Chapter Text
“That’s it, I can’t do this anymore.”
Leo tilted his head backwards and rested it against the wall as he sat on his bed reading the same Jupiter Jim comic book for seemingly the hundredth time.
His jaw clenched tighter in an attempt to stop the rising anger in his chest from unleashing.
He just couldn’t stand it anymore.
He was so unhappy being cooped up in the sewers, confined to the dark, damp environment for weeks on end. His skin was longing to feel the sun again.
The more he sat there thinking and clenching his teeth, the harder it was to stop his pent up feelings from boiling over. Leo released a frustrated groan from the back of his throat, throwing the comic book across the train car in a burst of rage.
He watched with manic eyes as the book smacked against the wall and fell to the ground, the only sound filling his ears being the book’s pages fluttering against one another.
He blinked a couple of times, only then becoming aware of what he had just done.
Gosh this was pathetic-
He was sitting here and throwing a fit like a child.
Leo unclenched his jaw in an attempt to calm himself down, taking a couple of deep breaths in before sitting up straight.
He hadn’t even realized how bad of a headache the jaw clenching had given him.
Massaging his temples with his fingertips, he stood up and walked over to where his comic book had fallen on the ground, picking it up.
Leo sighed as he flipped the book over and revealed the cover, being met with the face of one of his childhood heroes staring back at him.
He remembered the times when all of his worries were about finding out when the next Jupiter Jim comic book would come out, or planning the times when he and his brothers would have Lou Jitsu movie nights, being blissfully unaware that Lou Jitsu was the man, well, rat-man, they called ‘Dad’.
Leo furrowed his brows at the thought of Lou Jitsu.
It wasn’t that he hated Splinter at all, in reality, he loved and respected his dad very much. Considering the reason why Leo hadn’t been allowed to leave the sewers was Splinter, he didn’t exactly become overjoyed at the thought of him recently.
He understood Splinter’s thought process behind it, he really did, but it still made no sense to him. His brothers were probably just as close to dying as he was that day.
What was the point of putting only him under house arrest?
Leo even tried to escape the tunnels on several occasions, but Splinter managed to find out every single time.
It was like he had some sort of Leo alarm that went off whenever he took a step, and the looming threat of getting his training privileges taken away after already losing his katanas from his first attempt wasn’t sounding too great.
He gave up trying after the second time, which was unusual for him, but he knew the threats would only get more and more drastic if he continued.
Leo took another deep breath and set the comic book down on a shelf, walking out of his room to find ibuprofen in the kitchen and hopefully punch away his bitterness in the dojo.
He had to get out of here.
————————————
“Has Leo seemed off to you guys recently?” Mikey posed the question to his brothers clad in purple and red, turning away from the stove where he was preparing dinner.
The older two exchanged glances.
“We can’t just lie to him, Raph,” Donnie lamented, briefly raising his drawn-on eyebrows before typing away on his phone again.
“Well, um- you see Mikey,” Raph exhaled, “Leo has been kind of upset with Dad recently.”
Donnie shot Raph a solemn look, raising an eyebrow in disbelief.
“Well yeah,” Mikey’s face dropped, “You would have to be blind to not see that.”
“Sorry, Mikey, I just don’t really know how to go about saying this,” Raph bit his lip out of habit, something he often did when put under pressure.
“What Raphael is trying to say, sweet Angelo, is that Leo is in desperate need to get out of the sewers. He’s been bound in here for far too long. He’s losing his temperament.” Donnie set down his phone, becoming fully present in the conversation.
“What does that mean?” Mikey scrunched his face in confusion.
Donnie sighed and rolled his eyes. Sometimes he couldn’t help that he was better than his brothers for having a well-rounded vocabulary.
“In laymen’s terms, ‘He’s losing his Leo-ness’.” Donnie gave him a blank stare.
“Ohhh, I mean, I guess I kind of knew that too, I just didn’t know if I was the only one who saw it,” Mikey confessed. He was glad he wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
“So, what should we do about it?” Raph questioned, folding his arms across his plastron.
“Maybe we should just ask him,” Donnie pointed to the entrance of the kitchen, where the turtle in question was currently trudging in.
He looked miserable.
“How are you feeling, Leo?” Mikey’s voice broke the short silence.
“Absolutely lovely,” Leo responded in a monotonous tone, staring back at the concerned gazes of his brothers and softening his tone when he realized Mikey was being serious, “I’m going insane in here.” He kept his statement brief.
The brothers all sat in silence once more as Leo continued on with his task. He grabbed the bottle of ibuprofen and unscrewed the lid, swallowing a few pills without any water.
“I’ll be in the dojo if you guys need me,” he mumbled and set the bottle on the counter, leaving the way he came in about a minute before.
“We have to talk to Dad,” Raph blinked in disbelief.
“What for?” Donnie spat out a little harsher than he intended, “As much as I want to do something for Leo, Dad won’t agree to it.”
“I’m not exactly sure, Dee, but whoever just walked through this kitchen was not my little brother. I can’t stand another day without him being, y’know, him. It’s not the same around here.”
Mikey didn’t have any verbal input to give as he listened to Donnie and Raph’s banter in the background of his thoughts.
Alright, Leo needed to get out of the house, but how?
Going outside was the obvious choice, but finding something Leo had always wanted to do that he hadn’t already accomplished with how interesting their lives were? Now that was more difficult.
Mikey squinted his eyes in deep thought until they widened.
That was it.
Mikey gasped out loud, silencing Raph and Donnie’s argument and earning puzzled looks from his older brothers.
“I know what we should do.”
————————————
“A log cabin?”
Mikey, Donnie, and Raph stood in front of Splinter’s chair, blocking the view of his tv show.
“Come on, Dad, Leo has been down here long enough,” Mikey pleaded, “‘He’s losing his Leo-ness’!” He repeated Donnie’s earlier explanation.
“Mikey is right, Dad,” Donnie uncrossed his arms from his plastron and put his hand on Mikey’s shoulder, “You haven’t allowed Leo to go to the surface for over a month. Think about it, you and Leo barely communicate anymore.”
“Also, you can’t keep him down here forever. If you do that it’s only going to destroy the relationship that you have with him.” Raph added, taking notes from his long discussions with Dr. Feelings, “It’s not fair that we’re allowed to go out but he’s not, especially since he’s the leader you appointed to our team.”
“I- uh,” Splinter was unable to meet the stern gazes of his three sons hovering above him.
All he ever did for Blue was look out for him, but he never really thought about how long it had been since the invasion. He was so used to being cooped up down here that it hadn’t felt like that long, and the only thing on his mind was making sure that his teenage son would never become that close to being lost ever again.
Had Leo really been down here for a whole month?
Splinter let out a gasp of realization, his sons’ eyes piercing into his skull as he sat there in regret at what he had done to Leo. He supposed it was time to finally let his baby blue back out into the world.
Maybe.
“What all does this log cabin trip entail?” Splinter’s defeated voice arose, finally allowing himself to glance up and meet the small, victorious smiles on his sons’ faces.
“It would just be the four of us,” Donnie explained, “We would take a weekend trip up to Indian Lake, which is approximately a four hour drive north of here. I already searched through multiple locations and found an Airbnb that would work for our budget.”
“Yeah, and there’s also kayaks, canoes, and a rowboat we could use there! The Airbnb host also said we were allowed to explore the property as much as we wanted!” Mikey continued, trying to sound optimistic, “It would be a perfect place for Leo to stay for a few days!”
Raph noticed the apprehensive look on Splinter’s face when Mikey had finished his statement.
Raph was just as upset with their father’s recent actions as everyone else, but he still couldn’t help but feel bad for him. He understood why Splinter had been so overprotective of Leo, but it still wasn’t fair.
“There would be no threats up there, Dad,” Raph softened his features, “It will just be us hanging out and having a good time. We won’t let anything happen to Leo, we promise.”
A small hum of agreements from Mikey and Donnie followed.
Splinter sighed and sat back in his chair, nodding silently as he closed his eyes.
Mikey pumped his fist in victory. Usually the team didn’t go with many of his ideas, so it was a victory for multiple reasons.
“As long as you boys plan everything out and find safe transportation, you can go. And I also want updates every couple of hours.” Splinter bargained, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers.
“Works for me,” Raph shrugged, they could never be too careful.
“Alright perfect,” Donnie whipped out his phone,
“Mikey, I have just sent you a list of the foods Leo is rather fond of, I want you and Raph to go gather the items you believe are necessary for making them. Also feel free to purchase anything else you think we should bring.” He handed a thick stack of cash to Raph.
Raph’s eyes widened at the amount Donnie had just placed in his hand. Where did he even-
“You have a list of Leo’s favorite foods on your phone?” Mikey’s eyes lit up with delighted surprise as he felt his phone buzz, smiling in shock from how wholesome this was coming from Donnie.
He supposed Donnie liked to organize things and make lists, so it made sense, but was nonetheless still surprising.
“Uh, yeah? I have one for all of you guys.” He shrugged it off, not wanting the subject to get too sappy, “It’s not a big deal. Moving on, I have already booked the Airbnb from Thursday to Sunday, so we have tomorrow to pack and get everything set up. We shall depart by noon on Thursday. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to locate a vehicle we can use to actually make this trip a reality.” Donnie concluded, walking out of the room abruptly.
“Wait, who’s gonna tell Leo?” Raph called after him.
No answer.
“I’ll do it,” Mikey patted Raph on the arm, “Why don’t you finish up dinner? I’ll be back to help you out.” He reassured Raph when he saw his eyes widen.
“You got it, Mikey,” Raph followed Mikey out of the tv room and into the kitchen, meandering over to the stove.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, Raphie,” Mikey smiled and slipped out of the kitchen.
————————————
Leo walked into the dojo, the temperature in the room relatively cooler than the rest of the lair.
His training dummy still sat in the same position he left it in the other night, seemingly untouched by any of his brothers.
That didn’t surprise him though, those three were busy saving New York without him most of the time. He felt like they were barely home anymore.
He let a disappointed sigh, not because he was disappointed in his brothers, but himself. He shouldn’t be thinking that way.
“C’mon Leo, you know that’s not their fault,” he grumbled at the negativity from his own inner monologue, stretching when he stood only a few feet away from the dummy.
He hated being angry with his brothers. They were his best friends and it wasn’t fair of him to be jealous of the freedom Splinter gave them.
Ugh. Splinter.
Leo grimaced and stared at the dummy, the sudden urge to throw a punch at it taking over his appendages. He swung wildly, the harsh thud of his fists colliding with the thick foam filled the room.
The teen wasn’t even in control of himself anymore, throwing careless punches that became more and more forceful with every strike.
Nothing about this was fair.
How could he be a good leader when he was cooped up like this? He already felt like he let his brothers down, and he wasn’t much of a leader in the first place before the Kraang came along.
The only redeeming action he seemed to have was when he got beaten up by the stupid alien, and even then he didn’t defeat them. They were only locked away.
Leo could feel a stinging pain in his knuckles every time he made contact with the dummy.
He didn’t care, he probably deserved it for being such a shitty leader.
Geez, why did Splinter have to make his most useless son the leader when Raph did it ten times better than him? What was he even thinking?
-Ugh, stop thinking about Splinter!
An angry sob rose from the back of his throat. He swung heavily and uppercut the dummy, sending it flying across the dojo.
He breathed heavily, his chest rising and falling as he attempted to get his heart rate back to it’s steady beat.
He closed his eyes, feeling hot tears running down his cheek and let a few more pathetic sobs slip through. He brought a hand up to his face, wiping underneath his eyes in one smooth motion.
Leo turned his gaze to the training dummy halfway across the room, taking a shaky step forward before falling to the ground when his leg gave out.
He didn’t even attempt to prevent it, letting his plastron rest against his propped up leg and using his arms to stabilize himself.
The joints in his fingers ached, his head was pounding, and he was shaking with anger.
He needed to calm down.
Come on Leo, pull yourself together.
Leo took a deep breath, closing his eyes and imagining he was sitting on top of a roof looking over Times Square. One of his favorite places to sit and relax, letting his responsibilities become washed away by the noisy streets below him.
He breathed out, repeating the deep breaths until he could feel his body stop shaking.
He pushed his knuckles into the ground, using that momentum to stand up straight and walk over to the dummy.
He stared down at the lifeless piece of foam, wishing it were any of the villains they had fought throughout the years.
Leo bent over to pick it up with an unsatisfied sigh, only then seeing his youngest brother making his way over to him.
He quickly wiped the tears from his eyes and sniffled.
He couldn’t let Mikey see him like this.
“Hey Mike,” Leo grunted with effort when he pulled the practice dummy up, “You need me already?”
“Um, yeah,” Mikey noticed Leo’s bruised knuckles and slightly puffy eyes, choosing to ignore those details for the time being, “Sooo, we talked to Dad, we’re leaving for a vacation at noon on Thursday.” Mikey looked up into Leo’s eyes, hoping for any kind of positive reaction from him.
“You guys are? Like you, Donnie, and Raph?” Leo gave him a look as he set the dummy up straight, unsure why Mikey would be telling him about their plans that didn’t include him.
“No, like, we are. You, me, Donnie, and Raph.” Mikey motioned to both of them.
For a second Leo almost looked excited, but the positive spark in his eyes was gone almost immediately.
“Yeah, right,” Leo exhaled harshly and began squaring up against the dummy, “Dad won’t let me take a shower without asking where I’m going. That’s a funny joke, baby bro.” His eyes dropped again.
“I’m not kidding, Leo,” Mikey crossed his arms over his plastron, watching Leo throw messy punches at the dummy, “We’re going to go stay in a log cabin, it was my idea.”
Leo paused.
He’d always wanted to go to a log cabin. It wasn’t for any reason in particular, but it was something he had always wanted to do.
But how did Mikey remember that? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d shared that dream with his brothers.
There’s no way he could be telling the truth.
He scanned his eyes over Mikey’s features, yet there was no hint of sarcasm in his countenance.
“You’re serious?” Leo squinted, the small glimmer of hope back in his eyes again.
Mikey nodded eagerly, happy to see Leo almost smile while he blinked the disbelief away.
“Mikey,” Leo turned away from the dummy and put his hands on Mikey’s shoulders, “I-I… thank you,” He pulled Mikey in for a hug, unable to stop his eyes welling up yet again.
Mikey wrapped his arms around Leo’s carapace, embracing the feeling of the hug. He couldn’t remember the last time Leo gave him a hug since being cooped up down here.
“Of course,” Mikey hugged Leo tighter before pulling away, noticing the puffy eyes for the second time, “How are you actually doing though?”
Leo’s breath hitched.
He wasn’t ready for that discussion yet.
“I’m not going to force you to talk if you don’t want too.” Mikey pursed his lips, regretting bringing up the question, “Now let’s go eat dinner, you look terrible, man.” Mikey joked, accomplishing a small smirk from Leo.
“Still better looking than you, little man,” Leo gave Mikey a noogie, who giggled as they exited the dojo.
————————————
Leo woke up the next morning feeling more content than usual.
He was a little more like his old self, but there was still that sliver of doubt that this trip was actually happening clogging his mind.
Just one more day.
Leo sat up in his bed, stretching out his arms and lower back until he heard a slight popping sound and leaned forward with a satisfied sigh.
He used his momentum to stand up, scouting around the room to see where he had thrown his gloves and socks the previous night.
“Oh, there they are.” Leo mumbled sleepily, moving forward into the mess of soda cans and trash all over the floor.
“Ow!” He hissed when he stepped on a crumpled-up can, losing his balance as he went to grab his foot.
Leo heard the strum of chords and a hallow thump when he hit the floor, landing on top of some more trash.
Was that his guitar?
The acoustic guitar that sat in the corner of Leo’s room had fallen over when he hit the ground. Leo grumbled as he sat up straight and picked it up by the neck.
It was gathering a bit of dust from sitting untouched in his room for so long. He couldn’t remember the last time he played that thing.
The dust flew off into the air when Leo blew on it, setting the body of the guitar in his lap. He shifted the instrument so that the fingers on his left hand were resting on the frets of the neck of the guitar, and his right hand was in position to strum.
“Alright, one song and then I need to clean up this depressing excuse for a room.” Leo negotiated with himself before he began softly strumming and humming along.
————————————
“You ready to go Raph?” Mikey asked, zipping up his bright orange hoodie.
“Yep,” Raph huffed when he finally got his sleeveless hoodie over his shoulders, “Did you make a grocery list?”
“Yeah, I’ve got it right here,” Mikey held up the list on his phone, “Where are we thinking?”
“Well, the Hidden City would be safer for us, but it’s a little further away than a regular store.” Raph pondered as they walked through the dark tunnels of the sewers.
“Good point. If you’re more comfortable with going to the Hidden City we can.” Mikey offered, “I’m just unsure of whether or not they’ll have all of the ingredients we need.”
“Then we’ll go to an actual store,” Raph decided as he began climbing the rungs of the ladder up to the surface. He didn’t want to prevent his little brother’s talent from shining, especially on this special getaway trip for Leo.
“Alright, if you’re sure,” Mikey followed after him before hesitating to reach for the next rung, “Wait, do you have the money from Donnie?”
“I do,” Raph stopped and double checked his pockets, feeling for the money Donnie had given him last night, “Where did he even get this from?” Raph wondered out loud, tucking the cash back into his pocket firmly.
“Knowing Dee, he probably stole it or something.” Mikey snorted, “Or he’s a secretly a mafia boss.”
“Okay, yeah, I guess I could see that happening.” Raph agreed with a shrug, hoping the first option was more accurate, “Alright, let’s get this over with.” He lifted the sewer cap above his head before helping Mikey up.
“We’ll be okay, Raphie,” Mikey assured him, patting him on the arm, “Follow me, I know a good store that doesn’t get much business. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.” He smiled innocently.
Raph would have to ask him about that later.
————————————
“C’mon, Donnie,” the genius whispered to himself, “You just have to attach these wires together. You know how to do this.”
Donnie had been awake all night at this point, so exhausted that he was having trouble doing simple tasks like hot-wiring a car.
The last time he had pulled all-nighters was the week after the Kraang invasion, where he spent multiple hours increasing security and patching up areas of the lair that the Kraang had demolished during their visit.
Donnie let out a frustrated groan and dropped the wires carefully, mindful to not accidentally electrocute himself, which had happened more times than he would like to admit.
“Donatello, what is your problem?” He scolded himself, standing up to stretch his legs, “You’ve performed better with no rest before, what’s so difficult about it now?”
But deep down Donnie knew why.
He wanted this trip to be perfect, for Leo.
He might not have been the best at showing his affection physically or verbally, but the effort he put into his tech was his own way of showing his brothers he was fond of them.
They seemed to appreciate it, so he kept doing it.
Donnie scoffed and rubbed his temples, pacing around in a circle around the garage.
It was evident he wasn’t going to be able to work under these conditions. He needed a break.
Donnie removed his goggles from his head and slipped on the purple hoodie that had previously been thrown carelessly on the desk.
Headache. Caffeine. More.
“No,” Donnie pushed away his intrusive thoughts and groaned in pain as he massaged his fingers into his temples even harder. He was aware that caffeine would make things worse for him.
He supposed it would be smart to actually sleep for a couple of hours.
Donnie trudged over to his desk and grabbed his empty coffee mug, rubbing his eyes when he exited his lab for the first time in hours.
He flipped his hood up when light met his retinas, the stinging pain adding onto the migraine he already had forming.
Donnie made his way to the main floor, entering the kitchen and placing his mug on top of the tower of dishes that needed to be washed.
Yeesh, they needed to clean those before they left because Splinter definitely wouldn’t.
Donnie added that to his mental checklist and turned to look for the ibuprofen, which Leo conveniently left sitting on the counter last night.
He dumped a couple of pills in his hand and filled a cup with water, swallowing them in hopes of some temporary pain relief.
“Right, now Donatello, off to bed, good sir.” Donnie announced out loud for dramatic effect.
The rattle from the ibuprofen bottle prompted him to look down at his hand. He blinked a couple of times before deciding it would probably be best if he just brought it to bed with him.
Donnie heard Raph and Mikey’s voices bouncing off of the walls in the tunnel furthest away from him when he left the kitchen.
They were talking about a grocery list so he assumed they would be out for a little bit, which was fine with him because he needed to rest anyways.
He began pulling back the curtain to his room before stopping abruptly when he heard the sound of a guitar echoing softly off of the tunnel walls.
Where was that coming from?
He squinted into the darkness of the closest tunnel to him.
Donnie shrugged and followed the sound, leading him to the exact location he had been expecting.
Donnie drew back Leo’s curtain to reveal his twin sitting on the floor of his dimly lit room, sitting amongst piles of trash and humming along quietly to his guitar.
It was quite impressive Donnie had to admit. Leo had somehow managed to modify the chords so that he could play with only three fingers.
Donnie caught himself spacing out and blinked to bring himself back to the real world.
“Since when do you play guitar?” Donnie stared down blankly at Leo, who let out a startled gasp when he met Donnie’s gaze.
“Oh geez,” Leo breathed out in relief, “Hey Don,” Leo set his guitar down next to him.
“I wasn’t aware you played guitar, or even owned one for that matter.” Donnie reiterated, stepping into Leo’s train car and letting the curtain close.
“Wha- oh yeah. I guess I kinda picked it up in my free time. I found it in Repo’s junkyard a while back.” He chuckled awkwardly, trying not to focus on the fact that Donnie was staring at him intensely.
“That’s neat,” Donnie stated plainly, blinking with exhaustion.
Leo pursed his lips in discomfort until he noticed his twin’s eyes were full of tiny, red veins.
“Uh, are you aware your eyes are bloodshot?” Leo asked with concern, gesturing to his own eyes with his index finger.
“Oh,” Donnie fixed his gaze on a random crumpled up soda can lying next to Leo, “I was actually about to sleep for a bit but then I heard your guitar.”
“Oh, um, sorry. I can stop if you want, I need to clean up anyways.” Leo stood up with his guitar in hand.
“Oh no, that’s okay, Nardo,” Donnie rubbed his eyes again, fighting back the yawn forming in his throat, “It sounds nice.”
“You can stay if you want,” Leo sat down on the bed, gesturing for Donnie to sit next to him.
He was hoping Donnie would say yes, although the chances of that were slim. The presence of Donnie in the room was oddly comforting, and he hadn’t been able to just sit around with his twin in a while either.
Leo studied Donnie’s face, unable to read him through his drooping eyelids and poker face.
“Okay, sure,” Donnie shrugged again, stepping over the trash piles and sitting on Leo’s bed crisscrossed.
Leo let a small smile take over his face and put his guitar in position again, resting his left hand on the frets.
He began playing a different song than before, one he knew that Donnie liked.
Donnie nodded his head tiredly, grinning at Leo’s song choice.
“You like?” Leo looked over at him with a matching grin.
“Cowabunga, dude.” Donnie responded.
Leo let out a surprised snort.
Donnie definitely needed to sleep, he was acting a little loopy.
Leo turned his focus back to his instrument, starting to sing the lyrics softly. His voice was surprisingly not bad considering he didn’t sing like this very often.
Leo became wrapped up in his playing, his smooth voice filling the small train car until he felt Donnie slump over onto his shoulder, slowing his strumming to a stop.
He looked over to his left, hearing a soft snore coming from Donnie. Leo grinned and chuckled softly.
He placed his guitar on the bed next to him and gently grabbed Donnie’s shoulders, guiding his head towards the pillow until his torso made contact with the rest of the mattress.
Leo noticed the ibuprofen bottle in Donnie’s hands, furrowing his brow in confusion before he decided to not question it.
“Sleep tight, Don-Ton,” Leo pulled his blanket over Donnie’s sleeping form, grabbing his guitar and placing it back where it belonged.
“I guess I’ll clean up later,” Leo sighed and pulled his curtain aside, looking back at Donnie with a fond smile. He didn’t mind procrastinating that chore anyway.
Leo hummed the song he had just played for Donnie quietly to himself, the sound echoing throughout the tunnel he was walking through.
The lair was oddly quiet for it being almost ten in the morning.
He didn’t hear the familiar clutter of Mikey making a late breakfast in the kitchen or Raph skating up and down the ramp.
Where had they gone?
Leo was kind of bummed, he was hoping to just have someone else to be around right now.
His head perked up when he heard a faint shuffle from the other room.
“Mikey? Raph?” Leo called out, pacing over to where he had heard the sound come from.
Leo found himself peering into Splinter’s tv room, his father approaching out of the shadows and staring up at him in surprise.
“Blue?” The guilt that took over his face was immediate, his eyebrows sinking inwards. He couldn’t maintain eye contact with his son.
“Sorry, uh, Dad,” Leo’s eyes darted around the room for anything else to look at, “I’ll just be on my way then.” He spun on his heel and took a comically large step in the direction he had just come from.
“Wait- Leonardo.” Splinter’s calm voice pierced the awkward tension.
Leo halted to a stop mid-step but kept his back to Splinter.
“I, uh, I wanted to, um- apologize.” The shame in his voice blatantly apparent, “I- I know it wasn’t fair of me to keep you down here and take away your privileges. I was only trying to protect you, but I see now that my choices weren’t benefiting you at all.“
Leo remained quiet, leaving Splinter’s movie in the background being the only thing keeping the air from being in total silence.
“I, uh, I don’t expect you to forgive me anytime soon, but I just wanted to let you know that, I- I love you, my son. I understand if you need more time to process everything. Oh, and uh, I will also give you your weapons back after your trip with your brothers.” He concluded, waiting anxiously for any type of response from his son.
Leo felt the two sides of him fighting against each other. Yelling at each other from inside his head.
One side longing to give his dad, his childhood hero, one of the tightest hugs he could muster. The side that wanted to not care about what his dad had put him through for weeks and forgive him easier than he should.
The other side telling him to just walk away and never speak to him again. To run away whenever he saw him approaching and ignore him forever.
I can’t do that.
Leo argued with himself. He wanted more than anything to break down in Splinter’s arms, like he often did as a child. Then again, that’s the exact opposite of what he wanted.
He knew that he could never go without his dad in his life, but he definitely did need time to process this whole situation.
Leo turned to face Splinter, settling on giving him a visible nod before swiveling around and heading back towards the main area of the lair.
Leo took a few steps, the mask he had put on immediately shattering as he was unable to stop his eyes from tearing up.
Splinter sighed as he watched Leo walk away from him, his heart becoming heavier with every step his son took.
He knew Leo would come back around to him soon.
Hopefully.
————————————
Leo had pretty much accomplished everything he used to do in his free time within the time Mikey and Raph were gone.
The skate ramp? He already performed the many tricks he had mastered weeks ago. The arcade games? He got bored of trying to beat the high scores he had previously set on them- again. Annoying Donnie? At the moment Donnie was asleep and he hadn’t been in the mood to do that in a while anyways.
He resorted to flopping down in his bean bag, staring up at the ceiling and trying to process Splinter’s apology.
“Let’s give it a few days,” Leo rationalized out loud with himself, “Hopefully a few days of being away will help me out.”
The silence once again filled Leo’s ears. He let himself close his eyes and simply relax in the bean bag, attempting to clear his mind of all of his current negative emotions.
“-I still can’t believe nobody can see through our disguises.” Leo heard Mikey’s faint voice echoing off of the tunnels and his eyes shot open.
“Eh, it’s New York, no one really cares.” Raph responded, his comment being accompanied by the sound of crinkling grocery bags.
Leo sat forward, getting up to meet his brothers at the sewer entrance.
“Oh, hey Leo!” Mikey smiled down at him as he continued descending the ladder, one of his hands full of plastic bags.
“Woah, what’s all this?” Leo questioned, taking a few bags from Mikey’s hands when he had made his full descent.
“Looks like someone is in a better mood today,” Mikey chirped, “But that’s a surprise, so I can’t tell you!” He grinned up at Leo.
Leo hated surprises sometimes.
“I have a feeling this has to do with our trip,” Leo looked through the bags in his hands before staring at his youngest brother suspiciously.
“Who knows?” Raph shrugged, stepping down from the last rung on the ladder and following Leo and Mikey to the kitchen.
“Wow, you guys are real good at lying.” Leo rolled his eyes fondly.
He placed the bags he grabbed from Mikey on the kitchen counter before unloading them.
“Well, we can’t all be good liars like you Leo,” Mikey smirked at his middle brother playfully.
Oh, so he was asking for it?
Leo scoffed in disbelief, the surprised expression on his face making Mikey let out a small chuckle.
“Mikey, do you want Leo to kill you?” Raph choked back a laugh.
“Hey, Dr. Delicate Touch doesn’t fuck around.” Mikey shrugged.
“Hey WOAH- Michelangelo, watch your language!” Raph scolded, shoving Mikey’s shoulder lightheartedly.
Leo bit back his smile, peering over at Mikey doing the same.
“Sorry, Raph,” Mikey couldn’t help the giggles leaving his throat as he and Leo shared amused glances, “It won’t happen again.”
“Why are we scolding Angelo?” A groggy voice arose from the entrance to the kitchen.
All three brothers whipped their heads around to see Donnie rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
“Mikey said a bad word,” Raph tattled, pushing his youngest brother’s head affectionately, “I wonder where he heard that from, Leo and Donnie.” Raph made eye contact with his brothers in question.
“I would never do such a thing!” Leo crossed his arms over his plastron, “Tell them Don-Ton!”
“Yeah, yeah, what Leo said is probably right.” Donnie waved his hand dismissively, already having pulled out his phone and scrolling away on it.
“Uh-huh,” Raph raised a brow skeptically, letting out a brief chuckle before returning to unpacking the groceries.
Leo forgot how much he enjoyed his brothers’ company. Well, he didn’t really forget, he guessed he just missed it.
Donnie was finally awake though, so Leo figured he should probably finish his original task of cleaning his depression room.
An annoyed sigh escaped Leo’s throat, earning a concerned look from Mikey and Raph.
“What’s on your mind, Leo?” Raph questioned, his previously joyful expression replaced by worry.
“Oh no, I’m okay, I just need to clean my room before I leave. I promised myself I would.” Leo brushed it off, Raph became visibly relaxed.
“Alright, we’ll see you later bud,” Raph waved him off as he made his way out.
“Don’t forget we’re having movie night tonight if you would like to join!” Mikey called after him.
“Will do, baby bro,” Leo was unable to resist Mikey’s offer, smiling at his brothers before turning and trudging to his room.
“He’s seems to be in a happier mood today.” Donnie waited until Leo was out of ear-shot.
“Thankfully!” Mikey picked up the cooler sitting across the room and brought it over to where Raph was still unpacking food, “He was even joking around with us too,” He gave Donnie a look of excitement.
“Yeah, I caught him playing guitar earlier, he’s actually quite proficient at it.”
“He plays guitar? Since when?” Raph’s eyes widened as he began filling up the cooler.
“He said he found it at Repo’s a while back, but my assumption is that he started playing it more when Dad confined him down here.”
“Huh, that’s cool. I hope he brings it along with us!” Mikey smiled, intrigued by this skill he never knew Leo had.
“Anyways, gentlemen, if we actually want to get going on the road tomorrow I need to finish working on the vehicle, so farewell for tonight!” Donnie saluted dramatically, turning on his heel and walking out of the kitchen.
“But it’s only noon and we have movie night!” Mikey protested, rolling his eyes when Donnie didn’t respond.
“Don’t worry Mike, I’m sure we’ll see him later. For now, let’s finish packing up the food.” Raph reasoned, handing him a package of fruit.
“You’re right,” Mikey took the package from him, placing it neatly in the cooler, “Man, I can’t wait to go on vacation! It’s been forever since we went on one of those!” Mikey gushed, his most recent vacation experience being when they became Todd Scouts for a day.
“Me too, little man,” Raph chuckled, “Me too.”