Chapter Text
mint condition
"Ugh," Donnie groaned, turning away from the scene of carnage splayed out before them. It was a weird, toxic mix of green slime, orange flesh, and an unhealthy shade of blue blood. Then there were the chunks—
"Ugh," he groaned again, this time with emphasis. Leaning over to put his hands on his knees, Donnie focused on breathing through his nose as his stomach churned ominously. Pressing his lips together, Donnie exhaled sharply and shut his eyes, hoping the wave of nausea would pass.
It didn't.
If he was being honest, Donnie had felt off ever since he had indulged Mikey earlier that afternoon as a taste tester. He never did have much of a sweet tooth, but he did have a soft spot for his littlest brother. Plus, the numerous batches of various flavored cookies had smelled really tempting at the time.
The sugar was finally catching up with him, though. And at such an opportune time /s.
"Donnie?" Leo's voice chirped at his shoulder, startling him. The flinch only reignited the roiling nausea, though, leaving Donnie to wince and wrap his arms around his stomach.
"Whoa, hey," Leo said, voice dropping in volume and turning serious. "What's going on, brother?"
"Nothing," Donnie replied, far too quickly and far too shaky to be convincing. "You know I hate this kind of stuff, that's all."
"Well, yeah," Leo said hesitantly. When he didn't continue, Donnie peeked an eye open in the direction Leo's voice had been coming from. What greeted him was mostly concealed worry behind an assessing gaze. Donnie knew he wasn't going to leave this alone anytime soon.
"Sigh," he said, earning a brief eye roll and a twitch of a smile from Leo. Progress. "I may have consumed a few too many of Michael's cookies in my attempt at being a fair and partial taste tester earlier. I'm now paying the price, and the...goop behind us isn't doing me any favors."
"Ah," Leo said, eyes brightening with realization as he snapped his fingers. "Nauseous?"
Donnie nodded, a careful motion since he wasn't entirely certain if too much head shaking would trigger another wave of nausea.
"Hang on," Leo said, hands working at the pouch near his hip. Before Donnie could even ask, Leo was grabbing his hand and dropping a few small items into Donnie's palm. He looked down at the bright white mints wrapped in clear plastic that sat innocuously in his hand. He looked up at Leo's bright grin and raised an eyebrow in question.
"They'll help," Leo insisted, gesturing from the mints to Donnie. "With the nausea. Just trust me."
Before Donnie could reply, (Leo seemed far too skilled at moving through tasks before comments or critique could be offered), Leo was spinning around to march back toward the carnage. Donnie carefully did not watch him leave so he wouldn't have to face the goop again. He would never say it out loud, because that would be silly, but it looked a little too much like Kraang goop for Donnie' comfort. He and his brothers had all become far more acquainted with the Kraang than any of them had ever wanted or expected to be. But Donnie had literally been inside their ship. As wild and amazing as it had been to physically be a space ship, all that goop and...whatever they were made of had been disgusting and terrifying and awful.
Donnie still had nightmares about the way it felt against his shell. But his brothers didn't need to know that. They could just continue to think that he was squeamish about the goop in general. (Well, he was. But that wasn't the point.) He probably should unpack all that, but wasn't going to. Not any time soon, at least. Emotions? No, thank you.
Instead, he resigned himself to unwrapping one of the mints and popping it into his mouth.
It wasn't the most pleasant flavor in the world, but it tasted markedly better than the leftover sensation of sugar and the lingering threat of bile at the back of his throat.
"Hey, Raph!" Leo called. "Why don't you take Don with you and see if there's any more of these little freaks wandering around nearby? Mikey and I can handle sweeping this place for clues about where they came from."
Donnie almost protested because he hated to separate on a mission and it would be way more efficient if they stuck together. But the thought of having to face the goop again made him hold his tongue.
"Sure, Leo," Raph said, oblivious to Donnie's inner turmoil. A few seconds later, Raph's large hand landed on Donnie's shoulder. He looked up and immediately clocked the blatant relief on Raph's face. Donnie blinked for a moment, wondering what that was about before his eyes caught on the faint scars over Raph’s right eye. Ah, it would appear he was not the only brother more than happy to be able to get away from the horrific mess covering the floor.
"Let’s go,” Raph said, before quickly heading for the door. "Call us if you need back up!" Raph yelled over his shoulder.
"You too!" Leo's voice responded from much farther away than it had before. Donnie started after Raph a moment later, tense muscles uncoiling, with realization tasting like the mint dissolving on his tongue.
just for scrapes and giggles
The faint ringing in Mikey’s left ear was what woke him. Or, more accurately, pulled him back to consciousness. Blinking his eyes open felt scratchy, but he managed it. Mikey’s pulse was throbbing at his temples, but his vision didn’t spin when he moved his head, and nothing hurt too bad, so that had to be a good sign. Hopefully he wasn’t concussed, because that would stink. It was dim here, half buried as he was, and they had been underground to begin with. He wasn’t sure how long he had been out, but it was long enough for the dust to start settling.
Luckily, he wasn’t pinned. The concrete and dirt had fallen in such a way that Mikey was tucked into a small pocket of blessedly open space. It was just tall enough for him to stand with a slouch and long enough for him to lay down somewhat comfortably.
Unluckily, his comms were busted and his brothers were nowhere in sight.
Mikey was examining a wiggly looking piece of debris, debating if he could get free if he moved it, when he heard a voice.
“Mikey? Donnie? Raph?”
“Le—” Mikey started to call before choking on the dry, scratchiness of his throat. Coughing a few times, Mikey cleared his throat and tried again. “Leo?”
His coughing had apparently alerted Leo first, because when he called out again, he was already on the other side of Mikey’s debris pocket.
“Mikey? I’m here, Mikey. Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Leo sounded frantic, his questions accompanied by the scraping sounds of shifting debris.
“I’m okay,” Mikey called back, pushing as much easy reassurance as he could into his tone. He understood Leo’s worry – he was feeling it, too. “Just a little scratched up.”
The wiggly looking concrete Mikey had been eyeing up earlier was dragged free, the gap almost immediately occupied by Leo. He popped his head into the pocket Mikey was in and scanned Mikey up and down quickly. Mikey watched the weight of worry lift from Leo’s expression before that familiar, easy grin slid onto his face.
“Looks like you could use some help getting free, little brother,” Leo teased him. “Think you can squeeze through here or do you need more room?”
Mikey crouched down in front of the opening as Leo leaned back to give him space. Shifting forward, Mikey poked his head into the opening experimentally, heart rate jumping with relief when his shoulders didn’t get stuck.
“I think I can work with this,” Mikey hummed as he wriggled carefully through the little tunnel Leo had created for him.
His shell only bumped against the debris a few times as Mikey extracted himself from his little concrete cave. Once he was on his feet, Leo swept him up into a brief hug that left Mikey giggling as Leo spun him around.
“Glad you didn’t get squished, little man,” Leo said as he set Mikey back on his feet. His eyes tried to subtly scan over Mikey’s arms and face again, another injury sweep that Mikey was more than familiar with. The gesture had lost all forms of subtly months ago – at least for Mikey. He was pretty sure Raph and Donnie still didn’t know Leo did that at least three times on each of them after every mission.
“Me too,” Mikey grinned as he dusted himself off. “But what do we do now? My comms aren’t working, and I don’t know where the others are.”
Leo dropped a reassuring hand on Mikey’s shoulder as he glanced around to the maze of debris surrounding them. Mikey followed his gaze; dread dropped into his stomach the more he took in.
They had been tracking a weird, new looking mutant through an abandoned subway tunnel when it had turned and chucked some sort of explosive back at them. Raph and Donnie had been a little behind Mikey and Leo, but now everything was just rubble. But when Mikey looked up, it seemed the explosion hadn’t taken out the whole tunnel. Part of the support structures still seemed to be in tact, leaving them with pockets of open space to work with.
“Well,” Leo said after a moment of quiet observation. “They weren’t too far behind us, and they’re both pretty tough. I’m sure they’re fine. Raph is probably digging him and Donnie out already, and Donnie’s most likely bad-mouthing the mechanics of that explosion, too.”
Mikey could picture that with ease, especially with how confident Leo sounded while saying it. He nodded eagerly in agreement and bounced on his toes, ready to get moving.
“So, we start working back toward them?” Mikey guessed, looking around. “Where do we start?”
“I was over there,” Leo said, pointing one way. “And I was a little ahead of you. So let’s start going back this way and see what we find.”
Mikey let Leo take the lead on digging, moving rubble as directed and crawling through smaller pockets to check that it was actually going to get them somewhere and not turn out to be a waste of time. Leo helped him keep up a steady stream of meaningless conversation to fill the silence. It helped Mikey keep his mind off the gnawing worry for Raph and Donnie, and after catching a glance of Leo’s face when he thought Mikey wasn’t looking, he suspected it was the same for Leo.
After nearly a half hour of digging and maneuvering, Mikey was left in a pocket as Leo crawled ahead to check out the next stretch of semi-open space. Their progress was slow, given that half of their attempts at moving forward were met with dead ends they had to double back from. Mikey was getting tired of crouching and crawling around. Kneepads could only help against concrete so much, and his were already pretty worn out. Maybe it was time for new ones. With a sigh and a groan, Mikey stretched his arms over his head and started to move around, grateful that this pocket allowed for that.
"Ouch!" Mikey hissed, grabbing at his arm as he jolted away from the pile of rubble he had brushed against. There was a sharp piece of metal sticking out that Mikey had failed to notice before.
"Mikey?" Leo's voice called from the opening they had created. Mikey wasn’t sure if he had already been on his way back, or if the opening was actually that shallow to begin with. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it before Leo went ahead. Either way, he doubled back now, appearing quickly through the small tunnel.
His face was creased with frantic concern, layered over with a fine coat of dust and dirt. Mikey absently noted how it dulled the color of his red markings and wondered why he was only noticing that detail now. Maybe he was actually a little concussed.
"Hey, Mikey," Leo said, more urgently this time as he waved his hand in front of Mikey's face. "You still with me? What happened?"
"Oh, I just scraped my arm," Mikey indicated to where he clutched his bicep. "I wasn't paying attention. I'm okay, though!"
He smiled, not fake but not entirely real either. The scrape really was nothing. But this endless tunnel was starting to wear away at Mikey's positivity. Even his well wasn't endless. He was tired, achy, dirty, and worried about the ongoing radio silence from Donnie and Raph.
"Let me see," Leo said, expression shifting into something focused, the worry melting away beneath the dust before Mikey's eyes. It was disorienting, because Mikey knew that Leo was still concerned. He was just putting on that "professional" facade. Mikey could never figure out if it was more for their sake or Leo's.
Either way, he indulged Leo's worry by releasing his arm and lifting it to Leo's waiting hands. Mikey watched him give it a quick scan and a few gentle prods before he nodded. The focused crease of Leo's brow smoothed out as he smiled down at Mikey.
"Well, good news is you'll keep your arm."
"Ha, ha," Mikey said around a more genuine grin. "Does that mean there's bad news?"
"Afraid so," Leo said, sounding far to chipper to be serious as he started digging through the belt pouch he always kept on one hip. He unearthed a tube of antiseptic, smearing a little over the tiny scrape before going back into the bag. Seconds later, Mikey watched him produce a Jupiter Jim themed bandage - bright red, lined with yellow, and Jupiter Jim himself grinning up at them from the flimsy latex.
Mikey gave a surprised laugh as Leo cheerfully adjusted the bandage to sit snug over the little cut.
"You have Jupiter Jim bandages in there?" Mikey asked, incredulous despite his amused smile. "Why don't you have actual bandages?"
"Oh, I do," Leo said with a wink. "These ones are just for scrapes and giggles. And would you look at that – you had a scrape and seemed like you could use a giggle."
Mikey blinked as Leo turned to crawl back through the little tunnel to the next pocket, waving for Mikey to follow. He had always idolized Leo – for a number of reasons. But the ease with which he understood all of their brothers was one of the things Mikey admired the most. It was one of the reasons he had developed his Dr. Feelings persona – an attempt to understand Leo (and Donnie and Raph) in return.
Suddenly reminded of a memory, Mikey recalled the moments after Leo's return from the prison dimension. He had been shaky, exhausted, injured, and covered in blood and bruises. But he had taken one look at Mikey's hands and refused to budge. Despite the tremors in Leo's own hands, he had diligently sat in front of Mikey in that ruined Staten Island parking lot with a roll of stark white gauze. Leo had talked Mikey through the whole process, wheezing out jokes where he could and coaching Mikey to breathe through the pain. The wraps had definitely helped, but seeing the layers of clinical white on his arms was disorienting. Leo must have picked up on that, because he changed them over to black the next day. And now this.
He ran a careful hand over the bandage and smiled to himself.
"Wait," Mikey said suddenly, moving to follow Leo through the tunnel. "What was the bad news?"
"Oh!" Leo's reply echoed back to him from ahead, sounding smug. "You're getting your tetanus shot updated as soon as we get out of here."
(blood) sugar rush
One of the things that frustrated April the most was the school's cafeteria. She was in college now, for crying out loud! You would think the cost of tuition would up the game of "cafeteria food", but no such luck. Still the same crusty, disgusting meals she used to choke down in high school.
On top of that, she had been chasing a lead for a story she was writing for the university's paper. She had to print out her source articles, forum posts, and contact information. Then she had to chase down the people she needed interviews from, make sure her battery was charged, and go through the whole informed consent spiel for the actual interviews.
It had all taken way longer than she originally anticipated. By the time she was wrapping up the last interview, her late afternoon class was about to start. Given that it was one of her journalism classes and not a gen ed meant she couldn't even slack her way through it.
Then, when class let out, she remembered that it was movie night with the boys.
All in all, it was a busy day. But she was satisfied with the work she had gotten done. Everything April needed to actually start writing her article was either in her backpack or on her phone. She had definitely earned some down time with her bros.
Walking briskly down the sidewalks of New York City, April made her way to the usual manhole cover on muscle memory alone. They might have had to move the lair to a new location after the whole Shredder incident, but April was a frequent flyer in the New York City sewers. She had memorized the new route in less than two weeks. Despite that, and her abilities, one of the boys always met her at the bottom of the ladder to walk with her.
She would protest for the sake of her independence, but April couldn't deny that she enjoyed getting some one-on-one time every now and then. Plus it was a sweet gesture that made her brothers feel more at ease. And it was nice to catch up with Mikey's art projects, talk shop with Donnie, or rant to Raph about her day.
As April dismounted the ladder with a grin, she found Leo waiting for her, leaning against the nearby wall with a bright smile of his own.
"Evening, April," Leo crowed as he pushed away from the wall. With a ridiculous looking flourish, Leo bowed and extended a hand to the grimy sewer tunnel ahead of them. "Your escort awaits."
April pretended to swoon, fighting a losing battle against her smirk.
"Oh, you take me to the nicest places, Leo," April managed around her laughter. She squeezed him into a brief side-hug as they fell into step with one another.
"I do what I can," Leo said, flipping his mask tails over one shoulder. She shoved lightly at his shoulder with a laugh in response. "Alright enough of that. How's the article coming along?"
April wouldn't ever admit it for fear of playing favorites, but sometimes her talks with Leo were her favorite. He almost always asked about her journalism, firing back at her monologues with critique or questions or facts of his own. She hadn't known there was this side to him until they started these little walks. Part of April was surprised, and the other part was a little guilty they hadn't been doing this bonding before.
Pushing those conflicting emotions aside, April started filling Leo in on all the developments. She listed off the information she pulled from the articles, recounted snippets of her interviews, and started piecing everything together into the bigger picture she was trying to paint. Leo nodded along enthusiastically, throwing in comments or asking a question every now and then. April thrived off it all, excitement building. This was going to be one of her biggest pieces for the paper yet, and hopefully her ticket to that internship she was eyeing.
Just as she was elaborating on her final point that would lead to the conclusion, April's fingers went cold. She tried to ignore it, because they were in a sewer after all - maybe there was a draft. But then they started to tingle, and her feet stuttered underneath her.
"April?" Leo called, immediately pausing beside her and turning her direction. "What's up? Did you forget something? Realize something?"
"No, I—" April exhaled, the sound shaky. Actually, her whole body felt shaky. "Leo? I think I'm gonna pass out."
Leo's eyes went wide, one arm immediately looping around her shoulders and the other gripping her arm. She listed sideways into him on instinct, blinking against the grey spots dancing in her vision.
"Whoa, whoa, okay," Leo said, somehow sounding calm and steady. April didn't know how he wasn't panicking, because she felt pretty freaked out at the moment. She just didn't have the energy to show it. "You just lost color in your cheeks, so let's sit you down, yeah?"
Leo guided April carefully to the grungy floor and let her lean into his shoulder.
"Talk to me, April," Leo said above her, squeezing her shoulder where he still was keeping her upright and stable. "What are you feeling?"
"Dizzy," April mumbled. "Shaky, a little cold, too. Really tired all of a sudden."
"Okay," Leo replied, still sounding far too calm for April's taste. "Nauseous?"
"A bit?" April said after a quiet moment of assessment. Leo's hand left her arm and she shivered as a chill replaced it. His hands weren't even that warm to begin with, but the absent weight made her colder anyway. She could distantly hear him rifling through something but didn't have the energy to lift her head to investigate.
"Here," Leo said a moment later that felt like a lifetime. "Eat this."
April looked down and blinked with bleary bemusement at the chocolate pudding cup Leo presented to her. The lid was peeled back and a plastic spoon stuck out of it, ready and waiting. Too confused and tired to question him, April lifted her shaking hands to take the pudding from him.
After the first few bites settled without upset, April polished the pudding cup off fairly quick. Not long after that, she felt much more stable and alert again. Leo's supportive arm stayed at her shoulders the whole time.
"Better?"
"Yeah," April said, brow furrowed as he helped her back to her feet. She absently wiped at the back of her skirt as Leo tucked the empty pudding cup into a pouch at his hip to dispose of later. "How did you know that would work?"
"Classic signs of low blood sugar," Leo replied with a shrug. "Plus, Raph told us last week that you were complaining about the quality of your school's lunches. And you were just telling me about how busy your day was, so I put together you probably skipped lunch."
Leo shrugged again as April stared openly at his casual explanation.
"Not a big deal," he said. "We'll just get you some more food when we get home. Oh, and some water, too."
"Yeah," April said, still staring overtly at Leo as they continued on toward the lair. Her journalistic mindset was connecting threads, putting together a picture of Leo she hadn't seen before. Old strokes of color-coded information April had long worn into the image of her brother were eclipsed by fresh pigment. She had a million questions for the brother she thought she had figured out a long time ago, and April didn't really know where to start.
Later that evening, he subtly passed her an extra helping of dinner while cracking one of the worst jokes she had ever heard. It settled something in April's chest to know she hadn't gotten him entirely wrong.
pop goes the Foot soldier
This was the worst one of their missions had gone in a long time. Raph was being completely calm and normal about it. Honest.
His heart was racing only because he was a bit worried about his brothers. Yeah. That was it. He was completely fine besides that one, glaring, hovering, awful point.
It wasn't because he was alone. Or surrounded by the rubble of a half-obliterated warehouse. Or that their comms were busted, meaning he couldn't reach any of his brothers. Or the fact that his ninpo was useless, because if he shifted any of this rubble he ran the risk of destabilizing the pile and crushing his little brothers. Maybe he should move it though, because what if they were being crushed and Raph was just standing here staring at a pile of rock and rebar while he could be helping them—
"Ugh," a quiet voice caught Raph's attention, yanking him abruptly from his spiral. Head snapping toward it so fast he both felt and heard his neck pop, Raph took an aborted step in that direction. His heart pounded against the backside of his sternum at an even more frantic pace, spurred on by hope.
"Guys?" Raph called, voice cracking.
"Raph?" The response came quickly, almost succeeding in pulling a sob from him.
Raph launched into action, weaving nimbly through the debris to the source of the voice. He rounded a particularly large chunk of concrete just as Leo freed himself from a pile of rock and dust. Leo looked up at Raph as he rounded the corner, face smeared with dust.
"Hey there, big man," Leo greeted in his usual, casual fashion. "Glad to see yo-oof!"
Raph crushed Leo against his plastron, hugging him with more force than was strictly necessary. He couldn't help it. This all felt a little bit too much like the invasion. Like standing on Staten Island with his neck craned to the toxic colored sky despite the developing cramp; hoping with every fiber of his being that Leo was alive, was holding his own, was even just okay – would make it back home.
"Hey, Raph," Leo wheezed, patting Raph's arm where he had managed to wriggle his hand free of the hug. "Having a hard time breathing here."
"Sorry," Raph said, abruptly letting Leo drop back onto his own two feet.
"No worries, bro," Leo waved him off with a grin too soft to be teasing. "You find Mikey and Donnie in this mess?"
"No," Raph admitted, wringing his hands together. "Not yet."
Leo nodded, putting his hands to his hips and glancing around at the piles of concrete.
"Alright," Leo said, assessing. "Better get started then. You take that pile and I'll take this one?"
Raph could hear the jovial undertone to Leo's voice, like he had absolute faith in the idea that they would uncover Donnie and Mikey completely unharmed. He didn't know where Leo's confidence came from, but Raph envied it in that moment.
When ten minutes of digging and calling out produced nothing, Raph started to actually panic. He picked up the nearest hunk of concrete and chucked it as far as he could with a frustrated cry. He was failing his brothers again. Even their own father hadn't thought he was fit enough to continue leading them. This situation wasn't even Leo's fault. The idiots they had been after decided to bring half the building down on impulse in a desperate, last ditch effort to get away from them. And now Raph and Leo were conducting a potentially fruitless search for their missing brothers and Raph couldn't take it anymore. He was going to snap if they didn't—
"Hey, big man, bro," Leo's voice accompanied a sudden weight settling on Raph's shoulders. "I'm right here with you, Raph. Breathe for me."
Most people would hate the physical and metaphorical weight sitting on their shoulders. But Raph's brothers were his world, and it was something he shouldered with pride and pleasure every day. Leo assuming his usual perch was anchoring, a reminder he wasn't alone.
"There you go," Leo encouraged, fingers tapping out an aimless pattern against the top of Raph's head. "Keep breathing."
Easier said then done. Raph struggled to wrestle his thoughts and breathing back under control, the mess around them not helping in the slightest. His exhales were shaky and his inhales not nearly deep enough. But Leo kept up the steady drum of his fingers against Raph’s head and hummed quietly from Raph’s shoulders. It was enough of an anchor for Raph to work with.
A few minutes later, Raph shook out his hands and looked around at the mess of destruction splayed out before them. He didn't know how they were going to get through all this.
Leo's face suddenly popped into Raph's field of view, upside down with his brow furrowed.
"Still anxious?" Leo asked without preamble. When Raph nodded, Leo grinned, eyes bright with...excitement? "I've got just the thing."
Leo's face disappeared as he settled back on Raph's shoulders. Raph could feel him rummaging for something and could only stand there, confused and anticipatory.
"Here," Leo suddenly spoke up, hand holding something out to him from above. "I got this for you."
Raph opened his hand for Leo to drop the item into his palm. Upon closer inspection, Raph couldn't help but blink down at it in shock.
"Is this...a tiny Foot soldier?"
"Yep!" Leo chirped, popping the 'p' with flare. "A custom Raph-stress-ball. Just for my favorite big brother!"
Raph huffed a soft laugh and shook his head. Closing his fist around the stress ball, he gave it an experimental squeeze. The tiny Foot soldier's masked head warped as it expanded and deformed. Leo snickered above him and Raph couldn't help the amused twitch of his lips. He glanced at the rubble again before squeezing the stress ball harder.
The Foot soldier's already stressed head popped clean off, sailing a couple feet away before bouncing against the ground.
He and Leo were silent for a second.
"Oops."
"Eugh boy," Leo muttered from Raph's shoulders. "Dude."
"Sorry, Leo," Raph said, sheepish.
"No problemo," Leo said easily. His hand reappeared in Raph's view, holding an identical Foot soldier stress ball out to him. "I came prepared."
"Leo...how many of these did you get?"
Silence.
"Leo."
"Don't worry about it."
"Raph! Leo!" Mikey's voice echoed from behind. Raph spun around so quickly Leo almost lost his balance, clinging to Raph's head for support with a startled, "whoa!"
There was a moment Raph couldn't see Mikey, and he didn't hear Mikey call out again. He wondered if he was hallucinating the sound of his baby brother out of sheer desperation.
"Raph! Leo!" Mikey's voice again. Before Raph could react, Mikey appeared in the air from over a large pile of debris, held aloft under his arms by Donnie. They both visibly deflated with relief at the sight of Raph and Leo, dirty and dust-covered, but unharmed.
"Hey!" Leo called as he hopped down from his perch. "Where have you two been?"
"Mikey somehow made a portal back to the lair," Donnie informed them as he deposited Mikey on the ground. As soon as Mikey's feet made contact, he launched himself at an approaching Leo and wrapped him in a koala hug.
"I didn't mean to leave you guys behind!" Mikey wailed. Leo pat his shell, wincing away from the volume. "I didn't even mean to portal – it just happened. I think I panicked."
"Ah, the panic portal," Leo nodded solemnly, still patting Mikey's shell. "I'm familiar with that."
Donnie rolled his eyes as Mikey rewarded Leo's attempt at humor with a watery chuckle. Mikey made eye contact with Raph over Leo's shoulder and a second later was scrambling up to sit in the exact spot Leo had just vacated. He wrapped his arms around Raph's head and squeezed in his way of hugging.
"Sorry I left you guys behind."
"Not your fault, Mikey," Raph murmured, watching Leo start playfully poking at Donnie. "I'm just glad you both are okay."
"I'm surprised you weren't more freaked out, to be honest," Mikey said, still wrapped around Raph's head.
Raph looked down at the Foot soldier stress ball still in his hand and blinked at the sudden realization clicking together. He hadn't really thought about it in the moment, too consumed by anxiety and 'what if's and worst case scenarios. But this silly little stress ball was Leo handing Raph an anchor he could rely on even when his brothers weren't immediately available. There was thought and intention and a little bit of an inside joke behind something so innocuous.
Raph looked up to where Leo was still playfully bothering Donnie again and smiled.
"I had some help from Leo."
fast tigers, slow tigers
Casey woke up with a scream clenched between his teeth.
Panic was thick in his throat, breathing a sudden challenge as he scrabbled weakly at the blanket covering him. He had to get it off; he had to get up, to get away. The only thing he knew with certainty through the haze of exhaustion and fear was that they were under attack. They had to get up – they had to move. Casey's weapon wasn't within reach, a fact that only sent him spiraling further and faster.
This couldn't be happening. He had promised Uncle Donnie that he would look after it – he couldn't lose it.
Stumbling gracelessly out of bed, Casey collided roughly with the doorframe as he made for the hallway outside his room, shoulder throbbing in protest. The layout of base felt off kilter, as if everything had been shifted a few inches to the left and no one had bothered to inform Casey before doing so.
His breath left his chest in a painful wheeze as Casey slumped to the ground with the realization that he was lost, confused, and weaponless. Casey's vision was blurry and his breathing only got more erratic as time passed. Sensei had taught him deep breathing techniques to use, but in that moment, Casey couldn't manage it. He dropped his head to rest against his knees as Casey curled into himself, back pressed against the wall.
He had never felt more alone, not even when—
"Junior?"
That voice, it sounded like Sensei but...different. Either way, Casey picked his head up on instinct and blinked against the dizziness that came with his panic. What greeted him was the blurred out visage of his Sensei, somehow younger.
"S-Sensei?" Casey gasped around the stranglehold of panic. Tiny Sensei flinched, the hand that had been reaching out to Casey pulling back momentarily. Before Casey could find the strength to chase after him, to beg him not to leave him behind, the hand was back. A comforting, somewhat familiar, weight against Casey's arm.
"Hey, Casey," tiny Sensei said, voice low and gentle. "You're okay, I'm right here. Try to breathe, okay? Big, deep breath."
Casey choked on a frustrated sob, shaking his head and pressing back into the wall. He had tried breathing already! It didn't work! His lungs weren't expanding and his chest felt too tight.
"C-Can't," Casey managed. His eyes started watering and his breathing hitched painfully with the renewed surge of irritation at the lack of control he currently possessed over his lungs.
"Okay, okay," tiny Sensei whispered, voice a soothing and steady tone for Casey to focus on. "Let's try something else, then."
Something else? Casey had never needed to try anything else to calm down before. Sensei had always been able to guide him through breathing until he was calm. But he watched with detached curiosity and an aching chest as tiny Sensei reached into the bag at his hip and pulled out a small, bright green object. It was about the length of Casey's hand – if a little smaller – and mostly hollow with a white circle on top of one side. When tiny Sensei pressed it into Casey's hand, he was greeted with flimsy plastic and confusion.
It must have shown on his face because tiny Sensei chuckled as he gestured to it.
"Put this end between your lips and try to blow out as hard as you can."
Still confused, but following tiny Sensei's instructions on instinct, Casey put the piece of plastic to his lips and blew out.
Immediately, the most ridiculous, high pitched and rapid humming noise Casey had ever heard echoed through the space. In the few seconds it took him to process the sound, Casey’s breathing stuttered out a few more rapid exhales, each one producing the same noise through the plastic object.
He blinked, eyes wide and panic pausing. Pulling the object away from his face so he could stare down at it in bewilderment, Casey just kept blinking at it.
Tiny Sensei snorted and then started laughing.
"Oh my gosh, the look on your face! I wish I could have gotten a picture of that."
Casey looked up from the bright green object to tiny Sensei – no wait.
"Leo," Casey said, voice raspy but catching Leo's attention. "What is this?"
"That, my dear Junior, is a kazoo."
"A what?"
Leo flopped down beside Casey and tossed a casual arm over his shoulders, gently wrestling him into a side hug. Casey went willingly, still befuddled.
"A kazoo," Leo said again. "It's like a whistle, but funnier. I think it's supposed to be for music? But it works wonders on panic attacks. At least in my experience."
The way Leo said it so easily was what startled Casey into the realization that he was no longer panicking. Looking back down at the kazoo in his hand, Casey huffed out a laugh before dissolving into giggles. He slumped against Leo's shoulder and ran a tired hand down his face.
"That was so stupid. Why did that work?"
"Panic is usually a one track mind kind of thing. It's a stress response that makes your body think you're in a fight or flight situation. Breathing and grounding techniques are a good way to slowly transition yourself back to baseline. But sometimes, a funny shock to the system can do the same thing – just faster."
"So you just carry a kazoo around with you at all times?"
"I like to plan ahead, what can I say?" Leo flashed Casey a grin and reached up to ruffle his hair. "What had you so worked up anyway? Nightmare?"
"Yeah, I think so. I don't really remember anymore."
"Probably for the best," Leo said with a grunt as he pushed himself to his feet. "Either way, I think we've both earned a hot chocolate."
Casey glanced up at the cheerful grin and helping hand Leo was offering him. It was a familiar sight, overlaid by a memory from a future that no longer existed.
"Sure," Casey said, reaching up as he pocketed the kazoo. "Sounds great."