AN: Hello, everyone. Probably, none of you remember me. That's fine. I haven't popped in for quite a while now. When I first entered the TMNT fandom a good five years ago, I started out with one story. It was my baby. I never finished it. I remember that back then, English was a strange country for me- I found my way around, but I never managed to properly introduce myself to the locals. My first language is German, just so you know. All I can say now is: I am back. I have grown since then, but I guess some things stay with you no matter how far you think you've come. The fic has grown, too. It's not an adult yet, more like a rebellious teenager, but it has made its first steps, it has learned to walk and talk and how to adjust. I hope you are satisfied with the results. I will attempt weekly updates, most likely every Monday and Friday.
Please note that the old fic is still out there somewhere, mainly because I am re-typing it and am too lazy to save it to my hard drive. If you know what is good for you, you will not look at it too closely. This is a similar story, but it is not the same. Should you find any mistakes, they are solely mine, but feel free to point them out in the reviews. See you next monday.
Clarifications: This is a very slight AU fic. That means the animated movie did never happen. The story is set after the Tales of Leo / Prodigal Son story arc, but before the Samurai Tourist incident. In short, I pretend that Usagi has never been to Dimension Third Earth before, and Raph and Mikey have never met him.
Warnings: T for blood, violence, disturbing images and swearing. Might contain hints of Usagi/Leo later on. Or... more than hints. Should I mess up any timelines, I apologize beforehand.
Disclaimer: I have never been able to come up with witty disclaimers. I do not own TMNT and make no profit with this fic. Now, on with the story.
Edit: I have a beta now! Thanks to PlainSimpleGarak for taking the time to point out the errors of my ways. You rock!
PROLOGUE
It was Thursday evening. The four turtle brothers were seated around the great kitchen table. At some point earlier that day, they carried it out into the main room where they set it up next to the bridge that covered their small pool. That felt like another lifetime. Back then, they had still thought it was going to be a wild night. They had been proven wrong by one hour of literally nothing. It was eerily quiet now, the silence disrupted only by the development of Michelangelo's newest nervous habit.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
The youngest was absent mindedly tapping his fingers against the darkened wood. His gazerested on an old Silver Sentry comic book he read earlier that evening. The thought of the newest issues that currently sat on his bunk upstairs, still shiny in their plastic sheets, made him groan softly to himself.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
Raphael was obviously annoyed by the sound of Mikey's fingers. He had soon settled for clenching and unclenching his fists repeatedly in favor of bashing his brother's head in. Although he did not realize it, his movements were perfectly on key to the tapping. A keen observer would easily notice the mottled shade of reddish green his face took on. Too bad there was nobody at hand.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
Donatello was lying on the table top with his forehead against the wood. He was inhaling age-old coffee through the microscopic gaps and sighing softly to himself. Every inch of him was longing for his work table, his screwdriver, a bunsen burner, anything that did not involve listening to the ticking of the clock and the build-up of Raph's anger. But he couldn't find it in him to break the silence. His every limb felt like lead.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
The silence continued for exactly three point two more seconds.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
"All right! Dat's it!"
Raphael's sudden outburst caused Donatello to look up just in time to see his older brother jump from his chair. Raph's face was mottled and ugly with rage. "I swear, Mikey! You stop that tappin' right now, or I'll come an' make ya!"
"C'mon, Raphie-boy, 's not like I'm doing anything wro-" Michelangelo started but never got further. He was abruptly cut off when Raph jumped him. They went down heavily, Raph on top of Mikey. Donatello watched with curious detachment while the second-eldest brother continued to strangle the youngest, who responded by defiantly croaking further insults at him. At least the tapping stopped, Don thought. There was a thump when his forehead went back for another meeting with the table.
"Mikey," Leonardo said. His voice was an ocean of calm in the ruckus. A quick glance from Don confirmed that the eldest hadn't even opened his eyes. He had spent the past hour meditating, presumably. Were it anyone else, Don would call it "taking a nap". Not with Leo, though. He was taking these things seriously.
"He started it!" Mikey hissed, fighting for breath. Leo simply raised one eyebrow in response.
"Raph..."
Raphael looked as if he had quite a lot to say about that. Instead he bit back his remark, slapped Mikey one last time and finally got up. His amber eyes were blazing with the Raphael equivalent of amusement. Donatello made a mental note to stay away from his hot-headed brother tonight. He wearily watched while the latter went back to his chair and fell into it with a heavy crash of shell on wood. Then, in the quiet after the storm, Raph absently tapped his fingers against the chair legs.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
Mikey watched him from the floor, but when nobody commented on Raphael's behaviour, he got up with a defeated grunt and fell back into his chair. In the restored silence that followed, the soft sound of flesh on wood was like water torture to Donatello. He groaned again and heard Leo breathe out heavily in return.
Ta-ta-tap. Ta-ta-tap.
"We could, you know, play a game," Mikey finally suggested. "'S not like we need anybody else, what with four of us around."
When it became clear that the others would not reply, Raph grunted a vague affirmation. "Fine. Whaddaya have in mind?"
Thing is, it was supposed to be game night. Thursdays had become their unofficial "day off" during the week. April closed her shop on Thursdays and often paid them a visit. These days, Casey was by her side more often than not. Leatherhead, who had taken up camp not far from the new Lair, sometimes dropped by to greet them, and of course Splinter would sit in his armchair and watch over everything with the quiet amusement of the elderly. They would play board games or try out Mikey's newest video game. Sometimes they just sat together and told stories. It had begun to become a ritual, and the absence of people felt like a physical pang.
Today was different. Today, April and Casey were looking at some antique thing or other out of the state. Today, Leatherhead was busy with something extremely delicate and presumably explosive in his lab. At least that's what the turtles assumed when he did not answer his door nor his cell.
Today, Master Splinter was not at home.
"Dunno. 'S boring."
"Yeah. So what."
"We could-" Mikey started but was cut off by a voice from the other end of the table. Leo kept his eyes closed, but he raised his other eyebrow to meet the first when he interrupted his brother. "No."
The orange-wearing brother shot the eldest an annoyed look. "We could play some story-telling. Dunno. I start a story and you tell me when and where it happened to us."
There was some more silence. Raph had stopped tapping.
"Fine wit' me," he finally muttered and straightened up in his chair. "Don?"
With the sigh of the long-suffering, Donatello raised his head and leaned back. "Mh. 'Kay. Leo?"
Accepting that his meditation was going nowhere at this time of night, Leo finally opened his eyes and blinked at the other three. "All right," he finally agreed. "Let's move this to the sofa though." Which they did, lounging on the battered blue thing like the lazy teenagers they were, with Mikey off to prepare some popcorn now that some action was, presumably, going to take place.
"I'll start," he announced when he returned and flopped down heavily in his seat. He tossed some popcorn into the air and caught it expertly with his mouth. Don found himself calculating the approximate speed of the corn as it fell. "Okay. Remember that time when Leo played Mario Karts with me and I totally kicked his shell?"
That had come... unexpected. Leo frowned at the memory while Raph suppressed a grin. "You mean that time when I let you win so you'd stop pouting, because I had already beaten you seven times before?" The leader finally asked, causing Raph to burst out laughing.
"Well. No," Mikey protested. "No, that totally wasn't- Raph, stop laughing! Hey! It's really not that funny! Besides, why would you let me win, Leo? You never let anyone win! It's not honourable or something!"
"Because, if I hadn't, you probably would have cried," Leo said. It could be Mikey's imagination, but to him, the eldest looked unbearably smug.
"So not!"
"So too," Leonardo replied, completely at ease.
Mikey went beet red under his green skin. "But! But if I hadn't showed you the tricks with the shortcuts earlier! Then you never would have gotten the hang of it! I would've so beaten you! It was totally my doing that you won!"
Leo flashed him a grin. "That may well be the case. Well done, Mikey. Nice going."
"It's futile," Don sighed and flopped off the sofa to the ground, where he stayed as an olive green heap against the blue carpet. "That's like saying, I don't know, hadn't I built that bomb that later blew up that old rooftop shed we were hiding behind, then the foot had never found us."
"You ain't making no sense," Mikey said with some concern and a great deal more scorn. Don simply snorted. "Double negative, Mikey."
Leo frowned down at both of them. He tried to get through Don's muttering to find out the exact amount of trouble everyone was in.
"Or like, dat one time with the spider behind the dumpsters in the alley," Raph joined in quickly, effectively distracting the others. "If you hadn't screamed like a girl, the cops never would've come lookin' and you wouldn't have had to get that old lady's dress from the clothes line and everything." He frowned momentarily. "That would've been such a missed opportunity, with you bein' such a great lady actor." He grinned, all teeth.
"You are the one with arachnophobia, though," Leo pointed out from his seat on the back of the sofa. "Had you seen the spide, it would've been you in the dress." He gave that thought some consideration and shuddered at the mental image. Raph gave him a friendly shove that nearly threw him off the furniture. "Stuff it."
That was when the game became 'who-can-tease-the-best', which mainly consisted of pointing out all possible eventualities of every situation they could think of. As time went by, everything became more and more confusing until it stopped making sense altogether at around two a.m. That was when Leo unglued Donnie's face from the sofa cushions, used them to slap Raph back to wakefulness, lifted Mikey over his shoulder and effectively ordered them to bed. It should be noted that they were tired enough not to argue with him.
Each of the four was asleep before their heads hit the pillows. And, for the last time that night, silence fell over the great stone halls of the Lair.
For a while.