Chapter Text
Chapter 1: From the Garden Blooms a Friend
“You have the list orange one,” Splinter called as he walked towards his youngest son.
“All on my phone!” Mikey states as he waved his phone. “And I’ll make sure to grab those extra cheesy bread that you like so much from that one shop.”
“They just make it so perfectly cheesy,” he sighed at the gooey goodness of it.
“And don’t forget-” April spoke up as she walked back towards Donnie's lab with a case of odd metallic assortments and some leftover pizza.
“The cool multicolor glowy rubber bands that you saw,” he gave her a thumbs up.
“Thanks Mikey!”
“No problem, April!” The youngest turtle was about to head off to the Hidden City to do a quick grocery run. Normally he wouldn’t go by himself, especially not after two months of the alien invasion (Pops had strictly ordered everyone to stay within the lair for at least a week, including April and Casey) but now he was finally starting to loosen back into his laidback self.
“And you Casey jr?” He looked over to the clean shaven human, April happily supplied him with a razor and cream and taught him the fine importance of shaving, who was fiddling with the string of his baby blue hoodie with little turtles attached at the ends (added by himself truly), as he waited for Leo.
“Oh, um you don’t need to get me-” he stopped at the sight of the youngest turtle's blank stare. “One of those sweet pastries you got last time Mast-I mean Mikey.”
“With the pink chocolate filling?”
“Yes please.”
“Your wish is my command,” he smiled. Casey had gotten a lot better with asking for things, when he first stayed at their home he was so introverted and quiet compared to how he was during the invasion. It seemed that once his mission was completed, he didn’t know what to do now that he was still here, and with the ones he once knew were vastly different from the devastation timeline. It took the efforts of the entire family and even Cassandra, who did meet him and claimed him as her own once she saw his moves, to bring him back out of his shell (pun intended.)
“Are you sure you’ll be alright on your own Mikey,” Raph asked once more as he watched his brother sling the backpack over his shoulder. “One of us can join you or I can not go to my-”
“I’m gonna stop you right there Raphie. You have been wanting to see the newborn lab puppies from Todd dogs since before the invasion, especially with Pops going with you (and we’re not counting the fact that you seriously need something more to calm your anxiety) so that’s out of the question. Leon is taking Casey Jr out to the Stadium, Donnie is staying here to work on his tech and April is joining him as well. I can for sure handle this on my own,” he reassured him as he casually put on a pair of heart glasses that April found the other day and he just totally has to wear them now.
“If you say so,” the gentle giant reluctantly abided. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust his little brother, but after the whole invasion and being left alone, he didn’t feel exactly comfortable with any of his family leaving his eyesight.
The orange turtle saw this and jumped up to give his brother a reassuring hug. “Don’t worry Raphie, if anything comes up I’ll call you guys and hightail it out of there. See you later~” and with that, Mikey left the lair.
“Mmmm,” Raph fidgeted as he watched his younger brother leave.
“Relax man,” he felt Leo's arm wrap around his shoulder. “Everything has been totally chill for a while, a little alone time never hurt anyone.”
“I know, but it’s just the jitters you know,” he slumped.
“Oh we all very much know,” he snorted, “everything will be fine. Now get out there and play with some puppies, I mean, just look at them,” Leon distracted him with the photos of the newborn that Todd sent. His big brother seriously needed some good old fashion relaxation (everyone for that matter, but Raphie has his heart on his sleeve)
“Awwwww!” His eyes sparkled as he cooed at the phone. “You are so adorable! Yes you are!”
“Ooo, this would go great with the stew,” Mikey smiled as he picked up the fiery red looking vegetable with funky purple swirls. He took another sniff and nodded. “Yep, don’t know what this is, but this totally has to be tots amazing!” So, he plopped the item in his bag alongside the other. Once he was done with his shopping he went up to the five eyed Yokai with three tentacles attached to his navy blue body and gave him his brightest smile. “Happy afternoon Walny! How is the fam? I know Ki rara made it to the top ten in the monster lifting competition.”
“He made it in seventh in fact and Miya just finished with her water classes up north and she is a fine swimmer if I do say so myself,” the worker smiled with all of his pointy sharp teeth exposed as he quickly used his tentacles to examine the items. “How is everything back home? I heard there was some sort of alien invasion that happened. Are you alright?”
“It’s been rough these last weeks, but getting back on our feet,” Mikey smiled as he got handed the bill. “Heyyy, this is lower than what I was expecting.”
“I shaved some off the top just for you, after all with the whole alien nonsense you all went through I couldn’t just leave you adorable self without some pick me up you know,” he cooed as one of the tentacles pinched the young turtle cheek as the other one accepted the money.
“You're too kind,” he smiled as he picked up his bags and placed them in one of Donnie Ultra Mega Infinity Pack, a backpack that could hold many items that it normally couldn’t and can keep the items inside safe and secured even when trying to outrun their enemy of the week or running head first into a building. “See you in a few weeks! Tell Kipo that the recipe he gave me was amazing! My family scarfed it down like there was no tomorrow.”
“And your vegetarian lasagna was also superb as my husband would say, he and the kids tore into it,” Walnter chuckled as he waved the young boy goodbye.
Mikey, after settling his bag and double checking his list, smiled as he walked out of the store with a bright smile on his face on both the talk and the good discount of the use of his cuteness that he absolutely utilized. He knows very well that some people are incredibly weak willed to those they find both adorable and are considered to be soft as well as weak in their eyes. He may be reading too many psychology books, but it certainly helped him figure out that it tugs on people's hearts when they believe that they are helping a noble cause and soothes them when they see that the one they are helping is ‘cute’ in their eyes.
Unethical and manipulative for sure, but man does it save money! Besides it’s not like Leon or Donnie hasn’t utilized him before for their own need, only Raph has never tried to use his cuteness, heck even Pops used it once or twice on their trips out. Besides it’s not like he will ever use them for bad, just a bit morally grey. After all, despite what his oldest brothers think, he knows that they tend to fall on the not so bright side of things from time to time with all their destruction, fighting, and stealing from time to time. (He can still remember the times during the harsher winters when they were younger, before April was around, Pops somehow managed to find blankets, a portable space heater, and medicine for them. He didn’t know if his brothers still remember, but Mikey always keeps this memory close to his chest as a reminder that not everyone who does bad things are bad people. It’s why he wanted to give Draxum another chance despite the torment he caused.)
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t even realize his feet walked past his usual turn and somehow winded up beside an interesting looking open botanical garden. Now, usually he would head back home after the shopping was done, but with everyone doing their own thing and dinner not needing to be made until a couple of hours later, he could look around here. After all, nature is life's best art and he has been itching to draw something for a while.
“Oooo,” Mikey's eyes sparkled as he took in the once pure white flower suddenly changing bright neon yellow with spikes sticking out of its loopy stem. “Cool.”
“That’s the Vertigo flower,” a deep voice spoke as he turned around and then looked up as he saw a very large crocodile yokai, large, pointy teeth, and claws with scars riddled all over his face and arms included, with a red wide brimmed hat on his head and an open vest. “It changes its form to ward off any predators that might want to eat them.”
“Now that’s cool,” he beamed up at the large yokai with an eager gleam in his eyes. Now he of course is all up for making new friends, no matter how many times his family talks about stranger danger, but he especially wants to be his friend. He didn’t have keen eyes for nothing as he saw that the yokai scales slightly turn from his original dark seaweed green to a lighter tone of lime green (yes there’s a difference and he will throw hands with anyone that tries to tell him otherwise). He didn’t know why, but that was too cool to not befriend the crocodile as he held his hand out and set down his drawing pad. “I’m Mikey, nice to meet ya! And can I say, your scales are awesome! How did you make them change color like that?”
The gator almost seemed taken aback by the young mutant's question before smiling and shaking the turtle's hand. “Impressive small one, not many could tell the difference.”
“Well not many are amazing artists like I am and speaking of art, can I draw you?” He eagerly asked.
“I’m not sure I would make a good portrait,” he referred to his scarred body. “Many can attest to that.”
“Then their opinions suck and have nothing to do with mine,” the small turtle took the gator's leathery hand and dragged him over to a large cerulean tree. “I think you will make a fabulous picture and I’m gonna prove it to you…wait what’s your name?” He asked, but didn’t pause in his walking.
The yokai could have gotten out of the small one grasp, but he is both afraid of harming him and very amused by his antics. “Many just call me Beast.”
“But do you like that name?” He prodded, he could tell the gator was deflecting. It’s similar to how Leo tries to get out of his chores or how April tries to put off her homework.
“Not particularly, but I don’t know any else.”
“That sucks, do you want a name?” Mikey sat him down by the tree as he did the same.
The yokai paused, he has never really considered it before. He had never formed a close bond with anyone since his younger days with his past employers, so he never really found the need to or no one cared to ask. He didn’t mind, he was used to it, but now these young turtles ask what he wanted and he couldn’t help but be curious. “Then what would you call me?”
“No fair, I asked you first,” he pouted as he took out his art supplies.
“True. How about this, since you're doing an art piece for me, how about you come up with a name for payment,” he countered.
“Usually people would ask for money for their work, but I suppose this will do as well,” the turtle fake sighed as he scooted back to take in the full view. “Now I hope you can stay still, this may take a while.”
“I think I can handle that,” the Beast said as he leaned back against the tree and was curious about how long it would take.
And the answer was apparently over three hours as Mikey made sure to hone in every detail to absolute amazement, but that didn’t mean it was entirely spent in silence. During that, the young turtle took to asking questions from where he was born (a quiet swamp filled with scale eating maggots) to what he did for a living (he vaguely mentioned taking up some kind of bodyguard position) to even his favorite kind of pizza (all of them, though he was amused to see the orange turtle beaming brightly as if he answered correctly.)
And in turn, he asked a few of his own if he had any family (four older brothers, three sisters, two dads, and a gram gram. Though he was confused when he explained that one of his sisters was their previous pet goldfish and one of his brothers and sister were related, but not related to each other due to time bullshit) to his favorite color (he chuckled as the young teen pointed to his mask) and asking why he was here all alone.
He almost regretted that last question as he was informed that he and his family needed some relaxation after an invasion that had the potential to wipe out the human realm, which also had the capabilities to open a portal to the yokai realm and no one would have been warned until it was too late.
“Are you okay?” He cautiously asked, he knew about the whispers of the invasion ( it was the whole reason he snapped out of it) and he knows what it was like to have no control over something out of his depths.
“At first nope,” Mikey honestly said as he continued to color in. “Everything hurts, a lot of things were destroyed, and everyone was still reeling and mentally slash physically slash emotionally exhausted from almost losing one another to all the fighting we had to do. It was tough at first, no one wanted to talk about it nor did anyone want to get out of bed, but we are alright now. Scarred and traumatized, but fine.” Out of all of his brothers, he can comfortably say that he was the most emotionally stable one of them and can admit that they needed more than his talk therapy to get through what they went through. Sure, none of them want to see an actual therapist, not even a yokai one, but he will get through to them eventually.
“And you're okay with the scars?” The Beast looked at the turtle's arms as he could see faint lines stemming from both his hands to where the elbow touched.
“Took a while to get used to, but they don’t bother me. When I look at them, I see that they are proof that I’m still alive and kicking despite everything that tried to knock me down.”
“That is a good view to look at them, some aren’t so lucky,” he mirthlessly said as he stopped himself from looking at his own body. Many he got from fighting, but sometimes the enemies are much quieter and only appear when he lies in bed. “Many are ashamed.”
“And that’s okay, everyone looks at it differently, but eventually, when you wake up one day and just look, you’ll come to accept it as a part of you,” he knowingly said as he glanced up at the yokai. “Just like the tree you're leaning on, acceptance will always be a slow process, but we don’t always stay the same seed forever.”
The Beast blinked at the words of wisdom from such a young turtle, before chuckling. “Such wise words from someone so young.”
“Dr. Feelings is always happy to help.”
“Dr. Feelings?” He raised his brow.
“Just be glad it wasn’t Dr. Delicate Touch or Dr. Rude Leatherhead, I’ve been told that they are both very intense.”
“Leatherhead?”
“You like it? Your scales are surprisingly soft, almost leather like, fun fact do you know that soft leather is very durable,” he got that from Donnie from when the two of them watched that Fashion show.
“Leatherhead,” he said the name once more. “My name is Leatherhead…I like it.”
“I’m glad you do!” He took a glance at his phone and promptly stood up. “Omigosh! I have to go before Raphie starts to freak out,” he quickly gathers his stuff and shoves the drawing at the yokai. “I’ll see you tomorrow! Thanks for being my model!” He waved goodbye as he quickly ran out of the garden and checked his phone, only to be relieved that no one has questioned why he was thirty minutes late yet.
The yokai amusedly watched the turtle leave as he held his hand up, once he was out of sight he put it down and instead took a look at the drawing. He took a sharp intake of breath and there he was with a smile on his face as the leaves from the Hithedge tree floated around him. But what really caught his attention was his scars, one x-shaped one on his left eye, the ones littering his arms and legs, the deep one across his chest, and the most shameful one around his neck.
Leatherhead stared at it before raising his hand towards his neck and then softly smiled, he never thought that it was possible to be content with them until now.
And Mikey had kept true to his word as he frequently went to visit Leatherhead over the course of the month with none of the family any wiser. It wasn’t that Mikey was trying to keep it from them, in fact, he told them that when he goes out to meet his friend, so they casually let him go. Thinking that he was visiting Hueso again or the ones from the bakery or arts and craft shop, not realizing that it wasn’t anyone they had met previously before.
Regardless though, a bond between both mutant and yokai had started to form.
“That is so cool! You can basically camouflage onto anything!” Mikey excitedly as he watched the yokai blend in almost perfectly with the grass. “Just like a real crocodile!”
“Actually an alligator,” he gently corrected him as he felt Mikey lay down on him as he continued to tend to the flowers.
“My bad! I’m a box turtle, watch this,” he fully tucked into his shell. “I’m the only one of my brothers that can do this.”
“Very impressive, I believe that helps with not losing limbs or decapitation.”
“You wouldn’t believe the close calls I had.”
“And you cook this all the time,” Leatherhead sighed as he bit into a very soft cinnamon and chocolate cookie.
“I like my variety baby! Got any requests?” He asked as he casually sat on the taller gator's shoulders.
“How about insects?” He chuckled as his friend immediately scrunched his nose in disgust before tilting it.
“That sounds both really gross and really interesting to taste, I’m down!” He then had a very mischievous look on his face, “after all, I have many willing taste testers.”
“Don’t torment your family too much,” the nineteen year old yokai hummed.
“It’s my sign of love!”
“How can you make such a good French accent?” Asked the turtle as he looked at his reptilian compatriot while watering a shy murky pink flower that liked to curl into itself.
“Comes with the job little Jade, I have to play the part to disguise myself,” Leatherhead said in his French accent.
“A part of me wanted to say super secret agent, but it was a bodyguard right? I bet you guard an important person, big emerald.”
“Too many to count, I was traded and bought as a…commodity of sorts,” he mirthlessly huffed.
“That doesn’t sound good, are you okay?” Mikey asked with concern. While not the same as what Pops went through when he fought in the Battle Nexus, no one should have the feeling of being looked at and used as a shiny item.
“Not to worry, I have distanced myself from my previous life,” he patted the young turtle's head. “In fact, I have even developed a new hobby in gardening.”
“Is that why you are always in this garden?”
“Part of the reason yes, I have found it to have soothing qualities at times when my anger has reached a peak.”
“Make sense to me, whenever I like to calm down I usually bake, paint, or do ballet.”
“Ballet?”
“It’s a dance! Here let me show you,” the turtle put down the watering can and got into position. “This is first position.”
“I see,” Leatherhead got up and copied his stance. “Like this?”
“Feet out a little more-yeah like that!” He clapped his hands as he continued to the next position with the alligator yokai copying. The turtle was quite pleased with his friend's quick learning, maybe he could have a ballet partner after all! He always wanted someone to throw him in the air that didn’t have to do with fighting.
“The scar on my neck came from an obedience collar,” Leatherhead said out of the blue one day.
Mikey stopped his drawing and paid full attention as he kept quiet.
“I was a bodyguard for many yokai's, I was considered one of the best, but that came with the price of never experiencing a day to myself.”
“That sounds horrible,” the turtle whispered. “How did you deal with that?”
“To be honest, I didn’t notice. I may have been born in a swamp, but that lasted only a few years as one of dem rich folks came in and kicked us all out to make room for some gambling ring. I didn’t care, I had no real attachments, but I had nowhere else to go until I stumbled upon a fighting ring.”
“The Battle Nexus?” Mikey hesitantly asked.
“Not even if you paid me,” he deadpanned. “I may have been desperate, but not that desperate to partake in that death tournament. No, this was one of the less known fighting competitions and I won. Unfortunately, that win landed me in the eyes of an aristocrat who then offered me a job as a bodyguard. And like the young and naive fool I was, I took it, along with the shiny new collar he gave me to show his appreciation.” He clenched his claws as he scratched at his neck. “He showed me real good as he pressed the remote and brought me to my knees in pain as the shock coursed through my body. Then for the next ten years, I was treated as a bargaining item, a useful shield, an extra body, a disposal unit, a beast, and any other thing those disgusting people could think of, but that didn’t bother me. Despite the promise of pain, I still got paid for my services, quite well in fact, so whatever they wanted is what I was forced to become so long as they paid the price, but I always went back to my original client. He called me a well earned toy with many uses.”
Mikey silently put a hand on his friend's soft knee in quiet support.
Leatherhead's only acknowledgment of it was placing his large hand over the small one and taking a deep breath. “I heard about the invasion, only scant talking from the guards who believed me to be only a mindless tool. I heard of the catastrophe and destruction the aliens had and the potential of an invasion if it wasn’t stopped. I heard it all, even the question of ‘What would you do before the end of the world?’ The guards all joked and laughed about it as they all gave their answers, but I didn’t know myself. I didn’t know what I would do nor what I wanted to do and that’s when I realized ten years have passed and I somehow have been born not for myself, but others. I had to leave. So I asked if I could resign she laughed and said no, so I cut off her head, she was much more compliant then.”
The turtle had iffy feelings about that, but couldn’t judge his friend for his decision.
“I found the remote and for the first time in a long while, I could feel the bare scales of my neck again as I walked out of the building. Nobody stopped me, sure they were mad at me for robbing their paycheck, but then they decided to just raid her place. No one liked her. I wandered around the city until I found myself here and the rest is history,” Leatherhead sighed. He didn’t know why, but he felt lighter now.
“Thank you for telling me,” Mikey climbed into the gator's lap and leaned back against him in comfort. He paused as he thought about something before he decided as he showed his arms that held his scars. “It was after the invasion and we closed the portal that this happened. Leo managed to teleport Kraang back to the prison dimension, but it came at the cost of him being stuck there as well.”
The gator's eyes widen as he wrapped his arms around the turtle.
“All of us were distraught, horrified, hopeless and so many other words that can’t fit what I want to say when Leo sacrificed himself. But we were all that and more, and for some reason, for some reason, I was stupid enough to keep trying. Maybe it was because I knew there was a chance to save him or maybe I didn’t want to face the facts that my brother was gone, but I was rewarded with a spark then a portal that led straight to my brother and we managed to get him.”
“I may not be the most proficient in the mystic arts except on my own, but I know it is highly dangerous to use yourself as a focal point in a large dimensional space usage. That could have killed you,” he whispered.
“In a past life it did, that’s how I got Casey the second here apparently,” the young turtle chuckled. When they told the rest how Leo got back junior, who was still clutching the blue turtle, had paled as he had rushed over to him and held his hands with his own shaky hands. It was after extracting the older human teen off him did he explain fully then he had another set of protective hugs/check-ups/worrying over from the rest of his family.
Raph wouldn’t let him down for hours once he had his check-up and bandaged up, Pops called up Dad aka Barry and he came over and talked to Donnie, who wouldn’t stop looking over his health with April tag teaming (the two of them were less worse off them the rest, but he still spotted the bandaged arm peeking out from the jacket and bandaged shell hidden beneath the armor), and even Leon, who was horrified when he was told he sent his baby brother to his death, was more subdued. Despite him being the one who needed the most medical care, from bruised ribs to broken bones, (everyone knew if it wasn’t for their mystic powers it would have been far worse) he still tried to mother hen him. Everything was chaotic and a steamrolled mess as they made him promise that he wouldn’t do that again until he had proper training. He did and he promised, but…
“But I still would do it if it means my family can be safe,” he curled up with his knees covering his face. He stayed like that for a while, until he felt a rumbling to his shell, Miguel looked up but felt the underside of the gator's large jaw land softly on his head as the yokai leaned back against the tree and continued to make a soft bellow in his chest.
It took a moment, but the turtle soon realized that this was Leatherheads’ method of comforting him; so he decided to happily oblige with his friend's unspoken words, he turned his body so his ears were against his chest and relaxed.
It was a good day to listen after all.
Unfortunately, the peace was not meant to last.