Author Notes:

I was asked how Leo moves about, as I often have his brothers glancing down at him as if he's shorter. My apologies, I often write the scene as I see it in my head, and I often don't make things completely clear. In my head, when Leo is around humans and is nervous or trying to act like an animal, he often crouches down, and creeps about with his body low to the ground, like a cat ready to spring. If he's feeling particularly confident and comfortable, or feels curious enough that he forgets himself, he'll walk around like normal. He's starting to feel comfortable enough to start to walk more normally around the Hamatos. Not that he'd ever admit that.

Chapter 12: Fearless

A loud buzzing noise cut through the air of the apartment, shattering the peaceful silence, quickly followed by sharp pounding on a door, startling me abruptly out of a deep sleep, and I quickly bolted out of the overstuffed chair I was curled up in.

"What the?!" As if more on instinct then actual awareness, suddenly Mikey was kneeling on the couch, the blanket still draped over him as he looked around, obviously only half awake.

"Michelangelo!" A muffled voice called through the door.

"Oh. Crud. Bradford." Mikey sat back and made a face as he yawned, sleepily rubbing his face. Then he stiffened. "Oh! Crud! Leo!"

He tossed the blanket off the rest of the way and looked around frantically for me.

There was another pounding on the door, and another buzz of the doorbell. "Michelangelo, answer this door! Don't make me call your brothers! I will!"

"Eep!" Mikey glanced at the door, then around the room. Another pounding on the door, and he winced, and patted his hands in the air as he whispered loudly, "Leo! If you can hear me... keep on using those elite 'Where's Waldo' skills bro!"

Then he cleared his throat, walked up to the door, took a deep breath and unlocked the security system with a slap of his hand, before opening the door a crack. "Bradford?" he questioned sleepily, suddenly acting much more groggy as he rubbed his eyes. He blinked as he peered out through the door, like he had just been dragged out of bed. "What are you doing here?"

Bradford grabbed the door, trying to push it open a little more as he glared in at the youngest Hamato. "I've been trying to call you for hours! Why haven't you answered?"

Mikey innocently put his foot by the door, keeping it from opening up too wide, and winced as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, glancing back in the room. "I, uh, may have fallen asleep on the couch last night, and my phone was in the charger. I must not have heard it. Sorry."

"You need to be more responsible while your brothers are out, Michelangelo. You're a Hamato, start acting like one!" Bradford tried to look in suspiciously, and his eyes fell on the paper plates. His lip curled in disgust. "Did you really eat all that pizza by yourself?"

Mikey lifted an eyebrow and gave him a look, still holding the door to keep it from opening further. "Please tell me you're not surprised by that."

Bradford looked down his nose at Mikey derisively and gave an unamused growl. "At any rate, I've been trying to get a hold of you to tell you that Darius wants to talk with me later today, so your training session is going to be bumped up to this morning." He gave an annoyed huff. "I was hoping to already have it done with, but you fouled up that plan by your lazy irresponsibility."

"Ah, yeah... my bad." Mikey half heartedly chuckled, then coughed. "Anyways, message delivered. Imma just get ready for the day, brush teeth, shower, you know, all that normal, hygienic stuff, and I'll meet up with you later. Soooo... Dojo in a hour, then? Right. Good. " He tried to close the door.

Bradford caught the door and looked in suspiciously. "Hm. Are you hiding something, Michelangelo?"

"What? Me? No! Of course not!" Mikey gave him the most wide, innocent grin he could muster. "What gives you that idea?"

Bradford glanced around one last time suspiciously, then looked back down at Mikey. "One hour. Don't be late."

"Right-o!" Mikey cheerfully waved at him, and then finally the door clicked shut. Mikey leaned back against, grabbing at his chest and giving a long exhale of relief. Then he perked up and began looking around. "Uh... Leo? Bro?"

I slipped down from my hiding spot on the top of a tall kitchen cabinet, and came up to him, eyeing the door suspiciously.

"Dude," Mikey looked relieved to see me, and ran a hand over his face. "That was a close one." He quickly moved about the apartment, throwing all the paper plates in a pile, then leaned over the sink and threw some water on his face, scrubbing it. He turned and disappeared into a room down the hallway for a second, and came back out with non-pizza-stained pants on, pulling a clean orange sweater over his head.

How many of those did he own, I wondered. It seemed like the only thing he wore.

He opened the door again a crack and peeked out. "Come on. Coast is clear. Let's get you back before anybody notices."

We crept back down the hallway together. After all the greasy pizza last night, I was quite eager for a refreshing swim myself. Mikey pressed his hand on the keypad, opening the doors to let us back in, and I stepped back into my sanctuary, sniffing the air as I looked around.

I paused.

Hm. Something... seemed off. Smelled a little different.

"Here we go, Leo!" Mikey grinned at me. "Home sweet home!" He turned to head towards my tiki hut and the food table by it. "I'm going to check out your food situation for a second. Be right back."

I watched him go, then hesitantly sniffed the air again. I couldn't quite get a handle on just what was bothering me. Frowning, I walked forward, my eyes scanning around to try and spot anything out of place.

I stopped at the edge of the pond, and my eyes narrowed. I crouched down and lightly brushed the mud at the water's edge with the tip of my finger.

"Leo, what's up, bro?" Mikey noticed me, and walked over. Then he stopped, the smile disappeared from his face, and he stood next to me in silence for a moment.

It was faint and incomplete, but there was definitely a the boot print embedded in the mud at the water's edge.

"And that's why I'm camping in here with Leo now until you guys get back." Mikey explained in an upbeat tone, gesturing to the pile of camping gear and massive pile of snacks he dragged in here. He grabbed a bag of gummy worms and opened it, sitting down and leaning back against my favorite tree while I crouched in a low branch just above his head, watching the video call on the tablet unfold with interest.

The image of his two brothers both looked at one another and frowned on the tablet screen.

"That's definitely a good call. Thanks, Mikey." Donnie looked concerned, turning to fiddle with something off screen. "That print you saw was definitely not from one of the standard uniform boots used by our ninjas. I'll run scans of the photo you sent me, and see if I can't figure out some more clues as to who was poking around Leo's sanctuary."

"So some asshole was sneaking around in there last night alone with Leo?!" Raph snarled, obviously not happy with this revelation. He exhaled, then looked up, obviously seeing me up in the tree above Mikey. "At least he seems to be okay. I swear, if they so much as touched him..."

Mikey coughed, and rubbed the back of his head guiltily. "Wellll... Leo might not've been in here last night."

Donnie paused in whatever he was doing, and looked directly at the screen, eyes narrowing. "Miiiikeeyyy... what did you do?"

"Uh... well... you know how Leo seems really into Space Heroes?" Mikey questioned rhetorically. "And if you're going to watch the Director's Cut Special Edition Box Set, you just HAVE to watch it on a 65 inch OLED HD TV!"

"You snuck Leo into the apartment? Alone?" Donnie squeaked in horror. "Mikey, of all the things that could've gone wrong...! You're supposed to be responsible!"

"I was totally responsible! I wouldn't have done it if it looked like it was stressing Leo out. Which it didn't." Mikey crossing his arms defensively, huffing. "Yes, we had a very nice time, thank you for asking. Leo loved the movies, ate a ton of pizza, and only hid on top of the furniture once, and that was because of Bradford pounding on the door."

"You fed him pizza?" Donnie peered at the screen, obviously extremely concerned. "Mikey! No! How many pieces did he eat?"

"Oh, Donnie..." Mikey leaned forward, grinning. "Leo is definitely a Hamato!" He threw up his hands. "So many pizzas were devoured!"

He beamed up at me proudly and raised a fist. I tilted my head, then leaned down from my perch above him and carefully gave him the fist-bump he was obviously requesting.

The two brothers on screen raised an eyebrow in perfect synchronization.

"I have been teaching Leo the Way of Brohood." Mikey explained to them in a wise and serene tone, holding out his hands to each side with fingers touching. "He has been a most excellent pupil."

Donnie frowned, and leaned close to the screen on their side, obviously trying to examine me as best as he could from that angle. He sat back and sighed. "Well, since that didn't make him incredibly ill, I'm assuming that we can rule out lactose intolerance, then. That's good, I suppose, though I would've liked to confirm that in a more controlled manner." He frowned. "But we are definitely having a long talk when we get back, Mikey! You could've really made Leo sick."

Raph leaned back and shook his head, looking more amused then anything. "It was an incredibly dumb and risky thing to do, Mikey, but you may have accidentally protected Leo in the end, so I guess we can't be too upset." He cracked a knuckle. "And believe me, when I find out who was sneaking in there, I'm going to do more then just have a few words with them."

Mikey shook his head. "There's more, though. Remember I said Bradford was pounding on the apartment door? Well, he came down to tell me that he wanted to change the training session hour to this morning." He leaned forward, looking at his brothers. "But... after Leo found that footprint, I decided that something was up, and that something counted as clan business. So I called him to him know that we were going to have to put off practice until after this was all sorted out. And he flipped out on me!"

"What? Why?" Donnie blinked on the screen, confused. "This definitely counts as Clan Business, so he should realize it takes precedent over training. He's never been upset about it before."

"I know, right?!" Mikey frowned as he dug out a blue gummy worm and twisted to toss it up to me. "I don't know why, but he was absolutely determined that we were going to have that training session this morning. Even when I told him about the footprint, he just told that I was being paranoid, and it was probably just one of ours."

"No, it's obviously not." Donnie frowned. "We don't wear boots like that."

"Heck, we just go barefoot most of the time in the sanctuary." Raph observed.

"I know!" Mikey huffed, lifting up his feet and wiggling the five pink toes on each of them as if proving a point. "But he just wouldn't let it go! He kept going on and on about how I was just making up excuses to get out of my training session so I could stay and play with Leo." He crossed his legs and leaned forward, closer to the screen, blue eyes narrowed. "Something was up. He was like... waaaay more persistent then usual. So I decided to test something, and suggested we compromise."

"You... what?" Raph blinked, and looked a little concerned.

Mikey grinned. "I told him that we should hold the training session here. In the sanctuary."

"You what?!" Raph sounded scandalized. "With Leo?!"

"Bradford knows he can't touch Leo." Mikey scoffed. "That's been made clear. We'd take him apart if he tried." He shrugged. "And that way, I could still watch over Leo, and he could get my apparently suddenly-urgent training done like he wanted. But bros..." Mikey suddenly got a little serious as he looked at the tablet screen. "If you think he was mad before, he got pissed when I suggested that."

"Like... pissed because you were arguing with him, or pissed because something wasn't going according to plan?" Raph narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"I'm pretty sure the second one." Mikey crossed his arms, nodding. "I obviously caught him by surprise by the offer, and he kept trying to come up with excuses why that wouldn't work. Like, to the point it was getting painfully obvious that he wanted me to come up to the dojo. And not just at any time that would work out, but right at that specific time, in the morning."

"Like he wanted you out of the sanctuary for some reason." Donnie's face hardened.

Mikey nodded his head solemnly.

"Dammit." Donnie hissed under his breath, lowering his eyes and chewing his lip, obviously trying to figure this out. "With Raph and I gone, apparently somebody decided to get bold. The question is, what do they want?" He groaned and ran his hand over his face.

Raph frowned. "So what happened?"

A grin split Mikey's face. "Bradford ran out of excuses, so we ended up having the training session down here." He grabbed the tablet and plopped down on his stomach, kicking his feet up behind him gleefully. "And, bros... let me tell you that story! It was EPIC!"

Donnie and Raph glanced at each other hesitantly.

I slipped down and snagged the bag of gummy worms while he was distracted, before scrambling back up to my branch to eat them, determined not to give away any facial expressions or other tells during the retelling of this story.

Mikey propped up the tablet, then tucked his arms under him comfortably as he told the story. "So, like I said, Bradford was mad because I apparently ruined some plan of his, and you know how he is when he gets mad."

"He becomes more of an asshole then he usually is." Raph was leaning forward, eyeing Mikey critically as if searching him for bruises. "He didn't hurt you, did he? If he hurt you..."

"I'm fine, Raphie!" Mikey laughed, eyes sparkling. "And that's the best part of the story!" He pulled out his hands and waved them across the air as if invoking an imagination rainbow. "Imagine this, bros. We were sparring, because training, yo, and he suddenly pulls out his 'Death Dragon' kata. I could tell he wasn't pulling any punches, and was just thinking to myself 'Oof, this one's going to hurt', when suddenly... 'Doink!'" He poked himself right between the eyes in demonstration. "A grape bounces right off his face!"

"A... grape?" Donnie blinked. He obviously wasn't expecting that part of the story. "As in a piece of fruit?"

"Yup! Right between the eyes! It startled him so much, he completely missed in the followup kick, and I was saved!" Mikey recapped gleefully. "We both looked over, and sure enough, there was Leo crouched up on his branch in his tree here, glaring daggers at Bradford with a whole cluster of grapes in hand and ready to go." Mikey twisted about to look up at me as he spoke, and despite myself, I felt a little twinge of warmth in my chest at the pure adoration in those blue eyes. No human had ever looked at me like that before.

I closely examined a gummy worm and ate it, feigning ignorance.

"Leo was protecting you?" Raph sounded surprisingly enamored by the idea.

"Yup! And the best thing was, there was nothing Bradford could do about it, and he knew it! He couldn't go after Leo, after all. Leo is strictly off limits!" Mikey snickered at the memory. "So that's how the rest of the training session went. Every time it looked like Bradford was getting too rough, he'd get hit by another grape. Leo's got some sniper-level accuracy when he throws those things, bros!"

"I'm... not sure we should be encouraging Leo to hide in trees and throw food at people he doesn't like." Donnie frowned, leaning back.

"Psh." Mikey scoffed. "Leo was just being a surprisingly fair and just referee. If Bradford behaved, he was fine. It was only when he crossed the line that he got fruitsmacked."

"I can't imagine Bradford took all this calmly." Raph questioned, raising an eyebrow.

Mikey was quiet for a second, which obviously concerned his brothers. He looked up at me, then at the tablet, now a little more serious. "Bradford got so mad in the end, he actually drew steel on me."

"He WHAT?!" Raph was halfway out of his chair in an instant rage.

"Bradford actually drew his sword on you?!" Donnie was equally furious. "During hand to hand practice, without safety equipment?!"

"Yup. And he got about two steps," Mikey continued, "before there was suddenly this really low rumbling noise. Like rolling, 'you can physically feel the vibrations in your chest' primal crocodile growling. Bradford stopped and turned around, and boom!" He clapped his hands. "Right there was Leo glaring at him, only somehow he was now in the tree right next to us! Bros, I didn't even see him move! He just was suddenly THERE, like some sorta ghost!" Mikey glanced up at me again, studying me.

I sniffed at the bag of candy, pretending not to notice.

"His eyes were all changed too. They were weird, completely white with no pupils as he glared at Bradford. I've never seen them do that before!" He shrugged and turned back to the screen. "Anyways, Leo crouched down in the tree, freaky white eyes and all, and he let out a really long, loud hiss. Dudes, he was making it very clear that if Bradford got any closer to me, he was going to get his butt kicked, big time."

Okay, yeah, thinking back on it, I just might have let my emotions get the better of me when that Neanderthal had threatened Mikey with the sword... But I had seen the murderous light in the man's cold eyes, and I had acted instantly and without thinking.

I seemed to be acting without thinking far too often lately for my taste.

Raph sat back down and looked up at me, impressed. "Huh. Pretty fearless, aren't you Leo?"

"Leonardo became aggressive?" Donnie was less impressed and more concerned.

"Leo did what he had to to protect Mikey." Raph corrected him, smirking in obvious approval. "Bradford was the one who escalated things."

"Well, he freaked the heck out of Bradford, at any rate." Mikey finally noticed his bag of candy was gone, and reached over to grab a new one from his backpack off to the side, opening it up. "But then Bradford whipped about and pointed his sword at Leo, and that wasn't cool with me. So I grabbed my chucks, took a page out of Leo's book, and told him to get the heck away from my brother." He looked thoughtful. "Only, you know, with actual words instead of dinosaur noises."

"Oh gods." Donnie facepalmed. "Please tell me you didn't."

"Totally did!" Mikey said cheerfully. "Both Leo and I were set on a hair trigger to defend each other's honor!"

"And then what happened?" Raph was leaning forward, obviously enjoying the way the story was playing out a lot more then Donnie was.

"Well, Bradford was kinda trapped, I guess." Mikey shuffled around in his bag of gummy worms, looking for an orange one. "If he made a threatening movement towards me, he'd have to deal with Leo, and Leo was looking particularly badass right then. If he went after Leo, I'd mess up his meticulous facial hair grooming with a nunchuck to the face." He found the desired colored gummy worm, and popped it in his mouth, leaning on his elbows as he chewed thoughtfully. "But it turns out that I'm full of all sorts of compromises today, and I offered him another one. Since he seemed so stressed out, I graciously told him we could maybe cut training short today, and he could go relax in a hot tub somewhere, have a nice mudbath or something, where he could deep-condition his beard and hopefully restore some of his usual chipper and pleasant personality." Mikey shrugged. "He took me up on the offer and left."

"And Leo?" Donnie looked up at me, concerned. "How did he react? Was he stressed by this? Did he continue to display aggression?"

"Uh..." Mikey turned to look at me again, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. "Well, he watched Bradford leave, then blinked and his eyes went back to normal, which, y'know, good, I guess. I didn't know how to explain to you guys why Leo suddenly lost his pupils. I have to admit, that's a pretty cool move to have, it made him look like Batman. I gotta figure out how he does it." He rubbed his chin, then shrugged. "Anyways, then we ate some ice cream together for breakfast, and afterwards spent the rest of the morning Scooby-Doo'ing it all over the sanctuary trying to see if we couldn't find any more clues as to who was creeping around in here last night, all with no luck, like I told you."

Donnie leaned back and groaned, running his hands through his hair and then down over his face. "What a mess..."

Raph leaned back and smirked, watching me with a new light of approval in his eyes. "Oh, it's fine, Donnie. Us Hamatos watch out for one another, and Leo was just proving that he was a Hamato through and through. He protected Mikey." He shrugged. "Honestly, makes me feel better leaving him and Mikey behind, knowing they've got each others backs while we're gone."

"Speaking of you guys..." Mikey looked between them, obviously a little worried. "You're still going to bring dad back with you, right? Even with everything that's going on?"

Raph looked over at Donnie questioningly.

I tensed just a little.

Donnie closed his eyes, his face tightening as he chewed on his lip. Then he exhaled. "Yeah... I'll feel better with everybody in one area, where we can keep an eye out for trouble." He sat up and looked at Mikey, his face on the screen troubled and worn with care. "I'll see if we can't get our flight to leave sooner, ideally in a few hours. We'll be back tomorrow morning, if all goes well. Until then, I want you and Leo to keep close. Lock down the sanctuary if you have to, and if trouble comes up, call Casey and Angel. At least we know they're loyal."

"Right-o." Mikey saluted, and then looked up at me, thrilled. "You hear that, Leo? Two slumber parties in a row! Ooh!" He sat up as he thought of something. "Donnie made it so the artificial stars in here align with real ones! I can show you all the constellations that I know!"

"He's going to make a bunch up on the spot, Leo." Raph advised me wryly. "Don't believe him."

"Hey, the legend of Justin the Electric Elephanoctopus is a real thing!" Mikey tried to protest his innocence to me with a by-now familiar twinkle in his eyes.

I blinked at him, pausing with a gummy worm halfway to my mouth.

"He shoots laser beams out of his eyeballs!" Mikey squinted, sticking out his tongue as he pantomimed said laser bolts shooting out.

I studied him with narrowed eyes, and slowly ate the gummy worm.

Mikey broke out in an amused cackle.

Donnie glanced over his shoulder at something, then sighed, turning back to us. "We have to go take care of some stuff now." He studied us, worry on his face. "Please... be careful."

"Dude, Leo's got my back, and I got his." Mikey told him confidently. "Just bring dad here safe. I can't wait for the whole family to be together finally!"

"It will be nice." Raph agreed, standing up to pick up the tablet on their end. "See you two stargazers in the morning. Don't stay up too late."

"Wuv you Waffie." Mikey made kissy faces.

Raph snorted, and the screen went blank.