping at the giant dog, bringing his swords down on him in an attack that was easily blocked by the dog’s hand, Leo landed in front of the man, dodging the fist that was thrown down on him, he flipped back to where his team was.

“Uh, let’s stick together on this one.” He asked, ashamed to admit to the weakness he held, but he needed his team for this, he couldn’t fight this foe without them. They most likely didn’t need him

Bradford threw a punch at all of them, but they were able to jump back before it hit, Raph charged at Bradford but he ended up needing to use his sai to black the hand of the massive dog to not get crushed by him.

Donnie ran to where Raph was, jamming the dog in the neck so that the red brother could escape, the beast threw a punch at the turtle but missed once more. Leo charged at the mutant, being down his swords in an attempt to stab the thing, mercy be damned, but the dog caught the swords in between his fingers and was able to hold the swords in place.

Leo tried kicking the dog away, but was punched off by him, he was able to land safely on the ground, he bit his lip in consideration, he could use his fire spell to get them some time, but it would be risky, he looked down at his two hands, it was clear that they may not be able to take much more of a beating.

Then there was a crash next to him, Leo whipped his head over to see that Mikey had been thrown off the dog and crashed into Donnie, both of his brothers were now injured on the ground, all thoughts against the idea that had came beforehand ceased to existed as he put one sword away and allowed the now free hand to move towards his pocket, shimmying closer to where Donnie and Mikey were.

“This is hopeless!” Donnie cried out, Leo hated seeing his brother so upset, so hurt, but they had a fight to win, and it could cost them their home if they didn’t win it, he opened the stapped shut pocket of his utility belt and shoved his pocket inside, feeling the texture of the mana paper he had stored inside of it.

“Keep your head in the game!” Leo whispered, taking the picture out of his pocket and hiding from Donnie, jumping out of the way with his two brothers when their enemy struck the place where they were, “I’m just trying to keep my head on my body.” Donnie snapped to no one in particular.

Leo knelt behind the dumpster, took out the pencil he had, and drew the fire symbol on it, he carefully picked up the piece of paper and came out from behind the giant tin. “Come on, what are we retreating for?” Raph asked, jumping at the mutant, sai at the ready, but was hit off and thrown into the dumpster to the left of the dog.

“Raph!” Leo shouted out, Raph opened the dumpster lid, “That’s a good reason.” The red turtle stated, Leo breathed heavily, the protective fire inside of him increasing as he pounced on the dog.

He acted as though he was going for another strick with his katanas, but when the dog used his hand to block his blades, he used the new surface to his advantage, jumping up with a spin and landing on the dog’s back, then slapping down the mana paper on the mutant, Leo breathed in as time seemed to slow, he summoned all of his strength as he did before and felt that familiar static on his hands.

Raph didn’t know if Donnie and Mikey could see it from their angle, but when Leo jumped on the back of the dog, the giant animal turned so Raph could barely see what was going on, the dog was flailing as well so that didn’t help. But Raph could have sworn he had seen the tail of a flame followed by the smell of something burning.

Leo’s hand lit up with the red light as the fire from the paper burned, normal Leo would have retracted his hand from the source, allowing the flame to float and dance above his palm. But now? Now his hand was in the flame, it didn’t hurt as much as it should, but Leo could still feel the burns, he didn’t care though, he wouldn’t let his flame hurt him.

Leo jumped off the back of the giant dog, who was now reaching to his back, trying to soothe the burn mark that Leo had left there, Leo turned to his younger brother, “Mikey! Smoke!” He ordered the youngest, who took out a smoke bomb but ended up dropping it.

“What was that!” Raph snapped at Mikey, “I’m stressed!” The turtle yelled, panting, “Excuse me if my aims a little off!” he tried to defend himself, Leo and Donnie dodged a punch thrown by the foe, “How hard is it to hit the ground?” Raph asked, bitterly, pulling out a smoke bomb and throwing it to the ground.

Leo wasn’t looking at this, but from the ‘plop’ and lack of smoke, the smoke bomb must’ve gone into the sewer grate, “Not so easy, is it?” Mikey asked, Leo was fed up with the twos fighting, “Oh will you just-” Leo snapped, pulling out a smoke bomb and then throwing it to the ground, allowing them to escape.

Bradford growled at where the turtles once were, before making his way back to the lair of his master.

On the rooftop, the cold blue figure was watching on, eyes squinting, at the scene that had just unfolded. He turned on his heel and pulled out a shiny blue, tinted pink, stone from his kimono. Normally he would just keep it hiding in his cloth, but right now, he needed to move fast.

He used the shining stone to open a blue portal, then walked through it.

In ??? at the ??? palace

Blood moon paced around his room, the thing looked a lot like the room he had in the human realm, but it was bigger, it had more posters that lined the walls, and there was still a desk with the computer and a taped-together picture next to the computer.

Blood put his hands together and behind his head. His anxiety had made itself apparent for the last week, and it wasn’t because of the training exams he was in, it was because of the fight he had with the Shredder.

He could still remember looking into his Aoi’s eyes, the fear and sadness that they held hunted him to this day. The words he spoke, ‘I’m sorry’, sounded so defeated and pained.

He wanted to go after Leo, but he knew that it would be for the best to let Leo heal before confronting him, so Blood went home. Worst mistake of his life. His parents went looking for him while he was gone, and confront him when he snuck in. And because it was exam week, they grounded him and took away his phone until the exams were over.

Now he was here, pacing in his room, with no way to contact his friend and so many worries that were creeping up his back. What was Leo apologizing for? Did he think that they can’t be friends because of what he was? Did he want to say goodbye and didn’t have a chance to?

All of his thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his window. He turned towards the left side of his room, where he kept his mana table and curtains closed, and started walking over.

He opened his curtains to see Blue’s face pressed up against the window, hanging upside down.

Blood closed the curtains.

A muffled “Hey!” Was heard from the other side of the window as Blood started laughing his ass off at his brother’s antics, he had heard a knock on his door beforehand but told whoever it was to go away. Apparently Blue was more persistent than he thought.

Blood went back to the curtains and opened it, Blue was obviously not impressed, Blood opened up the window. “Okay, now you have to tell me, was that sound you knocking or slamming your head up against the glass?” Blood asked, Blues reddening face was all he needed to start laughing again.

“Hush!” Blue snapped, looking towards Blood’s door, “I’m getting you out of here.” Blood stopped, frozen by his words, “What?” was all he could say, Blue’s eyes narrowed, “You heard me, we’re getting out of here!” Blue stated.

Blood tilted his head, “The perfect child rebelling?” He asked, mockingly, Blue rolled his eyes, “Listen I know that our relationship is still not great.” Blue hesitated a bit, the air between them was awkward, “And I know you most likely blame me for the grounding-” “I don’t, you were asleep by the time I left and came back, and mom and dad admitted to looking for me.” Blood cut him off.

Blue breathed a sigh of relief, “Alright, yeah, but, the reason why you may not have seen me around after the grounding is that… I was looking for Leo.” Blue said in a slow voice, Blood’s poster stiffened, he knew that Blue would never steal Leo from him, the ice demon had made it very clear that he was not interested in any form of romantic relationship.

But Blood still had that venomous voice inside of his head that screamed at him that everyone he loved would leave him for something better.

Blue seemed to notice his change, as his face went from neutral to a softer expression, “Hey, I wasn’t doing anything bad, I was just trying to look for him to make sure he was alright after you vented to me about what happened, the words he said didn’t sit right with me, so I went out looking for him.” Blue blurted out, his voice sincere, so much so that it calmed Blood’s worries.

“Well, what happened.” Blood asked, his fear spiking up once he saw sadness flicker across his twin's face. “He’s hurting.” the words shattered Blood, “He had bandages all over his body, I wanted to go down and confront him but he was with his brothers and in the middle of a fight.”

A wave of displaced anger crept to the surface, “Did you help.” He scolded out, he wasn’t angry at Blue, but he was angry at the people who had hurt his friend, and Blue was in the crossfire, “No, that was my mistake, but I saw something, he’s performing magic.” Blood’s heart skipped a beat, the anger turned to shock.

“What kind?” he asked, curious about his friend, Blue hit his lip, “He’s practicing with control magic and fire mana. But that’s the issue!” Blue blurted out, “He’s injured, and it’s not just any injuries, both of his hands have bandages on them, and I can smell the magic in the injuries they hid, but he still cast a spell!” Blood’s eyes widened with realization.

“He’s overusing his powers, not giving his body time to rest.” Blood breathed out, “He’s killing himself.” he added, backing away from the window, Looking down at his hands. He had already lost someone due to the overuse of their power. did he cause this? “Yes, and that is why we have to go.” Blue responded, Blood looked up, he could feel the tears in his eyes, “But… Why?” He couldn’t lose Leo.

There was a mixture of emotions going through Blood, confusion, guilt, sadness, and a need to help. He needed to help, he didn’t care if he was still grounded he could not lose Leo, not like this. Blue looked to the side “I know you’re better at sensing emotions than me, but, I sensed guilt inside of him.”

Blood was just confused now, “You remember when he saw you and he said that he was sorry?” Blue asked, Blood nodded, “What were you around?” Blood tilted his head, “What do you mean?”

Blue furrowed his eyebrows, “I know you’re not stupid. What was in the bomb that the krang placed?” Blue asked, honestly the most shocking part about that sentence was the admission of Bloods competence.

“Aww, you think I’m smart?” Blood side, leaning against the mana table with a smug look on his face. Blue’s face showed anger, and Blood realized this wasn’t the time to play. “What was in the bomb,” Blue asked again, more sternly this time.

“Mutagen.” Blood responded, “And what do humans turn into when they touch mutagen?” Blue asked, “Mutants?” Blood answered in a questioning tone, confused as to where his twin was going with this.

“And what did Leo think you were before the fight?” “A human. Where are you going with this?” Blood asked, the only thing he was focusing on was the guilt that was consuming him from hurting his Aoi, “What being in that world could we be mistaken for?” Blood shrugged, “I don’t know, we wear human disguises all the time, so, humans?”

“Mutants.” “What.” “We can be mistaken, for mutants.” Blue pointed out, Blood processed the information before it clicked, “Leo thinks I’m a mutant.” Blue nodded, “Leo thinks I was mutated that night.” Blood came to the realization “And what does he normally do when one of his friends is hurt?” Blood brought a hand to his mouth at his brother’s words.

“Blame himself. Leo thinks he caused my mutation.” Panic rushed through him at the thought of Leo blaming himself for something that never happened to him. “That’s right, we need to go,” Blue stated, Blood just looked at his brother.

“Look, Damian.” His heart skipped a beat, they hadn’t called each other their human names in demon form in a long time, human names hold meaning to demons, they are the names that they got to choose, they are the names the demons prefer.

“I know I’ve only known Leo for a few days to a week now, but I can see why you like him.” Damian nodded, “But I can also tell you that you’ve hidden the truth from him for too long, I know you fear rejection, and I know your afraid he’ll leave, but, I can promise you won’t, I can see it in the way he looks at you.”

Damian sucked in a breath, “He needs to know.” He concluded, Deven, still in his demon form, nodded, “He deserves to know.”

And with that, the two brothers snuck out through the window, unaware of the woman with long, brown hair, blue-tinted skin, black eyes, and a purple gown with white accents, listening in on their conversation.

Chapter Text

“I’m telling you, master, one of the turtles- The blue one! He had fire! It appeared out of nowhere!” Bradford pleaded for Master Shredder to listen to him. Shredder narrowed his eyes, his throat was still burned from the fight with the unknown creature that allowed the turtles to escape.

“And why should I care about this?” Shredder demanded, “My goal is simple, destroy Splinter and the turtles, I care not for the other none sense happing in the city.” Bradford, looked down from where his master was, “But that creature, it saved the blue turtle, it used to fire from nowhere to take you down!” Bradford pointed out.

Shredders grip tightened on the throne, “I am aware of my defeat, but it will not happen again.” Shredder stated, “But that creature, there’s a chance for it to continue protecting the turtles! If we can figure out the connection between the blue turtle and the creature, we might be able to use it to our advantage!” Bradford stated.

Shredder leaned back, it was interesting, that creature, how it was able to summon fire in his hands, and even more interesting was the bond it had with the turtles. If what Bradford is saying was the truth, then maybe he could use the turtle to grant that power to himself.

Shredder smirked at the idea, “So you're saying that the turtle seemed to have the powers of the creature?” Shredder clarified, “Yes, master.” “Very well, for now, we shall continue our previous plans to destroy the turtles, but if you get your hands on that blue one, bring him to me, I will learn of his power and take it for myself.” Shredder declared, making a fist with his hand as though he was grabbing something.

“And if that doesn’t work, I’ll just have to find a way to use Splinter’s own son against him.”

Leo couldn’t look Master Splinter in the eyes as he sat on the couch, elbows on his knees and hands together, “We couldn’t take him.” Leo admitted, he hated that, he was weak, and he couldn’t take down the mutant that was once Bradford, if only he had practiced with fire a little more…

“Dog pound was just too powerful…” Mikey added solemnly, he was sitting down on the right corner of the couch, “Dog pound?” Leo questioned, “What? He was a dog and he pounded us into the ground.” “We get it,” Leo responded to Mikey’s reasoning, he was irritated with the noise at this point, he didn’t mean for it to come out so mean though.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get close to that meeting now.” Leo stated, looking down at the ground still, “Well maybe we just need to find a new home. I heard to sewers in Florida are nice this time of year.” Leo looked up to see Donnie showing him his makeshift laptop that he had made.

Raph stood off to the side, just staring with narrowed eyes at his older brother, he had noticed that Leo needed to change the bandage on his left hand after the fight, that, mixed with the tail end of the fire, made him suspicious.

April sat right in between Donnie and Leo, shutting the laptop before saying “No, I’m not letting you guys give up.” She got up in front of the purple and blue brothers before stating, “I’ll spy on the meeting.” she offered.

“Nu-uh!” “No way!” “Forget it!” “You can’t!”

“Absolutely not!” The chorus of denials started to April's request, April scoffed at the outburst, “I can do this!” She turned to Splinter. “You’ve been training me to be a Kunoichi!’ She defend, but Splinter’s face was adamant, “For a few weeks!” That’s what concerned Leo, April has barely any training, and now, she was going to be sneaking into the base of their most dangerous enemy? Not a chance.

“What other choice do we have? Shredder’s going to attack your home and we need to find out how, and I’m the only one who can do it!” She defended, and the turtles looked down, knowing she had a point, Splinter crossed his arms and hung his head.

The plan was a go, and no one was really happy about it.

The turtles jumped to the rooftop right in front of Shredder’s lair, watching as April, in an oversized jacket and holding a box of pizza, and walking straight up to the most dangerous enemy that they have.

“I don’t like this.” Donnie confirmed as he stood up with Mikey, “Me neither, giving the enemy a free pizza? Never a good idea.” The youngest stated, Leo rolled his eyes as he concentrated on his friend, trying hard to ignore the growing hunger, yet the lack of appetite. His head started pounding again, and he closed his eyes, he was still in the crouched position, so he didn’t need to worry too much about steading himself.

He got flashes of images, this time they were faint, and hard to make out, like a printer running out of ink, but he could make out images of a tanker, Dogpound, and what looked to be a human with their hands tied behind their back and in a van.

Leo opened his eyes just in time to see the foot ninja slam the door in April’s face, the girl quickly retreated to an alleyway and pulled out her phone, “Looks like the foot clan are smarter than the Purple Dragons.” April’s voice came through Leo’s t-phone. “They almost have to be, wouldn’t they?” Leo stated, sarcasm in his voice.

“Thanks, April, you did your best,” Leo stated, trying to get April out of the situation, but something told him that it would be that easy. He saw April look up to the top of Shredder’s lair, where the church bell was coming from.

“At least we’ve still got the pizza,” Mikey stated, but something didn’t sit right with Leo, April was about to do something he would deem stupid, wasn’t she? April chuckled, “Oh, I’m not done yet.” Leo sighed, he was exhausted, he really didn’t want to parent another teenager. “Wait. What is she doing!” Donnie asked, fear in his voice.

The turtles watched as April threw out the pizza and made her way to another apartment, “Not the pizza! She’s gone rouge!” Mikey cried out, Leo was paying attention to his brother’s antics, he was meanly watching Aprile as she shoved her way into the home of another man and made her way to the top of the building.

“She’s so cool.” Donnie said in a dreamy voice, Leo just looked at Donnie, eyes narrowed and mouth pressed into a straight line that looked like a mother about to scold her child or a person just thinking, “Bitch, no.”

Leo watched April as she made her way to the roof, jumping across it to reach Shredder’s lair, almost falling off and almost giving Leo a heart attack along with it. But he let out a relieved sigh once April was able to pull herself back up. Was he seriously considering grounding a girl that is supposed to be older than him? Yes. Yes, he was.

Donnie looked at his blue brother, eyes narrowed, he didn’t understand why Leo was attacking like this, wall he could understand the concern with April almost falling off a roof, but not to this degree. He knew better than anyone Leo would never try and steal Donnie’s dream girl (Let me introduce you to some later, Donnie-), but he couldn’t help but be suspicious.

“Calm down.” He heard Raph hiss into his ear, Donnie jumped at the sudden voice, it was loud enough for Donnie to hear, but soft enough for Leo to miss it. “I’m pretty sure this is just his mom senses flaring up, you know how he is.” Raph continued, Donnie nodded, it would make sense that Leo would be protective if the ‘mom sense’ had grown to include April as well.

April was able to sneak into the Shredder’s lair, unmuting her phone, the turtles were able to hear what Shredder was saying, he mentioned something about a chemical, “Chemical? What chemical?” Raph ordered, Donnie, whose hand was being smacked away by Leo when he tried to touch the bandages on his arm, responded “How about we listen so we can find out.”

“About I break your shelf on my knee.” Raph bit out, pushing Leo down a bit so he can and Donnie could get up in each other’s faces, the blatant disrespect made the leader snap a bit, “How about you two shut it for a minute while we try to hear Shredder’s evil plan!” Leo argued, getting in between the two, but they were only able to catch the ending part of the plan that Shredder had, “We missed it! Oh great, thanks a lot guys!” Leo snapped at his brothers, Raph gave Leo a look.

Donnie ar to the edge of the roof, taking bigger steps in his hurry “We gotta get April!” He stated, about to jump over and onto the concrete below, but Leo put his hand on his brother’s shoulder, gripping it tightly with a stern look, “No, if we rush in there, we put her at risk, we wait.” Leo’s eyes narrowed at the building, Donnie slouched his shoulders and looked down, resigned to follow the leader’s words.

Leo didn’t like this either, but they didn’t have a choice.

The team that Shredder assembled left the building, and April couched behind the overflowing dumpster in the alley next to Shredder’s lair. April turned her phone to unmute with a ‘ding’ “I’mma hitch a ride, see where they go.” April spoke through her phone,

“No, you’ve done enough, get out of there,” Leo ordered, trying to keep his voice low, but his anxiety from the fear of losing another friend overridden that action. So much so that Dogpound ended up hearing Leo through the phone. Leo realized this before April, “Bradford heard you! April! Run!” Leo ordered, but he watched on in fear as he saw Bradford restrain April and throw her in the truck.

The turtles ran for the truck, jumping to the street and rushing over to the van, but it ended being fruitless as the van pulled away from them, and off to the destination of where what Leo presumed to be the tanker he saw in his vision, would be.

“No! We’re too late” Donnie cried out. Leo looked down at his phone, frozen in shock. He shouldn’t have been so loud. He should’ve been able to get to the van in time, he wanted to scream through his phone and call for April, but he knew it would be pointless.

Leo closed his eyes, trying to calm his thoughts. But the vile things kept racing on and wouldn’t give Leo room to actually think for a minute. He wanted someone to ground him. To tell him that it would be okay. He knew his brothers would never understand. But he needed someone who did, someone to who Leo could vent too and explain how what he was feeling was normal, someone who wouldn’t judge and can relate to his struggles.

He needed Damian.

The thought made him want to scream. He needed someone who he hurt. He needed someone he wasn’t able to protect. He needed someone who wouldn’t want to talk to him in a million years.

He needed something he was unworthy of to begin with.

Then he remembered something, a meeting of theirs. they tended to visit each other almost every day. It was a meeting after the fight with the cultist, but before Xever.

Leo was sitting on the cold, iron ledge of a Chirs Bradford billboard, the smoke of the factories surrounding him filled his nose as he scrunched it, trying to get rid of the horrid smell. It was in the middle of brud daylight, and the factory workers were at work making the fumes that entered his nostrils.

He heard the ding of something landing on metal next to him.

“You’re not supposed to be out this early.” He heard the voice of Damian comment, the voice sent butterflies into Leo’s stomach as he sat up straighter, trying to appear normal.

“Shouldn’t you be in school?” Leo asked, he was trying to calm down, but the tiredness slipped into his voice and masked any other emotion that there was, Leo felt drained, he had been for quite some time, and it was always a struggle for him to sleep, but right it was getting worse.

Somedays he got so little sleep he didn’t want to get up at all, and other days it was the same feeling, but he overslept.

Those were the bad days.

Damian sat down next to Leo.

Leo finally looked at his friend, and felt his face heat up, Damian wasn’t in his usual white t-shirt and jeans. He was in a black tank top that seemed to fit tightly on the skin, his pants were long, black, cargo pants.

Leo looked Damian up and down, unable to tear his eyes away from the muscle the shirt showed off- and god, when did Damian get ear piercing? When did men look good with ear piercings?

They were two dots that trailed up his outer ear and ended with a loop mid-way.

Damian lifted his arms to stretch, side-eyeing Leo, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Leo felt the heat in his face grow ten times more and he quickly looked away from Damian, who was laughing at the turtle’s strawberry-red face.

“But anyway, what’s up?” Damian asked, Leo, heard the shuffling of cotton that indicated that Damian had turned his full body to the turtle, Leo, in turn, looked back at Damian, he could still feel some heat in his face, but he hoped Damian would just mistake it as the abuse from the hot sun on his skin.

“Just thinking.” Leo mentioned, turning to face the smokestacks and now fidgeting with his fingers, “Thinking is all you do, admitting to thinking is normally when you have a problem.” Damian mentioned, Leo huffed, he did use the ‘thinking’ card a lot to get out of situations, what irradiated him was that it would normally work with his brothers, so why doesn’t it work on Damian?

“Well…” Leo trailed off, resting his hands in between his legs before taking a deep breath in and out, “I’m just going to come right out and say this, I’m scared.” Leo admitted, and it felt like a knife had been ripped away from his heart, as he sloughed forwards and squeezed his eyes shut as though the admission physically hurt.

Leo felt a hand on his shoulder, “And that’s okay.” He heard the comforting voice say, “It’s normal to be afraid, especially in your situation, is there… Anything in particular.” Damian asked, giving Leo’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

Leo let out a breath of relief, leaning back against the Christ Bradford billboard, “No, not really, it’s just… It’s a mixture of things, a mix of things that seem to ooze and squish together, but, I don’t know.”

Leo looked over to Damian, the human sporting an encouraging smile, “It’s okay to not know, what matters is that you don’t let fear cloud your judgment, and that can be done in multiple ways, facing your fear, learning your fear, or just talking about this.”

“I believe in you, Aoi, you can do this.”

Leo opened his eyes at the feeling of someone, not from his memory touching his shoulder, he looked up from his phone to Raph’s green eyes meeting his, there was frustration on his face, but it was dripping with concern, Leo took a deep breath in, and then out. “You back with us Leo?” Raph asked, Leo, nodded.

“Yeah, yeah, just had to catch my breath, um.” Leo closed his eyes before a light bulb went off in his head, Leo turned towards Donnie, “Don, can the patrol buggy drive?” He asked, Donnie, was stunned by the sudden question, “Um, it’s- it’s not ready, but it can drive, yes.” Donnie answered.

Leo smiled, “Then let’s go get April,” “But we’ll never catch them on foot!” Donnie defended, not thinking that Leo would seriously take an unfinished car for a drive, “We’re not going on foot.” Leo confirmed, putting his hands on his hips.

“Yeah, this is rad!” Mikey declared as the turtles drove the patrol buggy out of the Lair and into the streets of New York, past the buildings and through the street, trailing the car that Dogpound had taken April in. “It’s not ready!” Donnie screamed as Leo turned the car, smiling to himself.

“This thing is awesome! Does this thing have a radio?” Mikey asked, pressing the seat in front of him and just ended up annoying Raph a bit, “No, it doesn’t have a radio!” Donnie snapped at the youngest before turning to the leader in blue, “I’m telling ya, it’s not ready.” Donnie pleaded, but Leo knew this, he knew that the invention wasn’t ready, but it drove fine.

“Seems ready to me-” right as Leo said that, the steering wheel came off, “Woah!” He yelped before sticking the wheel back into place, he turned to his side, being meant with all of his brothers squinting at him, “Uh, just don’t pull on that and we’ll be fine.” Leo declared before turning back to the road, being careful of the unfinished parts of Donnie’s invention.

They rounded the corner, and Leo was content to see Dogpound and a foot soldier riding a tanker, they weren’t too late, they can do this. Dogpound said something that Leo couldn’t quite make out, “Raph, get ready.” Leo declared, “For what?” His brother responded, “For this!” and with that Leo pulled the trigger to detach Raph’s and Mikay’s cars from him and Donnie’s.

Leo didn’t know how he knew what thing to pull, Donnie hadn’t told them, it just came naturally.

“Leo!” Raph called out, clearly shocked, “You could’ve been a more specific!” he quipped, “Where’s the fun in that?” Leo responded, smiling at his brother, before speeding up to reach the tanker. “Chlorosulfonic acid?” He heard Donnie say, “Leo! I think I’ve figured out Shredder’s plan!” He heard his younger brother yelp, Leo perked up at the news.

“That acid reacts violently with water!” Dread set into Leo when he heard those words, “So if he dumps it in the sewers?” Leo asked, “It’ll be incinerated in seconds, including the lair!” Leo felt the panic raise in him, not only was the only way he had to learn to control his powers there, but his father was there as well, “We gotta stop them!” Leo declared.

Fong must’ve realized the turtles were trailing them, as he turned down another road from where the tanker was heading, with April in his van, “Raph, Donnie, you go after the van and rescue April, Mikey, you stay with me, we have to stop that tanker!” Leo ordered, Mikey looked at his older brother, confused.

“Uh, if you haven’t noticed I’m stuck with Raph.” Mikey pointed out in a sassed tone, Leo rolled his eyes, ‘Who taught him to be sassy, and how did they get him to listen’ he thought to himself, Leo could make out his immediate younger brother smirk as his hand went to the trigger to send Mikey off of him.

“No problem.” Raph stated, releasing Mikey from his cart, Mikey hollered with laughter as he went flying off of Rapah’s cart, Raph pulled up next to Leo, who was smiling at his little brother’s laughs, “Well that was fun!” Raph stated, “Told ya!” And with that, Leo pulled the trigger to release Donnie, allowing Raph and Donnie to team up and trail the van as Leo and Mikey went after the tanker.

Leo and Mikey sped up to catch the tanker, but it wasn’t going to work out, they needed to slow this thing down. “Mikey!” Leo called out, glancing at his brother, “Let’s slow this thing down, fire grappling hooks!” Leo ordered, the two turtles shot out the hooks from their cars,  but the string snapped and allowed the tanker to continue down the road.

“Donnie did say it wasn’t ready!” Mikey shouted, “I know!” Leo could only respond with that and a turn down of the head, he felt stupid, but he knew that Donnie’s inventions were the best, no matter how far from finished they were. This is most likely why they would be better off without Leo

Leo watched as Dogpound jumped out of the tanker that had come to a spot, slid to the manhole cover, lifted, then threw the cover at Leo. Leo jumped and avoided the metal circle, leaving it to blow Donnie’s invention to pieces, Leo would apologize later for that, but for now, they have bigger things to deal with.

“Is that all you got?” Leo asked as he landed, knees a tad bit bent, ready to fight, hands coming up a bit with a katana in each ready to pick a fight. Dogpound growled at him, before charging at Leo “I think that’s a ‘no’” Mikey stated as he came up with his cart, then once Leo charged, Mikey followed his brother, taking off his helmet and taking out his nunchucks.

Dog pound brought down a fist, trying to crush the turtles, but the two jumped coming down on Dogpound, Dogpound punched Mikey away, and Leo was allowed to slice his katana but was blocked by Dogpounds hand.

Leo was able to land in front of the giant dog, and the mutant squared up, ready to throw a hand at him.

Leo heard Mikey’s scream and looked to the side to see what had happened to his younger brother, who landed on the road.

Leo looked back just in time to see Dogpound trying to hit him, and dodged the attack.

Leo slashed at Dogpound, but it was useless when the dog’s hand could block his swords.

Mikey sat up from where he fell and looked over to see his older brother fighting the enemy on his own. Mikey knew Leo could handle himself, but with the number of bandages that already littered his body, Mikey was hesitant to take care of the tanker first.

Then he noticed how Dogpound was swinging. It wasn’t his normal swing, hands balled up into a fist.

His hand was open, as though he was trying to grab something.

Mikey decided the tanker could wait.

Mikey was able to kick Dogpound out of the way, just as Dogpound landed a hit on Leo and looked like he was about to pick the blue turtle up.

But the fight quickly turned to both Leo and Mikey being thrown up against a building that was being constructed.

Leo looked up, he was hurting, and the area was starting to spin a bit, he was able to make out enough to see that they needed an out. He took out a smoke bomb and threw it to the ground, allowing him and Mikey to go to the third floor of the construction.

Leo looked back to where the tanker should be, now seeing the foot soldier bringing a pump to the sewer hole, “Don’t let him dump that acid!” Ordered as Dogpound climb to the floor they were on.

Mikey launched himself down and took care of the foot soldier, Leo watched as dog pound looked away from him and started making his way toward the tanker.

Leo jumped down, preparing to slash him with his katanas, but was punched, he was able to get up before Dogpound hit him with the dumpster.

He was thrown up against the tanker, Dogpound grabbed his arm and he pierced the tanker with his katana. Leo struggled against the hold.

“What power do you hold,” Dogpound questioned, it was low enough for Mikey not to hear, but the question sent chills all throughout Leo’s body. Did Dogpound know? How did he know? Does Shredder know?

Leo kicked the dog in the chin, taking his sword out of the tanker, and causing a leak of acid, Dogpound growled at him from the other side of the stream, before going behind the tanker, “What’d Donnie say about this home?” Leo wondered allowed before the memory hit.

“Mikey! Throw the water balloon!” Leo ordered, twisting around to see his brother as stiff as a board, holding his hand behind his shell, “Uh, what water balloon?” Mikey questioned in a loud voice, not looking toward Leo. “The one you were going to hit me with,” Leo stated in an accusatory tone, placing his hand on his hips as he fully turned toward his brother.

Mikey looked behind his back, “Dude, you are good.” He stated, throwing the water balloon, as soon as the water balloon was out of the turtle’s hands, Leo tackled Mikey behind a car that blocked the two turtles from the explosion.

Leo and Mikey looked over the car, Leo smiled to himself, “Nice shot Mi-” he was cut off when Mikey reached behind his head and pulled out another water balloon, throwing it at his brother. “Dr. Prankinstin for the win!” Mikey called out, turning towards the now exploded tanker and lifting his arms in celebration. “You had two! Where do you keep them!” Leo asked, gobsmacked, but his question fell on deaf ears.

They reunited with their other two brothers, “Well it looks like we missed the fireworks.” Raph joked, but he was glad that his brothers were safe, “Donnie, the patrol buggy worked great, great job!” Leo complemented, Donnie chuckled, putting his hand behind his head “Thanks, Leo.” He said with a genuine smile.

Off in the distance, two figures stood on the rooftop, one with white swirls standing at their full height, and the other with black strips was a strip and perched like a cat, both stared narrow-eyed at the scene that was happening, they were mostly staring at the giant dog that had attacked the turtles.

“He knows.” Damian noted to himself, “What?” Deven questioned, he could never understand how his brother was so good at hearing things and he was basically deaf. “The giant dog. He knows Leo has powers now.” Damian growled.

Deven nodded, “Who’s the dog.” “Bradford, one of Shredder’s henchmen. Someone I had warned to stay away.” Deven let out a hum of acknowledgment before opening his mouth again, ut was cut off by his brother, “The Shredder is an old rival of Splinter, the turtle’s dad, and wants to wipe them out.” Damian explained. “I see.” The icy cold voice of Deven stated, Damian knew that voice. He was pissed.

Damian didn’t blame his brother, but he knew that no matter how much he wanted to go into the black building and strangle the man in metal, he knew it would only cause trouble.

Damian took out a shiny blue stone from his pocket, got up then turned to his brother, allowing the portal to open behind his twin.

“They defeated you with go-karts and a water balloon?” Shredder questioned, “Yes sir.” Bradford confirmed, bowing to his master. “And you also failed to retrieve me the turtle,” Shredder questioned, turning around and walking towards Bradford.

“I know it sounds absurd but-” Bradford was caught off the shing of Shredders blades extracting. Bradford quickly changed his pace, “I- It won’t happen again, master! I promise.” he stuttered out. Shredder squinted at his student.

“If you break that promise.” Shredder threatened, cutting off a spike on the giant dog’s shoulder. “Yes, master.” Bradford whimpered. Shredder turned and walked back to his throne. “Focus on our main mission, defeating the turtles, but should the opportunity presents itself, capture the blue one.”

“He’ll be perfect for our next plan”

The turtles were now back in the lair, all of them sitting on the couch surrounding a box of pizza that Mikey had brought in, Leo had tasted something funky with it, but he didn’t question it, he was more focused on actually getting it down and keeping it down, taking slow bites to make sure of it.

“Nothing says victory like the sweet taste of pizza!” Mikey said, taking a big bit of his slice, Leo heard Donnie sniff, “Ugh, this pizza smells funny… Where’d you get it.” he asked, a sudden realization came to Leo, he didn’t know how he put two and two together, but his eyes went wide and he stopped chewing.

“It’s the one April threw out.” There it is, Leo’s pizza landed on the floor and he stuck out his tongue, but quickly closed and covered his mouth realizing that it wouldn’t be a good idea based on the raising liquid in his throat.

He heard footsteps come closer to them, but he was looking away, trying to keep the small amount of food he had down. “My sons, I owe you my gratitude.” Okay, it was Sensei saying that they did a good job, nothing too strange-

“And an apology.”

Leo whipped his head to face Sensei, immediately regretting it when the room didn’t stop spinning, worsening the nausea. Leo held his head in his hands, swallowing down anything in his mouth, and asked, “An apology?” Leo knew why he was apologizing but didn’t know why Spinter was apologizing.

“Fear clouded your minds, but it was not the Shredder that installed that fear, but me, you overcame that fear and performed admirably.” Splinter stated, “Ah, it wasn’t that big of a deal, just some goons, but the weirdest thing was not seeing Xever.” Raph pointed out, putting a hand on his chin.

“Well, he was turned into a fish, maybe that hinders him?” Donnie suggested, Mikey finished up the slice in his mouth and said “Naw, man, the weirdest thing was Dogpound, the guy kept trying to grab Leo in the fight!” Mikey stated as though it was the most normal thing in the world, but Donnie’s and Sensei’s heads snapped towards the youngest, and Raph looked at Leo, who had his hand on his chin and was facing forward, eyes glazed over in shock.

“What?” Donnie asked, trying to get Mikey to clarify, Mikey looked towards his purple brother, “Yeah! Whenever he swung at me he would have a balled-up fist! But when he swung at Leo, somethings his fist would be open! And one time, when he hit Leo down, he actually tried picking him up!” Mikey stated.

Leo was too busy thinking. He hadn’t really paid attention to the intent behind some of Dogpound’s attacks, only focusing on dodging them, making sure that he was still in one piece so that he could help his family. They were what mattered at that moment. They are the only thing that matters in his life

But now, looking back at it, it was becoming clear what Dogpound’s strikes were for from the beginning, distancing him from Mikey, then taking Leo away. That sent a chill up Leo’s spine, the thought of being taken away from his brothers and forced into the hands of someone who wants to kill him didn’t sound too great.

“Is that so?” Master Splinter questioned, turning towards Leo and stroking his beard. Leo simply nodded, “I guess… Didn’t piece it together during the fight that Bradford was trying to grab me.” Leo stated, Sensei turned to walk forward, and the turtles moved to let their master through and allow Splinter to head to the dojo.

Splinter had gotten a bit away, but was close enough to be able to talk to the turtles over his shoulder, “If it’s true that Shredder is targeting you, Leonardo, I must ask all of you to be careful, Shredder is not one to give up on his targets.” Splinter ordered.

He noticed the small movement of Leonardo’s mouth, muttering something that Splinter could not hear, but judging by how Rapheal, the closes to the blue turtle, had his face paled, mouth dropped into a frown, and eyes went wide in shock, it wasn’t good.

Splinter hummed to himself as he walked to the dojo.

Leo stood from where he was seated and started to head toward the entrance of the lair, “Hey- Where are you going?” Raph snapped, not about to let Leo go after what he just heard, “For a walk, I’ll be back in a bit.” Leo stated, Raph wanted to call out and ask him what the fuck his previous statement was about, but before he could say anything, the leader in blue was gone, off to do whatever the fuck he does when he disappears for two hours.

Leo walked along the rooftop, it was the rooftop that he used to meet Damian on, the place brought back memories, he used to adore coming here, but now he just felt unwelcomed and disgusted, disgusted with himself for ever thinking he was allowed to have what he did.

Leo reached into the scratchy utility pocket on his brown leather belt, pulling out the brown mana paper that he had, he had been planning this for a bit now, curious to see what would happen if he pushed himself.

He knelt on the pavement and pulled out a pencil, drawing the symbol of the ignited flame, he picked up the paper ad laid it flat in his palm, putting the pencil away. He clapped his hands together and held them there, turning his hands so that they are positioned vertically instead of horizontally. he closed his eyes and brought out the same static power that he had felt a few times now.

He opened his eyes, seeing that in between his palms, a lick of orange was appearing, he slowly turned his hands outward, holding his hands out from his chest, he focused on the flame. The flame transitioned from his hands to floating in front of them, dancing and growing by the second.

He pushed farther, making the cracks that had appeared grow to halfway up his bicep. The flame grew bigger, hotter, and deadlier. He thought back to that night, the night he fought the SHredder, the night that he had harmed his friend.

He felt tears coming to his eyes. He was angry. Angry at himself for what he did.

He felt a burning in his torso.

The flames grew.

But there was something else. As the tears ran down his cheeks, finally released from the amount of the slight burns. His breath hitched as he looked back on the memories that he and Damian shared.

He allowed himself to openly sob for the sob this time.

The burning pain in his torso grew.

He felt drops of something on his skin.

He took a glance around. It was raining now. It started as a drizzle but ramped up to normal quickly, the tapping sound on the roof calmed him a bit.

He focused back on the fire, it was being put out due to the rain, and he decided that maybe this could be a new challenge for him.

He pushed forward everything he had, igniting the fire once more into a controlled blaze, he felt the pain in his chest grow and the rain beat down harder.

Then he realized, the sound of rain tapping on the roof was getting further, and there was a liquid base that surrounded his ankles but hovered above his feet. Leo looked down, shocked to find the rainwater had collected into a puddle above his feet, pooling around his ankles.

But that’s all it took.

The one moment of unfocus.

That one moment when he took his eyes off of it.

That was all the fire needed to power through.

Leo looked back just in time to see the fire blast into a rampaging blaze, and held his hands out more, trying to keep his face away from the blaze and regain control.

But the more he focused, the more powerful it had become.

The rain poured harder, and the pool on Leo’s ankles started to shift, he looked down to see the water forming a bubble around him, trying to surround his body completely.

The worst was the tears, which were now bent on blocking his airway and nose, and the water continued to surround him.

He couldn’t stop.

Not that he didn’t want to stop.

He physically couldn’t put his hands down.

He couldn’t move at all.

Leo didn’t know if it was the lack of air or the tears that blurred his vision that caused this, but his vision started bending.

No. It was his vision.

Reality was shifting into his hands.

Zooming him, out and warping as though he was teleporting, things once far away broke into floating parts, gravity seemed to turn off for some things, or affect some more.

Then, a tear opened up, it had a blue ring with a white inside, Leo could barely see it passed the flame though.