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“W-what…what’s this?”
Leo stared at the scene, wide-eyed. The atrium was dark, the only light coming from fairy lights and the projector shining a Lou Jitsu movie on screen. There was a fold-out table to the far side, covered in snacks, drinks and pizza. Raph and Mikey were on the couch, the smaller on the larger’s lap and playfully arguing about the blankets. The floor in front of the couch was covered in pillows and blankets, almost making a nest-like shape, where Casey and April were laughing about something, the latter hitting the former with a throw pillow, which made him snort and lean forward, her chest muffling his laughs.
Leo continue to stare. In shock, in confusion.
He didn’t know if it was something in the air or just him, but it all felt awfully… intimate. Private. Way more than a simple group of friends hanging out.
Like it was all for them. The six of them. No one else. Like it was a sight all for him to behold.
“Oh hey Leo!”
Leo blinked, snapping out of it, eyes flicking to where the voice came from. The couch. Mikey. Who was smiling up at him, greeting him, “It’s about time you joined us! I thought Donnie was going to keep you away from us forever.”
“Sure seemed like it.” Raph grinned, and patted his lap, right next to Mikey’s side, “C’mon and join us! There’s plenty of room y’know.”
“Or you guys can stop hogging him all the time!” Casey grinned, lifting his face from April’s chest, who smiled at Leo, softly—he could swear it was even lovingly— “Yeah Leo. Why don’t you come down here with me and Case? We never get time to cuddle.”
Leo opened his mouth, but his voice caught inside of his throat. What was this? It had to be a dream. It had to be. No way this was real. It was too intimate and romantic and beautiful to be real. This was one of his dreams, he was sure of it. They were always filled with them— each of them, a few of them, all of them—always filled with them holding him and loving him and being beautiful and happy, in their own little world. No way this was reality. He must’ve passed out with Donnie after such a busy day of running around the Hidden City and patrolling New York. There’s no way he returned home to this.
“Leo?”
Leo blinked out of his thoughts once again. He noticed everyone staring at him, now with slight concern. He noticed a hand on his shoulder, turned his head.
“Hey.” Donnie smiled slightly. Not much, due to his lack of expression. Just a curl of the corners of his lips. But Leo always read that as the warmest smile with Donnie.
“…What’s going on?” Leo asked. Plain and simple. He was confused. Was this a dream? Or was he just seeing things because of his obsessive crushes? It was probably just him. He’s gotten even worse after Donnie. Damn it . He thought it would’ve done the opposite. That he would finally be able to focus on one person, on him. But he had just gotten worse.
He knew Donnie was fine with it and everything, hell, he even felt the same about the others to an extent, but—
“ Donnie.” April’s stern older-sister voice came, making Leo look at her, “Did you not tell him?”
Leo turned to Donnie, who sputtered, his small smile now a somewhat-frantic, almost embarrassed, look, “Well, I thought that since we’re a group, we’d tell him at the same time—“
“Hamato Donatello!” Mikey exclaimed, standing up from Raph’s lap, bordering on full-blown Dr. Delicate Touch mode, “We all agreed that since this was your doing, you would tell him.”
“Yeah, that ain’t cool Donnie!” Raph said, raising his non-existent brows, and Casey nodded, looking up from the floor, “If Leo’s angry at you for what you did, you gotta take that responsibility.”
Donnie stammered, “Well I—“ “Nuh-uh, no way.” April stood up, and walked to them, “Don’t try to defend yourself here, genius. Go in the other room and tell Leo what you did.” “But April—“
“What’s going on?!”
Everyone stopped to look at Leo, who was the epitome of confusion.
“Because everything is weird!” Leo said, and then decided to ramble before anyone else could start to talk again and confuse him more, “Here I was just having a chill day with Donnie shopping and patrolling and than we come back and EVERYTHING about this is like so weird, that can’t just be me right?! And then you guys greet me all weirdly and now you’re all jumping on Donnie like he’s committed some warcrime today—which I’m like, eighty percent sure he hasn’t—and like why are you guys here anyway no one told me we were having a movie marathon I would’ve gotten my pajamas on but that’s BESIDES the point WHAT IS GOING ON?!!!!!”
A moment of silence passed. Another.
Donnie dropped his shoulders, “Embarrassed sigh. I hate it when you guys are right. I should’ve told Leo; I got cold feet. Leo—“ he put a hand on his shoulder, and Leo turned to meet the eyes of his twin, his lover— “we should go in the other room for a bit. I want to explain this to you in private.”
Leo furrowed his non-existent brows, but internally sighed with relief. Good, he was going to get an explanation, and from his boyfriend no less.
He smiled, and grabbed his hand, “I’d like that, Don.”
Donnie nodded at the others, and pulled Leo away into the hallway from them, far enough out of hearing range, yet close enough to hear their laughter and the movie they were playing.
Leo leaned against the wall. Donnie squeezed his hand. Leaned in for a kiss.
Of course Leo returned it.
“Remember when you mentioned the other tapes?” Donnie murmured, and Leo nodded, smiling, “Let me guess, you got into them?”
“Well yes, obviously.” Donnie paused as Leo kissed him again, “But there’s more.”
Leo froze, his lips brushing Donnie’s.
Then his brain caught up all too quickly.
Oh God. He told the others, didn’t he? And they didn’t feel the same!!! And this whole thing was just an elaborate way to reject him as painlessly as possible and oh no—
“Woah woah woah, hey.” Donnie spoke, snapping Leo out of his spiral before it got too deep, “I know what you’re thinking.”
Leo stared, eyes wide and afraid. “Donnie.”
“Yes, I did show them the tapes.”
Leo grabbed his shoulder for support, “ Donnie—“
“And yes, I did tell them about us.” Donnie said, putting his hand on the one Leo put on his shoulder, “And they wholeheartedly reciprocate.”
The next Donnie caught in Leo’s throat.
“What?”
Donnie’s small, warm smile returned again, “I’ve always been the pyromaniac of the family Leo, but I would never play with fire when someone I care about could get hurt. Everything I do is for your happiness, for our happiness, for our family’s happiness. I would’ve never showed them the tapes if I had the slightest concern that they wouldn’t feel the same.”
Leo’s heart stopped. His eyes strangely seemed wet, out of nowhere. “So you mean—“
“Yes Leo, they want you. They want us.” Donnie’s smiled bloomed into a full on grin, maniacal and loving and wonderful, “ We want us.”
Leo cracked.
“ R-really?” He exhaled, shakily, tears breaking and sliding down his face. His heart started to seemingly pump at a million miles per hour, deciding it needed to immediately make up for those few seconds it had slowed.
Donnie nodded, and bumped his head against Leo’s, who started to shake like a leaf, “Really. They wouldn’t be here if they didn’t.”
Leo was quick to cover his mouth, muffling a sob, and pull it away to talk, “So that means—“
“Yes.” The softshell answered confidently.
Leo blinked at Donnie, trying to get rid of the tears, and said, “And they really—“
“Yes they do.” Donnie interrupted him again, to destroy the doubt in Leo’s mind even before it could form. “Me, you, all of us.” He pulled his head away, once again having that small smile, “It would be pretty difficult to maintain a polyamorous relationship between six people if it only hinged on one of them.”
Leo huffed out a wet laugh at that, and Donnie said, wiping the last tears out of his eyes, “There we go. I’ll admit, I’m not good with emotions. Please refrain from crying anymore until we get you to Mikey.”
At that, Leo let out another laugh, and grinned, beaming at his wonderful boyfriend, his twin, his other half, “So you planned all of this for me? Since like what, a month ago? You showed them the tapes without my consent and got all of them together for me? Donnie, you absolute freak, I love you.”
And he promptly pulled him in for a much deserved kiss.
The softshell hummed in it, and of course, pulled back with a prideful smirk. “Yes, yes I know, my gifts are astonishing and magnificent—I say, humbly and accurately—and we should definitely go back to the wonderful and amazing movie marathon date me and the others planned—I also say with complete accuracy—before they start to think much more concerning or devious interactions have befallen us. So—“ he offered his hand— “shall we, Nardo?”
Leo snorted at that, and took it, grinning, “We shall, Donnie.”
And they walked down that hallway, hand in hand, and turned the corner to see the others in their natural state.
Casey laying his head down in April’s lap, looking up at her as he talked, probably about the recent sightseeing he’d done or some freaky patrol that happened the other day.
Mikey and Raph attentively watching the movie they’ve seen dozens of times, the smaller cuddled into the snapper’s hold.
Once again, they all paused when Leo and Donnie appeared in the archway like before.
Then Raph grinned, gestured them to come in, “You guys gonna join us or what?”
Leo grinned back.
And he and Donnie walked through the archway to join their Bale.