Mikey sprinted out of the dojo, ignoring the alarmed look from Pete. "WHERE IS MY PHONE!?"
"In the kitchen," Pete mumbled, lightly batting Donnie's hand from his beak. "Why? What's wrong?"
"I'm a kunai short!" Mikey disappeared into the kitchen and shot straight back out with his phone pressed hard to his face. "Pickuppickuppickup I swear on my shell!"
"Are you sure it isn't in the dojo?"
"Yes, I counted them before Shadow came for training last night and I just recounted them and one's gone and Casey is gonna breAK MY NECK IF SHE HURTS HERSEL- SHADOW!"
"Dude, she's in class she isn't going to answer."
"She's gonna get expelled for taking a weapon to school. Casey's never going to talk to me again."
Pete put Donnie down in the play pen. "I can go get her for you."
"Dude you can't break into the school and take a kid!" Mikey growled and started to furiously type out a text. "I'm a dead man, Pete. I'm going to die from stress."
"Rockwell's right, you are dramatic."
Mikey gave Pete a side eye. When he received only a shrug in return he rolled his eyes and went back to the kitchen. He needed comfort food.
-:-
"I can explain!" Shadow smiled, waving her t-phone slightly next to her head. For a seven nearly eight-year-old she had more confidence and not enough shame for the situation. "My friend needed it!"
Mikey blinked at her. He hadn't let her come through the turnstiles before he rushed at her. And she was completely unfazed by him towering over her with steam practically coming out his ears. "What?"
"I told her she could use a baseball bat and I took one of Casey's to give to her but the teacher took it off me because it wasn't show and tell day, so-"
"Wait, wait, wait. Use the baseball bat for what, Shadow?" He knelt to look her in the eye. She stared back at him, not a lick of nervousness in her body. "Shadow, what's going on?"
"My friend's name is Angel. Her mum hits her. The teachers don't notice and she made me promise not to say anything 'cos she might have to move far away like some other kids in her building."
"Do you have the knife now?"
"Yeah. She wouldn't take it."
Mikey nodded. "Ok come with me to the dojo. I need to show you something." He took her hand and walked her through the lair. In the dojo he sat down in front of one of the weapon racks. "Sit down. And give me the kunai."
Shadow obeyed, slipping her backpack off her shoulders and taking a shoe box out. "I put it in one of those leather pouches and then in a shoe and stuffed it with socks so no one would see." Unstuffing everything, Shadow handed over the leather pouch.
"Ok. Do you know how sharp this is?" Shadow shook her head. Mikey slipped the kunai out of the pouch and handed it to Shadow. She gripped the handle tightly and Mikey held his hand out flat. "Drag it across my palm."
"What?" Shadow flinched a bit.
"Not too hard, just lightly."
"No!" Shadow dropped the kunai on the floor. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because this is serious, Shadow!" He picked up the knife and waved it a bit. "This could kill someone. What if you had hurt yourself? If Angel had hurt herself? How would you explain this to someone?"
"Say I found it on the street." Shadow's voice was quiet. "You guys throw those around all the time."
"But we always picked them up when we can, and so do the Foot." Mikey put the knife down and took Shadow's hands. "When you put this in Angel's hand you're putting her in danger because she's untrained. This isn't some cartoon, she isn't just going to suddenly know how to use it, let alone have the courage to stab her mother. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I understand," Shadow mumbled, squeezing Mikey's hands. "But what am I supposed to do?"
"Shadow, you have to tell someone. A teacher, the police, your dad. She's more likely to hurt herself with this than protect herself properly."
"But she says she'll get taken away!" Shadow wailed and stood up. "Her mum is her only family here, and I promised!"
"Well you can't go giving her weapons! And I can't be going around giving parenting lessons so you'll need to tell someone!" Mikey tried to keep his cool, not letting it show just how frustrated he felt. "Even if you just tell April and Casey so she'll have somewhere to go."
"I don't know."
"Please, Shadow. You need to talk to someone about this, an adult that can do something. Because I'm stuck down here." Mikey squeezed her hand. "I'm gonna call Casey so he can take you home."
"You won't tell him about the kunai will you?"
"Not if you promise to tell him about Angel."
"Deal."
"Good. Now I won't tell your brother but you need to go convince Pete. He'll probably need more convincing than me."
-:-
Casey came and left with Shadow in a rush, yelling about their dad getting a shift off of work and they were going out to dinner.
"Parenting is hard, Pete." Mikey collapsed on the couch. "It's worse when its someone else's kid."
"I thought you did pretty well." Pete tore a warm loaf of bread into chunks and handed one to each of the boys. "Want some?"
"Yeah, thanks." Mikey took the bread and smelled it. It smelt like garlic and herbs. "Wait why have you been here all day? Not that I mind but, have you been making bread?"
"Yeah. Kurtzman said I had to take a break from smelling the warehouse out with bread. And I was making too much. Rockwell found a place in the sewers no too far from here he wants to set up for us."
"You guys are moving out of Kurtzman's?" Mikey asked through a mouthful of bread.
"Rockwell says there's too much activity top side, he can't get any sleep. And down here is closer to you guys and Leatherhead."
"You guys are gonna need help," Mikey blinked slowly. Pete had his back to Mikey, handing small pieces of bread to each of the boys.
"It's not going to happen for a while. Rockwell has to find everything first. Like beds and kitchen stuff."
"Tell April and Casey. Ape will take Rivet to the dump and Casey will steal stuff for you. I had to replace the oven last week, I can help with that."
"What happened to the old one?"
"It was just time for a new one." Mikey reached over Pete's shoulder and plucked the last of the bread out of his hands. "Out with the old and in with the new, you know?"
-:-
Mikey blinked.
Slash.
In the lair.
Slash was in the lair.
Uninvited.
"I'm not feeding you."
"What?"
"Every time someone walks through those turnstiles I end up feeding them. I did my budget last week and no more!"
"What are you on about?"
He wasn't even really sure because part of him was happy Slash was there but another part of him was a bitter child. Slash at least had the decency to look uncomfortable under Mikey's blank stare (which was only blank because he was obviously trying to choose what emotion he wanted to run with).
"Do you need something? Because I remember telling you to call me to meet up. Leatherhead and I are about to have dinner."
"Did you know Rockwell and April meet up once a week to do weird mind power shit?"
"No."
"Well they do," Slash grunted and moved further into the lair. "And we just picked up a couple of squirrel mutants and they want to run something by you."
"The squirrels?"
"No you id- No, April and Rockwell."
"So they sent you?"
"Pete has the flu."
"Well I'm glad you came down here out of the kindness of your heart." Mikey sighed and headed to the kitchen. "Let me get some soup for Pete and we'll go."
-:-
Leaving the boys with just Leatherhead and Rivet was a first for Mikey. He knew it was nothing they couldn't handle.
The thing Mikey couldn't handle was the uncomfortable silence he and Slash were rocking.
"I am glad to see you; you know?" Mikey piped up. They were walking through the sewers single file, Mikey trailing Slash ever so slightly.
"Can I ask you a question?" Slash stopped walking abruptly and turned to face Mikey.
"Uhh, sure go ahead."
"How did you sneak your mutation day past everyone?" Slash asked.
What?
"April forgot and everyone else didn't know." Mikey mumbled. "What was your excuse?"
"Didn't think you'd want to see me."
Mikey hummed. "I'm glad you didn't come. I'm glad no one came. I stayed in my bed all day and cried."
Mikey watched Slash. Slash was pointedly avoiding making eye contact. "The robot didn't get you up? LH said the thing waits on your hand and foot."
"He tried. But I begged him to leave me alone. I said I was waiting."
"Waiting for what?"
This was cruel. Cruel to himself and to Slash. "Waiting for Raph to beat down my door demanding breakfast. Or for Leo to wake me up. Or for Donnie to just appear at my bedside table mumbling about coffee and messing around with my alarm clock. Or for Splinter to check on me."
"Denial."
Mikey scoffed. "Don't do that five steps junk. April tried telling me about it and you can imagine how that went."
"So what did you do all day? You'd get bored, I don't believe you'd stay in bed all day."
"I cried. Screamed until I passed out. Had nightmares and wet the bed. Sobbed so hard at one point that I threw up." He stared Slash in the eye, no emotion in his words or on his face.
"Stop. Why are you telling me this?"
That day was a blur to him. Nothing about it in hindsight seemed real. His alarm went off as it always had and realisation dawn on him and set in his chest like concrete, keeping him in his bed, lying in wait. He stared at his wall for an hour shaking in nervousness, scared of reality. When he heard the babies starting to stir he wailed, soaking and screaming into his pillow. He spent his seventeenth mutation day alone.
Without warning, he started to sob.
"Because you don't see anything. I'm so mad at you but for some reason I still need you to know that I'm suffering and I miss them. I spent the day laying in my own pee and vomit because I couldn't bear to face my empty lair, I didn't want to acknowledge my mutation day. It was the day my family became my family and they weren't there." Mikey rubbed at the tears rolling down his face and sighed.
"I'm sorry. I should have been there for you." Slash reached out and awkwardly rested his hand on Mikey's shoulder.
"What would you have done? What could you have done?"
"The bed obviously needed to be cleaned."
"Yeah, I felt pretty awful. River didn't put up with me the next day, dragged my shell straight to the shower, tossed the mattress and found me a new one."
"Does anyone else know about it?"
"No. And I don't want them to. It's something that happened just for me and my grieving. April thinks trying to be happy all the time is how to get over things and if that's working for her then I'm glad. But I need to cry. I can't ignore how awful I feel. I love my kids and they make me so happy but I'm still in agony."
"Your kids?"
"Really, that's what you take away from that?" Mikey arched a brow. "You and Raph really were as dense as each other."
"Right, sorry." Slash ducked his head and turned to walk away. "We should get going. O'Neil will have a fit if we take too long."
-:-
"What took you so long?" April frowned when Slash and Mikey entered Kurtzman's warehouse.
"Told you."
"Shut up, Slash." Mikey smiled and nudged Slash with his elbow before addressing April. "So, I hear there are some squirrels who want to run something by me."
"Yeah, they're upstairs."
As the three of them slowly made their way up the stairs the sounds of nails scratching against concrete started to flood Mikey's ears. Cringing just slightly at the sound Mikey turned to Slash.
"What have you got up here?
"I told you, squirrel mutants."
Squirrel mutants indeed. Chained to the floor, calm and curiously clawing at the floor were two giant red alien looking things.
"No."
"Mikey, hear us out."
"April, what could you have to listen to? Unless they have some special mutation that gave them vacuum powers I can't take them in!" Mikey flailed wildly at the creatures, catching their attention slightly. "I have three kids who love poking things they shouldn't. Those guys are gonna bite off the boy's fingers, or worse!"
"We aren't suggesting you house them," Rockwell calmly interjected. "We just wanted to suggest letting them roam some of the deeper levels of the sewers. April and I have managed to tame these creatures using our combined mental strengths. We need a place to house them."
"And we thought they could be really good for security!" April beamed and paced over to one mutant, grabbing its paw and waving it. "Look at these claws! They could deal with any intruders looking for trouble in the sewers!"
Admittedly, Mikey found April's enthusiasm a tad infectious. But he kept his back straight, trying not let it show he was somewhat taken by the new mutants.
"Not to be rude, but are you sure these… squirrelanoids won't turn?" Mikey looked over his shoulder at Slash and back at Rockwell. "Whatever it is you and April have done, which by the way we are having a long talk about, won't ware off?"
"Not at all." Rockwell smiled in that way that always calmed Mikey no matter who it was on. It was a comforting but serious expression that dispelled most worries. "We have kept them here for a while and are confident they won't turn feral. Pete has agreed to keep them fed. They really shouldn't bother you, we just wanted to let you know. We don't have a retro-mutagen and they have nowhere else to go."
Mikey could feel his heart strings being tugged. It would be a pretty miserable existence being chained up in some warehouse. He sighed. "Yeah ok."
He shook his head at April's cheer of success and the quiet chatter coming from the squirrelanoids. They seemed like nice enough creatures, so long as they stayed out of the lair.
"I have to get back. It won't be long before there's a disaster back at my place." Mikey tossed his container of soup to Slash as he walked to leave. "Make sure Pete gets this. I'd give it to him, but I can't risk getting sick."
"No worries, kid" Slash said, waving Mikey goodbye.
It'll be ok Mikey thought, exiting the building and relishing in the city breeze hitting his skin. Things are looking up.
I keep telling myself to write something happy and when I do I seem to either bench it for later or balance it with something sad... And because I'm one of those people who writes everything up on four different devices and chucks it all together later for something two chapters ahead (even though the most immediate one lies half finished on my computer), I can tell you the next chapter is a doozy. 3
