Chapter Text
“Okay, rise and shine people, it's time to- oh you have got to be kidding me!” Donatello groans out loudly as he realizes the guest train car is empty. With a knitted brow, he rubs his temples. He barely got any sleep because he'd been preparing for tests and now the subject is missing. Isn't that wonderful?
“I swear, no one commits to plans these days! The nerve!” His eye twitches as his hands ball into fists and shake, his frustration getting to him. “This morning was to be dedicated to innovation, but here I am without my one and only source of data!”
The softshell doesn't get to lament his test subject's absence for too long as his younger brother calls him from outside.
“Yo Dee, what's the hold up? Am I giving the bunny dude his clothes or not?”
The older sighs and turns around to walk back out, sliding the door shut behind him. He crosses his arms and sighs.
“It appears not, Angelo, the rabbit's gone. Doesn't seem to be around either, he took his weapons with him. He's most likely a runaway.”
“Say what?! No goodbyes, no two week notice, just up and left? He was wearing Leo’s handouts too!” Michelangelo scowls and slams a fist into his palm. “I swear there's no appreciation for hospitality these days! If I ever see him again-”
“Uhh, now now, let's not get too hasty! I do have a suspicion…”
While Donatello may have just been a short stop away from a meltdown, he can't let his little brother blow a fuse. That’s never a fun thing to deal with and admittedly, he still has more to check. He was simply just getting ahead of himself.
He raises his geared up arm and fiddles with his tech. “Luckily for me I always plan ahead so while Leo was busy playing nurse I went and planted a tracker.”
He taps on the screen a couple times until a map of the city appears with several flashing icons. Each representing the location the respective being is in. He zooms in on where Yuichi is—sure enough his unofficial twin’s icon is there as well.
“Ugh, just I thought! I should've known Nardo wasn't going to just leave that guy alone! The man's an insomniac, there's a new mutant yokai thing around, they're about the same age, it’s a rabbit…the math adds up. I was just too distracted by science to see it.”
“Oh yeah that does sound like Leo, sooo what now?” Michelangelo asks his brother, unclenching his fist and instead raising one up to his chin, perplexed.
“What about Leo?” A groggy Raphael emerges from his room, still sporting his onesie and retained, holding a teddy bear in one arm and rubbing his eyes with the other.
“The man has taken my test subject!” The softshell replies with clenched teeth. “It's pushing back my schedule for today and you best believe he will get lectured once he’s back here.”
Donatello puts his hands together and takes a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “The day is still salvageable though, I just have to get those two back here in the next ten or so minutes.”
Raphael scratches his head, not understanding. “Why ten minutes? Does it really matter that much, Donnie?”
“Because…carpe diem!” The middle child crosses his arms, glaring at him. The truth is that’s how much longer he’s willing to suppress an outburst. “I'm not waiting any longer. Reminder, this is interdimensional travel we're talking about! So either you two stay here to man the fort or you're coming with me. What's it going to be?”
Michaelangelo and Raphael share a look that clearly is a means of judging their brother (which Donatello couldn't care less about) before looking back at their impatient brother and shrugging.
“Alright then, I’lll take that as compliance, let's go. We can’t waste a single second, you know how it gets once the sun is up.”
“Ay no, is that drool?!” Señor Hueso dashes over to where the two boys had been eating moments earlier, only to see the two knocked out with their heads now surrounded by a comically large puddle of drool. Between pulling an all nighter and stuffing their faces with free pizza they just couldn’t fight the need to sleep any longer and now the yokai has to deal with it.
The skeleton man winces, filled with disgust at seeing a piece of his restaurant subjected to something so unsanitary–even if it’s been faced with worse before.
“Eugh…I can’t let them just stay here…” He reluctantly extends a boned finger over the turtle, keeping the rest of his body as distanced as possible, as he pokes at him; he doesn’t stir at all.
Inching closer, the yokai now uses some more force, shaking the turtle harder in hopes he will now react. The effort proves to be for naught as he remains in deep sleep, snoring throughout it all.
Hueso grimaces at this. It’s typical Leonardo behavior, but he still wishes he had woken up from that. Despite what a pain the kid can be to him, he can’t make himself do more to him just in hopes that he’ll rise up and get out of his restaurant. It wouldn’t feel right.
The rabbit however…
CRASH!
Just as the man is about to move over to Yuichi the slider turtle’s brothers burst in through the entrance and tumble onto the ground, getting their limbs tangled with one another's.
“Mikey get off of me!” Donatello squirms around with a mix of discomfort and frustration, shoving a hand onto the younger's shell and pushing.
“Ow! HEY!”
The three swat at each other and struggle until one by one they free themselves and stand up. Each one is a complete mess. From top to bottom they’re littered with a mix of tomato splatters, some lipstick marks, splotches of tar with feathers, and flowers.
The softshell is the first to collect himself, patting himself down and approaching the restaurant owner as if there clearly wasn’t anything of the ordinary.
“I believe those two are ours and…yup okay they are out cold. Great, no wonder he wasn’t answering our calls.” He sighs and his battle shell’s metal limbs pop out, ready to hoist them up. Donatello moves over to the two, only to make a disgusted face at their mess. “Oh god no, is that Hawaiian?”
His battleshell’s arms extend over and lightly lifts Leonardo as to make sure and yes. It is indeed Hawaiian pizza.
“Gagging. I mean seriously I don't get the appeal. The pineapple? Fine. But with the ham? It's too much, eugh!” He turns his head away, sticking his tongue out at the sight as his clasps do the work of grabbing the two for him. This is one of those instances that makes his inventions feel like a godsend. He doesn't want to touch any of that.
“Dios mio, the crowd got you poor boys really roughed up.” Hueso comments as he watches them. The red and orange brothers are handed Leonardo and Yuichi while the other focuses on their booth. Donatello makes a face at the drool left on the table and takes out a spray bottle, not being able to just leave that there.
“Yeah, fame’s been rough.” Raphael responds as he cradles his sleeping brother in his arms. “There’s tons of crazy fans and all those haters! Themoment they see us they come running at us!”
“It’s terrifying! I kinda miss when we were just treated as just creeps, period. Now there’s just too many emotions to deal with out there!” Michelangelo shivers, remembering what they were just dealing with moments ago. His hands come up to his face, squishing his cheeks dramatically. “It’s a nightmare!”
“We wouldn’t have had to deal with any of that if these two had just stayed put!” Donatello complains, now having moved from the table to himself, wiping down every inch of his body with some sort of handcrafted cleaning substance. It must be some sort of creation he made in his lab, having been unsatisfied with what the world’s marketplace had to offer.
“But noooo, Leo just had to go and do his own thing. I should’ve locked him in his room. Maybe I'll install a secret automated lock soon..” The softshell turtle continues, grumbling to himself.
“Yo Donnie, pass some of that over here wontcha?” Raphael requests and he receives, now cleaning himself as Michaelangelo adjusts the rabbit on himself. Being an artist that isn’t afraid to get dirty, he doesn’t mind waiting to clean himself once they get back home.
Hueso watches as the brothers take a bit longer to ready themselves to go back out, now feeling more worried about this. Their run-ins with the public hadn’t been this bad before and he thought things would’ve died down a bit after a few months, yet he was proven wrong. Between this situation and the slider turtle’s own problems he can’t help but wish he could do more for them.
“Alright all set, sorry about this, we’ll be out of your hair…less self now?” The box turtle awkwardly grins and then waves as they make their way back out.
“Listen, take care of yourselves out there alright? I can lend you all some things from the lost and found if you need to try to disguise yourselves from all the paparazzi.”
Donatello shakes his head, now wearing his goggles on his face. “No need, but thanks. We’re just gonna high tail it out of here and use the shortest route back to the lair I can locate with my tech, buuut on the topic of disguises…”
He quickly reaches over to Yuichi and flips the hood over the boy’s head, now concealing him for the most part. Any person who just throws a passing glance at them would have no clue they’re carrying a rabbit mutant-yokai thing with them.
“Drama concerning ourselves is no real biggie, but we wouldn’t want the people freaking out over the assailant from yesterday being with us. I do not have the patience for that nor do I want to explain anything…yet.” He smirks after the last bit, but Hueso doesn’t comment on it.
“I understand, good luck.”
And with that they take off, preparing themselves for the outside world to bombard them once again.
Fear is all Yuichi can feel right now.
He isn’t quite sure what’s going on, it’s like a bunch of still images from a movie are playing, but it’s all too real and it won’t stop.
It started all sunshine and rainbows, one moment he’s with his friends having a fun ordinary day and it’s comforting. He misses his friends and it felt like he was just going to enjoy a sweet moment with them all again. He doesn’t question the logistics of how he’s suddenly back home due to how empty he’s felt without them. It’s only been a little over a day, but it feels like forever since he last saw them, he can't remember the last time he spent an entire day without at least one of them by his side. There's also the fact that for some reason he just felt incredibly relieved to see his friends again…and not just because he got whisked away from them.
Well that pleasant experience doesn’t last long.
Suddenly he’s on the temple floor in front of an unconscious Kistune, shaking her, tears running down his face and his heart pounding uncontrollably. He’s desperately begging her to open her eyes, but no reaction or response comes from her. Her bloodied body remains ever so still. He tries to rack through his brain for some sort of explanation, buthas no idea what happened to her, wasn’t he just having a nice time with her and the rest of the gang mere seconds ago?
Well how this happened isn't as important as figuring out what's currently happening to her. His hands tremble at the realization of one of the main possibilities on why she’s not moving, breath hitching. No longer does he focus his hands on shaking her anymore, but instead moves them out of the way and tries to listen to her heart beat.
Unfortunately, despite having incredible hearing his sheer panic prevents him from focusing. He lifts one of her arms up and moves to her wrist.
No…no please Kitsune don't be-
But before he can even check her pulse everything changes in an instant.
He blinks and when his eyes open he's no longer in front of that dreary scene, he's now slowly backing away from a street lamp with his beloved pet stuck to it. He's been wrapped around it with his Yo-Yo and tightly secured. Spot pleads to him, his round eyes glistening with sadness.
He can't resist the little tokage’s sweet face…but he has to. Yuichi shakes his head, sharply turning around and looking away, refusing to give in. He doesn't know why he's doing this but the need to do it is filling up his mind. He balls his hand into a fist and runs. He has no clue where he’s going, but that doesn't matter. All he feels is the need to go and quickly before…before it's too late? He doesn't understand his urgency or thought process, all he can do is grip his sword tighter, gulping as his feet move him through Neo Edo's streets as fast as they can.
The scene switches once more and this time he’s on the ground pressed up against the Ki-Stone and breathing heavily. Everything aches, he's completely beat up and sore. To make matters worse he's been cornered by a figure he just can’t make out, it’s like his brain just can’t remember what they look like. That’s the least of his worries though as he is too beat up to flee and completely defenseless.
His eyes widen as the shadowed figure's weapon comes hurling towards him. Yuichi braces himself and everything goes white.
…
……
“We need you, grandson.”
The rabbit gasps for air, jolting awake and lunging forward. His hands immediately going for his chest, immediately feeling the need to check for a stab wound of some sort…there is none. In fact there's no sign of any wear or tear anywhere.
Dumbfounded, he starts patting himself down, before remembering everything that's happened the past 24 hours. He's not in Neo Edo and he didn't die. He's safe and he's being cared for by some strange turtles. He's okay. He's alive.
The question is whether his loved ones are as well.
What…was all of that?! Is that what Miyamoto was trying to tell me about earlier…? It felt so real…but I was dreaming wasn’t I? Ugh this makes no sense and– woah! What is all this?!
Yuichi is dragged out of his mini spiral as he notices all the gadgets and gizmos around him, eyes widening and getting distracted from his dream dilemma instantly.
He hops off the examination table he was placed on and spots the genius soft shelled turtle hard at work, managing all sorts of equipment and clicking through all sorts of data and number popping up on various screens.
Yuichi opens his mouth to say something before being distracted once again, spotting smaller scaled inventions on a counter nearby.
“Woah…” The samurai walks over to them and leans forward, his head tilting with amazement as he tries to figure out what these are. He's had his fair share of fiddling around with technology due to his restlessness while living with his aunt on her farm, breaking her farmbottos often, but this is next level stuff.
He takes interest in a smaller gadget, it's more compact that the rest and seems to have a crevice that indicates if one were to tug at each opposite end it could maybe open up into something bigger. Well Yuichi isn't just going to sit around and wonder forever, he reaches forward and goes for the gizmo.
“You touch that and I'll make sure it's the last thing you ever get to touch with that hand, bunny boy.” A voice threatens him sinisterly.
The rabbit boy shivers and halts just before grazing its metal surface and his head turns to the obvious source of the voice. Donatello has creeped up behind him and is sporting a terrifying forced grin that means serious business.
“Ah, sorry I should've asked.” Yuichi quickly lowers his hand shamefully and scratches his head with the other. “Couldn't help myself. I know you're the smart guy of the group, but I've never seen this kinda stuff in Neo Edo! It just really got my attention.”
Donatello's previously menacing face now softens and switches into one of pride.
“Ah yes, my work is unique no matter the world or dimension that's up for comparison really, I'm extraordinary here as well. No one comes close to my genius.” He crosses his arms, grimacing. “Well Draxum claims otherwise, saying I got it from him since he technically ‘made’ me, but what does he know? I bet I could out genius him if given the chance.”
Yuichi gives Donatello a look that reeks of ‘I don't get it’ and it snaps the turtle out of delving into a long-winded rant.
“Anyhow, that's important. I'm trying to test out how far compact storage can go and I'm not done yet.” He scoops up the small invention and gently juggles it in one hand.“ This may seem like nothing but I've actually stored several different things inside, I've been messing around with vacuum pockets and compression. Rearranging of atoms and particles and having them restored in just the right way when the container is expanded.”
Yuichi nods absentmindedly, as the turtle goes on explaining every intricate detail. While he's sure it's a he's stating some very clever and intelligent findings, he just can't keep his focus on him for much longer. He finds his attention trailing elsewhere, eyes looking around the room again. Donatello continues rambling and Yuichi decides to sneak away and peak at the other things in the lab.
As he looks around and gazes at every nook and cranny he notices something in the bottom section of his work desk. He almost wouldn't have noticed it if it weren't for the speck of green that seemed to glisten out compared to the dull metallic backdrop of the room.
He tiptoes over and crouches, pulling out the item from the shadows. Slowly, Yuichi rises as he examines what he's found. It's…a tray of seedlings?
“... however these aren't tested. They're just stand ins for what really matters: the storage compressor. Now that's my money maker. Anyway, I-” Donatello's eyes widen as he realizes the bunny is no longer in front of him. He jumps and twists around, horrified at what he's found.
“Oh sweet Galileo!” He dashes over and yoink the plants out of Yuichi's hands. He lifts up the tray and smooshes his cheek against it, cooing at the vegetation. “My poor unsuspecting plant children, I apologize for leaving you susceptible to harm. Thankfully I got you just in time…or so it seems.”
He whips around and glares at Yuichi.
“You didn't do anything to them, right ?”
The rabbit tenses up, the softshells menacing look making him shiver slightly.
“What? No, of course not! I was just curious.” He rubs one of his arms as he explains. “Why do you have plants in here anyway? I didn't think you were a gardening type of guy.”
Donatello scoffs.
“Gardening? This is far more than gardening.” His demeanor softens before avoiding his gaze. “But you'd be right about the last part, that'd be the last thing people would guess after spending an hour or less with me.”
The seedlings are gently placed onto his desk. A drawer is opened and some contents from the front are pulled out, revealing a kit behind them. It contains a small watering can which he takes and uses. Each plant is watered carefully, giving them just the right amount before moving onto the next. Despite being so calculated, Donatello's expression is full of uncertainty.
“Hmm, it like you know what you're doing! These are looking really healthy. I'm sure it take long for them to fully sprout.” Yuichi comments, intently watching. “I guess you could say…you have a green thumb, huh?”
The rabbit smugly grins at the turtle who finds himself freezing in unamusement at the sudden quip. He puts the watering can down.
“How clever.” He sits down on the chair at his desk and swivels the chair to face Yuichi, folding his hands together. “Responding to your previous and more noteworthy words, yes I know what I'm doing. I've been dedicating a lot of time to studying botany. I had my interest piqued a while back actually.”
“That's cool, I grew up on a farm. I'm not an expert, that's my Auntie, but I can grow a lot of things like carrots, wheat, pumpkins-”
“Pumpkins…” Donatello grimaces. “One day I shall best you, Ethel.”
“Huh?”
“...ignore that. More importantly, I didn't think you were a farm boy. I suppose that adds up.”
“Yeah, it was really nice! If it's possible I'd definitely invite you over! You can look at anything you want!”
Donatello smiles, earnestly. His eyes glint.
“That's a tempting offer...free access to untapped agriculture. Hm. However, I didn't get to the good part yet my clueless friend.”
He pulls out some photographs, they feature the mutant hybrid of the corpse flower and botanical garden security guard.
“Not only am I interested in botony, I'm interested in GENETIC MODIFICATION!” His smile morphs into one much more maniacal.
Yuichi blinks.
“Wait… whaaat?”
“You see, the wonders of the world have always been of interest to me, including botony. However, seeing this mutant…it had me thinking. Stay with me, I've been... experimenting with mutagen properties and various sorts of flori.” He reveals flasks from his kit, contains green glowy ooze along with a notepad with frantic notes scribbled all throughout it's pages. “Now listen, I am aware that this is tampering with mother's nature. But I'd say I'm essentially admiring her work and, dare I say, improving it in gooth faith.”
He flips through his notepad as he explains his plans to the other who's jaw only drops more and more as the turtle continus speaking.
“For you see, I myself am a violation against nature, but I'd say my existence is a wonderful crime. So, obviously, I had to ponder, how much further can this go? Upon seeing the corpse flower mutation, I started hypothesizing how it'd go in a virgin state. Besides, there hasn't been enough advancement with vegetation, technology is overrunning it. So...I've taken it upon myself to fiddle with botony experimentationin my down time. It's nothing to write home about yet...but soon. Soon I'll master genetic modification and revolutionize botony for the entire world!”
He slams his notepad down.
“This starts with me making the world's most perfect and delicious pumpkin ever that the GourdFest will have no choice but to crown me the all-time champion. No amount of bribery or blackmailing will be able to sway them!” He shakes a fist, determined.
“Donnie! Are you kidding me?!”
The scientist is brought back down to earth, snapping out his spiral and looks over at the rabbit once more. He clears his throat and slumps back into his chair.
“Er…no everything I stated was factual this is genuine passion of mine.” He clarifies, a hint of nervousness in his voice.
“No I mean, this is incredible!”
Donatello sheepishly musters a half smile at this. The reception was better than he expected, it warms his heart.
Yuichi waves his hands around with excitement. “This could help with bad crops during bad season, oh my Auntie would be impressed. Who wouldn't be? Why’d you even have this hidden away all secretively?”
“Well…I don't exactly feel prepared to bring this up to my family yet. Which is what I was about to lead into actually.”
He stands up, his expression darkening. He slowly approaches Yuichi, closing the distance between them.
“You don't say a single word to anyone about finding this, in fact, let's pretend this never happened. Okay?”
“But I'm sure they'd love to hear about it-”
“ Okay? ” Donatello repeats more forcefully through gritted teeth, fake smiling terrifyingly.
The rabbit gulps and nods.
That was scary! He switched up so fast…I wonder what's holding him back…
He sighs and the turtle steps away and his threatening aura drops, going back to behaving nonchalant as usual.
“Great. No hard feelings…it's just something personal. I just want to reveal it on my own terms.” He grabs the botony related items and begins to put them away back into their respective places, putting them out of sight like they were before. “Moving on then. Remember how I mentioned energy signatures earlier?”
Yuichi blinks. He can barely retain any recollection of the things he does throughout the day and now he's expected to remember what happened before Donatello spoke about mind-blowing botony.
“...I'll take that as a no.” The inventor slides himself back over to his multiple screens and scrolls through different charts and readings before finally stopping at what looks to be a silhouette of the rabbit.
“Here's the scans I did while you're asleep. Your vitals overall seemed fine, but your energy levels are what really stood out to me. I expected them to be different due to you not being from here, but this is insane! You're on a higher scale than radiation! Yet somehow are completely fine...strange.”
He swivels over to face the samurai again, looking at him with an odd expression. Yuichi can't pinpoint it exactly but it appears the turtle is focused now.
“Basically, I need to work with this data until I can figure out some sort of idea on why this is happening with you. In doing so I'll probably find a way to send you back where you came from. Can't promise it'll be any time soon though, but doing this quickly is still the goal. Have to set a personal challenge for myself after all.” The turtle pauses, catching himself and grins awkwardly. “…and it’s important to get you back home of course. That's definitely the most important part.”
Yuichi lifts an eyebrow up at that, he may not be the brightest, but that wasn’t exactly a smooth cover up. He sighs, it’s not like he can rush him. He hardly knows the guy and he’s already super nice for doing this, even if it is more for selfish reasons.
“Back to the data collection process, this is actually the second train car of my lab, I had to use two of them to store all the stuff I’ve got and made. So I have to step out for a bit, need to retrieve some more equipment…don’t get any ideas while I’m out. You try anything and you WILL be dealt with. Reminder that I know your fighting style now so you don't have the element of surprise on your side anymore.”
The rabbit nods slowly, with a look of terror plastered on his face. He says nothing. Perfect. He got the message.
Donatello turns and smirks on his way out, knowing it’ll be a long time before the other ever thinks of touching his things again.
“W-Wait! Before you go!”
He turns, shocked by the abrupt interruption of his departure.
“I w-wanted to say, I know you said not to, but this will be the last time I br-bring it up. I swear.” Yuichi stammers, tugging at his ears. “The invite to our farm is still open. I bet you'd be amazing with the crops. Just think about it.”
Donatello's face softens.
“...thank you. I'll keep that in mind.”
As Donatello makes his way to the first car of his lab he is interrupted by the horrid sounds of the typical playlist Leonardo blasts whenever going through one of his “Leo Moments”. His body tenses up and he grinds his teeth in annoyance, stopping in his tracks. Seems like his brother has woken up.
The equipment can wait, he needs to stop this now.
“Nardo I swear, I thought you were over this already!!” Donatello slams the train door open and storms into his brother's room, the sounds of his playlist now ringing in his ears from the volume it's playing at. Maybe he shouldn’t have entered after all, oh well it's too late now.
“Seriously, you finally sleep earlier than usual and when you get up you start doing this? Couldn’t you have tried getting more than a couple hours of sleep for once?!”
Maybe that last part was a bit insensitive. Insomnia doesn’t bend its will that easily, but he can’t help it. He hates when things are too loud and the repetitiveness of it all just doesn’t help at all.
Unsurprisingly, Leonardo doesn’t say anything; he's on his bed with a pillow pressed over his face and held down by his hands. He’s sprawled out dramatically, as he usually does.
The softshell scowls and goes over to the speakers responsible for booming out the same stupid heartbreak songs Leonardo listens to and jabs them with a device he retrieves from his shell. Instantly they go silent and at last Donatello can hear himself think again.
“Hey!” Leonardo finally moves, now sitting up and his face visible. He’s sporting eyebags nearly as bad as the ones he had during his recovery period after the invasion. “I was listening to that! What the hell did you even do?”
“I have a little contraption I made that can essentially short circuit anything, have fun replacing those. Seriously though, I thought you were done with all of…this.” He gestures to the slider turtle’s room. It’s an absolute mess, tear and snot filled napkins are littering the floor, his phone is still set to his dumb playlist, and his face is all flushed.
“We talked about this, Don Suave is not only out of your league, but he’s not even actually a real being! He’s just two old yokai, mid-looking ones at that.”
Leonardo frowns and glares at his brother.
“Don’t you talk about bone man like that! He looks great and is great…sometimes.” He pauses, thinking over his defense for the skeleton. He decides to leave it be, he did give Leonardo free food today after all. “Anyways I’m over …him, okay? Just leave me alone!”
The dramatic blue turtle flings himself back onto his bed and dives his face into the pillow once more. Donatello narrows his eyes and raises a brow at this.
“Oh really? Then what’s all of this? Why are you Leo-ing out again?”
“Mmmphm mphmhm mphhmhm…” An inaudible response is mumbled out and the softshell frowns. He steps closer and yanks the pillow out of Leonardo’s face, forcing him to stop mumbling.
“One more time, but this time in English.” He demands.
“UGH! You never let me just ride things out naturally, this is normal y’know? I’m a teenager! I’m allowed to have crushes.” Leonardo whines and crosses his arms, glaring daggers at the other. “And I was saying; what do you mean by ‘Leo-ing’ out?”
“Oh please. You’ve done this since we were tots, you always roll around in your room all pathetic when it comes to some guy you’ve decided is the man of your dreams. You only play those Spanish love songs nonstop at times like these. You can’t tell me this is the one time you do this for something unrelated to your hopeless infatuation cases. I just know you must be back to the whole Don Suave thing and guess what? Nothing’s changed. It’s just not happening, so just drop it!”
“Listen, I already said I’m over it! It’s not about that! I haven’t even thought about that guy lately.”
And it’s surprisingly true, Leonardo hasn’t thought of him lately. His mind has been elsewhere, even after his visit to The Run of the Mill.
“Oh really?" Donatello responds, unconvinced. "Then tell me, what is it about?”
Leonardo averts his eyes and goes quiet. That’s oddly uncharacteristic of him…
That can only mean he’s been telling the truth and doesn’t want to say what is causing this now. Donatello takes a moment to think, because clearly he’s not getting the answer from his brother. He thinks and thinks and then it finally hits him...his eye twitches. He decides this is not worth his time.
“Never mind, you know what? I don’t care. I already took down your speakers, that was the main annoyance. You can just continue with your phone’s maximum volume if you want. I have research to do, arrivederci.” He waves his brother off and quickly leaves as he tries to keep himself level, not giving a chance for the other to reply. He knows what’s going on, but he is not going to open that can of worms right now.
It’s just going to make things more complicated.