The mutant's dry marble eyes glared at the time; it was one in the morning. It was a very unusual hour to receive company. His father came in earlier saying that he should shut off his music, so now Donatello sat in silence. He complied despite the hesitation. The last time he was alone in his lab things ended up not going well. While not complete silence… it was still eerily quiet to hear rainwater flooding in from the world above. Nothing else added to it aside from the hissing of his blow torch.
"Hey, Donnie Darko."
Donatello felt his eyes reflexively roll behind his goggles, he muttered barely hiding his impatience, "And you've returned."
"Aw… missed you too tough guy." The voice began to make itself at home in Donatello's garage. They settled on the weather-worn loveseat Don found in the alleyway. Clearly, having tuckered themselves out from their journey, the yokai stretched its arms above its head.
"Lincoln honestly why are you still hanging around here? Shouldn't you be rescuing old ladies, doing some— Jersey stuff."
"Hey don't diss your neighbors, that's how you end up with riots and flipped cars after track meets." Link kicked up their feet on the ottoman.
The turtle removed his goggles to get a better look at the yokai, "You think I'd be any good at track?"
"If you were human?"
"Well, I still partially am, y'know." He pointed to his chest.
Link scrunched their nose,"...I was pretty good at track, so maybe if you could outrun me then maybe- just maybe you could have a career in it."
"Good to know." Donnie rolled his shoulder, it then dawned on him that he was being buttered up to. He shook his head, "S-stop distracting me, why are you here?"
"I saw videos of you dancing in Manhattan…" Link cocked their head toward the turtle, jutting their chin toward the ceiling, "since when do you go out in the day?"
"Videos huh? I suppose there's some Alex Jones level conspiracies about what's happening to the water in New York to make giant gay frogs and praying mantis mascot characters…"
"Haven't seen any of those… but hey you are by far the gayest frog I've ever met Donatello."
"You flatter me so," he snorted, in a quiet subtle way. He had all but left his awkward preteen dungeons and dragons persona behind. Donnie prided himself on having mastered his "Glow up".
"That still doesn't explain why you're here." Don felt like he was talking at the wall, he pursed his lips.
Link sighed, "Can't a homie just visit another homie?"
"We're not- I wouldn't go that far." The turtle groaned, setting down his tools. Normally Link like a typical cat would come over only to distract him from his work. Whenever they wanted something but… there was something different about tonight. In fact, the cat seemed to be rather quiet tonight, just staring off into the ceiling of the subway lair as if it was a cloudless starry sky.
Lincoln pointed to the ceiling, tracing their finger along the cracks they spotted, "You ever make constellations out of these?"
"Can't say that I've ever stooped so low to waste my time on such things."
If it was any other person they probably would've taken offense to such a comment. But Link suffering from the same amount of social ineptitude seemed to understand this strange language they both cobbled together.
Link hummed contently. They didn't purr, as they had corrected Donatello many times before.
"I… I tried going home tonight," The mutant admitted.
Without realizing it Don asked superfluously, "You have a home?"
"Shocking… I know. I never wanted to burden you with knowing about— it's stupid really." Their body shifted as they shrugged nervously, and their head snapped forward, but not toward him.
Donatello quietly set aside his blowtorch, his robotic arms slowly retracted into his battle shell. Don drew a circle into the soot on his work table, "I forget sometimes that there aren't packs of mutants out there… looking out for each other. You just seemed really adapted to being on the streets—"
"I suppose that's 'cus the family never did a good job of being there in the first place," Link interjected with a nose laugh.
"... I'm sorry, dude I just… that's rough." For one of the only times in his life, he didn't really have a clever solution or said anything that wasn't planned in stages in his head.
Link removed their feet from the ottoman, then they lowered their head towards their chest slouching in on themselves, "I'll bounce back though. I always do," a defeated tone laced their words," Donnie Darko, now don't you go feeling sorry for me."
The turtle calmly went to the side of their friend, placing his hand on their shoulder. For once he thought he didn't actually need to say anything at all. As much as he thought the closeness of his family was creepy and unnecessary… looking at how their eyes wavered when they looked up at him helplessly—
He realized that a family wasn't something everybody could go back to.
Unsure really what else he could do, Donatello was overcome with the urge that he needed to physically comfort his friend. Because after all, that's what people do, that's what they do when they see others in distress. He gave Link the quickest embrace not stopping to ask permission, it was a fast tight squeeze that nearly knocked the wind out of the cat.
"H-hey dude, thanks."
Quickly flipping his goggles down, "We shall never speak of that again! If you so wish you can sleep on the couch, but you can make yourself useful by being the new test subject for my exploding shuriken!"
The cat's ears folded down. In Donnie's eyes, cats only did that when they were stressed or uncomfortable— but they laughed, they laughed hard. Their smile looked like it made their face hurt… but he was glad to be the causation for it.
The next morning wasn't necessarily met with a charming flute section with singing birds. Link stretched out on the loveseat that was clearly twice too small. Eyes fluttering open to the same cracked constellation ceiling. It was hard to remember what it was like not actually sleeping under the stars. Bare paw padded feet touched the cold, damp, concrete floor. A shiver traveled through their bones, causing their fur to frill to the ends.
Their neck felt like they had an ice pick stabbed through it. Link's eyes crossed as they felt the tickling of a sticky-note on their snout. It was a lilac color, so the culprit wasn't hard to identify.
"You have an odor like the garbage town you came from; the shower is the third door to the left."
Wow, thanks, Don. Lovingly they folded the note over in their hand.
The mutant pondered whether or not the semicolon was correct. It was.
As they slouched over, their human hands ran through their face fur automatically. Pinching the sand from their tear ducts, Link pried their jaw open in a yawn that felt like a roar. Fingers combing through their whiskers, they tried to boot up their tired brain. The nice soothing pink neon lights had been shut off as sunlight was now filtered through the grate that led to the alley above. Their fur was still on edge. Link took deep inhales to calm themselves down. It was just too cold… or maybe they had a nightmare again or—
They nearly jumped when a garbage truck came rumbling by. The ceiling shook with vibrato as chunks of it fell to the ground. Shaking like an earthquake was passing, link jumped onto Donnie's desk shielding his work from the broken pieces of the lair. As the cat landed hard belly up, they knew the next part wouldn't be as fun. The large rock filled up their vision as they ignored the instinct to squirm away. Link barred their arms in front of their face. Sucking in what they thought would be their final breath. In brief flash, they saw a glowing purple wave pass over them. As the piece hit the bubble the glow of the bubble shined intensely over the point of impact as the rock disintegrates into dust. It then fell gently onto the bubble and slid to the ground.
"Threat eliminated." The unsettling robot Donnie voice repeated.
Yeah, no shit.
Link shook their head, the shield evaporated just as quickly as it arrived. The mutant looked behind them towards the objects on the desk. The shuriken appeared to be safe… and un-exploded. Shaking their head again— it was dormant, the scientific term was dormant. Despite being friends with someone of staggering intellect like Donatello; the mutant knew that they flunked the freshmen year of high school— that is, before they mutated.
Crawling off the desk Link, realized there was a towel, and what appeared to be a spare set of clothes over by the entrance to the lab. Their letterman jacket was hung up neatly on a coat rack making them wonder when exactly they took it off. The clothes were folded neatly next to a set of lockers, which they pondered the purpose for. Perhaps the lockers were left over from the electrical company who owned the subway before. Judging by how worn they were there's no way they could've been imported. Another lilac note had been placed on the clothes.
"I made a guess on the sizes."
There was always a bluntness to that turtle, wasn't there? Scooping up the clothes, they made another realization. They never met Donatello's family. Well, Link assumed family by the way Donnie complained about them— they very well could be roommates. Teenage mutant roommates. He mentioned having a father…
Link couldn't really imagine an even larger turtle. Donnie was already very tall.
Though they solemnly wished that the would've left all ready to do something else or go out or— something. The mutant wasn't really in a state to be asked feverish questions on where they came from, among other pressing questions. More or less they needed to get out of there and go back to Jersey… back to being a hero and saving people. Though, that wasn't what they really wanted to do.
The cat shuffled into the dark hallway. Repeating, "third door on the left," under their breath. There was a faint light at the end of the hall which looked like it lead to an opening like a living room or— whatever it was before. A pump room?
Distracted by the lights and the layout of the home, eventually, Link got to the end of the hall. They reached to the door on their right.
Before Twisting the knob, Link's ears perked to the sound of music. It wasn't naturally produced— in other words, it sounded much like the cracklings of a radio or phone. How a phone got reception down here was beyond their wit. Shrugging it off the mutant opened the door.
A large turtle shell was planted in front of them. The first idea was to shut the door. For if this was the bathroom they just walked in on Donnie, but getting a closer look at the room it was very clear to be someone's quarters— but getting that second look, that turtle shell wasn't Donnie's. The shell was slimmer, round and more organic, importantly it was blue. There were these large triangular markings on the shell that also set it apart from Donatello's
An ashen blond rested on where the head of the mutant would be. Link tensed up, as the turtle turned- holding what appeared to be a deodorant stick as a microphone lip-syncing to the song. As the blue turtle made out Link's form in the mirror and out of his peripheral vision, he let out a blood-curdling shriek," she's my CHERRRRRRRRRR-EEEEEEGGHHHHH!"
Link bowed politely while quickly exiting the room as the turtle snatched the wig from his head, "So sorry! So sorry! So very sorry!" their back flattened against a very big and dense surface that was not there before.
The cat looked up— that must be the dad they thought.
The largest most built one of them all had spikes sticking off of his shoulders and had a very jagged undershell.
"I— so sorry… very sorry… I'm just trying to find the—"
"Who in the heck are you?" The large one interrupted.
Lincoln still baffled at how large the mutants around them are, "I'm Donnie's fri—"
Again interrupted, the red one beamed, "Besides adorable!"
The link was then plucked from the ground and squished against the barrel-chested mutant. They muttered, "Nice to meet you too?"
The blue one came over to point a finger in the cat's face, "Raph it could be an intruder! I very least want to punish them for ruining my flow."
A third higher voice came from around the large one, probably named 'Raph', "What's all the commotion about- OMIGOSH A CUTE BIG KITTY!"
Unsure whether not to struggle, as they weren't in any danger, however the feeling in their legs was quickly disappearing thanks to Raph's grip. The grumbled, "Hello?"
The blue one continued to protest, "I demand a sacrifice for my honor!"
Two hands, one being from the one holding them the other perhaps belonging to the third voice, tangled into Link's fur.
"Awwwwww…" the two voices cooed.
Link felt their face contort into a pout- this was not ideal.
"Feel how soft he is Leo!" The bigger one offered, turning link around but still holding them by the armpits. Raph thrusted the cat toward his brother
"Are you crazy?! What if they're like apart of some organization or something else trying to kill us!"
The third voice finally came into view as the littlest turtle with a really large shell, covered and paint- and reeked of paint thinner. The littlest turtle flung himself around the blue one, "That doesn't change how soft he is!"
"Are you just mad that they caught you singing? I'm surprised no one on the surface heard you with how you shriek."
"HEY!"
"It's true!"
Ears flopping to the sides of their head. All of their overlapping voices was evident enough of Donatello's most popular complaint is that it was hard to even hear one's self think. Link raised a pointer finger to announce, "I AM TRYING TO FIND YOUR BATHROOM!"
The blue one and the little one gave each other a look. Raph spun Link back around and stared at them giving them the same strange look,"...Yeah, why are you here?"
"Put me down first, please," Link said quietly kicking their legs, still clinging on to their folded towel and clothes.
The red one obliged. Their feet claws extended as a reflex, they really did not want to be picked up again.
Link ran a hand through their hair, cooly, trying to take in a breath and the silence before being bombarded with questions," See, Me and Don- the purple one… you probably know him, forgive me I'm tired," Lincoln's fur frilled in embarrassment," Anyway, I- something… happened, so I spent the night… now I just would like to use your shower and go home and you will never see me again."
The blue one snorted, "Good!"
"Don't be rude!" The little one chirped. Blue clearly didn't mean it but it didn't stop orange from puffing up his cheeks defensively.
"I didn't know Donnie had friends… that he didn't introduce to us?"
Link felt their head snap back to the red one as he said that. Their hand grasped their gut as if they had been struck like they had done something wrong.
Lincoln tucked the bundle of clothes and towel underneath their arm as they stuck out their hand," Uh, the name is Lincoln Summers… I was mutated recently and Don said he could help… so… I'm here now."
Red gave a nasal sigh, "Pleasure to meet you Summers, the bathroom is across the hall for future reference."
Giggles rose out of the other two. If Link could still see their skin, they imagined they would be blushing.
Raph opened his mouth again to introduce himself but Link held up their hand for him to stop, "Can I guess who you are before you tell me? Don's said a lot about you guys and I wanna see if I'm right."
Before red could even object Link went ahead, "Okay so, the guy with the wig- That's Leonardo, Don said you had a very distinct voice!" The swiveled to the blue turtle.
The turtle collapsed into his shell slightly hiding his mouth, "Yes, I am he."
Link twisted on their heel to the baby brother, "You're the smallest, but you smell like art, so that must mean you're Michelangelo."
The orange one clapped, "Yupperoni pepperoni my dude!"
Turning back to the largest one,"... And you're-"
He was clearly excited to see whatever Donnie had to say about him. Though Lincoln was drawing a total blank, they rested their finger on their chin, "And you're his dad right?"
Red's eyes widened in surprise," Oh no no no, I'm Raphael, I'm the oldest and the leader- I'm Raph!" He struck a pose flexing his muscles, "Surely, you must've heard something about me right?"
They scratched their head, "I kind of assumed Donnie was the leader-"
"... I see." Red concluded closing his eyes with a tight-lipped smile etching it's way across his face.
Michelangelo tugged on The cat's free hand, "We're gonna make you some breakfast! You go ahead and get cleaned up, it's so rare we get guests that don't want to murder us!" The little brother grabbed Leo, who begrudgingly followed.
"Hey, I didn't agree to make anything! For anybody!"
The pair of them wedged passed Raphael, still contemplating with a resting defeated expression. Link followed suit, squeezing passed him and the doorframe, as they walked into the bathroom.
The shower sounded very much like the bacon sizzling in the echoes of the kitchen. There were more notes matter of factly explaining things Lincoln probably would've seen before. Such as the shower curtain and soap. Were they being insulted? Maybe, but Link highly doubted it. Some of the notes did contain semi-useful information but they were unsure if they would ever need it again— like,"bandaids can be found in Leo's room or in medicine cabinet."
When would they have the opportunity to get a nick while in the shower? When would they need to shave?Their whole body was covered in fur! Link thought about the hypothetical bottles of shaving cream they would need to buy. Was that Donatello's cure-all? Shaving?
They ran a hand the through their whiskers in thought.
When could they get back to their old life? When could Link sleep in their old bed? Maybe get more than one hot meal a day in their gut. You could only rely on the hospitality of other "yokai" for so long before they want something in return. Before your luck runs out like grains in an hourglass.
A finger sized spider crawled out of the crack beside the mirror, it crept up to the sink were Donnie had neatly placed a wrapped guest toothbrush that appeared to be recently purchased.
Her little spies.
Calmly, Lincoln hovered the cup filled with the Turtle's toothbrushes over the spider. They pressed it onto the creature twisting it ever so slightly, watching its legs sputter in attempts to free itself. They kept the cup on top of it until they knew it was dead.
They needed a cure and fast. Removing their tank top; they reminded themself to not waste other people's hot water too.
—
Donatello came into the kitchen setting down a plastic bag from the corner store. Witnessing his two younger brothers making some unholy lovecraftian horror in a mixing bowl. The turtle placed his hands on his hips lowering his hoodie ,"So I go for half the morning and you all go savage?"
Mikey turned around, he had what appeared to be pancake batter on his freckled cheeks,"Ooooo… lover boy's home."
Don felt himself lock into place,"Excuse moi?"
Leonardo, who appeared to be manning the grill of supremely charred and blackened bacon, boasted,"Since when do we run a mutant bed and breakfast?"
"... something tells me you know something I don't," Donnie paused scoffing slightly,"That doesn't happen often, and I am concerned."
Raphael entered the kitchen and began grabbing plates out of the cupboard— was he setting the table? Since when do they set the table?
"So when were you gonna mention you've been hanging out with other people, aside from April?"
Donnie batting his eyes coyly, still hoping he had plausible deniability on his side,"I-I got say guys you're not making much—"
"Give it up Donald, they're in the shower," Leo poked the tongs at the bacon, smugly grinning to himself.
Purple felt his shoulders drop,"Okay, okay, so clearly they got up much later than I anticipated."
Mikey began dumping the pancake batter onto the grill with the bacon still cooking, seemingly oblivious to anything being wrong, "Do you like-like Lincoln?"
"What no? Me and-and Link have a professional relationship."
Leonardo pipped in a comment,"how professional can it be if they're sleeping in your lab?"
Staring at the bubbling blob of batter and bacon grease, Leo rested a hand on his chin,"This needs something."
"Syrup!"
"Maybe, but no…"
Don felt his rapidly blink as the tiredness felt like it came slamming right on top of his shoulders. What universe did he wake up in that it was suddenly okay to do that to breakfast?! And to ask such an immature question?!
Raphael began gathering silverware from the drawer, "So if they aren't your friend, then what exactly do they do for you?"
Don retracted his plastic bag from the island counter, "Th-they help me with stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Don't assume the worst," Donnie felt his face get hot which he didn't think was possible since he normally couldn't regulate his body temperature,"it's nothing unhonorable."
"Why're you being so defensive?" Raphael countered.
"Lincoln helps me find scrap and parts they got free time and better eyesight— cats are natural scavengers," He added on while raising his voice.
Raph still calmly continuing the discussion,"And what does Lincoln get out of it? If it's a partnership then there's two sides to every deal."
"Well, Link— Lincoln they don't take anything," Donnie furrowed his brow trying to contemplate,"it's just they talk on and on, about stuff they like and what their old life was like… so I nod along and listen. They talk about wanting some of my tech but they never actually ask for anything— it's very… complicated, you wouldn't get it."
Red pointed a fork at his little brother, "Oh, I think I get it."
Crossing his arms Donnie felt his nose sniffle.
Michelangelo interjected while handing eggs to Leo," So how did you two meet anyway?"
Purple threw up his arms on defeat as he stomped back to his lab.
Ditching the tongs Leon began poking at the mass of batter on the grill,"See I don't the think the eggs will reach the heat if we crack it over top of the pancakes. How can we scramble them?"
Raph sighed, "Guys, guys, guys— that's why it's called sunny side up."
"... that doesn't seem right." Michelangelo wiped the batter from his cheeks before tasting it.
—
Donnie stalked off pulling his hood over his face and tightening the strings. Leaving only his twitching nose open to the layer. There must be mold somewhere around perhaps that would excuse his loud snorting and sniffling. He would have to run through with his disinfectant and his spackle to seal any breaches—
With his vision blocked off Donatello didn't realize he ran right over the person he wanted to avoid.
"Oof— hey Donnie!"
Donnie mirrored their excited tone on instinct,"Lincoln!" Why was he excited? He struggled with the hood trying to get it over his forehead before prying it off completely. Don backed up—
Link went to punch his shoulder playfully but whiffed it completely. But not wanting to have the act be meaningless, Donatello caught their fist.
Link chuckled, one ear flopped over, "well that's one way to do it."
A towel wrapped around their neck, Donnie noted that they were wearing the clothes he had laid out, "Uh, how is everything," he released their hand, "how are you?" He corrected.
"Well I feel better," the cat assured,"I feel recharged, I Uh met your brothers—
Donnie blurted out,"They didn't do anything weird right?"
"N— well—"
"Was it Leo? Because I swear to god I will launch him to the moon at your request." He muttered quite seriously.
"No, no I just. I wasn't expecting them to be so— huggy?" Link shrugged, "My family was never really like that with strangers."
Donatello laughed, "Yeah I'll never understand it,"
"I just didn't expect it because you're so not, yknow?"
He felt his face fold in confusion, "What do you mean by that?"
The cat scratched at the wet fur around their cheeks, "Yeah, you just didn't seem like a touchy guy."
Donnie crossed his arms as if he was still being grilled,"I— It's hard for me to be like that."
"I'm not sayin' it's bad or nothing It's just an observation."
"Link, would you say that you were popular when you were still in school?"
The cat had trouble catching how the conversation flipped topics so fast," Sort of, I was mostly known for my sports stuff. Why do you ask?"
"Well schools have rules, and I have rules so I was trying to make a correlation and— I uh, I'll tell you later." Donnie with the words half way out of his mouth felt as if they died on his tongue with bitterness.
Link cocked their head in confusion. Most of the time they felt popular with their peers was when they purposefully bent the rules and folded them like thick construction paper," So anyway, how was the breakfast—"
Donnie cut them off, "mm-mm do not. Do not eat whatever abomination they make," it dawned on him that he should lower their voices, "Oh god, please say you haven't seen my dad yet."
"D-doesn't like guests?"
"God no, he loves guests—" the turtle grimaced," He loves any opportunity to show off his disc collection of commercials from the 1970s."
Link snickered, "Finely aged, vintage capitalism."
Donnie gestured to them wildly, "You gotta leave while you still got the chance. This is the land of inconvenience."
The cat felt their face react before they could stop themselves. Lincoln was pretty sure he was overreacting. They covered their wet hair into the lime green towel, roughly shaking out. The corkscrewing the towel around their fingers to get at the water in their ears. Link didn't exactly feel the warmest welcome from Donnie, at least not the kind that his brothers extended. The yokai looked down at Donnie's feet,"Uh, I wanted to thank you before I left, for letting me stay, it was very kind of you— also thanks for adding a tail hole to these pants. You have no idea how uncomfortable it gets… so um thank you." They bowed slightly.
The turtle, slow on the uptake to the cue that they were leaving, he thrusted his arm forward with the plastic sack. Punching them directly in the head—
"OW!"
"Sorry—! I just- sorry! I forgot to grab these at the store and that's why I went back to get them."
Holding their throbbing head, they snatched the bag from his hands. Looking inside, their throat clammed up
"... aw, Darko you didn't have to get all soft on me. That's— that's real sweet of you."
"Hey, it— it wasn't anything I just— I wanted you to…" he trailed off, "Uh… it's unimportant," he cleared his throat, "I will wash your clothes so when you come over next time you can have them back… and you're welcome by the way— for the t-tail hole."
Donnie passed by them stuffing his hands into his pockets and playing with the copper and big silver pieces he had stowed away. Feeling each little groove the coins had. He stopped before the doorframe to his lab,"Uh thank you for thanking me… I d-d-don't really hear that often and I—"
He turned around because he expected to defend himself and come with another excuse. Summers walked out, taking his advice and leaving," ...You're gone… right."
He let a copper roll down his knuckles as the normal soothing effect didn't occur— there was no instant relief in the anxiety that he felt he was swimming through. Donnie was upstream, rapids approaching—
Crash.
He felt the coin come loose from his grip and land amongst the other junk in his pocket. The turtle's stomach sank lower than his feet. Lower than below. It was plummeting through the earth's crust as if it had anchors weighing it down. Donatello grasped the hem of his hoodie wiping his fingers along the edges of the fabric.
Lower than below.