Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

She hated when her brothers did this. Sure they may have been accepted by the general populace of New York for saving the city from Superfly, but that didn’t mean her brothers planned to stop getting themselves into trouble.

Tonight was no different. It was a school night, because her siblings were nothing if not completely irresponsible. At first, it was just going to be a quick evening run. Everything was going as Leo expected, no deviation from the plan. At least until Raph spotted a herd of furries and called them try-hards. Donnie egged him on, mock whispering that they wished they could be as cool as those turtles. Mikey laughed. The furries did not.

So here they were, being verbally assaulted from a group of alleyway furries barking insults and, well, literally barking. And Leo’s brothers were equally ceaseless. Mikey mimicked their barks interspersed with his own evil snickering. Raph and Donnie both bounced off of the insults like it was nothing more than a game. It was all giving Leo the worst bout of anxiety she’s had since asking April out to prom.

Leo clenched the hem of her skirt with sweaty palms. Half a mind told her to ditch her brothers just for a break from the stress, but the other half knew that would induce another type of panic. So instead she chose to take on the role of peacemaker. Leo stepped closer to the edge of the rooftop, leaning forward to make herself known to the innocent targets of her brothers’ antics.

“I’m so sorry for them! They’re just assholes. Your outfits are really nice!” She said. She could feel the hot glares of her brothers on the back of her head. She chose to ignore them. The people below looked at each other. She couldn’t see their expressions, but the lack of yelling told her they probably weren’t as pissed.

One of them looked back up. They had a wolf-looking head with dark blue spots beneath the eyes. They pulled something out from a grocery bag they had been carrying. A collar and leash.

When they spoke, the voice was ragged and scratchy, maybe from the yelling, or maybe from something else.

“Maybe you should put them on a leash!”

Raph moved faster than she could think. He was in the alley and slamming a fist into the wolf furry’s face. Donnie and Mikey followed closely after, moving to prevent any hits from landing on the hothead.

Leo screeched, “Raph what are you doing?!” She jumped down and shoved her way between her brother and the furry, only to take a fist to the face from the very brother she was trying to stop. She fell back, right hand catching her fall in a painful way. Her wrist ached and her palm stung from scraping against the concrete.

The furry looked at Leo for a moment before turning to Raphael and shoving him in the chest.

“Dude you hit your fucking sister!” They growled. Leo didn’t hear Raph’s response. She was too busy trying to not have a panic attack.

A set of hands latched onto her arm and back, trying to help her up. But Leo didn’t want the help. She pushed herself away from the hands, from the fight, and ran out of the alleyway and into the buzzing New York streets. She didn’t know where she was going, but she did know that she didn’t want to see her brothers right now.

Why did they always have to do this to her? They knew how much she hated getting in trouble, and she especially hated it when they deviated from the plan. Mikey was the one who could improvise, not Leo.

As she ran, Leo clipped the shoulders of New Yorkers. It was only a matter of time before she slammed into someone who wasn’t going to let her get away with her behavior. He was big. The top of her head barely passed his sternum. Before she even looked up, she knew this guy was one of those people who have yet to last a week in his anger management classes. He grabbed a hold of her, pushing her backward. She stumbled and fell on her butt. When she peered up, Leo saw a man in his mid forties. He looked almost ridiculous with the three to one ratio of shoulder width to hips. Unfortunately, his snarl made him far more intimidating.

“Watch where you’re going, punk!” He shouted. He leered forward with a fist gripping the collar of her sweater, “Just cuz you saved New York doesn’t mean you can just push us normal people around! Someone aughta teach you a lesson!”

He shoved her back down, kicking Leo’s side as he stormed off. Leo could feel her heart racing. She hurried back up to her feet, readjusting her sweater and dusting off the back of her skirt quickly, hoping to escape the curious and concerned glances from the crowd that had started to form. She pulled her phone out as she dashed out of the central traffic of the sidewalk to the relative quiet of a nearby bodega. Leo opened up her messages to her dad’s name.

Leo: I need help

Dad: Are you hurt? Where are you? Are your brothers okay?

Leo stuck her head out to see the address of the building.

Leo: 461 Park Ave I’m in the bodega

Leo: idk where they are

Dad: I will be there soon

She knew telling her dad that her and her brothers were separated was going to make him freak out, but she cared more about not passing out all alone from not being able to breathe. Most customers ignored her, but Leo didn’t miss the few who shot her funny looks, and one that looked like he was going to start laughing at her.

Leo found a wall close to the doors and pressed her shell against it. She didn’t sit. Her knees were locked. She let the cold of the wall soak into her hands. One was still a little bloody from earlier, so Leo turned to rest the back of that hand on the wall. She didn’t want the employees to have to deal with blood on the walls of their bodega.

It was nine minutes and thirty-two seconds before she caught a glimpse of her dad rushing out of Scumbug’s hold and barreling into the store. He immediately spotted Leo, and swept her into his arms. She stood awkwardly, unable to bend over to hug him back, so she rested her head on his shoulder in a painful looking arch of the neck.

“Leo, what happened? Where are your brothers? Did someone hurt you? Is that a bruise?” Dad’s voice became progressively more frantic, a paw lifting Leo’s chin to look at the bruise forming on her jaw. His manhandling rubbed against the spot the large man had kicked her, at the juncture between carapace and plastron, where her skin was more vulnerable. She flinched from the touch, but quickly readjusted herself. The pain was good. It kept her from letting her emotions consume her. It gave her a new focus.

Her dad was still looking at her, trying to find the answers to his questions in her face, like she could spell it out with the crinkling of her nose or the furrowing of her brows from trying not to cry.

“I’m fine. I just want to go home. You should call Donnie though,” she whispered. She didn’t want to take up anymore space than she needed to. Dad led Leo out of the bodega, handing her off to Scumbug so he could call her brothers.

Leo let Scumbug look her over, feelers tickling her cheeks. Scumbug was sweet, if not a little gross. Her drooling wasn’t any worse than Mikey’s when he fell asleep on Leo, but she had a habit of lathering her hands in the spit and rubbing it all over their heads. Every time was like a test of Leo’s anxiety management. This time, she didn’t. Scumbug pulled Leo into a tight hug, doing her best to avoid getting drool on her stepdaughter. Leo was grateful for the sentiment, but as more New Yorkers turned their heads, all she wanted to do was to shove Scumbug away.

When she spoke, Leo’s voice was meek and shaky.

“Can we go home?” Leo leaned back just enough to make uncomfortable eye contact with Scumbug. She made an ugly gurgling affirmative and started to guide Leo away from the disaster behind them.

———

When they got back, Leo hurried to the bathroom to wash away her bloody palm and press a wet towel to her bruising cheek. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and swallowed sharply. The mottling on her skin made the bags under her eyes look so much worse. The skin at the corner of her eye had started to swell like an overripe tomato, and it ached to touch.

Raph’s right hook has gotten a lot better.

The beautiful blue of Leo’s head wrap had been scuffed by loose gravel when Leo fell the first time. She would have to wash it. Carefully, Leo untied the bow and let the fabric fall into her hands. She folded it neatly, leaving the bathroom and placing her wrap in the hamper by her and her brother’s bedroom door. She couldn’t hear anything, so her brothers haven’t gotten back yet. Slowly, Leo stepped through the heavy curtain that gave the shared room its privacy. It was so quiet. Leo couldn’t find it in herself to break that quiet with a breakdown, so instead, Leo made her way to her bed and laid down, pulling her old thread bare blanket over her head to hide from the world.

It wasn’t long before her brothers made it home. She knew they were back from the sound of their dad lecturing them about staying together, that they were in a heap of trouble, and that they better have a good explanation for why their sister was sporting a nasty looking bruise. Her brothers’ voices layered over each other, responding with excuse after excuse.

“She jumped in front of me!”

“It got so chaotic, Dad!”

“How is she?” Mickey’s voice was hesitant, like he was scared of the answer. Leo felt her big sister senses go haywire, and she wanted to leap to her brother and tell him that she was just fine, and she was so happy to see him. Yet she remained in bed, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, wishing the ache on her chest would lighten up some so she could comfort her brother.

From the entrance to their bedroom, her father sighed and said, “She’s asleep, if you want make your apologies when she wakes up.”

Fabric rustled as her brothers filed in. Mikey must have gone straight to Leo’s side, resting a hand on her shoulder.

“Leo? Are you alright?” He asked. Leo felt that it was her responsibility to peel the blanket from over her head to look at her brother. Mikey’s eyes seemed sad and guilt ridden. His grip on her shoulder tightened when the fairy lights caught on Leo’s purpling cheek.

“Of course she’s fine, Mikey. Leo was just having a tantrum because we wanted to have fun, like she always does,” Raph huffed. Admittedly, he did look sorry, but Raphael never was one for apologies. Donnie was close enough to slap Raph’s arm. Mikey shot his brother a glare before his gaze returned to Leo.

“I’m really sorry we got so caught up in the moment that you got hurt. Even when acting, the first priority is the safety of our peers, and we failed you,” Mikey looked so sad, as if he had been told he wasn’t funny. Leo’s heart ached.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m okay. C’mere,” Leo stretched out her arms, allowing Mikey to tuck himself into her hug and snuggle into the shitty blanket. Mikey pressed his face into Leo’s plastron, whispering a soft thanks. A quick look brought Donnie over to join in the improvised turtle pile. He took his glasses off, placing them safely away from clumsy feet. Raph, Leo knew, would be equally easy to draw over. She looked up at him, smiled, and gave him a gentle nod. Raph crossed his arms tightly, stubborn as always, but after a moment, sighed and trudged over. He flopped on top of Leo, resting his head on the edge of her shell.

Raphael nudged her shoulder. “Hey, I’m… I’m sorry for hitting you. That wasn’t cool,” he said. He avoided her eyes, choosing to study the fibers of her blanket.

“Thanks, Raphie,” she muttered. She bumped her beak against his head and leaned back against the pillow.

And when all three of her brothers snored around her, content to believe that she forgave them, Leo allowed herself to cry. She cried for all the fear and aches of anxiety that wracked her when her brothers misbehaved. She cried for all the times she forgave them for getting her hurt in their mischief. She cried for herself, for simply failing to be enough of a role model that her brothers chose to get into as much trouble as the world allowed. And she cried for her self loathing, the disappointment in herself for not taking that punch and in not stopping the situation. She could have de escalated it and they would all probably be coming home sweaty and tired from a good evening run. She could have been less of a party pooper and stayed out of the way. Leo hated how her thoughts and fears swelled at the smallest of deviations. Her mind spun into a dozen different catastrophic possibilities, all ending in some form of ugly demise for her family. This spiral left her restless and dizzy.

She didn’t notice how the beginnings of breakfast being made could be heard past the curtains, or how Mikey snuck off when Mondo hollered for him. She didn’t react when Raph and eventually Donnie got up to eat, the buzz of getting ready for school spreading through the home.

Dad peered inside, giving her a gentle smile. “It’s time for school, darling. Are you feeling okay?” He moved closer, resting a paw on her forehead. Leo didn’t want to worry him, so she sat up with a smile.

“I’m okay, just worn out from last night,” she said, forcing out a yawn and a stretch to really sell it. Her dad eyed her face.

“Did you want to cover up that bruise?” He asked. She knew he didn’t mean it to hurt her feelings, but she couldn’t help ducking her head and rubbing her sore cheek. It’s not like she had a makeup pack for her skin tone. Green wasn’t exactly “natural” and most makeup she had was for bringing more color to her face.

“It’s fine, Dad. I don’t care,” she tried to sound unconcerned and confident, but neither were traits she possessed. It sounded more like a desperate attempt to get her dad to stop looking at her. Her dad, ever the saint, nodded sympathetically and smiled. He handed her freshly washed head wrap over, smelling of citrus.

Leatherhead and Rock had whipped up an extravagant breakfast by the time Leo arrived. There was a heavy smell of scrambled eggs and fried meats. Bacon danced with strips of chicken and a rump of beef. The warmth nearly suffocated her. Leo realized that there was no way she could eat breakfast with the restlessness occurring in her stomach. Already, she could feel the ache of her intestines mixing with anxiety. Her stress so palpable, it took on physical pain.

And so Leo relied on her family to distract themselves.

Dad, while initially intending to get some food into his oldest, lost himself to Mikey’s quest to find the accursed math workbook. Donnie and Raph were in similar states, ransacking the house in search of their shit. Donnie was mostly looking for his Jujutsu Kaisen collection to share with the anime club in the afternoon. Wingnut must have borrowed some and never put them in the right place.

Raph was almost as disastrously unorganized as Mikey, tossing most of his schoolwork aside in order to make room for more delinquent activities. Leo could see from her position by the wall Raph had just tucked a pack of cigarettes into his skates. He liked to steal them on nights that the turtles went out on evening runs and patrols. The first time Leo caught her brother, she had absolutely freaked, thinking that her brother had fallen to drug dealing. Raph didn’t talk to her for an entire week, and the next time he did it, he was sure to make it as obvious to Leo as possible that he didn’t care what his sister thought and had no intentions of stopping. Leo knew she couldn’t do anything about it, so she stopped making an outward fuss, simply asking that Raph stick with only people he trusted, and that he didn’t take anything from others. Dad had been aware of the situation too, soothing Leo’s anxieties by telling her he had talked to Raphael about how important it was to use safely. The incident had left Leo’s relationship with her brother a bit strained, but no less stressful than any other argument she had with her rebellious brother. So as she watched him hide his cigarettes, Leo turned away, going back into the bedroom to dress and pack her bag.

———

“Alright, be good today, okay? I love you!” Dad’s voice echoed from the bottom of the manhole. Mikey shot him a grin and a thumbs up before letting the manhole cover shut. Leo was sure to hand her brother a dollop of hand sanitizer, because goodness knows what germs resided there, and led her family to school. In preparation for the inevitable gossiping that would occur when Leo walked into campus with a bruised face, she had crafted in her mind an elaborate story of heroics that only left her with an ugly face. She considered telling her brothers to help cover for her, but one glance at Donnie’s glazed over look staring at his phone, Mikey skateboarding ahead, and Raph’s pissed off expression told her all she needed to know. So instead she resolved to tell her little fib only as a last resort, and to avoid talking about her face at all costs.

“Woah! Nardo what happened to your face?” April was making this really hard for her. The human in question had caught the turtles at the front steps of Eastman High, something she had been doing semi regularly for the past few months. Leo cast a brief glance at her brothers, who similarly looked away from their sister awkwardly. She met the gaze of April once more.

“Wha- Uhhh… Things got really crazy yesterday. I’ll tell you about it later,” she said, smiling wide and hooking an arm around the other’s, intent on ushering her friend inside. The crinkling texture of April’s yellow jacket rubs against Leo’s arm, sending zips of electricity through her. She starts to sweat, and Leo begins to spiral.

Oh god can she tell how sweaty I am? God my face must look so ugly right now. My makeup is probably running, and then my face will be sticky for the rest of the day. The sound of my shoes are so loud, I bet April thinks I’m so annoying. My skirt is so itchy, I can feel my crotch getting swampy, oh god. Can’t April just kick me to the curb already so I can hide in the library?

April’s tightening grip on Leo’s arm is what draws her out of it.

“—And you won’t believe the crap Santiago sent me for our group project. It was barely even coherent!” April was mid complaint when Leo became aware. She didn’t have the wherewithal to know what April was saying, so she laughed and said:

“Oh my god.”

The swell of social anxiety Leo got when she was sent off into her first class of the day nearly suffocated her. At first only one or two students looked at her, but the moment they did, a domino effect occurred, and soon the entire class was whispering and staring. Leo sat down, and the kid in front of her, a boy too tall for the dinky chairs ornamenting the classroom, spun around and rest his bony elbow on her desk.

“Who’d you kill?” He says with a toothy grin. Leo swallows, narrowly spying the curious looks of her peers.

“Oh, haha, yeah. I definitely didn’t do that!” Her voice pitched up anxiously.

“Uh huh. What happened?” Leo was saved from answering by the ring of the bell and an exhausted U.S. history teacher clearing his throat and starting the lesson.

The rest of the morning followed without incident. Only kids staring at her in the halls as she passed, and the adult staff Leo interacted with didn’t seem awake enough to register her new look. Lunch, as any lunch does, put an end Leo’s tranquility.

The clatter of the lunch tray was Leo’s only warning to April’s arrival. She leaned forward into Leo’s space, curls brushing against the side of Leo’s head.

“So? Spill!” She bumped her head forward into Leo, nudging the turtle to look at her. Leo herself was a bit preoccupied freaking out about the proximity of her crush. She felt her face heating up, and Leo was unable to make eye contact with April for fear that she faint from embarrassment. It was clear Leo wasn’t going to answer yet, so April seemingly decided she needed to pressure her more.

“Leo, everyone is talking about your face! I’ve heard so many people guessing what happened and girl, you know how bad that gets,” April’s voice had grown serious. Both girls had intense issues with catastrophizing. They had spoken about it before during late night calls when they couldn’t sleep with all the spiraling thoughts in their heads. April had been improving ever since the bullying she dealt with stopped, but when it came to high school drama and teen gossip, her mind would quickly fall into the worst possible situation she could think of.

Leo bit her lip, embarrassment temporarily dismissed at the thought of somehow losing her family. What if kids started saying Leo was being abused? What if CPS appeared and found out they were living in the sewers? What if they were forced to leave and became homeless? What if humans stopped liking them and attacked? What if her family was killed—

“I got in a fight with furries.”

So much for coming up with something cool.

April gaped at Leo for a moment, before bursting out into laughter. She laughed and laughed, collapsing slightly onto Leo in her struggle for composure. Her wheezes of amusement had drawn the attention of others, and Leo began to blush furiously, tapping April’s shoulder to please please please stop laughing.

Eventually, April pulled herself together enough to smile widely at Leo.

“I can’t believe you got decked by a furry!” She snorted, an evil chortle following suit. Leo wasn’t sure if she could get even redder, but it certainly felt like she did. Leo sighed and buried her head in her hands, heated face making her scraped up palm itch.

“That’s all I’m saying,” she muttered, letting go of her embarrassed face for a moment to shove some baby carrots into her mouth.

“Awww, I’m sorry I laughed. In a vacuum that sentence is hilarious,” April wrapped an arm over Leo’s neck and pulled her into her side.

“There there, those furries won’t hurt you anymore,” Leo huffed, only pulling away slightly to show her disapproval of the teasing. April let go only to raise her hands up defensively, a crooked grin spread across her face. Leo gave a tired smile back, but she couldn’t find it in herself to make it genuine.

A thought seemed to occur to April after a moment, “Wait a minute where were your brothers? Why aren’t they scraped up?” It was a question Leo didn’t want to answer. She looked up briefly to where her brothers sat. Donnie wasn’t in the cafeteria, she knew. He was in his anime club meeting in the film and video room. Leo looked over at Mikey, who’s warm laughter always threatened to make her smile. He was clapping for one of his friends who was bowing from on top of the lunch table. Mikey was often covered in bandaids, although the reasons varied from a bad day on his board to aesthetics. Leo could see Raph out of the corner of her eye with Casey and the other hockey players. A few of his wrestling buddies sat with him too. Upon closer inspection, Leo realized Raphael only had a purpling set of knuckles. Her stomach churned.

“They were ahead of me. I ran into the furry. They were just reacting defensively. No big deal,” she gritted out. The amusement in April’s face had started to wane. She no longer looked like she found the situation funny.

“You don’t sound like it wasn’t a big deal. Did something else happen?” Her hand found Leo’s shoulder in a comforting gesture. Leo tensed all the same.

How did she explain that she had a panic attack after her brother punched her in the face? That she abandoned her brothers in a fit of anger and had to call her dad for help? That even now she is still terrified of what humans could do to her and her family? That she probably got blood on a bodega wall and she really needed to apologize to the employees there for giving them extra work—

“Leo?”

That she was terrified that her brothers could get into a fight with someone like that stranger she ran into, who was much more quick to violence, and found themselves in a situation she couldn’t get them out of.

“No, that was it. The guys just gave me a hard time all night for it,” she said. April could see that there was more with the way she continued to puzzle out Leo’s strained expression, but eventually let it go for the time being. Leo looked down at her lunch. The apple slices were always something her dad packed for her, a special treat that only Leo loved. She didn’t feel hungry anymore. The baby carrots had already started to unsettle her stomach, so Leo put her lunch back into the brown paper bag with her name on it, crumpling the opening and shoving it into her backpack. She stood up, telling April that she needed to use the restroom, and hightailed it out of the cafeteria, backpack suspiciously in tow.

Leo had an ugly feeling in her stomach. Something was telling her that the day was going to get worse if she stayed, so she fled to the school library.

Ms. Wells the librarian was a kind lady, if not a little terrifying. She seemed to know the condition of each and every one of her books before they had been picked up, so when classes of students were forced to drop off textbooks, any tarnishing of the pages or ripping of the spine had the librarian delivering a verbal lashing so severe that some students would leave the library crying. One day, however, Leo herself had come in to return a book that had faced the brunt of her brothers’ clownery. She held the damaged pages out to Ms. Wells, apologies spilling from her mouth and promises to replace it, when her stern, yet caring voice asked Leo which of her brothers did it. From then on, Leo found herself practically living in the library, spending most of her time waiting for her brothers to finish their clubs between the pages of an adventure novel Ms. Wells just got in. Her and Ms. Wells set up a tiny hideaway in between two bookcases that haven’t been used in years. Some days she couldn’t go to her safe place, instead going to her job after school as a waitress. But her fifteen minutes were often spent daydreaming of falling asleep on the beanbag in her little nook in the library.

Leo knew it was a mistake to come here as soon as Ms. Wells looked up. Her eyes bugged out, setting a clutter of papers aside to fly over to Leo, hands in the air.

“Leo, oh my god what happened?” She sounded hysterical, like it was her own daughter with a big bruise on her face. She moved to cup Leo’s face, but the turtle ducked away, giving her favorite educator a smile.

“It’s okay, I’m alright. I just wanted some space from everyone. Is it alright if I stay here for the rest of the afternoon?” Leo pulled out her best sad eyes, which with her situation, wasn’t all that hard. Ms. Wells’ expression crumpled with sympathy, nodding, and backing up.

“You know it’s okay to talk about it if you need to, dear,” she said, but Leo was already in her hideaway, ignorant to the care the people around her wanted to give.

Chapter Text

“You can’t honestly expect me to let my staff work with something so ugly on their face,” Leo looked down in shame. A day had passed since the incident, and while the swelling had gone down some, the bruise had only just started to yellow. This was unfortunately unacceptable for her boss.

The man sighed, thinking for a minute. He looked out into the restaurant from their spot at the entryway to the kitchen, then back down at her.

Her boss scrunched up his nose, “Okay, I’m only letting you out there because we can’t afford to cut on staff tonight. See if you can’t do anything for… that before stepping out.” He waved her off, signaling to Leo that she had gotten lucky.

She entered the staff bathroom hurriedly, rushing to the sink to wash her hands and splash some water in her face. Looking up into the mirror, Leo was abruptly reminded of why her boss did not want her out serving customers. She felt so ugly, like when she was still a boy to her family’s eyes. She touched her head wrap, but it did little to dissuade the dysphoria that had chosen to settle atop her lungs. Leo turned away from the mirror and to her locker, taking her apron and name tag out and putting her backpack in. She entered the arena and was immediately swept up with table orders and complaints. And yet, Leo’s brain remained fixated on her dysphoria. At first, she had thought it would be easier for her to transition compared to humans. Neither her nor her brothers had identifiably male or female features. It was easy to just say that she was a girl, wear the clothes she liked, and no human would be any the wiser. But then a new can of worms emerged. Dresses were too small, and clothes in the girl’s section hardly ever reached a size greater than extra large. She often had to shop for polos and button ups with her brothers, and relied on the elasticity of skirts to satisfy her whims of femininity. Her body was already drastically different from any humans, and she hated seeing her side profile at the best of times. The worst part was the way she could see others treat her just that much differently from her brothers. It was clear that she wasn’t as important as her brothers in the eyes of the general populace. She was the girl of the group, the weak link. She wondered if New York knew that not only was Leo the oldest, but she was also the leader.

Leo jolted at the feeling of a tap on her shoulder. She spun around, facing her coworker, a girl with chunky black nails, who pointed past Leo.

“Looks like your family’s here,” she said, sentencing Leo to a cold sense of dread. Like nails to a chalkboard, the sight of her family somewhere they weren’t supposed to be sent chills down her spine. And it was the entire extended family.

She watched as they sat down at the benches reserved for corporate dinners and birthday parties. Cousins Bebop and Rocksteady initially sat at the end of the bench, but were asked to shuffle to the center because their collective weight was lifting the opposite end. Mondo Gecko and Mikey were laughing, trying to create whirlpools in their water glasses, spilling half of each cup’s contents onto the table. Leatherhead had made her way to the window that allowed customers to look into the kitchen, asking about the types of sauces they had and whether they classified vinegar as a condiment. Genghis Frog had eaten all of the complimentary bread rolls from the table, and Raph was loudly complaining about this fact to Dad. Ray was singing along to the restaurant’s music. Leo didn’t miss the way other patrons had turned to glare at him, clearly not enjoying the added lyrical voice. Wingnut was mostly peaceful, only working on constructing a tower out of the cutlery. Donnie was on his phone, not paying the rest of the world any mind, while Dad and Scumbug deliberated over the menu, cuddled up close.

Her coworker gave her a sympathetic look before moving on to a table with a much smaller, but no less messy family. Leo moved fast. She had to convince them all to leave, or at least to quiet down so they don’t attract any more attention. Her dad looked up just as Leo was in earshot, smiling and calling to her.

“Leo! We wanted to stop by and try out some of the food you have! Come, come, tell us what is good,” Dad ushered her over with a quick flick of the paw. Leo cringed as she got closer.

“Dad, you know I’ve asked you guys not to come here. Is everything okay?” She couldn’t hide the agitation in her tone, but she covered for it with a sincere look of concern. Raph leaned forward from the other side of Dad to shoot Leo an unimpressed stare.

“You know my therapist would call this isolating behavior,” he sneered. Leo bristled, but didn’t bite. Instead she returned her gaze to her dad.

“Listen, I can’t serve you. It would distract me, okay? So just— just don’t try to talk to me,” she hated how rude she sounded, but upsetting her family with her attitude was better than the alternative. Dad frowned at her, but nodded and looked down at the menu he and Scumbug were sharing with a sadder, more dulled out expression. Leo let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding when she had successfully made it to another table, relieved that once she had walked away, Dad had corralled the rest of their family together to order and stay in their seats.

“Uh ehem??” A man in his fifties cleared his throat loudly. Leo flailed for only a moment before she switched back to her customer service brain.

——

It happened again. Leo felt rather than saw a guy lingering to pick up his wallet while she stood there with the check, and the slight shock of a camera flash, and then he was all smiles and paying twice as much in tips. This was the second time all night that this has happened. Both times, Leo has been unable to do or say anything. Partially from fear, but also out of bewilderment. After all, she was a turtle, and there wasn’t anything external to even see. But there was also the simple act of taking something from someone without their knowledge. She knew that was a motivator. Just like how when some less confident humans acted like she was making a personal slight against them for the hell of it.

Power, she really hated it. Especially in the five fingered hands of the maleficent.

Her family had left about an hour ago. Dad had asked if she wanted them to stay until her shift ended, but she was quick to dismiss the thought. This last pervert guy was one of the few patrons left in the restaurant, and her coworkers were already going about cleaning up tables and completing the last of the closing chores.

Her boss called out to her from the entrance to his office.

“Hey Leo, see me in my office for a second?” He didn’t smile. Leo swallowed deeply, wiping sweat from her palms. She hated what came next. As she walked, Leo caught side glances from her coworkers. Each one had gone in before her, handing in their tips for the evening, and left the office looking hollow. Chunky nails girl, Rita, she believed was her name, approached Leo with a hard look.

“Don’t try and be selfless tonight. I heard him complaining about you to Elliot,” Rita took Leo’s hand and squeezed it. The two weren’t close, but she was about a decade older than Leo and saw her as a kid she had to watch over.

Leo smiled. “I’ll be fine! I’m not the one who has to tell that last table to leave,” she looked over at the guy who had just taken an upskirt shot of her, currently scrolling on his phone and blatantly ignoring both the check Leo had left as well as his date. Rita didn’t look amused, but let go of Leo’s hand and let her head to the boss’s office. Leo didn’t let go of the anchor Rita had left in the residual heat of her hand, even as she touched the cold metal of the office doorknob, twisting it slowly as if to delay the inevitable.

“Leo, hurry it up,” His voice cut through her fast and sharp, like softened butter below its knife. She shut the door behind her, turning to greet her boss. He stood from behind his desk, cutting her off.

“Listen, your tips tonight have been clearly reflective of your appearance. I’m going to have to be forced to doc 70% in order for us to make goal. I expected better from you,” he looked down at her past the rim of his glasses as he spoke. Leo knew this tango well, but this was the first time he had threatened so much.

She shook her head. “No, I need at least 70 to help my family. I can’t afford to lose that,” she adjusted her posture, puffing out her chest in an attempt to appear confident and intimidating. Whether or not it worked would be up to her employer, a man so infallible to threats he hasn’t once surrendered what he already intended to give.

“Alright then, what do you suppose you do to earn back that 40%?” He asked a question, but they both knew it wasn’t without its own preordained answer. Her boss sat back down in his chair.

Leo really, really hated this part.

Even as she sat down in his lap, she held onto the mantra that this was for her family. The cost of living was too great not to make sacrifices. Leo just played her part in guaranteeing none of her brothers have to make the same.

——

It’s mostly quiet by the time Leo gets home. The only sound being the muffled city life above and the desk lamp buzzing in the makeshift den. Leo finds her dad asleep on his recliner, phone held loosely in his left hand and the right resting on his stomach. Leo smiled to herself, feeling the flood of affection for her dad and his big heart. Carefully, Leo crept inside, tugging off her shoes so they wouldn’t squeak on the old stone. She took a blanket from the clean laundry and draped it over her dad. She tucked him in and put his phone on the side table, where she could tug on the old cord and let the room be enveloped in darkness. In the dark, Leo brushed her hand over her dad’s face. She felt for his glasses, removing them easily, and placing a kiss on his head.

Leo did not stumble as she navigated her way to her shared bedroom. She had grown accustomed to weeks without light from power outages that when fixed, lost the connection her dad had established long ago, and in the dark the family would work together to get electricity back into their underground dwelling. What did cause Leo to stumble, however, was of the sudden flick of a flashlight in her face attached to a group of very mad looking younger brothers.

“You were out way longer than closing, what the hell were you up to?” Raph shoved a finger in his older sister’s chest accusingly. It was almost one in the morning. Leo pushed her brother’s hand away.

“Guys, we can talk about this in the morning. Right now I just want to sleep okay?” She pushed past them, stepping over where she knew Mikey’s discarded school supplies would be and flopping onto her bed. Ralph’s protests were cut short by Donnie, who lowly assured him that they would talk to their big sister soon.

Leo wished her brothers a goodnight and flicked off the Christmas lights above her bed. As she settled under her blankets, Leo could hear Raph grumble an insult to her back, Donnie huffing, and Mikey climbing into his top bunk. Her brothers eventually went to bed as well. She could hear Donnie zipping up his tent, and Raph scrolling through TikTok videos quietly. And long after the sounds of snoring filled the bedroom, Leo remained restless and aware. She never did sleep after work shifts.

As the night crept on, Leo heard the faint creak of someone getting up. She rolled over, squinting into the dark. In the faint glow of a device’s screen emanating from Donnie’s tent, she saw Raph step past the curtain. She listened, waiting to hear her brother make his way to the bathroom, but when his footsteps continued past the distance she knew it took, Leo quickly got up to follow.

Like a well-oiled machine, Leo’s movement was undetectable. She tracked her brother through the sewers until she heard him climbing the rungs of a ladder leading up to the surface, the grinding of the manhole cover being pushed open echoing past her. If she wasn’t sure if Raph was up to mischief before, she was certainly confident now. She raced forward, rushing up the ladder just as Raph slid the manhole back in place. She waited exactly two seconds before opening the cover, squeezing past the barely cracked open gap and bolting behind a nearby dumpster. She listened to the night, spinning to look up at the rooftops when she heard the clanging of a weight climbing up the fire escape. She saw the tails of her brother’s mask flutter out of sight past the rooftop’s edge.

Leo sucked in a breath, shook out her hands, and ran.

She was careful not to make too much noise making her way up the fire escape. The rusted metal was cool in her grip, chipping red paint sticking to her sweaty palms. When she caught the gritty brick of the rooftop edge, Leo paused to listen. She could hear distantly someone’s cellphone ringing, a pick up, and Raph’s gruff shouting.

“I gotta blow off some steam man, meet me at our spot!” The quick padding of feet on concrete running away was Leo’s permission to crest the ledge and spot Raphael leaping onto another roof. He crossed the next roof, landing hard on the cement and taking only three or four steps before making it to the next roof.

Leo kept her body low, doing her best to stay out of Raph’s immediate sight line. Her brother was fast, but he was also loud. Especially when he was mad. She kept herself at a comfortable distance, relying more on the sounds of her brother’s anger rather than keeping him in view. The two traveled halfway across the city, only stopping when Raph diverted into an old shipyard that her brother often went to when looking for protein powder on grocery runs. Leo listened to the telltale stomping of feet and the eventual holler of Raph greeting someone. Leo moved closer.

“CJ, holy shit I gotta do something.”

A voice replied, “What’s up, man?”

Leo recognized Raph’s companion as Casey Jones. She was close enough now to peer over a shipping container and see her brother and his friend hugging and stepping away a small distance and getting into fighting stances. Raph swung first, hard and mean into Casey’s waiting mitt. The human wore homemade boxing protection. An old chair cushion was strapped around his chest and his hands were both covered in oversized baseball mitts. He even wore his hockey helmet and shin guards. Each punch Raph sent the boy’s way was met with little more than a grunt. Casey seemed to wear a toothy grin as he was being pummeled, playfully dodging every now and again, but as Leo watched, she could see how Casey looked at Raph with genuine concern. His brow was tense and his smile was tight. Raphael roared as he pushed Casey back with a kick to the chest.

“My sister, man! She’s been acting like an idiot since the other night,” Casey dodged a swing for his head.

“What, since you clocked her face?” Raph responded with a swing of his leg, knocking Casey down. Leo would have alerted them to her position if she could even breathe. As it was now, she could barely manage the automatic inhaling and exhaling, too fixated on what Raph said. Her brother cursed and pulled Casey back up, apologizing, but he was cut off.

“It’s fine, man. Jeez, I thought you apologized to her already,” Casey mumbled as he massaged his shoulder. Raph huffed, crossing his arms tightly and turning away.

“I did! That’s not the fucking problem! The problem is that Leo is hiding shit. She acts like she’s fine, but she came home tonight with bruises on her arms. I just don’t know what she thinks she’s doing!”

Raph had sat down at some point during his rant. He pulled his knees up to his chest and buried his head in his crossed arms. Casey looked at Raph’s hunched form, obviously thinking about something. The boy sat down next to Raph. Leo knew Casey had spoken, and she could see that whatever it was, it was a comfort to her brother, because the tension in his shoulders released and her brother leaned heavily onto Casey. Leo knew she should be hearing the gentle rolling of waves and the quieter nightlife of New York City past the shipyard. Leo saw Casey and Raph laughing, and knew she should hear it.

Something inside her gut twisted.

And then she was gone. Leo did what she had been doing best for the last few days; she ran. She ran until her chest hurt. She ran until the spinning in her head dulled and tears blurred her vision. When she stopped, Leo finally took a moment to figure out where she was. The rooftop itself was nondescript. Nothing immediately told her anything, but she knew somehow that she was on top of the high school. She could feel the conflicting emotions that have tied together in the building. The happiness of acceptance, the dread of navigating a whole new social environment, and the embarrassed giddiness that comes over her every time April shares lunch with her or invites her to dig into TCRI.

Leo felt rather than saw the heat of the rising sun. It wasn’t quite high enough to crest the city skyline, but rays still peaked through gaps in the pillars of concrete and glass. The air was still, as if all of New York stopped to watch the sunrise…

And then Leo’s world went black.

Chapter Text

Mikey woke up to shouting.

When living with an anger-prone brother like Raphael and a gaming fanatic like Donnie, it’s practically a guarantee to wake up to someone shouting out of frustration and a following shout from a tired dad and cranky cousins. This shouting, the one Mikey heard when he woke up on Saturday morning, was distinctly different to all the other sorts of shouting. This shouting held both genuine anger and fear.

It took a moment for Mikey to adjust to consciousness. Even as adrenaline started being produced, Mikey longed to return to his dream of talking calamari. A sudden screech had Mikey launching forward, slamming his forehead on the large pipe above his bed. He groaned, gripping his rapidly bruising forehead and flopping back down onto his pillow. Whatever noise Mikey made didn’t catch the attention of whoever was so upset. He rolled over, leaning over the edge of his bunk to look for the chaos. Donnie seemed to have had a similar idea, unzipping his tent and putting on his glasses. Donnie looked up at him, and Mikey knew they were both wondering what the hell was going on. Almost in sync, the younger brothers crept out of bed, acknowledging the absence of Leo and Raph, and peered out past their bedroom curtain. The living room was fully illuminated, making Mikey squeeze his eyes shut and blink to get adjusted to the brightness. Dad was pacing around the room, tugging on the fur on his face and rubbing his forehead. Raph was crouched and looking down at the floor. His fists were balled tightly on his pajama shorts. His face was almost as red as his mask, and tears were collecting in his eyelashes. Raph was the one shouting, or rather, the one groveling. His voice seemed to have lost the power it had moments ago. He no longer sounded angry, but instead deeply self loathing.

“I didn’t know she was following me I swear. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Raph sniffed, making an ugly gurgling sound as he swallowed his own snot.

“What’s going on?” Mikey’s own voice was hoarse from sleep, but it was enough for Raphael to jerk up to his feet and Dad to stall in his pacing to look up at him with terrified eyes. The room was deadly silent for a moment. And then their father looked down at a piece of paper on the floor, a bloody shuriken resting lazily atop the blur of lettering.

“Leo was taken by the Shredder,” Dad’s voice was hollow and choked up, “Leo was taken.”

Mikey didn’t understand what Dad was talking about. Who the heck was the Shredder? Did he mean kidnap? Was his older sister kidnapped?? What were they supposed to do? Leo always had a plan for everything. Mikey could feel himself begin to spiral, so he pinched the skin on the inside of his elbow and looked back into the faces of what was left of his family. He opened his mouth and closed it. Words were lodged in his throat, but Donnie took the silence away.
“April,” He had been looking down, but now the little genius had a glint in his eye and the formulations of an idea coming together, “She and Leo have been doing tons of research on TCRI and their connections. Maybe they dug too deep! We need to see if she’s safe!”
Mikey didn’t even think of that. He shared a horrified look with Dad for only a moment before moving to find his nunchucks. Donnie whipped out his phone and immediately started calling her. It took about four rings before April answered. Donnie immediately put the call on speaker.

“Ugh, what- what’s up? Why’re ya’ll calling this early on a Saturday?” April sounded exhausted from sleep. She probably wouldn’t be able to coherently understand what was happening—

“WHO’S THE SHREDDER?!” Raphael shoved his face into the phone speaker. So much for grace and understanding, big brother.

There was static heard through the phone, a faint rustling of movement, and then April answered, “Who?”

For a moment, the room was silent. Raph sagged back, a faraway look in his eyes. Donnie shakily passed the phone to Dad.

“April, Leo is missing, and we have reason to believe someone called the Shredder has taken her,” Splinter spoke carefully, yet Mikey could see how much it was taking in his dad to not completely fall into a panic. Unfortunately, his attempt to stay calm was lost on April.

“WHAT?!” Mikey felt his eardrums ring, temporarily muffling any other sound around him. He faintly heard April shouting to them that she was on her way to help, and then a brother moved into Mikey’s space and hugged him.

It was Donnie.

Like peanut butter and jelly, they clung to each other, seeking comfort in their contact. Mikey and Donnie sunk to their knees, and as Donnie continued to hug him, Mikey picked on his cuticles, letting the scabs there bleed. The room felt empty, empty, empty yet so claustrophobic. Different sets of feet passed by him and Donnie like ships in the night. Fluffy pink slippers that were a bit too small for the giant rat feet that wore them. A brand new pair of sneakers already filthy from running through sewer water and trash heaps. Light up heelys too big for the preteen gecko mutant attached to them. The heelys crouched down, and the mutant wearing them peered at Mikey with a dorky smile.

“It’s gonna be okay, dude! Leo’s a tough turtle! She’ll be home before you know it!” Mondo attempted a sympathetic tone, but either because he was also in shock, or because he didn’t fully understand how bad it could be, Mikey found himself more unsettled and scared than before. He nodded in what he hoped was a way to show he was grateful nonetheless, to which a pitying smile graced the gecko’s face.

Mikey didn’t know what to do with himself. What was he supposed to do? Leo would have already lifted his and their brothers’ spirits with some motivational speech. Leo was always so good in scary situations, pulling her family’s heads out of their asses to see the bigger picture. It was almost like she knew everything that could happen, mentally preparing herself to guide them all to victory. Now it was three brothers who never thought about what might happen when their rock disappeared, and couldn’t think long enough to come up for air. Mikey desperately floundered for a sturdy, Leo-shaped thought. One that bossed him around despite the teasing she would receive. Mikey— Mikey was scared without his big sister. Despite first appearances, Leo was the most fearless, especially for her family. On a grocery run one time, Leo had faced off with a mean looking dog that tried to bite off Mikey’s face. She punched it in the face just as Mikey caught a whiff of its foul breath. Leo tugged Mikey up and away from the animal so fast he didn’t even notice the change in scenery. Of course, the siblings did feel bad for hurting a dog, so they stole some dog kibble and dropped it in front of the dumpster the animal was hiding behind. Hell, Leo came out to her turtle/rat family as trans! Dad didn’t even know what that was until Leo told him. Mikey didn’t remember a lot of how Leo once was before transitioning. It had been a long time ago, close to when Donnie had figured out how to get wifi in the lair. He knew Leo would get frustrated and quiet when Dad referred to them all as brothers. She only called herself “the oldest.” Never “big brother” or something like that. Before coming out, when Leo would ask Dad to tie her mask tails into a bow, Raph would yell at her for trying to be more special than the rest of them and stealing Dad away.

God, Mikey felt like he was grieving.

This thought was what dragged him out of his head and into his body, scrubbing at tears that had fallen and catching the ends of a sentence and April—

“-are crucial to finding a missing person!” The human was still wearing her helmet and had a thick fuzzy jacket that mostly disguised the fact that she was still in her pajamas. She wasn’t wearing any socks, and her converse shoes weren't even tied. She was staring intensely at Raphael and Dad.

“Did you see anyone nearby? They used a throwing star so— so a ninja maybe? Anything??” She was searching Raphael’s eyes, presumably for some sort of realization. From Mikey’s vantage point, He could see the way she threw out every word like she would die if she stopped talking. His brother, in response, stared back with a horrified, devastated look.

“I— I don’t— it was just—“ In contrast to April, Raph looked like every word was a violent attack on his psyche. His chin trembled, and his nails dug deeper into his palms. But then something clicked.

Chapter Text

Almost six years ago, Leo came out to her family. She remembered the day for all of the horrid feelings she had been choking on as she sat at the old rotting table with her family eating day-old pizza for dinner. It was about halfway through the meal when she opened her big mouth:

“I’m transgender,” Leo blurted out. She didn’t say it loud enough, because her brothers continued talking and laughing, with only Dad glancing at Leo curiously. She gulped and pressed her tongue to the back of her teeth to keep the bile from escaping. She tried again, “I’m transgender.”

This time, they heard her. Mikey was sitting next to her. He set his slice down and turned in his seat to face Leo. Donnie leaned forward a bit over the circular table. Raph had stopped chewing. For a minute, no one said anything.

“What’s that?” Dad’s nose twitched, and he looked at Leo with such kind, patient eyes, that she almost burst into tears on the spot. Instead, Leo wiped at the sweat that had built up on her forehead and answered her father.

——

The dregs of unconsciousness were finally dissipating when something poked at her side. Of course it had to be on the side that was still bruised from the other night. Leo curled away from the pain, causing the shackles to clink against the cement beneath her.

Wait. Shackles?

Leo couldn’t have opened her eyes fast enough. It didn’t do much, as instead of the blindness behind her eyelids, Leo was instead met by the white light of naked bulbs looking back at her. She squeezed her eyes shut for just a moment until-

“You are awake,” a deep, soothing voice flowed past her. Leo spun around to the origin of the voice and latched onto a pair of dark, dark eyes. Those dark eyes were attached to dark, dark armor that glinted in the light. Leo was immediately struck with the familiarity of the apparel. She had gone down a Japanese armor rabbit hole a few months ago and the towering samurai above her was like one of those articles brought into the modern day. It was traditional yoroi armor, but the pieces of metal were connected by steel cord, and the shoulders had been ornamented by massive spikes jutting up and out. The mask over the person’s face was demonic. Large overlapping teeth and an intricately detailed snarl. The Kabuto incorporated a rare shock of red with horn shaped maedate stabbing the sky. It looked like the light above the samurai was bleeding.

“… Yeah,” Leo didn’t exactly know what else to say. This guy was a classic villain-type, she was sure they would give some sort of monologue.

They didn’t respond.

Leo, ever a creature of habit, sought to ease the tension, “Uh, do I know you?” Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

“No, but you should. I am called the Shredder, and I have been made aware that you and your family have been wreaking havoc on humanity.” He spoke with such an air of confidence, Leo barely caught the attack on her family.

“What?! We’ve been protecting humanity! Or, protecting New York, I guess, but we—“ Leo was abruptly cut off with the agonizing sting of metal striking her face. She collapsed to the ground, but she couldn’t find it in herself to cry out in pain. It hurt, but Leo was more in shock than anything else. The Shredder leaned down and stared into Leo.

“Your delusions are of no interest to me. I have no sympathy for you creatures. You are weapons, nothing else,” a claw was pressed into Leo’s throat lightly, “and I have no issue with dismantling you if you pose too much of a risk.”

“We aren’t a risk,” Leo wheezed, but the Shredder was already turning to go. As he turned away, Leo caught a glimpse of the hand that held a blade far too close to her jugular. The samurai’s entire hand was made of metal. As the Shredder exited, Leo threw out a “You won’t win!” to get a final dig into the samurai’s psyche. She wasn’t quite sure that it worked. The steel door slammed shut, and then she was alone. Leo took a moment to get a better look at her surroundings. Two naked light bulbs dangled from the ceiling, rattling from the force of the door. Leo was sitting on a slab of concrete that stretched across the ten foot by ten foot room. It was cracked through the middle, splintering pieces leaving a gap too wide to be OSHA approved. The chain Leo was attached to hung loosely from the wall about a foot from the ground. She tested the give and delighted in discovering Leo could stand up and take two steps before the chain went taut. She carefully stepped over her connected wrists to get even further into the center of the room, toward the broken cement. Leo stretched as far as she could while ignoring the scraping on her carapace and the strain on her shoulders. Leo jammed her foot into the crevice in the concrete and tucked her toes under a loose piece, flexing to keep the cement chunk balanced on the top of her foot. Leo felt like she was in the middle of some terrible game of twister that she couldn’t possibly lose to, because hell if she was going to let Mikey win AGAIN.

Crap. Her brothers.

Leo jerked the small piece of concrete back toward her. Her arms burned and her fingers twitched, and Leo was relatively sure one of her shoulder joints was nearly dislocated. Finding the right angle to strike at the chain took more than a few tries, particularly while maintaining the metal’s tension, but Leo was ceaseless in her attacks. Each strike sent hot sparks flying. She put every training session, every workout, every kata into forming the perfect weak link. She didn’t have to go all the way– just enough to break free. The metal was soft, denting and bending to the strike of cement. Leo tugged at the chain again and again between strikes. Again, and again, and again and again. It felt like hours, although it had likely only been thirty minutes at most before one of Leo’s pulls sent her flying backwards into the opposite wall. Her shell ached. Slowly, Leo rose from the floor and leaned back onto the wall to catch her breath. She glanced down at her still shackled wrists. The metal casing her wrists were thick and sturdy. She couldn’t put any more energy into her restraints. Leo looked over the heavy metal door that separated her from the outside world. Leo pressed her face close to the crack between the door and its frame. There were three separate locks in her way now. The first, a security chain, would have to be dealt with last. Below that was a deadbolt and a knob lock. If she had anything thin, she could push through the knob lock, but the deadbolt would be much harder. Donnie had been the real locksmith of the family. Sure, each one of the turtles knew how to pick locks in order to break into convenience stores and the like when they were still in hiding, but Leo had forgotten much of what she’d learned in favor of acting as leader and defense with Raph if things ever went awry. She could try to kick the door down, but it would more likely alert her captors that she was loose than break. Or… maybe she should alert her captors?

She looked back at everything she had. The rest of the chain hung loosely from the wall. Leo could feasibly use it to suffocate her attackers if she needed to. The cement pieces on the floor would be great blunt objects. Her positioning to the door too would be important. She needed to be on the side that opens, so that her opponents would be forced to enter the room to deal with her. Her father had trained her and her brothers for this all the time. April would train with her on weekends on self defense in preparation for TCRI investigations they would do. She wished she could tell her how she felt… No, she would tell her how she felt!

She would get back to her family. She would kiss April. No matter what.

No matter what.

——

April had been fighting back nausea since she left her apartment. She was riding beside the pizza van the turtles had stolen during the Superfly attack on their way to where Raph had seen the people who took Leo.

In between shipping containers Raph and Casey had noticed suspicious looking shadows boarding a boat off the coast of the shipyard. He said that he had thought it was odd how the group clearly didn’t want to get caught, but moved slower than they should, as if they were being weighed down by something. At the time, Raphael didn’t think anything of it. It was just a bunch of weird humans doing weird human things.

April couldn’t help the smaller, more resentful part of herself that wished that Raph had just gone after the group to see if they really were the ones who had taken Leo. They didn’t even know if they were on the right path to begin with! It all felt like a wild goose chase– one that led to all the turtles being kidnapped.

She twisted the accelerator forward a little more.

A thought crossed her mind that nearly sent her off the bike. She and Leo had been discovering the remains of TCRI’s failed test subjects in abandoned warehouses and empty apartment buildings. A snail with its shell caved in, a gooey hand stretched out on the floor in one final act of desperation. A squirrel with a bullet hole through its swollen skull, spine torqued in the center as if to imply that the ooze they used ceased its work halfway. A turtle, who through their mutation suffocated in their own shell, which didn’t grow to accommodate the rest of their body. April hated how her mind replaced all of these poor animals with Leo. Leo, shell crushed as she reaches out for help. Leo, with a bullet hole between those big blue eyes. Leo, an ashen bluish tone to her skin with the purpling of a handprint around her neck, heartbeat long gone.

April really did have to come to a stop in the road after that thought. She leaned over and retched onto the concrete. Her skin was hot and her throat burned, but it didn’t taste nearly as awful as knowing that she still hadn’t told Leo she loved her.

April wiped any of the remaining sick off her lips before accelerating again to catch back up with the pizza van. She didn’t care if she had to search all of New York, and she didn’t care how many TCRI hideouts she would have to raid. April would save Leo, no matter what.

No matter what.

Chapter Text

Splinter was a simple rat. He had simple needs. All he wanted was for his family to be safe and happy. He knew now that his family could find those things in the human world as much as in the sewers. Frankly, he still wasn’t fond of it all. Except for taco trucks. Taco trucks are the best. But his kids loved human things. Michelangelo loved going to comedy shows and performing for his theater class. Donatello had found peers that liked his animes and his games. Raphael’s wrestling has helped release that pent up aggression that for so long festered within the sewers. And Leonardo– well his daughter was certainly happy that they were being accepted by humanity, but she seemed to have taken on the burden of protector and pseudo guardian outside of the lair. She was the only one to take up a part time job when the cost of groceries was discovered to be more expensive than they thought. Prom had been a messy affair of anxious daughters calling their rat dad that there was alcohol in the punch and Donnie drank too much of it. All of winter break, Leo would drag Raphael out to the gym for sparring and tea to soothe her brother’s antsy soul. Splinter recalled sitting the eldest down one time, when her grades had suddenly dropped and Mikey’s had unusually risen, to question her. Leo had explained that she was only helping her baby brother study, but in the process, lost track of her own work. 

“That is why school made tutors, Leo,” Splinter had tutted and twirled his spoon around in his tea, trying his best to appear wise and knowing. The girl looked away, expression scrunched up and fists balled up tight. Splinter didn’t think too much of it at the time, but Leo drew shame from her father’s words, and he witnessed his daughter overcompensate for her actions by withdrawing completely from her brothers. Splinter would hear from the school’s librarian that Leo had stationed herself in the library almost everyday at school, isolating from everyone around her. It was devastating to see his oldest fade away, slipping through his fingers like sand. Having dinner at the restaurant Leo worked at was the first step in his plan to have a serious conversation with his daughter about getting into therapy. Raphael had made the suggestion playfully as they were waiting to order, but Splinter sensed that the boy meant it. But then Leo didn’t come home until late into the night, and then she followed Raph out, and then she was kidnapped.

A sharp jolt of the pizza van sent Splinter forward, slamming his shoulder into the back of the driver’s seat. Donnie cursed, rapidly jerking the stick forward into park. Through the windshield, Splinter caught sight of the docks. The Hudson River was a ways to the right of them, pointing toward the New York Harbor. Out in the water, something that at first could be mistaken for a boat sat low in the water. Infrastructure around it bobbed with the current, easily tricking any uncaring eye into perceiving it as a ship. But as the turtles and Splinter stared longer, they could see a central pillar slightly protruding from the raves, harsh and rigid and very, very grounded. April pulled up just as the pizza van’s doors popped open, halting abruptly just as Donnie did. Gangly arms wrapped around Splinter’s waist, pulling a scared turtle to his side. Mikey, though he clung to Splinter like he used to do as a toddler, kept his gaze resolutely on the water. Waves reflected in his glassy eyes, sending an ache through his chest. Splinter wrapped an arm around his youngest and whispered, “Are you ready?” 

Mikey didn’t look away from the harbor, but his brow furrowed and gave a determined nod. 

They would find Leo. 

—

Evidently, it took more than expected for the Shredder’s goons to enter her cell. She made a lot of noise throwing around pieces of concrete before she decided that a screech would be more noticeable. Leo’s throat was scratchy by the time shuffling footsteps approached. She kept screaming as she got in position beside the door’s hinges. The thunk of three separate locks moving in time was her final warning before the door swung open and a pissed off ninja stormed in. Leo moved fast. She leapt onto his back, looping the dangling chains on her wrists tight around his throat and leaning backward. She squeezed his arms to his sides with her legs locked around his waist. She could allow him to use a weapon. The ninja sent them falling back, but as he recovered from the collapse, Leo took the chance to roll them over so she was pressing his stomach to the floor and pulling hard on the chains. He gasped and gagged, squirming frantically to get a breath in. 

Leo wouldn’t allow it. 

Through the open door, Leo could hear more footsteps approaching. She needed to finish this guy off quickly. She pulled until the man’s back was bent into an arch before abruptly releasing the chains and slamming his skull on the ground. A crack could be heard, and Leo could only hope that one of the other ninjas would help their friend to the hospital before he bled out all over the cement. She snatched a discarded piece of concrete and was out the door in a flash. She scrambled briefly when a ninja came flying at her only to soar past when she dodged and straight into the cell, to which Leo shut the door behind them. When she turned around, she realized that the fight was only beginning. About ten other ninjas were gathered together in what once was meaningless conversation in a central common room about twenty feet away from her. And they were all looking at her in surprise. 

“Well crap–” was all Leo managed to get out before the new battle began. 

Leo ducked out of the way of a flying kick, but was greeted with a shoe to the face when another ninja swung low, knocking her off balance. As she hit the floor, Leo turned her fall into a roll to get out of the worst position she could be in. Feet stomped around her like she was a bug they were trying to squash. A few landed, but her movement kept them off balance and unable to pin her down. During a lapse in attacks, Leo was able to roll herself into a crouch and swing a leg out to send two ninjas closest to her toppling over. A fist came flying at her face, but she tucked her head in her shell just in time, going under the arm and elbowing her attacker in the ribs. She bolted over to the center of the common room where several glasses of water and alcohol were scattered on a low rise table. At a good enough distance, Leo was able to throw her chunk of concrete at an approaching ninja, clobbering him in the head and knocking him over. Six others ran at her, and it was only luck that Leo managed to hit three more with the glasses on the table. One ninja leaped to grab her, sliding across the wooden surface of the table when she dodged out of the way, but she wasn’t fast enough to avoid a kick to her plastron and she fell back onto a stray chair. As the last two standing approached, Leo could see in her peripherals that the ninjas further back were starting to get up again. She didn’t have much time left. The two ninjas before her swung their fists to land a twin sucker punch to her face, only to strike air when Leo yanked herself and the chair toward the floor. She rolled onto her back and kicked the chair on top of her up so she could slide into a crouch. Gripping the chair by its leg, Leo swiped at the ninjas as hard as she could. 

She let the attack become her distraction to run toward what she presumed to be the exit. The door led to an empty hallway. It was mostly dark, with blue tinged light illuminating the seams between walls, ceiling, and floor. She stepped forward, and realized it was made of glass. The walls and ceiling were made of glass too. A fish swimming by the wall as Leo ran through told her that she wasn’t in some abandoned warehouse like she assumed. She was underwater. Deep underwater. Leo couldn’t keep the dread in her stomach from building when she wondered how the hell she was supposed to get out of here. 

At the end of the hall, a watertight door blocked her path. Leo did her best to get a good grip on the dog with her shaking hands. The rusting joint cracked and wheezed with the effort to disengage the lock. Leo heard groaning from the ninjas she left behind. Between breaths, Leo tugged on the wheel as hard as she could, and nearly collapsed to the floor when the door swung open. She tripped over her own feet to dash through the doorway, spinning around to yank the door closed right as her attackers swarmed the hallway. It wouldn’t do much, but it would slow them down just enough. 

The room she stood in now was wide and circular, with a high ceiling. A stairwell warped the wall to her right, pulling at the metal plating like a cyst. The center of the room contained what at first appeared like a gigantic globe, but when Leo got a closer look at it on her way up the stairs, she saw what looked like beasts and monsters painted onto different continents and seas. Creatures unlike the ones you might see on a pirate’s map. Leo saw, as the stairs brought her around the globe, that the monsters illustrated on the state of New York were turtles with little pools of water on their heads. She stalled for a moment, and that was her first mistake.

She wasn’t sure how he could have appeared without her noticing, but suddenly Leo was forcibly looking up at the Shredder, his jagged gauntlet gripping her by the back of the head with claw-like fingers digging into her cheeks. 

“You are more trouble than you are worth,” The Shredder stared down with cold, cold eyes, “But clearly your family disagrees.” His grip shifted to tighten around her neck, hoisting Leo up into the air. She gasped, fingers clawing frantically at the metal. One of her fingernails ached, like she had torn it off with the sheer desperation to get the Shredder to let go . Her throat was hot, tears burned as they slipped down her face, and Leo gasped to pull in air that wasn’t making it past her larynx. Her vision grew spotty, and she hardly noticed as the Shredder brought her up the rest of the stairs and let go of her just as Leo felt reality beginning to fade. She choked and coughed, nearly puking with the effort to draw in air. She reached up to rub her surely purpling throat. Leo had about one more second to stop hacking up a lung before sharp claws yanked her up by her nightgown and a steel covered arm wrapped around her midsection, pressing her own limbs close to her sides. The other hand found its way to her face again, this time pointing steel claws close to her eye and stabbing slightly into her cheek. 

The Shredder’s voice rumbled in her tympana.

“It’s rude not to greet your family.”