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Why am I here?
A question that has plagued Leo and his brothers for years now. Even after learning about Draxum and the mutations, a consistent question still lingers no matter what.
If my purpose is to be a leader then why am I struggling? Why would I struggle in a position that I was biologically given? If anything I'm lucky that I was designed. Unlike others I'm not meant to have flaws, i'm not meant to be naturally formed.
These thoughts both Leo and his brothers have dealt with but he hasn't been taking them as well.
—
Even with his ‘faceman’ persona it's always blank.
—
So you can imagine Mikey's surprise as he finds his older brother sobbing on the bathroom floor on a Tuesday heaving over a toilet with pill bottles next to him.
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“-eo -a-r yo-” Words were fractured. Nothing felt like it came into focus, the only thing Leo was even able to think about was the icky feeling of former food and acid coming up his throat every time he made any type of sound in an attempt to speak.
Everything was too loud but too quiet.
It was too much in some areas but not enough for others.
A lack of understanding for actually hearing made things feel incomplete but feeling everything in you as it tries to pour out was too much.
—
Leo heaved over the toilet bowl again vomiting up chunks of pork chop that Mikey had made for dinner. Immediately feeling guilty for wasting food and seasoning when that could have been saved…
Mikey rushed over kneeling down next to Leo, his hands hesitantly hovering like he didn't know what to do. Because to be honest he didn't.
Panic as Leo realized that… he was dying just like he planned. But he didn't want it to be in front of anyone. He wanted it to be silent, just a small wheeze compared to Everything else going on In hopes that it would help The others move on quicker.
But no.
He was dying in front of his baby brother.
He messed up.
—
He felt another wave of acidity come up his throat before he could say anything, quickly turning to the toilet bowl to hopefully not make too big of a mess for everyone else to clean up later only to accidentally miss and splatter a bit onto the floor.
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“L-e! I- get-ng do-n” Mikey shouted out, quickly rounding the corner and running down the hallway. Bare feet hitting the concrete of the train station floor.
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Oh. Mike is getting Donnie. He's also going to be there, they're both going to watch me die. This is not what I had planned.
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The sound of footsteps running comes back and Donnie mikey and Raph round the corner, Raph ducking at the door frame before going into the bathroom. A mix of fear, confusion and a bit of guilt settled in his eyes as he saw his little brother heaving over the toilet.
Just like when they were younger…
—
When you live in the sewers it's pretty obvious that you're going to get sick pretty often. And without much access to proper medication before Donnie managed to figure all that out, you guys kind of just had to hope that you didn't get sick and whenever it did happen… you just kind of had to hope that it wasn't anything too bad.
And most of the time it wasn't.
Until one week Leo got the flu.
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He was a vomiting feverish sweating mess the whole time, And being the 11-year-old he was he wanted any kind of relief. And that led to him taking four 500 mg tablets of acetaminophen…
Nothing too bad happened thank God but Leo did end up having to vomit even more to get all of it out of his system and to say the least he was sick for another 2 weeks as a result of that and proceeded to constantly talk about how he hated having a body.
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Turns out those jokes about hating his body and himself in general weren't in fact jokes.
—
Donnie quickly follows behind Raph, wrist gauntlet quickly scanning over Leo and identifying symptoms.
‘vomiting‘ ‘fever’ ‘body tremors‘ It was basically just repeating what you guys were currently seeing, And not really being much of a help at all.
So Donnie did what he always does, slammed it into the side of the counter and rescanned.
And there was actually a different result.
‘Medication overdose, flush the body immediately, Induce vomiting.’
“Well we aren't going to really need to induce that…” Donnie mumbled under his breath as Leo heaved again. And as he did Donnie turned over to Raph, quickly giving out instructions. “Raphala, I need you to bring Leo to the med Bay immediately.”
he turned over to Mikey, “Mike, I need you to get me some towels, some warm water and…” He glanced down at the floor… pill bottles, lined up evenly…
Oh.
His dumb dumb twin tried to kill himself.
—
Donnie swallowed hands slightly trembling before he finally realized that he was saying something and just randomly paused out of nowhere. “Right! Uh… just bring water bottles, that should work.”
“Hey buddy….” Raph lightly put a hand on Leo's back patting lightly in hopes of being reassuring only to get a slight glare back from Leo and immediately put his hand right back to his side. “Okay, ok. Understandable.”
So instead, after a couple of Silent glances and a not so hidden mind meld a mini plan was made… attempting to ignore the fact that your little brother/twin literally just tried to kill himself because this is a horrible emergency Still kind of got noted as “Talk About later” material.
Raph Lightly lifted Leo at his stomach, arms wrapping around in a firm grip in case Leo tries to thrash. (Hopefully not.) and they walk off towards the med Bay…
—
I don't have a purpose beyond leading, so why should I be here?
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