Chapter Text
It’s been Around a Year since Leo had killed the Shredder. The turtles are making some changes in their lifestyles, since splinter isn't around anymore. The turtles have honestly improved a lot like A Lot.
Raph has been attempting to work on her Temper although she relapses sometimes, She also carry a stress ball whenever she think Shesu about to say something they’ll regret (She
Has broken around 9 by now by squeezing too tight).
Leo has been working on team building as the leader since Splinter just taught them ninjutsu and whenever they argued? He just told them to get along since they were brothers.
Mikey has been learning to keep his hands to himself by having fidget toys around. Either quiet ones or loud ones but he’s been improving on his fidgeting issues,
Donnie has improved the most with a lot of things. He and April had a talk, Donnie learned that he was so obsessed with April that it came off as creepy, and April told Donnie she liked the attention of both him and Casey loving her since she never got much attention before she met the turtles.. but she realized how wrong she was for leading them both on…it genuinely made her feel worse the more she thought about it so the two made a deal to work on their issues.
They are now BFFs, Donnie and April also both cringe harshly when reminded of how they acted with each other. Casey is still Casey.
Literally nothing changed except his crush for April turning into a sister-brother friendship.
The Turtles have also made some changes in themselves personally (Raph Mostly).
Raph announced that she's a girl, instead of a boy. She also started wearing skirts, tying her mask into bows and doing eyeliner which April asked for tips a few times.
Donnie attempted a new hobby once he got engineer-block (like Art-block). skateboarding but he returned to his lab after seeing Mikey’s skateboard wheels made a weird noise and tinkered with the skateboard.
It now has removable turbo boosters.
He began to make weird machines like a battle shell which allowed him to have an input jet pack, backup smoke bombs, and an extra storage unit for any important Mechanics or…literally anything that’ll fit. Pizza is banned from going into the storage unit since grease stains got all in it and cockroaches crawled in. Making the cleaning progress all the more difficult. Raph attempted to get over their fear by helping but then gave up and isolated themselves in their room until Donnie got the shell was clean. (Leo still gave them a pat on the back for trying).
Leo has been diagnosed with psychosis since Donnie caught him in the dojo, talking like Splinter was right in front of him even though no one was there. So every now and then, the turtles will go onto Uber and order the prescriptions they need, make April or Casey grab the delivery and pay.
Raph goes out of her way to make sure Leo doesn’t avoid the medicine or get addicted to the prescriptions by doing a bottle check every day. The others are convinced Leo would never get addicted but Raph says there's always a possibility.
Leo doesn’t mind the bottle checks because it’s a sign of his Sibling caring despite them brushing it off as nothing. Raph was always the one to make sure Leo was safe despite Donnie being the medic.
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Leo was about to take his daily medication when Raph knocked on his door.
“Come in Raph!”
Raph walked in gently before sitting next to Leo on his bed.
“Hey Leo, where’s your medicine?”
“Right here Raph, here ya go,”
Raph inspected the medicine, making sure Leo didn’t have any more than he needed.
“Did you eat one yet?”
“Nope, Want to watch me?”
Raph nodded. Leo poured two in his palm before grabbing a cup of water and swallowing it down.
“Hey Leo? You got any new hobbies?”
“What?”
“I mean like any new interests, hobbies or is it all Training and space heroes?”
Leo thought about it for a bit.
“We can circle back once your meds kick in. Just thought I’d ask since things changed a lot around here..”
Leo nodded.. He has noticed a lot of changes from when they were 15 to now. Hell, he's classifying Donnie as the Angry one with how much he crashes out over his Engineering and how Raph just chills in the background.
Raph grabbed Leo’s medicine and placed it in the cabinet where they always put it.
As she opened the door to walk out, an aroma of a nice breakfast filled the lair.
“I bet Mikey’s making breakfast again. Are you coming Leo?”
“Yeah in a bit, I just need to put my bandana on.”
Raph nodded as she left the room
Leo sat for a while. He couldn’t help himself from staring into the mirror and feeling.. Weird.
He looks exactly how he always has but he feels uncomfortable. It probably doesn’t matter..
Leo was midwrap with his bandana before getting a thought.
He remembers that since Raph became a girl, She wore her bandanna in a bow.
Leo decided he’ll try it before staring in the mirror with a new sense of fascination. He softly lifts a hand to touch the bow, before he gets interrupted by a familiar voice.
“My son, what are you doing?”
Leo looked behind him to see his father, looking at him with confusion.
“Nothing sensei!..”
Leo quickly untied the Bow on his head. Shaking his head as he tried to think of an excuse before looking to see Splinter gone. He should probably go eat before the others get worried.
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“Mikey! I thought you said you’d work on where you put your pizzas!”
“I was Bro-! I don’t even know how my Pizza got on your-…What is it?”
Mikey looks at the thing in Donnie’s hand that is covered in grease stains.
“It’s a Microscope Mikey. Now the Aperture is too stained to help me see the prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells.”
“What the what now?”
Mikey asks while stuffing a pancake in his mouth which was folded with a fork instead of being cut up.
“Just keep your pizza out of my room.”
Donnie brought his microscope back into his lab when Leo came in
“Whats got his shell so cracked?”
“Mikey got pizza stains over his microscope somehow now he’s pissed.”
Raph said between mouthfuls of her pancakes.
“I told you-! It wasn’t me!! It was probably a squirrlanoid-‘
Raph just rolled her eyes and ate her pancake.
“Your plates on the counter Leo.”
Mikey said, still glaring at Raph.
Leo grabbed his plate, he couldn’t help but stare at his pancake as he thought to himself. Why did he feel so weird? Today was the same as any other day… Okay so maybe this feeling felt familiar but Leo doesn’t even remember when he last had it.…Maybe before their lives went to shit. Their 15th birthdays, yeah.
Leo was watching an episode of space heroes where Captain Ryan was hit with a Gender switching ray, the whole episode was to teach kids about Gender equality. Leo remembers thinking, He wouldn't mind getting hit by one of those. He didn’t know why, since it would bother most people. Captain Ryan in particular was distraught about it in the episode. Pretty sure they called him Captain Rae in the episode when it happened.
Maybe..Leo should try following after Raph, no- the thought of announcing something like that especially after her twin just came out. No-..Maybe Leo will just experiment. After all it could be a totally different reason to be feeling like this other than gender. Yeah, maybe
“Leo, bro. Your good?”
Mikey asked making Leo snap out of it,
“Oh yeah! I’m just thinking- About our Birthday this Weekend!”
Mikey eyes immediately sparkled at the reminder.
“BE RIGHT BACK BROS-! MIKEY IS ABOUT TO GO PLAN THE AWESOMEST 18TH BIRTHDAY EVAA!”
Mikey Ran off as Raph placed her plate in the sink before walking to her room.
Leo just needs time. He’ll figure this all out soon