Chapter Text
Six Years Ago
He did it. He finally did it.
Number 3 had spent weeks planning for this. Cautiously taking note of his father’s routine and schedule, as well as the gargoyles, preparing himself for this exact day and moment. He planned his escape to the last detail.
Thankfully, his father sticks strictly to a schedule, so it wasn’t that difficult for him to pick a day when his father would not be in the house for a long period of time.
What was difficult was getting a good look at the said schedule, which was in his father’s office, but he snuck in when Draxum wasn’t there. He meticulously looked at the schedule to see which day was the closest he would get to perfect for him.
That day would be the day that Number 3 would leave.
Number 3 also had to find the perfect portal to run to, and could easily jump through it without trouble. He had found one that looked good to him. It was easy to access, and it wasn’t that close to home. He would have to travel a bit, but he didn’t mind if it meant that he would be free from his own personal hell.
And he waited and planned for this day, for this moment when he would finally step out of his home.
He couldn’t stay at the entrance of the house for long, someone was going to spot him and report his act of disobedience to Draxum. And Number 3 did not want to be around when his father returned home, only to discover that his son wasn’t there.
He breathes in the Hidden City air for the last time, and then he runs. His legs were moving as fast as they could to get away from what he’s known as home for 8 years.
Home is where a person can feel safe whenever they feel uncomfortable. Home is where a family can live as themselves and no one tells them to be who they are not. Home is for an escape from the cruel world.
Whatever Number 3 had been living for 8 years was not home, it was hell.
The yokai that he had called his father did not care for his wants and needs, only what the Baron wanted from him. His father was never patient with him, and always lost his temper and lashed out at the child.
He learned to stop voicing his discomforts a long time ago. It got him nothing but bruises.
Number 3 had taught himself how to read lips since he couldn’t hear very well and Draxum thought he was just doing it so he could ignore him whenever. However, his father did get him glasses when he discovered that the softshell couldn’t see very well. He also had to force himself to do things that made him want to curl up in a ball, laying on the dirty floor of his room (it could barely be called a room), or on top of his bed, underneath a thin, scratchy blanket that he dislikes, but on some days it was his only comfort.
Baron Draxum was raising a soldier, not a child, and it took Number 3 eight years to figure that out.
Number 3 couldn’t take the pressure anymore with the impossible expectations that his father had placed upon him at an extremely young age. He could try and try and try to do everything that Draxum had asked of him, and it still wasn’t enough. Nothing that he did was ever enough to please the Baron.
This father had always called him weak, and Number 3 had always thought it was because he was a softshell turtle, but it turns out it wasn’t his body that was weak, it was him. His personality (other than acting like what his father wants him to act), his mindset, and his disabilities that his father refused to acknowledge. Some things he couldn’t fix even if he tried. And he did try before he found out that he couldn’t be fixed. Draxum had also tried to fix him, and he still does try, just not as much as before.
His father had wanted him to kill every living subject on which he was forced to practice his physical combat, and he couldn’t do it for the first few subjects, resulting in punishment.
Anything that Number 3 did that Draxum didn’t like would ensure a punishment that the Baron seemed fit, and he could get creative if Number 3 did something unforgivable in his eyes.
Not to mention that Draxum didn’t care about his inventions or interest, which made Number 3 think that he was selfish wanting to build stuff that he wanted to, not just living to become a mindless soldier for a war he did not want to be a part of.
Number 3 came to a sudden halt next to a portal that went to the surface. His breath was shallow and unsteady after running to the closest portal that he had easy access to him. It was a little bit away from the house, but it’ll work. Thankfully he didn’t bring anything with him except one spare pair of glasses. He barely had anything that he could call his, and those things he didn’t feel attached to those enough to bring them with him.
He’s never been outside of the house without Draxum. His father wanted to protect him from the cruel and unforgiving world and told him stories about vicious humans and how they forced yokai underground. Now he just thinks that Draxum just wanted to keep an eye on him, not trusting him to be alone when he was out of the house. He did accidentally wander off a few times when he was younger, but he’s learned since then.
Maybe he was just being over dramatic. He was running away from food, and shelter and his father provided those things, not to mention he couldn’t hear if anything or anyone was sneaking up on him. He could only feel movement in the ground, but that wasn’t very helpful since he could only feel disturbance when it was close to him. Too close for comfort.
Perhaps he was being ungrateful for everything that his father provided and gave him. His father cared for his health and well-being, to a degree. He was the only one to patch himself up after training, but he needed to know how to do that in case he was alone and needed medical attention.
Maybe his father was right about all those derogatory words whenever he disappointed him, which was all the time.
But Number 3 had taught himself how to read, write, use the movement of others to his advantage, and all the other basic information that a child needs to learn. Not how to take down an enemy in one fatal motion. His father didn't think that soldiers should know simple basic skills that even human children were taught and to use American Sign Language. No, Draxum taught Number 3 to fight and told him that fighting was all that he was good for.
He just needed to listen and obey Draxum's every word and he will thrive right beside his father whenever they take the surface back for yokai-kind.
He didn’t want to fight the humans, they had built countless impressive inventions. Things that the yokai in the Hidden City could only ever dream of. He didn’t even like fighting, he was just forced to do it. He didn’t like hurting innocent creatures, but it was either him or the creature, and this world was about who or what was at the top of the food chain. That’s what his father kept telling him.
So him running away from an abusive life was survival of the fittest.
His father would have his head if he ever found out that his son used his logic against him.
Number 3 stares at the portal to the surface world. He didn’t dare look behind him, because he was scared that if he did then he would want to go back home. Back to him. He started clutching and un-clutching his hands.
He didn’t feel much emotionally. This was a big moment for him, he literally ran away from home, but he feels almost nothing. Maybe there was something seriously wrong with him. His father certainly thinks so.
He takes a moment to mentally prepare himself for his new life ahead of him, and then he walks through the portal.
It was a strange feeling when he stepped foot through the portal. All of his emotions and feelings got scrambled and he could feel it inside of him, yet he couldn’t feel anything. Like all of his organs sunk to the bottom.
He felt the change in the environment almost immediately. The Hidden City didn’t necessarily have the same weather that the surface had. It was warm and bright down there.
Here in this new land, it was not warm. It was cold and wet and dark. Water droplets fell from the gray sky above, the coldness of it making Number 3 shiver when it hit him.
It was also very loud, which caught him off guard. Beeps and honks came from metal machines that were out in the open. Humans, hundreds and thousands it seemed like, were talking all at once. Their voices overlapping one another. It almost made him walk back through the portal. Almost.
He worked too hard for this just for him to turn around and run home to his father, who will be absolutely livid that his son wanted to leave him.
But he had made it. He had gotten away from Draxum and he was not going to let something as simple as loud sounds get in the way of his new life.
He looked around at his new surroundings.
He was in an alley with two dark, tall brick buildings on either side of him. It was a narrow space between the two walls, and there was trash and random stuff on both sides of the alley, leaving a walkway for anyone who would walk down there.
Speaking of humans, they didn’t even look down the alley at the mutant turtle. They were all busy with their own lives to give the green child the time of day. Most of them stared down at their hands, holding some type of black box. Some of them held a black pole with a half circle on top, which seemed to keep the humans underneath dry.
He didn’t understand why they didn’t like water. He loves it.
Draxum had told him once, during a training session, that his species of turtle was aquatic, and could spend literal months underwater. They were also impressively fast swimmers. Draxum had wanted to test how turtle Number 3 was and he spent some time in the water before he ran out of air before Draxum wanted him to come up.
His father, like always, was disappointed.
Despite the water training, whenever he was showering or taking a bath, he’d lose track of time and spend hours in there. It was the only time he could feel like himself. Draxum however, did not like that he spent a long time using up the water.
And then he suddenly got hit with the reality of the situation.
The loud noises of the machines and human voices. The smell of feces and trash, which had appeared to be left on the streets for a while. The way light from outside of the alley flickered when humans passed the opening. The way the ground underneath his feet felt, and it wasn’t a good feeling.
And then he finally processed what he had just done.
Number 3 ran away from home, where he had food and water, and shelter, something that he does not currently have.
He’s literally in a different part of the world. One where he’s not welcomed in. One where he doesn’t know the rules or logic or laws. One that he’s not familiarized with.
Number 3’s breath hitched, it was becoming difficult to get oxygen into his lungs. He felt tears roll down his face.
He didn’t know where he was besides in the surface world. He didn’t know anything about this world. He ran away from his father. His father who gave him life, literally created him, and gave him all the things he needed to survive.
This was one of the few moments where all of his emotions got too overwhelming, and he was surrounded by the unfamiliar.
He felt his legs get weak, and he took two steps toward a cardboard box before he fell to his knees in defeat. The disgusting, wet, gross ground. He starts sobbing and screws his eyes shut. He shuffled around so he was sitting on his butt instead of his knees, and put his hands over his ears, his glasses shifting at an awkward angle. He starts rocking back and forth.
It was all too much. Everything was too much.
He was such a terrible son. His father cared about him. The only one who cared about him, even though he could never please his father no matter how hard he tried.
He was a waste of the mutagen that gave him life. All Number 3 could do was disappoint, disappoint, and disappoint.
I’m such a failure. I’m such a failure. I’m such a failure.
The tears and thoughts kept coming and coming, and the world around him got brighter. Gray turned into a dull blue. It was still raining and it was still cold.
His sobs soon turned into sniffles, and his body lost all of its tension, and he slowly stops rocking.
He didn’t know how long he was in that alley for. He could only tell that time had passed from the aches and pain in his shell.
He stayed in that curled-up position for a little bit longer until he felt footsteps. Not from the street in front of him, it came from the alley behind him.
The turtle quickly opens his eyes, only to see his vision was blurry from the tears and the fog on his glasses lenses. He moves his arms away from his head and twists his torso and head towards the movement, ignoring the pain, and he sees it, or her.
There was a human girl with dark skin, her dark hair in two circles on top of her head. Her upper body was yellow, while her feet were bright green. She stopped in her tracks when she spotted him, and they both stared at each other for a few seconds before he remembered what he was.
A human spotted him. A mutant turtle. A mutant turtle who was at the end of a breakdown.
Number 3 tried to stand up and run far away from her, but his legs sent him to the ground again, colliding harshly against the wet surface. His arms were the only thing that kept him from face-planting into the pavement.
“Are you okay?” The human asked while running over to him. He couldn’t hear what she said, but she did say something. Number 3’s immediate response was to hiss at her, telling her to get away from him. She took a couple of steps back.
He could try and run away from her, he was certain that he could outrun her, or any human, but the weight of exhaustion made him stay there. He was also extremely tired from running and crying.
He tries to examine the way the human spoke to him. It wasn’t fear or hatred or disgust from what he could tell.
Why wasn’t she screaming at the top of her lungs, alerting the other humans about his existence?
The soft expression made it seem like she almost cared about him. He didn’t detect any disgust in the human, just concern and worry.
Why? Why would she worry about someone like him? She was clearly heading someplace before his presence stopped her. She could have walked right past him, not giving him the time of day. Instead, she was still here, several feet away.
She could have started laughing at him. She could’ve started beating him up, and he would have let it happen. He didn’t have the energy to fight for his life right now, he was easy to take down in this moment of weakness. However, she was just crouching down, a few feet away from him, analyzing him.
He squinted his eyes at her, trying to figure out her true motive for staying with him. There was no way that a human who had just seen a mutant, a freak of nature, could be this calm. He was told that humans were vicious creatures that would not hesitate to kill him if they ever saw him. Had his father lied to him about it? Were humans actually capable of compassion?
If so, then what else was Draxum lying about to him?
“Are you hurt?” The human asked, and it took him a moment to see what she said. He shook his head slowly, the crying had given him a headache and he didn’t want to make it worse, and he felt like he couldn’t move his arms. “Do you need help?”
Number 3 moved his head slightly before stopping. He just met this human, he wasn’t about to reveal to her that he was weak at this moment. Yet his subconscious trusted her enough to move his head to tell her that he was in fact, not okay. His hesitation was an answer to her.
“You can trust me. I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” The whole reason that he was up here right was because he trusted someone to take care of him and to be an actual father and not some drill sergeant.
He couldn’t explain it, but somewhere inside of him wanted to trust her. Maybe he already did and he didn’t know it yet.
“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. My name’s April. What’s your name?” He didn’t necessarily have a name, just a number. He was just a number to his father. A useless number whose only purpose in life was to fight and take control of the surface for yokai. He couldn’t even do that right. He couldn’t do anything right.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry. I’m sorry.” When did he start crying again? He lifted a hand to his face, and touched the side of his cheek, feeling a familiar wetness. He was seriously crying over a name, one that he didn’t even have. Draxum was right, he was pathetic, along with every negative word that he had said to him.
He hiccups, and he wants to disappear, but he can’t.
“We can go back to my apartment and get you warmed up, yeah. That sounds good, right?” He didn’t realize just how cold he was. It didn’t help that he was wet, it was making the cold worse, and his crying was going to make him sick.
He had read a long time ago that turtles are cold-blooded, meaning that they can’t produce natural heat and needed heating lamps. He also read that reptiles could freeze to death if it was cold enough. He didn’t want to freeze to death in a dirty alley.
The turtle looked at her and then he slowly nodded his head, and the human, April, smiled at him, she was missing a tooth on the top row, on the right side.
“Okay, let's go get you warmed up then.” April slowly stood up, not wanting to scare off her new friend. Number 3 started to get up as well but then realized that he couldn’t get his legs to work properly. He tried to move, he did, he just couldn’t. The exhaustion from today had made its way deep into his body, and it didn’t want to move. He could feel himself fighting sleep as well.
He didn’t want to be unconscious when April had kindly offered to take him to her home and give him warmth, or in case she decided that hurting him would be better.
“Do you need help?” He nods. “Do you mind if I carry you?”
He did not like physical touch, yet he couldn’t tell her. She would get disappointed in him and change her mind about helping him. Draxum told him that no one wanted to hear him whine or complain or voice his opinion on anything. Just say yes and do what he was told.
But Draxum wasn’t with him, and he probably wouldn't see him ever again. Number 3 had left an hour after Draxum did. His father might not even be home right now to realize that his son wasn’t there.
Maybe it would be okay to trust April, even though he just met her. Met his first human. The first person to show him compassion and that they cared about him.
“No.” His voice was small and rough from crying and from not talking in a while. He had no reason to say anything other than “Yes”. There was no reason for him to say anything but one word.
April slowly walked over to him and kneels down, and places both hands on his side. A hiss died in his throat. April was trying to help him, it wouldn’t do any good to give her another reason to leave him.
Surprisingly, the touch didn’t make him want to crawl out of his skin. Her hands were warm and soft, and it felt kind of comforting. She lifted him up onto her leg and readjusted her hands. Her left arm was wrapped around his carapace at a downward angle and held on to the bottom edge of his plastron. Her other arm snakes around his front, and then she pressed him against her chest and slowly stood up.
It was kind of scary at first, but he relaxed after a few seconds. April moved the arm that was around his plastron and adjusted her raincoat to cover him. He liked how she covered him up from the world, the darkness helping his headache. She was very warm and she smelt good. He closed his eyes and told himself it was to rest his eyes.
April at some point had started walking, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy focusing on her body heat before he let sleep take over.
____________________________
Lenore was in the kitchen eating cereal or was eating. He was absentmindedly stirring the spoon around the bowl, the pieces of cereal and milk moving with the spoon. He gave up eating a while ago, retracting into his head and going over his thoughts. He didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, so that could also be a factor on why he’s trapped in his brain. The slider was staring at the wall, but not focusing on it. Everything in his vision was colorful blobs since he was only present in his mind, not in the real world.
The thoughts started after he and his brothers watched The Princess in the Frog for the first time when April had came down to the lair for a movie night, about a year ago, and she wanted to show it to them.
He and his brother were obsessing over the movie, and April let them keep the DVD. They played that movie every single day for about two months until Raph accidentally broke it when they were playing frisbee with the disk. Lenore hasn’t fully forgiven his older brother quite yet, and probably never will.
While his brothers were gushing over Tiana, he took interest in Naveen. Everything about the prince made Lenore feel some type of way he couldn’t really decipher.
At first, he thought it was a crush, he's had those before with other fictional characters, but it felt different with Naveen. It was weird and he didn’t like it at first, but he grew accustomed to it. He was stuck with those feelings, no matter how hard he tried to get rid of them.
He didn’t have the same feelings with other mystical men that have a carefree attitude, but he did start having a better connection with them than with any other character, like with Lou Jitsu.
Lou Jitsu was the person that shaped his personality. Beat up the bad guys and look good while doing it. Lenore wanted to be with him so badly, but he was sadly another fictional character that he wouldn’t date.
Then the thoughts started plaguing his mind a few months ago. He didn’t know how it started, or why it was in his mind. He didn’t like these thoughts. He just wanted them to go away, but they didn’t. It had only gotten worse with time.
After the thoughts became a regular thing in his mind, he started to notice that he didn’t like it when his brothers, or Splinter, treated him like he was weak. He thinks that his family sees him as weak because he was a girl.
He wasn’t weak. Sure he wasn’t as physically big and muscly as Raph, but he was strong and tough. He liked to play-fight with his brothers, and sometimes he got hurt, but he liked it when his family treated him like one of them, and not like the weak girls that were portrayed in most of the tv that he watched. He liked all the typical things that a boy liked, and he even has more boy clothes in his closet than girl clothes.
The slider didn’t like it when Splinter would put him in dresses and call him a pretty princess, but he couldn’t tell his dad that because he didn’t see him that much. When he did it was a whole event. His brothers would try and get him to play with them, or they would help him cook. He liked those days. Where his family actually acted like a family.
He was lost in his inner turmoil for a few more minutes before a loud sound brought him back to reality. He knew that sound. It was the sound that the phone makes whenever April calls them. Mikey makes a happy chirp before he presses the answer button, then the speaker button.
“Hey, Ap’il!.” The youngest brother’s cheerful voice brought Lenore back to himself. Mikey has both of his top front teeth messing, so his speaking sounds funny and he couldn’t pronounce his R’s. Mikey would probably cry if he found out that one of his brothers thought the way he was speaking was funny. He didn’t understand why the youngest didn't like it, it raised his cutest level.
“Hi, Mikey! What are you doing?” April asked the box turtle. Something in her voice seemed off, but it could just be early, and he was thinking about things and that he didn’t get much sleep last night.
Wait, why was April calling them right now? She’s supposed to be at school at this time. April had given them her class schedule in case one of them wanted to call her while she was at school. Lenore didn’t have her schedule fully memorized, but he knows that she shouldn’t be calling them at this moment.
“Eating ce’eal with Leno’e!”
“Hey, Apes,” He said immediately, turning up his kid charm a bit too much for his liking, but he didn’t want April or Mikey to know that he wasn’t feeling like himself. He hasn’t felt like himself in a while. Although one of those people was sitting 3 feet away from him and had probably noticed the slider staring at the wall. “Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”
He heard a sigh from the other side of the phone. “Yeah, I just- it's um… Can I talk to Raph for a minute?”
Lenore did not like the tone of her voice. She sounds worried, and the volume in her voice dropped. Is she hurt? Did someone hurt his sister? He was going to find whoever did this to her and give them hell.
“Did someone hurt you? Are you ok? Do I need to beat someone up?”
April laughs quietly, “No, no one has hurt me. I just really need to talk to Raph about something, and I promise I will tell you both after. Okay?”
“You p’omise you’ll tell us?” Promises were a big deal to Mikey, you break one, he breaks you. That's what the box turtle said to Lenore one time when he made an empty promise and didn’t fulfill it. Lenore did not want to test Mikey, or any of his siblings, to see if they could break him. They probably could, if he’s being honest. His brothers and surrogate sister were the toughest people he knows. Well, they were the only people that Lenore knew personally, but his point still stands.
“I promise Mikey. Now let’s go find Raph.” Both siblings sitting at the table got up out of their chairs and walked out of the kitchen, leaving their cereal bowls full of milk on the table. Mikey holds the phone in two hands, scared that he’ll drop it and it will break. April had told them when she gifted the siblings with her old phone, to be very careful with it because she wouldn’t be able to replace it if it were to break.
Both turtles yelled out for their eldest brother as they exited the kitchen and onto the platform that connects the second-floor rooms, the harsh red light turns into a soft pink.
“What is it?” Raph walks out of his room, holding one of his stuffed animals. He was probably reorganizing his ever-growing collection.
Both Lenore and Mikey slide down the closest skate ramps to get to the first floor. Mikey was extra careful since he had the phone.
“Ap’il wants to talk to you.” Mikey smiles, showing his two missing teeth, lifts up both arms , and holds out the phone for Raph. The snapper is extremely gentle with the phone when he takes it from Mikey’s hands.
“Hey, April! Mikey said you want to talk to Raph?”
“Yeah, I do. Can you take me off speaker?” Raph lifted a non-existent eyebrow at April's request, but he did it anyway. He pressed the speaker button and holds the phone to the side of his face, and walks back into his room, off to the side where Mikey and Lenore couldn’t see him.
“So,” He draws out the vowel, “What now?”
“Wanna go to my ‘oom and play with dolls?” The dolls that Mikey was referencing were actual dolls. Barbie dolls that have been forgotten on the street or in the dumpster. The box turtle washes and cleans up any of the dolls that they find.
Lenore didn’t know why, but the innocent question kind of angered him. He didn’t want to be angry, Mikey asked him to play with him, and he wanted to play with his younger brother. It was just that those toys angered him, and just the thought of them makes him angry.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad. I just thought that you wanted to play with me?” How did Mikey make him mad? Those stupid dolls.
He wasn’t angry at Mikey, he just asked a question. He was angry at himself. He made Mikey upset because of his stupid thoughts. Stupid thoughts that he had no control over.
“I’m sorry that I made you sad, Mike. I’m just worried about April.” It wasn’t a lie, he was worried about his sister. He just had other problems that were making their presence known at an awfully bad time. April could be in trouble, and all he’s thinking of is how dolls make him angry. “We can go play dolls.”
In truth, the slider did not want to play with dolls, but he couldn’t say no to Mikey. Especially since he made his baby brother upset. Mikey’s face brightened up and the tears that were building seemed to have disappeared.
Mikey turns around and skips to his own room, Lenore right behind him. The box turtle walks towards a chest, starts to dig in it, and pulls out as many dolls as he can with two tiny hands. He holds one arm out for Lenore to take whatever was in that hand.
Lenore grabs the dolls, walks over to the middle of the room, and sits down, waiting for Mikey to join him.
Mikey spends a few more seconds at the chest before he turns around and skips toward the slider.
He didn’t know how long he was in Mikey’s room before Raph came in. He had this long look on his face, and his eyes were shiny. The snapper handed the phone to Lenore and he set the dolls that were in his hand onto the floor to grab the phone.
“I need to go to April’s. You two need to stay here.” Raph's voice was strained. What did April say to him to where he was on the verge of crying?
“Why can’t we go?” He didn’t understand why the older kids were keeping secrets from him and Mikey, it wasn’t fair.
“I just need you to trust me, okay? I’ll explain everything later. You two know what to do when I’m gone.” Raph spoke really fast, some words slurring with another, and Lenore couldn’t argue with him right now. His big brother had this sad look on his face, and his voice was cracking. He was trying not to cry, so Lenore just nods her head and Raph sadly smiles at the two of them before leaving.
Mikey was surprisingly quiet during the small interaction. Maybe the box turtle could also sense that something was wrong with their big brother. Lenore turns his head to look at Mikey and saw that the youngest was staring at him with sad eyes. He had tears that were building up again.
“Hey, hey, hey. No crying on my watch, okay?” Lenore spoke softly as he scoots closer to Mikey and cups his cheeks with both hands. “How about we watch youtube while we wait for him to get back?”
Mikey just sits there, staring at Lenore.
“Why don’t they t’ust us?” Mikey asks in this small voice that just shatters his heart. The tears start falling out after he spoke. The tears slipped under the slider's hands, and he felt the wetness under his palms.
Lenore moves his hands from Mikey's face, one goes to the back of the box turtle's head while his other arm wraps around his shell, then he pulls him towards his chest. Mikey starts sobbing when his face touches his immediate older brother’s plastron.
It hurts Lenore to hear Mikey cry, sobbing, with big thick tears, and screaming while gasping for oxygen. He hasn’t heard the box turtle cry like that in a while. He couldn’t remember the exact circumstance that caused Mikey to cry like this, but it wasn’t good. Sure Mikey cries a lot, but just over little things that can be fixed. The fact that the youngest thought that both Raph and April didn’t trust him caused him to go into an emotional downward spiral, and he’s only 7. Lenore just wanted to wrap Mikey up in a blanket and shield him from all the pain and hurt.
Actually, that wasn’t a bad idea. Mikey was probably exhausted from crying, and Lenore didn’t get much sleep last night. Maybe a nap would fix some of their problems. Raph might be back by the time they would wake up.
Lenore waits for a few minutes before Mikey has somewhat calmed down before asking, “You wanna go to my room and sleep?”
He feels Mikey nodding his head against the slider’s plastron. With Mikey approvable, Lenore moved the arm that wasn’t holding Mikey’s head underneath his legs, and ever so gracefully stands up.
It takes a few seconds for Lenore to regain his balance, and when he does, he slowly walks out of Mikey’s room, and over to his room. The box turtle was fast asleep when Lenore exits the room. He had to be extra careful crossing the boards that connect their rooms with the center platform.
When they reach the slider’s room, he gently sets Mikey down on his side, on top of the messy bed. Lenore then carefully climbs into his bed, trying to not wake Mikey up, and lays on top of his shell.
Lenore found himself halfway between unconscious and conscious for about 2 hours. That weird sleep limbo where a person knows that they are awake, but not fully. He was just about to slip into dreamland when hears a faint ringing. At first, he wanted to ignore it, but then he recognizes the ringtone, April.
He jumps out of bed and runs out of his room and into Mikey’s, where they left the phone there to nap in Lenore’s room. He squints at the sudden change of lighting as he exits one room and enters another. When he reaches Mikey’s room, he dives into the floor to grab the phone, and he answers it on the last ring. He can hear Raph complaining on the other side. Why does Raph have April’s phone?
“Raph?”
“Lenore, I need you and Mikey to do me a favor.” Raph sounds like he’s been crying for a long time.
How long was he gone for? Minutes? Hours? Days? Raph being gone for days was a little far-fetched, even for Lenore, but he didn’t know how long it’s been since he last saw his older brother.
“If you want us to do your chores, then you're outta luck.”
“Lenore, this is not the time for jokes.” The way Raph’s voice was tense and serious made every witty thought in the slider’s mind die. The last time Lenore heard Raph use that tone of voice was when he thought that a human had discovered the lair, and ordered the two youngest to hide. The human turned out to be a raccoon that Mikey adopted for a few hours before it ran away after they put makeup on the poor creature. “I need you and Mikey to clean out that room in the atrium that we use for storage.”
Lenore blinked a few times at the request. That was where they kept stuff that they might need, but they never did. Where were they going to put all of that junk at? Also, that room was filled with useless items that their father thought they might need but never did. It would take days for just him and Mikey to clear out.
“And I need you to keep the mattress that’s in there. And to get stuff to make a bed, like sheets, blankets, and a few pillows.” What the hell was going on? First April calls them during her school time, not sounding like herself, asking to speak with Raph. Then Raph starts acting weird and goes over to April’s apartment, during the daytime, and then calls Lenore and tells him to clean the storage room on the first floor. All without an explanation too.
“Me and April will be back soon. I love you.” There was a few seconds of silence before Raph ends the call, wanting Lenore to say something back. He keeps the phone up to his ear for a few minutes, trying to process everything. This is one of the rare times when his brain was just silent. No thoughts, just emptiness. Why couldn’t his brain be this quiet when he was trying to sleep?
Lenore pockets the phone in his belt and walks back to his room to wake Mikey up. He doesn’t want to wake up his brother, but there’s no way he can clean out the room by himself before Raph and April get back.
He walks into his room and just stands there looking at Mikey. There was no way he could wake up his baby brother in his peaceful state. Mikey was a light sleeper, so he would probably wake up to the sound of Lenore moving stuff and complaining about it. He turns on his heels and walks out of his room, and to the dreaded room, which was parallel to his own room.
There was a flashlight sitting on top of a box that was closest to the entrance, and he grabs it and turns it on.
Okay, so Lenore is a bit of a drama queen. There weren't as many boxes as he originally thought, but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want to do it, and he was doing it without help.
Lenore puts the flashlight between his teeth and starts moving boxes to the side, in between this room and Raph’s room.
“What are you doing?” Lenore screams and drops the flashlight from his mouth onto the floor while also dropping the box that he was holding into the water that surrounds the center platform.
“How long have you been awake?” He says breathlessly.
“Like a few seconds. What a’e you doing?” The box turtle’s eyes were filled with curiosity.
“Raph asked me to clean out the room.”
“Why?” Lenore was also asking the same question, but they will get the answer soon enough when the older kids come back to the lair.
“I don’t know, Raph told me to.”
“You listened to ‘Aph?” Lenore couldn’t really blame Mikey for that question, he never listens to Raph. However, he could tell the difference between Raph’s normal voice, and the voice that Raph uses when something serious is happening. Lenore didn’t want to worry his baby brother.
“Yeah I know, shocking. You wanna help me?”
“No, I can just watch you.” Mikey had this smug grin on his face. He’s just woken up from a nap and he’s already making Lenore suffer even more. The slider places a hand over his heart.
“Oh, how you wound me, Miguel.”
Mikey’s smile got even wider and he sits down in the middle of the floor.
Lenore walks over to the edge of the platform and bends down to try and get the box floating down the moat. He gets it after a few minutes, which he almost falls in a few times, and sets it down with the other boxes. That should be fine.
It takes 15 more minutes to clear the boxes from the room. All that’s left is a sad-looking mattress in the corner.
“Oh, Raph told me to tell you to go get sheets and blankets.” Mikey could do at least one thing since he’s not asleep anymore, not just watching Lenore suffer.
“Nuh huh.”
“Ah huh, now go forth and find some.” Lenore makes a shooing motion with his hands.
“They’s prob-ly some in those boxes.” Mikey had that stupid smirk on again. There was a chance that there were some sheets and blankets in one of the boxes. Leonore was going to beat up his brother.
Lenore groans loudly before stomping over to the boxes. Thankfully the boxes were labeled, which made his job easier. He spends a few minutes searching for a certain box, and then he finds it. Of course, it had to be the box furthest away from the now-empty room. He tears into the box, and fortunately, the box had the items he needed.
He takes everything out of the box and examines the contents. He finds an off-white bedsheet and picks it up, crumbles it into a ball, and with full force, throws it at Mikey like a baseball.
It hits the box turtle right in the face and he topples over. He pulls at the fabric to get it off, but it makes it worse. He gets his arms trapped and Lenore is dying of laughter. After a minute, Mikey is free from the fabric prison and pouts at the slider.
“Hey, I cleaned the room. The least you can do is put the sheet on.” Mikey continues to pout, but stands up with the sheet in his hand, and walks toward the room. Lenore picks up all the stuff that he took out, and shoves it all back in, except for a soft, purple blanket and two pillows. The box is overflowing with different types of fabric, but he doesn’t care.
Lenore picks up the pillows and blanket and heads toward the new bedroom. Mikey was finishing tucking in the sheet under the mattress when Lenore walks in. Mikey smiles at him and backs away from the mattress.
Lenore neatly places the blanket on top of the mattress, as well as both pillows at what he believed was the top of the bed.
“Now what?” Mikey ask
“I don’t know. Wait?” Both brothers were terrible at sitting around and waiting for anything interesting to happen. They could never sit still, always moving.
“I don’t wanna wait.”
“We can watch youtube until Raph comes back?”
“Okay!” Lenore grabs the phone from his belt and sits down next to the bed, shell leaning against the mattress, Mikey joins him seconds after he sits on the floor, and leans his head on the slider's shoulder to get a better look at the small screen.
It takes a minute to find a good video before he plays it. They get through three and a half videos before Lenore hears heavy footsteps.
“Lenore, Mikey!” Both of them sprint out of the room and stop in front of the entrance, where they can see the outline of their big brother, charging at them with his full body weight.
Raph skids to a stop, bends over to place his hands on his knees, and breathes heavily, trying to get oxygen back into his lungs. He has bandages and band-aids all across his skin.
The two youngest stare at him for a few seconds, before giving each other questionable looks. Raph straightens up after a minute of being hunched over.
“I need-I need you guys-to be on y’all-best behavior.” Raph says in between breaths.
Best behavior? What was Raph talking about? Where’s April? Many questions start to flood Lenore’s head.
“Just, be calm when April walks in, okay?” Raph gestures with his hand.
“What’s going on?” Mikey ask.
“You’ll find out soon.” Lenore and Mikey were about to protest when he sees April come into view, holding a purple thing to her chest.
April was also walking extremely slowly, trying not to disturb the purple thing in her arms. He could see her lips move like she was talking, but he didn’t hear anything. One factor could be that he was kind of far away from her, but she could also be whispering to the thing that she was holding. He could see that the purple blob was an actual living thing the closer April got. And it was also green? Now Lenore was more confused than he was a few minutes ago.
“It's okay, we’re almost there.” April walks out of the shadows and into the soft light from the atrium and he gets a clear look at whatever was in April’s arms.
The figure was tiny, he could tell even with it being wrapped in a purple blanket. Its face was a dull green color. Its head was shaded similar to Raph’s, but as square as his. Almost like a rectangle. He couldn’t see its face since it was squashed between April’s chest, but he could see the outline of glasses.
April stops in front of Lenore and Mikey, and he hears Mikey gasp at the site of the figure and starts cooing, which makes it turn its head and oh mi gosh.
The figure looks like Lenore, down to the eye colors. One red and one blue. It locks eyes with him and they stare at each other. The figure then widens its eyes in realization, making its eye larger with the help of the glasses
Lenore has never seen this figure, thing, turtle? Its head was turtle-shaped, and he couldn’t see its body since it was wrapped up.
“Guys, this is your new brother.” April instantly regrets saying the word “brother” because Lenore and Mikey both let out loud noises, similar to a screech, which scares the new turtle and he buries his face back into April’s chest. “You’re scaring him.”
“Sorry Ap’il”
“Yeah, sorry April.”
“It’s okay. I know this is exciting to you, but he’s had a rough morning. So can you both please try not to be so loud?” Both the younger turtles nod their head and April sighs. “How about you guys introduce yourselves?”
“Oo, My name's Mikey!” He basically screams his name, which makes the new turtle whimper and tries to get closer to April, which wasn’t possible since he was already squashed against her as far as he physically could. Mikey lowers his voice and repeats himself. “Oh saw’y, my name’s Mikey.”
“And I’m Lenore, the best turtle to ever exist.” The new turtle relaxes a little and he moves his face a bit to look at them.
“Lenore,” Raph warns him.
“What, I’m just telling our new brother who's the best, and that’s me.”
“Wait, is he what you’ve been hiding all day?” Mikey asks, and everything clicks in Lenore’s head. April calling them during school hours. She only wanting to talk with Raph, and he leaves to go to her apartment, and spending hours there. Raph calling them to clean out the spare room in the atrium.
April found the new turtle on her way to school and took him home with her and called Raph to tell him what she found. Raph looking like he was on the verge of tears when he told him and Mikey that he’s going to April’s, and then calling them hours later to clean out the storage room, for him. This new turtle.
“Yes. I found him walking to school in an alley, and I took him home and called Raph.” April sighs. It was clear that she was hiding something else, but he didn’t press.
“So what happened to Raph?” Lenore gestured to the older turtle, who was still covered in bandages.
“He kept biting me when I first got there, but he calmed down once he realized that Raph wasn’t going to hurt him.”
“So he’s cool now?” Lenore was happy to get another brother. Don’t get him wrong, he loves the other two, but sometimes he just needed a break from them, and April was always over here when she wasn’t at school.
“He should be, but I wouldn’t test him. Oh, also he can’t hear very well.” April informs him. The new turtle yawns, and curls up more against April’s chest. “Aw, is someone sleepy?”
The turtle nods lethargically and chirps at her. She smiles at him and carefully walks over to the new room, the other 3 following her.
The room was already dark when April enters and she walks toward the bed. She pulls the blanket that was already on it down, gently sets the turtle down, lays his head on a pillow, and then pulls back up the blanket to his chin. She takes off his glasses, folds them up, and places them in her pant pocket. She pats his head three times before turning on her heels to leave but stops when she feels a hand holding her wrist.
“Don’t leave me.” The new turtle says in this small voice that makes Lenore wonder what his new brother went through.
“I won’t. I’ll stay right here with you.” April’s voice was soft, and she sits on the floor next to the bed, her wrist still enclosed by his small hand.
Raph ushers Lenore and Mikey out of the room, and back into the atrium. He keeps moving them away from their new brother, and near Lenore’s room.
Lenore can see April move her head to rest on the bed. It’s been a long day for them, especially April, and he lets out a yawn.
“You tired, Lenore?” Raph asks.
Lenore just replies with a sound of agreement, too tired to open his mouth.
“Does ou’ new brotha’ not have a name?” That wakes Lenore up, and of course, Mikey was the one to ask that question. Raph sputters at the question.
“Uh, not right he doesn’t, but April was looking at names earlier.”
“So what do we call him?” That was a good question. They couldn’t just keep calling him “the new turtle” or “new brother.”
“Well, I don’t know. I guess we just call him brother until April finds a name that he likes.” When April first found the other three turtles, she was learning about Italian artists, and she didn’t like calling them by colors. She said that colors weren’t a real name, so she let them pick out their names from her textbook that she brought home one day. He thinks that April would want to stick with artist names.
“Wait, April said that he couldn’t hear well, so why did we have to introduce ourselves?” That question was bugging Lenore since April revealed that the new turtle couldn’t hear well.
“It was so he didn’t think y’all were a threat. He literally hissed at me when I first showed up at April’s.”
Lenore hums in acknowledgment, since his question was answered, he didn’t feel like moving his mouth up and down to talk.
“You guys want a turtle pile?” Raph suggests. Honestly, a turtle pile after one of the craziest days he’s ever had sounded good, and he could probably get some sleep.
“Oh, can we do it in my ‘oom!” Mikey was jumping up and down. How does he still have energy?
“Sure buddy. Lenore, go get the blankets.”
“Ugh, again?” Why couldn’t one of his brothers do it?
“There’s a box right behind you with blankets.” He hated whenever the universe wanted to make him suffer, which was all the time. He grumbles, but turns around and walks toward the box that he destroyed earlier. He sticks both arms inside like a claw machine, grabs as much as he can, and then starts to waddle to Mikey’s room.
He tries to keep the blankets from touching the water when he crosses the board that connects Mikey’s room with the atrium but fails. At least two blankets make contact with the water.
When he finally gets to Mikey’s room, he dumps the blankets onto the floor. His brothers were already in the room when Lenore waddled in, and each one of them grabs a few blankets from themselves.
Raph lays down a few blankets on the floor, and then he himself gets on the floor, laying on his plastron, and curls up into a ball. Mikey covers the snapper’s full body with blankets, before he joins Raph, and slips under his arm. Lenore wraps himself in a blanket and lays in the opening of Raph’s body, head leaning on his thigh.
Lenore plays the events of the day in his head and eventually finds himself falling asleep.