#Leo: but just because we’re portal pals that does NOT mean you get to use those portals any time soon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

turtleblogatlast · 3 months

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[ cw: scars / permanent injuries / chronic pain / ]

Leo’s shell gets some permanent cracks in it due to the Krang, and as a result his shell’s pattern is all messed up.

He makes a fuss about it in a lightheartedly vain way, but it’s clear that it bothers him, more than just the chronic pain that comes with it.

The one who breaks about the cracks isn’t Leo in the end, it’s Mikey.

It’s a night where Leo can’t sleep, insomnia and the remnants of a fit pulsing through his shell keeping him awake. When making the rounds to check up on everything, he sees Mikey, crouched over some old crayon drawings, drawings that were only salvaged by some miracle.

Mikey always loved matching with his “cool blue bro” growing up. Their shell designs were something they had in common, different from the spines/spikes that their other brothers had. It felt good to share that with Leo.

To Mikey, seeing that pattern tarnished felt a little too much like their home getting destroyed. Worse, even. The two of them are complementary colors, it hits harder when things disrupt that.

And Mikey admits this to Leo, on this day where emotion kept mounting up in him until he couldn’t help but break a little. It feels selfish to say, but it’s the truth. It’s a visual that’ll constantly haunt Mikey, knowing what the cracks represent, knowing how they lost something that was just theirs to share.

Drawing Mikey to him, a hand on Mikey’s intact shell pattern, Leo admits that that’s what kills him the most too. He can deal with the pain, he can deal with the appearance, but he can’t deal with no longer seeing himself in the crayon drawings they managed to salvage from their past. Drawings that highlight their shell patterns, because Mikey always had a lot of fun drawing those.

He always loved what they decided they represented.

———

“Like links of a chain!” Little Mikey had called them as he scribbled them down in oranges and blues.

“Of course it’s like chains!” Little Leo nodded, having never noticed that before, “It, like, shows how we’re- how we’re always connected!”

Little Mikey had gasped at that, stars in his eyes as he babbled endlessly about how that meant they’re the chains holding the family together, right?

“Raphie and Donnie don’t have chains on their shells, so we gotta step up to keep everyone together!” Little Mikey said as he drew big circles around his drawings of their family, overlapping circles of orange and blue around everyone.

“Yeah! And if anyone gets lost, we’ll bring them back!” Little Leo boasted with a laugh, “No one has to be alone, we’ll make sure of it!”

“We’ll make sure of it!” Little Mikey echoed with a happy giggle.

———

‘You sure made sure of it, Mikey.’ Leo thinks, continuing to run his hand comfortingly down Mikey’s shell.

Then a thought hits him.

“Well, we got something better than just shell patterns in common now!” Leo starts, waiting until Mikey looks up to continue, “We got portals, little brother!” He grins, “And y’know, I think you’ve done a great job keeping us all together, Miguel. Sorry you had to pick up my slack.”

Mikey looks two steps away from sobbing at that, but his smile is wide, “You just got lost, of course I had to bring you back.” He leans back, out of Leo’s hold, and looks his big brother in the eyes, “That’s what we said- Raphie and Donnie don’t have portals…”

“-So we gotta step up-“ Leo continues.

“-To keep everyone together!” The finish simultaneously, laughing a little at the juvenile words.

A wry smile crosses Leo’s face, “Again, sorry I’ve been dropping the ball there. Feels like I did a lot of the opposite instead.”

He yelps as Mikey swiftly smacks him on the head.

“Nuh uh uh, none of that!” Mikey puffs out his chest, “I’ll have no slander toward my fellow portal pal!”

“Alright, alright…”

It’s not a fix to anything, more of a new way of looking at a change. Bringing that change into their lives as something familiar.

The cracks in Leo’s shell remain, and the cracks in Mikey’s hands scar over, but their family stays together all the same.

They gotta make sure of it, after all!

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey #rise leo #rise mikey #rottmnt headcanons #portal pals #I’m so weak for portal pals #but yeah I always thought Leo and Mikey had cool shell patterns #looking very much like the links of a chain #so this happened bc of that thought haha #Leo: but just because we’re portal pals that does NOT mean you get to use those portals any time soon #Mikey: Aw

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