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oozedninjas · 9 months

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Ninja's Heartstrings

Summary:

Leo and Raph are in love with you, and they both show it in their own unique ways, sparking constant clashes that make Donnie and Mikey uncomfortable, causing conflicts within the group.

Beyond enjoying their attention, you begin to realize that you have strong feelings for both of them, and you find yourself torn between whom to choose. But one day, it dawns on you: Aren't brothers supposed to share everything?

WARNINGS: NSFW (suggestive) / part one of two of an eventual trio-smut / +18 MDNI / Leo and Raph are in their late twenties /

Master Splinter always said that a ninja must be observant. After so many years of hearing that statement, Leo noticed he applied that principle not only on the battlefield but also in his personal life, which sometimes left him wondering whether he had incorporated it as a part of his personality or if he simply couldn't help but scrutinize things in detail when it was about you.

He paid attention to the way your hair moved when you walked, to the glow in your eyes when you were happy. He noticed the way you frowned when displeased and sighed when disappointed. He marveled at how absolutely ravishing you looked no matter what you wore. It wasn't fair how you could weaken him without even trying.

Leo couldn't help the look of excitement in his eyes as they followed you when you entered the lair. And certainly, he couldn't stop his heart from pounding like crazy when you noticed and waved at him. However, it was Raphael who you approached.

He casually held you by the waist as you showed him the film you had brought for the usual movie night. It was only then that Raph darted a quick look at Leo across the room. A sly smirk came with it. Of course he knew. Leo understood right there that his feelings for you slipped through him like water through fingers. Whenever he looked at you, his gaze held such a depth of sentiment that it was impossible to conceal.

Of course, Raph knew, and he made it very clear that he felt the exact same way about you, and he wasn’t giving you up. It was evident in every protective move he made around you: casually placing his hand over the sharp edges of the furniture whenever you passed too close, serving you the largest slice of pizza, or giving you the bigger piece when splitting a piece of chocolate in half. He would take you home each night after your visits to the lair on his motorbike and come back smiling like a true fool.

Leo sighed, resigned. He loved his brother and would be more than happy to share his contentment at being with someone as wonderful as you. Yeah, maybe that was the right thing to do.

"Hey, aren't you coming?" you turned to ask.

You smiled at him as if your heart was physically calling for him. Ah, crap. He wouldn’t stand seeing you smile like that to anyone else. That day, the leader in blue set his mind on one thing and one thing only: he would fairly win you over. Leo grinned back at you with a dangerous glow in his eyes.

"Yeah, make some room for me."

*****.

“She’s gonna be here soon,” Mikey said as he arranged the cushions on the living room sofa. He had already cleaned up the empty pizza boxes and now Donnie was placing them in a black plastic bag along with other trash remains.

The gentle, yellow-tinged warmth light permeated through the grooves in the ceiling, barely kissing the furniture surface.

“Yeah, hope things don’t get weird again,” Donnie said.

He spoke in a somewhat whining tone, as he rolled his eyes. Mikey chuckled.

“Tell me about it. Which of them will snap first this time?”

“My bet is on Raph.”

“Hmm, I don’t know, Leo was this close last time!”

Mikey made a tiny gesture with his fingers as he giggled to the thought of Leo’s deep frown when you chose Raph to cuddle with while watching the movie the last time you were there.

“I was close to what?” the leader interjected, arms crossed. His gaze was skeptical as his tone curious.

“Oh, you know, demanding a duel combat with Raph owing to jealousy,” Donnie answered as he tied a knot in the black plastic bag.

Leonardo's expression darkened.

“What?”

Mikey gulped, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the abrupt change in the atmosphere, but he remained quiet.

“Come on, don’t play dumb. You know what I’m talking about.''

"Who's playin' dumb?"

Raphael entered the living room then, pop-corn on one hand, a soda can in the other. His voice was so glowy it made his good mood palpable.

“No one. Donatello is just overthinking stuff,” Leo deflected.

Raph let out a closed-mouthed chuckle. “When isn't he?”

Donnie gaped, offended.

“Excuse me?! I’m not overthinking anything. I’m just stating the facts.” Donatello whined while putting off the bag.

“Which are?” Raph asked while leaning on the opposite wall on which Leo was standing.

"You both need to cease displaying such—" he paused for a moment, attempting to pinpoint the precise words to encapsulate the entire situation. "Enticing behavior towards her!"

"What?" Raph managed to force out a scoffing chuckle to mask he had choked on his soda.

“Oh, please,” Donatello said sardonically.

Raph was about to retort but Mikey spoke first.

“Look, we’re just saying it’s obvious you’re both into her, and sometimes it’s uncomfortable to be trapped in the middle of—”

“Of whatever mating rituals you’re putting out to win her over,” Donatello finished, tired of feeling cringed every time you visited the lair.

The door swung open just then, before anyone else could utter another word. You strode to the room, and all heads turned in your direction.

"Hey, guys!" you greeted with a cheerful tone, but you couldn't ignore the heaviness in the atmosphere settling onto your shoulders. The four turtles exchanged a knowing look. "Did I miss something?"

“No! no, we were just having a… creative discussion” Mikey said quickly, smiling. His fingers fidgeted close to his plastron.

“Couldn’t decide which movie to watch tonight,” Leo said in a much more smooth tone. “Think you can help with that, doll?”

His voice was velvety as he addressed you. Rapahel rolled his eyes, and Donatello murmured something you didn’t quite catch.

“I could bring up some options, I guess.”

"Be my guest," Leo extended his hand to escort you to the sofa, but Raph swiftly slapped it away before you could grasp it.

"She knows the way. You're not a damn host," Raph growled under his breath.

"Oh my God, I can't take this anymore. I'm calling it quits for tonight," Donnie declared, turning to face you. "It's wonderful to see you, but I've got some lab work to wrap up. Enjoy the evening, and make yourself at home." Donnie bid you farewell with an apologetic smile. He shot his brothers a glare of frustration as he left.

“I’m off too… places to be, pizza to eat, you know!” Mikey let out a chuckle before vanishing from sight.

You stood there, utterly perplexed. After a few moments of processing how everyone had essentially fled the movie night, you shifted your attention to Leo and Raph, your expression demanding answers. Impatience grew with each passing second as your foot tapped the floor in rhythm.

"Well? What's going on?"

“They’re party poppers, don’t mind them. Now c'mon, sit with me.” Raph placed his arm around your shoulders casually, offering you popcorn with the other. Leo was about to make a comment but you spoke first.

“Actually…” you said slipping away from his hold smoothly, “I want to sit with Leo tonight.”

Raphael clenched his jaw, “Fine, whatever. What are we watching?”

You frowned at the sudden harsh tone, but didn’t really understand the problem. You had indeed sat beside him last time. Was he…?

“Come on Raph, don’t be a sore loser.”

"I ain't lost nothin' yet," he shot back, with a determined tone.

"Hey, uh, guys?" Your voice wavered with a mix of uncertainty and squeakiness.

They both shifted their attention to you, guilt flashing across their faces as they registered your puzzled expression. Raphael let out a sigh.

"Ya know? I actually gotta kick some butts tonight."

He handed you the popcorn bowl as he finished the soda, strolling toward the door.

“What?! you’re leaving too?” You asked, reaching out to him but Leo grasped your hand, stopping you in your tracks.

“Let him go, he needs to cool down,” the leader whispered to you.

"Sorry, sugar, catch ya next time... unless ya wanna swap flicks for somethin' more thrillin'," he smirked, taking a few steps back to get a good look at you. Raphael adored the way your eyes lit up at his words, but he wasn't thrilled about Leo's hand holding you in place.

“That’s tempting, but I really wanted to do something chill tonight. See you around Raph!''

He shrugged, seemingly dismissive. “Your loss.”

It wasn’t visible but the amount of self-control that took him to just go was huge. He would rather leave than seeing you glued to his brother's side all night and he knew better than trying to make you change your mind. Additionally, starting a fight could make matters worse, and he didn’t feel like falling from your good side.

“Now, what if you show me your favorite movie?” Leo smiled, but this time there was something more to his smile.

*IIII*

You both were sitting on the couch, his arm over your shoulders and your head leaned against his own. Outer-thighs barely touching. His breathing was even, plastron moving calmly. You hadn't really gotten used to watching it up close. It was pretty. Marked with small indentations which made it look like you could run your nails over them… and so you did, jolting him a bit, but Leo just glanced at you, flashing a smile before returning his eyes to the tv. He stood still despite his heart hammering loudly. Could you hear it? He tensed.

You were absorbed touching him, imagining –not for the first time– how would that part of him feel against your own. Bare skin to skin, your nipples rubbing on the hard surface of his chest. Your breath hitched. It wasn’t right to have this kind of fantasies when he was right beside you, yet you couldn’t help yourself. Your mind simply took life of its own and started to produce several indecorous images.

It was like that night with Rapahel, the other day.

Both of you were riding on his bike, he told you he wanted to show you one of his favorite spots to watch the city lights and you traveled hugging him from behind, chest against his shell. Scratches and marks of combat decorated his carapace. His muscly shoulders barely peeked from ahead and you would have given everything to just let your hands wander his entire back.

“Well, here we are,” he said, stopping the motorbike before he jumped off in one smooth movement.

“An abandoned building?” you said skeptically, following him to the creepy dark entrance.

“Scared?” he teased, looking back at you with a smirk.

“As if.”

It was indeed quite gloomy, Raph's presence dispelled your fears. Naturally, you'd rather meet your end than admit it out loud and inflate his ego to an even more dangerous extent.

He entered, and you trailed closely. The space resembled an abandoned hotel lobby, with wood marred by moss and the steel of the staircase corroding. A peculiar blend of natural light and the faint reflections of neon-glowing advertisements scarcely penetrated through the shattered windows. Somehow, you thought, it was something along with Rapahel aesthetics.

You two ascended the ladder, and with each step, your body pulsed with anxiety, the thought crossing your mind that perhaps the stairs wouldn't bear the weight of both of you since they creaked strangely with each step. But those were unfounded worries. Soon, you reached the top floor, and Raphael swung open the door that led to the roof. New York City at night, seen from the pinnacle of an abandoned building, offered a breathtaking view.

He perched on the edge and extended his hand to you. Without hesitation, you took it, settling beside him, your legs dangling over the cars bustling along the avenue below.

“Raph this is amazing!” you said, unable to repress a smile.

“I know” he hesitated before continuing, “I used to come here a lot… back then.”

You turned to him, his expression was deep, and you decided not to let go of his hand.

“When you were a merciless vigilante?” you tried to joke and he smiled, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“Come one, I wasn’t ‘merciless’ I actually gave them many chances to withdraw.” he lied, jestingly “Guess they loved having their asses kicked.”

You laughed at that and this time he seemed more relaxed.

“Or maybe they stupidly thought they could defeat you”

"They should've known better. I'm faster and stronger than 'em. Always have been," he boasted with that air of superiority that you adored. "Besides, no one stands a chance against the Nightwatcher."

"Or big metal turtle, like Casey called it," you chuckled. "Man, I would've loved to see you in that armor," you mused absentmindedly after a couple of seconds, and he shot you a smirk.

"I still got it. I might wear it if you ask me real nice," he said smoothly, with that low tone that sent shivers down your spine and made your thighs clench. Yet, you didn't let it show.

"Ooh... please show me?" you said, offering him your most charming smile. Raph laughed, his voice raspy and deep.

"You'll have to do better than that."

"Come on, Raph, you want me to beg?" you protested, shifting carefully to avoid falling. His eyes sparkled, and his smirk grew wider.

"Fine," you whined, "could you please try on the armor for me?" Raphael scoffed.

"That was still kinda weak, but I suppose it'll have to do." He started to move as if to stand up, but you instinctively interlocked your fingers with his, not even thinking about it. His eyes flicked down to your hands and then back to you, questioning.

"Not tonight, though. I'm too comfy to move," you remarked. As you said that, you pressed your side against his, and he gently tightened his grip on your fingers. It felt wonderful to be close like that, in a peculiar kind of embrace amid the heights, incredibly intimate and heartwarming. A few seconds passed during which you both simply gazed at the city and how far the streets stretched. Then, he softly called your name, his hold on your hand trembling slightly.

"I've been meanin' to tell ya somethin'," he began, and you looked at him with a small smile.

"What?"

Raph moved closer, his eyes ensnaring yours with their intensity. There was something in them, a gaze concealing a sentiment he'd been bottling up until now, much like you had. He lowered his face, resting his forehead against yours, and your noses brushed against each other.

"You can tell me anything," your voice barely more than a longing whisper. Your mouth drew nearer to his with each passing moment, your half-closed eyes revealing your desire.

The high-pitched wail of a siren, accompanied by the flicker of red and blue lights, made Raph growl as he reluctantly tore himself away from you.

"Duty calls." He breathed with flushed cheeks before clearing his throat.

Something – someone – shocked your arm repeatedly, pulling you out of the sweet memory. Leo was gazing at you with a mix of amusement and doubt, as if he were anticipating something from you.

"I'm sorry, what?" you said, blinking a little.

"I asked if you'd like more popcorn." He gestured to the empty bowl, and you gasped. Had you devoured it all by yourself, lost in your own mental movie?

"Oh no! No, thank you." You felt heat burning the back of your neck as color crept to your cheeks when you realized that he might be asking because he was the one who wanted more, since you had selfishly eaten it all on your own. "B-but if you want more, I can go get some."

Leo chuckled at you before smiling sweetly. "It's fine, I'm good."

"You know, there's something I'll never understand about romantic comedies," you changed the subject as the movie continued. You couldn't quite keep quiet now, perhaps due to nervousness. "And it's why they only seem to make you yearn for a lover so perfect."

Leo raised a brow.

"How's that?" he asked, leaning closer, and you could feel his cheek resting on your head. You thought he must look cute, eyes still on the TV as your chest tightened with the desire to hug him.

Slut.

The thought came so fast and so forcefully, crashing onto you from the back of your head to your eyes, throbbing. Slut. Hadn't you just been remembering how you felt in Raph's arms a literal second ago? Then why? Why did what you were feeling right now seem so close to that, if not even the same...

"Well, th-the protagonist's romantic interest is always too stunning for real-life standards. There's no one that perfect," you continued the conversation, trying to block your own thoughts.

Leo shifted to look right into your eyes. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said, flashing you a charming smile. You blushed even harder this time.

"Oooh, don't tell me you think you've found the one," you teased, trying to escape the cringe of your own mind without realizing you were digging your own grave.

Leo kept his little grin and nodded. "I think I may have, yes."

"How's she like?" You knew he was talking about you; all of his body language screamed so. Leo seemed to think for a second.

"Too stunning for real-life standards," he said with a sly look, and you lightly smacked him on the arm with the back of your hand while chuckling. But then he added in a small whisper, "She doesn't seem to mind."

You frowned, "Mind what?"

Leo shrugged, his gaze suddenly fixed on the TV. You weren't supposed to hear that.

"Leo?" you prompted.

"We are ninjas," he started, "and we have acclimated to the idea of living forever banished in the shadows. Alone. Not only because of the secret oath to protect this city, but because of the way we look. Whenever we're together, she looks at me as if..." he locked his gaze on yours again, filled with deep yearning and adoration, "as if she doesn't mind.."

He wasn't talking only about appearances. You deserved someone who could spend time with you during the daytime too. You should get to be with a guy who's able to accompany you to family dinners, publicly celebrate your relatives' or friends' birthdays, heck, someone who could take you to your graduation dinner or job promotion celebrations. He couldn't do all of that, but you already knew, and you didn't seem to care.

"And when she's with me, I feel like I could actually be bold enough..." he leaned closer, eyes half-lidded in craving. His face was now just two inches away from yours, "to kiss her."

The glimmer of his gaze was drawing you into a warmer world, one in which you knew you'd be safe within his arms. Your past worries were now forgotten, lost in the midst of his shallow breaths.

"Yeah? So why don't you try it out?"

"I might just do that now."

"My son."

Both of you jolted back at the sound of Master Splinter's voice, followed by a throat clearing. You felt your whole body turn red with embarrassment. How long had he been there?!

Leo's expression was priceless, so startled despite his ninja skills. It was so funny that it almost made you forget your embarrassment.

"We were just watching a movie."

Despite his age, Leo still felt the need to explain himself but didn't move, and he didn't allow you to either. It was his way of acknowledging that he was a grown adult sharing a moment with... well, what were you to him? More importantly, what was he to you? The worries came back strongly, throbbing like a headache.

"A movie that has finished, I suppose?" his dad said, gesturing to the black screen. Leo flashed a look before you spoke.

"Yes, it was very entertaining. Thank you for having me here, Master Splinter," The mutant rat held a serene expression, apparently pleased with your words, "but it's getting late. I should take my leave."

Leo reflexively squeezed your body against his and let go as soon as he realized.

"You don't have to go, dear; my novel is about to start, and you both can stay and watch it with me," he said affably. However, upon noticing his son's expression, he quickly added in a sigh, "Or you can move your date to your room."

Date. The world seemed to strike a chord on you both.

"Actually, I do have some things to do at home. I'm sorry," Leonardo's disappointment was visible through every line of expression on his face. He straightened up, however, and gave you an understanding nod.

"I'll take you home," he told you, moving toward the part of the lair where they stored the turtle-van.

"No! I mean, no, thank you. I think it's better if I go by myself." Leo frowned, doing his best to hide the growing panic burning in his chest. Were you having regrets about the moment you shared just now?

"Thank you anyway, Leo. Goodnight, Master Splinter."

**IIII**

The sound of the rain falling over the roof of your place was exactly what you needed to calm your nerves. You lay on your bed, watching the little drops drip down the glass window. It had been three days since you were in the lair. During this time, you strategically ignored the calls of both Leonardo and Raphael.

You needed time to think about what to do. By this point, it was undeniable that you felt something very strong for both of them. It made no sense to avoid it or deny it. The only thing you had to do now was decide. You huffed, hating the fact you couldn't have both. And then it hit you: why can't you? Who says one must love only one person?

You grabbed your phone from your purse. If there was someone who could help you confess your feelings to both of them and somehow convince them a poly-relationship could work without causing a war, that was April.

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peachy-wolfhard · 8 months

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Dating Leo II

a/n: I wanted to add more after I posted part one so here it is Bone Apple Teeth, I love leo sm so its LONG

Let me know if you would like to be on my tmnt taglist!

Warnings: swearing, grandchildren mention (splinter is gonna splinter), illness mention, insomnia, mentions of slapping leos bald head

Word count: 738 -woof

Insomnia gang

This turtle physically cannot sleep

When you don't spend the night he is CONSTANTLY texting you everything that comes to mind

“y/n…why is pizza a circle?” “idk lee can i come over :3” “yeth pls HURRY IM DYING HERE WITHOUT U”

Lying in his bed, cuddling, matching eyemasks ON, fan ON

Even with all of that, nothing works

The nights that the both of you are actually able to sleep he has a grasp on you

Holds you so close to him all the time, you guys are joined at the hip

Everyone besides Mikey and Splinter thinks you guys are gross

“You can't even say their names apart now it's ALWAYS Leo and y/n. You can't separate them they will DIE without each other”

“Calm down Mikey please you're scaring Shelldon”

Splinter is…well Splinter. He stays in your guys' relationship, with how dramatic you guys are he doesn't need his soaps

He loves to show you baby pictures of the boys esp the ones of Leo

((cough cough he definitely mentions grandchildren like the old man he is))

Bites all the time like anytime anywhere

Making breakfast peacefully listening to music- CHOMP

Getting ready for work- CHOMP

Dr. Delicate Touch has to intervene

Play fights with you in slow-motion

(slow motion voice) “yyy/nnn iiiimm goooinggg tooo kick your aaaasssss”

(also slow motion voice) “im gooonnnaaa kick yours firrrst”

HAND! HOLDING!

Initially, it started as a way to keep Leo from running off when exploring places, but then it turned into a regular thing

“My love, light of my life, future spouse eHEM!”

“What Leo”

“WHERE’S YOUR HAND I AM GOING TO DIE WITHOUT YOUR HAND IN MINE!! I ALREADY FEEL WEAK PLEASE I AM SUFFERING”

Absolute drama queen and don't get me started when he’s sick

Picture those old paintings of the sick children in bed, he’s that but dialed up to eleven

All he wants is cuddles and daytime television and don't you DARE come in between him and his Maury

Giving him medicine is surprisingly easy maybe it’s because he’s so out of it or maybe he’s just in love he’d let you do anything to him

But if you’re ever sick he does the exact same for you

If you fight medicine (just like me fr) he’s NOT afraid to use those ninja moves to get you to take your meds

Loves it when you read to him no matter what you are reading

Manga? Sign him up! Horror book? Let's get spooky! Sad book? I'll get the tissues! He just loves to hear your voice especially if you do different voices for the characters but not overly comedic voices, he’s here for the story!

Falls asleep listening to your voice with his head on your lap 99% of the time

Going to the Hidden City for date nights and getting up to absolute mischief

(having to then call Raph to come get you guys because you pissed someone off and just kicked their butt)

Speaking of the Hidden City! During their break in the Hidden City (when everyone gets arrested) you join Leo at the spa

After he gets kicked out he BEGS you to go to the creepy spa across the street with him

“Sorry sweetheart I too am in DIRE need of some relaxation plus it’s not often I’m in an exclusive club”

The moment he shows up with that gorgeous hair you’re suspicious

Texts you a selfie of his new hair with the creepy ass background

“Whatcha think? Even more handsome than normal? ;)” “go back to being bald i miss slapping ur bald head :(“

Anyway when he starts “sleepwalking” your immediate reaction is “Maybe it's the wig” but quickly forget all about it due to relaxation

“Um… yyyy/nnnn could you please help me out with one teeny tiny situation…? Please?”

Now you and Leo are on the case!

“Ooo lala finally some privacy ;)”

“Don't touch me until you’re bald AND we figure this out”

“Pwetty pwease? JUST ONE!”

“Fine, ONE kiss”

After the evil hair reveal and fighting with your boyfriend’s hair he's finally bald again

Leo explains the massage guy’s deal but it falls on deaf ears

“Hey, who’s that guy?” “He'sthe non-member we kicked out earlier!”

“I bet he and that human are the thieves. Call the cops”

After a quick stay in jail, you’re now peacefully back home

#rottmnt x reader #rottmnt leo x reader #tmnt x reader #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles x reader #rise leo #rise leo x reader #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #leo x reader #masterlist

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mistressoftherant-blog · 8 months

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Hypocrisy in the TMNT Fandom

I may come back to this topic at a later date, but I feel like I need to address the hypocrisy in the TMNT fandom when it comes to how 12 Donnie is treated for his crush on April, compared to other characters such as Bayverse Mikey and Mutant Mayhem Leo, or I might explode. Do I condone everything that 12 Donnie does in the name of his crush on April? No. Do I sometimes find the cringiness of his actions unbearable (keeping in mind that he is my favourite character in 12)? Absolutely. But is there context behind his actions that often gets ignored? Yes. Do the fandom vilify or make fun of behaviour from him that they let slide in other characters? 100% yes.

People love to bash 12 Donnie for his actions, without even considering the reasons behind them (poor choices from the show writers aside). April is the first human his age that Donnie really sees and gets to interact with. He's a deeply insecure character, who feels out of place even amongst his family and, as people have pointed out before me, April represents a wider level of acceptance to Donnie. If a pretty human girl can love him, maybe there is hope for him gaining wider acceptance from humanity. I do think he has genuine feelings for her, but I also believe that part of his obsessiveness is a desire to be more human, or at least be accepted by humans, and he subconsciously views gaining the love of a human to be a part of this. 12 Donnie (like most Donatellos), is keenly aware that he will never get what he wants, or deserves.

He is a genius, and that will never be acknowledged by the world. He will never get everything a human genius would get. He doesn't get go to school, or go shopping for new resources, or make friends who share his interests. He risks his life saving the world over and over again, only to be seen as a villain for the way he looks.

That's part of why he sees 12 Casey as such a threat, Casey is human and doesn't need the same level of acceptance that Donatello does. He already has everything that Donnie wants (he can go to school, make other friends etc), but yet he still wants to be with April. The first human to show Donnie any acceptance. One of the only people to even tentatively seem interested in Donnie's science. If April chooses Casey over Donnie, then that truly does mean that Donnie, as a mutant, and a nerdy outcast mutant to boot, can never find love or acceptance, (again, this would be Donnie's perspective, and it is not April's duty to validate Donnie's self worth by getting in a relationship with him - that being said, the mixed signals she sent definitely didn't help matters).

Also, his stalking is creepy, but this is a kid who grew up with no social interaction besides his brothers, watching shows that provably had dubious ideas of romance. All of his ideas of romance are influenced by media, which isn't exactly a healthy way to gain an understanding of how to express those feelings. And when he knows the exact distance to her apartment, I always thought that he was just insanely good at estimating distances? He's shown to be able to make advanced calculations around distances and things in seconds on the show, so this never really seemed that bad to me, even if the show itself deemed it creepy?

Moreover, for the most part, he does genuinely follow April when he believes she is in danger, or when she is distancing herself from them (again, absolutely not a healthy thought process, but he misses her and wants her safe, and thinks is the best way to handle it). Is it still wrong? Yes. But should Donnie as a character be completely dragged for this for eternity? Not really. Also, can we please move past reducing Donnie's character to nothing more than his failures at flirting?

There is also the fact that April definitely did flirt back with him on numerous occasions. Whether or not this was done consciously, or to manipulate him, or whatever, is a rant for another day, but 12 Donnie definitely does have reasons to believe that April could want a relationship with him. She kisses him, on the mouth, right after he had told her that he was going to stop with his behaviour.

People also genuinely forgive 12 Leo flirting with his sister more than they do Donnie calling April his sweet chinchilla (and yes, Leo and Karai are still flirty even after the reveal that they are siblings, though it is thankfully toned down later on, and though I've seen people jumping through hoops trying to deny it). And Leo's flirting with Karai (even before the reveal), is equally as cringy as Donnie's. He's the poster boy for the 'I can fix them' mentality, even when the person he was trying to fix was actively trying to destroy everyone he cared about. 12 Leo also puts his brothers in danger due to his obsession with Karai, hurting them both physically and mentally, but a lot of people sweep this under the rug and only focus on times that 12 Donnie puts the others in danger due to his crush on April, or see this as a positive thing, showing how Leo never gives up on the people he cares about.

Moving on, 12 Donnie can be possessive of April (again, not great behaviour, and not something I particularly enjoy or condone), but 12 Mikey is the same way about Renet, and no one mentions it? Donnie hugs her (or says he could hug her, I can't quite remember the exact context), and Mikey gets all pissy about it? He's known Renet for barely any length of time, and they have no relationship at this point, but he gets annoyed at Donnie having a friendly interaction with her, as if it hasnt been well established that Donnie is only interested in April? Why is this more acceptable than when Donnie gets annoyed at Casey (a confirmed love rival), shows off about being close to April?

Additionally, why are Bayverse Mikey and Mayhem Leo hardly ever given the same treatment as 12 Donnie? I see countless crossovers where 12 Donnie is given endless shit for his bad flirting, especially as it's towards someone who the other counterparts see as a sister figure, with hardly any of them ignoring how unfair it is to criticise 12 Dee for seeing April differently to the others when their circumstances are different, or bringing up anyone else's behaviour.

Bayverse Mikey is just as bad! In fact, some of the things that he says are far worse than anything 12 Donnie has said, and it just gets brushed over? Even in crossover fics where 12 Dee gets slaughtered for his crush, no one brings up the downright crude things Bay Mikey says?

He constantly calls her a babe (I think 90s Mikey also makes similar comments), and even says 'she's so hot I can feel my shell tightening' which is hella gross tbh. Sure, 'sweet chinchilla' is weird, but it's far less demeaning than babe? And Mikey keeps this attitude up throughout both films? Why is this treated as being more acceptable than 12 Donnie's behaviour? This is even worse as Bay April is clearly an adult compared to the teenage turtles, and is clearly depicted as an older sister figure. At least in 12 there is only a year age gap, and neither April nor her father had anything to do with them when they were babies.

Hell, a few chaarcters (I think 03 Mikey and either 90s Raph or Mikey) make a joke about getting to 'keep her' when they bring an unconscious April back to the lair, and no one bats an eye?? It's played off as a joke, but even so, it's still freaky, and I've never seen anyone mention it before. They don't even get admonished for it!

Also, Mayhem Leo is absolutely just as much of a cringefail flirt as 12 Don, but everyone is acting like he comes across as so much better?! We've only had one movie with him so far, but his behaviour so far isn't all that different to 12 Don's?

They basically act the same way upon their first meeting. The rooftop scene when he first sees her is almost exactly the same as the scene in 12. And the comment about her beautiful, perfect mouth? If 12 Donnie said that he'd be slaughtered, but because it was Mayhem Leo, it's considered cute? When 12 Donnie gets super excited about getting April's number even though they already have it on the fridge it's embarrassing, but when Mayhem Leo tries to get Mayhem Donnie's phone to swipe her number it's endearing? Both ramble and get nervous around her, but people think this is sweet from Mayhem Leo but annoying from 12 Don.

Plus, Mayhem Leo has far more experience with humans than 12 Donnie. He has been going outside of the lair for a while, he has definitely seen other girls before. In 12, Donnie had never left the lair before the night he saw April, she's genuinely the first girl he's ever seen in person.

This point may also be a little unfair as we only have the Mayhem movie at the moment, compared to entire seasons of the 12 TV show, but it's also irritating me a bit how many people are acting like Mayhem Leo has far more of a chance with April than 12 Donnie did, purely because she agreed to go to prom with him, ignoring her line about how it was just as friends, and the many instances in 12 where April reciprocated Donnie's flirtation (again, April kissed him on the lips in the cartoon. It is canon that she did so).

Why are there so many double standards around the turtles having crushes? Either address all of their behaviour, or stop throwing 12 Donnie's flirting in our faces. It's exhausting seeing people openly bashing 12 Donnie, ignoring all of his great characteristics due to his crush, and then turning around and glorifying 12 Leo, Bay Mikey, or Mayhem Leo, or just ignoring their behaviour. It's grating to see almost every chat fic (even ones I thoroughly enjoy!!), have a seemingly obligatory bash 12 Donnie's crush and flirting chapter, yet hardly ever address the way any of the others behave.

#tmnt 2012 #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt donatello #tmnt donnie #tmnt mikey #tmnt michelangelo #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #mutant mayhem spoilers #mutant mayhem leo #teenage mutant ninja turtles #mutant mayhem #tmnt 2012 donnie #tmnt 2012 donatello #tmnt 2012 leo #tmnt 2012 mikey #tmnt 2012 michelangelo #tmnt 2014 #tmnt 2016

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dr4kenlvr · 2 years

Text

��𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐏 𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐑 !!

feat. mikey sano, draken, baji keisuke, chifuyu matsuno, mitsuya takashi (reader is mentioned here and there too!) - crack/humour/fluff (1.2k+)

nana's note: can toman boys drive cars?? no keep reading to find out about the boys and their driving habits!! spoiler alert: in no way should you drive like them please don't listen to this post LMAO

MIKEY

to mikey, the written test wasn't too bad—he went in, sat in his little cubicle, and got through the questionnaire without too much issue

dude couldn't lie though, he was sweating bullets at the demerit point questions FR

but of course, mikey boasts to everyone (especially baji but we'll get to that later) about his success, and is very excited to hit the road

didn't realize just how small being behind a car wheel feels until he sits and needs to bump the seat up a few notches LMAO

baji teases him: "you need heels on to reach the pedals, too? HAHHAHA"

is constantly driving with an :0 expression

"oh my god, the car is moving ken, im making the car move—ken, look!"

"yes mikey, your foot is on the gas pedal."

cheers when he does a left turn successfully, because fuck are those a pain in the ass sometimes

sometimes forgets to signal, and has been flipped off a few times for almost crashing in front of the car behind him

"oops!"

mikey absolutely has a snack stash in his trunk too—it's filled, and always being refilled, with sweets, savoury treats, and drinks

"y/n, could you grab me a bag of chips please? any flavour!" he yells from the front

???? what ????—you crane your head back to a fucking kitchen of snacks like it's normal for anyone to have that much

occasionally gets extremely tired at the wheel, and shuts his eyes for two seconds at a red light

it's either a honk waking him up or ken profusively cursing at him

"oops!" x2

DRAKEN

now i don't wanna be bias (user dr4kenlvr, am i right), but ken is probably the second best driver on this list

written test wise, he passed on the first try

wasn't too difficult, and the lady at the desk even congratulated him with a warm smile, to which he happily returned

he got use to the mechanisms of the car pretty quickly

all of these gears and switches were like second nature to him, considering how much he works with motorbikes on the regular

likes to play music as he drives, it varies depending on the time of day it is

nice r&b on a night drive is always his favourite though

once draken gets really comfortable with the wheel, he'll have an arm hanging out the window

heavenly sigh—he looks really good <3

never drove alone with just his G1, despite his delinquent reputation

good job ken!!

one thing though: he has an oddly high level of road rage LMFAOOO

draken thinks it's probably because he's in a car—surrounded by 4 walls—rather than being out in the open like on a bike

people can't hear him curse the living hell out of them with the windows up so...

"what the FUCK, ASSHOLE?—CAN'T SEE I'M TRYNA FUCKIN' PASS?"

"SIGNAL NEXT TIME, YOU BITCH."

"ARGHHH—QUIT YOUR HONKING YOU DICK! I HEAR 'YA"

"WHY IS THIS GUY UP MY FUCKING ASS."

yeah, he gets loud LMAOO and vulgar

with his viens popping out and shit, he probably looks crazy if you pull up next to him in the adjacent lane

just don't look over, you'll be okay

HELP

same ken

BAJI

this mf spent months studying for the written test

he was extremely keen on doing well too, because he wanted the luxury of being able to finally drive a car

baji also wanted to be able to drive his mother to and from work, so that she "wouldn't have to take public transit all the time"

love you keisuke

created study nights with chifuyu, where the boys would quiz each other on repetitive shit like signs

"okay, what's this one?"

"uhh.. there's like a merry-go-round ahead?"

"wha—? d'you mean a ROUNDABOUT???"

he had the right spirit, so chifuyu gave him a point either way AHSDHDSHF

time rolled around and baji declared him finally ready to take on the test and..

...he passed!! yay keisuke !!!

dude wanted to explode from the sheer relief, he literally picked you up and spun you around 18 times out of happiness

BUT THIS MF ON THE ROAD IS SO FUCKING WILD—he's good with the wheel, but like there's always something going on in his car

you could get whiplash by how fast he goes sometimes

he doesn't even mean to

50 maximum but he's going 80

"YOU'RE GONNA GET PULLED OVER OR KILL SOMEONE, KEI' SLOW DOWN."

"oH—FUCK, SORRY! sorry!"

also is a huge multitasker - and isn't too shabby at it

he could be calling someone via bluetooth speaker, while eating, while scratching his back, while signalling into the right lane ALL AT ONCE

miraculous how he doesn't have even a scratch or dent yet to be honest

idk man, just make sure you have your seatbelt on at all times, kay'?

CHIFUYU

i think he gets a little too excited every time he gets behind the wheel

like hes giggling with every lane change or right turn

literally fucking SCREAMS when he sees a cat walk on the road

"NOOOOOOOOOOO—"

"chifuyu, it's fine! it walked back. K-KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!"

has a cushion specifically for peke j in the back seat where no one can sit or move it to sit

"ahh no. that's peke j's spot, you can sit in the trunk or something."

baji: "are you fucking kidding me."

LMAO

speaking of peke j, he has a component in his trunk filled with toys and cat food for him

it's honestly really sweet, how much he cares and cherishes his little cat

you can't find the heart to be too angry with him when you find cat fur stuck to the seats

i think chifuyu has a lot of fucking fast food garbage in his car too

his mom (and you) is always up his ass about it:

"CLEAN YOUR DAMN GARBAGE MATSUNO. THIS IS A CAR, NOT A LANDFILL."

like, you would sit in the passenger seat and at your feet there's just wrappers and straws and shit

you look at him with a look that just speaks volumes of "really?"

and he's all (｡╹ω╹｡)

it's an honest mistake <3

MITSUYA

oh god—the most responsible driver out of his friends by FAR

he is so so happy when he passes, because he is able to get things done quicker with a car than by walking

dropping/picking up his sisters from school, escorting his mother to places, getting groceries, visiting his friends, just about everything in his life is made 10x easier and faster

mitsuya's car ALWAYS smells good

he's always got a new car freshener hooked onto his rearview mirror when the scent runs out

his favourite is lavender <3 and his sisters like the fruity ones but they make his and your's nose tickle

DRIVES WITH ONE HAND ON YOUR KNEE !!!!!

and he does that fucking cute side smile when he talks to you but also needs to pay attention to the road

AHHH <3

LOVES to bring his sisters on drives around the neighbourhood once he gets his full license

plays their favourite songs and sings out loud with them

it'll be cartoon openings and disney soundtracks but he doesn't mind

not when the grin on your's and his sister's faces are so bright and genuine

omfg - picnics where you two set up food in the trunk and watch luna and mana play at the playground

and they rush over when they're hungry to eat and rest

HOW FUCKING CUTE AND PERFECT

MITSUYA TAKASHI IS PERFECT

taglist: @dai-tsukki-desu @kazuhoya @gwynsapphire @sscarchiyo @reiners-milkbiddies @smileyswifeyy @bontensimp-blog @thisbicc @megumisemo (send me an ask or dm to be added!)

reblogs and comments are very appreciated!

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sinfulseashell · 8 months

Note

How would Yandere Bonten react to a broken reader? Not as in broken where they're compliant and does whatever they want, like broken they're unresponsive, doesn't move, eat or sleep that much. Like a broken husk of human being.

(Also because I'm nice let's imagine that they stayed like that for only a few months and after a bit they started moving and eating again, how would they react to that?)

A/N: You’re very nice anon 😂

Y!Mikey: Dark lifeless eyes glare at the interviewer slowly bringing his body to sit up as he leaned forward onto his knees, “If this is what they want then who am I do change them.” He sighs letting his eyes drop to the floor, “Yet…I couldn’t allow myself to let them be that way…” he whispers though his words were loud enough to cause the room to fall completely silent. Mikey brings his eyes to look around quickly standing up, white locks covering his face as he clears his throat. “I…I need to go..” was the last words he spoke before rushing out of the room.

Bonten: Watches him leave slowly bringing their gaze back to the interviewer.

Y!Koko: “These types of questions make him…slightly…um…uncomfortable.” He speaks lightly before clapping his hands. “Anyways let’s continue.”

Y!Sanzu: “Hmmm, well usually when I feel dead inside…I take my happy pills.” He smiles.

Y!Rin: “Dear god…no! No! Don’t answer this question like that! Not everyone wants to be doped up all the fucking time! Fucking idiot!” The male hisses at the pinkette.

Y!Sanzu: “Geez who the fuck pissed in your coffee? I was just trying to lighten the mood.” The male chuckled before responding again. “Ok honestly…it’s fucked up that they became this way, but…I would take the time to help them…heal? Is that the word? I mean me healing them? I can’t even heal myself from my own trauma.” He cackled. “Anyways that’s the best bullshit I could give.”

Y!Takeomi: “Come on…we’re talking about caring for them and bringing our darlings back up.” With an exasperated sigh Takeomi pulled out his box of cigarettes, bringing one to his lips and lighting the nicotine. While exhaling the smoke he began to speak once more, “The fact that my darling would even be so broken would hurt me…all I can do is give them time and make sure they feel as loved. I will do whatever it takes to treat them with enough care to bring them back to life.”

Y!Koko: “I seriously think this question is a little too…what’s the word…unnecessary? No…I guess what I’m trying to say is that, this question expects us to be soft and most of us…” The male looks over at Sanzu. “Are not capable of such things…but I’ll go ahead and answer it. Let’s see I can always get them the help they need, I mean money is no issue. If that doesn’t help then I’ll make sure I shower them with expensive gifts. That always makes me happy.” He hummed.

Y!Ran: “They simply asked what we would do to help them not smother them with unnecessary things.” Ran scoffed.

Y!Koko: “I swear to go Haitani…”

Y!Rin: “Alright let’s move on before things get out of hand.” The male rolls his eyes in annoyance turning his gaze over to the interviewer, “If my darling ever becomes a husk of a human the only thing I would like to do is be there for them.”

Y!Ran: “Aw, Thats so sweet…I knew I raised you right.” He smiles while wiping a “tear” from his eye.

Y!Rin: “Just shut the fuck up…weirdo.” The younger Haitani spat.

Y!Ran: “You’re absolutely adorable when you’re mad.” He chuckled, “Anyways. It’s hard to say what I would do for them since most of the answers have been taken. It’s not that I wouldn’t do anything in my power to help my darling, but I can only do so much and if they don’t want to help themselves well then I’m limited on my ability. I’m a human sweetheart, not a god.”

Y!Mochi: “I think all of you are forgetting the point here. We are supposed to make this sweet and caring, and honestly none of you are doing a good job at it.” He spoke with a shake of his head.

Y!Sanzu: “Oh yeah? Well Mr. Shan Yu. What would you do since you’re so fucking great.” Sanzu spoke sarcastically.

Y!Mochi: “I told you not to call me that.” He growled.

Y!Sanzu: “It’s not my fault you look like him! I mean you’re damn near bald so after that I will officially have your name changed to Shan Yu.”

Y!Mochi: “Thats it!” Standing up he rushed over to Sanzu quickly giving him a quick jab causing the others to immediately intervene.

Host: “Cut the feed! Cut it!”

**BRIEF INTERMISSION**

The feed cuts back on with just Kakucho showing.

Host: “I’m sorry Mr. Hitto, please forgive us for taking so long. Can you please continue with your final answer.

Y!Kakucho: “Don’t worry about it, I deal with that on a daily basis.” He spoke matter-of-factly. “As for your question…I would make sure to get my darling help…make sure to be there every step of the way including being at their therapy. I would never leave their side, I will make sure my darling bathes, eats and sleeps even if it meant that I would loose sleep, food or anything else as well. When my darling would be hurting, I will hurt with them…I would want to build them again…give them love…” he sighs while bringing his gaze down to his lap seeing the screen shine with a message from his darling, a small smile played across his lips as he stood up. “I have to go.” Without another word the male left.

I’m so sorry this took so long, but I hope all of your enjoy! 🩷

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tmntforeverinmyheart · 9 months

Text

“Tmnt interdimensional vacation crossover”designs for the boys + cursed desriptions I found from scouring Pinterest

If you have any questions about Lee or Leon, please feel free to ask me :)

Proper info below:

Lee is absolutely an oldie at heart. He is happy to listen to corny 90’s music and binge old shows. “Spaceheroes” being his favorite, which he is obsessed with. He used to hold the main character Captain Ryan to a much higher level, but as he aged he saw how much his hero wasn’t really a hero, and only cared for himself. He no longer felt that pull to be just like Captain Ryan, and instead wanted to forge his own path. The one thing lee wants in the world is to be at peace with himself.

In his youth he acted rash, without thinking, taking his fathers advice too literally and twisting it to something that his father never actually said, causing him to lose his sense of self preservation. Caring so much for his family’s health and protecting them with his life, he forget how much he meant to them. Putting his own life on the line, led to him almost losing his life multiple times, he realized later that that wasn’t a good thing. He needed to change.

Calm and rational, he always has a plan in motion. He is organized and performs better with a schedule for the day, and yet needs constant reminders to eat and drink. He struggles with caring for himself when sick or injured, feeling like as the head of his household, he shouldn’t show weakness. When Lee was met with the father of their counterparts, he felt lost. After so long, he wasn’t the oldest, he’d lost his place and felt a misplaced resentment towards the rat. Splinters sons on the other hand, he felt a motherly instinct towards them. Being so young and forced into battles that weren’t theirs, lee could relate to them. He didn’t have a favorite and simply enjoyed being in their company, and they enjoyed being in his.

Lee and the self dubbed disaster twins were inseparable. The twins constantly follow Lee around like ducklings, hinging on his every word and absorbing his advice like sponges.

Leon loved to show off in front of Lee, ninjitsu moves and his teleporting ninpo fascinated Lee, giving Leon a feeling of pride.

Dee was determined to improve lees life, while trying to keep his ego at bay. He can see how messed up lees shell was and decided to construct a battle shell similar to his own for Lee to use. This present brought tears to lees eyes, and he thanked Dee over and over again, giving the young turtle the approval he so rarely gets.

Micheal pulls Lee away to look at his drawings, being the baby brother he wants attention too. Him and lee will end up drawing together for hours, not that lee can conjure up anything more than a stickman. He sees such a strong creative spirit in young Micheal and should definitely get him and Raph to hook up on an art project to keep Raph busy until they’re able to go home. Hes sure Micheal would enjoy something like that.

Rara is tricky to bond with. Lee sees how reserved and quiet he is compared to his rambunctious brothers, and how little he joins them in their activities. Lee comes to find that the best way to bond with Rara, is to just sit with him. Shoulder to shoulder. And if Rara wants to talk, Lee will be there to listen.

Headcannons inspired by @disastertwins9000 “homies in a half shell AU”

Physical attributes:

Lee is short for his age, standing at only 5’4, often with a slight bend in his right knee. He was shocked when his brother Raph suddenly shot up 2 inches taller than him and his brother Mikey also had a growth spurt shooting to 5’1.

Lees shell is badly damaged. Cracks run deep through his scutes and an earlier bout of shell rot left his shell softer and more vulnerable than his brothers. This propels Dee to create a battle shell to help keep lees shell intact and not susceptible to more injuries.

Lee wears across his body, multiple braces, including both his shoulders, his left hand and his right knee.

His shoulders endured multiple dislocations and from his injury’s he suffers from tightness and his joints locking. The brace covers his shoulders and right arm to his elbow, crosses his plastron and wraps around his shell. It provides him support and is part time.

His left hand suffered from an injury that caused osteoarthritis to develop in his fingers, thumb and hand. He wears a brace that covers his palm, wrist and most of his thumb. It lessens the swelling and shifts weight from the affected joints and is part time.

After being ambushed by the shredder, Lee suffered a patella dislocation is his right knee that never fully healed, causing his patella to continuously pop out of its socket. He wears a brace that covers his knee cap, upper thigh and lower leg. It offers support, helps him walk easier and lessens pressure on the damaged kneecap and is worn 24/7.

Mental:

Lee has undiagnosed autism.

Lee has undiagnosed psychosis.

Lee has anxiety.

#Tmnt interdimensional vacation crossover #tmnt 2012 #rottmnt #tmnt leonardo #rottmnt leo #tmnt crossover #tmnt 2012 x 2018 crossover

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asummersday · 9 months

Note

Share some more ROTTMNT headcanons?

the hamatos have movie nights and board game nights. there’s no schedule for them, sometimes someone will go “movie night tonight?” or will text the gc “board games? i’m feeling some murder mystery tonight” and that’s how it goes. everyone participates. even splinter, and he complains but only to put on a show. he enjoys it. they play uno, clue, game of life, they play new and old games, play the ones they like more often, and throw out ones that suck. donnie has a spreadsheet for it (of course he does). mikey and splinter, surprisingly, are fucking RUTHLESS during monopoly. the wins are always tied between the two and that one time leo won by complete accident (thats what he says. donnie doesn't believe him ONE BIT because his twin is a lying liar who lies). everyone loves monopoly just because the chaos and the backstabbing is the most entertaining part.

mikey had a “copy everything donnie does/eat/likes” phase and leo had a “copy everything raph does/eat/likes” phase. (i am a firm ‘leo is the younger twin’ truther)

april an leo are face mask and skin care routine besties. she’s the reason he even KNOWS what both of these things are. she’s also the reason he even makes his dumb puns, because SHE makes them (and 9y/r leo was smack in the middle of his ‘copying his big bro’ phase. it extended to april, who basically became his big sister). donnie constantly tells her he still has not forgiven her for that (jokingly)

Lou Jitsu was ABSOLUTELY Sexiest Man Alive at one point i'll tell you that

donnie’s eye starts twitching when he’s annoyed (mostly when leo annoys him). it happens so often that it starts twitching when leo isn't even in the same room and donnie will go “leo's doing something stupid again”

leo doesn't fall asleep easily but when hes a sleep my mans ASLEEP. nothing can wake him up. hes usually a light sleeper but when he hasn't slept in 3+ days and passes out at 12:30pm on the couch? he's literally dead to the world. his brothers take FULL advantage of this. stacking food/objects? yes. drawing on his face/arms/legs etc? for sure. mikey paints his shell sometimes. he once painted all of starry night without leo waking up once.

raph is wary of cass when she first joins, but when they find how many interests they share, they become almost instant best friends. they're inseparable and hang out all the time its amazing. everyone is terrified of them because they've seen how violent their sparring sessions get.

mikey watched lilo and stitch when he was like 5 and instantly zeroed in on the whole ‘voodoo spoon’ thing and tries to do the same thing. his dad and raph are extremely concerned (and slightly off-put. mikey was a weird child)

when he was younger, he had a terrible case of separation anxiety. it gets better as he grows older, and then comes slamming back full force after the krang. if his brothers aren’t in his immediate sights, he will just. panic. it takes… too long for him to stop having panic attacks when he wakes up and one or two of his brothers aren’t present (especially leo. he latches onto leo the longest after. it takes nearly as long as leo’s recovery does for mikey to be able to sleep without leo in the same room)

splinter, the old sap, actually has hundreds of pictures of his boys growing up. so much that he has dozens of photo albums spanning the years. you can tell exactly when april shows up in their lives because one day she’s not there at all and the next its like he got a fifth kid. he loves leafing through them on occasion, reminiscing and definitely not crying. not all the albums survived the shredder, but enough did to still recount the years. after the invasion, splinter moves the albums from his room and into a shelf in the living room. (hes caught his kids more than once poring over the books, either alone or huddled together on the floor. he always leaves, allowing them this moment alone.)

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frozenmoonshine · 1 year

Text

Headcanon - Tips & Tricks on how to date Sanzu Haruchiyo:

I just wrote this to cope with my unhealthy obsession with this fictional man. He's my absolute favorite TR baby, so forgive me for being shamelessly self indulgent! ...or don't.

If feminine terms of endearment and/or hinted hetero relationship trigger you for any reason, please skip this one. Cheers.

Haru is a lovebug, but that cannot be seen by just anyone. It requires a person with thick, and I mean: THICK nerves and patience to handle him right. He's prone to jealousy, he's headstrong, and he holds his grudges like Mikey's life directly depends on it!

If not handled properly, he will ghost you for days, try to make you jealous, be deliberately mean and controlling/manipulative, or in more extreme cases, turn full on yandere stalker on you! But all of that is triggered by his innate need to be loved and deeply, deeply rooted fear of being abandoned and being less than. So don't make him insecure!

It's highly recommended to build trust with him first, so if you guys start out by being genuine friends first, before you start dating, and then let the things develop naturally from there, there's a lot more chance that he'll open up to you and let you in, and he won't be as afraid of you leaving him or "betraying" him.

Seriously tho, don't leave him! He needs someone to love him, and to love back, way more than he realizes! He desperately needs someone to call "home", someone who will stay, who will accept him, and not judge him for who he is. And who he is deep down is just a soft little baby, that would do anything and everything for his loved one!

Until he gets properly comfortable with you and the fact that someone genuinely cares for him (which is a big challenge for him!) he may occaaionally act inconsistent (not messaging back for hours on end, standing you up for dates, being generally unavailable, etc.) It's either all due to his gang duties, fights, and devotion to Mikey, or simply just his struggle to adapt to love. But you can always be completely certain that he's not cheating!

Why? Because he's simply the type that falls in love for life, stays loyal and faithful even after death does you part (regardless of who dies first), and is so overprotective that it can be too much to deal with sometimes! ("Why is that ugly bitch over there giving you the side eye?! She wants me to explain to her who you are or what?!" - "No one talks like that to my Queen, I'm gonna rip his fucking skeleton apart!" etc.) And yeah, unless you stop him somehow, he will commit homicide just because someone stepped into your lane a bit too rudely for his taste.

Also, once you have successfully conquered his tattered, lonely heart, he would totally call you his Queen, and treat you as such as well. He's a lowkey simp, but a high key gentleman and super respectful in every sense of the word. His manners, albeit a little bit oldschool (legacy of having been brought up by his grandma and Takeomi), are always impeccable! If you didn't know better, you'd easily think he was some rich, spoiled, stuck-up "bocchan".

He'll be very reserved at the beginning of your dating, not exactly shy, but somewhat distant. But he'll never fail to open the door for you, move your chair for you, walk next to the car track making sure you're on the safer side, hold your coat for you or offer his if you don't have one, etc. But even holding hands will only happen after three dates or so.

And the first date is at Cozy Corner, and you guys are getting cheesecakes, it's just a fact, I don't make the rules! Once the relationship gets a bit more established it will become your monthly tradition.

On another negative side of dating Haru, however, be prepared to "share" him with Mikey! Although his attachment to Mikey is not romantic in nature, and Mikey isn't exactly someone to be jealous of in that sense, he will be a significant part of your relationship, as Haru will either talk incessantly about him, or flat our refuse to spend time with you because "Mikey needs him", and to him that is a perfectly valid reason.. But, if you (ideally) share, or (at least) understand his obsession with his King, and support his ambition to be Mikey's right hand man, he'll marry you, no joke!

* * * BONUS * * *

He used to be self conscious about his scars around you at first, not taking the mask off in front of you for 3 whole months of dating. You even "kissed" for the first time over the mask. When you asked him why he always wears it, he tried avoiding the subject at first, but when he realized he can trust you, he admitted he was afraid of your reaction when you see his face (you of course find him nothing less than drop dead gorgeous).

He hates PDA, but is quite affectionate in private, though never smothering. He'll hug you from behind when you're in the kitchen, randomly kiss your temple when you're cuddled up watching a movie together, he always speaks to you in a gentle, loving tone, he rubs small circles on the back of your hand with his thumb when holding hands, he always praises the food you make for him, he tries his best to learn to make your favorites, etc.

When the Kanto Manji-kai started getting seriously corrupted, he tried pushing you away, but you insisted on staying by his side no matter what, and he greatly appreciates you for that. Despite all, you are his safe haven.

In his KMK/early Bonten days, you half-jokingly asked him to teach you to use a sword. He taught you to play shōgi instead. It almost became a weekend tradition for the two of you. Since you started keeping scores, you've been in the lead with 139 wins, over his 137. (He may or may not have let you win on purpose, more than once.) You tease him that it's because he's such a good teacher.

As Bonten's 2nd in command, he's still as loyal to you as always, but you're never his first priority. It's Mikey and Bonten's business, and you know it. However, you can't say you haven't felt jealous of Mikey in some cases. Whenever Mikey calls, Haru will immediately leave, even mid-sex.

He always tries to make it up to you later if Mikey interrupted your time together, tho.

He avoids meeting you on the days when he's had to kill. Not just because he doesn't want to "taint" you, but also because he doesn't like himself when he's high. He'd rather wait for the drugs to wear off before meeting you. If you guys live together, then he'll just spend the day at the Bonten HQ instead.

Once you start living together, he's a godsent to have around the house! You don't have to do any cleaning ever again, his OCD kicks in and your apartment will always be spotlessly clean. He occasionally nags at you to be more tidy tho.

He's even more overprotective as an adult than he was as a teen. if you're going somewhere that is not owned by or affiliated with Bonten, and he can't go with you for whatever reason, you will unavoidably have two of his most trusted subordinates escort you and stay by your side at all times as your bodyguards. And no, he's not trying to contol where you go or what you do, (those two guys basically work for you, not him, at this point, anyway) he just won't leave anything to chance and risk you getting targetted by any of his numerous enemies when he's not around to protect you by himself. When the two of you are together out, he never leaves your side, and always has an arm around your waist or back.

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taizi · 1 year

Note

Didn’t want to overwhelm what I’m sure is a very full inbox, since I’ll admit I have submitted a few requests before — but periodically I can’t pass up the chance when you say they’re still open (pending your whim, of course, as it should be). so anyway. I ADORE your tmnt 2003/2012 crossover where the 12s are looking for their sensei, all from 03s POV. And then I ALSO ADORE the 2012/Rise, from 12Mikey’s POV about Little Blue. So — any chance you fancy a 2003/Rise crossover? Perhaps an 03Leo observation of the absolutely terrifying raw power these bitty baby turtles call ninpo? 03Donnie trying to make sense of RiseMikey yeeting a cargo ship? Rise boys pointing out 03Raph’s accent as the only new yorker? that’s a bunch sorry have a lovely day!

It happens on an unremarkable Tuesday night, as they’re heading home from a relatively quiet patrol. Raph is grumbling under his breath because he still has energy to burn, and one tussle with the Dragons was about one-tenth of the outlet he was looking for.

Mikey’s natural state of being is still-has-energy-to-burn and he walks backwards to make a moue of false sympathy in Raph’s direction.

“Aww, poor Raphie,” the little menace coos. “We’ll find you another head to knock, I promise.”

“Won’t have to look very far, there’s one right here,” the red-banded turtle growls, and dives after him. Mikey shrieks in combination terror-excitement and darts around the other side of Leo. Leo allows himself to be circled, looking as though he’s ready to go straight to bed when he gets home, where at least he won’t have to deal with any annoying little siblings for the next six solid hours.

“Hey, um,” Donnie says from somewhere behind them. “Umm, Leo? Guys?”

His tone draws Raph up short. He turns with the long tails of Mikey’s mask still caught in his fist, while Mikey continues to squawk and flail. Leo is already moving out from in between the two of them, abandoning the youngest to his fate and approaching Donatello swiftly.

He doesn’t even need to ask what caught the genius’ eye. Donnie is staring at a bright point of light above the street. It hovers for a moment and then begins to open wider, warm and yellow and glowing.

As Raph watches, something falls through. Someone. He barely has a second to make out the vaguely human shape of the body before the mask tails in his hand are yanked away and his smallest brother is racing forward across the rooftop like a bullet.

Leo makes an aborted move to stop him, but there’s no point. Mikey has always been the fastest of the four and he has always, exclusively, only ever done what he wanted to do. Really, Raph shouldn’t even be surprised.

Mikey catapults off the parapet, collides with the body before it can fall more than a few feet toward the unforgiving asphalt eight stories below, and brings it safely to the roof of an adjacent building, taking the brunt of the fall in a neat barrel roll.

“Ugh, he’s gonna be bragging about that catch for weeks,” Raph mutters, keeping pace with Leo as they follow him over.

Donnie is way ahead of them both, easing the body out of Mikey’s arms by the time the eldest turtles catch up. It’s a green-skinned teenager, with the oh-so-familiar built-in armor of a turtle shell. The red stripes on his face, and yellow ones down his arms and legs, are obscured almost entirely by grisly bruises and a not-insignificant amount of blood. Most tellingly, the kid is wearing a bright blue ninja mask.

“Oh,” Don says, pausing in opening his medkit. He rubs one hand gently over the little mutant’s bruised forehead. “It’s another Leo.”

It says something about their lives that this isn’t the weirdest thing that’s ever happened on a Tuesday. Above them, the portal the kid came through is closing rapidly. The light goes with it, dwindling until it’s gone.

“He’s tiny,” Mikey says, all the joy and irreverence from a few moments ago blown clean out of his expression. Raph doesn’t like to see him look so worried, brow creased beneath his sunny orange mask. “And he’s hurt bad.”

“What the hell happened to him?” Raph rumbles, arms folded tight across his own plastron. It rankles to see any version of Leonardo injured like this. “And where the hell are his brothers?”

“They can’t be far,” Leo says, because it’s unspoken that where one of them goes, they all go, no matter what backwards dimension they might come from. He kneels next to his younger brothers and looks over his small counterpart with grave eyes. “But there’s no time to wait. He needs stitches at the very least. Donnie, can we move him?”

Donnie finishes packing the sluggishly bleeding gash above the kid’s knee with a temporary bandage and tapes it down, then sets about the rest of his medical examination, brown eyes troubled.

“There’s a crack in his shell that concerns me,” he says, probing around the kid’s neck with careful fingers. “And he almost definitely sustained some head trauma. I just can’t be certain about a spinal injury. I don’t want to risk permanent damage by manhandling him into the sewers. There’s also—oh.”

Donnie’s hands pause where he’d been feeling down the kid’s right arm. He pulls it out carefully from where it’s sandwiched between the kid’s side and Mikey’s plastron. Raph stoops to get a closer look at whatever got Donnie’s attention and then feels his chest go tight with rage.

They’re chains. Tiny, glowing links of burnished gold, almost translucent, wrapped firmly around the strange mutant’s forearm. And his fist is clenched around what looks like a piece of paper, but the chains are more concerning.

“Hey, uh, what the fuck,” Mikey says loudly. His hands on the kid’s shoulders tighten there protectively. “Can we get those off?”

“Let’s try,” Leo says, his own eyes whited-out and narrowed. He tests the chains with a touch, the way of someone testing the elements on a stove to see if they’re hot. When nothing happens, he grips one of the chain links firmly and begins to pull.

Raph, Donnie and Mikey all jump at the same time when Leo suddenly yanks his hand away with a hiss.

“What?” Donnie blurts. “What happened? Did it burn you?”

“No, it—it bit me,” Leo replies, shaking out his hand.

The golden chains glow a little brighter as the brothers watch, and now there are bright purple sparks trailing warningly up and down the length of them like an electric current. Raph eyes the purple warily. It looks like it bites.

“Try a knife?” Mikey says, tone upturned at the end because he’s as much out of his depth as the rest of them are.

Donnie hums, brow wrinkled thoughtfully, and works a kunai out of his belt. He slides the edge under one of the chains without issue, but the moment he starts to apply pressure, the orange glow and purple sparks become limned with red, like some kind of armor. The chains constrict slightly, biting tighter into the kid’s arm.

Back off, they say, as clearly as anything without a voice ever could.

“Leave it for now,” Raph says. He won’t say it out loud, aware of how stupid it would sound, but that color combination alone soothes some of the jagged uncertainty he has about this whole situation. “It ain’t like Little Blue’s a prisoner. We can deal with the chains once we’ve dealt with the obviously broken bones.”

Leo nods, on the same page for once. “Can you wake him up, Donnie?”

“Actually, I have just the thing,” Donnie says, like that’s some big surprise, hauling his satchel around and digging through it for a moment. That thing might as well belong to Mary Poppins, and he proves it nearly every day. Sure enough, Don emerges victorious with a container of tiny capsules. Shaking one out into his palm, he says, “Smelling salts. Sort of. My own spin, anyway. Mike, brace him as best you can, okay?”

“You got it, Doc,” Mikey says, picking the parts of the kid’s chest and shoulder that look the least beat-to-hell and planting his hands there.

Donnie snaps the capsule and waves it under Little Blue’s beak. It takes all of three seconds for the kid to give a violent full-body jerk, flailing wildly and going nowhere beneath Mikey’s steady grip. His eyes fly open, a burst of bright gold, and dart around frantically. The left eye is bloodied. Raph can feel his metaphorical hackles going up, because someone obviously beat the shit out of this kid, and he can’t be much older than fifteen.

“Hey, easy,” Mikey says, in a light, breezy tone, “you’re okay, you’re safe.”

“Okay, we can knock spinal injuries off the list,” Donnie says. He looks like about a hundred pounds of stress was just lifted off his shoulders.

Little Blue squints at them, all woozy. When he finally finds Mikey’s face, probably little more than a green and orange blur from his perspective, he relaxes visibly.

“Dee’s tryin’ to experiment on me again,” he whines. “Make ‘im stop or I’m telling Raph.”

Message delivered, he slumps back into sleep after that—apparently reassured by his present company, looming threat of unwilling experimentation notwithstanding. Donatello looks bewildered, and glances sidelong at Raph. Raph shrugs. Leo huffs out a laugh, sitting back on his heels.

“I’d know that tone anywhere. If he’s not the youngest, he’s close.”

“He’s just like me for real,” Mikey pipes up, grinning widely. “Home?”

“Home,” Leo confirms. “Can you carry him?”

“Uhh, are you kidding? He’s probably about as heavy as a handful of grapes.”

“We need to be careful with his arm. The, uh, unchained one. It’s broken in a couple of places. And try not to jostle his leg, either. And his shell—”

“Don, we get it,” Raph says, not unkindly. “Fragile, handle with care. Hear that, chucklehead? No razzmatazz.”

Mikey makes an offended noise and Leo cuts them off at the pass with the grace and finesse of someone who’s been single-handedly dealing with their shit for the better part of twenty years. “Let’s go Mikey. We’ve been out here too long already, and that light-show might have attracted some attention. I’ll call sensei once we start moving and ask him to prepare the infirmary bed for us.”

It’s a group effort to get the kid folded into Mikey’s arms in a manner that doesn’t upset Donnie’s doctoral sensibilities. But he’s such a scrawny stringbean that Mikey carries him with the same level of effort Casey might use to haul around a couple twelve packs of Cherry Coke.

Little Blue, for his part, only squirms to get comfortable and smushes his cheek against Mikey’s shoulder without waking. He’s clearly used to being hauled around. Raph won’t give him the satisfaction of admitting it, but he thinks Leo was probably right. That’s little sibling behavior if Raph’s ever seen it.

Splinter takes the arrival of a fifth turtle in the lair like a champ. It’ll be a cold day in hell when they manage to surprise their dad for real. His aged brown eyes are gentle as Mikey sets the kid on the cot, and he lingers nearby as Donnie prepares the fiberglass for the arm cast. He’s probably remembering when Fearless was that small.

Splinter manages to work Blue’s fist free of the paper he was clutching and smooths out the creases. It looks like it might be a photo. Whatever it is, it causes the rat’s eyes to get very old and very sad. He puts it back in the little mutant’s hand and closes his fingers around it again.

Somehow Little Blue manages to sleep through the stitches and the setting of his broken arm. He doesn’t even stir as he’s tipped onto his side so ointment can be applied to the crack in his shell before the edges are smeared with epoxy and forced back together.

He could probably use the rest—he looks like he just tumbled out of the end of the world. Donnie isn’t concerned about the prolonged stint of unconsciousness only because the kid was awake for a few minutes and coherent enough to form sentences, as confused as they were.

The chains have dulled to the barest glow. Every now and then they light up like Christmas, but only for a minute or two. Mikey dubs it “energy-saving mode.” It’s remarkably un-reassuring.

The whole clan eats dinner in the infirmary in a bunch of mismatched chairs, all of them reluctant to leave the battered child’s side. The second time one of his brothers starts to nod off, Raph makes the executive decision that he’ll take first watch.

Because none of his siblings know how to do anything the easy way, he has to all but run them out at blade-point.

“I know for a fact that you haven’t slept in three days, Don,” Raph says mercilessly. Donnie withers like a little overwatered plant when sensei’s sharp eyes descend upon him. “And Mikey, you’re barely any better than him. I will gladly throw you under the bus next, try me.”

“And we call Leo the mother hen,” the youngest grumbles, only to squeak and dive behind Leo when Raph advances a single threatening step in his direction.

“C’mon, you two,” Leo says, herding them out. “We can have a sleepover in the den. That way we’ll hear it if Raph calls us.”

It’s an unspoken request for Raph to wake them if anything happens. Raphael salutes him only semi-sarcastically and takes up camp next to the cot. Splinter draws a chair up beside Raph’s, whiskers twitching with amusement as Mikey whines from the living room, “But I won’t even be able to sleep!”

“He’ll be out like a light in twenty,” Raph says dryly.

“Ten, if Donatello puts on “How It’s Made,”” Splinter replies with equal parts exasperation and affection. He puts one clawed hand on Little Blue’s forehead, and goes on, “It was good of you to bring him here.”

Wondering if he’ll ever outgrow the uncomfortable feeling he gets from any sort of praise, Raph spins a sai for something to do with his hands and mutters, “Well, yeah. Us turtles gotta look out for each other. It’s not like the humans are gonna do it.”

Splinter kindly moves on. “The boy’s qi is very bright, for all that something has recently attempted to snuff it out. I can tell he was raised in a home full of love.”

“Someone’s gotta be missin’ him,” Raph agrees. It makes his stomach sink to think of some version of his family missing their Leo.

Reading Raph’s mind as easily as he always has, the rat transfers his hand to his son’s arm and pats gently. “We will make sure that he finds his way home. Now,” he adds in a brighter tone, “tell me about my two youngest refusing to take proper care of themselves. I need to know how many flips to assign.”

Grinning, Raphael settles in to spend these quiet early morning hours gossiping with his father.

He must doze off himself at some point, because his senses kick him awake the second before a heavy thud would have. He jumps to his feet, but Splinter raises a hand to calm him.

“Our guest is up,” the rat says mildly. “Collect your brothers.”

Normally, Raph would have something to say about leaving his father alone with a potentially dangerous unknown variable. In this case, he catches sight of two very bright, very frightened gold eyes staring at him from behind the cot, and decides Splinter is probably on the right track. Surprise, surprise.

So Raphael backs up toward the door, scrutinized every inch of the way. As he’s leaving, he hears the kid say, in a tone that’s aiming for demanding and landing somewhere around plaintive instead, “Who are you? Where’s my dad?” It makes Raph want to hit something.

His little brothers are fast asleep in a pile on the sofa. Leo is also actually resting for once in his goddamn life in the armchair, curled up with his limbs all folded like a pretzel. The TV is still on, but the volume is turned almost all the way down. Raph makes it a single step into the room before Leo’s eyes slide open, meeting Raph’s unerringly in the low light.

“He’s up,” Raph says plainly. “And he’s a little freaked out. Kinda got the idea that sensei wants us to make ourselves scarce for a bit.”

Leo nods. With his mask slung around his neck like a bandanna, the worry lines between his eyes are more obvious.

“Let’s make breakfast,” he decides. “You and I can handle a few omelets.”

Mikey usually takes charge of meals, because the goofball has never really shaken off the idea that he doesn’t contribute as much to the general workings of their family as everyone else does. Which is a fucking joke. They’d probably last all of two days without Michelangelo, and they’d be the most miserable two days known to man.

So his big brothers make it a point to wrestle control of the kitchen from him every now and then. Meals aren’t as good when anyone else is doing the cooking, but it’s the principle of the thing.

As Raph is beating a big mixing bowl of eggs together, he blurts, “If you got flung into another dimension, I’d drag your ass back home first thing. You’re not getting out of this shit that easy.”

“Language,” Leo says without looking up from the bell peppers on his cutting board. There’s a smile hiding in the corner of his mouth. “And I know you would.”

There’s a thump from the general area of the den—presumably a turtle falling off the sofa—followed by the low tones of Donnie and Mikey arguing sleepily. Raph’s heart does this big warm stretch in his chest as they amble into the kitchen, something he would never in his life admit to out loud.

Mikey’s mouth is open to protest this shameless coup of his kitchen. Raphael points the whisk at him warningly.

“One word and I’m tossing onions in here,” he says. “A whole bunch of ‘em.”

It’s as much of a threat as it needs to be. Mikey’s beak wrinkles but he only circles around the table to start the coffee for Don.

They return to the infirmary armed with plates and drinks. Little Blue is sitting on the edge of the cot, watching them with obvious wariness on his face. When this version of Mikey who isn’t his Mikey approaches him, Blue’s expression does something it hurts to look at. But he musters up a smile anyway and takes the plate and mug he’s offered.

The plate goes to the side right away. The mug is turned around and around in his hands. It’s a start.

“Um, hi,” he says. His voice is a shock to the system. He sounds like a childhood memory. “I guess introductions would be kind of redundant, huh?”

Donatello smiles. “That’s right. Do you already have experience with other dimensions?”

The kid’s hands go white-knuckled around his drink. “Not till recently,” he says woodenly. “And not like this. Donnie loves to talk about the multiverse theory, though. I’m an expert by proxy.”

Raph recognizes it when someone is on the brink of a panic attack and keeping it at bay by the skin of their fucking teeth, and his family sees it, too. He can practically see Leo reshuffling the course of this gentle interrogation, bypassing the obvious next question of “what the hell happened” for something a little safer instead.

“You were pretty banged up when we found you,” is what he lands on. “Do you feel alright?”

Leo’s tiny counterpart doesn’t seem to know what to make of him, equal parts awed and troubled. He glances over at Raph quickly, something of a knee-jerk reaction, and his face creases a little when he doesn’t find what he’s looking for. His eyes fly to Donnie next, where they only linger for a second before falling to his lap.

Raph can’t imagine how alone he must feel.

“Think so,” the kid says by way of answer. “I mean, my entire body feels like one big bruise, but I didn’t die. So I’ll take it as a win.” He blinks. “Unless I did die and this is a really weird afterlife. Or my brain is in that pre-death electrical storm and all my cells are depolarizing en masse and this is what it cooked up for me to go out with.”

Okay, the kid is beginning to sound more like a Donatello than a Leonardo now, but the way his voice is getting tighter and faster is all Mikey when he freaks himself out.

“Hey, hey,” Raph says as he stands, shoving his plate towards Leo blindly and lifting his empty hands. It doubles as a ‘slow down’ gesture, and also as a means to grab Blue if he passes out. “Cool it, kiddo. We’re not a—a brain tsunami or whatever the hell you just said.”

“That’s probably what a brain tsunami would say,” Blue says faintly.

Raph takes those few steps to the kid’s side, coming to stand between him and Splinter. He reaches out to tap the bottom of the mug Blue’s strangling.

“Drink,” he orders. “You’re safe here. If you need someplace to panic, or scream, or throw things, I’ll show you my wreck room. But you’re not allowed to see it at all if you pass out again.”

The kid obediently lifts the mug to his mouth, mumbling a petulant, “Okay, mom.”

It’s the exact same tone of voice that Raph, Mikey, Donnie and even Casey have used to say those exact same words to Leo. Raph’s shock must show on his face, because Splinter lets out a quiet huff of laughter. Leo’s laugh, somewhere behind them, is louder.

The miserable expression on Blue’s face clears after the first sip. Leo’s favorite drink when they were little, before he started to abandon childish things and mold himself into the shape of a leader, was strawberry milk. From the way Blue lifts wide gold eyes towards Mikey and holds the mug closer to his center, it’s his favorite, too. And it’s a piece of home he wasn’t expecting to find in this weird place.

Mikey winks at him and a line of tension in Blue’s shoulders fades away. For the second time since waking up, Blue smiles back. It comes a little easier to him this time.

Raph isn’t surprised. A Mikey makes everything better.

“While I can understand why a wave of short-circuiting neurons in your brain might seem like the most logical explanation for this,” Donatello says, which makes goddamn one of them, “I can promise you that this is real. You fell through a portal in Brooklyn.”

“A portal?” Blue asks. “A yellow one?”

“Yeah! You remember?” Mikey says brightly.

“I remember the light,” he replies slowly. He sets his cup down, and his hand drifts over to the crumpled-up photo sitting on the cot beside him. He doesn’t lift it or look at it, he just sets his hand on it, like he’s taking strength from its existence. “It was so dark and cold, and then the sun came out. I think I reached for it. I don’t know how I ended up here.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Leo says firmly. “And those chains, too.”

“Chains?” the kid asks.

“The ones on your arm,” Donnie says. “You don’t feel them?”

Little Blue looks down at both his casted and his whole arm, frowning. He lifts the whole one closer, turning it, and Raph catches the faint glimmer of those stubborn chains before they explode into burning gold. Blue yelps in surprise, and Raph’s brothers fly to their feet.

“Did that hurt?” Mikey says all frantic, flapping his hands.

It’s a fair question. Little Blue’s eyes are still wide and stunned, but now they’re filling rapidly with tears. He touches the chain the same way Leo had, like he’s testing something. It’s on the tip of Raph’s tongue to warn him not to, but it turns out not to be necessary.

That aggressive show the lights put on for Raph and his siblings is nonexistent. Those purple sparks circle Blue’s fingers harmlessly. The red glow is a steady, unfaltering warmth. The chains themselves cinch tighter, resolute and unbreakable.

Donnie’s mind is racing behind his brown eyes. He’s putting together what Raph’s heart had already figured out back on that rooftop.

Wherever one of them goes, they all go. It didn’t make sense to find any version of Leonardo by himself, because his brothers would never have let him go without a fight. The place he belongs to would fight tooth and nail to keep him.

Sure enough, Little Blue hugs his arm against his plastron and whispers, “Thanks for holding onto me.”

Then he’s in motion. He knocks back the rest of his strawberry milk like he’s a character in a Western film throwing back a shot of rye, crams the photo into the pouch at his waist, and hops off the cot. He staggers immediately, catching himself on the arm of Splinter’s chair. The whole thing is not giving Raph a whole lot of confidence in whatever this kid is planning, but he gets the feeling that trying to stop him now would be like trying to stop a trainwreck with his bare hands.

Blue points at the butter knife on Leo’s plate, there because he eats his omelets like an old man.

“Can I borrow that?”

“Uh, sure,” Leo says, standing up and passing it over.

“Thanks,” his young counterpart says with a winning smile, just seconds before it lights up in his hands and changes shape. When the bright blue glare fades, there’s a katana in the kid’s hand where a butter knife used to be.

“What the fuck?” Raph and Mikey shout at the same time, though Mikey’s is more of a delighted shriek.

Blue is blinking rapidly, like he’s trying to clear his gaze. He’s swaying where he stands, and Splinter’s brow is folded in concern, but before anyone can stop him, he lifts his shiny new sword in front of him and slashes down through empty air.

Right away, a small cyan portal opens in front of him. It’s charged and electrified, a playful spinning thing. Raph’s heart is racing, and he puts out a hand to keep Mikey firmly behind him. Similarly, Leo has a solid grip on the leather strap across Don’s plastron, because their little brothers are both the same type of idiot in opposite directions when it comes to sparkly unexplainable things.

Little Blue, for his part, looks disappointed in his portal and in himself, and it bleeds quickly into frustration. “Come on,” he says, shaking the sword in his hand. He forces the portal open a little wider, gaining a few inches in diameter. It’s still not big enough to be anything like a door, or even a window.

“Your qi is exhausted,” Splinter says gently. “It will take days yet to build it up into even half of what it should be.”

“I don’t want to wait days,” Blue grits out, hand white-knuckled around the hilt. “I want to go home.”

The chains on his arm begin to unravel, elongating impossibly, becoming bigger and denser. Now they more closely resemble the heavy-duty chains Don uses in the garage to lift engines above his head. Two loops remain around his wrist, and the rest of it goes flying into that portal.

For a moment, nothing happens.

And then, to put it in scientific terms, the portal fucking explodes.

What started as the size of a dinner plate is now easily big enough for the Battle Shell to barrel through with plenty of clearance on all sides. It stands almost as tall as the ceiling and just as wide. And it barely has a chance to exist in this state for more than a second before multiple bodies come hurtling through from the other side at break-neck speed.

“LEO!” three young voices scream, and Little Blue drops his sword to meet the chaos with open arms.

“Took you long enough,” he says warmly.

#tmnt 2k3 #rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #hamato raphael #hamato leonardo #hamato michelangelo #hamato donatello #my writing #prompt #anonymous #tmnt fic #reduxi: the rise remix #this got away from me lmao #i may write a 2nd part if anyone is super interested #this wasnt exactly what u asked for sorry anon !

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mochiimadness · 13 days

Note

Hey! could you do 2012 tmnt how they would react if s/o is a dancer? Sorry for bothering have a good day/night!

Fearless Leader

He is so quiet when watching you dance

You’re not sure what he’s thinking exactly,

Kinda unnerves you at first

So, in the middle of a particularly tricky move, you look over to see him watching you and just ask

“Do you not like dancing or something?”

You’ve never seen him panic so fast

He’s immediately animated, frantically waving his hands in front of him

“No, no, no-! It’s not that, I was just- you’re just- your dancing is so impressive!”

Leo didn’t even realize he had been staring so hard

After years of training and fighting, he sort of just- analyzes movements, studying them.

(Which actually made him decent at dancing but he doesn’t do it often)

He’s absolutely impressed by your dance moves, he got too busy caught up in analyzing, and appreciating how you make each flow, to realize he might’ve been coming off as judgmental

After explaining, you offer to teach him a thing or two

Are there stars in his eyes??? He’s already standing next to you ready to go

Loves to learn moves from you!

Makes the cutest concentrating face- especially on harder moves

(He sticks his tongue out a little, don’t tell him though because he’ll stop!)

You two could spend hours in the dojo just practicing dance moves.

He’ll bring refreshments and snacks!

Offers to teach you ninjitsu or meditate in return <3

Mean Green Fighting Machine

Raph can definitely bust a move

He can also vogue- I don’t make the rules, he just can.

Enjoys watching you dance!

He’ll even challenge you to a dance battle

Doesn’t matter what style of dance you choose,

He’ll do his own thing while throwing in a few moves he’d seen you do.

You find out how well he actually pays attention to your practicing during these dance offs.

Raph is actually decent at mimicking moves he sees others do

Surprisingly good at ballet

And of course,

✨Hip hop✨

Loves having these friendly competitions with you.

…even if he sometimes gets butthurt at losing

Just pull him into a silly little dance and all will be well

No fancy moves, just enjoying the music

“Aw c’mon Raph, you did great!”

“Hmph, still lost >:/“

“C’mere and dance with me already!”

“Alright alright I’m coming!”

Never actually gets angry about losing

Will pout a little though

Loves to see you grin about it <3

Is so incredibly supportive and proud of his s/o!

Donnie-pedia

Donnie dances like a dork /pos

He can either do the robot or some really awkward dance movements

It doesn’t bother him much-

Or at least it didn’t until he met you

Donnie loves watching you dance

You make it look so easy!

Gets a nervous if you ask him to dance-

Literally spends hours watching tutorials trying to learn how to dance better

He wants to be able to dance with you properly!!

Absolutely swoons if you offer to teach him

He picks up a few moves but still is pretty awkward overall

Once you tell him that you don’t mind,

He adores to dance with you

He genuinely enjoys just watching you dance too!

Finds it ✨fascinating✨

Gets you a good bag to store your dance stuff in- like your shoes and clothes

Decorates it with little dance charms and pins

And a purple turtle ofc

He also builds you a small music box with your favorite music!

That way you can listen and dance to it whenever!

"I uh made you this portable music box with your favorite tunes! You can listen to it wherever, whenever- if you want too of course. If not it's totally fine and-"

"Woah! This is great, D, thanks!!"

"Really?? :D"

You can practically see his tail wagging (it is actually)

Dr. Prankenstein

One word-

✨Hyped✨

Is your number one hype turtle

Always excited to see you dance!

Especially if you do any hip-hop/break dancing

If you do, he 100% joins in

Mikey is an awesome break dancer!

You'll always have a good time dancing with him.

If you don't do any hip-hop/break dancing-

He still loves to watch and join in when he can

Very good at following the flow of the beat

Can dabble in pretty much any dance style,

He's the fastest at being able to pick up on new styles/moves

After a few moments of watching you,

He's able to replicate the move you're doing!

Ofc it's not perfect (most of the time anyway)

But it's still pretty impressive.

Loves to just dance with you.

If you preform you better believe he finds a way to watch

Doesn't matter if the place is crowded and it's in the middle of the day,

Mikey always finds a way to come out and support you

(you may or may not have nearly screamed after seeing him pop out of the ceiling rafters but shhh)

If you ever need someone to give you feedback too,

Mikey's your turtle!

"S/o!! I saw your dance today, it was awesome!"

"How did you even-?"

"Oh, I found a crawl space under the floor and propped it open a bit, no biggie :D"

":O"

This, and many others, have been sitting in my ask box for over a year now.

I hope you enjoyed it, I apologize for the wait. Have a good day/night!

#my writing #tmnt x reader #tmnt 2012 x reader #tmnt leonardo x reader #tmnt raphael x reader #tmnt donatello x reader #tmnt michelangelo x reader #2012 raphael x reader #2012 mikey x reader #2012 donatello x reader #2012 leonardo x reader #fearless leader #mean green fighting machine #donnie-pedia #dr. prankenstein

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nerves-nebula · 11 months

Note

Hi um terrible sorry to bother you rn with a maybe loaded question but what would be each turtles biggest concern(?) issue(?) once they leave splinter and like move to the hidden city? I have a decent idea for donnie and leo but have barely have any for raph and absolutely nothing for mikey

This may or may not turn into something im working on for this tmnt iteration

not entirely sure what you mean by concern so I'll try to wrap my head around "issue." but even that's pretty broad, since they have a lot of overlapping issues.

so like, they've all got PTSD. just to get that outta the way. i think ive talked about this before but i cant find those posts sooo here's to hoping i dont contradict myself!

Raph: Raph mostly struggles with figuring out his identity outside of being a protector. he also focuses a lot on trying to remain present (not dissociate) and being more in touch with his bodies needs, as well as his emotional needs. it's hard for him to pick up new hobbies because he can't really tell what he likes?? so that's what hes doing in therapy, trying to figure himself out and learn how to better take care of HIMSELF instead of others. and like, see himself as a person haha.

Mikey: Mikey gets a bit high off of freedom and kind of goes crazy throughout his twenties, lots of sex, parties, magic drugs, normal drugs, he's down for whatever. he's kind of all over the place and he loves it at first but then he realizes it might not be a great way to live for him. he wants to have something to show for his life and work and like, find a community (while still being insane sometimes :>) and he ends up doing a lot of charity work, painting murals, and a bunch of other stuff. eventually he stumbles his way into a tattoo apprenticeship. His whole thing is basically figuring out how to be his own impulse control, with a side of guilt because he feels like he's the "least traumatized" of his brothers (he still has PTSD it just usually shows up differently than in his brothers)

Mikey also really, REALLY hates being called stupid (not as a joke, like if he fucks something up and someone says hes dumb or something). Splinter always said he was the dumbest one of them all and he acts like he doesn't care, BUT HE DO. it really gets under his skin.

Leo: a lotta self hatred on his end tbh. he spends a lot of time as the hidden cities protector trying to atone for his past mistakes. he feels both fragile and like he's walking on eggshells around his brothers because he knows that he's made most of their problems worse. he also feels like what he went through isnt as bad, because splinter liked him the most. so he's got a similar guilt thing going on as Mikey, with the added pressure of feeling like he has to "earn" his place with his brothers, the way he had to "earn" his place as Splinters favorite.

Donnie: Donnie goes to college pretty early into moving into the hidden city, which he's super excited about! he gets into a really bad relationship for like a year or two with Adelaide, and after that just kind of becomes more and more suicidal until he attempts to kill himself. im not actually entirely sure about the timeline here but yeah, he deals with a lot of sexual & relationship trauma as well as self esteem issues (literally only conceives of himself as pathetic and weak), intrusive thoughts, and suicidal ideation.

donnie doesn't feel like he'll ever be good enough for anything, and he resents the people around him for disagreeing because he thinks they're lying to him.

hope that wasnt all too rambly for ya!

#nnstuff #ask #teenage mutant neglected turtles #suicide tw

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brewsterispunkk · 2 years

Text

sunshine state

PART THREE: DREAMS

pairing: benny miller x f!reader

WC: 10.5k (oops <3)

warnings: 18+ mature! PTSD, dirty dreams about friends, will’s fiancé being a shitbag, bi!santiago—(if you have a problem with santi being gay then hit the road)

Summary: you and Benny join the guys on a weekend trip to the gulf. But, when pope unexpectedly brings a plus one, you and Benny are forced to share a bed. so it begins.

A/N: heyyyy. this was so long. & not sure if I like it :/ so sorry in advance if it sucks. as always, feedback is appreciated ! love y’all.

PART THREE: DREAMS

There were times you didn’t mind the heat. Times when the heat kissed your skin like the sun in golden hues, instead of oppressing your nerves and lungs. Growing up further north meant that you didn’t take the heat for granted; you were all too familiar with hot summers, yes, but also with frigid, icy winters. The warm, gentle morning heat of Florida mornings were the kind you could get behind.

You propped your feet up on the dash, leaning back in the worn seat, your playlist opened on your phone and ready to play. Beside you, Benny’s eyes were focused on the road, his aviators sat low on the bridge of his nose. If you were more awake, you’d make fun of him for it; tell him he looked like some sheriff or cop from a shitty network T. V. show, but it was barely a quarter past 7:00 and you hadn’t had your coffee yet. The teasing would have to be at a minimum until at least then. Hitting shuffle on the playlist you’d made the night before, you sighed, Stevie Nicks’ voice filling your ears.

Benny groaned beside you, obviously just as cranky as you were. He hadn’t had his coffee yet, either, and for such a kind, sweet, caring person, he could be a pain in the ass when he was caffeine-withdrawn.

“Really?” He asked. “Do we have to listen to this hippie-dippie shit?”

You raised your eyebrows at him, moving to sit criss-crossed in the passenger seat.

“Excuse me, Miller?” You replied. “I know you’re not shit-talking Stevie. The reigning queen of rock n roll, the white witch herself.”

“I don’t like her voice.” He said blandly. You snorted. “And all she sings about is break-ups. It gets old. She needs new material.”

“Benny, you listen to Taylor Swift.”

“And?” He countered. “You listen to Taylor too.”

“Yeah,” you continued, leaning your head on the glass of the window behind you, still facing him. “But Taylor is much more sappy than Stevie.”

“Okay, that’s debatable.”

You laughed, a full belly laugh, one that made your shoulders shake. You shook your head, smiling. “Okay, whatever you say, Miller.”

Out of the corner of your eye, you could’ve sworn that you saw him staring, but when you turned, he was focused on the road.

“So,” he drawled after a moment of silence. “Wanna listen to some CCR?”

“Absolutely not,” you chimed cheerily. “We will be listening to Stevie Nicks. I’m gonna convert you.” You could tell he rolled his eyes beneath his sunglasses. “Honey—“

“No, Ben,” you interrupted. “You promised me the aux cord the whole way there if I came. No backsies.”

“Fine,” he grumbled, defeated, as the lyrics to Fleetwood Mac’s Sara floated through the car.

The comedy of it all wasn’t lost on you; it seemed that Benny was always having to convince you to do things; go to the bar, go to Mikey’s party, take edibles with him. The truth is: you’d have done all those things without convincing (besides that first night at the bar—you really were tired), but Benny’s incessant nagging was endearing. This time, though, you truly had been a bit reluctant to come.

Earlier in the week, Benny had come over with takeout and plans to watch the Bachelor, (which you’d recently hooked him on), when he declared that he had a proposition for you. This time it didn’t involve bars or partying or drugs, though, it involved something more foreboding: a weekend at the beach with the guys and their significant others. Meaning Anna would be there.

Your initial response was no. You had Thursday and Friday this week off, blessedly, and were not looking to spend them in the awkward company of Will’s fiancé and all of his and your friends who she hated. But, with the promise of the aux and free food as well as a weekend full of sunshine, Benny had convinced you. Like he always did. You were pretty sure that Benny could convince you to do anything if he kept looking at you with those soft eyes and that stupid, stupid smile.

As the song ended, Benny pulled into a run-down 7/11 that looked like it was pulled straight from the 1980s.

“Alright,” he turned to you, and the look on his face made you think that this is what he must have looked like as a soldier. It was mission-focused. “I’m gonna fill up the tank, you got breakfast?”

“And coffee,” you added, already opening your door and slinging your bag over your shoulder. You got a few paces away from the car before Benny called your name.

“Yeah?” You turned. He was leaning against his open car-door.

“For my coffee, get me—“

“Two cream, four sugars,” you finished for him. “I know.”

“Yeah, honey.” He smiled to himself, turning to the gas pump.

Inside the gas station, you picked up a few snacks, a bag of chocolate covered donuts, and yours and Benny’s coffee, loading the latter up with as much cinnamon you could muster. You even snuck some into Benny’s, convinced that you could successfully turn him to the dark side. The two of you had gotten into an argument weeks ago about whether cinnamon belongs in hot drinks. You had argued that it did.

When you hopped back in the car, Benny was already in his seat, texting away on his phone, no doubt to Will about your ETA.

“Cheers,” you said, setting the donuts on the center console, and holding his coffee cup to him. He grabbed it, setting his phone down, and clinked it with yours.

“Cheers,” he smiled, taking a sip. “Mmm,” he hummed when it hit his tongue.

You sighed as you swallowed your own coffee, immediately feeling a bit more loose. You leaned your head back in your seat and closed your eyes, feeling more relaxed than you had since before you’d woken up. Benny put the keys in the ignition and started the rickety truck.

“Yknow,” he began to pull out of the gas station and onto the swampy backroads that you’d be taking til you got to the highway. “Out of all my friends, you’re the only one who has ever managed to get my coffee order right. To remember it at the very least.”

You hummed in response, before adding, “that’s why I’m the best, right?” Only half joking.

You hadn’t mentioned the whole “you’re my best friend,” conversation that you’d had the night of Mikey’s party. You’d meant to bring it up the morning after, but Benny had been too hungover to remember much of anything from the party, let alone his unintentional confession. You weren’t complaining though; it had answered the question that you’d been secretly poring over for months. You were just important to him as he was to you. Which is why you had absolutely no idea why that had just slipped out of your mouth.

“I’m only—“ you began to panic. He didn’t give you the chance to.

“Yeah, I guess that would make you the best one, honey.” He said casually, leaving you momentarily stunned. You let out an involuntary chuckle.

“But what would make you an even better friend—“

“—no—“

“—is if you let me put on some Langhorn Slim—“

“Benjamin, I said no!” You smacked his hand away from where he’d reached for your phone, before snatching it for yourself. “We’re listening to Fleetwood Mac, I’m putting my foot down.”

Benny cast you a look that you could tell he meant to be menacing, but seeing it on his face only made it look pouty. Your eyes held his obstinately. His cat-like gaze held yours for a minute before he sighed, turning back to the road.

“Fine,” he huffed, reaching for his coffee again. “Let’s see what Stevie has for us.”

You giggled, setting Rhiannon to the queue, and preparing for the long drive ahead of you.

- - - - -

You’d always thought the highway was lonely, especially after the move.

You remember the drive down to Florida being awful, your only company being Salem and the radio. Driving a car full of your life packed into boxes, knowing that your destination held no familiar faces or loved ones.

But with Dreams playing in the background, and Benny’s fingers tapping away on the steering wheel, you caught yourself thinking that maybe it wasn’t that bad.

“Wait, so you’re telling me they almost broke up?”

“Yeah,” you giggled.

“So, we almost didn’t get the album?”

“Yup,” you continued, reaching over to turn down the dial. “One of the most best selling albums of all time.”

“Well, shit.” Benny shook his head, one hand on the wheel. “Lindsey Buckingham sounds like a bitch.”

You snorted. “Cheers to that.”

The sun still shone high in the sky and was hotter than ever now that you’d been on the road for a couple hours. That was another thing about Florida you’d underestimated before moving here; the sheer size of it. It was massive.

The group had planned the outing weeks ago, Benny had just been late to ask you to come. It was supposed to be a couple’s weekend getaway for Mari and Frankie; she was heavily pregnant and it would likely be the last one they got before the baby was born. Frankie’s parents owned a vacation house (a fact that the boys never ceased to tease him about) on the Gulf, and had given him permission to use it. That was before Pope had announced that he’d be in town and invited himself along. From there, to your understanding, it had snowballed: first with Pope, then Will and Anna, and by association, Benny and you.

Pope had finished his stint in South America a little over a month ago, unexpectedly, from what you understood. You knew better than to ask questions, but it seemed that whatever it was had ended and ended quickly. Since then, he’d been living a few towns away and no one had really heard from him. While you’d been initially worried about that because what the fuck, Benny and the guys’ reactions made you realize that this kind of behavior was normal, at least for Santi. It’s just how he was.

“Can you replay that one?” Benny asked, cutting your inner monologue off. You hadn’t even realized that the song had ended. You nodded, quickly pressing the replay button on your phone. The bass line of Dreams pulsed through the car once again.

“Told you so,” you said smugly, facing forward.

“Told me what,” Benny relented dryly, feigning annoyance.

“That Stevie is amazing. I’ve converted you.”

“You haven’t converted shit. I just like the bass.” He cast you a sidelong glance.

“Mmhm,” you hummed, completely not buying it.

In the center console, Benny’s phone buzzed. He grabbed it and handed it to you, his eyes staying trained on the road in front of you.

“See who it is?” He asked.

You opened it to a text from Will.

Pope’s bringing someone, it said, with absolutely no clarification at all.

You gasped, chuckling a little bit.

“What?” Benny looked at you.

“Pope’s bringing somebody.”

“What?” He took off his sunglasses, eyes wide. “Whatdya mean ‘somebody,’ was that him?”

“No it was Will.”

“Quick, call him!” Benny sounded like a middle-schooler waiting to hear the nearest gossip.

“Okay, okay!” You laughed, dialing Will’s number and putting it to speaker. You muted the music.

It rung a few times, before the line picked up.

“Hello,” a bored voice answered. Anna. You and Benny exchanged a look.

“Hey,” Benny said, “can you put Will on?”

“What for,” she asked again with no cadence to her voice. Jesus Christ, this woman. You began to itch with annoyance.

“Nothin’ Anne, just put him on.”

“Fine,” she scoffed, voice venomous. Benny rolled his eyes.

“Yes?” Will’s deep tambre answered.

“Okay, what the fuck was that about?” Benny asked, referring to his brother’s fiancé. Will sighed on the other end.

“Don’t worry about it, man.” He sounded tired.

You felt your skin prickle at his tone. It felt like he’d been sounding like that more and more recently; weary and quiet. A bit unsure. So unlike the Will you’d met when you first moved here, so unlike the Will you’d grown to love like a brother. You couldn’t help the sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with Anna.

It’s not that you hadn’t tried to like her–you did. Multiple times. And every single time, it was as if she’d made it her personal mission to make it impossible. It had begun the first time you’d met her. You’d planned to get dinner with Will and Santi–a sort of last hurrah before Santi headed down to South America. Benny and Frankie couldn’t make it. Marisol was home sick because of the pregnancy, so Frankie was playing nurse, and Benny had a class to teach at the gym. That left you and Will as the only two in attendance. Until Will had mentioned that Anna would be tagging along, something that had perplexed you. Not because you’d have had a problem with her being there–in truth, you had been anxious to meet her–but because you were under the impression that she hated Santi. Something you were, in fact, very correct about.

The dinner had begun well enough; Anna had been late. But when she arrived, she was in a sour mood, barely even blinking at you when you were introduced. You’d brushed it off at first, guessing that she was just having a bad day. Then, the digs at Santi started. It began with an offhand comment on how he was graying; something about the salt and pepper hair that was beginning to sprout at his temple, which had alarmed you. But no one else at the table had batted an eye, so you’d assumed you’d misread the comment. As if. Then, the remarks about his job began. She’d begun to mention how you and Will both had “real jobs,” and whatever Santi had set up down south was going to fall through. That you couldn’t chalk up to a misunderstanding. You’d been about to say something when Will had changed the subject. Rather abruptly.

That had been your first interaction with Anna.

The next had been at one of Will’s barbecues. You’d all been eating when she’d made an offhand comment about Will’s shirt—one clearly meant to embarrass him. You’d opened your mouth to protest when you’d felt Benny’s hand on your knee. You looked over at him and he merely shook his head. Saying, it’s not worth it.

Since then, you’d stopped giving Anna the benefit of the doubt, and she’d proved you right every single time. You had a strange feeling that this trip would be no different.

Will’s voice from the phone brought you back to the conversation at hand.

“Is something wrong, or—“

“No,no!” Benny sputtered. “What do you mean Pope’s bringing someone?”

Benny said it like it was something outrageous. And, to be fair, it sort of was. It wasn’t that Pope was disrespectful, or a womanizer in any sense. It was only that he didn’t get attached easily, at least not with relationships. From your understanding—based off of what you’d observed and heard from Benny—he’d had many flings with men and women alike over the years, only none had stuck. So for Santi to even be with someone long term was a big deal, nevertheless introducing them to the whole group. This was gonna be interesting.

“Yeah,” Will chuckled. “I just found out. Same with Fish. You’re just as freaked as I am.”

“Well who is she?” You asked, leaning into the phone a bit.

“Hey smalls.” Will said fondly.

“Yeah, hi.” You replied dismissively. “Back to the question: who is she?”

“Well,” he cleared his throat. “From what I know, he is someone he met at a bar. Guy’s real quiet though, from what I’ve heard.”

“Wow, honey.” Benny raised his eyebrows. “Heteronormative much?”

You rolled your eyes. “Oh my god, Benny. I taught him that word and now he will never shut up about it.” He snickered beside you, prompting you to smack his arm.

“Sorry, Will. Anyway, so he. Who is he?”

“I know just as much as you, kid. Hell, Frankie just found out, like, 20 minutes ago. Guess we’ll find out later. Speaking of, what time are you getting here?”

“Ahh, about two hours, give or take.” Benny responded.

“Perfect,” Will said. “See you then. And I’m grilling tonight, so you don’t have to worry about dinner.”

“Nice,” you said, already salivating at the idea of Will’s ribs.

“Ah,shit.” Will spat under his breath. You could still hear it through the phone though.

“What is it?” Benny asked.

“Well,” Will paused. “Since Pope didn’t warn us about bringing a plus one until, well, twenty minutes ago, we’re a room short.”

“Sorry?” You asked, a bit confused by the wording. Will sighed.

“There are four bedrooms,” he explained. “We’d planned on having Santi and Benny bunk together and giving you the extra, but since Pope’s got his boyfriend, looks like you two are roommates.”

There was a beat of silence that followed, before Will added.

“… Unless you wanna room with Anna for the weekend—“

“God no,” you burst, not thinking before the words came out. Benny snorted next to you.

“Sorry, I didn't mean—“ you tried to correct yourself before Will laughed.

“No, I get it.” In the background, you heard someone, a woman, call his name. Probably Anna. “Alright, I gotta go, see you in a few hours.”

“Bye!”

“-bye!”

You sighed before leaning back in your seat. Benny glanced at you, serious for a moment before that slow smile crossed his face.

“C’mon honey,” he teased. “I can’t be that ugly to have you huffin’ and puffin’ about sharing a room with me—“

You smacked him, rolling your eyes at him.

“Eyes on the road, Miller.” He merely chuckled. A beat passed.

“You better not snore,” you added.

- - - -

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Mostly. It went by without a hitch, if you didn’t count Benny making you jump by yelling “gator!” at you while you were driving down a backroad. He’d found out about your irrational fear of alligators about a week ago and hadn’t stopped teasing you about it since. It was nearly 2:00 pm by the time you made it to the little beachside cottage on the Gulf—thanks to Benny’s shitty sense of direction, you’d gotten lost. More than once.

Frankie and Will were already there when you’d arrived, along with Marisol and Anna. While the guys had exchanged pleasantries, you’d had a cordial, albeit brief, greeting with Anna before Mari had engulfed you in a hug, sighing into your ear about how glad she was you were finally there. You gulped, realizing that you’d been naive to hope that there wouldn’t be any drama with Will’s fiance-from-hell.

The good news though, was that Santi was due to arrive any minute, and since Frankie’s parents’ home was in a retirement community, there wouldn’t be any hustle and bustle of the usual Florida tourism. It would be a peaceful, relaxing weekend away. At least you hoped so.

“God, Mari!” You looked your friend up and down. It had been a few weeks since you’d seen her. “You look amazing!”

She scoffed, looking down. “Yeah, I’m as big as a house.”

She wasn’t completely wrong. Her stomach was round. She was 8 months pregnant—in the homestretch—and was very obviously ready for her pregnancy to be over with. She’d told you as much when the two of you had gotten coffee nearly a month ago. Still, though, she looked gorgeous as ever. In fact, she looked more gorgeous than ever. Her dark, curly hair looked fuller, more shiny, and her bronze complexion was practically glowing. Motherhood already looked good on her.

“Oh please, you’re glowing.”

“All the baby hormones,” she laughed. “I guess that is a plus side to all this. I just can’t wait for her to get out.”

You laughed in response to her.

“No, seriously!” She continued, “my feet hurt, like, all the time!”

“So,” you leaned in, “have you and Frankie decided on a name yet?”

“We have,” she smiled fondly, hand on her belly. “We’re gonna name her after my grandmother—Alma, and then her middle name after Frankie’s mom, Magdalena.”

“Alma Magdalena. That’s beautiful.”

“Thanks,” she smiled, before puffing out a breath. “Woo, is it just me, or is it hot out here?”

“No, it definitely is,” you agreed, already beginning to feel sticky in the heavy Florida heat. “And humid.”

“Yeah, I’m going inside.” She patted your arm before beginning to waddle to the front door.

You looked over at Frankie, watching his eyes follow Marisol with an almost overbearing concern. His brows were furrowed, as he watched, making sure she got into the house without problem. It made your heart ache a bit, watching them. Not in jealousy, but in envy. You wondered what it would feel like to be cared about so deeply by another person.

As if on instinct, your eyes snapped to Benny, who was talking at Frankie, and completely missing the fact that he was paying absolutely no attention to what he was saying. The live-wire look in his eyes made your lips twitch. He always looked so animated. So full of life and charisma—your heart clenched. You could stare at him for days, you thought. Just like this: hands gesturing, eyes alight, hair falling haphazardly over his forehead. Gaze so full of love for his friends, his brother. You snapped yourself out of it before you could let your mind run further.

It was high time you got over this little crush on your best friend.

He was everything to you; that much you knew.

In the few months you’d known him, he’d completely changed your life for the better. You’d gone from working a 9 to 5, staying in every weekend, merely surviving in every sense of the word, to living, and it was all thanks to him and Will. You would forever be thankful to them for that. They’d given you friendship, family, in a way you hadn’t had it in a long time. Then, your stupid emotions had to get in the way.

Benny had always been pretty. Gorgeous, really. From the moment you saw him, you’d been able to acknowledge that. But he was Will’s brother, and so kind and easygoing and you two got along so well that you decided early on that there was no way anything would ever happen between the two of you.

You couldn’t ruin the friendship; you wouldn’t ruin the friendship. That fear mixed with your decided lack of dating experience and trust issues was enough to keep any romantic thoughts about Benny at bay. At least, until now.

You shook your head, walking up to the boys, who were talking about Will’s barbecue methods—how they were “much better than yours, Fish”—and put a hand on Benny’s shoulder.

“You ready to unload the truck, Miller?” You asked. “I’m sweating buckets out here.”

“Still not used to the Florida heat, kid?” Frankie asked, arms crossed over the plain tshirt he was wearing.

“I’m an adult, you know.” You raised an eyebrow at him. “And, yeah, hell no. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”

“Sure, honey. But you’re not helping.” He started making his way over to the truck.

“Oh, shove off, Ben.” You followed him, not letting him unload by himself. “I’m helping.”

After about five minutes of bickering, he caved, and the two of you brought your luggage into the little cottage.

Mari was napping on the couch when you walked in, curled up next to Frankie, who’d draped a blanket over her while he read a book. Anna had resigned herself to her and Will’s room, and Will was preparing for dinner in the kitchen.

“Your room is the third door on the left,” Frankie called as you and Ben dragged your duffle bags into the house.

The little cottage was quaint; exactly what you’d expect from a senior’s home on the coast, all light pastels and beach-themed bathrooms. And most importantly, the AC was on. Thank God.

- - - -

There was only one bed. Because of fucking course there was.

You stood, staring at the patchwork quilt on the Queen sized mattress, frozen.

Logically, in your mind, you knew that there would likely only be one bed. Still, you held a sliver of hope that there would be something: a blow-up mattress or even a trundle. But no.

Just your luck, you thought bitterly. Benny cleared his throat beside you.

“So,” he eyed the bed. “What side do you want?”

And there he was. Your best friend who could dispel any type of awkwardness with only five words. This would be fine. It was just Benny.

In truth, the idea of sharing a bed with him had excited you—not that you’d ever admit that. But it scared you at the same time. You’d sometimes been known to talk in your sleep; what if your tongue got the better of you sometime during the night? Or what if during your sleep, you hugged or cling to him, like you’d been tempted to do before? You decided that there was nothing you could do about it now.

“Hmmm,” you drawled, before walking over and sitting down. “Right side.”

“Well,” he smirked, falling backwards to lay down on his side. “That is just perfect, because I always sleep on the left. Small world, huh, honey?”

“Yeah,” you sighed, resting your head on the pillow and closing your eyes, laying down yourself. “Small world.”

“You tired?”

You peeked over at him, cracking one eye open. He was laying on his side, facing you, hands clasped beneath his cheek. It made your breath hitch.

“Mmhm,” you hummed, pushing down the emotions that the man next to you invoked. “Some asshole woke me up too early.”

“Early, you say?” He was amused.

“Yup. Asscrack of dawn.”

He hummed. “And this guy, he’s an asshole?”

“Mmm, yeah.” You mumbled back, feeling the fatigue of the early morning catch up to you. “The worst. Weird guy, too. Following me around, showing up and my house—“

“Sounds like a creep, honey.” He stretched a little, rolling in his back, and moving his hands above his head. “Want me to beat him up for you?”

“Hmmm,” you hummed, feigning indifference. “I’ll think about it. Honestly, I think he might be stalking me—“

Benny cut you off with a laugh, nudging you with his elbow, causing you to groan. “Shut up.” You laughed halfheartedly back, already feeling sleep pull at your eyelids.

“Hey, kid, you going to sleep?”

“Don’t call me that,” you grumbled, face smushed to the pillow as you turned on your side.

“Okay,” he chuckled. “Well, I’m gonna play candy crush. I’ll wake you up for dinner, but don’t hit me this time.”

You mentally rolled your eyes.

“That was one time.”

“I’m serious, honey. Not trying to go back to work with bruises—“

“Fine, Ben. Won’t hit you, let me sleep.”

His only response was a chuckle.

The only sound in the little room, beside from the distant crashing of waves from the gulf, was the sound of the ceiling fan twirling above you. Breathing in, faintly, you could smell Benny’s cologne. Heady and soft and masculine and all him.

You slept like a baby.

- - - -

The first thing you noticed about Santi’s boyfriend was that he was nervous. It was something you’d come to recognize fairly well about people, being someone who’d spent most of their life nervous. And Everett, the wiry, shy man who Santi had brought with him, was definitely nervous.

And you didn’t blame him. After all, that was you merely a few months ago. Taking in his flustered, sheepish, careful appearance, you thought back to yourself meeting Will’s friends for the first time all those months ago. And god, did you feel for him.

He was slight, though a bit taller than Santi, and had curly dark hair atop a pale face. His glasses were as wiry as he was, sitting atop his nose as he chewed demurely at the barbecue.

You looked at him across the dinner table, Marisol and Santi laughing at something to the right of you and Benny at your left. When your eyes met, you gave him what you hoped was a reassuring smile, and his lips quirked in response, before honing on the conversation between his boyfriend and Marisol.

Benny was true to his word and had, in fact, woken you up before dinner. Right before dinner, which gave you less than optimal time to introduce yourself to Everett.

“So, Everett,” you spoke up when the conversation waned. “How did you and Santi meet?”

Santi chuckled a bit, and a small smile crossed Everett’s lips as he took a sip from his beer.

“You wanna tell the story, Evs?” Santi asked, looking at his boyfriend fondly, his hand splayed over the back of his chair. Everett shrugged.

“I guess,” he said. “We met at a bar. I was out with some people from work, really not enjoying myself honestly, and I guess Santiago noticed. I was shy at first, I’m honestly kinda surprised he didn’t get bored.”

“Oh please,” Santi gave him an incredulous look. “How could I? Couldn’t take my eyes off you.”

Everett’s face turned beet-red, gazing at his plate before looking over at Santi. Santi’s own face held a look so soft that you felt by just observing the interaction you were intruding on them. You smiled, looking over to Benny, who was gazing fondly on the two. Your eyes met his knowingly. Santi was whipped.

“But—uhm—“ Everett sputtered. “How long have you two been together?” He gestured to you and Benny. Your eyes went wide, before you snorted, looking at Benny, who’d choked on his beer. Will chuckled from down the table.

“We’re not,” you stopped, laughing a little, out of awkwardness more than anything. “We’re not together.” You finally corrected, smiling kindly at Everett, who looked mortified at his mistake.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I just thought—“

“You’re fine,” Benny excused him with a wave of the hand, bringing his other arm over the back of your chair, mirroring Santi’s posture. “We’re just best friends.”

You nodded at him.

“Gee, thanks Ben.” Santi drawled dramatically, trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, what am I, a roach?” Added Frankie, his mouth half full of food. You snorted.

“Nah, man. More like a fungus. Can’t get rid of you. Besides, she’s the one who puts up with all my bullshit.”

“—begrudgingly!” You added, earning you a playful glare from Benny.

“And she knows my coffee order. By heart. So you two,” he paused, playful as ever, “can suck it.”

“I’ll drink to that.” Interjected Mari, who was drinking soda in contrast to everyone else’s beer and seltzer.

Conversation came easier after that, laughter and jokes passing easily among the group. Anna had kept quiet mostly, and reserved herself to judgy glances and rolled eyes. That you could tolerate. And Everett had fit right in with the group; true, he was quieter than the rest of you, but what he lacked in boldness he made up for in wit. There were a few moments throughout the night when his snide or sarcastic comments left all of you howling in laughter.

Any awkwardness that may have existed between you and Benny at dinner had dissipated by the time you were both ready for bed. Whether that was genuine or due to exhaustion, you didn’t know, and you honestly did not care. Things were normal. At least, they were if Benny’s sense of humor was any indicator—(he’d cracked a joke about how “you know he sleeps naked, right?”, which was evidence enough for you).

You were practically asleep as soon as your head hit the pillow, sleeping like the dead through Benny’s incessant tossing and turning at being in an unfamiliar bed. Surrounded by that scent that was purely Benny, you didn’t have that problem, and though you woke up alone, his pillow still warm beside you as bacon crackled in the kitchen and he laughed with Frankie, you dreamed that during the night, he held you.

- - - -

The next day was supposed to be a beach day. The house was, quite literally, beach front, and made you wonder exactly how much money Frankie’s parents had, because holy hell, this place was nice. After a hodge-podge breakfast of bacon, eggs, and some fruit Mari had picked up from a fruit-stand on her and Frankie’s way there, you’d all prepared for a day in the sun, just as Benny had guaranteed.

Walking down to the beach through the long grass, the white sand burned the bottoms of your feet. You silently cursed yourself for opting to walk barefoot instead of in sandals like Benny had encouraged you to. You sped up, hobbling a little bit down the beach, until you reached some semi-damp sand, finally able to slow into a walk.

You looked further down the beach, where the rest of your group had set up camp, putting down towels, blankets, and even an umbrella. In the water, Mari was floating on her back, with Frankie behind her, holding up her shoulders. You smiled. She’d mentioned earlier how floating had helped relieve some pressure in her stomach that had been giving her pain, since it was towards the end of her pregnancy. Of course, Frankie had been waiting on her hand and foot, doing anything he could to ease her pain. Sitting on some towels they’d laid down, Pope was lathering up Everett’s pale back with sunscreen,

SPF 100, probably, you mused, remembering how pale he was.

Beside them, Benny laid in a beach chair, sunglasses over his eyes. As you reached them, you noticed he looked asleep. Under the umbrella was Anna, headphones in, and a sour look on her face as she rested her eyes. Will was in the water, wading out to Mari and Frankie.

You sighed, laying down on the blanket next to Benny. You’d applied sunscreen back at the house, having Mari help you with your back, and were now ready to soak up the sun, the cool sea breeze making the heat bearable. You put your headphones in, closing your eyes, and letting the music take you.

It was maybe fifteen minutes later when you felt a familiar hand on your calf, shaking you. You pulled out your headphones, seeing Benny crouching at your feet.

“Hey, wanna get in?” He asked, eyes hopeful and excited. “Santi challenged me to chicken and Frankie and Will won’t play.”

You raised an eyebrow at him, sitting up on your elbows. You glanced behind him in the water, where the rest of your friends (minus Anna) were standing in a circle, water up to their chests. Besides Pope, who had his arms crossed and was looking at Benny, a shit-eating grin on his face.

That was one thing about you: you didn’t back down from a challenge. You smirked, holding your hands up to Benny.

“Well, we can’t have him getting a big head, can we?” Benny’s eyes danced with mirth as he took your hands, pulling you up.

“God, I love you.” He laughed, before grabbing your hand, and pulling you with him as he began racing toward the water. Your heart stopped at such a declaration. A platonic one, obviously, but one said so casually. Your family wasn’t one that just declared that. It was more something that went unsaid, sometimes questioned. You’d never received such direct affection so unexpectedly. Your mind was reeling. But, the cold gulf water at your ankles forced you to refocus on the task at hand: defeating Pope.

“I see you’ve accepted the challenge?” Santi raised an eyebrow when you and Benny he waded out to where everyone else was standing, hands on his hips. You crossed your arms under the water.

“Why, that surprise you?”

“Not at all, smalls,” he taunted. “I can respect the bravery. Naive, but still.”

Benny rolled his eyes, standing part way behind you, hands on his hips. He was so close, you could feel the warmth from his bare chest on your back, through the water. Not touching, and not far enough away at the same time.

“Ya done chit-chatting, or are you gel gonna stand around all day?” Frankie called from a few feet away, prompting Mari to smack his bicep.

“Yeah,” Will added. “Wanna see you fight!”

“Since you were too chicken to do it!” You called back, causing Frankie to throw his head back in laughter and Will to roll his eyes.

“You gonna play or what?”

“Fine,” you play-glared at Will.

“But after we beat them, I’m takin’ you down next!” Benny added. You chuckled.

“Alright,” Benny turned to you, hands finding your shoulders. Your brain short-circuited a bit. Behind you, Santi and Everett were talking their game plan, with Everett obviously being the one on top, due to his slighter stature. “Let me get on your shoulders.” Benny looked at you expectantly. You blanched.

“I—“ your brows furrowed. Bennys laugh cut you off.

“Kidding, honey.” He shook his head. “I’m kidding. I’d crush you.”

That’s the idea, you thought immediately, before catching yourself. Your cheeks tinged pink.

I can’t believe I just thought that, you scolded, silently telling yourself to reign it in.

“Honey?” His voice broke you away.

“Hmm?”

“I said, you ready?” He raised an eyebrow. You nodded, before he turned around, his back to you. “Okay, when I dunk, get on my shoulders.”

“Benny, are you sure—“

He was under the water before you could finish. So, you did as he said. You grabbed onto his shoulders, before sliding your legs on either side, balancing as he came up for air.

Playing chicken was kind of like riding a bike: no matter how long it had been since you’d done it, it was easy to pick up again. You’d played before, often, when you were a kid with your cousins. This was just the same. Mostly.

What wasn’t the same as then, was Benny’s warm palms holding onto your knees, his fingers spanning up on your thigh a bit. You ignored the flutter in your heart.

“You all balanced, honey?” He patted your thigh, shaking his head to get a salty strand of hair out of his eyes.

“Yeah,” you patted his head. “I’ll try not to crush you.” He laughed, his shoulders shaking a bit.

“I’m not worried a bit, honey.” You smiled, looking over to where Santi had Everett on his shoulders. Frankie, Mari, and Will were on the sidelines, watching amusedly as Santi stared Benny down.

“You ready to go down, Garcia?” Benny taunted, walking over slowly, until you were right across from them.

“Oh, you’re dead.” Santi chuckled. Everett looked over at you apologetically.

“Sorry,” he said lamely. “In advance.”

You snorted, reaching out to shake his hand. “Me too, Ev. You two ready?”

“3,” Will began, being the self-proclaimed referee, “2, 1. Go!”

- - - -

The first clouds appeared around 2:00.

After beating Santi and Everett three different times in chicken, (effectively dubbing yourselves the dream team), Santi, ever the sore loser, demanded another rematch.

“Bullshit!” Santi cried, only half joking. “It’s Will, he’s biased! Catfish, you judge next!”

Benny rolled his eyes, floating on his back.

“Already told you, Pope. I’m not playing again. Think I got burned on my shoulders.”

Squatting in the water so it was up to your chin, you looked over at him lounging peacefully in the after, head tilted back. His shoulders were a little pink, along with his cheeks.

“Sounds like a cop out to me,” Frankie drawled casually, prompting a pointed look from Mari.

“Stop that!” She said.

“What?” Frankie asked, defensively. “I’m not doing anything!”

“You’re enabling them. Stop.”

You laughed, tilting your head at Pope and Everett, the latter of which was looking amused. He didn’t care about winning or losing; he just thought his boyfriend’s competitiveness was funny.

“Ya’know, Santi,” Benny had stood up again, shaking out his hair. “If you’re embarrassed you got beat by a girl, just say that.”

You snorted.

“You little—“

Santi’s voice was cut off by a deep rumble from the sky, one that you felt in your chest. All conversation ceased. You jumped, and so did Benny, his hands flying up to cover his face. A few feet away, Mari shrieked, grabbing onto Frankie. Santi grabbed Everett, before realizing that it was only thunder, and turning his face out toward the sea.

“Jesus,” he breathed, looking out toward the line where the ocean met the sky.

On the horizon, maybe a mile out, there were swollen stacks of clouds, so dark that they were a blue-purple color. They were ominous against the sea, which looked gray now. Thunderheads. The wind had picked up, sending goosebumps up the skin on your arms that were out of the water.

“That’s coming in fast,” you pointed out. Your aunt had lived by the sea, and after spending many childhood summers there, you’d learned to tell when a rain was coming.

“That’s my cue,” Mari said, eyebrows in her hairline.

“Yeah, yeah.” Frankie snapped his gaze from the dark clouds rolling in. “We all better get back to the house. The waves are picking up, and besides—that was thunder. Lightning won’t be far behind.”

You nodded as the others turned to head back to the beach. Turning back, Benny was still staring out at the clouds, shoulders stiff. Coming up beside him, his face was stony, eyes holding a type of seriousness you’d only seen a few times in them before.

“Ben?” You reached out and touched his shoulder, and he jumped, jerking away. His eyes went wide, looking at you.

“Shit,” he breathed, out of breath. He shook his head. “Sorry, honey.”

“S’okay.” You said warily, hand falling away from his shoulder. You bumped your shoulder against his.

“Let’s head in,” you continued. “Before the rain comes in.”

He nodded, turning back to the ocean one more time.

Back at the beach, you packed up your stuff: towels, blankets, bags, coolers.

He turned to you as you made your way up the sandy dunes, eyes on the ground.

“You think it’ll storm?” He asked. You furrowed your brows.

“I mean,” you looked over your shoulder. “Seems that way. Looks like it’s gonna be a bad one. Feel that wind.”

When you looked at him again, his face was grave.

“But,” you added, trying to sound more hopeful. “Maybe it’ll miss us. Maybe it’ll just rain a bit.”

“Yeah,” he shrugged, walking a little faster toward the house.

Behind you, the sky rumbled again.

- - - -

It was a tropical storm.

When you’d made it back to the cottage, the wind at your backs as you struggled to shut the sliding glass door, Will, Anna, and Mari were sat on the couch, eyes glued to the television.

“Well, folks,” the weatherman stated, standing in front of a brightly colored map of Florida, focused on the gulf.

“I’d hunker in for the night, as a tropical storm rushed through the Gulf of Mexico and into the coast of central Florida. Winds may reach up to 60 miles per hour, so the national weather service has recommended that everyone on the coast stay indoors, and stay safe.”

“Well shit,” Will stated, leaning back. Looking outside, you noticed it had gotten extensively darker, the sun now hidden behind a cover of grey clouds.

“Good thing we went grocery shopping yesterday.” Mari shook her head, getting up and stretching. Beside her, Anna scoffed.

“This is just perfect.” She huffed, sourly. And suddenly, the air was charged with tension, with awkwardness, as you and Benny exchanged a look. This was definitely not going to be good.

“I knew I couldn’t trust you to check the weather, Will. What the hell even is this? Are we just going to be cooped up in here all weekend?”

The air could be cut like a knife, and this time, you didn’t keep quiet.

“Will can’t control the weather, Anna.” You said dryly. Benny shot you a side-look.

Anna snapped her head around, eyes sharp.

“I told him to check the weather, so I wouldn’t be stuck here all weekend with—“

“—Frankie checked the weather, too, before we left, and—“

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Anna’s tone was venomous as she interrupted Mari, who was trying to mediate. Will jumped into action at that.

“Okay, that’s enough.” His voice was firm, more firm than you’d heard it. “Anna, we can talk about this in private.”

The two exchanged a look, Anna’s eyes fiery. His gaze held.

“Fine,” she pursed her lips, huffing as she exited the room, Will at her heels.

“What a bitch,” you pushed out after she’d left the room, outraged at how she’d blown up at both you and Marisol. Mari rolled her eyes, waving her hand.

“It’s fine,” she said, “I could’ve handled it.”

“But what was her problem?” You asked.

“I’ve never known what that girl’s problem is,” she laughed a little bit. “I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen her smile.”

Benny snorted at that.

“Me either, actually.”

Mari sighed, looking outside.

“Well, I’m gonna shower then start dinner. It’s Frankie and my turn to cook.”

The Anna situation forgotten, and food on his mind, Benny perked up at that.

“Ooo, what’re you makin’?”

Mari gave him a knowing look, rolling her eyes amusedly.

“Well, we were going to make burgers, but seeing as we won’t be able to grill, I think we have everything for chili.”

��Yes,” He said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pressing a messy kiss to her forehead. She scrunched up her nose. “That’s why you’re my favorite Morales.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she laughed, pushing him away. “Alright, Miller, you stink. I'm gonna go take a bath. I’ll see you both later.”

A slight rain had begun to patter at the windows outside, the wind whirred against the house, howling. The A/C in the house was still on and working as the storm had done absolutely nothing to quell the heat, causing your damp swimsuit to feel freezing against your skin. You shivered.

“It’s freezing in here,” you said. “I’m gonna go change. Maybe take a nap.”

“You want the first shower?” Benny asked as you made your way down the hallway to your bedroom.

“Nah,” you snorted. “I won’t do that to you. You know I take forever to shower.”

“Touché,” he laughed, opening the door to your room and shutting it behind him. You sighed, throwing your bag on the bed.

“Well,” you began. “This should be cozy.”

“Pardon?” He laughed, his back towards you as he gathered what he needed to shower from his bag that was sitting on the dresser.

“You know, the storm. It’s gotta last til at least tomorrow morning. Don’t know how long Anna’s gonna last in here with all of us.”

When you looked back up at him, his back was stiff and straight. How you’d imagine a soldier would stand. Similar to how he stood on the beach, staring out at the approaching storm.

“Ben,” you said quietly after a minute of him standing there, still. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Ye—yeah,” he said, voice breaking and then trying again. He cleared his throat, before turning and walking out of the room.

This was unlike Benny. He was never this aloof, high strung. Never this nervous. It hurt your heart to see your happy, easygoing, kind best friend like this.

He obviously didn’t want to talk about it right now, and you respected that. You did. At the same time, though, you wanted to make it known that he could talk to you about it, if he wanted to. So, you decided you would. Later, after dinner, when you’d both had time to wind down.

Over and over again, he’d been there for you, so now you would be there for him. If he’d let you.

- - - -

You decided to shower later that evening, and after spending over thirty minutes under the steamy spray, you finally felt free of the sand and sweat from your day at the beach. After drying off and getting dressed, you wiped some of the condensation off of the bathroom mirror, taking in your appearance.

You hadn’t gotten a sunburn—thank god—you’d remembered to reapply, unlike Benny, who still had a light spread of pinkness across his cheeks and shoulders. A few new freckles had showed up, though, across your cheeks, thanks to the sun. Your hair, though wet, had decided to behave, not looking crazy like you’d anticipated after being soaked in the drying salt water. You wore sleep shorts and a large T-shirt as pajamas.

Halfway through brushing your teeth, you heard a knock at the door.

“Almost done!” You called. The familiar feeling of guilt spread through your chest, hoping you hadn’t used up the last of the hot water. You hadn’t realized you weren’t the last one to shower.

“Sorry, take your time!” The soft spoken voice came from the other side. Everett.

You smiled at the thought of the skinny man you’d become fast friends with. After dinner, the two of you had gotten a chance to talk more—about work, college, and, of course, being the new person in such a tight knit group. He’d confessed that he’d been nervous out of his mind at the concept of meeting Santi’s friends—his found family. You’d recounted how you first met the guys, and had commiserated with him, before assuring him that you all loved him. He was one of you now.

Opening the door, the cool air of the air-conditioned hallway hitting you refreshingly as you exited the humid bathroom.

“Sorry,” you cringed, looking at a very sunburnt Everett, holding his towel and toiletries. “I may have used up all the hot water. I thought everyone had showered.”

“Have you seen me?” He asked, giving you a look. “You’re crazy if you think I’m going to shower with hot water right now. It hurts just to move.”

You tried to hide your laugh, though failing miserably when looking at him. He very much resembled a lobster.

“No,” he laughed with you. “You can laugh, it’s funny.”

“It’s just—“ you snorted. “How did you burn? You reapplied like four times.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Santi said the same thing. Getting on my ass about not putting on a fifth coat. Overbearing as hell.” He said it fondly, a small smile on his face.

“He loves you.” You stated. And it was true. A blind man could see it.

“Yeah,” he sighed wistfully. “He does. I don’t deserve him.”

“You do.” You replied immediately, looking into his eyes that had suddenly turned shy.

“I’m serious,” you continued. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look at someone like that. Even Fish.”

He snorted at that, eyebrows raised.

“Speaking of couples,” he segwayed. “Again, I’m really sorry for assuming—“

“What, about me and Benny?” You asked, pointing your thumb in the direction of your bedroom. “Don’t worry about it. I’d have probably assumed the same thing.”

“It’s just,” he paused, catching himself.

“What?”

“No, it’s nothing—“

“Tell me, please.” You affirmed, sensing he was holding something back.

“Okay,” he sighed. “What’s going on there?”

“What do you mean?” You furrowed your brows.

“Oh, come on.”

“What?” You laughed. He shook his head, laughing.

“It’s just, I mean, and I may be wrong, but I’m rarely wrong-“

“Just spit it out,” you laughed.

“You guys are obviously into each other .”

Your breathing stopped, the idea of being so see through made your head spin.

God, did everyone else know? Did Benny know?

“Or maybe not. It’s like when,” he stopped himself again, seeing the wan look on your face. He shook his head, taking a step back.

“I’m sorry, that was out of line—“

“No, it’s okay.” You tried to sound easy, carefree, and failed miserably. He started toward the bathroom.

“I should—“

“When what?” You asked abruptly.

“Huh?” He raised his eyebrows.

“You said, ‘it’s like when,’ earlier before you stopped. When what?”

He sighed again, looking at you with a genuine smile on his face, his eyes soft. “It’s like when Santi looks at me.”

And your chest expanded, heart beating a bit faster. You smiled at him thinly, trying to keep your composure. You wanted to tell him that he was wrong. That you and Benny were friends and that’s all you’d ever be. That he was an asshole for giving you false hope, and that you weren’t Benny’s type anyway. That you didn’t—couldn’t—believe what he was telling you for fear you’d break your own heart. But you couldn’t.

“He’s my best friend,” you settled for.

“Yeah,” he gave you a knowing look.

“Night,” you smiled. “Sorry again about the water.”

“Don’t be,” he laughed, already shutting the door. You sighed, turning back to walk down the hall, ready now more than anything to sleep.

- - - -

Warm hands ran up your waist, your chest, your neck, before threading into your hair and tugging. A moan escaped your chest involuntarily.

“You like that, honey?” His breath was hot against your neck, making you arch your back into a firm, familiar chest.

“Benny,” you gasped, gripping his shoulders and squeezing in the way you’d never been allowed to—never allowed yourself to.

“I’m right here, baby,” he breathed in your ear, pressing hot kisses to your neck. There was that nickname again: baby. You shivered.

“What do you want?” His deep voice rumbled, lips pressing to your shoulder.

Your breath stuttered, unable to form words, unable to think about anything other than his lips on your neck and his hips pressed tightly to yours.

“I-I,” you tried breathily.

“Words, honey, use your words,” he chastised, teeth running along your jawline.

“You,” you finally got out, hands moving to the back of his head. “I want you.”

“No,” his voice said again, more serious this time.

“What do you really want?”

You weren’t in control anymore, your mouth moving by itself.

“I want to tell you,” you stopped as he ran his lips over the curve of your collarbone, sucking a bruise there.

“Tell me what?” He sounded mocking now.

“Tell you that I—“

“What?” He asked again, more demanding.

“That I—“

You snapped awake at the sound of thunder, gasping, and jerking to the side of the bed like you were falling. The words you were about to confess in your dream, the words I love you, stamped like a scarlet letter in the front of your mind.

What the hell was that, you thought.

You leaned over your side of the bed, arms braced on your knees, for a moment before sneaking a glance over to Benny, and hoping to god that he hadn’t awoken too. Behind you, he was curled up on his side, hair falling messily over his pillow, his breathing steady. Thank God.

Outside, the raging tropical storm did little to soothe your nerves. Your throat was dry. You needed a glass of water.

You went to the kitchen and leaned your forehead against the cool metal of the fridge as your cup filled up.

Okay. Let the cool water wash whatever that was away, you told yourself. You could do this.

Padding back to the bedroom, you slipped in through the door, before setting your cup down on the bedside table. You lifted up the covers, eyes still adjusting to the dim light in the room before your eyes caught a movement. A thrash.

On the other side of the bed, Benny was curled up, knees bunched up to his chest in the fetal position. His breath was no longer calm and even, but deep and shallow. His brows were scrunched together, and his head was shaking. His lips moved, mumbling sounds in his sleep, trying to speak, but failing.

He was having a nightmare.

You moved to his side of the bed, sitting on the corner, and leaning over to see if you should wake him up or let him sleep it out.

Thunder cracked again, a flash of lightning lighting up the room, and Benny jerked, like he was embracing himself to be hit. He curled in on himself again, arms curled into his chest, and a whimper escaped from the back of his throat. The wind was louder than the rain, catching on the gutters and shutters of the house in a hissing moan.

Benny pressed his face into the pillow, brows scrunched in pain.

“No,” he whined, voice higher than you’d ever heard it. Your heart broke in your chest.

You pressed a hand to his shoulder, running it down to his bicep.

“Benny,” you whispered, squeezing, trying to rouse him gently.

He was stiff, like before, only more so now. His shoulders were tight, coiled, and he was shaking, fists clenched to his chest.

“No, no, no,” he mumbled, sounding close to tears. He turned onto his back. “No, please.”

“Benny.” You stated firmly, not able to take any more of this. Your hands pressed into his shoulders, effectively pinning him to the bed.

His eyes snapped open, a ragged gasp leaving his lips. You sat back, giving him space to get his bearings. He panted.

His eyes moved wildly, looking around the room, darting, before finally landing on you. He sighed, leaning back on the pillow, hands shaking as he brought them up to wipe down his face.

“J-Jesus,” he whispered shakily, still trying to catch his breath.

You opened your mouth to speak, but before you could, a clap of thunder sounded, making both you and Benny jump. He stiffened up again, seemingly folding in on himself.

“S-sorry, honey.” He said, voice shot. “Didn’t mean to wake you up.” He sounded on the verge of a panic attack, his breaths coming out in deep, shallow pants.

“You didn’t,” you said, trying to meet his eyes, but his were blank, haunted as he breathed deeply.

Oh shit, you thought. You knew where this was going.

“Okay,” you said, pulling him to sit up, and sitting criss-cross in front of him. “Benny,” you started, bending your head to meet his eyes. “Benny,” you said more firmly this time. His panicked eyes met yours. “Okay, I need you to breathe, okay, Ben? Can you do that?”

“I—I don't know,” he said, scared, out of breath. “I can’t,”

“Okay,” you said, trying to sound as calm as you could, wanting so desperately to help the man in front of you.

You thought back to your last panic attack, at the museum with Will. You knew exactly what to do.

“Just look at me, Benny.” You said, and his eyes met yours. You brought his hand up to your chest, scooting closer to him. “Okay, feel that?” He nodded.

“Okay, breathe with me. When I breathe, you breathe, got it?” You inhaled deeply, still holding his hand right below your collarbone. He nodded with you, breathing in raggedly. Still, it was a start.

“Good,” You cooed. “Now exhale. Good. Deep inhale.”

He breathed with you for a few minutes, eyes never leaving yours. Sometime in that time, his other hand found your hip, gripping it tightly, like a lifeline. Eventually, his breathing evened a bit. He was still trembling.

“I’m sorry,” he broke the silence, sheepish. You shook your head, nudging him.

“Hey.” You said firmly. “Stop that. It’s okay. I get them too, sometimes.”

He smiled gratefully at you, eyes softer than you’d seen them.

“Wanna talk about it?” You asked, still quiet, not wanting to break whatever this was. He sighed.

“I was back,” he swallowed. “Back over there. Bombs, blood, carnage.” He looked grave. You squeezed his knee.

“Do they happen often?”

“No,” he began. “Only when—“

Another clap of thunder, and Benny’s grip on your hip tightened, unconsciously pulling you closer. He squeezed his eyes tight.

“The storm?” You asked. He nodded, sheepish.

“It’s like,” he paused. “When they happen, either I can’t sleep and I’m a nervous wreck all night, or,” he sighed. “Or I can and I have these nightmares. It’s like, I can’t catch a break.”

“Does anything help?” You whispered, desperate to help him. You peeked over at the clock. 2:00 a.m.

“Sometimes, Will would—“ he stopped himself, shaking his head. “Nevermind.”

“No,” you said, with maybe too much force, “Benny, Will would do what?”

He sighed, shaking his head.

“He would—just, sometimes when we were deployed or—or I would get really bad, he’d,” he stopped, squeezing his eyes shut. “He would let me, like, listen to his heart. To give me something else to focus on. Like, his pulse or something.”

You blanched.

Oh. Oh.

He took your silence for awkwardness.

“You know, nevermind, it’s okay,” he began to move back, but you caught him by both arms, earnest.

“No!” You insisted. “No, it’s fine.”

He let out a breath. A beat of silence passed.

“I’ll,” you paused, swallowing. “You can—listen to my heart. If you want.” You added the last part lamely.

“Honey,” he sounded desperate, straining. You weren’t sure why. “You don’t have to. I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable—“

“Benny,” you glared at him. “I think we’re past that.”

He looked at you, brows pulled together in uncertainty.

“I mean, you were between my legs earlier—“

“Oh my god,” he laughed. Finally. A genuine smile out of him. You smiled back, falling back onto your side of the bed and getting comfortable on your own pillow. You opened the covers, looking over at him.

“Come here,” you said, and he obeyed.

He settled his head against your collarbone, his hips settling between yours, his arms braces under your back. He was wary to put his whole weight on you.

“Benny, are you gonna lie down, or are you just gonna hover?”

“I don’t wanna crush you—“ he began, obviously still nervous.

You rolled your eyes, grabbing his shoulders and pulling down to you, prompting an “oof,” from him.

As if on queue, another crack of thunder boomed, his grip tightening around your middle. He let out a breath that brushed your collarbone. You tried to ignore how it made you feel.

“Are you sure this is okay?” He asked, shaky. You ran a hand through his hair without thinking. He shivered against you.

“Yeah, Ben.” You said softly. “It’s okay. Go to sleep.”

“Okay,” he breathed, barely audible, before sighing again. This time, in relief. He sagged against you.

You scratched your nails over his scalp, and pretended to ignore the noise that escaped him in response. Your fingers threaded through his hair, trying to sleep yourself, enjoying Benny’s warm, firm weight on top of you entirely too much. After a moment, Benny spoke again.

“Honey,” he mumbled.

“Mmhm,” you hummed.

“Thank you.”

You didn’t respond, only tugged a little on his hair, exhaling deeply.

He was asleep within minutes.

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