Pretty Random Turtle Thunks - Blog Posts

Random TMNT HCs

You can’t tell me that 2007, 2012 and Bayverse Mikey would not just absolutely jam to the Veggie Tales theme song. Like full on blasting this on speakers and belting out the lyrics accompanied with full on Fortnite dancing.

And how could they not just go fricken ham on “His Cheeseburger”

These songs were like designed specifically for the ADHD Brain tickles

For Miss @tapakah0 based off her “Jacobs Ladder AU”

Words can not adequately express how this little scene moved me. Leo and Mikey are very near and dear to my heart, so to see such a tender moment between two younger brothers is EVERYTHING to me.

King is such a powerful statement as well because younger Leo wanted nothing more than to be recognized by his brothers as someone worth noticing hence dubbing himself as “King Leo.” So to see Leo cRaDLiNg his littler brother and giving him the title Leo has wanted so much as a child just…it hit me man. Mikey is Leo’s hero and I really wanted to try and capture that moment of the relief and joy of seeing his brother come back even if it was just for a moment. Also *tips hat and bows in Tapa’s direction* Been a big fan for a fat moment ma’am and just want to express my gratitude for you doing what you’re doing. Words won’t ever be enough to express how incredibly impressed and in awe of your skill and abilities. You’re inspiring people honey, and the worlds honestly a better place because of what YOU do.

Please please PLEASE don’t forget that and know you are loved 😉🧡

this gif immediately came to mind when I saw this comment PLEASE I WOULD KILL TO BE BEST FRIENDS WITH CAS’ MIKEY OF ANY AGE!! Well maybe not kill…actually no wait I WOULD kill.

I WOULD KILL A KRAANG TO BE MIKEYS FRIEND

YALL DONT UNDERSTAND HOW MUCH HE MEANS TO ME AND HOW MUCH I JUST WANT TO VIBE IN HIS LITERAL PRESENCE.

Like bro let me braid your hair, let’s cook those family meals together and argue about which one is better, baddie art and meditation nights all the time, be uper protective over our sibs and be the only emotionally unconstipated individuals in our family.

Like please, he’s my bestie waiting to happen

I just love how close they are. But in a completely different way than Leonardo and Casey. Not quite brotherly either. Like really good friends. Like that kind of best friend you get that makes you feel like you’ve known them forever. And for Casey of course he’s known Leonardo his whole life, but it’s different.

It’s calmer and more relaxed. Like they can both just BE teenagers.

And they just understand each other. And I love that for them. The boys all need best friends. Donnie has April, Raph has Cassandra, Leo has Casey. (Of course it’s collective as well…)

I guess we just need a bff for Mikey.

Yes yes yessss >:D Thank you!

ahem *clears throat* For noooooo reason absolutely whatsoever, I humbly request the interaction of random individuals with time to kill on their hands to answer this poll.

For no nefarious ulterior motive at all (haha nailed it)

Ok so like my friend told me that something is considered good because it moves you. Well friends…*deep deep inhale* I’ve been FrIcKeN moved by this entire comic.

Like this is just so rawly human?! And I am literally transported into this world through perspective (Empath skillz is that you?) It hurts in a good way because I literally feel like I’m there and all the characters are so in character?!

I’m just sitting in my car trying to figure out the words to express my awe at this level of skill and talent, but once again words fail me so

@2aceofspades please take my humble keyboard smash to show my appreciation for you blessing my eyes with this today. *clears throat* sudbwudhevwodbdhsixnrjekznfjslsmdbe😭🙌🏼🤧

Y’all please read dis. It’s that good.

Blemished

Stained

Next

My brain is literally buzzing with this new update. *bear poses*

✨Character Analysis Time Go brrr✨

Like notice how Leo the “most talkative and noisy” of the brothers is completely silent when he comes back. He’s pretty much quiet for the whole exchange because he’s watching, observing and taking action. Because the first thing he does, THE FIRST THING HE DOES, is reach out to his brother. No matter how on earth he’s alive again, no matter where the heck he is, his first thought, and his last thought is to reach out to his family, to sacrifice what little he has left, every fiber that is his soul, for THEM.

This is Leo at his core: a soldier and brother in arms

And Donnie here falling asleep ONLY after saving anyone because now he’s completed his mission. He too gave everything, dauntless in the face of impossibility because he’s THE Flippin Donatello! He’s NEVER fit the status quo, and that includes dying and being dead like a normal person. But Donnie ain’t normal, that’s what makes him so brilliant. He knows that because he’s never existed in limits, that he can therefore push the boundaries and even be so bold as to break limits and that’s why he’s RELENTLESS in his discoveries and expiraments.

So now they’re back, they’re all back. He can finally rest.

This is Donnie at his core: infrastructure of the family

Also this familial kabedonning is giving me life 😆🙌🏼 These boys will be the death of me

Part 21!

Uh..what can I say. I’m literally so so happy I can upload these pages you have no idea.

On a separate note. Oh my god. GuYs. FanDOM?? Thank you so much for your donations I can’t even,,,,jsjshdgdgdj,,,how do I express it?? Thanks to you, I can have a days off. Just..ah. Some days when I can ..like…j u s t. draw this comic in peace?? And don’t have to work a full day at the studio beforehand?? I’m so fucking grateful I kxjsksosjdhfbhr

Thank you 💜💙❤️🧡

Part 1

Anyone gonna mention that here thanks to the beautiful (aNd InCreDibLy PaInFuL) work of @somerandomdudelmao that we see THE Donnie, who is known to be touch adverse most of the time, is so scared, hurt, frustrated, lonely (what other Donnified adjective that fits) is not only actively ReAcHiNg, but using whatever little strength he has to get to Casey, to HOLD him as fast as he can.

Anyone? Or is that just me?

*vibrates at a frequency that could shatter* I love this with every fiber of my entire being 🧡💙

The dynamic in Rise between the rest of the team and Leo is. so fucking funny. Because like you've got these three extremely talented individuals who all seem like perfectly reasonable people at first glance, right, but then if you squint hard enough you realize they're actually all batshit insane (affectionate) and the clown boy standing behind them is secretly their common sense.

Clown boy will occasionally put himself and the others in danger to Prove Himself or Prove Someone Wrong (see Minotaur Maze and the movie) but like otherwise... i think people forget Leo's overwhelmingly the voice of reason in most situations?

Raph, Mikey, and Donnie are all incredibly powerful boys with very specific skill sets. They are also, as a direct result of this, the WORST decision-makers on god's green earth lmao. When presented with a problem, Raph will smash, Donnie will blow shit up, and Mikey will razzmatazz. They will all run straight toward death with the same oblivious enthusiasm of a dog about to run straight into a screen door. None of them realize this and all of them think they are Extremely Good At Problem-Solving.

And the only guy cursed with the common sense to realize this is literally the LAST person anyone would expect.

When you look closely, the entirety of Rise is actually a chronicle of Leo trying to find new and creative ways to keep this team of superpowered fools alive while simultaneously white-knuckling his Cool Fun Guy persona so the others don't realize he's secretly the Boring Responsible One. Haha, you know what would be Cool and Fun, guys? Not going after the Spine Breaking Bandit lol. Getting home before the sun goes up lol. Evacuating that civilian lol. Not telling the guy dangling me off a roof "you won't, no balls" lol.

The sacred struggle of every iteration of Leonardo is thanklessly wrangling the most trigger-happy siblings in the world, and Rise Leo has not escaped it. He just does an occasional shenanigan to avoid detection and his brothers fall for it every time.

I’m sorry @agzeret, didn’t mean to make you cry. Here’s a meme for this post instead 😅🧡👉🏼👈🏼

Leo screaming for his dad in ‘Flushed But Never Forgotten’ is treated as a humorous but Leo going to an adult for help when he looses his brothers is something he’s done before

In ‘Portal Jacked’ Leo goes to Senor Hueso as soon as he looses his brothers in his portal

And the reason I think Leo went to Senor Hueso was that Leo had portaled himself to Run of the Mill, making Senor Hueso the closest adult he knew.

I think it’s interesting that when Leo is left alone & believes his brothers are in danger, he’ll go to the closest adult he can find for help. 

Most cartoons have characters try & save their friends/ family by themselves but Leo is just like ‘I’m 14 I’m getting a grown up!’

Howdy Friends! I updated my "A Little Ninja's Mission" story a wee bit and put it on Archive of our own. Here's the link if you wanna check it out.

I’m pretty sure Donnie and I would be best friends on the fact of sticks alone, for I too cannot be trusted with a large stick 😆🙌🏼💜

I saw this thread and it resonated with me and this picture that I just had to combine them.

Like fellow purple genius would *dramatic hair flip*

So enjoy my fellow humans! Laugh with me Bwahahahahahaha *relishing evil chuckle*

I really stand with @kathaynesart on this. This is the kind of Leonardo that I see. Yeah he made a mistake, but hey haven’t we all? I think it takes a lot of courage to pick up something when a lot of the time we don’t want it, and I think @kathaynesart beautifully captured what this journey with one’s self looked like.

Remember y’all, hope no matter how fragile she may be, is still a warrior till the end, a ninja’s s greatest weapon.

We can all change, and we can all become better no matter who we were or who we are. We can have change because there is ALWAYS hope 🧡🌱

BEGINNING || PREVIOUS || (NEXT COMING SOON)  

DONE.  I’m resisting the urge to do a whole TED Talk on future Leo.  However, I do want to discuss something on the matter.  To be brief, while I see a lot of people in the fandom emphasizing the pain and self loathing of this character (all of which I am certain he goes through) that is not what I see in him by the beginning of the movie.  Some one who hates himself that much and is so bogged down with regret would not be the type to speak about still having “hope” as their greatest weapon (especially in such a cheesy manner).  I see a man who has gone through the ringer and come out the other end harder and wiser.  But most importantly he appears to have doubled down on his faith in himself and even more so in his loved ones.  He knows it’s not about him.  That he doesn’t have the luxury to be depressed and ultimately must overcome his own mind to achieve his tenacious goals.  Does he still have bad days?  Most certainly, anyone filled with that kind of regret does, but I really think that this is a battle he fights and wins more often than not by the time of 2044.  He is a man dedicated to his cause and family, and while he still has a long ways to go at this point in the story, I feel like this would be the start of him finally forgiving himself.

I’m not into torture porn (though that may surprise some of you) nor do I think it’s healthy to wallow in that sort of pain for an extensive period (fandoms can be a great outlet for this, but it can have a huge impact on your mental and emotional state if not treated in a healthy manner), and I want this to be a story of healing rather than one completely bogged down with sorrow.  Because no matter how bleak things can be, you are always worthy of love, especially self love. 

Please make sure to give yourself a hug and thank you for all your support and kind words.  We have one last round to wrap up Leo’s arch then it’s onto April.

HOLY HONK MY MIND IS LITERALLY 🤯🤯🤯

Nothing is more fabulous than deep character analysis 😤🙌🏼💙🤌🏼

How Leo’s role as face man prevents him from confiding with his team

Watching throughout the entire series we see Leo constantly keep up with his role as the face man of the group

While on missions he can use his charisma and persuasion in order to get people to go along with his plans without letting people know what he’s really thinking

But he never seems to put it down

•Leos Emotional Guard

At first glance Leo’s entire personality revolves around being lenient laid back and chill, and to everyone else it makes him seem like a very open book, and that’s why the face man role works out for him

But it means that no one is really aware of anything beneath the surface. They never bother to ask because who would need to?

However, this also includes Leo’s family

Despite his chilled back personality Leo is one of the most emotionally guarded ones out of all of the brothers

Throughout the series we can see little moments of vulnerability from each members of the family, digging deeper into their emotions and their insecurities and then go on to discuss said feelings and gain some form of comfort or closure from their family. Most notable ones shown below

Donnie in “Donnie vs Witch Town”

Raph in “Anatawa Hitorijinai”

Mikey in “Hidden City’s Most Wanted”

April in “Always Be Brownies”

Splinter & Donnie in “Turtledega Nights”

•How Leo is Different

Similar to everyone else, Leo is shown to have these moments sprinkled in too but they never occur with his family

The two most memorable moments we have are shown in “Portaled Jacked” with Senor Hueso and during his one-on-one conversation with Casey

Why these two characters and not one of his close family members?

Because it’s easier talking about problems to strangers and people who don’t know you as they have no previous knowledge or connotations of you to fall back on and there’s no feelings of burden or guilt if you believe the topic will never be discussed with them again. There’s less feelings of consequences that comes with being vulnerable towards people who don’t know you well. Because if you open up more to the people who do, the risk that their opinion of you will change gets higher

Then we add in the fact that Leo is already extremely guarded of his emotions. He doesn’t want his brothers to think less of him because he already isn’t confident of his place in the team already and thus doesn’t confide in them

•Deflecting with Humor

And then the two moments where we do see little slips in Leo’s carefully constructed masks that occur around his family, which we can find in “Minotaur Maze” and “Many Unhappy Returns”

He ends up immediately backtracking and deflecting with humor, thus changing the subject and preventing anyone from delving into it further and reacting to the quips instead

“You know it’d really help me if you guys said that I was your champion.” “Just open it!”

“This whole situation was my plan all along. If it wasn’t, then why’d I ask your tailor to make me this outfit?” “So we could both perish looking super fly?”

What makes it worse is that Leo has such a habit of doing it that his family expects it, which  then causes them to believe there’s no underlying issues beneath the surface and thus don’t react accordingly. (with the addition that both parties had valid reasons for being upset with him at the time)

But it causes a situation of Leo internalizing his emotions, and if he doesn’t expand on the topic himself, then his family won’t see a reason to either nor think there’s an issue to begin with

•The Movie

To add onto this point, we see Raph and Leo arguing over Leo’s role as leader. As usual Leo deflects the argument with humor and avoids the situation. But we can see during the argument that how Leo privately lets down his guard and for a second the audience is able to see how he’s really reacting to Raph’s words. However, it is apparent that Raph doesn’t  see this side of him and most likely never really has

“You just don’t get it Leo”

Now as the audience it is very easy to draw to the conclusion that Leo has clear issues with his role as the leader and most likely many insecurities regarding it thus why he acts the way he does. Like any other serious situation, he copes with, he deflects with humor and tries to avoid it

This argument then implies that in the two years since Leo was made leader of the group, he never revealed his internal issues with it and never made it apparent to his brothers either because he hates being vulnerable

The face man role works for him because it requires skillful work in that you can manipulate people the way you want to without ever letting them know what your thinking. And Leo carries that role with him when it comes to his brothers and family as well. But this doesn’t work out for him anymore when he becomes the leader and communication becomes so important to the team. (I talk about this more on a different post)

Thus the events of the movie and why things played out the way they did

Naturally he learns how to trust in his team more when the situation becomes dire enough that he realizes he can no longer keep deflecting

But even after all the traumatic events that he went through. When it comes to the one time we see him really cry. He still only lets himself cry when he’s completely alone within the prison dimension

TLDR: Leo’s role as the face man is kept on both on and off duty as we find that he is really one of the most emotionally guarded out of all of his brothers as he doesn’t want to let them know what he’s really feeling out of fear that they might think less of him as he is already insecure of his placement in the group and would rather confide in people who don’t know him well over his family where he runs the risk of them treating him differently

Honestly, “Mr. Emotionally Unavailable” has some real competition ahead of him

If we were being completely blunt, all of the brothers have trouble when it comes to letting go of their real emotions, Donnie just being out of his depth with them and it being uncomfortable, Raph wanting to be strong for his brothers, and Mikey most likely wanting to focus on his brother’s emotions over his own as the Therapist of the group, but i believe the Leo definitely has the worst case out of all of them.

So, I did a thing. *shrugs* Call it a fever dream or whatever BUT ITS TIME FOR VENGEANCE AGAINST ALL THE FANARTISTS WHO MAKE ME FEEL THINGS.

I have returned the favor. I hope y’all cry, or I didn’t do it right. 😈🙌🏼🔥

@funneylizzie I’m starting with you.

PS it’s written low key in stage directions because I may or may not comic it. Maybe. 😅😎👉🏼👉🏼

Based off of ROTTMNT Future Apocalypse: Enjoy

A Little Ninja’s Mission

Casey, the residential and most well loved 5 year old of the entire resistance base, wakes up in the middle of the night, hearing noises down the hall.

Being the ever brave little ninja that he is, Casey sneaks into the next room with his little hockey stick, trying to see who or what exactly has broken into their little underground sanctuary.

He’s surprised to see Adult Leo running through a series of exercises, progressively getting faster and more intense as the night continues.

Casey observes silently from the shadows, watching as Leo engages in battle over an invisible enemy, over and over again. With each swing of his katanas, the pure unfiltered rage burns in Leo’s eyes, causing little Casey to step back in fear at seeing his beloved sensei so unhinged.

When suddenly Leo stops and stands shakily on his feet, sweat dripping down his forehead, staring at something unseen before him. His katanas lower and the sound of haggard breathing can be heard.

Casey looks up in concern as his sensei suddenly drops to his knees, and the sound of wrenched weeping can be heard. Adult Leo drops his katanas with a clatter and curls into himself, the heels of his hands pressing into his eyes, as tears drip mournfully down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry…I’m s-so sorry…too late…always too late.”

Unsure on what to do when seeing his generally composed and confident sensei so shattered, Casey retreats back to his room, and stays awake for the rest of the night, unable to get the haunted look of Leo’s broken face out of his little head.

The next couple days, Casey doesn’t necessarily avoid Leo, but he does keep a watchful distance. He doesn’t talk with Leo when Leo tries to engage him with his teasing, but rather he pulls away to hide behind his mother, still observing Leo with a troubled little pout.

Leo notices, he has to. The safety of his little band of friends and family depends on his ability to quickly read and react to situations. However in his forever mental turmoil, Leo sadly believes that he deserves Casey’s shunning. He deserves all the pain. It’s his punishment for his failures, so he gives Casey his space and retreats further into himself.

His mother, observing Casey’s abnormal behavior, pulls him to the side one day and bluntly asks, lightly rapping Casey’s forehead.

“Ok, Squirt. What’s cooking in that noggin of yours? You've been avoiding Master Leonardo all week. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

Cassandra widens her eyes dramatically, and wiggles her fingers spookily.

“These momma eyes see everything.”

Casey looks at the floor, and remains silent. The slightly insolent behavior causes Cassandra to frown, her brows creasing in concern.

“Casey Jones. Look at me.” Cassandra says sternly. Casey only slightly shakes his head, a mirroring frown scrunching his tiny face.

Commander April O’Neil, who has been observing this interaction silently from the corner, pulls away from the wall and walks toward the Casey’s.

She smiles at Cassandra as if to say “I got this” and kneels down in front of tiny Casey, reaching out to ruffle his mess of black hair.

“Come on, Kiddo. Spill the beans.”

Little Casey’s hands tighten into fists, his shoulders start to tremble, but still he won’t look at April or his mom in the eyes. April rests a hand on his shoulder and prods gently.

“Casey…what’s wrong?”

A small sniffing can be heard, and Casey suddenly looks up, pleading in his eyes as he stares at Commander O’Neil and his Mom.

“Why is Master Leonardo so sad, Momma? Why does he cry by himself at night?”

April pulls her hand away in surprise and looks at Cassandra in shock. They both stare at each other for a moment, registering what that means, before Cassandra’s eyes lower and quietly says,

“So he’s doing it again...”

April pulls back slightly to massage the bridge of her nose with frustrated growl.

“I shouldn’t be surprised. He’s been so recluse these past couple of weeks. He’s acting almost like D-“ April stops herself and mournfully clears her throat before continuing, “His insomnia hasn’t been this bad since…since the accidents.”

She says with a small sigh. Little Casey looks up tearfully between April and his mom, confused at their reactions and reaches out to plaintively pull on Cassandra’s hand.

“Why is Master Leo sad, Momma? What’s wrong?!”

Cassandra looks at April, who smiles solemnly, and let’s out a sigh herself. She lowers herself to the ground and opens her arms to Casey. He immediately runs into them and wraps his arms around her middle, sniffing. Cassandra cradles Casey, pulling him close to her chest.

She’s silent for a minute, rocking her baby slowly before taking a deep breath and saying softly,

“Hey Squirt, you remember Slash? Your one favorite stuffed tortoise that you'd carry around with you everywhere? “

Little Casey stills at the name and shakes his head yes. Cassandra pulls back a little bit and lowers her forehead to his, making eye contact with him.

“Do you remember how sad you were when we lost him during our last evacuation? You cried for a lot of nights after that because you missed him. You loved him so much that it didn’t feel like home without him right?”

Cassandra doesn’t wait for Casey’s response before pulling back so she could rest her head on top of his, stroking his hair absently as she looks somewhere far into the distance.

“Master Leonardo is very sad right now because he lost some people very close to him. They were kinda like his Slashs.”

Casey is quiet for a minute, his little hands tightly grasping the cloak at his mother’s back. He turns upward slightly while listening to his mom before whispering quietly,

“His brothers?”

Cassandra’s hand freezes right above Casey’s head and she glances at Commander O’Neil who sits next to them, with the sheen of tears in the corner of her eyes.

Cassandra lets out a heavy sigh, her shoulders slumping, and she tightens her hold on Casey ever so slightly.

“Yes, some of Master Leonardo’s brothers. They’re not coming back, and he cries because he misses them. He misses them a lot, and he doesn’t feel at home without them.”

Little Casey chews on his mom’s words for a second before suddenly pulling back to look excitedly at his Mom.

“It’s sad that Master Leo doesn’t have all his brothers anymore, but … he has us doesn’t he? He doesn’t have to be without a home; w-we could be his family!

Tears well up in Cassandra’s eyes at the innocence in her son’s eyes, and she glances over at April who leaned forward to rustle Casey’s hair again. She grins, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

“You’re right, Kiddo. He does have us.”

Cassandra sniffs, refusing to show such uncontrolled emotion in front of her child, and leans forward to smirk at Casey.

“What do you say, Squirt? Do you think you could be our little ninja and help remind Master Leonardo that he isn’t alone?”

Casey looks up at his mom with an emphatic determined nod.

“You can count on me.”

Casey, determined to fulfill his ninja mission, prepares all the rest of the day. When night time finally approaches, Casey is shaking with anticipation. He was going to remind Master Leo tonight if it was the last thing he did!

He arms himself with the biggest blanket and the biggest stuffed animal that he had claimed after searching through the random boxes they had stored at the base.

The blanket was once a dark, rich, violet color but had now turned grey with all the dust and grime from constant travel. However if one looked hard enough, they could see the slight greyed-white markings of what looked to be scientifically formulas spread all across the blanket.

The stuffed animal was a faded pink teddy bear that had obviously seen better days. One of its button eyes was missing, and it had a shredded right arm that was barely holding on. There was a little tag on it’s rump with the letters R H smeared in red marker. It was almost as big as Casey was, and he had to struggle to pull it and the enormous blanket into the next room where he sat in wait for Master Leonardo to come.

It didn’t take long. Within the next couple minutes, Leo walks into the room, his steps heavy and slow. He leans against the wall, his chest rising and falling with shaky breaths. He has his eyes closed in a grimace, slowly hitting his head against the wall before schooling his face and reaching up to pull his two Katanas out of their sheathes on his back.

“Master Leo?”

Leo freezes at the sound of Casey’s little voice and whirls around brandishing his two Katanas in surprise.

“C-Casey? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?! Is everything alright?!”

Leo’s words slur together as his eyes frantically search for danger in the room, his katanas weaving to and fro with each jilted movement.

Casey flinches back at having Leo’s frenzied actions pointed at him. His feet stumble back, as he trips over the massive blanket that was pooled on the floor. He lands on his bum and looks up at Leo with wide eyes.

Leo pulls back sharply with an ache in his heart as he sees the slight fear in Casey’s eyes. He lets out a disheartened sigh and sheathes his katanas. Leo drops to one knee with a little side smile, and holds out his one normal hand in what he hopes is a nonthreatening manner.

“Hey there, Bud. What are you doing up so late? Did you have a bad dream?”

Casey just stares at Leo for a minute before remembering his purpose and quickly shakes his head. He scrambles to his feet and folds his arms with a stubborn frown, trying to look serious. Which honestly backfired because it makes his bottom lip stick out making him look unfairly adorable.

“Nuh uh. I’m here on a mission.”

Leo blinks in surprise, titling his head with a confused smile on his face.

“A…mission?”

Casey nods emphatically, and reaches down to pull the giant teddy bear and blanket into his arms. He staggers forward, straining with all his little might to try and reach Leo.

Leo watches with an amused smirk at Casey’s attempt to carry the heavy load for only a moment before deciding to take pity on him. He reaches forward to pluck the blanket and teddy bear from Casey’s arms and sits down with his back against the wall to place them in his lap.

Casey isn’t too far behind them. He immediately crawls onto Leo’s lap and flops heavily against him as only small dramatic children can do. The toll of staying up and dragging his weight causing Casey to get sleepy.

Leo chuckles and wraps one arm around Casey, lifting the stuffed animal to shake it him.

“And what little mission is that, Bud? To bring me this-“

Leo freezes as he gets a real good look at the stuffed animal, his eyes widening as he glances at the shredded arm, the one button eye and the all too familiar scrawl on tag. He recognizes this bear. Leo’s breath hitches. This…this was Raph’s teddy bear!

Leo stares at the teddy bear, not sure if he was seeing things clearly and then slowly back at Casey who watches him with concerned eyes.

“Casey…where did you get this?” Leo asks with a strangled voice.

Casey’s brows pull in worry at Leo’s pained voice. He starts hiccuping and leans forward to wrap his arms tightly around Leo’s middle.

“I don’t want you to be sad, Master Leo. I thought a stuffed animal would help you feel less lonely. I know my stuffies do. ”

Leo looks down at Casey in shock, trying to figure out if Casey knows what this teddy bear means. Who’s teddy bear this is, but his focus was elsewhere as Casey’s little body trembles slightly as he hugs Leo, tears slowly running down his face and onto Leo’s war dirty plastaron.

“You’re not alone, Master Leo. You never have been.”

Leo bites his lip at the words, and feels the all too familiar pain within his heart roar to life. He closes his eyes against the ache in his eyes that always precedes the tears.

Leo reaches down to pull the giant blanket around himself and little Casey’s shoulders to help ground himself. He stops only for a moment, glancing at the dusty violet fabric in his hand when he recognizes the markings on the blanket.

Donnie.

Leo has to bite back a broken laugh. Even with his brothers gone, they once again left physical reminders of their presence, reminding him that they were never really gone.

He curls protectively around Casey, hugging him closely to himself as he haggardly whispers the words,

“You’re right, Bud. Anatawa hitorijanai. I-…I’m not alone. We’re never alone. ”

They stay that way together for the rest of the night. Casey slowly relaxing as he falls asleep in the safety of the arms of his sensei, his lazy measured little breaths matching Leo’s slow drumming heartbeat.

And for the first time in a long time, Leo sleeps soundly through the whole night. His little guardian angel, his twin’s blanket and his big brother’s teddy bear, all tightly, tenderly wrapped up by his side.

Hope, as fragile and yet steadfast as she was, had been reignited.

Looks like the little ninja fulfilled his mission after all.