A/N: Here we are! Last chapter of this fic I started months ago AHAHA. Thank you for all the kind words, writing this fic was extra fun because of all the encouragement and I hope you have fun reading as much as I do writing! Enjoy!
A cool breeze danced through Mikey's hair as he nuzzled the side of his face into a pillow, comfortable in his sleep. A lock of his bangs tickled the bridge of his nose, and he frowned, too tired to do anything about it. Too comfortable, too — the mattress under him cradled him just right, and his muscles felt like pudding.
A hand brushed his bangs out of his face, a gentle and well-practiced move.
Leo.
Mikey almost opened in his eyes, but his head protested at the first hint that a window was open, sunlight pouring through.
Wait. His window, of his bedroom. When had he come back?
The last thing he remembered was seeing the yokai buds blooming in the light of the setting sun, blinking brightly with their colorful eyes.
No, wait. That hadn't been the last thing.
For a few moments, he remembered waking up in a thin bed with metal handles on the sides, the entire room small and white and rumbling.
Had that been inside the ambulance?
A nice paramedic lady had helped him sit up to drink water out of a bottle, he remembered. Voices had been talking all around him, but he couldn't recall what they were saying. What Mikey did know was that the sensation of water going down his throat had been distinctively replenishing. It was the most delicious water he'd ever had.
Mikey tried to sort out his dream-like memories, but he was so comfortable in his bed.
The weight of his adventure in the pocket dimension full of yokai and the knowledge of how much bigger all of it actually was felt inconsequential as his tired mind slipped under again.
I'll get the deets later. I just need… to… rest…
After all, if Leo was near, that meant he was safe. The growing mystery and endless questions and worries would be there again when he woke up.
When Mikey felt himself stir out of sleep, it was to the sound of Raph's voice nearby.
"He's not up yet?"
Typical Raph, Mikey thought wearily. Judging me for just SLEEPING. Can't he see I'm super tired?
"He exhausted himself," came Donnie's voice.
This is why Donnie is the smart one.
"Let him sleep," Leo said from somewhere. "I called Ms. Tilley and she let me know that Renet is still sleeping, too. Like they ran a marathon or something."
Everything came back to Mikey at once at Renet's name, and remembering the craziness with the yokai, teleporting, and everything else made Mikey sit up in bed like a coiled spring set loose.
The world spun, and for a horrible moment, Mikey flinched, not wanting to be teleported or thrown through another portal.
"No! Stop!" Mikey cried, grabbing a fistful of his bedsheets.
"Mikey, whoa. Whoa, slow down, buddy."
Someone rubbed his shoulder, squeezing it a little. Mikey dropped his head on the arm it was connected to, and looked up to see the eyes of Raph staring back at him with too many emotions to name.
Mikey looked around, heart beating wildly. He was in his bedroom just as he'd figured. Sun came through the window, completely and utterly daytime. He had no memory of getting into bed, but his clothes had been changed into pajamas. No teleporting. No magic circles. Mikey sagged into Raph's arm, not caring if his older brother was going to make fun of him.
But Raph whispering "It's okay, you're safe," without a trace of mockery had Mikey internally wincing. Right. He'd scared them all pretty bad.
"I'm sorry," Mikey blurted out to Raph, immediately breaking out into a string of coughs. His throat felt like he hadn't used it in a million years. Yowch. Was this what happened when you spent a day with a yokai bud on your head that slowly leeched energy off of you and almost turned you into a yokai?
"Here," Mikey heard Donnie say as a glass of water was pushed into his hands.
Mikey gratefully accepted, taking small sips as he felt his brothers watching him. Raph hadn't left his side, sitting on the bed with him. Donnie had dragged over the chair from Mikey's desk to sit by him, his glasses askew and hair even messier than when Mikey had last seen him. And Leo —
Leo stood the farthest away from Mikey's bed, his jacket over a shirt that looked like it had been thrown on backwards, in a rush. That singular detail was unsettling to Mikey — Leo wasn't ever anything less than perfect. Even now, he held his expression at a perfect neutral, practically unreadable as he looked Mikey over, his eyes scanning him for any injuries. Equal amounts of copious guilt and relief filled Mikey. Guilt, for what trouble he'd put them through, and relief, that they could see him again.
"Hi," Mikey said in a small voice.
A smile cracked through Leo's steady features. From across the room, the eldest Hamato dug his hands into his pockets, his voice unbearably soft.
"Hi, kiddo."
"Leo, I'm sorry," Mikey said, lowering his water and ignoring when Donnie tried to bring it back up to his mouth. He pulled his legs out from underneath the covers — thankful that he wasn't green anymore — and planted them on the floor as he stood, facing Leo, ready to own up. "It was… my fault. I met a yokai and I agreed to help it. I didn't mean to disappear."
Leo inhaled sharply.
Here it comes, Mikey thought with a gulp, and lowered his head, bracing himself for the scolding. Bye, Not-grounded-for-life Mikey. It was nice knowing ya.
"It's fine, Mikey. But how are you feeling?"
Mikey waited a second, and then blinked in confusion. Wait, what?
Had Leo not heard him say 'I met a yokai and agreed to help it'?
Mikey looked at his oldest brother again, raising his head and trying to see where Angry Leo was at. Or Disappointed Leo. Or Furiously Frustrated Leo, even — these were versions of Leo that used to pop up a lot more last year, whenever Mikey screwed up and Leo didn't know what to do with him — but none of them were there.
Heck, not even the version of Leo from last Friday, when Mikey had asked him about Klunk, was present: the End-Of-Discussion Leo.
In fact, Leo didn't look like he was going to yell at Mikey at all, even though Mikey had just brought up the touchiest subject — yokai. And revealed that he'd purposefully gotten tangled up with one. Mikey wasn't sure which version of Leo he was looking at right now.
If asking me how I'm feeling is a trick question, I don't know how to respond! Mikey thought frantically.
"I'm sorry," he just said again, feeling dumb and at a loss.
Leo's mouth deepened into a frown, and he took a couple strides towards him with a look of concern.
"You've said that already. Do you feel sick?"
Leo's hand was then on his forehead, and finally he was close enough for Mikey to peer into his oldest brother's eyes. To anyone else, it would have looked like Leo was acting perfectly normal — aside from the backwards shirt thing — but in an instant, Mikey realized why he couldn't get a read on him.
Leo was holding it all in.
It was exactly what Leo had done in the months after their father had suddenly died. Held himself together for everyone else.
And it wasn't just Leo who was acting weird. Normally, Donnie would be questioning him immediately. But his inquisitive older brother remained silent, just chewing on his bottom lip, waiting for Mikey to talk. And Raph choosing to be gentle like this instead of angry felt like a huge personality shift. But also… Raph wouldn't fake act like this. If Raph was being gentle with him, then something was seriously wrong.
Oh.
He'd scared them all that bad.
Mikey felt like a turtle who'd awoken from hibernation all too soon and desperately wanted to crawl back into his shell to ensure his survival.
"You don't have a temperature," Leo said, moving his hand.
"I'm okay," Mikey said quickly. "I'm just sorry. I'm really sorry. I messed up, Leo — I know you called the cops and Raph and Mona were looking for me, and then… then… did you pick me up from the ambulance?"
"Yeah," Donnie said with a huge sigh, looking relieved that they'd started talking. "The hospital called us. Not just us, but also Renet's and Casey's parents after they found you on the edge of Eastman."
"Oh. Good."
It was good knowing that his friends were safe and at home after the whole thing. Mikey glanced at the clock on the nightstand. It was almost nine in the morning, which made Mikey pause and stare at it. It wasn't already Monday, was it?
"Yeah, we're all going to school a little late today," Donnie piped up, as if reading his mind.
Mikey looked at his brothers in alarm.
"What?"
"I don't have class until ten, and I called your guys' schools to let them know," Leo said. "Besides, the police let the school know about your guys' little 'hiking trip.'"
Mikey stared as Leo made air quotes and then tried to process it.
"Our what?"
Donnie supplied the explanation. "Apparently your friends said that it was a hiking trip that all of you forgot to bring water on, and all of you fainted somewhere right outside the border of Eastman."
"Not that we really believed that," Raph pointed out.
Okay, Mikey kind of remembered that.
As he was drinking water in the ambulance, Renet and Casey had been awake enough to do most of the talking, responding to the other paramedic's questions of where have you kids been and what were you doing out here? They'd been giving answers that the paramedics would believe, but Mikey had decided that going to sleep was what he'd rather be doing, so he barely remembered anything after that.
It was a clever answer, and Mikey had no doubt that Renet had thought of it first, like she'd thought of the trick with Klunk, to get him to teleport out of Eastman.
Silence filled the space between the four of them once again, and Donnie had that look on his face that usually meant he was about to implode into ten different questions and even more sub-questions. But he was silenced with a look from Raph. Mikey looked between them, and they looked back at him, waiting.
They're treating me like I'm made of glass, aren't they?
"I'm sorry," Mikey tried again.
"It's okay," Leo said reassuringly from in front of him. "We're not mad."
Mikey kind of wanted to laugh, because Leo should have been mad at him. But here they were, being nice and careful with him because they loved him and he loved them, so so much. A lump suddenly formed in Mikey's throat, closing up any form of words, and he took two shaky steps to throw his arms around Leo, burying his face in his shoulder. Leo's arms pulled him in without missing a beat. The hug being returned around him filled him with such an immense feeling, Mikey couldn't stop a few tears from slipping out.
Leo wasted no time in cupping the sides of Mikey's face and pushing the tears away with his thumbs.
"Aw, Mikey, don't cry," he laughed, but his own voice sounded a little thick.
"This is because of you! Can you guys just yell at me?" Mikey sniffed. "You're acting all nice and it's making it worse."
That made his brothers laugh.
"You did break curfew," Donnie piped up then, seemingly unable to hold back. "Like, royally. Twenty-nine hours."
"Wow, dude," Raph said dryly.
"He wants a lecture!"
Mikey blinked away the last bit of moisture in his eyes before stepping back. "Thanks, Donnie."
"I'm… not super pleased about the yokai thing," Leo said, getting Mikey's attention. "But more than anything, I'm just glad to have you home. Safe."
"You scared us, man," Raph said gruffly, ruffling Mikey's hair. "So… not trying to bombard you, but you want to share with the class what happened after you left on Saturday to go to Murakami's?"
"Yeah." Mikey took a deep breath, then paused. "Okay, so actually this thing happened? The day before. On Friday."
Looking up, he saw that he had all three of his brothers' undivided attention. Leo nodded, encouraging him to go on.
"We were playing dodgeball for last period," Mikey continued. "And I started hearing a voice in my head telling me she needed help."
His brothers' eyes widened as Mikey explained how the wrens had been flying above him, dropping bark in his hair so Mother Tree's voice could be projected right into his mind. He told them everything — how they'd found Mother Tree in the Eastman Botanical Garden, how they'd been mistaken for yokai by yokai hunters, how Tuli had helped them escape, how they'd been mistaken for yokai again by yokai hunters, and finally, how Klunk had gotten them out of City Hall and they'd figured the whole thing out just barely before sunset.
At each new twist of the story, Mikey watched as his brothers' mouths dropped open, their faces taking on varying degrees of shock. Especially when he got around to telling them how the mayor was involved in all of it.
"And um… that's how I spent Mother's Day," Mikey said with an awkward laugh.
Leo, Raph, and Donnie looked as if they were at a loss for words.
Donnie's eyes were bugging out.
"Wh-whoa whoa whoa, hold up. You were here?" Donnie asked, pointing down with both his index fingers. "You were here and Leo and I couldn't see you?"
"Right, it was like I was turning into a yokai. Renet's mom and —," Mikey paused, not sure who that Simon guy had been exactly, but he wasn't Renet's dad. Mikey shrugged and said, "Renet's mom couldn't see any of us, and we were standing in her living room."
"That's… insane," Donnie declared. "I didn't even know that could happen."
Raph was staring at Mikey like he couldn't believe Mikey was there at all, in front of him. His hot-headed brother looked like he wanted to punch something (which was normal, but this time it looked like he wanted to punch something on Mikey's behalf).
"So you helped a yokai who almost turned you into one?"
"It wasn't Mother Tree's fault. She…," Mikey trailed off, thinking about the last words she'd said to him.
I'm sorry I asked for more than I should have.
"Of course it's that yokai's fault," Raph said vehemently. "She put you in danger."
"Technically, Raph, so did everyone else. Except for those yokai in the other little world you went to," Donnie said to Mikey, adjusting his glasses. "This is quite interesting."
"Try messed up, Don," Raph said.
Mikey rubbed the side of his face. It was true, yokai could be dangerous. But most of the danger that they'd faced this weekend had been a result of the humans chasing them, distracting them from a goal that wouldn't have taken that long to do otherwise.
Throughout the story, Leo had remained oddly silent, listening. Now he spoke up, his face pulled into something pensive.
"So the mayor. Yuuki Miyamoto. He's a part of all this yokai business?"
Mikey nodded a little, and shrugged, giving Leo his best 'I guess so' face. Raph and Donnie looked at each other, then at Leo. No one said anything, but Mikey had a feeling they were all thinking about Usagi Miyamoto, one of Leo's friends at college. Mikey wondered if Usagi was part of the Miyamoto clan, too.
With a sigh, Leo broke the silence by clapping his hands together.
"Okay, guys," he said, rubbing his palms. "Let's put a pin in this, at least for now. Let's get some breakfast, and then get ready for school."
"Boring," Raph joked, standing up and patting Mikey on the shoulder — unfairly hard, as usual. "Good to have you back, Mike."
"Ow," Mikey complained, rubbing the spot, but he felt himself grinning anyway. "Good to be back."
Leo turned to leave for the kitchen. "How does oatmeal sound, Mikey?"
Mikey's stomach rumbled. "Good. Great. But, uh… first one thing."
"Anything," was Leo's automatic answer, turning back to Mikey.
"I really need a shower."
Going to school late was a surreal feeling within itself, even without any supernatural precursors. And getting his physics test back during the final period of the day? Surreal nervousness. But then one glance at the grade he'd gotten, and Mikey couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
He'd never done this well on any test before. But there it was, in red pen.
An A minus.
Totally surreal!
As he found his seat, Mikey saw that Renet had a serious look on her face, her eyes not leaving the substitute teacher as he continued to call out names. She glanced at Mikey, a smile splitting her nervous face as she wordlessly lifted her thumb and swiveled it up and down, a clear question in her eyes: how did it go?
Mikey gave her a thumbs up, and they fist-bumped.
"… Jennika… Lita… and finally… Renet," their sub finished calling off, handing tests back.
The nervous look back on her face, Renet hopped up to collect her test. Mikey gave her an encouraging smile before feeling his stomach growl — for which he took out a granola bar from his backpack. Jennika was at the front of the class first, letting out a scoff as she turned the sheet around to show someone near her. Lita took her test, pleasantly smiled at whatever grade she'd gotten. The sub handed Renet her test back.
"As we all get settled in for class, I'm happy to report that Mrs. Campbell had her baby, and they're both doing great," the sub announced. "It's a baby girl."
A bunch of kids including Mikey (his mouth full of granola) went, "Awww!", and excited chatter began to fill the classroom as the sub moved back to start class with the plans left by their physics teacher. Mikey watched Renet as she returned, shifting into a slight uh-oh mood because of the sullen look in her eyes.
"How… did it go?" he asked carefully after swallowing his bite.
After a second of looking sad, Renet broke into a silly wide grin and turned her test over to show him. A minus. Mikey gasped, a and showed his own test to match.
"OMG, we match!" Renet laughed with an ear-splitting grin.
Mikey let out a ginormous sigh of relief, sinking over the desk like he was pudding.
"You tricked me for a moment," he complained, giving her big puppy eyes and his cutest pout. "I can't believe you did that."
"Ha! I just wanted to see the look on your face!" Renet laughed, evilly. Then she sobered, looking at her test in amazement. "I was like, so nervous. I didn't think I'd do this good."
"Me neither. Studying with you last week really helped."
"You're a really good study buddy."
"No, you are!"
"No, you!"
"No, okay, you know what? Back atcha!" Mikey said, doing corny finger guns — a few kids who saw cringed, but it also got Renet to snort-laugh, which was a win. He lowered his voice. "We're also pretty good yokai-adventuring buddies."
"No kidding," Renet agreed with a sigh. "Although I'm glad it's over. I missed having my head all to myself."
A couple hours ago, Mikey and Renet had caught each other passing in the hallway, and had to stop to just talk. Renet had burst into an excited ramble about how she'd slept in late and how Klunk was too and so on and so forth really fast — earning surprised looks from a few passing teachers and kids who obviously still had the impression that Renet was shy all the time — and Mikey had been rushing to thank her for coming up with the hiking story for the ambulance people ("Hiking was the first thing I could think of, and Casey totally went with it. We make great liars, who knew?").
Mikey had gotten a text in their group chat from Casey, also earlier in the day — the older teen had let them know that he'd been so tired that he was skipping the whole day at the high school. It was totally understandable.
"So," Renet said casually, as they watched the substitute teacher struggle with getting the projector up. "About your brothers. You told them what really happened, right?"
"Oh. Yeah," Mikey answered. Leaning into his elbow resting on his desk, he ate the rest of his granola bar. After he finished, he casually looked up and saw that Renet was looking at him expectantly. "Oh, you mean like, 'what did they say, how did they react' type thing! Ooooh, I thought you were just asking."
"Was… Leo terribly mad at you?" Renet asked.
Mikey tilted his head. "No, Leo wasn't mad at me. Which is a new thing, because even talking about yokai is usually enough to set him off. I have a feeling that I'm still in trouble for y'know, doing exactly what he'd told me not to do. But he didn't explode at me."
"Well, that's good!" Renet said brightly.
"What about you? How did your mom take it when you told her?"
"Oh, I, uh," Renet paused, then shook her head. "It's, um, not like that with my mom. I can't talk to her about yokai like you can with your brothers. She can't see them… and… uh, I've never told her that I can?"
Mikey blinked.
Out of all the crazy things that had happened this weekend — and all the human gossip from yokai and yokai gossip from humans that Mikey had heard — somehow hearing this was one of the most surprising.
"I know it's weird," Renet blurted, her mouth twisted in a little embarrassed smile.
Mikey opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, changed his mind, and tried again.
"But you've been able to see them literally all your life."
Class was beginning to start, everyone lowering their voices from the side chatter as the projector finally turned on and the sub called for everyone to turn to page 109 of their textbooks.
Mikey and Renet glanced at each other before falling quiet as well. They'd have to resume their conversation later. Mikey wasn't even sure if there was a conversation to continue. Mikey'd had the idea that Casey's folks didn't know, sure — but Renet had been seeing yokai a lot longer than either of them. Mikey had just assumed Renet told her mother about all the yokai stuff.
But if Renet hadn't told her mother, then that was that.
Finding his book from his backpack, Mikey flipped to the page and tried to pay attention to what the sub was talking about. A minute later, he felt Renet nudge him. He looked over to see that she'd slid her notebook over to him discretly, having written something in the margins of her notes.
In Renet's handwriting, it read, My mom always thought I was just talking about imaginary friends when I was little. And by the time I learned that it wasn't something most people could see, I stopped talking about them. The yokai around wherever I lived were always really small and harmless and never bothered me growing up — so I never had a reason to tell my mom about any of it. But now big yokai things are happening in Eastman and telling her now would be kind of hard — it's like kind of become this BIG THING in my head. If that makes sense?
Mikey glanced at Renet. His friend was struggling to smile, looking embarrassed and like she was on the verge of apologizing unnecessarily. Maybe this had been something she'd been reluctant to tell him about because she was afraid of being judged.
Mikey picked up his own pencil.
So I take it ur mom doesn't know about the spider lady that tried to literally eat us last Feb, he wrote, and added a silly, comical doodle of stick-figure versions of themselves, stuck in a spiderweb.
Renet read that and eyed his drawing.
Too soon, she wrote, but she was smiling.
It's okay, you know, Mikey wrote. The only reasons my brothers know is because they saw me stuck between two dimensions and I didn't know how else to explain where the bottom half of my body had gone.
Pushing the notebook back, Renet read his message and smiled, shoulders relaxing. She spoke her next words, in a whisper that Mikey almost missed.
"You always know how to cheer me up!"
A big feeling still lingered in Mikey's chest as the class period drone on. The way Mother Tree had been turned to stone had been so abrupt, there had barely been any time to process. His heart felt… heavy, thinking about it. He said so to Renet after the bell rang and class was dismissed.
"Me too," she replied quietly.
It was rare that they spoke to each other with serious tones, because neither of them were usually the glum type. Mikey pulled on his backpack, letting out a deep breath. Renet did the same, and they started walking down the hallway towards the exit together. Loud chatter of the studens around them filled the silence between them, but it didn't drown out their serious atmosphere.
Finally, Renet spoke up. "I know Casey got a little… peeved back there. But… Mother Tree didn't seem… bad, though. Even though… she almost got us turned into yokai."
"That's what I was thinking." Mikey shoved his hands into his pockets.
Why do you think Miyamoto DID that? He wanted to ask. What does he get out out turning yokai into stone? And what was up with his mask?
Renet took a deep breath. "Hey. I'm just wondering. Mother Tree said something about new yokai… arriving in the garden every springtime, right?"
"Yeah."
"So… if it's an every year thing, who do you think was taking her babies out of Eastman before us?"
They reached the school entrance, where kids were walking out in torrents or waiting for their rides. Mikey slowed, and Renet matched his pace. Mikey hadn't even thought of that.
"Dunno. Leatherhead, maybe?" Mikey said it as a joke, because there was no way for them to know. If that weekend had been any indication, there were probably quite a handful of yokai hunters. Maybe some of them didn't share the same beliefs that Miyamoto seemed to.
"That's, like, turning into our answer for everything," Renet said with a chuckle. "'Who did it?' Leatherhead!"
Mikey grinned as they stepped out of the double doors that led into the main school pickup area. Renet usually got a ride home, and sometimes Mikey would hang out with her while she waited before he started his walk back. They sat down at an empty picnic table under a large oak tree in the courtyard where a few other kids were, working on homework or talking on their cell phones. Mikey pulled out his phone and texted his brothers that he was going to start walking back in five minutes, because now Leo was really strict on check-ins.
"My mom gave me my cell phone back," Renet said cheerfully, pulling hers out and proceeding to send a swift text to her mother.
Mikey was grateful for the subject change, glad to be moving away from the yokai stuff.
"Are things better now? With you and your mom?" he asked.
Renet nodded, her smile softening. "She was really worried about me. Mad at first, then she wouldn't stop hugging me and crying and she even said she was sorry for our fight. And I did, too! And it was like, a movie moment, Mikey, except without the background music. It was like, just our sniffles. And the sound of pancakes flipping, because she made pancakes for breakfast. Klunk devoured five and I had to pretend I was that hungry."
"Whoa, Renet, that's amazing! I mean, yes, the pancakes, but everything else, too!" Mikey exclaimed. "I bet that feels really good, now that you've apologized."
"It really does! I should get into fights more often, just for the sole purpose of making up!"
"It's true. And now you can butter her up even more since you aced that physics test."
"I like the way you think, Mikey," Renet said, nodding her head sagely. She grinned. "I'll show her, but actually Mom will be like, where's the A plus?"
"No."
Renet cracked up at Mikey's face. "Yup. Maybe not, I don't know. I think our fight softened her up, so neither of us are making a fuss about the little things. I missed her a lot while we were in the yokai dimension."
Mikey nodded. He totally could relate. He'd missed all his brothers, but Leo like crazy.
"I made her a belated Mother's Day card. And an apology card. And then she lectured me on the importance of safe hiking protocol."
Renet trailed off, blinking and poking her fingers through the holes of the picnic table. Suddenly she groaned, sinking her face into the picnic table.
"Uh oh," Mikey said, feeling cheeky. "I didn't know you felt that way about the picnic table."
"OMG, leave us alone, we're in a happy relationship!" Renet complained, turning her face so her cheek was squished against the holes. Then she sat up. "Okay, seriously though… I need… I think I need to tell you something."
"Yup, picnic table and you are an item."
"Seriously! It's serious time."
"Okay, okay," Mikey said. "Serious time."
Why not? All of their conversations were feeling pretty serious today, actually.
"Okay, so, like, maybe it's not that serious, actually," she amended. "But… I… want to get it off my chest."
Did she discover a new yokai? Does she actually hate my jokes and is only laughing to be polite? Mikey wasn't sure which one was worse — he needed a break from yokai and he'd be crushed if Renet didn't actually like his jokes! Whatever it was, Mikey nodded to show her that he was all ears.
Renet took a deep breath. "The fight my mom and I had… it was about…" She winced, breaking off. "Promise not to tell anyone, okay? Not Casey or Mr. Murakami. I told them I fought with my mom and that's it, but… they don't know the details and I don't want them to know!"
His best friend was looking a little red in the face, embarrassed and upset.
"I promise, Renet," Mikey said, and meant it. But he was starting to get a teensy bit worried. He considered Renet his best friend because she made him laugh and had awesome jokes. But they'd never had a conversation like this — all serious. On the edge of emotions that weren't… all happy.
"You know… my parents are divorced," Renet said finally, looking convinced. "Mom and I moved here from another city, but my dad moved to another city, too. Not Eastman, but… not far? Like, far, but not across the country or anything. He's in New York still."
"Got it, cool." Mikey cringed at himself. No, that's not cool, why would you say that?
"But… I talk to him on the weekends and stuff. Every other weekend. Sometimes he's busy, but… he and my mom never used to talk at all. But then recently they started to, and I thought 'oh, that's nice' and I didn't realize I was doing this, but… um… I thought that they would — OMG this is so embarrassing!" Renet slapped her cheeks, and lowered her voice, leaning in towards Mikey. "I thought that they would get back together. I really thought they were getting on better terms. But… then… this weekend, after I came home on Friday..."
Simon appeared in Mikey's mind. "Oh."
Renet nodded. "She's had this friend for a while, and I thought they were just work friends or something boring like that. But that's what she told me on Friday, that she's started dating Simon."
"Simon," Mikey said. "The guy in your living room."
"The guy in my living room," Renet agreed. "He's got this son who's kind of a bully, and… it's not about liking or not liking them, it's more about… what I thought was wrong. And I was surprised by the way things changed so fast. And that's why I — I just got mad. And I hate myself for getting mad, because my mom doesn't d-deserve that, and I… all that yokai business happened and I felt like the worst daughter in the world because of our fight. And even though it's okay now, and we've made up on the outside, I still feel… icky inside."
Mikey sat there, listening to Renet's words. He didn't know what to say.
"That's… okay, Renet."
"I feel bad," Renet said, sniffing and laughing despite herself. "It's just like another big thing I can't bring myself to tell her about. But I wanted to tell you, Mikey. I like talking to you. It's easy talking to you."
Mikey was totally flattered. But… ditto.
"I like talking to you, too," he said. "It was easy telling you about my mom and dad. You know, how I don't have them. It sometimes feels like this big scary thing if people don't know."
Like with Jennika back on Friday, when she'd asked him about what he was planning to give to his mother on Mother's Day. It felt like a big thing he couldn't share.
Renet seemed to get it, nodding along. "Sometimes it feels weird holding stuff in. And makes us feel…"
"Icky," Mikey finished.
Renet hummed, crossing her arms and lowering her chin into it, eyes lost in thought. "Maybe, like, that's why it helps talking it out."
"It… does." It did. He smiled, nudging her elbow. "Hey, Renet?"
"Hm?"
"You might not be ready now, but if you do tell your mom how you feel, I don't think she's going to consider you a bad daughter. You're way too nice and smart and good."
"So are you."
"No, you."
Renet giggled. "No, you."
"No way. You."
Back home, Mikey threw his backpack down at the closet, and practically dove into Leo's arms, smacking his oldest brother in the face with his physics test.
"Look at THIS MASTERPIECE!" he shouted through their apartment — and more importantly, so that Leo would hear him through his earbuds.
The window over their dining table next to the kitchen was open, letting in the fresh breeze. Raph and Donnie weren't home yet. Leo had been sitting on a stool at the counter space in the kitchen, his laptop open and a notebook and textbook spread out. His homework, from the looks of it — but as Mikey practically climbed Leo's shoulders in excitement, his brother was pulling out his earbuds and laughing, totally distracted now.
"What is this?" Leo asked, pulling the test off his face and peering at it. He fell silent in shock at the A, and flipped the test over, as if not believing it, before exclaiming, "Whoa! Mikey! This is amazing!"
"I know, I know, it's awesome, I'm a physics genius now."
Leo reached back and pressed his head closer to him. Mikey wrapped his arms around his brother's shoulders to complete the backwards hug.
"Good job, Mikey," Leo said, sounding extremely impressed. "This is great. I know you were working hard last week."
"Eh, well, you know. It was easy studying with Renet," Mikey said with a shrug, trying to play it cool. Okay, okay, he couldn't. He broke out into giggles before singing, "I got an A minussss."
"I am so proud of you," Leo said, setting the test down. "You know that, right?"
Mikey jumped off Leo's back and the stool, heading straight for the freezer where the pizza rolls were. "Uh-oh. This isn't going to be a thing you expect from now on, right? I like it when people have low expectations of me."
"No, silly." Leo snorted, lips turning upward as he gazed at Mikey. He stood and put the test on the fridge with an ice cream cone magnet. "I'll always be proud of you. But please, keep these high grades coming."
Mikey made a face, just to be dramatic about it, and Leo grinned smugly. Popping some pizza rolls into the microwave, Mikey spotted a new change in the kitchen. There, by the toaster in the corner was the picture of Baby Leo and their mother, the same one Mikey had found on Friday. It stood quietly in the corner in a humble brown frame, Daffodil Hamato's silent laugh washing over them.
It was a nice place for that picture.
"I'll text Raph and Donnie to pick up something from Mr. Murakami's on the way home, for dinner," Leo said, closing his laptop. "How does that sound?"
"It sounds delicious and amazing and you're the best. Can I have the Super Spice Special, Dragon Fire Noodles doused in Volcanic Lava Oil Chili Sauce?"
"Ha! No."
"Aw, bummer. A guy's gotta try," Mikey quipped, pulling out the pizza rolls as the microwave beeped. "I know you've got a billion things to do, but do you have time for snack time with your favorite Mikey?"
Leo put aside his homework. "Always."
They didn't bother going to the table — Mikey just hoisted himself up onto the kitchen counter with his arms. The pizza rolls were hot to touch. The steam was visible in the air for a few seconds before the breeze from outside blew it away. It was quiet for a while as they snacked. Then Mikey's eyes went to his backpack, a smile tugging his lips. He and Leo started talking at the same time.
"I've been meaning to ask —"
"I had a thing to give —" Mikey broke off. "Sorry. Go ahead."
Leo suddenly took a great interest in his pizza roll, breaking it apart. "I've been wondering. Last Friday, when we were looking for a picture frame, you didn't tell me about the yokai voice in your head."
Mikey nodded, slowly. "Right. Right."
"Why not? I mean, you should be able to tell me anything." A hurt look approached Leo's face as he glanced at Mikey, their eyes meeting. "Do you not trust me?"
"What? No! I do, I do," Mikey rushed to say, embarrassed. "It's not that."
"Then why didn't you ask me for help?"
Help? Mikey blinked.
"I guess I didn't even think about that. I thought… I guess I thought you'd be mad stressed. Or worried. You don't even like yokai."
"What? No, it's… I don't like yokai who hurt you," Leo clarified. "And there's no way I wouldn't be worried about you, regardless of whether you told me or not — and this weekend proved that."
Mikey nodded. He kind of got that now.
"Listen. I get that I can't see them, kiddo. But you could have told me. I want you to tell me when stuff like this happens. When any kind of stuff happens."
"But that's not fair," Mikey said softly.
Leo looked at him.
Mikey took a deep breath. "Sometimes it's not easy talking about yokai stuff with you — you get stubborn. You were all, 'that's it, end of discussion!' on Friday, remember?"
Leo looked defensive. "But that's different, you were — " but then he broke off, taking a deep breath. "You're right. I did end the conversation."
"We were talking about Klunk. Who has never hurt me, by the way," Mikey pointed out. "He's only ever saved me. Twice, now."
"Okay. That's… fair."
"I just… you weren't in the mood to listen on Friday, but I was super curious still, so I thought I could just talk about it with Casey and Renet and… spare you the grief? I guess that's how I justified it in my head," Mikey explained. "But it wasn't right. We never know what we're getting into, with yokai."
Leo nodded slowly. "You're right."
The words washed over Mikey like some kind of fountain of youth, and he perked up from where he leaned on the counter. "About what? Please sing my praises."
Leo gave him a wry smile, drawing his fingers against the plate of pizza rolls. "You're right about being wrong." Mikey pouted at that. "You're wiser than we give you credit for, Mikey."
"Gee, thanks."
"No, for real, too. I…" Leo took a deep breath. "You used to tell Dad about all kinds of stuff that bogged you down, remember? I'm not Dad, but it's… I want you to feel comfortable talking to me about stuff." Leo reached out with a hand and set it on Mikey's forearm. "I want to know if there's anything bothering my little brothers. And if I'm ever being… stubborn, just let me know that and I'll cut it out so I can hear you out. How does that sound?"
Mikey swallowed, feeling emotional — both touched from the way Leo cared about him, and hurt that he'd hurt Leo even by accident. He picked up a pizza roll and plopped it in his mouth, deep in thought.
"K."
"Wow, harsh," Leo said with a huff. "A one syllable response, got it."
Mikey choked on the pizza roll. "No, sorry, it's just — I'm just surprised!"
"I was trying to open up and you just… wow. The rejection," Leo said, bringing a hand to his chest. "It stings."
Trying not to giggle so hard, Mikey leapt down from the counter to get something from his backpack. Pulling it out, he turned back around and handed it to Leo.
"I was going to give this to you," Mikey said sheepishly. "Made it in school. But since you're being sweet, I think it makes sense to give it to you now."
Leo looked down, and Mikey watched as his oldest brother's face took in what the card was in realization. "A Mother's Day card? You made one for me?"
The card was a spectacle of glitter and colorful gel pens that had some of Mikey's best doodles, in his humble opinion. He wasn't the greatest with words, so he'd drawn a bunch of doodles of stick-figure Leo doing different things for Mikey. Cooking, cleaning, helping him with homework, taking care of him when he was sick, playing volleyball, teaching him something new.
"You're the best at taking care of me," Mikey said sheepishly. "Even if sometimes we need to listen to each other better. I just wanted you to know that."
Leo's eyes were shiny when he looked back up at Mikey, and drew him into a hug.
"Oof," Mikey said, but didn't waste time in putting his arms around Leo in return.
"I… this is…" Leo sounded like he was at a loss for words, and he hugged Mikey even tighter.
Mikey shifted in the embrace, laughing into Leo's neck as his brother refused to let go. He hummed, closing his eyes. "I feel like this card is making you happier than the test, bro."
"I love you," Leo muttered, holding Mikey tightly.
Mikey smiled. "Love you too."
Mikey loved the springtime. It meant that new flowers were blooming, wrens were singing, and summer vacation was right around the corner. It meant more open windows, more honesty, and more family time. And as Raph and Donnie came back home with carry-out from Mr. Murakami's, eyes widening in excitement at the smell of fresh pizza rolls, Mikey's ears was filled with the sounds of home — and it was kinda the best sound of spring, in his opinion.