#bwts

Master Post

Marmalade

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

"Turn left here."

"Where?"

"Just- Up here, left- Left! Your other left!"

"Don't yell at me!"

"Then don't miss the turn!"

"Do you wanna drive?"

"I would but I can't!"

"Well-! Oh.. S-Sorry Don.."

"..It's fine.. just... You stick to driving and I'll stick to giving directions okay big guy?"

"Yeah... Okay.." The drive seemed to take forever, going from New York all the way to "the middle of nowhere" wasn't exactly around the block. Donnie glanced back to where Mikey was sitting, a Jupiter Jim comic in metal hands Donnie had loaned him while his were still recovering. Leo was sitting next to him, watching Mikey read to him doing his signature voices for all the characters. There was a faint smile on his face but it was overcast by the dark circles under his eyes and the bandages covering his limbs. Everyone still had injuries that were hearing but Leos took the most time considering he got the worst of it.. Well, him and Raph really. Raph was another case, it had only been four years since the "Kraang incident" and everyone seemed to be dealing with their own aftershocks even now. 

Leo lost his arm coming through the portal back to Earth, his mind was a mess, constantly having nightmares and losing sleep over his memories. Raph lost his right eye, and split a new alter from the time he was possessed by the Kraangs parasites. Donnie suffered severe nerve damage in his back that sometimes flared enough to cause seizures, Leaving him bedridden, sometimes for days. And Mikey's carpal tunnel got worse, with mild Tendinopathy added to his diagnosis only meaning he wasn't able to use his hands half as much as he'd like to. He could hardly hold a pair of chopsticks long enough to finish a meal before his hands started to cramp up. But they all helped each other through it, they all took turns playing nurse and making sure their family was okay. Or as okay as they could be at least.. The final straw that made them want to leave the city was when Splinter passed away and Leo had a minor mental breakdown. They all decided to go somewhere they didn't have to hide. Somewhere quiet, without the constant reminders of everything they'd lost or the constant threat of danger. With the NYC foot clan disbanded there was less crime, and less reason for them to patrol or try to be heros there. "This is it." Donnie said as he pointed to a driveway that was coming up. "Decrease speed and proceed into the driveway." 

"On it, so.. This is like... A house big enough for all a' us right?"

"Something like that. But fret not, I have a plan to make sure its able to accommodate all of our needs." Raph parked the car, everyone perked up now that they'd stopped moving. Mikey rushed to open the door, excited to see what their new home was going to be like. He expression quickly went from ecstatic to confused. "Dee.. Are we at the right place? This one looks... Janky"

"It is 'Janky' Michael, it's a large plot of land I only managed to get for cheap because of it's quote unquote 'Jankyness' so.."

"It's not janky, it's just a fixer upper is all! Nothin' a lil elbow grease and.. uh... Regular grease can't fix!" Leo got up last, following everyone out of the turtle tank. The overgrown grass and weeds, the dirt road beneath his feet, the warm breeze against his back.. "Raph as fun as this brotherly DIY project sounds, were all seriously injured and none of us can hold or lift anything long enough to repair the front door  let alone this entire house. This is a job for my tech.. The last job for them..." He took out a remote from his pocket and pressed a few buttons, dozens of small robots sprung from the tank and ran towards the house. Scanners covered the house, barn, and even the yard. Then they took a moment to calculate before they started humming with energy. 

"Donnie..?"

"They're supposed to sound like they're about to blow up, the internal motors are half the size of their exoskeletons to give them extra power. Just sit back and be amazed." A few took to the lawn, what looked like a mouth turning into spinning blades that trimmed and seemed to eat the grass. Others went to the house, and started repairing the wood, spewing resin and metal threads, gnawing the broken wood into clean cuts and merging them with the spun material. Others did the same with the barn. And the last few flung themselves into drains and pipes, cleaning them from the inside. They all came together, mixing the materials they'd harvested and made it into paint, coating the house and barn. And after five minutes the house looked brand new, like they were transported to a completely different place.

Donnie gently clapped his hands together and the robots disappeared into the house, "Alright fam, we have two hours, sixteen minutes and forty three seconds till the sun sets. As long as you stay on the property you are free to do at you please, but be reminded there are wild animals and birds of prey about and I won't have a foolproof fence up and running till the bots are finished recharging. Mikey's ordering dinner for us when he feels up to the task and we will be calling first dibs on rooms with the usual exception that the biggest one goes to Raph and I get one downstairs." 

Leo glanced between them with a nod, "I'm uh.. I just wanna sit out here for a bit, stretch my legs and all if it's cool with you." 

"In the grass? I mean, suit yourself but take a shower when you get inside cause, eugh, dirt.."

"Donnie don't you love gardening?"

"Ironic isnt it?" 

"Oh oh I want to pick my room! C'mon Red let's go see what it looks like on the inside!" Raph took Mikey's hand and let himself be pulled into the house, Donnie was busy walking the perimeter and taking measurements, just his usual nerd stuff. Leo went and sat in the grass, it looked faded and dead, but it wasn't as scratchy as it looked, it was actually kind of soft.. He felt another warm breeze and laid back, one arm behind his head as he looked up at the sky. It was so quiet compared to the city, no cars, busses, or trains. No one shouting or promoting anything in the streets. Not even the constant chatter of birds and various stray animals. Sure everything ached, but breathing the fresh country air made that pain seem so small. 

"Leo- Hey, Leoo"

...

"Jesus Crimmity Leo get up before you catch a disease-"

Leo opened his eyes and suddenly the sky was dark. He saw Donnie standing over him with an unamused expression. "Oh.. Hey Dee... I uh"

"You fell asleep. It's fine but maybe do it inside the house next time? Kay?"  Leo rolled his eyes as Donnie offered his hand to help Leo up. He knew by now as much as he didn't want to admit it that he needed to accept defeat. He took Donnie's hand and stood up, "Thanks. What did Mike end up getting for dinner?" 

"You'll see, just get inside before something eats you"

"Pfft.. Okay"

Leo headed inside, opening the door to reveal a surprisingly nice place..? A few feet ahead was a straight staircase leading to the second floor. To the right was a open archway into a decently sized kitchen with an island counter and everything they needed, well, except the food but all the appliances were there! To the left was probably going to be the living room, right now it was pretty empty but it wouldn't take love for Donnie to fill each corner with a plant or Mikey to staple his art to the walls and make it look more lived in. He could see it now, how lively this place would be once they settled in and started their usual shenanigan's.. What were their usual shenanigan's again? He rubbed his eyes trying to think back to why they even left New York in the first place.. He knew his dad passed away but that wasn't the only reason right? 

"Hey Leo! Come check out our rooms!!" Leo snapped out of his thoughts and saw Mikey waving at him from the top of the stairs. He smiled a little and put his hand on the railing heading up to see what the commotion was about. 

"Alright alright I'm coming! Which rooms did you guys pick?" Mikey was practically bounding in place as he waited for Leo to reach the top, widely gesturing to a door that already had an Encanto style sketch scribbled onto the front. "This is my room! It had the best lighting for art! Raphs is the one across from yours over there!" He walked past him pointing to the door with a small blue sticker stuck on at eye height, on the left side of the hall, the back of the house. Then to the door on the right with several red stickers. "Donnie says the one next to mine can be his too so he has a room up here to store stuff, but dont worry that's why he gets the small one hehehe" Leo nodded a little, opening the door to his room, it had a bed, classic. Some empty shelves, a small dresser and two boxes which were presumably his stuff from the tank. He looked back to Mikey who stood in the doorway, still looking so excited he might combust or something. "Soooo? What do you think?" 

"I think.." He shrugged and put his hand on Mikey's shoulder, "It's nice. Really. I can't wait to put it all together, maybe you could make some posters to liven the place up a bit when you're up for it?" 

"Ohhh that's a good idea! Yes! Well need one with cats, and one with lasers! And one with a cat, shooting lasers!!" Leo let out a little chuckle, Mikey always had the craziest ideas..

"Hey Donnie said you took care of dinner, so what're we having?" 

"He didn't tell you? That silly goose, I got some stew from some local restaurant. The.. The Fancy Phrog or something idunno, but it's really good! The dining room is through the kitchen, or there's a hall behind the stairs that goes there too so, take your pick! I'm gonna see if Raph wants seconds"

Leo nodded and left after Mikey, heading downstairs and taking a right to see the rest of the house on his way. The living room had a bookshelf and a long couch, a few of the robots from earlier had formed a monkey chain and were passing books from a box up to the bot who was neatly placing them on the shelf. There were a total of three rooms in that hallway, one was a full bathroom on the left, then Donnie's lab/room in the middle, and a spare room that they had agreed would be their medbay across from the archway to the back of the dining room. Donnie was sitting at the table, he didn't have his phone like he usually would, not even a tablet or projector.. Instead he had a notepad and a pen scribbling something down with one hand while he ate with the other. Leo took the blue bowl that hadn't been filled yet and served himself from the container on the table. "Watcha writing there..?"

"Code.."

"... Okay .. For what?"

"A sentient tractor"

"I'm sorry what!?"

"Kidding. Sort of.. It is code, but it's... How do I put this in a way a Leo would understand- I want a function that lets the machine assess the situation and use variables to determine the best course of action, but the parameters for those variables isn't set in stone, so it needs to be able to adapt and understand a vast blanket of skills to have a full and accurate assessment.."

"...Okay so, a robot with opinions?"

"Sure, well go with that." 

Leo shrugged and ate his food, he was never a big fan of vegetables but the stew was pretty damn good.. His mind wandered back to why they were there in the first place, it was something unpleasant for sure but why couldn't he remember? He looked back up at Donnie, "Hey... This is.. It's gonna sound stupid but can I ask you something?"

"That's never stopped you before."

"Oh ha ha, but seriously, why did we move out here again?" Donnie's hand stopped writing, he looked back at Leo a little confused at first but there was something else too, he was nervous? "You don't recall you're morphine induced rant about wanting to be a 'cowboy baby' or however the Vine goes?"

"..No- But c'mon that can't be the only reason we left the city right? I mean, you guys wouldn't leave everything just cause I randomly blurted out that I wanted to be a cowboy, while I was loopy"

"Well- No that wasn't the only thing that provoked us leaving. But if you don't know the reasons maybe it's better to keep it that way? Your brain might be trying to protect you from information you might not want to know?"

"Oh please, I saw big mama shoot webs from her ass and saw Jericho throw up the special sauce that's used on his food. I think I can handle whatever my brain is worried about!" Donnie sighed, putting his pen down, "Leo, I shouldn't be the one to talk about this really.. But a lot of bad things happened, it was just a constant stream of bad luck and injuries, nearly losing everything, and everyone.. It was bad, so the less you remember the better."

"...But that doesn't answer my question-"

"Then ask someone else! I can't talk about it."

"Can't or won't??"

"Fine. I won't talk about it." Leo huffed and leaned back in the chair. "Ugh... Whatever" Donnie took his bowl and notepad, heading into the kitchen then to his room downstairs. And Leo was alone again. 

-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-•-

The next morning rolled around  and it seemed like the only thing to do was unpack, anytime Leo tried to ask Raph about why they were there he was only met with, "Go ask Raph" which really wasn't helping.. When he asked Mikey he was also told to "Go ask Raph" so, it was a lose-lose battle really. Eventually he gave up and finished unpacking his boxes, there really wasn't much besides his knick knacks and comics. Most of his other things were trashed or left behind.. He was older now anyways, a lot of what he kept in his teens just didn't spark joy like they used to. 

He pulled out a string of photo booth pictures with him and what used to be his boyfriend, he scoffed at the pictures but he'd held into them all this time. It showed him, on his twenty first birthday and the guy beside him with his arm around Leo. Some dog yokai with blonde fur and a streak of blue dye in his hair, he had a drink in hand and so did Leo. They looked messy and absolutely trashed, but happy. If he was being honest he didn't remember much of that year or the one before it, but like Mikey says, if you don't remember then maybe it's not worth remembering? He set the pictures down on his dresser and flattened the boxes under his arm, "There's gotta be a way to remember all the stuff I'm missing right..? Maybe Cherry can help.. Leo headed out of his room and downstairs where Mikey had dragged Brick, one of Raphs alters, to play "Downbeat" a game Leo never understood, I mean all you do is shake dice and then yell 'downbeat' it's not very fun in his opinion. "Hey, can you help me Mikey-"

"Downbeat!" 

"Mikey hey-"

"Oh! Hey Leo! You wanna play with us?" 

"I'd rather stick my tail in an anthill, then in a fire- Sorry, no, but I do need your help with something soo.. Can you come here for a sec" Mikey pouted a little but put the dice down and headed into the kitchen with Leo, "What's up? Need help rewrapping your nub?"

"Wha-? No, no this is unrelated to me. I need to talk to Cherry" 

"Well, Brick's fronting right now, it might be rude to ask him to leave?"

"I know, that's why I need your help.. Think maybe you would be down to bake? You get to cook, I get to talk to Cherry, you two get some quality time?" Mikey narrowed his eyes at him for a moment, "I don't know why you need to talk to her, but I do want to break in our new kitchen so.. Fine, I'll do it." Leo smiled and put his hand on Mikey's head ruffling the air where hair would be. "While you do that I'm gonna go see what Dons up to, any idea where hes at?" 

"Yeah uh, he's in his downstairs room, the middle one." Leo nodded and headed through the dining room to get to Donnie's room, he knocked seven times in a special pattern. "Password" 

"Wha-? Donnie, open up I did the special knock"

"Password." Leo sighed and rubbed the bridge between his eyes, "God damnit- Just- Open the goddamn door." After a moment of silence the door opened, "You sir, are no fun."

"It's too early for this."

"It's 11:15."

"My point stands."

"State your business"

"Brotherly shenanigan's."

"For or against?"

"For, it's already in motion"

"Seeking asylum then?"

"Why would I do that with you? No, I'm killing time while I wait for the pay off." 

"Noted. Entry granted." Leo stepped into Donnie's room, a few boxes were stacked along the walls, a table was set up with a chair and one of his forearm crutches leaning against it. Along with a bed on the opposite wall. A potted plant already sat on the table beside a stack of papers. "Getting all settled in are we?" Leo joked as he went and sat on the bed. Donnie gave a little shrug as he sat back in his chair, taking one of the papers off the top of the pile and sketching something out. "Yeah yeah, I know, I should be focused less on causing trouble and more on fixing things up or whatever clever advice you have in mind."

"Well that wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but close enough. You're still healing, not just physically either."

"Whats actually funny, is that you guys keep telling me that I'm healing, but you still won't tell me what I'm healing from- I mean if you're going to lie at least make it convincing"

"Oh what? You want me to break your foot or something?"

"I'm just saying a physical injury is way more of a reason to be bedridden than a mental one"

"Well think of it like your brain being punched, is that a mental image wounded enough to make you stop acting like a dum dum?"

"I didn't come here to get roasted."

"Then you came to the wrong brother, my sanctuary comes at a price, otherwise what would be the means to harbor such a fugitive within my quarters?"

"Ugh, I lose braincells when you start using big words-" Donnie rolled his eyes as he kept writing, it was only quiet for a few more moments before one of the small robots that had rebuilt the house came to his side. They both looked down at the small machine and waited for it to do something. 

It started dancing

Leo looked more and more confused and Donnie just nodded along, "Mhmm, Mhmm, I see" He muttered as the little jig went on. "Oh you can't be serious- Did you actually program them to talk through dance? Just give it a voice box-!"

"Shhh! He's not finished. Please, Stephan, continue."

"Stephan??"

"I said shhh!!" He watched as the robot danced for another minute or so before bowing, Donnie gave a small applause and leaned over to extend his hand, picking the robot up and examining it closely. "Well- Are you gonna tell me what it said?"

"..You're still here?"

"Yes! And I'm being nosey! So what's the deal with that thing?"

"To answer your previous question, yes and no. The dancing itself wasn't the form of communication but it was the steps. The tapping was mores code, he was informing me about the structures that were reformed and the ones that would need to be repaired by hand."

"..Oh?"

"Ill be taking care of it later, thankfully with the long, long drive out here I had plenty of time to rest and gather strength so that I would be able to do a fair amount of physical labor provided my bots were unable or I was unable to have one of the Raphs help me since they're quite a bit stronger. But don't worry about it."

"Well hey wait I can help-"

"Did you not listen to the part I said fifteen minutes ago? You, my dear dum dum, are still recovering and are down one arm. While you'd be a good supervisor, or even director if you could read blueprints, it still wouldn't be as much help as the physical strength required to say, lift a post or a seventeenth of a ton of bricks. So, the gesture is appreciated but I'll pass. Besides, you're still seeking shelter correct? Just, sit here and don't touch anything. We'll watch a movie or something you approve of later." 

"Are you seriously gonna go out there?" Donnie looked unamused at his poor attempt to prevent him from leaving, "Should I be worried?" He asked, pushing some papers aside to organize them while he waited for Leo to try and rationalize how much of a dum dum he was being. "Well- No.. But..." Donnie rolled his eyes, "Then yes, Once all the repairs are fully complete we can start doing the real work." He got up from his chair, about to head out. "Real work?" Donnie nodded, "But of course." He looked back to Leo as he stood in the doorway.

"You didn't think I'd purchase all this barren land and not plant something, did you?" Chapter 2