A/N: In which usagi thinks everything is a dream, mikey refers to peter and woody as poo bc he's a 14-year-old boy, and the hamato brothers become ghost busters for a day.
Sorry for the wait — I was working on some other wips! Thank you so much for the kind words thus far, I read every single one 3 I hope you enjoy!
Twelve chimes of a grandfather clock from somewhere broke through the silence, waking Mikey from a comfortable sleep.
T.G.I.F, Mikey thought automatically, slowly becoming aware of the sharpness to his ribs. A counter. He pulled his face off of the ice-covered light-toned marble, wondering why he'd fallen asleep here. Leo or Raph or Donnie would have woken him up and sent him to his room. He sniffed his nose, becoming acutely aware of the sub-zero temperature that cloaked the house.
When had he fallen asleep?
In an attempt to break away from his own weariness, he blinked away snowflakes from his eyelashes and looked around for clues, for anything, because all he remembered was seeing the snow and then — oh, that was weird, so weird — why was it snowing inside?
His jaw dropped open as he peered out of the kitchen and into the den. Holy hot sauce.
All of the guests were sleeping.
Some were curled up against the icy wall, some sprawled over the icy floor, or in icy chairs and icy sofas. No one seemed to be bothered by the cold, and for a terrifying moment, Mikey wasn't even sure he could hear them breathing in the silence. But their bodies were moving, and he let out a small sigh of relief.
Mikey looked down to the floor, where Leo, Raph, and Donnie were all snoozing away. Raph was sleeping with his head on Donnie's shoulder, and it would have been great for blackmail if Mikey wasn't so freaked out. Leo was lying horizontally, using his arm as a pillow.
Mikey crouched down and tried to wake him.
Poke. "Leo."
The black-haired boy snuffled in his sleep, not interested in moving. It didn't look like the cold was even bothering him. Come to think of it, the cold hadn't bothered Mikey, either, until he'd woken up.
"Leo." Mikey shook his brother's shoulder. "Wake up, bro. I'm totally confused here. Do you remember this Friendsgiving Party turning into an impromptu slumber party, North Pole Edition?"
Leo didn't even budge. Mikey shook his shoulder, growing more desperate.
"Leo!"
Leo groaned tiredly, in his sleep, but whatever spell the haunted house had on it, it wasn't letting Leo wake up.
But I woke up, Mikey thought frantically, moving over to Raph and Donnie and shaking them to no avail. Is it because I can see yokai?
The lights from above stuttered. Mikey paused and looked up. Past the drifting snowflakes, the lights protruding from the ceiling fixtures flickered erratically. Shivering beneath his sweater, Mikey held his breath, waiting for the power to finally fail, to plunge him into the darkness of the night.
As Mikey waited, a sense of despair filled him, more intense than anything he had ever experienced before. All of Mikey's senses began to dull. His vision started to blacken, numbness coating his body.
And then, for some reason, he had the sudden intense feeling that he was underwater.
He was alone. He was alone and cold and everyone he loved was so far away — and the darkness around him was water — but the sky was so blue and grey when he looked up —
Someone sighed wistfully.
Just like that, Mikey was snapped out of whatever reverie he'd been lost in, reminded of his existence sitting on the icy kitchen floor of the Miyamoto house.
That was weird, Mikey thought shakily. He definitely hadn't ever gone swimming in freezing water before. Had those been someone else's memories?
More importantly, was someone else awake?
"Hello?" Mikey asked, standing up and looking around.
He hurried out of the kitchen, but he didn't have to go very far. Against the back door that led out a patio, on a cushioned bench, sat Usagi, wide awake as he peered out the window.
Mikey stilled.
Above him, the light persevered.
"Usagi?" Mikey called out, trying to be gentle — except his voice sounded like it couldn't decide whether to be loud and clear or soft-spoken, and it finally settled for cracking in the middle. Cool, cool. Who said being fourteen was awkward? No one, ever.
Usagi turned his head to look at Mikey.
Whoa. For a moment, Mikey could see why Leo had a something on this guy. Because — pretty. His hair looked like snow, blending in with the wintered house around them. Against the frosted window, he appeared unintentionally mystical.
Mikey cleared his throat. "Are… are you okay?"
Usagi nodded, looking a little distracted, but strangely unaffected by their surroundings. "Sure."
Mikey was a little thrown by Usagi's calm disposition. Even Usagi's tranquil etherealness couldn't cancel out the fact that there was a chaotic ghost on the loose and probably no way to get out of the house.
"Okay, cool beans, then! We need to get out of here, right?"
"Out of here?" Usagi echoed.
Mikey's cold toes were starting to ache. Under his socked feet, he could see that the glacial sheet across the floor wasn't even melting a little. He could maybe ice-skate on this.
He sniffed, bouncing on his toes in an attempt to warm them up. "Man, the ice is everywhere, isn't it?"
"Ice?"
Um, why is he just repeating after me?
Usagi cocked his head to the side, considering Mikey. "This is a peculiar dream."
That was a weird thing to say. But Mikey smiled politely, rubbing his arms as he stood there.
"Uh, hate to break it to you, Usagi, but… this isn't a dream."
"It has to be. Everyone's sleeping here, which I would never allow to happen. It's all too peculiar." Usagi shrugged, looking out the window again. "Must be a dream."
Mikey's jaw dropped. Was this guy for real?
"Uh, good point, dude, but I think the haunted house is responsible. Remember? You said it yourself before the snow fell and made everyone catch up on their Z's."
"No." Usagi suddenly frowned, shaking his head. "No, I was — I was joking. There's no such thing as ghosts. Imagination like that can only hurt you."
That was a funny thing for someone to say while they sat on an iced-over cushioned bench with a mound of snow on top of their head clear as day.
But whatever. Convincing Usagi that he wasn't dreaming wasn't as important as finding Woody and Peter and putting an end to this haunted house business. But first, leaving would be great! It was getting too cold to think. Moving to the back door, Mikey tugged on the handle, but it didn't budge.
The ice. Rats, Mikey realized, staring at the frost that had the door jammed. He tugged on the handle again, throwing his weight into it, but he fell backwards and landed on his butt.
"Are you okay, Michelangelo?" Usagi asked.
"Yes!" Mikey said, trying to ignore the shame flooding his system as he stood back up.
"No, I mean," Usagi hesitated. "You asked me earlier if I was alright. In general. It was polite of you, and even if this is a dream, I'd like to ask you the same."
Mikey met Usagi's gaze with slight trepidation. "My butt's fine. In general."
"Of course," Usagi said with a small chuckle.
Why is he suddenly being nice to me? Mikey wondered, turning to the door. Maybe because he thinks he's dreaming?
Grabbing the door handle, he prepared to throw his weight in the sliding direction but then paused. If Usagi thought this was all a dream, maybe he'd be willing to explain what exactly it was about Mikey that he didn't like.
Because... maybe there was a reason why Jennika and Jason had gotten so snippy with him. Maybe there was something about him that was too much.
"I thought you didn't like me."
"What?" Usagi looked appalled at the sudden confession.
Mikey's cheeks and ears burned with embarrassment. "Um, I thought — because — I mean, do you think I'm weird? Or gross or annoying or… ?"
Mikey's entire face felt like it was on fire as he hyper-focused on his thumb on the door handle. This was more embarrassing than trying to help someone find their glasses and then accidentally stepping on them and breaking them. When he peered up and saw how flabbergasted Usagi looked at the question, he backtracked.
"I mean, I know we just met, dude! But you got a first impression of me, right? And it's fine — you don't have to be nice. I know you don't like me," Mikey said, laughing forcefully and tripping over his words a little. "But I was kind of wondering why you didn't — if you want to answer."
Usagi shook his head rapidly, eyes wide. "No. Oh, no."
Mikey's heart fell. It was fine, it was a long-shot to try, anyway. "Oh. Okay."
"No! I mean, that's not true at all. I don't dislike you, Michelangelo," Usagi clarified, clearly perturbed. "In fact, I think very highly of you."
Come again?
When he looked at Usagi, this time he could see something beyond just a stoic expression. Behind his glasses, Usagi's gaze was kind. Not an ounce of insincerity. Mikey's breath got caught in his throat.
"Thanks dude, but I'm not—"
"Leo talks about you," Usagi went on, effectively shutting Mikey up. "He always speaks so fondly of you, it sometimes makes me jealous."
Moments ago, Mikey would have thought Usagi was serious. Now that he was looking at Usagi properly for the first time, he could see that his grin was a joking one.
Usagi looked abashed with his next words. "You're so special to him, I was nervous to meet you, actually."
Mikey's eyes nearly bugged out. "Me?"
"I'm sorry. I was trying not to get in your face. I didn't want to make a bad impression."
Who — what — HIM make a bad impression on ME?
"When you got a bloody nose from the study room door, I felt horrified. I thought my friendship with Leo was over."
Mikey had to laugh. Like Leo would end a friendship over something as trivial as that. It was an accident! And it wasn't even Usagi's fault! True friends didn't just end friendships at the drop of the hat.
And if they did, then… then they probably weren't very good friends to begin with.
Oh.
He looked at Usagi, thoroughly embarrassed and yet also, somehow, relieved. Usagi didn't hate him, like he'd thought.
That was a start.
The lights above flickered, and finally, gave out. And from somewhere else, in the distance, a shrill scream belonging to a ghost Mikey was getting familiar with.
Mikey pulled himself away from the door.
"I need to get out of here," he said.
He couldn't feel his lips. His entire body felt like he had been turned into a snowman. Usagi casually stood up, pointing at the door.
"Let me help?"
"The ice," Mikey explained as he stepped back, but Usagi merely wrapped his fingers around the handle and tugged once.
The door slid open as if the ice wasn't there.
Mikey stared. What in the pizza sauce was I struggling all this time for?
Before he could properly thank Usagi however, wind tore through the silence, followed by a vicious ghostly screech. No doubt from the entity made of Peter and Woody: Poody, aka Poo. Now that the door was open, he could hear Poo loud and clear.
On the bright side, he knew where Poo was.
On the not-so-bright-side, Poo screeched again.
"Ow!" Mikey groaned and balked when he saw Usagi looked more worried for him rather than his own eardrums. Man, Leo sure knew how to pick 'em.
Impressively, no one was waking up from the noise. When Mikey turned back around, he saw that Usagi had walked outside onto the deck.
"Usagi, what should we do?"
But just then, without warning, Usagi was suddenly swept off his feet and into the air.
"Usagi!" Mikey screamed, bolting out onto the deck.
Even though it was nighttime, the sky was a cloudy light shade of gray. And at least twenty, maybe thirty feet above the Miyamoto house, glowing ice blue, was Woody's body, possessed by Peter.
And as the wind swirled around the ghostly, glowing boy, a slender tornado-like spirals extended from each arm. It looked like Poo was wearing the world's biggest sweater's sleeves. Which happened to be made of natural disasters.
And dangling from one end of one, was Usagi.
"What the cheese?" Mikey screamed.
Poo just wailed again - and now that Mikey was seeing it for the first time, he was horrified to learn that it just looked like Woody's mouth was opening and Peter's voice was ringing out. Not much teamwork, just flesh puppet stuff.
"Oh gross," Mikey whispered, darting back into the house, heart pounding. "Flesh puppet, flesh puppet, flesh puppet, ew, ew, ew - Leo! Leo, wake up!"
He dove behind the kitchen counter.
"Leo!" Mikey yelled, having no plan or idea of how he was going to get out of this one. Why did he think opening the door was a good idea again? Usagi was going to be ghost food thanks to him — wait, did ghosts even eat? "Raph! Donnie!"
None of his brothers were stirring even a little, and Mikey was pretty sure that going out alone to battle Poo was not a battle he could win.
The wind swirled around the kitchen from the outside, carrying Poo's wail. Mikey shook Leo's shoulder, watching his brother's eyes, which were still shut tight.
"I don't know what to do, please get up! It's Usagi, he's in trouble! Leo! Leo!" Mikey's breathing was getting too fast for him to keep up with. His head felt light, and he stopped for a moment to inhale, but with the cold air came a bout of anguish, because they were in trouble. His brothers' eyes were shut, and even though they were just sleeping, Mikey couldn't handle it anymore!
He needed them awake.
"Wake up. Guys, WAKE UP."
Something warbled in his words, and his throat felt weird and buzzy for a moment, like he'd breathed in hot pepper. Coughing, Mikey tried again.
"Wake-"
Leo's eyes opened with a snap, pupils adjusting. Raph and Donnie gasped to consciousness at the same time, jolting like they'd all gotten static shock.
"Guys! You guys suck," Mikey told them happily, too relieved to be mad. He helped Leo to a stand, and on shaky legs, Raph and Donnie followed suit.
"Mikey? What— what happened?" Leo asked, looking around. His eyes widened at the sleeping people.
"Why are they sleeping?" Raph cried.
"Why were we sleeping?" Donnie yelled. He balked at a snowflake that landed on his nose. "And why is it snowing indoors?"
"There's a lot, but we're being haunted, basically, and Poo is outside," Mikey said, shivering as he explained.
A pause.
Then all his brothers went, "What?"
"Poo," Mikey said. "Short for Poody. You know, because it's Peter and Woody."
Mikey could almost physically feel Raph's eyes boring into him. "No. We're absolutely not calling it that."
"Poo," Donnie said, eyes wide. "Wow."
"Look, my naming skills aren't that great right now!" Mikey complained as both Raph and Donnie began to snicker.
"Guys, this isn't the right time," Leo scolded.
Mikey sagged against the counter. He hadn't realized how badly he'd been shaking.
"Is everyone okay?" Leo asked. Everyone nodded. "Good. That's good."
From outside, the wind carried another wail. It was a good thing that the Miyamoto home was big. If they had neighbors, they'd be pretty annoyed by now, no doubt. Mikey covered his ears, noticing that his brothers were doing the same.
"Let me make an educated guess," Donnie said with a sour look on his face after the wail ended. "That was our ghost?"
Leo moved towards the open back door. "You said he was outside, right?"
"No! Leo, don't go!" Mikey dove to grab his brother's hand to prevent him from stepping outside. What if Poo saw them and tried to swipe them up as well? Self-preservation was needed right now!
But Leo, Raph, and Donnie were already moving. Mikey could only watch as his brothers' faces paled in shock as they peered up at the sky. Donnie squeaked. Raph couldn't even tease him because his mouth had dropped open. Leo's face was pale, his eyes darting between Mikey and the ghost in the sky.
"What can you guys see?" Mikey asked.
"A boy is in the sky," Donnie said in a mix of horror and amazement, clutching his head. "There's a teenage boy in the sky!"
"And… Usagi?"
Mikey followed Leo's gaze. Up in the sky, over a backyard pool that Mikey hadn't seen before, the mayor's son hovered unconsciously. Usagi's eyes were closed, his body limp.
The wind storm worsened as hail began to hit the deck. Mikey's older brothers moved quickly back into the house and Raph slid the back door partially closed to block out the hail.
They were all quiet for a spell, then Leo spoke, scarily calm.
"What does he want with Usagi?"
Mikey looked at him. Leo's eyes were still trained on the back door, through the window.
"I don't know," Mikey admitted. "Usagi stepped out, and got swooped up. I can't think of a reason why."
Leo stared outside for a moment, then sunk into an empty chair around the table, where plenty of Thanksgiving food was still left out. Of course, nobody had an appetite.
"We need —," Leo paused to clear his throat. "We need a plan to get out of here. Away from that… ghost."
"What about Usagi?" Mikey asked.
"I know," Leo said, looking out the window and then back around at the sleeping guests sprawled between the kitchen and the den. "But it's four of us up against a ghost, and we have no plan. How would we even get him out of the sky?" He looked up, hopeful. "Does anyone have a plan?"
We could… uh… jump really high? Okay, no.
Mikey looked at his brothers, and after a beat their faces all dawned with the realization that no one had a plan.
"Well, that's not good," Raph said.
"Okay, nobody panic," Donnie said, despite looking on the edge of panicking himself. "Let me think! Let me think." He began to pace, only to trip over someone's leg with a yelp.
"Are we sure they aren't... y'know?" Raph made an unpleasant slicing motion across his throat. Donnie looked horrified.
"No! They're all breathing!" Mikey said quickly.
"Looks like calls can go through," Leo said, looking at his phone. He raised his eyes to Raph. "We could call the police."
"Maybe. 'Hi, excuse me, everyone's in a coma, the house is iced, and the mayor's son is being held captive by a teenage ghost'?" Raph pointed out, and Leo's shoulders sank.
Teenage ghost. There was something not quite right about it. Woody was the teenager. Peter wasn't.
"Peter's younger than me," Mikey said in the somber silence that had followed.
"Thanks, Mikey. Real helpful information."
"I don't think he's a teenager at all," Mikey said, ignoring Raph's little grumble. He recalled the sight of Peter in the cider mill gift shop mirror. "He was just a little kid before he possessed Woody."
Donnie tilted his head. "A little kid? Mikey, I don't know the exact details of the ghost of Peter or what happened to him, but the ghost story itself is decades old. He might look like a little kid to you, but trust me, he's older than all of us combined."
A ghastly scream filled the air again. Since the door was partly closed this time, it wasn't nearly as loud, but it was just as surprising. Mikey wasn't sure, but as the wind made the walls creak and groan, the scream shifted, and began to sound more like a sob. Loud, loud crying, like a young child. It was the kind of noise that could break anyone's heart.
"He sure sounds like a little kid," Raph said, forgoing any decorum as usual.
Ghosts don't grow up, right? What if…
"What if he's—?" Mikey cut himself off, self-conscious. But when he saw that his brothers were waiting for him to finish, he mumbled, "Um, never mind."
"No, it's okay. What if he's what?" Leo asked encouragingly.
"It's stupid," Mikey insisted. "I was going to say, what if he's still a child, like, on the inside? But that's probably dumb."
Leo was quiet for a moment before a renewed look took over his eyes. "No, it's not. I mean, we could be wrong, but let's speculate on what we know about Peter."
"Know thy enemy," Donnie said with a nod. "I'm game."
"How old did you say he looked, Mikey?" Leo asked.
Mikey was still sort of hovering in the aftermath of feeling like he'd offered a good idea. At Leo's question, he refocused, scratched his head, and tried to picture the creepy, glowing-eyed kid who'd creepily whispered at him.
"…maybe four? Five? Six?"
"That would make his language make more sense, with the whole saying 'make a promise with me' instead of 'make a deal with me'," Donnie pointed out. "Maybe he's really not aged mentally over the past seventy years."
Raph raised both hands in disbelief. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. If that thing up there," — he pointed at the ceiling with his eyes still on his brothers — "is a little kid, we can distract him, easy."
"Right. Not to mention, outsmart him," Donnie said. "Do we have any more information about him?"
"I remember he said something about wanting to find his mom and dad," Mikey offered. "Except I don't really know what he meant by that, because it looks more like, uh, he's busy turning Woody into a natural disaster."
"His parents?" Leo murmured.
They all fell silent. Mikey knew they were all thinking the same thing. If Peter lived seventy years ago, then his parents were either really old, or they'd passed on. So they were kind of stumped. Mikey bit his lip, and looked out the window. As he saw himself in the reflection against the pine trees and grass, a new idea flickered into his mind. Reflections. Peter could travel through anything reflective. What if they…?
For a fraction of a second, he hesitated again. What if it was dumb?
But these were his brothers, his family, and they understood him a lot better than Jennika and Jason did. They wouldn't be mean even if it wasn't a good idea.
So, bravely, Mikey threw it out there.
"Hey, guys? I think… I know a way we can trap him."
Fifteen minutes later, the four of them stepped out onto the deck, this time bundled warm in coats and sneakers. Mikey shifted his arms around his middle. Under his layers, there was a single hand mirror that Raph had found in one of the rooms. This was what they would trap him in, if all went according to plan.
He craned his neck back to look up at the dark night sky, where Poo's glowing aura was trapped in a wild, blurry, windy ball, like a lantern in the sky. It looked scary to be that far up. Mikey wondered if Woody was good with heights.
"Peter!" shouted Leo, his voice getting drowned out by the wind. "Peter, we need to talk to you!"
Without wasting any time, the wind around Mikey's legs tightened into an icy grip and lifted him. Mikey yelped. As he was lifted up, the deck below got smaller and smaller. His stomach swooped as the tops of the trees around them and the roof of the Miyamoto house came into view. The same thing was happening to his brothers.
In the air with him, Donnie and Raph were yelling in alarm, but Leo seemed calm, his legs bent slightly to maintain his balance.
"Peter?" Leo called out. "Peter, we just want to talk to you."
"No!" screamed the figure within the glowing ball of wind.
"Peter, come on, buddy," Leo tried again, his voice getting softer as he spoke to the ghost. "It's okay to be mad. I understand."
"No, you don't!"
The wind dispersed around Poo, bringing him into clear vision. His irises glowed from the inky pools of darkness around his eyes. Mikey's brothers didn't react to it, as if they could only see Woody but not the ghost within.
Leo raised his hands in defense, slowly.
"That's fair. We don't know each other. Do you want to talk it out?"
Poo made fists with his hands. He really did look and sound like a little kid, even in Woody's body. Mikey observed him as well as he could while hanging upside down. How come his brothers were right-side up? Mikey struggled to flip over, but one look at the ground below — the water of the pool twinkling menacingly — and he stopped immediately, feeling a little too nervous to fight against the wind, which was currently the only thing holding him up.
Yeah, let's not do that, Mikey thought quickly. Let's just… hang out.
"Peter, we can help you," Leo was saying softly. "We can help you look for your parents."
"They're not here," Poo replied, scrunching up his face suddenly.
Mikey was starting to feel a little nauseous, so he closed his eyes. He could still hear Leo speaking.
"So if you know that, then… why are you doing this? You hurt my friend Usagi."
Peter's voice boomed. "Because I can! And I like it."
"But that wasn't nice," Leo said disapprovingly. "What would your parents say if they saw you now?"
Something in the air shifted, and Mikey could almost feel the shame spilling out of the yokai in the air. Mikey fluttered his eyes open at that, and met eyes with Donnie and Raph, who were both blinking in surprise at the change. Poo and Leo were locked in a staredown.
Finally, Poo's ghostly glow dimmed.
"Set everything back to normal, Peter. You have to clean up after you make a mess."
At Leo's words, Poo exhaled slowly, as if accepting it. Mikey couldn't see the inside of the house, but he hoped all the ice was going away. Mikey squeezed his eyes shut again, trying to inhale through his nose and exhale through his mouth, because he was feeling really dizzy. He raised his hands to his head, trying to feel if he was warm because of all the blood rushing to his head.
And that was his mistake.
The hand mirror that was so essential to their plan tumbled out, pitching down towards the pool. Even in the dark, it hit an angle that bounced light back up to them like a shining gem before disappearing into the blackness. There was a splash, and Mikey groaned.
"Why did you have a mirror?" Poo stared down at the pool, and the wind holding Mikey grew uncomfortably tight. "That was your plan? To trick me into going into a mirror?"
So much for the plan.
"What? No, never!" Mikey lied, because the way Poo was glaring at Leo was scaring him. "I just like carrying hand mirrors with me!"
Poo flew over to Mikey, whirling him right-side up, glaring and looking as if he were going to punch Mikey into the next season.
At least that would be warmer, was the first thought that came to Mikey's mind.
Leo's entire face changed. "Don't hurt him!"
Poo looked back at Leo, then at Mikey, as if realizing something.
"You don't know the first thing about Mommy and Daddy, do you? You just wanted me to stop, but you don't understand me at all!" Poo said to Leo with a scowl.
Leo was as still as stone. "Don't hurt him, Peter."
Poo's voice grew impossibly calm. "I'll make you understand how bad I feel."
Then he snapped his fingers, and the wind released Mikey.
Mikey screamed as he suddenly plunged downwards, and covered his head with his arms. There was a moment in which Mikey could hear his brothers screaming his name. And then there was only water. Cold, black water.
And then darkness.
Mikey was a pretty okay swimmer, but he preferred doing cannonballs rather than actual swimming practice. Which is why he completely forgot how to move his limbs for a few seconds. Once he remembered how, he frantically kicked to reach the surface. But the surface never came. The faintest light from the sky grew to nothing, leaving Mikey in the dark underwater, furiously kicking and swimming. Where was the surface?
There was a light behind him then, and a voice that sounded oddly clear despite being underwater.
"You can breathe down here, you know."
It didn't matter if yokai were real and the world was full of mystical things. Mikey didn't believe that voice for a second. Instead, he spun around, and saw who was talking to him.
Poo.
Woody-possessed-by-Peter floated in the water in front of Mikey, irises glowing mischievously. "Go on, take a deep breath."
Mikey shook his head, holding onto his breath still.
Poo made a disappointed noise. "That's boring. It would have been funny if you believed me."
Okay, attempted murder aside — how was Poo here? Hadn't he been up there with his brothers moments ago? Were his brothers still in the air, then? Were they okay?
"But it doesn't matter. You won't be able to find your way out unless I want you to, anyway."
Panic bloomed in Mikey's chest. I won't be able to WHAT unless he WHAT?
"Don't worry," Poo said, looking a little glum. "You'll all understand after this. I waited a long time for someone to make a promise with me so that I could take control of their body. There's nothing Woody can do to make true on his promise to me, because Mommy and Daddy are really, truly gone. And so that means I have his body forever."
Oh, Mikey thought, his lungs tight, that's what all of this was for.
"And I have forever to make people understand how I feel. And I'll start with those big kids in the air, by making you gone. And you'll understand how I felt when I drowned in the creek by the mill." Poo's eyes glowed dangerously. "And then if everyone understands, I won't feel so alone."
Mikey kicked his legs and tried to swim upwards, but the black water seemed to stretch in all directions. He couldn't even tell if he was swimming up or down. Nothing felt right. Whatever Poo's powers were, he was messing with the pool somehow.
But then it occurred to Mikey that if Peter had drowned in an ice-cold reflective pool of water, no wonder his powers corresponded to traveling through anything reflective and making it snow. He was connected to it. Those were all things that he'd been surrounded by when he'd died.
And… he'd been alone. He had been alone and cold and everyone he loved was so far away — and the blue and grey water had looked like the sky — and so he'd jumped in, hoping he could fly up, but had only been met with darkness —
Just like with Mikey now.
Mikey's limbs were growing tired. His lungs, too, weren't going to hold out forever. As he swam upwards with no progress, his phone floated out from his pocket, the notification light still blinking to indicate the messages he still had to listen to.
"What's this?" Poo asked, reaching out for the phone. He took it and the phone crackled to life by ghost magic.
A voice filtered through, dulled by the water, but still loud enough for Mikey to hear clearly.
"-ive me back my phone!"
Oh, it was Renet.
"Make me!" someone else shouted. That was — weirdly enough — Sav's voice.
"Give it back!" Renet was yelling. "You're not being nice!"
Sav's cacophonous laughter took over. His voice sneered through the speaker. "Hey, loser. This is Sav speaking, just calling to remind you that you're a huge loser. Have fun living your loser life! Ha!"
"Leave him alone! Mikey, ignore—"
The voice message ended, and another played, of Sav making fun of him. Most of the voice messages were of Sav making fart noises.
"He's lousy," Poo commented at the sixteenth voice message of Sav making fart noises.
Something glinted below Mikey's feet. Poo was still looking mesmerized by the voices from the phone. Casually, Mikey bent down and picked it up — it was the hand mirror.
"Mikey?"
It was Renet's voice. Her voice was loud and clear, so it sounded like she'd gotten her phone back.
"Um, it's me. I'm so sorry you had to hear all that. Basically Simon invited my mom and I to this Thanksgiving dinner thing, and when the adults weren't looking, Sav, like, took off with my phone. I just spent the last ten minutes trying to track him down to grab it back. I'm really sorry you had to deal with that — I think he left a bazillion stupid voice messages for you, which makes me real mad. Anyway. Are you okay?"
Not at the moment, but thank you for asking, Mikey thought as his lungs screamed for mercy.
Renet hesitated. "Right, this is a voice message. I can't believe I just asked a question and waited for you to respond like — okay, forget it! But Mikey, another thing? Um. Jennika said… some weird stuff about you yesterday. And we couldn't chat on the bus. So I thought… I dunno, I wanted to ask you if you were okay, I guess."
Mikey's grip on the hand mirror was loosening. He was beginning to properly panic now. It was getting harder to see Poo, even with his glow. Were Mikey's eyes even open?
"I don't really understand what happened, but… I know you'll tell me when you're ready. I don't really care about what Jennika says what happened," Renet said. "Not just because I know how she takes her assertiveness too far sometimes, but because… you know, like, if you stood up for Woody, I know it's probably because things weren't fair towards him."
Something in Poo's expression shifted. His eerie glowing blue eyes dulled for moment, as if Woody were there, listening intently.
Finally, achingly, Mikey let his lips part, giving up. Renet might have said something else, but he didn't know.
Water rushed down his throat.
His vision blurred.
And all was quiet.
Then he heard Poo mumble, "Okay. Fine. I give up."
Something in the water changed, swelling around him like he was being pulled through it. Dimly, Mikey noticed hands around his arms, pulling him out of the water, but he felt too sleepy to help. He felt the back of his head pavement, and hands were suddenly pumping over his chest in rhythm.
"Mikey, come on, breathe!" someone was shouting at him. Raph. And… not just him. Multiple people, actually. His brothers.
Head clearing, Mikey slapped away at the hands giving him chest compressions, only to turn and hack up a bunch of water from his lungs. All of his insides were stinging and on fire when he was helped up to stand. He leaned into a shoulder, recognized it as Raph's.
"Mikey!" someone gasped. Leo. Mikey opened his eyes and blinked out the water just in time to see Leo's pale, pale face, melting in relief. He was kneeling in front of him. There were tears in Leo's eyes as he pulled Mikey's head in close for a kiss on the forehead. "There's my kid. Eyes open. Keep them open."
From his other side, Donnie was reaching out for him. "Are you okay?" he asked in a wobbly voice.
"I'm fine," Mikey croaked out, short of breath, falling sideways to hug him too.
"Nearly killed all of us," Raph muttered, but his hand was on Mikey's back, moving in small circles.
"Sorry." Mikey shivered, but then he frowned. He should be an icicle by now. Why wasn't he colder? Sure, his brothers were huddling around him like they were penguins for warmth, but the air was considerably less cold than it had been before. "What happened? Did we get him?"
"You got him," Leo said with a relieved laugh, pointing at Mikey's hand.
Mikey looked down and saw he was holding the hand mirror. He'd totally forgotten. In the swirling reflection, there were a pair of glowing irises.
"Poo," Mikey said.
"Not the name we agreed on," Raph replied without any heat.
"We should cover it so he doesn't get out," Donnie said. "Like how we planned originally."
"But he went in willingly," Mikey said, confused. He looked at Poo in the mirror, but his lungs were too exhausted for him to ask the question. "I didn't even do anything."
"The moment the wind let us down, we ran to get you out of the pool," Leo explained softly. "I thought you weren't breathing."
"I almost passed out," Mikey admitted, and moved forward to bury his face in Leo's shoulder. "I want hot cocoa when we get home."
"That can be arranged," Leo replied, holding him and ridiculously, attempting to dry his hair with a sleeve.
Over Leo's shoulder, all the lights of the Miyamoto house were all back on, restoring the warm, welcoming glow of the mansion. Through the windows, the guests were stirring awake.
Mikey's mind still felt fuzzy as he tried to piece together what on earth had happened, exactly. Poo had been listening to the voice messages… and, what? He decided to change his mind on killing Mikey? The gesture was appreciated, but why?
"Isn't that classmate of yours in that mirror, too?" Raph asked.
They all looked at the mirror. The ghostly entity was still the combination of Peter and Woody. Mikey bit his lip, thinking hard. Woody had used Peter's powers to find the mask, and in return, he had been supposed to help Peter with something in return. That had been the deal, and until the deal was complete, Woody would remain possessed. But it had always been a rigged deal, since Peter never intended for Woody to become unpossessed.
So there was only one thing left to do.
Mikey cleared his throat and held up the mirror. "Um, Woody? If you can hear me, you have to give up the mask."
At first, nothing happened. Just when Mikey was about to think of something else, the mirror began to glow. Mikey set the mirror down in the grass, and the four brothers backed away as a boy appeared from the light, stumbling onto the neat lawn.
Woody. Just Woody, with his dark hair and brown skin and a blue eye and a green eye. As he straightened up, Mikey saw the half fox mask now lay on the grass. Woody didn't make a move to pick it up. For a moment, all five of them stared at each other. Woody's eyes met Mikey's, and after a stretch of silence, he finally gave him a nod.
Mikey nodded back, pretending like he knew what they were nodding for. This is probably yokai solidarity or something. Play it cool, play it cool.
Donnie picked up the mirror. "I don't see him anymore."
Mikey peered over Donnie's shoulder, but Peter was clear as day in the reflection. He looked just as Mikey had seen him first at the cider mill, except he wasn't facing the mirror anymore. He just looked… sad.
"I guess he's just a regular yokai now, so you guys can't see him anymore," Mikey reasoned.
Raph snorted. "Trust me, I'm more than cool with that."
Donnie nodded. "Same, I'm set on my ghost-hunting quota."
"Leo, you were awesome," Mikey said, and Leo blushed.
"Leo?" a voice called out.
They all turned around to see Usagi walking up to them, rubbing his temples. In all the chaos of nearly drowning, Mikey had forgotten about the mayor's son.
"Usagi, are you alright?" Leo asked, his voice light with relief.
Usagi nodded, looking dazed. "I had the most peculiar dream…" he started, but then stopped when he seemed to notice the others. "Oh, there you are, Woody. You — were you the one who made the mess upstairs?"
Woody stiffened. But then he nodded, slowly. Usagi blinked, taken aback, then let out an exhaustive sigh. "Woody, I can't believe this. You trashed my house? What were you thinking? Were you trying to steal something? What would possess you to do that?
Mikey winced at that phrasing.
"My thoughts exactly," came a new voice from somewhere.
Everyone turned to see a man in a crisp suit walking up to them along the path from a sleek car parked in front of the garages as if he owned the place. His dark eyes, framed by crow's feet, scanned the group of people, and when his eyes passed over Mikey, Mikey stilled in alarm.
It was Yuuki Miyamoto.
And he did own the place.
Usagi's father pressed a hand on Usagi's shoulder, and Usagi bowed his head slightly out of reverence. Then Yuuki Miyamoto looked at Woody — and despite it being a casual one, thick tension spread through the air. Woody lowered his gaze to his shoes.
"My son told me about your little tantrum in the house, Woody. I don't think your parents will be pleased to hear about all this," Yuuki Miyamoto told him, and then fixed him with a pitying look.
"I…" Mikey thought Woody would be apologizing, but instead the boy mumbled, "I know."
"But perhaps thankfully for you, they did not return my calls."
Mikey wondered where Woody's parents were if they weren't concerned for their son being MIA during the night. Then he remembered it wasn't any of his business. Leo's hand fell on Mikey's shoulder then, pulling his attention away.
"I think it's time we go," Leo said to the brothers in a quiet voice.
Mikey nodded, and smiled gratefully. As much as he was curious about the mask in the grass, the mayor, and what would happen to Woody because of all his troublemaking, he was way more ready for bed.
He sunk into Raph, who stilled, then after a wordless exchange, bent down. Mikey gasped at the rare opportunity of a piggy-back ride, and hopped up, tucking the mirror away. Almost instantly his eyelids grew heavy, and so he closed them.
"Thanks, Raphie," he managed to mumble before going completely lax.
"Whatever," he heard Raph mutter.
Leo and Donnie chuckled from the front. As they began the trek around the house to get to their car where they'd parked, Mikey heard the sound of someone jogging up to them across the grass.
"Oh," Mikey heard Leo say. "Usagi."
"You're leaving?" Usagi's asked breathlessly. "Let me walk with you to your car."
"Thanks for the awesome party, Usagi," Leo said, and the gratitude was echoed by Raph and Donnie before Mikey could even work his mouth open. He was so tired even his jaw muscles felt like they were sleeping.
"No, thank you for coming." A pause, then a chuckle. "I guess your youngest is done for the day. Give Michelangelo my best. His cookies were amazing, please let him know."
"Oh, he knows," Raph scoffed, earning some chuckles.
"And seriously, apologies about his nose."
"He's a danger to society, including himself," Mikey heard Donnie joke. Then laughter.
"But he's a trooper," floated Leo's voice into the air, soft and fond and full of love.
There were more words exchanged as they all walked to the car, but Mikey stopped listening at some point. His head resting on Raph's shoulder, hearing Leo's voice, feeling Donnie brush his wet bangs out of his face — he could let himself fall asleep. He wasn't alone. He never really was.
So he let himself sink.