Hey everyone! I'm excited to see some more new readers, and I'm really happy you're enjoying the story. As usual I love a review or comment on the work, keep em coming!
It's worse because Usagi's neighbourhood is quite good, better than theirs at home. His house has escaped the smaller raids, and Leo doesn't even want to cross the threshold with his filthy, bloodied body. They don't belong here, in this fine neighbourhood and clean house.
Usagi goes in first, touching Leo's shoulder as he slides his door open. They can see him down the hall, speaking to the woman who has met him in the hall—Mariko, his wife. They speak briefly, and Usagi hugs her for a long moment. Leo remembers then that he went to Hiroshima for his brother-in-law ... not four dirty, starving boys, whom he hasn't seen in months.
Eventually they come to the door, and Usagi gestures for them to come in. His wife's eyes are red, but she smiles at them anyway. Leo remembers her as very kind, and he hopes wartime has not hardened her too much.
"My husband tells me you have no place to stay," she says, her voice barely wavering. "He's told me terrible things about Hiroshima. You're welcome here as long as you need it."
Usagi's son is standing in a further doorway, jaw slack at the appearance of Leo and his brothers. Mariko softly shoos him away.
"Why don't you go and put bedrolls in the spare room for our good friends, Jotaro?" she asks him, like they're here for a weekend visit. "You remember playing with Dante, don't you?"
The little boy nods, waving shyly at Dante before darting off again.
Leo is pleased and grateful that Mariko remembers them so well, and a little guilty—he has not thought very hard about their old friends at all since their last visit. The war getting closer, hiding extra ration cards, Raph running away ... there had been too many things keeping his attention before the bomb. It feels like years.
They step inside, Leo helping Donnie out of the cart and into the main part of the house. Usagi asks gently if he may take sensei's bones and put them at the shrine, and momentarily Leo is horrified, balking at the idea of anyone else touching his father. Mikey touches the inside of Leo's elbow and he relents, transferring the bundle to Usagi's waiting arms. He knows they will get there safely, that he can pray to sensei later, but the reaction is still fresh when Mariko motions to the next room.
"I'm going to find you fresh clothes," she says. "Leave the old ones on the porch after your bath."
In the clean, bright streets of Kure they are quite a sight, filthy and smelling of sweat and fire and blood. Mikey's burns in particular are horrifying, compared to the clean, real softness of the people here. They're all dressed in blackened rags, and Leo doesn't even want their feet to dirty the tatami mats as he helps his brothers into the next room. Already he feels spoiled, undeserving of all these resources.
He helps Donnie and Mikey sit, and they sigh in relief at the softness of the mats beneath them. Dante is peeking out into the hallway and Leo pulls him back as Mariko returns, pulling a tub in with her. Leo glances inside and sees soap, oils, a large rice pot. Four white robes for sleeping in, towels and cloths, all neatly folded.
"There's a little heater in the corner," Mariko says, laying these things neatly beside the tub. "The pump is just outside the door here, and there are bedrolls in the adjacent room. If you need extra come and fetch me, and—Jotaro, get to bed," she adds sharply, and her son leaves the doorway and dashes back down the hall. "Do you need any help with the bath?" she asks, clearly thinking of their injuries.
Leo does not know what to say, though he shakes his head at her offer of help. This generosity is too much, imperial luxury after the burned husk that is Hiroshima. He only nods, bowing awkwardly before reaching for the supplies.
His brothers react for him, Dante and Michelangelo chorusing arigatou gozaimasu and Dante flashing Mariko a charming smile. It flushes her cheeks and she smiles back, touching Leo's shoulder.
"I'll be along with day clothes in the morning," she says. "Our room is down the hall if you need something."
"Thank you," Leo says finally, then again. "Thank you. That'll be fine." Donnie nods and gives her a weak smile. Mariko returns it briefly, before closing the shoji screen softly behind her.
Leonardo looks at himself and his filthy, wounded brothers, and thinks of his own nausea and unsteady feet. He finds the heater and starts a little fire in it, setting Dante to work filling pots of water for him to warm. This will be slow going to bathe all four of them, but it might aggravate their various injuries and sicknesses to share the bath water like at home. That's what he tells himself, at least, to feel less guilty for using so much water from someone else's pump.
Donnie is first, so Leo helps him shuck off his clothes and step into the warm water. His brother closes his eyes and Leo sets to work, gently cleaning the worst of his cuts, Donnie's swollen ankle.
He only cries out once, when Leo swipes his thigh with the cloth and doesn't realize that Donnie's side is still full of glass. It takes some time for them to pick out the worst of it and pile it on the porch, before Leo can get the dirt and blood from his brother's hair and finally help him into a towel, which Dante is shaking open in anticipation to be of help.
"Look at that water," Mikey says, grinning widely. It's a sickly grey, full of ash and god-knows-what from their days of hell. Leo has to run his hands under the pump before he can even touch a robe for Donnie to sleep in.
"Bet your water is worse," Donnie replies as Leo smooths out a bedroll. He grins as he says it, the first smile since that bombed morning, but he's still shivering with fever as Leonardo tucks him in. He's asleep in minutes, soothed by the dark quiet of the adjoining room and the soft covers.
Leo dumps out the water and repeats the long process for Mikey, who cries when his burns hit the heat. Dante drops down right next to him as Leo sponges at them with the cloth, leaning his cheek against Mikey's good arm as Leo chants I'm sorry, I'm sorry and tries to pull up the grime and leave the skin where it belongs.
It takes longer to get Mikey clean with his break and his wounds, but he looks much more like himself when it's through. He hopes Mariko doesn't mind too much that he's torn one of her towels, to sling up Mikey's arm before dressing him and tucking him in next to Donatello.
"Feels so much better," Mikey whispers in the dark, and Leo hopes he doesn't decide to die here, comfortable at last despite his injuries and unsteadiness. He's reluctant to step back into the bigger room and leave the two of them, when they look so vulnerable where they sleep.
Dante stops Leo as he begins to undress him for the next batch of water, eyes raking Leo's frame. "You don't want to go next?" he asks. "I can wait. I'll help you wash your hair."
Leo smiles and shakes his head. "I'm the big brother," he says, pulling off what's left of Dante's school uniform. "You're all the little brothers. That's just the way it works. The eldest brother has to make sure everyone is taken care of first."
Dante nods in understanding, expression serious, and allows Leo to help him into the tub and help him wash. Leo is shocked to find glass tangled in his brother's hair and sticking in his scalp—but it was too much to ask for him to escape from injury completely. He'll have to cut Dante's hair tomorrow to get out the rest, it's so matted. Dante makes small sounds of pain as his brother works but doesn't protest.
"I want to stay up with you," Dante protests as Leo gets him ready for bed, ushering him toward the smaller room. "I'll help you take your bath!"
"You'll want to sleep as soon as you hit the pillow," Leo promises, and he's right—Dante's eyelids droop almost as soon as he's tucked in, and he curls up close against Donatello. Leonardo sits with him, pushes Dante's bangs off his face until he drops off completely.
Only then does Leo warm up water for himself, lay out clothes and a towel for his own comfort before undressing and sinking into the water. He sighs with relief at the heat. It's the best thing he's ever felt, steaming and all-encompassing like a wet embrace. He doesn't even scrub for awhile, letting himself relax and just bask in the hot water, a tub half-full all to himself. He can't believe his good luck at what Mariko and Usagi have provided. He actually smiles, sinking past his shoulders into the heat, feeling embraced and content and-
-choking, lungs full of smoke as he runs, the heat of the flames closing them in and making him want to collapse. His brothers are depending on him, but he can't go on, not without sensei, not when sensei is burning to death-
Leo's eyes snap open, and he has to grip the tub's edges to stop himself from scrambling out and away from the bath. He can't ruin Mariko's mats after all she's done for them, though now he shakes as he reaches for the soap, forcing himself to scrub away his grime. His hands are shaking hard.
He's exhausted by the time he steps out, knowing he hasn't gotten all the glass and splinters himself. There's nothing to be done about it, and Leo spends almost five minutes just shivering in his towel on the tatami, biting his lip hard to keep from crying. Being able to wash himself, his brothers finally safe in the next room, has made him feel everything for the first time. Nothing else depends on Leonardo right now, except to get well. He can finally grieve.
He cries, naked on the mats, cries for sensei and his mother and Raphael as he bites his lip to keep himself from waking the others. It isn't fair, that the others were all so hurt and so young, so it fell to Leo to keep the family together and get ready for Raph's arrival. Raph could have helped him! Sensei could have gone through their home and brought back their possessions, tell Leo if he had hidden any money to keep them from starving to death. His mother could have bathed them all instead, stroked their hair. Leo even cries for Atsuko, Dante's mother, remembering how she'd learned to make their favourite meals and laid their uniforms out every morning. How she'd even tried to favour prickly Raph, to get around his dislike of her in small ways.
It takes him ages to calm back down. He finally shucks off his towel to climb into his robe and then dump out the water, almost getting ready to boil more before he remembers he was last. It's not his parent's fault that they died, he reminds himself. It's not Atsuko's fault she left Dante motherless too. And Raph...
...maybe Leo would have never found Raph in the rubble. Maybe he would have died alone, burned and blind, if he hadn't run away. Leo wipes his eyes with his wrist. He needs Raph, needs him to come home and help him get through this.
He lies down next to Dante and is about to close his eyes, when his youngest brother rolls over to press himself against Leo. Leo blinks in surprise, but reacts, pressing his lips against Dante's forehead anyway.
"You're not asleep?" he whispers.
"I heard you crying," Dante says. "Don't cry, Leo. We're gonna be okay."
That makes him want to start all over again, but he holds it in and pulls Dante close instead. "You're right," he agrees, voice thick. "Go back to sleep."
Dante obeys, but Leonardo lies awake for a long time, listening to the soft breaths of his brothers and wondering if Raph can't sleep either.