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When Mikey faced Leo in the kitchen, he expected to face the wrath of his oldest brother and braced for the onslaught of where have you been and do you know how late it is, the trick-or-treaters are already out. But Mikey didn't hear any of that. When he raised his head, he saw Leo only frowning, opening and closing his mouth as if he weren't sure how to put his first sentence together.

Mikey looked down at the floor. Not getting yelled at was worse, somehow. But he needed to come clean and let Leo know that it wasn't his fault, that a demon had kidnapped him-

"Your report card came in," Leo said shortly, finally. "For the first quarter."

Hearing that took the wind out of Mikey's sails, his heartbeat starting up again. Hadn't he gone through enough today? That being said, he would have rather been getting chased by the demon than this.

No wonder Donnie had told him that Leo was going to kill him. He'd been meaning the late thing and the report card thing.

"Ohhh," Mikey whispered under his breath, realizing the stakes. Double whammy. He was a goner.

"All C's and D's, Mikey?" Leo said despairingly. "Come on. I thought we talked about better studying techniques, the whole preparing ahead thing. Your grades should have improved."

"At least they didn't go down," Mikey muttered, very aware of the fact that Donnie and Raph were in the living room, pretending not to listen.

"I thought we were making progress," Leo exclaimed, bringing Mikey's attention back. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Mikey said, feeling his defenses rise up. "I don't know. I tried."

"Try harder," Leo said, and his dark blue eyes bore into Mikey's baby blue ones.

Mikey took a step back, hurt etching into his chest. Try harder. Why did that hurt so much? Try harder, Mikey, because you're not good enough.

"Focus, Mikey," Leo said. "Remember what Sensei used to say? Focus to achieve your goals."

Mikey bit his bottom lip. "Okay, yeah, I remember."

"Really? Because it doesn't look like you do," Leo said with a sigh, turning around to the stove, where it looked like he was making soup. "I don't think Sensei ever had to tell one of us to get better grades in school. Even Raph pulled his weight and got all As and Bs at the end of each semester."

Something burned inside Mikey, an unpleasant, awful sensation he'd never felt before.

But Leo kept talking. "You have to study, Mikey. You can't goof off and expect everything to work out without giving it any effort."

"But I am giving it effort," Mikey said, but his voice was soft and quiet. "School isn't easy for me."

"Fine," Leo said with a heavy sigh. "We'll talk about that later. In the meantime, you can go upstairs and do your homework tonight, and come up with an explanation of why I got a call from your teacher reporting that you cut half the school day today."

That gave Mikey pause.

"Wait, I didn't," he said, trying to ignore the gross, icky feeling in his stomach. "I didn't get to tell you why I was late."

"Please do tell," Leo said.

Mikey opened his mouth, but all the earlier excitement of that day felt as if it had dried out. Leo's disappointment had that effect on him.

"I saw a yokai," Mikey said finally.

Leo stared at him. "Sorry, what?"

"A yokai," Mikey repeated. "You know, the ones Fa-Sensei used to tell us about? Well, Bradford and his friends summoned one, and I was the only one who could see it, and it's supposedly Mr. Murakami's old bird friend but-"

Leo's face fell, and Mikey stopped, uncertain of what was happening. Disappointment flitted away to anger, and Mikey took a step back.

"I can't believe you're lying to me," Leo shot, looking mad. "Don't you know when enough's enough?"

"But I'm telling the truth!"

"Go to your room, Mikey!"

"You can't tell me what to do, Leo!"

"You're grounded for so many reasons!"

"You're not Dad!" Mikey yelled, finally, his voice cracking. "You're not him, no matter how much you try to be, okay? You'll never be him."

There was a rustle, and suddenly Donnie and Raph appeared in the kitchen, ready for damage control. But they froze at the sight of Mikey.

Mikey realized he was crying. Oops. Too late.

"I hate this," he said, ready to get everything out. "You try to act like Dad and try to control everything and tell me what to do, but lately it doesn't even feel like you love me."

Leo's eyes widened, all anger gone, replaced with shock and maybe a little bit of fear.

Mikey needed to get out. He grabbed his phone and raced to the front door, ignoring the shouts behind him.

"Mikey, wait!"

"Come back, little brother!"

But Mikey tore out of the house, past the trick-or-treaters and into the night. He was going to feel guilty for this later, he just knew it. But for now, he needed to get some air. And he knew the perfect place.

Mr. Murakami's.


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