Chapter Text
Hands that were no longer human wrapped around a small turtle. He both hated and took comfort in how different the world was now. The hate had hit him hardest during the first year. Not only was the world suddenly too full of smells and sounds, but he was far smaller than he was used to. Courtesy of now being part rat . He could be grateful he hadn’t shrunk to the actual size of a rat. Going from nearly six foot to somewhere between three and four was bad enough.
Even now, as someone laid on their horn he wanted to crawl back into the sewers that had kept him and his sons safe. The surface, as he now referred to it, was far louder than he remembered. If it wasn’t for the small turtle trembling in his arms in the middle of July he would have. As it was he didn’t have much choice. His older sons were at his feet, looking up at him with uncertain eyes.
He was supposed to have the answers. When Michelangelo had collapsed during one of their normal bouts of roughhousing his son’s had been terrified. They’d run into the kitchen talking over one another. All except Donatello. He’d stayed behind watching, as if he were replaying everything leading up to that moment and running calculations.
If Splinter was being honest it wouldn’t surprise him. While Donatello still hadn’t found his voice like his brothers, there was no shortage of intelligence behind those eyes. Sometimes Splinter assumed the child was just waiting for the right moment to unleash a sentence filled with the longest words he knew. The child clad in a purple sweatshirt that hung to his knees buried his head in Splinter’s coat with a whimper when the horn continued.
Splinter could only pull the hood further over his head and hope it helped. He didn’t care much for the noise himself. His ears were far too sensitive now that they were practically satellite dishes on the sides of his head. Michelangelo coughed and moaned, his little face scrunching up in pain. Splinter pressed a hand to the small turtle’s cheek.
“I know, little one.” Splinter murmured.
He was too warm. Nowhere near as warm as Splinter, but he was warmer than his brothers and no matter what he tried it wasn’t going down. He knew living in the sewer wasn’t helping matters. Between the smells, dirt, grime, and the struggle to find clean water. So far they’d been managing to get by on the filtration system that had taken Splinter far longer to make than he cared to admit. He was beginning to wonder if it had only been delaying the problem rather than solving it.
That’s why he was here, on the surface. He’d been trying to find anyone in this city who might be willing and able to help. It was hard to find for a normal person. The further removed from society you fell, the harder it became to find someone willing to lend a hand. When the little one in his arms recovered he’d have to thank his son. It was really thanks to him he’d even found someone who might be willing to help. If for no other reason than a sense of obligation.
With a deep breath he pulled his children closer. His face twisted when he realized he almost no longer had to kneel to look them in the eye. That wasn’t important right now.
“I need the three of you to hide,” Splinter’s voice was quiet.
This wasn’t the first time they’d done this and it probably would be the last. The surface was dangerous. He placed a hand on Leonardo’s shoulder. The bright red markings curling over his eyes seemed to glow in the dim porch light barely hidden behind the brick corner of the alley.
“The world is dangerous, I need you to promise you won’t leave this area until I come for you.” He looked to Rapheal and Leonardo. “Take care of your brother.”
Leo wrapped his arm around Donnie’s shoulder, pulling the silent turtle roughly into his side. Pointedly ignoring the glare from his brother.
“We got this, Dad!” Leo assured him with a quick thumbs up.
If there was one thing his sons were able to do it was blend into the shadows around them. He was especially proud of Raph. He was significantly larger than his brothers and his spiky shell often worked against him in times like these. Watching the three of them sink into the long shadows brought a soft smile to his face.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Splinter assured them.
It took less than a second to pull himself onto the fire escape. This wasn’t the first time he’d visited this particular apartment. A small part of him hoped it wouldn’t be the last. He wouldn’t fool him into thinking he would ever be able to have human friends again, but these humans had yet to react poorly to him.
He landed on the metal silently, his tail wrapped around the railing to help him keep his balance. He wouldn’t dare put his feet on the grates. They pinched and dug into the soles of his feet. He had enough to deal with. He wasn’t about to add sore feet to the mix. Splinter scurried across the railing of the fire escape, clutching Mikey close to his chest. The turtle’s breathing sounded too raspy as his little fist belled in splinter’s fur.
Hesitantly, he peered in through the window. He was looking into a living room where a young girl, the same one who’d befriended the son currently in his arms, was staring at the TV. Her chubby cheeks were spread in a wide smile as she animatedly spoke to the stuffed bear sitting in her lap. Her tight curls were pulled into a silk nightcap as she happily sank her chin into the toy’s head. Splinter was loath to ruin her evening, but he needed help. He just hoped he’d observed the normal routine when he committed it to memory.
He rapped on the glass, a pang of regret filling him when the child startled. Her bear fell to the ground and she quickly ducked behind the corner of the couch. He waited until she poked her head over the armrest to wave at her. His large ears twitching. As much as he hated it, he allowed the light from the warm home just out of reach to cascade over him. It highlighted the large black splotch running from his nose to his shoulders.
She gave him a wave before rushing to the window. At least she recognized him. There was a moment where she struggled to get the pane open, once there was enough room Splinter offered his assistance. She didn’t flinch away from his odd, clawed hands. Rather she was looking at the turtle in his arms, her forehead wrinkled in concern.
“I’m sorry for scaring you, April,” he apologized quietly. “Is your mom home?”
April nodded before scrambling over her own feet as she raced to the kitchen. Splinter chuckled as he watched her go. He didn’t enjoy sitting on the fire escape, but it felt more polite than simply entering someone’s home uninvited. His father taught him better than that. He might have been turned into a rat, but he still had manners.
“I wondered how long it would take to run into you again,” the woman said as she approached the window, arms crossed. Her hair was pulled back into an afro that caught the light behind her giving her a halo effect. Everything about her screamed danger, but not in a way that was outright threatening. More so danger in a protective, parental way.
Splinter lowered his head to show he wasn’t a threat. “I blend in with all the other giant rats running around the sewers.”
She rolled her eyes, stepping aside so Splinter could enter her home. “I’m not paying to cool down the rest of the world.”
It took no time at all for the rat to slip inside, thankful for the cold apartment as the window slid closed behind him. As grateful as he was for the hospitality he couldn’t help but feel shut off from the rest of his family who were still waiting outside. Their patience would start running thin the moment he was out of eye sight. He didn’t have long.
“April mentioned you were a vet,” Splinter explained quietly, shifting to allow the woman to get a look at Mikey. “I didn’t know where else to go. His fever isn’t going down. I-”
“May I?” she asked, reaching for the child.
Splinter pulled Mikey closer, hand tightening around his son. It was dumb. Even as he did it he knew it was stupid. He’d come here for help. That involved allowing her near his child. Even if his every instinct screamed to do the exact opposite. He took a moment to force his instincts aside, they would do him no good here.
It took a full minute before he was able to allow her to take the small turtle from his arms.
She was gentle with the small turtle. While this wasn’t her first time meeting him, the last time he’d been so energetic. Now he looked pale and lethargic. She pressed a hand to his forehead. While he didn’t feel warm by human standards, she couldn’t remember him feeling this warm the last time they’d met. He was sick, there was no denying that.
“April can you get me a blanket and the thermometer?”
The girl who’d been watching the adults from the kitchen now sprang into action. She came back, nearly tripping over a fluffy, pink and yellow unicorn blanket holding an electric thermometer in her hand. Once everything had been handed over she looked Splinter, her deep brown eyes searching his.
“Where’re his brothers?” She asked.
“Outside.” He ignored the look April’s mother shot him. She could think what she wanted about how he chose to raise his boys. The world wasn’t safe for them. Having them hide was the lesser of two evils had this plan backfired.
“April, go invite your friends inside.”
That was all it took for the girl to throw herself down the stairs with an excited giggle.
“I’m going to ask a lot of questions. I need the answers to be as accurate as possible.” The vet looked at the beeping thermometer with a frown. His temperature fell in what would be considered too low as far as humans were concerned and extremely elevated as far as turtles went.
“I’m going to assume he’s turtle and human,” when there was no disagreement, she continued. “Do you know how old he is? How long has he been sick? Does he have any other symptoms?”
“He’s been sick for two days,” Splinter chose the more pertinent question first. “His fever comes and goes. He’s had a cough the past few days and hasn’t been able to keep anything more than water down since this morning.”
His ears twitched at the sound of his children thundering up the stairs. Raph was the first one to barrel into him, the large child’s arms pulling him into a tight hug. He pressed his hand gently to the top of the scaly head.
“It’s alright,” Splinter assured him. “I’m right here.”
He looked to the stairs to see Donnie allowing April to hold the sleeve of his hoodie, his hands were tucked into the sleeves as she led him into the house. Leo was taking up the rear, though the second he saw Splinter he pushed his way between them. The rat thought he was about to be bombarded with a second hug, but Leo pulled up short when he caught sight of the woman leaning over his brother.
The child was quick to pull his blue jacket tightly around himself as he hid behind his dad. He carefully tucked himself between his dad’s back and tail curled on the ground. It felt safer than standing in the middle of the room.
Now that all four of them were together Splinter was well aware of the smell they carried with them. Their clothes were stained, no matter how many times he snuck into a laundry mat to clean them. Nothing could get the smell or stains of the sewer out of them. He felt the white hot embarrassment crawl through his bones when the vet’s nose twitched. He wasn’t sure her silence made things worse, but he was grateful to not have to discuss that in front of his sons.
“Do you know how old he is?” She prompted, watching the three turtles.
Splinter shook his head, looking at his hands. “I don’t know. This happened about four years ago… so at least that?”
Sarafina, as Splinter quickly learned, was by far the best person he could have found. She had everything on hand and his sons were already comfortable around April. It wasn’t long before Splinter managed to get Mikey to choke down some medicine for his fever and put the small child to sleep in the guest bedroom.
April was already introducing the other three to the space show she’d been watching when they arrived. All four of them had their eyes glued to the screen, but what drew his attention was Donnie’s expression. The turtle didn’t often show much more than anger and frustration. There was clearly something about the silly space show that had his eyes sparkling and mouth hanging open wide.
He practically collapsed into one of the kitchen chairs with a sigh. How long had it been since he’d sat in a proper chair? He couldn’t remember. He tried to ignore the twist of frustration when he came to the realization that his feet didn’t even touch the ground. That was a problem for another time.
Sarafina was kind, Splinter was certain that’s where April had gotten her almost indifferent attitude toward the way her friends looked. It didn’t take the two of them long to fall into a comfortable conversation. She let him talk about the boys and in return she shared stories of April. It was nice. Splinter loved his sons, but it was nice to finally talk to an adult.
“I have to admit I was wondering why I hadn’t seen any news stories covering humanoid turtles. The sewers makes sense. Must be hell on your senses though.”
“It was at first. I think I’m used to it now. The thing I miss most is running water. I’d settle for the coldest shower in the world if it meant running water.” He put his head in his hands with a groan.
“The way I see it, that’s an easy fix,” she gestured to the hall leading out of the kitchen. “I’ve got a shower and it would probably do you some good.”
That snapped Splinter’s tired brain back to reality. “I couldn’t. We have to get going and-”
The look she shot him stopped him in his tracks, much the same look that April used when his sons weren’t listening to her. “You’d really pull them away from their sleepover? Besides, Mikey needs the rest and clean air will probably do all of you some good.”
Splinter opened his mouth to protest, but he was too tired to argue with his first warm shower in four years. He glanced toward the living room where his sons were starting to get loud. He could already imagine Leo and Raph roughhousing and if Donnie tried to join in like he sometimes wanted. Splinter could already see it going horribly.
He poked his head into the room to see Donnie was the only one still focused on the show. April, Leo, and Raph had broken off to play with April’s toys.
“Remember to be careful with your brother.”
“We will, Dad.” Raph assured him. “He doesn’t wanna play right now anyway.”
“If he does-”
“No wrestling cause his shell isn’t like ours,” Leo cut him off, but there was no malice in the tone. Just an annoyance because they were too used to hearing the words. Splinter fought down the urge to snap at the child for cutting him off. He should be proud that they even remembered.
“Is there something wrong with his shell?” Sarafina asked.
Splinter shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know much about turtles and I know even less about turtles that have been injected with human DNA. It doesn’t seem to bother him, it’s just not a shell.”
Sara had always been a herpetology kid. One of her earliest memories was begging her parents for every book on reptiles she could get her hands on. She probably still had a few of them running around. She wasn’t using them any more and she couldn’t leave a tired parent flailing.
“I can take a look at it.”
“You’ve done more than enough,” Splinter assured her. “I can’t thank you enough for even allowing me into your home.”
“They say it takes a village to raise one kid,” Sara replied. “I couldn’t imagine trying to raise four on your own. Besides, now that April knows they can come over it’s bold of you to assume she isn’t going to try to force sleepovers every time she gets a chance.”
“Thank you.”
She wasn’t sure what to expect when she stepped into the living room, but she smiled at the three in the corner, content to whisper conspiratorially. Each of them had an array of dolls and plastic animals before them with a small playhouse in the center.
Her attention was more focused on the child whose hands were flailing excitedly as he watched Waves of Galaxy Past.
“Hi, what’s your name?”
“That’s Donnie,” Leo answered from the corner. His toys were now resting on the floor as he watched his brother closely.
Donnie was looking between her and the show, clearly trying to determine which was more important.
“I’d like to look at your shell. I won’t pull you away from your show, I just need you to take your sweater off.” She knelt beside the turtle, hands out to help him with the zipper. A hiss sounded from the corner when Donnie flinched.
“Leo! That’s my mom!”
“That’s my brother!”
Raph had decided playing was over as April and Leo descended into a slightly heated discussion about how people should be treated. The large turtle sat next to his brother, making sure not to block his view of the TV.
“Do you wanna hold my hand?”
Donnie didn’t respond right away. He unzipped his jacket, setting it over his lap like a blanket before staring at the large hand offered to him. Slowly, his much smaller hand laid in Raph’s, with the buffer of the sweatshirt between them it wasn’t so bad.
“Who’s your favorite character?” Sara asked, taking in the child’s shell. She looked up when Donnie pointed to a zoom out showing the model spaceship.
“That’s your favorite character?” Raph clarified, head tilted just enough to show he was genuinely asking, not teasing.
When Donnie nodded the larger turtle looked at Sarafina with a wide toothy smile. “He likes the ship.”
“I’m not sure the ship counts as a character,” Sara said more to herself than the child. “What about the human characters? Who’s your favorite of them?”
Donnie shook his head, tapping Raph’s hand twice.
“He doesn’t really like any of them,” Raph translated.
“Raph,” her tone held a hint of annoyance as she returned to looking at Donnie’s shell. The good thing was there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with it. At least as far as she could see. She was sure there were some oddities from starting out as turtles and being mutated into this, but his shell was in one piece and healthy. All things considered, Splinter was beyond lucky.
“It’s not very nice to speak for your brother.” She added.
“Donnie can’t talk,” Leo huffed from the corner, hands on his hips as he stared her down.
Donnie hiked his shoulders to his ears like he was trying to sink into his shell. She couldn’t see his eyes, but she saw the worried expression flash across Raph’s face as he carefully telegraphed his movements. His long tail thrashed anxiously, but there was a determination in his eyes.
“It’s okay, Dee,” Raph leaned his forehead against Donnie’s. The smaller of the two flinched, but didn’t pull away so Raph continued. “He didn’t mean it. You know how Leo gets when he’s sleepy and worried.”
Donnie balled one of his hands up into a fist and brought it down on Raph’s knee.
“I am not mean!” Leo protested, stomping up to them as Raph and April laughed.
Donnie lifted his head. Sara didn’t have a full view of the look he gave the slider, but it must have been something because Leo was sputtering and Raph was now rolling as his laugh rolled through him.
“Donnie, I’m going to touch your shell to make sure nothing’s hurt.” Sarafina wasn’t sure what she’d said wrong, but that seemed to snap the two boys out of their dramatics.
Raph was back to sitting on his knees and Leo was stepping around to watch her more closely.
“Is there something wrong?” Leo asked, his voice low but curious.
“Probably not,” Sara replied. “But I won’t know for sure until I check.”
She pressed her fingers against the child’s back. Sure enough it was the texture she’d been expecting. Rough and leathery with a row of short spines starting at the base of his neck and fading into the rest of his shell at about the middle of his back. She ran her hands down his back, applying just enough pressure to ensure nothing under his shell was damaged.
Donnie whined, lurching forward, his hands pressed tightly against his long snout. Both Raph and Leo let out hisses. She could actually hear the snapper’s mouth click closed as he glared at her. Sara quickly put her hands in the air, showing the two boys she wasn’t a threat. The last thing she needed were two upset turtles, especially when one could easily break her arm.
For the first time she truly realized the position she was in. Toeing the line between animal and human might have caused some people to panic or immediately rush to scoop up her child and run. Sarafina, however, prided herself on two things. The first was not being a complete idiot. These boys were just scared children who had seen one brother drop sick and now a complete stranger was making their other brother uncomfortable. They were also in a completely different environment and probably tired. Of course they’d be snappy.
The second thing she prided herself on was knowing her daughter. April wasn’t scared of them, even when they hissed, snapped, and growled. She looked annoyed and ready to snap herself, but nothing in the way she was looking at them spoke to fear. April had probably played with them before Sara knew anything about them. As far as she was concerned April was the leading expert in the room on these turtle-people and she wasn’t scared in the slightest.
“Are you hurt?” She asked, leaning forward.
Donnie shook his head, eyes wide as he looked to his brothers for help.
“Dee, doesn’t like being touched.” Leo explained, arms crossed and huffing. “It’s the sliding, mostly.”
“I’m sorry, Donnie,” she said gently. “Do you think you can hang on for a little bit more? I need to check one more thing. No more sliding though, I promise.”
Leo made a sound somewhere between a whine and a growl.
Sara didn’t need to be able to name it to know the slider wasn’t happy, but Donnie seemed to be considering it. He put his hand in Raph’s once more and with the other reached behind him toward Sarafina. She didn’t need words to know what he was asking.
She wrapped her pinky around his. “Pinky promise. I’m almost done.”
Sara was more mindful of her touches as she worked down the child’s shell. His spine was fused to his shell, much like she would have expected from a normal turtle. His ribs were the same and nothing was any more out of the ordinary than she would have expected from a strange humanoid turtle.
“You can put your sweater back on,” she assured him, giving the child the space he so clearly needed. “There’s nothing wrong with your shell. You’re okay.”
“So then it’ll look like ours one day?” Raph asked as he leaned forward, hope shining in his eyes.
“Well, no,” Sara started, looking between the three turtles and her daughter who was now joining the mix. “Donnie is a soft shell turtle. That’s why his shell is different. It’s supposed to be.”
“A different turtle?” Raph repeated quietly.
“Are we all different turtles?” Leo asked and the smack of Donnie’s hand hitting his face was audible.
Sara couldn’t stop the small chuckle that rolled from her lips. “You are. Donnie is a soft shell turtle, probably a spiny soft shell, but it’s a bit difficult to be certain. Raph you’re an alligator snapping turtle. You have three ridges running down your shell and your head has a more triangular shape to it. Leo is a red-eared slider. That’s why he has the bright red markings around his eyes and all the yellow stripes.”
“What about Mikey?” Leo asked. The child finally deemed she wasn’t a threat as he settled on the floor beside her.
“Mikey is probably a box turtle of some kind,” she replied. “His shell is a little taller than Leo’s but still rather flat and he has all of those brightly colored starbursts along his shell.”
While she had everyone’s attention. “Do you guys want to know how old you are?”
Leo gasped excitedly and Raph quickly hopped to his feet.
“You can do that?” Raph and Leo asked nearly on top of one another.
“You guys are probably still young enough that I can.” She said patting the now vacant spot in front of her.
Donnie was sitting with his back to the wall just under the TV. He was still watching them, but he’d clearly had enough direct interaction and she wasn’t about to force her luck.
“Who wants to go first? I just need to see your shell.”
Raph was sitting in front of her before she even finished. She’d forgotten just how fast turtles could be when they wanted. He threw her a jagged toothy grin over his shoulder, patting the floor with his hands in excitement.
“How?” Leo asked, looking at Raph’s spiky shell as if it could tell him all the secrets of their world.
“Do you know how to count?” Sara asked as April perched on the couch behind her. When Leo nodded she continued. “This is a scute, they’ll shed off as you grow, but that’s not super important right now. Just know that when it happens you don’t have to panic. These lines inside the scute are what we’re going to count.”
She walked Leo through counting the lines in Raph’s scute and then dividing which was a completely different ballgame Leo wasn’t entirely ready for yet. He did his best, but it was Donnie who ended up crawling over after rolling his eyes and tapping out the answer on Leo’s leg.
“That means Raph is six,” Sara explained before Leo excitedly exclaimed he was next. While she did try to walk Raph through the counting and dividing he was having a tougher time of it than Leo.
It did catch her by surprise when April piped up with: “Dee says it’s five.”
“Donnie would be correct.” She said with a nod. A laugh quickly followed when Leo grabbed the sleeve of Donnie’s sweatshirt, yanking the poor kid like he was nothing more than a marionette.
“What about Dee?” the slider asked enthusiastically.
The hesitation on the poor turtle’s face was clear as day. He’d had enough and Sara wasn’t about to push him further. Especially when his spotted shell didn’t readily reveal the same answers.
“Donnie’s shell is different from yours,” she explained patiently. “He doesn’t have scutes like you, so there aren’t any rings to count. But-” he added quickly when both turtle’s faces fell. “When we have turtles around the same size we hypothesize they’re probably the same age.”
“Hypothesize?” Leo echoed and once again Donnie’s head found its way into his hand.
“It’s not his fault you know all the big words,” April reminded him.
“Yeah, maybe we’d know some too if you shared your books.” Leo pouted, sticking his tongue out.
Donnie stuck his out in return before pulling the hood of Leo’s hoodie well over the slider’s head. A wide smile showing off pointed teeth as he watched his brother stumble around until Raph took pity on him and offered assistance.
“A hypothesis is an educated guess. It’s still a guess, but we have experience or proof that means the guess is probably going to be pretty close to right.” Sara explained.
If this was what Splinter had to deal with on a daily basis she was happy to provide the man with a break.
Donnie seemed to take that into consideration as he looked between himself and his brothers. He stood beside Leo for a moment, looking the slider up and down. Clearly he was working out a puzzle and Sara was more than content to allow it. With a nod he then turned to the coffee table and tapped five times before looking up at her.
“Most likely.” She agreed and April gasped behind her.
“That means your twins!” Her daughter placed her hands firmly on Sarafina’s shoulders, leaning over to look at her friends. At the three puzzled looks she continued. “That means you’re siblings who are the same age and share a birthday ‘cause you were born at the same time!”
Leo slung his arm around Donnie’s shoulder. “Yeah! We’re twins!”
Donnie rolled his eyes, but he leaned into Leo’s embrace.
After that it took two movies and a blanket pile on the floor for them to fall asleep. Splinter curled himself under the window, out of sight of prying eyes, but still able to watch the pile of slumbering children. She found it odd to admit it was the safest she’d ever felt with a man in her home. A mutated rat was watching over her child and she was more than content to head to her room down the hall for bed.
She lived a strange life. There was no denying that.