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Believe it or not, getting shot was not on today’s agenda.
And of course, when a random mugger pulled a gun on her, Sakura laughed and taunted the guy.
It was a tactic that usually worked. Usually she could just bat the gun away and either scare them off with a flash of her teeth and a threat with an ungodly amount of detail, or deliver a hit or three that send full grown men running.
Well. Now she had a hole through her shoulder and her new, rather nice sweater.
You see, Sakura tried to dress to impress tonight. This was supposed to be like a date, after all. But she would also be the first to admit that she had no idea how to dress well. Clothes were supposed to be practical. They covered the private bits, hid insecurities, helped regulate temperature, and sometimes expressed power or wealth. And hid weapons. They were good at that. Sakura had so many knives on her.
So, out of her very limited and mostly stolen closet (box) she had pulled out a deep emerald green sweater with the phases of the moon and a moth on it. She liked both those things. Then a pair of pants with white lace in a cute corset-looking waistband - it wasn’t tight enough to affect her breathing, and the pant legs were neither tight enough to rub her fur the wrong way, nor loose enough to catch on everything and risk tearing.
And, because she had the worst luck (attitude) in the world, she was now shoved into something called a “Donnie PodTM” getting rocketed to someplace called “The Lair” while being squished close enough to probably the only guy she looked up to. While bleeding out.
So, yeah, not the best night of her life. I mean, it definitely wasn't the worst, either, she told herself.
Donnie shifted. These things were clearly meant to hold one person. The only thing separating their chests was Sakura’s arm, her hand clutching one side of the bullet wound. Their hips and thighs had no such separator. Blood leaked through her fingers. It definitely got onto his partially unbuttoned blazer and white undershirt.
He had one hand on the opposite wall – door? – of the pod, the other applying pressure to the exit wound. It was both good news and bad news that the bullet went right through.
Good that they didn’t have to fish the bullet out later.
Bad that it meant that Sakura was bleeding twice the amount from one wound.
“For once in my lifetime,” Sakura hissed out between her teeth, “I think I’m actually glad I’m so tiny.”
Donnie stirred against her, trying to tilt his head and look at her, but couldn’t get a good angle - her face was against his collar bones, her ears tickling the underside of his chin. She felt every time he swallowed, every small difference in his breathing, and heard his heart beating nearly as fast as her own.
“I imagine this would be much worse if I weren’t under five feet and built like a twig.”
Donnie snorted. She could feel it through every inch of her fur.
“Jeez, you sound like my brother – making jokes when your life's on the line and things go to shit.” Donnie lifted his hand from the back of her shoulder. Sakura felt hot, sticky liquid dribble onto her. “Shit. It’s not stopping.” The pressure was back. His hand lay heavier than it had been, pressing their bodies further together. She hissed at the pain.
“ – rry, sorry!” Donnie’s voice warbled in and out of her ears. Or maybe it was her consciousness fading. Her blood burned under her skin.
Burned.
The idea sent a jolt of terror through her. She saw fire. Trees. Houses. Ash, floating up and clogging the sky on a moonless night.
We aren’t there anymore. The heat is a side effect of the pain. And because this is the most embarrassing thing ever. But we're okay.
The adrenaline from that spike of fear dulled the pain. Not much, but enough so that Sakura could open her eyes again. She didn’t remember closing them.
“ – few more minutes, Sakura, please don’t pass out – ”
Right. Donnie was here. She tried to say something. It came out as a whine. She was leaning against him, she realized, hardly any of her measly weight on her own two feet. Hmm.
She tried speaking again. It came out slurred.
“Mmmm tryn’...”
Air whooshed over her ears. It smelled like coffee and pizza. A sigh, probably. Out of relief.
“Can you keep talking?” He asked. “I think you’re supposed to keep talking in this kind of scenario. Um…” Sakura thought he squeezed her tighter. His words sounded foggy. “How do you feel?” He asked.
Feel. That was something she could answer. Sakura analyzed the sensations in her body. “Hot. Sticky,” she mumbled. “And… ow.”
Donnie shifted again. Air movement tickled the fur inside of her ears. They felt hot, too. She wondered if they were visibly red. Her fur hid any flush she had, but it was possible that the fur on her ears were thin enough for some tint of red or pink to show through.
She wondered if he saw it. Then she wondered if he was blushing, too, if he even could.
“Want a shower,” she added as an afterthought.
Donnie’s body shook as he suppressed a chuckle. “We can get you a shower. Nice and hot, yeah? Or a bath, if you prefer to soak. It might help get everything out of your fur.”
Sakura snorted. “That’ll make me shed like crazy,” she wheezed. “You’re helping me brush it out, after.”
“I can certainly do that.”
A slightly robotic voice announced three minutes remained. The pod turned sharply. Sakura was no longer certain that her paws were on the ground. Something beeped down by their waists. Green light flashed in the tight space, reflecting off the metal walls.
“I think you hit my panic button. That’s, uh – that's good, actually. We – I – probably should’ve done that a while ago – it, uh, alerts my brothers that something’s wrong. Leo will set up the medbay.”
Donnie continued rambling. He stuttered a lot. Sakura couldn’t focus anymore. She took in as deep of a breath as the space allowed. His skin smelt like metal. His heart was beating really fast.
“Sorry for bledin’ on ya,” she mumbled against his neck. His Adam's Apple bumped against her snout. “Ann get’en it on your… nice clothes.” Her energy started to fade. Fast.
“Don’t apologize for that,” came his sharp reply. She flinched.
“... Sorry. Just hang in there, we’re almost there.”
His words rang true – the pod took another sharp turn before stopping abruptly and rotating them upright. It dropped about an inch. The engine turned off. The doors hissed with the pressure change.
Oh, good. Help is here.
Those were her last thoughts before Sakura slumped over, unconscious.
~~
The next few moments went by quickly.
Sakura went limp in his arms. His Donnie PodTM opened up. His brothers were staring at him, wide-eyed. Leo had a first aid kit in one hand, a katana in the other. Donnie had an arm slipped under Sakura’s thighs, the other keeping pressure on her bullet wound. He should’ve reacted quicker. Should’ve shoved her out of the way and taken the hit himself. Should’ve stopped her from taunting the man with a gun in his hands.
Should’ve, should've, should’ve.
His brothers were yelling at him. They were up in his face now. He should explain why there was blood on his hands. And why he brought a stranger home.
“She got shot,” he managed in-between gasps. “Couldn’t stop the bleeding. Needs –” he looked for Leo. He found his face not far from his own. “She needs stitches.”
Leo gave a firm nod. His twin took Sakura from his hands. Donnie watched as his sweet little kitty got whisked away bridal style. Donnie stumbled forward. Hands on his arm and shell stopped him from following.
His little brother stared wide-eyed at him, mouth moving. He couldn’t make sense of the sounds over the ringing in his ears. Mikey looked just past Donnie’s other shoulder.
“ – think he’s in shock. I’ll get him cleaned up, you go tell Dad.”
Oh, he was talking to Raph. Yeah, telling Dad was a good idea.
Mikey pulled him away, gently leading him to the bathroom. Donnie stared numbly as Mikey started to wash the blood off his hands. The water from the facet ran red in the sink bowl.
“Did you get hurt?” Mikey asked after a minute.
“No, just Sakura. I think her ear got clipped.”
“I’ll tell Leo to check for that. Is Sakura the cat’s name?”
“The – yeah, that’s Sakura.”
“So you know her?”
Donnie twitched. He got soap and washed his own hands. “You could say that.”
“You looked kinda desperate when you tried to follow Leo. Do you… know her well? Can you tell me about her?”
“She likes astronomy and botany. She’s skittish because she’s dealing with some stuff. I don't have the details. She’s gluten and lactose intolerant. She likes Chinese food, but can’t stand the texture of raw fish in Japanese food, which is ironic because she’s Japanese. She likes rice noodles – the big flat ones that look like egg noodles. She’s smart. She’s insecure about her white patches. English isn't her first language. She has a bad habit of chewing on things. She wants a hot bath after this,” he recited.
The water was turned off. There was a towel on his hands now.
“Sounds like you like her,” Mikey noted. Donnie couldn’t tell if he meant romantically or platonically.
“She gets me,” Donnie replied.
“How does that make you feel?”
Donnie glanced at his younger brother and puzzled out his expression. His eyes were round and curious. His brows were drawn in a serious line – determination, maybe? Worry or concern?
Donnie looked away, digging into their few memories together.
“She makes me feel heard. And understood, but in a way that's different from what you understand.”
Mikey hummed. “That's good. I’m glad you have that.” His little brother put on a grin. A truly happy grin, one that wasn’t often there between the time they moved and after the months of healing from the invasion. Donnie was glad that smile was back.
“You wanna change now? That can’t be very comfy.” Mikey gestured to his shirt.
Donnie looked down on his clothes, and yeah, now that it was pointed out (and he was in a spot to notice and worry about it) his white button up was starting to get stiff and crinkly from the dried blood stains.
“Eugh, gross.”
“Here, I’ll put it in the wash for you so you can change – and shower, if it got on your skin at all.”
“Oh, please –” Donnie rapidly unbuttoned his shirt and blasier and shoved both of them into Mikey’s hands. “Defo showering. Thanks.”
“Of course!” Mikey smiled one more time before he took his leave. Donnie prepared his shower.
~~
He made it short. Just a basic body wash, scrub at his scales where they itched, wash his face, rinse everything (including nooks-and-crannies) and get out. He toweled himself dry and went to his bedroom. He threw on his favorite purple hoodie, not even bothering with a battleshell, before grabbing a stress ball and squeezing.
His first and only destination was the medbay.
He looked through the window. Sakura was on the cot closest to the window. An oxygen mask sat over her snout. A liquid IV hung up next to her, the bag already half empty. Bandages covered the wound, wrapped around her shoulder and ribcage. Her currently exposed ribcage. Where did her sweater go? And bra, if she was wearing one?
(He had no idea if she wore one tonight or not. It was about 50/50 with her. it didn’t make a difference, she didn’t have anything for a bra to support.)
He glanced around for Leo. He stood at the big sink in the back.
Donnie opened the doors and barged in. “How is she?”
Leo turned off the sink and dried his hands off on a towel. “She’ll live,” he answered evenly. “Stitches were hard to do with all that fur, but I think that went about as smoothly as it could have. She's super dehydrated, though –” he nodded toward her IV drip “ – she's only been on it for about twenty minutes, and she’s over halfway through it now. I have laughing gas going through the mask so it doesn't hurt when she wakes up.”
“When do you think –”
“I don't know. I’m not a doctor.” Leo stared him in the eye, eerily calm. “It could be any minute now. It could be in an hour or it could be in the morning. It depends on how her body reacts to… well, everything.” The slider shrugged. “The laughing gas might make her sleep through the night, for all we know. With her size and weight, it’s hard to tell what dosage she might need – of any medication.”
That was a fair point. Donnie looked the feline over. Her bones protruded more than he thought bones were supposed to, on any human, mutant, yokai, or animal. Especially her ribs. Okay, yeah, wow, she was skinnier than he thought. His eyes fell down to her stomach – slightly concave. A white spot covered her last two ribs and rippled along her sides, disappearing between her hips under the waistband of her pants.
Hm. Her choice in somewhat loose sweaters hid that well.
Donnie tossed the stress ball from one hand to the other. He felt Leo come stand beside him.
“I had to cut her sweater off to get the wound bandaged,” Leo continued to explain. “I wrapped it like a sling so that she can’t move her arm until it heals.”
Donnie pursed his lips. “She’s gonna be mad about that. Her sweater, I mean. It was her first time wearing it.”
“We can get Dad to sew it back together. I’ll even do the asking.” His twin paused before asking, “Mikey told me to check her ears while you showered. Her right ear wasn’t bleeding, but I cleaned it up and put some Neosporin on it. I can’t make her ear look whole again, but I can stop it from getting infected.”
“Any other concerns?” Donnie asked.
“Regarding her physical health? No,” Leo answered. “She had old scars on her back, but they healed fine. Did you need anything other than data from me?”
Donnie paused. “Data?”
“Of course. Data collection calms you down. You're not squeezing the life outta your stress ball any more, so it clearly helped.”
Donnie turned and stared at his twin. His twin who was actually beginning to listen to his team, and then use that to benefit current conditions. He had grown up in the year since the invasion.
Leo held his gaze. He was so calm, dare he say sturdy about this whole thing, like a pillar for Donnie to hold onto until his brain returned to its normal intelligence level after panicking.
Leo shrugged so nonchalantly it made Donnie want to throttle him immediately. “It's no biggie.”
“You make a much bigger impact than you think you do.”
“Do you want to tell us what happened?” Leo brushed past his observation and attempt to pry into his brain. He was too good at that. Leo grinned casually, leaning against the rails of the cot. “I don’t know about everyone else, but I’d like to know what you were doing with a strange girl out at night that ended up with one of you getting shot,”
Donnie sighed.
~~
Five minutes later, everybody who was currently at the lair – his dad and his brothers, since April was showing Casey Jr. what NYC nightlife was like – sat in the living room, waiting to hear his story.
Donnie wasn’t prepared for this. He had planned on telling his family eventually, but not now! He wanted another month to figure out what he was gonna say, how to bring it up, and write a speech to give! He was terrible on the spot!
He went back to tossing his stress ball.
He sat on the stairs across from the couch. He tried to find the words to start, but couldn’t. He didn’t even know where to start, what details to share, what his family would want to know, what Sakura didn’t want him to share. He started at the floor. The ball whisked past his vision rhythmically.
“Purple.”
“Dad.”
“Why don’t you start with the events of tonight? What led up to you deploying your escape pod?”
A place to start. Okay. He could work with this.
Donnie explained. “We were going to Hueso’s…”
He explained how he thought they could take a shortcut through a few alleys. He admitted how he got lost. He always had a bad sense of direction. He told them how a man tried to mug them, and how Sakura had laughed in the face of danger when the man pulled out his tiny revolver. How, despite being unnerved, he shot at her, twice.
He told his family how he pulled her into the Donnie PodTM with him. How he panicked and couldn’t think of anything else to do to help. At Dad’s prompting, he tried to describe the fleeting feeling – the panic and helplessness and not having thoughts go through his brain.
He was pretty sure he did a terrible job at describing the feeling, but hey. He tried. It wasn’t his fault that feelings weren’t his thing, or if he stumbled over his words trying to be accurate.
The medbay doors slid open with a whoosh, then closed with a click.
She was awake. Her claws clicked on the stone, softer than Dad’s.
“Sakura!” Donnie shot up and looked her over.
The oxygen mask was gone, her face bare. She held her IV drip. Her eyes, green as grass, hung half-lidded with pupils blown wide. She leaned heavily on one leg like she just stumbled into a new world and had no idea how she got there or what was going on.
Well. Okay. That last part was kinda accurate.
Donnie scrambled up the stairs so they were on the same level, stopping only when a foot of space spanned between them.
Sakura lifted the IV bag slightly. “Ssssssmpty,” she slurred. Her eyes trailed up to his too slowly. He watched her pupils narrow and dilate and fail to focus properly.
“Oh, Darwin, you had way too much laughing gas.” Donnie held out his hands, prepared to catch her if she fell. He sent a quick glare to Leo, who shrugged like ‘whatcha gonna do?’ in response. “How do you feel?” Donnie asked her, ignoring his brother.
Sakura blinked. “Fuzzy. Light headed. Uncordid– corvid – undul- Un – fuck.” She stumbled forward, closing half the distance between them in one stride and bonking her head against his plastron, slumping over the other half.
Good thing he already had his arms out to catch her.
“Un– not balanced,” she finished. She snorted and giggled against his chest.
Yeah. They would need to wait a few minutes for that to wear off.
“You need to sit down,” Donnie decided. He tried to get her upright without touching her injured shoulder. He ended up with her arm over his shoulders and his hand at her waist. He guided her to the stairs, going so far as to announce them.
It would’ve been easier to pick her up. He only didn’t in concern for her injury. With how much she wobbled, he wondered if it was worth the risk;
Donnie glanced at Raph. He understood immediately. “Y’all can have Raph’s spot,” he offered, already getting up.
Donnie nodded his gratitude and set Sakura against the armrest of the couch.
“I can take off the IV drip,” Leo said, already reaching inside his fannypack for the box of bandaids he kept on him. Donnie took her working arm and straightened it out for him. He plucked it out and pressed the bandaid on. Sakura didn’t even blink. She probably couldn’t feel anything yet. And if she could understand what she watched, she was too out of it to care.
Donnie sat between Sakura and Leo. She leaned against his shoulder and pulled her feet up. She fit neatly against his side like that. She blinked sluggishly and ran her paw up her stomach, straight through the white patch. She stared at her hand like she wasn’t sure it was hers.
“Where clothes go did?”
She blinked. Tried again. “Where go – did clothes –”
Her struggle to put words in the right order was mildly amusing. Until Sakura twisted her head around, landing her bleery glare on him, and demanded, “Where shirt.”
Leo leaned forward to answer while Donnie tried to control his face. “Sorry, I had to cut it off to get to your wound,” the slider explained. He then turned to their Dad. “If you could sew that back together, Dad, I’m sure that’d be appreciated. It’s just a straight line down the back.”
“Oh, that’s easy,” Splinter agreed, waving his hand dismissively. “I can do that by tomorrow!”
Donnie felt his shoulders relax an iota. He nudged Sakura with his elbow. “Hear that?” he asked in a much quieter voice, “you can have your sweater tomorrow.”
Sakura stared at him, the gears of her brain turning. Her brows – small streaks of white against her pitch black fur – creased the way they did whenever he used words she didn’t know, or spoke too fast, or when she was just way too tired for her brain to process her second language.
“You have no idea what we’re saying, do you?”
She stared vacantly at him for several seconds. “... No?” she guessed. Her head wobbled over her shoulders.
Donnie snickered. Mikey snorted.
“You are so high right now,” the softshell noted.
“High as a kite,” Leo agreed. “Sorry not sorry.”
“Think she oughtta sleep that off?” Raph joined in. “She nearly fell ov’a already, and she looks exhausted.”
Donnie glanced between his dad, his brothers, and the mutant tuxedo cat. “I… know of nothing that could make that a bad idea,” he admitted slowly. “If, that is –” he faced his dad, “there’s no issue with her staying here…?” Raph shrugged. Splinter watched the girl with thoughtful eyes, weighing the decision.
“Hmm. We will need to get her her own room,” their dad declared. Donnie lit up. “And we will need proper introductions! It would be rude if our guest did not know our names.”
“Of course!” Donnie clapped his hands together, grinning now. “Come here, come say hi, it’ll be good for her to get familiar with your scent sooner rather than later,” he stretched out an arm and waved his dad over, while simultaneously propping Sakura up.
Splinter squinted suspiciously at his son but came over anyway. Donnie told Sakura that this was his dad; her ears perked up and she sat up a little straighter, so she at least looked interested, which was a good sign.
“Stretch out a finger, Dad.”
“Uh, why?”
“It's a cat thing, don’t worry about it. Sakura, come say hi.”
Sakura leaned forward and Donnie guided his dad’s index finger to her nose. She sniffed at it. Pressed her nose into his palm. Sniffed some more. His hand cupped her cheek. They met gazes for a moment.
“Hi,” she breathed.
“Hello,” Splinter greeted, smiling softly. “You are welcome in my home for as long as you need.”
“Thank you,” Sakura answered simply, pulling away. She pulled her legs close to her chest, curled her tail around her ankles, and scooted back against Donnie’s side until she was half behind him.
“I’m gonna check with Casey if he thinks it’s okay to sleep on laughing gas,” Leo pipped in, uncertain. His phone was already in his hand, messaging app open.
Casey, the boy from the future with an unnerving and frankly concerning understanding of medicine for someone under eighteen. Casey had taught them the basic stuff, and when Leo expressed an interest in the more complicated injuries and remedies, taught him how to do stitches and set dislocated limbs.
When asked why he knew that kind of stuff his answer was painfully simple: “It’s what I was taught.”
They didn’t ask any more questions after that.
“In the meantime, let's figure out the room situation,” Donnie pulled up a screen from his wristband. “The other train cars are still in their original locations, a half-mile down from ours. It would take about an hour to push one back…”