El stared into her tea cup as her heart sank and her stomach dropped to her ankles. Leo was sitting across from her with the tea set in between. She hadn't thought it odd for him to suggest they have tea after the boys fell asleep, it was starting to be their thing to do. But he essentially told her they had no hope, no lead, to find her oldest brother and El was numb.
Johnny's voice, his face, the way he always seemed to know what to do, how he was never too busy for her and how his door was always open for his family even in the dead of night all came into her mind. He was the oldest, the one who always took care of them, their parent who rocked them and kissed their injuries better. The pillar of strength, an anchor that was always there no matter what they did. El's vision was starting to become foggy as her feral instincts screamed at her to fight, protect, find.
Hands covered El's own and she looked up to see Leo, face full of concern, watching her closely. It was only when he told her to follow his breathing and slowed down his breaths for her to do so that she realized that she was hyperventilating. Her gasps slowed to even breathing to match the blue turtles but his hands remained covering hers.
After a few more minutes Leo spoke, "Are you feeling any better?"
"No," was the honest answer, "but it will get worse before it gets better." Draining the cup of room temperature tea before setting it down and taking a deep breath. Only then did she look back into Leo's eyes, "What questions do you have?"
Leo looked into his room where El was now on the bed curled around her young nephews, the boys sleeping soundly. He knew that she was not asleep by the way she held herself, but as El wanted to pretend she was, Leo did not break the illusion. Shutting the door on the family he turned to go to the living room.
Entering the room he found his brothers waiting around the table which now had a map spread across the surface with all hints of the tea gone. Taking a deep breath Leo held his phone out to Donnie who took and tinkered with it before setting it on the table next to a speaker. There was some static before cracking on the other end.
There was the sound of a cup being put on the table and a feminine sign. But any snickering was cut off by the words, "What questions do you have?" El's voice.
Leo responded with, "Do you remember where you were first attacked by this opposing Clan?"
"The Oni," The young woman replied. Then they heard a huff of laughter, "Yes, they stylized themselves as Demons of Japanese culture." With that there was the sound of a cup being filled, "The first attack I remember was when I was eight years old, even though they killed our father when I was one. Their attacks forced Johnny to take the rest of us and run far away from where we lived with our Father."
As the story went on, showing being hunted and fighting only to move to the next place the brothers realized just how lucky they were in finding their first home. They had maybe two or three established homes in the sewers. El's family had two or three homes in the space of a few months before they had to keep moving for fear the Oni would catch up to them.
