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“Woah, nice attack, little bro!” Leo dodged the mystic flames spitting off of the box turtle’s nunchucks.
Sparring had become part of their everyday routine after Leo recovered from the invasion- it comforted all of them, making them feel stronger and more confident in their abilities.
Mikey’s abilities were getting better by the day, his ninpo growing stronger as he learned how to harness it and use it for offense and defense.
Leo, on the other hand, was improving at a much slower rate. Recovery from the Prison Dimension had stolen a lot of time from him, both in terms of physical development and with time itself- he’d been in a coma for a while as he recuperated.
Raph and Donnie watched the fight from the sidelines. Donnie was focusing on his phone, rapidly typing something, while Raph was observing his younger brothers as they sparred.
“It’s not a ‘nice attack’ until it lands,” Mikey shot back at his older brother, ducking under a slash from the slider’s katana and lashing out again with his nunchucks.
“Mediocre attack then,” Leo shrugged. “So-so attack. A for effort attack. Better luck next time atta-”
“Sneak attack!” The nunchucks pinned Leo’s right arm to his plastron, catching him off-balance and making him fall over.
Mikey beamed with satisfaction at beating his older brother, a sort of smug grin on his face as he won the match. All that provocation had been getting to him, annoying him, if he was being honest.
The grin quickly turned into a concerned frown when Leo started screaming.
~*~*~
Mikey was plagued with questions.
What happened? How had he gotten so out of control? How had his ninpo gotten so out of control? How could he have done that?
The heart monitor in the medbay beeped rhythmically, Leo’s plastron rising and falling in unison with the red line on the screen. The slider’s right arm and plastron were covered in bandages, which had already needed to be changed once. Raph had applied an absurd amount of burn cream- partially at Mikey’s urging.
How could he have done that?
That was his big brother. What had gone so wrong during that fight, that Mikey’s ninpo had flared and burned him? Raph patted his shell as Mikey started crying again. He hadn’t cried this much since… well, since the last time Leo had been in the medbay.
The heart monitor’s rhythm shifted ever so slightly, prompting Mikey and Raph to look at their brother- who was finally awake.
“Why is there a freaking heart monitor?” Leo asked as soon as he seemed to be fully conscious. “Seems a bit overkill for a little burn.”
“A little burn,” Mikey said, incredulously. “Leo, it’s much worse than a little burn, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry-” his face fell back from shock to remorse as he repeatedly apologized.
“Mikey, you’re okay,” Leo and Raph said at the same time. It made them both crack a smile.
“No, no it’s not, I burned him, I hurt him, he just recovered from that and now there’s this and it’s my fault!”
“At least it wasn’t my face,” Leo quipped. “Can’t be the team faceman without this national treasure!”
He looked around at Raph’s blank stare, and Mikey, who was still crying.
“Oh, come on! Even Donnie would’ve at least rolled his eyes! Speaking of, where is he?”
“He’s in his lab,” Raph explained. “He’s been contacting Draxum about working with Mikey on certain things, and he’s also been trying to figure out different ways to ‘ease the pain’ and other stuff to help.”
“With what?”
“Leo,” Mikey said, voice so quiet it was nearly a whisper, “you might not be able to use your right arm.”
“Ahahaha, I could’ve sworn I just heard you say I can’t use my right arm, good one, buddy.”
“Don’t. Don’t joke about it.” The box turtle shook his head. “I burned your arm, Leo, and your plastron. Donnie says that your side may be a bit numb, but you can still move that area. Your arm… it might be unusable. Forever. Holy pizza supreme, I can’t believe I did this I’m so sorry,” he started apologizing again.
Raph looked at his little brothers with concern. They both needed help- Leo, physically, with his arm, but Mikey needed someone to not only console him, but to teach him ninpo control so this wouldn’t happen again.
“Um. You probably won’t like this,” Mikey sniffled. “But I’m going to get mystic training from Draxum.”
“Oh COME ON,” Leo complained.
~*~*~
Mystic training was difficult.
Mikey often found himself on the other side of Doctor Feelings, forced to talk about his own emotions to Draxum, in order to help the sheep yokai better understand how to help him.
But then, there was also training training. Mikey finished the day by collapsing into bed, thoroughly exhausted after hours of focusing on one aspect of mystics after the other, trying and failing to control his ninpo.
After a couple weeks, he was beginning to understand how to regulate his emotions in respect to his powers. There was accidental fun stuff as well, like learning how to float (which he was so going to brag about to Donnie later), or how to shatter glass just by thinking too hard.
Leo complained the entire time, both about Mikey getting training from Draxum, and about the physical therapy Donnie was forcing him to do, mostly just to see the extent to which the slider’s arm could still operate.
Mikey was sort of glad he was out of the lair training all day, it meant he didn’t have to see Leo as much- the overwhelming guilt he felt whenever he saw his brother’s burnt arm and side never failed to represent itself physically, whether it be crying, severe nausea, or a guilt-induced anxiety attack.
Every day, Mikey asked Draxum about mystic healing. And every day, Draxum told him that he needed to learn and practice more control first. It wasn’t easy, but eventually, Draxum deemed him ready to learn how to heal with his ninpo.
~*~*~
“Oh man, it’s gonna be so good to have my arm back,” Leo said light-heartedly. “My left-handed handwriting is shit.”
“I still can’t believe you wouldn’t want a prosthetic,” Donnie complained. “I worked on it the whole month and now it’s the backup plan?”
“Hey, I like my flesh and blood arm just fine, thank you very much.”
“But… flamethrowers,” came the disappointed reply.
“Listen, Leo,” Mikey said nervously. “I’m going to do my absolute best, Draxum’s taught me well, but I can’t guarantee anything. Mystic burns are considerably more difficult to heal than normal burns, but since these were caused by my own ninpo, I hope it’s easier.”
“And just in case, Raph’s got first aid supplies.” The snapper held up a first aid kit that consisted of half the supplies in the medbay, a precaution that somewhat soothed his anxieties.
“Okay, are we all ready?” Leo asked impatiently.
“Yeah.” Mikey took a couple deep breaths.
He unwrapped the bandages on Leo’s arm and plastron, revealing blackened tissue that made his gut churn with a mixture of guilt, disgust, and anxiety. Mikey placed his hands on Leo’s arm and plastron, and closed his eyes.
He focused. Draxum had needed him to learn and apply emotional regulation to his mystics before learning healing because the processes were so intertwined.
When Mikey caused destruction, like when he tore a hole between dimensions, or when he burned Leo, those incidents were strengthened by the intensity of emotions leaning towards the negative side.
But when he wanted to heal, he needed to focus on the positives. Mikey thought of his brothers. Yes, they were annoying- that’s how this whole injury happened, but Mikey loved them. He couldn’t imagine a world without them. He focused on the Lair Games, the pizza stack challenges, all the karaoke nights, all of their movie nights watching and rewatching Jupiter Jim or Lou Jitsu movies over and over again.
And he focused on healing. Raph bandaging Donnie’s shell when it had gotten scraped on a rock in the sewers, Dad giving Leo a hot water bottle and a tray with toast and orange juice when the slider had come down with a fever, Mikey sewing up Raph’s stuffed animals, Donnie giving Mikey a “super genius bandaid”, and all the times he could remember of his family looking out for each other and healing.
And he focused on Leo. Leo healing in the medbay. Mikey knew he could do this, he could help Leo, because his older brother always bounced back. He needed a little help sometimes, but that’s what family’s for.
They always helped each other, time and time again.
Mikey opened his eyes to the fading glow of his ninpo, the cracks on his arms reverting from gold to pale yellow (although some of them were fresh- he’d need Raph’s bandages).
Leo’s arm looked… better. The color had returned, although not as vibrant as before, it was there. His plastron had a sick starburst explosion pattern, but otherwise seemed normal.
He looked around. All of his brothers were staring at him in shock.
“...ta-dah?” He offered.
“Dude,” Leo started. “You have hair!”