Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Family dinner. Every family had them and every child loathed them.

For Leo, he was lucky enough to only have to go through with the planned event once a week. Even then, it was a rare occurrence for them to even go through due to the ‘scheduling issues’ on their ‘special guests’ end. So, more times than not, their plans got called off by one, if not both, of the special guests that would be gracing his home with their presence, meaning Leo could get away with eating his younger brother’s spectacular food in the comfort of his own room while watching some cringey movie.

Tonight, he had planned to watch Descendants while bundled up in the fluffy purple blanket he had stolen from his twin and a hoodie that matched the colour of his mask with a magnificent unicorn printed on the front of it, gifted to him by none other than the caring human that they had adopted into the family as his and his brother’s older sister. He could kiss that plan goodbye.

Trudging behind his younger brother, Leo had been kicked out of his home not even an hour ago, banished to go grocery shopping with Mikey and Donnie at some outdoor Yōkai marketplace all because he and Donnie may or may not have broken one of the chairs they had stationed around their extended table. 

It had already been hard enough trying to fit the five of them around the small wooden slab, but now they had to bolt together an extra table so the seven of them would be able to eat as a ‘family.’

In hindsight, how was Leo supposed to know that by stealing Donnie’s battle shell in the few moments he wasn’t wearing it and attaching it to his own carapace it would result in being violently chased around the lair? If Leo hadn’t been as agile as he was, the rickety chair wouldn’t have been the only thing that was broken.

His poor face could have been put at risk. Imagine that. Being brutally maimed by your twin all because you wanted to try on his poorly fitting battle shell that he almost never took off. 

It’s not like Splinter minded the chair being broken. Now he got to eat his meals in his favoured recliner chair, an item Leo was sure the old rat enjoyed the company of more than some of his sons. Shh, don’t tell Raph that.

So, if you think about it, Leo had done everyone a favour. Splinter got to enjoy his recliner chair for a little bit longer while the rest of them didn’t have to deal with listening to their dad complain about having splinters in his butt from the old wooden ones or his back going crooked from having to sit straight.

But alas, here Leo was, trailing behind his younger brother as Mikey searched for fresh ingredients, wanting nothing but the best for tonight as it was the first time they would all be gathered in what seemed like days to Leo but was months since their last proper family gathering. Donnie was also there, much to both his and Leo’s dismay as they stood on opposite sides of Mikey, using the youngest as a barrier.

For the three of them to be sent out into the Hidden City without any form of supervision, you’d think whoever had made the call had never met a ninja mutant turtle teenager in their life. Scratch that. You’d think they were never a teenager themselves and never had the displeasure of having any form of sibling.

But for Raph to send them out of the lair without developing a new chasm on his head out of worry or taking into consideration the amount of times the four of them had dressed up in poorly designed disguises to try and hide their mutation while infiltrating a human market place, you’d probably think that Raph had somehow got hit in the head while Donnie chased Leo around the lair before mercilessly digging his claws into Leo’s arms until he was able to get his battle shell back.

The plan was so obviously poorly thought out. Just a means to get Donnie and Leo out of the house so it could be cleaned without interruption. Who cared if they had some ‘family members’ coming over? They had interacted with them enough times for them to know or at least suspect what their home would be like. It’s not even as if it’s their first time coming to the lair. They had seen it in much worse states than what it had been in when Leo had left.

If it were up to Leo, he would ban one of their guests from the lair and make the other one take them all out to a fancy dinner instead of making Mikey cook every single time, no matter how much Mikey actually wanted to do it. It would save them the trouble of buying ingredients and save Raph the trouble of going on a cleaning spree, bending his shell to Splinter’s wishes as he rearranged furniture that was perfectly fine before and made sure their home was in top condition.

Of course, it wasn’t up to Leo though. So now, for the rest of the afternoon, or until Mikey found everything he was looking for, Leo’s fate had been decided and he was to help Mikey get everything he needed in an acceptable manner. In dumbed-down terms as Donnie liked to say when explaining anything to Leo if it took more than two seconds for him to catch on, he was to stay silent and do as Mikey says without causing a scene.

Even though that most likely meant without complaint, Leo wasn’t going to go willingly after he’s had his afternoon stripped away from him. He was very busy today in fact, before he found out that tonight’s plans were actually going through, and he’d have to clear his own schedule. No more writing Jupiter Jim fanfiction for him anymore.

“Hey Donnie,” Leo called his twin to attention, slowing his pace slightly so he no longer was walking in step with Mikey and could instead manoeuvre his way behind the box turtle and squeeze his way between the two so he would be directly by Donnie’s side. Looking up from his purplefied phone, the only answer Donnie offered Leo was settling his hooded eyes on his younger twin.

Grinning now that the attention was on him, Leo practically danced away as he shimmied out from between Donnie and Mikey and made his way over to a stall where its vendor was out cold with his feet propped up on a barrel. Double-checking to make sure that the shopkeeper wasn’t going to rise up and pummel him for what he was about to do, Leo picked up a large bundle of lettuce with particularly weepy leaves. 

Leo was almost certain that there was some form of weird mystic stuff done to it to get to that state as it was unlike anything he had seen in a human store. That was besides the point though.

“Obviously it doesn’t compare to the luscious locks I once had,” Placing the food on his head, he messed with a few of the leaves before he spun around to show it off to Donnie, his brother looking at him with so little expression it was almost scary. Mikey had continued walking on, ignoring Leo once his eyes landed on some tomatoes. Leo didn’t allow that to get to him as he flicked one of the leaves, letting it flutter around his head as if the lettuce was a wig short enough to be a bob. “But I think this is a close second place. What do you think?”

“I think that every time you open your mouth, more and more of my brain cells slowly die off,” Donnie murmured, lowering his phone and tucking it away in his battle shell. An emotion finally made its way onto Donnie’s face though, one of distaste as a mechanical arm came from his shell and reached forward, grabbing onto the makeshift wig and chucking it towards the shop owner where it landed on the Yōkai’s face. “I also think that you just wasted some perfectly good lettuce. Where was this poor excuse of a joke when Mikey was buying some lettuce for himself so some unsuspecting Yōkai doesn’t have to eat a perfectly grown crop that has touched your foul head? Also, you’ve never had hair. You were born without it and you’ll die without it.”

“I’m going to ignore that comment about my hair for now, but come on Don,” Leo exclaimed as he came bounding back over to Don, practically throwing himself into the softshell’s side. Instantly, Donnie tried to push Leo off of him, his hands shoving him one way while his battle shell’s arm tugged him in another. No matter what though, Donnie was unable to shake Leo off as the slider slid an arm around his shoulders and held on for dear life, not allowing himself to be dismantled. “Mikey’s just going to lettuce wait around all day while he goes scavenging. Loosen up a little.”

“Pizza Supreme, please tell me Leo didn’t not just make a lettuce pun,” Donnie slumped forward, the fight in him dying out as his robotic arm was pulled back into his shell. It almost seemed as if he was praying as he looked up to the sky, ignoring the grin that slowly stretched across Leo’s face. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“I’m not sure,” Leo slumped forward to join Donnie, copying his actions, all while trying to hide the crooked smile that was threatening to grow even more on his face. Donnie was going to hate him after this. But was it worth it? Most definitely. “ Lettuce find out.”

“That’s it,” All four of the spider-like arms sprung out of his shell and worked to dislodge Leo from him, not caring for the odd stares he got in return when Leo tried clinging onto him for a few extra seconds. When Leo had been successfully removed from Donnie and was now being held up in mid-air by all of Donnie’s robotic arms, Donnie began marching towards Mikey. “Mikey, is there anything you need that we can send Leo off to find so I don’t need to see his face anymore? If I have to spend one more second with him and listen to another idiotic sentence leave his mouth, you won’t be able to hold me accountable for what might happen to him.”

“I thought my one-liner was pretty awesome,” Leo muttered with his arms crossed over his plastron and his legs bent slightly, making him look as if he was a kitten that had been picked up by the scruff of his neck after nipping too hard at its owner's hand.

“Of course you do,” Donnie purposely jostled Leo, making his mechanical arms shake and almost drop Leo just to give him a small scare. Leo’s arms shot out to grapple onto the spider-like arms to hold him in place to try and steady himself, his eyes wide as he looked down at the ground in preparation to get dropped. Glowering over at Leo, Donnie stares at him as if he were scolding a child, “You’re not the one who has to listen to your unfiltered thoughts. Mikey, anything will do.”

As if hearing them for the first time, Mikey only just looked back at them, taking in the predicament Leo had somehow gotten himself into and letting out a soft laugh at the sight, finally making Leo drop the mechanical arms in favour of crossing his arms once again. If Donnie thought he was talking to a child before, Leo was certainly acting like one now as he jutted out his bottom lip in a pout.

“I’m not sure,” Mikey seemed hesitant to send Leo off, making the slider thankful for that hesitancy but also questioning where it had originally come from. What has he ever done to deserve such a thing? At Mikey’s words, Donnie let out a small sound, a mix between an animalistic hiss and a whine, simultaneously demanding and begging Mikey to come up with something. Reconsidering at the noise, Mikey offered, “I haven’t found any turnips yet.”

“Perfect,” Donnie cried, almost falling to his knees to thank Pizza Supreme for hearing his prayers. Swinging his head around wildly once he was certain his knees were stable and weren’t going to buckle out from underneath him due to joy, Donnie searched for a stall selling turnips so he could push Leo in the opposite direction of just so it would take him a bit longer to find and give him a few more seconds of peace. He wasn’t quick enough, however, Leo freed himself from Donnie’s robotics arms and headed off by himself. “Quickly Michael, before it’s too late for us.”

“I can hear you,” Leo snapped over his shoulder, all bark no bite. With a huff at the snicker, Mikey let out and the scoff Donnie purposely played up, Leo turned his head back around and began stomping his way past stalls, searching for the turnips that were so important to Mikey. 

First, he got banished from the lair, now he got banned from going shopping with his brothers. What will he be forced to give up next?

With an audible sigh, Leo weaved his way between market stalls, his eyes scanning over all the different fruits and vegetables that were being sold.

It was hard to see anything other than the food being sold, especially with how deep into the markets he was. When Leo had first arrived, he had seen a mix of different types of stalls. Some were selling clothes, and others trying to get rid of old furniture. Most were selling different types of foods though. The section Leo had been forced to wander into with his brothers certainly was. All he could see were the bright colours of different fruits and vegetables everywhere he turned.

Due to that, it shouldn’t be too hard for Leo to find a simple vegetable. Well, he was wrong. No matter how many times he changed the direction he was walking in, he couldn’t seem to find a single turnip being sold. Every time he tried asking for directions, Leo was stared at like he had just strangled a cat. So much for being the Face Man. He gave up pretty quickly asking Yōkai for help after that.

That left Leo just to walk around aimlessly, very absently turning his head from side to side to still search for turnips. The purple and white vegetable was far from his mind though. He still couldn’t shake the night’s events from his mind.

For the past three months, not a single family dinner had gone to plan so why was it so important that tonight’s one did? The few nights when everyone had been sitting at the table had always been cut off abruptly or with Leo sat boredly, playing around with the food on his plate as he pushed it back and forth with a fork.

Tonight wouldn’t be any different so Leo wasn’t sure why Raph was breaking a sweat trying to clean up their home while Mikey poured his heart into the food he was going to make only to be disappointed as the night went on.

Maybe he should warn Mikey not to get his hopes up too high- Eyes finally landing on what he had spent at least ten minutes searching for, Leo almost sprinted towards a stall with a fresh display of turnips as his previous thoughts got cut off. Stopping in front of the stall, Leo’s eyes darted across all of the different sizes and shapes, a feeling akin to winning the lottery filling Leo.

Before he could get too ahead of himself, only picking up one of the turnips before leaving the stall completely bare so he could take them all back to Mikey, Leo looked around the farmers market in search of his two brothers, hoping they wouldn’t be too far away. It would probably be smart if he had Mikey pick out which ones he wanted to use. Tossing the turnip into the air, Leo cocked his hip to the side before catching it in his hand, wandering allowed, “Hopefully the guys will turnip for me when I call.”

What normally would have had his brothers groaning and a feigned broad grin stretching its way onto Leo’s face, Leo was expecting to be met with silence as he continued to look for his brothers. Instead, Leo was startled out of his thoughts and nearly dropped the turnip in his hand as he heard a hushed laugh from above him, making him snap his head up to try and get a glance at who was laughing. At his words no less.

Above him, stood in a low crouch on the roof of a pavilion that somehow didn’t indent too much due to their weight, was a Yōkai that had previously been peering down at him. Said Yōkai had hunched over themselves completely, eyes squeezed shut behind a mask that covered the entirety of their face, and a hand held up to press against where their mouth would’ve been as if to quiet themselves. Despite all their efforts to keep themselves hidden, Leo could see tuffs of white sticking up in odd angles from behind their mask, as well as the white fur that covered their hands and ears that were tied back with some form of teal headband.

The laugh radiating out from the Yōkai came in choked bursts that couldn’t be concealed as their shoulders shook. It seemed to be uncontrollable for such a simple set of words that Leo himself hadn’t even found that funny. As if they were going to fall from their perch above Leo, the Yōkai grabbed onto the edge of the stretched fabric they were balancing on with the hand that wasn’t trying to shush tittering laughter.

Abrasive would be one way to describe the noise, especially with the hitches and gasps of breaths that the Yōkai took to try and calm themselves. Full-body shudders followed close behind whenever the Yōkai did get close enough to calming down properly, somehow egging themselves on to begin laughing again in an almost desperate manner.

Feeling the exaggerated lines of his face slowly mellow, softening even, Leo couldn’t help but stare up at the Yōkai who was unsuspecting of Leo’s gaze while they laughed at one of his spur-of-the-moment one-liners. Though he could not see the face belonging to the Yōkai, hidden away by a mask that itched something in the back of Leo’s mind as if he had seen it before, he felt himself being entranced as he listened to the brusque laughter.

Sensing his stare later rather than sooner, the Yōkai’s laughter was quickly cut short as they regained composure and finally found Leo with a forgotten turnip in one hand, a slightly parted mouth and two rounded eyes engulfed by two red crescent moons watching them. Body going rigid, there were a few silent seconds that passed between them. 

Opening his mouth further with the hope of some sound actually coming out of it, Leo was about to say the first thing that came to mind–probably another poorly thought-of joke to try and get the Yōkai laughing again–when they abruptly flung themselves backwards, a muffled grunt coming with it as they fled from Leo’s line of sight. Stumbling back a few steps at the sudden outburst, it took Leo a few seconds to regain a sense of himself before his feet were moving before his mouth.

“Hey, wait,” Leo’s voice sounded almost choppy as he grabbed a kunai from the fanny pack he had fastened around his waist and shell. Upon his fingers curving around its base, a low blue glow surrounded it before it was generating larger into the mystic ōdachi he favoured so much. Slicing it through the air once, a rippling blue portal opened that Leo all but dived through, coming out of the other side on the same gazebo he had been under when he first heard the unknown Yōkai.

As soon as Leo came out the other side of the portal, his feet instantly sunk beneath his weight, the gazebo’s fabric roof not being able to support him as it did with the Yōkai. Fumbling slightly as he tried to gather his bearings, Leo could see just the tips of the Yōkai’s white ears vanishing.

It was hard to give chase when every step that Leo took had him almost sinking further as his feet rushed blindly, his eyes kept up to try and catch another glimpse of the Yōkai, it was only a matter of time before Leo reached the edge of his moulding platform with nothing there to catch him. The slap of air came quickly as Leo plummeted, making the tails of his mask flutter behind him while his arms flailed to try and grab something to save himself.

Instead of hitting the solid ground like he had been expecting, his shell was instead caught by the firmness of a display of turnips. Several of the vegetables went flying out from under him as he came crashing down, others being squashed beneath his shell as the wooden display they were placed on gave a very fierce whine to the sudden pressure.

A groan of his own filtered out from Leo’s mouth as he tried to push himself up to a sitting position, his neck screaming in protest as he did so and for long after due to the unyielding vegetables that had been digging into the scales there. Instead of removing his tail from the fresh food he was ruining as any sane Yōkai would do, Leo stared up at where he had once been, as if he would hear that same laughter only this time directed at his downfall.

The click of a camera and the bright flash that came with it had Leo’s head snapping back down to where his two brothers stood not too far away from the turnip display, one of the turnips from it being held in Mikey’s hand from before Leo came crashing down. It was Donnie who had his phone held up and pointed at Leo as he sat sprawled out on the vegetables, an amused expression on his face that contradicted Mikey’s horrified one. “What are you doing?”

“I was just practising my ability to be thrown off a building,” Leo easily shrugged, coming up with an excuse that would surely need another excuse to be conjured up due to the predicament he had gotten himself into. All of the ruined turnips would make for one angry storekeeper. “When do you think my next fall will be? Tonight, at next week's family dinner, or in the space between?”

“That doesn’t matter,” Mikey quickly snapped, an eye twitching as he came fretting towards his brother, trying to will him to stand from the mess, head-turning widely and taking in the number of Yōkai staring at the scene. Leo allowed himself to be pulled up by his younger brother, a very little heat-filled glare aimed at Donnie as his mind still stayed stuck to the fleeting Yōkai. “Has anyone noticed yet? Do you think we can simply pay and then leave, or do we need to make a run for it?”

“All is fine hermano,” Leo eased as his feet hit the dusty ground and he surveyed those who were staring, all of whom either quickly looked away when Leo met their eyes or stared on with a hefty amount of scorn. Not allowing their stares to make him weaver, Leo turned back to his brothers with an easy-going grin. “I’ll just make a portal now and take us straight back to the lair. You got everything you need Miguel?”

“He does now that we have required some turnips,” Donnie spoke up for Mikey, finally tucking his phone away as he stared at Leo with an almost pleased glint in his eyes that he would have denied being there if Leo was to point it out as it went against his ‘emotionless bad boy’ imagine. “We could have been finished ages ago if you would’ve done your job properly.”

“ Turnip down a bit Donnie,” Just as Leo had expected, an exaggerated groan filed out from Donnie’s chest as he raked both hands over his face. Mikey seemed a bit too paranoid by the turnips Leo had ruined to properly pay attention to Leo’s word choice. Unfortunately, the ringing laughter Leo had heard before didn’t sound up again. “We’ve got all the turnips we could ever possibly need. So why don’t we get out of here?”

“We have to pay for this mess, Leo,” Mikey scowled, grabbing onto Leo’s shoulders and shaking him as his eyes searched for the storekeeper who had yet to make an appearance, allowing them to stay off the hook for the moment. “You ruined all their crops.”

“I don’t see anyone looking after the stall,” Leo mused, placing his hands on top of Mikey’s before he pulled them away, allowing himself to stand straight. Making a show of looking around at the kind of abandoned area since Leo had dropped down, Leo tosses the turnip he still had held in his hand to Mikey, planting the now free hand on his hip while he raised the other holding his ōdachi. “That must mean we’re off the hook. So, like I said, it’s time to go.”

“Isn’t this like illegal or something?” Mikey questions, gesturing back to the almost destroyed stall and all the ruined vegetables Leo had left in his wake. Leo only barely spares it a glance before shrugging it off. “We can’t just leave it like this.”

“It’s not illegal if you don’t get caught,” Donnie very quickly muttered under his breath, both his hands coming together as he stared at the ‘crime scene’ in question. Mikey sent Donnie an aghast look as if what he had heard was something truly unspeakable.

“Bingo Don Tron,” Leo fired a finger gun at his older twin before he was swiping his ōdachi through the air and creating a dazzling blue portal for the three of them to cross over with. Immediately it was like a vacuum had been created as the portal began pulling Leo’s brothers towards it, its efforts having no effect on him. “You have a lot of prep to do for tonight, Mikster so you better get started on that.”

“Tomorrow when we don’t need to worry about this dinner anymore, I’m going to drag you back here by your stupid blue mask,” Mikey gritted out as he felt his feet be pulled from the air and hurtle towards the portal. Before he could slip in though he was able to grab tightly onto Donnie who was snorting out a cackle at Mikey’s words.

“Hey,” Leo dejectedly mumbled, reaching his free hand to lightly hold onto the tails of his mask.

Mikey wasn’t done just yet even with half his body slipping into Leo’s portal with Donnie not too far behind. It was a shame Leo couldn’t book Mikey a session with Doctor Delicate Touch. Blue was his signature colour, it shouldn’t be insulted just for being trademarked by Leo. “And you can pay for the damages you’ve done with your own money instead of the money Donnie’s stolen.”

“Who told you I did that?” A paranoid twitch consumed Donnie’s body as his eyes darted around the Yōkai’s farmers market before flinching back to Mikey once he found many prying eyes on him. Grabbing onto Mikey’s face with one hand, his three fingers pinching his green skin together, he asked, “Was it the TCRI?”

Once the two of them fell through the portal, Mikey’s response being cut off as he was teleported back to the surface and into the lair, Leo felt a sigh of relief and relaxation escaping him. Home sweet home was just around the corner.

“Hey,” A voice screamed out to him just as he had begun stepping towards the portal, making Leo pause and shift his head so he could look over his shoulder. Instead of a mysterious Yōkai hopping towards him, he was met with a Yōkai resembling one of a duck from the surface. Its beak was somehow snarled as it waddled towards Leo, its wings crossed as its eyes flickered between what was left ruined behind Leo. “Did you do this? You ruined my stall?”

“Hold on,” Leo raised his hands in surrender, his mystic ōdaci almost poking the duck Yōkai in the head as he did so. A small granite quickly took over Leo’s face as the near decapitation seemed to only anger the Yōkai more. “This is all just a big understanding. I wasn’t the one who ruined your store, but I saw who it was. If you want, we could work together to turn down the guy who did.”

“Really? That sounds-“ The Yōkai for only a few seconds seemed stunned by Leo’s answer, going along with it with understanding eyes before the pun that Leo had sneakily snuck into his words caught up with him. Immediately his face twisted in outrage as he tried to advance on Leo. “You better pay me back right now kid.”

“Sorry, no can do,” Leo called before he was whirling back around to his portal and jumping through it, the mystic thing closing as soon as he stepped out on the other side, sealing the angered Yōkai off from him.

Just by being in the lair, Leo could sense the difference in atmosphere. He could feel his body loosening, not having to be so on edge since the threat of danger was long gone. Just beyond the living room, Leo could hear Mikey washing the vegetables they had retrieved from the farmer's market, putting them to good use like he said he would as he began working on their dinner for the night.

Before Leo could get himself too comfortable, a hand latched onto his shell and lifted him off the ground, his feet kicking back and forth below him as they dangled. Without having to look to see who had picked him up—or paying mind to the low worry-filled stink that assaulted his nose—Leo could tell that he was safely in the grips of his eldest brother.

“Glad to see you’re finally back Leo,” Shifting Leo in his arms, Raph kept him cradled there as he began walking through the lair, giving Leo a free ride to wherever Raph was taking him. Kicking back to relax, Leo let himself be babied almost as Raph kept him close. “You had Raph a little worried when Donnie and Mikey came through the portal but you didn’t.”

“Sorry about that Big Guy,” Leo said with a small grin, setting his head to rest on Raph’s plastron in a sense of comfort. He was very quickly learning how to ease his older brother when he got overprotective like this, a skill Mikey had taught him after suffering for years as the youngest. He had also picked up on where Raph was currently taking him. “I just had some things to take care of. How's the cleaning been going for you?”

“That doesn’t sound sketchy at all,” Raph sarcastically murmured, making his way towards Leo’s train cart. “But it’s been good, I’m almost done. I just need to finish off the entrance to the lair now.”

“That’s great, Raph,” Leo forced the words out, his tone easily masked with cheeriness as he remembered why Raph had gone on his cleaning spree. Family dinner. “Now all we have to worry about is our two famous guests showing up on time. I’m sure whatever Mikey’s able to conjure up will be perfecto.”

“I’m sure it will be,” Raph agreed with a warm smile. Mikey has always had a love for cooking, and that love only intensifying after the first time they tried pizza. Now, at every opportunity he had, Mikey would try to make something for them. The family dinners he had orchestrated were a way to test his new recipes as well as bring two parts of their family closer together. “But there’s still one thing that you need to do.”

A soft hum filtered out of Leo to show he was listening. In reality, he had no clue as to what else there was left for him. He had never before played any large part in these dinners, his disinterest being shown from the start. The very few times he had tried to make an effort had only ever been when he wanted something in return. So, whatever it was that Raph was about to say next was completely beyond Leo.

“Can you try and make yourself presentable for tonight?” Raph asked, stopping in front of Leo’s train cart and opening the door for him. As he placed Leo down just within the entrance, his slightly messy room that Leo liked to state was an organised mess behind him, Raph got to see the scowl that made its way onto his second youngest brother's face at the word presentable.

In feigned annoyance just to raise a reaction out of Raph, Leo quickly quips, “I’m always presentable.”

“Of course, you are,” Raph quickly tries to correct himself with clear panic on his face, his two large hands waving in front of him as he tries to settle Leo. Letting Raph’s words lift his face, Leo listened to Raph with an almost neutral expression, apart from the soft upward tilt from the corners of his lips. “But maybe tonight go a bit… overboard? It’s the first time everyone’s going to be back together in a while so Mikey wants it to be special.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Leo said with careful consideration. No way was he going to waste a good outfit on a boring event. Leo was many things, but he wasn’t an outfit repeater. Unless of course, you were talking about the shorts he and his brothers all adorned. “Now if you excuse me, beauty isn’t just a thing that comes naturally.”

Without waiting for a response, Leo spun around and let his door slip shut behind him. Wandering into his room, Leo let himself flop backwards onto his bed, a hand absently reaching for the purple blanket he had stolen from Donnie purely because of how fluffy it was.

When Leo’s fingers were only met by the rumpled bed sheets that he hadn’t bothered to make after waking up, the slider slowly sat up in search of where he may have misplaced the blanket. Peering around for a few minutes, Leo searched high and low, checking under his bed and in every comfortable corner of his room for where he may have left it laid out. He found nothing.

As if on cue, the phone that he had left plugged in on his nightstand that now was noticeably unplugged but at 100%, a text from Donnie flashed on the screen.

‘Stop stealing my stuff.’

It read with an angered emoji next to it. Leo snorted at the sight of it but couldn’t help but feel slightly peeved as his plan to snuggle up until he was forced to leave the safety of his own room was taken from him again.

That more or less left Leo at a loss of things to do as he was going to pick up his earlier plans and execute them now instead of having to postpone them to another day. Without his favoured fluffy blanket that unfortunately was owned by his older twin, it only left him with the blue hoodie with a unicorn printed on it that April had got him. Not being a heathen, Leo wasn’t just going to break tradition and go without. Descendants would just have to wait.

Something told Leo that breaking out of his train cart when Raph had taken the liberty to personally escort him there with clear instructions wouldn’t sit well with the snapping turtle, meaning Leo would have to stay within those walls and come up with something better to do.

Walking over to the desk he had propped up near the corner of his room that was lined with skincare and cosmetics, he sat before it and stared into the mirror that was hanging above his desk. Shuffling through the drawers of his desk, Leo came across some of the facemasks he had been keeping for some form of special occasion.

 A little self-pampering never hurt anybody.

Before opening the small packet that the facemask sheet came in, Leo made sure to cleanse the scales of his face, making sure his skin was the perfect canvas for the face mask to be applied to. Only when Leo was content with the smoothness of his scales, only hoping to intensify that feeling with the face mask he was about to use, did he open the packet that the sheet was sitting in and spread it out, pressing it to his face and making sure it sat in all the right spots.

Picking his phone up off his desk and dropping the facemask rubbish into the small bin tucked next to the desk, Leo made his way back to his bed and got comfortable, making sure not to ruffle the sheet on his face.

Leo wasn’t sure how long he would have before dinner would commence but he was sure someone would come and get him before he was actually needed. Before he was needed for the night Leo wanted to make sure he got as much relaxation as he could possibly squeeze in. So kicking back and enjoying some time on his phone, he did so until Donnie came searching for him.

“Mikey said Dinner was going to be ready soon so dead Papa wants everyone ready,” Donnie said upon walking into the room, making his way towards Leo’s bed so he could loom over it. Seeing the white sheet across Leo’s face, the slider looked up at him with a video playing unpaused on his phone. Pausing for a few seconds, Donnie takes in the sight in front of him for a few seconds longer before asking, “Isn’t it a bit early to be doing your skincare?”

“It’s a good thing this isn’t my proper routine then,” Leo scoffed, annoyed that Donnie would think his skin got this clear just by wearing a face mask every night. Now that he wasn’t distracted by the screen in front of his hands, Leo could take in some dark purple pants and a black shirt that looked soft, all seeming to be thrown on to convey a sense of style. “I’m just preparing myself for the eventful night ahead.”

“I thought Raph told you to get prepared by making yourself well-dressed?” Donnie asked with one of his drawn-on brows raised as he took in Leo once more with a look of indifference. “Not spoil yourself.”

“My personality is dressed well enough to get me through any occasion,” Leo flaunted, sitting up in his bed and finally turning his phone off. Tossing it to the side, Leo stood and made his way back to his desk to go through the steps of taking the facemask off. “Besides everyone here tonight has seen me at my best, like when I became Big Mama’s Battle Nexus Champion, and seen me at my worst, like when Drxaum threw me off a roof.”

“I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with an alphabeticalized list of you at a lower state of being than when Draxum threw you off a roof,” Donnie floated, following after Leo to watch from over his shoulder as he peeled back the white sheet and took in the soft shimmer of Leo’s scales from the leftover moisture of the mask. “Both physically and metaphorically.”

“I’m sure you could, Donosaurus Rex,” Leo grinned, meeting Donnie’s eyes in the mirror as he applied a moisturiser to his face, letting that soak away the remainder of his mask. Enjoying the feeling of the damp cotton pad running over his face, Leo kept the smile on his face even after he finished, no longer being able to postpone the night with Donnie at his flank. “I’m sure you could.”

Chapter Text

Leo followed closely behind Donnie as the softshell led the two of them back to the main part of their home. The closer they got, the stronger the smell of Mikey’s wonderful cooking got. Some of the vegetables the box turtle had picked out stood out amongst the rest, almost like a staple piece just from smell alone. Leo was also sure he could pick up the smell of lamb from one of the recipes he had suggested.

By now Mikey would’ve finished everything, only having to plate it if he hadn’t already. With the amount of dishes he had planned to make it might have taken him a minute or so to do so but Leo was sure he had taken that into consideration before he began cooking, giving himself enough time to make everything he wanted to.

As they went Leo caught no sight of Raph but chalked it up to the snapping turtle hastily putting some finishing touches together for their lair or greeting their highly anticipated guests with Splinter. Just leaving Donnie and Leo to join them so the night could commence.

What Leo hadn’t been expecting was to pass the kitchen and see Mikey trying to keep the food hot while waiting to take it out, Raph uneasily peering around the corner and into the dining room where the four of them were supposed to be heading. As they were about to walk past, Leo could see Raph trying to gesture over to them, the movement going ignored by Leo and unrecognised by Donnie as the two of them continued making their way to the dining room, getting a groan out of Raph as he facepalmed.

It wasn’t that Leo thought whatever Raph was trying to warn them about wasn’t important, it was just he wanted to get this show on the road and the best way to do that was by marching into the dining room and taking a seat, forcing Raph to follow his lead and finally allow Mikey to show off his creations instead of trying to keep them warm.

The only reason Leo got away with it anyway was due to Donnie missing Raph’s cues. That could’ve been because Leo’s body was placed in between the two of them, even though Donnie was a few steps in front of him, or because Donnie had misinterpreted them and chosen to carry on with what he had been sent off to do. Bring Leo to dinner.

The closer that Donnie and Leo got, the more they could pick up on the faint murmurs that were coming from it. Whatever was being discussed by those inside didn’t want it being heard by Leo and his brothers, a plausible explanation as to why Raph and Mikey were keeping to the kitchen and trying to stop Donnie and Leo from making their way past it.

As soon as Leo stepped into the room it was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over those who were in it before them. Previously, Leo would have understood why the sudden change in atmosphere appeared if he was the first to step into the room, the adult talk being cut short by the prescience of a kid.

But Leo wasn’t the first one in the room. That was Donnie.

Splinter had spared Donnie a glance for all of two seconds before he was sinking further into his recliner chair, eyes flicking between his two guests as he paid attention to the heated conversation taking place. 

Draxum was the next to notice Donnie, feeling a presence over his shoulder and briefly looking over to see who it was. Upon seeing his scientific prodigy, he offered Donnie a small greeting, one that Donnie took with much less grace than what Splinter had given him. 

Then there was Big Mama. The woman didn’t even acknowledge Donnie, keeping her attention on Draxum unless she was trying to rope Splinter closer towards her side.

Seconds later though when Leo walked into the room, an air of over-the-top arrogance surrounding him, everything had changed. Splinter’s ears had flattened to his head as he sat up, looking at his son as if trying to silently warn him that he had just stepped into a den of wolves. Draxum had scowled at his arrival, his top lip curling up as if he were in the presence of a pest.

Big Mama had a reaction that was the complete opposite of Splinter and the rat's overglorified ex-boyfriend. Her face had practically lit up at the sight of Leo, her glasses glinting brightly as she did so. Leo had expected the reaction he was given from Draxum with how much Leo always got on his nerves. The expression he was met with from Splinter had been slightly worrisome but Big Mama’s whole demeanour had been unnerving, setting Leo almost on edge from how often he was on the receiving end of her threats. Almost.

“If it isn’t my favourite Turtley-Boo,” Big Mama exclaimed as she almost jumped from her seat with how quickly she had gotten up. Eyes set on Leo, Big Mama began rounding the table with the full intent to greet the slider when an arm got set in front of her short figure. Following the limb to see who it was connected to, Big Mama raised a perfectly shaped brow at Draxum as she radiated the picture of unimpressed. “What’s with the intrusion Draxy?”

“I think you should return to your seat so we can begin dinner,” Draxum spoke in a monotone voice, trying not to show his distaste at the name Big Mama had chosen to use for him. Since he had been the closest to Leo, the entrance to the dining room being just behind the seat he had chosen to occupy that night, it made sense to him to stand and insert himself in between the spider Yōkai and the turtle he had mutated. The earlier deal Big Mama had tried to strike stayed fresh in his mind and fueled his actions. “Greetings can take place when everyone is present.”

“Well you’re no fun,” Big Mama said with a loud puff of air, dejectedly going back to her seat after being shut down, her teeth grinding together as she did so. All would play out as the night continued.

“Boys,” Splinter’s scratchy voice called out, trying to reach Raph and Mikey as Draxum returned to his seat, finding Donnie taking up the one next to him like he normally did when Draxum could attend family dinner night. The softshell always needing to be close. The guise of wanting to expand his intellect with someone of a similar functioning brain as he was on the tip of his tongue whenever the question was raised. “Why don’t you bring dinner out so we can start?”

Before the rest of the seats filled up and while Raph and Mikey had their hands full of the delicious-smelling food the youngest had prepared, Leo made his way over to take a seat just as Donnie had done.

With Draxum’s eyes boring into him as Leo walked, the sheep-like Yōkai reached behind Donnie and pulled out the seat next to him, expecting the slider to sit next to his twin and leave the other two seats for Raph and Mikey. Eyes turning to expecting, Draxum waited for Leo to take the seat he had silently instructed him to.

But when has Leo ever done anything Draxum told him to?

Completely bypassing the pulled-out chair, Leo followed the path Big Mama had previously taken back to her seat, pulling out the empty chair next to her instead and taking a seat there. Making a show of getting comfortable, Leo flashed Draxum a spite-filled smile that looked to be more of a bare of teeth.

Leo had a front-row seat to the flash of annoyance that passed through Draxum’s eyes as they flickered to where Leo sat and then to the woman next to him. The action only left Leo as well as his three brothers confused as the final two made their way over to the table.

“Hey Big Mama,” Leo mused, turning in his seat to face her as Mikey set a plate large enough to fit a pizza on it in front of Donnie, Leo and the two empty seats to the side of both of them that were awaiting to be filled by Raph and Mikey. That left Raph with a large bowl of salad in one hand and a pot filled with stew in the other which was covered by an oven mitt. Those two items were placed in front of Splinter, Draxum and Big Mama, the dishes created for them to enjoy while the pizza was created for the rest of them. “I haven’t seen you since you made New York your very own Battle Nexus.”

“Oh it has been far too long, hasn’t it, my sweet Baby Blue?” The undignified hum Big Mama got in return as Leo fetched two slices of pizza didn’t have the pleasant surprise in Big Mama growing any more unlike when Leo had first approached and then spoken to her. To think she wouldn’t have to put too much work into this bonding time. “So what have you been up to lately Turtley-Wurtlry?”

“Huh?” Leo questioned, turning back to face Big Mama with a stringy piece of cheese hanging from his mouth and connecting with his pizza after thinking their conversation was over. Stretching his head back until the cheese eventually broke, Leo practically slurped the rest of it into his mouth, Big Mama watching him with a grimace as he did so. “Not too much. Defeating the villain of the week every once in a while. Did some shopping, skincare and falling off building practice today.”

“Falling off building practice?” Big Mama parroted, confusion flicking over her face as she gave Leo her undivided attention. “Why would you need to practise falling off a building?”

“Oh, you know,” Leo shrugged in nonchalance, playing it off for all of two seconds before he was narrowing his eyes at Draxum from across the table. For the whole of their conversation, Draxum has had his eyes trained on them, so when Leo suddenly snapped his head over to him, he had little time to try and busy himself with anyone else, though he didn’t bother to look guilty about his eavesdropping either. “Just in case Draxy here decides he wants to throw me off another building.”

“Leonardo, that was one time,” Draxum tried to express, digging himself an even larger hole as Leo had no intent to let the incident go any time soon. Pinching the bridge of his nose, Draxum still tried to find a middle ground for them to meet on, if not for his own sake then for the sake of Leo’s brothers and father so they could see he was at least trying. “How many more times will I need to apologise before we can leave that in the past and you can move on from the petty finger-pointing?”

“Maybe if we go back to that same building and you let me shove you off, then I’ll be able to look past it,” Leonardo’s arms crossed over his plastron as he settled further back into his seat, openly glaring at Draxum like the Yōkai had been scowling at him. “Until then I’ll keep up my petty finger-pointing, thanks.”

“Trying to make amends with you is futile,” Draxum glowered, acting out the equivalent of what Leo would label a tantrum before he was turning his attention to Mikey, almost as if he was trying to shut Leo out. Instantly there was a noticeable change in behaviour. Softening at the edges, Draxum regarded Mikey with an almost pleasant look on his face. “Thank you for the meal, Michelangelo. Would you mind telling us what you have made for tonight?”

“I would love to,” Mikey cheerily answered from his seat next to Donatello, leaning forward in his chair lightly so he could meet Draxum’s gaze from around his second eldest brother. Asking Mikey about his food was always a good way to steer the conversation away from whatever it had previously been set on, giving the youngest time to ramble on about whatever it was he made until whatever was previously being discussed was forgotten. “Obviously for my brothers, I made our favourite, making sure there were no pineapples even in the vicinity of it per Donnie’s preferences. Then for you three, I made a classic Caesar salad to try along with a lamb stew with root vegetables.”

“A lamb stew?” Draxum questions slowly, pausing from where he had begun serving himself a bowl, staring at it for a few seconds before looking over to Mikey at the odd choice of a meal.

“Yeah, lamb stew. It’s not something I made before so you’ll have to let me know what you think,” Mikey still had a large grin on his face as he spoke, unaware of Draxum’s sudden hesitation to the meal in front of him. “I wasn’t too sure what I was going to make tonight but Leo helped me come up with the idea of the lamb stew and even sent me some recipes. I kinda went off the rails with it a little and did my own thing.”

“My original idea was sheep stew but Mikey said he couldn’t cook something that cute in good conscience,” When Draxum didn’t speak up, Leo took control of the conversation with a crooked grin taking over his face. It was very slowly that the realisation began to settle in, but when it did, Leo couldn’t wipe the smug look lighting his face as he kept hooded eyes trained on Draxum. “So lamb was the next best thing.”

One by one, horrified faces snapped to Leo as they realised why he had tried to get Mikey to cook them something sheep-related at the beginning of the day when he first found out that both Draxum and Big Mama had agreed to come along for the dinner that night.

Never before had Leo tried to recommend eating sheep, not that he ever ate anything that Mikey prepared for Draxum. Sometimes, depending on his mood or the meal, he would indulge it when it was Big Mama who ate with them, but whenever it was Draxum he would stay just as far away as Donnie would when two different types of food touched on his plate.

It wasn’t uncommon for Leo to make quick and unsettling quips towards Draxum whenever he stopped by their home, even if it was only for a few minutes to check in on them–namely Donnie and whatever it was that he was working on. A night where there wasn’t any bickering between the two of them was unheard of but could always be overlooked by the conversations that followed whenever Leo got everything out of his system.

“Not cool Leo,” Raph was the first to chide. Being sat next to Raph meant that the mini-lecture he was about to receive would be just as inescapable as the actual lecture he would receive once Draxum and Big Mama departed from them. Leaning into Leo’s space slightly so Leo was forced to look at him and actually listen, Raph said, “You don’t see Draxum bringing turtle soup with him when he comes down here.”

“That’s because he’s probably mutating them in his dungeon,” Leo rolled his eyes, flopping back in his seat as he sunk his head into his shell a little. Even if Leo had tried to look cocky in the moment, the look of disgust on Draxum’s face fueling some pride inside of him, the aftermath hadn’t been accounted for.

Especially not when Mikey was staring blankly into space in horror, recounting how he could have cooked some distant relative of Draxum’s. Donnie had taken to sticking his snout in the air, the scales there creased as if trying to block out the smell of the lamb stew in favour of Draxum’s feelings.

Big Mama however looked at Leo as if she had just won the lottery even though she didn’t need the extra cash. It was such a stark difference from everyone else in the room, setting her apart from the rest with the unusual tendency she was taking up that was normally revered for Donnie.

“Blue,” Splinter’s warning voice rang out as he spoke up properly for the first time since calling the rest of his sons into the room. Sitting up straight in his recliner chair, he gave Leo a rare disapproving glare that would be engraved into his mind for a very long time after that night. “I no longer want to hear a peep from your mouth. This is meant to be a family dinner and you have done nothing but cause chaos among those sitting at this table. How does the saying go? If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all?”

The words felt like a punch to the stomach, or better yet something piercing his shell. With no intent other than to scold, Leo felt himself sinking back and his head trying to seek comfort in his shell, most of his neck retracting back into it as he listened to his father's words. 

In the midst of it all, Leo felt a comforting hand being placed on his shell while his father continued talking, causing Leo’s eyes to pass over to where Big Mama’s arm was outstretched, her fingers running soothingly over some of the grooves of his carapace as she offered Leo a reassuring smile as their eyes met before turning to face Splinter. Her expression was nothing but peeved.

When everyone seemed to get their two cents in, they gave Leo hardly a second to respond before they were moving on, coming up with a conversation topic that Leo couldn’t twist, not that he had any intention to speak with any of them for the rest of the night. If Splinter wanted him quiet so badly then he wouldn’t utter a word in their direction just as they desperately wanted.

It wasn’t like any of them tried to rope Leo back into conversation with them anyway. Content with letting him silently sit there until the night was over and he could migrate to sulk in his room. 

Splinter, Raph and Mikey spoke about some show that they had been able to watch with Splinter, their dad going over all the points they had missed and how the filmology wasn’t as up to par with what he had done when he was younger. As usual, when Donnie took a seat next to Draxum, the two evolved into the true nerds that they were and completely geeked out. Leo didn’t care if there was a difference between the two since he was sure that they both fell into whatever categories there were as Donnie went on about his new invention.

The only other person who didn’t seem keen to jump into a conversation with anyone or even be included in one was Big Mama. The woman sat contently at Leo’s side, slowly eating the lamb stew that she previously was going to ignore for the Caesar salad until she heard the dish had been Leo’s idea. Her hand however remained on Leo’s shell, staying as a steady comfort for him to take if he ever needed it. Though he wasn’t quite ready to fall into it just yet.

The pizza on Leo’s plate slowly grew cold, his appetite lost, unlike Draxum who was still able to eat the salad that Mikey had prepared and even try the stew that such a big fuss had been made over. 

As if not eating it would hopefully start a conversation between one of his brothers, maybe one of them asking why he wasn’t eating or just if they could have one of his slices, that idea was shot down when Raph reached over and took the slice for himself after Leo did not attempt to take another bite after the very original one before he had spoken with Big Mama and put it down to dig at Draxum. After the first slice was gone Mikey was quick to take the second, not even sparing Leo a glance as he was too invested in one of Splinter’s stories from when he was on the set of one of the Lou Jitsu movies.

Flicking his eyes around the room, they settled on Raph who was animatedly pitching in about how cool one of the stunts Splinter had performed once was. Mikey who was watching with his mouth open in shock, listening to all the technical aspects of the behind the scenes that had Donnie’s interest being piqued as his conversation with Draxum slowly died down in favour of coming up with a better mechanical assistance that he could build to help Splinter recreate those scenes. Draxum himself was listening to the scene with an almost there smile on his face, the expression almost growing when he looked over at the building excitement on Splinter’s face as he was offered the chance to relive his glory days.

It was only him who had been forgotten. Just as usual. If he wanted to be included in a conversation he would have to force his way into it or no one would ever make any room for him. With his head halfway in his shell, Leo was contemplating letting all of his limbs retract into it, not like anyone else around him would notice.

“You know, I have a new Battle Nexus Champion,” Big Mama’s voice was soft. Gentle. Almost a whisper so as to not bring any attention towards them, giving Leo a conversation just for the two of them to enjoy. Though it was an odd choice of things to discuss, Leo’s head came a little further out of his shell so he could stare at Big Mama more openly. “Someone’s giving you a run for your money, Turtley-Tot.”

“Really?” Leo asked slowly, warming up to the conversation in tiny, baby steps.

“Well of course,” Big Mama smiled matter-of-factly at Leo. Though the grin of her teeth wasn’t sharp like Donnie’s would be whenever he could call Leo out on something for being wrong or misinformed. Big Mama’s smile was pleasant to look at and held no ill intent. “You’ve been away from my Nexus for so long that it was only a matter of timey-wimey until someone else came around to take your spot. Though I have had to start new tournaments since then so you’ll forever be the winner of that one tournament.”

“How many tournaments have I missed the pleasure of winning?” Leo’s words were hesitant as he spoke even though you’d expect them to be filled with such a cocky tone that nothing seemed to match and the statement seemed out of place from Leo’s vocabulary at that point in time.

“Quite a few,” Big Mama exclaimed like there were too many to count on all ten of her fingers as well as Leo’s six. And that’s not including the many legs she grew when shifting into her true Yōkai form. “I have a new tournament set to start next month. I’m just finalising all the contracts of those competing before I announce it in a few days. Then the first battle should take place at the end of next week.”

“Maybe I can come and see it,” Leo suggested lowly. He couldn’t really tell what compelled him to want to go back to the Battle Nexus. There was no feeling of dread that surrounded Big Mama or her deadly tournaments, his time in it being filled with excitement even if he had to force some of it into his system to stay positive when just as tonight Splinter had been insistent on being separated from Leo. “I can scope out the competition and see this new champion in action. Maybe if he’s worthy I can come and compete in your next one.”

“What are you two getting up to?” Splinter’s scratchy voice was thrown towards Big Mama and Leo, cutting through the small bubble they had built up for themselves and instantly killing the vibe they had built up. 

While Leo had just begun coming out of his shell again, both literally and figuratively, he was almost snapping his head away again if it wasn’t for the hand that remained on his shell no matter what in comfort. Big Mama acted in some sense similarly to Leo. Where something had begun to bubble up inside of her, the woman not yet placing a finger on it, whatever it was quickly changed to one of annoyance as she flashed Splinter with an annoyed side-eye.

“Yeah, care to share?” Raph grinned, his snaggle tooth pointing out as he tried to ease Leo into sharing his and Big Mama’s conversation with the rest of them. Where Leo could see genuine curiosity in Raph and Mikey, he could see suspicion in Splinter, Draxum and Donnie. “You’ve been going at it for ages now and Raph wants to know what’s so interesting.”

“Is it about another show that you’ve both seen?” Mikey questioned, referencing the earlier conversation he had. “Or maybe a cooking recipe you can share with me. Maybe it’s a skin care product that Leo was recommending since he has the best skin out of the rest of us.”

“More like wastes a bunch of money on products that don’t do anything to reptile scales,” Donnie bitterly said under his breath, not that there was as much heat as his face or tone gave off. Leo’s skincare has been something they’ve all discussed many times before. Though it was unneeded it was something that brought Leo joy and they had all learnt not to object too much to it.

“I’ll have you know my scales are much smoother and softer than yours will ever be,” Leo quipped back. Though his words were light just like Donnie’s tone had been, there was a malicious underlining to them as he forced some form of smile onto his face to try and cover it up. Donnie seemed genuinely put off by the sudden snap, straightening up a little as he stared across at Leo, noting how Leo didn’t look away quickly like he normally would when he accidentally said something wrong.

Steering the conversation away from the sudden turn it had taken and putting himself figuratively speaking in between Donnie and Leo, Splinter questioned once again to try and get to the bottom of what had Big Mama and Leo so immersed by one another. “So, what is it Blue?”

“Hm? No thanks,” Leo said without much thought behind his words. Preparing to turn back to Big Mama and end the conversation that the others had sprung on then, Leo was more than ready to go back to happily talking about Big Mama’s next Battle Nexus.

“No thanks?” Draxum spoke up this time, seemingly the rules of nothing nice being said, the not saying it at all not applying to him.

“Big Mama and I are talking,” Leo dryly responded, making sure his words couldn’t be labelled as mean as in the subtlest possible way he told the old sheep and the rest of his family to back off. Leo didn’t butt into their conversations when they had left him out, nor did he invite them to join him. “You all can carry on whatever you were going on about before interrupting us.”

It seemed like almost everyone at the table who was trying to intrude wanted to object to Leo’s statement. The largest silent protest was written across Draxum’s face when it was he who left Leo to sit in silence. Keeping his eyes on everyone, Leo’s look alone kept them from trying to speak up again and haul the blue-clad turtle back in.

Staying silent until the conversations around the table slowly fickled back into motion with one another, Leo finally turned himself back to Big Mama like he had been wanting to do since the interruption had started.

Upon looking down at Big Mama due to their height difference, Leo could sense an overwhelming feeling of… pride—?—coming from the spider Yōkai as she watched Leo with proud eyes. Like many times that night when conversing with Big Mama, Leo was left scrambling to try and put the pieces back together as the woman’s next reaction seemed to leave him even more confused than the last.

Slowly, as if afraid that by voicing the thought to life it would somehow alter the course that Leo had begun, Big Mama questioned doubtfully, “You’d fight in my Battle Nexus again?”

“I mean sure,” Leo shrugged, shaking his limbs out from his shell so the movement could have some proper effect. In the eyes of his brothers, it was probably a terrible idea to go back to that death trap but Leo couldn’t really find anything to worry about as he agreed to the question, setting his thoughts and terms down with it. “It wasn’t that bad last time. It just depends on how good this alleged new Champion is.”

“That’s a splendid idea Turtley-Poo,” Big Mama agreed, for the first time since Leo was scolded Big Mama took her hand off his shell just to clap them together, outwardly showing off some of her excitement. “You should come stay at my hotel with me when the new tournament begins. That way I can show you everything that goes into running the Battle Nexus. I can give you a proper tour of all of the facilities I have and how the matches get made.”

“I think that would be nice,” Leo said after a few seconds, a smile that he didn’t need to force gracing his face. Though it was small, it spoke more words than Leo had to, letting Big Mama know everything she wanted to. “I wouldn’t mind getting to spend more time with you as well.”

“Perfect,” Big Mama softened again, something that seemed to be happening a lot that night as she showed a large amount of interest in Leo, something he hadn’t been prepared for or suspected prior to sitting down at the table. As if Big Mama had personally learnt from Leo how to make a poorly timed joke, she said, “I should get that in writing so you don’t go back on your word.”

“Oh I would never,” Leo joked back, feigning aghast. If Big Mama had been paying just as much attention to Leo on any other occasion as Leo suspected she had been, she would know that Leo was just as much a sweet talker as she was. Perhaps the two of them could learn a thing or two from one another after meeting in a different setting. “You don’t need a contract to know that.”

Just as the words left Leo’s mouth, a loud slam could be heard from the opposite of Big Mama. The noise had sent a shock through the whole room, killing any conversation going on as well as all the life and warmth that filled it as all eyes turned to where Draxum stood up in his seat, both of his hands planted firmly on the table as he stared over at Big Mama, a glare forced on to his features. 

Though Leo was observant, the grudge that had burned itself into Leo’s bones had blinded any clear thinking when it came to Draxum, blinding him to all of his glares that had been aimed at the woman sitting next to him and how she interacted with Leo instead of his creation unsuspectingly dealing into it all.

“I think it’s time for this dinner to end,” Draxum says with enough force to end any complaints from the younger sector of the table. He spared no mind to them though. Not at Raph who nervously shifted in his seat. Not to Donnie at his side who stared confusedly up at him. Not at Mikey who despite himself couldn’t help but whine in annoyance. And certainly not at Leo who glared just as fiercely back at him.

“Why?” Big Mama questioned, the image of innocence as she looked at Draxum like she had not a clue as to why the sheep Yōkai seemed to be so enraged. “Leo and I were only conversing and making jokes to one another. I’m sure you and Lou were doing the same with your Turtley-Poos.”

“They’re all Lou’s turtles, just as much as they are mine,” Raising his hands from the table, Draxum straightened to his full height, towering over everyone in the room, even if they were to stand. Hands balling at his sides, it was hard for Draxum not to completely blow a fuse, not when Big Mama was trying to meddle where she wasn’t welcomed. “It was I who created them while Lou’s DNA was what I needed to help form them. Tell me again how you fit into this all?”

“Every child needs a mother,” Big Mama stood as well. Though her height was nowhere near the same as Draxum’s, her presence was just as large. It also seemed that there was an underlying threat with her movement, the appearance of a different form itching to break out. Brushing a hand over Leo’s head, her long nails rake lightly over his scales. “Let me fill the void that you’ve left for Leo.”

“How can you stand for this?” Draxum whirled towards Splinter when there was no sense of a breakthrough with Big Mama or an understanding in Leo. “Why am I doing more to protect your son while you can do nothing but stare at the woman hoping to take him?”

His words cut like a knife, startling everyone more than the slam of his fists. Eyes turned in horror to stare at Big Mama, Donatello grappling his way over the table to grab Leo and pull him away, a protective strike piercing through him. The words also seemed to finally wake Splinter, shaking him from the constant expression of being caught in the middle of a conflict he had no part in and finally grounding him to fend for his youngest son. His Blue.

“Boys I want you all out of the room now,” Though it wasn’t the response Draxum had hoped for, or the clarification that Leo needed, it seemed to strike the room into action. 

With Leo safely in Donnie’s arms, the softshell holding him close while using himself as a barrier between Big Mama and Leo, it gave Raph and Mikey only a small ease of mind so they could start questioning everything around them. They questioned Draxum and how he knew this, questioned why Big Mama would want Leo in the first place, and questioned how Splinter could let this happen. 

When the words got too much and no one moved, Splinter snapped again, making sure he couldn’t be ignored this time as he stood in his seat. “Blue will be going nowhere, you don’t need to worry about that. Now I want all four of you out.”

Craving that parental validation at every turn, Donnie was the first to move, forcing Leo to come with him as he began walking Leo out of the room, almost dragging him when Leo’s feet didn’t start quick enough, and almost picking him up when Leo couldn’t keep up.

Still in a sense of shock at what he had just heard, Leo looked over Donnie’s shoulder, paying no mind to Donnie’s threat when he made good of it and began attempting to pick him up. In the few seconds they had stopped though, Leo got a final glance at Big Mama. When Leo’s eyes hadn’t been on her, she was staring at Draxum with as much hatred as Leo normally felt for the Yōkai, something seemingly sharp on the tip of her tongue. But when she felt Leo’s clouded eyes on her, her face shifted at the sight of him, all the heat vanishing as she looked at Leo as if she wanted to cherish him.

The change didn’t go unnoticed by Draxum though, his body shifting to block Big Mama completely from Leo’s view as he turned around to face where the Disaster Twins were struggling to make any ground. In a way that Leo would slowly dig into, hoping to push some of the hatred onto Donnie, Draxum raised his voice across the room, his words directed at Donnie as he all but shouted, “Hurry up and get him out of here now. He is not to hear anymore.”

Chapter Text

“I think you’ve overstayed your welcome Big Mama,” Splinter, though regrettably, said. Watching the woman in question with narrowed eyes and his arms crossed over his chest, he tried to be as threatening as a three-foot mutant rat possibly could. His efforts did little as all Big Mama could do was regard him with an amused smile, keeping up with the pleasantries even as she was more or less being kicked out. “We may see you at the next weekly dinner. Or not. I’m sure some of my boys won’t let you in after tonight.” 

“I’m sure at least one of your Turtley-Poo’s can’t wait to have me back next week,” The woman slowly egged on, her eyes flickering towards the doorway Leo had disappeared from. “I’ve gained the favour of our precious Baby Blue tonight and this fizzy winkle won’t change that.

“Leonardo will have nothing to do with you,” The glance had bile rising in Draxum’s throat just as much as the words Big Mama muttered had, his head craning towards the door with an onslaught of words breaching his mouth only to be met with an empty doorway, not a mutant in sight. “Now, as Lou has said, it’s time for you to leave.”

“Which is such a shame,” A loud sigh parted from Big Mama’s lips as she finally stood from her chair, still just as relaxed as she had been earlier that night, even with the fierce eyes of some overprotective family members. “Tonight truly has been wonderful. Orange Turtley-Poo, your food was spectacular. I do hope you’ll send me the recipe for your lamb stew or perhaps Little Leo will be able to share it with me next time we meet. Anywho, I’ve got important work to get back. A business to run and contracts to sell. I’m sure I’ll be in touch soon.”

“Why don’t you see her out Red?” Splinter questioned, though it was more of a demand as he sent his oldest and largest son to stay by Big Mama’s side. In any other situation, he would’ve been used as protection, having the thickest scales and sharpest shell, but for today he was needed for nothing more than a guard dog. “We wouldn’t want this Sassy Sugar Badger- I mean we wouldn’t want Big Mama to weasel her way back inside.”

“Oh I would never,” Big Mama placed a sharp nailed hand to her chest, a loud pitched gasp leaving her lips as if she was truly offended by Splinter’s previous correct assumptions. She was a changed woman now. The small mishap in Splinter’s words though did have her grin turning coy as his past feelings could never be forgotten. That’s how she had gotten herself a seat at the table in the first place. “I can tell when I’m not welcome, Plumey-Dumby. So I’ll be out of your hair for the rest of the night.”

“We should get that in writing,” Raph unhelpfully supplied, getting a sharp intake from Draxum while Big Mama clapped her hands together with a soft giggle, her own trademarks always putting a smile on her face when someone tried to use them against her. Unprepared for that reaction, Raph bulks slightly, stepping closer to Big Mama in the hopes she will take the hint and start walking by herself. “Let’s get moving then, Raph wants to be back in time for desert.”

“I don’t have anything prepared for desert Raph,” Mikey hesitantly spoke just as Big Mama began walking, causing Raph to pause and allow the shorter woman to get ahead of him as she saw herself out.

“Oh,” Raph breathed out, shoulders slumping as he looked back at Mikey. At the confession that there wouldn’t be anything to look forward to upon dropping Big Mama off, Raph turned back to follow her, more solemn and sluggish now as his feet let out loud thumps with every step. In parting words, Raph echoed through the hallway, “I’ll make sure she’s long gone before coming back.”

“That’s one problem done,” Splinter sagged back into his recliner chair as the weight of the lair was lifted off his shoulders. For a few moments, he was left at peace with no snide remarks thrown across dinner tables or overly cheery laughs. He could only wish to relish in it for longer. “Maybe we should go watch a soap opera and wait for the ad break before going to deal with Blue.”

“I can handle Leonardo for you,” Draxum suggested, already turning towards the door with his mind locked on setting the record straight for Leonardo. “You can come join us once your show has finished.”

“Perfect,” Splinter gave in instantly, shooing Draxum off with a flapping hand. Draxum took it with the same grace he regarded Splinter with at all times as the rat had somehow softened his hardened exterior. “Orange, come push my chair back so it’s in front of the TV. I’m not sure if my show has already started or not.”

“You can’t,” Mikey snapped, racing over to catch up with Draxum before he left the room. When the sheep Yōkai realised that it was him that Mikey was after instead of not wanting to bend to his father’s wishes, he paused in his motions to stare confusedly down at the short turtle. “No offence Draxum, but I’m pretty sure you’re Leo’s least favourite Yōkai to ever exist. He’s not going to want you coming into his space so you can lecture him or whatever it is you plan to do.”

“Draxum is more than capable of dealing with Leo,” Splinter quickly waved off, growing impatient with his recliner still being situated in the same spot at the head of the dining table. “Blue needs to get over whatever rivalry he’s conjured up in his head. Letting Draxum in will help.”

“Or it’ll make Leo push him away even more,” Mikey tried to reason, on the verge of screaming into his hands at how out of touch his dad could sometimes be. In most cases, Leo would be one of the easiest out of all of them. Getting along with almost everyone he meets. Using some of the therapy tricks he had picked up over the years of trying to establish healthy communication with his brothers, Mikey laid down some thought-out concerns that seemed to have fled Splinter’s mind. “Forcing Draxum onto him won’t make that resentment go away, it’ll only make it worse. Leo needs to come to Draxum if he wants to make any progress.”

Splinter looked ready to object to Mikey’s analysis in favour of sending Draxum in blindly with a low sense of regard to what may happen after the interaction so he could continue to sit around. Draxum however put a stop to that as he held up a hand in front of Splinter while keeping his eyes trained on Mikey, cutting off any further speech that the rat had been hoping to make. “What is it you suggest we do then?”

“Dad needs to go,” Mikey tried to be firm as he made the statement, not allowing the two adults to catch onto how much Splinter’s groan seemed to put him off. “He’s the only one that Leo will genuinely listen to right now. Comfort from me or Donnie or Raph isn’t going to do anything to help since we’re just as much outsiders to this as he is. You three were talking without us and Leo isn’t stupid enough to not figure out who you were talking about. He’s going to want to hear it from the source and from someone he trusts. That’s why it needs to be you, Dad.”

“Why must it always be me who does everything?” Splinter grouched, acting more like a child than Leo had when Splinter had to nip his bad behaviour in the bud. Standing from his recliner chair with stomped thumps of his feat and hands balled at his sides, Splinter began making his way through the lair. Though he was going along with Mikey, it was clear that his objections were in hopes that someone would step in for him.

“It won’t be that hard Lou,” Draxum tried to reassure, following after Splinter with Mikey to make sure he actually made it all the way to Leo’s train cart. “You just need to make Leonardo feel better. It can’t be that hard to feed into his ego with how self-absorbed the kid is.”

“This is why you can’t talk to him,” Mikey throws his arms up in the air as he gestures to the words Draxum just spoke. In front of the youngest, Draxum had the decency to look slightly remorseful though he had no idea why he would have to do so. “You don’t understand Leo to any degree. I know you’re trying Draxum but your Leo skills need a lot of work.”

“I wasn’t aware that interacting with Leonardo would require me to have a new skill set,” Draxum stated dryly, seemingly everything that Mikey said to him only reminding him of how badly he had messed up with Leo on their first interaction and how now he was still paying the price for it.

“That’s not what I meant,” Mikey exclaimed, squeezing his eyes shut and rubbing his eyelids until he saw stars in his vision upon opening them. Taking one deep breath in and letting it slowly escape his lungs, Mikey tried again. “Leo’s different, just like I’m different and Donnie’s different and Raph’s different. We all work in counteracting ways and you’ve just adapted better to ours but still can’t seem to find your footing with Leo. That’s partly Leo’s fault for not opening up to you, but it’s more your fault for throwing your kid off a building.”

“Can you two stop it?” Splinter whirled around on the two of them, almost half his original height with how much he had slouched over himself in the short walk. Now that Mikey was paying attention to something other than trying to explain the workings of his third older brother to Draxum, he could tell that they were nearing Leo’s train cart. “I’m giving up my precious soap operas for this and all I’ve had to do so far is listen to you whine when it’s me who should be whining.”

“Jeez Dad,” Mikey puffed out a slow gasp of air, allowing his first words to hang in the air for a few moments. “Leo isn’t a chore.”

“I never said he was,” Splinter grouched, spinning around so he could face his youngest son and put a few more seconds in between the inevitable fate of walking into Leo’s train cart. “It’s just with all this talk about how different Leo is and how this is going to need a delicate touch, you’re making me feel like I’m underqualified to be going in there.”

Mikey tried, “Dad-“

“No Michelangelo,” Draxum said, shushing Mikey’s attempts to now comfort his father. The trying to get others to understand talk had to come to an end otherwise they would never make it to the end of the lined-up track of subway carts. “Allow Lou to figure this out for himself. Leonardo is waiting for you.”

A slow sigh rattled its way out from Splinter as he turned back to face where Leo’s cart stood at the end of the line, a blob of green and purple sitting dutifully outside of it. 

That was odd. 

Normally when Donnie reacted in the way that he did when it was announced that Big Mama wanted to lock Leo into a contract, it wasn’t easy to shake him out of a protective mindset. Certainly not when it was his younger twin. To see Donnie sitting on the dirty floor staring down at his gauntlet instead of tucked away inside, set off more than a few alarm bells in Splinter’s head.

“Tell me again why it must be me who does this?” Splinter asked once he realised that he was in for more than he originally bargained for. That didn’t stop him from starting his march forward, the two taller figures looming behind him being an added factor to that.

“Because he likes you more,” Draxum set a comforting hand on Splinter’s back, leaving it there for a few seconds while they walked. Whenever Splinter slowed for even a second, Draxum would use his hand to push Splinter further, making him pick up his pace so they couldn’t stall for any longer. “And since I’m not in Leo’s favour yet.”

Upon hearing Draxum’s voice, Donnie looked up from his gauntlet for a few seconds, taking in the three that were in front of him and noting down the two that were lacking from their original bunch of seven. He didn’t keep his eyes on them for much longer after that, returning his gaze down so he could take in whatever had his interest captured by what was playing on his gauntlet.

“Is Leonardo still inside?” Draxum questioned as the three of them paused in front of Donnie, his voice lowered so as to not alert the slider inside. When Donnie didn’t immediately answer even though his question only required a simple yes or no in response, Draxum peered down at what had Donnie’s interest kept.

Not quite sure what he had thought Donnie would be doing, but finding surveillance footage playing on his gauntlet hadn’t been what Draxum was expecting. On the screen, a pile of blankets had been wrapped around a figure that Draxum could easily label as Leo, the turtle tucked away into the corner of his bed as he sought out warmth and comfort from the blankets. Only once Draxum had seen for himself the state that Leo was in did he hear the slow drawl of Donnie’s response, “Yes.”

“Why aren’t you inside with Leo?” Mikey questioned, crouching down next to Donnie to cling to him. The box turtle didn’t seem surprised in the slightest to see Donnie watching over Leo via the cameras he had set up around his room. Every room had a few of them, expertly placed so they would go unnoticed and pose no disturbance to their daily lives. They had been installed under the guise of a safety measure so that Donnie could track any intruders in the lab, though they also acted to ease the softshell when he couldn’t be in reach of his brothers, allowing him to always have eyes on them if he needed to.

“He kicked me out, claiming I was too much of a Dumb Dumb to be around him right now,” Donnie scoffed, surprising Mikey that he didn’t simply state the action and actually acted it out. As soon as Mikey asked the question, it was as if a dam had burst as Donnie went on, “When the only Dumb Dumb here is him for falling into the trap that Big Mama was trying to set for him. He should know by now not to make any deals with her… Where’s Raph?”

“He’s making sure Big Mama actually leaves and doesn’t try to come back in so she can get Leo,” Mikey responded, reaching slowly forward to Donnie’s gauntlet, giving him plenty of time to smack his hand away if he didn’t want Mikey touching it. When Donnie made no move to do so, Mikey switched to a different camera that was set up in Leo’s room, showing the nest of blankets from a different angle.

From this shot, you could just see the top of Leo’s head coming out from the mound of blankets, the corners of his red markings on display as they stood out against the sliver of green scales and the enormous amount of purple and blue that was surrounding him. It was clear that Donnie had been able to dig into his own enormous supply of blankets to share with Leo before he had been booted from the room.

“I think it’s time you go in Lou,” Draxum brought the task at hand back to the front of all their minds. His words seemed to spark an interest in Donnie as he looked up, eyes flicking between the two adults as Mikey flicked to another camera angle on his gauntlet. How many cameras did he have stashed in all of their rooms?

“You’re going to see Leo?” Donnie questioned, hope sparking back to life in his eyes. Before he tried to stand, Donnie could feel Mikey’s hold on him tightening, trying to keep him in place, but as Donnie stood to his feet, not bothering to dust himself off, he paid no mind to the brother at his side. Not giving anyone time to answer, Donnie decided quickly while looking at Splinter, “I’m coming in with you.”

“We’ve already had this debate Purple,” Splinter sighed, bypassing his son as he stepped towards the train cart door. Donnie’s face scrunched at the implication, following after Splinter with a few miniature steps. Splinter had to fix him with a warning brow raising while Mikey had to dig his heels down to stop Donnie from trying to get closer and squeeze his way back into Leo’s cart. “You are to stay out here with Orange and Draxum. I would ask you not to watch but I know that will not stop you.”

“That’s not fair,” Donnie whined, still trying to push himself forward. “I’m his twin. I should be in there when the other half of who I am is upset. I- I want-“

“There will be a time for that later Donatello,” Draxum said with a steady hand being placed on the softshell’s shoulder, fingers loose in case Donnie wanted to dislodge his grip. When Donnie did nothing but shake his head, pulling Mikey closer and returning the gesture of wrapping his arms around the youngest, a substitute for what he wanted to do for Leo, Draxum looked up at Splinter and gave him a small nod, giving the go-ahead to leave them behind.

Turning so he could leave the scene behind him, Splinter gave Leo’s door a few knocks to prepare the turtle for his arrival. When no response was given to his presence, Splinter pushed the door open and slipped it shut quickly behind him so Leo couldn’t catch sight of the audience he had outside—if he hadn’t already heard them—and to eliminate any attempts of one of his sons trying to run in just as they were settled.

“Blue?” Splinter’s voice rang out in the room, shadows falling over everything as his eyes adjusted. Thanks to the placement of Leo’s bed, Splinter got an easy line leading towards his son, cuddled up on his bed both engulfing and being engulfed by his room. “Why are you in here by yourself?”

Splinter wasn’t granted an answer, not even a shift from under the blankets as Leo stayed stock still. It made Splinter wonder if Leo had fallen asleep in the time it had taken for Splinter to get there. It wouldn’t be ideal with how much time and convincing it had taken just to get to this point, but it would allow Splinter to come up with a plan for how he would deal with Leo once he awoke. It would also grant his brothers some peace of mind if they were able to get in here themselves without much of a fight from the slider and relax by his side.

“Blue?” Taking hesitant steps forward, careful to be quiet in case Leo was truly asleep, Splinter took a seat at the edge of Leo’s bed, the mattress dipping beneath his weight. Reaching a hand out, he ran it over his son’s head, letting his claws rake across it in a soothing manner. Almost too quietly to hear, a withering chirp sounded out from beneath the mound of blankets, only just being picked up by Splinter’s sensitive ears.

Pausing, Splinter stared down at his son, his brows furrowing together before he was sliding his hand down the side of Leo’s head and grabbed onto some of the blankets, gently pulling them down so he could get a look at Leo’s face. Once the barriers had been removed, leaving Leo with nothing to hide behind, he slowly peeled his eyes open, showing off his dark irises.

For a few short moments, Splinter kept his hand cupped near Leo’s head, taking in his son as he tucked his chin down to his plastron, looking up at Splinter from there. The mask that he had been wearing earlier no longer sat wrapped around his head, instead thrown off and lying on the floor somewhere. 

It doesn’t take much prodding from there to get Leo to come out of his pile of blankets. All Splinter had to do was open his other arm up, making space in his lap for Leo to settle in. Which he did hesitantly, staring up at Splinter with a fear in his eyes as he waited to be shouted out again. But as he got comfortable, half lying in Splinger’s lap with the mutant going back to petting his head, the tensed lines of his body slowly began to settle.

During the shift of positions, Splinter could just make out the hoodie that Leo had shrugged on. Though figuring out the true colour of it would’ve been hard with the current lighting they were sitting in, Splinter had seen Leo wear it enough times to know the colour matched the one of his masks. A white unicorn with light pink hair was displayed on the front of the hoodie, now hidden by how Leo was pressed to Splinter.

Running his free hand over Leo’s shell, Splinter made sure to offer as much comfort as his small frame could to Leo, letting the turtle wrap around him as much as possible, even if only half of his body was pressed to his lap, his legs still hidden under the thick blankets he had taken up. Content for the time being, Splinter continued to brush his claws across Leo, the shell rubs needing that extra bit of pressure to be taken in while his other hand was met by small nuzzles whenever Splinter tried to shift to the pads of his fingers.

Over the course of the sensations being washed over Leo, the only noises he got in response from the slider were soft chirps. The blue-clad slider still had yet to break out into a chur, keeping most of his noises restricted. But as their sounds became more and more frequent, Splinter grew hopeful that his son would finally answer him instead of leaving him to speak to the silence of the room. “Are you ready to talk to me yet?”

The question came too soon, or so Splinter thought. 

Leo shifted in his lap, keeping his eyes spaced out and unfocused on Splinter as he turned the words over in his head. Then, when he had decided that he couldn’t sit there for the rest of the night with Splinter expectantly waiting for something out of him, Leo spoke up, his voice sounding more hoarse than it should have. “About what?”

“Why didn’t you let Donnie stay in here with you?” Splinter started off simple, recounting back to events that would’ve only happened moments before he arrived, leaving anything regarding what occurred surrounding the dinner table to settle for a while longer. “When I came over to try and find you he seemed quite distraught by the fact you didn’t want him by your side.”

“Donnie’s a Dumb Dumb,” Leo stated with a huff, repeating the words that Donnie had referenced Leo with as well. It was uncanny how alike the two of them were without even trying to be.

“Is that all?” After a few seconds of no further response coming from Leo, Splinter asked. He still couldn’t properly look into Leo’s eyes, the sliders being clouded over and never focusing on anything for too long. The mist helped to allude Leo’s thoughts as what he was thinking couldn’t possibly be tracked with the glassy look on his face. “You kicked Donnie out because he was being a Dumb Dumb?”

“And because he wasn’t listening,” Leo added on, reconfirming Splinter’s statement. Hoping he could just leave it at that and enjoy the shell rubs he was getting, that hope came crashing down as Splinter’s hands came to a slow still, something they would do for the remainder of their talk when he wanted something more out of Leo. “He kept… coming up with things that weren’t true and then when I would try to correct him he’d just tell me I was wrong instead. I kicked him out ‘cause he was trying to make up lies about Big Mama.”

“Purple was just trying to protect you,” Splinter summarised, chalking up the bad behaviour to Donnie wanting Leo’s best interest. Leo questioned to himself in his own mind if Splinter would dismiss him making up gossip about Draxum in favour of trying to look after Donnie. “Big Mama only has an interest in herself. She doesn’t care what happens to those she surrounds herself with because in her eyes she was the only one that mattered. I think it’s best we leave tonight behind and forget about it.”

“Why is Big Mama being the one thrown under the bus?” Leo asked aloud, finally focusing in on Splinter as he looked up, craning his neck so he could reach his eyes. At his question, Splinter’s brows pinched together. Leo was done just yet though, an obvious sign of that being due to the contorting of muscles on his face, and of course the stilled hand on his shell. “She was the only one that was being nice to me.”

“No one was being mean to you Leo,” Splinter sighed exasperated, his eyes rolling as he leaned back in Leo’s bed so his back met with the wall. He was pulling away from Leo. Still allowing him to stay put in his lap, Splinter no longer tried to keep that closeness, making Leo shift away and into an upright position. “You can’t terrorise Draxum in front of us all and then expect to get away with it.”

“At least I’ve done nothing to physically harm Draxum,” Leo hissed, scooting back in his bed until he reached his pile of blankets again. “The same can’t be said for him. I was wondering actually, did you ever get around to nagging Draxum about throwing me off a building or is that still on your to-do list?”

Splinter’s mouth immediately clamped shut at Leo’s question, his expression souring at the mention of the incident once more. It was something that Leo liked to hold over the heads of all of his family members, bringing up the event at every opportunity regarding Draxum to either tarnish it or get his brothers on his side. In any other family, it would probably be normal for someone to hold onto the grudge for so long. Being thrown off a building could be quite the experience. The Hamatos were quite the exception though, going through occurrences like this on the weekly.

Due to this, Splinter had never made it a priority to reprimand Draxum. Obviously, once he first heard about Leo being chucked off the rooftop of some building he had been enraged, that was his second youngest, and of course, he was going to be furious once he heard about something like that, but when he found out it was Draxum who did it… the tides changed slightly. Raph had done more to lecture Draxum than Splinter did, the mutant rat letting him by with less than a slap on the wrist.

He didn’t want to blame the past for why he had let the incident go, but no matter how hard he tried, Splinter couldn’t forget moments that had gone down between the two of them a while ago. It was like trying to deny the chemistry he once had with Big Mama. It was undoable. That didn’t take away from the fact that if it had been anyone else who had thrown Leo from such a height he would have jumped at the opportunity to give whoever it was a piece of his mind. Maybe he was just more lenient with Draxum, but he couldn’t blame himself for that, no matter what.

“That’s what I thought,” Leo mumbled once Splinter didn’t answer, his inner thoughts consuming him for too long. Pulling his knees up to his chest, Leo hooks his chin over his legs and tucks his arms around himself, once again going back to not making eye contact with his father. “If you’re going to get me in trouble for things that I’m just trying to cope with, can you at least be slightly mad at Draxum for doing this to me? Or at least be honest with me.”

“Be honest about what, Blue?” Splinter questioned, his eyes snapping across Leo’s shrinking frame, limbs starting to retract back into his shell once more in a search for comfort that he wasn’t being given anymore.

“About everything,” He cried out, his arms shooting out of their sockets so he could scrunch up in the air, almost searching for the answers that Splinter wasn’t giving him. “Stop making up this cheap excuse of a story about Big Mama and how she only cares about herself. You say that but she seemed pretty interested in me earlier so how come? Tell me what’s really going on.”

“That’s just how Big Mama is,” Splinter tried to reason, reaching a hand out to run along the stripes of Leo’s arm. “She was entertaining herself with what she had.”

“Eso es una mierda,” Leo growled, flinging his arm out of reach from Splinter’s grip with a glower on his face, his snout scrunching as his expression twisted. Splinter almost recoiled himself at the action, partly due to the curses that underlined Leo’s words. Even if he couldn’t understand what they were, the slider switching to Spanish to spit them out, Splinter could still tell they were there. “Stop making things up about her and actually tell me what’s going on. What does she want with me? Or you, or whoever she’s trying to rope into her ‘plan’ that you’re all so insistent on her having?”

“That doesn’t concern you Blue,” Splinter finally retorted, matching the annoyance that had previously been lacing Leo’s words. He had to fight the urge to stand and depart from the room, done with the conversation that led to nothing but fighting. Mikey had been so insistent that he would be able to fix this all when it seemed he had only made it worse. “Draxum and I dealt with it. You don’t need to worry about it anymore.”

“Draxum?” Leo barked out a cruel laugh, not taking in any of the other words Splinter had said before the slider was standing and storming to the door of his room. Flinging it open, Leo didn’t have to take more than half a step before he was met with his three brothers all crowded around Donnie’s arm with Draxum overlooking it all.

Leading up to Leo slamming his door open, his brothers were granted not even a full three seconds to try and make themselves look innocent. Not that harbouring outside of your brother’s door while he was attempting to be vulnerable had any redeeming qualities. So when Leo stepped outside, he saw two of his brothers trying to scramble away, Raph trying to tuck himself behind the train cart while Mikey acted as if he was merely walking by. The only problem with that was that Leo caught them while they were breaking away, not making it very convincing.

Unlike his elder and youngest brother, Donnie had stayed situated to his spot looking down at his gauntlet, taking in all of Leo’s actions and even switching camera angles to make sure he didn’t miss anything. With Leo now standing with the door open, Donnie looked up at him, his face shifting to a more confident but also demanding expression as he got ready to march over to Leo and take over for Splinter.

Too bad Leo wasn’t there for Donnie.

“You,” Almost charging forward, Leo latched onto Draxum’s wrist as he exclaimed the word, surprising the sheep-like Yōkai as he was suddenly tugged forward, being pulled towards Leo’s room. Caught off guard by the sudden demand and the loss of his free will temporarily, Draxum was left to stumble behind Leo as he was shoved past Donnie and cornered into his creation’s room. Before Draxum could even take in his surroundings from a point other than on camera, Leo was demanding with an accusing finger being pointed into Splinter’s face, “I want answers since he’s not giving me any. Tell me the truth, what was happening before Donnie and I arrived at dinner?”

“What have you been saying to him, Lou?” Draxum questioned the mutated rat instead of feeding into the frenzy that Leo had broken into. Splinter seemed aghast but the accusation, gesturing to himself wildly as Draxum turned to him instead of dealing with Leo. The ignorance only seemed to anger Leo more though. “We told you to take care of him, not drive him towards this madness.”

“That’s what I was trying to do,” Splinter exclaimed, running one of his hands down his face. The action made him seem even more out of place, his original reluctance to deal with the situation coming through. He was more focused on Draxum however, and not on what he was saying, how he was saying it, or who he was saying it in front of. “He keeps asking about Big Mama and there is only so much I can say before I begin lying or the truth comes out. I told you Mikey was better suited for this, or even you.”

“So you don’t even want to be here?” Leo gathered from Splinter’s statement, his face twisting once more as his muscles contorted. This time, Splinter could see the wobbliness of Leo’s bottom lip as he scrunched his eyes up, trying to keep the wetness starting to make a presence in them hidden. “I should’ve known that it was some kind of miracle that you were attending to me instead of sitting on your lazy culo in front of the TV.”

“Blue,” He sighed, voice strained and tired as if this whole ordeal was taking a lot out of him. Splinter looked as if he was going to try and reach out again, more like a leech to ease himself than offer Leo any help.

“Stop that,” Leo cut in, stepping back from Splinter slightly to create distance. Leo didn’t care for how put off Splinter looked with each of Leo’s rejections of physical touch when he had been the first to deny Leo of such a thing. Turning to Draxum, Leo tried to stand strong and finally get the answers he had been searching for. “You don’t get to wrong me then act like it’s my fault. Now, tell me the truth, Draxum. What does Big Mama want with me? Or if it’s even me this is about.”

For a few seconds, Draxum’s eyes passed over to Splinter, taking in his reaction before he was regarding Leo once again. There had been an unspoken agreement earlier in the night to keep this from all of the boys, allowing them to live without a worry about what Big Mama had planned behind the scenes. It was only a matter of time before one of them bore witness to the actual dangers that came with being related or in contact with people like Big Mama or Draxum.

Straightening his already tall figure as much as possible, Draxum prepared himself for any backlash he may get in the future from Splinter for what he was about to reveal before deciding that Leo had some right to know. “Big Mama needs a successor. Someone to take over for her when she’s either too busy or retires one day and for some reason, she’s chosen for that to be you.”

“Barry,” Splinter hissed lowly just as the words finished leaving Draxum’s mouth, stealing the Yōkai’s attention momentarily as he tried to soothe the older mutant. Splinter was hearing none of it though as he batted one of Draxum’s hands away and squinted dangerously up at the man. A warning.

Leo took the news much differently, however, his eyes shooting wide with his mouth opening and closing like a gaping fish out of water. That wasn’t what Leo had expected to hear, far from of it, in fact.

“What do you mean Big Mama needs a successor?” Leo replayed Draxum’s words, not quite being able to wrap his head around them just yet. As if the worst-case scenario that Draxum could think of was suddenly playing out, the corners of Leo’s lips quirked up a microscopic smidge. In a quieter mumble to himself, Leo questioned aloud, “She’s not that old, is she?”

“Yōkai live significantly longer lives than humans,” Draxum usefully supplied to Leo’s offhand comment, peering down at where Leo had his fingers pinched under his chin in thought. “So no, she’s not as old as you think she is. Or rather much older in human years.”

“That was the biggest contradiction I think I’ve ever heard, it might even rival the length of Donnie’s forehead,” Leo huffed, swinging his hand down before he skipped back over to his bed and sinking down onto it. He didn’t bother trying to wrap himself back in the blankets that lay there, instead spreading his limbs out in the relaxed manner he tried to personify. “Now let’s get back on topic. What could Big Mama want me to run that she doesn’t already have under control? She seems to have a pretty sound business.”

“It’s not about you taking over it now, gods know she’d have an exorcism if she left you alone with anything she’s built without any training,” Pinching the bridge of his nose, Draxum fought off the headache that came with the thought of that alone. He did not need to babysit one of his kids parading around in the underground. “It’s so you can slowly trail her around and take over in another seventy years. More or less.”

“So you’re saying I’m going to be running the Battle Nexus one day?” A grin spread across Leo’s face as he replayed back to Draxum what he had gathered from his little explanation. “Preferably before I’m old and wrinkly since I’m a mutant and not a Yōkai?”

“That is not the point of this conversation Blue,” Splinter almost screeched, watching as his son became more accustomed to the idea of getting the Battle Nexus under his fingertips. This was not how this talk was supposed to go, especially not with the ego lift Leo was receiving. “Big Mama only wants you to continue on her legacy, this has nothing to do with you. You’re only going to get dragged down with her if you align yourself with Big Mama.”

“And what would be so wrong with that if I did?” Leo challenged, staying seated with his arms crossed over his plastron. A familiar strike shot through Leo as the bubbling of annoyance settled into him. If Donnie was able to geek out with the wanted criminal in front of him, then why couldn’t Leo learn to be a cool business turtle? “You and Donnie have your little evil lab, so me and Big Mama will have our fight ring. I’m sure another criminal will show up and claim to be our parent so Raph or Mikey can have a shot at them.”

“That is not what’s happening with Donnie, Raph and Mikey will be staying down here with Lou, and you won’t be stepping near Big Mama,” Draxum was quick to shoot the idea down, stepping over to Leo to loom over him and get his point across. The circumstances were different regarding him and Donnie compared to Big Mama and Leo knew it, no amount of petty jealousy or indifference would change that. “Big Mama has no care for you in the slightest, only for her name to live on. If manipulating a spoilt turtle is what it takes to make sure that happens then that’s what it takes.”

“Well, I don’t think you give a damn about my care either when you’re so willing to throw me off skyscrapers whenever you have the chance,” With his teeth grit together, Leo was about to storm out of his own room and find refuge elsewhere. Perhaps he would lock himself in the bathroom or sit at the bottom of the lazy river. Maybe he would portal himself to some remote island until he was ready to make his way out again.

He would figure it out later, he always did. Leo just knew that as he was purposely shoving himself past Draxum, their bodies colliding for a few seconds, he could feel the tensing of the sheep’s body and the twitch of his muscles as he prepared to snatch him back into the room.

Draxum didn’t have much time to react beyond grinding his teeth together before Leo’s door slammed to the side, making way for Raph’s hulking figure. Plastered across his face was a look of sheepishness as he took in the scene, already knowing what he would have been intruding on. That didn’t help him from feeling out of place.

Shaking that feeling off though, Raph had a job to do.

Setting his eyes on Leo, he gestured with his head, nodding to the outside of the train cart with an almost grim look. “Donnie’s just gotten an alert from his police radio. There’s something big on the rooftops that we need to deal with before any humans get there. Donnie thinks it’s Yōkai related.”

“Por supuesto hermano,” Leo jumped at the chance to escape the situation he was in. Doing a twirl as he made his way to his older brother, Leo flashed his father and Draxum a large grin, the flash of teeth cocky as he danced out of reach of any more Big Mama-related conversations. “I’ve loved the chat but I’ve got some rooftops to dodge. Maybe if I don’t get flattened into a pancake from not being thrown off a building, we can carry this on when I get back.”

Chapter Text

Slicing his ōdachi through the air, a blue portal large enough to fit Leo and all of his brother's side by side sparked to life, creating a gateway for them to reach the address Donnie had pulled up on his phone. Leo wasn’t the first to step through the mystic gateway since normally when he did his portals had a tendency to close up behind him, forcing him to stay put as the rest of his brothers dived through without so much as thinking of a plan.

Typical Mad Dogs behaviour.

By the time Mikey finally jumped through the portal, Leo was practically itching for some action, too much contained energy buzzing under his skin. Racing after his siblings, Leo teleported from the warmth of the lair to the chilly rooftops of New York City, the Empire State Building not too far from where they currently stood, peeking over other building tops.

Standing near the heart of the city, it was a guarantee that the streets would be filled with people even as it got later into the night. With the amount of movement coming from the streets below him, Leo was wondering if he had opened the portal in the right spot, but by the way Donnie was frantically tapping at his gauntlet, his head craning around the area, Leo knew that wasn’t the problem.

“Sooo,” Leo trailed on, shifting his ōdachi to rest across the span of his shoulders. Pacing across the roof, Leo made sure not to get too close to the building’s edge so as not to draw any attention to himself or his brothers as he searched for whatever it was that Donnie had apparently picked up on. “Is the Yōkai causing mayhem in the same room as us or what?”

“Maybe the police radio was a dud,” Mikey offered as he climbed the length of Raph’s spiked shell, taking a perch on the ridges of it where the carapace met his back.

“Impossible,” Donnie exclaimed, using his normal theatre kid pizazz as he held an extended hand out while looking away as if he had been burnt. All Leo could do was stare unimpressively at his twin, the early itch turning into an inferno inside him as he grew restless. He needed to do something soon unless he wanted another sleepless night. “My scanners are never wrong. You can even hear the sirens in the distance if you stand downward wind.”

“Raph thinks maybe we should scout out the area a bit before we leave the scene,” The eldest of them all suggests. Raph had been the only one who didn’t seem bothered by the lack of a fight, peacefully standing with the comforting weight of Mikey on his shoulders. “If nothing shows up in the next ten minutes we head home, or if the police get here first.”

“That sound good, Dee?” Leo asked with a crooked smile plastered across his face, leaning into his twin’s personal space as he taunted the question. Doing his best to ignore the way Donnie tried to flee away from Leo’s hold, Leo stood tall and as if he was unaffected by how Donnie wanted nothing to do with him.

“It sounds fine,” Donnie gloomily agreed, crossing his arms over his plastron and turning his battle shell towards Leo, knocking him back slightly.

“Woah,” Throwing any sensibility to the wind, Leo fumbled back, playing the act up as much as possible as he backtracked towards the edge of the building. Purposely hitting the back of his calves against the slight uplift in the building’s design to create a ledge, Leo pretended to almost go over, his arms flailing as he feigned trying to catch his balance. With a voice of uncertainty, Leo called out, “Don Tron?”

Leo could hear Donnie take a sharp intake at the act, the softshell chasing after Leo once he saw where the slider was headed. Just before Leo should’ve toppled over the side of the building in the eyes of his brothers, a potential Draxum 2.0 situation on their hands, Leo straightened up with his arms splayed out on either side of him.

“Ta-Da,” The words escaped Leo’s mouth right before Donnie came crashing into him, both of his arms clamping around Leo to hold him close. The force of Donnie’s impact, an uncontrolled sprint in order to get to Leo in time, sent them both rocking back and over the side of the building. Where Leo had only been playing before, the real fear of plummeting caught up with him as he felt his feet slip from the solid ground and the smack of wind from their growing speed hitting him.

His own grip on Donnie tightened then, trying to pull him impossibly closer and burrow to safety before he inevitably froze up. Before he was doomed to smack against the pavement with his twin, Leo sucked in a large breath and held it in to prevent himself from crying out.

The loud screech of metal brought Leo back, his eyes snapping open from where they had previously been tightened shut. Slowly pulling his head out from where it had been tucked into Donnie’s neck, Leo was pleasantly surprised to find him and his brother hadn’t been turned into pancakes embedded in the street for all of New York to gawk at. Instead, the whole lot of Donnie’s spider-like arms had shot out of his mechanical shell, each of them gripping onto any surface they could grapple with, holding the two of them suspended in the air.

The breath Leo had previously been holding turned to a relieved sigh, his head ticking forward to rest on Donnie’s shoulder. Plastered there is where Leo stayed for all of five seconds before he noticed that the two of them were at a standstill, Donnie’s body stiff.

While Leo didn’t mind getting some quality time with his twin, he would much rather do it when they weren’t hanging off the side of the building. 

Not finding it within himself to try and crack a joke, Leo instead pushed his head away from Donnie once again, trying to find out why he hadn’t begun using his robotic arms to start pulling the two of them back to safety.

“Donnie?” Leo tried calling out to him, his voice shaky. Getting no response in return for his efforts, Leo tried catching Donnie’s eye, the softshell however refusing to look away from something behind Leo, his eyes locked on something that he couldn’t see. Slowly craning his head back so he could try and get a glimpse of it.

When Leo’s eyes locked on what had caught Donnie’s attention he felt his own body going rigid.

Peering up at the two of them was a mask of white and red with a dark hood fastened over the head of a familiar Yōkai. A flash of recognition sped through Leo’s mind. He finally knew why the bunny Yōkai had looked so familiar because they were wearing the same mask as Big Mama’s assistant.

“Looks like we found the culprit of your police dispatcher,” Leo mused, trying to ease some of the tension out of his muscles with the light and amused tone he had taken on. The Yōkai below him tilted their head to the side in what Leo would guess was confusion. He wasn’t going to bother dignifying them with a response. Instead, Leo yelled to them, “How’s it hanging?”

A loud scoff rang out from over Leo’s shoulder before he was being yanked up. Donnie’s arms tightened around him where Leo’s had begun to slip, securing him to Donnie as the spider arms connected to Donnie’s back began climbing up the building.

“If you’re going to cling to me could you please refrain from making ludicrous jokes such as the one you just made,” Donnie declared in his monotone speech. As he spoke, Donnie kept his eyes on Big Mama’s assistant, making sure the Yōkai didn’t get too close to them as they began making their way up the side of the building in a much slower advance, jumping from balcony to balcony as they followed. “It’s rather off-putting and quite frankly, unfunny.”

“Excuse you, Don Tron, my jokes are amazing,” Leo’s arms crossed over his plastron now that he didn’t have to worry about being dropped, Donnie’s grip on him too tight to ever let that happen no matter how much wiggling Leo performed. At the unimpressed glace he was shot by Donnie, a loud and drawn-out gasp tumbled from Leo’s lips, his crossed arms turning to press over his heart as he shot Donnie an accusing stare of his own. “It’s just a shame they are wasted on an unappreciating crowd, like you.”

“I’m sure none of us will care if we never have to hear one of your poor excuses of a joke again,” Donnie responded dryly. Donnie’s feet touched down on the rooftop first, Leo’s dangling slightly as Donnie refused to set him down until they were well away from the edge of the building. Turning to face their two brothers who had been worriedly standing by the building edge and had yelled out once they first saw the two of them tip over. “We’ve found the cause behind the alert.”

“Really?” Mikey questioned, jumping down from where he had been perched on Raph’s shell. Not initiating contact with either of the twins, Mikey could see that Donnie’s body was still tense, a protective streak running high regarding Leo as it had been for the majority of the night as he kept Leo close without letting him slip from his sight. He didn’t try anything with Leo due to the slider gearing up while facing where he had previously fallen from. “Where?”

Pointing his mystic ōdachi up and at the ledge of the building, Leo’s eyes narrowed slightly as he took on a hero’s pose. There he stood waiting, ready for Big Mama’s assistant to make themself known to the rest of Leo’s brothers. “Right there.”

“Right where?” Raph questioned when nothing showed up at the end of Leo’s sword.

Slumping forward, Leo forces himself away from Donnie much to his twin’s dismay as he starts making his way back to the building edge. Looking over the side, expecting to see Big Mama’s assistant crouched somewhere in his line of sight, Leo was instead met with nothing. With a frown, Leo twirls back around to face his brothers, a small frown on his face. “I don’t understand, they had been right behind us.”

“Who?” Mikey questioned again, feeling like a broken record player as he asked the same question only varying in ways every few seconds.

About to answer him, Leo’s mouth was halfway open when a sudden weight rocketed into the shell, sending him flying forward as the weight followed him. Landing on his plastron with a loud huff, Leo tries to scramble up and dislodge the weight on his shell to no avail. Feeling his shell shift, Big Mama’s assistant crouches down, moving so they are stood with a foot planted on either side of Leo with a clawed hand reaching down for him.

Leo wasn’t stranded on the floor for long though as Donnie lunged forward, his bō staff held in front of him with one end turning into a massive sledgehammer head as he swung it towards Big Mama’s assistant. Instantly they jumped back, narrowly avoiding the assault as they gracefully landed on the edge of the building.

With Donnie’s eyes locked onto them, it was as if he had tunnel vision, chasing after Big Mama’s assistant as they fled across the roof, expertly dodging each of Donnie’s attempted attacks.

Pushing himself up from the ground in a hurry, ignoring Mikey at his side who tried to help pull him up, Leo was prepared to follow after Donnie and lend him a hand when the sound of clicking rang out across the rooftop. Forgetting about Donnie for a few moments, knowing he would be able to handle himself in that time, Leo’s head swung around to the source.

Still, in her human form, Big Mama came forward, an overly cheery smile on her face.

“Turtley-Boo,” Big Mama called out, her eyes locked on Leo’s form as she ignored his brothers and her own assistant as they fought Donnie, all her attention going to the slider. Under any other circumstances, Leo would’ve been thrilled to have her eyes on him, but now that he was in the middle of this particular situation, he wished them away. “I hope you didn’t miss me in my absence.”

Before Leo had the chance to answer for himself, his voice ready in a high-pitched tweet to match Big Mama’s, Raph butt in, not giving him the opportunity to make his totally well throughout remark. “You ain’t putting your hands on him, Big Mama. So why don’t you pack this whole thing up so we don’t need to kick your behind all the way back to the Hidden City.”

“Oh?” Big Mama hummed, tapping a soft finger against her chin. She feigned a form of innocence as she thought, her sickening smile never wavering. “Did Lou-Lou and Draxy fill you in on what’s happening?”

“They filled us in on what you have planned,” Mikey corrected, his mystic kusari-fundo held out in front of him, prepared to engage in combat with Big Mama. Leo doesn’t think he’s ever seen Mikey as annoyed as he currently was. Sure, there were a few close calls like when Raph had accidentally ruined the family portrait he was painting because Leo was chasing him with a bunny plushie, but this certainly trumped that. “Leo’s not going with you no matter what.”

“What? When?” Leo questioned, backtracking to Mikey’s earlier statement and not at all prepared to take on Big Mama like he or Raph were. Since when did Splinter or Draxum have time to fill the others in when Leo wasn’t present? They could’ve done it when Leo was hiding away in his room before he kicked Donnie out but they had both seem so reluctant to tell Leo what was going on so it didn’t seem probable that they would freely give that information to his brothers. They had also been too busy trying to spy on Leo when it was just Splinter talking to him. Leaving one acceptable answer. “Were you guys eavesdropping on us?”

“Not now Leo,” Raph gruffed out, not listening to the betrayed tone of Leo’s voice as he kept his attention on Big Mama, not allowing her to get out of his sight and anywhere near Leo. There were more pressing matters at hand than if Leo thought his privacy had only lightly been breached.

“You two are such cutie-patooties,” Big Mama almost squealed, taking in the display in front of her with a blossoming smile that she didn’t need to force for appearances. She clapped her hands together twice, releasing the energy that the sight had put in her. Her demeanour changed in seconds after that, her smile dropping for what Leo would guess was the first time he had bore witness to. “But I need my heir. The Battle Nexus isn’t going to run itself whenever Big Mama wants to go on vacation so who better than my very own champion? Blue wants to come with me anyway so why don’t you step aside so we can get to work?”

“And like Raph said, Big Mama,” Raph barked out, taking a few small steps closer to Big Mama, almost forcing her to square up. In her human form, Big Mama stood rather short compared to Raph, her large amount of hair just putting her slightly taller than Mikey, so it was easy for Raph to act large when she wasn’t in her Yōkai appearance. “Not happening.”

“That is quite the shame,” Big Mama sighed, looking crestfallen for all of two seconds before a mirth was sparking to life in her eyes. None of them were prepared to see Big Mama transform, swirls of green engulfing her as her body began to grow, her limbs shifting as she changed from human to Yōkai. Leo could still see that gleam in Big Mama’s eyes even in the spider form, her grin present even if it was shifted in this form. “I was hoping Blue would be able to make a Battle Nexus pairing by the end of the night.”

Tightening his grip on his ōdachi, Leo was prepared to fight even if he didn’t want to. Big Mama had shown him kindness that night even when his brothers hadn’t, but he wasn’t going to be snatched up just yet. This would be a decision he came to on his own, not because it was forced out of him by Big Mama or denied the chance by his siblings, father, or wannabe dad.

About to run forward and put himself in between his brothers and Big Mama, something clamped down onto his shell, stopping him from running forward as he was lifted into the air, his feet dangling below him.

Was Leo getting déjà vu or was this similar occurrence happening far too much today?

Looking over his shoulder, Leo saw Raph holding up a large chasm on his forehead as he stared at Leo, silently asking him what he was thinking.

Before Leo could try and stand up for himself, Raph hitched him higher up and turned towards Donnie, trusting Mikey to keep an eye on Big Mama while his back was turned. As Raph cranked his arm back, Leo’s shell following along, therefore his dangling limbs being thrown around, he squeaked out in question, “What are you doing Raph?”

“Getting you away from Queen Eight-Legs,” Raph supplied like it was obvious, which it should’ve been with how reluctant they all were to let him anywhere near the Yōkai. Leo almost felt bad for Big Mama, all she wanted was a helper she was close to. That didn’t take away from the intervention though. “Hold on.”

“I don’t think this is necessary Raph,” Leo groaned, growing limp in Raph’s hold and allowing his head to loll to the side. Leo could take care of himself. He didn’t need his brothers looking out for him at every turn. That didn’t stop Raph from raising Leo higher, taking a few steps back before running forward as if preparing to throw a javelin. It was only when he started moving did Raph’s last instructions burned themselves into Leo’s brain. “Hold on? What do you mean hold on?”

The screeched question went unanswered by words but was with actions as Leo was flung through the air. Making Leo’s heart pause at the sudden jolt.

Flailing his arms on either side of him, Leo took in panicked breaths as he flew towards Donnie and Big Mama’s assistant. There was nothing for Leo to grab onto to stop him from falling and knocking into the two still fighting. Unless they of course spotted him and dived out of the way, leaving Leo to skid uselessly across the rooftop while Raph and Mikey went after Big Mama.

That was when the mystic weapon in his hand glowed, bringing his attention back to it and the death grip he’s had on it ever since he left the lair. Huh. Was Leo always this forgetful or was his brain just getting itself into a fizzy-winkle today?

With an overly confident grin spreading across Leo’s face, he sliced his ōdachi through the air. The portal in front of Leo wasn’t the only one that opened, a second that was unconnected to the one Leo was about to fall through being opened beneath Donnie’s feet and sending him a few metres away from Big Mama’s assistant and falling out of another carefully placed portal, giving Leo the perfect amount of space for what he was about to do.

Falling through his own portal as gravity took its course, Leo popped out on the other side, directly behind Big Mama’s assistant. Not being able to stop himself, Leo went barreling into their back, paralleling their earlier interaction as the both of them went crashing to the ground with Leo situated on top of them this time instead of the other way around.

Unlike Big Mama’s assistant when they had Leo at their mercy, Leo didn’t stay put. Jumping back, he disappeared through another portal as Big Mama’s assistant pushed themself up lightning quick. Donnie stayed put as he watched the interaction, eyes tracking all of Leo’s movements as at least ten different portals opened, Leo coming out of one before disappearing through another, leading Big Mama’s assistant on a wild goose chase as they tried to grab onto Leo.

Deciding that Leo had this covered, Donnie turned to where Raph and Mikey were currently occupied with the spider herself. Leaving Leo to deal with it himself.

As Leo jumped out of another portal, he used Big Mama’s assistant’s turned back as a prop to leap off of, propelling himself up into the air above them. Big Mama’s assistant’s head snapped back to follow Leo, ready to pounce when he landed since there were no portals to save him this time. As if reading their mind, the portals began to shift, dancing around Big Mama’s assistant with a trick Leo had only recently learnt how to do.

With their attention stolen, far more worried with the portals that were almost cutting into them with how close they came to their body, a small smile spread itself onto Leo’s face, the giddiness of it rivalling the concentration in his eyes as he cut a new portal into existence, connecting it to one of the ones currently circling Big Mama’s assistant.

Just before letting himself slip through it, Leo threw his ōdachi first, watching it pass Big Mama’s assistant from above and fly into another portal. Like a bullet, the ōdachi shot out of another portal, heading for Big Mama’s assistant once again. If Big Mama’s assistant wasn’t already preoccupied with the moving portals, they surely would be now that there was a pointed weapon on the loose.

Only then did Leo finally vanish within the newest portal he had created. As soon as he stepped out, every other portal closed, his ōdachi falling to the floor to be picked up later. Once again Leo was stationed behind Big Mama’s assistant, which could’ve been seen as fighting dirty but Leo never did claim to be a firefighter. Grabbing onto the shoulder of Big Mama’s assistant, Leo spun them around, his other hand lashing out to grab on the punch that was thrown his way.

At a standstill, the two of them stood there for a few seconds, one of Big Mama’s assistant’s hands raised to strike out with Leo countering it, their other hand about to shoot out as well. Leo was able to see the telltale signs of the action before Big Mama’s assistant gave way to the strike, the clawed hand aiming for Leo’s face.

Sidestepping out of the way, Leo narrowly dodges it, releasing Big Mama’s assistant’s other hand in the process. He could use this to his advantage though, he wasn’t going to let his cool portal trick go to waste just yet. Shooting a hand up to grab onto Big Mama’s assistant’s outstretched arm, Leo makes sure to dig his nails into it just to be petty as he tucks his shell under their arm, using the momentum Big Mama’s assistant had supplied to fling them up and over his body, sending them hurtling towards the edge of the building.

In a graceless arch, Big Mama’s assistant went over the side of the building. Leo was worried for all of two seconds before he heard the loud clang of a fire escape and Big Mama’s assistant’s body coming in contact with it. Staying stock still for a few seconds, Leo was prepared for the masked Yōkai to fling themself back up and at Leo to continue their fight. But the more the seconds ticked by and the longer Big Mama’s assistant didn’t make a new appearance, a thrill set into Leo’s bones.

“Did anyone see that?” Leo shouted, turning around with his arms pumping into the air. As his eyes settled on his brothers who were still preoccupied with Big Mama, he noticed that none of them even spared him a glance. Obviously, they had pressing matters on their hands, such as Big Mama spitting out webs at them, but one of them could have at least yelled out some sort of congratulation. So, to keep himself hyped, Leo sang out, “I was awesome. Get portal chopped goon.”

“Stay focused Leo,” Raph snapped instead of feeding into Leo’s ego. The harshness in his voice made some of the excitement in Leo’s face die down a bit but Leo was quick to try and cover it up, plastering a toothy smile on his face that his brothers wouldn’t be able to see through.

“I am focused,” Leo corrected, his hands moving to his hips as one of them cocked to the side. Leo would even say he was more focused than Raph, Donnie and Mikey combined. He had just taken out Big Mama’s assistant with ease. Why would he be anything but focused? It was Raph who needed to be more focused in Leo’s opinion since he was the one still fighting. “So focused that I can come over there and help you.”

“Nope,” Donnie barked out, his teeth bared when Leo made an attempt to step forward so he could join the fight.

“Leo, it’s you she’s after,” Mikey tried to make his point clear, his kusari-fundo whizzing through the air like a firecracker as it wrapped itself around one of Big Mama’s legs, the massive Yōkai trying to quickly shake it off to not much avail. Raph saw this and ran over to Mikey, helping the smaller turtle to tug on it so Big Mama would lose balance and potentially fall.

“How long do we have until the police get here, Don?” Raph called out to Donnie who was standing on the other side of Big Mama, tapping away at his gauntlet as he was in the midst of summoning some of his tech to help them out.

“By how close the sirens have gotten,” Donnie trailed off, listening to police sirens that have grown closer over the span of the different fights taking course on the rooftop. “Approximately seventeen minutes with traffic.”

As the words left his mouth, Big Mama came tumbling to the ground, her silver hair flying wild as some of her extra legs splayed out to try and catch her large body. The apartment building that they were on shook slightly as she hit the deck, making Mikey fall back into Raph’s plastron, the snapping turtle saving him before tugging free his kusari-fundo. “Just stay put until then Leo.”

“Make up your mind then,” Leo groaned, his arms changing to cross over his chest. He was starting to get really annoyed with the bossing around. Leo wasn’t a tot, he could take care of himself, especially when it came to Yōkai like Big Mama. “If you want me to stay focused, what’s there to stay focused on if Big Mama’s the only one left?”

“You could focus on me,” A new voice rattled across the rooftop, much like Leo’s ōdachi as it was kicked towards Leo, its blade scraping along the floor. Turning his head over his shoulder, his face unimpressed as the rest of his body stood rooted to keeping Big Mama in sight, Leo was prepared to find some wannabe big shot Yōkai ready to fight for Big Mama. Instead, Leo was met with a sight he was unprepared for.

Doing a large double take, maybe even a triple take, Leo took in the figure that stood across from him. Making sure he wasn’t just seeing Big Mama’s assistant again, Leo took in the Yōkai in front of him in full, the thought of never seeing them again coming to the front of his brain.

Stood in front of him was the Yōkai Leo had seen earlier that day at the farmers market in the Hidden City. Even though it had only been a few hours ago that Leo was basking in the presence of the Yōkai now across from him, it had felt like days since had had actually seen them. Once again, they wore a mask similar to Big Mama’s assistant, the same white and red in an only slightly different pattern. They still wore the same dark blue hakama and a teal kimono that Leo had seen them in earlier. Again, tufts of white fur poked out where they could, making Leo wonder just how soft they could be.

Instead of mirroring the way Leo stood, relaxed–even if it was forced–and unprepared for a fight, the Yōkai stood on edge. A sword of their own was pointed at Leo as his body was wound tight. Leo would’ve thought that this was the Yōkai’s first time ever engaging in contact if it wasn’t for the amount of skill they would have to possess to work so closely to Big Mama.

“Pfft- what’s up with you Peter Rabbit?” Leo couldn’t help but ask as he got another glance at the Yōkai’s tied-back ears. Using his foot, Leo nudged his toes under the handle of his ōdachi before he kicked it up and to midair, giving him enough leverage to grab onto its handle and give it a small twirl, showing off subtly.

“Who’s Peter Rabbit,” Their stance instantly fell, head swinging around in search of another Yōkai on the building that Leo could be addressing. From their voice alone, Leo was going to guess that the Yōkai was male. Not that he was one to normally assume. When the Yōkai found nothing, he turned back to face Leo. From his chest upwards he leaned forward slightly, his head tilting with his ears flapping around as he looked on in question. Pointing to himself he began to speak again, “I’m not Peter Rabbit. There isn’t even a Peter Rabbit in my family. I think you have me confused for someone else.”

Any earlier assumptions about the Yōkai were immediately thrown to the wind. He wasn’t some cool or mysterious Yōkai that had climbed the ladder in Big Mama’s company like her assistant had, instead, he was a bunny who seemed to speak too quickly for his mind to keep up with.

Huh… This was the guy that Leo had chased after earlier, hoping to get a glimpse under his mask or at least a name.

“Sure,” Leo trailed off, humouring the bunny as he dug the tip of his blade into the ground, using it to lean forward as he shifted all his weight to its handle. Narrowing his eyes, Leo stared at the Yōkai, not saying anything for a few moments to see how the Yōkai would react. In turn to being held under Leo’s stare, the Yōkai began to fidget, one of his hands running over the base of his sword, as well as shuffling from foot to foot, changing the distribution of his weight. A small smile trickled its way onto Leo’s face at the sight. “So what’s the big deal with all this Bugs Bunny?”

“Right,” The Yōkai stood stock straight, Leo’s words reminding him as to why he was out there in the first place. Moving back into the stance he had previously been in when Leo first turned to face him, the Yōkai prepared himself for any attack that might come from Leo. “Big Mama has given me strict orders to bring you in. You can come willingly or I’ll have to force you.”

“You’re making me sound like a criminal,” Leo dreamily sighed, kicking his head back at the idea. Maybe he should go back to the farmers market and see if that mound of lettuce was still there, then he could try and get his face printed on another wanted poster. Unfortunately, Leo doesn’t think anything would beat the blonde wig. “You know, if I come back with Big Mama I’m going to be bossing you around. You might want to rethink your decision to fight me.”

“There’s nothing about you in my contract though,” The Yōkai thought aloud, not wavering in his stance like last time. Leo himself had never had the trouble of getting stuck in a contract with Big Mama but everyone who had always told him the same thing; they were tricky and hard to get out of. Before you know it, Big Mama could’ve changed something you thought was minor but actually have you trapped longer. “Big Mama would have to write me a new contract if she wanted you to have any control over me.”

“I’m sure the three of us could figure something out,” Both of Leo’s shoulders jumped up in a shrug. He didn’t plan on coming with Big Mama tonight. He did however plan on paying her a visit in a public spot so that the two of them could negotiate the terms and conditions of his stay. Of course, all of that would come after he let his family know he would be going with her. He’d probably have to wait a while after tonight. Enough about that though, snapping his attention back to the Yōkai and instead of staying dazed in his own world, Leo lifted his ōdachi up so he could match the stance of the bunny. “Now, on guard.”

Not giving the Yōkai any time to react, Leo dived forward, throwing himself into a sprint as he headed towards the rabbit. He didn’t plan on opening a portal just yet, hoping to save it for a last-resort trick. There two blades clashed together quickly, the screech of steel ringing out as Leo’s ōdachi met the funky sword with some crystal embedded in it that the Yōkai had chosen to use.

While the two met in the middle, Leo couldn’t help but take in the Yōkai’s mask, a small thought egging at his brain, making him wonder what he would look like once the white and red mask was removed. Then maybe he could learn more about the Yōkai. Not that he wanted to. Working for Big Mama was totally a big no-no.

“What’s your name?” Leo couldn’t help but ask, pushing his face in closer towards the masked Yōkai’s. For someone who’s been plaguing Leo’s mind for too long, Leo should at least be able to know the name belonging to the Yōkai if he couldn’t know the name.

“Usagi,” The Yōkai said, clearly without thinking because as soon as the words left his mouth he was clambering away from Leo, his head turning over to Big Mama where the woman was busy fighting against Leo’s siblings and Donnie’s robots. The Yōkai—Usagi—seemed to be waiting for Big Mama to hear his words and snap his head towards the two of them, his chest puffed up as he kept his breath in. “I wasn’t meant to tell you that.”

“Why not?” Leo felt himself pushing, trying to figure out more about Usagi since it seemed easy enough to get him to slip in the first place. Leo never saw the purpose of staying anonymous. Of course, he wore a mask every day but that was for the aesthetic and his brand, not to keep his identity hidden. It wouldn’t do much anyway when he told almost every person he met who he was.

“I’m not sure actually,” Usagi murmured, finally pushing back on Leo’s ōdachi with his sword to separate the two of them. Leo readied himself again instantly for another strike, though no matter how much preparation he did, nothing would’ve gotten him ready for how quick Usagi was as he leapt forward, colliding with Leo with his sword held out in front of him. “Loads of people already know who I am and how I’m associated with Big Mama so I think the mask is a little bit overkill.”

“What are you, famous or something?” Leo mused, never having seen this bunny before in his life until a few hours ago, nor had he heard any word about him. Watching Usagi’s chest puffed out from under his teal and black clothes, Leo quickly added to make sure he was the only one with an inflated ego, “I’ve never heard about you.”

Adjusting himself to parry forward, Leo made Usagi quickly dodge out of the way in the hopes of not getting impaled. Just like before, Usagi was able to leap from side to side, evading all of Leo’s attempts. Already, Leo could feel a small frustration start to build up inside of him as most of his efforts were put to waste, Usagi seeming to not even be breaking a sweat.

“Maybe because you live up here with all the humans,” Usagi huffed, his eyes narrowing from beneath his mask. Crouching down, Usagi tried to sweep Leo’s legs out from under him, almost knocking him on his tail if it wasn’t for Leo finally opening a portal and teleporting a few steps back. “It wouldn’t be surprising that you couldn’t keep up with any Yōkai news because you’re too busy stuck here. Why is it that you live up here anyway? Wouldn’t you want to be with your own kind?”

“First of all, I’m not a Yōkai, I’m a mutant,” Leo scoffed, changing his grip on his ōdachi before he was opening another portal and disappearing through it. Coming out on the other side of Usagi, Leo was preparing to ram into him when he saw both of the rabbit’s ears twitch, Usagi whirling around to face him just before Leo would’ve collided with him. Throwing his ōdachi up to protect himself, the two blades snapped together once more. “And second of all, humans aren’t that bad. April’s cool. Plus we only found out about the Hidden City not too long ago.”

“What’s a mutant?” The word sounded unfamiliar on Usagi’s lips. His confusion didn’t allow any time for Leo to rest as the Yōkai lunged forward, feinting left before pummeling the hilt of his sword into Leo’s exposed side. Shooting his tongue out of his mouth as if he was gagging, Leo opened a portal beneath his own feet and disappeared through it.

“You’re looking at one,” Leo called as he jumped out from the other side of his portal, not wasting any time as his ōdachiinterlaced with Usagi’s. Unlike before, Leo didn’t let the two blades stay pressed against one another for long, tipping their blades apart with as much force and sending the two of them ricocheting apart before pivoting. While Usagi was distracted trying to regain his composure, Leo raised his legs and swooped it around in a roundhouse kick, his foot connecting with Usagi’s head. “A pretty awesome one at that.”

Stumbling back, Usagi’s hands came up to cradle the side of his head that Leo had kicked. Hearing the clank of something hitting the ground, Leo noticed the white and red mask lying discarded a few feet away from Usagi, the rabbit paying it no mind in favour of rubbing a hand along his face, trying to soothe the sting there.

As if he were sitting on the edge of his seat, Leo stood there, entranced, waiting to finally get a glimpse of the bunny’s face. He already knew Usagi had white fur. Though he had yet to touch it, Leo could tell that the fluffy mounds would feel like lying among clouds, not that he’d ever touched a cloud before. Leo wondered what colour were Usagi’s eyes. Maybe they were colourless like his, a plain darkness that the mutation had filled out.

Instead, Leo was met with something so much different. And…

Oh.

A pair of chocolate eyes met him, a fury laced within those irises as they glared at Leo, framed by dark brows. A small, pink nose took up the centre of Usagi’s face, currently scrunched in both pain and annoyance Leo guessed. The fur lining his cheeks looked fluffier. Maybe that was due to every hair on his body standing taut or just how the bunny was designed.

Leo couldn’t stop himself from staring. In his defence, he couldn’t help it. Not like he hadn’t caught Usagi creeping on him this morning while in the Hidden City.

It was a shame Leo had to fight him. Oh well, off to New Jersey he goes.

“How come you get hair?” Leo cried out as he tried to snap himself out of his daze, summoning up an air of nonchalance to surround him. Usagi fixed him with narrowed eyes, his eyebrows furrowed, not amused in the slightest by Leo’s antics. Leo tried not to cave under Usagi’s scowl, his legs feeling unstable with how much intensity was burning in the bunny’s eyes. To try and lighten the air, Leo mused, “Next thing I know Mikey’s going to be growing some strands.”

When Usagi didn’t answer Leo, or even sport a huff of amusement like he had hoped he would do, his laughter from earlier that day or even the conversation they were previously having seemed so out of character compared to what he was faced with now, Leo knew he was in for it now, especially with the way he was fixing himself, no longer minding the slight burn on his cheek.

Like a bullet, faster than one perhaps, Usagi shot towards Leo, his sword held extended in front of him as he raced towards Leo. Not having more than enough time for his brain to comprehend anything other than the threat, his instincts screamed at him to retract away into his shell where he could stay protected. Instead, Leo held up his ōdachi in front of him and prepared himself for the oncoming assault.

Usagi’s movements were almost too quick for his eyes to keep up with, flashes of white engulfing his vision as Usagiraced around him. With no clear view, Leo threw his ōdachi blindly around, trying to block as many incoming attacks as he could. He wasn’t however always successful, getting a few deep cuts being traced into his arms and legs, blotches of red rising up from them.

When a particularly deep cut made itself known, the open wound feeling as if Usagi had dug his blade in and twisted it around, Leo knew he wouldn’t be able to take much more before his body gave out.

Slicing his ōdachi through the air, not aiming for anywhere near Usagi, Leo was prepared to mentally move the whereabouts of the blue, swirling portal he had just created. Narrowing his own eyes towards Usagi, the portal began to shift, hurtling towards Usagi and ready to engulf him so he could be spat out on the other side, somewhere deep within New Jersey, something else happened. Something unexpected.

Leo’s ōdachi had been knocked from his hand.

The mystic weapon went sailing through the air and before Leo could realise where it was going, his ōdachi fell through the portal he had created. With a wink, the blue substance closed around the portal, much to the dismay of Leo even if he would’ve never gone through it, knowing where he would’ve ended up.

His mouth dropped at the sight, hanging wide opening and gaping like a fish out of water, Leo couldn’t quite form a proper sentence yet. His ōdachi was gone. Usagi had just sent it to New Jersey. That was practically the worst place on earth. And sure, he could probably teleport the mystic weapon back to him but did Leo really want to after it’s been festering in New Jersey?

Leo was about to spin around and face Usagi, wanting to give him a piece of his mind when something latched onto his shell and was suddenly pulling him back.

A hand snapped around to try and shake off whatever had grabbed ahold of him but when his hand came in contact with the sticky substance, Leo couldn’t find the strength to pull his own limb back, his hand staying firmly in place as whatever he had touched kept in there. Finally using his head to look over at what it was, Leo’s eyes widened once he took in the intricate webs that had been shot out towards him.

Following the lines of the white silk, Leo found Big Mama grinning down at him, still in her spider form as she held onto him with one of her long webs. Shooting his eyes down to his brothers, Leo found them all stuck to different surfaces, mounds of Big Mama’s webs lying on top of them and keeping them in place. Among that, he saw Donnie’s tech destroyed, pieces of it lying around on the rooftop.

Before Leo could utter a word, he was roughly tugged backwards, his feet falling from underneath him as he crashed into the floor. Big Mama didn’t give him time to react and tried and get back to his feet, continuing to drag him across the cement ground, pieces of it digging into Leo’s scales as he had no choice but to move forward.

“What are you doing, Big Mama?” Leo tried to ask, using his free hand to try and slow down the agonising pull of his body as he was wound closer to Big Mama. Now that he was laid out in front of her, defenceless, Leo could finally come to see why his brothers had been so worried. Why his father had been so worried. Why Draxum had been so worried.

“Bringing my old Battle Nexus Champion home,” Big Mama announced as Leo was tugged across the final stretch of the rooftop, only stopping once he was directly in front of Big Mama, the Yōkai almost looming over him with how far Leo was tucked against her. Once Leo was in front of her, Big Mama sprayed a few more webs down towards him, encasing Leo in them and trapping his limbs to his body. “Bunny-Wunny, you’ve gotten rid of his sword, yes?”

“I have,” Usagi was quick to make his way over to Big Mama’s side, not even sparing Leo a glance. For all of two seconds, Usagi seemed to be proud of the accomplishment while Big Mama’s eyes were locked on him, but as soon as the massive Yōkai looked away in search of her assistant, Usagi’s face morphed into a blank look. “Just like you instructed me to.”

“Perfect,” Big Mama murmured once her eyes settled on her assistant finally making their way back over to them. Already on the move, Usagi was almost like an afterthought now that she had what she had set out for. “Cut the webs with your own sword and then drag him back to the Nexus hotel with me. Make sure you don’t cut them too short so he can get out.”

“Of course,” Usagi snapped the words out, slicing his sword through the thick webs, leaving just enough for him to use almost as a leash to tug Leo along, not that Leo could follow after him with all of his limbs bound.

“Oh, and Usagi?” Big Mama caught his attention one last time before leaving him behind with Leo in favour of getting back to her hotel.

“Yes, Big Mama?”

“Don’t forget your clocking broach,” Big Mama absently reminded, already transforming back into her own human form. Her clothes looked slightly scuffed not that she had changed, her previous fight apparent. Big Mama’s assistant quickly flocked to her side once she had shrunk, taking on as her personal guard. “You’re such a cutesy-wootsy when you’re wearing it.”

“Wait, Big Mama,” Leo cried out, ignoring as Usagi lifted a cloaking broach and applied it to his clothes, a human form easily taking over. As he moved, it seemed like he was no longer familiar with his own body. Trying to wiggle himself out of his bounds, Big Mama’s attention was supplied to the slider. “This isn’t what I wanted. Can’t we talk about this first?”

“Of course, we can,” She cheerily agreed, fixing the glasses on her face. “Once we get back to the hotel.”

“Leo?” Mikey called out once Leo’s body began dragging against the flood, his shell scraping and letting out a piercing noise. In his own bounds, Mikey tried to struggle more and rip himself out, impossibly trying to reach his brother.

“Mikey,” Snapping his head around to face his younger brother, his heart dropping as he was pulled to the edge of the building. There Usagi’s grip changed on him, lifting Leo up so he could manoeuvre him down the fire escape without causing too much of a ruckus. “Raph!”

“Wait, Nardo,” Donnie cried out next, the softshell seeming to be trying to reach for his bō staff. If Donnie was able to get his hands on it then he’d easily be able to free himself and his brothers from Big Mama’s webs. Then they could go after Leo and hopefully get him back, a cause behind their actions now that Big Mama actually had their brother in her hold.

“Donnie,” Leo rasped, his eyes swelling on Donnie and the rest of his brothers, frantically snapping between them all. In a gasp, Leo screeched out, trying to get the words to spread out across the rooftop, “I didn’t want this. Please, don’t let me go!”