Everything is twenty-twenty in hindsight. And as such, Michelangelo was realising the down side of not mentioning to his highly unstable, panic prone, doesn't do surprises friend that there was a cat in their freezer.

"It's ok, just calm down and leave her in there. Her name is Klunk. She's my pet."

Mikey tried to calm Leatherhead down over the phone as best he could. He could only imagine what the state of the kitchen would be, or the whole lair for that matter. It might just be pizza for a while.

"I'm calm, I'm calm." He could imagine Leatherhead rocking himself back and forth.

"Just leave her in the freezer. There's plenty of food for her to eat in there. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"No, my friend, it is fine. I will just avoid the kitchen until you return."

Mikey considered shortening their stay, maybe heading home early. They had been there three days. Maybe that was enough. Was it?

"Ok, we'll see you in a few days. Remember to call if you need something."

Raph started to grizzle in his arms just as Leatherhead said his goodbyes and hung up. Mikey did his best to shush him before he started wailing, but to no avail.

Oh god. How long do babies cry? How many years? Two? Three?

"Rivet! How longs that formula going to be?"

"Another minute, Mikey!" Shadow called from the kitchen. It was about midnight. Rivet had come up with a routine for feeding the babies and unfortunately everyone within a kilometre radius (April estimated) had to hear about it thanks to Leonardo.

This was great really. He woke the other two up and they demanded to be feed as well. It helped get them all on the same routine. Mikey just wasn't sure how long he could hold up. Casey said he'd get used to it; he and his dad did when Shadow was born.

Rivet clambered out of the kitchen with three bottles, handing one each to April, Casey and Mikey. This bit he was used to, he could do this bit forever. Just watching them drink and slowly become more and more content before the new warmth in their bellies put them to sleep.

"It's too bad you're gonna grow up to be so ugly, Raphie" Mikey mumbled as Raphael finished the last of his bottle.

"Mikey, you can't say that!" April chastised as Casey dissolved in a fit of giggles.

-:-

The kitchen, as it turns out was untouched. Leatherhead had managed to control himself and smash up the lounge room instead.

"It's only a couple of craters," Casey said. "At least the TV is still intact."

"I'm terribly sorry, Michelangelo."

"Nah dude," Mikey waved him off, "its fine I should have told you about Klunk. The floor can be fixed… I think."

"Sure!" Casey scoffed, "Just fill it in with cement until its level with the rest of the floor."

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find cement in the sewers, Casey?" April asked, running her fingers across the edge of one of the craters.

"Just borrow some from a construction site."

It went really quiet after that. They had dropped Shadow off home and the babies were sleeping. The four of them just sat in the lounge area taking everything in. But it wasn't awkward. With all the screaming that had happened in the last week, it was nice to just listen to the trickling waters of the sewers, and the even breathing of each other.

"I'll probably start going through their rooms tonight," Mikey said finally, looking at April and Casey. "I'll start with Leo's first. There's a comic convention this week, and it's not fair that you two keep paying for diapers and formula and whatever. We can sell some of Leo's Space Heroes stuff."

Guilt pooled in his gut. Normally they did alright for money, picking up whatever fell on the ground and in the sewers. But that was always a group effort; there was no way Mikey could do that on his own. And the only way Mikey could support his family now was to sell what was once precious to them – things Mikey wasn't even allowed to touch.

"I know where Raph stashes his really good comics," Casey said, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking up at the ceiling, "We can get more than a few bucks for them too."

"And Irma said she has a spare ticket for the convention. I can go and sell it," April smiled, tears lining her eyes. It was too soon for all of this, to be letting go of the closest things they had of their friends, their brothers.

"You should go now," Casey suggested. "Go find Irma and tell her what's happened. We'll get Rivet to start working on the crib. And I'll hang back and help with Raph's room."

"What about Leatherhead?" April asked.

"Have you left the lair at all this week?" Mikey asked.

"No."

"Then you can go for a walk, stretch your legs, and get some fresh air." Mikey smiled up at his friend. "In fact, how about you go back to your old place and get your things and live here?"

Silence followed, before Leatherhead tentatively asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah!" Mikey exclaimed, a little bit of colour coming back to his face. "You'll have to hang in the lounge room for a little bit until we get a room clear, but there's nothing stopping us!"

On some level Michelangelo probably knew his friend couldn't say no, anything to keep that smile on his face.

"Okay."

April left, albeit begrudgingly, with Leatherhead escorting her out. Casey's first step was to get an empty tub from Donnie's lab.

"The shit ton of empty bug spray cans this dude has needs to go!" he says, pushing open Raph's door, leaving Mikey to stare down Leo's.

"You can do this," he breathed, wringing his hands together. He'd been in Leo's room plenty of times and he never knocked, why did he feel like he had to now? "I'm being stupid."

He forced the door open and was hit. Hit by smells, hit by memories, hit in the shin by step up he was taking in his family hierarchy.

Maybe he should wait for next year's comic convention.

No.

Yes.

No.

Yes.

No!

"Grow up, Michelangelo!" he scolded himself in his best Leo voice. He took a tentative step, like he's stepping in a mine field, even though Leo's room is clean and free of stuff on the floor. He gets over to Leo's 'prized' shelf before he realises he doesn't have anything to put the stuff in. He rushed out to Donnie's lab, grabbed a tub and starts again. Slow, small steps and some internal scolding.

Mikey tried to put the things on the shelf in the tub in the same order they were on the shelf. He assumed it was important because Leo never did anything just because. There was always something refined about how he did things, something Splinter once told Mikey scared him to see in a teenager.

"Nah," Mikey said at the time, "I caught him crying over some Space Heroes fanfiction last night. I wouldn't stress about it too much."

The tub was full but the shelf only half empty. "Stupid action figures," Mikey muttered to himself, taking the tub to the living space and getting a bigger tub.

"Dude," Casey popped his head out of Raph's room waving an empty can of spray, "the first thing you're going to do is desensitise Raph to bugs. This shit ain't healthy."

"It's not that bad, is it?"

Casey dragged a tub twice the size of what Mikey had and says, "I haven't even made a fucking dent. He's used like a can per bug."

"Aww geez."

-:-

April come back a few hours later, laptop in hand. Mikey had cleared all the Space Heroes stuff from his brother's room, and Casey had finally cleared all the cans from Raph's and dug up his comics.

"We need to figure out how we're gonna price this stuff," April says, booting up her laptop. "I'm not gonna let some greasy nerd rip you off."

They do it by bit, each individual action figure (which are, by the grace of God, all in their original packets), each comic, each poster or whatever.

"Maybe we should just start an ebay account," Casey mumbles, holding a packet up to the light. "This is too much for one person to take."

"Then what do you suggest, Casey?" April asks.

"Maybe just take the really good stuff with you. Find a couple of people to fight it out for it."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea!"

The next twenty minutes revolved around setting up a make shift studio in the kitchen. Casey worked on taping a white sheet to the ceiling to hide the fact the photos are being taken in a sewer kitchen, while April got the camera ready.

"I'm gonna go see where Leatherhead is," Mikey called, patting Rivet's head on the way out as he worked on the crib.

Leatherhead hadn't come back, and he admitted having a t-phone would be too much for his nerves and too little for his fingers so Mikey couldn't call him. Mikey knew he would crush it at some point, and Mikey couldn't afford to lose too many spares.

Leatherhead was probably just trying to pull himself together. Him moving in with Mikey was a big thing. Leatherhead had never lived with anyone before, so Mikey knew it would take a while for him to make the transition. He'd probably take over a few things at a time, and spend his days in the lair to accustom himself to the constant noises the lair had. And also to the wailing of the babies.

Mikey just wanted to make sure he was ok.

Leatherhead's lair wasn't that far from Mikey's, so checking on him wasn't a problem. He rapped his knuckles against the door a few times calling Leatherhead's name.

"Come in." The voice was quiet and Mikey could tell his friend was probably rocking himself back and forth. He pushed the door open gently, trying to avoid making too sudden a noise.

"Dude, you ok?"

Leatherhead was huddled in the corner, not rocking as Mikey had suspected, but rather staring at what little he owned like it had burnt him.

"I don't want to be an imposition," he muttered quietly.

"I asked you to move in," Mikey said, smiling. "If you're not ready don't worry."

Because I don't want to push you away.

I don't want you to push me away.

I don't want to lose another person.

Those things were left unsaid, but Leatherhead could see them in Mikey's eyes even though he smiled.

"But I want to."

"Ok, but don't feel you need to do it all at once," Mikey said quietly, sliding down the wall next to Leatherhead. "Slow and steady."

"That's never been your style, Michelangelo" Leatherhead says, fiddling with the teddy bear Mikey had gotten for him.

"I guess…" Mikey's brow furrowed, "Some things just have to change, don't they?"

-:-

"Mikey!" Casey yelled, dragging Mikey to the kitchen. "We've sold so much!"

"I've been gone for like half an hour!"

"Well, the auctions aren't technically over" April said, pointing to her laptop, "But there are loads of watchers on everything we've put up so far! It'll go nuts once it's closer to the end."

"Oh." It was a soft noise, close to a breath. Casey barely heard it and he was standing right next to Mikey.

"How did it go with Leatherhead?"

"It's gonna be slow, but he'll get in here eventually."

"I think it's good that you invited him to live here," April said. "But where will he stay?"

"I was thinking Leo's room, because it's going to be the easiest." Mikey rubbed a hand over his face. "Raph's probably needs to be fumigated from all the bug spray and Donnie's is just full of stuff."

"Yeah, Donnie's room is going to be a problem" Casey groaned. "Everything's in bits but we've got no idea what important and what's not."

"We can just leave it for now. What are you going to do about Sensei's room, Mikey?" April asked quietly.

"Not sure. I haven't really thought about it. He's got a lot of photos; I want to keep those, and all his kimonos and things. They all have a family crest on it, we can't go dumping that in some donation bin, the police will go nuts."

"Why?" Casey asked.

"Because he's technically a missing person topside," Mikey explained quietly. "Maybe I'll just box them away until I can wear them or something."

"We can get those vacuum bags so bugs don't get to them!" April said excitedly.

"I think Raph's sorted the bug problem, Red" Casey said dryly with a smirk.

"Ha ha. And we can get some albums for Splinter's photos to keep them safe too."

It was unspoken, but they all knew Mikey would be moving into Splinter's room at some point. When the boys got too old to be sharing a room they'd need their own space and with Leatherhead intending to occupy a room, which left Mikey to shift to the bedroom in the dojo.

It was kind of like a game, to see how many times they could bring it up without actually saying it.

-:-

Mikey had no idea what time April and Casey left. It was late and their timing was great because Rivet alerted him it was time to feed the babies and they were too far gone to call back.

The first time he had to feed them all, alone. Rivet was still on a no touching basis with the babies, so Mikey had to find a way to wrangle three babies and three bottles at once.

Donnie started to grumble from the crib. One week, and Mikey already knew whose noises was whose. Gently, he lifted Donnie out, trying his best not to disturb the sleeping Leo and Raph.

"Hey there," Mikey said as he sat down on the couch. Donnie looked up at him with his big brown eyes, as if waiting for him to say more. But what do you say to a baby? Just as Mikey was about to open his mouth, Donnie started making loud, whiny, 'I'm hungry' noises. Mikey quickly stood up and tried rocking Donnie quiet.

"Please, please stop! Rivet, how much longer!?" Some indiscriminate sounding beeps (to Mikey anyway) came from the kitchen. "Now I gotta learn robot and baby. Awesome."

He could hear Leo and Raph beginning to shift in the crib just as Rivet stepped out of the kitchen, holding a tray with three bottles and a steaming bowl of instant ramen.

"Who's the ramen for?" Mikey asked dumbly, taking a bottle from the tray and offering it to Donatello. Rivet beeped a bit, and Mikey figured it meant 'you'. Rivet set the tray on the couch next to Mikey and took a step away.

Mikey had to think when the last time he ate was. It was probably breakfast. He'd completely forgotten about lunch, what with the weight of letting his material ties to his brothers go. Rivet looked at Mikey, as if waiting for something.

"You aren't gonna let me go unless I eat the ramen, are you?" Rivet turned his head from side to side in a clear 'no', his eyes lighting up red. Mikey smiled down at Donnie, gulping away happily at his bottle. "He's your robot."

When Donnie finished his bottle, Mikey moved on to feeding Leo, who had begun to wail and then Raph. When all three of the boys are in their crib, bundled up in warm blankets, Mikey can't help but watch them. They were so peaceful, completely unaware of the turmoil around them.

Rivet beeped at Mikey, warning beeps almost. He sighed and sat down, taking his bowl of ramen and fork. He slurped at his noodles, self-conscious that he was being stared down by a robot. When he finished he presented his empty bowl to Rivet,

"There, are you happy?" The robot scanned the bowl and his eyes lit up green with approval. He took the bowl and tray of bottles, petting Mikey on the head before heading to the kitchen and then the lab to power down for the night.

Mikey cried himself to sleep that night.


When I said there was going to be a plot, I meant that this was more going to be a collection of drabbles than an a to b to c story. Oops.

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