Rating: Overall story rated T

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Overall story contains disturbing imagery such as blood, gore and the like, and disturbing situations.

Summary: The world as they knew it has gone to ruins. The shadows, once their greatest allies, now harbour threats so great it's safer to risk walking in open daylight and Mikey and April will do anything to keep what remains of their family safe; even if it means abandoning home and everything they knew. This story is AU and a collaboration between sampsonknight and Zelgadis55.

Comments, thoughts and concrit are always welcome.


Minnie1015: Upset doesn't even begin to cover it. Raph would be beyond mortified! That said though, while they've all lost a lot, they still have each other and that's the most important thing.

T420000: I live for Mikey and Donnie bonding! XD


A/N: In case you missed it and are interested, for the anniversary of the 2k12 series last week, I posted a one-shot for Mikey's 16th mutation day. It's set in the AOtGO series and can be found under 'Tales From AOtGO'.

Also, for those following, I will be posting the next chapter of 'AOtGO: Aftermath' sometime in the next couple of weeks.


Sekai no Owari

Ch 24

"Sis?" Leo mumbled as April paused, looking back at the sleepy turtle rubbing his eyes.

"Yes, Leo?" April answered, slicing her knife into the belly of the rabbit to remove the insides into a plastic bag she found.

She figured that if Mikey and Donnie managed to find a generator, it would be better to have the meat prepared to cook right away; the less time wasted the better as she had no clue how long the generator would even last if Donnie managed to get it running. So far, there was a bit of chatter between the brothers as she half-listened, trying to give them some privacy yet also wanting to be sure they didn't get into any trouble as was their wont.

"What are you doing?" Leo came up cautiously, somewhat disturbed by what she was doing which didn't seem to bother her the slightest.

Letting out a small chuckle, she smiled warmly, "Preparing it to cook." Leo didn't say a word, only frowned and April bit her lip, "Leo, it's dead. I have to do this so we can eat it. This is how meat is prepared."

"But..." Leo whimpered, looking down at her bloody, messy hands.

"Leo," April placed the knife down to wash her hands; she had to admit to surprise that there was any water and pressure at that. She then knelt down to his height, gently taking his hands, "I know this seems a bit scary that I'm doing this but it has to be done. I gather you've never been hunting before or understand what it entails?"

He shook his head, eyes still on their hands, so April reached up with one hand to lift it to meet her eyes, speaking to him as softly as she could. "It was quick Leonardo. I made sure the rabbit didn't suffer. I was taught when I was your age that when you hunt for food you do so for that reason only and use everything that you can from your kill so you don't waste its life. We only hunted the rabbit because we need the meat, otherwise, I wouldn't have done what I did."

Leo still didn't say a word and April sighed inwardly. "You think I'm bad for doing this?"

"No sis... you're not bad," Leo mumbled.

"Do you feel sorry for the rabbit?" April asked next, getting another whimper from Leonardo as he nodded his head.

"That's okay. I do too," April admitted softly; she never had enjoyed hunting.

"Then why did you do it?" Leo flashed a look at her, almost in tears.

"For survival."

"Survival?" Leo asked dolefully, confused by her answer.

"Leonardo, this world is harsh and we aren't going to be lucky enough to always find canned food or whatever else that may come our way. We need to survive to live another day and to do that, sometimes we need to do things we normally wouldn't want to. You see, we don't have much food on us and if we use it all up we might starve before we find more. Such moments like this with the rabbit, we have to seize them so that we can save what little we do have for another day when we might not be as fortunate." April took a breath before continuing, "Do you understand?"

Nodding slowly, he bit his lip, "Sis... can you teach me to survive?"

Smiling, she gave him a warm hug, "Of course I will and your brothers will too."

"Raphie can't," Leo said, shaking his head.

Chuckling, April agreed, "You're right, he can't right now but you can teach him when he is older."

"Really?" Leonardo suddenly became excited.

"Yes, you're his big brother so who else would be more perfect to teach him?" April asked, standing up and heading back to the carcass. "For now, how about you help me with this rabbit and don't be shy about asking questions, Leo. I'll try to answer them as best I can. Okay?"

"Okay!" Leo pulled a chair up so he could see what she was doing.

Throughout the cleaning, he asked her questions, pointing at the body parts and insides, curious about why she was cleaning the way she was and watching her cut the meat up into small pieces to cook faster.

Once done, she placed all the parts that couldn't be used in the bag, saving the hide and hanging it. She figured they could use that for something later or use it if the weather got a bit on the cool end for Raph. Though for that, she realised she'd need to learn how to tan the hide and she briefly wondered if Donnie had ever read anything on the subject and if so, if he still knew.

Cleaning up, she helped Leonardo to wash his hands as well, glad she'd finished before Donnie managed to get the generator running. After all, they couldn't be sure how long they'd have the power to cook with if they even had any at all. Then as she brought the Shell-cell with her to the bed to check on Raph, she felt sick as she heard Donnie burst out, 'And how long until we no longer even have that much?'

-:-

For a moment, Mikey stood gaping after his brainy brother. Then, "Donnie!" he yelled, no longer caring who or what heard him. Mikey tore after him, grateful Donnie had at least run back into the open grounds where the buildings sat rather than deeper into the trees. "DONNIE!" he cried again as Donnie shot around the corner of the largest building.

"Damn, he's fast," Mikey muttered as he ran. 'Or I'm getting tired,' he winced, feeling the pain of his recently cut foot and exhaustion from the infection of his bite wound. He cringed, realising April would force more antibiotics on him that night.

As Mikey cornered the building, he realised Donnie was no longer in sight and a chill raced through him. Looking around wildly, Mikey's eyes rested upon the generator and knowing how Donnie had always found comfort in technology and been attracted to it, he made his way there, hoping against hope that that was where he fled to. Slowing down and trying not to pant obviously from exhaustion, Mikey trotted over, relieved to see a shaking olive-green form hunkered down behind the old machine. He glanced towards the sun which was now almost gone, then slid down beside his brother, feeling a buzzing from his Shell-cell. As he slid an arm around Donnie and pulled him closer, he took the device out, seeing a text from April.

'Mikey is everything alright? Is Donnie ok?'

"I hope you don't think that April or I would ever leave any of you," Mikey said softly as he surreptitiously typed back 'We're fine,' before pocketing the Shell-cell again. "Different or not, same age or not, we're family forever bro."

Donnie didn't reply, just stiffened against him.

"You know, Leo once said something to me that stuck with me through everything that's ever happened since," he offered quietly, thinking back. "He said, 'In this life, we only have each other. If one of us goes down, we all go down.' So no matter what's happened to us recently, no matter what's going to happen in the future, we're all in this together. Nothing is going to change that and nothing is going to separate us, no matter how alone and lost anyone feels right now."

Donnie looked up into Mikey's bright blue eyes. "Leonardo really said that?"

Smiling softly, Mikey replied, "He sure did. He said it to me at a time where I felt I wasn't good enough and that I would fail. Honestly, it didn't really inspire me so much at the moment he said it but a couple of hours later when I was fighting for all of our lives, I remembered his words and they gave me the strength I needed to fight back and win and protect everyone. Ever since then, I've kept those words close to my heart and it's helped me through the worst times. Just as it still helps me now, even though he's suddenly five years old all over again," Mikey said, pulling a face and making Donnie smile. "So please, trust me when I say we'll always have each other, okay? Because nothing can split us up. Not even the zombie apocalypse."

-:-

Mikey rapped at the door, imploring April to admit them entrance. Moments later, the door flew open and April stood on the other side, watching them. Mikey and Donnie entered and sealed the door behind them once more.

"I've started cooking the meat. How long do you think we have power for?" April asked, figuring she shouldn't bring up what she overheard on the Shell-cell.

"Maybe an hour or two at most," Donnie replied softly. "It's hard to say when I don't know how efficiently that old generator works."

"Long enough to have a warm meal but hopefully not so long as to attract anything, then." April nodded, then raised an eyebrow at Mikey who sluggishly went towards the frying supper. "You know I can cook," she said in a harsh tone, knowing he was about to try and take over.

Mikey grinned sheepishly and backed off as if April had been threatening him with the frying pan. "I know but the kitchen is my domain and I'm bett..."

"Sit down if you know what is good for you!" April smiled brightly, tapping her foot warningly on the floor and making Mikey shiver in fear. "Donnie, why don't you give Mikey his antibiotics?"

"Um, sure," Donnie said warily, remembering how he'd been the night before and back when Mikey was also twelve – there wasn't much difference. He went to where April motioned to get the medication and picked it up before turning to go after Mikey, staring as he realised Mikey wasn't sitting like he'd been told. Instead, Mikey was wandering around the room as if searching for something and Donnie opened his mouth to comment but April beat him to it.

"Mikey, stop acting like a fart in the mitt and sit your shell down or I will make you!" April growled as Leo snickered at seeing his big brother in trouble.

Mikey blinked at her, wondering what she meant. "Huh?"

"Mikey, sit down!"

"Yeah, in a minute, April," Mikey replied distantly and started digging through the drawers near the sink.

Letting out a sigh, she gave up, going back to her cooking.

With a triumphant flourish, Mikey found a stained tablecloth at the back of the drawer and yanked it out. Then too tired once more to care about appearances, limped over to the window and covered it up thoroughly so no light could seep outside and no one could see in. Only then, did he go sit down like he'd been told.

"I swear Mikey, you could have just said something." April shook her head, then looked at Leo to share a look of exasperation. Then she remembered he was only five now when he didn't reciprocate as she'd expected.

"Something," Mikey teased cheekily, poking out his tongue.

Letting out a sigh, she rolled her eyes, "And to think, we always thought Raph was the stubborn one who never told anyone what he's up to. What do you think, Leo?"

"He might be bored?" Leo suggested in a sing-song voice. "Mikey is annoying when bored."

Mikey snorted, "Like you can talk right now, pipsqueak."

Donnie simply smothered a faint laugh.

"Nah-uh! You are worse!" Leo stuck out his tongue at Mikey.

"No way, you got us all be... urk!" Mikey choked, cut off from what he was saying as Donnie suddenly tossed the tablets into Mikey's open mouth as he was speaking and held his hand over it so he couldn't accidentally spit them out again. Gagging a little, Mikey managed to swallow the offending objects and turned a glare on Donnie, "Et Tu, Donnie?"

Donnie shrugged nonchalantly. "If I waited for you to stop talking and arguing, you still wouldn't have taken them before morning."

"He has a point," April laughed loudly, avoiding looking at him as tears of laughter ran down her face.

"Wow, just wow," Mikey muttered, turning his head away in a stink. "Good to know who a dude's friends are."

All of a sudden, Mikey felt a quick but soft peck on the back of his head, followed by a derogatory pat. Mikey turned to see April looking down at him with amusement and he sighed, unable to stay mad, despite the petting.

"You're such a good boy for taking your medicine," she mocked. "Who's a good boy?" April burst out laughing, no doubt returning the favour for earlier comments.

"At least I'm not the one who hears dog whistles," Mikey muttered petulantly, crossing his arms and pouting.

Narrowing her eyes, she huffed and went back to the stove.

Donnie looked at the two, confused. "But April's human, how could she hear dog whistles?"

"Uh..." Mikey began, looking helplessly towards April's back. When she was obviously going to be of no help, Mikey added, "It was a side effect of the inoculation serum?"

"Are you asking me, or telling me, Mikey?" Donnie asked, annoyed by the runaround.

Mikey shrugged. "Well, who knows. All we know for sure is before the inoculation she couldn't hear it and then afterwards, she could, but we didn't find out until really recently."

"I had no clue myself," April shrugged, glancing at Donnie as she turned the meat. "The first time I heard it was when you didn't see the zombies on the cameras when Mikey and I were clearing the area around the lair. That's how I knew something was coming... the second time was when we exited the lair just before Mikey was bitten," she explained quietly, refusing to look away from the pan.

"Oh... I wonder why that is..." Donnie murmured thoughtfully. "You didn't happen to bring the data about the inoculation experiments from the lair with you, did you?"

"No..." April answered hesitantly.

"But?" Donnie prompted.

Mikey sat up straighter and looked curiously over at her.

"But what?" April turned away slightly. "Unfortunately, I had no time to bring the papers on it or the hard drive considering I figured I would have no way of reading it and we didn't exactly have much time to think of grabbing anything other than what we brought," she said quickly, trying to hide the sickness in her stomach, unsure what to say. She couldn't tell Donnie because it would lead to what he had done and the fear of how he would handle it as a twelve-year-old was daunting.

Donnie stared at her suspiciously but then shrugged and turned away, going over to sit on the mattress beside Raph, his movement accidentally waking him.

Raph started to cry as April took the chance to let out her sigh now that Donatello wasn't looking her way. She turned her attention fully back to the meat, "Well supper is ready. I think Raph must be hungry as well."

Donnie wordlessly stood up again and went to prepare Raph's food, going out of his way to avoid looking at April and Mikey sighed, glancing over at Leo who still stood there watching April; the tension in the room was so thick it could be cut by a katana again and Mikey hated it.

Standing up, Mikey wandered back over to the drawers, remembering having seen cutlery within. Pulling out enough knives and forks for them all, he then searched the cupboards, hoping to also find some plates within. He placed the plates in a stack beside April and went to set the table, wincing as his previously bitten arm suddenly throbbed on him again. It didn't help that he'd been carrying the heavy weapon with that arm nearly the whole day.

The table set, he flopped bonelessly into the chair, before remembering he'd forgotten to get them drinks but he couldn't bring himself to get up again.

Since the table was ready, April motioned for Leonardo to take a seat as she evenly filled each plate with meat and beans. "Donnie, I can take Raph off your hands, why don't you eat while it's hot," April suggested, placing the frying pan in the sink.

"I'll be fine," Donnie replied distantly as he picked up his baby brother and brought him over to the table.

"Okay," April nodded, cleaning the dishes so the smell wouldn't linger so long.

Once April finished and sat down, Mikey looked up at Donnie tiredly, "Can you give Raphie to April and get us all some water? There're cups in the second cupboard from the sink."

Donnie's lips tightened slightly but he did as asked, placing down the cups of water extremely carefully and making Mikey wince, knowing that Donnie only acted that way when he was mad.

"Thank you," both April and Leonardo said at the same to Donnie.

"You're welcome," Donnie replied, smiling at Leo. Suddenly, the power went out, plunging them into pitch darkness and Donnie let the smile drop instantly from his face.

"What the... oh... the generator must have run out of juice," Mikey realised, turning in his seat to look around. Realising just how dark it was, especially with the window covered, he fumbled at his belt for his Shell-cell, opening it up for the small amount of light it would give off.

"There are some candles in one of the drawers," April offered, using Mikey's dim light to navigate towards the cupboards.

"Awesome. Now, anyone got anything to light them with?" Mikey asked. "I uh... didn't think to bring any matches when I packed the bags."

"Top pouch of my bag," April answered, grabbing the candles from the drawer.

Not really wanting to move but figuring it better than asking Donnie when he was in this mood, or Leo, being that he was only five and likely to take the chance to snoop, Mikey sighed softly and pushed himself wearily to his feet. Moving carefully in the dark, he limped his way over to April's bag, wishing they had another light for him to see by, however, he was grateful for his ninja training and reached the bag without incident. Unzipping the pouch, he fumbled inside, pulling everything out as he wandered over to where April was setting up the candles. As he sorted through the handful searching for the matches, he caught sight of Donnie's handwriting on a small, unopened envelope addressed to April. Passing over the matches, he surreptitiously held up the envelope, silently questioning April.

Turning pale she gulped and answered softly, "I haven't read it yet..."

"Okay," Mikey replied simply, stuffing it back into the pocket with the rest of the things he'd pulled out. Knowing she didn't want to read it now nor talk about it, he quickly changed the subject. "You know, you really should put those matches into a plastic bag to waterproof them. If they get wet, we're screwed."

"I know but I grabbed them at the last minute and didn't have time," April admitted as she lit the candles. She let the first burn for a moment before dripping some melting wax onto empty plates to securely keep the candles standing. Then she lit the others from the first.

Mikey returned to the table after placing April's bag on the counter and picked at his food. After he'd finished a little less than half, he looked up, seeing his brothers and April having finished theirs and smiled wanly. "If anyone's still hungry, you can finish mine," he offered.

Donnie shook his head, "Not me. Thanks anyway."

"I will!" Leo jumped up with an excited smile on his face.

Mikey pushed his plate to his little brother, "Here you go, Chibi-chan."

Once Leonardo was done eating, April cleared the table, "Mikey, why don't you get some rest. I'll take the first watch and see if I can get Raph to settle down."

Mikey opened his mouth to protest, having wanted to take first watch himself after the previous night when he knew April barely slept but he recognised April's reasoning as valid and closed it again. Instead, he simply nodded and listlessly trudged off to the makeshift bed to lay down on the edge. "Just make sure you actually wake me for my turn tonight," he pressed.

"Don't worry, I will," April reassured over her shoulder.

"Awesome," Mikey muttered and was asleep almost immediately.

Blinking at the fact he was gone before she could respond, she sighed, "Though I'm not sure how possible that will be..."

-:-

Sitting there in the dim light April, stared at the envelope in her hands. Part of her wished she never brought it with her and yet the other part knew she had no choice. Why would he say sorry with the results if it didn't harbour some dark, hidden secret?

Letting out a sigh as she decided she wasn't ready, she placed it back in her pack unopened before rising to her feet. She padded softly towards Mikey. The moment she reached him, she knelt down to wake when she felt his overly warm skin. Hissing in dismay, she realised he was running a fever again.

Gently unwrapping his wound, she sighed at the sight of the inflamed and oozing skin. Mikey wasn't healing as well as he should, which she realised was because he hadn't had time to let his body rest. Standing again, she made her way over to her bag to get the supplies she needed, then returned to clean the wound and rebandage it. Once she was done, she woke Donnie up instead.

"Donnie," April whispered insistently, shaking him vigorously, "Donnie, I need you to wake up."

Donnie groaned tiredly. He'd always had a hard time waking and not for the first time, he wondered if maybe he should try coffee to see if that could help him rise in these early mornings. "Wasn't Mikey meant to be taking the second watch?" he mumbled almost incoherently.

"Yes but he's running a fever again," April admitted worriedly, smiling fondly at the familiar sleepiness; no matter how old he was, Donatello was not a morning person, "We need to let him rest up," she explained softly.

April's words suddenly hit him and Donnie sat up in shock. He turned to face Mikey, careful not to disturb Leo and Raph beside him. "Is he okay?" he asked fearfully, feeling sick as he remembered Mikey swearing not to leave anyone behind earlier.

"His injury is inflamed and weeping but doesn't look like it is infected like before," April said softly, trying to ease Donnie's nerves. "He needs rest, far more than what he has had the past couple of days. If we want him to get better we have to let his body do what it needs to do and rest is number one at the moment."

"Then..." Donnie began and bit his lip, hesitant to go on.

"Then?" April prompted gently.

"Then maybe, if it stays safe here, we should stay here tomorrow," Donnie suggested, worried April would shoot him down. "So far it seems better than anywhere else we've seen at any rate. We seem to be far away from anything or anyone and at least there's enough clear space around this building that we can see if anything approaches from the window and of course, we'll hear if they try to come from the inside, especially if we set a couple of warning traps."

"Actually," April paused and looked at Mikey.

Donnie shrank away ever so slightly as he looked up at her. After a moment, his gaze followed hers.

"I was thinking the same thing," she admitted. "He might act like he is fine and even joke around as if nothing is wrong but he's hurting badly. I can see it in his walk and the way he smiles," April sighed. Most times, Mikey made a fuss when hurt but when the situation was as bad as this, he had a habit of keeping mum so as not to worry everyone and distract them from what they needed to do. "We don't know what's ahead or if any suitable shelter will be available. I don't want to think of us running into a corner with him in this condition... I'm not strong enough or skilled enough to protect you guys if that happens so..." April trailed off, revealing her insecurities.

Donnie sat up straighter, surprised to hear her admit such a thing. He huffed a small, self-conscious chuckle. "I know what you mean. I can't even use my best weapon right now because it's far too big for my size." He sighed softly and went on. "You know, growing up, we all underestimated Mikey a lot more than necessary since he was never serious about anything; that doesn't seem to have changed that much even now, by the way," he chuckled dryly. "I know he's capable. I've always known, probably better than Leo or Raph ever did since Mikey more readily let me see the side of him that he so rarely let the others see but that doesn't change the fact that he's always hidden his true ability. It hurts that we need to rely on him so much now and that's got to be a lot of pressure on the one of us that never wanted the responsibility in the first place." Donnie fell silent then, half wishing he hadn't said any of that, that he hadn't opened up that way, but April had seemed so vulnerable for a moment and he couldn't help it.

"Yeah, when this happened he admitted that to me. He was terrified he would fail you guys. Even so, I told him he wasn't alone because I would never let him be and that he was more than capable of doing this. Mikey is the biggest goof I ever met and I love him for it, really, I do, but I can tell you this, when it comes down to it he never gives up. He's far more capable of things than you'd ever think by looking at him and even Leo and Raph knew it by... well before the accident. Leo would never have let us to go out alone if he thought Mikey couldn't handle it. Heck, Leo's rules said no less than a group of three, yet that day he broke those rules," April admitted, getting up to splash some cold water on a shirt and placing it over Mikey's forehead to help cool his fever.

Donnie bit his lip a moment, then looked up again. "How was Leo as a leader? From where I remember to, he was only recently named leader officially." Donnie then chuckled quietly. "Raph sure didn't like it and let it be known every other moment when Master Splinter wasn't around. But... well, honestly, even to me Leo seemed like the best choice out of a group of bad choices. Then again, really, what's a good choice at twelve?"

"He was a great leader and a great brother all the time I've known you guys," April smiled, giving the sleeping five-year-old a fond look. "His maps here are evidence of that. He was strategic, brave and selfless. I mean, even faced with unexpected perils he always knew how to get us out of it. I admire him for that and for how he cared so much about his family and what lengths he would go to protect us all. Believe it or not, even Raph saw this and trusted him with his life." April smiled again at the memories of what was. "I heard about the scuffles and fights they had when they were younger and how much Raph resented the idea of Leo as the leader but at some point, Leo proved to Raph why he should be the leader and ever since then Raph made sure that Leo was doing his best by questioning his orders as a way to force Leo to consider every possible path before him. Sure there were times they got into heated arguments but that was just them and they always resolved it sooner or later.. even if there were bruises, cuts and you chastising them about how irresponsible and childish they were being," April laughed and quickly slapped her hand over her mouth, realising just how loud she was.

Mikey stirred momentarily, groaning softly, but didn't otherwise awaken. Donnie started but relaxed when his brother fell silent once more. He turned back to April, smiling wanly. "I wish I could remember. Unfortunately, unless this can somehow be reversed, none of us will ever be the same again." He rubbed his temples as if in pain. "Raph's going to be the most affected by this since he won't even remember anything of Master Splinter..." He sighed miserably and fell back, laying on his shell and staring up at the ceiling.

"Then we'll help him remember Master Splinter by telling him stories; anything to keep the memories alive. Besides, you never know, you might all still turn out the same, just with different life paths and experiences. I'm certain Leo will always be a leader. Even now, he has the makings of one because that's who he is and even if he isn't exactly the same, that doesn't mean anything. I'm sure Raph will never get that temper completely out of him but just like before, he will always be loyal and strong, that's never going to change. As for you Donnie, you will always be the genius, the one who gets giggly with excitement when new tech or discoveries are found, the one that still, by the looks of it, needs coffee to wake up... I just hope you don't prove to be as grouchy as you were when you didn't get any before though or I might have to hose you down," April teased. "Things might have changed yes, but in reality, you guys won't, not when it comes to who you are deep down."

Donnie gave a small smile, heartened to hear that even if he didn't fully believe it. Things were so different now to what he remembered that how could they turn out the same, especially since they no longer had their father who had trained them.

"Do you want to know what Leo asked me today, while you and Mikey were out looking for the generator?" April asked him, seeing there was still doubt in his expression.

"Sure, why not."

"He wanted to learn how to survive. Even at five, he wants to learn the skill sets. He's already taking the initiative to be responsible and that is proof of what I've been saying right there," April assured him.

Donnie sat up again and looked thoughtfully down at his small, sleeping brother, curled adorably into Mikey's side.

"And oh boy, the questions he asked me while I was showing him about how to cut up and clean the rabbit. Some of which I had no clue about how to answer correctly," April continued with a chuckle. "He even went as far as asking why I held the blade the way I did, why that angle, how much strength it would take for my knife to cut through the bone. I tried to answer him the best I could and then I told him he would have to ask Mikey because I wasn't sure what to say."

"Wow," Donnie breathed softly. Then he remembered how Leonardo had always asked all those kinds of questions around Splinter too and he felt warmer. "But Leo's at least old enough to have developed part of his personality already. Raph's far younger than any of us ever were when we were mutated. Who's to say he'll even still be recognisable?" Then realising how that may have sounded, Donnie quickly added, "Not that that will stop any of us loving him, but you know what I mean."

Laughing, April pointed at Raph, "He is still moody, he is still aggressive, heck he is still a perve at heart." Then she cringed as she realised what she said. "Okay, scratch the perve part. That was an inside joke that I really shouldn't have said about someone who is now a child, even though to be fair, he wasn't one just a few days ago. Look, Raph will turn out the same at heart, I have no doubt. Sure, it's possible part of his personality might be a bit different but what's to say it wasn't a part of him before? Raph wasn't one to show the world his true feelings but trust me when I say he is passionate, caring, forgiving, well when he wants to be anyway, and reliable. These qualities of his were always there but he had his own way of showing them. God, if the adult him heard me saying those I would be so dead right now..."

Donnie couldn't help but chuckle softly again, knowing how right she was about Raph hiding his so-called softer feelings. "I guess. Well, about most of that anyway," he began, only to be interrupted as a small moan escaped Mikey and his head started to twist from side to side. Donnie turned to face his brother once more, worry filling his gaze yet again. "Maybe... we should separate them," he suggested softly.

"Okay," April handed the sleeping Raph to Donnie as she carefully picked up Leo who moaned a bit then snuggled against her instead as she sat back down with her back against the wall, "Not sure which is stranger, holding Raph at this age or Leo, both of whom I never thought I could be able to carry even if all hell broke loose."

Donnie bit his lip and after settling Raph beside April and Leo, leaned over Mikey, reaching out. Feeling the shirt now dry and warm, he picked it up and went to wet it again before once more placing it back atop his brother's forehead.

"I hope you're right," he suddenly spoke up. "I don't know what I'd do if we lost Mikey..."

"We won't because I swear I would do some sci-fi thing to bring him back..." April started then shuddered and added quickly, "Not undead... oh man, that saying really doesn't work so well anymore."

Donnie shot her a sideways look. "Considering what's going on out there, I don't think you should even joke about such things."

Laughing, she smiled deeply, "Nope you're right and yeah, you really do never change." She only laughed harder at his expression over her humour.

-:-


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