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They were arguing about Big Mama. She’d sent them a Christmas card, along with some money, probably just for kicks or to really lean into a sort of ‘estranged wine aunt that no one knows what to do with’ persona.Expectedly, most were against the idea. “Most” being Splinter, Draxum, and Raph. And they were loud about it.“She cannot be trusted!” Splinter protested.Except the other side had more ammo.“But she changed,” argued Casey, poking a meatball in his bowl of spaghetti with his fork. “She was one of our greatest allies in the resistance!”“Yeah! Why can’t we give her a chance? She literally just gave us a Christmas card and an Amazon gift card!”“She imprisoned the entirety of New York, Mikey,” Draxum tried.“Except that was, like, a year ago!”“We dropped a building on her. The only reason she helped us after that was because of her history with dad,” Raph reasoned.“She’s helped us twice ever since for less,” Casey reminded him.“Donnie, what do you think?” Mikey asked, turning to Leo’s twin beside him.Donnie paused at the summon, then said carefully, “I’m on whichever side Leo is on. I believe he is the most unbiased of all of us.”Leo froze as six sets of eyes turned on him, and silently cursed his twin for directing the attention at him. He’d been trying to stay out of it on purpose, idly chewing and listening quietly specifically for the reason Donnie pointed him out. He’d been the first of his brothers to suspect Big Mama’s intentions, but also the first to have had redeeming experiences with her. And they’d repeatedly told him that he was the best judge of character out of all of them, which had saved their butts multiple times, so that probably helped Donnie’s opinion.He swallowed the forkful of pasta already in his mouth and kept his eyes on the table in front of him.“Big Mama is a tricky character,” he said slowly after a moment. “Her motives are driven solely by what she thinks will benefit her, in one way or another. When we met her, she had no emotional ties to us, or anyone else, she just figured we were just like any unwilling assets. And then she found shreds of our potential, and got greedy with it. She thought we were naive little kids.”“So you agree with us,” Draxum guessed. Donnie snapped his teeth at the goat and hissed,“Let him finish.” Leo nudged Donnie to stop, feeling his twin back down and grab his prosthetic hand under the table. Silent support.“Past tense, Barry,” Leo told the yokai. “She hated us for slipping away and she had no respect for us. And then on top of revealing our ties to Lou Jitsu, we one-upped her by taking down her champion—” “You one-upped her,” Raph corrected proudly, and Leo felt the hot rush of embarrassment color his cheeks, ducking his head.“Yeah, that. Anyway, being defeated and rejected again was what really ticked her off. She lives in a cold world of kill or be killed, so of course vengeance is the next best move. That was what prompted Battle Nexus: New York, as well as an opportunity to expand her business. It was a show of strength, to get us to fear her, and to show everyone else she was in control. She underestimated us and thought it was a double win, until we pulled through, and dropped the building on her, like you said,” Leo explained, nodding at Raph. “So instead of us fearing her, she feared us.” “Wouldn’t that just make her more angry, though?” Donnie asked, genuinely confused.Leo shook his head. “No, because we saved her life afterwards. Or, at least tried to. She feared us, and respected us because we were willing to be merciful. And now she has emotional attachments to us, too, especially because we’re her lover’s sons.”“This doesn’t make any sense,” Draxum scoffed, scowling. “You haven’t answered the question. Can she be trusted?”“She can be trusted to do what will benefit her most.”“And what benefits her most is throwing her boyfriend into a dungeon and forcing him to fight?” Splinter said, clearly not impressed.“She’s opportunistic, maybe even sociopathic,” Leo explained. “She’s an egocentric businesswoman who will do anything to get what she wants. She threw you into the Nexus because she’d seen what you could do, and she wanted to keep you close. It wouldn’t surprise me if she didn’t consider your feelings towards the matter, only that she wanted you to be part of her empire. The only thing is that every part of her empire has a specific quality, and use. And what better place for you in that empire than to use your best qualities of acting and fighting? She knew you would thrive, she just didn’t think to consider what it would look like to you.” “So can she be trusted, or not?” Draxum asked again, impatient. His ears flattened when Mikey snapped his fingers angrily at him.“She can be trusted to do what will benefit her most,” Leo repeated, using his fork to point at Draxum emphatically. “In regards to us, what benefits her leans in favor with us. But if you’re looking for an easy answer, yes, we can trust her, it just has to be… maintained in a specific way. We have her dancing in our palm to get on good terms with us so we don’t ruin her entirely, and we can use that to kickstart a redemption arc like I’m sure Mikey is hoping for. It’ll have to be careful though, because if she gets an ounce of control over us, she will abuse it, like she abused her control over dad.”Splinter spluttered. “She did not have control over me!”“Uh, she totally did. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have imprisoned you at all. The only reason you weren’t discarded was because of those emotional ties I was talking about. That was your safety net and it’s one I advise we not use. She likes us, but not for the reasons we want.”“So what should we do about her?” Raph asked, leaning forward a little, eyes sparkling for some reason. “Do we keep her on, or keep her away?”“We build it up. I don’t trust her range of sympathy as far as I can throw her, but I think we can work it out in time. She’d be an extremely powerful ally to have—more useful than anyone else I can think of. Casey has a point about her helping us out in his timeline. If they earned her loyalty, so can we. We just have different circumstances and a longer time frame. She’s shown promise three times so far, but we should take it slow. We can’t afford a misstep with someone like her.”Mikey stood up and walked over to give him a hug from behind, grinning from ear to ear. “You’re so smart,” he said, eager like he was telling a secret that everyone was in on but Leo—ohhhh, that’s why Raph’s eyes were sparkling.He patted Mikey’s arm around his shoulders awkwardly, unsure if his smile looked more polite, flustered, or genuine. “Thanks, dude.”“Uh, not to go off topic or anything,” Splinter butted in, confused, “but you said she’s helped us three times? Her help after the Shredder and her assistance in finding you were valuable, I know that, but what’s this third time you were talking about?”Oh, right. They didn’t really know about her kinda-not-really-but-sorta-maybe help when Leo took on that wyvern yokai. The scars raking down his leg tingled at the memory, phantom acid burns ghosting across his skin.“Uh… well, remember before the whole…” He swallowed. “Exorcism thing, when I ran away and came back from the Nexus?”Splinter nodded seriously. “I was told you went to Big Mama of your own will and would recover from your wounds.”“So, um. I don’t think I told you guys the whole thing.”“You mean there’s more?!” Donnie asked, astonished.“I think there’s always more,” Leo joked. “But no. It’s… hang on.” He pressed his palm to his forehead. “I’m not even sure I remember. The whole thing’s just a haze.” Mikey gave him room to lean back, returning to his chair. Leo blinked at the ceiling, trying to recall the ordeal. A lot of it was just a mess of pain and red and green, but there was one soft spot that held more clarity than anything else in the fog between the invasion and the parasite’s removal. Althea.“So, when I walked in she was totally unimpressed with my…” He waved his hand in front of his face vaguely. “Anyway, I walked in all pathetic and told her I wanted to fight. It took a second, but I got her to agree, and when I got in the arena, there were these, like, bells.” “Bells?” Raph asked.“Or something. I don’t remember, but it was like an alarm system to shut down the fight. She said it was to preserve more fighters, but I don’t think so. Then afterwards she had her—what, staff?—anyway, her medical team patched me up and I woke up in an actual hotel room. Not a cell, but an actual room, with an actual bed, and a nurse actively caring for me. The nurse was super sweet, and I’m pretty sure I watched her brain pop when she found out I was Lou Jitsu’s kid, but that’s besides the point.“The point is that Big Mama actually took care of me while I was there. I’d made a deal with her that I could leave whenever I wanted so long as I didn’t get hurt so that you guys would go after her, but when I got hurt, she kind of twisted the deal on me a little, but not even in a bad way, looking back on it now. She gave me food, a roof over my head, and a solid night’s worth of sleep. She dealt it all out like she was getting back at me for messing up, but I think she was just being soft and didn’t want me to know it.”Come to think of it, those couple hours spent with Althea after the fight and before going home, just… sitting, and talking? Probably the best hours he’d had since after the invasion—and before the parasite’s removal. They seriously needed to come up with a name for that event, because there was no way they could just keep calling it ‘The Exorcism’, it sounded like some sort of Wattpad story written by a white tween from Kansas.“She’s gone soft?” Draxum said, like he couldn’t believe it. Leo wouldn’t either, if you’d told him this was what he’d be saying about her two years ago.“In your vocab, soft and loyal mean the same thing, and you say soft like it’s a bad thing,” Donnie said, rolling his eyes.“It sounds like she’s only ‘soft’ around people she can afford to be soft around,” Casey thought aloud. “I bet she was putting up a front for her employees, not just you, Leo.”“Haha!” Mikey said triumphantly, stepping closer again to fold his hands over Leo’s head and resting his chin on them, elbows against the back of the chair. “Looks like we got more people on our side. We win.”“So long as Leo thinks it’s safe enough, I’ll be open to the idea of getting her a redemption arc,” Raph sighed.Splinter and Draxum exchanged glances, then Draxum sighed.“Yes, yes, very well. I’ll be staying as far away from that madwoman as possible, however,” he warned.“I’m staying away too! But you’d better check in with me before and after everytime you interact with her. Understood?”“Understood,” Donnie said, nodding.Leo cleared his throat in a small way, mostly to get past the nerves slowly working up his throat with the idea he’d just had, but it seemed to catch everyone’s attention. He averted his gaze back to the bowl of pasta in front of him, slowly twisting the noodles around his fork “Actually, dad, I was wondering if I could invite you out to the Hidden City? Just for a couple hours. There’s… someone I owe a pretty big favor.”Splinter softened, and speared a meatball with his fork. “Might I ask who?” he asked, stuffing another bite into his mouth.“She’s, uh. Well, it’s the nurse Big Mama assigned to me when I ran off. She’s a ferret yokai, I think. Some sort of rodent. Anyway, she got super excited when she found out I was Lou Jitsu’s kid. Apparently she was a massive fan back before the whole…” he gestured vaguely between Draxum and Splinter, “thing. I thought I’d treat her with meeting her hero, y’know? Her name’s Althea.”“Sure,” Splinter agreed easily. “When?”“Wait, s-seriously?” He hoped he didn’t sound too eager, but the way Splinter’s face softened even more told him he failed just a little bit.“Of course! Father-son bonding time on the way over!”He never got one-on-one time with his dad. “Okay. Okay, um, awesome,” he said, trying to channel his inner charm and not quite hitting the mark with his weak smile. “Thanks. Maybe sometime in the next week?”Splinter nodded. “You pick when. I will put on shoes and we will go right then.”Leo couldn’t help the smile that picked at the corners of his lips as he turned back to his food, feeling Donnie squeeze his hand.For the first time in a while, he was excited. They ended up going out two days later, slipping through the portal into the Hidden City with ease before Leo had to break the bad news to his dad.“So where is this nurse?” Splinter asked, tail curled around Leo’s prosthetic wrist so they wouldn’t get separated in the midday crowd of Tatsu plaza. They had a good few inches around them in any direction, but people still jostled, and they were nothing if not New Yorkers. “Are we meeting her at her home?”Leo stiffened a little, grimacing when someone’s shoulder knocked into his, a hasty apology thrown his way. “Uh, I don’t actually know. I was just planning to meet her at her work.”“At the Nexus?”He glanced out at the crowd, mostly so he wouldn’t have to look at his dad. “Would you get mad if I said yes…?”“Of course not,” Splinter replied, ducking behind him when a yokai almost bumped into him. “I figured we’d be heading over there, judging by how you met her there.”Leo glanced back at him, surprised. “You… Wait, then why’d you agree to come?”“Because anything meaningful to you is worth doing, my son,” Splinter said warmly, giving up on walking by himself and climbing up Leo’s shell to rest on his shoulders. He patted Leo’s head kindly as he settled himself, twining his tail around Leo’s real arm for balance.“But I thought you said you didn’t want to go anywhere near Big Mama at dinner the other night,” Leo said, wrangling with the knot of emotions the old rat had just shoved down his throat.“I’m allowing an exception,” Splinter shrugged casually, like Leo had any idea what to think about that. “Besides, she helped save my Baby Blue. I owe her my thanks.”Leo swallowed, tucking his hands into his hoodie pockets to hide how they were shaking.The Nexus Hotel wasn’t far away, the large golden doors swinging open for them as they got close. Splinter didn’t jump down from Leo’s back, like he would’ve expected, staying right where he was until they approached the front desk. The yokai—a gazelle—looked up, but instead of smiling like a receptionist was supposed to do, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped.“You… uh—You’re th-the Hamatos!” she gasped.Leo and Splinter glanced at each other, startled. Splinter looked back first, and asked,“You know who we are?”“It’d be hard not to,” she said, smiling nervously. “Your family is kind of a legend down here.” She pointed at something behind them, and when Leo turned so they could see, everyone in the lobby scrambled to go back to whatever they were doing clumsily.They were… famous?Actually, never mind. It made sense. Where there was trouble, there was Hamato, anyway, with Witch Town, the Shredder, the Invasion, getting arrested for, like, ten different instances and then breaking out, the Nexus… Yeah, he could see where she was coming from. They’d done some pretty crazy stuff.“A good legend, or a bad one?” Splinter asked.The yokai clearly wasn’t enjoying the interview, squirming in her seat. “It… depends on who you ask.”“And which side do you fall on?” Leo wondered lightly, trying not to put too much pressure on her.“I…–” “Turtle-y boo! How spiddly-diferous it is to see you again!” chirped a familiar voice as the elevator door opened. Two bodyguards stepped out, carrying Big Mama in her human form delicately between them as she smiled brightly at them, her assistant following. She patted one of their shoulders to be let down as Leo turned to see her, Splinter tensing on his shoulder.“Big Mama,” Leo greeted automatically, smiling politely when she got close enough for Splinter to jump off his shell uncomfortably.“My my! Don’t you look better than when we last met! Come give Mama a hug!”Leo didn’t even get a chance to protest before she was wrapping her arms around his neck, firm and warm and dangerous. “It’s good to see you’ve been doing some recuprications! I want nothing but the best for my itty turtle boys,” she cooed, patting his good shoulder when she pulled back.“That’s not even a real word,” Splinter grumbled, his tail tight around Leo’s ankle.“And what’s this?!” Mama gasped, lighting up as she crouched and pinched Splinter’s cheeks, undeterred by the unhappy twitch of his whiskers and the very distinct grimace when he tried to bat her hands away. “You brought my snoodly-whipperclam with you on this visit!”Whipperclam?Then she stood back up and tapped her chin, one arm across her chest as she regarded Leo curiously. “I’m guessing you’ve come to ask another favor of me, if you’ve brought my darling Lou along with you, yes? Let’s talk in my office.”“It’s nothing,” Leo said. “We just want to talk to one of your employees, but she’s not in today.”“I see,” she said, her smile unbudging as she turned and beckoned them to follow. “Yes, we’ll talk in my office. There’s so much you simply must fill me in on!”Leo glanced down at Splinter, who sighed and gestured for Leo to lead the way, never letting go of Leo’s foot as they followed, shooting apologetic smiles at the receptionist who leaned back in her chair with a sigh of relief, pressing shaking hands to her chest. Ah, poor thing.Big Mama paid the gazelle no mind, rambling on about recent projects and idle business endeavours all the way to her office. Once there, she came around the side of the desk, but didn’t sit.“So,” she drawled, leaning on her desk curiously. “It seems I’ve missed a few things in the family.”“We’re not here to talk about recent events,” Splinter said gruffly, folding his arms defensively. “We just need a location of residence for one of your staff.”“Althea Mustela,” Leo offered.“Ah, the nurse, of course!” Mama waved her hand at her assistant, then folded it under her chin when her assistant was out the door. “And while we wait, you can fill me in. I am very curious as to what’s transpired! Last I heard, little bibbly-blue ran away from home all in a tizzy. I can see that the issue has been resolved, however, but a friend of yours came in and made a deal with me. My resources for information. He hasn’t filled out his end of the diddly-deal, but I’ve been willing to be lenient. It seemed to be a complicated truffle-wuffle of a time for the family.”“You could say that,” Leo agreed tightly. Splinter touched his hand, and it took him a second to realize that he’d clenched it into a fist. “Just… after-effects of the invasion.”“Oh, yes, such a sad thing that happened,” Big Mama said remorsefully, shaking her head. “I heard all about it. Awful. As I understand it, the Hamatos jumped right into the thick of it.”
Right into a thick pile of pink goo, yeah.
“Lou Jitsu’s sons seem to have been all the buzzy-wuzz down here since then. You’ve built up quite the reputation for yourselves, darlings, and people can’t decide if they want to worship you or hate you. Either way, they fear you.”“So we’ve heard,” Splinter sighed. He tugged Leo to the two seats across her desk, and switched his tail’s hold to wrap around Leo’s wrist.“And I doubt that your new… appearance will help,” she said, eyes narrowing on Leo’s left sleeve. It had ridden up from where he had it tucked into his pocket.“What are you getting at?” Splinter snapped, standing in his chair when Leo’s breath caught.“Oh, nothing, my dear!” she giggled, finally sitting down. “Although, I must say; You certainly are a befuddling bunch, very curi-iddlous indeed. I seem to collect these things, and I’ll admit I’ve grown quite fond of your family, in addition to me and Lou’s spark from years ago, but there’s nothing so fun about having them than having a story behind them. More conversation starters at dinners and parties, don’t you know. However, the only stories I get to hear about your peculiar family never really come straight from the source.”“You’re asking us to tell you what happened,” Leo breathed. He wasn’t so much scared of Big Mama as he was trying not to let himself spiral about the reminder that things were different. They’d changed. He’d changed.“Yes, but I’m sure you understand how I run my sizzyness-business. I’m willing to make you a deal, if it would interest you.”“Absolutely not!” Splinter snarled, abandoning his chair to stand on the arm of Leo’s protectively. “We owe you nothing, woman!”“Oh, Lou, how I’ve missed that fighting spirit of yours,” Mama sighed wistfully, “But I don’t think you’re thinking this through, dear. It’s only a few silly-willy notifications every now and then, and I’m willing to strike a bargain. This is not an opportunity that I offer often.”“I don’t care,” he spat. “You’re not getting anything from—” He stopped, turning to look back at Leo when he twisted his hand to grab his tail. “Blue?”“One condition,” Leo said, trying not to let his voice waver too much. “You stop hurting our family. No more… gladiator fights, or clown jobs, or kidnappings. Nothing that goes behind our backs or against our will, and especially not both. You do that, and we’ll give you updates. That’s the deal. No back doors, no work-arounds, no loopholes, no betrayals. You have to be upfront with us about any decision you make that has to do with us.”Big Mama blinked at him, startled. Then she laughed, almost nervous. “Darling, I don’t think—”“You don’t need to, I just did all of it for you. Those are my final terms.”“But- it’s a little bit expensive, don’t you think?”“Considering our past? I hardly think so.”“Oh, come now, love, whatever have I done to you that was so wrong?”Leo gave her a lame look. “Are you serious? I have a whole laundry list, if you have a pen, paper, and a couple hours to spare.” He stood and held a hand out for her to shake. “Do we have a deal?”She hissed softly, but reached out regardless, stuttering when Leo pulled his hand back.“Come now, Mama,” he said, smiling coldly. “Don’t be shy.”Her expression shifted into a glare, but she reached up to her cloaking broach and deactivated it. The prickling magic swallowed the human form, and when the mystics cleared, Leo had a spider leering at him, a mere foot from his face imposingly. He did not flinch, and offered his hand back out.“There you go,” he coaxed, knowing full well what he was doing to her pride. “Comfy, are we?”“Quite,” she snapped, taking his hand anyway.Then she squeaked as Leo yanked her closer to softly say in her ear, “And if you break your promise, I don’t think I have to tell you what we’ll do in return. You know how it is.”She snarled, tightening her grip.What she didn’t realize was that she was shaking his prosthetic. The one Donnie had outfitted with super strength.“Ow!” she gasped, unable to hold up against the enhanced hydraulics. “Let go, child!” Mama wrenched her arm back, clutching it when Leo released. “You sloopiting little—” Then she stopped herself with a sharp inhale, glaring daggers, and exhaled carefully. “Well then,” she said, faux-calm as she drew herself back up, “I suppose that’s that.”“Yup!” Leo popped the P and aimed an easy grin at the spider. There was an excited tingle in his limbs, elated with the rush of dealing with a trickster. This is what he did, it was what he was good at. He hadn’t had material to stretch out and work with in so long, and getting to barter like this with the upper hand was like eating his favorite candy. “And, uh, we’ll take that address now.”Big Mama sighed and waved the hand he hadn’t crushed at the guard, who pulled open the door to let in her assistant that she’d dismissed earlier.Leo took the slip of paper they offered, then held it up like a salute to the mob boss as her assistant returned to her spot just aside from Big Mama’s chair silently. “Thanks, Mama, I appreciate it. I assume you want something for it?”“For a silly piece of paper?” She scoffed, waving her hand at him. “Not at all. All I ask is that you send your human friend over to fill out his end of our little deal so that I don’t have to track him down. And…” she said as an afterthought, tapping her chin, “send a Christmas card back to me. It’s only reasonabauble.”“Fair enough, I’ll tell him,” Leo shrugged, standing to leave.“But other than that, we’re done for now,” she said, flipping her brooch back on. Her human form smiled at him a second later, bright and saccharine as she leaned back into her chair. “I’ll see you soon, dear turtleyboo,” she cooed, waving her fingers coyly at him.“Yeah. Don’t be a stranger, and all that,” he said, reaching for Splinter’s hand to pull him out the door.His dad’s hand was shaking, Leo realized when he took hold, and there was a shine to his eyes Leo was entirely aware and wary of, but he didn’t comment on it until they were out the door and down the hall. He pressed his ear to a door to see if anyone was in it, then pulled his dad through.“Okay,” he said, sitting against the door to listen for incoming people. “You’re crying. What happened?”Splinter had his face covered with both hands, shuddering through breath after breath as the faceman mask slipped off Leo’s face for something softer and worried.“Was it something I said? Or, actually, something she said? Because, like, I get that your history with her is kinda rough, but I didn’t think it would be this bad,” he said, only kind of rambling because he’d literally never seen his dad like this, and he had no clue what to do. “I wouldn’t’ve brought you up if I didn’t think it would be okay, but maybe I misjudged? I’m sorry, dad, I could’ve left you in the lobby—or not even gone out here with you at all. Ugh…” he sighed, scratching his prosthetic arm lightly. “This was such a bad idea. I don’t know why I—”“N-no, no!” Splinter cut him off, rubbing at his eyes with his sleeves. “I’m glad we came out here, I’m not mad, I’m just—” His breath hitched, and he reached out to cradle Leo’s face in his hands. “My sweet Baby Blue,” he murmured with an emotion Leo couldn’t quite place. He tightened his grip, and he said emphatically, “I’m so proud of you, my son. I was watching you in Big Mama’s office, and I… I was realizing how much I’ve overlooked you. I’ve neglected all of my children to a degree that I haven’t gauged yet, but you the most out of all of them. The others and their own safety seemed so much more immediate that I forgot to watch you grow up into the incredible young man you are.”The wave of emotion that struck him was not unfamiliar, not at this point, but that didn’t mean it was any less staggering either. Luckily, he was already sitting down when his breath quivered around the lump in his throat. Except he couldn’t tear his eyes away from his dad.“You have many talents, Blue,” Splinter said softly. “I believe that there is very little that you couldn’t do if you put your heart to it, and I am more sorry that I wasn’t there to help. You and your brothers all hold very special places close to my heart for your own unique reasons, and it was wrong of me to make you believe that you did not mean as much to me as the rest of them did.“You bring something more to our family than I could ever dream of, and I know very well that you need your own time to heal from the extreme duress you held up so well against, but I want you to know that I’m extremely excited to see your healing process completed. That’s not an invitation for you to rush it, I’ll have you know,” he added, giving Leo a stern look that softened again just as fast. “I just want to say that I am glad to see the real you, when you’re practicing your skills or indulging in your hobbies. I am glad to see when you let your guard down, and while I can’t convince you that you are safe to do so whenever you want, I find it so incredibly amazing to see you try, and I could not be more proud.”Leo was so choked up he couldn’t make a sound, leaning into the touch and helpless to the way his dad guided their foreheads to bump against each other.“I love you, my son,” Splinter whispered.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Leo realized, belatedly, that this might be the first time he’s ever knocked on an actual door. Doorframes to let his brothers know he was coming in, or on April’s window for a late-night gossip sesh, sure, but never an actual front door into anyone’s residence, even his own. He just… let himself in, most times.This was not that kind of moment. This was so much more nerve wracking—and he didn’t even know why! What, was Althea going to judge him for something? She’d already accidentally seen him at his worst, and though he wasn’t at his best yet by far, there wasn’t really a lower rock-bottom he could’ve fallen to since then.Besides, he had support! Splin— Lou Jitsu, because he was Lou Jitsu right now (Big Mama had slipped a cloaking brooch into the envelope her assistant had handed Leo, and they had to stop at the nearest bathroom to ride out Splinter’s eensy weensy panic attack at the realization. Real father-son bonding moment right there.)—was standing beside him, if not a little behind him, tall and strong and gray with age, wearing a brown-black-white kimono. He was a little unsteady on his feet, and understandably so since he’d spent the last seventeen years of his life with a tail to help, but he had an arm slotted through Leo’s elbow as a prop.So Leo inhaled bracingly, and knocked on the door.A few seconds later, tiny footsteps padded towards the door, and a little ferret pup on tip-toes managed to pull the door open. Her eyes blew wide when she caught a glimpse of them, and she gasped.“Oh my stars!!!” the kit squealed, abandoning the door and popping out of sight, the door falling closed without her keeping it open, and the sound of her high-pitched voice yelling something.“...Well,” Leo said slowly after a moment of shocked silence, “Looks like you’re popular with the rest of the fam, too.”“It would seem so,” Lou replied, just as confused.“So should we leave, or…?”“No, I think they’re going to get their mom. Just give it a second.”As if on cue, Althea’s voice filtered out the door back to them, shooing her kid away. “Yes, yes, Anifa, I hear you, I just don’t think it’s actually Lou Jitsu outside,” she said, getting closer. “Hang on. Go play with Nineven and Lemis while mom talks to the people outside.”Leo’s breath caught in his throat in anticipation, a ball of emotion lodging there for some reason. He took a bracing breath as the door opened, and…The only thing Leo caught was a pair of eyes as Althea opened the door, just enough to see him and Lou, before her eyes widened so big that the whites were showing, and then it was promptly slammed in their faces with a rather loud word that was probably definitely not a word he was allowed to use in the Hidden City.Caught between a snort and an affronted noise, Leo looked to Splinter for help, who looked just as lost as he does, meeting his gaze and shrugging.A handful of seconds later, Althea whipped the door open again, thoroughly embarrassed with a hand against her chest. “Oh my stars,” she wheezed, strangled. “Leonardo?!” “Just Leo is fine,” he replied, smiling politely.She looked at Lou and swayed, almost like she was going to pass out. “You… you’re…”“Lou Jitsu,” his dad answered, bowing deeply. “It’s an honor to meet you.”Althea did not answer, gaping like a fish before looking helplessly at Leo for an explanation.“My father,” he told her as Lou stood back up. “I wanted to repay you for your help a few months ago, and you seemed such a big fan of Lou Jistu that I thought it would be best to get you an audience with him. It’s… Well, we weren’t planning to do a house call, but you weren’t at the Nexus, and I guess I got a little excited. Sorry if it’s too much.” He gave an apologetic shrug, feeling less and less confident in his decisions by the second.“N-no! No! Not at all! Just—this is such an unexpected surprise!” she laughed nervously, messing with her fur self-consciously. “Oh! Um,” she opened the door wider for them, “come in! Sorry, I’m so sorry. Pardon the mess, I wasn’t expecting company, much less… yeah.”They stepped into the house, and the first thing Leo noticed was that it was… messy. As was to be expected, if she had not one, but three little ones running around the place. Leo didn’t mind it at all, since the sight felt more nostalgic than grotesque.“Looks like you’ve got your hands full,” Lou commented, amused as they picked their way into the living room.“Triplets,” Althea said with a strained smile. “I can never keep up with them even when my husband, Modi, is home from work.”“I can imagine,” he agreed sympathetically.“How old are they?” Leo asked curiously as he looked around. The polished wood smelled like a cross between spilled food and fur and candy, evidence of all three strewn around the place.“They just turned eight yesterday, actually. The party was—well, this is going to sound embarrassing,” she chuckled, fidgeting with her paws. “It was Lou Jitsu themed, so they’re a bit crazed about him—I mean you—at the moment. As they will be for the rest of the week, I’m sure.”Lou laughed, but there was a tic in his voice, almost uncertain. “Not embarrassing at all; I’m actually rather flattered! I have four boys of my own, so I know how it goes, but I can’t imagine celebrating three at once. Celebrating two is difficult enough!”“I’ll have you know that half the fights me and Donnie get into are purely cosmetic,” Leo pointed out. “Or, like, musical performances.”“That doesn’t stop my blood pressure from skyrocketing, does it?” his dad responded.“No, I guess not,” Leo sighed, tucking his hands into his pockets. “Anyway, Althea—”“Wait, wait, wait,” Althea cut him off, moving closer, “did your—did your arm grow back?!” “What?” He glanced down and remembered suddenly that the last time she’d seen him, he’d dropped his prosthetic off at Hueso’s so he couldn’t be followed by the tracker Donnie had definitely put in it. She’d seen him missing a limb. “Oh. No, I didn’t.” He pulled the sweatshirt off, thankful he’d thought to put a tank top on underneath it since everyone else was wearing clothes, and let her get a full view of the metal arm. “It’s a prosthetic. My brother made it.”“You’re brother…?!” She reached out, as if to touch it, then visibly held herself back. “He made it?”“He’s kind of a mad genius. Here, you can touch it, if you want,” he said, holding his arm out for her to feel. She took it in her paws and ran her thumb over the back of the hand. “Cool, right?”“It’s incredible,” she said softly. Then she asked tentatively, “You never… you didn’t tell me how you lost your arm, and it doesn’t look like a birth defect. Was it… recent?”Leo’s breath caught, and he looked to Lou for help. His father didn’t say anything, he just looked remorseful and gestured for Leo to decide.“It…” Leo cleared his throat. “Yeah. It was. Did you—I mean, you probably did—The invasion? Topside?”Althea’s expression trembled with something like sorrow as she pulled away. “Yes. I heard how bad it was. And that your family was in the midst of it.”“We were. It was…” He exhaled sharply, unable to look at her. “Yeah. I just wasn’t… y’know, smart enough or fast enough. I had a really rough time afterwards because of some… lingering effects, plus adjusting to the new normal, and, um. I really appreciated your help, back at the Nexus. Segue, on the surface, the humans celebrate a holiday called Christmas, which is essentially celebrated by giving gifts to loved ones, or just people you appreciate. So showing up here is kind of like my gift to you, except it’s also a thank you, and paying my debt back in the form of—” he gestured at Lou Jitsu, “—helping you meet someone you said you were a fan of.”Althea looked between him and his dad, eyes shining, then let her gaze land on Leo again. “Would it be okay if I gave you a hug?”With a lump in the back of his throat, he nodded and let her arms wrap around him, sinking into the warm touch while Lou took the hoodie from his hands. The relief that crashed over him was almost surreal, mixed with threads of gratitude that she’d asked, especially since his skin was prickling in time with his jumpy heartbeat. She hugged him steadily, easy enough to shake off, but firm enough to tell him exactly what she wasn’t saying.“You didn’t have to do this,” she said softly, and it was all he could do to duck closer, trying to control his quivering breath.“Of course I did,” he said, wet. “You saved my life.”She huffed a laugh, light and worried. “Your injuries were hardly lethal.”“That’s not what I meant.”Maybe she hadn’t pulled him off a precipice, but she’d certainly delayed his descent even without knowing, just long enough for his brothers to catch him. That definitely counted in his book.Althea’s breath hitched at the admission, and she hugged him tighter. “You—You’re okay now though, right?”He hesitated. “I don’t think I could’ve gotten worse, if I’m being totally honest. But- yeah, I’m… I’m trying.”“That’s all I need. I’m proud of you for that.”Warmth blossomed behind his plastron and behind his eyes, but he was nothing if not a champion at choking it down, shuddering through one breath after another as Althea swayed them soothingly.“I TOLD YOU GUYS IT WAS LOU JITSU!!!”Leo jumped approximately three feet in the air with a strangled shriek, yanking out of Althea’s hold and kicking the first object he felt at the source of the loud, sudden voice on reflex, only to find something else at the back of his knees, tripping him.“No!” Althea gasped as he toppled over with a crash, a startled yelp coming from across the room at the same time that his shell hit a wall. He wrenched his eyes open immediately upon realizing he’d closed them, because what if, what if, what if—! Except that the sight that met him was not the one that he was expecting. It wasn’t black and red, it was a miasma of color, blurry browns and whites and blues and yellows and– and there was Lou Jitsu, quickly setting down a footrest before rushing over, pulling off the brooch and sliding to his knees beside Leo as Splinter, taking his face in his paws and saying something to him.Leo heaved for breath and looked at him, heart galloping away in his chest until his frozen muscles found the strength to move, diving straight into his dad’s arms on instinct as the adrenaline thundered through his body.“Breathe, Leonardo,” Splinter coaxed, his voice murky and far away as a hand brushed up and down the back of Leo’s head. “You’re safe, my boy, I have you. You’re okay.”“Y-yeah, yeah,” Leo choked out, collecting fistfuls of Splinter’s robe to ground himself against the trembling he couldn’t make stop. “I’m okay. I’m good, I just—it-it startled me. It’s fine, I’m sorry.”“There’s no need to apologize,” his dad said calmly, gentle in his ministrations. “Just breathe, Blue, we’re safe.”He obediently sucked in a couple haphazard lungfuls of air and released them in sharp puffs, then tensed again when someone else asked,“Is he okay?”“He’ll be alright,” Splinter answered for him, “this is actually one of the better ones. Just let him catch his breath.”“Yes, of course,” the other person said, rushed. Althea. Right. “I– I feel so bad, I’m extremely sorry.”“It’s okay, these things happen.”“Okay. I’m—Is there anything I can do to help? Can I bring you anything?”“Just a glass of water would be fine. Preferably with a straw, if you have one, and ice.”“Yes! Yes, we do. I’ll—Just give me a minute to grab that for you.” Althea’s footsteps hurried away, and something occurred to Leo that had his heart twisting painfully.“D-dad,” he managed to say, tightening his grip on his dad’s robes, “did—did I hurt anyone? There was– there was a yell, and- and—”“You didn’t hurt anyone,” Splinter soothed, shushing him softly. “No one was harmed, and nothing was damaged. Just a few frightened children.”“I kicked the thing at the kids?!” he choked, horrified.“They startled you. I would like to remind you that you are merely a child yourself. You count into that frightened category, and your reaction was completely justified, my son. Don’t worry.”“I tried- I tried to h- hurt them! I- I—”“Nothing happened, Leonardo. I caught the footstool before anything could happen.”“A footstool!? What if- ack- what if you h-hadn’t caught it?! What if I hit them?!”“Then we would’ve figured it out. Your friend knows that you didn’t mean harm, and I can see that she cares for you, Blue. Maternal instincts will do that to a mother, I suppose. She would’ve found it in her to forgive you, and the kid wouldn’t have been hurt in a way they couldn’t come back from. Babies are made of rubber, and lucky for it too, or else my babies would’ve been dead years ago.”Leo sniffled at the same time that Althea came back, a glass of water in hand with a hard, plastic straw already stuck in. Splinter took it with thanks and held it for him to drink, which was extremely humbling, even though the tiny little exercise helped with the mild hyperventilation. Regardless, it was a heavensend as it blazed a path down his throat, soothing the lump forming in the back. He greedily sucked down more until the cup was empty and he could think straight through the dizzying spin of hangover panic, giving a shuddering sigh of relief and mumbling his own thanks.“Whatever you need, sweetie,” Althea offered warmly. “Do you want some lunch, too? We were just about to have some, and we have room for more.”Splinter looked down at him and jostled his shoulder lightly. “What do you think?”Leo glanced between them, just to gauge how well a yes would go by, then he said carefully, “You don’t… you don’t have to.”“And what if I said I wanted to?”Leo sighed but couldn’t help the little smile that tugged on his lips, grateful for the offer, and allowed himself to say, “Well, I’d have a hard time saying no,” as he sat back up on shaky limbs with his dad’s hands at his shoulders to guide him up.Althea smiled and moved to help him to his feet, since Splinter could only stand so tall as a rat. She looked at her triplets, who were hovering near the doorway, and said, “Ninny, can you go set the table for two more? And Lemis, take Anifa back to your room so she can calm down.”One of the kits, with dark-brown-almost-black fur intercut with white stripes and a green-pink-white outfit, nodded and darted into the kitchen, while the almost white kit with gray stripes and a blue-black outfit took the paw of the last kit—reddish-brown fur with a yellow-red outfit—and pulled her into an adjacent hallway. Leo watched them go with all the corresponding emotions jumbling around inside his chest, anxiety gnawing at his gut. He’d almost hurt a kid! “She’ll be okay,” Althea told him, just before he could start spiralling. “She’s had worse scares before.”“Yeah, but—”“Did you know that we get snow down here?” the yokai cut him off, ducking to grab Leo’s hoodie off the floor that Splinter had dropped at some point and tossing it over her shoulder.Leo looked at her. “What?”“The ladies in Witch Town came up with an idea that was approved by the Council. Someone had gone topside while it was snowing and they found the idea so enjoyable that they wanted to replicate it down here so we could enjoy it too. They’d whip up a spell to create a snowstorm to cover the entire Hidden City, twice a year, and then changed the spell so that the snow wouldn’t be cold, and that instead of freezing into ice, it would melt maybe a week later. It still compacts, though. One year, the snow was so heavy that the kids could actually climb on top of the bushes in our backyard and play on it.”“Wouldn’t it just break?” Splinter asked.“It was sturdy enough when the storm ended,” Althea explained as they sat down at the table, and handed Leo his hoodie. The kid with the almost-black fur—Ninny, if Leo remembered correctly—was on a stepstool, stirring a steaming pot, and she turned around as Leo pulled the hoodie back over his head.“Are you telling them about the time where Annie fell through the bush?” she asked eagerly. “I’m pretty sure she’s still mad at Lemmy for it.”“But you just said it was sturdy enough!” Splinter gasped.“Yes, and not exactly. This was towards the end of the week, where the snow was softening,” Althea answered, answering Ninny, then Splinter, before looking back at Leo. “Anyway, so the kids were climbing on the bushes, and my middle triplet, Anifa, was standing on the edge, even though I’d told them earlier to stay away from the edge. It crumpled beneath her, but she managed to catch hold of a branch that was sticking out. Her feet were still on the solid part, though, so her entire upper half was hanging upside down while she’s holding onto the branch, which is the only thing keeping her from falling some five feet through frozen branches, and she can’t pull herself up.” She said, demonstrating the story as she told it.“The other two were there at the time, but I was not, and Nineven, my youngest, had gotten her foot stuck between the branches where they couldn’t see Anifa. Lemis was helping her, and he’s a little bit hard of hearing, so he didn’t hear Anifa screaming for help, and Nineven was focused on getting herself loose. That or she didn’t realize the levity of the situation, I don’t know.”“Did Anifa fall?” Leo asked.“No, thank the stars. She managed to pull herself up, but she didn’t want to play anymore for the rest of the week that the snow was out. I think she thought she was actually about to die, and her brother had the option to help, but he didn’t.”“Oh, she definitely thought she was about to die. She complains about it all the time,” Nineven groaned. “Well, not all the time, but she’s definitely still not happy, even though it was, like, forever ago.”“It was last year,” Althea corrected, standing up to join her daughter at the pot. “I think this is ready,” she told the kit, taking the stirring spoon away and setting it on the counter before picking up the pot and draining what appeared to be ramen noodles. “Anyway, the lesson that I’ve seen her learn from that moment was that she needed to be more careful, and that she needs to handle her own safety even if others are there to help.”“So how is this story supposed to help?” Leo wondered, voice rough.“I’m telling you that because it’s a similar story. Something scary happened to her, but nothing actually happened , so she’ll absorb it like kids do, and turn it into a lesson to learn from. She won’t be scared of you, just like she isn’t scared of snow, but she’ll be more careful. Besides, maybe she won’t even focus on the fact that something bad happened,” Althea suggested with a smile. “Lou Jitsu stepped in and stopped that bad thing from happening, so if anything, she might just fan over him even more rather than dwell on the ‘what if’.”“Speaking of Lou Jitsu,” Nineven said, trotting over to plop into her seat across from Splinter and staring at him, “Why are you a rat? You were a human before but I watched you turn into a yokai.” She squinted, leaning in. “Are you sure you’re Lou Jitsu?”Splinter huffed a breath of laughter. “Absolutely positive, but the reason I look like this now is a very long and dramatic story.”“Can you summamarize?”“Summarize? That’s a pretty big word for someone so little,” Leo hummed, chewing on his straw a little. The squish of the hard plastic against his teeth was grounding, and after a couple tests, he realized that it was durable enough.“I’m not little!” Nineven shot back defensively, crossing her arms like—well, like a little kid.“Right, right, sorry,” Leo said, humor coating his tone.“Are you sure you want to hear it?” Splinter asked. “It’s a scary story.”“I can handle scary!” the kit declared, puffing out her chest.“She can. It’s crazy, she laughs at all the scary parts in your movies,” Althea endorsed with a mildly harrowed look as she dished the ramen into bowls.“Oh, wow, you must be really brave then. Well, if you’re sure you can handle it.”“Yes!”Leo tuned out of the recap of his dad’s life, pouring an ice cube into his mouth and crunching on it instead and focusing on the reverberation of it through his skull. Except that two little pairs of feet were approaching.Lemis popped into sight first, holding Anifa’s hand as the younger triplet trailed behind him shyly. He nudged her in front of him, and went to sit beside his other sister, leaving Anifa to shuffle awkwardly a few feet from Leo’s chair, staring at the floor.“Um. Mr. Lou Jitsu’s son, sir?” the kit asked, and Leo suddenly had the feeling that he knew where this was going.“Yeah, what’s up, kid?’ he replied, putting his cup down to look at her.“I’m… I’m sorry for yelling like that. Are… are you mad at me?”“What? No, no, I’m not mad at you.” Of all the emotions he thought she would identify, anger was not one of them. Leo didn’t… he didn’t get mad. Irritated, sure, but he didn’t, like, blow up, or anything. Not like his brothers would, if pushed hard enough.Well.Until recently.“But… but you kicked a chair at me,” Anifa pointed out, hugging her arms close to her chest, like she wasn’t kicking the remains of Leo’s own broken heart.You hurt her. A child.
What kind of hero does that?
He shut his eyes, blocking out Mikey’s blank-slate form hovering in the corner.
It’s not real.
It’s not real, Leo. Get it together.
You can’t walk away now. Make it right.
He blinked his eyes back open and and turned back to the little girl with an apologetic expression, carefully not looking at the shadow in the corner. “I’m sorry about that, I really am. I didn’t mean to, you just…” He inhaled shakily. “I went through something really scary a few months ago, so I don’t really react well to loud or sudden noises anymore. You didn’t know about that, though, so there’s no way it’s your fault. I’m not mad, and I don’t blame you. Promise.” He pulled up a smile that felt weird on his mouth, but at least it got Anifa to relax a little, smiling back.“Okay. Thanks. I’m… sorry that you went through something scary. Do you need a hug?”The laugh that broke its way past his throat was soft and tired, but he said “Sure,” anyway, and shifted off the chair to take it. Though smaller in his arms, Anifa was just as warm and kind with her hug as her mom was, letting go after a solid two seconds to scuttle around the table. She took her seat next to Nineven just as Althea passed out the bowls, chopsticks already stacked on top, and shot him a quick smile across the table.Splinter’s hand found his under the table, giving it a quick squeeze before retreating, which meant that Splinter had definitely seen the little moment with the little girl, and Leo couldn’t help but roll his eyes. It was no secret to anyone in his family that he had a soft spot for little kids, but it was only on the very, very, very rare occasion that he actually got to interact with one. Like, he could count the amount of times he’d had contact with little kids on his hands, and he could still clearly recall the bright eyed wonder and innocence that came with each memory. Add this one to the list.The ramen Althea served them was delicious. Not quite Mikey-level, but no one could really live up to Mikey’s level, and Althea had come close, which was no easy feat. The triplets easily traded ingredients they didn’t like into each other’s bowls, and Lemis even made a dive for Anifa’s bowl before being warded off by clicking chopsticks. It was so reminiscent of him and Donnie that Leo felt kind of weird being on the outside of it, like watching your own life from an entirely different perspective.“Is this what it’s always like with me and Don?” Leo leaned over to ask his dad when Althea had to tell Nineven to clean off the broth dripping from her chin.“Yes. Every time,” his dad replied flatly, expertly ignoring the commotion on the other side of the table.“Huh. Good to know,” he snorted, slurping some noodles up. Then, like she’d been listening to them, Anifa asked,“Do you have any siblings, Mr. Lou Jitsu’s son?”Leo nearly choked, turning to the side to cough into his wrist before he spilled something. He swallowed the ramen that was threatening to kill him and rasped, “No, no, I’m—I’m just Leo, kiddo. No need to call me ‘Mister.’”“Oh. Okay then. Do you have any siblings, Mr. Leo?”Splinter snorted beside him, but didn’t butt in.“It’s… my name is just Leo . And, uh, yeah. I’ve got three brothers.”Her eyes brightened. “Are they triplets?”“Nah, but there is a set of twins in the family. I’ve got an older brother named Raph, and then there’s me and my twin, Donnie, and we’ve got a little brother named Mikey.”Nineven gasped. “You’re a twin?! That’s awesome. I wish I was a twin.”“We’re literally triplets, dummy,” Lemis pointed out.“Well maybe I want to get rid of you!” Nineven shot back, sticking her tongue out at her brother.“Hey, apologize to your brother,” Althea snapped at her. “That was not kind.”“Mom, it was just a joke,” Lemis said placatingly, even though Leo fully recognized the look on his face. The hit was a little too close to home, and there was a good chance, if their relationship was anything like him and Donnie, that the feeling would either fester for a couple days or they’d talk about it in the middle of the night. “Now, Nineven.”“Oooh, full name,” Anifa murmured into her bowl, taking another bite.“Ugh, fine. Sorry, Lem.”“Thanks.” Yeah, they were gonna talk about it later tonight.As the atmosphere shifted back into playful and light, Leo let himself just sit and listen, absentmindedly checking his phone for notifications. There was one from Donnie just a couple minutes ago. Don:
Hey u good?
Mikey’s making lunch Leo:
Its chill, she’s rlly nice. He bit his lip as his fingers hovered over the keyboard. His family had been trying to beat it into him to keep them updated, communication was really important, yada yada yada. But that didn’t make it any easier to actually tell him. They technically didn’t even need to know. Like, what were they gonna do with the fact that Leo had been startled? Sure, maybe they’d be a little more careful about not startling him if they knew he was still jumpy, and that’d be a relief, but like… who cares? Don:
Should we be expecting you back soon? Leo:
Idk, she offered us lunch and like how can we say no? Lol Don:
I thought it was gonna be a quick visit He sighed. Leo:
It was supposed to be but then things got a little
Complicated. Don:
Complicated how.
Leo, what happened?
Leo.
Arey ou hurt?
Leo:
No no we’re good everythings fine
Just
She’s got three kids and one of them recognized dad and she ran in yelling, I just wasnt
expecting it. No ones hurt
Donnie?
Don:
Are you sure you’re okay? Leo:
100%
Js a little tired and on edge now Don:
Nap when you get home? Leo:
I’m fine dude chillllll Don:
Let me rephrase
Nap when you get home. Leo:
You literally just changed the punctuation lol Don:
I’m serious Leo:
Okay okay fiiiine. Bossy bossy Don:
That’s me
Bad Boss Witch Leo:
Witch? Don:
Raph’s hovering behind me rn Leo:
Ohhhh
Yeah we’ll be like another hour maybe
Including the commute back home Don:
Okay. Thank you for the check-in, I appreciate you telling me what’s happened.
I will also be enforcing the nap when you get home Leo:
Lol ok Officer Sappy Don:
👮 Leo snorted and clicked his phone off, pocketing it before tipping back the cup Althea had given him and drinking the melted water, then chewing on one of the remaining ice cubes.“Was that Purple?” Splinter asked. The triplets had gotten into some sort of fight—Anifa had stolen one of Lemis’s remaining carrots—and Althea was quickly breaking it up.“Yeah, I told him we’d be home in an hour.”“Did you tell him what happened?“Kinda had to. He’s making me take a nap when we get back.”Splinter reached for his hand again and gave it another squeeze, looking at him with unbearable fondness. “Do you see how much your brothers love you?” he asked, soft. “They’re eager to help you.”Leo could look at him. Not like this. He looked down at his empty bowl and muttered, “I know, dad. I’m… trying.”“I know you’re trying, and it’s incredible to watch you do so. I just want you to know that any time you reach out, we will be reaching right back.”“Who will be reaching back?” Nineven asked, wiping the last few droplets of broth off her chin.“Nothing,” Splinter said, then stood up in his chair and bowed to Althea, who’d finally managed to get the other two to break up their little spat. “Thank you for the food. It was delicious.”“It was only fair,” Althea said, shrugging self consciously.“Well, thank you anyway. Now!” He clapped his hands together and regarded the triplets. “I hear you three are Lou Jitsu fans, so what’s the point of having him over if you don’t get any photos?”The three kids gasped. Leo plopped down on the back porch, exhausted from running around with the triplets in the backyard for the better part of an hour. They had to leave soon, if they were going to be home when he’d promised Donnie they would be, and it was the perfect excuse to stretch out his aching knee and take a breather.Splinter—or, Lou, right now, since he had the brooch on—seemed to be keeping up with the triplets well, for someone of his age. Well enough for Althea to back away and join him on the steps, clearly watching the way he distantly rubbed his knee through his sweatpants in her peripheral.“So… I’m assuming you have to leave soon?” she asked, instead of pointing out his leg like he’d been expecting.“Yeah.”Althea nodded, like she’d already known—probably had, considering the way she asked in the first place. “That’s a shame. The kids really liked having you here, even though they’re going to be bouncing off the walls for the next week,” she chuckled.“I can hear it now,” Leo agreed. “‘Mom! I can’t believe we met Lou Jitsu!’ ‘Isn’t it crazy that we got to take pictures with Lou Jitsu?!’ ‘Lou Jitsu taught me how to do a flip!’ Oh, sorry about that one, actually.”“So long as they’re not breaking anything or themselves,” she said with a shrug. “Will we…? Actually, no, probably not.”“Will you what?” Leo prodded, because now she’d baited him.“It’s silly.”“I’m a teenager with three brothers, and I think that’s the lamest excuse I’ve ever heard.”“Fair point.”“So…?”“I just…” she sighed. “Will we see you again?”Leo blinked. “Will you… I mean, I don’t know,” he said, turning away. “I figured you didn’t want to see the guys that everyone is afraid of, like, repeatedly.”Althea frowned at him. “You say that like you think we’re scared of you.”“Aren’t you? Plus, you’ve been, like, super nervous since we got here. We stopped by the Nexus and Big Mama said that everyone who’d heard of us feared us, too, so that didn’t really help,” he added in a mumble, hissing between his teeth when his knee throbbed.Althea patted his shoulder sympathetically. “It would make sense why anyone would be scared, but those same people who are afraid of you either haven’t met you, or are your enemies. I’m neither of those, and neither are my kids.”Leo sighed and flexed his hands, watching the motion. “I mean, they’re not exactly wrong, though. We’re wildcards. We’re… dangerous. I don’t even know what we could do. If we lost control, if we…”She put her hand on his. “Are you talking about your family, or are you talking about yourself?”“My family. Both? I don’t…” He shook his head and covered his face with a hand, shuddering. “I guess I’m talking about myself. But that doesn’t—! It’s just- you wouldn’t understand. You weren’t there.”Althea paused, considering. “I don’t think I need to have been.” She grabbed his remaining hand and squeezed it between her paws. “I think you were used to do something you didn’t want to, and now you’re worried something like it will happen again.”The way he pulled out of her reach and sharply stimmed his hands was purely instinctual, barely managing to stay in control of his breathing as it rushed in and out of his lungs.“Did I get it right?” she asked in a sad sort of knowing way. Thankfully she didn’t try to get in the way of his panicked response, though.“Y-yeah,” he gasped out. “Some– something like that.”“Okay. Well, I have two pieces of good news for you about that, then.”Leo glanced at her for all of one split second, before he couldn’t handle it and had to shut his eyes.“The first is that it’s perfectly normal to feel afraid after something as awful as that. You’re—what, fifteen?”“S-six… sixteen.”“You’re sixteen, and cursed with incredible power. No one, especially not you, should have to go through that. But here’s the other good news: Being afraid of it means that you’ll be more wary, and you’ll do anything to prevent it from happening to yourself or others ever again. Let me ask you this, Leo, did you want to?”“No! I mean, they wanted me to want it, but it wasn’t—it happened so fast, and I nearly- I nearly killed my brother! Who does that?”“But you didn’t kill him. He’s still alive and breathing, and you can go home and see so for yourself. And what’s more, you’ve spent countless moments with him ever since, yet not even in one of those moments did you act on any murderous impulses. Doesn’t that say something about your self-control?”“It doesn’t matter if- if I have self control. I’m dangerous.” “So is your entire family, if I’ve heard the stories correctly. But I know from what you’ve told me that they would never hurt you unless they thought it would save you from some greater pain. That greater pain could even just be the effect that hurting them would have on you. Regardless, you have people in your corner who wouldn’t let you hurt yourself or others, so if you can’t trust in yourself, trust in them. You’ve had it so rough recently, and you’ve been trying so hard, and it’s admirable.” She reached out and touched his knee, light, and unobtrusive. “Keep trying, even if you feel like it’s useless, and you’ll get where you want to be. Let go of everything else, and let them take care of it. They’re happy to take care of it.”“But how do you know?” he whined.“Because I’ve already seen you at your lowest point. If that didn’t scare me into giving up on you, then nothing would scare me away. And I’ve only met you twice. I think it would be utterly impossible for your family to give up on you, so the only person we have to worry about is you. Just…” Althea sighed and patted his knee gently, “don’t give up on yourself before you give those around you a chance.”“You’re just… you’re just saying that,” he sniffed, a last-ditch attempt even though he was pretty sure every inch of his body was trembling.“Am I?” she asked, soft in a torturous way, like she wasn’t just tightening a ziptie of emotions around his larynx with every word. “Prove me wrong, then. Go home and ask your family if they love you, or if they want to help you. If they like helping you, and being around you.”Leo said nothing, choking to death. Except then she moved her hand to rest on his shell, where she could definitely feel his quivering, and breathing became impossible.“You know I’m right.”Yeah, and that was the worst part. At least 99% of his mind was screaming, wailing and kicking and crying, begging every single voice he’d heard in the last week to leave him alone. Let him wallow in his misery, please. But that quiet 1% just wept with relief, shaking apart and reaching out with everything it had, begging for relief, soaking up the attention and the comfort.“Oh, Leo…”He didn’t cry. Not quite. He just… let her hug him, instinctively tucking himself into a tiny little ball under her chin, all shivering, boney sixteen-year-old kid. Althea didn’t seem to mind, she just held him as easily as if he were one of her own kids, and made him miss Karai with a vengeance.He and Splinter had to leave soon, if they were going to make it home in time for that nap Donnie had threatened him with. But that was a problem for future-him.Right now, Leo was going to take whatever he could get.